Earth’s Doom Starts with… Me?

"Damn it!"

I cursed loudly when I saw that the crouching tree monster had suddenly sprouted numerous branches from its back, right before fading away, dying from fire. There were probably at least a thousand newly grown branches that were barely burned.

We were able to subdue it just because its rate of growing branches was slower than the rate of our fire burning it down.

But with its last-ditch attempt, it managed to summon so many branches that even our fire struggled to keep up.

The most important thing, though--

"Jeanne!? Firiell? Are you guys alright!?" I flew my gaze to an ice dome that I had created in a rush.

When I realized that the tree monster was about to do some dangerous stuff, I reflexively blasted my ice to make a cocoon for my teammates, Jeanne with Firiell, and general Zhang that I didn't even know the precise location of. I just kinda made a huge dome around where he should be.

Wait, huh...?

Ack! I forgot to shield general Emilio! It didn't cross my mind to make a dome around myself, so naturally, general Emilio who was stuck with me also didn't get protection!

But then, how come I was safe from the branches?

'Drip.'

"General Emilio...?" I slowly turned my gaze up from the ice dome over there, to the man who was holding me over here.

"What?"

My eyes went wide as I frowned and bit my lip, when I realized that the blood that was dripping on my cheek was general Emilio's. He got hit--no, stabbed by two branches, one on his shoulder and one on his arm.

"General, you--!"

His back was turned against the tree monster, perfectly shielding my smaller body from the attack, while he took two himself, despite him already being wounded from prior fighting. I was about to clutch onto his shirt, but then realized that his shirt had been burned away, so I just clenched my fist, drawing more blood from my already bleeding nails.

"You shouldn't do this!" My voice cracked as I reached out behind him and cut off the branches using a makeshift ice dagger, making sure that the branches stayed inside his wound.

"Do what?" He inquired, still with a straight face, unlike mine that was starting to distort in worry.

"This! Protecting me!" I jumped down from his arms and quickly ripped some of my already short skirt to put pressure on both of his wounds. Ahh, think, Chae! Think of a way to keep this man from dying! He was basically flirting with death at this point.

"I'm your general." He gave me his reason and winced slightly as I applied more pressure on his wound. Seeing that, I tried to press his other shoulder down to get him to sit down, but he just wouldn't budge.

"Exactly, yes! You're my general!" I frantically agreed, "that's why you should be able to read the situation! Your injuries are worse than mine, so it's just logical to let me take the attack! You know, basic math? Distributing the loss?" I asked with wide eyes and heavy breathing.

He just raised an eyebrow as I continued to wrap his wounds while tying another fabric above the wounds, in a messy attempt to lessen the bleeding. At the same time, I placed two fingers on his neck where his carotid artery should be located, and also grabbed his hand to check for cold fingers.

"No, this is exactly what a general should be doing," he replied while looking at me weirdly, "generals are there to guide and protect their soldiers, not to get protected by their soldiers."

"Wha-- But if you die, you won't be able to protect and guide more soldiers!" I argued. I was never comfortable with the idea of getting saved by someone. I hated it. I hated being so weak that someone had to willingly protect me.

"If I kept avoiding to protect my soldier, then when will I actually start? And who am I to judge which life is worth more than the other?" He answered with a little sigh, as if my statement was a dumb one.

Uh, what? Wait, I actually agreed with his second statement. I also thought it was unfair for me to judge which life was more important. And I've said that too, to Jeanne, specifically. But... Now that I was on the receiving end, I felt so miserable to hear that. I didn't like that someone had to cover for my incompetence.

"Rather, what are you doing?" He asked, snapping me out of my thought.

"Oh? Ah-- I'm checking if you're going to go into shock soon," I chuckled nervously, "you know, like, fainting and stuff? Too little blood? Well, those kinds of dangerous stuff."

"You don't have to--"

"Shush. Go sit this one out and drink some water or something," I covered his mouth with my hand before he could finish speaking, "we'll get it done fast, don't worry. Trust your fellow generals a bit more," I smiled, "I won't ask you to trust me, but at least trust that Jeanne and that eel got this under control."

"Don't command m--"

"No. Bad. You sit back and that's final. You can play dart with your quills while you're sitting there or something if you wanna fight that bad." I quickly stepped backwards, and caged him inside a thick ice cage.

"The hell!?" For once, shock was truly apparent on his face. Huh, I guess nobody had ever dared to cage a general like him before, eh? Generals were really held in high regard back in Alistair, after all.

"Be good, aight? And don't even try to break out, my ice is stronger than your fire... For now." I awkwardly scratched my cheek. Thank you, buffing scrolls!

"Chaerin, stop it right now." He growled and pounded on the cage.

"Huh? What? Sorry, bad signal, can't hear you! Talk to you later, I got a fight to take care of, byeeee!" I lifted him up along with his cage using my psychokinesis, and yeeted him away, far from where the elf king was battling general Zhang, but close enough for me to still confirm that he wasn't dead.

"Alright, now as for Jeanne and Firiell--"

"Chae! Look behind you!" Jeanne, the person I was looking for, turned out to be not far. In fact, she was already running towards me while extending her arm.

"Huh?"

"I see you've killed my pet."

'FWOOSH!'

The moment I heard that deep, velvety voice, my body moved on its own and leapt away from my spot.

"You--"

'Drip.'

I was about to curse that elf king, when I realized that he had cut my neck deep enough to draw blood, but not deep enough to make it spray. I was saved by my buffed agility stat this time. Spooky.

"Dude, just how many weapons do you have?" I groaned. Alright, now was really the time to face the boss.

"I can use any weapons that I can get my hands on," he replied while holding up a beautiful, dark green dagger that had golden engravings on it, "I can even use them in an unorthodox way."

'Fwoosh!'

"Ack!" I yelped as I stumbled on my feet, trying to dodge the dagger that he suddenly threw at me.

"That was close-- oop!"

Just as I was about to relax, I noticed the dagger that flew past me suddenly turned around, changing its course back at me. Fortunately, I had enough time to deflect it using my hand that I had coated with hard ice.

"Hoo~" He grinned at me amusedly, "let's see how you handle multiple attacks at once, shall we?"

"Try me, you dumb bitch. That tree guy is better than you in terms of multiple attacks." I scoffed, a bit annoyed.

"Alright, time out!" General Zhang suddenly landed between the two of us, clapping his hands.

"Uh?" I flinched and took a step back in surprise. What was he doing, getting in the middle of a fight?

"No can do." Erenduill clicked his tongue loudly, which surprised me since it was the first time I saw him aggravated to that extent.

'BAM!'

In a split second, the elf king launched himself towards general Zhang, who blocked him easily without taking even one step backwards.

Dude, how? Even I, who was standing a few meters away from them, had to step back to stabilize myself from the shockwave. What exactly was general Zhang made of...?

"You... You've been a bother for a while!" Erenduill raised his hand and formed three green balls of mana at once, just like the one he threw at me earlier.

"Hey eel, mov--!"

"Oops, naughty. Let me keep that for you," general Zhang just laughed and snapped his finger, when suddenly all of the balls disappeared into nothing.

Huh? That move again...?

"Again?" The elf king parroted my thought, "you've been using annoying tricks since then... What exactly is your magic?" He frowned.

"Me? My magic is thisssssss~" General Zhang giggled as his body split into two smaller, watery general Zhangs, and then into fish-shaped water, and even into straight-up dumpling-shaped water, "I can turn into water and morph into any shape I fancy--"

'ZZAP!'

"--all the while doing zappy zaps."

"... Tch." The elf king growled as he took general Zhang's zap with his arm.

Now that I thought about it, what exactly happened during their fight while we were busy burning some wood? How could general Zhang keep up... No, wait. Erenduill was the one taking damage, judging by the few bruises visible on his once pristine skin and tattered clothes, while general Zhang just looked like the usual lunatic he always was.

But..? Wh-- How?

"Hey, your kingly kingship or something, stay there for a minute, okay?" General Zhang, who was back in his human form, scratched his head, "don't move, for just a minute, if you don't want me to lose patience."

My eyes went wide when I saw that the elf king actually stopped moving and bit his lip, although his stance was clearly aggressive. This clowny eel managed to intimidate that Erenduill?

"Little cub." His deep, sultry voice made me look up nervously and looked at him, who was now standing before me.

"Y-yeah?" I answered, staring into his eyes that had suddenly lost their usual playfulness. Not even a smirk was on his face.

"You..."

I gulped as he bent down and tucked my hair behind my ear.

"Um...?"