Chương 49: A few hours to catch my breath

The ten of them sat in the living room of one of the apartments on the second floor. It looked like a normal home, but small things about it were off. Doorknobs would be at weird heights on doors that led to nothing. The place was furnished but also not in a practical way. The apartment they were in was one of the better ones, and there was still a table that stretched all the way from the kitchen into one of the bedrooms, taking up much more space than needed.

They'd mainly chosen this one because it was less "furnished" than the other ones. As if most of the material used to make this one was put into the table. This left the living room big enough for them to huddle down in. They'd only been in the Gate World for a couple of hours now, but most of them had been left exhausted after the first couple minutes of fighting. Grim was only running on fumes at this point after expending her authority like she had.

What she really wanted to do was find a broom closet she could pass out in for a few hours, but she wasn't about to go off alone in a place like this. The whole area sent a shiver up her spine. It felt like an eternity, but finally they'd seen to everyone's wounds, and Grim now sat against the wall beside Maya and Natalie. The latter was now soundly asleep and drooling on her shoulder. It was a little annoying, but she'd put up with it for now, she was too tired to deal with it.

Solomon turned out to be the name of the trigger-happy maniac and the pale woman in a dress was his girlfriend Alyn, he hadn't actually formed a group with anyone but had taken command of the rest of the people who'd coincidentally taken cover in the building. The blonde woman was named Sam and seemed to be unharmed. She reminded her a bit of Hazel, but while they both were very open and eccentric, Sam didn't seem like she really cared. While she seemed nice, Grim doubted Sam would care if any of them died.

Despite that, Sam sat with the wounded of the group and was currently wiping blood of Soryn's face as he slept. Carrion was the other pale one, and all Solomon said about him was that he was low on blood, although he didn't appear to have any wounds, while Orion had a nasty gash in his side. Orion hadn't spoken in the confrontation downstairs, likely on account of one of his lungs being punctured, but he seemed to be stable, for now.

His hair was shaved, and he had a peaceful expression on his face, even as he twitched from his injuries in his sleep. Natalie had been resting with them on the makeshift mat they'd made, but after they'd treated the worst of the road burn and her missing fingernails, she'd crawled over to arm's reach of Grim and utterly refused to be moved farther away. Soryn hadn't woken up yet, and Maya had a fractured rib and sprained ankle from when she'd been flung.

The last person in their group was large, with a fridge-like build. He had straight black hair that seemed to stand straight up and an almost passive look on his face. Although he hadn't yet introduced himself or said much, he had done virtually anything anyone asked. He'd been the one to grab her before, and she hadn't gotten an answer yet why.

"So, big guy, what's your name?" Grim asked.

"SongJae," he said.

"Grim."

"Grim?"

"Grim."

"Okay."

"Right," Grim said.

"Now that introductions are out of the way, thanks, I guess?"

"Yeah." This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Saints, you don't talk much do you?"

"When I have something to say," SongJae said.

"I like that," Solomon said. Alyn lightly lifted her head at his voice but didn't otherwise react.

"Yep. Tired now. You all talk too much. Wake me in the morning," SongJae said as he folded up a jacket and laid down on it. A soft snore came out of him a moment later. Solomon shook his head and gave Grim a look.

"I never understood how people can just fall asleep like that, especially in a place like this."

"Yeah, helps that the screaming stopped though," Grim tried to make a joke. Nobody laughed.

"Uhh, well yeah. Anyway, how are you holding up? We've got quite a few injured, and honestly, I'm not sure we're gonna be able to get them all through. I've been racking my head trying to think up strategies, but trying to keep most of them alive will only get the rest of us killed."

"What are you saying?" Grim asked, her hand edging ever so slightly closer to her blade.

"I'm not saying anything. Just, I need help, alright? And so do you. How long until you're recovered? I saw you burn up your authority like it was nothing, you can't have much left." Grim wasn't sure how much she wanted to admit to him, she felt a lot better than she had earlier. At least now she was able to walk, albeit with a limp. Her body felt like she'd been tensing all her muscles all at once, and now she was suffering the aftereffects of that.

She was getting better quicker, but she doubted she'd be at one hundred percent again for at least a week. Which would be significantly longer than she wanted to spend here. That's not to say she wouldn't bounce back quick, she was still siphoning aura, and she was going to try to use Healing Gloom before she went to bed, but her authority was still tender and raw. She'd need days in an actual bed to recover, but with her "band-aids" she could get pretty close to covering it all up.

Of course, she wouldn't admit any of that to Solomon.

"I can keep going, just needed a few hours to catch my breath." Solomon's eyes raised, "Wow, you recover fast."

"Yeah. Still only D-rank though, so I'm not sure how much help I can be. I work better by myself," Grim said.

"D-rank? Your aura's insane. I'm only an E." This time it was Grim's turn to look at him in disbelief. She waited for a smile to crack across his face, but there was nothing, not even a twitch.

"You're lying. How the hell are you alive? What kind of Boons do you have?" He smiled at that, "I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours. You did something in your fight against the clock tower, I don't think anyone noticed it but me. Your authority cracked, but you held it together somehow. Willpower alone isn't going to help you there, I know that for a fact."

"You know that for a fact? Why? You got one of your own?" Grim asked. He motioned zipping his mouth closed as he grinned at her.

"Fine," Grim said.

"I can make temporary copies of Boons and I can heal quick. One of the Boons I copied, let me disrupt the things hold on me for a second, just enough to get that last step." Maya gave her a searching gaze, looking for something in what she'd just said, but if she found anything, she didn't show it before she closed her eyes again.

"That's lucky, and you're right, I did unlock my authority. There was an Incursion at Centennial Park a couple of months ago. Big lizards armed with spears. Managed to take a couple out with it before Valorant and Aegis came to clear things ou-""-Stop," Grim said.

"What?"

"You're the other E-rank? I was there too, the shard exchanger mentioned someone else killed a few."

"Enough to get a C-rank Boon and some boon-infused rounds for my weapons."

"Why the guns? They're cool, but surely the C-rank would be enough?" Solomon shook his head, "I have enough Aura to power it, but my body's not durable enough to handle the recoil. Long story short, I make explosions when I punch something. It's strong, but a last resort. I've got enough bullets to handle the regular things here and a couple Boon-infused rounds for special targets. My authority will handle anything else."

"You didn't want to advance?" Grim asked.

"Can't and before you ask, no I don't feel like getting into it." Grim was curious, but she didn't bother prying, it didn't matter here and there was no point in pissing the guy off. People were sensitive to things like that, and he seemed to be doing well for himself. Alyn seemed to sense his discomfort and absent-mindedly reached her hand over to rub his knuckles.

"Anyways, I'm gonna try and get some sleep. Just think about what I asked you, and we'll figure it out tomorrow, alright?" Solomon continued. Grim nodded, "Alright."