Chapter 33 – Left Behind

Sam appeared in the Nexus, engulfed in flames, and rolling on the floor trying to put out the flames.

Hermione was the first to rush to him, putting out the flames with an silent spell.

Sam's body writhed in pain as more than 70% of his body suffered 3rd degree burns.

Hermione and the other magicians simultaneously cast their respective healing spells on him.

Luckily, their spells aided each other rather than clashed, and Sam breathed easier after his body was fully healed.

They brought him to one of the beds and lay him down as his body started relaxing and his breathing and heartbeat slowed down to normal.

He slowly opened his eyes as he found himself on a comfortable bed surrounded by all his gorgeous familiars.

Suddenly he remembered what happened to him, referring to Heracles' act of betraying him.

"That bloody bastard! I'll kill him" he said with his face in a grimace

He got up and looked outside the Nexus. Where his body was located earlier outside the Nexus, now there were wave after wave of orcs charging after the carriages.

There were so many orcs as far as the eyes can see that he could not count them.

They looked like a large army marching to war, and not only were there orcs, there were goblins, trolls and other monstrosities that he didn't recognize.

"What do we do now?" Mindy asked.

As he had already linked with their minds, Sam looked through the eyesight of Aria, Arisa and Gwen who were all in different carriages. They were under attack in their individual carriages, and there were 6-7 people in each carriage that was designed to only comfortably fit 4 people.

They were in cramped quarters, casting their attacking spells out of the small windows of the carriages and desperately defending attacks from the orc army.

If they even slowed down a little, their carriages would be surrounded and destroyed with everyone in them.

He realized he couldn't just exit the Nexus next to any of Aria, Arisa or Gwen.

Not only would there be no space for him, his extra weight would slow down the carriage even more, dooming him and everyone in the carriage with him.

He also didn't tell Aria, Arisa or Gwen that he had been stranded behind, or that he was betrayed by Heracles, lest they suddenly turn back or waited for him. He would prefer that they wait for him safely in Stronghold.

"We probably have to catch up to them on foot from here" he said grimly.

"Run after the carriages? All the way to Stronghold? How far is it anyway?" Annabeth asked.

"If I remember correctly, Jemima mentioned that Stronghold was 200 km from Willow, and so far we've probably covered maybe 20 to 30 km" Sam answered.

"What do we do then? Just run after them? That's a long distance to fight through" Alex asked

Sam thought for a while and then formulated a plan.

He remembered that there are differences between his summoned familiars, and the girls he acquired. His summoned familiars still get injured, they can get tired and fatigued and they still can die while his acquired girls, which he has started to refer to as his Samsara bodies, are immortal.

His familiars are technically immortal too, since he can always revive them, but its not the same as his Samsara bodies.

"We will treat this like a marathon or a relay race mixed with running a gauntlet

What we do is run and fight. All of you who have the physical ability will run and fight your way through the army.

When you get too tired or injured, I will bring you back into the Nexus.

Once rested and healed, I will swap you back out and in when needed to keep moving forwards.

If everyone gets too tired, we will end at the location the last person stopped and rest and recuperate and start again.

If need be, I will summon more familiars." he explained.

The girls nodded as it seemed a feasible idea.

Most of them were either warriors or mages so while the warriors will definitely take part, Sam wasn't too sure about the mages.

Phoebe will take part since besides casting spells, she could levitate and was a physical fighter with some super strength as well.

As for the rest, he wasn't sure so he asked them.

"I'm perfectly capable of running while fighting" Hermione said confidently.

"If everyone is doing this, I am too" Alex answered.

"I'm not against getting some exercise" Sabrina added.

Sam nodded. He will be by himself in the Nexus then. He was the one with the most pathetic stamina and running speed anyway.

Sam noticed that Tauriel, Selene, Mindy and a few others starting to strip.

"What are you girls doing?" he asked.

"We wear clothes for modesty, and protection from the elements. But otherwise, it's more comfortable fighting in the nude. It gives us more freedom allowing our skin to breathe and our sweat won't cause our clothes to cling and stick uncomfortably to our bodies." Natasha explained.

Indeed Sam remembered when he first summoned them, in the bandit base, even their sports attire were soaked all the way through that Hermione had to conjure several sets of sportswear for them throughout the time they fought there.

"We only started wearing clothes out of consideration for you, otherwise every time you summoned us, you would have to explain why the girls you summoned are always naked, like to Merlin when we battled the huge demon" Hermione explained.

Sam nodded. It would have been an uncomfortable conversation with Merlin if they were all naked.

Alex conjured those Five Finger running shoes for everyone as well as headbands and wristbands to wipe their sweat and keep their hair out of their eyes. Besides that, they were completely nude, with their completely hairless bodies fully ready and drawing their weapons.

"Ready?" Sam asked as he saw all of them steel themselves and cock their weapons.

Everyone nodded.

"Go!" he said as all the girls exited the Nexus.