Interlude 3 — Decisions

"Hey, why are you stopping?"

The damned voice that led us into a trap was still maintaining its innocent tone as it communicated with me through mental magic.

Several hours had passed since nightfall. The cold in the air was unbearable, and thanks to the purple light emitted by the leaves of the trees, we could see through the forest without the need to use spells or torches.

"Shut up! You still have the nerve to contact me?"

"Huh? I don't understand you".

Because of me, I led my team to a place where we were ambushed by small monsters who caught us off guard. We managed to kill them all, but one of our team members was wounded.

"Isaac, I don't feel well…"

Clara, the mage of our team, vomited blood. Her wound will probably get worse if we stay in this forest.

"Shit! Quick, Jessie, get another potion out of your bag!"

"Take!"

The potion served to soothe the pain, but to our surprise it did not heal his wound. Apparently, the claws of those bastards were no small thing.

"Hey, you'd better move from that spot. I'm seeing that there are several monsters that are approaching you, but keep some distance. Avoid running at all costs and follow the path I'm showing you. Got it?"

A transparent red compass appeared in front of my eyes and pointed west.

How can she be so indifferent?

I thought to myself as Clara thanked Jessie.

The only person who can hear this voice is me. As we moved deeper into the forest, the desire to flee increased, but something inside me told me that, if we kept moving forward despite all these difficulties, I would finally find a power like no other.

"Isaac, seriously, why are we going deeper? Shouldn't we leave? At this rate, Clara…"

"Let's continue".

We were all shivering from the cold, so I made a quick decision to keep us moving.

I'm the leader of this group. While Jessie is a good archer and Clara is a mage with a promising future, even if I lose them in this place, I might come out ahead if I can get close to that voice.

Confident, I turned to follow the path indicated by the compass, but I suddenly felt a tug accompanied by a slap.

"Isaac! You're going to get us killed".

For several seconds, I felt my mind clear.

The compass disappeared.

"What?"

A reality check hit my head.

That's right, why am I so confidently walking into this forest if I don't know what the source of that voice is?

I was speechless for numerous seconds as I remembered that I had considered Clara and Jessie to be disposable objects. They have been my companions for various years, how had I come to such a conclusion?

Jessie has a dream of opening a store soon. Clara, on the other hand, wants to help her mother, who is ill.

"Isaac, answer me!"

Jessie's face reflected the anger she had with me. I couldn't blame her, if I were her, I would act the same way.

"Hey, calm down… I don't think this is a good place to discuss out loud, we might attract more enemies. Isaac, I wanted to avoid telling you before because I thought you had a plan, but…"

Clara's voice was getting worse, so I decided to raise my voice.

"That's right! I understood them. I was a fool, I screwed up. Let's try to climb a tree to get around more comfortably and quickly".

Jessie and Clara were quite taken aback by my response; they both took several steps back.

"What? What's wrong?"

Clara began to gather mana in her wand, and Jessie quickly loaded her bow with an arrow.

"You! What have you done with Isaac? He is afraid of heights; he would never climb a tree in his right mind".

"Hey, I told you to move, they're catching up".

"Shut up!"

I suddenly shouted into the air towards that voice that kept bothering me. Jessie and Clara took this statement as an answer, so they attacked without hesitation.

Thanks to my hand shield, I was able to block Jessie's date, but the fire magic hit my right foot. I hit the ground hard and managed to extinguish the flame.

"Hey, seriously, couldn't you wait any longer before doing something like that?"

They ran.

While I was distracted by these attacks, they apparently did not hesitate to run.

I cursed to myself the moment we decided to be part of the first group to explore this forest. We thought it would be easy money, and so we went without recruiting anyone because then the profits would be huge.

"Oh! You can use this moment to go faster towards me. Apparently, those humans just caught the monsters' attention".

"Shit, just shut up!"

Something had been clouding my judgment, and that's why I didn't act as I should have. I know it's my fault for accepting this mission and going like this, but now…

No, that's not relevant right now!

I ran as fast as I could to reach them, but Jessie didn't hesitate to attack me with arrows that went straight to my face. If I missed and failed to block them with my shield, it would be certain death.

Partly, I sensed that they still didn't know for sure if it wasn't me and that's why they just attacked me like that. Maybe they wanted to lure me out of this forest to trap me and then try to cure me.

"Hey! If you keep going down that road, you're going to die with those humans, you know?"

Those human ones?

Before I could respond to that damn voice, Clara stumbled. Jessie stopped and bent down to help her, but before I could get close, a 15-foot monster in the shape of a silver wolf leapt into the air in her direction with its fangs bared.

There's no way they can dodge it. Jessie reacted, but closed her eyes in resignation. I tried to reach out my hand; however, it was useless. The distance between us was too far.

The last thing I could see were tears of helplessness on Clara's face before they were both trapped in the wolf's paws.

I stopped dead in my tracks and drew my sword.

"Hey, what are you doing!? Go to the road! I'm pointing at you, you're close!"

The transparent red compass appeared again, but I didn't give it the slightest importance.

As team leader, the last thing I could never do was jump ship.

I was a complete idiot to have the expectation that I would become some sort of being with great powers. This was the real world, and now I am paying the consequences of my actions.

The giant wolf was concentrating on devouring my companions, so it was still not paying attention to me. I heard their screams, but after a while they stopped. They were dead. It was there that the other wolves began to arrive, but these were smaller; they were barely three feet tall.

"Girls… I will be with you soon".

I held my sword tightly and ran to where they were.