Chapter 120
After walking just a few steps an intense migraine hit me. It started soft, then I heard a loud ringing sound and last, it became so painful it was impossible to bear.
“Mister Ryu, are you ok?”
Sera came running to me, letting go of the man’s arm she was helping to carry, thus making him drop in the ground.
“I’m sorry”
A feminine voice whispered in my ear.
I wasn’t able to recognize that voice but it felt familiar.
.....
I swiftly grab the soulbound card on my pocket and deactivate another skill, but the pain grew even stronger.
“I don’t know what’s happening to me, it hurts!”
I roll on the ground with a feel of helplessness.
“Perhaps he’s over exhausted, he’s always tired”
“No, that can’t be it, mister Ryu was feeling better”
“Has this ever happened before?”
“I don’t know, what should I do? I don’t know how to help him... If only miss Helena was here she would be able to find out the cause immediately”
Despite the loud ringing sound in my head, I’m still able to hear them clearly.
“Ryu, can you hear me? Show me your soulbound card if you can”
I hand her my card without even caring what is she able to see or not on it.
“That’s it! Ryu, turn off feel presence! you’re aching because you are getting too much information at the same time. Thank god you didn’t turn off all the other skills or you may have gone insane”
As soon as I turned off feel presence the feeling disappeared, I felt incredible, My mind was clear, my body was in top shape and I could tell I was stronger than five minutes ago.
“What? how did you know what was happening to me?”
“It was easy, when I looked at your card you were still gaining new skills and you were kind of unlucky to gain the feel presence skill along with so many others. It must have felt terrible”
Fena looked at me with concern.
“What is so special about that skill?”
“I’m not sure, my mom has it and always complains about how much it hurts her head when she uses it near too many beasts”
“So... does that mean?”
Sera opened her eyes wide.
“No, we’re not surrounded or anything. Now that you mention it, I was able to tell the location of the ants, I also know where miss Risa is. You guys should take the farmer with Shortie, he’s with Kinta and Thea in a safe-ish place. I’ll go help miss Risa”
“Understood”
Sera let go of my hand, I didn’t notice when exactly did she grab it, but once she let go I could appreciate how comforting it was.
I got separated for the group, I can’t be sure, but while I had the skill active I could feel a faint presence in between a huge group of enemies. I hope to be wrong, but I think something happened to instructor Risa.
It took us several minutes to get here from the spot were the farm was located, but running alone It felt like four or five times shorter.
The trees soon disappear behind me and the clear view in front of me leaves me out of breath. The place is carpeted with ants carcasses, some are still moving but I can tell most of them are already dead.
What worries me is that I can’t see her, and I can’t remember where exactly did I feel her presence. It was so weak she must be on the verge of dying.
I walk above the corpses of defeated ants, the cracking sounds their shells make whenever I take a step is unsettling, but as long as I can keep moving I’ll be out of danger.
Now I’m closer I see that what caused the movement I saw previously were not the same giant ants that attacked us, but an infinite amount of fist sized ants and smaller. They start climbing on me, but I can shake them off pretty easily.
“Miss Risa! Are you there? please say something”
The sound of so many small insects moving is just like the sound food makes when you fry it.
“Miss Risa! I’m here to find you, please move or shout!”
But there was no reply at all, or at least none that I could hear. I start walking faster into the middle spot of the ground covered with corpses.
The corpse of a giant ant crumbled in front of me and countless smaller ants fell into my red cape. I try to shake them off, but they are stuck.
Soon after I feel a stinging pain inside my boots, just behing my ankle, then on my shoulder. It’s not bad, but it’s really annoying. I wish I could tell exactly where is she and just set the rest on fire, but it’ll be too risky to do so.
I don’t have a choice, If I want to find miss Risa I’ll have to use the skill. I clench my teeth in advance and tap the skill on my soulbound card.
It wasn’t as bad as before, but it’s still discombobulating. My consciousness expanded showing me every single ant, every animal.
Crap, the range is too long, I’ll go nuts before finding her.
‘Please, just show me my allies’ I mutter to myself as I try to breath slowly to focus.
Suddenly I was able to tell exactly where miss Risa was, she was underneath a pile of corpses.
I quickly turn the skill off and try to run where she’s located, but my foot is stuck inside an ant’s skull.
Unable to run I kick the ground leaving behind me a trail of ants that fell from my clothes, my foot is still stuck inside the ant’s skull but that doesn’t worry me right now. What worries me is the huge distance I was able to cover with a single jump.
My body feels completely different than before, but it’s not a bad feeling at all.
I can see her arm now, it’s sticking out from a pile of ant corpses. It moves in sudden and stiff movements, but I don’t think she’s doing it on purpose.
“Miss Risa! can you hear me? everything is going to be ok!”
I say as I unearth her, I try to shake the bugs from her but then I realize she’s being eaten alive.
Every tiny ant is carrying a pieces of her skin, flesh and even blood. I can only see part of her arm but it’s so bad her bone is exposed.
I try to lift her up, but her condition is so dire I feel like I could break her into pieces if I’m not careful and my strength is not enough to simply move everything aside from her.
“I’m sorry miss Risa, please forgive me”
I say as I use fire magic to cleanse the ants from her, only then her arm starts moving with her own strength, but she’s flailing it to avoid the pain.
“I’m sorry, I need to do this to take you with me”
My eyes got teary, I really hope she can endure this. Once most of the little ants died i was able to move aside the pile of corpses around her. she had been bitten, stabbed, and burnt with acid it seems, and now I set her on fire. I really hope she can forgive me.
I run with her on my arms, despite all she had been through she was still clinging to her sword with her arms. She was unable to use her arms after all the damage she had suffered.
Just a few meters outside the field of corpses there’s not a single ant to be found.
I place what’s left of Risa on the ground and put my backpack next to her, I take my box with potions only to find most of them are broken or cracked. There’s a single healing potion safe, and now I’m really glad I didn’t spend it foolishly on the farmer who only had a small injury on his foot.
There’s no way to make her drink the potion, she’s not conscious and the only sign of life I can see is a slight movement on her chest.
Now, most people would have rushed to give her the potion, but I tend to think things through before doing anything. I check my soulbound card and notice my first aid skill was off, I don’t have the time to thoroughly check my other skills but at least I was able to turn this one on.
I put some of the content of the vial into my mouth and pass it on to her very slowly. I can only imagine the pain she would be feeling if she was conscious.
I repeat the process once again, this time I was able to feel her lips. Her wounds are getting better, but without nutrients she might die if I make her drink the rest of the potion. Now I’m really glad I always bring rations with me, my waterskin has some fruit juice and I brought some waybread, finding out there were ants covering my rations was not surprising at all, but after casting a bit of fire magic on it, it was good as new.
Then I pass on the rest of the healing potion on to her mouth, after swallowing the first bit she clings on to me and kisses me deeply.
I’m strong now, but she’s even stronger and I can’t free myself without risking hurting her. I don’t even know how much health does she have left.
Her half eaten figure was less than alluring, but I just let kiss me until satisfied. She even twisted her tongue inside my mouth a little.
“Pwhaa that felt good”
She said after taking a long breath.