Chapter 111: Final Breath
The moment Layla’s arrow left her fingers, and shot through the air, Erin’s sword was flying towards her direction. The force of the throw had flung Layla back, and pinned her into the ground.
Meanwhile, the firebomb arrow had whizzed past the dalki, and for a moment it really did seem like it missed, until it whirled around and corrected itself to land into the dalki’s back.
Instantaneously, the arrow exploded, a plume of fire enveloping the entirety of the dalki’s upper waist. Erin felt the roaring heat on her face, only mere feet away from the explosion.
The sheer power of an intermediate tier arrow had been used all at once, not split into three separate shots, and once the smoke cleared away, the full extent of the damage was visible for all to see.
The dalki, initially standing tall and proud, now staggered, and fell to his knees.
Despite the dalki being severely wounded, there was something far more pressing in Erin’s mind. The dalki had used her sword to hit Layla, and although she didn’t know where, she knew that Layla was most likely going to die if she didn’t receive medical attention. None of them had any way to heal her.
Unless a miracle happened, Layla was going to die.
Swinging her head back towards the dalki, tears burning in her eyes, as yet again, she was helpless to stop the dalki from taking more from her.
"YOU’LL DIE TODAY," Erin screamed, tearing apart her throat, "I DON’T CARE HOW IT HAPPENS, YOU’LL NEVER TAKE ANYTHING FROM ME AGAIN!"
—
Peter froze in shock, watching Layla pinned to the ground, and blood pooling around her body.
"I— What do I do?!" Peter blurted out, frantically looking around, not sure what to do.
Layla coughed up blood, grabbing at where she was cut. She was trying to use her ability to hold in the blood, but she didn’t have a lot of MC left.
Looking at the sword, Peter recognized it as the one Erin was using recently. When he recalled that when she used the sword, it would heal some of her cuts, he realized what he needed to do.
"Grab here," Peter muttered, making Layla’s hand grab the handle of the blade.
He lifted Layla upwards, removing the blade from the wooden floor, but not from her body, and shifting her to lean against the wall. Then, Peter jammed his cut hand into the pointy part of the blade.
The effects were near instantaneous, the bleeding on Layla was slowing down, and some of the smaller cuts on her had closed, but she was still severely wounded, and her eyes were losing the life in them rapidly.
He sliced his hand again onto the rapier, and waited for something to happen, to no avail.
"Come on, why aren’t you healing more!" Peter cried, unaware there was a 10 second cool down.
—
With no sword, Layla mortally wounded, and her emotions running on high, Erin had almost nothing left. At this moment, she was pushed to her limits, the fear of the dalki bringing her to a state of dissociating. She was clearly no longer present mentally, nor emotionally. She was beside herself.
Erin jumped off of the ground, sand blowing everywhere, and her eyes glowed red.
[Daze activated]
[Daze successful]
The dalki froze as Erin’s body plummeted into his body. Then, with both hands, Erin used blood spray twice.
[- 10 HP]
[HP 9/70]
[Blood spray has leveled up]
Jumping off of his body, Erin activated the blood bank, bringing her HP back up to 59.
[Blood Bank: 0/100 ML]
Then her hands glowed red, and she spammed more blood sprays against the dalki. Her arms visibly recoiled from its improved power, and the dalki’s wounds opened up more and more. The blood spray had improved by not having its power diminished when used further away, not that it mattered now as Erin was spamming it point blank range.
The dalki had been injured enough times by now, and even though he got stronger as he was more injured, it didn’t mean his defense improved. He struggled to get up, but Erin would just shoot him again with another blood spray, not giving him enough time to breathe.
However, this came at the cost of her own life, and her body grew more and more pale, colder as she was losing her own blood. Despite pushing herself to the point of near-death, Erin didn’t care, she didn’t feel it anymore.
Soon, Erin’s health had run low, and her body cramped from pushing herself too far. She collapsed to her knees, sweat dripping off of her face.
[HP 4/70]
Similarly, the dalki’s body was littered in large holes, and he too had fallen to his knees, blood loss affecting his health.
Unfortunately, the dalki’s body was empowered by the blood loss, and he pushed through, standing up on two legs. Erin tried to get onto her feet, but she had next to no energy left, and fell to the ground.
’Please, I just need this,’ Erin thought, tears forming in her eyes again, ’I’m— How is it still moving? I’ve grown so much since then, why can’t I just beat a single dalki?!’
The dalki’s shadow slowly casted over Erin, his breathing was ragged, and his steps were shaky, almost limping towards her.
’Is this it? I die before I can even avenge them?’ Erin closed her eyes, ’I can’t... even... avenge...’
Suddenly, a large figure landed in between her and the dalki. When Erin glanced up, she saw a mech the size of the dalki, with a window revealing its pilot.
"You kid! Get back! Get out of here now! That’s an order!" The man within the mech yelled out to Erin.
Erin was startled by the person’s sudden appearance, but she scrambled up, just barely standing.
"Wait, I can still fight!" Erin yelled back, but as the mech and the dalki were in a tight battle, the man in the mech yelled out to her again.
"Get back! You’re only going to get hurt!"
Erin was astonished, and as much as she wanted to prove him wrong, the dalki was now greatly struggling in the fight against the mech user thanks to her efforts. That was when she suddenly recalled someone important.
’Layla!’
Immediately, Erin stumbled inside the old building, and Peter’s head turned to look towards the source of the sound.
"I’m sorry Erin, I tried, I really tried," Peter looked up to Erin, his throat clenching, "This was the last thing I wanted."
Erin saw that Peter’s hands were bloody, and that the tip of her rapier was bloody as well. This entire time, Peter was sacrificing his own blood to try to give his own health to Layla. A desperate attempt at using the paleneedle rapier to heal her.
Fex and Quinn soon entered the ruined building, and they both instantly knew what was going to happen. Layla’s labored breathing told them everything.
’Peter was trying to heal her using Erin’s sword, and it’s bought her some time, but...’ Quinn’s head fully turned away, and Erin could hear him sniffle.
’It’s not enough.’
Wordlessly, Erin dropped to her knees where Layla was at. After everything she had gone through, it was almost unreal, having Layla walk and talk around her just fine that morning, only to see her struggling to even breathe, her body slowly getting colder and colder.
Nothing felt real now.
Placing a hand behind the back of Layla’s neck, Erin lifted her slightly, as to not disturb her wounds.
"E—Erin... I... I’m... I’m... S...Sorry... I... Part of P—" Layla began, but Erin quickly shushed her.
"I’m sorry," Erin whispered back, "I should’ve been able to save you, but I haven’t changed a bit."
"I’m still... weak."
Layla paused for a second, then her mouth weakly curled into a smile. She slowly raised her hand up to Erin’s cheek, a tender moment Erin wanted to last forever.
Of course, it couldn’t and her hand fell.
That was when a voice spoke in both Erin’s and Quinn’s heads, a glint of hope.
"In case you’ve forgotten, there’s something you can do to save her, but you must act quickly."
Erin’s eyes widened, and she saw a system window opened up. As she read it, she immediately mentally said yes.
[Would you like to activate the blood ritual?]
