"V..Va..r..ian"
Varian's breath stagnated for a moment. With no hesitation, he teleported in the direction of that feeble sound.
"Vari..an...Ma..ya..Mo..m"
As he got closer and closer, his heart raced and the voice turned weaker.
"I'm here." Varian reached the source ā a pile of adamantine blocks.
'Whaat?!'
The chi in his body boiled, and he pushed the blocks away to find the bloodied young man underneath the rubble.
Kyle was bleeding from head to toe. His limbs were crushed under the adamantine blocks and the bones were broken. He was about to kick the bucket.
His eyes were closed, and he uttered the same words again and again.
"Ma..ya...Var..ian...M..om"
Varian picked up Kyle and felt the weak life of his friend.
{30 Seconds Remaining}
'I'll save youā¦' Varian let loose all inhibitions and madly channeled his space power and chi.
Varian used low teleportation continuously, and he transferred huge distance. But he was still a good distance away from the city outskirts.
{25 Seconds Remaining}
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
As he continued to teleport, loud blasts sounded in the air and Varian had an ominous feeling.
These soundsā¦ must be due to Abyss Duke's insane speed. He was near.
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
"Gah" Varian reached the center of the city and pushed himself further. He felt
the life in Kyle's body slipping away.
{20 Seconds remaining}
'Pleaseā¦' The city was still a distance away and Varian estimated he needed at least 25 seconds to reach the location.
"Grh" Varian's wounds from his fights weren't healed and with his brazen use of space power, they exacerbated to painful levels.
His space power was slowly running out and he could only use it once. Varian resorted to running to save teleportation to cross the city wall.
Varian felt the wounds of his body all tear open. He was bleeding profusely, but he only sped up.
Leaving a trail of red blood, he marched to the city walls.
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
The air blasts were getting louder and the Abyss Duke was inching closer.
{15 seconds remaining}
In those critical moments, there was only thought going on in his head.
'Must Save! Must Survive! This time, I must not fail!'
There were only a few Abyssal Knights still alive in the city and fewer in his vicinity. But they spotted him.
Knowing his situation, they gloated and cheered in schadenfreude.
"Your friend will die, bastard! So will you!"
"I'll die anyway, so I'll just use that life to delay you until our Duke arrives."
"Yes. Use our lives to bring you down. That's the only value we have left."
Varian gritted his teeth and continued to sprint along the same path. He took the shortest route to the wall, and it was already a question if he could make it in time.
Any more delay was out of question.
"Kill!"
The Abyssals couldn't catch up, so they threw their weapons with every ounce of their strength.
Right then, Varian reached the city wall and channeled his space power.
"Cling."
"Cling"
All the weapons crashed into the wall. Except one.
"Argh" Varian appeared outside the city wall. A spear plunged into his chest from the back and pierced his lungs.
{5 Seconds remaining}
Varian's face grimaced in the gut wrenching pain. The excessive bleeding already weakened him and he was finding it hard to stand.
'Iā¦' Varian's vision blurred, but he saw the few flying seats in sight. They were a few hundred meters away.
"R..e.t.u.rn" He muttered and his cadet comm glowed.
The nearest chair rushed at him.
'Not enoughā¦' Varian thought and drew the strength he didn't know he had.
With a speed impossible for the current him, he reached the chair and jumped on it.
{3 Seconds remaining}
"BooM!"
"BoOM!
"BOOM!"
The shock waves in the air shook, raised the soil into air and caused dust storm.
"Go!" Varian yelled, and the hover chair ascended at its highest speed.
{2 Seconds remaining}
The wind hit him hard and Varian felt Kyle breathe almost disappearing.
He forced himself to stay awake and saw a black figure in the distance. He rushed to the city at an insane speed.
With every step he took, he was a few hundred meters away. His speed caused shock waves, and the sheer force of these shock waves levelled mountains.
He looked up and saw only two humans in sight.
They were on a hover chair and we're about to reach the space shuttle.
He wouldn't be able to damage the space shuttle with a single shot, but these humansā¦ they'll die.
"Ants." The Abyss Duke muttered and jumped into the air.
Crossing hundreds of meters in the blink of an eye, he almost caught up with the duo.
{1 Second remaining}
Varian saw the Abyss Duke close the large distance in the blink of an eye.
Without thinking, he caught Kyle and jumped into the space shuttle's opening.
{0 Seconds remaining}
"Boom!"
"Shuaa!"
The moment Varian entered, the opening closed, and the punch of Abyss Duke struck.
It decimated the air, almost damaged the spaceship, and shook everyone on board.
At the same moment, the spaceship took off at an insane speed. It blasted through the air and blinked into the distance.
Everyone in the space shuttle felt a huge pull, and they clutched their seats.
Varian and Kyle, along with a few others, were thrown back and were thankfully caught by the emergency bots.
"Emergency treatment initiated." AI announced. Varian and Kyle were quickly taken into critical pods to heal.
Varian felt the world go black and his consciousness fall into a deep slumber. Then an extremely comfortable feeling filled every fibre of his being.
The pain from the injuries of the fight, the wound from the spear piercing his lung, the broken bones from the reckless sprint... all vanished.
After a long time, the soothing feeling faded away, and Varian was sober.
The warm temperature of the healing liquid on his skin, the darkness around him, the sweet smell, and the lightness of his body.
He was still for a moment before he got up in a jolt.
"Kyā¦"
He stopped. Kyle stood in front of him. He was completely healed and his face was a mess of tears. Kyle rushed to him to give a hug.
"No!" Varian stepped to the side.
"Splash"
Kyle fell into the critical healing pod's liquid.
"Du..de!" Kyle got up from the liquid and glared at him.
Varian stared at Kyle for a while, and Kyle finally shrugged.
"You never take hugs."
"If it's a beautiful woman, I will consider. You? Sorry not sorry."
"You were carrying me all the way." Kyle argued.
Varian shook his head and said, "I was just bringing back your corpse, you're lucky you're still alive.
"Yeah, yeah sure. I just returned to check if you're still alive and see where I teleported? Under those blocks! This is why I never teleport."
"Hahaā¦"
They both burst out laughing and finally sighed in relief.
Life never felt so precious.
Varian was alright, but Kyle was tearing up again.
Varian whispered to the cadet comm, "Hey, hey, take 3D pics. Highest quality."
He circled Kyle and pretended to pat him in the back.
'Hm... 20 pictures.'
Poor Kyle didn't know the situation and thought Varian was only comforting him.
As Varian planned to record a tear up speech of Kyle, the door opened and Colonel Reina appeared in front of them.
She glanced at Kyle and locked her gaze with Varian
"He wants to see you."