Chapter 176: WILLIAM: You’ve Lost
"Nghhh..." Waking up, a groan left William’s lips. Sand had crawled down his tunic and the palms of his hands were searing hot. He lifted a hand to his face, squinting through the sunlight, and went wide eyed. The Arcane Enforcer Handguards were scorched, his flesh nearly black. His chest rose and fell in fast panic.
’How long have I been out?’ His head throbbed. ’Ngh...it feels like hours...my body is aching all over.’
William tilted his head to the side and saw Max. Unconscious? Dead? His heart raced and he picked himself up despite the sounds of war in the backdrop.
"H-hey, Max. Come on. Wake up." The Templar’s helmet was half torn, his remaining face having lost a layer of skin. William shook him, desperately trying to wake him up. He didn’t have healing spells and since he wasn’t awake, the System regeneration wasn’t kicking in either.
"What am I supposed to do?" William asked himself in a fast hush. Swallowing, he vaguely remembered that doing chest compressions helped. William would have tried to do CPR, if not for the fact that Max’s lips were razed off and smoking black.
Compression, compression, compression. "Dude, you said you were going to win for your daughter. Come on, wake up!" His breathing was becoming heavy and his head started to hurt. He swore in his head several times. Nothing worked. Max didn’t so much as twitch.
"Hard and fast, hard and fast," William muttered. "Doesn’t matter if his ribs break. Come on, William, don’t be scared."
Compression, compression, compression.
And then Max let out a gasp. William had never felt so relieved. He promptly stopped the compressions and watched as Max slowly got up. Still sitting and struggling to breath but very much alive.
"W-William?"
"Hey man, how’s it going?" A shaky breath left the teen. "You put me through a scare there."