Chapter 3

"Your squad leader will be here soon! Just so you all know… he's one of those Dobutsu," A nurse announced, whispering the last sentence. Adonis glanced at Leopold who seemed to tense up at the mention of Dobutsu, the brunette looked away. He was starting to regret being born. Leopold may act nice but he doesn't seem to like Dobutsu all that much… That's dangerous. The commoner has to be careful how much he shows to Leopold. If they work together… his blood... 

"Well… I guess our squad leader is gonna be Sir. Zaerif-" Leopold was cut off by the door opening revealing a slim, muscular man with white hair. His sharp eyes quickly looked between every knight. He clasped his hands behind his back and glared at everyone.

"Not many of you are promising…" he mumbled, his voice was hushed and surprisingly soft. A shorter woman pushed him aside, making him trip.

"Come on losers!" she yelled, the man with white hair looked at her panicked.

"Rose! You're not the squad leader-" she cut him off.

"Let's get going before it gets dark," she announced, Adonis glanced between the two. Rose pulled the leader's hair making him lean down yelping.

"Don't listen to this deadbolt, I'm your battle strategist. So I'll be pairing you guys into groups of three or four," A woman stepped out from the crowd.

"Where exactly are we going?" she asked, Rose stopped messing with the squad's leader and turned to the crowd.

"We'll test you by going to the high magic regions. There will be tests along the way," Adonis shivered a little, he could feel some sort of toxicity in the air. He glanced around the room. All of the nurses have departed, Adonis felt his antenna twitch. Gasoline. His eyes widened. He looked at the squad captain, who paused and sniffed the air with a worried expression.

"Everyone, get down-" Adonis gasped as the air was forced out of his lungs, he fell hard to the ground. His vision burning and his head ringing. The air was hot and heavy. He sat there, paralyzed for a moment. He slowly came to his hazy mind and looked around. His hearing was still gone from the sudden blast, but he could see a few people crying through the thick smoke. He looked around frantically. Leopold was on the ground, the back of his head bleeding. Adonis crawled over to the noble and shook him, Leo's hand twitched and he tried his best to look up before passing out.

Adonis coughed as the air grew thick with smoke. He threw Leopold's arm over his shoulder. With every step, the air grew hotter and flames licked at the walls. The brunette started to cry as the smoke burned his eyes and lungs, if they don't get out soon they will suffocate. Adonis blinked tears away as Leopold felt a little lighter. He looked over to see the woman from before throwing the nobleman's arm over her shoulder. They both grunted and coughed, tripping over cracked concrete. The two knights push themselves to move faster, trying to get to the door before there's a pile of bodies blocking it.

Another blast pushed them to the floor, tangled together as rubble was thrown on top of them. Adonis gagged and gasped, the polluted air burning his throat. He pushed himself up, glancing down at his arms. Both of them were blistered and bloody. He quickly pushed himself away from the woman and Leopold, the woman wiped her bloodied face.

"Come on, we need to get the hell out of here," she coughed. Adonis gave her a pitiful look.

"I can't carry him," she scoffed at Adonis.

"Why not?! Cause you're a little beaten up? Get off your butt and help me get him out before this building collapses!" she scolded, her voice was cracked and horse from the smoke. Adonis ruffled his hair, making his little antenna stick out of his hair.

"If my blood gets in either of yours you'll get sick, and most likely die," he grumbled, she paused for a second.

"Then cover your injuries with something! Cause I can't drag him by myself," Adonis glanced around, some towels were laying in the ash and soot. He winced a little but grabbed them and wrapped them around his arms and hands.

"That should do for now," he hissed. The fabric scraping his burns mixed with the ash and dirt clinging to his skin created an unpleasant burning sensation. 

He grunted and tossed Leopold over his shoulder. The woman glanced over at him with a small smile.

"Let's get the hell out of here," he nodded, tripping through the rouble…

"... Sixteen… Seventeen. Only seventeen of us made it out," Rose mumbled. The squad leader ran a hand through his hair, now colored red and grey from ash and blood. Rose looked up, "Almost all of us are injured,"

"What the hell are we gonna do? Too many are injured, and we don't have the medical supplies for this… at this rate we won't even be able to train them," he pulled at his hair and paced stressfully, Rose growled and tugged on his tail. Slender and long, with black fur on its end.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?!" he scolded, she crossed her arms.

"Keep freaking out like that and they'll get even more worried. I know it's hard but you'll have to hide it. I know you're a new squad leader and all but that's no excuse," he let out a shaky breath and nodded.

"Yeah, yeah. I need to keep my cool…" he paused and thought for a moment, glancing over his squad members who were all splayed out in a field. Only a few members were able-bodied at the moment and they were already doing everything they could to keep their squad-mates alive, "We should see if there are any magic wielders here,"

"Do you really think we'll find a healer in the group?" he shook his head.

"No… but there's still a chance," Rose nodded.

"That seems better than pacing around like a psycho," he smiled a little.

"Let them rest a bit first, only those in urgent need of care need to be tended to," Rose said, the squad leader nodded in agreement.

"Thanks, Rose," she lightly punched his bandaged arm.

"Yeah! You better be thanking me, Dax. If I weren't here you would be crying on the floor like a big old baby!" she laughed, he gently rubbed his arm.

"I mean it," he said, his signature soft smile playing on his lips. Rose waved it off.

"Yeah- let's just try to find a healer!" she grumbled, Dax laughed a little as Rose marched off to interrogate the knights…

"Ow! Hey be careful, Yumiko!" Adonis growled as the woman, from earlier wrapped his arms with bandages. She rolled her eyes and tied the bandage off.

"Who knew someone with so many scars could be such a big baby when getting treatment," Adonis pulled his arm away.

"I never needed to get treatment," he mumbled.

"I'm pretty sure most of those scars are from fatal wounds. It's a miracle you still have your arms and legs," she glared at him, unamused.

"Yeah, Lev tells me that a lot. Always scolding me," he crossed his arms like he was annoyed, but the calm and kind look in his eyes said otherwise.

"Lev? That someone you live with?" Adonis nodded.

"Yeah, he's the reason I'm still alive," he smiled, reminiscing all the time's Lev would smack him for being reckless then hug him as an apology. 

"Is he a god or something? Cause there's no way you could survive that crap without him being a god," Adonis chuckled and shook his head.

"He's an elf that wields healing magic," Yumiko looked at him wide-eyed.

"Wait! So you're telling me. That you live with an elf that can heal?" he nodded, she ran a hand through her hair and flopped back onto the plush grass, "You should have brought him with you! Your little friend could have helped us out a little,"

"Even if I wanted to I wouldn't be able to," Yumiko sat up and leaned back on her hands.

"Why not?" Adonis smiled.

"He's blind… and Zero's sick," his eyes widened a little and he reached in his pocket. The glass had shattered. He gripped his hair and pulled it roughly, gritting his teeth in irritation.

"God…" his new companion leaned closer and gently touched his arm.

"Are you okay?" Adonis sighed, his hand flopping back to his side.

"I stole some medicine for Zero. But… it was destroyed during the explosion," 

"Well… I'll help you get some new medicine," she smiled brightly making Adonis chuckle, "What are their symptoms? How sick are they?"

"They had a high fever, and got chills… but I've been away for around two days now. It could have changed," she nodded.

"Well… maybe we should try and get some herbs and some berries? Cause I think I can make something that could help ward off the sickness," Adonis smiled gratefully.

"Thank you," she laughed a little.

"We can focus on that later…" she got up and crawled over to Leopold who was still passed out, "Right now we should focus on him,"

"Yeah," Adonis turned to face Leopold. He had a minor concussion and a few cuts on his arms, luckily the bleeding stopped after Yumiko found some sort of plant. 

"Hm… he looks like he's doing better. Looks like he's in a little less pain,"

"That's good, do you think he'll wake up soon?" she shrugged.

"Couldn't tell you. But, he's doing better. Should wake up before night at least," Yumiko gently brushed the noble's hair out of his face, he sighed a little and faced away from her. Dax jogged over to Adonis and Yumiko.

"Do any of you know how to use magic? Specifically healing magic?" Yumiko shook her head.

"All I can do is get some makeshift medicine," Yumiko shrugged.

"Do you think you could help out with the more severely injured?" Dax gave her a pleading look, she stood up with a sigh.

"Yeah I can do that," the taller man sighed with relief.

"Thank you," she turned to Adonis.

"Hollar at me when he wakes up 'kay?" Adonis waved her off, she rolled her eyes and walked off with Dax, already striking conversation. Adonis sighed and laid back on the grass, staring at the relatively clear sky. He sighed sadly then turned to face Leopold. There was a small cut on his eyebrow, one that Yumiko had missed. Adonis sat up and crawled over to Yumiko's makeshift medicine. He looked at the different plants and pastes and growled, not knowing what anything did. He sighed and grabbed this plant that had a clear gel on the inside of it, he remembers Yumiko put it on his burns and small cuts. She also used this weird blue paste to clean off the cuts. 

Adonis shook his head and grabbed a small jug of water that was sitting with the medicine. He carefully cleaned the cut then put a small amount of the gel over it. It most definitely wasn't the most professional but it would do. He groaned tiredly and laid back down, there was a dull ache in his muscles and his skin was starting to feel hot again. Adonis rested his head on his less injured arm and quickly dozed off… 

"... wake up you bum!" Adonis was snapped awake by Yumiko roughly shaking him, he groaned and sat up.

"Jeez, I'm up!" he grumbled, swatting her hands away.

"It's about time! We're heading out, get up," Yumiko put her hands on her hips and sat up.

"Wait… how long was I asleep?" she shrugged and tossed her bag over her shoulder.

"A while, I'm guessing. But come on, help this noble twink walk," Adonis glanced over at Leopold, who had his head in his hands. Adonis nodded.

"Yeah, I got him," he yawned and stretched, an audible crack came from his shoulders. He stood up and gently pulled Leopold up. The noble groaned and leaned against Adonis, the Dobutsu grunted a little.

"Come on Leopold, work with me here," he grumbled. Leopold looked at him and tried his best to stand up straighter, only to get even dizzier than before.

"Yep, not doing that again," Leo whispered, rubbing his face with a small groan. Adonis sighed and wrapped his arm around the noble's waist to help hold him up.

"Come on. We need to get going before Yumiko and the others leave us behind," Leopold just grunted in response. Adonis sighed and started to walk Leopold to the rest of the group.