Luke’s eyes went wide seeing the group of boars charging at the tree. Each impact jolted the branch beneath them. Luke wrapped an arm around the tree and pulled Emma closer to the fork, where the wood was thickest.
"Hold on here."
She nodded, wedging her foot against a smaller branch. Below them, one of the boars stopped charging. It pressed its snout into the roots and began digging, its long claws tearing through the soil. Another joined it.
Luke stared. "Oh, come on."
They didn’t need to climb the fucking tree if they could bring it down.
"Helena! They’re digging around the roots!"
She turned toward them, but Garrick shouted before she could respond. The hawk had reared over him again, forcing his shield down with one foot while its beak hammered against the glowing wall above his head. Helena cast toward the bird.
Luke watched her spell strike, then looked back down. Dirt sprayed from beneath the boars. One had exposed a root as thick as his wrist and was worrying it between its jaws.
He searched the branches above him. They could climb higher, but that wouldn’t help much if the whole tree fell. The nearest neighboring tree was several paces away. He wouldn’t have attempted that jump with full health, a running start, and a mattress underneath him.
Just as Luke was wondering what the fuck he was supposed to do now, suddenly Emma hugged him tightly. "Young master... I... I love you..." She then, without any warning, jumped down from the tree.
For a second, Luke didn’t understand what she was doing. Then she landed badly, stumbled, and snatched up a big stone.
"Over here!" She threw it at the nearest boar.
"Emma, no!"
The stone broke against its flank. The creature stopped digging and swung toward her. Emma backed away, waving both arms, then turned and ran.
She was trying to draw them away from the tree.
Luke’s stomach dropped. "Get back here!"
Two boars charged after her. The others lifted their heads, distracted by the movement, and followed. There were now eight boars chasing after her.
Emma barely made it past the first shrub before her leg gave way. She caught herself on one hand and tried to rise. The nearest boar struck her barrier. Blue light flashed around her body, throwing the creature back.
Emma still lost her footing, tumbling onto her side.
Luke was already climbing down. His boot slipped against the trunk, and he fell the last few feet, landing hard on his side. Pain shot through his hip. He scrambled up anyway.
"Helena! Help her!"
Emma’s barrier flashed again. One boar recoiled, but another charged before the first had even staggered clear. The light around her flickered.
Helena turned. A blade of light swept across the grass, cutting down the nearest creature. It wasn’t enough. The others crowded around Emma, snapping and shoving as she tried to crawl away.
Luke grabbed a broken branch as he ran. "Get away from her!" He swung at the first boar he reached. The wood struck its face and split in his hands. The creature turned.
Luke barely saw the tusks before they hit his barrier. Blue light burst across his vision, and the impact knocked him backward.
"Young master!" Emma shouted. He tried to answer, but all he managed was a gasp. The boar backed up for another charge.
Luke closed his eyes, preparing himself for the inevitable. There was simply nothing more he could do.
Fuck he was supposed to become an overpowered main character in this world, but now he was going to die to starter beasts? His heart was filled with unwillingness. Just as the boar was about to reach him and tear him into shreds, an earth wall suddenly popped up.
Luke snapped his eyes open to see many men and women rushing towards the scene. It looked like others had finally noticed the disturbance. In the blink of an eye, the boars in front of him were slaughtered as if they were nothing.
An arrow struck the boar beside Emma, dropping it before it could turn. A man carrying a spear stepped over its body and drove his weapon through another. It took only seconds.
Luke stared at the bodies piling up in front of him. His heart raced. His breathing quickened. It was one thing to see dungeon raid streams or have memories about monsters, but to see everything in person like this...
He tried to take a deeper breath and immediately regretted it. His stomach heaved. Luke bent forward, coughing until his eyes watered. He hadn’t even killed anything. He had swung a stick, fallen on his ass, and waited to die.
"Young master." Emma was trying to crawl toward him.
"Don’t move." He raised a hand, though he wasn’t sure whether he was telling her to stop or asking for a moment. "Just... stay there."
The spearman looked between them, then waved someone over. "Two injured here!"
Someone else came and cast some sort of healing magic. Luke could feel his injuries getting better. He saw that Emma also recovered. Everything was a blur.
He couldn’t have said how long he sat there. Someone put a flask in his hand. Someone else asked him a question, then repeated it when he failed to answer. Finally, Helena walked over. "Can you get up?" She asked.
Luke looked up at the woman. She awkwardly looked away. "See, no one could have predicted what just happened. It was an accident.
Luke stared at her. For a moment, he couldn’t remember what he had wanted to say. There had been plenty while he was hanging from that branch. Even more when Emma had fallen.
Now Helena was standing in front of him, waiting for him to accept that it had all been an accident. "Which part?" he asked. "The bird showing up? Or Garrick kicking a boar toward us?"
Helena glanced over her shoulder. The hawk was down, several awakeners gathered around its enormous body. Garrick stood among them with his shield hanging at his side.
"I already told him to stop."
"After he did it."
"Yes, and I’ll speak to him again. But that isn’t what caused—"
"You don’t know that." Luke clenched his fist. "He kept making that thing squeal. Then the bird came straight down where it was lying."
"It could have been drawn by any of the fighting here."
Maybe. Luke couldn’t prove otherwise. He hadn’t exactly had time to interview the fucking bird. But one thing was clear. If that guy hadn’t shown off so much, none of this would have happened. He was not planning to let this go. He shouldn’t have let this happen in the first place.
He was just about to open his mouth and say something when suddenly something bit his ass. "What the fuck?" Luke jolted up. What now? Something bit him? What the hell could have possibly bit him? Some magic mosquito?
He looked around, rubbing his ass, fully expecting to find a level 5 mosquito or something. But nothing like that was there. Luke frowned. His gaze then fell on something else. There, right where he had fallen, he saw a small flower. When he crouched down to look at it, he saw the huge thorn underneath it.
The next second, Luke’s eyes widened in shock. It took him a moment, but he immediately recognized it. This flower! It was not ordinary at all! It was a fire lily!
It was a rare treasure flower which, when consumed, could improve one’s affinity towards the fire element.
Luke immediately stopped rubbing his ass. The flower was half-hidden beneath a clump of grass, its narrow red petals curling around a golden center. Dirt covered most of it. One petal had been crushed beneath him. He focused on it.
[Fire Lily]
[Rank: C]
[Effect: Improves affinity with the fire element when consumed.]
Holy shit. He was correct. How could he not be?
The previous Luke had spent months trying to find one. He had contacted merchants, paid for information, and listened to several people explain that these things were usually sold before they ever reached an auction.
And this one had just stabbed him in the ass.
Luke glanced toward Helena. She was speaking to a man carrying a staff, pointing toward the fallen hawk. Garrick was farther away, arguing with someone over its body. Neither was looking at him.
In fact, nobody else was paying any attention to him. This was his chance. Luke silently grabbed the flower and then, without wasting a single second, grabbed Emma and shoved it into her mouth. "Eat it. Now."