Chương 75: (B2 Chapter 26)

The massive sword hung in the air for a fraction of a second before starting its slow descent down on Hannah's helpless form. I was watching the proceedings in slow-motion, as I had already activated quick step the moment the knight had neared Hannah. She had run out of stamina, and I knew I would run out of it soon too, if things continued the same way, especially if I kept using quick step, but I wasn't going to let the girl die when I could do something about it.

I rushed towards Hannah, who was still staring up at the huge sword coming down on her and hadn't noticed me yet. I could actually see her struggling and trying to get up, but for some reason her body didn't seem to be responding. Guess we know what happens when we run out of stamina… I finally reached her just as the descending sword started to speed up.

I almost slammed into her with how fast I was going, but managed to pick her up and move both of us a few feet away by the time the sword hit the place where she had been, showering dirt and debris all over us. I took the time to pick her up properly as she looked at me in shock, and then used quick step again while I looked over my shoulder to see Lucas had arrived back at the knight to distract it.

However, like earlier, the knight seemed fixated on Hannah and ignored Lucas completely, instead it started running towards us, picking up speed slowly. Quick step ended but I continued running as the knight started picking up speed with its increasing momentum. It was much faster now, having devoured a few more stats from all of us, but I was still able to barely stay ahead. However, there was a serious problem.

I had started breathing heavily and I was slowing down now, which meant I was probably running out of stamina as well. Using quick step twice and then running with a person held in your hands drained my stamina immensely, and I was feeling it clearly. I looked behind me to see the knight still chasing us, intent on finishing off Hannah. Does it have a sense of some kind? Like Hannah does not have anything more to give so she can now be easily killed off? Or is it designed to go after the ones that are helpless?

Obviously, I had no answers to the questions, and I was running out of time. My mind raced trying to think about what I could do now to protect Hannah. I could hand her over to someone else, but Marcus, Omar, and Madelline would not be able to carry her while running, while Lucas and Sam could but they would possibly be too slow to keep ahead of the knight. My breathing was getting increasingly ragged by now and I knew time was running out.

A thought of leaving Hannah on the ground and saving myself did cross my mind, but I dismissed it. It was the logical thing to do, but I did want to try to save her, and my best bet at doing that would be Lucas, who could possibly run away for some time. I swerved towards him and shouted at him about what I was going to do, and he immediately put away his sword, shield, and armour without hesitation, making himself much lighter.

I reached him and handed over Hannah to him, before taking a few steps to the right as I saw Lucas now start running away while the knight passed me by a few seconds later, still intent on chasing Hannah. I collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily and trying to catch my breath, but for some reason I couldn't quite manage to even my breathing no matter how long I stayed resting. I opened my status and saw that my stamina was just at three.

Just a couple minutes more and I would have been just as helpless as Hannah. It was just luck that I managed to reach Lucas before I ran out of stamina. Lucas, now that he was free from his equipment weighing him down, was able to barely keep ahead of the knight, but I knew it was just a matter of time before he ran out of stamina as well. By this point, Madelline, Omar, and Marcus had reached me, while Sam was a few steps away just in case the knight decided to come this way.

I looked up at them and saw extremely worried faces staring down at me. Even Marcus didn't have any quip to say about me being on the ground again. What can we do? At this rate, we'll just allow the knight to pick us off one by one! The knight suddenly halted, and we all knew what was about to happen next. We shouted at Lucas to get his attention, who turned around and saw what was happening.

He gently put Hannah down, who flopped to the ground and stayed there, unmoving with just her moving eyes and breathing signifying her alertness. I stayed on the ground as Lucas re-armed himself and stepped forward, joined by Sam as the knight's disturbing mouth appeared and started inhaling. I knew what was going to happen to me now, and I just wanted to hit the knight for all I was worth before it sucked my stamina dry. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

Therefore, I started spamming as many wind bolts as possible, cramming as much mana into them as possible without regard to mana conservation. I even took out a mana potion and continued hitting the knight, aiming at the same knee we had all been targeting since the start. Omar also launched his light lance spell, while Madelline hexed the knight constantly. As the knight continued inhaling, I felt even weaker, and I started losing feeling in my legs while my vision swam with exhaustion.

Barely a minute passed like this before I suddenly lost all feeling within my body, dropping back and almost hitting the ground before the back of my head was caught by Marcus. I could only see his extremely worried face now, before he pushed me up to a seated position, supporting my back. I saw the others trying their utmost to damage the knight in desperation. As I saw the desperate fight, I wondered why exactly had I done what I did. Why did I save Hannah, when I knew it wasn't logical…?

Was it really just me not wanting to see someone else I knew die? Or was it because there were still some remnants of guilt remaining from Ben's and Sara's deaths? It could even be a hidden effect from the system, or just simply the intense environment in this dungeon. I didn't know. I just hoped they would be able to damage it enough, otherwise… things weren't looking good. Soon, the mouth disappeared, and the knight turned its helmeted face to look straight at me.

Marcus's POV I had always enjoyed healing others. It was something that I genuinely enjoyed, and it had been a goal of mine to become a doctor ever since I was a small kid. I was perhaps seven or eight years old when I fell from my bike and landed the wrong way on my arm, breaking it in the process. Naturally, as a small kid scared and in pain, my imagination ran wild. I thought I would never be able to use my arm again, as it was now broken permanently.

I even remembered I had seen a person without a hand some time ago and I thought I would now lose my arm and have to live with just one arm for the rest of my life. Obviously, nothing like that happened. What did happen was me becoming completely mesmerized and obsessed with the process with which my arm was set back by the doctor and it healed over the next few weeks. In the little kid's mind, something broken could never be fixed again, like the numerous toys I had broken or the glass I had dropped once.

So how come my arm was able to be fixed? The doctor even assured me that I won't have any lasting injuries as the break was small and clean. Not that I understood what that meant. But I did remember becoming more and more obsessed with the medical field as the cast was taken off and I was able to use my arm again as usual.

Since then, my path had been set, and I single-mindedly chased after my dream of becoming a doctor, and then later specialized as an orthopaedic surgeon, the same kind of doctor that had influenced me when I was a kid. I had become a specialized surgeon just a couple of years ago, and I remember how immensely proud I was of my own achievement. My fledgling career had been amazing, despite some immensely emotional times and harsh routines.

Therefore, when the system arrived, I continued on the path I had followed throughout my life. I became a healer, and quickly became quite good at it, probably due to my career. Surprisingly, and at the same time unfortunately, I didn't get a new skill even though almost everyone else had gotten one. I think that's because I was still stuck in the 'mundane' way we used to treat people instead of embracing the new reality like Omar and Alex had done.

I had tried opening my mind up to think of treating in a different manner, but it was a slow process. Years of practical experience and knowledge do not just go away so quickly. That all changed rather suddenly when I had received my ability – sacrifice. Giving something of yours in order to heal others was something purely magical, and I had been forced to internalize that this really was a different reality with different rules regarding healing. My ability was interesting, but also could become troublesome.

Which is why I hadn't shared the actual reason why it was called 'sacrifice'. It was easy pretending that all it took was all but one each of my stamina, health, and mana, and knocked me out for a few hours after. But that was just the start. The real 'sacrifice' was more... permanent. The ability allowed me not only to heal others, but also to recover their stamina and mana, something that I hadn't mentioned to anyone, as I didn't think it would be needed, and I admit I was being a bit selfish.

The reason being the ability permanently took away one stat point per resource I recovered for others. So, I would lose one vitality if I healed others using my ability, two each from vitality and endurance if I healed as well as recovered the stamina of my allies, or three each from vitality, endurance, and intelligence, if I chose to use my ability to recover all three resources for others. I figured I was a healer, so I could stick with healing only for my ability.

Besides, why would anyone need mana or stamina when they could be so easily recovered? So, I hadn't revealed the nuances of my ability to the others, partly so I would only lose vitality, which wasn't an important stat for me, and partly so that no one else would feel guilty over me using my ability. How could I have known we would run into a dungeon that didn't allow anything to be recovered? Before this cavern, we could at least recover our stamina, but now, this knight didn't allow us even that luxury.

I had come to respect the others here, and had grown a sense of great camaraderie with everyone here. And as I held up Alex from behind him, and looked at the boss staring at him like a juicy steak, I knew what I had to do.