Chapter 56: The Bodyguard

In these corridors dyed by blood and littered with corpses, there were sounds of hurried footsteps, along with those sounds came the incoherent rambles of a child.

Red Deer Rhos carried the chained girl against his side with one arm. Since regaining consciousness, she had done nothing but struggle, twist, kick and shout at the top of her lungs.

This was an issue of course because it defeated the purpose of his quiet escape.

"Na! Nraaa! Kha-ra... nnnah!"

While focusing on the path ahead of him, he took a small peek at the girl trying to bite his arm. He was surprised that she could... talk?

On the surface, one might assume the noises she was making were just random gibberish. But he could tell that there was rhythm to them, changes in tone and repeated sounds that seemed to follow some sort of structure.

She wasn’t just screaming, she was... communicating.

The problem was that Rhos didn’t understand a single word.

Well, he didn’t know many languages to begin with. As far as he knew, there had only ever been one language spoken throughout the Biome. So there had never been much reason for him to learn another.

But this girl clearly possessed a language of her own, and realization only made the mystery surrounding her origin even more curious.

’What exactly are you?’

Jack Ripley had called her a Wrath repeatedly and he couldn’t understand why.

Wrath were monsters born from corrupted humans, creatures driven by instinct and hunger. The first Wrath Rhos encountered nearly killed him. It was violent, monstrous and utterly incapable of the kind of behavior this little girl displayed.

Neth had called her his Spirit. Whatever that meant.

The tiny primordial creature told him was that she needed a name

"A name..."

He frowned.

’Name, name, name, name...’

Those words repeated internally as he ran through the corridors. After repeating it a couple more times something started to click.

Maybe everything would fall in place once he gave her a name.

But what name?

He could simply pick something random, but that felt wrong. Names weren’t meaningless sounds. They were identities a person carried for the rest of their lives. His own name had been given to him by his parents, and although he had never thought deeply about it before, he now understood why Neth had emphasised that he needed to choose carefully.

Like he was giving a name to his own offspring.

So, he must be careful. Especially when he didn’t understand what effect naming this Spirit would have.

"Why couldn’t you have been summoned with a name already? That would’ve saved me a lot of trouble. How do parents do this anyway?"

The response he got from the chained girl was another string of incomprehensible sounds that made him sigh.

Once he rounded another corner, his amber eyes sparked. He saw stairs. The same stairs he and Ripley had used when entering the underground facility.

’Finally!’

The exit was just on the other side of those stairs.This brought a smile to his lips.

After everything he could finally leave.

"I’m getting the fuck out of here!"

He tautened his hold around the girl and dashed towards freedom. He could already imagine the fresh air aboveground. He could put some distance between himself and this ridiculous situation, most importantly those crazy psychos.

Things were going well.

"Darling, wait for me~!"

"Give me the girl, you red haired bastard!"

Rhos’s face fell.

’Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!’

Two figures came flying down from behind him.

Ripley threw herself at him while flashing her knives, her coat trailing behind her. Rune was a tad bit behind her, charging with his raised fist.

Rhos quickly spun on his heel and turned to face them. Using the momentum of his sprint, he pushed himself backward to avoid both of their assaults.

He landed several meters away and cursed under his breath. They lunged at him again without stopping.

’Damn it all’

He should have known.

There was no way he was getting out while those two were still chasing him. If he tried to run, they would follow.

Which meant he had to deal with them now.

However, his body protested.

He had been fighting, running, dodging, carrying the girl and dealing with one crisis after another for far too long. Fatigue had finally started creeping into his muscles.

He had no choice but to amp himself up with spiritual energy now. It began to flow through his body, reinforcing his muscles, sharpening his senses and pushing back against the exhaustion that began to settle into limbs.

As great as that felt, it didn’t ease his situation.

Fighting with one arm and both legs while protecting another person was incredibly difficult.

Fortunately, his opponents weren’t exactly in perfect condition either.

Ripley’s face was a mess. It was covered with various blood stained bruises and her left eye had swollen so badly that it was almost completely shut.

Despite her injuries, her movements were still fast, but Rhos could tell she had become slower from her usual.

Rune looked considerably better, but his clothes had become even more tattered than before, which led Rhos to conclude he fought against Ripley before they both started to chase him down.

She must have realized she couldn’t kill him and got bored.

Even though Rune wasn’t showing much physical exhaustion, his lack of proper technique made him considerably easier to handle than Ripley. Like before, his attacks were still straightforward punches and kicks.

Ripley was the dangerous one here.

Her Otherworldly Treasure –Saucy Jacky– was what made her an issue in this fight. Every time he received a shallow cut from one of those knives, he felt his spiritual energy being syphoned off.

This was why he paid special attention to her when they all clashed at the same time. The three of them were no longer fighting with any clear sides.

Ripley attacked Rhos. Rhos attacked Rune. Rune attacked Ripley. Ripley attacked Rune. Rune attacked Rhos. And Rhos attacked Ripley.

There was no longer any clear division between enemies.

The corridor exploded into chaos as Rhos defended against both while trying to keep the girl away from Ripley’s blades.

Protecting her wasn’t easy. The cramped space made it even more difficult to maneuver efficiently.

It only took a single moment of weakness to loosen his grip, causing the chained girl to slip from his arm.

Her small body dropped onto the stone floor and rolled several meters away from him.

"Damn it!"

The girl had been awake throughout the entire fight and was able to keep up with most of what was happening.

To her, the situation was simple.

The red haired human was protecting her.

The black haired human was trying to take her.

The scary female human was trying to kill her.

She didn’t understand their words nor why they were fighting. She only understood what her eyes showed her.

Right now, her eyes were showing the frightening female human standing directly in front of her. Her working pale blue eye was wide with fury as she thrusted her knife.

Fear flooded her expression. Chained up, she couldn’t defend herself. She could only watch the blade descend toward her.

There was nowhere to run!

"...!!"

Her mouth opened when she saw something move between them. The red haired figure had his back turned to her

He had abandoned his own opening and moved without hesitation. And the price he paid for that....

Was a blade to his chest, right where his heart is.