She asked again as she opened her mouth and took out her tongue, gently placing the pasta in her mouth while her red eyes sensually glanced at him, eating the pasta that was on Darius' lips just a moment ago. She saw in his aura how another shade of pink, this one darker, was now making its presence, especially in his lower region.
He may be an extraordinary man, but he is still a man.
She chuckled as to herself, but then that pink turned into a bright blue, rushing from down to his stomach. She was confused for a moment, then, while looking at him, surprise took over her face after seeing him resume eating. With a slight annoyance in his tone, he said,
"That’s none of your concern."
Lily was surprised for a moment, then simply shrugged her shoulders and started eating as well.
"Well, I suppose you’re right. Sorry for teasing you; I wasn’t even thinking if you have a girlfriend. I don’t want to make things sour between you two."
"I have way too many things at hand to worry about my love life. If I really can’t handle it, I’ll just go buy some services; aren’t you the same?"
"Obviously not."
She frowned irritated at his comment, then became aware of the slip in her self-control and quickly calmed down. Darius chuckled after seeing her so irritated, making her pout and cross her hands while gazing away from him.
"This is not a subject we should have at the table. Let us just eat and leave already."
"Hmm… I do agree to finish faster; otherwise, we might not have enough time later."
"Eh?"
Darius gazed once again in the distance, grabbed his backpack, and placed it between his legs. Confused, Lily asked,
"Now that I think about it, why did you even come with a rucksack? What is in there?"
"A gun, a few magazines, a knife, a few explosives—you know, mercenary stuff."
"…. What did you say?"
She froze in place after hearing this and looked around to see if anyone else had heard their conversation.
-zzzziip-
She heard the sound of a zipper and saw Darius doing something under the table, hearing more clicks right after. Those clicks obviously came from reloading a gun.
"W-wait, Darius? What are you-"
-BOOM~!-
Before she could ask, strong flashes and sounds of explosions resounded from the far horizon. She looked in the direction Darius was normally gazing at and saw huge swarms of monsters flying towards the city, only to get bombarded and destroyed by multiple defensive turrets, antiaircraft guns, rocket launchers, and even multiple spells of mass destruction cast by more mages gathered together.
The battle was chaotic, but nobody seemed to mind it, as it was something normal by now. Even more so, many people gathered near the window and observed the fight with satisfaction and amusement. Lily herself stared undisturbed and said in a calm manner,
"The defensive system inside the Eastern City is one of the best among the four cities, second only to the Western City. No danger would befall the residents as long as nothing wrong happens inside the defensive lines."
"Heh, yeah. If nothing wrong happens, well said."
Darius smiled with a dark grin, and Lily felt like something was wrong, seeing him continue preparing for something.
"As long as nothing wrong happens inside the defensive lines that is. You said it so well, I don’t need to say anything more myself."
"What are you…"
She scowled, taken off by his remarks, but soon she noticed a sharp increase in whispers and a general sense of unease across the hall. Glancing around, she noticed other individuals staring blankly out the window, some frowning, others rushing to run away, white-faced, having already realized what had happened. She looked confusedly back at the battlefield, and her expression darkened as she noticed a hydra-like creature leading a number of creatures that were getting closer after, ridiculously enough, bypassing the heavy bombardment of the defensive lines. The monster was now traversing the walls of the city’s borders and was quickly approaching the tallest building within: the Border Hotel.
"N-no way…! Everyone! Get out quickly! Monsters are approaching the hotel at an alarming speed!"
Comprehending the situation, she quickly got up and shouted, trying to wake everyone up from their dazed state. But even so, this didn’t seem to work, as most of them appeared way too confused, unable to understand their predicament even as it was unfolding before their eyes.
"W-what are you saying? Isn’t this hotel the safest place in the Eastern City? Why would monsters-"
-BANG!-
A loud gunshot terrified everyone, and they turned towards Darius, who was holding the gun high in the air, his eyes sharp as he pointed at the man who tried to talk just now.
"This place is no longer safe. So if you don’t want to die, just piss off."
"…."
"Now!"
When he saw that no one was moving, he yelled again, and this time the women and men both started shouting as they went about their separate ways and hurriedly pushed through the exit. After hearing the gunshot, Lily still had her hands over her ears, and she slowly lowered them while giving him a fierce look.
"Was that really necessary?"
"I’m not happy either. I wasted a bullet to wake up these buffoons."
"Sigh~… Anyway, we need to get out of here."
She didn’t bother arguing with him as he lacked tact, and while turning serious, she glanced outside the window at the approaching monsters. It was clear that they had no longer enough time for everyone to run away from there.
Hearing her, Darius chuckled and pulled her away from beside the window when-
-POW!-
He shot the window to crack it, then kicked it to get rid of the broken glass, creating a large hole in the glass wall.
"We? I'm not sure about you, but I’ll be sure to attract that flying lizard to this floor. As advice for you, I’d say you better just run away from here and, while at it, get as many people with you as possible."
For a little while, she was stunned by what she had heard, but she soon got over it. She sighed and took his hand, her crimson eyes fixed intently on him.
"I don’t think it’s a wise decision. Although I’m not doubting your abilities, fighting against a hydra unequipped is akin to suicide."
"I won’t disagree, but do you see anyone more capable of keeping those things occupied till reinforcements arrive?"
"…"
Her face turned dark. She didn’t want to say it, but he was right. At such a critical moment, if that hydra was left alone to do as it pleased, then everyone, together with the hotel itself, would just end up completely destroyed. Gritting her teeth in irritation because of the helpless feeling, she glared at Darius, and with a commanding tone, she said,
"You must come back to me alive."
Feeling her firm grip on his hand and her sharp glare, Darius couldn’t help feeling surprised for a moment.
"Take it as me paying back for the pasta."
Her abruptly authoritative tone amused him, but he nonetheless complied with her demands. Lily then hurriedly left so as to no longer obstruct him, and Darius turned serious.
With his gun aimed, he opened fire. Even though he only had a pistol, some of the lowest-tier monsters nearby could still be eliminated with one shot at their eyes, drawing the hydra's attention once some of its minions were eliminated. However, a single gun did not cause any damage to it, which is also why Darius didn't even bother trying to shoot at it in the first place.
-GHROAAAGH~!-
"He’s as loud as he’s ugly."
Darius, still shooting down Hydra minions with a nervous grin on his face, was on the top floor when the Hydra saw him and abruptly altered direction, charging straight up at him with all five of its heads howling and growling.
"Well, that’s nerve-wracking. I’m even having a hard time aiming."
Even he couldn’t help feeling some pressure from a flying monster as big as a tank, rushing his way while shouting and showing its multiple pairs of sharp teeth.
After Darius finished his magazine, the hydra showed up and tried to bite him using two of its heads. Darius retreated and rolled away as fast as he could. He hastily reached into the backpack and pulled out the dopamine for mages.
Dopamine was utilized by troops as a drug to heighten their senses and dull their perception of pain. Because regular humans, mages, and Spirit Wielders all needed different amounts, it was divided accordingly. As a regular human, he shouldn't use dopamine for mages because the high dosage could burn his brain neurons and nerves. Despite the fact that they were significantly more powerful than those for a typical human, Darius brought two of them anyway. Since he had previously used one of them when he farmed for materials, he chose to utilize the second one now.
"Sigh~! Alright…"
After injecting himself, he took a few deep breaths and saw that the creatures on this floor were moving slower than before. After rapidly swapping out his magazine, he stood up and tossed three grenades from his rucksack, leaving himself with only one more.
Darius swiftly aimed for two pillars and the ceiling in the center of the glass-walled floor, as there were only four pillars holding up the ceiling.
-BOOM!-
""Kyah!""
Since the grenades were specifically designed to take out monsters with stronger defenses, the shockwave was considerably greater, causing more people—the last ones still on the same floor as him—to scream in panic and rapidly retreat. Even though Lily was a mage and had a stronger mentality than the others, the explosion briefly startled even her before Darius swiftly grabbed her arm and ran to the stairs.
He initially wanted to target three pillars, but after seeing people still rushing down the stairs with Lily right behind everyone to protect them, he refrained and decided to just target half the floor.
The explosion collapsed half the ceiling, and while all the minion monsters that reached the floor died under the weight of the ceiling, the hydra itself was momentarily incapacitated. However, more flying low-tier monsters rushed up and forced Darius to leave Lily in front of the stairs.
"Go now."
"…"
"Don’t waste time now."
Seeing the bulging veins all over his body together with the unusually red color of his skin and bloodshot eyes, Lily understood that Darius must’ve taken something that overburdened his body, a frown being visible on her face. Feeling her gaze, Darius had a complicated feeling.
This is not the time to worry about side effects, and she knows that. Yet here she is, worrying over every little thing.
One half-bat-half-snake monster of low-rank rushed towards him with its sharp fangs aimed at him, but Darius quickly slashed its head with his knife, not letting anything approach the stairs behind him.
"Some monsters might have broken through the lower floors. Take this together with two magazines. Try not to die."
"You’re giving me your only gun while fighting a hydra? Aren’t you too much of a fool?"
"This is more than enough."
"… Your arrogance will be the end of you."
He gripped his knife tightly, and when he gave Lily one more warning to get out, she eventually left. However, as she was about to go, there were huge rumbles, and one of the hydra's heads emerged from between the rocks and swung wildly at Darius after giving him one more glare.
"Ragh!"
He roared as he slid bellow and tried to stab its neck. However, the scales of the hydra were strong enough to chip the tip of the plasma knife, making Darius click his tongue in annoyance.
Although only a high-ranking monster, the dragon-type monsters are the most dangerous, right beside the Demonic Wielders and divine-type monsters.
It’s speed was low enough to have Darius dodge its attacks with only a physical booster, while its power was also greatly inferior to that of its other high-ranking peers. What a hydra was best known for wasn’t its attack power, but its great defense and ridiculous vitality, which required a great deal of firepower to counter.
This is really such a bad match for me right now.
He felt like letting out some curses after rolling away on the ground. But the next moment, another monster appeared from behind his back, quickly turning and slashing its head in one move.
Although it's chipped, it’s still working. Good.
With his damaged knife, he rushed towards the other half of the floor, where the rooftop was still stable, and attracted more monsters towards him.
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
"Here. Come here!"
The hydra was annoyed, and another head got itself freed from inside the boulders. It roared loudly, and the flying monsters quickly rushed towards Darius.
"Good!"
He jumped away from there, but some monsters were able to react to his trick, changing their trajectory to follow him. Even so, Darius slashed two of them and grabbed the body of another to block behind him.
-BOOM!-
His last grenade exploded behind him, killing another seven monsters and destroying the third pillar. The ceiling started to collapse, and Darius quickly jumped after the window broke from the shockwave, grabbed onto the remaining cracked pillar so as not to fall from the 10th floor of the hotel, and used his arm to pull himself back at the edge of the floor. Thanks to the centrifugal force and his impressive arm strength, he came right back and landed on the edge of the floor.
"Uoh!"
The ceiling was still collapsing, so the moment he landed back, a piece of concrete just fell right in front of him, forcing him to take a step back and almost fall off. Thankfully, he acted quickly, and with one hand, he held onto the edge of the floor. With the hand that he was holding onto the knife, he tried to smash the already cracked window from the floor below him and reach back inside the hotel.
"Ugh, fuck…"
"….."
After barely making it and falling with a roll on the lower floor as the ceiling was about four meters tall, he got up staggering, only to see Lily evacuating the last few people.
"What the hell are you still doing here?!"
"Nice seeing you alive as well... You’re aware that not even a minute passed, yes?"
"… What? Ah!"
It has indeed only been a few seconds since Lily left. Time flew by so slowly for Darius because he used the potent serum that was normally used for mages. However, he was 100% sure that if not for it, he would’ve died, as even with that thing’s help, he still got bitten by one of those monsters on his arm. He instantly started sucking out whatever may have entered him and spat it on the floor. Even so, there were some traces of miasma in him that he forcefully expelled by using his breathing method.
"Just what were you doing up there? If you throw anymore grenades, then the whole floor might collapse."
"Too late. This floor just got promoted to the last floor."
"… You mean you just collapsed a whole floor?"
"Either that, or everyone would’ve died by now."
-GROAAAGH!-
Right after Darius excused himself to check the window, more boulders fell from atop the building, and the hydra suddenly appeared flying outside the window right in front of Darius, looking his way with venom in its eyes, wanting to kill Darius no matter what.
"We’ll talk later, now run!"
Darius took a combat-ready position, but rather than pouching at him, the hydra inhaled deeply as if preparing to do something.
"Actually, I’ll come with you!"
Darius’ face turned white, and he quickly rushed towards Lily. After grabbing her, he jumped right down the stairs, quickly closing the door behind him.
-GROAAAGH!-
A purple wave of burning miasma covered the whole dining hall and broke through the door, sending Darius flying while trying to protect Lily.
"Guh!"
After falling down the stairs, Lily got a bloody bruise on her head and tried to get up as Darius was on top of her, unmoving.
"Ugh~… You moron, what are you thinking, protecting a mage-… Darius?"
She shook Darius as she got up and tried to see if he was alright, only to suddenly retract her hand after touching his back, a burning feeling making her frown in pain. She looked at her hand and saw purple veins appear on her palm, understanding that her palm had been infested with miasma.
"…!"
She turned his body over and saw his back burn while his skin turned purple from all the miasma that tried to engulf his body.
"N-no… You can’t die like this…!"
Her heart sank for the first time in a long time, a terrible sensation that made her clench her teeth when she saw Darius's back burned with a purple bruise from the miasma. Darius moaned softly and continued to struggle to stand despite his chaotic condition. He could see that something had begun to damage his heavy body, even if he was not in pain, since dopamine was still flowing inside his system.
"D-Darius, don’t move. Your back is…"
She didn’t know how to tell it to him, but he already understood what happened. The hydra's miasma breath hit him. He sighed troubled then grabbed his backpack, which was almost completely destroyed, and got from inside one of the external pockets the little energy pill he had brought ever since in Sin City. He swallowed it and sat in a meditation position.
"Lily, I know I’m asking for a lot, but please try to protect me for 5 minutes. I will try to detoxify myself."
"What? Expel miasma as a human? Darius, even as a mage, I still have it hard dealing with my burnt palm, let alone you, who has his whole back like that…"
With a grim face, she showed her palm, but Darius grabbed it and lightly bit her palm.
"Y-you moron! You’ll corrupt your mouth like this!"
She was incredibly irritated at Darius and wanted to yank her hand off but was surprised to see how she was unable to do so, Darius’ grip being incredibly strong. As she watched Darius ingest the miasma, a sense of urgency swept over her.
"You... moron!"
She shouted out, and with a pained look, she glanced at Darius, only to be surprised by his calm gaze.
After a bit, her palm was clean and beautiful once again while Darius breathed out a mouthful of purple mist, focusing his breathing and continuing to breathe out purple mist after every breath, each breath being more concentrated than the other.
He’s… expelling miasma through breathing…?
Such an amazing technique temporarily confused her. It was proven multiple times that humans were extremely vulnerable to miasma and could easily get corrupted or even die, while mages, although able to resist it, were still finding it hard to completely nullify its corrupting effects.
More noises then resounded from the upper floor they were on a while ago, and Lily quickly woke up and recovered herself.
"… I’m not sure how you did that, but I’ll be sure to protect you no matter how long it takes, so don’t rush."
-GHYAA!-
When a minion monster rushed in, Lily shot it dead, blowing up its head in an instant.
"I might not be traveling outside the borders like you, but I still received my share of training, so feel free to entrust your life to me."
A confident smile appeared as her devilish red eyes shone with killing intent.
More and more such monsters rushed in while Darius tried to eliminate the miasma from his back as quickly as possible, his frowning forehead sweating bullets.
-POW POW POW!-
More and more monsters rushed in, only to have their heads blown. Some were able to avoid the bullets, or Lily just happened to miss, but none escaped as she used the broken knife she borrowed from Darius, slashing their heads off cleanly. She then wanted to change the magazines, and just as she did so, one monster appeared right in front of her.
"Hmph."
With a high kick, she pushed the flying monster right back and finished reloading the gun. She continued to do so until one larger mid-rank monster tried to make its way through the stairway door. She shot it multiple times, but its head was just that hard. Simple bullets had no effect.
"…"
She made a quick judgment and looked around. She observed how the stairs’ handrails were made out of a metallic bar sustained by a glass wall. Coming up with an idea, she used the gun to shoot two ends of the bar and made herself a staff with sharp ends. Being a mage with innately greater physical might than a human, ripping off a metal bar wasn’t that much of a challenge to her. Acquiring a weapon, she dashed towards the monster before it could release itself.
"Stay still!"
She used the bar as a staff, and using well-trained martial arts moves, she struck the monster’s head with the sharp metallic end of the bar, killing it instantly.
"Hmph. Having to use that much force, my dress got ruined."
With gentle moves, Lily observed her dress that got ripped after dashing, having a cut to the side and also more rips to her shoulder area.
She then observed the monster and smiled lightly as everything went as she wished. Now no longer moving, the monster’s stuck corpse in the door was now blocking the entire entrance, forcing the other monsters to find another way to reach them.
Phew~… Like this, I won him a few more minutes- wait.
She suddenly heard more screams and understood that the lower floor was now attacked, and she needed to quickly save the others as well.
"Darius, the other entrance's blocked. Nothing should happen in the meantime. But I need to rescue the ones below, so I’ll be leaving you for a bit."
She rushed down and saw the door flung open as a few remaining people were struggling to go down the stairs.
The whole staircase was already stuck as so many people from all the floors tried to go down at the same time. The elevator was of no use as it had already collapsed after the last floor fell.
Tsk! I can’t enter with all these people blocking my way… I guess I have no choice.
She raised her gun, and just as she wanted to shoot and make everyone give her way, someone appeared behind her and took her gun away.
"Woah there. Please don’t waste anymore bullets just for this."
"Darius…! You-…"
She turned with sparks in her eyes after hearing his voice, but then she froze, her hopeful gaze turning worried after seeing his pale face.
"You… are not fine yet."
"Still, much better than before. Now, let’s go."
He passed the gun back to her and took the bar and the knife, then went forward, and with ease, he pushed the ones in front of him away, leaving Lily with a complicated look in her eyes. It was like a bulldozer making its way through trees or something. Nobody had a chance, as they all just got pushed to the side like waves by a ship.
"Y-you brute! Who do you think you’re pushing-"
"Shut up, or I’ll make you eat it."
One young man shouted annoyed, but then froze in place after Darius placed the knife in his mouth, everyone else not daring to say anymore. Lily sighed while looking at him, then just focused on organizing the crowd to move faster. Lily glanced for a moment inside the room, and her face turned serious. She went behind Darius while at the same time organizing everyone.
"Think you’ll be able to handle it?"
"… No choice I guess."
After he entered the lower floor, the first thing that greeted him was a terrifying image of monsters feasting on more unfortunate people who had no chance to exit the place. There were especially women, as they happened to be slower than the men.
One monster saw him enter the dining hall and quickly rushed at him, only to have its body penetrated by the sharp bar.
"Don’t force yourself too much. You’re a wreck."
"You ain't looking any better."
"It seems I’m just wasting my time worrying over you."
The corner of Lily’s lips twitched at his comment, but Darius continued to look around, a deep frown visible on his face.
Where is the hydra? I expected it to be on this floor, but there is no sight of it.
Darius continued to kill more monsters, even the mid-ranked ones that appeared. Because their scales were harder and he didn’t possess Lily’s physical powers, he couldn’t kill them in one go, so he had to bash their heads multiple times while approaching it slowly and finally penetrate its brain through the open mouth with the knife. As he continued fighting while looking around, he suddenly felt a slight tremor and a roar outside the building.
"… Don’t tell me."
He went closer to the edge of the floor, and below him, he saw the hydra tormenting the people that were able to go out of the hotel.
"That fucker…"
Darius grimaced furiously and quickly tried to think of a way to reach the hydra in the shortest time possible.
-GHYAAAH~!-
Another mid-rank monster rushed towards him, and a sudden idea struck him. A rather mad one at that,
If I die here, let’s wish I have another chance.
He sighed annoyed and quickly dodged with a turn, only to grab the monster by a wing and jump on its back.
"Now, down we go!"
"Wai-! Darius?!"
Lily saw Darius suddenly jump off the broken window, and rushing towards the edge, she was able to see a crazy monster flying around aimlessly with a person on its back.
"Guh! I said down!"
With his knife, he penetrated the monster's shoulder blade and, with his other hand, tried to immobilize one of the wings. The monster started to hover downwards around the building, but Darius made it rush faster as he twisted the knife in its back, making the monster go down in a hurry and in the hydra’s respective direction. At around the third floor, he plucked the knife and pulled the monster by the neck, making it open its wings wide and slow the fall considerably.
Good, now you’re next!
He strongly stabbed the spine of the monster to render it unable to move while making sure it would fall right on top of the monster.
-GROAAAH~!-
Being crashed by another monster about half its weight, the hydra roared and turned all its five heads towards the back, only to see one individual with a mad grin on its face and crazy eyes.
"Found you."
A purple glow flashed through Darius’ eyes as he gazed into the eyes of the nearest head that turned, only for it to freeze in place, the monster suddenly tensing up after feeling the ridiculous murderous intent.
When the heads turned, Darius targeted the nearest one and threw the sharp bar towards one of its’ eyes while rushing forward to take its other eye.
-ROAAGH!-
Feeling the excruciating pain, the other heads tried to bite at him, but the wild moves of the harmed head made it impossible for the other four to even touch Darius. In the end, after getting struck by the trashing of the harmed head, he got flung on the side of a car and he was able to feel one of his arms snapping under the weight of the impact, along with a few of his ribs. The side of the car got dented and even got pushed back from the impact, while Darius’ breath was chaotic as he found that most probably one of his lungs got penetrated by a broken rib… or more broken ribs.
"Cough! Shit…"
He coughed some blood but quickly rolled away from there as another breath of miasma melted the car entirely.
"..."
Darius barely stood up with one knife in hand, while the other hand was limp around his body. His whole body was filled with cuts; his shirt and pants were both ripped and even burned, while blood flowed from numerous open injuries. The taste of metal filled his mouth, showing that the internal bleeding was more severe than he wished to believe. Thankfully, the dopamine was still in effect since 15 minutes were yet to pass; otherwise, he would’ve collapsed even with the adrenaline rushing through his veins.
-GROWL~….!-
The hydra saw Darius’ sorry state and walked closer and closer towards it as if to make him feel like helpless prey. However, Darius’ eyes made it believe otherwise, as his killing intent made the hydra stop and growl completely threatened. It sat down warily, and one of its heads shot forward like a snake, only to have a knife pierce one of its eyes. Darius threw his knife and landed a bullseye, his glowly eyes flashing with spite and anger.
"A mere lizard dares to look down at the one who destroyed a world? Do you seriously think you’ll get out alive?"
-?!-
Although severely injured and barely able to move, the little man in front of it exhumed such a ridiculous bloodlust and deadly aura that it made the hydra freeze in place for a moment, not sure what to do. However, its dazed state didn’t last long, as after only 4 seconds, fury and shame took over after feeling threatened by a puny human, rushing towards it with all five heads.
"Shoot already!"
Darius shouted furiously, and a sudden explosion at one of its heads attracted the Hydra’s attention. It looked to the side and saw a group of armed humans that had just arrived. One of them just shot out a rocket from its rocket launcher and saw how, behind it, more armored cars and even two tanks with five LAVs aimed their cannons and guns at it. The explosion only damaged one of its eyes and peeled the scales and skin, but the head was still intact, showing just how tough its’ scales and cranium were. However, being constantly bombarded, even the hydra wouldn’t be able to get out of it alive.
-GRRR GROAAGH!-
It knew that its end was coming, but it still wanted to know that the man in front of it was dead, disregarding all defenses and rushing at him like a wild, hungry beast.
"Hah! So you do know what’s truly dangerous!"
Darius laughed at the hydra as it rushed towards him while its body was being bombarded and shot at by tanks, LAVs, and rocket launchers.
The shockwave of the explosion made Darius retreat and even quickly hide behind more turned cars, but the monster tried to run his way, unwilling to let him live. Seeing this, the soldiers targeted its legs first, burdening the monster exponentially.
Its legs and wings were completely blown, its body filled with holes, and its necks were all ripped to shreds as shells flew through them while its heads fell one after the other.
The closest head to Darius fell right in front of him with its mouth still open, Darius being able to touch its sharp teeth if he just reached out.
"…."
He looked into the monster’s eyes and saw deep hatred, frustration, and fear, making Darius understand that this hydra didn’t perceive him as a lowly human but as a predatory entity from the miasma, wanting to take him out thinking that he was fighting for territory.
How laughable. Even after returning in time, miasma still lingers inside my soul.
Although it was a sad truth, he couldn’t help laughing at this fact.
However, the next moment, a current went through his whole body as the pain was slowly coming back, making him fall on one knee, feeling like he was suffocating from both the pain and the punctured lung.
"Quick! Man down! Bring the carrier!"
"Oy man, stay with me!"
"Don’t you die on me, soldier!"
After he collapsed, more soldiers quickly rushed his way and tried to shout at him to keep him conscious, but with the last bit of will he still had, he pointed at the upper floors and said weakly,
"There… are more… Save them… all…."
"Oy soldier! Hold up!"
He then just passed out and fell completely unconscious.