Chapter 179 - 160: Judgment

"Field," Mrs. MacNeil spoke from the center.

Richard could see with his Spiritual Vision that the seven silver threads at the center wavered slightly.

As she was at the center, the moment her attention was diverted, the entire formation immediately showed signs of strain.

"Hold on!" was her only reply.

The wolf in the Silver Ring was busy holding back another cluster of Shadows and couldn’t let up.

The Jade Bird was still perched on the highest beam in the hall; if it closed its eyes, they would all be blind.

The woman from the Black Ebony Comb was in the middle of weaving something and couldn’t stop either.

The robed Spirit from the Moonstone Pendant was engaged in an extremely draining negotiation; if it stopped midway, the children would instantly go berserk.

The two voices from the Coral Earrings were singing a song of misdirection, making the Shadows see the Hunters on the perimeter as the most tempting targets. Without it, the two Hunters could never have held off more than twenty Shadows.

The Silver Pocket Watch had already transferred every wisp of light it could spare to the Captain.

The old woman in the Bone Bracelet was the Anchor for the entire formation; if she so much as moved, they would all come crashing down.

’That only leaves the Captain. Can he hold on?’

Richard knew the Captain probably wouldn’t die, but that his leg would most likely be crippled.

For a Low Tier Hunter, losing a leg meant one of two futures: retirement, or death on the next mission.

’So, what does this have to do with me?’

A calm voice spoke from within Richard’s chest.

He glanced at the Captain.

The man furiously battered the other Shadows with the back of the axe in his left hand, his right hand propped him up on the ground, his face beet red with exertion.

He wasn’t looking to anyone for help, nor did he expect any. He didn’t even look down at his leg as it was slowly being devoured.

He was simply holding his post.

Richard let out a soft breath.

The words his Mother had spoken that night surfaced in his mind.

"If one day your sister falls, and your first reaction isn’t to help her up, but to first calculate whether her injury is worth your time to stop... from that moment on, you’ve already paid a price you aren’t even aware of."

He had agreed when she said it.

Although the Captain wasn’t as important to him as family, the current situation was a perfect illustration of his Mother’s words.

’I shouldn’t be weighing the pros and cons. I have the power to save him, so I should just follow my gut!’

"Sir."

"What is it?" Mr. Hutton replied quickly from the other side.

"I’m going to be a half-beat slow with my next Judgment."

"Why?"

"I’m going to lend the Captain a hand."

Mr. Hutton’s red pencil paused on the Rubbing Copy.

He didn’t look up, but in that fraction of a second, a thought crossed his mind.

’For Richard to be able to help the Captain in this situation, it had to be with something I didn’t teach him—something not found on any conventional bookshelf.’

He asked only a single question: "Have you thought this through?"

"I have."

Mr. Hutton nodded.

"Then don’t hesitate. Go for it!"

Richard no longer hesitated. During the exhalation phase of his third Breathing cycle, he reversed the flow of Ether, directing it outward from within.

In the Material Realm, Shadow Armor was a Technique that "used a target’s Shadow as a medium to apply an additional burden to the target’s physical body."

Under the Curtain, where the Ether concentration was several times higher than in the Material Realm, the output of any Technique was amplified by the environment.

The hand that had seeped into the Captain’s left thigh was itself a Shadow.

The rest of the child’s body was connected to that hand, its lower half still buried in the seams of the floor, with only its torso and the offending arm exposed.

Richard added "weight" to the half of the body below the seams in the floor.

The entire body of child number nineteen was suddenly dragged down from the waist by an overwhelming sense of sinking...

In that instant, the hand inside the Captain’s leg was violently yanked out by its own lower body.

With a wet POP, the hand was pulled out of the Captain’s left thigh.

The Captain seized the opportunity, swinging the back of the axe in his left hand.

The flat of the axe struck the child’s newly exposed neck, knocking its entire upper body back into the seam.

Richard remained where he stood, his face a shade paler than normal.

His Spiritual Appearance dropped from 10 to 3, then down to 1...

Just as he was debating whether to use the Deep Ether Condensate in his pocket, the Captain used the precious moment of respite to unleash a second burst of power.

His entire body erupted in crimson flames.

The muscles on his arms bulged, and the veins beneath his skin glowed a blistering dark red.

His two Enchanted Axes merged, forming a single Heavy Axe.

The Captain swung down fiercely.

"Get the hell away from me!"

The axe fell, scattering the three spawn that had been pinned to the ground by Shadow Armor, as well as the two that had been wrapped around the Captain’s waist and left shoulder.

The blow shattered the children’s "formation," and the remaining ones lost all coordination.

They scrambled about like a scattered flock of birds.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

At that moment, Sarah’s rifle fire switched from vital shots to finishing blows, sending four Silver-Lead Bullets into the opening the Captain had created.

But Richard quickly discovered that the children’s dispersal was only temporary.

New grey bands began to seep from the seams in the floor.

The outlines of the shoulders and necks of the children who had been struck by the axe began to re-form, like scattered mercury slowly coalescing.

"They aren’t separate individuals."

Mr. Hutton spoke in a low voice from his side of the room. He didn’t look up, his red pencil still moving across the Rubbing Copy.

"They share the Mother’s root."

"Scattering one only brings them closer together."

"So brute force alone can’t finish them," Richard finally understood.

"Correct." Mr. Hutton finally looked up from the Rubbing Copy and glanced at Mrs. MacNeil.

The figure at the center gave a slight nod.

"Captain. Sarah." Mrs. MacNeil spoke softly. "From now on, don’t try to land any more finishing blows."