“Anby, drink some water first.”
Cael opened one of the bottles produced by Shenglin Group and carefully examined the water inside.
He even took a sip himself to make sure there was nothing wrong with it before handing it to Anby.
Anby accepted the bottle and drank a little.
“How’s your injury?
I found a first-aid kit, so I’m going to treat the wound.”
Cael’s gaze fell on Anby’s right leg.
A few strips of cloth were wrapped around it.
She had clearly done some emergency treatment earlier, but given the limited conditions, it hadn’t been handled very well.
There had been no disinfection and no clean bandages.
If they left it like this, there was a real risk of infection.
“Okay.”
Anby nodded slightly.
Cael crouched down and carefully removed her sneaker.
Then he slowly unwound the bloodstained strips of cloth wrapped around her leg.
It was impossible to avoid tugging at the wound in the process.
Anby’s expression barely changed throughout, but Cael clearly heard the faint, sharp breaths she took whenever the pain flared.
As the layers of cloth came away, the wound on her leg was finally exposed.
Cael’s gaze tightened.
It was a gruesome injury.
The cut was around twenty centimeters long and roughly two fingers deep, most likely caused by a Tyrfing’s blade.
Fortunately, it hadn’t damaged any major tendons or arteries.
Even so, it was still a serious wound.
“Does it hurt?” Cael asked softly.
Anby shook her head slightly.
“I’m used to it.
It’s actually not that bad.”
“Man…
how many burgers are you going to need to recover from something like this?”
Cael shook his head with a sigh, feeling a little sorry for her.
“Pfft…”
Anby actually laughed.
The pain from her wound seemed a little less unbearable after that.
“Burgers are delicious.
You like them too?” she asked.
“Of course.”
Cael smiled.
“I actually love burgers.
Cola, fries, fried chicken—I like all of it.
But my family used to say it was junk food all the time.
“Think about it, though.
Bread gives you carbs, beef gives you fat and protein, vegetables give you vitamins.
Put them all together and you get a burger.
That’s obviously healthy, right?
“If you ask me, that’s just the older generation being biased.”
“You’re funny.”
Anby narrowed her eyes slightly, a faint smile appearing on her face.
“All right, enough chatting.
Let me treat the wound first.
We don’t want to waste time and let it get infected.”
Cael removed Anby’s sock, sat down on the sofa, and rested her leg across his lap.
He carefully rinsed away the blood with clean water, the runoff spreading into a pale red stain across the floor.
Then he dipped a cotton swab in iodine antiseptic and gently applied it to the wound.
He didn’t use the alcohol.
It would’ve been far too irritating for an open wound this severe.
White foam slowly spread across the surface of the injury, killing invisible colonies of bacteria while searing every exposed nerve ending.
Anby’s leg tensed as she watched Cael treat the wound.
After disinfecting it, Cael wiped away the excess iodine, opened a fresh packet of sterile gauze, and gently pressed it over the injury.
Then he wrapped a bandage around her thigh, carefully controlling the pressure.
Not so tight that it would hurt or restrict circulation.
Not so loose that the gauze might slip out of place.
Only after everything was done did Cael finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Given the circumstances, this was the best he could do.
An injury like this would definitely need professional treatment once they returned to the city.
With New Eridu’s medical technology, though, it shouldn’t be too difficult to handle.
After proper treatment, she might not even be left with a scar.
“I wonder how Nicole and Billy are doing…”
Cael stood by the window and peered outside.
This Hollow was fairly large.
At least from where he was standing, he couldn’t see the office building they’d come from earlier.
Still, Nicole and Billy should be fine.
If all they needed to do was escape, the two of them shouldn’t have much trouble.
And they had Eous with them.
Even though the Proxy siblings hadn’t obtained Fairy, the self-proclaimed strongest AI, yet, that didn’t change the fact that they were the legendary Proxy Phaethon.
They probably wouldn’t need long to find this place.
The real question was…
Could Cael and Anby hold out until then?
Cael frowned.
An Ethereal had already appeared nearby.
A faint red point of light.
About two hundred meters from where he and Anby were hiding.
Two hundred meters.
That seemed to be the current maximum range of his Life-Ether Perception.
Even so, Cael had to admit it was an extremely useful ability, especially inside a Hollow.
Not only could he detect humans and Ethereals, he could even see the direction of Ether currents.
Cael pulled down the dust-covered curtains and shut the door securely.
Then he turned to Anby.
“There’s an Ethereal wandering nearby.
Let’s stay as quiet as possible.”
Anby nodded.
The injury to her thigh was serious enough that she couldn’t even stand right now, much less fight at full strength.
Cael continued monitoring the outside while tracking the Ethereal through his perception.
It was getting closer.
Less than fifty meters now.
He could even make it out through a gap in the curtains.
A Tyrfing.
But something seemed wrong with it.
This one was slightly smaller than an ordinary Tyrfing.
Part of the blade on its right arm had broken off.
The Ether crystals covering its body were riddled with cracks, and dark scorch marks covered parts of its frame.
It looked as though it had survived an explosion.
[Name]: Tyrfing
[Race]: Ethereal
[Level]: 12
[Status]: Severely Injured
[Aberration Traits]: [Evolution] [Gigantification]
So he could see more information about Ethereals now?
He hadn’t noticed it before when he’d only glanced at their panels.
A severely injured Level 12 Tyrfing.
No unusual Aberration Traits beyond the standard ones.
Cael silently compared its strength to his own.
After a moment, he reached a conclusion.
Maybe…
He actually had a chance against it?
Forget it.
There was no reason to take an unnecessary risk.
All he could do was hope the Tyrfing was merely passing by.
Unfortunately, when had that kind of luck ever happened to him?
As the Tyrfing drew closer, its body suddenly stiffened.
Then, as though it had sensed something, it began walking step by step toward the room where Cael and Anby were hiding.
They’d been discovered.
Looks like a fight was unavoidable.
Cael looked at Anby, then shifted his gaze toward the battery pack she’d removed and the electromagnetic straight blade hanging beside it.
“What are you doing?”
Anby asked.
Her words came slightly faster than usual.
She had already sensed an Ethereal approaching.
The familiar screeching sound was growing closer, accompanied by faint tremors through the floor.
“A Tyrfing found us.
But it’s badly injured, and its blade is broken.”
Cael reached for the electromagnetic straight blade.
“You can’t fight right now, so I’ll handle it.”
He pulled the weapon free.
High-voltage current crackled along the blade as arcs of electricity flashed across its surface.
“Have you ever fought an Ethereal before?” Anby asked.
She knew she couldn’t stop him.
Cael remembered climbing more than two hundred floors in Zenless Zone Zero.
Then he smiled.
“Of course.”
Fighting Ethereals in the game had amounted to hammering away at a keyboard and mouse.
Reality was obviously completely different.
He only said it to put Anby at ease.
Besides…
He still had three uses of Replay.
That was his trump card.
As for this Tyrfing…
Cael had hated Tyrfings for quite a while now.
After all, one of them had taken his first…
Life.
Revenge could wait ten years and still not be too late.
Tyrfing.
You’re dead.
It really helps the fic grow!