This Clueless Hero

The threat of death rapidly closed in on me. Leon's staff mercilessly came towards me. I faced forwards, but I could still feel Osric behind me, like some sort of intuition. My thoughts rapidly sped up.

The air began to feel heavy to me and every split second that passed made it feel several times heavier.

It was as though death himself had his scythe right at my throat.

Yet, the smile on my face grew wider, almost like the disdain couldn't be contained with me and spilled out there.

I pointed my wooden stake forwards.

The pressure on me became stronger.

My eyes widened while my pupils constricted.

Leon's staff was right in front of my face and I could intuitively tell Osric's teeth were right around my waist, almost like he was trying to give me a hug.

Then, I disappeared.

Upon reappearing, I felt a fairly strong pain in my hand. It was trembling ever so slightly.

Behind me was a clear thud. I turned around to see that Leon had fallen to his knees, using his hand to cover the left side of his chest and the staff to cover his back. Blood was spilling out from underneath. It was clear he suffered a pretty bad wound.

An expression of disbelief on Leon's face. As for Osric, he was still in the form of a wolf and looked to be at a loss. He just stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do.

A soft sigh escaped me.

"...Do you believe me now?"

Leon opened his mouth, but instead of words, he coughed up a mouthful of blood. After a few moments, he recovered and began speaking while blood fell down from his lips.

"Yes. My apologies for misinterpreting the situation."

A bitter smile formed on Leon's face.

"It appears my mentality of attack first, ask later has a few flaws."

He looked at me and forced out a few words after coughing up a bit more blood.

"That attack of yours is truly powerful. My body is one of the few qualities I am most confident in, yet you pierced through it easily. I am not sure if I am overconfident, or you are simply too strong."

I shrugged my shoulders.

"I guess it is pretty strong."

Though I said that, I was similarly surprised by the result of that engagement. After all, there were very few occasions where that sort of attack made me feel some sort of backlash.

I looked down at the stake and noticed it was different. It wasn't the most noticeable, but the tip was cut off. I brought the tip of the stake a little closer to myself.

The cut was really clean.

...No, that wasn't the right way to say it.

Even the cleanest cut wasn't perfect. What happened here looked more like the tip disappeared. Something along the lines of everything beyond a certain point was removed out of existence.

Leon laughed awkwardly

"Thank you for not going for my heart. That would've been very hard to heal."

A chuckle escaped me.

"Well, I was a bit angry, but I'm not that cruel."

Leon nodded.

"Regardless, I will need a small break with an injury like this. The two of you can continue without me."

Osric blinked a few times. After a few moments, white mist coalesced around him. Then, it parted to reveal he returned into his human form. Osric cleared his throat.

"So... are we all peaceful now?"

I tilted my head to the side.

"I guess."

Then, I turned to Leon.

"Hold on, I know a spell that can heal you. It should help."

Leon raised an eyebrow.

"Are you sure? There only exist a few healing spells that truly make a difference and tend to have stringent mana requirements. Not to mention they usually require physical materials as support."

I blinked a few times.

"Ah, it might not be the best then. But it's still worth a shot, right?"

After a moment, Leon nodded.

"Why not."

I walked out of the range of my crystal. As for Leon, he got up to his feet shakily and also walked out. From there, I rapidly gathered mana which eventually formed the healing spell.

Then, a very light blue mana shot out towards Leon.

Once it hit, a surprised expression formed on Leon's face. However, what he did next was even more shocking. Leon stopped covering his wounds. Instead, he dropped his staff and used both hands to peel away at the flesh that was regenerating.

It was clearly painful for him as Leon had a deep frown on his face the entire time, but resolutely continued on.

Osric's eyes widened considerably, helping me confirm that this wasn't something normal. Eventually, the effects of the healing spell wore off, but not much was able to heal since Leon tore off his flesh.

He nodded approvingly.

"That is a shockingly good healing spell."

Osric couldn't speak. As for me, I forced out the words after a bit of hesitation.

"Why... why did you do that? That is far more shocking than anything I've done."

Leon looked at me casually, like what he did was perfectly normal.

"The healing spell truly is effective, but it appears that the way it is created prioritizes immediate survival. If I let my flesh grow as the spell wanted, it would repair the surface of my injury, leaving a hole in my body. That would greatly hamper my breathing in the future, so I stopped it."

I blinked a few times.

"So... how do you fix it?"

Leon shrugged his shoulders.

"Over time, my body should be able to repair it along with my occasional assistance along the way. If I acquire any special consumables that can increase my vitality, I should be able to speed up that process."

I nodded.

"Oh."

Then, I turned to look at the crystal. By now, the stalk had grown another black fruit. I plucked it off and tossed it to Leon.

"Try that then."

Leon caught it and inspected it thoroughly. A bit of shock appeared on his face.

"This is quite high quality. Are you sure you wish to give this to me?"

I shrugged my shoulders.

"I can make many of them. It's fine."

Although it was very slow, a bud was forming on the end of the stalk, thus proving my point. Osric looked at the stalk intently, before averting his gaze, pretending he wasn't looking in the first place.

I noticed this, but didn't say anything.

Leon ate the black fruit.

His body immediately began to repair the wound. Occasionally, Leon would reach into his wound to either peel flesh away or move it into a different position. Though there was a nasty frown on his face, he remained silent the entire time.

Leon must've gone through many painful experiences to be able to do something like that without making a single sound.

...Maybe someday I would also reach that point.

Anyway, the wound on Leon's body gradually sealed up. In a matter of moments, he was good as new, other than the hole that formed on his white robe.

I tilted my head to the side.

"Regardless, could you go back to holding the bones? It won't be as easy because they are all bigger now and have armor."

Leon laughed awkwardly.

"Yeah. Sorry about that."

I shook my head.

"So long as you understand."

Osric similarly picked up the bones. It was a bit difficult for the two of them to get all of the bones, but they accomplished it nonetheless. During the process, Osric would sneak a glance at Leon, then at me.

Even after they picked up the bones, he continued to do so. My guess was Osric couldn't believe how casually we brushed off the conflict between us. After all, we both nearly killed each other.

But still, I understood Leon's character to a certain extent. He didn't seem to be one that held grudges, simply because it was too much work. As for me, I just didn't care enough.

And so, we continued down the path.

We were eventually greeted to a set of ten pedestals. On top of four of them were four skeletons with staffs in their hands. As for the others, they each had a small white bean on top.

The phylacteries.

I pointed towards the pedestals.

"If we destroy those small white rocks, it will destroy the skeletons. As for the four skeletons in the middle, they all have phylacteries inside the top of their staffs."

Leon raised an eyebrow.

"You even know this? How?"

I shrugged my shoulders.

"It's complicated and I don't want to waste the time needed to talk about it."

Leon nodded.

"Makes sense."

Beams of water, massive rocks, and bolts of lightning shot out towards us.

Osric turned to look at me.

"Will those get through your domain?"

I assumed he was talking about the ability, so I nodded. Sure enough, once those magical abilities got in range, they disappeared.

Osric hummed.

"Alright, I should be able to take care of this then."