AN: I do not own The Slayers, I just play in the sandbox.
They didn't say much to each other as they reached the outskirts of Saillune. Knowing that facing Kanzeil was inevitable, Gourry focused all of his attention on where the enemy would be lurking. Talking would just be a distraction. Besides, what more was there to say? Lina had decided that facing him was the best option.
She was right, of course. She was right that some group of people wanted her dead. She was right that even if she ran and found a place to hide she would be pursued. As always, her logic was flawless. Facing Kanzeil was the only option.
But he wanted her to be wrong!
Still failing to sense the malevolent presence he knew was lurking somewhere around the corner, he stole a glance at her. Her face was uncharacteristically rigid and composed. She walked straighter than usual. And she tucked her hands under her arms. Their quivering would have betrayed just how nervous she really was. He had to hand it to her. Walking straight into a fight with a Mazoku hell bent on killing her. She had guts.
And doing this on the back of three near fatal attacks on her life in the previous few months. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and scanned the woods around them for any sign of Kanzeil. He didn't want to think about how close she'd come to dying. He didn't want to revisit the images of her being tossed around like a rag doll, or finding her in her destroyed quarters, her windpipe nearly crushed, because then he would remember how devastated and lost he felt, each time believing for a brief moment he had lost her forever.
The impulse to take her and run rose again, and strong. Running seemed to be their best chance. Sure, they would be pursued, but if they could go deep enough underground, may be they could wait it out until whoever it was who wanted to kill Lina gave up pursuit.
But then, he couldn't protect her if he was fighting with her, and she would fight him if he tried. And at least this way they had the advantage of knowing when the fight would occur. By running away, they risked being caught off guard.
And besides all that, wasn't the reason he decided to travel with Lina in the first place was to help her do extraordinary things?
His skin started to tingle as he detected a whiff of bloodlust. They were getting closer to Kanzeil.
Beside him, Lina became more alert. She had noticed as well.
He took a steadying breath and put his hand on the hilt of his sword as he thought back to his reasoning for traveling with her. He was drawn to her because she was doing extraordinary things that also just so happened to put her life in jeopardy. If he made her run away, he would be destroying what attracted him to her and what gave him purpose and direction in his life.
Kanzeil came into view, and he took another look at Lina out of the corner of his eye, thinking with some bitterness over how cruel life could be at times. He wanted to help Lina accomplish the impossible. But by doing so, he risked losing her. Somehow, that little catch had eluded him when he made the decision to become her guardian. By confronting high level Mazokus, she would be putting her life on the line and constantly. And he would have to watch. It was gut wrenching. Indeed, it had been so long since he had cared about anyone that he forgot what it was like to worry about someone else's wellbeing. For so long the only person he had to worry about was himself…
He assumed a fighting stance, his muddied thoughts over the irony over the conflicting needs to keep her safe and to help her in her chosen course receding to the back of his mind as he focused on the fight at hand and making it through with both of them alive.