I shoot fireballs out of my hand Super Mario-style for about half an hour. I see Sako also shooting fireballs in the distance, but she stops well before I do. I guess that means she caught one a lot faster than I did.
When I finally do hit a bird, it’s a pathetic little thing. Almost not worth eating, though it seems to have satisfied Angel because he starts babbling again.
“Now that you’ve got a rough understanding of your active skills, I’ll briefly explain your passive skills,” Angel says.
“Yay,” I mutter, bursting with enthusiasm. I am not enthusiastic in the slightest.
“Your passive skills are meant to complement your active skills,” Angel says. “You do not need to consciously cast them, and they’re always active. When you level up, some of your EP will be allocated here.”
“Huh? So I have to develop both active AND passive skills?” I ask. “Not gonna lie, that’s a bit too complicated for someone as dumb as me.”
“Don’t worry, as your AI assistant, it’s my job to develop them for you based on your skill focus,” Angel says. “For example, let's say you wanted to go all in on fire skills. Later down the line, I may give you the option to attain a passive skill that increases your fireball ability’s width by 10%, or one that makes it 10% stronger. It doesn’t necessarily have to correlate either. I could also develop one that makes you 10% faster if it turns out you’re a coward and run away a lot.”
“Hardy harhar,” I say. “So I’m guessing it’s potency scales with the amount of EP I’m getting, right?”
“Oh good, so you do understand this at least a little bit,” Angel says. “I was beginning to think it was hopeless because there’s not enough EP in the world to increase your intelligence.”
“When I master this, I’m creating a skill that makes you shut the hell up,” I say.
“LILY!” I hear Sako shouting in the distance. I look over and see her running toward me at full force, a giant, goofy smile plastered on her face. She stops just short of me.
“Look what I can do, Lily!” she says, then points her hand out. She opens her palm, and a blast of fire shoots out, disappearing into the leaves of a tree.
“Stop that at once, child!” Titania says, trailing right behind. “You’re going to start a forest fire.”
“It’s fine,” Sako says. “It’s too damp out here for that. Hey Lily, hey Lily! Can you do it too?”
“Yeah, I can,” I say.
She smirks. “Well, can you do this?”
I watch as Sako squats down and puts both hands out. Then she begins to light up the air with a flurry of fireballs, shooting them like a machine gun on the shores of Normandy. It’s incredible, really. To have such a masterful grasp of a skill she only just learned; meanwhile, I struggle to aim and fire just one.
I count twenty fireballs before she finally stops.
“Wow, Sako, that was really-” I start, but am cut off when she falls forward, face first into the dirt.
“Sako?” I ask. She doesn’t respond, and I begin to panic. “Sako? SAKO?”
I raise my voice, but she doesn’t respond. I quickly flip her over, and her eyes are closed. She’s still breathing, but she’s unconscious. I don’t know what to do.
“I warned her to be careful,” Titania sighs.
“What’s wrong with her?” I ask. “I thought you said we’d be fine if we ran out of EL!”
“Her vitals are stable, don’t worry,” Titania says. “It’s her anemia.”
“Anemia?” I ask.
“The strain on her body caused her to pass out,” Angel says. “That’s fine. Let’s pack up and head back for today. Can you carry her?”
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“I’m not very strong, but I’ll try,” I say, hoisting her on my back. She’s pretty light, which isn’t a surprise given how short she is. I wince when her supple breasts poke my back. They’re so much softer than mine; it makes me slightly jealous.
“S-sorry,” I hear her murmur in my ear.
“It’s fine,” I say. “Just be more careful, please.”
Led by the angels, we start to head back. We have to stop frequently since I’m not in shape at all; something I now wish I hadn’t neglected. If I were strong, I could’ve carried her all the way back no problem.
About halfway back, I place her on the side of a fallen log and take a seat next to her. I’m covered in sweat and out of breath. I turn to Sako, and she’s smiling at me.
“What?” I ask.
“Nothing,” she says. “It’s just that you reminded me of a chivalrous prince while you were carrying me.”
“I didn’t know princes sweated like dogs,” I mutter, wiping my forehead.
“Maybe this one does,” she giggles. “Don’t worry, I think I’m good to walk the rest of the way.”
“Is that so?” I ask. “I never even knew you were anemic. You never showed it during training.”
“I learned to manage while staying active,” she says. “But I’m not used to this magic stuff, so I guess it caught me off guard.”
“Yeah, whatever,” I say. “Just make sure it doesn’t happen again. It’d be a lot of trouble for me if you died.”
I hear her giggle when I say that.
“What’s so funny?” I ask.
“You,” she says. “You act like you don’t care, but you were super worried.”
“No, I wasn’t,” I say. “I was just surprised.”
“Sako, Sako!” she says, mocking me. “I heard you calling out my name frantically in the darkness.”
“Well, yeah. You’re all I’ve got in the world right now,” I say. “It’s not like Mom’s around any-”
Then, something clicks within me. I didn’t think about it before, but she must be worried about her own parents.
“Hey, do you want to see if we can find your mom and dad?” I ask. “They might be in a bunker nearby, or looking for you.”
Sako stares at me for a moment, then opens her mouth to speak. “Lily, my parents are-”
She doesn’t get a chance to finish because our angels suddenly come blitzing in front of our faces out of nowhere.
“Get down and keep your voices down,” Angel says.
“W-why?” I ask. “What’s happen-”
“Just do as he says!” Titania says.
I lay down alongside the dead tree, and Sako does the same. Our faces are so close I can feel her breath on my cheeks. My heart is beating, not just because I’m scared, but because I’ve never been so close to someone else.
“Do not say anything,” Angel commands. “Don’t even move a muscle.”
As he speaks, I’m back to being horrified. I have no idea what’s going on or what’s coming. Is it a HET? Are we about to die?
I hear rustling coming from not so far away. It’s the sound of agonizingly slow footsteps creeping ever closer. I hear a small branch breaking. The rustle of leaves. It’s not a small animal. It’s large.
I look at Sako, and her eyes are wide with terror. I feel her breath growing rougher. Faster. I want to grab her and run. The impulse is strong. I can’t take it. I want to run so bad.
I think she notices this and slowly moves her arm from her side and places it atop my hair. She doesn’t say anything, but I can tell that she’s trying to calm me down.
Her touch falls to my forehead, and I can feel a wave of relief reverberate through my body. My terror still exists, but I don’t want to run anymore. Not when she’s here.
The steps grow closer. Too close. The tread over leaves and sticks until they’re right on the otherside of the log. If it wasn’t for the brush and leaves on the ground, whatever it was probably would have already seen us.
The thing’s movements stop. I am terrified, because it must know that we’re here. It wouldn’t have stopped right there if it didn’t.
I am no longer breathing. I can’t take it. I’m so scared.
“I swear there were people around here,” I hear a man’s voice say from the other side of the log.
“If so, they probably didn’t go far,” another says. “We’ve still got a few hours of daylight left. Let’s keep going before we head back.”
I breathe a sigh of relief. It’s just people. For a minute, I thought a terrible monster was going to peer its head over the log and eat us. I’m about to get up to greet them when Angel’s voice blares in my head.
“DON’T MOVE,” he commands.
I do as I’m told and stay by Sako as the two men walk off the way we came. We wait until we can’t hear their footsteps anymore before we finally get up.
“Why’d you stop me?” I ask. “They’re just people.”
“There was something off about them,” Sako says.
“We need to get back to the bunker,” Titania says. “I fear that it won’t be a safe haven for much longer.”