Stray

Countering magic took much longer than they thought.

Nemo only felt that he was performing an unusually detailed surgery, and it didn’t take too much power to wither the nodes. The magic passed through the bones in the hand, condensed into a very fine bundle, and swam with the slightly trembling roots. In his eyes, the ugly root system had gotten closer and became clearer.

The squirming roots almost covered Nadine’s thin body. Nemo didn’t dare to move a step, patiently withering them one by one. He could feel sweat oozing out of his forehead and sliding down with his eyebrows. This seemed to be an endless job, and just looking at it made people discouraged. Fortunately, Oliver couldn’t see the roots.

Nadine was still bleeding slowly. She was barely hanging on to what little life she had with the residual magic she had left. Oliver was holding her hands and gently transferring his magic as he carefully adjusted it as the roots were absorbed. It wasn’t an easy job. The amount of the root system extraction would only get bigger, and fatigue would become more imminent. The two of them tightened their nerves, making sure nothing could go wrong for even a slight second. This was a struggle with no end in sight. After all, no one knew what kind of reaction would happen once the root system left.

They could only continue to concentrate, and seven hours had passed.

There was a loud noise of spells colliding on the other side of the house signifying the only possibility; Godwin was approaching and Adrian and Jesse were delaying him.

“Lopez is here!” Ann, who was in charge of keeping watch on the roof, confirmed their guess. “He’s not alone…” She hesitated for a while before changing the subject. “Cross can delay him for the time being. Come on you two. Hold on. If Cross can’t hold him off, I’ll go support him.”

Most of the hanging roots had shriveled and withered, leaving only the thickest roots left that continuously drew strength. Nadine had lost too much blood. She was on the verge of death and no more life could be drawn from her. The root system seemed to be keenly aware of this and it instead tried to drain all the remaining energy that was still supporting her body.

Ten, five, three, and finally the last one. The root system’s extraction speed became more frenzied.