25 Recapturing Fairdrift - Part 9 [Regroup!]

Ichijou's POV

Somehow, my group still managed to survive the attack from those frog-like creatures. But, it comes with a hefty price. There are about ten soldiers left in this group, including Nyoko, Darren and me. We had drained our whole stamina too. We need to find a way out of this sewer as soon as possible,

"Ouch!-" squealed Nyoko,

"Are you okay, Nyoko?" asked Darren,

She looked pale and weak at the moment. Did she got injured in that fight just now?-

"What's wrong, Nyoko?-" I asked her too,

Her hand was covering something on the left side of her waist. When she revealed what was underneath her hand, we both saw a massive open wound that was spewing blood all over her clothing. She started swaying her movements before falling down on the ground.

"Nyoko!- Why didn't you say anything about this?!-" asked Darren as he ran towards Nyoko,

"I- don't want to be a burden to all of you... and if I told you about this, we all will be slowed down to find the exit from this place," She replied weakly,

"Idiot!- We have Darren to heal you up, damn it! We could patch you up in a matter of minutes if you told us sooner!-" I yelled at her,

She looked rather upset after I said that. Right now, her breathing was getting heavier, and she was sweating bullets all over her body.

She then replied to me, "I was thinking of that too... But then I realized that the attack coming from those monsters were poisonous. Darren is not specialized in curing poison, Ichijou... I'm sorry,"

She showed us the area around her wound. The veins were turning black, and the openings had gradually swollen.

"She's right, Ichijou. I may be able to heal wounds and cuts or any broken bones, but I have no knowledge to disperse any poisons from someone's body. However, that doesn't mean you, Nyoko should stay quiet about this! We could at least prevent any infections from that area if you had told us about it!-" said Darren while examining Nyoko's wound,

I shook my head and rubbed my eyebrow, and said, "Sigh, Nyoko. We're in this together. We won't leave you even if you slow us down. Besides, you're these soldier's Commanders. These people need to know if you're in danger."

"I'm sorry- I should've let you know from the-" Suddenly Nyoko puked out blood from her mouth,

"Ny- Nyoko! Stay down for now!-" Darren shouted,

She can't go on with her condition deteriorated quickly like this. Whether we like it or not, we need to stop our trip for now and let Nyoko rest for a bit.

"Soldiers, Stay on guard and check our perimeters. We have to stop. Commander require some rest, and I need to plan out a different option for our escape," I said,

The soldiers saluted me and said, "Yes! Ichijou!" They began walking around the sewer line to verify if there were any monsters following us,

The rest of the troops were preparing a place for Nyoko to rest while Darren was nursing her. Darren was able to patch up Nyoko's open wound to stop her from losing more blood. I guess that's all he can do for now. Nyoko didn't seem to feel much better either as the time passed. If we didn't find a way out of this place, Nyoko would eventually die from that poison!-

A minute later, Darren walked towards me while Nyoko was sleeping. He then said to me,

"It's not good, Ichijou. I've never seen anything like this before,"

I was confused with what he says, and I asked, "What do you mean, Darren?-"

The expression he made on his face at the moment, screaming that it was terrible news. He then said to me, "I've never seen this kind of poison before. The poison inside Nyoko right now is slowly rotting her flesh from within. I'm afraid even if we did find a way out of this place soon, she wouldn't be able to survive just in time for an antidote. Besides, we didn't know what's the antidote are,"

"I see. Don't give up hope yet, Darren. Nyoko is a strong girl. I'm sure she could bear that torture for a little longer," I responded,

Darren didn't seem to agree with me. Of course, I don't agree with what I just said either. Nyoko's has been holding the pain for quite some time now, and by the looks of it, she's getting weaker far quicker than before.

"We can't stay here much longer, Ichijou. We need to send some troops to go separate ways and find the exit. This place is like a maze. Every fifteen feet, there will always be a new sewer line that leads to a different way. If we kept wasting our time here together, imagine how long we will need to walk around to find the exit," Darren explained,

I slowly rubbed my chin and replied to him, "If that's the case, I'll be the one scouting the area for an exit. You and the rest of the group stay here and protect Nyoko at all cost."

"Are you sure you want to go all by yourself? We didn't even know this area. You might get lost along your way. What's worst is this place is filled with those slimy monsters. Even if you're a Sinner, you still need someone to watch your back," Darren responded to me,

"We don't have a choice, do we, Darren. Nyoko is struggling for her life right now. We need to take that risk!" I said to him in seriousness,

He was a little sceptical about it, but eventually, he agreed. Before I was about to go scouting, I noticed that something seemed to be off right now,

"Darren, do you hear that?" I asked him,

Darren was a little confused from what I just asked, "Huh?- Hear what-?"

"The rattle- it sounded like it's coming from above!-," I replied to him,

The ground suddenly shook viscously, which ended up making us lose our balance. The entire sewer tunnel slowly crumbled from above and opened a massive hole right on top of us. We were stunned when we saw the cause of this destruction. It was a decapitated creature that fell to the ground, resulting in this damaged.

"Wh- What the hell is that thing?!-" Darren asked as he prone himself away from that monster,

"That's Titana Cyclops!- What or who did this kind of damage to this monster?!-" I shouted in confusion,

Darren suddenly pointed his finger out from the hole above us and said, "Look- Ichijou! Isn't that one of your friends?!-"

To my surprise, he was right. That's Kiseki hovering in the air. How did he able to take down such a gigantic monster?!-

Kiseki immediately moved to the other Cyclops and proceeded to slay them. He's powerful, too powerful. Where did he get such power to go against those creatures? Upon closer look, something seemed off with how Kiseki fight. His face was filled with joy, and the laughter that came from him sounded unlike how he used to act.

"Why is he so happy killing those Cyclops right now?- it's not that it's a bad thing, but being this amusing from killing something is definitely not like how he usually is," I said to myself,

Suddenly Darren grabbed onto my shoulder and said, "Ichijou! This is our chance to survive!- We're going out of this hell hole alive!-"

"Huh?" I muttered confusedly,

"Look- If your friend is fighting up there, then the rest of his team is probably close by. We can bring Nyoko out from the sewer and regroup with the others to increase our chance of survival!" Darren explained himself,

That's right. If Kiseki is still alive after all this chaos, his group must be too!-

"Get all the soldiers to assemble with us in this spot! I'll go take care and carry Nyoko on my back. Go now!-" I commanded Darren,

"Yes! Sir!" Darren complied as he ran back to find the rest of the soldiers,

As soon as we regrouped everyone together, we began our mission to find Ellisa and the rest of her team. If my guess is correct, she shouldn't be that far from us. Minutes by minutes, we ran around the city; Kiseki had already killed four Cyclops in total. Something still bothering me with the way he's fight. I tried to ignore that feeling and kept searching for Ellisa,

Apparently, luck was on my side. The last turn that we took had brought us right to where the other party was,

"Ellisa!- You're still alive!" I shouted as I ran towards her,

She was surprised to hear my voice and quickly turned around, "Ichijou?! Is that really you?!-"

"Cicily!- Thank god you're still alive!-" Darren screamed,

He quickly jumped towards Cicily and gave her a loving hug. That was unexpected.

"Wait- didn't you always yelled at her before this?!- Where did that personality go?!" Both Ellisa and I said,

Cicily hugged him back as if they were in love and bursts into tears, "You idiot!- I almost thought that you've died already!"

Anyways, ignore the useless questions for now. I need to know what's going on around here, and so I asked Ellisa, "What's all this ruckus, Ellisa! Why is Kiseki fighting those things alone?! And how is he manage to win this fight?!-"

She had this worried look on her face and said, "I don't know either! A moment ago, he said he had a plan to attack the Cyclops. Then when things started, he suddenly shouted something bizarre and became super strong for no reason!- Besides, WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO NYOKO BEHIND YOU?!-"

"Ah-! We ran into trouble in the sewer line, and Nyoko got severely injured." I replied to her,

She then replied, "Then why aren't you healing her, damn it!- Darren is a sage! He obviously can do something about it!-"

I quickly interrupted her and said, "No! Her wound is not an issue we can't fix! Her body has been intoxicated by the poison that came from the monster we were fighting before,"

"Poison?!- Let me take a look at it! I may have something I can help with that!" She responded,

"Really?!- Great, we need to be quick! I don't think she has much time left!"

Ellisa and I quickly went in the middle of the group and lay down Nyoko there. Without further ado, Ellisa began examining the wound and pulled out something from her bag,

"It's terrible! But not untreatable!- I may have the right thing to save her life!-" She said,

I nodded and replied, "Then help her as much as you could, Ellisa. Save her life for me!-"

All of a sudden, a loud boom came from behind us. The soldiers then screamed, "Everybody! Take cover! We're in Kiseki's crosshair!-"

It was shocking to see that a ginormous detached hand flew right at us at high speed. It slammed against the ground and almost rolled us all flat. Thank goodness that Darren reacted quickly to that event. He was able to create a mana shield around us to stop that thing from coming closer,

"Ellisa! Why is Kiseki fighting like that?! Can't he see us down here?!-" I asked her,

She shook her head vigorously and responded, "I don't know that either, Ichijou! Ever since the battle began, He's been fighting like a maniac! He pretty much knows we are all here! But he didn't seem to care about it!-"

In a split second, I turned my head towards Kiseki that was hovering above us, and I yelled, "Oi! What the fuck, man! Watch where you attack! You'll get us all killed if you keep doing this!-"

I knew he heard clearly what I just said. He has his eyes gazed towards me for a moment with an abnormal presence coming from all over him. Why do I feel like I'm talking to a stranger right now? Was that really Kiseki? He has this tremendous bloodlust feeling spewing out inside him,

"Hahahahaha!-" Kiseki laughed sinisterly,

I was shocked. By the time we were trying to save Nyoko's life, Kiseki had already taken down another two Cyclops within the vicinity.