Chapter 37.

"What the fuck is he doing ?!", thought Enora. She saw Nick suddenly charging at the enemy line, grabbing one of them and using it as a shield to then proceed to an impressive mowing. Only ten to twenty seconds passed before it was over, and she watched him coming back beside her. What could have gone through his head to take such a huge risk only to get rid of five or six of them ? "Wait, six ?!".

As she counted, she realized that the enemy numbered to about ten monsters after this outburst of violence. And that included the archers on the sides and the two workers behind that had triggered the fight. Then said archers loosed a few arrows, two of them slowly inching towards the man a few meters away from her. Enora saw all of it, but could not do anything. She saw him tumble under the impact, and get back on his feet before positioning himself behind her to take a breather.

- You fucking moron !, she screamed before another assault hit her shield.

She thrust her spear yet again, with a different outcome this time : she not only missed the target, but said target also managed to grab it, and two others began hitting it with their bone weapons. Before she could do anything, a crisp wooden noise echoed in her ears, and the spear became way lighter. Seeing that what was left in her right hand was a meter long wooden pole, she dropped it and unsheathed her short sword for the very first time.

It did not come out easily, as she had not taken care of it at all, no oiling or polishing. But it would do the job just fine. "I hope so at least.", she thought while wielding the sharp lump of steel. Trying her best to defend against the many attacks, she used the last remnants of fire energy she had to stomp the ground again. Those ultimate flames burnt five of the monsters, and she did not wait for it to disperse before sprinting in and slashing the creatures. She used the temporary panic to get rid of as many of them as she could.

From the corner of her right eye, she could see a manly figure sinking a wood and iron hatchet into skulls, grunting at every move. Nick did not even try to remove the arrows from his back, choosing to defeat the monsters before anything else. An action that Enora not only respected but was grateful for. She had no confidence in taking on ten Grey Devils alone with the magic she had left. She was running low, after all. As they fought, two bursts of yellowy white light radiated for an instant between the two humans, instantly dispatching two Devils in a screaming pile of flesh, followed by the foul odour of dejections.

Turning her head around quickly, the tall warrior saw Rose barely able to stand up on trembling legs, with a raised hand and sweaty forehead. Her expression was quite pitiful, tearful eyes and wrinkled brows. Getting back to it, Enora did her best to fight and stay on the archer's line of sight, to avoid getting Rose more injured. At that point though the fight was over. Only the two archers were left, and they very much acknowledged that, trying to flee into two different directions. Enora used up the very last drop of basic energy she had to get to the left one and slash it into two bits. Turning her head, Nick was furiously hacking at the last monster, on the ground. He did not have magical energy left for a fight, so he just went with the brutal human strength, repeatedly hitting, turning the creature into a paste.

As the seconds passed, only disturbed by the ragged breaths of tired fighters, another sound echoed : a body heavily hitting the ground accompanied by a light cry. Enora turned around in time to see Nick kneeling next to Rose. He checked her injured thigh, making sure, as much as he could considering his limited knowledge, that it was not too severe. Then he asked her in a seriously panicked tone :

- What do I do Rose ? You've done this before ! What do I do ?

- You stop screaming at me first., said the girl while grimacing. Look, I'll say that now while I still think clearly : you've got to remove the arrow and quickly apply light magic. Also, press tightly on the wound, I don't want to bleed to death.

- But the light magic, how do I apply it ?, he continued in his panic.

- Just, you know exactly what my injury is AH !, she let a loud scream out. Keep the nature of the wound in mind and inject your energy in it. I'll try my best at using my own to help you.

Taking the information in, Nick began nodding and shaking at the same time, about to pull at the projectile. Enora kneeled too, and pushed his hands, ready to do it. He needed to focus on the magic, removing the arrow was the easy part, if there was really an easy part in this mess. When both were on the same page, they began.

Enora did not hesitate or tremble, extracting in a single smooth motion. Immediately Nick pressed his hands hard on the thigh, both those actions spilling an alarming quantity of scarlet liquid everywhere and resulting in the thrashing and shrieking of the patient. Not much could be done about that last part, and Enora made do with only watching as the man did his best to avoid a death among them.

Tens of seconds passed, with pain and blood as its tempo. After a while, the quantity of blood dripping diminished to a minimum, and the girl moved less and less. "Is she dying ? Fuck !", reacted the tanned woman. She grabbed the blond's head and gave her light slaps.

- Ouch …, she whispered. I'm not dead yet, the pain is just fading a bit. I'm tired.

- Well you don't sleep before us., answer Enora, containing her distress quite well. Come on, we're almost done … I think.

- Yeah, okay …

Nick was not stopping, his fingers completely red, just like the rest of his body really. The fight had obviously been extremely harsh on everybody. A minute passed before the man removed his hands and tried to clear the thigh to check the result of his work. There was still a two centimetres long barely cicatrized area visible. The smooth white skin was crossed by that swollen and dark red patch of scar tissue as if the injury had been there for more than a week but had not fully healed yet.