Chapter 39 - Explosion

In the back of my mind, I had been telling myself that we would prevent any explosions. Especially with my capable friends. That being said, there were never any guarantees that they would be able to find the bombs in time. It was a miracle that we did not already have explosions everywhere. Monte had apparently given the signal for them all to be set off but I had hidden the majority of them in my storage. Thanks to her incredible speeds with the manipulation of wind, Rhea was able to finish her district in record time. Midnight did have a very high speed stat but could not nearly compete with someone that could blanket all the streets in wind. He needed to run through every side street until he found all the explosives. It appeared that Midnight missed at least one. Having relinquished Monte with the reliable guard station, Rhea and I teleported together towards the industrial district.

Midnight mourned in his heart. He felt he had failed his new companions. The new hero, in fact! Internally, he was marking himself as a failure when he saw one of the large manufacturing plants went up in flames on the east side of the industrial district. He had run with all his strength and even apprehended 4 different villains in the district. It was his hope that his area would only have 4 bombs, as many other areas did. With his adept senses and fast speed, he had been confident that he would get to all the bombs in time. As he approached the last few streets of his district, he was struck with blazing heat and powerful blast. He was launched backwards across the road behind him. He managed to tuck himself as small as possible as he continued to projectile in reverse. His immediate regrets on failure sank his heart into a near depression. Thankfully, the 4 explosions in his pack were unaffected by the explosion. His landing was not a pretty one. The force of his path was slowed down when he collided with a lower-floor window. Thankfully, it was not made of glass. But he body pierced through the wooden shutters and wooden bars that made up the window. It likely had been a very sturdy window that would contain some of the food processing work inside. He landed in a bloody heap on the concrete floor of the room. There did not appear to be anyone inside the building at the hour. Thankfully, much of the industrial district was empty after sundown. Midnight groaned with displeasure as he slumped over in pain. He wasn't sure if he would be getting up from this one.

Rhea continued to observe the new hero with great respect. A brand-new hero! She could barely contain her excitement. As the elven princess and the system-assigned Hero's Helper, she had no greater assignment than helping the hero to get stronger. It was obvious to her that Sir Airey the Hero was going to prevent certain doom for the planet of Vando. This was made clear when they found themselves in a battle with the Shadow Thief himself! The Shadow Thief had many other names in this world, but they were synonymous with "assassin", "villain", or "servant of evil". It was clear that the shadow thief was one of the great evils of this world and she had just assisted the hero in apprehending him! This made her face beam with joy. That is, until an explosion rang out. Knowing how soft-hearted the hero was, she did not doubt that he was probably blaming himself. She needed to do everything in her power to pick him back up after this setback. Sir Airey the Hero needed good companions that could be counted on through thick and thin. She had already noticed that he was attached to his four beastkin friends. It made her proud to see that there was no prejudice in his heart. When he learned that Rhea was an elf, he seemed almost over-excited. This was quite a different reaction from most humans. Having isolated most of their species, elves were often treated with disdain. Many believed elves to be acting like a superlative race. This was not true. It was still a common misunderstanding. Having elves that lived over 400 years would commonly contribute to that issue. They had many that claimed that the wise act of the old elves was just a bunch of old geysers lording it over the other races. Rhea could not entirely deny the fact that wise old men liked to flaunt their knowledge. Who wouldn't? To Rhea, this was a trait that continued to add to the confusion from the elves. Over recent years, the elven prime minister would often build up good relations with the other nations to ensure our continued cooperation and safety. It was thanks to those efforts that there were less divisions in the Counsel of Nations.

Rhea and I were approaching the explosion site. There were already a couple of dwarven guards that had arrived to help with any victims. One large building had been destroyed in the large blast. As we approached, I used my Presence Detection. I detected 14 bodies in the wreckage as well as another 28 outside of the blast radius that seemed to be injured. I could not tell how close they were to death but I decided to do everything I could to help. I pulled out my potions from my inventory. I had a total of 11 minor health potions. These would not fix fractures or major injuries. I looked at Rhea and she pulled out 3 more potions. I divided up my potions with her and told her the general area of the victims.

"You take care of the victims on the right of the blast while I take the left. Before we jump in, I'm going to try to find Midnight. I think I can sense his presence somewhere in here."

"Understood, Sir Hero!"

"Just Airey."

"Of course, Sir Airey the Hero!"

"Say it again and I'll find another elven princess to help me."

"um…Sir Airey?"

"Progress. See if you can drop the sir. Let's get going!"

We rushed towards the victims.