Stray

“…The report is above. Regarding the matter mentioned earlier, I asked Witherspoon.”

“That fool with only muscles in his head?”

“Oh, dear Vance, don’t say that. Your ‘brains’ are basically pieces of meat.”

“You made a deal with him.”

“Yes, the reward is one of my eyeballs; voluntary dedication, full of strength, and a good taste.”

“Why bother to go through so much trouble, Telaranea? You might as well just let them kill you. Even if Edwards’ body is destroyed, you’ll only lose an eyeball at most. We all know you’re never short of those.”

“It really doesn’t matter, but my contract with Cahill Edwards hasn’t been completed yet. I just got the ‘deposit’. His knowledge is unique, and I don’t want anyone to hinder me from getting it.”

“If I remember correctly, Witherspoon is not much better than you.”

“I don’t like fighting, and he’s an expert.”

“…And a very good test product, right? Telaranea, I warned you.” Vance’s tone became cold. “Compatriots are not your toys.”

“This is a deal of his own volition. You have no right to interfere.”

Having said that, Telaranea terminated the call in a good mood. The communication crystal disappeared into the air, and the isolation array on the wall also disappeared. He sat down in the wheelchair and adjusted his expression to just the right softness, as the sound of footsteps outside the door became clearer. Then someone gently knocked on the door.

“Mother.” He grabbed a book casually, and opened a few pages before setting it down on his knee. “It’s so late. What can I do for you?”

“I saw that the light in your room was still on,” Mrs. Edwards voice sounded from behind the door. “Rest early, son.”

“Don’t worry, mother,” he said. “You need to rest more. The tranquility of night helps me think.”

“…Good night, son.” After a moment of silence, the old woman said softly at the door, “I love you, always.”

“I love you too. Good night.”

At this moment, there was no “tranquility of night” in the desert not far from Hailam.

It happened so suddenly that Nemo and Oliver were completely unprepared for battle. Oliver was better, at least he was still wearing daytime clothes, and his shoes were still on his feet. Nemo was wearing a nightgown and was barefooted on the sand. The gravel on the ground made him feel extremely uncomfortable.

But now was not the time to worry about his feet.

Oliver was awakened by the toss and subconsciously raised his hand against the blow. He fully woke up from the pain eroded by magic. His hands were empty, and he had to use his own flesh to endure the huge pool of magic. Thankfully, his attack seemed to be effective, as the black armored warrior was buried completely in ice.

However, the dark figure broke through the ice easily and used the giant sword to slashed the icicles like a hot knife cutting butter. The gray parrot was flung into the sky by an icicle that had drilled out of the sand, waking it up.

“What’s going on—!”

No one bothered to explain to it. The smell of danger was stronger than any disaster they had encountered before, and the opponent had a clear intention of killing them. Oliver didn’t care about the wound that had opened back up. The blood had dyed his bandage black and red. He frantically erected an ice wall in front of the black armored warrior, while Nemo desperately tried to recall magic… but to no avail.

The black armored warrior walked slowly. There was no doubt that he was heading straight towards them. It looked as if his back had eyes, as icicles that hurled towards him from a tricky angle was turned into soap bubbles as he broke them with just one swing from his sword. Although he was dressed in heavy black armor, his movements were strangely light as he gracefully navigated through the icicles. He bent over, dodged sideways, turned his metal covered neck, as if he was moving to the beat of drums that they couldn’t hear, as if he was doing some weird ancient dance.

Oliver gritted his teeth. His left arm was covered in scars again as it hung softly. He raised his right arm and continued his futile resistance. Nemo was sweating profusely, and was finally able to summon a little dark shadow, which the opponent tore to pieces. The gray parrot screamed and wanted to launch an escape spell, but was instantly sealed into a magic array and couldn’t move.

They tried their best, but their opponent acted as if he was taking a stroll through a garden.

“When he came to ask me, I thought I could meet some interesting opponents.” The black armored warrior split the last erected ice wall in half. Oliver’s right arm drooped as blood kept flowing continuously. All he could do now was move his shoulders.

Even if he was given a good sword now, he would no longer be able to hold it.

Nemo clenched his fists tightly. He didn’t need to be an expert to know that if things continued on like this Oliver would truly lose the use of his arms. He tried to use his trembling hands to direct the shadow to attack the black armored warrior who was close at hand, but the shadow trembled more severely than even him. It swayed indiscriminately, which couldn’t be considered an “attack” at all. Even if was lucky enough to connect with the warrior’s armor, it was easily brushed off in the next second, drifting away like dust.

“…As a result, you’re only two children who have never been on a battlefield,” he said casually as he stabbed the sword at the parrot laying in the sand. “Is this all you can do?”

Nemo’s heartbeat had never pounded as fast before. His heart was on the brink of exploding. For the first time, despair had grabbed him so earnestly. Nemo stretched out his hand again, making the black shadow shoot out and dragged the parrot who was right under the sword to him. Nemo didn’t dare to hesitate. He stretched out his hand and tore the restraint array, like he had torn the lightning cage on that night. The black armored warrior stopped moving and watched with interest.

“Don’t think I’ll be grateful. My strength is only enough for me to—”

“Go!” Nemo whispered as his lips trembled.

The gray parrot was stunned.

“Go quickly. I beg you— go back to Hailam and tell Ann to escape.”

After that, he opened his hands, creating a black shadow barrier that separated the black armored warrior from them, but at this moment, it could only serve to blind his vision. The gray parrot glanced at Nemo deeply and its figure disappeared in black light. Almost at the same time, their enemy leisurely passed through the barrier.

“Abyssal magic immunity? How rare.” He shook his head at the residual light left by the parrot. “But it’s nothing more than that.”

Everything happened so fast.

By the time Nemo reacted, he already had his back collided into a huge rock and broke it to pieces, as if he was flying into a cobweb. Several stone pillars passed through his torso until he was finally nailed firmly to a rock. He trembled and lowered his head. His entire chest was pierced through, his ribs had been shattered, not to mention his fragile organs like his heart and lungs. He could feel the rapid blood loss as his vision quickly blurred.

It may be because the pain had already exceeded the threshold as he no longer felt pain. It just felt terribly cold.

‘Finally.’ Nemo thought blankly. ‘Finally, the moment has come.’

He never thought the end would be so quick. Nemo tried to breathe, but his lungs were already crushed by a stone pillar. His heart no longer existed, let alone beating. Perhaps this was already the world after death, and he had already became a ghost that didn’t had time to leave his body yet.

The black armored warrior turned around, empty handed. Looking at the figure that was coming towards him from behind. Oliver was pierced through the abdomen by a giant sword. His body reclined back into a sand dune. It was unknown if he was still alive or dead.

‘It’s over,’ Nemo thought slowly.

Suddenly, bloody icicles shot out of the sand and scattered into countless tiny ice needles, piercing the gaps in the armor of the warrior. Bright red blood oozed from the gaps in the armor and dripped onto the sand, which greedily sucked it up.

“He’s dead.” The black armored warrior lowered his head. His tone didn’t sound very pleasant. “Even if it’s a demon warlock, it’s impossible to survive with a shattered heart. Your friend is dead.” He announced coldly.

Oliver didn’t answer.

He was facing the huge rock and saw it clearly. Nemo’s entire body was nailed to the rock, like some strange specimen on display. His blood left conspicuous marks all over the rock.

Can someone survive after so much blood loss? …Rather, can a human really shed that much blood?

He didn’t want to think about it currently.

Nemo could always survive. They were able to survive from the jaws of the ratliff wolfhound, pass through the Frontier Forest safely, and even faced a superior demon and countless hoards of demons. Nemo Light could always survive, even if he struggled and was terrified.

The giant sword penetrated Oliver’s abdomen. He could feel the burning pain of his gastric acid eroding the inside of his body. He needed a lot of optimism, and hoped, even in this moment, blindingly believing that that person would still miraculously survive this disaster. Maybe Nemo just needed a little more time.

All the bones in his lower arms were broken, but Oliver still squeezed the last trace of strength from his muscle to raise his arm. Red icicle swarmed the black armored warrior like a blood-red sea descending from the sky, trying to stop the enemy’s footsteps.

“Amazing power, but unfortunately, you don’t have enough experience.” Their enemy finally turned his head around. The black armored warrior suddenly pulled out his giant sword, and the blood from the blade left a trail of residual light that glowed in the night. “I’m very happy to have met you, young warrior. Although it’s a pity that you can’t fight freely, you’ll definitely become a big threat if I leave you alone.”

He lifted the big sword, pointing the tip before thrusting it straight at Oliver’s head. The latter’s eyes didn’t even blink. His emerald eyes flashed slightly, looking directly at his impending death. The icicles did not stop for a moment, as they continuously attacked his target. The sand under Oliver’s arms had already been blackened by the overflowing blood.

The tip of the great sword quickly pierced something heavy, but it didn’t stab its target. It should have shattered Oliver’s head like a watermelon, ending tonight’s boring battle, but Oliver still laid in place, but the big sword had disappeared, along with the entire right arm of the black armored warrior.

Oliver leaned against the sun dune and gasped. He opened his eyes wide and looked at the person who did all this to the enemy—

Nemo was walking towards them. He somehow broke free from the deadly stone pillars. There was a terrible gaping bloody hole in his torso that one could see the scenery behind him through it, but it was healing rapidly, as if it wasn’t the flesh of a human, but an illusionary mist composed of colorful spells.

The familiar sense of horror suddenly hit and flooded Oliver like a tide. It was clearer than ever before, and now he could almost instinctively assert that this person was definitely not a human being, but something other than human.

His enemy obviously had similar thoughts as well. The black armored warrior slowly took a step back; he had never retreated since he had appeared in front of them.

When Nemo was still a dozen steps away from them, the bloody gaping hole had finally completely closed. His linen nightgown had already been ruined by the stone pillars and was in tatters, soaked in blood, and was almost completely black in the dim night. At this time, pieces of healed skin were exposed on the broken fabric and the sense of disharmony became more and more intense.

He stopped, looked up, and scratched his head in the familiar movement that Oliver was used to.

“Um, I don’t like interfering with other people’s actions.” His voice was the same as usual, “but Oliver is my friend. Can you please stay away from him?”

Kinky Thoughts:

“Friend”. Nemo’s so cute.