Riverbank, Ruby's P.O.V.
RUBY!!!
My master's mental call wakes me from my nap. We must be off, he sounded very excited. For some reason the master is lying on the floor so I have to wriggle out from under him after dropping the amulet. As I spiral up all the bright colors distract me, I've never seen so many shades of green and blue.
I want to look at it all. It's so amazing up here, no wonder the master was so eager to get out of the underground. I'm about to change to human form to share all this with my master when human voices distract me.
Hunter says "See, Captain, I told you this is where I would come out!".
Captain says "Yes, you've earned your share. When we come back with your head we'll all be rich."
I look around and see a dozen humans standing among the trees away from the river. Ten are standing together while the other two are slightly apart, these two are the ones who were talking. One, wearing fancy metal armor that doesn't look very functional, must be the captain. The other, wearing leather and carrying a strange bow, must be the hunter.
The captain says, "Sergeant, go pick up your head for His Majesty."
I see the captain point to something behind me, and at the same time one of the ten together steps forward. As I can judge things he looks older than the others, he only takes one step before pointing at me.
The sergeant says, "What is that blue thing?".
I look around to find the master and see what he is doing, he is still lying on the river bank. It is now that I notice the strange arrow sticking out of his back, he is not moving, though I see he is breathing. These filthy humans dared to harm my master?
I adopt my human form in midair and a primal scream escapes me. Before my feet touch the ground, I launch a blue fireball at the group of ten. As my feet touch the ground I unsheathe my swords, I see the sergeant dart forward but the other nine are not so quick and their short shouts tell me that I only have three opponents left to deal with.
The captain says "What the hell is she? Kill her!"
I start to charge forward, I see the sergeant get back to his feet, I also see the hunter raise his strange bow to aim at me. I throw up a shield as he shoots, the strange arrow hits the shield and pierces it but sticks halfway through, what power that strange bow has!
The sergeant charges at me, as the hunter begins to reload again, and the captain turns and runs away. As the human approaches me, I spin around, swinging both swords, and in doing so activate the flame weapon, which covers my blades in blue fire. The sergeant raises his shield, but my first sword pierces his shield and the second pierces him.
As he falls, I walk past him and head towards the hunter, he is the one who wounded Klein . He has almost finished reloading when I reach him, pierce his chest with my two swords and lift him into the air with a scream. His scream joins mine, but it is short-lived, I yank out my swords and turn to run towards Klein .
The wet thuds of his body against the ground behind me don't even faze me as I run to the master's side. I fall to my knees beside Klein and am relieved to see that he is still breathing. Unfortunately, I don't know what to do to help him.
The strange arrow protrudes from his back surrounded by blood, making it difficult to see. I run to the river and return with my hands full of water. I use it to clean the blood so I can see the wound.
The arrow hit Klein in the spine, barely grazing Blitz's scabbard. The wound has already started to close, which reminds me that the master is very good at healing himself. And the master is a demon now, he should be even tougher, so why hasn't he woken up?
"Drog!"
"Are you sure?"
Drog says "Yes, the wound can't heal properly as long as the bolt is there".
"Bolt? You mean the strange arrow?"
Drog says "Yes, it's a crossbow bolt. It's like a bow but with shorter range and more power."
Deciding not to argue when my knowledge is so limited, I grab the bolt and carefully pull it out. The Master doesn't respond and nothing happens except the wound starts bleeding again. Drog comes over and sniffs the arrow in my hand.
Drog says "I smell more than blood on that."
"What, like poison?"
Drog says "Maybe, I can't be sure."
"Would poison explain why the master's soul is gone?"
Drog says "Not that I know of, but it might explain why he doesn't wake up."
"So what do we do now?"
Drog says "We protect the master and take care of his body until he returns."
"Okay, I'll light a fire and make camp as best I can."
Drog says "I'll scout around and make sure there are no more humans."
"Oh, there was one that got away."
Drog says "What!!! How could you let one escape? It will bring more."
Before I can answer, Drog runs off. He stops where I killed the hunter and sniffs around. He must have found the trail because he takes off in the direction the captain ran. I turn to the master and check his wound.
The wound seems to have closed completely, so I turn him around and try to make him more comfortable. I gather some firewood and light a fire as I realize the sun is setting. I don't know what else I can do for him.
Half an hour later, Drog comes running back. He runs fast and, from his panting, has been running for a long time. He stops near me and catches his breath for a minute.
Drog says, "Get ready! I'm late, they're coming!".