It didn't take long for everyone else to start screaming along with the woman. People ran in every direction—some even toward the goblin. Some wanted to be the hero. Most just wanted to get away.
The goblin itself was only half the size of an adult, and its green body stuck out like a sore thumb in the Obsidian Forest. It wielded a partially rusted short sword and wore nothing but a loosely wrapped cloth around its waist, which didn't do much for covering its unsightly…
Its reaction to the situation wasn't too different from the Summoned. It looked absolutely terrified. After all, it had just been on a meager stroll through the first and then happened upon a gigantic group of abnormal beings twice its size who went ape shit when they spotted it.
Then again, it probably happened upon things thrice its size daily in the Obsidian Forest.
Axel felt the world slow as he fell.
The shaking goblin, which by all accounts should have been frightened out of its mind and running away, instead charged toward Axel with its sword raised.
"Ergh!"
The kind man grunted as he took hold of the hem of Axel's shirt and yanked him back.
While Axel's frame wasn't overly heavy, he couldn't be considered light, standing at 6'4 and over 190lbs. He wasn't the easiest to move, especially if the one trying to move him was half a foot shorter. Showcasing this, the kind man now found himself tumbling toward the charging goblin in an even more perilous situation than Axel had been in.
"Why?!"
Axel screamed at the stumbling man while trying to scrabble to catch him. He was too late.
The kind man raised his arm to shield himself, throwing it in the path of the goblin's strike. The sword cut deep, exposing flesh to bone. In a fit of arrogance and desperation, instead of sensibly kicking the goblin away and retreating, the kind man grabbed its frail-looking arms and twisted, forcing the sword to drop from its hands.
But… the goblin seemed to calm down. As if it was adjusting to the situation, strategizing.
Axel was only a half step away from the two in a tango of death when it happened.
"Kreee!"
The goblin screamed while revealing a set of shark-like teeth that it plunged into the kind man's arm, overlapping where he'd been sliced by the sword. The sound of bone crunching resounded throughout the air as the kind man lost his grip on the goblin.
In a single breath, the goblin retrieved its sword and severed the man's left arm using the weakened area.
Axel had reached him too late.
The kind man crumpled to the ground while holding his severed left arm. He began to scream in agony.
"Ho… I…"
Axel was stunned at the sight.
"Snap out of it!"
A handsome blond man screamed in Axel's ear as he charged by and dropkicked the goblin who'd been seconds away from landing a strike to Axel's neck.
The pain in Axel's arm vanished. He couldn't be bothered by it anymore.
He bore down on the kind man and, with all his strength, dragged him away from the goblin. Axel didn't think the man would die suddenly, but blood loss would claim his life sooner or later.
At this realization, Axel closed his eyes in an attempt to hide from the world, even further, hide from reality. It had been his fault that the kind man got injured.
The kind man's screams soon subsided, replaced the the sound of the handsome blonde man pulverizing the goblin. Axel began to cry when he felt the breath of life disappear from the man in his arms.
Axel hadn't even gotten to thank the man. He felt that he had killed him with his own hands. He died trying to save Axel.
"Shut your ass up!"
Axel opened his eyes and stared blankly at the source of the sudden scream. With tears still falling from his face to the ground, he studied the face of the kind man whose cries of anguish had turned into a silent grimace.
"But I…"
"Your face says it all!"
The kind man lightly pushed Axel with his right arm. Axel, despite the relatively weak push, fell back on his behind, stunned.
The kind man weakly continued:
"I just tripped while trying to save your sorry ass. While I don't plan on dying, it seems likely, so could you set me down and get out of the way, let me see the sky."
Axel barely managed to ask:
"But… why?"
The kind man had pain deeply etched in his face. He spoke fast and panted after each breath:
"Didn't do it from kindness. I did it because I saw my past self… in you. So mentally fragile, so mentally abused—resulting in a truly crazed man. Ha. And well, you see, I just happen to be a pretty empathetic person."
Crazed? Similar to him? Had he made some wild misconception about Axel in his mind? Axel didn't know a single thing about him, and the kind man knew nothing about Axel. Axel rationaly thought perhaps he'd been mistaken for someone else. Perhaps that was the reason he helped him in the first place.
Despite saying nothing aloud, the kind man responded as if reading Axel's mind:
"No, fucker. I don't know you, nor care to know you. But the way you… nevermind. Just know I have a pretty good eye for people just like me."
The kind man shook violently in pain.
Axel could only marvel at his grit and determination. But then again…
'Maybe the pain was causing him to spout this nonsense.'
"Shit!"
The kind man's sudden shout sent shivers down Axel's spine.
"Make yourself useful and tie a damned tourniquet on my bicep already! Apply pressure! Stop being a useless dumbass! And all of you assholes watching, at least try and get a fire going! This wound won't close on its own!" Noticeably agitated and growing paler, the kind man turned back to Axel and continued, "Just because I said I wanted to see the sky and not your ugly mug doesn't mean Imma just let the reaper take me."
With the kind man's words, Axel snapped out of his daze and tore apart his bloodied shirt, formed it into a long strip, and wrapped it around the kind man's left bicep as tightly as he could. The man screamed but managed to hold it together without passing out.
Axel used the handsome man fighting the goblin to grab his attention to try and block out the bad thoughts. But the kind man didn't let him hide from this situation.
"Anyway, if I die, don't think that I meant to die for you. This only happened due to my bad luck and your good luck. With how I live, I'm surprised I've even made it to this age."
Axel had no response to the kind man. He just scooted away while listening to the sound of the goblin screaming while getting punched repeatedly, each squeal from the goblin almost sounding like laughter. Axel looked back at his savior.
"At least tell me your name."
"I'll tell you later."
The kind man looked away from Axel and focused on steadying his breathing.
The smell of a small fire started to tingle Axel's nose.
While Axel had been talking to the kind man, the other summoned had managed to light the tail end of a stick of wood from the obsidian trees thanks to a lighter someone had on them. Axel was worried the trees would be actual metal, but his fears were unfounded; it was just regular wood, but black.
About six people worked together transporting wood, and three worked on keeping it going, led by a young-looking girl. It didn't take long before the fire grew rampant enough to light the end of a decently sized log; it seemed the wood was extremely flammable.
The log was glazed over the fire until it was primed with the entire end charred. Without a single word or eye contact, the young girl leading this group handed the log to Axel.
'Why did I have to do this?'
Axel reeled back at the thought, but every second that passed, the kind man grew more and more feeble. Knowing this, Axel took the surprisingly light log and bore down on the man.
Axel lifted the man's left arm and jammed the charred end onto his wound, beginning cauterization.
The kind man screamed relentlessly and thrashed around. Onlookers dropped in and held him down while someone stuck a piece of cloth into his mouth as a gag. After about a minute of enduring, he passed out, but it wasn't over yet.
"Tch."
Axel clicked his tongue when he removed the log, only to see it hadn't been entirely sealed yet, even after two minutes.
With the log losing its heat, another log was supplied to Axel.
Two more minutes went by before Axel removed the log again. The kind man's melting flesh loosely stuck together and blood was everywhere. A consistent, soft cracking and popping sound came from the wound with bits of wood stuck in it.
The entire time he had spent just enduring before any treatment had been about a minute and a half, followed by two to four minutes to even begin cauterizing the wound. Then, around four minutes of cauterization.
"Insane…"
Axel muttered to himself as he put a finger under the man's nostrils and felt a slight gust of air.
While it was still more than likely the man would die of blood loss or infection, the fact that he'd made it this far was utter insanity.
"I refuse to die. Now, please get out of my sight and let me rest."
Axel stared listlessly at the kind man. He had no idea the man was still conscious—better yet, coherent—yet he had just heard his voice and saw his open eyes all the same.
The kind man closed his eyes once again, but Axel couldn't grant his wish immediately. He studied his wound some more, the bubbling blood.
"Yeah… my savior shouldn't die this easily."
Axel brought his hand to the kind man's forehead and brushed his hair out of his eyes so he could properly see the sky when he woke up.
A broken smile crept onto Axel's face. After doing all he could do, he finally granted the kind man's request by using the handsome man fighting the goblin to draw his attention away.