Chapter 55: Tight Situation

It was a fireball. A high intensity fireball hurled towards her way in high speed.

This put Aria in a dangerous predicament. She was in the middle of attacking a monsters while defending from another one positioned on her left, which locked her body in place.

Aria clicked her tongue, instantly becoming annoyed at how things turned out. Could she not be given a single moment to rest in the slightest?

She dodged , dropping all of her previous movements in order to not sustain all of the fireball's output. She was hit by a slight corner, but it wasn't a serious injury.

What happened afterwards, however, was much more troublesome.

It was regarding Ha-young. Since her fireball missed and flew towards Aria's way instead, the enemy she was supposed to attack in the first place got to her because of her delay in casting speed, in addition to panic.

The skeletal undead monster wielded a blade. Ha-young was a mage, and her staff was not imbued with defense properties. Not to mention, she was rather weak physically.

So, she screamed right then and there.

One had to learn that screaming would do nothing but negative effects in a battle where several monsters were crowded in one place like this.

The monsters that were originally spaced out from Ha-young began noticing her vulnerable position and started marching towards her.

The battle formation they had maintained before was starting to fall apart, making Aria grit her teeth and become frustrated.

"Damn it!" Aria cursed.

She was occupied with her own enemies, and the others were the same case. Ha-young had nobody who could help instantly.

The monsters acted fast. Their movements were sporadic, and they had little to no formation. Thus, they got to Ha-young with ease and started attacking her.

Ha-young dodged the first one. Adrenaline rushed through her. The feeling of not wanting to die. It propelled her to execute moves that she would usually not possess.

However, the monsters that crowded around her were overwhelming. With Ha-young's limited movements, it was impossible to dodge them without obtaining a wound.

The next time Aria glanced over to the girl, Ha-young was stabbed. By the monster. An iron blade stuck in her abdomen.

She collapsed, shocked at what had just happened. At her injury.

Ha-young's face paled as tears streamed down her face. She crawled to get away from the monsters, but she was trembling too hard, which made it impossible for her to move fast.

After seeing Ha-young fall to the ground, Yan had a prominent frown. He had just parried a strike from his opponent, and he couldn't move freely to take care of Ha-young as well.

"Yan, stay at your position!" Aria instructed loudly.

If even Yan got distracted, then the battlefield would truly come to a mess. Yan needed to stay calm and not let his other thoughts influence him in this situation.

Aria, who had a team of three, had a better chance of successfully diverting the tasks without leaving any large imprints over the situation.

Tightening her lips, Aria wondered how a B-ranker could make this kind of mistake. Ha-young wasn't even a rookie. It made Aria frustrated at how lightly she was thinking of this situation if she had the leisure to avert her attention anywhere other than her opponents in a battle.

"Dianthe, Rallaka, break the current formation. Hold them off, no aggression," Aria commanded, a grim look cascading over her face.

She had to be the one to rescue Ha-young if she wanted to make it in time.

The two spirits agreed without contest. Aria then left to help the fiery girl who was now sprawled on the floor, hurting.

"Keep your consciousness awake. Don't let yourself pass out. I'm going to take you to Reina, but you have to hold on until you're treated," Aria held her body, propping her up to a better position.

"A healer.." Ha-young's lips trembled as the fear of dying elapsed over her. She then sobbed even more once she remembered that they hadn't brought a healer because the operation was a small scale one.

Ha-young's wound wasn't in a particularly vital spot, but one characteristic that had to be noted about monster wounds was that they would be quick to fester and worsen, unlike injuries from normal worldly matters.

Not to mention, the wound Ha-young received was from an undead creature, which had terrible effects for festering wounds and rotting flesh.

Aria had to act quick. She sighed.

"I will order my spirit to administer treatments on the wound, but you have to bear with the pain until we finish. Remember, don't faint," Aria used her sword to perform a powerful swing, which knocked the incoming monsters back.

Within that short time, she picked up Ha-young's body and fled to Reina's direction.

"Are you capable of healing?" Aria asked Reina, laying Ha-young's body down.

"Not so much," Reina shook her head left and right. Her eyes laid upon Ha-young's limping body. Her lips tightened as she felt like Ha-young's future would be put at risk.

It seemed like only Aria had a potential way to save the girl.

"...I will hurry," Aria told Ha-young, whose fingers were gripping tightly onto Aria's arms.

Ha-young bit her lips as she endured the scorching pain that overcame her from the wound. Painful moans and grunts.

The wound was a bit deeper than what could be considered safe, but it shouldn't be life threatening if it was provided proper preventative treatment.

In this case, Dianthe's powers would come in handy as she could clean the wounds and soothe it.

The problem was, how could the battle continue with the same flow with the absence of the water spirit?

"Yan, could you take over Ha-young's part alone?" Aria communicated with her other team member. "You don't have to try and kill them. Protect yourself. I will come to your aid as soon as I'm done with my share," Aria added.

Yan frowned for a second but nodded right after. As long as he wasn't as aggressive, he could manage for quite some time. Defending was always not his primary usage because of his low mobility with the weapon he wielded, but it shouldn't be too much of a problem with his current number of enemies.

Aria heaved a sigh of relief. Now, to her own battle.

She was on the verge of leveling up, so she considered the effects a power up would grant her. Although her share of enemies would be doubled, she should be able to last for the mean time.

Aria made a resolve.

"Dianthe, when you have the chance, go and treat Ha-young. Rallaka and me.. will try to hold on to them perfectly," Aria said.

Dianthe was a little hesitant, as her master's wellbeing was risked. She had no affiliation with Ha-young, but she wouldn't be able to do anything without Aria's existence. Naturally, she contemplated a lot.

"Do it," Aria assured the spirit, who was still invested in helping Aria. "Dianthe, this is an order, not a request," Aria hardened her tone, trying to convince the spirit.

Dianthe whimpered, disagreeing with Aria's ways but not having the courage to disobey her.

She swirled around Aria and helped push the surrounding monsters back with her water magic as a sign of affection and care.

The spirit was understandably worried because her master was tired from the previous fights. However, she too knew that Aria would have the chance to level up if she could take down a few more creatures.

Thus, the spirit chose to trust her master's orders.

"..Thank you," Aria conveyed her gratitude, seeing the monsters be thrown off because of Dianthe's attack. This allowed Aria a little more room and leniency before she had to go full power.

Aria went in and swept the distraught monsters, moving agilely on the wet lands and taking their heads off one by one.

A great point on low-leveled monsters was that they were usually not as bright as higher-leveled ones. Thus, Aria could successfully play her moves.

Evading, attacking, and parrying dangerous strikes all at one time. Aria's movements were careful as her goal was to take a few more creatures down before her level would rise.

And she did exactly that.

[Level C Skeleton Soldier <Mad>  successfully murdered.]

[Experience points increased by 3500.]

There, a barrage of notification instantly came upon Aria.

The monster gave her enough experience to step into the next level.

"Perfect," Aria grinned, feeling her energy be recharged.

She felt like it was a heavenly gift. The convenient situation. The level up would allow her to withstand sustaining the battle for longer even without Dianthe's assistance.

She peeked towards her water spirit's way and smiled. Ha-young was currently being treated, which would likely take a few minutes before the water spirit can come back to her assistance.

Wielding [Halvargg], Aria prepared herself for the oncoming barrage from two sides, since she would be taking care of Dianthe's chunk of work too.

"Come on, my experience banks!" Aria leapt at the air. Having regained her strength, she would go wild with these folks!