Chapter Nine
A Knight’s Honor
Fire shot from my fingers to impact the pack leader which took that as a sign that the time to observe us was over. I also saw that Spark had almost no impact on its health bar.
And because I proved to be the first threat willing to act, it came straight at me to try and take me out of the picture first.
I waited until it lunged to jump back and wait.
Just as I knew she would, Rosie intercepted the hyena by bashing her shield into the side of its head as it passed her.
The hyena was probably used to fighting dungeon monsters with simple, predictable moves rather than coordinated adventurers. That was one point in our favor. Plus, it didn’t have its allies to back it up.
The problem was the difference in level.
While the hyena was stunned, I ran forward to slice it across its face with my sickle, but we still barely chipped its health after three attacks.
There was no way we were killing it with our current gear and abilities. Scaring it off, though, I believed was possible.
We already hurt it three times before it even got to hurt us once.
That was two points in our favor.
The hyena recovered from the stun just in time for Rosie to swing her mace from below straight up into its jaw.
Four attacks before it got one.
The streak ended there.
The hyena, with Rosie’s mace still beneath its jaw, thrust its body forward to try and bite Rosie’s neck.
Rosie dodged, but only enough to move the incoming injury from her neck to her left shoulder.
A pained cry was forced out of Rosie as the hyena sunk its fangs into her shoulder before shaking her around and tossing her aside.
Rosie’s health went from full to only 25% in a single attack while four of our attacks barely scratched the hyena.
It charged in to finish the job.
I barely reached it in time to hook my sickle around its back right leg, tripping it while cutting into its hide. And once it was on the ground, I pressed the torch against its fur and kept it there like I was trying to put out a cigarette on it.
“Hurry and heal!” I shouted.
Rosie was already on it since I saw her health bar fill back in just as I shouted that.
At the same time, what I was hoping for took effect. The torch lit the hyena on fire. The beast then turned to try and bite me, but I was able to just barely get out of the way of its fangs.
One attack would probably kill me.
Rosie was a tank. She had better armor and more health. I was a DPS who, up until this point, was insisting on saving my stat points and I didn’t even invest in proper armor yet because of my overconfidence.
Honestly, I was terrified.
I felt far more afraid than when I had my trauma triggered with the zombie.
So… why did I feel excited?
Why didn’t I want to run and hide?
The enemy in front of me could kill me with a single attack.
So, why was I smiling?
The hyena was still closer to Rosie, so it tried to attack her again, but she blocked it. It still did a third of her health even through her shield, but it being distracted by her meant I could go for it again.
I got in two more attacks before it spun around to snap at me again. It wasn’t satisfied with only one attack this time, either, and kept on pursuing me.
It tried to, at least.
“No… you don’t!” Rosie shouted.
The next thing I saw was the hyena getting lifted off the ground and swung into a nearby tree by its tail.
Just like before, it did almost no damage, but… I realized I was still not thinking strategically enough for it being a real world.
Rosie was a girl who did not look strong, but that was because of Seth’s aesthetic preferences when designing how people looked in this world. It had nothing to do with her true strength.
Canonically, Rosie was a very, very strong girl.
“Bash it and grapple it!” I shouted. “Hold it down!”
Rosie nodded and executed the plan.
The hyena stood up, but it got its head bashed in by her shield as soon as it was up on all fours again.
Rosie then put her shield and mace away, got behind the hyena, looped her arms beneath its front legs and placed her hands on the back of its head, and slammed it against the ground where it would have trouble getting back up.
I got to work cutting it with my sickle.
The hyena’s health was down to 80% by the time the stun wore off, and it began a desperate attempt to break free by thrashing around.
But it wasn’t enough. Rosie held on which stopped it from being able to properly attack. All it could do was kick its back legs at me to try and scratch me. It couldn’t even bend its neck enough to bite Rosie.
Its struggle to break free grew more desperate with every attack I landed. I made sure to poison it and burn it some more, too, to make its health drop even faster.
The hyena was at about 60% health remaining when it thrashed in just the right way to bang Rosie’s head into the ground, causing her to lose her grip.
I tried grabbing its attention by swinging at its neck, but I didn’t need to.
It ran off.
While cackling and looking around for its allies, our biggest threat yet ran away, leaving me able to immediately tend to Rosie by placing my hand under her head to cushion her. “Hey, we did it,” I said. “You alright? How do you feel?”
Even though her health was only a little damaged at that point, Rosie seemed pretty out of it. She did hit her head pretty hard. “I’m… fine,” she mumbled. “It… ran? We won?”
“Yeah, we did, thanks to you being a total badass and keeping it pinned down.”
“It was… your idea. I didn’t even think of trying to grapple it.”
“And it was your idea to throw those bones. If you hadn’t done that, we would have been outnumbered and would probably be hyena food right now. We won that together.”
“You always know the right things to say to make me swoon somehow.”
“I try. And you’re sounding better now.”
“The guy I like is praising me and saying nice things… of course I’m feeling better.”
“I like when you’re this honest.”
“It’s only because my head is fuzzy, so don’t get used to it.”
“In that case.” I lifted Rosie up a little, moved her bangs away, and placed my lips against her forehead for a gentle kiss. “Did that help the pain go away?”
Rosie was, predictably, pure red after that. “I—I don—don’t… I don’t think I’ve ever even seen my dad kiss my mom’s forehead… tha—that… no guy is that romantic…”
“Lucky girl, you’ve got yourself a guy who’ll kiss your forehead as much as you want, whenever you want.” Also, Frolin probably couldn’t reach his wife’s forehead even if he wanted to. Maybe if he used a ladder…
“I feel… way too hot. I must be hallucinating.”
I kissed her forehead again. “Still think you’re imagining it?”
“You—you don’t know what you’re signing up for! You really need to be careful around girls! If—if you keep doing this, then you’re going to get—”
I kissed her forehead one more time while leaving one hand resting against her cheek. “Get what, Rosie?” I whispered afterward. “I wonder what—”
The next thing I knew, I was pinned on the ground underneath Rosie with her lips pressed against my own.
I knew she was strong, but she just so effortlessly pinned me down in an instant that it shocked me even more than the kiss did.
“This—this is the kind of thing you’re asking for when you keep teasing girls,” Rosie told me, her lips hanging over mine now. “See? Us—us girls are dangerous and greedy, so—you—you have to be careful, because we can’t control ourselves if—”
I lifted my head up to interrupt her with a kiss. “I think I might like girls who are a little forceful. Besides, you think I’d be teasing you this much if I didn’t know what I was asking for? I’m not riling you up because I don’t want you to do anything, Rosie.”
“This—I—I don’t know how to handle this bratty side of yours.”
“Isn’t it obvious? You’re already pinning me down and forcing yourself onto me. I think you know exactly how to handle it.”
“We—we should leave.”
“So we can go somewhere private?”
“No! In case that monster comes back! We—”
“Hey!” shouted a woman I didn’t recognize. “Get off him!”
Rosie looked like she just died inside as she jumped off me. “It’s—it’s not what it looks like! It’s his fault! He was tempting me! He—he even admitted to it! He—”
That other party we saw earlier now stood beside us, those with melee weapons pointing them straight at Rosie.
I might have gotten her in a little bit of trouble. Oops.
“You’re blaming it on him?” one of the woman asked. “Do you really expect us to believe that? Have you no shame as a woman to push a man down and force yourself onto him?”
Rosie looked like she was about to panic, so I got up and raised my arms up in surrender.
“I’m the one who teased her too much,” I said.
Each of the women looked surprised when they heard that.
And despite them coming to my rescue, that didn’t stop them from checking me out once I was standing.
Then, to try and prove it was all me, I wrapped a hand around Rosie’s waist and pulled her close against my side.
“I just can’t get enough of teasing her with how cute she is. ”
“Is… she coercing you to say this? Is she blackmailing you? Or—”
“Hey, you’re not implying that my Rosie isn’t so cute that she doesn’t deserve to get teased, are you? Because I don’t think I can respect anyone who doesn’t acknowledge how great she is.”
The women of the other party stepped back, looking ashamed of themselves.
“S-sorry,” the girl who was clearly their healer in the back said. “We—we came over here after a couple of hyenas ran from this direction, so we thought something was weird and came to check. Then we saw you pinned down and… we—we only wanted to help.”
“I’m sure you had good intentions, but I’m not the one you need to apologize to.” I gave Rosie a little push forward to put her in front of them. “Apologize to her.”
The girls didn’t waste any time and bowed their heads to her before saying individual apologies.
“I—it’s fine!” Rosie said. “I—I understand! I would have thought the same if I was in your shoes! This guy is just a serious weirdo who causes misunderstandings!”