Seeing that Titus cleared the path, Arvell bolted as fast as he could.
The place where they were right now was nothing short of dangerous.
They needed to get out as soon as possible.
Staying any longer would be directly risking their lives.
[Time Manipulation]
Arvell used a burst of Aether to speed himself up and escape from the burning cluster of trees.
"It looks like the forest fire spreading to the surroundings." Arvell noted out loud, "We should go a little further away."
Titus nodded his head in understanding.
"Makes sense."
After finally escaping, Arvell ran for another 2 minutes before stopping next to a tree.
He gently laid the girl down and began to look further into her condition.
Arvell needed to know if the girl got knocked out due to a lack of oxygen, inhaling too many poisonous fumes, or any other serious injuries.
He needed to be completely sure that the girl was stable, and wouldn't die left alone.
Arvell ran his hand across her scalp to feel for any bumps or bruises, making sure to check for any liquids spilling from her head, namely blood.
Being so engrossed with his task, he didn't realize just how close he was to the girl.
That is… until her eyes fluttered open.
Seeing a face appear right in front of her, one that was far too close, the girl screamed in a panic.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" Arvell asked with a smile.
"KYAAAAAAAAAH!!!"
She pushed Arvell away and crawled away at lightning speed as if desperately trying to escape Arvell.
Arvell's smile froze and threatened to break.
'BWAHAHAHA!' The sound of Lykos's laughter erupted in Arvell's mind.
His ethereal manifestation quite literally rolled on the ground with laughter.
'She took just one look at yo- PFFT! She took only one look at you and screamed in fear! HAHAHA, She-she even crawled as fast as she could to run away from you! Mr. Forever Alone!'
At this point, Arvell felt a blood vessel pop on his forehead.
'Lykos I swear to god, I will exercise you if you so much as breath another word!'
At this point, Arvell was sincerely wishing he could trade up the powers of Aether and Nether manipulation for a power to beat up Lykos.
Arvell swore to himself that the instant he managed to get back to the Silvercolt estate, he'd look into how to perform exorcisms.
It was time that the old ghost to finally move on.
'H-Hey Arvell, those are some scary thoughts you're having right now…'
If Lykos could sweat, he'd be sweating buckets after hearing Arvell's thoughts.
At this point, even Lykos felt he went a little too far.
'Hey look, she's probably just terrified of boys right now. You do remember what happened only a short while ago right?'
Arvell exhaled in an attempt to calm himself down.
'You make a valid point, she's probably just nervous.'
Arvell looked at the girl who was still desperately trying to crawl away from him.
"You don't need to worry, I'm not going to hurt you."
"How am I supposed to know that you aren't trying to get me to let down my guard? Before you have your way with me?" Without even turning around, the girl yelled back.
Arvell sighed.
"If I was that low of a human, I would have just laid my hands on you while you were sleeping."
"Isn't that what you were trying to do? You were touching me while trying to kiss me weren't you?"
"Huh? Touch you? Kiss you?"
Arvell tilted his head in confusion.
'She probably misunderstood your intentions when you were checking her condition.' Lykos noted.
Arvell turned with a shocked look on his face.
'Wasn't it obvious that I was just checking her condition?'
Lykos shook his head.
'From a first-person standpoint, it would have looked completely different.'
'Great, so I have to clear up a misunderstanding now before I get labelled as a sex offender.'
Arvell walked towards the scurrying girl, which prompted her to try to get up to her legs to run away.
Sadly her legs felt like jello.
The girl couldn't rise to her feet at all, leaving crawling away being her only option to escape from Arvell.
It wasn't long before Arvell managed to overtake her and stop before her.
"Sigh… Look. I don't have any intention of doing anything to you. We only came when we heard your scream echo through the forest. That along with the plume of smoke were red flags."
"Fire smoke?"
The girl asked without looking up at Arvell.
"We found you in the middle of a burning forest fire."
"Forest fire?"
Arvell raised his left eyebrow in confusion.
"You don't know?"
"I-I everything seems so fuzzy… Why was I there again? The last thing I remember was hearing the sound of something rubbing against the floor…"
The girl's eyes widened in a panic.
"That thing! I remember now! That thing came for me so I tried to use fire magic to fend it off! But I wasn't able to hit it, it was too fast! I-I ended up hitting the nearby trees, which caught fire and spread the fire to the surroundings… I remember suddenly feeling weak, and the next thing I know I was here…"
The instant the girl finished her sentence, the realization dawned on her.
"I-I'm so sorry! You saved my life and I treated you in such a way! How can I ever repay y-"
The girl raised her head and looked at Arvell.
However, the rest of her sentence got stuck in her throat as she stared at Arvell.
"Handsome…" The girl quietly murmured to herself, but with Arvell's sensitive hearing, he was able to hear it clearly.
'Hah! She didn't run away after seeing my face!' Arvell beamed inwardly.
While he knew that the girl probably ran away due to her earlier experience like Lykos proposed, he was still somewhat self-conscious after that.
However, the girl's reaction toward Arvell's charm managed to let him regain his pride as a man.
Seeing Arvell's attitude Lykos shook his head with a sigh.
'You're too Narcissistic.'
Hearing Lykos's blatant hypocrisy, Arvell quipped back.
'Look who's talking.'
Arvell turned to the girl.
"You said you were fighting a 'thing', could you elaborate a bit more? You were the only one we found there."
"It was a horrifying beast! It looked like a-a…"
The girl's face suddenly paled as she began to shudder in terror.
"Like what?"
Arvell asked.
"Hey, are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."
'Hey Lykos, did she see you or something?' Arvell wondered inwardly, 'Makes sense why she's shuddering in fear.'
'Ouch… But okay that was deserved.'
Arvell grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her lightly.
"Hey, are you alright?"
"It's here."
Titus, who silently watched Arvell interact with the girl finally spoke.
Turning to Titus, Arvell furrowed his brows in confusion.
"What's here?"
"Hiss…"
Arvell heard a hissing sound ring out from behind him.
'Let me guess… Whatever it was that attacked her is right behind us right now.'
'I would assume so.'
Arvell exhaled dramatically.
'This is almost too cliched to be real.'
Letting go of the girl's shoulders, Arvell turned himself around.
Only to come face to face with a giant snake the size of a full-grown tree.
This chapt𝓮r is updat𝒆d by (f)reew𝒆b(n)ovel.com