God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.-Chapter 742: Thoughts After The Battle.

Sitting on the ground, Cain stuffed his mouth with meat and bread he had bought from Valestorm.

While the bread did taste a bit stale, the meat was cooked to perfection, seasoned with a bit of sea salt to boost the flavor.

Not only would it fill his stomach, the meat was also extremely nutritious, as it came right off the body of a slaughtered mutant creature.

Sitting around him and stuffing their mouths were Jenny, Susan, Evangeline, and Roselle.

Although Jenny had suffered a rather nasty head injury, it had rather easily to heal, and all she had to do was walk the resulting concussion off. Normally, this would have been impossible to do, but her body was no longer that of a regular human being.

As such, the recovery time was greatly reduced.

Susan on the other hand had simply run out of mana. During the battle with the Stone Knight, she had played a significant role in keeping them, as well as Cain’s contracted beasts alive. Had it not been for her, they probably wouldn’t have been able to last as long as they had.

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Seeing her scarf down food as fast as possible to try and recover her lost energy made him stifle a laugh.

Susan raised a brow and turned to him. However, since her mouth was full, she couldn’t say anything. Watching her slowly chew with her cheeks puffed out made Cain feel a bit awkward, so he averted his gaze and turned towards Roselle.

His pleasant mood immediately turned sour.

She had suffered the most in the battle with the Stone Knight.

She nearly had her arm completely blow apart. And to a degree, it had been...

Luckily, with a ton of healing and more than a few regeneration potions, they had managed to save the arm, although it was still badly damaged.

At least, she wouldn’t have to lose the arm, although it would take a while to heal.

Cain frowned.

Sensing something wrong, Roselle looked up from her simple meal.

Locking eyes with Cain who was staring intensely at her, she couldn’t stop her cheeks from flushing red,

"W-what is it?"

Cain sighed, "How’s your arm?"

Roselle’s awkward demeanor was replaced with grim resignation,

"It doesn’t look like I can do much about it for now. It will heal up, but I won’t be able to fight at full strength for some time."

Cain paused for a moment, then said,

"Then wouldn’t it be better for you to retreat to the rear lines for now? I and Eva can handle the melee combat for now while you recover."

Roselle frowned, then shook her head,

"Don’t worry. I can still fight." She said briskly, then resumed eating her portion of food.

Cain wanted to say something more, but felt a hand rest on his.

Susan looked at him and quietly shook her head.

Cain could almost hear her thoughts telling him not to pursue the matter.

’If anything worse happens to her, the overall strength of our group will be greatly reduced. Now that we are entering slightly more dangerous territory, we will need as much help as we can get.’

Cain was even tempted to remain here and wait for her to heal up completely.

However, he remembered that they didn’t have all the time in the world. A few days out of the thirty they had been given had already gone by.

They had to get moving as fast as possible.

But before that...

He went over the details of the battle in his head, from start to finish.

Before the battle began, he had sensed the mana flow patterns in their immediate surroundings change.

At first, he had believed it was the result of a spell, and he was right. However, the caster of the spell was not who he had believed it to be.

’If my guess is right, then the Collosus was summoned. The magic that stalled the mana flow patterns was summoning magic.’

Then he frowned,

’But I didn’t see any magic circles.’

It had been odd. Could it be the caster had magic that could magic circles? Or was it that they didn’t needagoc circles to cast spells?

Both guesses were equally terrifying. One thing was for certain, and that was that the Stone Knight had not just spawned into existence.

’Is the caster in the Tower? Is it the Arbitrator? Or could it be someone else?’

Someone even scarier...

He shivered.

The battle prowess of the Stone Knight was also something else.

It was methodical and straightforward. Yetz it was cunning and brutal. The Stone Knight made use of every part of its body as a weapon, not just its sword and shield.

The reason why Ruby and his other contracted creatures has suffered so much, was mostly because of its tyrannical combat abilities.

The way it moved, its nimbleness, was absurd for a being that huge. Its perception of everything happening around it, to the point where it could even see and dodge Jenny’s bullets, seemed absurd and impossible.

It was so powerful, it could take all of them on at once, and even nearly succeeded in taking a few of them down with it.

The {Stone Bloodknight, Collosus}, was the perfect warrior. Well, almost perfect...

It has a single flaw...

It could not use magic.

It was strictly because of this flaw they had been able to clutch victory from the jaws of death.

With its second transformation, the Stone Knight’s defensive abilities had shot through the roof. It’s physical defense has been raised by several notches.

However, its magic defense hadn’t increased by much.

Magic was an inherently intrinsic property. Meaning a creature had it, or it didn’t.

Being able to defend against magic was also a special property that was not possible without magic.

Because the Stone Knight couldn’t use magic, its magic defense was not as powerful, and all of it lay solely in its armor.

Normally, even after finding that weakness, taking advantage of it as well would be something else entirely.

The {Stone Bloodknight} was on a whole other level. Those with lesser ability would have been dispatched long before they had the time to figure anything out.

He stuffed the last piece of meat in his mouth, then chewed slowly.

Such combat power that didn’t care for too much complications, was what he aspired to achieve.

With a single observation of the Stone Knight, it was easy to tell that the soul of the Knight that had been trapped within it, had been a killer. A proficient one at that.

Such concise, wicked movements. The end goal of every action it made was the death of one of them.

Fighting it truly hadn’t been pleasant.

But...

’I want to fight like that.’

"Cain, look..."

A voice brought him out of his reverie.

He turned his head, and sure enough, there was a change.

His eyes narrowed,

"Night is coming."

They quickly got up and got rid of their campsite.

Evangeline spoke as she checked her weapons before returning them to the sheath and placing them in her inventory,

"The next stage of this trial might be tricky."

She turned to Cain,

"From here on our, we might be forced to fight against those things we saw on the island."

Her expression slowly turned grim,

"If that happens, filling up the {Soul Orbs} will not be easy at all."

Susan hummed, "Completing the second and third conditions are not necessary. I still believe we should be safe and head towards the mountain base with caution."

Cain fell silent then turned to Jenny,

"What do you think?"

Jenny’s eyes widened, "Me?"

Cain nodded, "I’ll need everyone’s opinion before we make a decision. It is all our lives on the line here."

Jenny remained silent for a moment, before she slumped her shoulders and sighed,

"Frankly speaking, I don’t like the idea of actively seeking trouble..."

She paused, and after a moment of hesitation, she added,

"But I do believe that anything done should be done well. If we complete this trial, then we should at the very least attempt the second condition. If I recall correctly, the Arbitrator said the rewards are proportional to the risk."

Cain nodded then turned to Roselle,

"What do you think?"

Roselle remained silent for a while with her eyes shut, as though she was seriously contemplating.

Just when Cain thought she wasn’t going to say anything, she suddenly spoke,

"I suggest we aim even higher."

Her eyes snapped open. Cain could feel the fire in her gaze clearly.

"Why not go all the way? If you told me I would be fighting and coming out victorious against a Celestial grade being a few days ago, I would doubt your sanity."

She heaved a deep breath. Then her expression steeled,

"But I did. We did... That means we are more than capable of challenging this stupid trial and seeing it to the very end. If that is the case, then I won’t mind fighting every battle like it is my last!"

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Cain was stunned speechless.

They all were...

Silence...

Roselle blushed heavily,

"T-That’s just my opinion. It’s just a suggestion after all—"

Cain chuckled, then shook his head,

"No, I think I like your suggestion."

Jenny smiled reassuringly, "Why not go all the way, right?"

Susan sighed then smiled wryly,

"I guess it can’t be helped then. I’ll just have to make sure no one dies. Doesn’t seem too hard."

Cain felt his confidence surge.

Roselle was right.

They had defeated the {Stone Bloodknight, Collosus}.

That meant they qualified to make an attempt at the second condition of the trial, perhaps even to the third.

’Yes... Simply passing is not enough.’

His pride was reignited...

They were going to come out on top.