Lydia’s sword passed right through Xaviin’s body, disintegrating his bones into white ash that burned in a golden flame. The moment he perished, the other undead started burning, the holy fire of god burning them.

Nina calmed down. The veins on her body shrank as she took a deep breath.

She turned around and rushed toward Arad, “Are you still alive?” She asked, not mentioning his name as she knew that would be bad.

Arad wasn’t moving. The wound on his lower jaw looked deep. Nina slowly opened it to look inside, and she could see a hole in Arad’s upper jaw. “This is bad. It might have damaged his brain.” Nina looked around, “Lydia, can you heal him?”

Lydia supported her body on her sword, “I’m coming, but don’t expect much.”

BAM! Nina jumped, covering the 100m plus distance in a single leap. “I will carry you,” She grabbed Lydia and lunged back to Arad.

Lydia put her hand on Arad’s head and closed her eyes. “I can’t heal him. He’s filled with vampiric magic.” she looked inside his mouth. She could see some gray mush. “But it’s bad. They got his brain.”

Lydia and Nina looked at each other, “You should carry him to his house.”

Nina nodded, “I will do that. You speak to the guard and have them deal with the cleaning.”

Nina grabbed Arad by the neck, lifting him above her shoulder. Lydia gasped, ^I told her to carry him, but I didn’t think she would do that literally.^

Nina walked toward the forest, marching into the trees. After a few steps, she stopped, veins bulging on her head.

“Monsters?” She glared forward. The forest oozed with giant ants, dark dire wolves, goblins, apes, and owlapes.

CRACK! A titanic ant queen approached Nina, glaring at her and Arad.

Nina clenched her fist, ready to blast the bug to oblivion.

“Ara! Lord Arad!” The ant gasped, glaring at Arad and running around Nina in circles. “I smell blood. This isn’t good. The undead held us for too long,” Thud! Stopped and glared at Nina. “Who did this?”

“Who are you?” Nina growled.

The ant queen went silent for a second. Thwack! She smacked Nina in the face with one of her legs, sending her flying into the forest, crushing several trees.

“I’m the one asking the question, human. Are you the one who hurt him?” Ants can carry several times their weight. Their strength is unmatched, and that trait is carried by the ant queen.

CRACK! Nina stood, glaring at the ant queen, “You bug,” She growled, and the queen could feel a throbbing main in her front leg. She looked at it. ^Did she cracks my exoskeleton?^

The ant queen looked at Arad, “Take him away,”

Several ants crawled beneath Arad, carrying him away rapidly, “GAROSHA! GARISHA! (Excuse us, excuse us.)” They rushed.

“Arad!” Before the two could start fighting, Aella rushed in, “Wait, where is he?” She looked around. .𝘤𝑜𝑚

“Lady Aella, please leave.” The ant queen growled, “A monster is lurking around,”

Aella looked around, seeing Nina there, about to rage. She panicked, “Stop! Stop!” she rushed at them, “Don’t fight!”

The two looked at her, “She’s the ant queen and works for Arad. And this is Nina, our friend.” Aella cried.

Aella looked between the confused two. ^Muscle brains facing each other. I hope they don’t start fighting.^

Nina relaxed, “In that case, Arad is heavily injured, and we need to treat him.”

Aella blinked, “Arad would be fine. Jack on the other hand,” she glared at Nina, “He’s dying.”

BAM! Nina grabbed Aella and jumped toward Arad’s house, landing at the door. She could see Mira and Tina tieing Jack’s wounds. Abel was trying to heal him, but he failed over and over. While Merida rushed around the house, cutting clothes off for Tina to use.

“He’s barely breathing,” Mira growled.

“It’s useless. We can’t stop the bleeding,” Tina cried.

BAM! Nina rushed forward, grabbing Jack, and her body turned red. BAM! She jumped into the sky at full force.

BAM! Nina landed at the city gate and jumped forward, headed toward the person who healed Alcott. BAM! She kicked Cain’s door open, “Old man, are you here?”

Cain was sitting on his desk, drinking, “Can you heal him.”

“It’s no use,” Cain stared at her, “It isn’t just his wounds. Necrosis is eating him from the inside. He won’t live long.”

“But you can heal him,” Nina growled.

Cain smiled, “I can buy him time.” He stood and approached her. He then pulled a potion from his pocket and handed it to her, “Go give this to Arad. I will take care of Jack.”

Nina put Jack on the ground, grabbed the potion, and rushed away.

Cain sighed, “What poor child.”

Jemima walked out of the back room, looking at Jack, “She finished him off with that irresponsible jump.”

Cain looked at Jack, “But I can still do a thing or two.” He smiled, “Take him to the maze. It’s been a while since I moved my fingers.”

***

Jack opened his eyes, staring at a wooden ceiling. He could feel a throbbing pain coming from his left arm, right leg, and stomach.

Jack tried to stand. But felt a burning sensation rushing up from his stomach, and a yellow stream flew out of his mouth as he gasped at the bedside.

“Easy, easy, boy. Don’t move,” Cain said, standing beside the window.

Jack glared at him, his vision blurry. “Who…”

“I said to take it easy. Jemima, give him some water.” Cain looked back with a smile as Jemima helped Jack wash his face.

After several minutes, Jack finally calmed down. And he looked at his body. His left arm looked strange from the forearm down. As if it was made of steel and wood, crackling with each finger move.

He could feel a hard lump in his stomach, and even his right foot crackled like his arm.

“Your left arm got crushed on above the elbow. You lost parts of your stomach, liver, and left kidney. On top of all of that, a blood clot caused your right leg to die, so I had to sever it off.” Cain approached Jack.

Jack looked at his left arm, “And what is this?”

Cain smiled, “You pull it like this,” He twisted the arm.

CRACKLE! His wrist twisted down, revealing four cylindrical barrels.

“You either need to find the elixir of life, get a chosen paladin to heal you, or gain vampirism or lycanthropy within a year if you want to remain alive. Those new toys will make the task a bit easier.” Cain smiled.