"Ignis, mea virtus est. Fire Overdrive!" A tall, heavily armored knight chanted.
The ground scorched beneath his feet, and steam emanated from his body.
"Was he the one who caused that explosion?" Reiji observed from the top of a tall tree.
The man began walking slowly.
His grip tightened on his red and white kite shield in his left hand while the lance he held with his right settled into a horizontal position.
"Men! We must push these monsters back!" The man shouted. "Let's not make Princess Lyrien's Firesphere go to waste!"
As the tall knight pushed forward, he left embers on his track.
The frontline knights, who were struggling to fight back against the monsters, unleashed a ragged shout in response.
"The Gromble Commander has been taken down by Princess Lyrien!"
"Cornelius is right!
"For Princess Lyrien!"
"For Bellatoria!"
The Bellatorian knights shouted in triumph.
The engagement between the armored knights and the goblin-like golems continued.
"They seemed to be winning this fight," Reiji assessed.
Then, when he turned towards his right, there were two women fleeing the fight.
A look of shock crossed his face, and his eyebrows shot up. "A horse!" he blurted out.
He looked around to see if anyone heard him, then asked himself, "Why are they running?"
The armored female looked exhausted, while the robed one appeared to be unconscious, but the horse was moving gracefully through the overgrown trail even when its riders were barely aware.
From his perspective, it looked like the two needed more help than the knights.
Although the horse was doing a great job, the monsters chasing them maintained enough distance to strike a blow with just one mistake.
Moving along the treetop, he followed them.
With no weapon to fight, he planned out how he would approach the two.
As he moved closer to them, a rugged, deep growling voice sounded from behind.
"Puny humans! You think that insignificant flame can take me down?!"
It made the armored female pull the rein a little.
That small act slowed the horse down enough for the monsters chasing them to catch up.
Within a minute after the fierce growl, the sound of metal shattering and the knights' desperate screams echoed.
Reiji turned and considered going back, but the monsters closed in on the female riders after the armored knight pulled the reins with more pressure, bringing the horse to a full stop.
The horse neighed in dismay.
The armored female prepared herself with sword raised to defend against anything that may come, but with her exhaustion, Reiji felt the need to step in.
The goblin-like golem picked up another golem and threw it out towards the riders.
The monster ball hurtled towards them.
Reiji quickly launched himself downward, boosting his speed by stepping on the trunk, a force that almost splintered the whole tree.
"Proprioception," he whispered as he projected towards the attacking monster.
The rings on his eyes turned blue as he looked for the perfect angle to attack the monster.
He threw a punch with his right fist straight at the propelling monster.
Then,
*BOOM!
He hit the monster mid-air, and the impact shattered the stone creature into pieces.
The other Gromble halted in its pursuit.
"What happened?!" The armored female rider blurted.
"Lyra?" The robed female was awakened by the sound of the impact.
Reiji grunted as he emerged from the underbrush.
His right arm was mangled from the impact.
He walked towards the two female riders while his blood splattered the ground.
He was casually walking as if his bone wasn't gleaming white through torn skin all the way up to his forearm.
Cautious, Lyra pulled the rein to steer the horse away from Reiji.
With Reiji's Proprioception, he perceived the dire situation of the knights they had left behind.
"I thought they– were fine," Reiji said with a strained voice as he walked towards the two. "I– didn't realize there was a–a stronger monster in hiding."
Lyra stopped, confused about Reiji and what he was saying.
"Krogar," the robed girl said.
Lyra, who was skeptical about Reiji, looked at the robed girl and asked, "What do you mean Krogar, Lyrien? We took him down with your Firesphere."
Lyrien didn't say anything, but Reiji could see the look of despair in her eyes.
When he was close enough, Reiji tapped the horse on its back, making it stride away.
"What are you doing?" Lyra growled at him.
"They've all been knocked down," Reiji stated, referring to the knights. "You have to continue running."
As the horse ran off, Lyrien locked eyes with Reiji, which made him think, "She's blaming herself."
Behind him, one of the grombles who was chasing after the two was still standing.
He turned around, but then his breath hitched as he coughed up blood.
"Rock versus human flesh—what a costly move. I overcalculated myself," he thought. "I should not do that again."
Enduring the pain, he gritted his teeth and picked up with his left hand what remained from the glass he shattered.
Strangely, the other monster wasn't moving a muscle. It remained still as if I was ordered to not move at all.
Lucky for Reiji, he did not have to struggle to take down the monster.
"I thought this monster was emergent like Carrot," he analyzed the monster's behavior, "but why is it not attacking at all?"
He looked at it for a moment, thinking maybe he could tame the monster just like how Rowan was able to tame Carrot.
But he did not sense any intelligence from the monster. I was just like how Rowan described normal monsters. A thoughtless and aimless monster, like the treant and skeleton he had fought before.
So he took it down by throwing a piece of rock he picked up with his left hand, then clutched his mangled right arm to lessen the pain.
"This power regenerates way faster when I was being poisoned by that uncultivated onion and garlic," referring to his Proprioception, "I need this arm to recover faster."
Perceiving an approaching menace, he started preparing by collecting all throwable materials left by the monsters he had just taken down.
But not long after, "Aqua, voluntati tuae. Recovery!" Lyrien's voice suddenly echoed from behind.
Water materialized and flowed toward Reiji's broken arm, wrapping around it like silk.
He gasped as warmth spread through his limb, and his wounds rapidly closed before his eyes.
At the same moment, Lyra grabbed Reiji's left arm and hoisted him onto the back of her horse.
She was still astonished, twisted in the saddle to glare at Reiji. "You must be out of your mind!" she yelled.
"You just punched a silver-grade toughness monster with your bare hands!" Her voice was a mix of shock and fury.