Wins and Losses, Part Eight

She'd seen it happen, she could even see the arrow sticking out of Silvy's head from here, and yet she couldn't believe it. If someone asked Rin before the mission started what the chances of any of these adventurers dying were, she would have answered "probably pretty low". Never mind Silvy, who seemed to be so on top of things.

But her eyes weren't fooling her. Silvy lay on the ground, unmoving, killed by a simple, random arrow. All of the students were taking that fact in as the battle raged on. At her side, Eve was completely shocked. Carla had outright gasped when she saw that. Dylan had a serious expression and John appeared completely and utterly shaken. Even Seth had his brows narrowed in an almost confused manner.

It may have been a coincidence, but the rest of the fight suddenly seemed grittier. The blood decorating the adventurer's bodies, be it theirs or their enemies became much more apparent and the sounds of bones cracking and flesh-tearing felt like it was all a little louder. The strain on the adventurer's faces also was much more evident, all while Rin wondered how this could even happen to someone who had done this sort of thing already.

A while later, someone arrived at their viewing spot. Olen came in with a wounded man and two equally injured women, naked except for a bit of cloth that covered them all up. They had scratches and bite marks all around them, and had streaks of dried tears on their faces.

As Olen reached them, he held a hand up and even he, who hadn't seen as much combat as the others, had blood all over him.

"Well," he said, "it would seem at least a few people made it out alive."

"How many captives did they have?" Cara asked.

"All in all, around eight. These were the only ones that made it out." He then turned his attention to the fortress. "How goes the battle?"

No one replied to that question. Cara just crossed her arms and looked over at the fortress as well. As Olen checked out what was happening, it didn't take long before his eyes found Silvy's body. Rin didn't know what kind of a reaction she expected but all he did was let out a big sigh.

"... Damn shame," he said. "The others seem to be doing well enough, though."

Rin blinked.

[That's it?] She asked herself. It had seemed like Olen and the others were friends. And yet, all he had to say when one of those friends died was "damn shame"?

"Are you gonna go back to help?" Eve asked.

"By the time I'm there, the fighting will be over. They have to handle this on their own, and it seems like they've got it."

Indeed, when Rin looked back at the fortress, what she saw reflected the truth in those words. Elina twirled her greatsword with a dexterity that Rin didn't think was possible with such a weapon. Vick moved from one enemy to another like a wind of blades. The others in the group were cutting down just about every kobold that remained, although a few of them had arrows sticking out of their backs and shoulders.

Everything seemed fine enough. That was until another incident happened. Troph, who was cleaving through a kobold with his ax, was suddenly stabbed in the back of his right leg by a kobold behind him. He fell to the ground and the kobold went to finish him off, but Vick was there just in time to stop that from happening.

"Good," Olen said under his breath as he saw that sequence. "That's the problem with some of those big lumbering types like Troph. They can get so tunneled in on squashing their enemies that they forget the basics, like checking around them to see where more enemies to squash are."

"I'd say it's not just the big types," Seth muttered. "Clearly."

That got a reaction out of Olen. The older man glared at him, while Seth just smirked a little in response.

However, Olen conceded.

"Fair enough," he said quietly before going back to watching the mission unfold.

One kobold after another died and soon, the fortress was empty. The only ones left standing were the adventurers, save for Silvy who was face-down in a pool of her own, and some of her enemies', blood.

"It's done," Olen said, and he turned toward the others. "Go. You should check up on them. I'll stay here with the survivors."

---

Along with their teacher, and all their travel bags, the students then crossed the fortress gate. It was still nighttime, and as such, the moon was reflected in the puddles of blood that covered the ground. A foul smell entered Rin's nostrils and she nearly covered her nose.

She quickly put all of that aside, however, when she saw that most of the people there had bright smiles on their faces.

"Good shit, glad to know you haven't lost your touch," Vick slapped Troph on the back. The man was taking slow, strained breaths, but he returned a grin to his friend.

Elina walked up to Alerian and put her hands on her hips as she tilted her head and said:

"You did well. Let me know if you want to partner up in the future."

Alerian just nodded silently, before crouching down to go through the kobolds' bodies. Everyone else followed in his footsteps and did the same, and all the while, Rin wondered if they had even noticed that Silvy literally died.

Then, to make matters worse, Elina walked over to Silvy's corpse and started checking her pockets, as if she was some random monster she could loot.

That was what set Rin off. She walked over to her, having to raise her legs to skip over the many corpses, and gestured at Silvy's body as Elina patted it down.

"W-What the hell!?" She asked.

"Hm?" Elina looked up at her, confused. "Oh. You're one of the students, right?"

"Yeah but never mind that," Rin shook her head, "why are you taking her stuff?"

Elina just blinked.

"Because she's dead?" The way she answered indicated that she was even more confused.

"And that really makes it okay? I mean, weren't you friends or something?"

When she heard that, Elina finally looked like she gained a little bit of understanding. Rin looked around and found the other adventurers looking at her with some mirth.

"It's not like she'll need anything from now on," Elina told her. "It is what it is. I'm sure if we could ask her, she'd give her stuff willingly if she couldn't use it anymore. That's just how things go."

With that being said, she finished up and walked out of the fortress, leaving Rin alone standing over Silvy's body.

The other adventurers, however, walked into the fortress. Rin noticed this, confused, and went to follow them. What she found was a trail of dead bodies that led up to the door she'd just walked into. But, not all of them were kobolds. Some, indeed, were a few of the adventurers that Rin hadn't made note of yet, and the ones that were still left alive were going through their things as well.

[... Unreal,] Rin thought. What Elina said did make logical sense of course. Silvy was dead, so, neither she nor the other dead adventurers would be needing their stuff anymore. But, she wondered if it really was normal to move on this quickly after seeing your friends die like this.

[Maybe they weren't as close as they seemed, I guess.]

Someone knocked on the door behind Rin as the other adventurers walked past her, having gotten everything they wanted. Rin found Cara there.

"Hey, come over here," she said, and Rin followed her. The two of them walked around the fortress, to a spot where the others couldn't be seen.

Immediately, Rin asked:

"Is that normal? I mean, seriously, they look like they don't care at all about what happened in there."

"Yes," Cara answered quickly. "It is normal." She followed that up with, "because it has to be."

"What?"

"Listen, Rin," she said, as some of the other students found them and walked over. "You guys too. If you're serious about making this your occupation, then you should understand that on any given day, someone you know can die. Part of the reason they aren't too upset about any of this is because they've seen it happen so many times, understand? All it takes is one unlucky moment. One careless moment, and you're done."

As she let those words sink in, she looked at everyone's faces. Rin did the same. John and Carla snuck glances at each other. Rin's eyes met Eve's before the fairy looked away. Dylan and Seth remained mostly composed.

"If you really want the wins, you have to be prepared to take the losses," Cara declared. "It's that simple."