Chapter 53: Why Can’t We Save Him?

Elias’s scream echoed through the entire forest as he cut off his own left arm.

[Warning! Host’s body has suffered severe damage!]

[Warning! You are losing a large amount of blood!]

[Calculating compensation for the host...]

Blood sprayed out, hitting the White Dreadclaw’s face.

*Splatter!

Elias dropped to the ground, pressing his right hand over the bleeding stump of his left arm. Then he backed away a few steps from the tiger, which spat out his arm.

His face turned deathly pale from the blood loss, cold sweat beginning to soak his face.

Once he’d put some distance between them, Elias immediately pulled out a recovery Magic Talisman for himself and stuck it onto his shoulder.

’Was that too reckless? But if I couldn’t break free, I would’ve died. Still, just because I cut off my own arm doesn’t mean everything’s over.’

With his chest aching, several ribs broken, his head bleeding, and now his left arm gone, it was going to be seriously hard for Elias to fight both of them at once.

Elias then pulled his sword, lying on the ground, back to him with a mana thread.

In front of him, Vladir was just standing there, holding the wound on his body. A shocked look had appeared on his face when Elias cut off his own arm, before being replaced by a satisfied smile when he saw Elias’s condition.

"You’re the first person in my life who’s ever dared to do something like this."

Elias tried to smile while still holding back the pain.

"Is that a compliment?"

Hearing that, Vladir only shrugged slightly, but the smile was still plastered on his face.

"Who knows. But I do want to say that you look truly pathetic, Elias."

"Pathetic, huh?"

Elias then snorted softly before continuing:

"How is it that someone at a commander’s level like you got hurt by a small fry like me?

"What word do you think fits that? Pathetic? Right, but it’s still not enough... Ah~ I remember..."

Elias then grinned wide at Vladir, his pupils shrinking as he stared at him.

"Humiliating."

Vladir’s smile vanished at once. Red energy wrapped around his body before he shot toward Elias.

Elias quickly raised his sword to deflect Vladir’s punch, but the impact pushed his body backward. Before he could even steady himself, the White Dreadclaw was already lunging from the side.

Elias hurriedly jumped back to dodge the tiger’s claws. But his body hadn’t fully recovered from the earlier impact. The moment he landed, his knees almost gave out, and he had to use his sword to hold himself up so he wouldn’t fall.

Vladir didn’t give him a chance to rest. He attacked again, forcing Elias to lift his sword to block. The next collision made Elias’s right arm tremble violently, and then a punch slammed into his chest and sent him to the ground.

*Cough!

Elias coughed while enduring the pain in his chest. He immediately directed a mana thread to his sword, which had landed a few steps away, and pulled the weapon back into his grip before Vladir could get close.

Elias struggled back to his feet. His legs were shaking and his vision was starting to blur, but his pupils were still narrowed as he stared at Vladir.

"Why are you still standing?" Vladir asked in an irritated tone. "You’ve even lost an arm. Don’t you realize your condition is terrible?"

Elias didn’t answer. He pointed his sword at Vladir again and shot forward at him.

Seeing that, the White Dreadclaw also lunged at Elias from the other side, as if trying to pincer him between the two of them.

Of course Elias wasn’t going to let himself get sandwiched. As he ran toward Vladir, he tossed his sword into the air, and then, when the White Dreadclaw was right behind him, about to pounce, Elias quickly pulled out his light Magic Talisman and thrust it right at the tiger’s face at maximum brightness.

Because of the blinding light, Vladir immediately covered his face with one hand. On the other side, the tiger stopped in its tracks as a blindingly bright light suddenly appeared in front of its face.

Right away, Elias stuck several offensive Magic Talismans onto its head. Then he shot back toward Vladir while snapping his fingers.

*Boom!

The Magic Talismans on the tiger’s face exploded at once.

Then Elias pulled his falling sword back into his grip with a mana thread. Since Vladir’s vision was still disrupted by the light of the Magic Talisman, Elias took advantage of the situation and slashed his left side.

*Slash!

"Ahhhgg! Damn you, Elias! Always using tricks!"

Vladir screamed as he was hurt by the slash. But of course, the wound wasn’t very deep.

Elias immediately backed off and put a few steps between himself and them as the mana in his light Magic Talisman was almost gone.

Then, when his light Magic Talisman ran out of mana, the intensely bright light around them vanished.

The tiger shook its head to recover its still-disrupted vision. Even though the light was gone, its sight was still hazy and the shapes around it looked blurry. It growled loudly when it noticed the wound on its face, then turned a furious glare on Elias.

*Roar!

To retaliate for Elias’s earlier attack, the tiger gathered red energy in its mouth. Then it quickly spat out a breath of that energy toward Elias.

Seeing the blast of energy, Elias channeled his mana into his sword and swung it forward, and a Space Arcana immediately appeared in front of him.

Because the blast wasn’t too big, Elias was still able to produce the Space Arcana without needing a mana stone.

On the other side, Vladir had already regained his focus. He wiped his face roughly before looking at Elias, who was now sheltering behind his Space Arcana.

"You sneaky bastard!"

Vladir then channeled mana into his sword before red energy wrapped around the blade again. After that, he slashed his sword toward Elias. The slash produced a dark red sword energy.

Elias, who was focused on the White Dreadclaw’s attack, was shocked when an attack suddenly came from the side.

He wanted to grab some useful items from his storage pouch, but he’d forgotten that he only had one hand now.

And that hand was currently maintaining the Space Arcana in front of him, which was blocking the White Dreadclaw’s attack.

*Boom!

"Elias!" Evelyn screamed at him, tears still running down her face.

Elias took the attack head-on. He was blasted sideways and slammed into a tree hard enough to crack it.

*Crack!

The moment he hit, Elias felt his whole body ache again from the earlier wounds.

"Khuk!"

Elias’s vision blurred again, and everything had a slight red tint from the blood soaking his eyes. The pain in his chest and head really bothered him, especially the pain from the stump where his left arm had been cut off.

’I wanna sleep... But I can’t sleep... When’s the Team Captain gonna get here?’

Elias then glanced at Evelyn, who was crying and screaming his name.

’Lady Evelyn... Why is she crying? What is she saying? Ahh... I can’t hear her clearly.’

Then he looked forward, at Vladir and the White Dreadclaw walking toward him.

’The poison Auntie Centipede gave me is used up. And the Magic Talismans I have left are limited too.’

Seeing Elias sitting limp against the tree with wounds all over his body, Evelyn could only cry without being able to do anything.

Then, while she was crying and still staring at Elias from inside the barrier, Elysia started to wake up. She slowly got up and sat, holding her dizzy head.

"Ugh..."

She looked up at the green Magic Talisman releasing energy that flowed into her body. Then she looked at the Magic Talismans forming a protective sphere around her.

Then she looked at Evelyn, who was sobbing hard. She tilted her head slightly in confusion.

"Big Sis...?"

"..."

Evelyn didn’t respond to Elysia’s call, her gaze still fixed forward. Confused about what was happening, Elysia looked in the direction Evelyn was looking.

"... no... no... NO! Eliaaass!!!"

At first her body went limp when she saw Elias’s condition. She tried not to believe it, but the longer she looked, the more she had no choice but to believe what she saw. And now she broke down hysterically.

"No way! Elias! Elias! This can’t be! It shouldn’t be like this!"

She immediately grabbed the sword lying beside her hand and began channeling energy into the blade, trying to destroy the barrier blocking her.

*Clank!

*Clank!

*Clank!

"Damn it! What is this? Let me out of here!"

Feeling that ordinary slashes weren’t working, Elysia focused all her mana into her sword, and while she was in the middle of it, Evelyn stopped her by grabbing her hand.

"Don’t... Elysia..."

"What do you mean ’Don’t,’ Big Sis? Do you want Elias to die! Have you forgotten our promise, huh?! Don’t get in my way! I’ll save him myself if you won’t!"

Elysia screamed at Evelyn, tears soaking her face.

"Don’t say things like that! I want to save him too! I want to go over there and hold him! But I..."

"Then why didn’t you try to break this barrier before? You were conscious this whole time! Why did you let him actually lose his arm!?"

"What...?"

*Slap!

Evelyn slapped Elysia across the face the moment she said that.

"You think I let him lose his arm?! How dare you! I did everything I could to get out of this barrier!

"I slashed at it over and over until my palms bled! But I kept at it! Even until my sword broke, I could only destroy one layer out of ten!"

Elysia held her slapped cheek, then slowly looked back at Evelyn, her face still wet with tears.

"You think you’re the only one who’s sad? You think you’re the only one who’s angry, huh?! I’m angry too! I’m angry at myself because I’m so useless! I couldn’t do anything while Elias was like that! I’m sad because I watched Elias fight with everything he had! I’m sad to see Elias so badly hurt! I’m sad that he lost his arm!

"And you!..." Evelyn then pointed at Elysia.

"You blame me when you were unconscious yourself. You blame me for not being able to save Elias! Can’t you see yourself?! Do you need a mirror?!

"Because of your own helplessness, you take out your emotions on me! Blaming me! And saying something hurtful like ’I don’t want to save Elias’ when it’s precisely because I’m the one who didn’t lose consciousness that I’m the one who wants to save him the most!

"YOU BASTARD!"

*Slap!

Evelyn slapped Elysia’s cheek hard again, tears still on her face.

Elysia could only stay silent, holding her cheek as she kept crying.

She didn’t answer Evelyn’s words, not because she couldn’t, but because everything Evelyn had said was true.

Seeing her little sister silent, head bowed, holding her cheek, Evelyn clenched her fists tightly from the frustration piling up inside her.

She then looked up, tears still falling.

"Everything really is going as it should... But why does it still end up like this... Why can’t we..."

* * *