"Over here! A survivor!""I need help here! Sector 13A!"
"Anyone with earth magic? We need to move all this rubble!"
"Healer! Man down!"
I awoke to the bustle of voices that filled the remains of Azpire City. Anastasia was still holding my hand, but her shoulder had been patched up. She didn"t really need the bandage, though. I could feel mana from a healing spell suffusing her shoulder and accelerating her recovery.
"Richard! You"re awake!"
"Ana?"
I tried to get up, and winced at the sudden soreness that shot through my body. Gritting my teeth, I leaned over, allowing Anastasia to support me.
"You shouldn"t be getting up yet," Anastasia cautioned as she tried to gently push me back down. "You"ll open up your wounds again."
"Don"t worry about me." I took a deep breath, and grimaced when my lungs stung. My recently mended ribcage protested when the soft tissue expanded against it, and I could almost imagine cracks reappearing all over the abused bone. My other injuries also seemed to be gone, particularly the ruptured organ resulting from Selina"s kick. Regulating my breathing, I glanced around, surprised to see the crowd. "What happened? Who…?"
"The Silver Wolves, the military and rescue teams are all here," Anastasia explained. "Shortly after you pa.s.sed out, I contacted Feng Hai. It also helped that the Grim Reaper smashed a path through the monsters in this area, so it took little effort from the Silver Wolves to break through the thin line of monsters here and get to our position. Once they reached us, our healer cast a few spells on us and saved your life."
"I hope you thanked her for me."
Anastasia smiled. "Yeah."
"How about the others? Did they find any survivors?"
"Fancy you worrying about others when you"re the one closest to death." This time it was a newcomer. A twenty or thirty year old blond lady strode forward, her hands on her hips. She was flanked by none other than Feng Hai.
"Oh, Richard! You"re finally up!"
"Instructor Feng." I lowered my head humbly. Then I glanced at the blond lady and also greeted her with a bow.
"Heather St. Helen. Our healer." Feng Hai introduced me. "She"s the one who saved your life."
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"Thank you very much." I bowed again, but deeper this time.
"As to answer your question…" Heather was glaring at me. "There aren"t many survivors. A few hundred civilians here and there, pockets of survivors hiding out in shelters and bas.e.m.e.nts, able to avoid the monsters. But thanks to their intelligence, they manage to avoid conflict and injuries. There isn"t anyone as wounded as you were!"
"Speaking of which, I was pretty sure I ordered the both of you to prioritize your survival and not engage with any enemy who is too powerful." Feng Hai was frowning as well as he gave Anastasia and me a stern stare. "Why in the blazing heavens did you go confront the Grim Reaper?"
Anastasia and I exchanged a glance and then shrugged.
"We didn"t consider the Grim Reaper a big threat," Ana declared plainly. "We were confident of defeating her. She"s only human after all."
"I have previous experience of fighting against her spirit," I added honestly. "So I thought I would be able to come up with countermeasures against them."
"Furthermore, we couldn"t let her escape. This was a rare chance to subdue her. If we let her get away, she"ll just return to take more lives in future. She"s quite the evasive figure. Her existence among the a.s.sa.s.sins Guild is considered legendary. I don"t know they"ll send her out again, if ever…"
Most likely, if they did send Selina out again, it would be to target someone from the ten great families. Not anymore, though, considering that both Anastasia and I had worked together to kill her. Her corpse was still nearby, wrapped up in a black body bag when the Silver Wolves came. They planned to cremate her to ensure that she would never return to haunt us again.
She deserved nothing less.
Feng Hai studied both me and Anastasia disbelievingly, as if he wondered if we were bluffing. We probably were, to be honest. It was just that it had been such a desperate and frenetic battle that the thought of escaping didn"t even cross our minds.
h.e.l.l, there was no way we would be able to escape if Selina chose to chase us. She and Hades were too fast, too aggressive and too violent. Our only chance of survival lay in fighting.
"You yanking my chain or something?" Feng Hai finally spoke up, still skeptical. "You seriously telling me that you thought you could win against a legendary a.s.sa.s.sin like the Grim Reaper? The a.s.sa.s.sin who had succeeded in 99% of her missions targeted at members of the ten great families and leaving a trail of dead behind?"
"Yeah?" I shrugged and pointed at the body bag where Selina"s rotting, headless body was – it was easy to tell, because her head was placed right next to the body bag. "We won, didn"t we?" I tapped my gla.s.ses. "And you should have gotten all the data that I transmitted to the cloud server."
"Yes…no, that"s not the point!" Feng Hai threw both of his hands up in frustration. He looked as if he wanted to say something, but when he glanced at Selina"s corpse, he was at a loss for words. Probably because reality was staring right into his face. He tried not to hyperventilate, taking a deep breath to calm himself down. Gritting his teeth, he turned upon Ana. "Especially you, Anastasia! You of all people should know how overwhelmingly powerful and deadly the Grim Reaper is!"
"I do, but I also know how strong my partner is." Anastasia smiled brightly as she leaned a head on my shoulder. I winced from the stinging pain, which arose because my body still hadn"t fully healed yet. "I believed that Richard would have no problem defeating the Grim Reaper"s notorious contracted spirit."
"Like I said, I fought her spirit before," I repeated with a shrug. "They failed to kill me then. So what reason would I have to be afraid of them?"
To be honest, there were plenty of reasons. Not that I was going to tell Feng Hai that. So I continued to pretend that I had everything planned out.
Honestly, it had been a close shave. A very close shave. I didn"t expect to actually win against Hades, but then again at that moment in time it hadn"t been a matter of winning or losing. It was a matter of survival.
Like I told Selina, it wasn"t that I thought I could beat him, but that I had to beat him. Whatever my chances were, no matter how outmatched I was, I had no choice but to fight. I had to win. If I wanted to survive, I had to struggle no matter how pitiful or pathetic it might seem. I didn"t want to die, so I wasn"t going to just roll over and let him kill me because I "had no chance of winning." Who decided that, anyway? Readers? Fans?
Stupid power levels and ranks? What, so I should just give up if he"s rank S and I"m rank B? I should stop fighting and let him kill me if he"s 100 levels higher than me?
BULLs.h.i.+T!
Too many readers relied on the bulls.h.i.+t xianxia logic of cultivation realms or the LitRPG level systems. Reality didn"t work like that. A badger wasn"t going to just roll over and let a leopard eat him just because his enemy was bigger. Fight like a badger, my dudes!
If we lost to Selina and Hades, then at that time we would find a way to run away. But like I said, it was unlikely that we would be able to escape. Okay, that was an excuse. The thought of running away never crossed our minds at all. Not even once.
Feng Hai continued to stare at both Anastasia and me, his expression doubtful, but he finally shook his head resignedly.
"Whatever. You both did a great job. You"ll be rewarded appropriately." He suddenly jolted upright, as if remembering something really important, and slammed a fist into his palm. "Holy s.h.i.+t! I just remembered! There"s a b.l.o.o.d.y bounty for the Grim Reaper that"s in the millions! The both of you are going to be rich!"
Anastasia and I glanced at each other, and then turned back to stare at Feng Hai blankly. Evidently, neither of us had ever heard about the bounty.
"The ten great families have placed a bounty on the Grim Reaper"s head, especially after she a.s.sa.s.sinated quite a few of their members. The bounty has only gotten higher and higher every time she succeeded. The last time was against…Cecilia Stuart, but even though she failed that mission…" Feng Hai gave me a pointed look, probably aware of me and Alicia a.s.sisting Cecilia against Selina and Hades that time. That was also the experience against Hades I constantly referred to. "…the Stuart family doubled the bounty on the Grim Reaper"s head."
Most likely it was to make sure Selina and Hades were terminated before they made another attempt on Cecilia"s life.
"All right, stop talking to them." Heather was getting impatient. "They need to rest."
She then glanced at one of the hovercrafts that were now descending upon the city. Unlike Roland Rothwell"s ma.s.sive, extravagant one, these were smaller, utilitarian troops.h.i.+ps meant for transporting soldiers. They had weapons, but not the crazy ones outfitted on Roland"s personal craft. That guy had too much money to burn, being a crown prince and all. In any case, Heather nudged Feng Hai and pointed above.
"These two should be back home on the first craft going back to Southampton City."
"Why Southampton?" I moaned. Of all the places to send me to…couldn"t I just go straight back home?
"Where else do you want to go to?" Heather asked, bemused.
"Jing Tian City."
"Huh? Why Jing Tian?" Heather gaped at me. Feng Hai quickly stepped in.
"That"s where Richard lives. He"s not a part of Silver Wolves, there"s no reason to send him back to our headquarters."
"Oh, then that"s better." Heather nodded in agreement. "Send him straight back home. What he needs most now is rest, not to run around in a city he doesn"t live in." she turned to me. "Don"t go anywhere else, young man. Stay at home and take the time to recover. Is that understood?"
"Crystal clear, ma"am," I replied.
"I do need a written report at your earliest convenience," Feng Hai told me. Or in simple terms, immediately. Meaning I had to start writing the report immediately when I reached home. "Submit it to me when you"re ready. You too, Anastasia. You"re not exempt from submitting a report."
"Yes, sir." Ana sighed heavily. Understandably enough, she wasn"t looking forward to it. But the organization required things done in black and white. It was tedious as h.e.l.l, but bureaucratic paperwork was one thing that didn"t disappear even in the far future.
"I"ll go ahead and formally submit the video," Feng Hai continued. He was obviously referring to the holographic recording I had captured of my battle against Hades, and Anastasia"s own recording of her duel against Selina. Unlike me, she didn"t wear gla.s.ses, so her recording must be captured on some other device. Feng Hai grinned at the both of us. "Most likely the higher-ups have already received and processed the video, though. You"ll receive the bounty in a couple of days. Great job, the both of you. Now go get your well-deserved rest."
He then turned and waved toward one of his Silver Wolves.
"Sergeant Wolfe! Take these kids and send them home. Uh, take the Sky Hawk. Drop the guy off at Jing Tian City, and bring Anastasia back to HQ after that."
"Roger that!" A soldier, who was wearing a load-bearing vest, helmet, combat goggles and carrying a rifle that was slung over his shoulders, hurried over and saluted. He then turned toward Anastasia and me and gestured for us to follow him.
I allowed Anastasia to help me up and leaned on her as we followed after the sergeant, who began leading us toward one of the recently landed hovercrafts. As we did so, I took one last glance at the ruins of Azpire City.
We had only been here for a couple days at the longest, but for some reason it felt like an eternity.