After making sure there were no remains of the Berserker demon, Liam’s body finally gave up on sitting upright, and he collapsed onto the ashen ground.

He landed heavily at the edge of the destruction he had caused.

For a long moment, he simply lay there.

His eyes remained half-open as he stared up at the night sky, where the moon and countless stars illuminated the realm above. The pale light washed over his battered frame, making the damage he had sustained painfully obvious.

Both of his bare arms were covered in bruises.

His right arm carried numerous cuts, some shallow and some deep enough that dried blood still stained his skin.

His left arm looked even worse. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

The arm that had been pushed beyond its limits throughout the battle appeared almost burned by its own power. The skin was reddened and discolored in places, with faint traces of heat damage still lingering across it.

His sleeveless shirt was barely recognizable.

Large tears and burn marks covered it from top to bottom. Several portions had simply been destroyed during the fight, leaving patches of exposed skin visible beneath the ruined fabric.

His pants were not much better.

Cuts, burns, dirt, blood, and ash covered nearly every visible section.

Even his face had suffered heavily.

One side was beginning to swell noticeably, while multiple bruises darkened his skin beneath the moonlight.

And as Liam lay there staring upward, he calmly accepted the pain that finally came crashing into him all at once.

It hit him like a flood.

Every broken rib, every fractured bone, every strained muscle, every damaged joint, every impact he had taken from the Berserker, and every ounce of exhaustion accumulated throughout the fight.

The moment the battle ended and his body no longer had a reason to keep functioning beyond its limits, everything arrived together.

The result was immediate.

Pain.

Nothing but pain.

Liam couldn’t make the slightest movement without feeling it.

The smallest twitch of a muscle sent a jolt through his body.

The slightest movement of his fingers hurt.

Even adjusting his breathing carried discomfort.

And simply lying there on the ground was excruciating.

Though this wasn’t Liam’s first time ending up in such a state, it was the first time in a very long while that he had been forced to remain conscious through it.

Usually, after absurd fights like this, he simply passed out.

Then somehow, sometime later, he would wake up again.

That had happened after his battle with the Advanced Horror during the Vlardia assessment. It had also happened after fighting Blood Demons in Grandeur City.

It had happened more times than Liam cared to count.

But this time was different.

Passing out and hoping things somehow worked themselves out wasn’t an option.

Whether the academy intervened or not.

Whether a Forced Extraction happened or not.

Whether help arrived or not.

Liam trusted only himself to survive.

That meant somehow, some way, he needed to get away from this clearing before other demons arrived.

The disappearance of the Berserker’s presence would not go unnoticed forever.

Something would eventually come to investigate.

And when it did, Liam doubted he would be capable of fighting again.

The problem was that knowing what needed to be done and actually doing it were two entirely different things.

Because despite fully understanding the danger, Liam’s body was in no condition to cooperate.

At the moment, moving an inch felt impossible.

’Dammit, this whole thing was stupid of me,’ Liam thought as he stared blankly at the stars.

Now that the fight was over and the frustration he had been carrying for months had finally been vented, he could see the situation more clearly.

This entire outcome had been avoidable.

Completely avoidable.

Had he approached things differently.

Had he been more patient.

Had he been more practical.

He would not be lying in the middle of a ruined forest with half his body broken and barely enough strength left to move.

The fight had given him what he wanted.

But the price had been ridiculous.

Still, regret wasn’t useful.

The fight had already happened.

The damage had already been done.

Complaining about it changed nothing.

Now he simply had to deal with the consequences of his own decisions.

’I still have enough Myst to use Mend,’ Liam thought calmly.

His eyes remained fixed on the sky.

’But would it be enough to stabilize my body and let me move?’

Probably not.

Not properly.

But maybe enough.

Maybe enough to drag himself somewhere safer.

That led to another problem.

Could he even cast Mend over his entire body at once?

Mend was a universal spell, almost everyone who studied magic learned it eventually.

However, without a healing affinity, its applications were limited.

People used it on cuts, bruises, minor injuries, and small areas.

Nobody used Mend on their entire body.

Not because they didn’t want to.

Because they couldn’t.

The Myst requirements and concentration needed became absurd.

Yet Liam’s situation wasn’t localized.

His entire body needed attention.

Everywhere hurt.

Everywhere was damaged.

Using Mend on individual injuries would take too long.

It would consume too much Myst.

And he wasn’t exactly in a condition to spend hours casting spells on himself.

His eyes narrowed slightly.

’Time to find out if it’s possible.’

Liam slowly began gathering Myst.

Immediately, pain shot through him.

His damaged channels protested, his exhausted core resisted, and his entire body felt like it wanted to shut down.

But Liam ignored all of it then began circulating Myst throughout his body.

Not toward one wound or one area.

He sent it everywhere.

The process felt wrong immediately.

The spell wanted direction.

Specificity.

Precision.

Instead, Liam was attempting to spread it across every damaged section simultaneously.

The first attempt failed as the Myst scattered and the spell collapsed.

Pain exploded through his skull instantly, having him clench his jaw.

Thenhe tried again.

The second attempt lasted longer. This time the Myst circulated farther. It reached his ribs, arms, and parts of his back.

Then the flow destabilized and fell apart again.

The effort nearly made him black out as his vision blurred, his breathing uneven.

Still, Liam continued.

Again, and again, and again.

Each attempt lasted slightly longer than the previous one, and failure taught him something.

The Myst couldn’t simply be spread evenly, it needed a structure, a pathway.

Slowly, Liam began adjusting the flow.

Instead of treating his body as dozens of separate injuries, he treated it as a single damaged system.

The Myst circulated through everything at once.

His channels, muscles, bones, and joints.

The flow became smoother and more stable.

But it was painfully slow.

Then suddenly, the spell held.

Liam’s eyes widened slightly as a faint green glow appeared beneath his skin, indicating something important.

The was working.

Mend spread throughout his entire body, not in a strong or perfect way, but just enough that the excruciating pain flooding his senses lessend as damaged tissues began stabilizing.

Broken bones shifted slightly into better positions, with fractures stopped worsening and strained muscles relaxed just enough.

The spell wasn’t healing him, but it was preventing things from getting worse. And right now, that was enough.

The process drained him heavily, far more heavily than a normal Mend spell ever should. By the time it finished, Liam felt even more exhausted.

Yet despite that, he could move, even if it was barely.

Slowly, painfully, Liam rolled onto his side. The movement alone nearly made him regret existing. Pain shot through his ribs, back, arms, legs... absolutely everything.

Yet, he kept on moving.

Eventually, he dragged himself forward with one arm, then the other. He looked like a wounded animal crawling through the dirt.

Ash clung to his clothes, broken branches scraped against him, and the ground seemed determined to make every movement hurt.

Yet Liam continued dragging himself forward.

Little by little.

Second by second.

Until eventually he reached the edge of the ruined clearing.

There stood a tree. Liam stared at it for a brief moment before crawling towards it.

When he finally reached the trunk, he rested against it for several long moments, gathering whatever strength remained.

Then he grabbed hold of the bark and pulled himself up.

Immediately, pain exploded through his body, his vision darkening as his arms shook violently.

For a moment, it felt like a impossible task. Then somehow, Liam stood.

He was standing properly or confidently like he usually did, but he was upright.

He leaned heavily against the tree, breathing hard.

Liam remained there for a short while, letting the dizziness settle.

Then he began moving again, one step after the another. As he moved, the forest around him blurred slightly as trees became supports, branches became crutches, and roots became obstacles.

Several times he stumbled, and several times he nearly fell. Each recovery felt harder than the last, but he kept moving.

The movement was slow, pain, and relentless.

The distance he covered wasn’t impressive. In better condition he could have crossed it in seconds. Now it felt like crossing an entire realm.

Eventually his body began reaching its limit again.

His steps became slower, his breathing became heavier, and his vision grew increasingly blurry.

The Mend spell had done all it could. The rest depended entirely on willpower. And even willpower had limits.

Liam took another step, then another. Then his left leg failed completely as his foot caught on an exposed root.

He fell hard, the impact sending fresh agony through his body.

The air left his lungs immediately, and for several moments, he couldn’t even breathe. He simply lay there, waiting for the pain to settle enough that he could move again.

Eventually he managed to roll onto his back, and stared at the canopy which stretched overhead; dark, blurry, and disstant.

His vision was beginning to fade now. Not rapidly, but steadily. Like someone slowly lowering a curtain.

Liam tried to sit up, but his body refused. He tried again and nothing happened. The strength simply wasn’t there anymore.

His eyes simply stared upward at the leaves above swaying gently. The stars beyond them seemed strangely distant.

Then a silhouette appeared above him.

A blurry figure stood over him, looking down at him as he laid there.

Liam tried focusing to identify who it was, but everything had become too blurry and too distant.

Then he heard a voice.

The figure seems to be speaking, yet the words reached him as little more than muffled sounds. They were nothing .ore than fragments and meaningless noise.

His vision began to darken further as the silhouette remained there, still speaking.

But Liam could no longer understand any of it.

The last thing he saw was the vague outline of a figure standing over him beneath the canopy.

Then the darkness finally claimed him. And Liam passed out cold.