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Touko gripped her sword tightly as the party approached the next room. She followed behind Suguru, giving a glance at her other three teammates behind her. Yuu had her hand on her mace, Sayaka's on her spellbook, and Seiji's on his pistol. They were all prepared for an attack that could come at any moment around the corner of the dark stone walls.
The barbarian stopped walking, leaving Touko to bump into him. The paladin looked over his shoulder.
A large wooden door stood in their path. On it, a sign that read: "Thieves: Do not enter". Suguru turned to the party, axe still slung over his shoulder.
"We ready to enter?" Touko and the rest of the party nodded. Giving a smirk, an idea seemed to pop into the half-orc's head. "Watch this." He turned to the door then backed up a few steps.
He then proceeded to run into the door, giving it a kick.
He also proceeded to groan in pain when the door didn't give in. Sighing, Sayaka walked over and tried the doorknob, pushing open the door when the knob turned.
Inside, a large group of orcs sat at a table. The room looked similar to a break room, with orc snacks around the table and lounging chairs in the back. They were playing cards, with chips around the table. As the door slowly creaked open, they all turned to the party, cards still in hand. Being the half orc of the party, Suguru attempted to speak to them in the language of the orcs. He gave some grunts, gesturing with his free hand. Being human, Touko didn't understand.
Suguru likely cursed their mothers' graves, seeing as the orcs' reaction was to pull out their axes, screaming their war cries. The party of adventurers gripped their weapons tighter, ready to fight. Fighting was inevitable sometimes.
Seiji was first to take a large amount of damage. An orc had grazed deep into his arm, causing the gunslinger to grit his teeth as he gripped his bleeding arm. That looked painful.
Giving only a glance to the party's cleric rushing to the gunslinger's side, Touko readied her sword to pierce another orc's torso. She was glad they had a cleric in the party.
It was when Touko heard Sayaka's grunt of pain later that Touko again gave attention to the cleric. Seiji was able to fight at that point, his arm wrapped in bandages at his side, his dominant hand still able to use the gun. The cleric cast a spell on the wizard's torso, her gentle hands making sure not to hurt Sayaka. Touko's eyes stayed on them far longer than they perhaps should've.
It was okay, though. Touko just wanted to make sure her party was okay.
Surprisingly, Touko had not yet experienced a bad wound. As one of the party's stockier fighters (Suguru was the other), she could take a few more hits. Her pauldrons protected her from some of the attacks, her agility helping her with others.
The paladin couldn't afford taking damage just to see Yuu now. She had to keep them safe.
Touko's self-sacrificing tendency was an issue, though.
An orc had thrown a javelin in Yuu's direction. Touko gasped, halting in place. Without the cleric, their party would be near useless in their state. Plus, Touko didn't want to lose the pink-haired adventurer.
"Yuu!" The cleric looked over to her, busy bashing an orc's head with a mace.
Making a quick and rash decision, Touko leaped in front of the cleric, directly in the path of the javelin. She heard the cleric scream something, but the blood pumping through the paladin's head was deafening.
Javelins to the left side of your chest hurt a lot less when there's adrenaline rushing through your nerves.
Yuu picked up Touko, bringing her outside the room behind the door where the battle couldn't reach them. Through the door, Touko could hear the sounds of the battle. It was quieter than earlier, what with the fewer orcs.
Perhaps it was a safety precaution.
Frantically, the cleric dug through her bag, looking for a scroll. Groaning, the cleric pulled out a bottle of alcohol and some healing salve. The paladin had been with the cleric for long enough to know that she had run out of spells.
As the cleric went to clean up Touko's wound, the paladin chuckled.
"I'm so glad you joined our party," said the paladin, her smile strained as Yuu dabbed her wound with alcohol. She felt a little out of it from the adrenaline wearing off. "I love you."
Yuu's hand started shaking as she applied the salve.
"What's up?" She wanted to tease her. The cleric simply kept cleaning her wound in silence, her hands continuing to tremble. "Is my presence making you tremble out of fear?" Yuu shook her head, hiding her face behind her shoulder. Her hands stilled. The paladin tilted her head, trying to look at the cleric's face.
"I don't want to lose you, Touko." She turned to look at the paladin in the eyes, tears welling up. She wiped her face with her sleeve that wasn't covered in blood. "Do you know what could've happened if I didn't bring emergency salve?" Her hands moved once again as she spoke, her voice cracking. "I do love you. I don't want to lose you." Touko laid her head down, staring at the ceiling.
"Oh." She let Yuu tend to her wounds in silence for a few long moments. "I'm sorry, Yuu." Yuu finished, patting Touko for her to let Yuu wrap her side in a gauze.
"It's okay, just..." The pink-haired cleric reached for her hand and squeezed it. "Please be careful."
Touko got up slowly, making sure not to overexert her core. She leaned over, giving the cleric a kiss.
"I promise." The cleric gave a small smile, squeezing the paladin's hand once again.
"Let's get back to the group."