Emery's figure could be seen rapidly flickering through the sea of trees as he made his way towards Brutus. He found the tough hairy man lying next to a tree about two hundred feets away.
For a man as strong as Brutus to be so heavily wounded and even thrown that far, that blow he received must have been extraordinarily powerful. Emery certainly didn't want to receive one himself.
Dispelling his mind of distracting thoughts, Emery quickly approached the man. He crouched next to him and checked whether he was still alive or not. Fortunately, although he was very weak, the man was still breathing.
Without further ado, Emery quickly started casting his healing spell on the man.
[Nature's Blessing]
As his spirit root entered the half-unconscious wolf, Emery noticed that, apart from several torn flesh, there were at least a dozen broken bones and dozens more cracked. If that wasn't bad enough, he also perceived that Brutus' spirit core was in turmoil.
Emery did not expect his condition to be so dire. If the man was just slightly weaker than this, he would most likely have died before Emery could even get here.
This man, Brutus, had a rank 5 wolf gene and was a high-stage rank 9 acolyte, which should be around 7 or 8 pillars formed. Emery could say Brutus' strength was on the same level as his right now, most likely even stronger, yet he was so easily crushed within seconds.
If Emery did not have his [Blink], it would probably be him lying on the ground here right now.
After a minute of healing, the man finally began to regain his consciousness.
"Who… Who are you… Why…?" Brutus asked confused, when he realized this unknown person was healing him.
As he said those words, he struggled to lift his head a little. He tried to focus on the face of the person crouching next to him, but unfortunately, even though he had already regained his consciousness, his vision was still really blurry and would take time to recover to normal.
"Hang in there, brother… I'll heal you…" Emery said, still focusing on healing the man.
Brutus was momentarily stunned, but after a moment, he finally reacted.
"Space magic and nature magic… this smell… You are Emery, aren't you…?" A faint relieved smile could be seen on his face as he said that. He was relieved Emery was fine.
"Yes, it is me. Hang in there, I will definitely heal you," Emery answered, his voice filled with determination.
"You… how?… haha, that's right. I just remember, this is your shapeshifting innate ability we laughed about in the past…" Brutus muttered before letting out a dry laugh.
"Yes, you can laugh all you want later. Right now, you need to take a breath and relax. It will not be easy to heal you again if complications start to appear."
At this moment, Emery's spirit root finally reached Brutus' spirit core. However, just as he tried to transfer some spirit force to it, he discovered something inside was blocking his spirit force.
A shocked expression colored Emery's face when he realized what it was. A fearsome ice-cold spirit energy: Magus Nimeria's spirit force.
Brutus coughed up blood again and the man closed his eyes before weakly sighing.
"Emery… I am such a fool… I should not have gone. You should not be here as well… you… you should leave too … go…"
Emery heard Brutus' words, but he did not give a word of response. Instead, he put more concentration and employed his nature core to maximize his [Nature's Blessing], trying to pull and yank the cold energy away.
Alas, the difference in levels between him and Magus Nimeria was simply too much. Not only did he fail to pull the cold energy away, the cold energy also even dealt some damage to him.
He could feel that Brutus' spirit core, which had been fighting against the coldness for a while now, was getting weaker and weaker. Its energy was so faint Emery could barely feel it.
"No… no… hang in there, Brutus! Tatjana is waiting for you! She's waiting for you!" Emery shouted. He tried to pull the cold energy again and again, but it did not budge no matter what he did.
As if it was retaliating, the cold energy became fiercer and began crawling all over Brutus' body…
The hairy man's body shook. He was not strong enough.
Emery used even more of his spirit force hoping it could somehow help, but it did nothing to make the man's condition better. As life slowly began to fade from Brutus' eyes, the desperation in Emery's heart crept up even more.
"No… please… No!"
Even though Brutus' senses had already become dull due to the loss of vitality, he could still hear Emery's trembling voice.
He knew there was no hope for him, but he was grateful Emery tried his best to save him. He held Emery's arm with all the remaining strength he could muster from his body, but he was thinking about someone else instead.
"Tatjana… Tatjana… I am sorry…"
That was the last thing the man said before his body turned to ice crystal. At that moment, any signs of life the man had completely and entirely disappeared.
Brutus was dead.
Emery's hand froze in mid-air. He felt as if his heart had just been pierced by a cold blade.
He could not help him. Brutus was really dead.
Emery slowly stood up and glanced at the fight behind him.
It really was not his fight. He was just not strong enough…
He was afraid.
Emery was one step away from leaving, when he noticed the fight between Magus Nimeria and Magus Leon. The two were clashing so hard both of them were almost just as injured as the other.
Even so, the tiger bloodline was still one level stronger, as she successfully managed to freeze Leon's right arm that was holding his sword and crush it apart.
"Urrrghhh!"
Magus Leon screamed in pain. However, to Emery's surprise, the ice tiger did not charge at him again to finish him. Instead, she charged toward Magus Beatrice, who was a short distance away.
"No! Stop!" Emery reflexively screamed.
At that split second, maybe, just maybe, Emery could have used [Blink] and saved both Beatrice and Silva.
But fear got the best of him. He knew he had to move, but his body froze and his feet were stuck in place. At that moment, Emery knew he lost the window to interfere.
The next thing he knew, Magus Nimeria's frozen claw had almost struck toward Magus Beatrice, but instead of defending or dodging, the windwolf magus shockingly decided to throw the unconscious snake girl toward the charging female tiger magus.
"What are you doing!?" Emery shouted in panic.
Emery quickly used [Blink], but he was too late. He only managed to blink halfway when he saw Magus Nimeria had already grabbed the girl and with her two terrifying arms, tearing Silva's apart.
Splattt!
"Nooooo!"
Regret and despair overwhelmed him as he witnessed the girl, who had been very kind to him, his good friend, die in front of him in such a gruesome manner.
Emery was still shocked, but the next second, he noticed it was not blood that splattered from the girl's body. Rather, it was a white liquid that now covered Magus Nimeria's body.
Right after, Magus Nimeria painfully screamed. Her eyes glaring at Magus Beatrice were filled with hate as the liquid quickly burned, piercing her entire body with scorching pain.
Realization dawned upon him; the body was probably not Silva. No, it might not even be a human at all!
———————————-
Written by Avans, Published exclusively by W.e.b.n.o.v..e.l,