Saving Soul

Anja sighed. Of course she would have used the cream on herself, if she could. The summon burns would only heal with another strong summon and the cream wouldn't heal bones.

And of course the demon had to show up when she was about to explain that.

Voltaire leered at the incoming beast. "I'll take care of it."

"It's immune to fire. I tried," Adair warned. "Which reminds me, I need a stone sword later."

"Fine," the Hunter replied, bringing out his gun. "I don't suppose it's immune to bullets too?"

"I don't-"

Voltaire fired at the creature's feet, causing it to stumble. It was not seriously injured, however, and let out an angry roar as it stood up again.

"Yeah, I don't like you either," growled Voltaire.

"Neck or spine" Anja stated. "Those are the weakest points on a demon's body."

"That would be great if its neck and spine weren't already guarded by a great big hump of muscle," Voltaire growled back, trying to aim for the demon bear's beady eyes. "Die already dammit."

Ava flew down from the tree, placing Adair and Anja on the ground, and then shot toward the bear armed with her talons and beak.

"Go away!" she hissed as she attacked its face. "My Fiery! My Volty!"

Adair, not about to stand back and watch, began to charge forward.

"Idiot! Stay back there!" Voltaire yelled. "You don't even have a damn sword!"

Anja stayed back. She was useless anyway. Mostly.

"Its skull is too thick to put a bullet through." She stated in warning.

"That's why I'm aiming for the eyes and not the skull. Do you have any other suggestions I can actually use?" answered Voltaire in irritation. "Ava, you're blocking my shots!"

Ava moved her attack to the side, both to get out of the way and to distract the bear. Adair attacked from the other side, his fire attacks not causing any real damage but kept the bear's attack unfocused.

The shots finally hit one of the eyes and then the other, but the bear was only blind and not dead. It let out a mad roar and swiped madly, striking both Ava and Adair back.

"Yeah. It's been favoring its left foot since you started fighting it. Shoot the knee" Anja stated.

Voltaire aimed for the knee, and the bear finally collapsed, though it still roared madly.

Adair and Ava retreated back to the hill, both with shallow but long slash marks across their chests. Ava took noticed of Adair's wounds before her own, and immediately poured white firebreath onto him.

"The hell did you go and get yourself all cut up for?" Voltaire growled. "It was my damn fault the thing came here, and I was going to take care of it."

"It's not as bad as it looks," Adair assured. "Go get your leg treated 'Taire. Your wounds look worse than mine."

Voltaire let out a huff, but went back and sat down next to Anja anyway. "...Your offer still stands?"

"I can't use it. Have at it." Anja replied, sounding a little like her previous self. "It'll do you more good than me."

"Thanks," Voltaire replied, taking some of the salve and rubbing it on the wound. It soon stopped bleeding and throbbing. "Effective stuff you've got there. Where'd you get it?"

Ava was still fussing over Adair a little ways off.

"A priest gave it to me as payment. I saved him from a demon similar to the one you just wounded over there." Anja replied. "I tried to decline it, but he made me take it anyway."

"You shouldn't refuse gifts. People may take it as you saying that what they have isn't good enough for you," Voltaire said. "And you never know when said gifts come in handy."

He glanced back over to Adair and Ava, and an almost sad look came over his face.

"I try to fix things, but all I do is screw them up more."

"They were worried about you. When you went off to hunt. Ava was worried because you were upset." Anja sighed. "You're lucky. You know that?"

Voltaire stared at her like she had said the world is flat, and then smirked.

"I am not. They are for surviving this far with me, but I am not. I'm anything but lucky," Voltaire answered, before letting out a hollow laugh.

The odd laughter alerted Adair and Ava, who came over.

Anja raised a brow at him but made no further comment.

"Volty, you okay?" asked Ava.

"Yeah," he replied tiredly. "Hungry but okay."

He stood up and walked around to test his newly healed leg. It seemed to have recovered nicely. Ava followed Voltaire around anyway, even though he was soon annoyed by it.

Adair sat down where Voltaire had been, watching the somewhat comical scene.

"He's been acting odd lately," said Adair. "I don't know why that is."

"You could always try asking." Anja pointed out. "If he feels like talking about it, he will if you ask. but don't press him."

"Maybe," Adair answered, knowing how obstinate the Hunter could be. I'm fine, he would say, before passing out on the floor from one too many drinks. "What about you? Are you feeling better?"

"No. But I'm used to it." Anja replied. "What I'm not used to is people caring."

Adair felt sad upon hearing that, though the response didn't surprise him.

"Well, the three of us, me and 'Taire and Ava, we're all we've got," he said. "We have friends in the tournaments, but we don't travel with them. So out here we have to look out for each other. So I guess it's a practical thing, for us."

"I've been on my own for a while now. Even when I was with my master, he still didn't care for me. It was succeed or die." Anja stated

Adair looked away.

"I...I'm used to having people at least acting like they care about me," Adair replied. Even if it was nothing but a lie in the end. "I supposed that makes me a bit of a spoiled brat, huh?"

"You're a hero. Its not unusual for you to be at least a little ego-centric. Its in the job description." Anja assured him

Adair remembered Voltaire once saying something similar, and wondered if that was true. Many of his Hero friends put a lot of effort into planning speeches and looking good as much as defeating monsters. Voltaire had been the sole (miserable) audience of plenty a speech rehearsal. Adair laughed at the thought of it.

"We should go soon. Meanie bear is noisy and might attract unwanted attention," said Ava, as she and Voltaire walked over. "Are you okay with flying now, Anjy?"

Voltaire chuckled a little at the new nickname.

"...Whatever" Anja sighed. "I don't care anymore."