While Lloyd was being dragged to a forest after meeting Yui, deep inside a cave outside the city of Ishtar was Allen and his Hero’s party. Mere hours after banishing Lloyd, the group had accepted a quest and headed for the cave.
Allen despised Lloyd. In fact, he was likely overjoyed in stealing Lloyd’s money and kicking him out of their party. Having received plenty of funds, Allen was excited to get this quest over with quickly and go out drinking that night, and he was confident they could complete this job in a flash. It was that thinking that had led him to this cave.
But things didn’t go as Allen had planned.
“Agh! What the hell?! Why are they so damn strong?!” yelled Allen as he swung his blade at a golem blocking his path. He had yet to land a fatal blow, and his blade was repelled with a clang.
“I-I have no idea! They’re just so sturdy! They keep repelling my arrows!” Lulu, the party’s archer, fired her bow from a short distance away. However, her arrows could only barely scratch the golems, and none managed to pierce them.
This was bad...
Anxiety spread over them. The panic began to dampen their skills.
“Agh...! Golems were never this strong! Something weird is going on...” Mia cast fire spells—her forte—from beside Lulu. The fire that spurted from her staff engulfed a golem, but this too seemed to lack effect. A slightly scorched golem appeared from behind the flames.
“At this rate... This is bad.” Rina stood before Mia and Lulu, repelling the golems’ attacks with her shield. Each blow was heavy, and a shock ran through Rina’s arms with each attack from the golems. The force had begun to break her shield.
“Damn it... Why?!”
The Hero’s party were covered in wounds and fought on the verge of collapse. Such had been unthinkable until now. If they had the choice, it would have been time to run.
But the Hero’s party couldn’t lose to mere golems. With that thought in mind, Allen and the others held their ground. Golems were a monster that even a C-rank adventurer party could handle—a party led by a Hero just couldn’t lose to them! It was preposterous!
“That’s right! We—I, the Hero—can’t lose to mere golems!” yelled Allen, swinging his blade with all his might. The attack held his everything, and thus, cut deeper into the golem than any that had come before.
“All right!” Their attacks did work, and that alone inspired some relief in Allen.
But that’s when something gray with glowing red eyes appeared from behind the golems. It was a gray wolf even smaller than a high wolf—a regular wolf.
“Huh?! A wolf?!”
It must have been hiding behind the golems. Realizing this, Allen leaped backward and took up a defensive stance. This was no time to be wondering what a wolf was doing here! Not to mention, wolves weren’t very strong anyway. For Allen—for the Hero’s party—they were barely a threat at all.
At least, that’s what they had thought.
Something unpredictably happened. The wolf ran right past Allen.
“Agh! Damn it!”
It ran right behind him and through the golems, headed straight for Rina, who continued to repel attacks despite the sorry state of her shield. It skillfully dashed right between a golem’s legs and leaped into the air, baring its fangs and ready to snap down on Rina’s throat.
“R-Rina!”
Wolves might not have been very strong, but they could still be fatal if they managed to land a clean attack on their target’s vitals.
“Rina, run!” Allen desperately screamed.
That’s when Rina noticed the wolf and quickly tried to take up a defensive position. But it was also why she had been too late.
“Agh...!”
As she had been using her shield to defend against the golems, she couldn’t use it to defend against the wolf. But if she didn’t protect herself, she would die. Even should she suffer a grave injury, Sheena could heal her as long as she lived, and with that in mind, she used her left arm to block the fangs, thinking she simply needed to be careful of where the attack would land and avoid a fatal blow to the large blood vessels running through her wrist. With that in mind, she predicted the wolf’s trajectory and did her best to dodge accordingly.
But that’s when something else unexpected happened. Wolves weren’t supposed to be very strong, but it bit Rina’s left hand clean off.
“Aaaaaagh!”
Blood spurted from what remained of Rina’s left wrist.
Seemingly satisfied, the wolf bolted farther into the cave.
“Damn it! Out of the freakin’ way!” Allen dodged the golems’ attacks as he made his way toward Rina. “Hang in there, Rina!” He picked her up and ran to Sheena. “Sheena! Please!”
“R-Right.” Sheena quickly cast healing magic. Her spells were multiple times stronger than that of typical healing magic, and their tremendous power would be able to heal—rather, regenerate—the limb Rina had lost.
At least, they should have been able to.
“Wh-Why?!” Sheena was so shocked, her voice escaped her. Her magic had certainly been successful at stopping the bleeding, thus saving Rina’s life. However, her left hand had failed to regenerate.
“Wh-What the...” Seeing this, Allen gulped down his spit. Until now, Sheena’s healing magic had always been capable of mending even the gravest of wounds, which is why the rest of them had been able to be a bit reckless in their fights, as they had been just now.
It was the relief of knowing they had Sheena’s healing magic to support them that allowed them to fight like this. But if Sheena could no longer heal their graver wounds, they couldn’t afford any recklessness.
If they lost a limb, it would be gone for good, which would greatly weaken them. Thus...
“Allen... Let’s retreat.”
He cursed under his breath. “You’re...right. There’s nothing else we can do. Everyone! We’re retreating! Can you stand, Rina?”
“Yes, thanks to Sheena.”
After confirming Rina was well enough to escape on her own, they abandoned their bags and bolted like lightning to the exit in undeniable defeat.
“Damn it! Why did it have to come to this...?” muttered Allen as they ran.
It was true that the golems had been unusually strong, but that had not been the reason for their loss. It was that Allen’s body could not move like normal, and that his other party members were slower and weaker than usual. That Sheena’s healing magic had clearly deteriorated.
They did not know why, but something was certainly different. That alone was clear. And as a result, Rina had lost her left hand, and Allen had failed this quest.
As for Rina...she doubtfully could continue to serve as this party’s tank.
“Damn it... Why?!”
A few days later, word that the Hero’s party had failed their quest and come running back to town in tatters had already spread through Ishtar. In time, there was not a soul in all the kingdom who had not heard the news.