Chapter 53: Survival for 24 Hours Part 2
Ank POV
Hour 3
By the third hour, the village was converted into a battlefield with blood of stone plant monsters everywhere and was now in complete chaos. Dead stone bodies piled high around us, forming walls of corpses.
In the air the smell of blood was the only smell. With every passing minute the air was becoming heavier and deadlier.
I panted heavily. My sword arm was now numb. My body was on the brink of breaking, barely obeying my will. My clothes were torn, my skin cut in dozens of places.
Arthur's breathing was ragged. His swings had slowed, but every strike remained precise, each one killing efficiently.
The stone plant soldiers circled us endlessly, stepping over the dead bodies of their fallen kin. Their eyes glowed with cold hunger. They were not caring about anything except killing us.
And for the first time since the battle began, silence fell.
Not because they stopped coming. But because I could no longer hear anything. Not the clash of weapons, not the roar of the monsters, not even Arthur's voice. My eardrums were destroyed. Only the pounding of my own heartbeat was the only thing I could hear now.
Three hours. And I feel like dying already. How am I supposed to last twenty one more?
My legs trembled after realising how difficult this clash was. My arms, my whole body ached so badly I could barely lift my sword. My chest felt heavy and each breath reminded me that this was my end.
I wanted to fall. To collapse into the ground and let the tide consume me.
But then, a memory flashed in my mind.
Maya's smile, her laughter, her teasing, the way she had confessed her feelings to me, and how she enjoyed fireworks with me.
I don't know why, but I want to save Maya. Maya became important to me without my knowledge and in my mind only one thought was running.
If I die here, Maya dies too.
The thought burned through the fog of exhaustion like fire.
I clenched my sword tighter, even as blood dripped from my hands. My healing once again healed my body completely, but it could not reduce the pain I was feeling now from the stone plant continuous assault.
"No matter what," I whispered through gritted teeth. "I'll survive."
The stone soldiers roared as if answering my defiance, rushing forward again.
And the battle continued.
The battlefield was no longer a battlefield. It was now a graveyard of stone plant monsters. Shattered bodies lay scattered in every direction, the centre of the stone plants bodies glowing faintly with the green energy that had once animated them. The dead bodies were surrounding us in every corner. I didn't stop now. I had to finish this battle. I don't want to lose.
The old man stood at my side, pale and drenched in sweat and blood. His missing arm bled no more, but the ragged cloth wrapped around it was soaked crimson. His remaining hand still gripped his sword like an unbreakable pillar, though I could see the hesitation in his movements. The old man was now at his limit.
We had survived three hours.
Only three.
And it felt like years.
Hour 4
The portals did not close. More stone soldiers started coming, endless without stopping, stepping over the corpses and debris of the village. Their emerald eyes locked onto us like predators that knew their prey had nowhere to run.
I swung my sword. The motion was not perfect. My whole body was screaming in pain again and again. From this moment a stone plant soldier's chest cracked open, shards flying as it crumbled into dust.
Another leapt forward instantly, swinging its jagged weapon down at me. I barely raised my blade in time. The impact broke my bones from inside, forcing me back a step. My knees nearly buckled.
Too slow. I'm getting slower.
"Ank!" Arthur's voice came near me and immediately helped me return again into battle.
"Footwork tighter. Use the dead bodies as cover."
From the midst of chaos Arthur could not stop motivating me. His focus was on surviving as well as trying to protect me by pointing out my mistakes and how I could use the surroundings to my advantage.
I obeyed him without thinking. My master's commands were the only thing keeping me alive. I shifted back, letting a pile of broken soldiers block part of the oncoming tide. Their numbers crashed against it like water against rocks, slowing their advance just enough for me to catch my breath.
Arthur, even pale and shaking, moved like lightning. His blade pierced through one soldier's core, then swept sideways to decapitate another. Each motion was precise, measured efficiently in a way mine wasn't.
He was conserving energy. I was wasting mine.
"Move fast with precision," he barked between swings. "Don't waste your strength on killing one in one swing. Kill as much as you can in one move."
I clenched my teeth, nodding my head. My throat was dry, but I forced myself to reply to the old man.
I will.
The stone plant monsters didn't care about our conversation. In their mind, they only wanted us dead.
Every moment I was enduring immense pain because of the wounds that stone plant monsters were giving me. But every time my body healed, two more wounds appeared on my body.
Hour 5
The fifth hour was worse.
I felt like my sword became a hundred tons heavy because of my arms countless wounds. Every movement became sluggish. The rubble under my feet became a trap, tripping me when I couldn't lift my legs high enough.
A soldier lunged. Its blade hit my thigh, cutting deep. I struggled to stand, nearly falling.
Pain spread through my body, hot and sharp. My blood stained the broken ground.
"Damn it," I hissed.
Arthur's blade cut down the soldier before it could finish me. He spared me a glance, his face grim.
"Stay standing, Ank. The moment you fall, it's over!"
"I… I know," I shouted back, forcing my legs to move again.
My thigh screamed with pain, every step agony. But I had no choice. Stopping meant death.
So I fought.
I stopped aiming for clean kills. Instead, I slashed wildly, shattering limbs, crippling enemies enough to buy seconds. Arthur would finish them when he could.
Seconds. That's all we were buying. A few more seconds of life, stretched into eternity.
The thought twisted my stomach.
Twenty four hours? We can't. We'll die here. It's impossible.
The doubt gnawed at me, whispering in my mind. Every time I cut down one stone plant soldier, more stone plants were ready to replace the previous stone plant soldiers. The pile of rubble grew higher and higher, but the tide never slowed.
I was drowning.
I will not lose. If I lose, Maya will die.
The only thing that motivates me.