Chapter 3: Guardian
When they arrived in Orcville, Meral's friends had already left. They probably got bored and decided to go somewhere else, but not knowing where they were made it harder for her to track them down.
Therefore, Meral had only two choices. She could either ditch her so-called "bodyguard" and try to find her friends, or she could stay in the town of Orcs and train. But since the former seemed extremely improbable, her options were narrowed down to putting up with the aggravating assassin.
The young acolyte stayed near a dead tree, doing her best to learn the art of quick spell casting. Alister, on the other hand, had decided to stay in the shadows, where he occupied himself by conversing with some other fighters of advanced occupations, a rarity in the dungeons located below Orcville.
A yawn erupted from one of them, a knight with dark brown hair. He eyed the assassin, a hint of boredom showing.
"You never did tell us why you're here. Not to sound rude, but who's the kid you keep looking at?"
Alister turned his attention to the knight, then looked at Meral, who had now teamed up with another acolyte.
"I'm supposed to be her bodyguard for some reason. Supposedly, she has some kind of prophesized power."
"I'll tell you one thing, her healing technique is quite astonishing."
They all looked at the jade haired priestess, who blinked back at them in shock.
"What? Healing isn't easy you know. It can really take a lot out of you."
"And if that's any indication, I have a feeling this 'power' of hers will be more than legendary."
Five pairs of eyes, including a crusader that was with them, and his grand Peco, focused on the source of the voice, a wizard who seemed like he would rather be reading than babysitting two sword swingers and a giant bird with rainbow tail feathers.
"Hey, don't look at me like that. I happen to know something about hidden powers."
"It's not that...it's just that you've been silent as a Sohee ever since we got here."
Suddenly, a loud shriek echoed through the dark caverns, causing the five to jump up, ready to fend off whatever had drawn such a terrible scream.
It didn't take long to determine the cause, for at the time that some of the weaker fighters ran back towards the entrance of the dungeon, one could see a large, juggernaut army or undead creatures pouring into the cavern from tunnels that lead into the heart of the caves.
"Oh hell...it's a mob."
"Kaywin! Go get everyone out of here, we'll stay and fight these clowns off."
The priestess glared at the knight, but was too worried about the younger adventurers that were too weak to escape the waves of zombies to care about the stupid nickname.
While the four others tried to safely herd the younger ones out of the cave, Alister searched desperately for Meral, but she was no where to be found. After a few moments of searching, he heard her desperate attempts to cast spells to protect herself, but they were all in vain. Using her futile efforts as a beacon to guide him, the assassin slashed his way through the throng of orcs, ancient blood staining his daggers and his hands.
By the time he had reached the acolyte, she was backed up against the wall, her energy spent from her vain efforts to fight her way through the mob.
"Meral! Are you alright?"
Looking up, the acolyte was more than a little relieved to see someone come to her rescue. She merely nodded weakly and slumped against the moss-covered stone walls of the dungeon.
Alister looked around, galled to see that they were completely surrounded. There would be no way the two of them could escape, therefore, he was left with only one option.
"Kid, do you think you have enough strength left to teleport yourself out of here?"
"I...I don't know..."
Seeing that the acolyte was still weak, he quickly lunged at the orcs that were closing in, his twin daggers slicing through rotting flesh, releasing the pungent smell of decay.
"Why..."
The assassin looked at the acolyte, who was struggling to speak. He tried his best to fend off their adversaries and listen at the same time.
"What is it, kid?"
"Alister...why are you protecting me?"
"Say what?"
"I...I thought you...didn't like me..."
Two more orcs fell at the edges of the assassin's deadly blades, yet none retreated.
"Can we talk about this later?"
By no fault of her own, Meral's voice had caused Alister's attention to be divided, thus making it harder for him to fend off the seemingly endless flood of zombies.
Red liquid dripped to the ground in a small puddle as the assassin skidded back towards the wall. One of the orcs had managed to slice a gash across his chest. The cut wasn't deep, but without proper treatment, infection was more than likely to set in.
"Damn..."
He looked at the acolyte, who had almost exhausted herself to unconsciousness.
He knew he had to guard her, no matter what. Even if he didn't make it through, he had to make sure she did.
He quickly turned and shielded the girl, his back to the approaching mob.
"I'm sorry..."