Chapter 36 - Eileen

Rynold moved his way to the place where Skye and Jack were.

He scaled buildings, jumped through rooftops, and skid along railings as he made his way towards the radio tower building.

Along the way, he noticed that there wasn't much going on in the town itself. Just a couple of ghouls roaming around town. There weren't any survivors present, either, probably just hiding from the sight of these ghouls.

It didn't take long for Rynold to reach the top of the radio tower building. Truth be told, the second time around didn't prove any more difficult than that of the first. Most likely this was due to the fact that Rynold came up the side of the building, grappling his way up instead of going through the front entrance.

Thankful that the grapple could retract and pull his weight up the building, Rynold soon reached the place where Jack and Skye were.

The duo was looking over the railing with Jack primarily shooting through ghouls using the scope of his Poisonous Mana Rifle. Skye, on the other hand, was looking kind of bored.

Skye was the first to notice that Rynold had appeared from the side of the building, much to her surprise. "Rynold! You're back!" she called out and simultaneously calling Jack's attention.

There wasn't any time for pleasantries because last of what he heard of Oliver was that he was in trouble. Rynold quickly told Jack to check the status of his friend that was being pushed back before he had left to help his uncle.

"He seems fine," Jack said in a surprised tone, "he cleared the ghouls that were in his way and -"

"Alone?" Rynold didn't let Jack finish. He was shocked to find out that the guy managed to clear out the number of ghouls that were standing in his way all alone. What was even more surprising was that he managed to shift the tides from losing to a complete and utter victory in the few moments that Rynold helped his uncle out.

"Remind me to never get on that guy's bad side," Jack said, jokingly.

"Anyway," Rynold decided to keep moving forward, "set your radios to channel 4 so that we can actually talk and -"

"Hold up," Jack interrupted, "you mean to tell me that you left on your own and never thought about what channel we were supposed to use? What kind of stupid are you?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Rynold ignored Jack's question. "As I was saying, set your radios to channel 4 and, Skye," he pulled out the Wind Acolyte's Grimoire and tossed it to her. "Thank me later."

Skye checked the old book that she caught from Rynold, her eyes gleaming with anticipation. It was a book that looks specifically made for her, the chances of a tailored loot such as this one was beyond lucky,

Jack stood up, curious to find out what the book was that caused Skye to make such a wide-eyed expression. Rynold, on the other hand, continued to talk.

"I'm going to meet up with Oliver in the meantime and head to the town center with him. You guys can take care of yourselves, right?" Rynold asked the two that were distracted by the old book.

"Right...," Rynold didn't bother waiting for a response and jumped down once more at the opposite side of the building as he headed his way towards Oliver.

Despite the results of the battle, he knew what his buddy's capabilities were. It wasn't a simple battle that made it an overwhelming victory but rather a solemn and close win that forced Oliver to do something that was drastic. At least, that's what Rynold thought.

Meanwhile, Oliver was hurriedly making his way to where his wolf was. Strider was laying on the floor and looked injured.

As much as he wanted to help the poor wolf out, he doesn't really know what to do. There wasn't any sort of indication of how to heal the wolf's injuries. It was then evident to Oliver what his disadvantages were.

Although he had outstanding physical capabilities that would one-up any sort of opponent, what he gained in strength and power lacked in defenses and support. He couldn't heal anything or directly defend anything other than himself.

Oliver started to lament the fact that anybody he would occasionally bring into battle would only get themselves hurt since his methods were far too close to the enemy that would make people rather uncomfortable. Despite all that, he still knew that he was limited in what he could do alone.

Cradling the injured Strider, Oliver failed to notice that someone had appeared from behind.

"Umm... excuse me..."

It was the timid voice of a young child. Although common sense made it obvious for anyone that a child couldn't normally fend for themselves, Oliver instinctively sprung up and readied his daggers.

"Who are you?" he said in a threatening voice.

The stranger, who now looked like a young girl around 5 or 6 upon Oliver's closer inspection, mistakenly took Oliver's sudden defensive stance as an attack. She suddenly curled up on the ground, much to Oliver's surprise, and started to cry, saying, "please don't hurt me," as she continued wailing.

"I... I didn't mean to...," Oliver stuttered as he put his daggers away and slowly approached the crying child.

Suddenly from one of the rooftops, a voice called out, "I leave you for a few minutes and you managed to make a girl cry. Typical," he said in a mocking tone.

It was Rynold. He was slowly making his way to where Oliver was and, out of nowhere, a kid suddenly was crying which made him move even faster. When he arrived, he saw Oliver standing a distance away from the kid that was crying on the ground.

"You know I wouldn't do something like make a kid cry for no reason," Oliver said defensively.

It really wasn't his fault. To which Rynold responded, "yeah, yeah. I know," as he slowly approached the young girl.

"Hey, I'm Rynold," he said as calmly and as soothingly as he could. "What's your name?"

The young girl looked at Rynold and ever so slightly inched back. "E-Eileen...," she said in her shaking voice.

"Hi, Eileen," Rynold continued with a smile on his face, "did the big guy scare you? He didn't mean to do anything to hurt you. He's just a little bit more careful."

"That's right! I was just protecting myself from anything that might happen!" Oliver suddenly defended.

"See, nothing bad's going to happen now," Rynold calmly told the young girl, "how about I show you a little magic trick?"

Rynold stood up and put his hands behind his back. He didn't know how it would turn out since Oliver was the one who usually was great with kids while Rynold mostly terrified them because of his aloof and constantly swearing nature.

It was a simple trick that Rynold performed. So simple, in fact, that he didn't even use mana to perform the trick. He simply showed his hand from behind his back while constantly changing between Strength-form and Speed-form. It didn't manage to make the kid laugh but it did stop the kid from crying which, all in all, was a good thing.

Strength-form out, Rynold approached Eileen and motioned for a high five. The kid promptly gave Rynold one and soon played with the gauntlets after. Since he couldn't remove it, he was sitting on the ground and distracted Eileen with the ever-shifting "magic trick."

"What happened to you?" Rynold asked Oliver while playing with the young girl.

Oliver, although felt like he could take on the world, looked worse for wear. His clothes were dirty and had scrapes and wounds all over his body.

"Nothing much, but we should probably get Strider some help," Oliver pointed at the wolf that was injured.

Rynold looked at Strider and raised an eyebrow, "he seems fine to me."

The young wolf got himself back up and managed to look unharmed. Oliver was surprised at this revelation meaning that the wolf had some sort of regenerative abilities.

"He was hurt a minute ago," Oliver explained. Strider approached Oliver and licked his hand.

Oliver was glad that his wolf was okay but the thought of him healing himself at an exponential rate must've cost something that he doesn't know.

"Eileen," he sat down on the ground and lead Strider to the young girl, "this is Strider."

'If this doesn't work, nothing will,' Oliver thought to himself.

The young girl approached the wolf and raised her hand out. She was scared that the wolf might bite her but the wolf did nothing of the sort. Instead, Strider placed his nose to the young child's palm.

Eileen smiled and laughed for the first time since they've met her, her face brimming with happiness at how cute the young wolf looked, even though Strider was comparatively more massive than Eileen is.