Chương 6: Facing Trauma

[Jaque POV]

A few minutes ago

'SH*t. Sh*t'

'Why goblins?! Why are there goblins early in the day, it's Noon for goodness' sake. They shouldn't be here!!'

I slash at the goblin to my right while ducking to avoid the incoming arrows shot by the archer goblins far from me. I've gotten so rusty! A few years back, I would've already killed all these goblins by now.

KE ke ke ke

'...stay.....here...safe...'

ke ke ke ke

I feel like I start hearing these goblins laughing in my mind as many memories I thought I lost started reappearing one after another.

"No!! Arius!!"

I look back to see Arius being slashed in the back by a goblin. I feel my heartbeat sound in my ears as time around me slows. More memories start raging through my mind like a tidal wave. The dark. The wet mud. The smell of blood in the air. I suddenly see two figures in front of me.

"Arcus, Tartian? What is going on?"

As if they didn't hear my question, the two figures simply smile and start fading away. As I tried to reach out to them. They uttered two words before disappearing completely.

"Stay safe."

All the memories start hitting again and again and again...

*Flashback*

6 months ago

"Hey, Jaque you goofball, snap out of it."

"Huh?"

"We just got our 4th star, just one more and will definitely become Steel-ranked adventurers. Right Tartian?"

"Of course, we're the great trio!"

"Yeah, sorry bout that. Let's go celebrate!"

Yeah, we just became 4-star Copper Adventurers, making us the best rookies in town. I going to celebrate tonight! I heard from Arcus that we're going to challenge ourselves with a 5-star Copper quest.

...

"Jaque, hurry up we gotta start thinking about this quest already!"

"Man it's still so early in the morning, I knew I shouldn't have tried the dark pudding. Yesterday, I felt like dying so many times."

"That's what you get man, I told you it wasn't worth it just to try and impress a girl. Haha!"

"Alright, enough of that you two. So, Arcus, what's this quest about? You've been keeping a secret for days now."

Hearing this, Arcus suddenly takes a seat to increase the suspense in the air.

"Well?"

"The quest is for us to kill one Terror Wolf that has wandered too far from the inner region of the forest."

"What Terror Wolf, are you crazy? Aren't they Steel-ranked monsters?"

Hearing the news, I jump and yell at Arcus. Tartian nodded his head alongside me.

"Come on guys, it's a 1-star Steel and the info here states that it's injured. It's going to be easy"

In the end, we decided to go along with him. We spent the rest of the day preparing for the quest tomorrow. Why do I suddenly have a bad feeling in my chest?

...

PSS

WOOoooo

With one last stab, the beast collapsed in front of us. Raising our weapons, we celebrated with a group hug.

"See, it wasn't that hard, a few broken bones and potions were all we need!"

"Arcus, don't let it get to your head. We got lucky, it was still a child."

"Yeah Arcus, Tartian's right! We also used all our potions. Those three 1-star amber potions cost us a fortune! Man, I wanted to send some back home to the orphanage."

"Haha, it's fine. With this big dog, we're going to be rich. You'll get your share to send home."

We start walking to the corpse, preparing to carry it back to town to sell. It had dark brown fur with tuffs of green with it. Who would've thought that it had the ability to poison users upon contact? Man, if we didn't have those amber potions that increase regeneration and detox, we wouldn't have made it.

"Look at this big doggo! Wow. You gotta wonder why it was all alon..."

WOOOOOO!

'"F*Ck!!"'

We turn around to see a fully grown Terror Wolf, emerging from deep within the forest. Its eyes gazed at us with pure concentrated wrath. Man, was this the reason for the bad feeling I got?

We quickly start running in the other direction. Running faster than at any other time in our lives.

"You gotta be kidding me! Arcus you f*cking jinks!"

"It's not my fault!"

"Stop yapping! Get on my back so we can get out of here!"

We quickly jump onto Tartian's back with me in front and Arcus behind me. As soon as we got on, Tartian quickly speed up and started zigzagging throughout the forest trying to get this big mama off our tails. For the next twenty minutes, there were so many close calls when the Terror Wolf almost caught up but each time, Tartian would make a tight turn to evade or Arcus would charge up one of his dark magic spells and hit the wolf directly in the face to stun it for a few seconds.

After another 5 minutes of this cat-and-mouse chase that none of us wanted to be a part of, we see what looks like the end of the forest ahead of us.

"Look, we're almost out of the forest!"

"Just a little bit more!"

Hump hump huff

With Tartian visibly pale and sweat dripping down his face, He grits his teeth and speeds up more.

SSSSSHHHHHHH

Breaking out of the forest, we are greeted by the sight of a cliff and a raging waterfall. With our momentum carrying us and having no path left to go, Tartian jumps off the cliff aiming for the water below.

A few seconds pass and with the feeling of being slammed into a brick wall, I black out.

...

Cold...Heavy...Pressure... Air... I need air... Breath...Breath..BREATH!

"GRAH, huff, ufff, uff ,haaa."

While choking and throwing a lot of water and probably my last meal too, I sit up, breathing and looking around my surroundings. I hear coughing and I turn my head to see Arcus and Tartian lying on the river bank with Arcus coughing and choking.

"Arcus! huff huff, Tartian!"

I try to get up but I feel a sharp pain in my left arm. I must have broken a bone in that fall. I struggle to get to my feet before quickly running over to my friends. Once I got in front of them, Arcus was already awake and fine. I come over to Tartian, he was all bloody and bruised.

"Tartian, get up don't die! Please! Please!"

I start shaking and pressing him in the chest to get him to move. The more I pushed on his chest, the more water came out of his mouth. Twitch. I saw him twitch. Yes, he's still alive! I keep pressing on his chest trying to get more water out and eventually...

Cough Cough!

"Tartian, you there! You're not dying today on my watch!"

"Cough! huff, grak. Yeah...huff... I'm here.."

"huff, huff. Sniff! I thought I *hick* lost you two! *hick*"

Bring us for a hug, I started bawling my eyes out. Arcus with his bloody face just gave me a grin while Tartian also had tears rolling down his face.

After many more minutes, we finally let go of each other and start assessing the damage. I broke my left arm and Arcus broke his right shoulder. Tartian had it the worse, he had broken his two front legs so he couldn't move. Seeing that it was getting late, we found my sword and Tartian's spear. Using his spear to hold himself up and Arcus and I held his torso up, we started to move down the river toward what seemed to be a settlement.

After half an hour of walking with around an hour left before reaching the settlement, we hear the sound of goblins to our right.

KE KEK KE KE KE

A group of 20 goblins, all armed with swords, all staring at us from across the river. They quickly started to cross the raging river not caring that a few got swept away by the current. Seeing this, we quickly get ready for combat with Arcus and me in front of Tartian who was in no shape for combat.

Holding my sword with one hand, I try to slash at the incoming goblins but I stagger as my body aches from my injuries and lack of energy. Thankfully, we still had enough in us to persevere with Arcus and I single-handedly taking care of all the goblins. With all my energy drained, I fall to my knees trying to catch my breath.

"Huff, huff, Man who would've thought that even goblins could give us a run for our money!"

"Arcus, Tartian?"

I look back to see my two friends breathing lightly on the ground, with increasingly pale and sweaty faces. With worry in my eyes, I quickly come up to them.

"What's wrong with you two?"

"huff...We've been poisoned...huff"

With their ragged breathing, they show me the scratches on their bodies from the Terror Wolf. Arcus has one on his arm and Tartian on his hind leg. Seeing their injuries, I break into a cold seat and think of everything that has happened.

'Why? Why did this all happen?'

KEKEKE

Despair creeps into my mind as I hear the sounds of more goblins approaching. Another group of them comes out of the forest. Their smiles suddenly looked one thousand times more wicked and scary.

"No, no, no. Why? Why? why?...."

With our whole group's strength crippled, we had no way to survive.

Arcus gives Tartian a look with his eyes and nods. Tartian suddenly holds himself up with his spear and walks over to me with unsteady steps.

pa pa pa pa pa

He comes in front of me with Arcus by his side.

'"Stay Safe, my friend."'

Hearing these words, I was suddenly thrown into the river and quickly getting pushed by the current.

"NOOOO! Tartiannnnn! ARcuuusss! NOOOOO!"

The last I saw them was them waving to me before beginning to engage in their final battle.