The two immediately rolled away to dodge the knight's second strike. Rina took this opportunity to knock out the bandit with the necklace on hand, but the dark knight was still there and already charging towards Marc.
The fight brought on for hours, the knight was already dead so killing him was impossible. His superior strength was also a problem for Rina and Marc, though he didn't use any special swordsmanship move but was still good enough to single-handedly take on both of them.
"Undead are easy enough to take down, but an undead dark knight? Give me a break." Marc wiped off his sweats and was heavily dehydrating.
"We have to wait for at least five more hours until day time, that's what undead and dark knights hate."
"Five more hours… You go rest a bit, we'll take turns with him." Marc chuckles.
Rina let out a half-suppressed laugh, then actually sat down at a nearby tree and rubbed her shoulders.
The moment she sat down, a bandit who was fake unconscious stood up and charged himself at her.
"Crap!" Rina tried to stand up, but somehow her legs felt very numb, she tripped halfway standing up and desperately held up her bow to block the bandit holding a dagger.
"Don't get anywhere near her!" Marc, disrupting himself from the fight against the undead dark knight, charged himself to knock over the bandit. "Are you okay?"
slash
"..." The undead dark knight, unamused.
In front of Rina's very own eyes, she saw the vast universe's floaty stars burnt out, glaciers melted and volcanoes had buried themselves into the sea. As something inside her was boiling, a boiling feeling of the divine's intention, shifting history into another page— this exact moment; this night, the universe's purest essences was slowing down for only one soul to witness.
Marc's left shoulder spurted out blood, the black sword from the dark knight slashed through him, a deep cut was left on his shoulder.
"I'm… sorry, run..." Marc's usual smile dropped as he fell down to the ground.
…
[Marc's POV]
That was a nice dream, as if my life was flashing before my eyes. I wonder if I will go to heaven or hell? Living in a church for all my young days, sneaking out to go on an undesignated adventure for the outside world, that must be sinful. I wonder how Rina is doing… I hope she got home safely, her mom must be worried.
"Always smile for the path ahead." I remembered my dad's words. He wasn't the best man in the world, but in my world, he is.
I think I got my ticket, it's heaven. As I opened my eyes and saw a bright light, a beacon of hope, a bright winged female figure turning her back against me, protecting me from something.
"Angel?"
She was wearing bright green armor, contrasting the darkness surrounding her, highlighting herself upon the hopelessness.
The figure then grinned, I could see it even from behind her.
"You're one stubborn man, Marc. You got my attention."
I recognized that voice, it's Rina, Rina Wenswood, but why is she so magnificent?
I tilted my head to look further in front of her, she's battling the Undead Dark Knight, who I assumed was responsible for my wound. Seeing Rina protecting me really made me embarrassed to be honest.
Under Rina's bright light, she enchanted her arrows and used it as a dagger to defeat the Undead Dark Knight.
I took one quick blink and when I opened my eyes again— Rina's wings disappeared, along with her armor and brightness.
She turned around to look at me, chuckled and fainted away.
[Back to 3rd POV]
Worried, Marc princess-carried Rina towards her home with a wounded shoulder. The path was a ten minutes walk, but Marc precipitately sprinted and covered it in three minutes. He fell to his knees the moment he knocked on the door.
An elf woman opened the door and gasped in shock to see them both so defeated.
When they both were put on the bed, she carefully checked around their bodies to bandages and antisept.
"Oh my…" When she checked on Rina, something caught her by surprise and she looked over to Marc; who's still conscious.
"Did Rina used her Daylight Protector form?"
"Daylight Protector… With wings and green armor? Yes…" Marc weakly said.
Rina's mom then dropped her tears and held Marc's hand tight.
"Promise me young man, please promise me…"
"Miss? What's wrong, is Rina okay?" He tried to sit up.
"Please don't let Rina abuse herself by using that form, too much of it and she'll die. Please promise me!"
…
"And that's how I broke my promise with her…" Marc bitterly smiled, Esmeralda was lying on his forehead, infuriatingly listening to the story.
"I'm so useless you know… But at least we got Rina on our team, didn't we?"
"Keik!" Esmeralda bit Marc's forehead, wanting to hear about the second promise, since he said he broke two at once.
"That was years ago, we slept together that night and Marc's still a virgin to this day— well, all of us are but Marc's a special one."
A cheeky female voice resounded behind them from the cave, Rina falteringly walked out, leaning her hand on the wall while taking every step.
"Rina? Why are you up this early?" Marc blinked rapidly.
"What do you mean? It's morning, have you two been awake the whole night?" This time, Pearl walked out and helped Rina to walk.
"Kerk?" Which translated to "Morning? Wot?"
Esmeralda looked behind them, expecting Mei to show up next, but it seems like she's still deep dreaming.