Chapter 80: Cht 80: Unspoken Questions
The corrupted beast’s body lay still, a steaming mass of twisted muscle and shattered bone. Its blood a sickly, iridescent black which slowly pooled beneath it while burning small holes into the forest floor. A corrupted corpse that still twitched, like it hadn’t yet realized it was dead.
Gin stayed where he had collapsed. Exhausted, battered.
His body, this beastly wolf body that had long since passed the threshold of endurance, refused to move. His breathing came slow, dragging, edged with the rasp of pain. Every heartbeat throbbed through his limbs like a drumbeat calling out his limits.
But even now... he couldn’t rest.
The silence after the storm always brought questions louder than any roar.
Across the battlefield, Saira stood at the edge of the clearing, shoulders rising and falling in deep breaths. The gentle churn of water coiled around her wrists and slowly receded, dispersing into the air as mist. Her brows were furrowed not from deed now but focus. Caution. Her blue eyes didn’t roam the trees or the corpses. They fixed on her companions.
Xingning sat on a nearby rock, hunched forward with her hands dangling between her knees, shoulders tense. Her blade rested at her side, the edge chipped from the final fight. Her ponytail was loosened, a few strands sticking to her damp forehead. She said nothing.
Jean’s towering wooden form stood over the battlefield like a guardian statue, though parts of her arms had been reduced to splinters. She looked like she hadn’t even noticed. Roots extended from her feet into the soil, anchoring her while vines slowly weaved to repair her arms painfully slow but functional. Her glowing green eyes remained ever watchful.
Behind them all, on the raised slope, Lucy still hadn’t moved. Not even after the battle had ended. She had folded her hands on her bosom again in composed posture. She scanned the area like she had when the first wave began—looking for something. Measuring things invisible to the others.
And Alice...
She knelt just a few meters away from Gin.