The Headless Dragon's Struggle (part 2).

"Well, definitely not thanks to you that's for.... Arghh! Fuck the pain is killing me. A little help please" Julio was next to a broken window, both his right arm and his left leg were bent at an unnatural angle.

"Sure, let me see them first" said Omar as he took Julio's leg with both hands.

"Ummm, there's no serious damage to your knee and femur, they are only out of place, i also don't fell fragment of bones so even if they took any damage they're probably only cracked" said Omar as he inspected julio's leg.

"Mother fucker, are you really gonna keep patting my leg, let me tell you that i don't swing that way"

"Oh yeah? Well better grit your teeth then!" Replied Omar, twisting Julio's leg back into position "this may hurt like hell!".

"....!" Julio's eyes bulged from the inmense pain, he couldn't even scream.

"Done, now you can heal your leg" said Omar to the speechless Julio.

*Humph* with a snort, Julio started to circulate his own mana also.

"Next is-"

"Stop that i can do myself. You are too rough, could end up ripping my arm off" getting up, Julio hastly said, clearly not intending to allow Omar touch his arm.

"Ok"~ Omar.

*Crack* with a twist from his arm, Julio fixed it, using water flow[1] after to aliviate the pain.

"What's the plan now? From the might of that explosion the wall is probably gone" asked julio.

"For now let's help the other injured heal their wounds, and then we can head to the middle section" replied omar, explaining his goal.

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After looking around for some time with the help of others, Omar made a quick count, and noticed that there were around 80 ish people that managed to survive the explosion, meaning that from the original 150 that were in the Dragon's head, almost half of them died.

The group then started making their way to the middle section, using the thick clouds of dust that have yet to disperse as cover. Due to the low visibility and refusing to use any form of magic to iluminate the way from fear of revealing their position, the group of soldiers, used the main road that conected the 3 levels of the fortress as a way to traverse the dust and not get lost. But as they just exited the lower section, a problem became apparent.

Due to the fact that most of the elite troops were composed of a mixture of elite warriors and magic warriors, there were some among the survivors that were incapable of using magic, therefore they couldn't heal their wounds. Even with the use of healing potions, these took time to do effect and weren't useful when dealing with heavy wounds. By taking these factors into account, it became obvious that the injured among the survivors were slowing their retreat.

And although none of the soldiers said nothing about it, as they couldn't bring themselves to abandon their companions, only to scape with their tails betweend their legs, they couldn't live with the guilt. But the injured thought different, they also weren't willing to see their friends die because of them.

"That's it, leave us here and go! We're only slowing you down" said one of the injured, while leaning on one of his companion's shoulders to stand up, he lost his right leg from the knee down.

"What are you on about?".

"We have to hurry up man!".

"For all we know, if we don't make haste, the enemy could catch to us anytime" replied the soldiers, one after the other, even the one helping his companion to stand up.

"More of a reason to leave us here!" Replied the injured soldier in outrage, letting go of his hand and falling down on his butt. With great difficulty, he sit up and said to the others:

"I don't wanna die!" Yelling at tye top of his lungs, he shouted, silencing everyone.

"I deffinitely don't wanna die! Danm it! Fuck!" His yells turned into sobs as the soldier broke in tears.

*Sniff*.

"I'm not like y'all, i don't have even an ounce in talent for magic, so is not like i can heal by myself"

*Sniff* *Sniff*.

"But I'm not a selfish bastard! Dragging all of you to your deaths is not something i want to see before I'm gone" as he said that, everyone else could hear his frustration, but also just how resolute he was.

As they watched him, all the other injured also let go of the ones helping them, and decided to stay where they were.

"Oi, oi. You can all be serious"

"I'm not letting you here to die"

"Why are you doing this?"

"Don't do it come with us"

Many simmilar comments were the response of the other soldiers as they saw their friends and comrades filled with the resolution to remain behind so they could make it to the upper levels.

"But you know, i also don't wanna be forgoten, becoming a nameless martyr" as the soldier said this sentence, he took the name tag hanging on his neck and a small golden ring from hus left hand, and passed them onto one of his companions.

"Please take this and give it to my wife, tell my children that their father died as a hero.

Following the example of the injured soldier, all the other injured also gave their companions their tags, along with some personal belongings, hoping they could give them to their loved ones.

"Now go, there's little time left" said the injured soldier with a forced smile, his eyes red with tears at the corners of his eyes.

"We'll make sure to buy you some time".

Sering this, many clenched their fists in unwillingness, glancing at the ones they considered to be as close as part of their family for one last time before picking up their pace.

As Omar was about, to follow the rest, feeling down, a voice came from behind calling his name.

"Hey Omar come here for a second" surprised Omar looked back thinking for himself:

(Huh, was someone regreting their decision? Who is it, it sounds familiar) or at least it was until he saw the face of the one who called him out.

"You see, i have a little favor to ask you"

"Claus? What are you doing, you don't have to remain behind, only your arm is..." Shocked Omar said.

The voice owner was, surprisinly Claus, Omar's dorm buddy, and a friend he had grown to appreciate after almost 2 months of living together.

"Now, now, of it isn't to much of a bother can you...." As if not hearing his question, Claus began speaking on his own, trying to ask Omar for something.

" What are you doing, why remain here, are you really willing to die?" Omar completely ignored whatever Claus wante from him, trying to convince him into going up with the others.

"Yes, actually!" Replied Claus, as if a matter of fact.

"What? But-"

"Look Omar, beyond this fortress is my home!" Claus tone was heavy as he said this, which promptly made Omar remain silent.

"My family, lives there, and the people here are my brothers and sisters, I'll be willing to accompany them to hell itself if it means that the rest could be saved, just as lorh said earlier"

"Now are you willing to help me?" By the end of his speech, Claus once again asked his friend is he could help him.

"...yes" replied a reluctant Omar, knowing that this was the last time he was going to see his friend.

"Good! It's time to teach these bastards a lesson they'll never forget" replied Claus with a vicious grin, filled with killing intent.

[1] Light flow, water flow or only "flow" is a thecnique that I'll be explaining latter in the novel, but for now all that you have to know about it is that it help you both, heal faster, gain endurance, strenght, speed and mitigate the pain after, also only magic warriors can use it, nomal mages use healing spells.