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“Ah… fuck!” Amyra grunted with her hand clutching her waist as she pushed herself to her feet, wincing her pain away at every throb. She was not thrown unconscious after the blind swordsman’s tame but devastating outburst. However, her state was no different than being unconscious for a few seconds. In fact, she would rather be unconscious during that moment.

As she was wide awake then, Amyra felt every single instance of pain that coursed through her numbed body. Every part of her body was in pain but the numbness had dulled most of it or else she would have been in absolute agony. The silver lining was that no one attacked her during the period she was unable to move.

Once the numbness subsided and the pain returned, it was time for her to move. Disregarding the pain as much as she could, she forced herself to her feet. She surveyed her surroundings and found only ruins. She couldn’t tell where she was given that every discerning landmark was either utterly destroyed or obliterated.

“I have to find the others,” Amyra told herself and began walking. The first few steps were hellish but she endured the agony until her senses could do nothing but dull themselves in response. As a result, Amyra’s perception became blurry and fuzzy, Still, this was nothing to her. She had been in this sort of situation more times than anyone would like.

After dragging her limping body for a seeming eternity, she stumbled upon an unconscious Aera, who was leaning against a pile of debris. Amyra shivered when she saw the state Aera was in. Her left arm was bent in a way that it wasn’t supposed to be. A single piece of bone was jutting out of her right calf. There was a small gaping wound on her head.

If it was anyone else, they would surely have died, but Amyra could feel life coming from Aera. Amyra gritted her teeth and lurched towards Aera in a haste, ignoring the pain that was chewing through her nerves.

“Aera, can you hear me?” Amyra asked in a shout as she knelt before Aera and cradled her into her arms. She shook Aera and lightly slapped her cheeks. “Aera, stay with me!”

Aera groaned and stirred. Though she was still unconscious, her face contorted with pain and her groans got louder.

Amyra heaved a sigh of relief. It was a good sign. If Aera could still feel this much pain, it meant that she was still far from death’s door.

“Alright, what to do? I don’t have my first-aid supplies with me…” Amyra stared deeply at Aera’s wounds. They were severe and if treatment were not given immediately, the consequences would be dire. In the end, Amyra could only resort to drastic measures, one that she wasn’t very proud of.

She wrapped her hands around Aera’s calf where the bone was jutting out. With a strong squeeze, she pushed the bone back in place and quickly seared the wound shut with her Fire Magic. Aera was instantly wide awake with that sharp pang of agony. Her eyes were thrown wide and her mouth agape. She was shuddering violently with a blank look before falling unconscious once again.

“Sorry, Aera. There’s more to come,” Amyra muttered.

Clutching Aera’s bent arm, Amyra twisted her arm back into place with one swift and strong motion. Amyra’s body floundered and shuddered like a fish out of water but her eyes stayed shut.

“Now… for the head.”

Amyra tore off a part of Aera’s garment and wrapped it around her head. She couldn’t exactly sear the wound shut since it was quite close to the brain. This was the best way she knew of.

Just as she was done treating Aera, Amyra felt her hair standing on end. She carried Aera into her arms and immediately leapt to safety. A second after, a chain shot towards the pile of debris where she and Aera had been.

Amyra laid Aera on the ground gently and set about to confront the assailant. A puppet golem, forged of unknown pliable metal, sprang out from a crumbled building. A large crack ran across its body, from the neck to where the loins were supposed to be, but it had none since it was just a golem.

“All the buildings and roads are levelled and ruined but you suffered only a crack,” Amyra scoffed. “Just what are you made of?”

The golem responded with a lunge as it flourished its chain at Amyra.

“Moody, I see.” Amyra canted her head to avoid being swiped by the chain. Since she didn’t have a sword with her, she could only use her fists and her Magic Arts. She tried grabbing the chain but it was back in the golem’s hands before she could even touch it.

The chain spun and wrapped around the golem’s arm as it threw a punch.

Amyra dodged the punch and trapped the golem’s arm in a lock hold. She tugged the golem towards her and kneed it in its belly. The golem barely flinched from the assault. Instead of pulling itself away, the golem latched itself onto Amyra.

“What the—”

The golem tossed itself to the ground and released Amyra, tossing the Augur into the air. The golem flipped to its feet and caught Amyra by her leg with its chain.

“This fucking—”

The golem gripped the chain tightly and swung it through the air, before slamming Amyra into the ground. Without giving her a moment's breather, it pulled Amyra towards it and kneed her in the face. The golem pulled on her again and drove its fist into her belly. Before it could strike her for the third consecutive time, flames enveloped her body and she coiled grasp around the chain.

The golem tilted its head in astonishment.

“What a fucking fool!” Amyra sneered. “You’re not much different than the so-called intelligent monsters I have fought and slain in dungeons.” She then looped and coiled the chain around both of her arms while she was still on fire.

The golem had no choice but to let go if it wished to continue functioning. However, Amyra tackled the golem and they both tumbled to the ground.

“Thanks for the chain,” Amyra smiled disparagingly. With her entire mass weighing down on the golem, she wrapped the chain around its neck and tugged fiercely from both ends.

The golem kicked its feet and threw its fists. It flailed around desperately but it was no match for Amyra’s weight.

“Hah!” With a vigorous snarl, Amyra yanked the chain hard and crushed the puppet golem’s neck, severing its head from its body. She got up to her feet and stomped on the golem’s body repeatedly until it was mere chunks of wreckage. For added insurance, she burned the remains until ashes were all that were left.

“A-Amyra…?”

Amyra turned around and saw Aera gradually slipping out of her unconscious state. “Aera, you’re awake!” She hurriedly trod up to Aera and crouched down in front of her. “Are you feeling any discomfort or pain anywhere on your body?”

“I-is Erin alright?”

Amyra smiled wryly. “Shouldn’t you be more worried about yourself first?”

“Erin’s… important to me.”

“She’s important to everyone.”

“Without her, I…”

“Oh, please. You’ll be fine without her for a while. What about yourself? Are you in any pain or great discomfort?”

Aera nodded her head meekly. “How could anyone be fine when they just have their broken bones snapped back into place with great force?”

“Ah… you remember?”

“I was awake the whole time. I was just… too exhausted to open my eyes or make any sound.”

“I see. Well, sorry about that.” Amyra shrugged. “I didn’t have any other choice.”

“I’m not blaming you, Amyra. In fact… I would like to thank you, if possible.”

“Of course, it’s possible. Just not here and not now. We gotta find Nivia first. Now, where could she—”

“Hey, you two!!” Nivia’s echoed to them all of a sudden.

The two spun their gazes in the direction of the voice and found Nivia running down a wrecked street with a puppet golem on her tail that was wielding a pair of short swords. Nivia herself was covered in cuts and blood but her face had all the zeal and fervour.

“I’m in need of your assistance!” Nivia shouted. It was unbecoming for an Elf, or any fighter for that matter, to be running away from a fight while crying out for help. Be that as it may, now wasn’t the time to be caring about things like honour and integrity.

The puppet golem shot towards Nivia as it kicked off the ground, its swords drawn and raised.

“Get down!” Amyra shouted and splayed her palm open.

Nivia dove low without any retort.

Flames spewed forth from the incantation circle in front of Amyra’s palm.

The puppet golem twirled with one foot on the ground and sliced away the encroaching flames.

Amyra tutted with a scowl. She thrust her fist forward, expelling a bolt of fire with a punch.

The golem sidestepped the firebolt with ease.

“This one’s good,” Amyra muttered.

Without any more intervention, the golem moved towards Nivia.

“Spirits be damned!” Nivia cursed and rolled herself out of the way of the golem’s lethal stab. She flipped to her feet and brandished only a single sword. She had lost her other sword in the clash of blades just minutes ago. The wounds she incurred as a result of that loss.

“Niv, the golem’s too fast. Can you trap its movement for a few seconds?”

“What kind of question is that?” Nivia retorted as she ducked under a slash from the golem. “Of course, I can! It’s only a question of can I come out unscathed.”

“Can you?”

Nivia groaned inwardly. “Just do what you have to do. I will do what I must. Just tell me when.”

“Very well. Keep it busy for a minute.”

“By the Spirits, a minute!?” Nivia exclaimed as she avoided a thrust from the golem that was aimed at her head. She ended up being grazed on the cheek. “Just be quick!”

The puppet golem was relentless in its assault. It was not giving Nivia any room to breathe or rest. It kept pressing Nivia with a continuous flurry of attacks and she could only do her best to dodge. She could parry but she would risk losing her only sword if she did. She learned her lesson the last time.

What made the fight difficult was the golem’s ability to discern and deduce the next course of her action before she even began to take it. Wherever she moved to, half of the time, the golem’s swords were there, waiting for her flesh. She only survived this long due to her advantage in speed and agility. The puppet golem was fast but no faster than her.

Still, the odds of the battle were not in Nivia’s favour. The scales were not tipped against her. With every few seconds that went on, she was incurring one more cut on her body until one appeared on the back of her palm and made her drop her sword.

But it was at this moment—

“Now!” came Amyra’s shout.

The puppet golem lunged like an arrow towards Nivia but smashed into a wall of condensed wind. The golem regained its bearings and tried to circumvent the wall but it was enclosed on all sides.

“How’s that?” Nivia asked with haggard breaths.

“Perfect,” Amyra chuckled in delight. “Now, perish.”

At Amyra’s command, a red incantation circle appeared beneath the puppet golem’s feet. At first, sparks were all that emanated from the incantation circle but gradually, the sparks grew into puny flames and those tiny blazes amassed into an inferno. A pillar of fire was amassed from those few insignificant sparks, shooting into the sky like a beacon. Trapped in the centre of this fiery pillar was the puppet golem. Or rather, it was trapped only for a while before being disintegrated into nothing, not even the ashes or the soot remained afterwards.

Nivia sighed heavily and plopped down on the ground. “It’s over…”

“I sure hope it’s over,” Amyra responded in an equally breathless tone.

“I thought you wouldn’t want this to end?”

“Even I have my limits.”

Nivia tittered. “Good to know… or else we are going to have a problem.”

Amyra chuckled wryly in response.