D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad Chapter 2206 Escaping the Net

--- Nixilei ---

Nixilei was currently experiencing what could charitably be called, mixed blessings. On the one hand, the bombs had vanished. Either all used up, or mostly gone. One much more ideal then the other, but Nixilei had no way to know what was more likely. She just had to hope. The problem with this boon is it came with a major downside. The injuries she’d sustained over the long run.

While her eyes had initially cleared up somewhat, a bomb filled with metal filings had exploded too close to her, cutting a long line across her forehead, completely blinding her in one eye from the dripping blood and making it hard to see through the other. That same bomb had also massively damaged her arm. It had been an acceptable trade, if an annoying one. Nixilei hadn’t seen even a hint of something like this for at least thirty minutes of running, but more likely closer to an hour... and she’d messed up by not being fully prepared.

Taking as many bits of shrapnel with her arm meant that she didn’t take real damage to her more sensitive organs... but apparently at some point her armour had been worn down. Perhaps by one of the other mist bombs she’d thought a simple poison. In this case, one of the shards had slammed right into the join of her arm, making it nearly useless and hard to move.

This had a knock-on effect of making running harder and dodging any follow up attacks a bigger issue. Nixilei would love to be able to heal herself but the metal shards sticking into her arm was making that difficult and pulling them out was a challenge when you needed to keep running and couldn’t move one of your arms. Still... she might have been willing to attempt it...

If not for the previously mentioned blood leaving her mostly blind. Healing spells weren’t always the most reliable, and healing spells cast on yourself were particularly bad. Even worse, healing spells that could work while the patient was running were even harder to cast. Most spells really liked it when the caster and the patient were both still. Having the caster and the patient running, and being the same person was a recipe for disaster... and Nixilei wouldn’t even be able to see the sigil to make sure everything was correct. The chance for a miscast in such a situation was high.

So the metal had to remain in her arm to prevent more bleeding and she had to keep running while she could manage it. A while back she’d tried and failed to work out who was following her and that had just lead to more injuries. Luckily ones that could be healed, but that was more mana that she was down. It had been... a long time since then. It had also been quite some time since the bombs had gone off... and she couldn’t hear anyone following her.

Nixilei’s ears had been straining this entire time. Ready for any sound worth noting when something slightly ahead of her stepped on a twig. Before she could even think about responding a dagger was already halfway to the sound, and the screech that turned into a gurgle afterwards meant she hit her mark. Annoyingly, it also meant she needed to detour for the knife. It wasn’t one that could return automatically. Still, it wasn’t much of a time loss to go over.

Nixilei pivoted her trajectory and went to reach down for the knife... when she realised that there was a chance of wasting time. A chance she wasn’t willing to take so instead the entire corpse, knife included were all shoved into her storage bracelet and another clean knife was slotted into her hand. The motion took barely a second and soon Nixilei was running at her full speed again, or as close as she could get without completely exhausting herself anyway.

Nixilei first took a swig of water from her flask and then waited for the next open area. It was only about a minute later that she ended up standing halfway across a swampy marsh that had dreams of being a river. Nixilei knelt down to make her profile smaller and started to get to work ripping away the metal. Ears still alert for any signs of trouble, but not relying on them alone.