Chapter 18: The ones we lost

The light quickly dimmed, allowing the people present to see the outcome of the momentary distraction.

This outcome, however, wasn't one that any of the parties involved wanted to see.

"Pickle Lord!" Feng Mai unwittingly cried. Wang Fan's stomach had been pierced by the boy's black trident, but the latter was even unluckier as the spear had gone through his chest.

"Mou! What have you done to my Mou!" The girl that had come with the red-haired boy screamed as she was about to stab Wang Fan, who was immobilized, with a lance.

Seeing that the boy's eyes had become lifeless, a wave of painful emotions traveled through her stomach, clouding her head and mind as rage took control of her actions. She felt like a surge of acid was invading every inch of her being; like she was being churned from the inside but the outermost layer of her skin condensed the substance, keeping inside; like she was about to burst.

They had grown up together in the sect; they saw each other almost everyday; they shared interesting moments, laughed, cried, kissed, and heard each other's lives… yet, none of that could change what occurred in front of her eyes.

Her brown eyes turned red and watery as her hands moved forward, trying to avenge the dead boy with her own weapon to attenuate the chaotic sea of emotions that tormented her.

However, she couldn't. Her lance stopped a few dozens of centimeters away from the thin boy dressed in green; an ethereal pink image of a monkey stopped her.

She wasn't going to give up, she couldn't give up.

Her hands squeezed the handle with detrimental strength and erratically swung it like she had forgotten every technique she had learnt before, appearing more beastly than the monkey in front of her.

"Life doesn't care." Wang Fan said weakly.

The trident was still piercing his stomach, but he had already withdrawn his spear out of the red haired guy he killed.

He saw the 7 people remaining apart from the girl trying to kill him had moved, forgetting all his previous plans and preparations in some sort of desperate attempt to avoid more losses.

Some were already close; he couldn't move yet, but he kept speaking.

"That one you've once loved has no supernatural protection nor a special property of divine priority.

When their eyes close for the last time and their last breath caresses your face…

When all the suffering of their last moments becomes yours for the rest of your life; what does it amount to the world?"

"SHUT UP!"

"What are you saying, Pick- Wang Fan! Don't waste your energy, I'll handle the rest!"

The rest of the attacking group was already in front and behind them, but before they could do anything, several translucent figures appeared out of nowhere, resembling various animals.

A cobra with limbs, a lion without teeth, a strange-looking dog with two pairs of ears and a triangular turtle. They protected the two figures and a corpse in the middle of a dangerous and uncoordinated spectacle.

The five phantom-like animals blocked the relentless attacks with their mouths, fangs or bodies, appearing as some sort of caricaturistic display of entertainment.

Their moves were much more coordinated than the ones on the offensive; sometimes blocking and sometimes countering, efficiently making use of their bodies like they had been fighting their whole lives.

In the center, controlling it all, was Feng Mai. She was trembling as beads of sweat formed and fell from her body. Her head turned in all directions, scanning the battlefield as she commanded every action.

She was doing excellent protecting herself and Wang Fan, but it seemed she couldn't keep it like that for long.

"Wang Fan! Do you have any way, any other method or something!?"

"..."

Feng Mai desperately asked; her only hope relied on an injured boy. However, he didn't even react.

The girl with short hair that had given the orders before spoke.

"One of you, take Wu Hua back! She will get injured at this rate!"

"On it!"

The guy named Cheng Jing approached Wu Hua, who was still frantically trying to break through the barricade made of a monkey by swinging her lance aimlessly, and grabbed her tightly by the shoulders, trying to restrain her.

"LET ME GO!" The girl screamed as she felt the increasing difficulty of her movements, desperately fighting for whatever her clouded reason deemed was the only course of action.

"Stop resisting! You're just going to hurt yourself! We'll handle the rest!"

"NO! I'LL KILL HIM!"

"Let her. This is her temporary escape; a temporary goal that she gave herself to bear only a tiny bit better with her pain." Wang Fan interfered at their exchange.

His eyes were already closed and the trident was outside his body as it had been pulled out. He was standing still, blood flowing down his green clothes towards the ground as it formed an unfinished red pool.

"What do you know!?"

"Oh, I know… I know that invisible battle that will stay with you for the rest of your days; that strange hope that the one you lost would suddenly appear in front of you…

When your reality is deformed because of the thing you once thought but never believed would someday happen, the most real and false concept at the same time, the one thing that changes it all…

It will be invisible for the rest of beings that exist and have existed… that feeling, of course I know it."

Wang Fan touched his wound with his hand for a moment, before removing it and gazing at the dark red blood that had stained his fingers.

Wu Hua struggled as Cheng Jing completely immobilized her arms, retreating slowly back, taking her with him. The pink phantoms that surrounded the people in the center dimmed as their forms became weaker, almost at the point of disappearing completely.

Feng Mai breaths were now ragged and difficult. Her eyes showed the state of a person that was about to collapse, but she knew what would happen if she did.

The monsters she somehow spawned and couldn't keep up, the mental exhaustion she experienced, and even the consumption of spiritual energy that had already drained whatever it was that Wang Fan had given her…

It was a sea of trouble that was about to drown her; and the only result of that would be her end.

'I should've probably followed Fang Chang or that Yi Ren.' She thought, her hopes in Wang Fan were almost gone, as he was quietly gazing at his own hand without trying to do anything.

What she didn't know was that, no matter what choice she took when running away, her situation would be even worse; Fang Chang's condition was unknown, and Yi Ren wouldn't let her live after seeing his true appearance. Not to mention that going alone wasn't possible for her.

"But it doesn't matter, does it? You just have to move on, and hope another purpose will reveal itself to you…"

Wang Fan spoke after a while. His brown eyes were now locked on Wu Hua as an unexpected green hue covered him. A transparent and shiny layer of green appeared around him as he finally moved one of his hands, pointing it towards the person he had been looking at.

"Your suffering is meaningless to the world. Rejoice, the Pickle Lord will have mercy and relent your pitiful soul."

A brownish green beam of light came out of his hand with an unfollowable speed. It didn't last a second, but the aftermath did.

An explosion of green and red swallowed both Cheng Jing and Wu Hua before anyone could react. What remained was a pile of mucus of the same colors, erasing any trace of intelligent life and leaving only a gruesome mound of biologically-seeming mass.

Wang Fan didn't stop, as his other hand was already pointing at the short-haired woman's direction, not waiting a moment before throwing another terrifying beam.

The woman could only evade and watch two more of her companions be turned into an unrecognizable flesh-pile, but even then she wasn't unhurt. One of her arms was caught in the seemingly bigger range of the attack, and, before it could reach her shoulder, she pulled it off.

"What the hell is that technique!?" She cried. In the blink of an eye less than half of them remained alive. Two, including her, were missing an arm as the guy that was hit in the beginning tore it apart just in case.

"They collaborated with evil sects, remember!?"

"We need backup! Retreat!"

"Run! We have to call an elder!"

The remaining people couldn't deal with Wang Fan alone, and, after a bit of hesitation, ran away, leaving the wounded boy and tired girl along with the beast figures that disappeared soon after.

Seeing this, Wang Fan finally collapsed. His feet gave in and his body was about to hit the floor, but, before he could rest in the middle of that chaos-filled battlefield, he was caught into Feng Mai's arms.