Mini-boss

It went sideways when, for the last time of the day, Brick raised the artifact to banish another section of lingering void.

That was our job, go to specific points on this map, get rid of the lingering Void energy, fight the Low-tier monsters that come out.

Brick, and his friend I never knew the name of, went down before me or Kay even realized something bigger than the lowtier had showed up.

It was a greater tree spirit, like all normally benevolent or neutral spirits, the lingering void did something to them.

I had Just enough time to shout it to Kay while I gained distance myself.

Kay had immediately gone on the offensive, after getting up from the dodge I had screamed her into.

She wasn't doing much damage but she was keeping its attention.

I had a choice that wasn't really a choice, I just hoped this best friend could keep a secret better than my last one.

"Kay! DISENGAGE!" I hope she listened, because I had already let loose.

Flying through the air was the one mundane weapon I had in my Arsenal that might be able to harm a greater tree spirit.

A pair of specialized Chakrams, well I say pair, but it was their connected State I needed, some blend of mundane science meant that when they were connected and they hit a Target hard enough, they would catch fire and burn.

Well the core would catch fire, but it burned hot enough to melt the rest of the weapon.

I didn't even know I could summon them until I desperately wracked my brain for something that would work.

My blessings answered, my right arm tattoo glowed as the knowledge entered me.

The good news is Kay had moved, the bad news is she hadn't moved far enough to avoid it's panicked flailing.

I wasn't far enough away from it either when I tried to drag her body, it was dying but it would take some time it seemed.

All of my Potion bottles had broken on the hit I took as I pushed her further away.

Well she'd probably already seen too much, I was already going to have to trust her.

Dragging all three of my teammates far enough away, I'd healed the worst of my own injuries so I could, I was surprised I was the only one still up, we had all been hit pretty hard, thank God it had smashed the real potions along with the fake ones.

"Pretty Boy? What happened?" Kay was the first one I healed.

"Kay, the monsters down, get over to revive Brick, I'm going to work on his buddy,"

"What? HOW?" She clearly had seen the crushed bottle remnants while I leaned over her, and likely the monster on fire, when none of our team had fire weapons.

" I'll tell you later, but for right now I'm going to need you to cover for me, do you trust me? "

" Fuck, I guess, as long as you explain it everything later, asshole."

" Don't worry you brat I will, now get to healing him. "

I could see the frustration in her eyes, that immediately turned to suspicion upon seeing me heal our broken teammate.

However she was good to her word.

As far as the other two ever knew, I had used the supplies I brought in case we needed a torch to make some flaming bolts for my crossbow, and kept shooting it like that while she worked on healing both of them.

There are holes in our story but not ones big enough for people like them to poke at.