Caius’s POV

With every breath entering my lungs, I felt them burning.

Pain spread through my joints and muscles while I swung my swords without stopping.

With a horizontal slash, my sword left an arc of light in the air while I felt the sharp blade pass through flesh and bones and separate them apart.

Bodies hit the ground one after another while piling over each other.

Those should have already disappeared and been devoured by their siblings, but after a certain point that stopped happening, leaving the corpses there untouched.

Ever since we escaped the monsters’ encirclement, we had been pushed backward nonstop.

But now I was advancing.

A step toward the monsters before they could come toward me, and I tore them apart.

My essence reserves were already at rock bottom, so I stopped sending explosions a while ago, relying only on my swords.

I felt every wound in my body, how it pulsed with pain without stopping.

Some sharp limbs were still inside my flesh, and I didn’t find any time to pull them out.

Dust filled my eyes and nose while the loud screeches of the worms became inaudible.

Amidst all this, all I wanted was to kill more and more.

And I did.

I stabbed them and cut them apart one after another, or many of them at once.

Sometimes I kicked them and exploded their bodies into pieces scattering here and there.

But nothing lasts forever.

Slowly, every soul faded from my senses and disappeared from this world. Only five remained.

I stopped as I finally lowered my swords toward the ground while standing there inhaling dust mixed with blood with every breath and staring at the area around me.

Hundreds of worms lay lifeless among the ash, some still in one piece while others had nothing left except scattered fragments.

I raised my head while staring at the distant horizon. There, I could see the silhouette of the rest of the swarm continuing on its way.

It covered the entire horizon across kilometers.

Enough to make me wonder if a Great creature had laid eggs somewhere near here.

The remaining essence surged through my body and healed some of my wounds while the swords disappeared from my hands.

I looked at my forearm where one of the worms’ limbs pierced through it and came out from the other side.

Without hesitation, I grabbed it and pulled it out, causing blood to flow from my wound, but in the next moment the bleeding stopped and some flesh rebuilt itself.

It didn’t heal completely, but at least I wouldn’t have to endure its presence there anymore.

Once I finished that, I moved to my lower leg where another one was lodged and did the same thing.

As soon as I finished, I pulled an essence stone from my ring, from the kills I had kept, and restored some of my essence with it.

The corpses on the ground weren’t useful because many had died a while ago and the little essence in their small weak bodies had already faded away.

With my wounds slowly healing, I turned to look at the others.

And it was wonderful that all of them were still alive... and in one piece.

Elliot was in the best condition, kneeling before the others and leaning on his sword while breathing heavily, his blond hair dyed gray mixed with red.

Wounds were literally everywhere on his body, but none of them looked serious.

That was why he was in the best condition.

Far behind him, Ellen sat staring blankly into space with unfocused eyes while her clothes were dyed red and her blades were scattered around her on the ground.

Beside her, Izel held the right side of her waist while blood slowly flowed between her fingers and painful crying escaped from between her clenched teeth.

She groaned while trying to look at the wound on her side.

With staggering steps, Leona walked toward them while some sharp limbs pierced her flesh and remained stuck there.

Tears gathered in her eyes while painful groans escaped with every step she took.

On one of the relatively intact corpses, Kyle sat and stretched his legs forward before tearing apart what remained of his shirt, revealing the large wound on his chest.

This was the first time I had seen them since the monsters surrounded us.

And let me say.

"That was really bad."

...

"Do you know how much I envy him... aaakhhh... don’t press too hard." Izel’s voice echoed while her painful groan interrupted her words.

I glanced to the side where Elliot wrapped bandages around the wound on her arm under the lantern’s light in this dark place.

"Just stay still and shut up if you want me to finish this quickly." Elliot replied in annoyance from Izel’s constant shaking.

We were now inside a room Elliot created within the rocks hundreds of meters away from the site of the last battle.

I wanted to move farther away from there, but the others’ injuries couldn’t wait that long.

In the corner, Kyle lay down with a large bandage wrapped around his chest rising and falling steadily.

He was asleep.

You could say his condition was the worst here, yet he handled it much better than the other three.

"Aaakh... damn it, I said don’t tighten it too much." Izel’s scream echoed again while I looked at Leona sitting before me with her back against the wall and her legs stretched on the ground.

"Are you ready for this?"

Leona raised her head while staring with a doubtful painful look. "I don’t think so."

From her voice, she sounded on the verge of crying.

I shrugged indifferently while handing her a folded piece of cloth. "Just bite this, it’ll help a little."

With obvious doubt, she grabbed it and did as I said while I knelt and glanced at the sharp black worm limb piercing through her foot.

The moment Leona put it in her mouth, I pinned her leg to the ground while extending my other hand and gripping tightly, preparing to pull it out.

"Emmm..." I hadn’t even done anything yet, but there she was closing her eyes and groaning.

"Get ready, I’ll pull it ou—" Without hesitation, and before I even finished the sentence, I pulled the limb out quickly, her body shaking from the sudden pain while tears gathered in her eyes.

"Aaaakh... you..."

Her words were cut off by pain while I opened a small bottle beside me and poured its contents onto the wound, then wrapped bandages around it and tightened them firmly.

I smiled in amusement while looking at her painful expression. "At least you don’t make as much noise as someone."

She gave me an indifferent hateful look while biting hard on the cloth.

When I saw that, my smile widened. "Prepare for the next one."

She trembled while tears flowed down her cheeks.

...

In the end, Elliot and I finished helping the others bandage their wounds.

Fortunately, Ellen possessed many good medicines for treating injuries. I had some too, but very little and nowhere near as useful as hers.

Even with this, they would still need a few days of rest to recover their ability to move.

These were the worst injuries they had suffered since we stepped onto Earth, and also the most chaotic battle.

Completely exhausted, everyone fell asleep while ash and dried blood covered their bodies... or maybe it was the aftereffect of the adrenaline fading away.

So while they were in their happy dreams, I sat there staring at that map and the massive distance we still had left to cross.

And let me say, after what happened today I started doubting everyone would leave here alive... I mean, I always doubted that anyway.

"Let me guess, you’re staring at that map and wondering who’ll die first... right?"

I turned my head to see Elliot stepping out through an opening in the wall shaped like a door. He had changed his dirty torn clothes into something cleaner while his hair returned to its golden color after washing all that filth off.

I shrugged. "Well, something like that... I mean, half of us almost died there."

"Or more specifically... get eaten alive."

Elliot shook his head while pointing behind him.

"Please stop this and go wash yourself, you look like a talking lump of ash and mud."

I looked at myself where ash and blood had already dried over my body and completely covered me.

"Yeah, I won’t argue with that."

Without hesitation, and with a strong desire to get rid of this crap, I stood up and headed to take a long bath.

...

Days passed, and the others’ wounds healed enough for us to resume moving through the ash field.

But no matter how much we walked and advanced, this place showed no sign of ending.

The only new thing was the massive rivers of lava everywhere, making the heat even more unbearable than before.

To the point that the desert we left behind felt like paradise compared to this.