章節 88: Purpose
Next day before the sun rose, Allen and Edwin continued their travels.
Allen turned around to Edwin and saw the latter looking sleepy. He asked, "Did you just use all of your internal energy?"
"No, I didn't get to sleep.", Edwin said. He was yawning from time to time as they transversed through the forest.
Suddenly, he tripped to the ground because of an exposed tree root.
"Take a rest. We can travel the next day instead.", Allen approached Edwin and reached out his hand to help him up.
However, Edwin refused Allen's hand and said, "I can stand up by myself." He did stand up on his own and he started to yawn again.
Afterwards, they continued their journey; but not a long time passed when Edwin stepped in a hole. Allen reacted on time and pulled Edwin up before his legs even entered the hole.
"You are just dragging me down. Let's go to a clear space so you can sleep.", Allen said again.
"N-..."
"You can't refuse. If this keeps on for much longer, you can get killed by your lack of vigilance. Although you're that powerful already, you still need to sleep, even magicians at the level of Adept still take a rest during night.", Allen crossed his hands.
"I... okay, I'll sleep.", Edwin stopped being stubborn and agreed.
Later on; they found a spot where there weren't many plants that could damage the tents and rebuilt one there.
"What are you going to do?", Edwin asked.
"Obviously, I'll guard you.", Allen sat down under a tree and took out a book with a small symbol of a parasol tree under a book, both of which were made of pure gold.
On the other hand, Edwin lied down in the tent and thought, 'I must not sleep, I must not sleep...' With his repeating thoughts, he was still alert of his surroundings.
Suddenly, he abruptly sniffed the air and noticed that something smelled so relaxing and calming. A few seconds later, he was already snoring.
Allen closed the book he was reading and returned it in the satchel, then pulled out his curved sword and closed in on Edwin's tent.
When he was a few steps away from the tent, he turned his head around to a different direction, and rushed towards to where he was looking.
...
Edwin stretched his body and yawned. He slightly opened his eyes, but it became wider and he hastily sat up.
"I-I slept?", Edwin rubbed a side of his head. He searched around the tent and spotted some sort of burnt leaves. He sniffed the leaves and found out its scent was the last aroma he sensed before sleeping.
Without thinking any further, he concluded that it was Allen who owned and burnt them. He was an alchemist, it was not that farfetched for him to have some in stock.
"I'm still alive.", Edwin heaved a sigh of relief and exited the tent.
As soon as he exited the tent, a figure pounced on him, catching him off guard.
-pshew-
Another figure came from the other direction and slashed the first figure in half. The second figure was none other than Allen.
"Get your weapons!", Allen said to Edwin; the latter snapped out of his stupor and took out his twin daggers.
More figures charged towards them. If one would examine them, they looked like giant horned lizards.
A reptile vaulted towards Edwin. The boy retreated a step to avoid the large beast and launched a dagger flash.
-pshew-
The flash pierced the enemy's scales and created a deep wound, but the reptile didn't seem to feel the pain and opened up its large mouth in a bid to swallow Edwin.
However, rather than retreating, Edwin launched two Multi-Flash with both of his daggers and tore through the monster's mouth.
Bloody wounds appeared one after the other in its mouth, making it wail in pain, gurgling its own blood until it collapsed.
He wasn't given any time to rest when a few more reptiles started to swarm over him.
"There's too many!", Edwin tried to loosen the beasts, but every step he took to get away seemed to get him even closer to them.
"Get on a high ground and cover your nose.", Allen calmly replied after he killed two of those gigantic lizards.
Edwin nodded when he heard Allen. He slowly backed off and when the lizards pounced, he jumped up and used one of the beasts head to propel himself upward to a tree and climbed up.
Seeing Edwin began climbing up, Allen pulled out a herb from his storage bag. As soon as the herb was taken out, an exploding scent wafted out of it which immediately spread out in the area.
Every living being other than Allen and Edwin paused their movements and looked over at the herb. Then all of them rushed towards it like a tidal wave.
In addition to the reptiles, the plants, as if stimulated by the odor, started to grow like wildfire.
Allen placed the herb back inside the satchel; nevertheless, its scent still remained on the air and everything around him was still in chaos. Still, the reptiles kept charging in his direction, but he didn't wait for them; instead, Allen made the first initiative.
On top of a tree branch, Edwin spectated the battle below. Allen might be outnumbered right now, but more or less a minute later, he was the only one left standing.
On the ground were the numerous corpses of dead monsters and some ferocious animals that were also attracted by that scent. Allen didn't spare a second glance at them and approached a reptile on its dying breath.
He then stabbed his weapon to the beast's brain and twisted it.
Edwin jumped back down to the ground with one of his hands still covering his nose. When he landed, he noticed Allen glanced at him on the corner of his eyes.
-whoosh-
Allen blitz towards Edwin and slashed his weapon sidewards; the latter only got to process everything what was happening when the sword was already upon him.
Edwin hastily made a sharp dock. The weapon only hit the tree behind him and cleanly penetrated it without making any sound; however, as soon as that happened, Allen made a swift stabbed towards his abdomen.
The boy tried to take out both of his daggers from his storage bag to block it, but the stab was just too fast.
But the attack stopped at the last moment. The very tip of the weapon already pierced the clothes and his epidermis, letting out a few drops of blood.
"You're not out of control?", Allen asked.
It was only a few seconds later when Edwin stuttered in reply, "N-No."
That's when Allen withdrew his weapon and put it back in his satchel.
"Go eat a healing pill, the one that I gave you. I think you still have some stock of it, am I right?", Allen turned around and started walking away, but suddenly stopped when he heard Edwin mutter something under his breath.
"What did you say?", Allen turned around again and asked.
"Aren't those pills poisonous?", Edwin asked while avoiding eye contact with Allen.
"What poisonous? Do you think I will give you something deadly?", Allen stated, approaching him step by step.
"I mean, can't you just already say that you are going to kill me?", Edwin stated and he also retreated step by step. He forced out of his mouth each of his words in that sentence.
"Where did you get that notion? With the gap between our strength I can kill you without using a weapon. Why should I even do it secretly like poisoning you?", Allen retorted.
He added, "It's a waste to use it on you too."
After a pause, he further said, "And why would I kill you? Is there a reason for me to do that?"
"Umm.."
"See, you don't know any reason.", Allen pointed.
"What is that burnt herb that I found in my tent after I woke up?", Edwin asked.
Allen: "Oh, you mean that herb. I used it so I can force you to sleep. You were uncooperative earlier, so I thought that you won't even sleep. Let me guess, you are thinking I will kill you while you're taking a rest?"
"Yes!"
"To be honest, if you haven't slept, you would've become a burden to me if we battled these reptiles. Then you know what would've happened?", Allen asked.
"What?", Edwin asked slightly gazing at Allen; when he looked at his single eye, the former felt a chill travelling all over his body. He immediately looked away but the coldness still haven't disappeared.
Allen: "You would've died." He accelerated his , making Edwin a bit nervous; however, he only patted the latter's shoulder, "Eat a healing pill, so we can finally get out of here."
Edwin summed up of what's left of his courage, "I want to ask a question."
"What is it?", Allen went to the beat-up tent, it was almost destroyed after the monsters rampaged. He examined the damaged tent and added, "Looks like the tent's unusable. Let's just leave it here."
Edwin: "Why did we even enter the forest?"
"Come on, I think I have given enough time.", Allen notioned at Edwin to follow.
創作者的想法 
Celestially_Mortal
Celestially_Mortal These past few days (actually since January), I'm gradually losing the "writer' spark" (which I conveniently call for a writer's perseverance) to continue writing.
In my opinion, it's worse than writer's block. In fact, what I've been getting is the complete opposite; ideas keep pouring into my mind and I wasn't able to catch up. What I've written so far isn't even a fifth of how much plot in my head is. Coupled with the lost of spark, I got lazier.
More info in the comments.
-C_M
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