The situation had turned grim in an instant.
The other four Hero Candidates were completely restrained by the ’Curse Graveyard’, while Knight was literally dying.
Curse and death law energies infused in the dragon’s blood raced through his veins toward his heart. He tried to resist with his own infernal magic, but this was a curse fuelled by the dragon’s life, so his resistance was dood to fail.
Elaine, the only one not immobilised, analysed the situation in seconds.
She could feel and see the vitality of the Hero Candidates dropping in real ti, and she noticed that Knight’s was falling twice as fast as the others, in sync with the dragon’s.
Although the Bounded Field was still active and trapping her, it would collapse when the dragon died along with Knight, and she’d be free to leave.
But...
’Even if I run, what happens if I et them again before I can summon Arthur? They’re Hero Candidates, so they must be influential here. What if they claim I let one of them die and use that against ?’
Thoughts like that raced through her mind as she looked at the immobilised group, then gritted her teeth and cursed.
"Damn it!"
She kicked off the ground, activating Vital Enhancent and burning through the remaining life force she’d drained from Tank as she dashed straight toward the dragon.
As she closed the distance, the dragon noticed her, its left eye widening in shock at the fact she wasn’t immobilised, but Elaine ignored it and whatever it shouted as she leapt into the air and pulled back her fist, anti-divinity gathering around it.
A third of her remaining life force was consud, the energy blending with her anti-divinity around her fist, which she thrust forward with all her strength, punching Knight, who was trapped in a blood cocoon atop the dragon’s body.
"Lifeburst!!!"
Her fist tore through the layered death and curse energy, smashing through the viscous blood and reaching Knight beneath. The life energy detonated, blasting away the upper mass of cursed blood and freeing him from the chest upward.
[!]
Elaine staggered, collapsing against his body, breathing heavily and clutching her chest in pain.
Knight’s eyes widened as his vision returned and he saw her, imdiately noticing the blood dripping from her nose and her complexion going paler in real ti, the consequences of repeatedly burning through her life force without recovery.
"What are you...?!"
The sound of his voice snapped Elaine’s focus back, and she imdiately activated Drain Touch at full power, planting one hand on the dragon’s body.
She began absorbing its remaining life force, converting it into death energy and pouring it directly into Knight’s body.
Elaine knew she couldn’t break the curse directly. For one, she wasn’t skilled in curses, and the potency of the dragon’s death energy exceeded hers, especially since it was consuming its own life.
So she took a gamble.
The dragon and Knight were spiritually linked by the curse, which drained the dragon’s life to sap Knight’s.
Elaine exploited that connection, channelling her energy through Knight and into the dragon, accelerating the drain on the dragon’s remaining vitality. She was burning through its life faster than it could sustain the curse, and if the dragon ran out of life before Knight did, the curse would fail.
Her hands shook as she poured more energy through, desperately hoping her plan would work.
[You little...!!]
The dragon sensed what she was doing, but it couldn’t even curse at her properly as her Drain Touch was depleting its vitality faster and faster, weakening it with each passing second.
It had intended to die alongside Knight, but when it realised Elaine’s interference would leave it dying alone, it had no choice but to forcibly disengage the curse.
The black blood lost its unnatural viscosity and splashed down normally, but the dragon imdiately tried to ignite the energy within it to blow both Knight and Elaine up.
Before that could happen, the freed Knight grabbed the weakened Elaine and leapt off the dragon’s body, the explosion of energy behind them blasting them onto the ground.
Knight’s armour dented and shattered, and he lost his grip on Elaine, sending her body rolling across the ground, skin searing from the heat of the blast.
[You worms!]
The dragon’s roar echoed in Elaine’s mind as it withdrew all its demonic energy from the ground, collapsing the Bounded Field and freeing the remaining Hero Candidates. Without hesitation, it started condensing all that power into a massive orb above, aiming to obliterate everyone in a single explosion.
Elaine pushed herself up onto her knees, extending her right hand to summon the spear that had been thrown sowhere back into her grasp.
With Vital Enhancent still active, she launched herself off the ground and charged directly at the dragon, her spear aid and thrust toward the right side of the dragon’s head that had been exposed to the bone.
Her spear would have reached the dragon faster than it could condense its energy to critical density, but she was hit with the unwelco realisation that her next action WOULD kill the dragon, which made her hand tremble.
She reflexively altered her spear’s trajectory to the right, and instead of piercing its cracked skull, the spear’s blade cut across its left eye and down its neck before lodging in its shoulder.
The dragon scread as its energy destabilized, then lashed out with its left forelimb, hitting Elaine and sending her flying.
Before she hit the ground, Tank appeared behind her and caught her, and simultaneously, arrows, magic missiles, and a spear all pierced the dragon from three different angles, each one tearing through its fractured scales, bone, and flesh.
The arrows and magic missiles exploded, ripping the dragon’s body apart and ending its life, and with no one left to control it, the energy orb overhead dispersed violently, the shockwaves flattening the land within a kilotre radius.
Level Up notifications appeared before all their eyes, but none of them paid any attention.
Knight, in particular, was focused on Elaine, as he, being closer to her than anyone else, had noticed the mont she had sabotaged what, in his eyes, had been a guaranteed sure-kill hit.
Imdiately, suspicion grew in his mind.
’Why did she divert her spear?’
But just as the thought ford, he saw the expression of genuine relief cross Elaine’s face when she realised she hadn’t been the one to end the dragon’s life, and imdiately after, her eyes rolled back, and her body went limp, collapsing toward the ground.
"Tank, what are you doing?!" Mage shouted as she flew toward them, and Tank, though caught off guard by Elaine suddenly going limp, caught her before she hit her head on the ground.
Mage landed and staggered slightly, but she quickly regained her balance and reached out to touch Elaine, imdiately pulling her hand back as she sensed sothing being drained from her.
’What was that?!’
She blinked in shock, but that feeling was quickly overridden by the intense heat she sensed when she touched Elaine’s body.
"! She’s burning up!"
She quickly burned through the last of her magical energy, casting healing spell after healing spell, only stopping when Elaine’s breathing finally evened out.
Just as she finished, she staggered backwards, hit by a wave of dizziness, but Archer caught her before she could fall.
Tank tried to lift Elaine and get to his feet, but he, too, staggered and dropped onto one knee, his eyes widening as a realisation dawned on him.
’This sensation...’
He rembered this feeling of sothing being drained from him when the dragon used its Bounded Field’s ability, but he had originally assud it was the dragon’s power.
But now, the dragon was dead, and he was feeling the sa sensation while holding the only other person who’d been touching him when the dragon had activated its power.
’It was her?’
Elaine had loosened her control over Drain Touch when she freed Knight from the curse, but had passed out before she could restrain her ability again.
What’s more, she’d sacrificed a massive portion of her life force for two Lifeburst Strikes, so her body, desperate to recover what it had lost, was using Drain Touch to pull energy from anyone who ca into contact with her.
Tank imdiately looked up at his companions and said,
"Guys, there’s sothing going on with this kid. She seems to have so kind of passive skill that drains your energy when she touches you, or when you touch her."
The mont Tank said that, Mage’s eyes widened as she rembered the sensation she’d felt earlier, and she blurted out, "Wait, that’s what that was?"
Her reaction practically confird Tank’s words, and Lancer, having just pulled his spear free from the dragon’s corpse, turned toward them and said, "That sounds pretty dangerous."
Archer narrowed his eyes, raising one palm to cover his left eye as he activated his Appraisal skill through his right.
The result he received, however, made him frown.
[UNABLE TO APPRAISE]
He was about to comnt that his skill wasn’t working when Elaine suddenly jolted awake, her eyes snapping open as she sucked in ragged breaths.
She clutched her chest, sweat streaming down her brow, and seeing this, Tank lightly patted her back and said, "Easy, kid, slow breaths."
He froze mid-motion when he realised the draining sensation vanished the mont Elaine regained consciousness.
In that mont his hand stilled, Elaine, having controlled her breathing, pushed herself upright and quickly moved away from the small circle of Infernal Devils around her.
"Don’t move too much, you lost a lot of blood," Mage said, and Elaine imdiately glanced down at herself.
To them, it looked like she was checking her injuries, but in truth, she was confirming that the transformation magic disguising her silver blood as red was still active, ensuring they wouldn’t notice she wasn’t an Infernal Devil.
Just then, Knight, who’d been silent the entire ti, finally spoke.
"There’s a lot we need to talk about, but first we should move sowhere else before more dragons show up."
The others all agreed, and after that, Knight turned toward Elaine and continued, "But first..."
Bowing his head, he said, "Thank you for your help."
Setting aside her strange abilities, Elaine had undeniably played a major role in the battle against the dragon and had saved their lives, sothing the Hero Candidates all had to acknowledge.
A chorus of gratitude followed Knight’s words, and Elaine, unsure how to respond, simply nodded silently.
It was then that Mage placed a hand to her chin, raising an eyebrow as she said, "Co to think of it, we never got your na."
Elaine stayed silent, and everyone could clearly see she was debating whether to tell them her real na or lie.
Eventually, she sighed tiredly and answered honestly, "Elaine."
"Oh. Nice na," Mage said, smiling brightly before continuing, "Thanks once again."
She then turned her gaze to the dragon’s corpse and spoke, "Now then, let’s take that thing and get out of here."
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