Chapter 118: Temporary Alliance
Screw it, I’m not healing her anymore!
Angel stopped her Holy Light spell, and Molly winced.
The pain was intense; she wanted to roll on the ground.
“Still have the energy to talk…? Don’t move, it’ll be over soon.” Angel continued healing, the gentle, holy light warming Molly’s wounded abdomen.
The wound slowly closed.
Thanks to the bloodkin’s powerful regenerative abilities and Angel’s healing magic, Molly recovered some of the damage, pulling out the unsalvageable parts and discarding them…
A gruesome scene unfolded before Angel’s eyes.
“So disgusting… I’m going to vomit…”
“Don’t vomit on me!”
Molly quickly dodged, the half-digested intestines falling back into her stomach, her expression unchanged, only her eye twitching slightly, her pain tolerance remarkable.
“Alright, stitch me up.”
“I don’t have any needles and thread,” Angel said helplessly.
“Tsk… troublesome human.” Molly stared at Angel for a few seconds, then her expression softened, her voice less harsh. “Aren’t you looking for Lena? I’m your only hope, so stop hiding, we have to get out of this ridiculous forest together.”
“I’m not hiding.”
Angel’s expression was serious, her pale lips trembling; she had reached her limit.
“I’m almost out of magic power, I can’t help you anymore. If you had a needle and thread, I could stitch you up, but I really don’t have any magic left.”
Angel was helpless.
“Weak human!” Molly cursed, but her voice was weak from blood loss.
“If bloodkin are so powerful, then heal yourself, why ask for a human’s help?” Angel retorted, scanning their surroundings. The mist was thinner now, for some reason.
Suddenly, a loud crash echoed through the forest, startling a flock of ravens.
“What was that?” Molly looked up, clutching her stomach.
“I’m not sure…”
Angel’s voice trembled as she pointed.
The moon emerged from behind the clouds, its light quickly swallowed by a spreading darkness, even the stars disappearing…
“Dark Sky, it must be Lena!”
Only Lena could cause such a drastic change, so Angel was certain. She immediately wanted to go with Molly. “Can you walk with your injury?”
“Hmph, do you think bloodkin are weak?”
Molly’s resilience was remarkable, despite her serious injury.
“You seem to have something to say.”
“Yes, let’s talk as we walk.”
“Suits me.”
…
They carefully avoided the thorns. Molly’s Blood Magic was useless without blood, and having already lost so much, she had to conserve her strength…
“I was attacked by an ogre settlement,” Molly said casually, as if it were a trivial matter. “The chieftain captured me, he was huge, bigger than any ogre I’ve ever seen, and he could use magic.”
“An ogre using magic?!”
Angel was incredulous.
It was a well-known fact that less intelligent races couldn’t use complex magic, except for rare mutations. Most ogres only cared about food and reputation, they couldn’t even speak properly, let alone cast spells.
“I remember clearly, the chieftain used a giant club, like an elephant’s leg, to create a powerful shockwave, knocking me out of the sky.”
Molly hadn’t even had time to use [Revenge] before being surrounded by ogres.
“They wanted to eat me, tied me up and roasted me over a fire, but the flames were too strong, the ropes burned through, and I escaped.”
Molly showed Angel the burn marks on her wrists, covered in blisters and pus, a gruesome sight.
“Savage beasts! How despicable! I will never forget this humiliation, one day, I will destroy every ogre settlement!!”
She had the right to say such things.
Bloodkin held grudges, and they had all the time in the world for revenge.
“Let me see your wounds.” Angel, as a compassionate Priest, couldn’t bear to see others suffer.
Why hadn’t she noticed earlier? She could have healed Molly.
“It’s fine, finding Lena is more important.”
Molly waved her hand dismissively. She was also at her limit, her wings injured during the fall, needing help to escape the forest. She was in the same predicament as Angel, but also different…
“Let’s go.”
Angel gently took her hand, and Molly, unable to resist the pain, let her.
“Human, don’t think this changes anything.”
“You forgot your ‘I’.”
“Ugh… let’s try again!”
“Save your breath, what if the ogres find us?”
“Then we’ll fight to the death! Don’t underestimate me, even a dragon would fall before my magic!” Molly clenched her fists, her golden eyes flashing.
It seemed the ogre encounter had left a deep impression on her; the proud bloodkin was determined to have her revenge.
Angel: “Then save it for the ogres.”
“Of course.” Molly relaxed her fists. “I’ll make that lowly race disappear from this world, just you wait and see.”
“Yes, yes, yes…”
Angel agreed absentmindedly, her thoughts elsewhere.
An ogre settlement, miasma, Banshees in her dreams… all appearing in this remote forest, wasn’t it a bit… too strange?
After all, there were villages and towns outside the Imperial City, small cities along the main roads, with Adventurer’s Guilds and mercenary camps, more than enough to handle such threats, especially near the capital…
And the magic-wielding ogre chieftain Molly had mentioned, strong enough to knock her out of the sky and almost eat her.
This wasn’t the kind of challenge one would expect near a beginner’s area!
Was the difficulty too high?
She wasn’t sure.
It was best not to jump to conclusions before seeing Lena. Angel felt like she was becoming more and more like Lena, not just in her thinking, but also in her actions.
The closer she got to Lena, the more she was drawn to her.
She seemed… unable to live without Lena anymore.
“Hey, stop.” Molly pulled Angel back, hiding in the bushes, their gazes fixed on the scene before them.
“It’s an ogre patrol, seven of them, they’re hunting, their target is…” Molly’s voice trailed off.
A small deer girl with brown fur was surrounded by two ogres.
Her face was filled with terror, her spear trembling, seemingly trapped…
