Chapitre 16: Close Call
With the knight pointing a sword at me and preparing to charge I all but lost hope. It was painfully obvious that my new opponent was in a different league of strength. Nothing I could do at this point would mean anything.
Well, I tried my best at least. This is definitely a more exciting end than I could have ever hoped for back home. My only regret would be that I never actually used magic for myself. I mean I guess my blood could now be classified as magical, but I feel like it isn't the same as doing something like throwing a fireball.
I continued to lament my fate as the knight slowly became a blur in front of me. I knew it was all over, but I still raised my polearm and tried to defend myself. Even if it was a pointless action, I wanted to face my death head on. However, the whole situation quickly became incomprehensible.
A loud thud accompanied by a shockwave followed the knight bouncing backward. Somehow a weird barrier of light appeared in his path without giving him any time to react. And to further add to the strange situation, some creature that looked quite like a tyrannosaurus rex appeared from the tree line behind the knight. Seeing the creature, the knight's eyes went wide and his face paled.
It looked like he tried to run away, but the ground shifted and caught him in place. It was very strange to see a person run so fast that they became a blur, to be stopped almost instantly. It also looked very painful for his body as his calf area was now bent at an unusual angle. However, his now broken legs were the least of his concerns as the t-rex monster soon walked over to him and chomped down with its large mouth.
It was quite a gruesome scene seeing a man being eaten by some dinosaur creature, but that only served to remind me that I could be next. I looked around in a panic, trying to find out potential escape routes and if there were more enemies. Afterall, somebody had to have casted that barrier, unless the dinosaur was so strong that it could use multiple different types of magic.
"Calm yourself and finish your fight. No one will interfere."
A voice came out of the nearby forest and I couldn't see anyone when I tried to find the source. However, the dinosaur creature seemed content with its meal and didn't look like it would attack anybody else. Furthermore, all the other trainees were staring at the knight's death while completely oblivious to their surroundings. I had a feeling that they knew just how strong that knight was and thus were terrified of how strong the monster that killed him had to be. In this situation, that would be their downfall. Just like how they were too surprised at Jim's death earlier to react to the eagle monster.
I rushed forward and managed to get a clean hit against one of the still healthy opponents. My halberd cleaved into his head and he fell down like a broken puppet. I then turned and thrusted the spike of my halberd towards the previously injured trainee.
He was able to react at least, but using his sword in his offhand made his block too awkward and weak. He barely altered the path of my weapon before it pierced into his stomach area. He wasn't dead for now, but he wasn't a threat anymore either.
I turned and saw two more opponents now ready for me. They still seemed shaken up about everything, but after seeing me continue the fight with the dinosaur being content to sit on the sidelines, they decided to get revenge.
"You stupid fucking old man. I knew you were bad news ever since the first day I saw you hobbling around the training grounds. I'll make sure to kill you today for your treachery."
"No need for all the theatrics. Your whole kingdom was against me since the very first day. It's a shame you all got caught up in it, but there is no going back now."
With that, I raised my weapon and prepared to fight against the two. For a while, we continued to circle around each other as they tried to get on either side of me and I continued to try and keep them both in front of me. Nobody would commit to a fight yet, but I kept on throwing out jabs with my halberd as a means of keeping them in front and as a safe attack.
"Kill that fucking bastard for me."
The man on death's door called out while holding his heavily bleeding stomach. I figured those might be his last words. They did have an effect on the two remaining swordsmen though. They both grit their teeth while giving a nod to each other. Right after, they both rushed forward at the same time.
I knew right away that they were willing to sacrifice one so the other could accomplish the task of killing me, but I couldn't really do much about it except roll the dice on who would win. I choose one of the two at random and went all in on an attack. The man saw the attack and successfully pulled up his sword to parry it to the side, but I guess he didn't think that far enough through.
He happened to parry it away from his dominant side, which was to be expected, except that also pushed my weapon towards his ally. Instead of trying to recover, I followed through with the swing and lodged my weapon in his ally's chest. He fell over unable to continue, but my original target successfully reached me and stabbed his sword through my upper stomach area. I knew that this wound could prove fatal, but I still had enough strength in my body to punch him in the face.
I didn't think I had all that much strength, but it still had enough force to push him away while also removing his sword from my body in the process.
I stumbled backwards and eventually fell to the ground as blood poured out of my open wound. I could feel the rivers of fire in my body intensify yet again while also turning into an excruciating pain. Just like when I broke through, I felt like my body was burning me alive from the inside out. My mana was also quickly depleting, but that was merely a passing thought.
The trainee wiped the blood off his face from a newly acquired bloody nose. He looked at me with a sort of madness in his eyes.
"That's right you fucking bastard. Bleed out and die a horribly painful death. That's the only way you can even begin to atone for what you have done."
I barely had enough presence of mind to understand what he was saying let alone respond to it, but after noticing the situation behind him, I couldn't help but smile. A cruel smile, carrying with it all of my emotions towards the absurdity of this situation and my willingness to go to any lengths to survive it.
Seeing my smile, the trainee lost himself to fury once more as he took a step forward to strike me down. However, he froze, when he noticed that he now stood in a shadow. Looking up, he saw the wide jaw and endless teeth of the dinosaur descend. That was the last sight he saw before he was brutally eaten just like the knight before him.
A strange calm settled in the area where the only sounds were a dinosaur chewing on a dead human and my labored breathing as I went closer to death. My mana ran out a while ago while my blood was doing its best to heal my wounds, but it wasn't enough. With each passing minute, I would lose more strength which would in turn prevent my blood from healing myself causing me to lose even more strength.
It was only a matter of time.
"Looks like he really did improve his blood with mana. No normal initial stage would survive this long with that kind of a wound."
I was broken out of my internal dialogue and endless pain at the sound of noise. Looking up, I gained a sort of clarity despite being close to death so I was able to make out that a group of men were standing above me.
"Here, eat this. I want to see if you can recover with enough mana."
One of the men held out a slab of meat to me. I didn't understand what they wanted at first, but soon I weakly lifted one of my hands while keeping the other pressed over my open wound. I grabbed the piece of meat and took a bite. Soon that bit of food made its way to my stomach before I started to feel mana once again.
All of that mana made its way to my blood causing a bit of strength to return. Feeling the effect, I abandoned everything else and used both hands to eat the food I was given as fast as possible. I didn't even have the time to think that I was also eating some of my own blood since my hands were covered in it.
Eventually, I ate everything and I had enough mana to resupply my blood. With a newfound strength, my body was eventually able to heal itself. I let out a wild laugh. I was unsure of my fate going forward, but at least for now, I had survived.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone