Chapter 9: Chapter 9 – Helpless

Luke quickly regained his wits and calmed down. 

‘…It all makes sense now. If the old man stole what I think he did.’ 

Luke then answered. 

“A silver hourglass tattoo…I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a thing.” 

Alissia narrowed her eyes into a slit and glanced at Mark. 

Mark, who was standing behind Luke, nodded, and wind started gathering around his body.

Luke, sensing the gathering mana, turned his head around, but at that point it was too late. 

Mark’s fist appeared in front of Luke’s face in an instant, and before Luke even realized it, he  was flying through the air, his ears ringing from the sudden punch. 

Luke crashed into a tree, and slid down to the rough ground. 

“Cough! Cough! …Damn it.” 

Luke coughed up some blood, and as he was staggering up to his feet, Mark appeared in front of  him and violently grabbed him by his collars, ramming him into the tree. 

*Crash!* 

“Cough!” 

Luke coughed out even more blood, this time staining Mark’s silver robe. 

Luke raised his powerless arms and started struggling against Mark, but he was just too strong  for the current Luke to oppose. 

Mark raised Luke up in the air slightly, Luke’s back still against the dry tree.

*Rip!!* 

Mark ripped Luke’s shirt right off. 

“Ma’am, you might want to see this!” 

Alissia suddenly appeared next to Mark, causing Luke to shudder and stop his struggle against  Mark.

‘Did she just teleport?!’ 

Alissia stared at Luke’s chest. 

“Indeed…” 

Alissia made her way towards the helpless Luke, and reached her arm out to touch his chest. 

At that moment, Luke’s silver hourglass shined in a pulsating, bright blue hue, as if warning  Alissia not to approach it. 

Alissia ignored that light completely and started touching the tattoo, as if studying even the most  miniscule details of it. 

‘Now!’ 

But then, something flew out of Luke’s right hand. It was a very thin strip of wind, almost  reaching the thinness of a proper blade. 

Luke was slowly gathering wind in his right hand ever since Alissia appeared next to Mark, and  waited for his chance to strike. 

Seeing as Mark was still holding him up by the collars, while Alissia was studying his tattoo,  Luke thought that now was the perfect moment for a counter-attack. 

The thin strip of wind was headed towards Mark’s forearms. Even though it didn’t have enough  momentum, Luke was certain that the strip was thin enough to sever Mark’s forearms clean off. 

‘I didn’t want to aim for his neck, because Alissia would’ve probably dispersed the strip of wind  before it even reached its intended target.’ 

Luke remembered how Alissia dispersed Mark’s wind blade earlier like it was a joke. 

Just as the thin strip of wind was about to cut into Mark’s forearms, Alissia extended her right  arm, and caught the thin strip with two of her fingers, and then immediately flicked those two  fingers towards Luke. 

‘Oh…’ 

*Slice!*

*Squirt!* 

Luke glanced at his right arm. 

No, he glanced at where his right arm used to be. 

It was now cleanly severed off, rolling around on the reddish-brown dirt down below.

“WAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!” 

Luke let out a piercing scream, echoing throughout the forest. 

“AAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHHH!!!!!” 

Tears started flowing out of Luke’s eyes as he kept screaming. 

Luke lost his voice soon enough, his mouth simply opening and closing, uttering not even a  shred of sound. 

Luke glared at both Alissia and Mark. 

Mark simply stared at Luke, as if pitying him, while Alissia simply said: 

“Stop moving around so much, I’m studying the tattoo.” 

Something inside of Luke snapped at that moment. 

He gathered wind in his left hand, and this time, Luke produced the thinnest strip of wind yet,  truly deserving to be called a proper wind blade. 

Luke didn’t throw it this time, but instead swung it at Mark, being confident in its sharpness.

*Slice!* 

Before he could fully finish the swinging motion, he lost control of his arm.

It was severed from his body after all. 

*Squirt!*

Alissia glared at Luke. 

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“I told you to stop moving.” 

Luke’s bloodshot eyes stared at both of his limp and bloodied arms, simply existing on the earth  right below him. 

Luke went into a state of deep shock, his face rapidly losing its color. 

He started shaking and foaming at his mouth, his bloodshot eyes bulging out. 

Luke’s organs, including his brain, couldn’t get enough oxygen, due to the massive trauma and  shock that his body just went through. 

This of course, resulted in death. 

Alissia smirked at Luke. 

“Such a fragile man.”

She told Mark to let go of Luke’s corpse. 

Mark nodded at her and let go off the now lifeless Luke. 

Alissia was expecting Luke’s elementals to float out of his body at any moment now, yet she was  only greeted by a bright blue light. 

The silver hourglass tattoo rotated upside down, causing the sand to start flowing in reverse. Alissia’s face contorted as she alarmingly reached out toward Luke’s chest.

“Such a thing cannot b-“ 

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

 

Luke was sitting inside the small house. He was currently sitting on a wooden chair, but then he  suddenly jumped up. 

“WAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!” 

Luke started screaming and rapidly looked around at the interior of the house.

He raised his hands in front of him as he studied them. 

“My arms… They’re back.” 

Realizing that he had died and went back in time, Luke started to calm down as he sat back down.

“Phew…” 

Luke put his hand on his forehead, and leaned against the table. His mind started operating at full  capacity. 

‘Think, Luke, think. Who could’ve those people been? They were seriously overpowered!’

As if trying to cope with his previous shock, Luke remembered their appearances first.

There was that middle-aged woman, Alissia. 

She had this nasty look to her, reminding Luke of the witches from the fairytales his parents used  to read to him when he was little. She had pitch black hair, and was pretty scrawny. She was a  little bit shorter than Luke. 

‘I didn’t think that people with black eyes existed, but there she was.’

Next, there was Mark. 

He was a young guy, and seemed like he was Alissia’s subordinate. He had blonde hair and dark  blue eyes, and was around the same height as Luke. 

His looks were comparable, if not even better than, those of Luke’s friend, Alex, who was also  blonde himself. 

‘That guy would’ve been a model back on Earth, that’s for sure.’ 

As for the other things that he remembered right off the bat, they wore the exact same silver  robes that the old man wore, although they had golden embroidering, while the old man had  some regular, albeit fancy, embroidering on his robe. 

Similarly to the old man, they both used only wind elementals, and they could possibly be on a  much higher level of strength compared to him. 

Luke couldn’t be sure though, because he never saw the old man actually fight. He only saw the  aftermath of his strength, that being the massacred Gleem corpses. 

‘But… According to those two, even an 8 year old could massacre two dozen Gleems on their  own. Does something like that even make sense?’ 

Shaking those thoughts, Luke was thinking about the most important aspect of their visit.

‘They were looking for something that the old man had stole.’ 

Finishing that train of thought, Luke touched his chest. He could feel his slightly-out-of-rhythm  heartbeat, but also a warm sensation enveloping his hand. 

‘I cannot simply give up on my elementals. I will need to find a way to fight, escape, or even somehow persuade them to leave.’ 

Luke stood up and walked to the door. He opened the door and peeked outside. 

It was almost night-time.

Luke remembered that the pair of people were there when he woke up,  so they most likely made their way to him sometime during the night, and waited for him to  wake up so they could question him. 

‘I don’t think escaping would work. This forest is simply too huge, so I doubt that I’d be able to  escape it within a day, even if I were to somehow head into the right direction. But maybe I can  simply hide in the forest when they come to the house. That way I can avoid them altogether.’ 

Luke closed the door and sat back down on the chair. 

‘But if I spend the night outside, I will almost certainly run into N’Gool.’

Not being able to come up with a better option, Luke made up his mind. 

‘I will strengthen my wind elemental during the day-time, and attempt to fight N’Gool during the  night-time. That way, I will eventually grow strong and knowledgeful enough to end the giant  bird-bastard’s life.’ 

Luke then stood up and grabbed a lantern, attaching it to his belt. 

‘There is a single downside to this plan though.’ 

Luke opened the door and exited the house. 

‘I will probably die quite a lot of times.’ 

Luke smiled bitterly and made his way into the darkness.

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