Grave News

It took a moment for Kurai to truly notice Lin standing before him, and then a few more to notice the look she had on her face as she looked him over for injuries, "What the hell were you thinking?! Fighting in a war when you don't even have the ability to protect yourself yet!"

He didn't expect her to attack him so fiercely after not seeing her for a while, but it seemed the constant training with Satoru had slightly jaded him because instead of jumping to explain like he usually would, he calmly lifted a brow, "I wasn't aware that I'd been given a choice in the matter. According to the letter that was sent, going against it would be treason."

He watched as Lin's eyes widened before she sat down cross-legged on the floor, "Seriously? What the hell were the developers thinking?!"

Kurai shrugged and joined her on the floor, "Heck if I know."

Lin frowned as she looked him up and down as if finally noticing the way he looked, "You know when I created this Avatar form to resemble you, I didn't notice how mismatched it would be..."

'And wasn't that just the kick in the teeth?'

Kurai didn't voice his thoughts though and nodded before glancing at her sideways, "Why did you make the Avatar like this anyway? Aren't you supposed to use your own form?"

Lin nodded as she sheepishly scratched her chin, "I know I said I wanted to make you a printed headgear, but it turned out that that one was more comfortable for me to use so I made your Avatar on this one. I didn't know what you would like so I selected the default, which is usually knight. I just thought we would both play on it since you wouldn't get a lot of time anyway and then I could start my account on the other one once the game officially released."

He almost felt like face-palming at the reason, but it made sense since Lin never bothered to think things through while in one of her happy moods.

Though it also meant that Lin somehow scanned his form into the headset without him knowing, which was…slightly creepy, extremely infuriating, and totally something she would do.

But getting angry about it now was not going to help anyone.

He decided to change the subject before she realized that her carelessness had been the reason why he currently struggled to grasp the basics of being a knight.

One had to be suited for a role to be able to play it after all.

Kurai glanced down and noticed for the first time that Lin was wearing formal clothes, "You looked worried when I saw you. Was it only because of the war or did something else happen?"

A chair somehow appeared and she sank down onto it, "My dad managed to get them to leave you with us. The people didn't look too deeply into it seeing as they had most of the players in their hands already, but for some reason, your parents have disappeared."

Before Kurai could freak out about the information, Lin growled in frustration, "They left a letter saying that they had something important to take care of...but I've never seen them brush your state off like that despite them being workaholics."

Lin frowned and before Kurai could even think of a way to answer her, she continued, "I think I worded that a bit too strongly. What I mean is that they were suddenly very distracted instead of taking some time to sit with you like they did when we called them. They refused to leave your side so I can only imagine what is going on."

A memory of his parents from the Heart-weighing chamber flashed through his mind again and Kurai's eyes widened before he shook his head and schooled his features.

Neither the military nor the people from Zenomitec would accomplish anything by forcing a single player's parents into the game, so what was going on?

He turned back to Lin, "Could you keep an eye out for when they return?"

Lin nodded without even hesitating, "Of course. I was planning on doing that anyway. What bothers me currently is what you are going to do now. You are fighting in a full-on war with minimal training…"

Kurai could tell that she wanted to say more, but he shook his head, "I have been training with my Guildmaster, Zane, and Satoru, his second-in-command. They are the ones who were there before I went to bed. I've learned quite a lot and they didn't just throw me into the deep end like I expected. Out of all the guilds we've been the only one that hasn't lost someone because each person has been assigned a role that they can fully carry out."

Lin didn't look convinced, but she didn't pry any further.

An alarm suddenly sounded in the space and Kurai quickly turned around with wide eyes to try and find the source before he realized that it was the signal for an attack.

He cursed before turning to Lin, "I have to go, they're attacking the camp!"

He didn't even wait for her nod to leave and when he came to, he saw Satoru trying to shake him awake.

The man gave a relieved huff before he pulled Kurai up, "We need to get into formation quickly! They are probably trying to target the healers…"

Satoru didn't have to say another word because they were already rushing towards the tent that Sayra had gone to sleep in the previous night.

Unfortunately, the sound of fighting reached their ears and they saw a heavily wounded Sayra hiding behind the woman that had given her food and taken care of her the previous night.

Said woman was also wounded, but their attackers, three knights, didn't live long as Satoru seemed to disappear, only to reappear four seconds later and Kurai watched in stunned silence as the bodies fell to pieces.

It was only for a moment though, before he rushed to the two injured women.

The older woman glanced back frantically, "We need another healer! Sayra, she…!"

Her words were cut-off as Sayra started choking up blood and Kurai immediately sank down onto his knees next to them with a determined expression, "Sayra! Can you hear me?"

He received a weak nod for his efforts and he sighed in relief, "I am going to heal you, okay?! B-but I'm new a-at this so…"

Sayra simply smiled at him and he realized that precious time was slipping away.

He closed his eyes as he placed his hands on Sayra's stomach.

A part of him suddenly felt on edge as he remembered how 'Seraph's Blessing' could easily destroy something, but he needn't have worried as he opened his eyes and saw that the light was a white-blue instead of red.

It made him realize that the skill acted on his instincts instead of on his thoughts.

Sayra was healed and back on her stubborn feet in no time with a grateful expression on her face as she pointed toward a hill, "Some of our guildmates managed to get our injured over the hill while we distracted them. We quickly realized that they were targeting the healers so I stayed behind with Miyo."

The whistle of an arrow had Satoru quickly moving to block it and Kurai instinctively moved to take out the threat before his mind even registered what he was doing as a bolt of red shot from his hands and impaled the hidden archer.

Predictably, nothing happened at first, but then a gurgling cry sounded before the figure got eaten alive by the destructive form of Seradeihn's blessing.

An impressed whistle sounded from Satoru as he grinned, "It seems your reflexes are getting faster."

Kurai grinned in answer before he turned to walk towards the hill.

An errant thought had him wanting to heal the rest of their guild members as well, but his thoughts were interrupted by Zane as he appeared out of nowhere and when he tried to voice his intentions, Zane quickly put a stop to it as he grabbed him with an arm around his neck, "Here I thought I would get you out of a bit of trouble and you go on and do it by yourself. Well done!"

Cries of battle suddenly rang out from beyond the hill and Kurai smiled at the compliment before moving toward the hill once more, but Zane pulled him back with a stern look, "You aren't going anywhere until you can lay your opponent flat in mere seconds. We'll take care of it, you see if you can heal Miyo as well."

Kurai nodded, though he fully intended to join them once Miyo, the knight that had protected Sayra, had been healed.

The healing itself didn't take long, but Kurai found himself strangely exhausted until he realized that each healing had taken quite a chunk of his energy, or mana as Lin usually called it.

It left him with a problem until he remembered that he hadn't used Seraph's form and with it came the realization that his hp and mana had already improved quite a bit since learning cultivation from Satoru.

Given that he had also technically used it as an attack for a third time, meant that he had at least three uses before his normal mana depleted and more if he used Seraph's Form.

His thoughts were interrupted when Zane and Satoru returned with quite a few of their injured guild members, although Zane lacked his usual grin, which meant that something wasn't right.

Kurai, Miyo, and Sayra quickly rushed over to meet them, but it was Satoru that answered the question in their eyes as they met in the middle, "The ones we'd been fighting up until now were just the scouting parties. They were meant to give us false hope. The real forces will be arriving at sunset at the latest…and they are more than 12 000 men strong."