Crackle!
The soft crackling of a fire stirred John from his deep slumber. His eyes opened, revealing the low ceiling of a cave just overhead, a sight that had become all too familiar to him the last few months.
"Again?" John grumbled, his mind foggy from just waking up. His body ached with incredibly pain, and the thoughts of the battle against the Demon flooded back into his mind.
John's hand quickly moved to his right chest, feeling where the Demon's massive finger had pierced through. The wound had been six inches wide, and had shattered many internal organs of his. Thankfully it had just missed his heart though, or John was sure he would not have woken from such an injury.
The spot where he had been gravely wounded was still fresh and tender, like it had just healed and was still firming up. His entire body ached with pain as well, as his bones felt like they had been fractured, and his muscles torn. The attacks he had withstood from the Demon had been overwhelming, and even he had been on the verge of bodily collapse.
Not only that, but he had used his Asura Transformation for the entire fight as well, putting even more burden on his body. Were it not for Laia's healing powers, John was sure he would have died from that wound, and even if he hadn't his other wounds would have taken much much longer to heal from.
"I guess I should thank you-" John turned towards Laia, but his voice cut off as he noticed her sound asleep on the floor next to him. Her face was pale as if she had expended all her energy, and her breathing soft, as if just breathing was taxing on her current state. Her sweat slicked lavender hair was disheveled and stuck to her face, revealing the extent she had pushed herself.
"She healed you for five days straight," Kirii's voice sounded in John's mind. John gazed at Kirii, who was lying on the floor next to Laia, acting like a guard dog. "She collapsed a bit ago after ensuring that you would survive."
"Five days? It took that long to heal me?" John asked, surprised he had been out that long.
"Yep…she grumbled in protest several times. Something about the Demons lingering energy that was hard to remove, and also your body requiring a stupid amount of energy to heal as well. You really pushed her hard this time."
Kirii's voice was stern, like he was scolding John for pushing Laia so hard.
"It seems like you've taken quite a liking to her," John replied back, surprised to see Kirii so defensive of her.
"She gives me the best head pats, so of course I like her," Kirii replied back without hesitation.
"Fine, the next time we fight a Dao Transformation Demon, I'll let you fight it while I guard Laia. Then I won't get injured again," John replied, his voice containing a light tone of jesting.
"Uhhh….no, that's okay, Big Brother is the strongest, so I'll let you handle the battles," Kirii replied back instantly, his tone changed quickly.
"That's what I thought," John scoffed as his gaze shifted down to Laia again. He could tell that she had pushed herself greatly this time to heal him, most likely due to his body being an incredibly high level one, and requiring an equally incredible amount of energy to heal. She had most likely just been able to keep him alive this time, revealing even someone as powerful as her had her limits, and those limits were being pushed time and time again by John.
Laia's soft breathing continued to drift out within the cave, and John couldn't help but stare at her for a long time, his mind and thoughts ensnared by her incredible beauty.
…
The war between the Honorable Alliance and enemy powers had continued to rage on and grow in intensity, their battles fracturing the land and dying it red with blood. While the Honorable Alliance was able to kill some of the geniuses from the enemy powers, they were dying at a frightening speed.
For every enemy genius that was killed, one hundred Honorable Alliance youths would perish. There were roughly thirty thousand Honorable Alliance youths in the final area of the Jade Dragon Empire trial lands, and over five thousand had already perished in brutal and miserable ways, while less than fifty had died on the enemy side. It was truly as if hundreds of tigers had been released into a hen house.
Those that had died on the enemy side were also the weakest of the bunch, and so their deaths did not impact the overall combat prowess of the enemy significantly.
The only ones capable of killing the enemy geniuses were the few that stood at the very top of the Honorable Alliance, but even they had to be careful of the truly strong enemy geniuses, who had strength equal to or greater than their own.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
A massive fist collided against a formation barrier; the power of the fist strong enough to shatter a mountain. The fist was very large, much larger than a human's fist, and contained unstoppable power. It slammed over and over against a formation barrier, which had started to fracture from the powerful assault.
"What should we do?" a panicked voice sounded out from within the barrier.
The barrier was separating two groups, one from the Honorable Alliance, and the other from the Barbarian Race. The Honorable Alliance was a group of ten youths from the same sect, the Whitepeak Formations Temple, named after the snow-capped mountain their temple was built on.
The Whitepeak Formations Temple was a formation focused power, and this particular group was led by a Late Heaven Tribulation youth. The youth was ranked on the Jade Dragon List despite being a formations expert, but his ranking had been in the three hundreds, a far cry from what was needed to fight against the three Barbarian Race geniuses before them, who all had Peak Heaven Tribulation cultivations.
He had hastily enacted a formations barrier using his full power when the Barbarian youths had spotted them, but that barrier was quickly crumbling under their powerful assault. This group of youths would no doubt join the ever-increasing list of Honorable Alliance youths that were cut down without mercy.
