Leo races forward at a speed greater than before. His forward momentum knocked the air back, fast enough to waver my balance. With my body still numb from slight Fatigue, I allow my essence to once again circulate. Temporarily bolstering the effect of pins and needles.
The spear continued to burn, but I gripped it tighter.
The Beast, injured by Leo… and Rin, couldn't keep up with Leo's improved speed. Easily dodging all of its attacks, he quickly reached its base. Arriving at the previously slashed area.
The world went quiet. Not because I was scared, or failed… like before. But because Leo absorbed as much essence as he could. Quieting the area nearby of all sounds.
A moment later, a violent, ear-splitting cry, howls from him. Reverberating with enough force to vibrate my entire body. A storm of displaced snow showered into and around me.
The shockwave ripped open the previous wound on the Tasvayne Python, wide enough to expose its rib cage, and everything inside. A few organs popped, and the nearby ribs shattered.
Performing a calming breath, hot steam blew from my nose. Taking a strained step forward, my body slightly tingled, but no longer prickly. Raising my right arm with the spear, wincing as I did so, I brought it behind my head. At the height of the form, my body tightened. Essence hummed and vibrated with great intensity, and muscles contracted and ripped with dreadful violence.
Another step into the motion, my leg pushed off against the ground, causing it to cave in below my feet. Following through with the step, my arm shot forward with crushing speed.
As soon as the spear left my arm, momentum brought it swinging forward, dislocating my shoulder again, before the bone broke completely.
The spear was only in the air for a second. Almost too fast for my eyes to keep track. Ripping through the air, it created shockwaves of its own. Clouds of snow rose up, and the nearby foliage swayed. Ripples in the wind spread from the spear's path, making way for its frightening power.
Sinking into the belly of the Tasvayne Python, the force slid it back.
The flash of light came first. Too bright for even my adjusted eyes to look at, I was forced to retreat and look the other way. Diving to the ground for cover, the initial snap of the shockwave echoed, before popping my ears, followed by ringing. Immediately after was the violent tempest. My hair fluttered out of control, with no grace, and my clothes threatened to rip from my body. The gusts only persisted for a second, however, before receding. The world, once again, had gone quiet, and nothing dared to move. Not even my dirty, disheveled hair.
I lay there in anticipation, knowing it was coming. Even though the stillness was only just over a second, it felt longer. Dreadfully longer.
The Tasveyne Python, already in half, let out one last hiss before being abruptly ended by the final explosion. Roaring louder than my ears could even comprehend, pops and crackles echoed from all around me. The world-splitting tempest began once again, only more powerful this time.
The subsequent winds raised me off the ground and rolled me several meters away.
The ground shook and cracked everywhere. My body was no different. My organs rattled, my wounds split wider, and new ones formed.
Long after the explosion had ended, the ringing in my ears remained, and my vision split. Everything hurt much more than before. My body lay barren with scratches, and my clothes were charred in dozens of areas.
Still lying on the ground, I looked over at the crater. The Python was nowhere to be seen, likely eviscerated, along with its core, but its essence still spread. Nurturing the ground, budding new life. True to its nature until the end. The crater was filled with rapidly growing plants and vegetation, only to be immediately burned away by the flames. In a harmony of growth and destruction, opposites flourished. Overindulging in their near endless fight for dominance.
Too tired to move, I simply lay there, staring at the ash-falling sky. Taught to accept pain as a part of life, I refused to let it consume me. Even while bleeding from dozens of scratches, plenty of gashes, and bearing worse pain than some soldiers in war, my mind was empty and calm. Slowly embracing sleep from exhaustion.
…
I was unsure how much time had passed, but from where the sun was in the sky, it wasn't much. A few minutes, maybe.
My eyes blinked open in a daze. Leo was standing above me, shaking me awake.
With my ears still ringing slightly, he spoke in a near yell. "Nice, you're not dead! You did good, sis!"
Every breath brought a sharp pain through my chest.
My voice came out hoarse, cracking from the strain of my vocal cords, "I'm not dead? How are you not dead? You were practically 5 feet from the sun."
He let out a crackling laugh, only to proceed to cough. His usually pronounced posture was hunched. His face and body marred with ash, scratches, burns, and sweat. I would have smiled at his rugged appearance if it didn't hurt so bad. His clothes were torn and burned, hanging on by threads in the least useful areas. At least he still had pants on, which had been burned and cropped to just above the knees.
"Yeah, it got me pretty good. But I was able to redirect most of the shockwave. But Fatigue caused a backlash to my vibrations and ripped apart most of my muscles." He grinned, sluggishly patting himself on the back. The muscles on his arms clearly sagging. "You drink the recovery potion, yet?"
Too tired to verbally respond, I shook my head.
Activating his Mark, he sat down beside me, took out two bottles, and handed one to me.
Before I could open it, a voice came from behind, "A victory drink. Without me?" Rin said.
Leo laughed-coughed again.
I took out a potion from my Mark and passed it to Leo. Placing it on the floor beside him.
"Look who I found!" Rin said in triumph.
I bent my neck back, seeing the world from upside-down, which instantly brought nausea.
In his arms was an unconscious little girl. He set her down, before constructing a small lump of ice wide enough for all three of us.
Sitting on the ground, next to Leo, he picked up the recovery potion and leaned against the ice.
Leo took it as an invitation to do the same. "Oooh, that feels sooooo good." He said dramatically.
Painfully pushing myself off the ground, I dragged myself over to the wall of ice and leaned against it as well.
The chilly sensation immediately numbed my back in a relaxing way. The lingering essence still on the ice entered my body, and the cold spread throughout. The pain lessened, and I was able to breathe properly for the first time. I let out an involuntary whimper from the pleasure.
Raising the bottle with my left hand, stinging from my burns and ripped muscles as I held it, we all clinked them together before taking a swig.
"Good work, you two." Rin said, before indulging in the sweet liquid.
I don't know why, but his words brought a fuzzy feeling to my stomach.
…It must just be the obligation I feel, cause he saved my life… that's definitely it.
The potion brought another cooling wave throughout my body. Taking a moment to activate, but once it did, the small scratches instantly healed, while the bigger ones scarred slightly, and the ringing in my ears stopped.
The potion uses its own healing effect, from Recovery Holders, along with the consumers' essence to mend wounds. Meaning that an Intestate, someone without a Will, wouldn't get much of a healing effect from the potion. With my depleted essence from the fight, the effect I got was limited. It's not as good as a Recover Holder, but for now, it's better than nothing.
As the potion absorbed more and more essence to heal my body, the backlash from Fatigued settled in.
My head slumped slightly, heavy from essence deprivation.
As if to remind me of my failure, the pain wasn't enough, my own Will had to show me my struggles.
A mirage of the Tasvayne Python's tail came dragging towards me, digging up dirt from the ground, completely silently. A shine from below me directed my attention down, to the spear in my hand.
My head grew lighter still. Darting my eyes back up, reminded of the coming treat, I saw as Rin once again jumped in its way, slamming it away from me.
I closed my eyes, shaking my head, reminding myself it's just the Fatigue of my Will. The mirages Light Will Holders are shown whenever low on essence.
I hate it. I hate being Fatigued.
Why are they always bad visions?
Opening my eyes, the mirages were gone, but the pain in my head and body lingered. I let the cold from the block of ice ground me to reality. To focus on something that wasn't unpleasant.
Sitting against the ice, the three of us basked in its refreshing chill. Allowing our wounds to set before deciding to make our way back to the district.
I didn't even want to think about moving right now.