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Chapter 10: Mercenaries and a Familiar Face
"D-dude, I can't move another inch…" Lloyd said weakly as he collapsed onto the forest ground, pressing a hand against the gash across his chest.
They had barely covered any distance from the edge of the thicket. As much as Ryuuki wanted to keep moving, his own body wouldn't listen. He set Elincia down on a relatively tall set of grass in order to conceal her as much as possible, then joined Lloyd as he fell to the ground as well, clutching his throbbing shoulder.
"Here, let me help with that," Lloyd offered as he pulled himself up with some difficulty, and grabbed the javelin. Ryuuki seriously doubted that his friend had enough strength to pull the piece of metal out of him. Noticing Lloyd's shaky hands, Liliana came up and placed her hand on the javelin as well. The two of them traded glances, then nodded at each other. Time to pull this thing out.
"This is gonna hurt bad, hang in there man."
Ryuuki had to clench his teeth hard in order to not scream. The pain was so incredible that he half-wished he would just pass out. As Liliana and Lloyd gave a final tug, the piece of metal finally came out of Ryuuki's shoulder, which was now bleeding freely. Ryuuki fell face-first onto the ground, twitching from the combination of pain and fatigue. At least he was granted sweet unconsciousness, sparing him from feeling any further pain.
"We gotta patch this up, quick," Lloyd pulled out the vulnerary sack from Ryuuki's pouch. It was empty.
"Damn it!" he cursed as quietly as he could. Liliana quickly ripped off a good portion of her skirt, and wrapped up the wound as best she could. She knew it wouldn't do much good unless they got some medical aid fast, however. The pink cloth was already turning darker and wet as it soaked up the blood. Lloyd pressed his palms against Ryuuki's shoulders, trying to stop the blood flow even if by a little.
Then they heard yells and clashes of metal nearby.
"Damn it! Won't they give up already?" Lloyd muttered as he continued to apply pressure, ignoring the uncomfortable throbbing sensation on his own wounded chest. Meanwhile, it took Liliana a good deal of self-control to keep herself from breaking down and crying. Why did things turn out this way? They were just students! This was supposed to be just a school trip! She had planned on inviting the Ayanokouji siblings on a trip to Europe over the summer! Why did they have to go through this nightmare, getting cut up and bloodied all over?
The ruckus out in the roads settled down. Did something happen? Liliana carefully made her way to the edge of the forest, hiding herself in a thicket. She peeked out and saw that the ground was littered with even more Daein soldiers. Walking around were a small group of people in varying attires. She could make out three of them who were the closest to her. Two of them were riding horses and looked somewhat like one of Geoffrey's knights. The other one was a man wearing white robes and holding what looked like a staff. For a split second, her eyes met that of the robed man, and she instinctively backed away from the thickets. Unfortunately, her sudden movements caused a rustling noise.
"Wait! Ike, I just saw something move of the far side of that thicket!" she panicked as she heard the man's voice. She just gave away their position! Mentally berating herself she hurried over to the rest of the group. What were they going to do? She did not know if these people were friend of foe. With 2 people passed out, one of them heavily injured, and the conscious ones being injured and fatigued as well, they had no chance of escape either.
She prepared for the worst as the man she saw earlier emerge through the thickets.
"Oh, no…" he said quietly, looking at the seriously disheveled group.
"Did you find anything, Rhys?" a younger man with blue hair emerged behind the first, followed by an even younger looking male dressed in black robes.
"People, some of them look hurt," the man called Rhys quickly made his way to Elincia and Liliana, who were the closest to him.
"Leave them. We shouldn't get involved in matters that don't concern us," the black-haired boy said. Liliana was shocked. They didn't seem to be enemies, but how could this boy say something so cold-hearted?
"Oooh…" Elincia's groan caused Liliana to turn around.
"Thank goodness…. It looks like she's merely fainted," Rhys said as he quickly checked the fainted woman. He then immediately moved onto the two males, blanching at the state the unconscious one was in.
"How horrible, it's a wonder he's still breathing," he murmured as he brought his staff over Ryuuki. Lloyd gave a start, but seeing that Ryuuki's wounds were healing as the staff glowed, decided to trust this man and stay put.
"That should do it," the healer said as he turned to fix up the gash across Lloyd's chest.
"Right. We'd better take them with us for now and make sure they're all right. Can you give me a hand?" the blue haired youth turned to Lloyd.
"Uh, sure thing" he replied as the two of them pulled Ryuuki up and carefully moved him out into the roads. Rhys and Liliana followed, carrying Elincia.
"…I don't like this…" the black-haired boy muttered as he followed the rest.
Liliana gasped as she saw a familiar looking corpse lying on the road. It was the black armor knight who had thrown the javelin at Ryuuki. So that ruckus earlier must've been from the battle between his men and their rescuers.
"Something the matter?" Rhys asked, noticing her reaction.
"…He's the one who…" Liliana said quietly as she looked over at Ryuuki's direction.
Rhys took a look at the dead armor knight and Ryuuki.
"I see, that explains that shoulder wound," Rhys said, recalling the discarded javelin that had lain next to the injured boy.
"Ike, what happened? Who are they?" Liliana saw one of the riders she spotted earlier, a woman in white armor, ride up towards them.
"We found them in the woods, two of them are out of it," the one named Ike answered, nodding his head towards the unconscious young man he was supporting, then to the woman being carried by Rhys and Liliana.
The rider got off her horse and helped Rhys place the unconscious woman onto the mount. Oscar, the other rider in green armor, did likewise with Ryuuki.
"Can you two walk?" Ike turned to the other two strangers.
"Yeah, compared to what he went through, this is nothing," Lloyd replied, patting his now-healed chest.
"I'll be fine," Liliana answered, "thank you so much for your help."
"Well, it's not like we can just leave you there," Ike scratched his head.
"Oh yes, we can," Liliana and Lloyd jumped at the sudden voice behind them. A man with a long reddish ponytail and a large bow walked past them, a sullen look on his face.
"Don't mind Shinon, he's always like that," a man in thick blue armor said as he came by.
"More importantly, may I have the honor of hearing your name, lovely miss? While we're at it, how about a nice chat over dinner?" the man suddenly asked Liliana, bowing with a rather comical flourish.
'Huh, guess Felix isn't the only smooth-talker,' Lloyd mused as Liliana turned red, not knowing what to say.
"Oh, Kiara, you're back, did you see anything?" Titania's voice snapped Lloyd out of his musing. He whirled around to see a familiar-looking face nearby.
"Nothing," the newcomer replied curtly, her arms crossed in front of her. She was dressed in blue jeans, a red turtle-neck shirt, with an unbuttoned dark-blue polo-shirt over it. Her dirty blonde hair was kept out of her face with a maroon bandana, except for the bang that covered her left eye, and the back of her hair was tied up with a hair band. Her eyes still looked sharp and dangerous as ever. Completing the picture was a pair of steel gauntlets she was wearing that looked just out-of-place.
"Whoa, whoa! Aren't you Kiara Wolvine from school?" Lloyd burst out. So there WERE others who came to this place as well. That meant that Felix and Eudice must be around too!
Kiara looked at Lloyd for a bit, then said, "Who the hell are you?"
"Ah, of course you don't know. But never mind that. So, you ended up in this place too, huh?"
"Whatever," Kiara's tone suggested utter disinterest in continuing this conversation. Then she suddenly turned back towards Lloyd. "So, you're from our world too, then?"
"That's what I just asked you!" Lloyd exclaimed exasperatedly. He had heard rumors about this delinquent girl, but he hadn't expected her to be this difficult to talk with.
"Do you know a Ayanokouji Ryuuki?" Kiara asked bluntly, impatiently tapping a finger against her arm.
Lloyd stared at her with a blank look on his face. Don't tell me Ryuuki was friends with her like he turned out to be with Liliana? Moreover, she just said his last name perfectly! That was one of the few times he heard anyone else besides Ryuuki and his sister pronounce that last name like that.
"Uh, yeah, he's over there, knocked out," Lloyd stupidly pointed at the green knight's horse.
She stopped tapping her fingers. If Lloyd wasn't mistaken, she seemed to be rather surprised. Turning to the horse in question, she walked up and stared at the unconscious youth's face. She appeared to be debating something in her head, then backed off after apparently making up her mind.
'What was that all about?' Lloyd wondered as the group began to move on.