SSS Awakening: I Become The Strongest Breeding Knight

Chapter 76: 76. Not Being the Strongest, but Being Part of Something That Is

He doubled over.

Laura slashed at his legs. He hurled himself away from her, rolled, and came up on one knee at the edge of the river, with the water lapping at his boots.

His breastplate was cracked. And his left arm hung stiffly at his side.

It’s clear in my eyes now that the blood dripped from beneath his arm and splashed on the stones.

He raised his head and looked at the three of us, standing shoulder to shoulder in the middle of the road.

I saw him think... It took less than a second.

He weighed the situation, the injury, the odds, and the very small, very cold part of him that kept him alive all these years and came to a decision.

”Well,” he said. ”That’s rather inconvenient.”

He slapped his right hand against the great blue crystal on his chest.

I knew what was going to happen a heartbeat before it did.

”Down!” I yelled. ”Everybody down!”

The crystal blazed.

A wall of blue light erupted from it in a perfect ring, and a shock wave rolled out across the road with a deafening crack. It hit me like a wall of solid air.

I felt my feet leave the ground. The world went white and loud, and I tumbled backward end over end, and I smashed into something that grunted.

It was Laura. She’d thrown up a borrowed shield, one of the heavy iron-bound ones from the camp, and she’d planted herself in front of me and Alicia just in time.

The wave struck it with a boom like a falling tree. And the shield buckled.

She dug her boots into the gravel and held on, teeth gritted, and the three of us skidded backward together in a long, shuddering slide.

When the light faded, I lay on my back and stared at the sky.

I couldn’t hear anything... A thin, high whine filled my ears, and the stars wheeled slowly overhead.

Somewhere nearby, Alicia was coughing. A hand grabbed my arm and dragged me upright, and I realized that it was Laura, with a cut across her forehead and an expression of pure rage.

Across the road, on the far side of a shallow crater that hadn’t been there a minute earlier, Corvane was standing.

He’d retreated to the edge of the ford, and he was on his feet again, though not steadily. His breastplate was cracked from collar to belt.

His left pauldron hung by a single strap. A trail of blood ran down his side and dripped from his boot into the water.

The crystal on his chest was dark and dull, and it flickered with a weak, sickly glow.

”I do apologize,” he called, across the water.

His voice was thin and tight, but still unbearably courteous. ”That was more costly than I’d intended.”

”You’re welcome to stay and settle up!” Alicia shouted back.

He chuckled. It was a dry, rattling sound.

”I won’t, I think... I’m a little too tired.” He straightened, with an obvious effort. ”But I’ll leave you with a thought, Sir Ravenshield.”

”You’re not the first to ask about Site Nine... You’re merely the first who survived long enough to be annoying.”

I felt a chill go through me.

He raised two fingers to the slit of his helmet in that same lazy salute. Then he put a small silver whistle to his lips and blew, a short, shrill note that cut across the valley.

All along the road, the surviving black-armored soldiers disengaged from Sharon and ran, in good order, toward the ford. They hauled their wounded with them, and they didn’t look back.

A minute later, Corvane followed them across the shallows and vanished into the trees.

I stood there in the middle of the road, with a sword in my hand and my heart pounding... and I watched the darkness close behind him.

My knees finally gave out. I sat down on the gravel without any dignity at all and put my head between my knees.

The panel flickered in front of my eyes.

[Bond Resonance: Ended.]

[Current Lust: 35%.]

I didn’t say anything. And I couldn’t.

All I could do was breathe and look at the two women kneeling next to me and think that I’d never in my life done anything half so hard... or half so right.

It hadn’t been me... That was the thing.

I’d had the idea, and I’d carried the weight, but it was Alicia’s sword that broke his armor and Laura’s blade that took his balance.

It was also Eveline who’d silenced the monsters and Sharon who’d held the road.

It was all of us... If a single piece had been missing, we’d have lost.

’That’s what it feels like,’ I thought, dizzily. ’Not being the strongest, but...’

’Being part of something that is.

I don’t remember getting up.

I remember that one moment I was sitting on the ground, and the next... I was running, with my ribs screaming and my legs wobbling and my mind full of one thought.

’Forty minutes.’

I had no idea how much time had passed. It could have been twenty or it could have been thirty-five.

I reached the wagon in a stumbling run and tore the canvas away.

Garrick lay on his back between the wheels. He was alive, but only... just.

His skin was as cold as a stone, with a waxy sheen. His breath came in tiny, shallow gasps.

The crystal bolt in his chest was still glowing, and the blue light had spread across his whole torso in a spiderweb of glittering threads. His hand was curled loosely around the crayon drawing, and the edge of the paper had gone damp with sweat.

”Garrick!” I dropped to my knees beside him. ”Garrick, can you hear me?”

His eyelids fluttered. A faint, wheezing sound came from his throat.

”We need to stop the bleeding,” said Laura, at my shoulder.

She’d followed me without a word, and now she knelt on his other side and pressed both palms against the wound, hard enough that I saw the muscles in her forearms stand out. ”Roland, the light is the problem!”

”It’s pulling at him! If we can’t stop that, the bleeding won’t matter!”

”I know.”

”Do you have anything?”

I looked at my hands... I was nearly empty.

I’d given almost everything I had to the Resonance, and I’d been running on fumes since. But I could still feel a faint warmth in my chest... a tiny ember glowing at the bottom of a cold hearth.

If I used it wisely, it might be enough.

’Careful,’ I told myself. ’Don’t pour it in.’

’That’s what the crystal wants... Just cover the leak.’

I laid a hand on the wound next to Laura’s, and I let the smallest possible trickle of Aether seep out of my fingertips.

It wasn’t a flood, but it was a thin, delicate film, like a cup held under a leaking barrel.

The crystal tugged at it hungrily, but I kept the flow steady and shallow, enough to replace what the bolt was draining, and not a drop more.

The light flickered. And the spiderweb of blue threads stopped spreading.

”It’s working,” Laura murmured.

”It’s a patch,” I said. ”It won’t last.”

My Lust dropped a little more. I saw it flicker past on the panel: thirty-five, thirty-two, and thirty.

It wasn’t a fast leak, but it was steady... and I knew I couldn’t keep it up for long.

”Garrick,” said Alicia.

She’d come up on the other side and put her hand on his shoulder. Her voice was low, calm, and steady, with the kind of authority that made you want to obey her without thinking.

”Garrick, open your eyes! Look at me! You are not allowed to die tonight! Do you understand?! That’s an order!”

His eyes opened. They were glassy and unfocused, but they found her face.

”Good,” said Alicia. ”Stay with us... Keep breathing! Don’t think about anything else!”

”Potion,” Laura said suddenly. ”There’s a healing draft in the supply crate.”

”It’s a small blue bottle, with a cork... I packed it myself.” Laura looked at Laura. ”It won’t cure him... but it’ll buy us time.”

”I’ll get it!” a voice cried.

It was Eveline. She’d come running across the camp with her sword still in her hand, her hair blown wild, and her face streaked with grime.

She’d left Sharon’s side, I realized, and she’d come straight to the wagon without being asked. She skidded to a halt, looked at the three of us, and then, with a determined gulp, scrambled up over the tailgate and plunged into the back of the wagon.

I heard a clatter. Then a crash.

And then a long, rolling bang, and a cascade of falling objects.

”I’m fine!” she called, muffled. ”I just need to find it!”

A medicine chest came sliding out over the tailgate and landed upside down on the ground. A bundle of blankets followed it.

A coil of rope.

A sack of flour.

A single leather boot.

A second boot.

A frying pan.

”Where did that... come from?” I said.

”I don’t know!” Eveline shouted. ”Everything is in the wrong place!”

”Who packed this thing?! Oh no, the bread is on top of it!”

”Whitehare!”

The roar came from across the camp.

Sharon was standing at the foot of the hill with one hand clamped to her bloody shoulder, and her face was a terrifying shade of gray. She looked like a woman who had been shot, bled, and was in no mood to be patient.

”If you drop that bottle,” she bellowed, ”I will personally kick you into the river!!!”

”Eep! I-I won’t drop it!”

”I mean it!”

”I won’t drop it, Lady Sanford!!!”