Volume 2: Chapter 7: Hope?

Arma: "Ouch"

Rene: "Who told you to be so reckless and rush in without a plan? Now hold still while I heal you"

Using her magic, Rene healed the cuts upon Arma's body.

Seeing dragons, even just low-class ones, made Arma go absolutely enraged to the point he attacked them on the spot, despite the numbers advantage. Had it not been for Rene, he would not have escaped with just few cuts and bruises.

Arma: "Rene"

Rene: "Yeah"

Arma: "Can you also heal my old wounds as well?"

Rene: "You mean the burns?"

Arma nodded.

Rene: "Afraid I cannot. The thing that inflicted those wounds upon you possessed really scary type of magic. It is not something my ordinary magic can overcome"

Arma: "Type of magic?"

Rene: "How do I explain this…You are a human, so you have no magic, but since I am part elf, I can use it. Other non-human species can also use magic, but each kind's magic has a different property."

Rene: "If it was any other species, I may have had a shot at patching you up, but dragon magic is on a higher level than the magic other species possess. Lower level magic cannot heal a damage caused by a higher level magic. In other words, the wounds inflicted by dragon magic cannot be fully healed by anything but dragon magic"

Arma: "Then how come my wounds are better after you treated them before?"

Rene: "I merely accelerated your natural healing process. Your body possess remarkable regenerative prowess for a human being. Inflict those kinds of wounds on anyone else; they would have been long dead"

Arma: "I see"

The healing process continued.

Arma: "Rene"

Rene: "Yeah?"

Arma: "Thank you"

* * *

After travelling for a couple of weeks, Arma and Rene stopped by a waterfall.

Rene was busy applying preservatives upon the corpses of her comrades, so Arma thought this was a good time for a bath.

The water stung the cuts and burns on his body, but the sensation was undeniably a pleasant one. Finally, a chance to relax and unwind.

After a long bath, he put his clothes back while still completely wet. Not having a towel did make life a little difficult, but it was nothing sun could not take care of.

Maybe after they bring back the corpses of Rene's comrades back to their hometown, he could ask Rene to be his permanent companion.

He was a fighter and she was a mage, each one compensating for the other's weaknesses.

And more than anything, he wanted to have someone with him.

A comrade in arms and a good friend, Rene was such a person.

Aside from killing dragons, Arma had nothing left and neither did Rene, but perhaps together, they could find something worth living for.

But alas, the moment of bliss was interrupted by a scent.

Inhaling the scent of the wind, Arma's could smell it.

The scent of a dragon, a powerful one at that, it was very near.

Arma: "No….RENE!"

He ran towards where Rene was camped out, unsheathing Akara's sword, and ready to protect Rene from the incoming dragon.

But alas, he was too late.

What awaited him was a nightmarish scene.

Rene's body was limply hanging by the neck.

Holding on to Rene's broken neck was the claw of a humanoid-looking, scaly, winged white monster.

A high-class dragon, there was no doubt about it.

Its other hand had torn a hole through Rene's chest, ripping out her heart.

Right before Arma's eyes, the white dragon consumed Rene's heart.

Dragon: "A mixed blood huh, not too bad for a light snack…"

At this instant, Arma's world was once again shattered into pieces. The small flowers of hope Rene planted were now torn asunder.

He had lost his family.

His master.

His entire band of comrades.

Now, he lost his only friend.

Hope had wilted away into nothingness.