Chapter 127: On a stretcher (1/2)
'Ah...' Layn moaned in his mind as soon as his consciousness started to return. Even though the state of his body could be summed up with a word - pain - he didn't dare to voice this problem out.
It was one of the things he learned during his early days of adventuring, something that allowed him to escape from captivity more times than he could count.
'I'm being carried?' he asked in his thoughts, trying to figure out his situation without announcing to whoever was carrying him that he was awake.
The rocky ride that someone was giving to him made it easy to figure out what was happening. 'I'm not bound. I'm lying flat on some kind of... cloth?' Layn continued to assess his situation.
”**** **, * **** *** *** *****,” a female voice said, although Layn was unable to understand a single word.
'What the hell,' this was a startling discovery. His translation spell couldn't be turned off by something as simple as a near-death experience. As long as there was a sufficient amount of energy in Layn's system, it would continue to operate.
'I can feel it running, so why I can't understand shit?' Layn asked himself, experiencing the fear of the unknown.
'I can still remember that bastard claiming there was no other tribe of humans, even in the ancient times,' Layn recalled the teachings of the harshest teacher he ever had in the academy. But although his methods and expectations were on another level, Layn could still remember most of his lectures because of them.
'Was I blasted to an entirely new world by that spell?' Layn asked himself, vaguely recalling what happened when he poured all the energy he had into that monstrosity.
The amount of mana he used back then was comparable to what he used for the gran arcana that twisted the fabric of the time itself. While a lot more straightforward, it should still be enough to blast that massive monster into smithereens.
'Could it be that I feel into a fissure of space that my magic created?' Layn continued to pose questions in his mind, trying his hardest to figure out the situation.
'**** ******* **********!' The voice appeared again, this time followed by a crip slap to his cheek. Layn allowed his head to roll to the side, set on pretending to be unconscious.
'This whore,' he had to use the utmost of his willpower to stop his hands from tightening into fists. 'How dare she slap my face?!' Layn's fury channeled through his veins, stirring up his mana a bit.
Swish!
The sound of a weapon leaving its sheath reached Layn's ears. Then, a similar sound of metal cutting through the air at a fast speed appeared, forcing Layn to stop his act.
He opened his eyes. A sword was already flying towards his chest.
'I don't have enough mana to fight,' Layn thought, scanning the situation. He was carried on some kind of stretcher, yet someone was currently aiming to take his life.
Or was he?
Layn's body twitched, allowing him to slightly adjust his position. Then, as counterintuitive as it was, he jerked his left fist upwards, aiming almost straight for the approaching blade... But not really.
Rather than trying to contest the cut of the sword with his bare fist, Layn forced his mind and muscles to work in perfect unison. And with a minuscule delay, his fist missed the cutting edge of the blade... Only to strike in its dull side!
'I fucked up,' Layn thought when his self-defense managed to reflect the attack with ease. But, given how weak he currently was, there was only one way for his counterattack to work so well.
The attack on his chest was nothing but a feint!
'I guess my mind is still not up to par,' Layn thought, noticing just how weird the entire situation was.
Because why would someone bother to put him on a stretcher and carry his unconscious body somewhere if they were to instantly aim to kill him once he would wake up?
”*** *** *** are ***?” This time, the voice was astounded. And from how Layn was starting to recognize some words, it appeared that his translation spell was working as it should... Just that it was never exposed to such language before!