A man barged inside the infirmary. The view was a sight to behold. They were many weeping in pain while some scream and shout. Blood splattered across the floor and on the white bed as these soldiers were in a critically injured state. It was as if he was inside an infirmary war zone.

Jason’s eyes rolled around searching for a specific person. His feet then shuffled around the floor peeking through every blinder searching for his sister. Then a voice called out to him.

“Mr.Park?” he turned and saw a nurse dressed in a light blue gown with her face covered by a mask.

“Your sister is in the ICU ward,” said the nurse.

Jason’s eyes turned wide as he grabbed the nurse by the shoulders.

“Where is she?” he asked.

The nurse felt a slight bit of pain over her shoulders as Jason was losing his grip over his own strength. But rather than retaliating, the nurse kept her calm.

“Right this way sir,” she said.

Jason glanced at the sign above the door. A glowing sign with three letters. I, C, U. His patience was running thin as he ran leaving the nurse behind and he slammed the door open.

He walked inside and saw his sister lying on the bed. He was baffled seeing his sister.

“Esther…” his voice trailed down as his eyes quivered.

He couldn’t believe it as he saw Esther covered with wires and IV lines all over her body. Even her breathing was aided by the respirator machine. His steps shuffled slowly towards Esther as a few doctors and nurses noticed the appearance of Jason.

“Sir? You can’t be here, this is the ICU, only…” the nurse’s voice drowned out from his ears as he cared less about what these people were talking about.

Then a rather annoyed doctor step-up to the plate grabbing Jason by the shoulder.

“Listen here bud, this is a strict military area, you are not…” before the doctor can finish his words, he saw a pair of eyes glaring straight at him.

“Get your hands off of me before I punch that fucking smug face of yours,” said Jason.

That direct threat along with that powerful glare was enough to make the doctor took his hand away from Jason. Then the nurse who brought Jason over managed to reached the ICU. She was panting for her breath as she tried to speak out to Jason.

“Sir huff huff, you need to huff huff huff wear PPE first huff huff before entering,” said the nurse, but it was a bit too late for that.

Jason ignored the medical personnel in the ward as his eyes were drawn to the file with Esther’s name on it. He grabbed and read through the file.

“Hey, you can’t read that,” said the doctor but Jason ignored it.

He read through it and the words were not pleasant to read. The medical report described multiple grievous bite wounds all over Esther’s body, some to be from an animal, and some closely resembled humans. Not only that there were also sharp incision wounds and claw marks. Jason gritted his teeth after reading all of it and he couldn’t help but imagine what she had been through.

It seems low-level monsters should not be underestimated since a large number of them could easily overpower someone like Esther.

Jason’s rage was getting out of hand as he crumpled Esther’s medical report out of a mistake. Then he glanced back at Esther. His heart ached just from seeing her like this.

“Everyone, get out,” Jason said.

“Eh?”

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“What?”

But the medical personnel were flustered hearing Jason’s words. They didn’t understand what he meant by that.

“I said fucking get out before I fucking kill you all,” said Jason.

Unknown to Jason, these innocent health workers felt an unbearable force overwhelming them. They didn’t know what was happening to them but everyone knew that the wisest choice was to leave.

All of them left, leaving Jason alone with Esther. They were a few more patients in the ward but they didn’t matter to Jason.

Jason glanced around a few times and as he swung his arm, Wind Cutters went flying around demolishing every camera in the ICU. He has the ability to heal and he would like to keep it as a secret. Even Pixie had the courtesy to not divulge that information during the debriefing at least she knew what was best for her.

Jason pulled those wires and lines away from Esther and as the vital sign monitor started beeping, showing her vitals dropping, Jason quickly put into action.

“Major Heal,” said Jason.

Green glow engulfed Esther’s entire being and after it receded, they were no more wounds on Esther’s body, not even a scar.

“Esther?” He called out to her.

He saw signs of movement from Esther’s eyelids. Jason shook her body and a little moan escaped from Esther’s lips.

“Wake up Esther,” said Jason.

The woman on the bed slowly opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was the worried face of her brother.

“Jason? But how?” Esther sounded a bit delirious and as her head turned side to side, she noticed where she was.

“I’m in a hospital? But how do I get here?” she asked.

But to her surprise, a warm body came crashing against her face. Then she felt two arms wrapping around her as she could felt the warmth from Jason.

She didn’t expect a hug from Jason but seeing how he suddenly being caring made her remembered what had happened before she blacked out.

A fight she would remember for the rest of her life. A fight to the death against an army of monsters. She thought her end was near considering how badly injured she was but she could vaguely remember the sound of a helicopter blade right before she went unconscious.

They stayed like that for a couple more minutes before these two finally came apart.

Esther noticed Jason wiping over his face. She could visibly saw the red eyes of his but rather than saying anything it was best to just kept her lips sealed.

“Let’s get out of here,” said Jason.

Jason aided Esther down but the moment her feet touched the ground, she felt a cool breeze swiping over her back.

“Eek!” Esther was surprised as her hands roamed her back.

A single thought came to mind, she wasn’t wearing anything underneath the patient’s gown.

“What?” Jason asked.

“I need clothes,” she said.

Jason looked up and down and knew what she meant by that.

“I know where you can get some,” said Jason.

The duo came out of the ICU and surprisingly the doctors and nurses were waiting outside like scared little lambs. Yet their fears were swept off by the appearance of Esther walking side by side with the irrational man.

They couldn’t believe it but seeing was believing. Esther was as good as new, healthy as a horse. They were all staring at her in disbelief.

Jason and Esther passed through them and as they headed for Jason’s personal room, they stumbled upon someone. A rather familiar tall man.

“Woah, Jason? Esther?” the recognizable voice was none other than our friendly neighborhood Hakeem.

“You guys are already here? Man, am I the last one?” Hakeem sounded disappointed but then he noticed Esther’s attire.

“Wait, why are you in a hospital gown?” Hakeem asked while sounding rather tactless.

Jason ignored this friend of his and changed his glance to the military aid besides him.

“Can you get my sister a set of clothes?” he asked.

“Affirmative, right this way sir,” said the military aid.

Jason and Esther followed her while Hakeem was rather flustered a bit.

“Wait, she’s supposed to bring me to my room,” said Hakeem. Nonetheless, he followed them along.

“This is your room and inside you can find a set of clothes that fit you,” said the military aid. “and the next room is yours, sir.”

Hakeem nodded while giving his thanks. Jason tapped Esther by the shoulder.

“Meet us after wearing your clothes at Hakeem’s room,” said Jason. He then grabbed Hakeem by the arm and dragged him over to his room.

--

In Hakeem’s room, after waiting for a while, a knock came from outside the door. Esther came inside and as she took a seat, Jason opened his mouth.

“What happened Esther?” Jason asked.

Esther looked down and a few seconds later, she began retelling of what had happened.

She remembered it clearly. It all began as dawn came. Out from the horizon, a huge shadow came, a whole group of goblin riders came down on them. They responded too late and due to their negligence, more members of the squad were dying one after another.

But they kept on fighting for their lives against the horde of goblin riders and at the forefront of them, was Esther. With her metamorphosis ability, she killed those goblin riders easily but, they were too many.

In the end, Esther did the unthinkable. She took a risk as she blocked them all through the narrow alleyway. A rather simple plan but it worked against these low IQ creatures. She fought on all alone by her own self as she told the rest of the squad to fled away.

Time ticked by and injuries littered across her body. Even with her blood spilling on the ground, she kept fighting against these heinous monsters to her last breath. She fought on with fear creeping up to her, she knew she could run away but with her current state, she knew the best option was to fight on until the end.

In the end, she was the last person standing, as the whole alleyway was littered with dead wolves and goblins. She gained a few levels but that didn’t matter as she was close to reaching her last breath.

Esther dropped to her knees as she then lay on the ground among the dead corpses. Slowly, her consciousness was fading away to the realm of the unconscious. Yet she fought on trying to keep herself awake.

She didn’t know who but someone carried her away and the last thing she remembered was hearing the sound of the helicopter.

“That’s all I can remember,” said Esther.

“Damnnn,” exclaimed Hakeem. Their tall friend was genuinely surprised while Jason kept his silence.

Whoever saved my sister’s life, I’m really grateful.

In his heart, he was eternally grateful but now he learned his lesson.

One thing for sure, there’s no more splitting up between us three. There’re too many variables in military intelligence and it might not be true. Shit, I should have never believed them fully.

For now, Jason learned to doubt even towards the nation’s military. Then he turned his head to Hakeem who was still amazed by Esther’s story.

“What about you? You look pretty fine, you probably had a good time carrying those bastards, didn’t you?” Jason said.

It took Hakeem a bit of time to realize it as he then responded.

“We’ve got our share of trouble but it’s not that bad when compared to Esther,” said Hakeem as he scratched his head.

While Hakeem and Esther had a friendly conversation, Jason was deep in his own thought.

He looked at himself and the two who were conversing. From his observation, he knew one thing for sure, they were severely lacking in terms of equipment.

I probably need to hit the furnace when we get back.