Thankfully I was only surprised for a second, or maybe it was just all of the adrenaline making me more aware, because this time I was able to catch the next closest dreg shaking and squeezing itself strangely, clearly getting ready to spit another ball at us. I managed to put a [Benediction] on both of us before the air ball hit, and just like I’d hoped, the shield was enough to protect us from it.

  But apparently it doesn’t stop us from breathing in the curse at all, judging from the sudden status effect I got afterwards, so so much for that I guess.

  It’s also pretty bad that I could already see a bunch of cracks forming in my vision, like the shield was about to crumble away if it took a bit more damage. It’s great that it can at least absorb one hit, but it’s crazy to think that just one long-distance attack from the dregs is enough to almost do in one of my [Benediction]s. You know, I always thought that my [Benediction] shield was really strong, but in light of recent events, uh… Maybe that [Blessing of the Mountains] ain’t such a bad idea after all, if things are gonna be like this…

  “Saintess.”

  Kale’s insistent voice made me look over at him again. Right, he was trying to tell me something before the dregs started spitting at us! What was he saying? He was asking where I wanted to go? Is that why he hasn’t taken us anywhere yet?

  As I reapplied another [Benediction] to the two of us, I let myself take a quick look around at the battlefield.

  ...Or, well, at least what I could see of it with the carpet of big monsters that was covering it.

  Hmmm… As much as I want to stick around and try to save the people who got thrown around and trampled by the dreg stampede just now… Considering how the dregs are all ser focused on me at the moment, it’s probably safer for everyone if I didn’t stick around getting everyone caught up in the crossfire like what just happened. Maybe if there was a way to keep them busy that would also keep everyone safe? It seems like I have a pretty good distance on my ranged healing, so if we didn’t stray too far away, maybe we could be a distraction and a roaming heal-station?

  “Do you think you can fly circles around the edge of the clearing for a while and keep the dregs busy?”

  If he could, then there’s a chance that my pn could work out, right?

  Orrrr maybe not, judging by the face he’s making.

  “Doing that while trying to dodge their attacks would be suicide, Saintess.”

  Oh. Yeah, maybe I didn’t factor in that dozens upon dozens of dregs would be trying to spit at us the entire time that we tried that. The only reason we weren’t being absolutely bombarded with air-balls right now was because not all the dregs had caught up with us yet, and from what I could see it seemed like they had to be standing still to start charging up their ranged attack. Who knows when they’ll wise up and stop trying to get closer first before attacking, though.

  …I’m sure going around in circles would be slower than flying straight, wouldn’t it? It’s a bit of a problem that I’ve never seen Kale fly before, so I don’t know how fast he can actually fly, but judging from that one time that I watched all the other bird-people fly away, I’m not quite sure that it’s gonna be enough to pull this off. This clearing isn’t so big that they’d be too busy running around to not attack if we started circling around it, and it’d be awful if they somehow ended up running back and forth in the middle repeatedly while trying to catch us instead of running ps like I wanted… Honestly, maybe I’ve been thinking too greedily about all of this.

  Ugh, fine. I wanted to stick around and get some healing in, but if I want to keep the two of us safe, then I’ll just have to trust in Chel and the Bishop and lead all this trouble away.

  “Alright, take us away from the town, into the woods!”

  At least then the trees might slow the dregs down enough that they don’t get many chances to shoot at us very often. Heck, maybe we might even be able to lose them for a little while so I can finally get a chance to breathe and think things over.

  “Yes, Saintess.”

  Kale immediately started flying off into the woods, lowering himself closer to the treeline so that we were partially covered by it. It was a good idea, since it made it harder for the dregs to try and target us around the trees, but it made me worry a lot; If we went any further down, I was afraid that we’d smack into a random unexpected branch or something. Ah, but Kale’s a bird, so he probably knows about what he’s doing better than I do. Now’s not the time for me to be worried about this kind of stuff. Instead-

  “[Cure].”

  Mhmm, that definitely took that stupid curse off my status bar! So far I’d mostly been leaving the curing to Chel and the Bishop since it was much less costly than just straight up healing was, so I hadn’t really been paying too much attention to it. I’d only been paying attention to people’s ‘health’ stat, so I didn’t really take the time to read the curse’s name. It had quite the fancy name too, showing up as ‘Curse: Israthel’s Mistake’ in the status section, so I’m honestly surprised it didn’t catch my eye before. Or maybe I shouldn’t be, considering most of the people I would have been treating would have probably had plenty of other status effects wrong with them too, huh?

  But I wonder who this Israthel is supposed to be?

  The name sounds familiar for some reason...

  Oh well, whatever, let’s save those questions for ter. The Bishop told me that this curse drains people’s energy to kill them, right? The fact that it’s only been a few minutes and it already sucked away 60 of my energy is concerning. I’m gonna have to make sure to keep the two of us clear from that if I want to win this thing in the end.

  Ahhh, what am I doing?! I should hurry up and get it off of Kale too! Who knows how much energy this thing’s already sucked away from him?! If he gets exhausted we’re doomed!

  “[Cure]!”

  “Ah… Thank you, Saintess.”

  "Of course, Ka-"

  Hey wait a minute, does Kale look a little bit tired? I think he might be looking a bit more pale than usual…

  “Are you okay, Kale? Is anything wrong?”

  “Mmm, I’m starting to get a bit low on energy. My people fly using magic, and keeping up this speed drains quite a lot…”

  Oh my god, I’m an idiot! Of course Kale flies with magic! Didn’t he literally call it ‘flight magic’ in the tent earlier? And weren’t his people only trapped in the church because they had those anti-magic sve colrs or whatever on them? As soon as those were off, they were able to fly away immediately! Ugh, why didn’t I take the curse off of him sooner?!

  No wonder he’s able to keep flying like this while only using one arm! I wonder if that makes him have to use up more energy to keep us both in the air… Oh, and he did actually speed us out of there pretty darn quickly, judging by how big of a lead he managed to get us on the dregs, so how much energy has he been using?

  “Are you getting really low? Do we need to stop and run for a while or something?”

  I have no clue how fast his energy regens, or how fast any normal person’s would, really. But who knows? With the dregs being slowed down by the trees, maybe we would have a chance to run around for a bit and then be able to fly again ter, right?

  “...Perhaps it would be for the best.”

  ~~~

  Nope, we were both wrong. It wasn’t at all for the best.

  We were obviously slower while trying to weave around the trees. This part of the forest was particurly dense since it wasn’t nearby any kind of trail that people usually used. I guess I forgot that it wasn’t just the dregs who might have a problem navigating around this kind of terrain…

  Because we were so slowed down, it only took about 20 minutes of us struggling for the dregs to finally get a clear line of sight on us, and I guess they were frustrated by the trees enough that they just started unching air balls as soon as I came into view. It’s lucky that they weren’t great at aiming around the trees, and they only barely managed to nd their attacks anywhere nearby us.

  Doesn’t mean that we were safe from the spsh of cursed air when the balls nded, though.

  The good news is that if I was able to spot the dregs before they spotted me, then I could quickly take them out with a [Judgment] before they were able to spit at us. Too bad I was only able to spot them first a little over half the time, though… And even then, sometimes the trees would cut off my vision to the one I was targeting, so I didn't always manage to get the [Judgment] off in time. For all the time that we ran, I think I only really managed to kill off about 8 of them.

  Keeping [Benediction]s up on us, constantly removing our curses, using [Judgment] when I could, and healing any of the damage that managed to break through the shields, was all tough work. After two hours of running around I was sure Kale must have gotten a good chunk of his energy back, but he wasn’t very confident that he’d gotten enough to fly us for very long. Honestly, the fact that regur people aren’t able to see how much energy they have avaible and have to go off of feeling alone is… inefficient. Sure, I could easily have appraised him and seen how much he had avaible, but uh… well… I guess I’m too much of a coward to do it.

  If I used [Appraisal] on him then I’d see his real name, wouldn’t I?

  I might even make the mistake of reading other things that I shouldn’t.

  I’m just not ready to face that yet, even if this is a life or death situation.

  ...It’s really stupid of me… isn’t it?

  Ugh…

  Well, if I’m gonna be a coward about that, then I guess I’d better bite the bullet and make better decisions elsewhere. If we want better chances of making it out of here, then Kale’s gonna need enough energy to keep us going. It’s about time I do the right thing and get [Rejuvenate].

  {[Rejuvenate]: Restores the target’s energy by using the Saintess’s as a base. (x2 energy cost)}

  …Ick, it costs double? How in the heck is that fair?!

  _____

  AN: Finally put a cover on the story! Sad I couldn't get the tips of the feathers the right color though :/ Either way, hope ya like it!