Chapter 128 - Strangeness (2)

Elior lurched out of the heavy water, carrying a frail, thin body on his back. Only a couple of minutes ago, his senses picked up something underwater, and diving into the ocean, he found this body, sinking deep into the heavy water on the verge of being summoned out of the trial.

There was no threat to this female's life, not anyone else's. anyone, in particular, can't actually die here, it was created just so that the participants could adapt to it even after failing again and again.  It was not an impossible test, to begin with, even with the hard, rocky start that leaves most of the participants in disarray.

Getting onto the deck, Elior breathed in and out freely first. The water was just too heavy and jarring, even for him. How awful it had been for these young Devarians. Yes, the body he found seemed to be off some devarians—of course—half-blooded ones. The pure devarians are just too arrogant to come to low-level trials like this, and they were not allowed to come as well.

Somehow, Elior felt something was wrong with the entire event. How did he find out something wrong underwater, and why did this frail Devarian seem so familiar to him?

Yemrmix hovered lazily in the air, like always as if all of it was none of her concern. Grunting, Elior laid the body on the deck, getting ready to remove the mask from the body.

A pale angular face of a blond young woman greeted his sight, with blood patches in red and purple all over the face. Elior's heart skipped a beat at once. 'Ellora?' he wondered, clearing out the heavy strangle of hair from her face. Confusion appeared on his face as he looked at the figure. The face seemed to be familiar to him, but he could not remember it clearly.

'This is not Ellora,' he told himself. Pure-blooded devarians are not allowed in this test. Could this be her sister? Elior wondered hard and found his head throbbing with the impaling familiar pain. 'What is her name again? Why can't I remember?'

"What happened?" Yemrmix's call gets him out of his trance. "Why are you with the face like the sky has broken?"

Elior shook his head. In his wondering, he actually forgot the sensible thing to be done here. Without considering more, pressed his arm against her chest and pushed slowly. The figure was already in a rundown state, and any more push could even break her rib cage apart. Godmother! How much of the essence did she pull?

Elior infused a little strand of his mana into her body. Initially, it was not something I was advised to do. Other than privacy, and if something goes wrong, it could even kill someone if handled callously. Elior's eyes narrowed as he pushed the mana into her lungs, trying to push the water out.

Slowly, water blobbed out of her mouth, though her figure was still unconscious and not breathing. If it were an ordinary human or a human on the part of a guardian, they would be dead for sure. Only the potency in her blood kept her alive.

Runes of magical scripts formed before her head in invisible, hollow shells. Soon it turned into three-layer magic circles, revolving against one another to call the air. Slow air came in swiftly as well as pure mana in smoke, creeping into her mouth and nose.

Elior managed to bring out all the water he could, but the breathing had not come again. He pushed her chest again, trying to get a little shock. After continuing the process for the whole two minutes did, she started breathing. It was slow and timid, and Elior left the spell intact for the time.

"That is some dashingly heroic exploit," Yemrmix said with a grin on her lips.

"Mhh." Elior sighed to catch his breath.

"Oh, don't give me the mhh," she snorted. "This is what heroes do."

"Rescue damsels from their distress?" Elior laughed, trying hard to forget the cloud in his memory. "But I must say, the feeling of rescuing a damsel in distress was far better than anything else."

"I would be wry if I am you," the pixie said, giving the unconscious girl another look. "Devarian bites."

. . .

Shin felt a cold sensation in his plan as his eye shook at the dead body of the archer. Yes, he had killed him, and that too with a lot of violence. With his mana being sealed, Shin had to breathe everything out with the metal leg. The result left him shaking.

The corpse before him was staining the floor with blood, head and face broken with dozens of blows from the metal leg. This was a sight that could give him goosebumps, but Shin knew this man was not entirely dead, and most likely will come back to life like that doctor for all the good that did him.

"Don't stand blackly like an idiot," Ronin called from. His entire body was blood ridden and almost all of it comes from the corpses on the ground. If Shin just used violence to kill the archer just now, then this is something else entirely. Stray limbs, head spread on the ground, stained in red blood, so did the headless, armless corpses. Ronin looked far more tired than before and even than the two of Shin and Feldan, but the youth tried to hide it as much as he could.

"Collect any weapon of your liking and move," he said. "We won't have the luxury of being free of any time soon."

Shin nodded and was about to pick up a long sword from the ground when his face twisted again, finding another pack of dogs coming their way. Moreover, they were led by that fellow that beat the crap out of him before. "Shit!" he cursed.

"What do we do?" Feldan screamed, considering running away on his own. Honestly, they cannot blame him. Their minds were barely working with all the things they had been through. 

"For starters," Ronin said slowly, walking towards Feldan. "Shut your damn mouth for now."

Feldan did turn silent, while Shin readied himself with the sword. Even if he had mana and to the best of his ability, he could not get better off these groups. Fortunately, there was this mysterious Ronin with him, who could cut humans like cakes. Perhaps they will get an opportunity.

"Flee the other direction at my signal," Ronin said, strangling Feldan so violently that he could not move. 

"What signal?" Shin asked and confusion appeared in his eyes, finding the two embracing tightly like that in front of danger. "What the . . ."

Just then, Ronin's right arm moved toward the collar on Feldan's neck as the dagger made a swift hack, cutting it entirely. That was not all. Just as the cutting was done, Ronin threw it towards the incoming party.

BOOM!

The collar blasted into a bombardment, right before the party of the dogs. It should not manage to do anything to the superior who got away in time, but a lot of the dogs got bombarded away in the explosion.

"That's the signal."

. . .

Inari woke up feeling dead. Her eyes blinked more than a couple of times to make out it was the bright, strikingly blue sky she was seeing. She is currently in a boat, a small one at that, above the ocean.

Images of how she became so wounded and haggard came to her head as she tried to sit upright. Her back hurts. NO, it was the entire body. In the boat, there were only ropes, a handbag that appeared to be a spatial item, and a suit, currently in tattered condition, like her own.

Wait, the one she was wearing was in good condition. Far better than the time she remembered. What was going on? She could not think very clearly with that fuzzy brain and throbbing pain all over her body.

So, she tried slowly. First Leroy tried to get her out through the submarine, but then the two betrayed them. Inari barely managed to remember what happened after that. She did not give up on Leroy and pulled the lever and some managed to do with, even with all the pressure. All things were resolving when the submarine started without taking her in. She somehow managed to cling onto the submarine before passing out into the water. 

Wait, there were those notifications, telling her to give up on the trial. Yes, all of it was a trial? All the crappy struggle was actually a test, a false one. But didn't she give up on the trial to save herself? Why was she here?

The sight of the enormous ship before her eyes told her she was still inside the trial.

Inari sighed. "Perhaps the fairy will come to break the bad news here." There was no collar on her neck, which told some tale as well.

Just as she finished in her pessimistic rumbling, she heard someone. . . someone was approaching, and it appeared he was . . . singing.

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