A Visit To The Past

Arora was almost sure she had died. Her health bar had been on the verge of emptiness and her injuries were very severe. To make matters worse, she recalled that the field boss had been ready to bite her in half.

However, by some miracle, she was now in the arms of Shade with her health bar back at maximum capacity. A sour taste also lined her mouth and even her injuries had been healed. On the other hand, Shade's face was still extremely pale and he ran as if he was out of breath. Soon after, he collapsed to his knees, painfully dropping Arora to the ground in the process.

"Shade!" She shouted as she scurried to her feet. "Why were you carrying me?! How did we even escape..?"

Shade then took a moment to catch his breath before responding. It was evident that he was still suffering from poisoning.

"I managed to regain consciousness just before the field boss got to you... Thankfully, I had purchased a few smoke bombs which I used just now to escape... I also gave you a healing potion to stop you from dying..."

"So that means the field boss is still out there..?"

"It is... I hate to admit it but there's no way that I can fight that thing with how I am right now..."

Shade then paused as his face wrinkled with distress. His teeth were clamped shut and sweat dripped from his face like raindrops. Arora noticed that he was unmistakably stricken with pain.

"Shade, please save your breath!"

"I'll be fine... A little talking won't kill me... But just now in that fight, you proved that I can rely on you... Right now, what I need you to do is find us a safe place where we can rest for a while..."

Arora's face brightened. Shade had acknowledged the tremendous effort she had made to fight the field boss. Now, he was even relying on her to find them a safe place to stay. This made Arora extremely happy.

"Okay, I will!"

In truth, though it had been a few days since Arora had discovered her Class Ability, she had never once used it to its full capability. Since her Class Ability was that of the Assassin, one of her perks was to easily scout an area to determine how safe it was.

Utilizing this aspect of her ability, she quickly found a small entrance that led inside an empty cave. A few minutes later, she set up a small camp inside using pieces of equipment she had bought back in the town of Aíma Malliá. Finally, she placed a small sleeping bag so that Shade could rest.

"Shade, you should get some rest. It's nighttime now..." She said softly.

"I need an antidote, Arora... I don't have a lot of time."

Arora then took a shaky breath. She was at a loss at what to do. Everything seemed so hopeless. Tristan and Celia were still missing and Shade was on his death bed.

"Did you hear anything about an antidote from the guys that kidnapped you..?" Continued Shade.

"Sadly, no... The only time they mentioned anything about the poison was when they were going over their plan on how they were going to kill you... They never once mentioned anything about an antidote."

Shade's situation was quite dire and Arora knew it. Not only did they not have the antidote but they didn't even know what kind of antidote was needed to cure the poisoning, to begin with.

"Give me a moment..." She muttered.

Arora then picked herself up with a heavy heart as she walked towards the cave exit. She was at a loss at what to do. She was desperate and was willing to do anything she could to get things back to normal.

With a feeling of apprehension slowly creeping up on her, Arora opened her friend's list before trying to contact Celia. She highly doubted that she would receive an answer due to not being able to contact her over the past few hours but it was still worth a try. However, to Arora's surprise, the call immediately connected with Celia.

"Celia!!" She exclaimed with a hint of relief. "Oh my gosh! We've been trying to get in contact with you all day!"

"Oh, hey, Arora..." Replied Celia with a noticeably depressing voice.

"What happened to you guys?! We seriously need your help!"

"Hey, can it wait till morning..? I'm not really in the mood to talk right now..."

Arora then went quiet for a short moment. She could easily tell that something was wrong. However, there was no way that she could wait until Celia was in the mood to talk.

"No, I need you to start working on it now!"

"Wow... What happened to you..? You're not usually this outspoken..."

"Please, just listen to me! Shade's going to die in less than 48 hours if we don't do something!"

"Huh..? What happened to him?"

"Long story short; we were attacked by these players who had a special kind of poison. In the end, Shade managed to defeat them but not before he was wounded by a poisoned blade. Regular potions won't work and according to those players, he'll die in 48 hours! I don't know what I'm supposed to do, Celia..."

Celia then suddenly went quiet as if she had noticed something. This slightly confused Arora who was now starting to believe that Celia simply didn't care.

"Celia..?"

"Arora, where are you right now?"

"Shade and I are hiding out in a small cave... I can't say for sure where exactly we are but we're surrounded by a lot of trees."

"Okay, that's good enough. We'll get you Shade's antidote by morning. You can rest easy for now."

Before Arora could ask any further questions, the call disconnected. She didn't understand what Celia was planning to do but she had no other choice but to hope that she knew what she was doing.

A second later, she moved back over to Shade before lighting a small campfire nearby. Shade was still not feeling well but due to laying down, he was now able to speak without losing consciousness.

"Hey... now that I think about it, you still haven't answered that one question..." He suddenly asked.

"What question..?"

"What made you follow the old man to the arcade that night?"

A dim smile then crossed Arora's lips as she settled herself beside him.

"I needed money..."

"Money..? I don't want to sound too dismissive but getting money from some old guy you've never met sounds a little dumb."

"You don't want to sound too dismissive? That's so not like you. Is the poison affecting your personality or something?" Laughed Arora. "Well, to go a little deeper, I live in an orphanage with my little brother..."

"An orphanage?"

"Yeah... Our parents died a few years ago. Ever since then, we've lived in an orphanage to survive. But I hate it there so much! My brother and I are teased by other kids when we go to school about being parentless... It's so painful and I hated seeing my brother cry over it... So I was planning on running away with him one of these days. But as you know, we need money to survive if we're to do that."

Shade watched the subtle smile present on Arora's face for a moment before responding. Normally, he didn't take interest in the personal lives of others. But for some reason, he found himself wanting to know more about Arora. Was it because of how similar their lives were?

"Did you have a plan on how you were going to get the money you needed?"

"Yeah... I worked a few part-time jobs while going to school. But I was barely making enough to even scratch the overall amount that we needed. So I was desperate. When that old guy gave me the offer, I couldn't help but take the risk."

"Well, that makes sense. I guess you aren't too dumb after all..."

"You guess?" She chuckled.

"Aren't you worried about your little brother though?"

"I am actually... I disappeared on him after I promised that I wouldn't do the same as our older brother did to us. He must feel as if I betrayed him..."

"You have an older brother..?"

"I do... His name is Arthur. He's four years older than I am. He was supposed to take care of us after our parents died but then he just disappeared without a word... To this day, I don't know why he left us or where he even went... I guess he just didn't want to deal with two annoying siblings... I mean, I've been completely useless for most of my life anyway so I don't blame him..."

Shade then lost himself in thought as he compared Arora's life story to his own. He had failed to realize it until now but they had quite a lot in common.

"Do you still believe that you're useless?"

Arora then met Shade's eyes with a shocked expression. She hadn't expected him to ask her such a question.

"Sometimes, I still do... I can be a clutz and I mess up a lot of things. It's almost as if I'm cursed..."

"Well, one thing's for sure, you're certainly an idiot."

Arora then bit her tongue. She now had the perfect chance to ask Shade the question she had wanted to ask him for so long.

"...Do you think that I'm useless too, Shade..?"

"It doesn't matter what I think. I don't think that usefulness is that simply defined."

"What do you mean?"

"According to you, you've been useless for most of your life. I'm sure you have a good reason to say that. However, when I just met you, you helped me to kill a monster. That could be considered being useful. On top of that, there was the game we had to play back on Stage 1. Initially, you did nothing to contribute to our victory but you just being on our team was the reason we won. Would you consider that being useless?"

Arora's eyes widened as she realized what Shade was trying to say. She sometimes did not contribute much but she always became very useful in key moments. Another example was when she had fought the field boss earlier. Though she had been captured, she was the main reason why they were currently even alive. Arora had once again gained insight due to Shade's words. Little did she know just how similar they were.