Annie, Alice and Christopher, who was carrying Earl on his back, all sprinted through the forest, panting, panicking, frankly they were all scared, and what's more they were carrying an injured Earl, "Who were those guys?" Christopher asked panting, "I think I heard them call themselves the ORA" Alice shouted from the left, "What are we gonna do,... the alchemy return circle is the other way", Annie asked from the right, "without it, we can't get home", she added, Christopher and Alice both also came to the realisation that they would have no way of going back, and currently Soki was preoccupied with the sudden appearance of the ORA, there was no way they'd be able to get help, and although amazed by Soki's strength, they had doubt that they'd get out this situation uninjured, "maybe we can circle back to the return circle?" Alice said while still sprinting through the forest, both Christopher and Annie looked over in her direction and then themselves, before Christopher spok
Earl laid on the floor speechless as he gazed at his entire left arm which laid at the feet of the masked man, blood still spewed from his hand as he sat there panicked, the reality of what had just happened hadn't hit him, or rather he didn't want to believe it, he already had enough to deal with at the moment, and now in hopes of trying to save someone, his arm had been cut off, he was still in the middle of his thoughts when the pain had finally hit him, he could now feel the excruciating pain of losing an arm, both the psychological and physical damage that had been dealt to him was too much to handle, and what made it worse was the system message that followed.[HP: 60/100][Your spiritual energy depletes][Spiritual Energy: 2/50][You must consume life energy in the next 5 minutes] Things just got a whole lot worse for Earl, aside from the excruciating pain he felt in where his left arm used to be, he now felt the immense pain that came with the system message, the pa
Alice and Annie sprinted through the forest, they passed tree after tree but still felt they weren't running fast enough, they could hear two sets of footsteps following closely behind them, they hadn't turned back since they took off, they didn't need to, they had a clear idea of who was giving them chase, all they needed to do was continue sprinting, "Alice..... *pant*.... I have.... *pant*.... an idea" Annie said as she sprinted beside Alice panting, " what.... *pant*..... is it?" Alice replied panting heavily, "Let's.... *pant*.... split up" Annie said, "Huh?" Alice said with a confused look on her face, she couldn't understand her reasoning, they were being chased by two unknown masked people, and her first idea was for both of them to split up?, it didn't make any sense to her, ".... *pant*.... why?!!!" Alice asked, still sprinting, "sooner or later..... we're gonna have to fight... *pant*.... and if we get exhausted before that... *pant* we'll be dead for sure" Annie said, "so
Annie sped through the woods as she racked her brain for a plan, she was glad that her first plan had worked, but if she wanted to get out of this alive, she couldn't rely on just her brute strength to get her out of this situation, chances are that whoever is chasing her down was leagues ahead of her, both in skill, experience, and overall battle ability, and engaging into battle with such a person with all those variables would be way too risky, there was the possibility that if she did engage in combat, she would lose her life in an instant, and she didn't know what type of alchemy the masked pursuer had either, if she went into the battle and her opponent had an alchemy that completely rendered her's useless, it would be game over, she needed a plan that would make her have minimal contact with her opponent, but still render him/her unable to continue, and the only thing she had with her right now were her fists and brains, "common think, think!!!!!" she yelled at herself as she r
Alice sped through the forest in a panicked state, she had a huge smile plastered on her face as she did though, despite her somewhat controlled demeanour, sweat ran down her forehead as thoughts ran through her head, she had responded to Annie on impulse and hadn't actually thought up a plan, all she did for the past four minutes was run, she didn't know what to do, she just wished that someone would come to her rescue, it was wishful thinking yes, but it would be the best outcome for her if Soki finished up his battle and helped her out of her predicament, however the chances of that happening was slim, so she racked her head trying to come up with a plan, while keeping the huge smile on her face, suddenly a purple liquid shot out from behind her, it came as a surprise, she was unprepared and unaware of the nature of the liquid, or how dangerous it was, but thanks to her catching a glimpse of it at the corner of her eye she was lucky enough to avoid it, she jumped just in time off r
Christopher stood in front of the masked man ready to fight, his opponent bearing a blade bloodied by his friends corpse, and him forming sand in his palms, of course he was scared, but his fear had just cost him the life of Earl, he didn't know him too well, in fact one could say the opposite, although it was their second day, everyone had a bad impression of Earl, except his teammates of course, but everyone had given him the cold shoulder, he was branded belligerent, and everyone avoided contact with him, but despite not knowing Christopher at all, and previously injured, he dived in and saved a cowering Christopher, and at the cost of his arm nonetheless, and now despite his harsh treatment to him without knowing much about him, Earl was dead, and his lifeless body rested up against a tree. Christopher was filled with both anger, fear, resentment, regret and disgust, he was ready to take on this masked man, he was willing to get revenge for Earl, he already managed to stab the m
Earl kept on speeding towards Soki and Dia while Annie gave chase, although Earl moved rather quickly, at least quicker than any normal human eyes would be able to perceive, Annie had enhanced her eyesight and speed interchangeably, she wasn't yet able to enhance both attributes at the same time, so she had to result to careful switching amongst attributes to get as close to a simultaneous experience as possible. She didn't know where he headed to, but she had a feeling that he was still in there somewhere, she thought it strange that he had left them alone, while killing the masked man, although there were many possibilities, like he recognising actual threats and disposing of, or them just having dumb luck, but she had the feeling that he did it on purpose, he was still there, and she felt like she needed to pull him out. Soki's blood spewed on the floor as Dia's foot drove itself into his lower abdomen, however Soki in turn grabbed Dia's foot and pulled him in close,
Earl laid in the hospital room in silence, he was wide awake, but drowsy, ever since waking up, he felt uncomfortable, he never did like hospitals, in fact he hated them, "What happened?" he asked out loud to himself as he began recalling the events that happened, he remembered passing out, the masked people, Christopher, getting his arm cut off, the HP message, the white space, and the reports he heard on the incident while being carried here. He sat on the bed thinking when Mr Adam walked into the room, "How're you feeling Earl?" he asked as he handed Earl a glass of water, "I'm fine", Earl replied, "just trying to recall whatever just happened", he added as he proceeded to down the water till about halfway, he then placed the glass of water on a table beside his hospital bed as the two sat in silence in the small hospital room. The room wasn't big, it had a single small air conditioner off at the side, a bed at the middle of the room, and chairs right beside the d