Tenths of tree monsters moved towards us.
Their bodies looked like normal trees but with humanoid faces, their branches coiled together turning into sharp claws. Some of them had 2 legs while the majority were forced to crawl.
Braham used his necklace again and a bright light covered everyone, reducing our fear and hesitation.
But it wasn't erased. I was still scared. I never fought a dog, talk less about a moving tree!
Everyone kept using ranged attacks while moving backward. I was covering the stones with fire before throwing them at the monsters, hoping that they would do any damage.
Their numbers kept falling and falling before suddenly…
"Huh??"
"We can't move backward!"
I turned around and stared at them, they were trying to penetrate what looked like an invisible barrier, but nothing worked.
The despair filled me instantly. If we couldn't go back, then we would have to fight them face to face!
I suddenly heard Braham screaming, "All the long range fighters stay in the back! If you can fight from a close range then don't hide! THERE IS NO TIME FOR HESITATION OR FEAR!!"
I stood in front of Braham and prepared myself to fight. I just had to… stab and cut them without focusing on their scary form.
"Don't worry kid, I will cover you." Braham gave me thumbs up while showing me his magical orb.
I took a deep breath and kept my gaze on the trees that kept getting closer and closer.
'You can do it, Nameless.'
Finally, a tree without legs reached us. It was covered with cracks and ice which were caused by some attacks.
It raised one of its claws on the sky, hiding the sun in its back.
*Baam!*
*Graaah!*
Before it could swing its claw, Braham shot a light beam at it, cutting its hand completely.
"It's your chance, NOW!"
I rushed towards it and kept slashing it with my katana, but no matter what I did, it didn't die.
"Where is its weakness!"
"Inside the head between its eyes!" Ruby suddenly said while burning a tree with lava.
I jumped to the monster's head and pierced it with my katana, then increased the flames on the sword, burning the tree from the inside.
*Thud!*
The tree fell on the ground with flames covering it.
'I–I did it!'
[You got x1 apple • x2 coconut]
"Huh?"
A strange screen appeared in front of me. I looked at my wrist and didn't find my bracelet, then how did it appear?
Before I could think about it, I felt a hand grabbing me from my collar and throwing me away.
"Wha—"
"Don't get distracted in a fight." Kaito said while dodging a claw that crushed the place I was standing in.
My eyes widened in shock. If not for him, I would be dead.
I watched as he cut its hand quickly before sending his katana to the monster's head. At that moment—only one thought appeared in my mind
'Can I... be like him someday?'
I shook my head and focused on my surroundings. Braham was fighting 5 trees with an orc, so I decided to help them.
But while running to them, I didn't notice the tree that was getting closer to me.
*Swish!*
Suddenly, a half broken armless tree passed behind me with something bloody in its mouth.
I tried to raise my katana to lung towards it… but I didn't find it.
"H–huh?"
Instead of seeing my right arm holding a katana, all I saw was ripped skin and flesh with blood dripping out of it like a waterfall.
"AAAAARGHH—!" A sharp, piercing, unbearable pain suddenly hit me. I kept screaming and shaking on the ground while my tears kept falling like a waterfall .
I pressed on my arm, trying to stop the bleeding, but I didn't dare to use my flames on it.
Before I could process the pain, the tree lunged towards me. I kept staring in terror as its big mouth kept getting closer and closer.
*BOOM!*
Out of nowhere, an axe clad in lightning cut through the tree's head, holding the axe was an orc with black eyes and hair, but the tip of his hair was strangely white and unlike us, he was wearing metal armor with white lightning marks on it.
"BUHAHAHA! How is your first fighting injury, brat!"
He stood there with his axe above his shoulder while mocking me. He was covered in his own blood, yet, he was still laughing with a wide smile despite his injuries.
"Th… thanks." I said with a heavy voice while trembling from pain.
Suddenly, a wave of warm light fell on the battlefield. The bleeding stopped and my pain decreased, while the orc wounds started closing.
"Wooh, I started liking that skinny elf. Doesn't he get tired?"
I shifted my gaze towards Braham. His necklace was lightening the whole place while above his head, a golden halo was floating.
He noticed my gaze and looked at me with a smile while giving me a thumbs up.
"Told you! Yo—!"
*BOOM!*
We suddenly heard a loud sound. After looking at its source, we found Kaito moving away from the burning body of the biggest tree while drinking from the water bottle in his hand.
"That was the last one." He said with a calm voice as if he didn't just fry the monster.
"By the way, since when were the trees giving water bottles?"
"...."
For a moment, I forgot even my pain.
** * * *
"Can you move it now? Is there any pain?"
I kept moving my hand and clenching my fist for a moment. It was now attached again and covered with scars that Braham couldn't remove, but they weren't painful.
"No, thank you for everything. Sorry for being too useless."
"It's okay. You killed one in your first fight, right? In the academy's ranking exam, I was too scared to even run!"
Under the moonlight, we were sitting in a camp around a fire. We used the wood of the monsters to build temporary walls around us.
Braham suddenly opened his mouth and said with a loud voice:
"Does anyone here need healing? I still have some mana left. Don't be shy, especially the orcs."
"Orcs are not shy!"
"We are okay now, Braham."
"No need to concern yourself."
Dr. Braham became too popular in the past hours even among the demons. After the fight, he started healing all our injuries without rest. Each time his mana ended, he just meditated a little before starting helping us again.
He was even trying to lighten the mood with his jokes and stories. He said that he was just working as a therapist in the elves kingdom, that's why we started calling him doctor.
"We have a problem."
A demon with red eyes and long black hair suddenly spoke, getting our attention.
"We found the corpses of 2 dwarfs, 3 humans, 2 elves and 1 orc."
The mood suddenly darkened.
'It isn't even the first day here.'
"But that's not the problem." He hesitated for a moment then gathered the courage to open his mouth.
"We also found 2 Knulls corpses, but when we counted the Knulls we only found 47."
Our eyes widened, and the demons especially were more affected.
The demon gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. "One Knull… is missing."