âAre you in any position to make deals with me right now?â
Ozul found it hard to believe this purple-haired boy could still ask for confirmation. After all, he knew how much this boy was afraid of him right now based on the waves of nervous emotions thrown at him.
Under his scrutinizing gaze, Zier didnât know what to say.
He would be lying if he said that he wasnât afraid. Still, he didnât want to back down from this.
âI... It doesnât matter. If you donât make a promise, I wouldnât know if I will end up dead later anyway.â
He was lying. Not to Ozul, but to himself.
Growing up only trusting his grandfather, he knew that promises didnât mean a thing to people in power.
.....
âSo, promise me to keep everything a secret and you wouldnât harm me. Otherwise, kill me right now...â
He also knew that if his secret were to be out, people might use him and his fate might turn out even worse than death.
Yet... he didnât want to die.
He wanted to hold onto a sliver of hope. His reasoning told him that a mere promise wouldnât hold anyone back from harming him later, but right now, he was willing to fool himself just to avoid instant death.
As Zier stood firm on the ground, Ozul was admittingly surprised at his unfounded bravery.
âThese waves of emotions donât belong to a person ready to die, heh...â
âAlright, what is your name?â
âHuh?â
As Zier had even begun to brace himself for death, he didnât expect the opposite party to ask for his name.
âItâs Zier! Zier Grey!â he shouted.
âHmm.â
Ozul nodded his head and spoke,
âI, Ozul Ashfall, vow not to harm you in any kind, Zier, regarding the secret youâre about to reveal.â
As his oath resounded in the forest, a gentle breeze appeared out of nowhere, brushing past Zierâs face. That cool caress made him aware of his reddened eyes.
Fortunately for him, he didnât think Ozul noticed anything under the veil of darkness.
He was merely lying to himself, holding onto an illusion that this man named Ozul wouldâve taken his promise seriously. However, now, his wavering heart calmed down.
That oath did not belong to a man who would back down from his words later!
âI...â
For a few moments, he didnât know what to say anymore. He never predicted this outcome, and he was more than grateful for it.
âHurry up now,â the same voice reached his ears again, reminding him of the little time they had.
âUh yes!â Zier shouted before reaching Blaze and dropping on the ground near him.
Ozul looked at all of this with an indifferent face, but his eyes closely followed whatever Zier was doing.
He had never dealt with poison before, and the situation was serious. If this purple-haired lad wasnât here, he would have tried to deal with it using the Ball of Purity himself.
It would have been a risky move and he wasnât even confident in succeeding, but in case there were no other options, he wouldâve given it a try.
âNow that I think about it, I should have thought about curing the poison before I let them fight these three...â
A kind thought appeared in his heart, but he shook his head internally, trying not to think about such unnecessary thoughts.
âSo... about my secret...â Zier turned around, facing Ozul.
He held a small black knife in one of his hands and an unsure look in his eyes.
But a moment later, the uncertain look in his eyes disappeared, replaced with a resolute determination as he remembered the oath Ozul had just taken.
He closed his eyes with a force great enough to imitate his expression to that of pain even before anything had happened.
This action was justified just a moment later when he drove the knife into his other hand, instantly cutting through the skin!
A painful hiss left his mouth, but he tried his best not to shout out aloud in this forest now filled with occasional growls from distant Beasts.
Ozul quietly watched this scene with interest. He didnât ask any questions as he believed they would be answered if he just waited for a little longer.
Zier threw the blood-smeared knife away as the warm blood began pouring out of the cut.
âIâm special... or so my grandfather used to tell me,â Zier slowly muttered while moving his bleeding hand towards Blaze, âAnyway, my blood is different.â
Zier moved his hand above the darkened hand of Blaze as his blood dripped on the wounds.
âTo a certain extent... it has immunity to poisons.â
As he said so, Ozul could see his blood seeping into Blazeâs body through the scrapes and cuts on the arm.
He wouldnât have allowed this to happen if he hadnât confirmed that Zier held no malicious intent as of now.
âNot only is it immune to poisons, but it seems to... eat the poison itself...â
Zier muttered with a relatively weaker voice.
Following his explanation, Ozul noticed the bulging veins on Blazeâs arm gradually calmed down and the darkened color slowly receded into nothingness.
As he observed Blaze more carefully, it turned out that his breathing and heartbeat had both also become steady again.
And all of this happened in a matter of a few seconds!
Ozul doubted that even a proper medicine for this poison would have been this effective.
Following that, Zier slowly stood up and dragged his feet towards Raven.
Although she was also unconscious, she didnât have any visible bleeding wounds on her body.
Noticing this predicament, Zier turned towards Ozul, âUhm, this wonât work if I drop the blood in her mouth.â
Ozul stepped forward and also noticed that although she seemed to be in a battered state right now, there were no visible wounds on her body.
However, he did not hesitate and formed a sharp blade from the Ball of Purity before making a small cut on the skin of her feet. Zier didnât waste any more time and moved his hand above the cut.
As a few drops of his blood seeped into her body, Ozul covered the wound with a layer of the Ball of Purity. Taken aback by the sudden appearance of this black matter, he noticed that even the wounds on Blazeâs body were now covered with black straps of the same thing.
âYour work is done here,â Ozul spoke.
He had examined both Raven and Blazeâs bodies and confirmed that they were already recovering.
Although he knew that his Ball of Purity also had regenerative properties, there werenât many occasions in which he was forced to use it as such, except for the duo.
Zier, who was relieved of his work, breathed a sigh of relief. He finally smiled, taking a deep breath,
âAh good... t-they should be fin... ow...â
And just like that, Zier blacked out.
With him unconscious as well, Ozul was left standing alone amidst many unconscious bodies lying on the ground surrounded by tall trees and a thick layer of ever-present darkness.
He didnât know why Zier would faint after losing only this much blood.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
After all, he was a Rank-5 Fighter nonetheless. Even a normal person could have endured losing a few drops of blood.
Whatever the reasons may be, Ozul sighed to himself as he felt something brushing past his feet.
Even without the need to look down, he could tell that it was Jinx.
Only she could ever get so close without him noticing anything at all. Even the air itself remained still when she appeared, without a slight hint of disturbance.
Noticing that the wound on Zierâs arm was still bleeding, Ozul shook his head in annoyance.
He didnât want to do it, but this man did help him save Raven and Blaze.
Without minding much, a strap of the Ball of Purity was released from his body before it flew towards Zier and latched onto the bleeding wound.
If losing just a few drops of blood caused him to faint, Ozul wondered if a few more might just make him lose his life.
âWhatever...â he thought in annoyance as he found himself being forced to perform tasks that he didnât want to.
He didnât see the six unconscious bodies on the ground as human beings, but manual labor instead.
If he wanted to sleep without any trouble later on, he had to clean up these dead bodies. Not only would they start to rot and leave an awful stench if left like this, but it would also attract Beasts here.
He himself didnât care about the Beasts but then he would have to bother about killing them for the duo. They could be peak Rank-8 Mages, but even a Fighter could easily kill them right now in this vulnerable state.
*sigh...*
.....
A part of him wanted to leave them all be and take a nap, thinking of dealing with any nuisances later.
In the end, he remembered all the things the duo had gone through just for him. He couldnât leave them be like this.
A pitch-black hand formed with the Ball of Purity formed and quickly picked the three up before placing them all under a shady tree.
Another hand picked up the corpses one by one before throwing them all in a random direction far far away from this place.
He had no tool to instantly dispose of the corpses and he didnât want to go through the trouble of digging the ground to bury them.
In the end, it took him more time to seriously contemplate and decide on what he wanted to do than to actually clean up the scene.