Chapter 180

180 Don’t forget the antidote, please! part “Why did we retreat!? did you see the size of those things!? we could have become a lot stronger just by killing them”

“Some of us would have become stronger, and the rest would have become food... are you seriously moping about losing the kill?”

“It feels like such a loss”

Luke pouted but kept running alonside his companions.

Anne was in no condition to be running, so she traded places with Sera and now Sera was running besides Ryu. Lea, who had remained tied through most part of the fight, was now free of her bindings and running along with them.

Much to her dismay, travelling with them was a lot safer than returning to the sacred empire and finding out an assassination order against her had been issued or walking aimlessly through enemy territory.

After leaving the quarry they had to pass yet another open field, but it was far easier to avoid enemies than it was on the beast infested quarry. It was of the utmost importance to get as soon as possible into the woods, because they needed to mislead their pursuers before being able to rest.

Anne was losing about two health points every five minutes, it may not sound like much, but as slow as it was it didn’t stop. Thanks to Famine, she didn’t need to spend her own energy running and was able to take some of Luke’s bitter medicine, but the poison kept her from recovering any lost health points.

Now that Anne couldn’t activate her night vision skill, Ryu asked Risa to activate hers’ because it was impossible for him to check all their surroundings by himself. Although Risa did have that skill, her proficiency was nowhere near Anne’s or even Ryu’s, but it was worth the small energy expenditure.

.....

The group reached the woods barely before dawn, they entered the forest just enough so they couldn’t be spotted from the outside and set up a quick camp to treat everyone’s wounds and rest for a little while.

Ryu started cooking something fast and easy to prepare meanwhile Sera examined everyone’s wounds. The ones in worst condition were Anne with her poison status ailment followed by Risa’s extremelly sore skin. Mochi, who had ran away to avoid the battle, rejoined the group as soon as they were out of danger and was now resting on top of Anne’s lap.

Ryu and Luke did all they could to help her, but she wasn’t responding to any treatment. Ryu even tried to feed her medicinal herbs he often used to craft antidotes, but it was pointless. Her condition worsened and now she was losing three health points per five minutes.

At first Ryu had no reason to worry about Anne’s condition, so far his medicine had been enough to heal most ailments and wounds and the only variable was the amount of medicine needed. But when it failed for the second and the third time he started second guessing himself this time. After that, only despair filled his eyes as he was able to see how Anne’s health points dropped to dangerously low levels, up to the point when she had no more than 10 health points left.

Just when everyone was about to lose hope, someone stepped in with a solution.

“Why don’t you guys let me help her... I’m not an expert on venoms, but I should at least be able to stabilize her”

“I don’t know, it sounds suspicious, why would you want to help us?”

Luke glared at her with sharp eyes.

“I don’t have anything to gain by letting one of your party members die, but I have everything to lose if I at least don’t try to do something. Promise me that if...”

“Are you, perhaps, under the idea that this is something like a negotiation?”

Ryu shifted his gaze towards the young priestess, while slowly moving his head to catch up with his eyes. His tone, his attitude, everything made it seem like he was a completely different person. Just being close to him brought chills to most party members.

“I-I didn’t, I- didn’t mean it like that, please hear me out”

“There’s no need for that. I have a counter offer for whatever you were going to say. If you don’t try to heal Anne, you’re dead. If you try and fail, we’ll abandon you”

“And what if I succeed?”

“We won’t kill you, and that should be enough. Any complains?”

“No!”

Lea said hurriedly. Anne was already unconscious, but it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing because it made her treatment a lot easier for Lea.

She took off Anne’s robe and opened her shirt to expose just a bit of her chest, she then proceeded to place both hands on the area where her heart was located. She wasn’t an expert on venoms, but she did know a thing or two, and the fact that poison travelled through the circulatory system and passed through the heart was well known even to novice priests.

A dim yellow light, much fainter than Helena’s started glimmering and became stronger with time.

Everyone watched Lea’s work in complete silence, the whistling of the wind and the sound of the trees were the only thing that could be heard, at least until Lea let out a loud shriek. Anne was spared from feeling the pain of having her organs being melted from the inside thanks to her passing out, but Lea was completely conscious and felt everything on her own body.

Even if it was to a much lesser degree, she experimented it all in one go making it impossible for her to focus.

Lea was left panting heavily, with tears on her eyes and an expression of pain on her face. She took her hand to her chest and pressed hard, as if trying to keep her heart from pounding out of her body.

“And?”

Luke asked and Lea replied by shaking her head with a saddened expression. She tried to the best of her abilities, but there was nothing she could have done, at least not after things got to that point.

Then a cold voice was heard “What are you doing? why did you stop?”

It was Ryu’s voice.