Loopshard

Adam hadn’t realised how much it could hurt to be paralysed. All over his body, his skin felt like it was pumped full of needles, and the gentle breeze filled his body with pain every time it passed over him. His eyes had been open at the time the affliction hit and they were now so dry that his vision was blurry and itchy, making him wish he could scratch his eyeballs. He had assumed that being paralysed meant also being numbed to pain, but clearly the System was not that merciful. When their death came, it would be truly cruel.

The light waned with the setting sun, turning the clouds amber and pink in the bit of sky he saw as a blurry smear. Every second that passed felt long and excruciating, and the wind kept his mind from drifting off, as its every graze lit up the needles in his skin.

Beck had described some of the tainted animals that would appear at night, and while Adam recalled his words, he thought about how they hadn’t spotted a single animal while travelling halfway across the stage. There were some simple melodies in the far distance that Adam thought might belong to the wolves and dogs that Beck had been particularly insistent on watching out for.

The shadow bird still seems the scariest of the bunch.

It likely wouldn’t mind snacking on us given our predicament.

Since he could do nothing else, Adam focused on the melodies, finally feeling like he was making headway with his blood sense mastery. Where once those several kilometres away had been a blur, he was now able to sift through them and pick out individual ones. He could even pinpoint the priest in Old Town, who carried a mix of worry about the encroaching shadow and excitement about the rekindled fire.

His team nearby were filled with feelings of terror, despair, resignation, hope, and frustration. He knew their melodies well enough to tell which feelings belonged to whom, and it was surprising that the pessimistic and negative Natalia was the one whose melody seemed the most upbeat, since she had a hope burning within her, though it was surrounded by a lot of annoyance. Diwa had completely given in to her fear of dying, and her mind was consumed by the terror about how her death would manifest; Chien had resigned himself to his coming death with a sense of finality in his melody; and Seo-Yoon was frustrated and angry with the turn of events, blaming herself for not realising what Heiner had been up to.

A grunt broke Adam’s concentration and he focused on the melody that had suddenly changed. Strained sounds and muffled dragging came from close by, but Adam had no way to show he was still alive.

Natalia pulled herself into Adam’s view. She was dragging her body forward using her right arm and leg. Her hand pulled on the grass for support, while the entire left side of her body was still mostly paralysed.