Blood pooled in my throat with the bitter taste of iron, sticky and dense. My head pounded as if a club had repeatedly hit me. This led to my vision blurring as the warm liquid leaked from the corner of my lips.
The tendrils slid free with a wet, tearing rip, leaving my chest and gut hollow, the air whistling faintly through the holes. My grip loosened, and the sword slipped from my hand, clanging against the ground as I floated away.
I struggled to breathe as pain lanced through my body and flew towards the tower walls, and the sky twisted into a strange, dark shape with a blood moon.
Somewhere inside the chaos of battle, I heard someone call out to me.
"John!"
Roulan called out to me in a sharp, urgent voice as she flung a stage two, bashed a stage three while dashing towards me in a frenzy.
Closer, at the edge of the wall. Tang Wei's eyes widened as her mouth dropped. The realisation of what had happened seemed to come to her as she shouted at me.
"Get up!"
