~Bryan~
Bryan felt his heart clench in anguish when he saw his subordinate die before his very eyes, her life cut short by the abomination known as Shade. He felt rage grip him and he prepared himself to use his last dregs of ether to strike at the crazed ghoul one last time before his inevitable death.
As he prepared himself to cast his final spell though, he felt something change in the air around him. His ears popped as he felt the air around him suddenly become denser. Bryan gasped when he felt a massive surge of ether gather behind him and he lost control of his own power that was about to be used. It was there for a second and then gone as if it was a figment of his imagination. The results of the energy, however, remained.
Bryan merely blinked and suddenly Shade was no longer there, replaced by an orb of water. His eyes widened in both fear and shock as he tried to locate the beast but his search was interrupted when a tectonic boom echoed from the spot Shade had once stood in before he was engulfed in a cloud of steaming water vapour.
The incredible temperatures of the gas were enough to burn his flesh despite his abnormally high constitution and he winced in pain as he felt his skin rapidly turn red and flake off. Still, he kept his eyes peeled and tried to locate Shade, all thoughts of the massive ether working from before forgotten. His search had only gone for a few seconds before a blue system message superimposed itself over his eyes. Bryan blinked in shock as he read it.
Your group has defeated [Starved] Shadow Ghoul ??? (Evolved Rank E) level 162...
You have offered minor contribution...
You have reached level 131….
You have reached level 134...
Shades- Shades dead, Bryan wondered in shock, unable to believe the message before his eyes. How? When- who delivered the final blow? These questions raced through his head before he recalled the massive surge of ether he had felt prior to the steam explosion. Was that responsible for Shade's demise? He questioned. Who was responsible for the spell?
His inner musings, however, were interrupted when he heard the frantic voice of a young woman calling to him. Anna never sounds so distressed normally, Bryan worried as he rushed in the direction of the sound.
Visibility was still low due to the cloud of water vapour, though it was rapidly clearing, and it took Bryan a few precious seconds to locate Anna. When he laid eyes on her, he was shocked to see how much blood she was covered in and then relieved when he realised that it wasn’t hers.
His stomach once again plummeted when he saw that the blood came from a severely wounded Arthur, who looked like he had been put through a meat grinder with how mangled bits of his body were. Some parts of him actually looked to be missing altogether!
“What- what happened to him?” Bryan anxiously asked his subordinate, though he already had an inkling of suspicion as to why Arthur was in this state.
If he was responsible for the attack that finished Shade, then such injuries were easily explainable. Bryan wasn’t the best at perceiving magic, but even he could tell that the amount of ether that had been used to create the steam explosion was far beyond anything that even a level 150 individual with an epic class should be capable of, never mind Arthur who was only at a third of that level. He kept his suspicions to himself, however, and waited for Anna to give him an answer.
“I’m not sure sir, I found him like this when the fight ended,” Anna replied, her voice now much more calm and controlled like Bryan had come to expect of the dependable woman.
It seemed that the presence of her superior had allowed her to regain some of her wits in this entirely too strange situation.
Stolen story; please report.
“Sir, do you think that Arthur was the one to-” Anna began before being cut off by Bryan's raised hand.
She raised a puzzled eyebrow at him, and he sighed before explaining.
“As of this moment, that final stream explosion is believed to be a result of Shade's destructive final attack.” He stated, commandingly.
“But-But that doesn’t make sense,” Anna protested.
“No questions, this is not a time for baseless speculation, only facts. Am I clear?” Bryan commanded.
When he saw that Anna still seemed like she was about to say something, he repeated his words more forcefully. “
"Am I clear!”
Thankfully, his tone seemed to have finally got through Anna’s curiosity and she remained silent despite her obvious desire to ask some questions.
“Make sure to stabilise him,” Bryan said wearily. “I have no idea how the boy is even alive with so many injuries but he won’t stay that way if you don’t stop the bleeding,” He added.
Bryan looked around the clearing, now able to see a few feet in all directions thanks to the fog clearing as he tried to see how the rest of his team were fairing after taking the superheated steam. Adrien seemed to be the best off of all of them, courtesy of the fact that his affinity with fire magic made him a little more resistant to high temperatures. The woman walking by his side however wasn’t doing so well and most of her visible skin was covered in blood. She was still far better off than Arthur who looked like he had a foot in the grave already, but it really drove home how powerful an attack that final spell was, that even the unintended side effects of it could do so much damage to individuals above 100.
Bryan sighed in exhaustion when his entire team was gathered. They had been successful in defeating Shade yet it had come at the cost of one of their own. A price that some would say was a reasonable exchange for their victory against such a powerful abomination, yet for those that had known Selena as the bright young woman she had been, the cost left a mark on them that would last forever.
A funeral would have to be arranged and her body retrieved, at least what remained of it after being in such close proximity to Shade when he was obliterated. Bryan felt a droplet of rainfall on his head, and a sad smile crossed his face when he saw the sombre weather.
No doubt a result of the crazy water spell, Bryan could at least pretend that the heavens were honouring his fallen comrade with their tears. God knows that the damn woman deserved it. Nonetheless, Bryan dreaded the report he’d have to give when he returned to the underground bunker.
~Arthur Ward~
Arthur woke up feeling like he had been run over by a truck and sadly yes, he did know how that felt from experience. Every part of his body hurt, though he was glad that someone had the decency to at least put him somewhere comfortable. Unfortunately, the return of consciousness brought with it the painful memories of what had transpired just before he passed out.
That’s right, Selena’s gone, Arthur thought sadly.
It was funny how you only realised how much someone mattered to you when they were gone forever. If anyone had told Arthur a week ago that he’d be feeling this bad after the woman had died, he would have laughed in their face. It seemed that reality once again proved truly different from his expectations.
Wearily, Arthur opened his eyes and was surprised that they weren’t dried shut with crusted blood. Well, it made sense that if someone had brought him to this comfortable bed, they would have made sure to at least make sure he wasn’t going to dirty the whole place by bleeding out. That however made Arthur wary. Arthur wasn’t entirely certain, but he was sure that at least Bryan was close enough to have been aware of the final spell he had cast and if that was the case, then that meant he’d have to answer a lot of questions he wasn’t prepared to.
After all, even he had no idea what it was that he had done and he sure was as hell going to explain away the absurdity of his strength with a web of outlandish lies. Looking around, Arthur saw that he was in the same room that Alyssia had once resided in. That meant that he was in the underground bunker and if Arthur wasn’t being paranoid, that also meant that the government deemed him to be enough of a threat that they were treating him as they had the dimensional traveller.
Or maybe this was actually just the most comfortable bed they had at hand, but something told Arthur that wasn’t the case here.
He sighed and sat up, immediately regretting the movement when he felt a dizzying wave of nausea wash over him. He fell back onto the bed, closing his eyes as he took some deep steadying breaths, trying to control his rebelling stomach. Okay, moving is a big no, no, he told himself, well at least until I know what’s wrong with my body. Arthur slowly opened his eyes and finally looked towards the blue system message that had been clamouring for his attention since he woke up. It was very different to what he was used to.
HOST ARTHUR WARD HAS BROKEN ONE OF THE PRIMARY TENETS OF SYSTEM LAW. PREPARE TO FACE THE CONSEQUENCES.
Well, doesn't that sound ominous, Arthur thought before he continued reading?