Chapter 1409: A Way to Be Whole Again
Despair flooded Ethan’s chest too.
He wasn’t the kind of person who gave up easily. He’d fought through too many impossible situations, and somehow—every time—he’d found a way to crack them open.
But this time...
There was no crack.
No angle.
No path.
He couldn’t see any escape at all.
Sure, he might be able to get away with Absolute Stasis and Teleportation.
But that would mean leaving the rest of Fallen Star Squad to die here.
And that wasn’t a result Ethan could accept.
Back when he’d led them out of that university campus, he’d never once planned on abandoning anyone.
The Glacial Bear drew closer, and its crushing pressure smothered any thought of resistance. Even the surrounding Outland Beasts lowered their heads, bodies trembling, instinctively submitting.
"Boss! Go!" the squad shouted at him, voices hoarse with panic.
Ethan didn’t answer.
His eyes kept moving, scanning, calculating—his mind running simulations at a frantic pace. Even at the edge of doom, he still wouldn’t stop looking for a solution.
Then his gaze snagged on something.
On the Glacial Bear’s shoulder.
Ethan blinked hard, shock flashing across his face.
"...That roc?"
"It’s here too?"
His eyes narrowed, thoughts spinning.
They’re together?
If the roc’s with it... then maybe...
No matter what, Ethan and the roc had history. Not just history—Ethan had saved its life.
Maybe that meant something.
Maybe it meant the roc could get the bear to let them go.
Ethan’s pulse kicked up.
For the first time in minutes, a thin thread of hope tightened in his grip.
The Glacial Bear’s massive body reached the edge of the battlefield. The pressure rolling off it forced every Outland Beast nearby to bow their heads even lower, like they were being crushed into the ground.
"Skree—!"
The roc suddenly cried out, the sound bright with excitement.
Then it launched from the Glacial Bear’s shoulder, beating its wings hard as it flew straight toward Ethan—
—and dropped down in front of him.
Ethan’s breath caught.
It really came for me?
Up close, he finally saw the roc clearly.
It was in awful shape.
Scars and torn flesh covered its body. Several wounds were deep enough to make Ethan’s stomach tighten—fatal injuries, the kind that should’ve spilled everything inside it onto the ground. Even its breathing looked strained, like each breath dragged against damaged organs.
Judging by the pattern of the injuries...
It had probably gotten jumped by the Winged Clan again.
The roc was almost tragic at this point. Both times Ethan had seen it, it had been half-dead.
But the moment Ethan registered those wounds, he understood why it was here.
And that realization made him exhale hard, relief almost knocking his knees loose.
Good. If it’s here to get healed, it’s not here to kill us.
"Skree..."
The roc lowered its head, glanced at its own injuries, then looked back at Ethan—eyes full of pleading.
"You want us to heal you?" Ethan asked, keeping his voice steady.
The roc nodded rapidly.
"Okay," Ethan said immediately. "No problem."
He didn’t hesitate for even a second.
Because behind the roc, the Glacial Bear was staring him down with massive, unblinking eyes.
Ethan was absolutely certain that if he dared to refuse, he’d be slapped into the earth like a nail.
"Skree!" the roc cried, thrilled.
Ethan’s eyes flickered with thoughts.
He knew this roc’s temperament. It kept grudges, but it also repaid favors. It was the kind of creature that remembered who helped it—and who hurt it.
Last time, Ethan had only mentioned Aeralon, and the roc had actually gone and beaten it half-dead, then delivered it right to him.
That alone proved the roc wasn’t the worst kind of beast.
The bigger question was the bear.
What kind of relationship did the roc have with the Glacial Bear?
If they were close...
Then maybe Ethan could leverage this.
Maybe this wasn’t just "don’t die."
Maybe this could become... a way out.
He lifted his voice, calling across the battlefield.
"Everyone—come over here!"
"Uh... what?" The squad stared, stunned.
With Outland Beasts packed all around them, how were they supposed to "come over"?
Chris was the first to get it. His eyes sharpened, and he made the call immediately, gathering everyone up.
"Move. Stay tight."
Then he led the others straight toward Ethan.
The Outland Beasts around them didn’t move aside.
If anything, their expressions turned uglier—eyes locked on Ethan’s group like they were waiting for an excuse.
"Skree—!" The roc shrieked, furious. (The hell are you doing? I’m waiting to get treated and you’re blocking them? You trying to get me killed?)
The roar made the surrounding beasts flinch, bodies trembling... but they still didn’t open a path.
Instead, they looked toward the Lionfang King, waiting for its order.
But before the Lionfang King could respond, the Glacial Bear had already run out of patience.
It didn’t argue.
It didn’t negotiate.
It chose violence.
With a casual sweep of its paw, a massive iceberg condensed out of thin air and slammed down like a falling mountain.
BOOM—!
The impact pulverized a huge patch of Outland Beasts into bloody paste.
Then the Glacial Bear turned its head and rumbled a single warning growl.
Every Outland Beast in the area scattered in terror—sprinting like they’d been born with extra legs and still needed more.
At that point, the Lionfang King’s "orders" didn’t matter anymore.
Not that it would’ve helped.
Because the Lionfang Beasts and the sabertooths were running too.
"Guh..."
Ethan and the others swallowed hard, staring at the Glacial Bear with stunned, pale faces.
So this was what Stage SS looked like.
A few breaths later, the swarm that had been choking them in from every direction was just... gone.
The ground was littered with corpses and chunks of frozen meat where that iceberg had hit.
Ethan felt a sharp pang of regret.
Damn... the Lionfang King got away.
But he forced it down.
He wasn’t close with the Glacial Bear. He couldn’t exactly ask it to help him finish farming bosses. The bear not turning on them was already something to thank the universe for.
You had to know your place.
If you wanted anything more, you started by building the relationship first.
Chris and the others hurried over. Up close, it was obvious how wrecked they were—faces gray, breathing ragged, bodies trembling from exhaustion.
Ethan didn’t waste time. "Henry. Heal the roc first."
"Got it." Henry nodded immediately.
He barely had any mental energy left, but he still lifted his hands without hesitation. White light poured down in steady pulses, wrapping the roc’s torn body and seeping into the wounds.
Henry understood perfectly.
Right now, their lives were hanging on the mood of that terrifying Glacial Bear. The only way to improve their odds was to prove they were valuable—valuable enough that the bear would see them as something other than convenient snacks.
Without a word, Emily stepped in behind Henry and put Energy Link on him, quietly feeding him mental energy as he worked.
The roc’s injuries were brutal. And the roc itself was far stronger than Henry.
Healing it wasn’t going to be quick or easy.
But as the white light sank in, the changes became visible.
Flesh knit together. Deep gashes slowly crawled shut. Even the damage that had reached into its insides began to mend, painfully gradual but unmistakably real.
Henry’s healing wasn’t a light-type, nature-type, or water-type ability.
It was something rarer—a true healing-type ability, built for one purpose only.
And because it wasn’t tied to an element, its effectiveness went far beyond what most elemental "healers" could do.
The Glacial Bear watched the process with shifting expressions.
At first, it looked doubtful.
Then curious.
Then surprised.
Then—when it became undeniable—the bear’s eyes widened with something dangerously close to excitement.
It knew exactly how bad the roc’s condition was. Back when it found the bird, it had already decided the roc was going to die and had basically started thinking about what bird meat tasted like.
If the roc hadn’t sworn up and down that there was someone who could heal it—and even promised the bear that its broken paw could be fixed too—the Glacial Bear wouldn’t have bothered traveling this far.
It hadn’t expected much.
Now it was watching impossible wounds slowly close under human hands.
And inside that huge beast’s head, something clicked into place.
The Glacial Bear’s paw—its missing foot—had been torn off back when it was still weaker, bitten clean by an old enemy. The injury had crippled its speed ever since.
That was why it never chased.
Not Ethan’s group.
Not the Winged Clan.
It didn’t want to admit it, but it couldn’t catch them once they committed to running.
That had been its permanent humiliation.
With Stage SS power, nobody should be able to escape it.
And yet they did—because it was limping.
It had accepted that reality.
But now, watching the roc’s wounds close...
It was seeing something it hadn’t let itself hope for in a long time.
A way to be whole again.
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