’Move, damn it!’
Axel fought for motor control, but his body didn’t listen — couldn’t listen.
He was simply too injured. Three arrows jutted from his body, and slash marks littered his flesh. If he were to lie down, he’d probably be mistaken for a corpse.
Axel dropped to his knees.
’Damn...’
When all hope seemed lost, Connor appeared at the edge of Axel’s green-stained vision. He charged in from the left, scooped up the goblin directly in front of Axel, and carried it past him. A moment later, Connor crashed down to Axel’s right, slamming the creature into the dirt before hacking it apart.
Cory followed close on Connor’s heels. He lunged past Axel and slashed at the next closest goblin, driving it back before it could strike.
Then Ilya appeared and killed the last archer — but with the archer problem solved, a new one arose.
’We’re surrounded...’
The cohort had recklessly followed Axel, and now all seven of them found themselves encircled by the remaining goblins.
It also seemed the enemy had judged them to be quite the threat because the goblin mage turned away from the main force, fixed its gaze on them, and began forming another fireball.
’I said move!’
Through sheer willpower, Axel began clawing at the ground. He dragged his body across the corpses strewn around him until he reached it: a nearby bow.
As quickly as his shaky hands allowed, began to nock an arrow.
’No...’
He tried.
’Please...’
He really did.
’Please!’
But he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t muster the strength to draw the string back.
Unable to bear the pain from clenching his hand any longer, he released the arrow. It slipped from the bow and fell pitifully into the dirt directly before him.
"No..."
Axel stared at the encroaching goblins, their silhouettes shrouded by the deepening darkness, and whispered:
"It’s my fault... it’s all my fault, damn it."
He continued speaking to himself as the goblins closed ranks ahead of him, their bodies gradually blocking his view of the mage.
’Trying to run now won’t accomplish much, will it? I can barely move.’
’...’
’Did I really survive this in my past life?’
’Well, I’m not even meant to be alive now, right? I should be dead anyway.’
’I should probably... help the others... before I die.’
Axel called out to the person closest to him:
"Mikhail...!"
He turned his head against the dirt and found Mikhail frozen in the same position he’d taken to shield Axel from the arrows. It was only then, through the dim torchlight, that Axel saw Mikhail hadn’t been holding a tent canopy at all. He had raised his own tattered shirt, which now lay at his feet.
Mikhail was dead.
He had died standing. Three arrows protruded from the center of his chest, clustered around his heart.
Any hope, no matter how small, was rapidly disappearing.
As Axel stared at Mikhail, a goblin with an arrow sticking out of its eye leaped forward and swung its blade through his neck.
Mikhail’s body finally slumped over, and his severed head rolled toward Axel, stopping when it struck his thigh.
Axel drowned in a deep rage.
"You bastard!"
He lost his rationality.
Even if his body couldn’t withstand it, even if it meant giving up his final chance at life, he tried to move.
Nothing else mattered now — the mage would launch the fireball soon.
Before it did, he wanted revenge.
The goblin jumped onto Axel, plunging its dagger toward his head, but the blade struck the dirt beside him.
’It can’t see...’
But Axel couldn’t really see either.
The green staining his vision was growing thicker, slowly bleeding into a liquid red as the night darkened around him.
And yet...
Fueled by adrenaline and hate, Axel swung his fist... then again. Again and again, as many times as his broken body would allow, he drove his battered knuckles into the goblin’s face until he heard a metallic ring and a now-familiar voice.
[You have slain a Nascent Aberrant, Goblin]
Blood dripped from his mouth and ears.
’My eyes... they won’t open.’
His world went black, and he was trapped in his thoughts while waiting for death. The sensation brought with it an odd sense of déjà vu.
’Even with knowledge from my past life, though it was only fragments, I still managed to die...’
’I wonder if I’ll get a third chance. Maybe I’m already on my third chance. Will I get a fourth then?’
’Ha...’
’Who cares? It’s over.’
"Not yet!" Huang Guo screamed. "Don’t give up yet!"
Ryon grunted:
"Guh!"
Axel somehow forced his eyes open, only to be greeted by the night sky. When he rolled his head to the side, he found Ryon, Connor, Cory, Maks, and Huang Guo forming a circle around him, their backs turned inward as they fought to hold back the horde.
Then he saw Ilya lying nearby, grimacing against the dirt, with her left arm nowhere to be seen.
"Agrh!"
Huang Guo screamed, snapping Axel’s attention toward him.
A sword point protruded from Huang Guo’s abdomen, the blade having punched clean through from behind. He twisted and kicked backward, knocking the goblin that had stabbed him away.
As he pulled the sword from his abdomen, Huang Guo screamed:
"Die!"
Beside him, Connor grunted as he fell to his knees.
"Ergh!"
Axel looked toward the southern gate.
He was greeted by a hellscape of blood and guts stretching as far as his blurred eyes could see beneath the blanket of night.
There, he saw Zayn standing atop the mage’s corpse. Farther beyond him, near the gate, only a few goblins remained.
’We... won?’
The full cost of victory remained unknown.
"Axel!"
Ryon and Maks screamed in unison as they looked back at him, even as they continued fending off the few remaining goblins.
It didn’t seem either of them had noticed Huang Guo’s injury yet.
’How am I even moving?’
Axel crawled until he was behind Huang Guo. Then, he gripped a nearby sword and used it to prop himself up just in time to catch Huang Guo as he fell.
’I couldn’t before...’
Ryon screamed:
"Last one!"
’Ah, that’s it.’
Cory watched the goblin fall to the dirt and said in disbelief:
"We won?"
’My body’s given up on surviving...’
Then Cory cheered:
"We won!"
His celebration lasted only a moment before he turned around.
"...We won, right?"
He stared at Ilya, who was writhing in pain, and Huang Guo, whom Axel, as gently as his failing strength allowed, lowered onto the dirt.
Axel soon collapsed beside Huang Guo, who’d just taken his last breath.
’Did my actions save anyone? Have I become someone’s savior?’
Tears welled up in Axel’s eyes.
’I don’t want to die.’
He fought desperately to stay awake.
Those around him were screaming at him to do so.
At least he thought they were.
Eventually, he couldn’t even hear anything, and his eyes fought to close. Just before they did, someone placed a hand on him and something else in front of him.
A metallic ring echoed in Axel’s ear.
[You have acquired Minor Relic: Flame Spitter]
[You are now a Nascent Human]
In an instant, a wave of knowledge about Aether and Relics flooded Axel’s mind. Not only that, but the small amount of dormant Aether within his body ignited, surging through his wounds and beginning to mend them. Even if only barely.
Above Axel, Leora was shouting at him:
"Hurry, Axel! Give the relic to Ilya!"
Axel could barely move, but he knew what he had to do and why.
He crawled over to Ilya, reached out with a trembling hand, and touched her shoulder. In his mind, he envisioned transferring the Relic to her.
In the next moment, he felt something leave his body and enter Ilya.
[You have lost Minor Relic: Flame Spitter]
Axel rolled onto his back and stared at the sky. There were still a couple of hours until midnight.
He closed his eyes and let his consciousness slip from his grasp.
His timely awakening had saved him from certain death.
But how many others would be saved as well?
And how many hadn’t been so lucky...