Just as Akashi was turned into particles of life, he noticed that the magic circle beneath him grew scarlet and became flustered.
Just when his view was swallowed by the particles of light, a nostalgic voice hummed directly in his head.
{Take care Akacchi!}
Did he hear it right? Why does it feel fleeting? Just why does he have to hear her voice in this moment?
He wanted to scream but no voice leaked out of his throat.
What should I even shout? How do I even call her? Will she even hear me?
And just like that, with lifeless eyes dripping with tears, he saw a small spark of hope just as always yet he couldn't grab it and fainted, swallowed by the blinding crimson light.
* * * * *
"Hah just how long will this guy sleep like that, huh?"
"We're not in a hurry Murokawa-kun, and I also got dizzy from that."
"Whatever, Oi Ryu wake that guy up!"
Faint traces of voices rustled him awake as his brows furrowed. He could feel a light tap in his shoulder as a voice called out to him.
"Hey Akashi, Akashi wake up."
Hearing the voice, Akashi instantly sobered up. He does not know why but Akashi had this natural disgusted feeling when he hear Ryunosuke's voice.
"Hmm, where are we?"
The moment he opened his eyes Akashi instantly surveyed his surroundings.
A grassy plains of swaying grass entered his view. When he looked behind him, he could see trees shedding leaves of autumn.
"We don't know too, but we'll have to keep going."
Daichi replied in Ryunosuke's stead as he raised his body leaned on a huge boulder. Tsukasa eyed Akashi from above the huge boulder while squatting.
"Hey Akashi, You're a gamer right? Surely you have played plenty of RPG types? What do you think should we do?"
Akashi lightly nodded but said in a slightly awkward voice, "I don't know."
It was his first time having a real conversation to others for a very long time. Of course communicating via phone is not counted.
"Well it's fine, it's good that we didn't encounter any troubles in the meantime." Shin said.
"Ahh!! Why do you have to raise flags in this situations, seriously!", Tsukasa begrudgingly ruffled his hair in frustration.
"I don't know what you mean by that, and I didn't do anything wrong."
"Sorry Shin but I'm on Tsukasa this time, you shouldn't raise flags like that." Ryunosuke chimed in while Daichi merely shook his head in the corner.
"Seriously what with this flags you-"
Shin voice was cut off by Tsukasa suddenly unsheathing his daggers behind his waist.
"Shit! take cover behind the boulder!"
Swoosh~ Swoosh~
Two arrows whistled in the air. Tsukasa hurriedly took cover by flipping behind the boulder.
Shin, a meter away realized the severity of the situation and ran to take cover in the boulder.
Swoosh~ Swoosh~
Two arrows flew in the air from the thick bushes and struck, Shin's calves and knee.
"Argh!"
Swoosh~ Swoosh~
Two arrows again flew in the air going for Shin's face but just as he was about to be struck dead.
Puk~ puk~
The sound of wood being hit sounded out as Daichi ran in front of Shin and blocked the arrow.
Behind him Ryunosuke hurriedly pulled him with great strength towards the boulder. Seeing that Shin was has reached the boulder Daichi ran behind the boulder as well.
"Stay still. Ryunosuke pull out the arrows slowly."
Daichi said to Ryunosuke, who is closest to Shin. Ryunosuke held the arrow impaled in Shin's knee and calves and pulled out the arrow.
"Ahhh! It hurts!!"
Ryunosuke was lost into what to do next after he pulled out the arrows. He looked at Daichi before he was about to strip his cloth to stop the bleeding. Just as he prepared to tear of his cloth, Tsukasa interrupted.
"Wait!"
"What now Murokawa-kun! We don't have time to lose, he's bleeding profusely." Daichi spoke in anger as he saw that Tsukasa prevented Ryunosuke from tearing his clothes. He turned his eyes towards Akashi laying soundlessly in the corner.
"Hey Akashi, Your job class is the priest right? You're a healer right? I'll leave Shin-chan to you."
Akashi nodded and kneeled beside Shin. Truthfully Akashi did not have any access to his status window but when he looked at them earlier, there was no healing skill.
However Akashi tried to experiment. First he willed the mana from his mana core in the abdomen. He slowly guided the mana and spread it into his arms.
However he didn't know what to do next. He pondered for a moment before he remembered some things in the novels he read in the past.
Mana is intangible, it is a mysterious energy that flows in the universe. Humans has the power to harness this energy to form a core in their heart.
He tried to scrunitize his memory if he could still find what he's looking for, when a lightbulb flashed in his mind.
He thought strongly of the golden particles in his memory and it gathered unto his palm. After that he placed his palm towards the wound in Shin's knee.
He slowly guided the mana and made it's form intangible and imbued with the golden particles. He transferred this mana towards the wound and lo behold the wound began to close.
The scraped bone began to regenerate and the muscle tissues began to connect to each other and closed the wound but the process took time.
"I think I could heal him but this will take a moment." Akashi said with a sigh and scrunitized the healing process closely.
The other three also breathed a sigh of relief and they couldn't help but marvel at the mysterious power that Akashi used. Especially Shin who experienced first hand the feeling of having his wounds heal and the refreshing feeling that came after.
"Well then, now that one problem is solved, let's clean up the other. Ryunosuke, I know you had good eyes, so what did you see?" Daichi asked as he slowly pluck out the arrows stuck in his buckler.
"It was a green, short creature with elongated nose and long ear, it's face was also quite sinister. I suspects it's a goblin. There was 5 of them."
"Goblin huh? Hmm, I don't know how strong are those but they are clearly hostile to us. Murokawa-kun what are your chances."
"I could deal with them if I got close but it seems they don't plan to leave the bushes, if you could bait them, then the rest will be a-ok." Tsukasa spoke while making a coin gesture in his hand.
"Good, I think they are sentient beings so I'll try to provoke them and catch their attentions. When they expose themselves, Murokawa-kun will dash and kill them as quickly as possible. Ryunosuke, while Murokawa-kun is approaching the enemies I want you to provide cover fire. Understood?" Daichi gave out the instructions as his words sound stronger than usual.
""Understood!""
They said in unison as they prepared themselves.
Daichi breathed in and jumped out of the bolder and shouted with his voice that seemingly contained a mysterious strength.
"Hey! You green disgusting goblins come out and face me!" It was a pathetic provocation to those who heard it but the strong charisma of his voice made the goblins come out.
Two held a bow with a few arrows in their quiver, two held a wooden club in their hand, and one held a rusty sword while it was strapped in leather cloth in contrast to the others, barely covering themselves with linen cloth.
Kieeeeeek!!kieeeek!
Indescribable screeching sounded out from their mouth as the two club using goblins charged out.
Swoosh~ swoosh~
Daichi deflected an arrow with a shield but took a hit in his leg but the arrow can't overcome the thickness of the wooly leather.
Swoosh~
Ryunosuke behind Daichi fired back towards the archer goblins in the back. The arrow landed softly in the arm of the goblin and it revealed an opening.
"Now!"
The moment Daichi shouted, Tsukasa was revealed that was just in front of the goblin archer. Caught off guard, the goblin swordsman was flustered and hurriedly went to Tsukasa but he was a step too late.
"Now die bitch! [Quick Stab]"
The dagger in Tsukasa's hand sped up in an instant, reaching the neck of the goblin archer. The other goblin archer beside it hurriedly aimed towards it but an arrow came flying at it and his shoulder.
Tsukasa ducked and stomped to the ground and slashed to the goblin but his dagger was blocked by a sword.
Kieeek!
"You just got lucky bitch."
Meanwhile, Daichi charged towards the club wielding goblin and blocked his strike and counter attacked with a slash. The goblin screeched but it still continued to raise it club. The other goblin also aimed his club towards Daichi.
Daichi held his shield and slided the club of the goblin in front of him towards the other club aimed towards him, deflecting their two attacks and stabbed the throat of the goblin.
Swoosh~
The other goblin was also hit in the neck by an arrow shot by Ryunosuke, It was also followed by another arrow that accurately shot the goblins heart in the gaps of his chest directly piercing it's heart.
"Okay this is finished, let's go help Tsukasa."
"Nah, it looks like Murokawa-kun could handle it in his own."
In the same time that Daichi engaged the goblins, Tsukasa dashed towards the goblin swordsman.
The goblin swordsman slashed diagonally aiming at Tsukasa's shoulder but Tsukasa merely dodged by slanting his head.
However an arrow met his face just as he slanted his face. He took a short step earning him a split second and spun his face to the left, grazing past the arrow.
Using the momentum, he spun and held the daggers in reverse and stabbed the goblin swordsman's neck with his left dagger.
Not losing out his momentum, he stabbed the dagger at the other side of its neck and lowered his lower body.
He strengthened his grip in the daggers and ripped apart the neck. The body of the goblin began to fall and it's severed head rose slightly in the air.
His face was greeted by an arrow yet again but he calmly turned his body mid air in a kicking motion. He spun his body mid air and using the force, he kicked the severed head of the goblin towards the goblin archer.
The goblin archer was flustered by the unexpected projectile and was hit squarely in the face.
Not losing the chance, Tsukasa used the goblin swordsman headless body's shoulder as a foothold and sprung towards the goblin archer.
He threw the dagger in his left hand towards the goblins right leg and it's body shifted downward right. Tsukasa dashed past the goblin and swung his dagger in it's falling body.
"Omae wa Mou..."
The goblins eyes widened in disbelief as it's neck slowly slided down his body.
"Shindeiru!"
Tsukasa turned his head behind him as he stared a the gushing green blood with calm, and cold eyes. His glittering blue eyelids and light dark shade pupil fluttered and stared at the corpse behind him.
He slowly shook his head and snapped out of his thoughts. He went to the corpse and took the dagger impaled in the right foot.
"Well, well, looks like this goblins are the lowest leveled creatures after all for a reason. Yeah fuckers, just lie down there and thank this daddy in hell. Kukukuk"
Daichi hurriedly went to Tsukasa with Ryunosuke as the two of them grinned and passed a high five to each other.
"Good job."
"That was great Tsukasa!"
Tsukasa stared at the corpses in daze for a second and responded to them with a chuckle.
"Of course! After all I'm the strongest!"
Unbeknownst to others, the blood shed might be green but the sensation of cutting flesh left him in euphoria.
Oh how long has it been since the Mercenary Asura reaped a life.
Slowly but slowly, the shackles that restricted the demon who roamed the battlefield, will be reborn in this world of swords and magic.