Chapter 48: Sometimes it is good to be a hero
The hyenas lunged. Roderic swung his blade, fending off one of the beasts, while Lyria loosed arrows with deadly precision. Elowen raised her hands, summoning a shield of water to protect them, but the hyenas were relentless, driven by a fierce determination to protect something unseen.
Amidst the chaos, Alden felt a sharp shove from behind. He stumbled forward, directly into the path of a lunging hyena. The beast’s claws raked across his side, and he screamed in pain. Elowen turned, her eyes blazing with visible fury, and cast a spell that seemed to that sent the hyena flying back, but the damage was done.
"Lyria, cover me!" Elowen shouted, rushing to Alden’s side. She placed her hands over his wounds, chanting a healing spell, but the boy’s injuries were severe.
"Who pushed him?" Roderic demanded, his voice thick with anger as he fought off another hyena.
"No time for that now!" Lyria called, firing arrows in rapid succession to keep the hyenas at bay. "We need to retreat!"
Roderic glanced at Alden, then at the relentless hyenas, and nodded. "Fall back! Now!"
The group fought their way back through the forest, Elowen and Lyria providing cover while Roderic carried the injured Alden. The hyenas pursued them to the edge of the forest before finally retreating, their cackles echoing ominously in the adventurers’ ears.
Once they were safe, Roderic gently laid Alden on the ground. Elowen was using her water magic to clean the wound and also heal Alden. Water and light mages were the healers of this world and thus most of water mages knew rudimentary healing.
"Hold on, Alden," she whispered. "You’re going to be okay."