"You're pretty tough, huh..." Samuel's voice came from a little farther away and quickly made Oliver try to get up.
A deep pain came from his left arm, and when he looked down, wet cloth bandages completely wrapped it. Someone had treated his wounds, but a colossal pain still came from it.
"How did they get bandages? Did they make these from school uniform fabric?... But that would take a lot of clothes for that." His thoughts ran wild along with the pain, but Oliver quickly pushed them to the back of his mind as soon as he saw David's body on the floor.
"Hey! Take it easy, Oliver! Your wounds will open up..." Luísa's worried warnings were ignored as Oliver stood up and ran to his support's side. The short man was pale and lying on the ground, using his bloodstained coat as a pillow.
Where his wound was, there was a crust of some medicine and more bandages made from the school uniform fabric. Oliver had no idea where those medicines came from or how they got so many bandages, but he thanked the serpent that David was breathing, even if barely.
"Hello, friend... You're going to be fine... You're too good a support to die here," Oliver began murmuring to David while holding his hand. His eyes started to well up with tears, but he forced himself to hold back.
Cough-cough
Samuel forced a fake cough and Oliver's gaze reached him.
"He's not going to survive much longer; his wounds are serious and I only gathered some herbs that looked medicinal. He needs to pass through the portal; when he does, his wounds should heal."
Oliver frowned and felt something inside telling him something was wrong, but Samuel was right. In every game, when a phase ends, you usually get healed or reach a safe zone.
"Calm down! You found the portal?!" Oliver's words came out almost like a shout as he realized what his speech implied.
"Yes, we found it some time ago and then came back to find all of you, but when we passed the lake, we heard someone whispering and found Nikki unconscious on the rocky shore," Luísa began narrating the context of what they had gone through.
"She left the cave and fainted in the lake? Were her wounds that bad?" His thoughts were interrupted as Samuel continued.
"We took her and started tracking her path. It was easy; we just had to follow a vast trail of death and destruction. You weren't subtle at all with the snakes and even caused destruction in the clearing before this one," Samuel seemed to speak with a warning tone, but Oliver knew he was a bit anxious.
"Snakes? I only killed one serpent... And even then..." His mind was confused, but he pushed it aside again. This forest had countless illusions; he could have killed something thinking it was a snake when it was just a branch.
"When we got here, we saw ashes and everyone unconscious, along with David almost dead. We spent the whole night taking care of you and trying to understand why the others were unconscious. We concluded that a sedative was used by the roots on them," Luísa finished the story calmly and with a tense expression. That night was probably far from friendly.
As soon as they stopped talking, Oliver looked at his forearm to check the time.
[44:50:36]
It should already be about 8 a.m., but his eyes ignored that as other notifications appeared.
[Smoothing data...]
[Combat technique evolved]
[Combat: 24 → 30 → 36]
"Damn! That means what I did was a technique that gives me a 50% buff?!!"
Technically, that was it. Now everything was clear... Why that creature started complaining about how he shouldn't be so strong. It seemed what the snake told him gave perfect ideas to improve his technique to an incredible level.
"Oliver, are you okay?" Luísa's even more worried voice reached his ears and for a few seconds, Oliver felt pretty good seeing her worried about him.
"Yes, I'm just absorbing all the information," he didn't lie, but something told him it wasn't good to reveal the truth about what he did for them. That snake was powerful and personally came to support him. After reading those carved arts on the cave walls, he was no longer so innocent.
"I know you're still hurt, Oliver, but we need to move. It's almost a day's journey from here to the bridge that leads to the portal and that will only take longer because we have people to carry," Samuel brought Oliver's mind back to the real world.
"Alright, let's move," he nodded to his former best friend and started moving. He wouldn't let anyone carry David except himself. But before starting the logistics of how they would carry five people on their backs, his eyes fell on the broken throne, and there blood was everywhere. On the seat, a black snake lay dead.
"The snake..." Oliver muttered.
"Ah, it was right there when we arrived. Waiting to strike one of you, so I went there and killed it," Samuel said as if it was just another sunny day.
"It's impossible for you to have died like that... That's too pathetic for an entity of your level. Still, it gives me deep hatred," gathering strength in his mind not to jump on Samuel's face. No one should know about that snake. At least that was something his instincts screamed at him to keep.
Somehow, the three managed to get all five survivors onto their shoulders and started marching along the path Samuel was leading them. The day had just begun, and even though pain was consuming Oliver, he gritted his teeth and focused on carrying his support.
"I carried you for years in the games, why wouldn't I be able to carry you now? My heavy support."