Duncan

“Mateo!”

Mateo snapped out of his stupor as Belle called out to him. As he looked at the instructor he was thankful to find that the Axe had not landed a fatal blow. That did not mean that the situation was not dire though as blood flowed from the wound on her shoulder.

She was also no longer able to fight as her right arm hung limp, her bow was split in two with only the string holding both halves together. He quickly caught her as she collapsed. He picked her up and quickly made his way back to the rest of the party, he needed to get to Noah quickly.

As he made a dash back towards his party, his pace slowed down as he stared down at the unconscious Knight Captain. After a few seconds of contemplation he shook his head and started to run again.

As he reached the clearing where the battle had taken place he saw as everyone drew their weapons when he appeared. They relaxed when they noticed it was only him, but panicked when they saw the state of the person in his arms.

They ran his way as he found a soft spot without any battle scars and set her down. Noah dropped down to his knees and clutched his divine tool, a book.

“Cure can’t fully heal a wound like this, it can only stabilize her condition. We need to quickly get her out of here and find a high priest to fully heal her.”

“Noah, Kyle, Helen, Glenn I want you four to take her and get out of here. Alicia, you and I need to go find the other parties and warn them. Hopefully they haven’t been attacked yet.”

Glenn looked ready to argue but Mateo shook his head and glanced over at the other three. Glen was the only one of the four who had offensive capabilities. Alicia could handle herself, she was the best choice for this task.

“Don’t die.”

With those parting words the two people separated from the party and split off in separate directions. Neither was mindlessly running in hopes of finding their fellow classmates. Before everyone had split up they had been told their points of entry were in set intervals at the edge of the forest. As long as he kept to the edge and relied on his senses, he should be able to find another party.

As he ran he made sure to keep his presence as invisible as possible. Not only to avoid any possible Demon ambushers but monsters too. However, the monsters seemed to know something was going down in the forest at this time as the only thing he happened upon were normal animals.

The first thing Mateo noticed was the shadow that traveled along the ground. He looked up and saw someone being carried by what appeared to be some kind of humanoid bird with wings for arms and talons for feet. It was these very talons that were carrying someone familiar.

Mateo thought it over for a second before nocking an arrow and aiming at the flying demon. He drew the bow and fired the arrow, perfectly piercing its head. With a scream the corpse and the captive tumbled down. Fortunately the person had fallen onto a tree with the branches breaking his fall.

He knocked another arrow and made his way over. There he saw his classmate, Duncan. That meant the Anti-Hero party should be nearby.

He was on the floor clutching his arm with quite a few lacerations covering his body. He was wearing a camouflage cloak with a bunch of knives strapped to his body. The hood had fallen off his head revealing his short black hair along with a pretty average face.

Of the students he had been the one to stick out the least. Average looks, average height, average grades, even his opinion was pretty average.

“God that hurt.”

“Get up, we have company.”

Mateo kept an eye on the environment around them. More of those smaller canine demons that he had encountered previously made their way out of the forest. Duncan frowned and looked at his arm before using his one good hand to draw a throwing knife.

“It’s no good, I can’t move my other arm. My Weapon Arts require me to wield two daggers.”

Duncan had been another person who had been a knight trainee. Although, with how he fought, you couldn’t really call him a Knight. It would be more appropriate to label him as an Assassin instead. That meant being down a weapon wasn’t his only problem.

The only saving grace was there weren’t as many of the demons as the earlier ambush. Mateo started to shoot arrows and once they were close enough Duncan joined in with some throwing knives.

Even though the knives didn’t deal much damage, anything that was hit by them would only take a few steps before collapsing. They were poisoned, truly what you would expect from an assassin.

Mateo had to calm himself down when a demon got close enough to swing its short sword at him. Since entering the forest this was his first experience in close quarters combat. He stepped back, the short sword passing in front of his chest, and then lunged at the creature with an arrow in hand. The arrow pierced its eye. Before he could finish it off another one came at him. He grabbed the first one and shoved it at the new foe.

As it stopped its swing Mateo dove for the short sword that had been dropped by the first one. The moment he picked it up he swung it hitting the uninjured one. As both of the demons tumbled down he finished them off with two quick thrusts in the neck.

He held the short sword up, ready for any more demons. The only thing he saw was Duncan panting as he removed his dagger from the last demon.

He relaxed and made his way over to the injured classmate. Except for a few new cuts and bruises he looked okay. Mateo himself sported a gash where he had not exactly dodged the first slash. Thankfully, the cut wasn’t that deep, mostly having been stopped by the leather armor provided by a generous sponsor.

Quite a few of the classmates had gained sponsorship from some nobles, including himself. The Bow had also been a gift. Mateo bet the throwing knives that Duncan used also came from a similar situation as his.

“How did you end up like that in the first place?”

“Ugh, not my proudest moment. Due to how I fight I try to keep a distance from the rest while we travel. Usually it helped me launch a sneak attack on the monsters. I’ll have you know most of the kills our party had were done by my hands. All of a sudden I felt something grab my shoulders and the next thing I know I'm flying through the air. You know what happened next.”

“Seems like it was meant to convoy you to these guys and have them kill you. What about your party?”

“Well, I shouted out for help when I was picked up, but it seemed like they had their own situation to handle though. They were under attack, it wasn’t these things, but I think they were also demons.”

“Did you see the Knight Captain that was with you? Were they also being attacked?”

“I think I saw him running over to the others. As for fighting anything, it looked like something stopped him. I didn’t see much after that.”

“Another Demon Lieutenant then.”

“Wait, did you just stay Demon Lieutenant? What the hell is going on? Why are you here anyways?”

“It’s an ambush. My party was also attacked. Knight Captain Belle killed the Demon Lieutenant, but she was severely injured. Me and Alicia split up to warn the others while I had the rest of the party retreat with Captain Belle. She needed immediate treatment, plus the palace needs to know what happened.”

“It’s that serious huh? Alright follow me, I'll lead you to my party.”

“Are you sure? You're pretty hurt.”

“I can still fight, plus I’m worried about the rest.”

“Alright, you take point then.”

“Follow me.”

Duncan got up and started to head in the direction that the Bird Demon had snatched him from. Only to jolt as a blade pierced his throat from behind.