I’m Not a Saint, Not a Priest, Just a Healer

To Kairoc’s question of why he hadn’t mentioned it earlier, James replied that he hadn’t thought it was that important.
“But it seems like that’s where the problem started.”
Yona nodded at Kairoc’s words.
After all, she had been feeling something intense since earlier — a feeling as if something was guiding her.
“Alec, you’re watching the front, right?”
“Of course. You keep a good watch too.”
As they climbed the mountain path, Yona breathed heavily.
It wasn’t a particularly difficult path, and although her stamina had decreased, it wasn’t a distance that should tire her out so easily.
Yet, she felt strangely excited.
Yona walked along the mountain path with her hand on Alec’s shoulder, trying to suppress her pounding heart.
Despite it being bright daylight, the trees were so thick that it was all shaded, making the mountain path as dark as early evening.
“How much further do we have to go?”
For walking on mountain paths, his massive body was more of a hindrance.
Kairoc looked back at James while pushing away branches that were blocking his view.
“We still have quite a way to go.”
Lizardmen weren’t very compatible with such mountain paths.
Originally, lizardmen had no reason to come to places like this, and Kairoc, who was living as an adventurer, was more of an oddity.
“Yona, are you alright?”
Yona’s face was flushed red, looking quite unwell.
At Kairoc’s words, Alec, who was walking at the front of the party, turned around.
The sight of Yona that met Alec’s eyes was quite troubling.
A flushed red face, heavy breathing.
Alec thought something was strange about Yona, who looked like heated breath might escape between her red lips at any moment.
“I’m, hah, fi… huff… fine.”
“No, you don’t look fine at all.”
Her voice was strangely sensual.
James, who was following with the bow he used in his adventurer days, rushed over to look at Yona’s face.
She certainly didn’t look fine.
“Really… ah, huff… I’m, I’m fine… I said.”
Yona’s voice, mixed with her flushed face and strange moans, was truly bizarre.
Moreover, her right hand on Alec’s shoulder.
Not just her right hand, but her entire right arm was spreading an inexplicable, strange heat.
Only Yona didn’t notice.
Alec, who her hand was touching, realized it first.
The strange heat felt through the holy cloth, even through Alec’s leather armor.
It was when Alec thought that something was going wrong, that Yona’s condition was strange.

Thud.
The ground shook.
The vibration spread.
James, who felt it first and realized what the vibration meant, looked at Kairoc.
“Has it come out?”
“Probably.”
Kairoc gripped his axe handle tighter.
James pulled a feathered arrow from the quiver on his back and nocked it to his bow, looking around with a tense expression.
Alec stood in front of Yona, as if hiding her behind him.
“…It’s coming.”
A very small whisper.
Yona’s whisper tickled Alec’s ear.
“It’s coming!”
James shouted.
Along with his shout, a loud sound of trees breaking accompanied by a massive ground-shaking noise echoed from the front.
As if the sun had disappeared completely from this already shaded forest, a deep darkness settled.
Thick darkness descended over their heads.
“…Is that, the beast?”
“Yes.”
James barely managed to nod at Kairoc’s suppressed words.
“Didn’t you say it was about twice your size?”
“It’s grown bigger.”
A huge black bear, now clearly larger than twice James’ size, was looking down at them.
Its eyes, gleaming with bright red light, were impossible to tell where they were looking.
“Alec, go forward.”
At Yona’s calm voice, Alec almost turned around.
“You’re the guard. Hurry and go forward.”
Yona’s voice had returned to completely normal.
Alec couldn’t turn to look at Yona because of the bear right in front of him, but he felt reassured that Yona’s hand remained on his shoulder — he raised his shield and moved forward one step at a time.
He didn’t forget to keep his eyes on the bear, ready to deflect if it attacked at any moment.

Grooooaaaaaar—!
The bear roared.
The howling sound was so loud that the surrounding trees seemed to scatter for a moment.
“It’s coming!”
With Alec’s shout, the bear swung its front paw.
It can’t be blocked.
Human strength can’t overcome a bear’s power.
Alec held his shield at an angle.

Clang!
With a loud noise, his arm felt a stinging pain.
It was a bigger impact than when he had deflected a troll’s club before.
Alec’s back foot, which was bearing his weight, sank into the ground.
Meanwhile, Kairoc dove towards the bear’s side.
The axe cut through the air and struck the bear’s thigh forcefully.
With a thud, the axe only embedded in the skin and couldn’t go any deeper.
As soon as the bear turned towards Kairoc, Alec blocked its path, and above them, an arrow shot by James flew in.

Groooowl!
Inevitably, being a bear, its intelligence wasn’t very high, so its attack methods weren’t particularly varied.
It just swung its front paws, or occasionally stomped with its hind legs.
Kairoc darted in and out, inflicting wounds on the bear as if peeling an apple.
Each time, Alec uncannily dove in to deflect or dodge the bear’s swinging front paws with his shield.
Every time Alec got scratched and wounded by the claws, Yona, who was sticking to him like a shadow behind him, immediately healed him.
“Trust me, Alec. You can move freely, it’s okay.”
Alec didn’t answer.
He already trusted Yona to the point where he couldn’t trust her any more than this.

Grooowl!
The bear lowered its posture.
Kairoc was behind the bear like this, and just as Alec was getting into position to dive in front of Kairoc—
The bear moved at a rapid speed and pounced.
And in front of it was James.
“Mr. James!”
Before Alec could even react, the bear pounced on James at a terrifying speed.
James, an archer making ranged attacks, had been maintaining sufficient distance, but the bear closed that distance in an instant and was right in front of James the moment he hesitated.
“James!”
Kairoc and Alec rushed towards the bear simultaneously.
But the bear was much faster, and in an instant, with a loud snap, the thick arm holding the bow flew into the air.
“James!”
“Mr. James!”
Kairoc, arriving a step late, kept striking the bear’s head with his axe.
James, who had already collapsed with one arm severed, was no longer in a state to fight.
“Yona!”
“Will it be okay!?”
“It’ll be fine, hurry!”
Yona glanced at Alec, then broke away from him and grabbed James by the scruff of his neck, dragging him away.
Now was the perfect timing, with the bear distracted by Kairoc and Alec and not noticing James.
“Please, please… don’t look this way…”
Yona prayed desperately as she dragged James away.
After pulling James to a relatively safe distance, Yona forced her legs, which weren’t moving properly, to go and retrieve James’ severed arm.
James’ arm, still gushing blood, was still warm, and Yona brought it back and attached it to James’ shoulder.
“Bear with it, just a little.”
White light began to emanate from Yona’s holy cloth.
Wherever her right hand touched, a soft light lingered and began to heal little by little.
‘Why is it so hard…!’
Alec hammered the bear with his weapon, a hammer, whenever he got the chance.
But it only felt like hitting a rock, with a dull sensation, and he didn’t feel like he was inflicting any damage.
At least Kairoc was holding up well, and every time he struck or swung with his axe, the bear was getting slightly wounded.
“Be careful, Alec!”
Yona’s voice was heard from afar.
“I’m fine!”
“Alec, cover me!”
At Kairoc’s shout, Alec ran towards him.
The wounds Kairoc had inflicted so far were quite substantial, and the blood-covered axe seemed to signal that the end of this tedious fight was approaching.

Grooooaaaaaar!
The struggling bear stood on its hind legs and roared loudly.
Then it retreated step by step before starting to flee somewhere.
“We, we have to catch it! We have to catch it!”
James, whose arm seemed to have reattached somewhat, shouted while pointing at the bear.
“Chase it, we have to chase it! We have to finish it off!”
Kairoc started running ahead.
Although the bear’s running speed was very fast, its path through the forest was so clearly visible that they could easily catch up.
“Huff, huff… gasp, wheeze…”
Even Kairoc was out of breath from running so hard.
Needless to say, Alec, Yona, and the injured James were breathing heavily with pale faces.
“…This place.”
“This is where the sacred tree was. There, that… that was supposed to be the new sacred tree.”
Where James was pointing, there was a withered, twisted tree lying fallen.
It didn’t look like it could ever become a new sacred tree.
“It became like that in just a few days. Originally, it was quite a big tree. It took all the strong men in the village to move it.”
“Does it have any relationship with that bear?”
Alec, having caught his breath, readjusted his shield and stepped forward.
Even while running to the point of exhaustion, Yona had continued to heal Alec’s wounds, and as a result, Yona had turned pale beyond just turning white, looking almost like a corpse.
“It seems like this place itself is more of a problem than that bear.”
Yona said while rubbing her right arm.
It certainly was.
The clearing where that giant bear was lurking.
In the middle of that clearing was the sacred tree, split into several parts.
“That was the original sacred tree.”
James said, pointing at the sacred tree.
“…If we can still call that a sacred tree, that is.”
And Yona retorted to that.
Indeed, it no longer seemed appropriate to call it a sacred tree.
Not only had the entire tree turned dark red, but a sticky, mud-like sap was dripping down.
And around it, wild animals were drinking that sap like spring water.
The fur of all those wild animals was uniformly pitch black.