I Will Be the Greatest Knight
Chapter 47: Never Ending Hell

Chapter 47: Never Ending Hell

Irene collapsed into Felix who was next coming out of the cabin’s door. She was frozen in shock, the only movement for quite some time was her wide green eyes blinking as she tried to come to terms with a very unexpected situation.

The older apprentice drew his sword and Irene attempted to draw hers as well but the movement of her arm sweeping over her body to free her weapon of its sheath hit the arrow sticking out of her side.

She only just seemed to realize that something was truly the matter.

It wasn’t quite painful. Hotness radiated throughout her body.

While she wasn’t bleeding as much as she expected to be, Irene felt paralyzed and her body wasn’t moving. She wasn’t thinking correctly as she tried to grasp her sword once more.

There was still fight inside of her. She wanted to slice down the goblins and stop them in their tracks just as much as the others were.

She wouldn’t be underestimated. She wouldn’t be weak just because of how young she was compared to everyone else.

"Don’t fight!" Sir Gunnar shouted. "Get Iro to the Duke’s Tower now! Your trip ends here! I will follow once this is over with."

The others had already drawn their weapons and began to slash down what they could of the offending monsters. How goblins came across crossbows was beyond them.

Considering knights and chivalry, long bows were the preference considering it took real skill to manage such a weapon, however, all was fair in monster battle. They did what they did to kill and there was nothing more to it than that.

The mountains were about surviving.

When there was a gap in the action and a way for Felix to escape with Irene in tow, the teenager lifted the girl onto his back and became numb as he ran forth. Even after his hood fell off, he hardly noticed the cold. He was hardly conscious of the burning of his muscles as he carried Irene’s weight forward along with his pack and himself.

Time moved in ways Irene was unfamiliar with.

If Irene closed her eyes, she felt she had lost hours but when she opened them, the surroundings wouldn’t have changed that much. Yet there was another time she shut her eyes and Felix spotted their horses so they must have been moving forward for a long time.

The older apprentice placed Irene on the ground after making sure the area was safe and stray goblins hadn’t found their way towards them. The commotion of running with someone on his back was certainly loud. He wasn’t trying to be subtle in his path forward but fast.

Felix slipped off his gloves and he had to assess the arrow that was lodged firmly into Irene’s side.

However, he realized then that she seemed faint and her body was on fire. He placed a hand on her forehead and felt panicked.

She didn’t need him to overreact. She needed someone who had a head as level as a knight.

Even though his hands trembled, he carefully moved her cloak, fur, and outer coat to the side. Since apprentices weren’t likely to be at the front of battle, their armor covered far less than the full plates of a knight.

"Iro," he spoke a name that she had grown to listen to. "Stay with me."

Irene had just enough awareness to try and push his hands away as he got to her clothing. There were secrets she didn’t have the energy to hide. If she lost consciousness fully, what would they say about her? Would they figure it all out? Would she be kicked out?

"I have to," he persisted.

Irene simply hugged her chest but she let him do as he needed.

She could hardly see him as he worked on her. Things were hazy and the most she noticed as she looked up were the branches of the trees without leaves. The sky was grey and the sun was setting.

As Felix was finally allowed to do as he needed, he saw where the arrow was embedded and he gasped. There was not enough composure in the world to hold back after what he had witnessed.

Where the arrow stuck out of her skin, there was grey along the edge. The grey continued in tendrils through her skin almost like a star.

Even though it would cause her to bleed, Felix knew that it was because the arrow was still in her skin that was making the grey spread slowly. Even though it was slow, he didn’t know what it was. It needed to be out of her.

His initial response to her being taken out by an arrow was disbelief. He thought she had more fight in her than that but he quickly realized there was something amiss. It was worse than they could imagine and entirely out of their knowledge.

He had cloth in his pack that could be used as a bandage.

Her eyes were still open and he glanced at her face while his trembling hands still moved. It wasn’t the first time he tried to save someone he cared for from dying at the hands of the goblins, but that time he was more prepared. He was nearly an adult and had almost a decade of experience in the knighthood.

"It’s going to be alright," he assured her. "It might hurt but we’ll get you back safely."

His bare left hand was placed on her skin and holding it tightly his right grabbed the arrow itself and he knew he had to pull it out as straight as possible because the very nature of an arrowhead was to stay stuck once it was inside. He would tear her skin to remove it but it would certainly mean whatever was on the arrowhead would no longer be affecting her.

At least that was what his gut told him. He decided to go with it.

The arrow was cleanly torn from her skin and out of her lips fell a cry of disagreement though it was far weaker than if she had been entirely conscious.

Her red blood came forth and mixed with the dark grey substance. He wiped it away with a clean cloth. He then found strips of cloth and had to wrap them entirely around her waist for them to hold. It was all he could do at the moment. They would need to summon a healer and maids tended to be better equipped in these sorts of things.

Sir Gunnar wasn’t there yet but he decided to continue on. Asking the knight for permission was far less important than ensuring one of his brothers didn’t succumb to the goblins.

Since Irene was in no shape to sit on her own horse, Felix simply placed her on his lap and held her against him with one of his arms and his chin. He was adept in horseriding and could control his smart animal with knees and one hand on the reins.

The others would know to bring Sorrel down with the other horses. They would have to understand that he was acting as fast as possible and nothing more than that.

The way down took a century in Felix’s eyes and, by the time he made it to the denser treeline of the foothills, he was having to move forward with dim moonlight peaking through the patchy cloud covering. He was relying on his horse’s good instincts as much as his own at that moment.

He would only allow himself to fall apart once his partner was back in safety.