Kiara arrives first

[Darx point-of-view]

None of us were in any condition to chase after Shalia. Certainly not with Ryul and Amelia ****. We’d have to leave them here since the rest of us are too wounded to carry anybody. And we can’t leave them with these trolls either. Fortunately, the trolls are still ****. Merlara and Leona are walking from one **** troll to the next and give them a killing blow as they sleep. Sophie first heals our rogue’s wound enough that she stops bleeding, then Ari helps out with Leona and Merlara.

Meanwhile, I have been trying to help out Wendy with her broken leg. The healing potion I have given her seems to have worked. So, her anti-magic skill doesn’t seem to cancel those out at least. That’s a relief. But a broken leg is no slough. I decided to make her a splint with the sheath I put my sword in and some rope one of us had in their backpack. I was planning on pulling the arrow out of my leg after, but just as I was finishing the splint, Kiara showed up.

She appeared out of the sky, flying straight towards me and landed on Wendy’s other side.

“Sorry for taking so long.” Kiara apologizes. “That forest fire was only a thin strip but it’s like it was trying to encircle the village. It went on for miles. Helena and her team were already trying to circle around the fire so I had a harder time searching for them. They met up with some other parties that had the same problem but they now know about the trolls and are making double time. It should still take them some time to get here. What happened while I was away?”

I tell Kiara everything. From the trolls attacking the tower of dirt we were on, all the way to me summoning my owl.

“I know you told me not to do it. But if I hadn’t, we would have been dead.” I try to excuse myself.

“It’s true. He had ****.” Wendy tells Kiara.

I worried Kiara would be upset because I went against her warning. Instead, she came close to me and gave me a hug.

“It’s fine. **** times call for **** measures.” Kiara says. “At least you’re all safe.”

I pull out of Kiara’s embrace, feeling like I don’t deserve it and say, “That’s not entirely true. Shalia isn’t here anymore. Some guy came out of nowhere and kidnapped her. There’s no way we can chase him down and get her back. Not like this.”

I then also show Kiara the arrow that is still through my leg. After only a slight hesitation, Kiara takes hold of the arrow with her left hand, uses her [Shadow Manipulation] to create some cutting pliers in her right hand and cuts the arrowhead off. After she pulls the headless arrow out of my leg, she places some bandages on the wound and gives me one of her healing potions to drink.

“There are many adventurers coming from east and west. I am sure several of them have the [Tracking] skill. We will find her.” Kiara reassures me.

“Yeah, but who is going to reassure him?” I ask as I turn my head to Ryul.

It seems like he is already awake and Sophie is tending to him. I try to imagine how I would react if it was Amelia or Kiara that had been kidnapped and I can only imagine myself behaving in a bad way. My prediction comes true when I see him looking around in panic and start calling out Shalia’s name.

“Darx!” Ryul yells as he sees me and runs up to me.” “Darx, they Kidnapped Shalia. We have to go save her.”

“I know.” I say. “I would have gone after her like you, but I got struck with an arrow through the calf.”

“Fuck!” Ryul curses. “What about Leona or Merlara.”

“One can barely walk from her wounds, the other is about to faint. They are in no condition to give chase.” I explain.

Ryul curses again and Kiara needs to repeat what she told me about other adventurers being on their way.

“As soon as we’ve got a tracker among us, I can take the both of you and we can get Shalia back, Ryul.” Kiara tries to reassure him. “But if we go now, we will merely get lost in the forest. Be patient.”

Fortunately, we don’t have to wait long. Helena’s group starts coming out of the village. It looks like they’ve decided to go straight through to get to us as quickly as possible. She is not alone either as I can see some Knights Hospitaler between her party members. Their uniforms are quite easy to distinguish.

Helena makes it straight for Leona and gives her a bunch of heals. Enough to heal her wounds almost instantly. She then heads over to Ari and heals her too.

Cal and Rachel are there too and they come to Wendy’s aid. Rachel says I did a good job splinting Wendy’s leg, because any splint is better than no splint. But I really need my sheath. So, she does the splint over again, this time with some wooden planks, and gives me my sheath back. Once Wendy’s leg has been properly splinted, Rachel puts her tower shield on the ground and instructs Cal to place his standard issue Knight’s Hospitaler shield below hers. There seem to be some latches at the bottom of Rachel’s shield that match up with some holes at the top of Cal’s shield. Rachel puts the holes over the latches and then uses those latches to attach her shield to his, making it a double length tower shield. Finally, Cal and Rachel help Wendy get onto their shields, after which the two pick up the double length shield, Cal at the front and Rachel at the back, and they carry Wendy towards the village. Probably to have her rest in one of the buildings that are still standing. I first had a hard time understanding why an archer like Cal would be given a shield. A tower shield of all things. But now that I see the Hospitaler shields are specially adjusted that they can be turned into a stretcher, it suddenly makes a bit more sense.

Helena shows up to me and Kiara points out my wounded leg to her. Helena then places her hands on my wound and casts [Healing Touch]. It is skill similar to a regular [Heal] spell, except it allows for more healing for the same amount of mana. The only real difference is that [Heal] can be cast at a distance and [Healing Touch] needs direct touch. Helena’s spell pretty much heals my leg right away. She does however moan while also making the same face Kiara always makes when she orgasms. It looks like she still is on that healslut trip.

Once my leg is healed, Helena moves over to Amelia. She has started waking up, but her body is still in pain. It looks like the troll grabbed her so hard that he caused some internal injuries. Helena takes Amelia in a hug, forces Amelia’s face between her breasts and then heals her while moaning and rubbing her tits in Amelia’s face. Once Amelia has been healed, Helena gets up and moves on to her next target, leaving a very shocked and flustered Amelia behind.

After Helena has molested every one in our group, we gather and prepare to chase after Shalia’s kidnapped. Merlara, Amelia and Sophie are given mana potions so they can join us, but as they are drinking them, another group of adventurers comes from the forest and approaches us. They are coming from the same treeline the kidnapper disappeared into. Maybe they noticed something that can help us. It is only when I glance at them a second time that I recognize it is Mia’s group. And amongst them is a pink haired person who is running in our direction.

“Ryul!” Shalia yells.

Ryul’s face lights up and then runs at Shalia to hug her.

“Ohh, baby. I thought you were kidnapped.”

“I was.” Shalia says. “Mia saved me from those guys. I woke up after she had already defeated them. She said they were sent by some count. I had a look at their armor and it’s typical of the style in Oidao. I can only think of one count in Oidao who wants me so badly that he’d dare kidnap me …”

“Count Earl.” Ryul says with a grimace. “Somebody should really go after that asshole.”

“Don’t.” Shalia tells him. “If you attack a count, the kingdom will treat you as a traitor.”

Ryul rolls his eyes and sighs. “Yeah, you’re right. We’ll try and find a different way to solve this.”

I leave the reunited lovebirds, walk over to Mia and thank her for saving Shalia.

“It was the right thing to do.” Mia says. “A goup of guys carrying an **** girl rarely leads to something wholesome. Though, when I recognized she was one of your friends, I was even more motivated to bring her back to you.”

I nod and tell Mia, “You’re a good friend.”

Mia looks at someone behind me and says, “I see you’ve become friends with Amelia again.”

I look over my shoulder and notice Amelia giving Mia a mean look while Kiara is holding her back. Crap, I don’t remember if I’ve ever told Mia I’m dating Kiara. I don’t feel it would be good if I tell Mia that I’m now dating Amelia and Kiara both and right now is not a good time for her to throw a fit.

“Yeah, we’ve made up.” I tell Mia. It is technically not a lie.

“Hmm.” Mia ponders with a disapproving expression. “I would warn you about how you and her first fell out. But if I do, I’d be telling on myself.” Her expression the changes to regret and she continues. “Come to think of it, Amelia has never been your girlfriend while I was. So yeah, I’m worse. Feel free to be with Amelia if you like. She deserves you a lot more than I ever did.”

After saying those words, Mia turns around and walks away from me. It sounds like she still feels bad about our breakup. I honestly thought she’d have gotten over it by now. I mean, it was she who broke up with me.

I return to my girlfriends and immediately get Amelia asking me, “Why are you still speaking to her? You know she cheated on you, right?”

“I am over that now, Amelia.” I say. “I have you now.”

Then I lean in close to Amelia and give her a kiss. This makes Amelia blush and blink a few times. “Hmm. Well … alright then.”

I turn to Kiara and ask, “Has anyone been able to find my mother on the way here?”

“No sign of her yet.” Kiara says. “We are going to secure the village and rest there. This includes a meal. After that we will make new plans.”

I would have preferred traveling to Merton right away, but my stomach agrees with Kiara. I am so freaking hungry. After the meal, the parties gather and our next plans are made. While Merton is the next village to the west, there are also villages to the east and south from here. The adventurers decide to have their parties spread out to the different villages and secure them all. Mia’s team is the first to volunteer to secure Merton, and so does mine. We do have to leave Wendy behind and her leg has not healed yet. Wendy’s [Null Field] has been very useful against hostile magics, but now that she is gravely injured, her skill seems like more of a detriment then an aid. I wish there was a way for her to turn it off somehow. That would be so useful. Cal and Rachel however volunteer to take her place. I understand why Cal wants to join. He wants to see what happened to Merton like Amelia and myself. I guess Rachel just wants to be supportive. Or maybe she wants to see where Cal grew up. Regardless, after the meeting, our two teams march on homewards.