The Systems Challenge

Elmo couldn't be sure if the two who had apparently helped Kim were an enemy or potential ally. He saw the way they'd held the bugbear back and could only assume that they had a system, which meant that he should know who they were. Yet, with all that had occurred during the past couple days, he couldn't remember what their names were or what the systems they had were. Although, they could also have been announced after Jonas had been, since he could still remember that he had stopped paying attention to the announcer at that point until the last contestant.

He even wasn't sure what to expect from them. They could be like Patricia and Patrick, accepting of competition for the competition, but they could also be looking for ways to whittle down the competition.

Though, he wasn't sure what happened when Kim collapsed. He quickly rushed over to Kim and was surprised to see a number of small, superficial cuts over her arms, face, and hands. However, there were three significant cuts that were bleeding and looked terrible. One cut was along her entire left arm, down to the muscle. Another of the cuts was over her hip, and Elmo was pretty sure he could see bone jutting out of the blood that was flowing out of the wound. Then the worst cut was one that sliced down across her chest and down to just above her belly button.

Elmo wasn't sure what he should do, but he did see the other two walking towards him and he couldn't be sure if he could trust that Kim would be okay if he left her there to get Elin.

Even if the girls weren't yet saved or if they were still being dressed, he considered helping Kim more important. Especially since he wasn't sure if Kim could die from those wounds. If nothing else, they looked really bad an he couldn't say what the overall effects coul be.

"Who are you?" Elmo asked the two men as they approached.

"I'm Elwin and this is Leon," the red-haired man said, indicating the blond man was Leon.

"What do you intend to do?" Elmo asked, ready to cast spells until his MP ran out if necessary.

"We came to help save the girls, but it seems like your team already did that," Leon said.

"How do you know that's my team?" Elmo returned, not wanting to give an inch of ground to them, in the even they were hostile to him and his team. Even if it was about a minor detail.

"Please," Elwin scoffed. "We recognized Jonas when he was fighting with that gray goblin and we also saw you with him before we left that first room. It isn't that difficult to figure out."

"I see," Elmo replied, still not dropping his guard.

Often in the games he'd played, the PKers often seemed like trustworthy people, at least until they saw their opportunity and struck. Which meant that because it was potentially his life on the line, he wouldn't let himself get caught on the wrong side of that kind of situation.

"Hey, Elwin, you should get Owen. It looks like the kid's teammate is hurt badly," Leon remarked.

Elwin looked startled before nodding. "Yeah, I'll get him. He'll have her going in no time," Elwin replied moving away from Leon and jogging into the room and out of sight.

Then Leon leaned against the wall, his eyes closing as if he didn't have a care in the world. "Does your team have a healer?" Leon asked.

"Why's that any of your concern?" Elmo asked, refusing to give them any details of their team, regardless of how insignificant it seemed.

"None of my concern," Leon replied conversationally. "Just curious. Owen will be able to heal your friend here, but I thought you probably would prefer to have your own healer take care of her, although, you'd first need to have one on your team in order to do that."

Elmo scowled at Leon, even if he wasn't looking at him. "We'll be able to manage on our own," he said, not wanting to give an inch.

"Suit yourself," Leon commented. "Just consider this, if you don't do something to your friend, she's going to have an especially difficult time of surviving."

Elmo sighed. "Elin?" he called out around the corner.

"Almost done!" Elin called back. "Just getting the pants on the older woman."

Leon turned to look at Elmo on hearing that statement and arched an eyebrow.

Ignoring Leon for the moment, Elmo continued talking to Elin from around the corner of the hallway. "As soon as you get done, Kim's going to need your help out here," Elmo said.

"What?!" Elin cried in alarm.

A moment later, Elin had run around the corner, her dress a bright yellow, and knelt beside Kim. A look of pure worry expressed on Elin's face. Elmo would have thought she would have started losing her mind, but instead, she placed her hands on Kim's wound on her chest and took a deep breath.

"Minor heal," Elin said defiantly. Pure white energy glowed around Elin's hands a moment before it was absorbed by the wound where it visibly began to close.

Elin repeated the process on the other two significant wounds on Kim. Then she enhanced her str before she started to slowly remove Kim's armor, Elmo helping for lack of something to do and because he could see she needed help since her enhancement didn't seem to give as much help as she probably needed, which suddenly became the kind of armor that it had been before, rather than the bikini armor it had turned into when Kim had originall put it on. Then as she finished, she moved to directly block Leon's view of Kim before she took Kim's shirt off, giving Elmo the first clear view of her breasts, which he knew she should never mention. Not if he valued his life.

Then she removed Kim's ruined shirt and began to tear strips off of the shirt that she used to do her best to bind the wounds. Or at least the wounds on her arm and hip. Then after the other wounds were bound to the best of her ability, she placed her hands on the wound across Kim's chest and cast Minor heal a couple more times, after which Elin pulled her hands away, the wound looking like it had mostly healed. Although, Elmo couldn't say if it would be likely to open up again.

As Elin finished, Elmo pulled a shirt out of the bag he'd had, since he figured that Elin would like Kim to be dressed before she move and not let Leon see more of Kim than Elmo knew Kim would like.

"Thanks," Elin said as she accepted the shirt for Elmo before she started to put it on Kim.

When she finished that task, Elmo helping lift Kim so Elin could slide the shirt down her back, they lay Kim back on the ground.

"So, now that that's taken care of," Leon remarked. "Would you have time to talk?"

"Sure," Elin said simply before Elmo could refuse.

"What's your name?" he asked Elin.

"I'm Elin, this is Elmo," Elin said indicating to Elmo. Then, indicating Kim, she added, "This is Kim."

"Where's Jonas?" Leon asked, looking back towards the room the goblins had been in. "Is he still in the room?"

"No," Elin answered, pointing towards the way they had come from. "He's back there. He collapsed when he saved Heather and Sonya."

Elmo felt a moment of panic at hearing Jonas had collapsed, but stopped himself from rushing to him, since right now Elin seemed too trusting of Leon and he wasn't going to let Leon take advantage of Elin in any way.

"How'd he do that?" Leon asked, conversationally. "When we last saw him, he was fighting a gray goblin and definitely come through here while Kim was fighting around half their number?"

"That's a team secret," Elmo said before Elin could say anything. "We can't tell you because we can't be sure you wouldn't try to use it against us."

"Why would he use it against us?" Elin asked. "He's trustworthy."

Elmo sighed. He felt like he was back home trying to explain something simple to his family who were making it more complex thank it needed to be.

"It's not just about him," Elmo told Elin. "He's part of a team himself, so if anyone on their team isn't trustworthy, how would you know? Besides, while they may not be our enemies right now, that doesn't mean that won't change later on. But whatever they learn about us won't be so easy to take back."

"Oh," was all Elin replied with, but her expression spoke volumes. It was clear to Elmo that she hadn't considered that part of it.

"By the way," Elmo said, "why did he collapse?"

"Not sure," Elin said. "As soon as he brought Sonya and Heather back, he just collapsed. I spent the rest of the time getting them dressed."

"Let's just hope it's not serious," Elmo remarked as he stared worriedly in the direction Jonas was in.