Chapter 647 (1/2)

Silo kept his mouth shut once the group had gotten into the small canoe after the fight with the Propagator. His instincts screamed for him to encourage the others. He had thought himself the leader of this team, and therefore it was his role.

But…

It took quite a lot of time with these other three individuals, but Silo could now only helplessly admit that he was not the leader of this team. And he could not find it in himself to say even a single positive thing.

Half of their number was slaughtered after they encountered the Propagator and its puppets. Platton seemed to be barely managing to continue paddling their canoe, and Randidly was white-faced and breathing heavily. What made it worse was that both of these individuals had accomplished more than he, Silo.

Against the puppet, Silo found his Skills insufficient. He wasn’t fast enough, skillful enough, or strong enough to keep the puppet at bay. Platton was forced to move to him to assist Silo, and in that time the Propagator had launched an attack on Randidly. Only through the timely intervention of Sergeant Platton and Azriel could the group manage to escape.

But would Randidly even make it to shore…?

That thought was a cold stone weight in the pit of Silo’s stomach. These people… their strength was so much more than he expected. Even Skarch had cleared a huge hole for the remainder of them to escape through. Randidly, for all that he was heavily injured, had knocked the Propagator’s puppet to the ground. The amount of power that he must have used left Silo chilled.

It made Silo wonder painful thoughts. The small ring given to him by his elders throbbed uncomfortably. He was supposed to be the chosen one. Although it would take great sacrifice, he was supposed to be able to use the strength trapped in the ring in order to turn the tide of the war against the Wights. He would be…

...a hero…

Was that even close to being true?

Was any of this… worth it? Maybe the fundamental material of himself was insufficient. Perhaps the strange image bleed that weakened him was not a usual result, and what was happening was that Silo was failing because his elders had misjudged him. His lofty, bright goals and protecting Tellus were collapsing, and Silo was too desperate and selfish to voice his troubles.

Silo’s hands tightened into fists. It was a long and silent ride back to Southpoint Beach.

*****

Randidly groaned as he eased himself onto the operating table. The surgeon, if he could be called that, was a skeletally thin man with a third eye in his forehead. He simply laid his hands on Randidly and closed his eyes, and within a second turned to speak to Randidly with a frown.

“Well… whatever Skill you used to forcefully close your wounds was incredibly effective. But your body is riddled with something foreign. If you can use the Skill again, I would say the best bet is to remove it-”

“Yes,” Randidly hissed, gripping the table as the strange crystal shards in his body vibrated against the bones of his ribcage. His Health barely decreased, but it was incredibly uncomfortable. “Cut it out of me, doc.”

“Doc? My name is Franz. I have told you so many times-” The surgeon trailed off into mutters as Randidly waved his hand, indicating how much he cared right now.

The group had made it back to Southpoint Beach, which was a much busier place than when Randidly’s group had left the beach a month ago. It seemed that more and more supplies and personnel were flowing to attack the Southern Domain through Southpoint Beach, and as such, it was quite a bit more difficult to find who exactly they were supposed to report to.