Chapter 9: Death

“I’m dead,” Riven thought. And the worst thing was that his resurrecting stone was around his neck. “Stupid! I should have hidden it.”

Who knew how much time it would take to get back to life? The monster would just kill him again and again. He scrambled to his feet but didn’t turn his back. He knew he couldn’t outrun it, so he didn’t try to run.

His shaking hands reached to his side, and he lifted his sword. It was a laughable weapon when facing a monster of this kind; its aura alone was strong enough to knock Riven out if it was focused on him.

He cursed the woman in his mind. “If I had left my resurrecting stone somewhere, then I wouldn’t be this bothered. But no way am I going to die, hoping the monster won’t be there when I return. Seriously, why are all the aura practitioners so shitty? Set me up to make your escape!”

“Now, now, monster,” Riven said, his voice cracking. Even though he knew he could come back to life with his three remaining Undying abilities for the rank, the fear of death was something instinctive—a fear carved into his very being.

Not to mention the pain.

“Somehow, I have to find a way to get out of here… wait… I can throw my resurrecting stone into the forest!”

The thought came to him, and he reacted without thinking. He brought his hand up to his chest too fast, and that was when the monster pounced.

The distance between them was reduced to zero in an instant, and it loomed over him, hands up to crush him into a bloody pulp. But the monster didn’t have the chance.

Translucent darkness surged around its head, and a maw opened, filled with jagged black fangs. The monster tried to duck, but the maw was already closing around it. Fangs clamped on its head, punching through flesh.

The monster roared in pain, and its hand raised to rip the maw away, but the darkness shattered. The monster turned, and Riven was just as shocked to see the girl standing there, swaying with her right hand outstretched.

“She… set me up to distract it?”

The monster began to advance on her again when suddenly it collapsed and began to twitch. But it wasn’t dead, and it began to crawl toward the girl, who looked as if she had nothing left and just stared at the monster that was about to kill her.

“Ahhhhhh!” Suddenly, someone shouted. Riven couldn’t believe he was the one. His legs moved almost on their own volition, and he rushed forward.

He jumped in front of the monster and thrust his sword into its remaining eye. The sword pierced through soft tissue and muscle before it met the resistance of bone.

Riven screamed and pushed his weight against the sword, but he wasn’t nearly fast enough. The monster’s hand came down on him like a boulder, smashing into his sides and bending him at odd angles.

Bones snapped, and his spine shifted, but the force also drove the sword straight into the monster’s head, and it stopped moving. Faint energy crawled out of it and hung above the body.

Riven was left there, twitching on the ground. His right hand had been smashed to nothing, almost five bones were snapped in his legs, and his spine had shifted out of place.

But he wasn’t dead, and the pain was even worse than he remembered. He gritted his teeth but still cried out. Then something loomed above him.

It was the woman, and with a start, Riven realized she was just as young as him—just a bit older. Her eyes were two pools of darkness with smears of gold.

She smiled sadly at him and then, still holding her chest, bowed at him, collapsing to the ground with it. He heard a faint, “Thank you.”

Riven stared at the canopy of leaves above him. The moon was a faint thing that didn’t reach inside. The forest was suddenly silent.

“Ah… why did I do it again? I could have just run back. And after she set me up too!” He smiled bitterly, blood dripping from his nose and mouth.

He looked toward her and sighed. He knew why he saved her. It was because she was similar to his sister in build. The shock of losing his sister so suddenly had gotten to him more than he thought.

He curled his lips. “Good one, Riven. Now you can go around saving everyone that looks like her.”

But if the girl hadn’t involved him in the first place, then he wouldn’t have done anything. Riven might be inexperienced, but he wasn’t naive. And besides, he knew he still had three lives left.

He tried to use his perception to feel her. “She’s probably in the Auracrest with the power she used. But now what? She’s fading fast. The least she could do for me is answer some questions.”

“And from what I know, it’s going to take months for me to heal from this. I’m in no shape to help.”

His regeneration ability had kicked in, but at the level he was in, it was something that would take months. He was simply just too wounded.

Then Riven cursed because he knew what he needed to do. With his remaining hand, he reached for his sword. He grasped it and then tried to remove it from where it was stuck in the skull of the monster.

He grunted as his movement made his body light up with pain. He gritted his teeth and continued to pull, using all the strength remaining in his body.

It took time, and by the time he successfully removed the sword, he was breathing hard and sweating. But he grinned with satisfaction. “But now, how do I kill myself?”

He maneuvered the sword, making the tip face him—the sharp point just above his neck. Riven swallowed. He closed his eyes tightly, but his hand wouldn’t move as he intended.

He clenched his jaw and hardened his face, reminding himself that he would come back to life. “Just do it!” he shouted to himself in his thoughts.

And then, with a jerk, he thrust the sword sharply through his throat, slitting it.

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