Chapter 70: Awake

Chapter 70: Awake "Ughhh!"

Ruby turned her head to the side instantly, hearing the groan Kieran had just let out.

Getting closer to his bloodied body, she saw his eyes still closed, showing that he was still unconscious.

"Why would you make him do that?"

Ruby questioned the beast with an angry expression on her face.

The beast on the other hand had just succeeded in the mission it had taken up recently – lighting a fire.

Ignoring her words, it moved forward to grab a huge chunk of flesh which had been pierced by an equally long stick, placing it over the fire as he stared with a patient expression on its face; waiting for it to roast.

"You heard me!"

Ruby said, taking her hands towards the kusarigama on her waist. It was curious how the monster never bothered to disarm her. A testament to its trust in its own strength, or rather in the belief that Ruby posed no threat to him.

"Sigh!"

"Must your kind always act always act with violence, even in the face of death?"

The creature deep voice flowed through the air, carrying a strange mix of pity and exasperation

Ruby exhaled shakily and slumped back down beside Kieran, her fingers scratching the rough surface of the branch. Her gaze flickered towards the beast and her eyes shot back to the floor, memories of the previous night resurfacing in her mind.

Her chest tightened at the memory its voice brought – that deep, resonant sound that coiled itself around her heart, wanting to squeeze the life out of her. Her body had betrayed her then. Every part of her had screamed to run away, yet her legs failed to comply. Now that she had seen it fight, she had come to the conclusion that trying to run away from it was pointless.

There was no way, she could beat that thing. Not even if she was resigned to die!

With one hit, the hulking beast that had nearly killed Kieran had been dealt with, swatted to the side like a little fly.

After that, it simply went forward, ripped the beast’s head apart and disappeared within the large beast’s body, only to come out with a shining multicolored stone the size of a huge fist.

That was the first time she had ever seen a fully developed beast core and she had to say, it wasn’t as extraordinary as she thought it would look.

Sure, it looked far flashier the half dead ones she always came across during her missions. Still, the looks didn’t make her underestimate the value of a fully developed beast core, especially one coming from a terrifying beast like that.

The amount of CP they got from bringing in the lesser beast cores was already good enough, she could only imagine how much she would have gotten if they were to bring that full beast core in. She didn’t even consider keeping it. That was useless unless she was an artisan who knew how to put that to use.

’What the hell am I even thinking?!’

Ruby clenched her fists until her nails bit down into her palms. The thought of CP – of profits – crept into her mind, but she shoved it down. Kieran was unconscious, bloodied, and broken, and here she was, sitting uselessly while the creature nonchalantly roasted a piece of meat. The weight of failure was heavy, pressing down on her chest like a huge rock, and before she knew it, she was clutching her head, desperately fighting the urge to scream.

"Ahhhh!!!!!!!"

She let out a loud scream, releasing all her pent up frustration.

"Another strange thing your kind does!"

The creature commented, seeing her scream.

"It didn’t help much, but at least I feel a little bit better!"

"Why don’t you try to help him?"

Ruby faced the creature again and asked in a more amiable tone, looking into the creature’s emerald green eyes which still unnerved her.

"Hmm, the lost one? Why do you care for him anyways? Your paths are different!" It asked, its voice calm but probing, like it had seen right through her.

’Lost one? What does that even mean?’

She wondered, pushing its words aside for a moment.

"I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’m the reason he came here in the first place and I promised to protect him of anything went wrong"

"I failed miserably at that, it’s stupid but I’m just trying to do anything I can, so I don’t break down!"

A long sigh escaped her mouth taking with it the number of unexpressed emotions she was struggling with as her shoulders slumped in defeat.

"Besides, our relationship had been strained lately, and this was supposed to be an opportunity to get back on good terms...."

"It’s not your fault you came across me, child. Despair not!"

The creature said, changing the way it addressed Ruby. It seemed like she had gained a little bit of its recognition.

"Stop talking like that and answer my question!!"

Ruby said noticing its elderly way of speaking.

"Hmm? By your standards, I’m considered to be quite old. I thought it would only be right to act the part." The beast clarified.

"That aside, answer my question!"

Ruby repeated again whilst thinking,

’By my standards? It must be quite old then’

Humans had advanced several light years ahead of where they were before and they had obviously searched for ways to extend the lifespan of a human by burning through the several resources galactic exploration had given them access to, and they succeeded.

The normal human could now live for around two hundred years, and awakened like her could live for longer and that time only extended the more powerful they became.

She couldn’t even fathom the age of the heads of the 9 pillar families, who were said to be the strongest people on the whole of humanity and were rumored to be alive and well.

"As for the lost creature, he doesn’t need my help in healing him. He’ll do just fine. In fact, it’s better if you don’t try to heal him and just leave him to wake naturally"

The creature mentioned. Turing it’s attention back to the piece of flesh which still hadn’t started cooking, but the creature didn’t seem to care as it looked on patiently.

"Sigh!"

"It won’t cook, the flesh of high leveled beasts like that are resistant to things like those ordinary flames. Even after their death."

Ruby mentioned, unable to watch it embark on a fruitless task.

"I see. Well, I’m not too familiar with the concept of cooking my meals before eating them"

"It’s basically killing off the flavor and any other good thing about It."

The creature commented making Ruby remember that despite its somewhat polite and peaceful nature, it was still a beast and hence she couldn’t expect it to behave otherwise.

"Why are you trying to cook it then?"

She asked with interest about the creature’s contradicting behavior.

"This? I’m doing it for the lost one. For when he wakes up!" The creature gestured towards the roasting meat, its tone as if stating something evident.

"Wait.... You’re doing this for Kieran?"

Ruby blinked, momentarily caught off guard, and the creature tilted its head, as if puzzled by her reaction.

"I am no savage!" it added.

"Let me take care of that"

She said taking the stick from the creature’s hand.

"First, do you have some water? I need to wash off the blood on it."

Hearing this, the creature looked to the side, and when Ruby followed his gaze, she was met with the thick corrosive, dark waters of the swamp which reeked of decay

"Not that, something cleaner. And don’t mention the pool in the middle of the land"

Ruby said, pointing to the pool where the headless body of the beast Kieran was fighting had landed next to after the creature killed it, its blood had washed into the pool, making it blood red.

"That was my favorite spot!"

The creature muttered in way that seemed to contain a hint of human emotion, the runes on its body suddenly lighting up, making Ruby look away in urgency.

Stretching out its hand, a portion of the murky water of the surrounding swap, flowed up and moved to his front.

Casually waving its hands over the water a few times, the dirt and toxins in the water was extracted leaving behind a pure sphere of water floating in the air.

When its runes stopped glowing, Ruby looked at the floating sphere of water, then towards the spot on the branch of the tree which had been damaged by the corrosiveness of the concentrated toxin extracted from the water, leaving a scar several inches deep.

’Even I couldn’t damage that thing!’

Ruby thought, turning her attention back to the creature who spoke next.

"What else?"

It asked.

With the creature’s help, she washed off the blood on the flesh and pulled out a small spherical ball from inside her pouch, sticking it to the flesh.

"What’s that?"

The beast asked, watching the small sphere slowly get filled up with some sort of energy and the flesh lose a luster only he could see.

"it extracts most of the energy stopping it from cooking"

Ruby explained.

"Remove it!"

"Why? We can’t coo—"

"Remove it!"

The creature interrupted Ruby’s words and repeated in a deeper tone, its voice reverberating through the air once more, making her shiver.

"Alright."

Ruby said, pulling the small sphere which hadn’t even been filled up quarter way.

"If you need a fire, hot enough to cook it, I’ll give you one. Serving that huge chunk of energy deprived flesh won’t do any good to the lost one."

The creature said, snapping its fingers and the color of the fire he had stared earlier took on an emerald shade, the crackling sounds capturing Ruby’s attention as he observed the flam which shone with the same color as the creature’s eyes.

"That should solve the problem!"

It said pointing at the flamed.

Silent, Ruby placed it above the emerald flame and she could hear the sizzle almost immediately.

’It doesn’t feel hot.’ Ruby noted in amazement.

"Hmm"

The creature hummed, making the awkward silence harder to bear.

The silence was broken with a ragged gasp, Ruby’s head snapped toward Kieran just as his fingers twitched, curling weakly. His breathing was hard and labored, each one sounding like he was going through extreme pain. Then came the groan – hoarse, but unmistakably alive.

"Ahhh! My head!" he muttered, his voice barely audible over the crackling fire. Ruby surged forward, relief washing over her like a flood.

He was awake again!