Chapter 33: Come With Me if You Want to Live (2/2)
”Murderer,” The voice whispered. ”You left him to be torn apart by beasts, and now you will share his fate.”
He shut his eyes and waited for the pain. A pain that never came.
”How long are you going to stand there with your eyes closed?” A young masculine voice broke him out of his trance.
Brenden opened his eyes and was overcome by what he saw.
Mike stood nonchalantly beside the disintegrating corpses of the two lizards, a simple looking sword thrown over one shoulder. Both monsters had been decapitated with clean strokes.
In that moment, the youth reminded Brenden of a mural he'd seen once in a city cathedral during his time on the streets. It depicted an ancient hero, who stood triumphantly over the corpse of a dangerous looking demon. At the time Brenden was struck by the sheer presence of the hero, the power. Mike stood in almost the exact same pose, missing only the fine weapons and armor.
[He must have killed both of them in a second, no a fraction of second, and he did it in near perfect silence. Presumably without making use of his already terrifying fire magic. This.....this is a Rank 3 Adventurer? There was no way.] Brenden was filled with disbelief.
”Okay, the staring is starting to get a bit creepy. Hm, I bet you're in shock from those burns. Hold on, let me see if I can work on those.” The youth said while approaching.
Before Brenden could react, Mike had already pressed a glowing hand onto his chest.
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The beastman was staring at him blankly for a good ten seconds before Mike thought about the possibility of shock. [Oh s***. This is no time to act cool.]
He ran over and began channeling mana into Brenden's burns, but for some reason was having trouble. He had to expend nearly five times the amount of mana that would normally be required for healing, but it was having little effect.
[Maybe its hard to heal burns?]
A familiar pop occurred deep within him, and suddenly the healing process got significant easier. Within a few minutes Brenden's injuries had been completely healed.
Mike sighed and stood up straight, since the beastman had fallen to his knees during the process.
He glanced over at Devin, or what was left of him. It was quite obvious that no amount of healing magic would be able to fix this. The sight caused some disquiet in his heart.
He had been treating this whole dungeon delve as a game, despite Philomena's many warnings. It had all seemed so convenient, so easy compared to the other battles he fought, he didn't take it seriously. But here was visceral proof that he was engaging in a dangerous profession. That people died playing this 'game.'
He shook himself out of his morbid thoughts. Now was not the time to deal with these feelings. He need to get himself and the rest of the surviving adventurers out.
He glanced down at the beastman, who was staring numbly down at his injured hand. [Guess I need to be gentle with this one. Dealing with this kind of situation was bound to be traumatic.
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Brenden was staring at his hand. The one that was burned mere minutes ago. [How can one man wield both life and death with such proficiency? How is he this powerful?]
”Hey.” A soft voice broke his meandering thoughts.
He looked up into the face of his savior.
The youth was leaning over, offering a hand to the kneeling beastman. ”Lets get you out of here.” He said with a gentle smile.
A genuine smile.