They didn't stop running until the nobleman's mansion, and the town as a whole, was a distant speck behind them. The three stumbled off the road into a patch of grass, panting and laughing between gasps for breath.
"That…" Rika wheezed, hands on her knees. "Was awesome. Did you see his face when you broke that vase!?"
Kaito grinned, still chewing on the last bit of bread he'd stolen. "Yeah. He looked like he was gonna explode."
Dante, however, wasn't laughing. He sank down onto the ground, lying flat on his back and staring up at the sky. His breathing steadied, but his eyes looked… distant.
Kaito stopped grinning. "Hey, you good?"
Dante didn't answer at first. Then, quietly, he said, "I don't feel very heroic."
That made both of them pause.
"I mean, look at us," Dante went on, his voice low. "We run from danger, we take the easy jobs, we make a mess everywhere we go. Heroes… don't do that. Heroes save people, they fight for something." He turned his head toward Kaito. "You're the only one who actually can fight. I'm just… tagging along."
Kaito crouched beside him. "You're plenty hero."
Dante let out a humorless laugh. "Yeah? Doesn't feel like it."
Rika flopped down next to him, hands behind her head. "Well, that's your problem," she said. "You're trying to be a hero. Me? I'm just trying not to die. Way less disappointing."
Dante gave her a flat look. "Inspirational."
"Thank you," she said with a wink.
Kaito smiled faintly, looking between the two of them. "You'll see it one day," he said simply. "When you do something without thinking, something that helps someone else… that's when you'll know."
Dante sighed and pushed himself upright. "Maybe. Let's just… keep heading toward Veloria."
The dirt road stretched long and quiet under the midday sun. The trio walked in lazy rhythm, boots crunching gravel, the forest humming faintly around them.
Rika, as usual, couldn't stand silence for long. "So, I ever tell you about the time I worked as a 'security consultant' for a merchant caravan?"
Dante arched an eyebrow. "You mean a thief."
"'Unpaid security consultant,'" she corrected, grinning. "Anyway, this guy had a magic chest that would scream every time someone tried to open it, so I told him I'd fix it. Totally did. After that, the chest didn't scream anymore."
Kaito looked mildly impressed. "So you disabled the enchantment?"
"No," Rika said proudly. "I just made it sing instead."
Dante sighed. "You're unbelievable."
"That's what he said when he found it missing."
Their laughter was cut short by the rustle of leaves ahead. Something heavy shifted in the brush. A guttural growl rumbled through the trees.
A beast emerged, four-legged, its body covered in cracked stone-like plates, eyes burning like embers. A lesser Terrafang, deadly to the untrained.
Kaito cracked his knuckles. "I got this one."
He stepped forward calmly as Rika and Dante backed away. The monster lunged, claws scraping dirt, but Kaito ducked low and drove his dagger upward, slicing through its chest. With one clean motion, the beast collapsed, dust billowing around it.
He seemed almost surprised it died so easily, not from an easy fight but he never wanted to kill it. He took a knee, resting a hand on the fallen creature's back. "Rest easy," he murmured, beginning his short prayer, a quiet ritual of respect he always performed after a kill.
Then....
BOOM.
An explosion tore through the clearing. Kaito was flung like a ragdoll through the air, crashing into the distance with a smoking trail. His dagger skidded across the dirt and stopped right at Dante's feet.
"KAITO!" Rika shouted.
Before they could even process it, another blast ripped toward them. Rika shot upward with a burst of wind magic, narrowly dodging. Dante sprinted, diving behind a tree as heat seared past his side.
The beast wasn't dead. Its cracked body pulsed with molten energy, fury blazing through the fractures in its hide.
Dante gritted his teeth and ran forward, gripping his sword with both hands. "Come on!"
He swung with everything he had, the blade scraped across the creature's armor, barely cutting through. The Terrafang growled and smacked him aside with a single strike, sending him tumbling through the dirt.
"Dante!" Rika swooped low, launching blades of air to drive the monster back. She twisted and dodged another incoming blast, barely. Her balance broke midair, and she spiraled downward.
Dante's heart stopped.
He didn't think. He just moved.
Slamming his hands together, ice surged up from the ground, a thick crystalline wall forming between Rika and the incoming blast. It hit, shaking the air with a deafening roar. When the smoke cleared, the wall was cracked but still standing.
Rika blinked, realizing Dante had grabbed her by the arm and pulled her behind it.
He looked terrified, but steady. "I'm not gonna let you get hurt," he said, breathless. "I can't beat it, but Kaito can."
He looked at the dagger lying on the ground, picked it up, and without hesitation threw it high into the air, toward where Kaito had landed.
The blade spun through the sky, glinting in the sunlight.
Then, with a flash, a hand caught it.
Kaito emerged from the smoke, clothes charred, hair wild, eyes calm. He dashed forward in a streak of motion, stabbed the dagger into the beast's core, and with a final burst of light, the monster roared and collapsed, steam hissing from its wounds.
Not dead, just unconscious.
Silence fell.
Kaito stood there, panting, flames still licking faintly at his shirt. He turned back toward them and grinned. "That was… fun."
Rika ran up, smacking at his smoldering sleeve. "You're on fire, idiot!"
"Yeah," Kaito said, completely unfazed. "Kinda warm."
Dante stumbled over, still gripping his sword. "That… could've gone better."
Kaito chuckled and raised his hand. "Nah. You did great." He high-fived Dante, the impact sharp and satisfying. "Nice throw."
Rika crossed her arms, smirking. "And nice save. Couldn't let a pretty young lady like me get blown to bits, huh?"
Dante gave her a deadpan look. "You're delusional."
She gasped dramatically. "Rude!"
Kaito patted Dante's arm with a warm smile. "Still, that was heroic back there. Saving Rika like that."
Dante blinked, caught off guard, then, slowly, a small smile broke across his face.
"Yeah," he said quietly. "Maybe it was."
Rika grinned. "See? Told you you'd get your hero moment. Now, let's never talk about how close I was to dying."
They laughed together, a little smoky, but together.
And as the road to Veloria stretched out before them, the three walked on, not as perfect heroes, but as something better.
A team, and with all of their spotty backgrounds, it was enough.