17 Let's catch Rats

Once Merino set the wooden plank on fire again, she went back to a safe distance. Trino conjured another manaball and this time aimed at one of the nodes of the fire's mana-system. Forcing it to enter the flames' mana stream and releasing its energy into the physical world.

Result?

It detonated like a hand-grenade. The fire had turned yellowish-blue(green :) as it burst like a balloon inflated in an instant and vanished. Trino was thrown back from the shockwave in the wall, and both the Chronos had felt it when they were forced to take another step back because of it.

Don't play with fire lest you get burned.

After recovering from the shockwave, the first thing Trino did was to look for Xahi. She was far enough from the explosion, standing with her mother. Safe.

"NO! He got hurt!" Xahi yelled as she went for the thrashed boy.

He was lying near the wall after he was thrown into it. Trino only got a few 1st-degree burns from the explosion. They were painful, however.

Despite his effort to deflect as much heat as possible through his Manafield, he got burned.

"Ahhh…" Wincing from the pain, he sat down.

'Damn! I should've listened to Merino.G. Shitt… I was stupid. 'It's always hindsight.

"Oh, no, no! You are badly hurt," Xahi reached him but did not try to help him. Fearing she might touch a sour spot, hurting him more.

Merino also came forward, concerned. Instead of being filled with ridicule towards him, she was worried. She knew he was ignorant of the natures of mana.

"I should have warned you. That was still way too much mana to experiment."

"Nothing can be done now. I was too careless. Uh…" He tried to stand up, only to be stopped by Xahi.

"No, you shouldn't stand, just drink one of those things you gave to me." Xahi urged. She was trembling at his hurtful sight. The wounds last night might have been severe, but the burns hurt the worst. He couldn't help clenching his teeth at every pulse of pain which came from the burns.

"But I have only two of those left. We might need it later. I can handle it. I am not burned that badly."

Merino watched them argue, thinking what could be Xahi was talking about.

"Not burned badly," Xahi's eyes went wide from concern. Looking at his facial expression distorting from the pain. She said, "But you are hurting. Why don't you drink it? Please drink it."

If only she knew the location where he carried the potion, she might've forced him to drink it herself. Her teeth started crackling, the image of boiling water from last night flashed in front of her eyes, and the sight of Trino quivers from pain became stifling for her.

"Okay! I will." Not as much as his pain, but her state forced him to. He took out the blue vial and reluctantly drank it. It wasn't an ideal situation to consume a blue potion, but he was out of low-grade ones.

The moment his wounds disappeared, Xahi hugged him. "You are fine. You are fine now."

The act was done more to console herself rather than him. But to Trino, it seemed like she smote him out of his body. He was baffled out of his mind.

Once his shock caused by her actions vanished, he could feel her tender hands wrapped around his neck. 'She is so light.' He thought while she was leaning on him. He didn't feel much weight from her.

Because of Xahi's high racial index for being a Chrono, her beauty was nothing but lethal. Trino had gone in a bewildered state when Nataly only got a little closer to him. Now Xahi was hugging him. It was way too much for him to handle. Trino faltered in his words, "Y-Yes, I a-am fine."

Merino's doubts were confirmed by their actions. They were sensational to each other, of course, due to some monster.

Yet it wasn't her concern now.

Trino's recovery from wounds led Merino to think of the times when the reports of her husband being hurt from the battlefield were frequent. In spite of that, Artha would show up home with no scars and wounds. It was good that Mythra's government had provided healing aids, but what about the pain all the Chrono soldiers had been forced to endure for a useless war. They were just using them as an item the country could use, repeatedly with repairs.

She shook her head away from the lingering and savored the sight of the little puppy caught in a plight. The human's peachy skin had turned red due to her daughter's assault. He was frozen stiff, unable to move.

'Oh! He is so innocent!' If not, she would have released her killing intent otherwise, splitting them apart.

On the other hand, Phill's thoughts were a mess. 'It hadn't been even a day since we met. I shouldn't feel this. More so, why is she hugging me like this?'

"Xahi, I am fine. You can relax," Trino begged. He had to make her move. Otherwise, he would burst from his increasing rate of heartbeats.

His words broke her delusional concerns, and she came back to reality. When she found herself leaning upon him, she recoiled back and hid behind a certain someone. Her pale face also turned red by the time she said. "I am sorry, I didn't mean to..."

"It's okay."

He slumped back to the wall from exhaustion, replaying what just happened. Upon resting for 5 minutes, he spoke to Merino, "Alright, now that I am rested well. We should catch some rats."

Before Merino could open his mouth to speak, Xahi said, "You need to rest more. You were badly hurt just now and weren't in good shape before either."

"Listen to her. It has only been a few hours since dawn. We could still leave even after you take an hour's rest." Her mother agreed.

At their life-like concerns, the word "game" faded away. Trino had been forced to release his in-game exhaustion, so he took a nap.

Till the time he woke up, the Antels were awake as well.

"You said before, we are going to catch rats. Why?" Xahi came to him, holding a fruit's shell filled with water.

"Because monsters won't get distracted by an inanimate object lumped in mana. It could be considered a gem or any other crystal." This time Trino didn't conjure a ball, instead, mist formed around his hand. He explained, "I will make a basic makeshift mana-system around rats and throw them as far as I can whenever a monster approaches. Since I can suppress my Manafield and you don't have one, high-level monsters will easily get distracted by those rats emitting powerful aura."

Only powerful monsters have high mana perception, that way, he could make them go astray. At the time of his experimentation, when he unleashed his Manafield, he renewed the location of monsters in his mind.

Xahi nodded and said, "How many rats do we need?"