The Gathering Girl II

"Interesting..." the black knight mumbled as she finished hearing Lian Garen explaining about the mole inside of the research team that was sent to investigate the crawler forest.

"Curious would be a more accurate word" Lian replied, "To think that one of investigation groups ended up being betrayed by one of their own... It truly brings shame to the dragon race."

"This coming from a guy that abandoned his race just to save his own skin."

"Details, details... But let's not lose sight of what is truly important!"

"Right!" the knight nodded, "If what is written on this diary is true, that means the infection might be related to that strange fruit that they found in this weird garden."

"Indeed. And even if it isn't... A fruit that enhances the senses and recovers your power? It might prove to be useful in the future. We must make haste and find this garden!"

"Alright!" she agreed with a raised fist.

Lian moved away from his table and returned to the tower in order to get equipment that might prove useful for their journey.

"The scientists made an improvised map of the area during their time here. We can use it to find the path towards this garden!" he explained while holding a small metal cube with a button on each side that when pressed revealed a hologram of the forest viewed from above.

The girl clapped at the sight and started to ready herself to finally exit the safe zone inside the barrier.

She took a small peek at their surroundings and noticed that all the crawlers were gone.

The two of them began to step outside but upon a closer inspection, they noticed that several of the creatures were hiding by using the darkness of the setting sun to their advantage.

The top of the trees, hiding below the ground, camouflaging inside the leaves, the crawlers were all standing completely still and just observing their every move.

"The moment we step outside, we will be at their mercy..." Lian noted.

"You scared?"

The dragon just smiled at her, "Why should I? When I have such a reliable bodyguard by my side!"

"Eeww... Don't say that out loud... I don't like to think about having to protect you."

"I'm afraid you are limited in alternatives" he mentioned while shrugging with a smug expression, "Shall we?"

She took out her claymore and tried to imagine herself taking a deep breath while closing her eyes.

"Let's do it!"

Both of them jumped out of the barrier and immediately assumed battle positions.

The spider-like creatures suddenly started to pop out from everywhere around them and began to charge at the two like mad dogs after a piece of meat.

Several of them started to leap at them while a couple more kept going while still on the floor.

"I'll handle the jumping ones! You watch out for the ones below!" Lian screamed.

"Okay!"

Lian turned both of his arms into claws and jumped against the incoming wave of flying crawlers in order to intercept them.

The beasts tried to chew on his arms, forcing Lian to give up on them and rush to grow new ones with his healing flames. Once he was done doing so, he shoved his claws into their bodies and crushed their vitals in order to make them stop moving.

On the ground, the moving empty armor began to swing her blade in several wide arcs in order to take care of big groups of crawlers that approached at the same time.

Each slash would take down five to seven of them, but they were taking too much time to start and to finish, giving the enemies plenty of time to keep coming.

Lian was about to fall on the ground but his leg was chomped by one of them, forcing him to cut his own leg off with his claw.

"Gaaaaghhh!!" he cried in pain before applying more healing flames.

After freeing himself, he dropped down and collided with a crawler that was right beneath him by stabbing its head with his nails.

The girl noticed the commotion and got distracted for a moment, allowing one of the arachnids to slip past her defenses and strike her in the back, causing her to quiver and almost fall down.

She quickly recomposed herself and slew the creature by stabbing its torso, causing its corpse to get stuck on the tip of her blade.

"Oh, hey! I got a hammer!" she commented while using the carcass of the crawler to bash all the approaching beings.

Lian stood up and began to transform into his second form, causing him to take the appearance of a massive red-scaled bat with the head of a snake.

He started to spin around and smashing everything with his tail, making him look like a red cyclone.

The girl jumped on his tail after taking the corpse out of her blade and combined her sword with the twirling momentum of Lian's body to improvise a giant chainsaw, cutting everything that approach them in a horizontal circular movement.

Lian kept using his healing flames to void getting motion sickness while the girl didn't even need to worry about it due to a lack of brain or stomach.

The crawlers finally realized that they were no match for the two and started to back away from them and hiding back into the woods.

Before long, the duo noticed their victory and finally halted their actions to absorb the situation.

"This is our chance!" Lian stated while going back into his human form, "We need to go before more of them come!"

"Let's go!"

As the knight and the dragon began their desperate dash while following the path of the map, a new crippling sound started to approach from deep into the forest.

The light of the sun was about to vanish completely meaning that soon the creatures would have an even bigger area to use in order to catch them by surprise.

"We must not waste a single second! Hurry!"

"I'm going, mom! I'm going!!"

Two crawlers jumped in their way as they continued their jog. The girl reacted on impulse and took both down with s single slash.

Three appeared from behind by dropping from the trees. Lian turned into a dragon for a split second and killed each with the enormous black spikes on his back.

The ground started to shake and the head of another crawler appeared right between the girl's legs, only to get stepped on by her and forced back into the ground.

"You know, for an extinct race, there sure are a lot of these guys running around!" the lass commented while doing her best to keep her ruler safe.

"The scientists that were infected must have spread the disease towards other beings close by. They basically wasted all our efforts to erase the crawlers from this world!"

"You see now why I don't feel bad about them dying in here?"

More enemies approached leading to more battling and struggling.

At times it seemed like the waves of crawlers were never going to end. For every five steps forward, the duo would be forced to give five steps back in order to avoid getting overwhelmed by the swarm.

Lian had lost count of how many times he already removed and regrow his limbs by that point.

Time kept passing until eventually, the two found themselves with their backs facing each other while being completely surrounded by hundreds of spider creatures with the heads of dragons.

"Seems like we pushed our luck too much..." the girl mentioned, "Should we go back and try again after coming up with a new plan?"

"Go back? You want to give up now? We just barely started!"

"But look at our situation! It's like for every spider I kill, five more show up!"

"Yes, the situation is dire, but we are still the ones with the advantage! They can't take us down as long as our state of will remains strong!"

"Right... State of will... Yeah... I totally have one of those back at home..."

"Focus, child! There!" Lian aimed at one of the trees up ahead that was completely free from any crawler, "Throw me in that direction and I will pull you up with my tail!"

"Throw you...? But-"

The crawlers started to get agitated and began to jump on them once again.

One of them ended up biting the knight's sword and sent an absurd amount of pain that spread through her being like a shockwave.

"Guaaaaghh!!!" she cried in desperate agony.

"We must leave this place at once! Hurry, child!"

"I got it! I got it! Stop shouting!!"

She then grabbed Lian by the shoulder and launched him like a human-sized baseball at the tree in order to get him away from the beasts.

The dragon shoved his claws into the wood to halt his momentum and began to dangle like a fruit while trying to recompose himself.

"Lily! Hurry! Transform and get me out of here!!"

The arachnids finally began to pile up on top of the girl in order to form a white mountain of spider monsters that wouldn't stop trying to sink their fangs into her sword, forcing her to cover it with her own body in order to protect herself.

"Lian!!!"

The dragon turned around in order to watch the scene and tilted his head while showing a wicked smile at the girl.

"Thank you for your services! They were greatly appreciated!"

The girl suddenly felt time freezing around her upon hearing those words, "Wh- What...?"

"I'll make sure to mention your name once I become the hero that solved the crisis of the crawler race and return to the dragon empire as its savior! Or... At least I would if you had a name..."

"Lian!! Don't you dare!!"

"It has been fun, nameless child knight! Enjoy your final moments being crushed to death by the same beings you despise so much!"

"Lian Garen!!! Get back here this moment!!!"

The red-haired man then revealed a pair of wings from his back and disappeared into the darkness of the forest, leaving only the sound of his laughter behind.

With none other but herself to blame for being foolish enough to trust in the one man she should never have, the girl was left with no choice but to unleash all her rage in one single cry that eclipsed the roaring sound of all the beasts trying to kill her.

"LIAN GAAAAREEEEEEEEEN!!!"