Chapter 128: Self Blame

"Woo! That was stressful. Finally, I can relax a little. How about it Reg, wanna join us for the celebration?" Quint stretched as he exited the arena.

"Sorry bro, but not today. I'm gonna go chill out in our room," Reggie dejectedly said.

"Dude, you've been holed up in our room for the past 3 weeks now. Can you just tell me what happened?"

Reggie began acting this way ever since he got back from a mission with Clyde and Sho. Sho was also acting weirdly, and to that day refused to use his Spring out in the open. Something happened during that mission in Ardulum that the 3 had chosen not to talk about.

"Reggie, I don't believe it's healthy to keep it bottled up. Maybe it's time we told Quint about what happened—"

"Don't. Please, just let this die with the 3 of us," Reggie interrupted as he turned away from the group and began walking back to the dorm, Quint reaching out to him to stop him.

Suddenly, Quint's arm was held by Core, who seemed to have some sort of inclination of what happened to him.

"Let him go. He'll get over it soon," Core stated.

"He's had 3 weeks to get over it. He's gonna tell me what happened whether he likes it or not!" Quint shrugged Core's hand away and followed Reggie when he was suddenly stopped by Rein's voice.

"Seriously Quint, don't."

"Tch, fine. But if he doesn't tell me within the next week, I'm forcing his hand," Quint scoffed as he suddenly heard another loud voice emerge from the dorm's direction.

"Yoooo! Looks like none of you got expelled! I was expecting Quint to go, but oh well," a red-haired elf emerged from the dorm building, holding a cardboard box, followed by a young green-haired girl holding a cardboard box behind her.

"The hell do you mean you expected me to go?! I wasn't even at risk of expulsion!" Quint reacted, making Raxo laugh, her previous remark being a joke.

"What are you guys doing? Transporting things from the basement?" Rein asked.

"Yep! The Echo company just finished building the new establishment for Saphy. We're moving everything there to make it easier on her," Emria explained.

"Yeah, hopefully, she feels better soon. Tell her to take all the time she wants to recover," Raxo spoke with concern as Rein nodded.

"She's been saying she wants to get back to work for some days now, but the mental strain on her hasn't worn off," Rein explained as Chloe intervened in the conversation.

"Don't worry though, as long as I'm watching over her, I won't let her work until she's 100 percent!" Chloe guaranteed, making Emria laugh happily.

"You guys are going to celebrate, right? As soon as we finish these off, we'll get Saph and head over to join you. Gulf Grill, as usual, right?" Raxo made sure.

"Nah, today we're going over to the prince's house. He wants us to try his girl's cooking for some reason. Says it's really good," Quint informed, Sho jumping in to correct Quint.

"She's not 'my girl', we were just forced to live together. And I never said I wanted you lot to try her dishes, she just wanted to treat all of you. Though, I think it's just an excuse to get Clyde to eat her food," Sho pointed to Clyde, which irked Xenia. "She used up a quarter of my money for this feast, so you'd better show up. She even bought vintage Aquifan truffles. You have no idea how expensive those are," Sho stated as he put his head down in regret.

"I'm humbled by the gesture, but I'm actually allergic to truffles," Clyde informed.

"U-um, in that case, I could cook for you instead..." Xenia suggested, Clyde shaking his head at her offer.

"No thank you. I may be resistant to poison, but I can only take so much," he joked.

"Hey! That was just straight-up mean!"

"It's fine though, she hasn't added the truffles yet. I'll go over and tell her not to add them. If you guys can come by at 3 PM, that would be good," Sho ran off to his house, leaving Rein, Chloe, Clyde, Quint, Xenia, and Core together.

"Well, we have some free time on our hands. What should we do?" Rein queried to the group as Lance suddenly appeared.

"Hey, have you guys seen Elaine around anywhere? I need to tell her something," he inquired as he panted out of fatigue, running around the campus in search for her.

"You need to tell her something, huh? Well, I haven't seen her anywhere. What are you gonna tell her anyway?" Rein replied.

"She looked really guilty after we won our first match, and even after we lost in the class S battle. I think she was blaming herself because she was losing against her opponent. Knowing her, she'd blame herself and push herself way too hard. I just need to tell her not to worry about it," Lance revealed.

"Are you an idiot then? You said it yourself, she's gonna push herself too hard. And how do you do that? Come on, think Lance, think!"

"Oh no… She probably took a…"

The group hastily made their way to the quest room, asking the receptionist if a pink-haired girl had taken any requests recently.

"Oh, yes, are you her party? She took an S class monster extermination quest on the outskirts of Stogue, right beside the gulf. She said that her party was waiting for her and took the request. If you want, I can mark you dow—"

Without letting the receptionist finish, Lance ran out of the quest room and dashed to the eastern tunnel that led out near the town of Stogue. Rein and the rest followed him out of worry.

"That idiot… She's trying to take on an S-class monster on her own… Please… Please be okay…" Lance prayed as he finally emerged to the surface, seeing the Orthlys harbor town of Stogue in the distance to his right.

"Elaine!! Can you hear me!!" He screamed with all of his might, running into the eccentric field ahead, which was filled with 7-foot tall blades of grass, almost like a forest.

"Lance?! Is that you?!" He heard a voice reply from somewhere within the grassy field.

"Elaine! Where are you?!"

"Lance… Help me…"

"Lance! Move over for a second! I'll slice through that grass with one swing," Rein commanded as he summoned one of his swords, using the same technique he used to cut down the jungle during his practical exam.

This time, he activated STO and used the wind Spring in conjunction with the swing, infusing his blade with a slicing gale that beamed ahead of his swing, clearing out a large chunk of the tall grass.

Over in the distance, they saw a medium-sized spherical hole in the ground, the head of an oversized gorilla poking through, with its arms up, wound in a catapult motion as it readied to slam down on an unconscious girl in the ditch.

"NO!!"

Using Rein's shared speed stat, Lance took off at near light speeds, putting his shield in front of Elaine, whose dislocated body lay unconscious on the ground under him. The gorilla's powerful attack bounced off of Lance's shield, but not without completely decimating it. Lance threw the shield handle away and ducked down to Elaine, hugging her tightly, using his body to protect against the gorilla's next attack.

The gorilla wound his arms up for another attack, Lance closing his eyes to brace for impact. However, before he could swing, the gorilla's eyes suddenly gushed out blood, making it scream in pain as it held its blinded eyes. Clyde appeared in front of them, along with the rest of the group, Rein tapping Lance on the shoulder to get his attention.

"Follow me! The others will take care of the monster. We've gotta get Elaine medical attention as soon as possible!" He instructed, Lance nodding his head as he lifted the girl, following Rein out of the crater, into a different patch of long grass, one that Rein's blade didn't reach.

There, they were hidden. Lance set Elaine's broken body on the soft dirt floor, all of her joints bent in the opposite direction.

"She's alive, but barely…" Rein informed as he moved his ear to her mouth, hearing her faintly breathing as Lance sat there with a distraught expression.

"What can you do… Please… I don't care if you have to sacrifice me, just please do something to save her!" Lance begged.

"I don't need to sacrifice you. What I'm about to do saved me when I was on the brink of death too," Rein put his hand on her forehead and whispered Versys under his breath, making Elaine a secondary contractor.

"Shit, I really didn't want to give significant regeneration out so early… That'll make things harder in the future, but I've got no choice right now, do I? Should I prioritize a life dying in front of me over my goals..?"

Suddenly, Rein slapped himself and steeled his resolve, taking a deep breath and assigning significant regeneration to Elaine. Instantly, her joints began re-attaching themselves, cracks and pops being heard as her limbs returned to their original positions.

Meanwhile, back at the gorilla.

"Hey, Clyde! Why didn't you just slice its damn neck off! You had the chance when you went for it's eyes!" Quint scolded as he summoned his battle axe.

"Trust me, I tried, but my blade simply bounced off. This monster is not ordinary. We're going to need to find its weak spot, and focus all our attacks there. Core, can you stand back and analyze the foe for us?" Clyde requested.

"Sure thing, just be careful," Core replied.

"Will do. Are you all ready?!" Clyde yelled in motivation, the rest yelling after him in affirmation.

"Yeah!"