Chapter 78-

*BOOM!

Tim was sent sliding back from the impact. He felt that his shoulder was dislocated and felt his hand go numb from the force. The strength of his opponent was more than he expected, but this only added to his excitement.

“Hahaha! I don’t remember the last time this happened?” Tim said as he popped his shoulder back into its socket. “Screw the tournament and the gold! This fight is much more exciting!”

Tim rushed back towards Elric and leapt at him with his axe. He brought the axe down towards Elric with insane speed and strength.

*Slash.

Elric managed to avoid an attack that was aiming for his neck by blocking it with his arm. The axe sank only an inch into Elric’s arm as his muscles caught the blade. But he didn’t expect for Tim to follow the attack with a headbutt.

*Crack!

The force of the blow made Elric stumble back as Tim leapt off of him. Tim leapt up to the ceiling and used it to leap down back at Elric. He continued to laugh as he brought the axe down at Elric again.

*Slash.

This time Elric used one of the dead guards to block the attack. But the axe cut the guard’s body in half, as well as it left a slash on the palm of Elric’s hand.

“Your cut is too weak!” Elric shouted as he used his other hand to punch Tim square in the chest.

*Crack! *Boom!

Tim was sent crashing through a wall and into a pile of crates that were in the room behind it. He felt that punch had cracked a few ribs and possibly a few other bones. He was lucky that he had activated his spectral boar skill at the start of the fight, because one of its properties increased his defense.

‘This feels familiar?’ Tim thought as he stood back up. ‘Oh yeah! This reminds me of how that boar tackled me through a tree! Good times.’

Elric was surprised to see that Tim wasn’t dead from the punch.

“You’re still alive?” Elric asked. ‘Did I not hit him hard enough?’

“Don’t count me out yet!” Tim shouted as he threw his shield at him.

*Klang!

Elric swatted the shield away and ran towards Tim to attempt to tackle him through the wall. But Tim kicked off the wall to meet his attacker with a tackle of his own.

*Wham!

The two giants slammed into each other with their shoulders. But Tim’s tackle wasn’t enough to stop Elric’s tackle. It did however redirect it by making him stumble to the side, crashing into the wall without Tim as he had almost bounced off of Elric.

“HAHAHA!” Tim laughed as he had to relocate his other shoulder back into place.

“Grah! Will you shut the f*ck up and stop laughing?!” Elric angrily shouted as he tossed a large piece of rubble aside.

He could see that Tim was starting to bleed a bit from his forehead, but he was laughing as if he was just tickled from the impact. Elric hated that he was having trouble killing this stranger. It’s not that Tim was as strong as him, but it’s almost like he is hard to kill.

“What’s wrong? You never got hit before?” Tim asked with a grin. “You should learn to enjoy fights that aren’t easy for you!”

Tim hopped to his feet and ran towards Elric to deliver a powerful knee to his face.

*Crack!

“Why have strength if you want fights to end quickly?!” Tim said as he brought his other foot into Elric’s jaw. “Isn’t this much more fun when you get your blood pumping?!”

Elric was no stranger at receiving punches and kicks since he received them back in his old life. But the memories of them made it impossible to enjoy them or enjoy fights where he gets hurt by them.

“Shut up you crazy bastard!” Elric shouted as he grabbed Tim and slammed him into the ground. “The strong shouldn’t even get hurt by weaklings like you!”

“Gah!” Tim grunted as the force of the impact knocked the wind out of him.

*Slam! *Crack! *Slam!

Elric was slamming his fists down at Tim and punching him into the ground.

“You’re nothing but some crazy old man!” Elric shouted. “All you’re doing is pissing me off!”

*Crack! *Crack! *Crack!

Elric continued to punch Tim’s face into the ground, cracking the stone floor more and more each time he punched.

“The strong tramples the weak! The weak can’t do anything but be beaten by the strong!” Elric shouted as he continued punching.

“Hehehehe!”

Elric stopped as Tim started to laugh again. Tim’s face was starting to bruise and a few of his front teeth were missing, but he was laughing.

“What’s so funny?” Elric asked.

“Two things.” Tim said as he spat a bit of blood into Elric’s eyes.

“Aah, you b*tch!” Elric shouted as he rubbed his eyes.

Tim used this opportunity to press his feet underneath Elric and kicked him off of him.

“First; I’m not old. I may not look like it, but I barely turned thirty!” Tim said as he picked up his axe.

Tim’s hair started to grow messier as his braids undid themselves. He also started growing more hair on his body as he started snarling. It looked like the hair on the boar hide was also growing a bit.

“And second; Don’t you ever dare call your opponent weak!” Tim rushed forward as soon as his transformation was finished. “That’s something people do when they’re afraid of what their opponent might do if they put in more effort!”

As soon as Elric wiped the blood from his eyes, he felt Tim’s axe impale itself into his side and felt himself get tackled through several walls by Tim.

*Boom! *Crash! *Boom!

Tim was saving this ability for his rematch with Toshio as it was meant to be a surprise. But now Tim was forced to use this new ability against Tim. The spectral boar skill was part of him visualizing the boar that nearly wiped the party out. But this new version was him manifesting that boar.

“This is me putting my all into this fight!” Tim shouted as he swung Elric and sent him crashing into a pillar. “Something you’ll never get to experience, runt!”

*Boom! *Crumble!

Chunks of the ceiling fell onto Elric as he had broken the pillar. The rest of the cultists watched in horror as Elric was now buried in rubble. Tim wiped the blood from his axe as he looked towards the group of cultists.

“Even if that didn’t kill him, I managed to puncture his lung.” Tim said as he approached the cultists. “The lack of oxygen and blood filling his lung would make him wish for a quick death. Just like you all should too.”

The cultists were still under his fear ability that came with this form, so they couldn’t do anything as Tim used his remaining time in his new form to quickly chop off each of their heads. When he reverted back to his normal form, Tim was panting due to how much stamina that form takes from him.

“That fight was tougher than I expected.” Tim said as he sneezed out the blood from his nose. “I’m going to have to find Lura or a healer after this to fix my teeth. Don’t want to meet my lady after this with some of my teeth missing.”

His fight with Elric left him with bruises all over, many broken bones, and an aching back. Just before he was about to leave the area, Tim heard the sound of shifting rocks behind him. He turned around and saw that the pile of rubble hadn’t changed.

“That almost surprised me. For a moment there I thought he was getting back up?” Tim said as he left the area. “I should deal with the rest of the cultists after stopping by the medical wing.”

*Rumble.

Tim quickly turned around to see what was happening. But the moment he did, he saw a massive fist an inch from his face.

*Boom!

*****

After dealing with the devil lovers that were attacking the medical wing, Toshio, Elisa, and Bob helped the injured people that were with them into the medical wing. Once inside, they took a moment to rest as the others had their injuries looked over and treated. Toshio also used this time to look around to see if Zarele and Nagishi were there. While he went to look around, Elisa approached one of the guards.

“What’s the word about the situation? How are the other guards doing against these cultists?” Elisa asked the guard.

“We haven’t had word from the others yet. But we know that these cultists are attacking multiple areas in this building and possibly the village of Tusk.” The guard replied.

“Is help coming then?” One of the injured folks asked.

“Did the local adventuring guild send word out?” Another one asked.

“Will a royal knight show up?” A third one asked.

*Rumble.

Everyone in the medical wing felt the ground and walls shake a bit from the sound of a distant boom.

“What was that?” One guard asked.

“Sounds like a piece of the arena collapsed near the waiting hall.” Another guard replied.

Then the sound of screams could be heard on the side. Everyone looked and saw that another wave of cultists had arrived to attack the medical wing, and the guards were doing their best to fend them off. Seeing this, the people with the least number of injuries prepared to join the fight.

“Help the guards and keep any of those bastards from breaking through!” One man shouted.

“Death to the cultists and devil lovers!” A woman called out.

After finding out that Nagishi and Zarele weren’t there, Toshio spotted Elisa running in to join the fight. He managed to catch her by the arm before she ran into the fight.

“The others aren’t here!” Toshio said to her, trying to be heard over the sound of battle.

“Then we’ll have to look elsewhere after this!” Elisa replied. “Hopefully they’re alright!”

Looking over to the battle, Toshio could see that there were two types of cultists. The devil lovers were at the front, trampling over each other and acting like zombies. Meanwhile, the few cultists at the back were firing bolts of fire and ice at the guard’s light barriers. Toshio remembered Thomas’s words about how they can’t be used for too long, and it hasn’t been that long since the last time they’ve been used.

*Crack. *Bzzt!

The first shield cracked, and sparks shot out from it as the barrier faded. Then the same thing happened to the next shield. Three shields had broken from overuse, leaving a large opening for the devil lovers to close the gap.

“Damn it! Our company told these guys to not overuse them!” Thomas shouted.

Many of the injured competitors rushed in to defend the gap that was opened, fending off the devil lovers. Toshio, Bob, and Elisa joined them in the battle. Toshio saw that a few devil lovers got around one of the light barriers and were about to overwhelm the guard behind it. Without thinking, Toshio activated his scale hands and rushed in to block their blades.

*Klang.

[MP: 2,762/4,803]

[HP: 12,851/12,852]

With his scale hands, Toshio deflected a few blades and caught a few that were about to stab the throat of the guard. One of the blades did manage to graze his shoulder when he deflected it. But Toshio ignored the pain as he was focused on his arms and their new look. Before, they looked like thin scales that went up his forearm and felt like leather gloves that clung onto his skin. Now they had taken a new form as some scales stuck out in some places and both felt and looked like he was wearing black gauntlets. Toshio shoved the devil lovers back, knocking a good amount of them to the ground.

“Thanks for the assist.” The guard he saved said as he rubbed his neck. “That was a close one.”

“Y-Yeah. No problem.” Toshio said as he was still surprised with his new arms.

Usually when one of his abilities changed there would be a notification or something to tell him of such a thing. But Toshio never got one for his new scale hands. Since he had already brought out the scale hands, he rushed back into the fight and used them to block the devil lovers' weapons. He struck them hard enough to knock them out, but not enough to kill them. Seeing that Toshio was the one taking out most of their minions, the cultists in the back started targeting him with their spells.

Toshio had to ignore the change in his ability when he dodged a fire bolt and caught an ice shard that was fired at him. The cold from the shard stung his hand, but he fought through the pain as he threw it back at the cultist that fired it. The shard pierced the leg of the cultist, interrupting the spell he was casting and causing it to shoot away from him. Toshio was starting to feel like he was regaining his combat skills when he first fought this many people.

Toshio kept blocking attacks and kept knocking out every devil lover he saw, ignoring every other distraction that wasn't part of his fight. He fought through the many devil lovers that came his way and and soon reached the cultist in the back. The cultist whose spell missed tried to slash at Toshio with a dagger, but Toshio blocked it with one hand and punched his jaw with the other.

[HP: 12,631/12,852]

Toshio then screamed in pain as he felt flames hit his back, so he kicked the cultist that blasted fire at him square in the chest. He dodged another cultist’s dagger that was aimed for his gut, catching his wrist and twisting his arm to throw him over his shoulder onto another. He then ran up to the last cultist and elbowed him on the side of his head, stopping him before he got to fire what looked like another ice shard spell. Now feeling the adrenaline from the fight, Toshio looked around to see if there were any more people that he needed to fight. But he only saw the guards and the people from the medical wing looking at him with looks of shock. The battle had ended.

It turned out that Toshio dealt with most of the devil lovers and the cultists in the back by himself. Thanks to his scale hands and high strength, Toshio kept landing quick strikes on the enemies and knocked them out as he charged through the crowd. He didn’t realize it, but he even took some cuts on his body as he fought them and continued to fight them. It was like they saw a mad beast charge through the crowd of enemies by itself.

“Is everyone alright?” Toshio asked.

“Y-Yeah.” One of the guards replied.

“Cool. I need to look for my friends now.” Toshio said as he started running.

“Wait up!” Elisa said as she ran after him with Bob.

Toshio left the area because he didn’t know how to deal with that situation. He wondered why he was the only one that dealt with the most enemies. He could understand how was able to handle getting hurt without taking much damage due to his high Dexterity and Marv Jacket. But he knows that the other competitors in the tournament are capable of much more than simple attacks.

‘Aren’t those other people also skilled fighters? How come I was the only one that took out the most enemies?’ Toshio wondered to himself. ‘I know that I was strong, but how was I able to beat more enemies than a large group of skilled fighters?’

“I said wait!” Elisa shouted from way behind.

Toshio was snapped out from his thoughts as he turned around and saw that Elisa and Bob were struggling to catch up to him. He then stopped to allow them to catch up.

“Why did you run off? Weren’t you supposed to have Bob guide us to where he last saw Nagishi and Zarele?” Elisa asked.

“Sorry about that. I just didn’t know how to deal with that awkward situation.” Toshio replied.

“Also why are your arms like that?” Elisa asked as she pointed to Toshio’s scale covered arms.

“You already saw them. They’re-” Toshio said before he realized that his arms were still covered in scales.

Toshio then realized that his Scale Hand skill hadn’t gone away. Normally they would turn back to normal once he stopped concentrating on them. But his arms were still covered in black scales. He tried turning his arms back to normal, but they wouldn’t turn back.

“What the?” Toshio said as he tried making the skill turn off.

He shook his hands and tried imagining them to revert back to normal. But his scale covered arms wouldn’t turn back to normal.

“Why won’t they go back to normal?” Toshio said as he scratched at them. “Don’t you do this to me!”

Toshio then noticed two symbols on the backs of his hands. They looked like marks similar to the one on his back. He then remembered what that entity in his soul realm said when he was about to die.

“Use the power that you took from me, and it’ll now carry my mark.”

‘Does this mean the Scale Hand skill was the thing I took from him?’ Toshio thought to himself.

Toshio didn’t know how he got the skill. He remembered that it showed up in his list of skills after he escaped the dungeon along with the Summon Skeleton skill.

‘Wiping my a** is going to be a challenge if they don’t go back to normal.’ Toshio thought before looking at Elisa. “We could worry about these later. Right now we need to find the others quickly. As long as nothing else-”

*Boom!

Toshio was interrupted when something crashed through the wall behind him.

“F*ck!”

The three of them looked at the pile of rubble from the remains of the broken wall and saw that Tim was there unconscious. He was covered with bruises, blood, and his face looked like a mess. But despite his condition, he was still alive.

“Tim?” Toshio said as he ran over to him.

Toshio didn’t hesitate to use Celestial Cure to treat his wounds. But it did look like there was a limit on how much it could heal.

[Celestial Cure: The artificial holy magic within the White Flame allows you to heal wounds on yourself and others. With your Wisdom the flame grows strong. Cost: 1 Spirit Point to heal 10% of damage.]

[SP: 5/10]

He gave Tim enough to treat half of his injuries, but some wounds didn’t close, and he still looked in bad condition.

“Who did this to him?” Elisa asked.

The three of them looked at the hole in the wall that he came crashing from and saw that it looked like he crashed through several walls before stopping near them.

“I think I could make a guess?” Toshio replied as he knew of only one person with such strength.

“That’s where the waiting hall would lead to.” Elisa said as she looked down the path.

Distant screams and sounds of battle could be heard in the direction where it looked like the hill giant went.

“Get Tim to the medical wing.” Toshio said to Elisa. “I can’t stand aside as someone is about to hurt so many others. Not again.”

Once again Toshio remembered the corpses that he saw at the dungeon and along the path that they took to the medical wing.

“You can’t be serious! This is too soon for you to be fighting him! We need a group to attack that monster!” Elisa said to Toshio.

“If we wait any longer, more people will die!” Toshio shouted back. “Tim needs treatment and someone needs to slow that guy down! I can’t do both at the same time, so I need you to bring my friend to safety!”

Elisa was startled with Toshio’s sudden change in behavior. But she couldn’t argue with how Tim needed treatment fast.

“I’ll do my best to slow him down until help arrives.” Toshio said as he looked down the path.

Elisa once again saw the look of determination fighting past the fear in Toshio’s eyes. It’s the same look when he saved her from the lizardfolk that nearly killed her. She knows that he’s afraid, but his desire to help is pushing him to act this way. Elisa used enhancement magic to increase her strength to help her carry Tim over her shoulders.

“Are you sure?” Elisa asked.

“No… but I have to try.” Toshio replied.

Elisa gave him a nod before running off to take Tim to the medical wing. Once she left, Toshio let out a chuckle as he found the situation funny.

“You weren’t there yet Bob. But a situation like this happened with Zarele and Lux.” Toshio said as he started running down the path. “Once again I’m sending injured friends aside as I rush in to fight the big threat. Pretty pathetic of me, right?”

“You are a lot of things, but pathetic is the least accurate thing about you.” Bob replied in Toshio’s head.

“You think we could beat a hill giant?” Toshio asked.

“I think you are a fool for trying.” Bob replied.

“I think I liked you more when you were a silent companion.” Toshio replied back.

Bob then responds by flipping Toshio off as the two rush towards the waiting hall.

*****

Nagishi and Zarele were fighting their way towards the medical hall. Nagishi had used Princess to coat his sword with her vomit so many times that he needed to give her a break. So fights for him got a bit tougher without her vomit to stun his enemies. But the two of them worked together to deal with whatever devil lovers and cultists that they came across.

“Gah!”

“How many groups does this make? Seven? Twelve?” Nagishi asked as he panted. “I stopped counting after the sixth group we fought.”

“This makes thirteen.” Zarele responds, just as tired as Nagishi. “We keep beating them, but they keep coming.”

‘... Nope, too easy.’ Nagishi thought to himself.

Zarele covered her mouth as she started coughing again.

“Are you alright? That makes the third time that you started coughing like that.” Nagishi asked.

“I'm fine. I just accidentally inhaled some of my saliva.” Zarele replied as she cleared her throat. “Besides, I could check myself over once we get these people to safety.”

The two of them looked back at the small group of people that they helped. The reason why they took so long to get to the waiting hall was because they stopped by to help as many civilians and other competitors that they could. Since a lot of them were injured, they had to redirect their path towards the medical wing. Along their long trip, they discovered that every entrance was blocked by magic and the paths around any other room were being blocked by stone. One staff member that they saved explained that the cultists had seized control over the arena’s terra shard and were manipulating the entire building into a prison. So their best plan was to hide in a well fortified area until help came along the way.

*Rumble.

The group felt rumbling from somewhere else.

“That felt like it came from the arena.” One staff member muttered.

As the group arrives near the area where the medical wing was, both Nagishi and Zarele were surprised to see Elisa arriving at the same time. They also saw that she was carrying Tim over her shoulders.

“There you are!” All three of them said as they pointed at each other.

“Where were you?! We were looking all over for you!” Zarele asked.

“We were looking for you!” Elisa replied.

“What happened to him?” Nagishi said as he noticed Tim over her shoulders.

“Where’s Toshio and Bob?!” Zarele asked.

“They went to look for you at the waiting hall!” Elisa shouted.

“Why did they go there! That's where the trail of bodies leads to!” Zarele asked.

“Because we couldn't find you and he thought that you went there!” Elisa shouted back.

“We were looking for you! Why did you let him and Bob go by themselves?!” Nagishi shouted, realizing that Toshio and Bob are in danger.

“Will you three shut up?” Tim groaned. “The noise that you three are making isn't helping with the massive headache that I have?”

“You're awake? So I carried your heavy a** for nothing?!” Elisa said as she set Tim down on the side for a few members of the arena staff to look him over.

“We could worry about that later.” Tim groaned as his wounds still hurt. “Your friend might not be able to beat that guy. I thought that I landed a finishing blow on him, but I guess he's tougher than I expected.”

Tim coughed a bit of blood as he felt his consciousness started to fade.

“Also… watch out if you’re going near the arena. I saw a large…” Tim said before he passed out and started snoring.

“Hey! Don’t go to sleep yet!” Nagishi shouted as he snapped his fingers at him. “Damn it.”

As the medical staff carried Tim to get treated, one of the guards approached them.

“You three should wait here with us. We just got word that a Steel-Rank and an Obsidian-Rank have been sent to help with this issue.” The guard reported.

“Well sh*t? Things have really gone that bad?” Nagishi said before letting out a whistle.

He and Zarele are both Iron-Rank. Steel was two ranks above them, while Obsidian was three. Steel-Rank is the rank given to those that have proven themselves to the guild. They're skilled warriors and casters that have learned most of the skills that they could learn. Obsidian-Rank is a step up from Steel-Rank and are the ones sent to deal with large threats and tougher monsters. Unlike Steel-Rank, they mastered their skills and are capable of dealing with large attacks like this on their own.

From Nagishi’s perspective, Steel and Obsidian-Rank are just like mini anime characters that could split buildings in half, throw large boulders across a city like it's nothing, and the spellcasters are known to be able to cast multiple powerful spells at once. So the fact that the guild is sending them meant that the situation required their level of strength. But despite the good news, this doesn’t change the fact that Toshio went to face the hill giant on his own.

“They’ll be here in under an hour, so we need to stay here until they arrive.” The guard explained. “We managed to defend this place for this long. So we could last until they arrive.”

“Under an hour?!” Nagishi said as he looked at the guard. “But our friend is on his way to where the danger is! There's no way he'll make it until they arrive!”

“Sorry to hear that, but we can't afford to let the injured here be defenseless.” The guard explained. “However, there's nothing I could do to keep you three from finding your friend or rushing to danger. But know that this is a dangerous group that's roaming around.”

The guard then tossed a ring of keys to Nagishi, who caught it and stared at it confused.

“What’s this for?” Nagishi asked.

“I’m not saying anything about the tournament’s equipment storage for the guards, or if it’s still intact or not.” The guard said as he walked away. “But keep an eye on those keys for me and pretend we didn’t have this conversation.”

As the three looked at the keys, Zarele looked at Nagishi.

“I think he just told us to steal their equipment?” Zarele whispered to the group.

“I think he did?” Nagishi replied. “Do we really need to make a stop along the way to pick up a few items?”

“I do believe you’ll need them if you plan on heading towards the danger.” Thomas spoke up.

The group saw Thomas walk up to them with a proper bandage wrap over his leg. Elisa knew him, but Nagishi and Zarele didn’t.

“Who are you?” Nagishi asked.

“Thomas Muldusir Yuan.” Thomas replied as he approached Nagishi. “I was one of the guys that provided equipment for the guards. So I know how special they are against tough individuals.”

“Thanks, but we can’t stop along the way to pick up a few magical shields that might not work against a Hill Giant.” Nagishi replied, thinking that Thomas was referring to those shields that create light barriers.

“We delivered other things besides a few shields.” Thomas said as he snatched the keys from Nagishi. “We also delivered a few items that could nullify abilities and gifts for a short moment, as well as some protective items to subdue problematic individuals. You didn’t expect that a tournament like this wouldn't have a precaution or two in case something like this happened, right?”

The part of nullifying gifts was what caught Nagishi’s attention. Since Hill Giants were Travelers that chose a gift that gave them their strength, something that could nullify it would give them an advantage in taking him down.

“If such an item exists, then why haven’t the guards used it yet?” Zarele asked.

“I’m guessing that the equipment storage was one of the few places that the cultists attacked?” Thomas replied. “So I’m pretty sure these cultists and devil lovers ambushed and forced the guards to flee here before they could use these items.”

“So why should we go there? We don’t even know where this equipment storage is?” Nagishi asked. “We’re just wasting time talking about it, and we’ll just waste more time going to look for it.”

“Because I know where it is and a shortcut that we could take to get there quickly.” Thomas replied. “You watch my back along the way and I’ll get you those items to help your friend.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Zarele said, gesturing for the group to start running. “Lead the way!”

The group started running, following Thomas to where the equipment storage was. On the way Elisa could see that Nagishi looked confused, as if he was trying to figure something out.

“What’s on your mind?” Elisa asked.

“Don’t you feel like someone’s missing?” Nagishi asked.

“Did you forget your pet?” Elisa asked.

“No, Princess is in my bag.” Nagishi replied. “I’m talking about a certain elf that was supposed to be part of some secret order or something.”

Both Elisa and Zarele’s eyes widened as they remembered about Adleth.

“Oh yeah! Where is that lady during all of this?” Zarele asked.

“I don’t know, but we can’t worry about her right now.” Elisa replied. “We need to get whatever equipment they have in that place and help Toshio as soon as possible.”

Thomas stopped the group and pointed at a large stone slab on the floor. It looked like it was part of the floor's design, but upon closer inspection the group saw that there were parts on the side that looked like it could be lifted. Working together with Nagishi as Elisa, the three of them lifted it off the ground, revealing an underground passageway.”

“This is a secret tunnel system we used to deliver the items around. If we follow it, it’ll lead us to the guard’s equipment storage without getting spotted.” Thomas explained before hopping into the hole.

“Then you three make your way to that equipment storage and make your way to the waiting hall quickly.” Zarele said as she broke off from the group and started running to a different area.

“Where are you going?” Nagishi asked.

“Toshio went into danger again. Someone has to help him!” Zarele shouted as she continued running.

Nagishi was about to run after her, but was stopped by Elisa.

“We can’t be much help if we don’t acquire those items.” Elisa said as she hopped into the hole.

Nagishi wanted to run after Zarele to help Toshio, but he knew that they would need those items if they’re gonna have to deal with a hill giant. So he hopped into the hole and closed the slab back over the hole.

*****

Elsewhere, Adleth regained consciousness underneath a pile of rubble. She doesn’t know how long she was knocked out from the explosion, but she could still hear the sounds of combat nearby. As she pushed the rubble off of her, she felt the pain from her injuries as she climbed out.

“Ahh!” Adleth screamed as she felt pain in her leg and shoulder.

Once she climbed out of the rubble, she found out that her right knee was a bit crushed from the rubble and her right shoulder was dislocated. She bit onto an arrow as she forced her shoulder back into place and ripped a piece of cloth from her shirt to stop the bleeding on her leg. She looked into her bag and frowned when she saw that her vials of ointment and other medical liquids were crushed from the rubble.

‘That’s just perfect.’ Adleth thought as she ripped parts off the bag.

She used the parts that she ripped off to make a makeshift cast on her knee. She then hopped to her feet as she needed to figure out what happened since she was knocked out. She limped her way out of the partly collapsed tunnel that she entered earlier, passing by the now dead person she had knocked out. It looked like he wasn’t as lucky as her as he was crushed by fallen rubble. She continued limping her way towards the exit, weaving her hand and muttering a chant as she made herself invisible once more.