I don’t want to be alone anymore. I can’t stand it.
The curtain was supposed to come down on the last act of my life, but Lily gave me one last hope. I couldn’t possibly lose her, even if it meant exposing myself to danger.
“Uoooh!”
I grabbed the shaft of the spear with all my might. The combination of Lily’s strength and my measly muscles was just able to stop the spear’s movements. We would have likely both been dead if we hadn’t managed to blow off one of its arms with our surprise attack. Our luck had yet to run out. It was up to us to determine whether our good fortune would continue.
“Come on! Come on! Die! Die! Just die already!”
I repeatedly kicked the magical puppet’s head, but it was completely unfazed by my efforts.
Goddamn it!
The most I could do was help hinder its movements. Victory was ours if we were able to maintain this equilibrium. Lily’s attack was slow but effective. However, were we truly able to keep this up?
I desperately shook off the weak-willed thought encroaching on my mind.
It’s alright. We’ll definitely win.
It was a miscalculation that Lily’s physical strength was weaker than anticipated, but we still had the advantage here. This was the do-or-die moment. We just had to combine our strength to defeat the enemy before us. But just then...
“...Oh.”
My thoughts froze over completely. A new magical puppet had shown itself from behind a row of trees. This one was armed with an axe and a shield, and its featureless face was clearly pointed right at us.
“You’re kidding me...”
My throat felt completely dry. What bad timing. I generally considered myself to have poor luck, but this was far too cruel. We had no means of dealing with a second enemy. It took everything we had just to handle the magical puppet Lily was taking on right now. That being said, even if I let go of the spear and took on the new enemy, I wouldn’t even be able to buy us time.
Do we run away? But that’ll be tough. Lily isn’t that fast, and I’m no better. There’s no way we can get away from these monsters. What do I do? What can I even do...?
As I continued to grope for a nonexistent answer, the new magical puppet charged in. It was even faster than the one we attacked and had closed a distance of more than 10 meters in a flash.
“Lily! Take it down!”
Lily complied with my command and sent forth several feelers to intercept it. In hindsight, this was a poor move.
“Wh-Whoa?!”
The magical puppet we were pinning down managed to pull the spear out of Lily’s body by taking advantage of her grip loosening when she attacked the new enemy. As a result, the spear was yanked out while I was still holding onto it, and I was thrown to the ground where I landed on my back.
“...!”
I reflexively shut my eyes, and when I opened them once more, a wooden spearpoint was hanging right above me. The expressionless face of the magical puppet who was being crushed was looking down on me.
The spearpoint descended. Lily wrapped her feelers around the shaft to try and stop it.
She’s not going to make—?!
Wooden splinters scattered to the ground.
A life was taken.
The sounds of battle ceased.
The forest was silent once more.
“...Wh-What... happened...?”
I saw the spear planted in the ground just a few centimeters from my face, and a cold sweat ran down my cheek. My brain spun its wheels trying to get a grip on the situation. The scene before my eyes just didn’t make sense. The head of the magical puppet who was trying to stab me was pulverized to bits.
I could tell something came flying toward it. But that was as far as I got in figuring it out. I then heard the sound of something cracking and tearing apart. I turned to look at the noise and spotted a large battleaxe sticking out of a tree. The axe went halfway through its trunk, causing it to tear apart and come down.
“...”
I put my hand to the moist ground and sat myself up. A white light immediately wrapped itself around my body and healed the minor wounds I got from falling to the ground. This was Lily’s healing magic. No matter how I looked at it, she should have been healing herself before tending to me, but I decided to inform her of such afterward.
I took a look around us. There was one other monster next to me aside from Lily. It was the magical puppet who was wielding an axe and shield—not that it had its axe in hand. And this one was kneeling before me.
“...Don’t scare me like that.”
I grumbled a complaint and felt a sense of bewilderment from the magical puppet. It was the same type of connection I shared with Lily. If this phenomenon was common to all my servants, then I could apparently tell at a glance whether a monster had become my servant. Under the condition I could calmly assess the situation, that is.
This information was a great harvest. But that wasn’t the greatest outcome from this incident, of course.
After letting out all the strength in my body, I collapsed to the ground.
It seemed I made it through my first battle. And not only that, I managed to obtain a reassuring ally.