Tale Of A Berserk Healer

Ryth came to the edge of the buildings, and froze.

The plank was set up... but it should have long been kicked away by the guards.

He crept across it, jumping to the tree on the other side that was so close, and looked about the forest floor...

The mist wasn't thick enough to block out the sight of the forest floor, but it did make it blurry and hard to see...

There!

A trail of disturbed leaves of autumn!

(Someone else is coming out here?)

Ryth dropped down to the forest floor, unconsciously walking with more boldness and confidence than ever before.

He followed the trail, many hours of hunting with his father coming to mind when they'd lived in the interior of the kingdoms, where monsters were rare at best, and it was safe.

He knew how to follow, how to hide his tracks and move among the trees.

(I'm not an experienced hunter however... beyond the general "Yeah they should be about human size" I got now clue as to what this person's height or size is, much less if they even are a person? Though since it appears they came from town I've no doubt they are human or demi-human.)

He continued to follow, the light mist beginning to fade as his vision opened up beyond a limited distance.

He still couldn't see an individual however.

It wasn't quite noon as the morning sun lit up the forest around him, moss and stone underfoot.

Ryth stepped over moss and grass, avoiding sticks and crinkly dried leaves as he went.

Following the tracks he walked through the forest, keeping in mind how far he was getting from Maevair.

If he went too far, the chances of running into spiders got higher, and he'd prefer to have a higher chance of safety.

Though the spiders nest seemed to be in a direction away from the mountains that led to the demon lands, as if they set up intentionally in a direction humans wouldn't usually go.

Unless they just so happened to be a low level solo healer who didn't want to accidentally end up fighting a slime or some crap(slimes are SCARY man)!

The tracks weren't going that way at least.

'I haven't heard if the spiders have spread out more though...' Ryth silently weighed the risks as he continued following.

His mind acted as though it were making a choice, yet his body was still moving to find this person, as if knowing what he'd choose.

'Even if it is more dangerous, that just means this person is in even more danger. As a healer, I have a responsibility and an oath as an apothecary's apprentice to heal and save those I can.'

Eventually a small sound reached Ryth's ears.

"Ting!"

'Is that...?'

"Ting! Ting!"

'Yeah that's metal clashing!'

He began to pick up speed, not as focused on stealth since anything close enough to hear him probably already headed towards the noise.

Eventually the full sounds a battle could be heard, and he saw figures through the trees.

Finally Ryth got a clear view.

A woman, young, maybe a girl even younger than him?

She was thin, not tall or short just average, with a bow and quiver on her back with a straight shortsword in hand, fighting a tan-skinned humanoid with leather armor and a pigs snout.

'The actual f.u.c.k is an Orc doing here?'

Ryth's mind automatically started pulling what he had read about Orcs.

'Pale pink-brown skin means it's stage-1, stage-2's would have a bit of a blue hue around their major veins and arteries that would spread until the stage-3 orcs where the blue skin becomes green.'

So not too strong, but still what the heck was it doing here?

Orcs lives in plains, not the forest!

First the spiders, then diluted poison in the water, now an orc?

It was wielding a large cudgel, a log with a plate of iron hammered onto its head and wrapped around it with misshaped rivets bonding it to the wood as nails most likely.

Honestly with all that rust and gunk on it, it looked like a brutal weapon that would easily cause infection.

He kept swinging it in mighty blows which the girl would twist and dodge away from while sometimes using her blade to strike, but he was faster than her and kept pushing her back as he'd simply swing the club at her arm if she tried to hit him.

They pulled apart, a feral and drooling grin on his face as he could practically already taste that tender flesh...

And then a sharp rock nailed him in the eye.

The girl blinked, looking to the side to see a young man holding a dagger with his arm still outstretched.

'What good aim!' She internally exclaimed!

Ryth froze. 'Holy Ketair, that worked?'

Ruth squinted as he entered a ready stance, one hand empty with the other holding his good dagger, still wondering how he somehow accidentally nailed the orc in the eye.

However, to the girl, it looked like he had narrowed his eyes in a threatening gesture.

Clearly some misunderstandings had occurred in her evaluation of Ryth's class and abilities.

'With two fighters, we can take it!' She cheered mentally, a smile breaking out on her face.

The orc looked at Ryth, sniffing the air and sensing the threat.

The threat... was negligible.

It almost surprised the orc. The prey seemed to have a good purity of his source, but his actually energy, the amount of mana he had... was seriously pathetic!

The female prey could kick the male's a.s.s easily!

Was this really a prey that had attacked him?

Humans really are suicidal.

He took a few steps towards Ryth, lifting his club, quick and powerful as he prepared to strike!

Ryth inhaled through his nose, his pupils dilating as light exploded from his outstretched hand!

A blind orc swung and missed as Ryth dug the dagger tip into the orc's armpit, between the armor!

The resistance the orc's flesh gave made it feel like he had just tried to stab the dagger into a plank of wood!(It went in a bit but not a lot.)

The orc blinked away the blindness, adjusting faster than Ryth would have hoped.

'Shit, Orcs are Ocean-Type-!'

Ocean source beings living on land generally had great defense, as if to be flesh made to survive the depths of the abyssal oceans, and remarkable vision... and recovery of said vision from sources of light blinding it like a flash bang spell.

The orc turned, twisting the club in a mighty swing!

Ryth looked at it.

'Am I f.u.c.k.e.d?'

He could almost... see energy swirling around that club, like the wind was being dragged by the club's slight spin as it turned to come at him.

Flowing currents of translucent lines, all coming at him.

'Super f.u.c.k.e.d.'

His mind felt strangely numb. There was no questioning, no life flashing before his eyes, no denial.

He was f.u.c.k.e.d. It was as simple as that. It happened too fast to even think about whether he should resist or just let it happen.

Almost as if to mock his incoming death, a pang of hunger hit him from his stomach.

Hunger had haunted him his entire life, a curse of starvation devouring him from the inside out.

Such a simple thing, such a living thing, to be hungry.

Food, water, shelter.

Basic needs.

Survival.

'Survive.'

"BARRIER!"

A thin disk of golden light, so thin as to be nonexistent appeared... facing the wrong way, with the flat shielding surface facing away from Ryth and the Orc, leaving its edges to face them both.

What could that do? Did Ryth even have enough mana in him to block that attack with his barrier skill even if he uses all his mana? That's a full force blow with some magical effect attached from something equal to a level 8 or 9 at least, more than double his own measly level by a long shot.

The orc looked into the male prey's eyes for fear... and found a darkness and coldness to his eyes instead.

They did not claim dominance, strength, or even life.

Empty... yet.

Hungry.

A shine of light lit up within his pupils!

The sun, a light in the dark!

Life in the void, source of light, giver of heat and energy to the world and it's life.

Life within emptiness.

The orc's club hit the edge of the barrier, and with a near soundless "Shing~!" the head of the club simply flew away under its own momentum, while a much shortened shaft of the club missed entirely as it wasn't long enough to reach Ryth.

The orc stumbled at not only a sudden lost of weight, but no impact to release all this spinning momentum!

He twisted, yanked by his own arms, and fell towards the barrier now flying at him!

A thin, thinner than paper small golden light of the gift of all light and life.

It could not have struck more terror into the orc.

It could understand a powerful being blocking, killing it, tearing it apart. The prey somehow escapes and takes it down slowly maybe.

But right here and now, with no resistance and with absolutely no control on his part, his weapon was suddenly gone!

He twisted his head, dodging the circular blade of light, and more terror struck as it effortlessly cut the tip off his left tusk.

No hacking force or anything.

What kind of thing can cut you without you even feeling the force behind it?!

'Light... penetrates... all.'

He looked back to see the prey in the air, spinning to gather more force into his arm holding his dagger.

The arm flung out as his feet hit the ground again, all that force gathered into the dagger as it struck at the orc's head.

A wild strike of power like that couldn't be aimed by a low level healer. This wasn't some fairy tale, and Ryth was not a miracle worker or genius in combat who could perfectly hit the eye.

But he could do his best to hit an eye and pray to Ketair.

The knife roughly broke through the skin and flesh, slamming into the occipital bone around the eye, not lucky enough to get through the eye into the brain. But lucky enough to scr.a.p.e off the skull and into the eye socket, puncturing and slashing the eyeball and nerves behind it, but unable to reach the brain.

The rough impact of hitting that dense metal slammed into Ryth's arm, and as he jumped away the dagger was left in the orc's head, his hand limp at his side with a finger pointing the wrong way and his shoulder dislocated.

The orc looked at Ryth and screamed, a roar of pain and rage and fear all catching up at once.

The girl stared in shock at the results of a single exchange.

Not even 3 seconds had passed and both sides were disarmed and grievously injured!

If what she had before was a losing soar leading to her eventual death... this was a true battle of life and death!