Chapter 62: The Outcome of the Battle, and…

“Lloyd-sama! Are you all right?!”

“Ah, y-yeah… ouch.”

“I’ll get a potion right away!”

Lilina ran over to me and pulled a potion out of my pack.

I took the potion from Lilina, drinking it down straight from the bottle.

While pressing on my aching side, I opened up my status screen.

The main thing I wanted to check was the list of stolen skills under ‘Status.’

And sure enough, ‘Support’ was listed among them.

So, Kane’s ‘Support’ skill really was here.

Had I actually stolen it?

But how…?

As I thought it over, I recalled the sequence of events just a moment ago.

When I’d used ‘Steal,’ Zard had thrown me into the air.

At that moment, I remembered, my left hand had been pointed toward Kane.

So, it turned out my ‘Steal’ hadn’t hit the wyvern, but Kane instead.

“Lloyd-sama…”

As I was processing this, Lilina looked at me with a worried expression.

Then, with her face down, she mumbled quietly.

“…I won’t forgive them.”

Lilina stood up straight, her eyes turning cold as they fixed on Zard.

I felt a strange sense of déjà vu in her gaze and quickly grabbed her hand.

“W-wait, Lilina! I’m all right, okay?”

“That’s a lie. You’re in pain, Lloyd-sama—I can see it.”

As I tried to stop her, Lilina tilted her head sadly.

This isn’t good. If I don’t calm her down, Zard’s life might be in real danger.

“I-I’m really fine, see? Right?”

I gave Lilina a little shake, and after blinking a few times, she murmured, “Huh?” and returned to her usual self.

I breathed a sigh of relief, seeing Lilina back to normal.

Then, I looked over to where Zard and the others were.

It seemed that, in place of me, they’d caught the wyvern’s attention.

“Zard! Keep charging! As long as you have my ‘Support,’ you’re an A-rank adventurer!”

Kane was shouting orders to Zard, grinning with confidence from the back.

It looked like he still hadn’t realized that I’d stolen his ‘Support’ skill.

Wait… isn’t this situation pretty bad?

“Here we go, Zard! ‘Support’! W-wait, huh?”

“Yeah, got it! ‘Hardening,’ ‘Power Thrust’! Huh? W-wait—!”

“Graaaah!”

Zard noticed something seemed off, but it was too late. He was swatted away by the wyvern’s massive front claws.

*Crash!*

“Gwah!”

Zard’s shield clashed with the wyvern’s claws, ringing out with a dull, metallic sound.

He screamed as he was slammed to the ground, his body hitting it with a heavy thud.

“Guh… Hey, Kane! Why didn’t you use ‘Support’?!”

Zard yelled, clutching his bleeding right hand, while Kane looked around in confusion, clearly clueless as to what was happening.

“I-I did! Why isn’t ‘Support’ activating? Huh, what’s going on?”

“Kane! I need ‘Support’ as well! Zard, I’ll heal you right away!”

“R-right. ‘Support’!”

Kane and Emi rushed to Zard’s side.

After checking Zard’s wound, Emi gently placed her hand over it.

“Heal… Hey, Kane! Hurry up and use ‘Support’!”

“I-I’m doing it! It should’ve worked, but… why isn’t it activating?”

“Ugh, if you can’t use ‘Support,’ then just move out of the way!”

Emi snapped, clearly irritated, and pushed Kane forcefully.

Kane stumbled backward from the push, muttering to himself.

“No way, this is weird. Why can’t I suddenly use it? Huh? What happens if ‘Support’ disappears? W-what does that mean for me? I finally started getting popular, making money, getting back at the people who looked down on me…!”

Kane mumbled this as he hung his head and slumped weakly to the ground.

Then he suddenly looked up, locking eyes with me, as if realizing something.

“L-Lloyd. Did you… steal my ‘Support’?”

His face lacked its usual villainous intensity, and there was none of a protagonist’s sincerity in it either.

“Why? You always said you didn’t need my skill, right? You laughed, saying ‘If I had some weak skill like that, it would taint me,’ right? So why… why did you suddenly steal it from me?! Why?!”

His face seemed desperate, as though he was clinging to something. I couldn’t help but look away from him.

“GRAAAH!!”

At that moment, the wyvern, which had moved behind Kane, opened its massive jaws wide.

From the fiery sparks falling from its mouth, it seemed like it was about to breathe fire again.

But Kane didn’t seem to notice at all.

“Lloyd! Answer me! Why… why are you doing this now?!”

*Fwoosh!*

As Kane was shouting, an arrow shot right past him with incredible speed.

The arrow gouged into the wyvern’s eye, which had been preparing to unleash fire.

“GRAAAH!!”

“Eh, w-what’s happening…?”

Kane was shocked by the arrow grazing his cheek and quickly wiped away the blood that had started dripping.

“Get out of the way. If you don’t want to be pierced by an arrow, move.”

Alisha’s voice, though calm, was tinged with restrained anger as she set another arrow on her bow.

Kane, now clearly flustered, quickly distanced himself from the wyvern.

Whether Alisha’s anger came from seeing a comrade hurt before or from Zard attacking me earlier, I couldn’t tell.

But one thing was clear—her anger was genuine.

Kane, flailing his legs and stumbling, clumsily fled from the wyvern.

The sight of him was… pitiful, to say the least.

“…Anyway, let’s take down the wyvern and end this fight.”

“Lloyd-sama, are you sure you’re all right?”

“Yeah. It still hurts, but it’s nothing serious. Thanks to Lilina, the wyvern seems to be moving much slower now.”

I told Lilina this and then glanced at the wyvern, which seemed to be struggling more than before.

It was probably due to the poison Lilina had applied earlier, or perhaps my magic was still affecting it.

I pointed my left hand toward the now sluggish wyvern and concentrated.

“‘Steal’!”

When I used ‘Steal,’ my left palm briefly glowed with a faint light.

Immediately after, a screen displaying my status appeared.

‘Successful theft via Steal. Skill: Flame Bullet.’

“Ga… Gah?”

As I stole the skill, the sparks of fire that had been leaking from the wyvern’s mouth suddenly disappeared.

That was probably to be expected.

After all, I had taken the source of it.

As I ran toward the confused wyvern, it opened its massive jaws, attempting to bite me.

At the moment its mouth was about to close in on me, I swung my longsword down with all my strength.

Even if it could still breathe fire, I figured it wouldn’t be able to remain unaffected if I shoved fire right back into its mouth.

“‘Flame Bullet’!”

With a roar, the fireball I released crashed into the wyvern.

The wyvern had its mouth open, so the fiery mass burned through its body from the inside out.

“GAAAAA!!”

The wyvern let out a scream, its death throes echoing, and it collapsed heavily to the ground.

Taking advantage of this opening, I quickly circled around to the wyvern’s neck.

“Goodbye. This is the end. ‘Herculean Strength’!”

I swung my sword down with all my might, and the wyvern ceased to move.

And thus, our battle with the wyvern came to an end.