Mac quietly sat there on the ground as he patiently waited for the pain to wear off before he did another thing stupid and potentially harmful to himself.
While Mac silently giggled to himself as his stupidity amused himself and only himself, the pain finally became bearable again. He could feel that the injury in his head was healing at a fantastic speed thanks to the pink pills he had consumed. It was like the cracks in his skull were being reformed by the minutes.
"Too bad I can't take the blue pill, though." Mac decorated the dreadful silence around as he said out loud. "It is possible I would have exploded since I don't have a working Small Orbis."
Mac once again laughed to himself while imagining what kind of expression Hai would make if she knew how dangerous the handful of pills she ate could be.
Time passed as Mac, somehow desperately, tried to entertain himself. He would talk out loud to no one to hear and sometimes tickle his head to feel the pain for some reason that no one, including him, could explain.
Mac did not bother if people would think that he was insane if they saw him. After all, that was no one there. He was all alone, with nothing to do but to think. And that was the thing he hated the most.
Distant painful memories that he always tried to ignore bombarded his conscient. Responsibilities and promises already abandoned came back to haunt him.
Mac crawled his legs to his stomach and held them. It was as if the man almost drowning himself in glory and confidence had died from the wounds, and only a traumatized kid was left.
As if in a panic attack, Mac felt the air stuck in his throat. He hurriedly got up on his feet, ignoring the soaring pain, and started walking in circles, trying to calm down.
"I need to busy myself with something!" Mac almost screamed. "That is it! I will help out Hai with the tribals! Even if I can only carry one at a time, it will be better than staying here with these lifeless corpses.
Mac impatiently stomped towards the same way Hai had disappeared, but due to his lack of concentration, he accidentally stepped on a body.
Mac would have gone on his not-so-merry way if the body didn't groan in response. He frantically looked back and saw the soulless Luterio, still staring blankly.
Mac's mind was as empty as Luterio's for a brief moment, but a sudden idea brightened his worldview and blew his worries away.
"Wait, Luterio and his fellow invaders probably have a hideout in the woods, right?" Mac started deducing as his expression improved. "That was the place Hai and I were going to check before the whole tribe was set ablaze."
Mac started to happily cook an outlandish idea now that he had something to amuse himself.
"These guys, it is likely that they have something of value there." Mac gaily let his greed take over his reason if it made him occupied. "Considering that they had a cultivator among them, there might even be a spiritual treasure there!" He comically dragged his hands against each other like a fly while making an overly grabby expression.
"Hey, Luterio!" Mac inched closer and pulled Luterio by the hair while using Hidden Will. "You can guide me to your hideout, yeah?"
"Yes." A short and bland response left his mouth.
"Wonderful, wonderful!" Mac chanted merrily. He let Luterio go for a moment and stretched his back. It was like the deeply disturbed Mac from before never existed.
Somehow, the more chaotic his mind was, the clear he could think. Mac remembered that he had forgotten his trusty weapon that basically carried him throughout the night.
Mac turned around and hopped back to grab his war hammer. He leisurely seized the head on the ground and awkwardly twitched the shaft out off Ludan's body.
Mac did not even spare a glance back to the bloody mess that once was a powerful cultivator. Ludan was just a passing experience for Mac that he would have forgotten by midday. He did not hold any grudge nor hate for his fallen enemy anymore. That was probably the worst fate for a cultivator. His demise was only worth a brief sense of pride that barely lasted an hour.
But either way, Mac showed his aloofness towards Ludan by frantically shaking the head and the shaft of his war hammer to wash away Ludan's rests. He even rubbed the weapon's part on the dirt to make it less "dirty."
Being done with his scurrity with the cultivator remains, Mac attached his war hammer back together. He raised it towards the sun with his working arm and gladly smiled at it.
So many lives had this weapon taken the gone night, and yet the war hammer remained unscathed, ready for another bloodbath. Undoubtedly, Mac's perfect weapon.
"Ok then, there we go!" With his weapon in one hand, Mac extended to drag Luterio by the collar with his other arm. He had somehow forgotten that he had broken it.
Mac flinched his arm back due to the sock while he cursed his stupidity. It would have been fine if there was an audience to laugh at his action or, at least, to play the straight man to him.
Mac unwillingly stored his oversized weapon on his back and, this time used his not-broken arm to carry Luterio.
"Luterio," Mac ordered with his Hidden Will as he roamed out. "Tell me the directions to your hideout."
Luterio's body was lifeless like a stringless puppet while Mac yanked him around, but he still gave sufficiently detailed information about the path Mac would have to take. As he inquired further with his Hidden Will, Luterio also explained the landmarks that Mac would need to find.
He needed to be thorough with his question, or else some details could be left behind. Hidden Will worked best on broken individuals, but there were still some shortcomings. Luterio, for example, would only give the most direct answer to Mac's questions, unconsciously being less productive than a cooperative hostage. But Mac cared little and was satisfied with even less.
Done talking, he quickened his pace to find the first landmark. Apparently, he would find it on his way to the Crimson Coast.
For once, Mac enjoyed the silence since his mind was working, thinking about all the various treasures he would find. His imagination went crazy with outlandish assumptions.
But Mac's mood was slightly soured as he went through more and more burned tents. He couldn't help but wonder how many memories and stories of this tribe disappeared with the flames.
"The people will live on, though." He told himself, thinking about how the tribals could all be saved thanks to the powers of the red sea. "But they will need resources for that. Oh, fuck!" Mac had realized something with that last line of thought. His usually lacking consciousness would make him share the loot he would find in the invaders' hideout.
Mac left a defeated sigh. "I guess it can't be helped that I am such a great guy."
It took around twenty minutes when Mac finally reached where the tribe (or what rested of the tribe) ended and where the forest that separated the beach from the tribals started. There, Mac once again met Hai. It seemed like she had already reached the beach once and made her way back since she was forming another firie platform for the harmed tribals.
"There will go, Miss Florinda." Hai sweetly raised the old lady who they had met before. "Everything will be all right. The invaders are finally gone."
"It looks like you still have the strength to make a few more trips, huh?" Mac said, without stopping
Hai looked back at Mac with a shocked expression that quickly morphed into a warm smile. It seemed her idea of Mac became extremely positive after their victory.
Hai's instincts made her want to thank Mac again, but she was taken aback when she saw her fabled savior entering the forest while carrying their crippled enemy.
"Wait, Mac!" She followed him with moderate speed while still carrying the harmed tribals with her powers. "Where are you going with Luterio?"
"To the place where these guys were hiding." Mac turned to look at Hai, who had already caught up to him. It was quite impressive to him that she had already so much control over her fire. "And this guy is going to show me the way."
"Oh, in that case, you can wait for me!" Hai finally surpassed Mac in speed as she went ahead. "After I am done saving my people, I will gladly take you there." She didn't even know why he wanted to go there now that the battle was over, but she really wanted to help Mac somehow.
"Well, that won't be necessary." But Mac nodded in appreciation while he watched Hai being so eager to help even though she already had so much to do. "I don't feel like waiting. I can find the way by myself."
And so he did. Just as he finished, he saw the first landmark. A bald tree, with most of its twigs broken. He had to turn there and follow a different trail.
Mac swiftly took a jump to the left and landed on a bunch of leaves and fallen branches. He heard Hai scream something to him, but the crunchy ground muffled her voice. Luckily, she did not pursue him and let him go unbothered. She still had a lot to do, after all.
Mac branded on with large steps, almost jumping each time. He was in such a hurry to reach his destination that his guide would often hit easily avoidable obstacles due to carelessness.
Rare sparkles of sunlight filtered by the leaves would faintly illuminate Mac's way through the dense woods. Mac was actually tempted to change his pace to a peaceful walk to enjoy his time in this relatively bland but still beautiful forest.
But he knew better. If what Luterio had informed him was correct, he still would have a long time to appreciate the path since it was a very long walk to their hideout.
It took Mac around an hour, after landmark after landmark, to finally see where his destination was. From the top of a conventionally high elevation, he saw the cave engraved in a mountain in the distance.
"Nice," Mac commented as he scouted the area. "This is probably the place Hai talked about last night! I can see almost the whole forest from here."
And so much he saw beyond trees and dirt. Far away, he saw someone coming out of the cave. There were more invaders left, two of them, in fact, as Mac observed.
He looked down on Luterio, who now was covered in dirt with ragged clothes in a similar fashion to Mac. At first, he assumed that Luterio had somehow lied to him about how many enemies were left, but then he realized it was actually his fault. Mac was not really that careful when he questioned Luterio with Hai. He didn't think about the possibilitie of more of them staying behind to guard the fort.
"Ish, good thing Hai is not here to see this fuck up." Mac belittled himself as he went down the hill, purposely lugging Luterio to the floor. He was trying to get himself out of view.
Mac leaned on a nearby tree and dropped Luterio unceremoniously. He was deciding on how he should proceed with this easily foreseeable event that he somehow missed.
He could brute-force his way through, but he needed to be mindful of his injuries. He could seek aid from Hai, but Mac judged that she had already gone under too much stress for a while.
For once, he decided to do something smart(for himself), and he raised Luterio from a damped pile of leaves. "Luterio," Mac demanded with Hidden Will, "How many of your guys did you leave behind at that cave where you guys resided."
There was a strange delay from Luterio, but then he finally answered. "Only two still rest. You killed all the others." Tears came down his slightly-less-blank stare.