Mike could barely even hear the sound of his own thoughts as the wind whipped around them. They flew at a somewhat diagonal angle, evenly moving both upward and away from the town. His chest was still throbbing, but with more of a dull ache now than before. And while it was hard to tell for sure with how much his flannel shirt had gotten soaked, he believed the bleeding had come to a stop.

“What’s going on?!” Mike tried to yell over the wind. But Raemiel just glanced down and shook his head. So either he hadn’t heard him, or was perhaps indicating that now wasn’t the time for talking.

Several minutes passed as they continued to fly. Glancing about, Mike noticed that they seemed to be heading for the top of one of the bigger trees in the immediate area. The angel proved that correct as they picked up even more speed for the final stretch and focused their flight path toward one of the branches.

When they reached the branch, their landing was rather rough. Raemiel beat his wings to slow down, but practically slammed into the trunk of the tree. Where they then dropped by a dozen or so feet to actually land. Though even if their landing was less than precise, the base of the branch itself was quite forgiving with its size. In terms of thickness, just the surface of the top side they were now on was big enough to comfortably act as a twin-sized bed.

After being let go, Mike stumbled away from the Raemiel. Feeling woozy, he fell onto his bottom as a wave of dizziness hit him. At the same time, the angel leaned against the trunk and slowly slid down until he was sitting against it.

Raemiel shifted over toward the edge before wearily peeking over it. “My apologies for the… sudden departure. And more so for allowing myself to get hurt, and in doing so, allowing you to be damaged as well. But within that area now is a foe that is far beyond what I can currently face. Though it seems that we were fortunate, for I cannot see or hear any signs of it pursuing us as of yet.”

Mike stared at his companion as he spoke, while also trying to blink away the dark spots that had momentarily filled his vision. To say that the angel sounded out of breath was wrong, but he didn’t make any noise indicative of actual breathing. But Raemiel sounded… exhausted. There was a heaviness in his tone that made it sound like the hole in his armor had a real effect on him.

“What is… it? Another Wild Summon, or did a Summoner show up and attack you?” Mike asked.

His gaze landed on the hole in the angel’s midsection, which was no longer covered as his hand dropped to the branch’s surface. Even though the spot they were currently in was cast in heavy shadows due to the thick canopy right over their heads, the passive glow of the angel still made his own form clear to see.

Looking into the hole, his eyes widened at what he saw. Or rather, perhaps it’d be more accurate to say that it was what he didn’t see. Because within the golden armor, there was nothing more than a slightly higher concentration of glowing light. Other than that, his Summon was a completely hollow shell of metal.

As Mike was still in the middle of processing this pretty surprising revelation, his companion responded.

“It was Wild, of that I am certain. However, its power was unlike anything anything I could have expected.” Raemiel then paused for a moment. And as Mike watched very closely this time, it seemed like the internal light within the armor flickered. It was only for an instant and quite subtle, but that’s what he at least thought he saw.

“I cannot know precisely what Level it was, for only Summoners have that ability and not us Summons. But that creature’s speed and power to my own to shame. Even when I believed to have taken it by surprise and initiated from afar, it still managed to act with such quickness, that I did not even have time to throw my spear. I was forced to disengage as even my best attempt to dodge the full brunt of its attack was still enough to leave me in the sorry state now before you,” he finished, his head now lowered with true shame.

“What-” Mike stopped as he winced. Just trying to shift around to get more comfortable had made the wound in his gut suddenly flare up with pain. “What kind of monster was it?”

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“A terrible feathered beast. One that walked on four legs and had six wings on its back. It was even larger than the foe we encountered underground as it towered over the structures around us. With the wave of a single wing, it shot out a hail of feathers that each outmatched my spear in both size and speed. Only one managed to land true, but just that single blow was enough to make me realize that the battle would be lost.

“Perhaps I could have killed it before it slayed me. It would have been a simple test of its durability matched its size. But to throw my spear with the accuracy and strength needed for such a thing would have required leaving myself open to a potentially fatal counter. And while I may have been willing to chance that sacrifice in previous battles, I could not risk your own life as well for what would have been a gamble. Again I apologize, for failing in what was still only my second battle in the short time since entering your service,” he finished while bowing his head even lower.

So some kind of bird monster then? Of fucking course it’d be that of all things. Do I even want to ask if the thing’s feathers and stuff resembled a pigeon’s? Mike asked himself, but he had a feeling that even voicing the question out loud, he knew the answer already. It was far too perfect of a punch line for fate to miss out on. But somewhat more importantly, what was going to happen now?

“You don’t have to be apologetic for everything that happens, you know? But what now? I think the bleeding’s already stopped, but I don’t know the rules for how an injury like this works anymore. Am I just immortal unless something actually manages to kill you too? Because unlike me, I can’t help but notice that it’d be kinda hard for you to bleed out or need to worry about organs being damaged?”

The trenchcoat had pointedly been left unbuttoned as part of his fashion statement. So while talking, all Mike had to do was lift the bottom of the flannel shirt in order to take a look at his gut.

First of all, the amount of blood lost was definitely worse than he’d thought. Practically the entire bottom half of the shirt’s front was completely soaked. And after being flash-dried by their flight up here, a lot of it was sticky and made a gross noise while being pulled off his stomach like the shirt had been glued onto it.

But when it was finally off, the sight of his stomach made Mike’s blood run cold. And not just because he’d just lost a very concerning amount of it. At its worst, it’d felt like a stab wound that had been then twisted. However, that comparison didn’t do the actual wound any justice. Though at this point, was calling it a wound even the right word to use?

Because a large chunk of his naval region was simply missing. Like clawed hand had reached in and grabbed up as much flesh it could, and then scooped it all out in one go.

“What the fuck?!” Mike cried upon seeing it. It was deep. Even despite the blood obscuring things and making it harder to tell, he could tell that it was at least a few inches into his gut.

Due to his sudden panic, Raemiel’s head snapped and instantly went on high alert. “What is it?! Did you spot something coming for us?!”

Mike’s thoughts had ground to a screeching halt as what he was feeling completely contrasted with what his eyes were feeling. By now it still felt like a really bad stomach ache, the kind where you’d feel it no matter what position you tried to rest in. But that was worlds apart from what this.

He was no expert on human anatomy or anything, but if something like this gaping hole went at least a few inches deep, then his organs should have been affected as well, surely? Like there had to be just a part of his intestines, stomach, or something that had also been destroyed.

“Mike? Mike?!” Raemiel called out, but the Summoner in question was in far too much shock to actually hear him. In fact, Mike could barely hear anything at all because his ears had already started to become filled with a loud, high-pitched ringing.

When it came to suffocation, the feeling had been entirely suppressed because none of the physical reaction had come with it. Same thing for falling, except Mike had still panicked while being dropped. And now this. Which even though he was currently still way too mentally frozen to properly realize it now, what this meant would come to him as a realization soon after.

The System suppressed all the physical parts of human anatomy that related to being injured. But it did nothing for the mental aspect when it came to both a conscious and subconscious reaction. And right now, everything about both parts of his brain were currently screaming that he should be actively dying.

Perhaps it would have been enough on its own. Or maybe it was simply the final straw that finally broke the camel’s back. But either way, the sheer amount of distress this caused him was simply too much for Mike’s mind to handle right now. So as it often did when the situation just became more than it could bear, his brain did what it could to protect itself.

The world went black as Mike fell to his side. As he passed out, the last thing his gaze caught was the sight of his worried Summon getting up while reaching out for him.