Chapter 173: Unexpected companion
"Honestly…" Uttering just a single word of complaint, I softened my fall with a sudden outburst of repulsion. Yet, even then, just the sheer change of momentum was enough for my bones to painfully twist, almost depriving me of my limbs. Deaccelerating just as quickly I gained the momentum after the attack, I quickly regained both the focus and the footing for the battle.
"Are you honestly going to just throw your lives away for nothing?" Landing on my legs, I bent my knees a bit to soften the impact. Straightening right after, I sent a taxing glance towards the winged figures in the sky. With recurring barrier already in my hand, a single press of a finger was all that I required.
But still, there was the problem of the delay. If I were to activate this monstrous barrier a bit too late, then my own defences would fail before I could escape to the safety of this dimension-shattering barrier.
"I could ask you the same." Thump. Landing heavily on the ground, the same female from before stared daggers at me. But although with the a.s.sist of her friends, her former meekness was gone, there was still a hint of softness in her eyes.
"Ask me for what, though? You are the ones trying to pick a fight with me, not the opposite." Pointing my hand towards the battlefield, I smiled gently. As for now, I was at my very last normal barrier. While I still had means to protect myself from the attacks, they were nowhere as powerful as the spells created by Sander"s stones. "Your battlefield is over there, there should be no feud between us."
Given how the other party didn"t cover me in a flurry of attacks from the get-go, there was bound to be some reason for their restraint. And I was quite happy with exploiting it.
"You know what I want. You spared my life earlier, and now I"m giving this favour right back." Stepping forward, the female didn"t even bother to pull her weapon out. "Give me the sacred core, and we can each go our own way. Heck!" Suddenly exclaiming, the girl covered her face with her hand for a moment, before uttering. "We can even reward you with whatever you would like. From gold, through t.i.tles at women ending."
Despite the sweet promises behind her words, the girl"s tone only continued to grow colder with each of the sounds she made.
"I think I told you already. I need to bring this stone where it truly belongs." Shaking my shoulders, I pretended to disregard the topic. "As for what happens later with it, I don"t give a single f.u.c.k."
The quest was only about returning the core to where it belongs. If the other party was so keen on obtaining this stone, they surely should have enough patience to wait until I finish my d.a.m.ned quest!
"Then, why are you…" Before the girl could even finish, I stepped a single pace forward. "Why won"t I give it to you, since it"s where it truly belongs." After a short pause, I decided the atmosphere thickened sufficiently. "The problem is if it will turn out to be the wrong place, would you let me check the other possibilities?"
That was the main reason why I was against going with those winged people first. Given how little the human prince cared for the stone, the same would most likely be the case for those people in the north. On the other hand, going into the lands controlled by those winged people could end in an utter disaster!
"Ah, so that"s…. No, wait, do you mean to say that you don"t know where this core belongs?!" Stunned by the sudden enlightenment, the girl took a step back in shock. "You really just want to bring it to its original place?"
From the way in which the girl uttered those words, it was clear that she had great trouble believing it. But I wasn"t in a position to ridicule her behaviour. If I knew the potential importance of this sacred core, if I was of this world, then maybe I would react just the way this girl did.
The thing was, I wasn"t of that world nor did I know the true value of this core. What I cared for, was fulfilling the quest and saving this world for my own future use. In fact, before I could even finish the quest, I could hardly think about my real objective of scouring this world.
Which could be summed up with just two words. Getting stronger. Getting stronger to the point where Jeff Baskar could no longer turn the Boruta"s cult into Baskar"s cult!
"Well, I need to go on my way, so I will have to excuse myself. If you are so anxious about the fate of this stone, you can tag along. " Shrugging my shoulders, I added. "Right now, you guys have a simple choice. Either to be impatient and die trying to get this core out of my hands or just be patient for a few days. In fact, if someone comes with me, once I will check my other options, it would be a bit easier to check if you are actually right."
"Right about what?" Stepping right into my trap, the girl asked. "Right about where this core belongs. After all, there is just as high of a chance that the place you want to take it is actually the right once."
Shaking my shoulders once again, I took a step back. Now that the cat was out of the bag, the worst part of the entire meeting started. Because now, I had to somehow convince one of the winged people to follow me into the north of the land. And from what I could tell right now, this would be the exact opposite to where the other party came from!
"So you just want one of us to follow you, and once you find the place where you will decide this stone belong, or if you search through all the clues but find nothing, you will give the sacred core to us, right?" From the fact that despite how desperately she wanted the stone, she has yet to put a stop to this useless banter and give the order to attack, I could tell that the girl respected the means I have to defend myself.
And whether it was her grat.i.tude for sparing her life earlier or genuine curiosity in the nature of my quest, I decided to bank on this curiosity of this girl.
"Eh, give me a moment. But don"t move a step away from where you are!" Advising me in a stern voice, the girl jumped before flapping her wings. With just a single thrust, her body rose high into the air, joining the circle of the other winged people.
For a moment, I could breathe a sigh of relief. For a short moment, I could rest. Ever since I appeared in this world, I was right in the middle of a huge battlefield. Even though my body could keep going for far longer, the same couldn"t be said about my mental state.
There was a limit to how much violence and blood I could see or spill in a single day. Right now, I was already tired of all the fighting, so the perspective of hopefully avoiding yet another use of my disaster stones was more than enough to convince me into risking the kind of pa.s.sive att.i.tude I had.
Because even though the distance between the gathering of those winged people and my current position was great, the onslaught of the recurring barrier was still more than capable of swallowing them all. And no matter how powerful they were, against the rebound of their very own power, they would be just as powerless as anyone else.
Thump. After taking her sweet time high in the skies, the girl landed down. With her entire body slightly bending to soften the impact of the descend, she then quickly raised her head back to cast a sharp look on me.
"It"s decided. I will accompany you to the places you want to check. But you will only have two weeks before I will claim the core back. Do those terms satisfy you?" Stepping forward, the girl crossed her arms on top of her chest while watching every single twitch on my face.
"Two weeks… Well, that will force my hand a bit. What if you will be unable to keep up with my pace though?" Given how I didn"t even know how far the north the prince mentioned was, I could only a.s.sume the worst. And while travelling at insane speed was definitely within the scope of my abilities, I couldn"t tell whether this girl would be able to keep up with me.
"If I were to travel to the northern kingdoms, I could make the journey in just a week. So unless you will be the one lagging behind," sending me a happy look, the girl smiled with a slight irony. " you will have more than a week to check whatever you want out in the north!"