Chapter 57

I woke up groggy as hell feeling someone pulling off my armor. After opening my eyes, I saw it was Lili and Haruhime silently working together to pull open my dented chest plate from where Alfia left a prominent dent from where her heel dented and twisted the metal.

"Help me get my arms free and I can help you." I croaked as my throat was dry after fighting and however long I was unconscious due to exhaustion and partially suffering mind down.

Lili started undoing the buckles and straps holding my gauntlets and pauldrons together and by the time Haruhime returned with a wooden cup of water I was able to down it myself without any assistance while they worked together to free my last arm.

"Ok let's see the damage." I muttered drawing a light smile from Lili at seeing me basically unharmed except for my dislocated shoulder which seemed to be fixed during my sleep.

I started pulling off my dented chest plate and it took a solid ten to fifteen minutes to bend some metal out of the way and even break off a mangled buckle that got wrecked in the battle by a thrown rock or something if the pebbles falling out was any explanation.

Finally, I was able to breath freely with all my armor off me. "Thanks for the help, girls." I said relaxing back into my cot even if it wasn't all that comfortable without any pillows and basically laying on the equivalent of a copy of rough blanket still was better than trying to stand up with my head feeling stuffed with cotton balls because of the mind down.

"So, I heard you fought that Alfia person. Why?" Lili asked frowning.

"Eh she at that point was missing a hand and had several stab wounds. Even if she was still stronger than me, my flames kept her from being able to use her magic and allowed me to wait her out and let Bete kill her." The girls shared a look, and I could see Lili shrug at my strategy and was left without anything to complain about me fighting a half dead person even if Haruhime wished I didnt do so.

"And how was your girls battles with the Behemoths?" I questioned making Lili puff up with pride as she told me how she managed to pile up a number of the huge dog's corpses to make a little hill and snipe monsters from afar.

Haruhime on the other hand after my Overload Barrel spell hit her and she buffed Finn and Gareth to fight Alfia she was on the cusp of mind down herself, so she worked in the medic station taking care of the wounded as they came though most died instantly due to Alfia's magic or there antidotes simply weren't strong enough to even slightly offset the toxins from the Behemoth's and like I thought previously more than sixty percent of the adventures already died from our group with another ten percent expected to die from the behemoths toxins in the next couple days.

"Bell, Ryuu, and Aisha are ok right?" I questioned making them nod and explain how Bell was one of the leaders during the purge of the weaker behemoths and was already sent back to Orario with the other poisoned as even with his abnormal resistance he was huffing the breath and fumes of those monsters the whole battle. But thankfully he is going to recover fully within the next week or so after they purge his system.

Whereas the other two ladies fought the strongest Behemoth and after Alfia died, Riveria went over and nuked it with a high-power spell and solved it and got rid of any toxins within the girls.

"Any news as to the armies of Rakia and Telskryua?" I questioned but they shook their heads denying any knowledge.

'I guess with the loss of the scouts the info chain will probably be lost till they manage to send someone to Orario to setup a new one.' I thought and then with a grunt I sat up and staggered up to my feet.

"I should go check in with Loki's group and see what's happening." I told the girls and after sharing a tight hug with both of them I threw on a clean shirt and walked out of my tent and into the still wrecked camp site.

I powerwalked to the tent flying the insignia of the Loki Familia, which was a fitting jester/clown. "Hey, its Jake can I come in?" I called out in front of the tent hearing the mumbling within and got a affirmation from Finn saying yes.

Walking in I saw the executives from the Loki Familia all basically in terrible shape with them all sporting bad wounds and having at least one limb in a sling at minimum with Finn having both of his arms in tied to his chest to prevent him from moving and both the of the Amazon twins matched him, as they both tried to fight Alfia in hand to hand to very obvious results.

"Wow you all got fucked up didnt you..." I muttered making them sigh and as I took in all the people, I saw Gareth was missing and remembered his prior state and even with the most expensive elixir in the world, it couldn't regrow everything below your ribs before you bled out.

I threw a couple of my more powerful elixirs from my space ring. "This isn't charity as these were very expensive to make and I will need to be reimbursed with World Tree Branches and other stuff for these, Riveria." The princess twitched at how expensive my demand for them was but she none the less nodded and the most wounded of the Familia took the half dozen elixir's I handed off with Tione having to take two due to the bad stomach wound she took.

"Well thank you for the help, Jake but I assume you wanted news, correct?" Finn groaned as the higher quality elixir I gave to them worked on fixing his wounds.

I nodded as Anakitty the level four cat girl that ran with the second string of Loki's executives gave me a cup of tea as courtesy. "Well as is what is being discussed all through the camp, we lost all the scouts as Alfia seemed to be targeting them purposefully to make sure the Behemoths could reach us at the best time while she kept the higher-level adventurers busy with her." Finn's face was held in a tight grimace at the memory of fighting her and more importantly being mangled by the level eight.

He continued after taking his own drink. "So, we don't know what the current situation is with those countries' armies, but I am sure that despite the surety of losing some people they will win for certain."

"Why's that?" I questioned and he lightly smiled but it was tinged with snafued.

He lightly laughed and held his should painfully at the action but he still didnt lose his light smile as he explained. "Because we managed to entice the only other level seven in the world onto our side."

Oh yeah, the level seven captain of the Poseidon Familia who didnt go with the Zeus and Hera Familia like many of his compatriots to go fight the three great monsters and die.

"Makes sense I suppose, so will we be returning to Orario now?" I questioned and he nodded.

"Yes, the other Familia's are welcome to leave and return home, but we have to stay till a few contracted spirits from the elven forest's arrive to help clean up the taint left behind by the behemoths."

I nodded and after exchanging a few more pleasantries I soon left the tent as it was clear they needed time to do busywork and discuss their next moves and honestly, I just wanted to return back home to Orario, get my status updated, and sleep in my bed as being attacked in the middle of the night and passing out from exhaustion does not make a good night's sleep.