Spirit Soul

As Kyle didn't want to distract Gard and Mell further, who were trying to help them escape, he turned towards Selene.

He saw her blankly staring at the married couple with wide eyes.

Pinching her lightly at her arm, Kyle forced Selene to regain her senses.

When he touched her, he noticed that she was shivering a little.

Selene merely shook her head and blinked several times, trying to forget the harrowing death of the young man.

The scene of the bullhorn hyena tearing apart the young man's head was seared into her brain and she felt like would throw up.

Noticing that Selene was shocked, he dragged her away from the dangers in front of them.

At the same time, Kyle threw a last glance at the couple for all the help.

A sense of guilt was weighing him down because he was running away from danger instead of facing it.

But, he knew that he wasn't strong enough to face the bullhorn hyenas right now.

Thus, his gratitude for the couple who put his life before their own, intermixed with guilt made him hastily shout, "Thank you for everything...good luck and don't die!!"

Kyle knew for sure that the couple was strong enough to escape the village unscathed.

However, that was only under the condition that they could successfully evade the bullhorn hyenas.

Those ferocious beasts seemed to be pursuing the Nasga tribe in particular.

The blood-red hue that they radiated seemed to attract the beasts, but Kyle couldn't be certain about anything right now.

His heart was beating wildly, threatening to break out of his ribcage.

The sound of his heartbeat was so loud that it drowned every other noise in the surroundings.

Kyle was unable to think clearly, and he only knew that the Jars could have left the scene without an issue.

However, instead of doing that, the couple had decided to protect Kyle and Selene, whom they hadn't known for long.

In Kyle's opinion, there was no reason for them to act like this.

Had Kyle known that he reminded Gard and Mell about someone they had loved dearly, he would have understood that their actions were justified.

Despite the help Kyle and Selene received, running away was easier said than done.

His strength had increased considerably through absorbing the energy provided by his Spirit Soul.

After it had been fully depleted to tend to Selene's problem, the Emerald Fox had helped him to cultivate faster.

As such, Kyle could be said to have reached halfway through the Origin stage.

Furthermore, now that he had received the soul of a beast at the Vitae stage, everything would progress much faster than before.

Kyle's eyes were still glowing due to the Nurture ability that was still activated.

No matter where he looked, the possible paths in which he could nurture each and every being were clearly visible to him.

This was frightening as everything in his surrounding could be said to have a life, and it distracted him a lot.

Earlier, his sight had been restricted by the surrounding structures such as the huts and walls, but that had now changed!

The energy Kyle used to empower the Nurture ability had revealed things he hadn't been able to see before.

However, there was no time to process everything he was perceiving right now.

Kyle heard the painful and scared squeals of a hundred Nasga that forced their way through the narrow defensive line Gard and Mell had constructed.

They were focusing on the bigger and more powerful foes, allowing the Nasga to flee.

The Aldra race and the Nasga didn't have cordial relations but it made sense to tackle the greater devil first.

Thus, it was only because of the presence of the hyenas that the Nasga could escape from the Aldras unscathed.

It was evident that the Nasga were scared witless of the bullhorn hyenas and were scampering to flee from the danger.

He believed that a stampede might occur soon if the situation spiraled out of control.

Wanting to leave the place as soon as possible, Kyle was about to turn around and run away when he heard something.

It was an overly familiar voice that was drifting towards him from farther away.

"You useless pieces of garbage. If you can't even create a kidran blood orb at the poorest quality, I don't need any of you!

Turning around in the direction of the voice, he saw more than a hundred villagers appear out of nowhere. They were all standing in three rows, one behind the other.

Each of them had a bow in one hand, and an arrow nocked at the bowstring with the other.

Meanwhile, the chubby merchant was standing in front of everyone with a sly smile on his face.

It looked like they had planned the ambush beforehand, and Kyle could immediately tell that this was exactly what was going on!

"This fucking bastard!" Gritting his teeth, he cursed under his breath and held Selene's wrist tightly.

She was still perplexed, but Kyle couldn't waste his time in calming her down.

If he was reading the situation right, it was about to turn into something much worse than before.

The appearance of the merchant and the villagers made him forcefully change his plans.

Thus, instead of advancing straight ahead as planned earlier, they had to change their direction.

Looking around for a bit, he made a split-second decision to turn towards his left, while trying to figure out the fastest, but also safest path out of the mess.

At that moment, the crowd of Nasga passed by him and Selene while running for their lives.

They didn't even pay attention to the two standing by the side.

Not wanting their feet to get stamped on, Kyle moved backward while pulling Selene behind with him as he heard the merchant's loud voice.

"Shoot at sight and don't hold back!!"

Hearing those words made the Nasga run around like headless chickens, restricting Kyle and Selene from even moving an inch.

Not knowing how to save themselves, Kyle could only frown as he took another look in the direction of the merchant and villagers.

They had already released the first barrage of arrows that were now in the air and advancing towards them.

Seeing this, he managed to pull Selene towards him before throwing himself to the ground.

He shielded her body with his own but that did little to drown the painful screams of the Nasga that got hit with the arrows.

Selene was trapped under him so she was spared from witnessing the harrowing massacre.

However, the blood that splattered everywhere hit them too as a few drops splashed on her face.

Kyle was merely gritting his teeth, enduring the sudden and sharp pain that spread through his entire body as the adrenaline kicked in.

Because of that, the pain became gradually lesser, but Kyle knew that it was only temporary and not a good sign.

Turning his head to his right side, he noticed that two arrows had pierced into his arms while one of them had lodged itself in his waist.

This was bad, and he could only curse inwardly.

Yet, instead of giving up, Kyle ignored the pain as he pushed himself up from the ground.

He clearly remembered his ability's description which caused him to smile subtly despite the pain as blood trickled down his lips.

The biggest perk of the Nurture ability was that it utilized stored energy to vitalize and accelerate the growth of living beings!

As such, he firmly held the arrow that had lodged itself in his waist with his uninjured hand.

Gritting his teeth, he took a deep breath before pulling it out of his body with all the energy he could muster.

For a quarter of a second, his sight blurred as stars swam before his eyes.

He forced himself to stay conscious and could barely perceive the faint blood-red hue enveloping the injured part of his waist.

Using the energy stored within the Nurture ability, his emerald-colored eyes lost their distinct gleam before Kyle regained some of his vigor.

Despite that, he was in bad shape. The injury was far from being completely healed, let alone on the way of recovering.

Additionally, the amount of energy he had utilized was barely enough to stop the internal bleeding he had caused by ripping the arrow out of his body.

But the energy made him feel a little better which helped him regain a clear sight.

With sweat dripping down his temples, he looked around to see Selene staring at him. Her eyes were glistening with tears which caused Kyle's eyes to turn stoic.

She was about to have a meltdown, seeing him bleeding and injured but he warned her,

"Not yet, stand up!"

Right now he had to give Selene orders and make sure she obeyed him. Otherwise, she would soon end up dead and join the first casualties.

This was not something Kyle wanted to risk nor imagine.

Realizing the gravity of the situation, along with the stern look in his eyes made Selene obey him.

Selene followed his instructions quickly without any hesitation.

Her quick submissive behavior was mostly ingrained in her owing to having lived as a slave all her life.

It turned out to be quite helpful in the face of more than a hundred Nasga around them in addition to a large crowd of amateurish archers shooting at their foes.

Upon taking a look around, Kyle felt like he had received the brunt of the attack, which caused him to curse his rotten luck.

However, there was nothing Kyle could do about that now.

As such, he dragged Selene on her feet before loosening his grip around her.

Now that she had seen how dangerous it was, Selene could either follow him, take her own path, or die.

Rescuing her another time was impossible because he wasn't that strong either.

Kyle knew that he could have escaped the first barrage of arrows unscathed if it were not for her.

He could have sacrificed her and turned her into his meat shield, but that was not how Kyle treated his companions!

Less than ten Nasga had died in the first wave of attack and all of them had been close to their current position.

This made Kyle think that the chubby merchant was either targeting him and Selene or that they had been unlucky to be in the most crowded spot.

In the end, the reason didn't matter and the most important fact was that there were still two arrows stuck in his arm.

His wounds seemed to be on fire and Kyle knew that the severe injury he had sustained would tear open again if he were to move rapidly.

However, that was not something Kyle could avoid if he wanted to escape and survive!

To his left, Mell and Gard were fighting against the bullhorn hyenas, while his right side was crowded with a hundred Nasga.

They were all advancing towards the villagers whose fear was clearly plastered across their faces.

It looked like the chubby merchant had expected the villagers to be more useful than they were.

Unfortunately, Kyle didn't have the luxury to stay idle and witness what would happen to the merchant.

Mell and Gard were slowly being overwhelmed by the bullhorn hyenas that were desperately trying to break through their defenses.

Even if Kyle and Selene were not their targets, they were still far from being safe.

Several Nasga were collapsing to the ground like weightless puppets next to Kyle.

Wanting to make use of the opportunity, he quickly unsheathed the ranked black steel machete.

Selene was not sure what her master was doing, but she simply observed him like a curious bird. To her, it looked like he was swiftly killing the injured Nasgas one after the other and using his free hand to grab the empty air.

Based on this, she sensed that it had something to do with his mysterious ability.

It was only her instincts that told her to follow Kyle and she acted upon it.

Selene quickly unsheathed the ranked black steel dagger to kill the severely injured Nasgas without any hesitation.

Her mind was eerily calm, and Kyle would have been astonished at this, but his mind was blank at the moment.

He was too exhausted to even think, and the only thing he could do was to hurriedly snatch the detached souls that dispersed inside his body.

Using their energy, Kyle activated the Nurture ability to invigorate himself that finally allowed him to think clearly.

"Let's leave quickly! I don't know how long I can stay conscious!!"