Chapter 611 - The Hunt (1)

I dashed towards Luke's bed, ignoring my vision slowly dying into red. My pain didn't matter, I needed to heal Luke, who was turning and groaning while he was sleeping on his bed. Placing my hands on his ċhėst, I began to pour all the mana I possessed, desperately trying to reduce his temperature. After almost drowning to death, I squirmed from the thought of being hunted to death. The mediator was giving me the opportunity to end the trial today.

"What are you doing? Do you think Luke would like you sacrificing yourself for him? His fever will be gone within three days anyways," Alex shouted at me.

"What's so wrong with trying to make him recover earlier?" I felt my vision starting to wobble.

"You're going to die at this rate again!" He tried to separate me from Luke.

I ducked to avoid him, continuing to pour more of mana into Luke. I could feel signs of his high temperature slowly beginning to drop, his heartbeat stabilizing. His breathing was becoming more normal, consistently sticking to its rhythm. He stopped moving, chills on his back reducing, the sounds of him mȯȧning gone. As my mana gauge became dangerously low, his face filled with more colour, almost lively.

I only turned my face away from him when I coughed more vicious blood, splattering all over the carpeted floors. My mana supply refilled more quickly as I aged, competing against its mass consumption. Although I was spending more than what I could recover, I wasn't going to stop until I fainted. I was a goner either way, wanting a more painless option. I started to get more annoyed as it was getting harder to dodge Alex while healing Luke.

"Leave me alone!" I snapped at him.

"Why isn't there a day where you don't cause any trouble? Do you know how you're still alive?" Alex grabbed the air, failing his attempts.

"What's happening?" Luke ġrȯȧnėd, opening his eyes.

Luke slowly began to rise to sit down on his bed, awake from the chaotic noise. I wished he was back to being unconscious again, making it easier to heal him. He was definitely going to take Alex's side even though I was the one pushing all my efforts to make him recover faster. I leveled up my acting skills, making my eyes well with tears, "I thought you would die. I don't want you to die, but Alex is preventing me from healing you."

His eyes began to widen, slowly being filled with horror, directly looking at me, "Rika?"

"Stop the healing. What are you doing?" He instantly tried to remove my hands off him.

"I can't have you die," I screamed.

I knew Luke wouldn't die, but it was the only excuse that came to my head. I silently began to cry inside my head as I had to fend off two opponents. One of them was gradually prying my hands off him while the other was close to pulling me off the bed. I made more tears stream down my face, wondering why my acting skills weren't affecting them. Maybe my hopes were unfounded from both Jules and Charles telling me that my acting skills had improved.

"Micah help me!" I yelled to summon him.

Coming out from a swirling hole, his head peeked out, watching everything from a close distance. It was clear Micah was annoyed, also recently returning from the temple. I slightly shuddered, noticing him holding back as he stepped into the room, walking towards us. With Micah present, both of them froze as I took this chance to continue to pour more mana into my spell.

"I can show you where the support items are located, give up for now. You can use those instead of heal," Micah offered another alternative.

"You should have told me sooner," I separated from Luke.

"Are you sure you don't want me to pass any last words to the people you wish to convey?" Micah found this situation hopeless.

"I'm not going to die. Didn't I survive the first round?" I was starting to feel offended.

"You didn't pass the first round on your own," he gestured to me to follow him.

"The mediator was generous to allow any interference on your end," he sighed.

"What is going on?" Luke turned to Micah.

"I can't tell you anything. I signed a contract," Micah knew they would try to interfere during the rounds.

"Unless a miracle happens, I suggest you start planning a funeral for this girl. This isn't to be taken likely," his face turned more serious.

"A funeral?" Luke didn't believe him.

"How can she survive something that fairies have been mercilessly killed under?" Micah hinted.

"Micah is just being depressing as usual. Just stay in bed," I glared at Micah.

I ran towards the door, waiting for him to lead me to the support items. After bringing a gloomy atmosphere to the room, he eventually brought me outside in front of a large garden. I didn't understand, these were ordinary flowers and decorative plants I was familiar with. Before I could ask for an explanation, Micah started to introduce me to the support items, gesturing to some new plants, "these will be temporary here for the duration of the trial. Since they are in their raw forms, you will have to generate the final forms to make proper use of them."

"Everything is just basically trial and error," I found the support items to be disappointing.