Chapter 70:

“We lost at last,”  thought the orc fighting against Sheila and co as he felt the shaman’s aura disappear. Looking at the shaman’s corpse, he felt quite complicated and guilty. As the one who captured Leo, he was somehow feeling responsible for the destruction of his tribe.

’Maybe things would have been different if I hadn’t caught him,’ he thought sadly. Deep down, he knew that it may not necessarily be the case. There were just too many things putting them at odds with Leo. Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t smart enough to think that far. For him, nothing would have happened if he hadn’t caught Leo.

‘At least, it wasn’t for nothing. Our sacrifices were enough to kill that beast.’ Those were his last thoughts as he fell on the ground, his body void of any signs of life.

Looking at the lifeless body of the orc, Sheila, Tiran, Koko, and the archer let out a relieved breath. They couldn’t believe that a rank D like them could handle them on his own.

’This guy was strong,’ Tiran mumbled as he honestly acknowledged the orc’s abilities. Despite fighting against them on his own, he was able to hold on for so long and Tiran himself was almost killed during the fight.

Though they managed to defeat him, the four couldn’t feel any joy. For one, they were ashamed of their incompetence. One could argue that they weren’t at their peak during that fight. Still, that wouldn’t help them feel any better about this. 

Then, there was the fact that they could feel Leo's aura and lifeforce gradually waning as he struggled at death’s door.

*‘Shit, what should we do,’ Sheila mumbled as she had no idea what she could do to help Leo. She remembered that Leo seemed to have been affected by a curse. Though she wasn’t sure if it was said curse that was killing him. Whether it was the case, Sheila knew she couldn’t help Leo by herself.

“Mom, I know you can hear me. We need your help,” Sheila said, seemingly talking to the air. She knew that her mother had to be watching her one way or another. Helpless, she did the best thing she could think of and that was asking for her mother’s help.

“Girl, you are getting bolder and bolder. I didn’t come looking for you after you ran on your own. But you dare to come and ask for my help,” a soft and lazy sounding voice answered her.

“Mother, it’s not the time for this,” Sheila said angrily. 

“Tsk, cheeky girl, your friend is going to be alright, don’t worry.”

“Oh! Really!?”

“Yes, your witch friend is already awake. She will take care of the rest. Now leave me alone.”

Just as her mother said those words, Sheila felt Celia move behind her and without saying anything, the latter quickly moved toward Leo.

‘Phew, luckily, I am not too late,’ she muttered as she quickly put her hands on Leo’s body. She did her best to get ready in a short time. However, she underestimated the difficulty of the task she had to tackle. Even though her fire had a spirit attribute, her magic was mainly a destructive type. Using it as a purification tool was something that she wasn’t used to. Thus, it took her more time than expected to get ready.

‘Let’s go,’ she muttered and started chanting a spell at a rapid speed. Then, waves after waves of blue fire left her hands, quickly covering Leo’s body.

“Wow, that’s scary,” Sheila muttered as a large amount of smoke was expelled from Leo’s body wherever Celia’s fire went. The smoke was dark and exuded a foul stench. Also, whenever the smoke was expelled from Leo’s body, it’d try to get back inside. Celia had to spend ten minutes and her entire mana reserve before she could completely cleanse Leo of the curses.

“I don’t want to do this ever again.” When she was finally done, she collapsed weakly on the ground. Her face was white as if it was drained from all her blood and she was soaked in sweat from head to toe.

“Are you alright?” Sheila asked as she moved beside Celia and helped her up. Though there was no need for that question, she still wanted to express her concern.

“Never felt any worse,” Celia said with a weak chuckle, “I think I should stick to burning things. It suits me better.”

“I guess. How is Leo?”

“He is alright. That guy’s tough. Way tougher than you can think.” she said, her tone filled with admiration. She had to admit that the fact that Leo could kill the shaman despite being weakened by those scary curses was impressive.

‘The fact that he survived the last curse is even more incredible,’ she thought as she was unable to hold on to consciousness and fainted in Sheila’s arms.

“Well, I guess I should have expected this,” Sheila muttered as she picked Celia up.

“Is she alright?” Koko asked as she looked at Celia with a hint of concern.

“Yes, don’t worry. She just needs to rest. Like all of us,” Sheila said with a sigh.

“Unfortunately, we can’t.” Tiran too sighed. He would like nothing more than rest, but he couldn’t. With Sheila knocked out, they would need to take care of the aftermath of today’s events. And looking at the mess around him, he could already tell that it wasn’t going to be easy.

*****

“Ah, it seems that I made it,” Leo thought as he woke up and made sure that he was still alive and kicking. The experience he just went through was enough to make him understand that there were countless ways for people to kill him.

‘How long did I sleep?’ he asked as he noticed that his surroundings were already turning dark.

[Most of the day,] Luxia answered.

“Oh, well that was expected. Though, what happened after I fell unconscious.”

[The curses weren’t broken even though you killed the shaman. After you fainted they were slowly killing you until Celia came and saved you.]

“That guy is really vicious. He wouldn’t let me go even after dying,” Leo sighed, understanding that he just dodged a big bullet. “Look like I owe Celia a big-time,” he muttered, feeling really grateful for what she did for him. He wasn’t sure but he could guess that it wasn’t easy for her to break those curses.

“I should find her and thank her later. But first, let’s check what I got out of all this ordeal,” he mumbled as he opened the system to check his gains this time.