Tristan saw Jian's arm fly through the air, landing near him. He stared at Jian's blood spreading across the ground for a few seconds, and Jian's scream echoed deeply in Tristan's confused mind.
'Why?'
He was stunned, paralyzed for a brief moment, unsure of what to do.
'Did he sacrifice himself for me?'
Jian, now missing his right arm, collapsed to the ground, his body writhing in agony. The ant turned its gaze back to him, preparing for its next attack. Seeing this, Tristan banished the confusion from his mind and clenched his fists.
"I won't let you do this."
With a murderous look in his eyes, he gathered his strength to stand once again.
'How much more can this damn thing take? After everything we did to it?'
Tristan opened his right hand, and a golden light began to appear, he was summoning the obsidian axe!
[Dark Blade] formed in his left hand.
Expending a large amount of essence, he charged at the monster once more.
The creature, seemingly accepting his challenge, snapped its jaws fiercely and also rushed toward him.
The sharp front legs of the crystal ant attempted to pierce Tristan's heart. He threw himself to the ground and rolled under the monster's abdomen. His black blade plunged deep into the creature's belly.
The giant ant tried to crush Tristan with its body, but he managed to dodge in time. His axe finally appeared, and he spun his entire body to deliver a powerful blow to one of the crystal ant's legs. The ant staggered slightly but fought bravely. Tristan, tired and irritated by his enemy's persistence, advanced toward the creature, striking it repeatedly with his axe in his right hand and his black blade in his left.
When the beast tried to crush him with its jaws once again, he dodged and took advantage of the monster's close head proximity to tear off another antenna using the long reach of his axe.
With no more essence in his body, Dark Blade dissipated.
Tristan gripped the axe with both hands firmly and began attacking the ant with all the strength of his now weak body. Fortunately, the creature was also too exhausted to fight back. Unfortunately, Tristan couldn't cause much damage in his current state.
"Die! Die! Die!"
He attacked the ant's head frantically; cracks began to appear in the obsidian axe. At almost the same time, the crystals around the ant's head and his axe shattered.
[Your artifact has been destroyed]
He heard this in his mind but didn't care.
He grabbed the axe handle and drove it into the monster's now exposed brain.
Finally, the giant ant stopped fighting, and its body collapsed to the ground with a loud thud that echoed through the area.
Tristan fell to the ground, exhausted, drenched in sweat, and breathing heavily.
After a while, he looked at Jian with a serious expression on his face for a few seconds. Jian was lying unconscious on the ground due to blood loss. After thinking for a bit, Tristan tore a piece of Jian's shirt and tightly tied it around the small remaining part of his arm. He looked up and saw Yue, Feiyan, and Lan quickly descending the sloped ground toward him.
A while later, they got close enough to see Jian's terrible condition.
Feiyan's mouth opened in shock, and she asked Tristan:
"Is he... is he dead?"
Tristan shook his head.
"No, he's just unconscious from blood loss and lack of essence."
"Will he be okay?" Zhou Lan asked.
"If he can recover some of his essence before he dies, he might survive."
Zhou Yue looked at Jian with pity and sadness for his situation.
They rested for about 5 minutes. During this time, Tristan searched for the ant monster's crystal. He found a Red Solid gem, which gave him four more red fragments. He also examined the monster's crystals; they were harder than those of the smaller ants he had faced. Tristan decided to keep some crystals, thinking they might have some value one day.
After that, he thought for a moment and said:
"We have to get out of here as quickly as possible; we can't risk other monsters appearing!"
"But Jian isn't in any condition to move now!" Feiyan said worriedly.
Tristan lowered his head for a moment, then he stood up and said with a sigh:
"There's no other way; we have to drag him if we must, but we can't stay here."
Lan, understanding the gravity of their situation, grabbed Jian's unconscious body to carry him.
Tristan tried to start walking, but he was limping and clearly exhausted; he was more dragging himself than walking. Yue approached him and said:
"Do you need help walking?"
"No," Tristan said without hesitation and continued walking with difficulty.
Yue looked at his behavior and sighed. She approached the stubborn boy, who was a little shorter than her, and wrapped her arm around his body to support him as he tried to walk.
Tristan looked at her with a scowl on his face.
"What are you doing? I can do this on my own."
She ignored him and didn't reply.
***
Jian regained consciousness the next day, still very exhausted and still being carried by Lan. Tristan felt somewhat uncomfortable around him. Some things were going through his mind.
Another week had passed, and they didn't encounter any major problems along the way. Finally, the big day arrived, and they saw sunlight shining through the enormous diamond-shaped exit of the tunnel.
Tristan's and the others' eyes brightened at the sight of the sunlight. The end of the cave's darkness warmed their hearts and lifted their spirits.
Tristan took a deep breath of the air outside the cave. His journey was far from over, but he felt a pleasant sense of accomplishment for making it this far.
***
Another three weeks passed, and the group noticed a clear change in the environment. The large mountains, alps, and hills appeared less frequently. They were still in a region with many reliefs and hills, but the journey was now much less exhausting than before.
Another change was the tall, light green grass swaying in the wind in the area where they were. The trees in this place also had a curious appearance; they were tall, almost 20 m (65' 7) high, and slender, with some having a slightly reddish color, but the largest ones had a vibrant red hue.
Then Yue turned to the others and said:
"Hey, I hear something! I think there are other people here." She said it excitedly.
"Really? Where? Let's go there," her grandfather said.
She pointed the direction, and they headed there as quickly as they could.
Soon they saw that she was right; they saw dozens of people working to cut down the trees. Their appearance reminded Tristan of people from the eastern part of the central region, like Yue, Lan, and others. They were wearing light and simple clothes.
The loggers also noticed the approaching strangers and were clearly apprehensive. Lan calmly approached and said:
"Good morning, my name is Zhou Lan; we are a group of travelers; we were heading to the city of Zaguhan when we were attacked by a group of bandits."
"Are you by any chance from that city?"
The loggers, initially a bit suspicious, seemed to relax a bit, and some of them even showed signs of pity. One of them approached and said:
"Yes, my name is Zao Peng; you are near the city of Zaguhan, uh… welcome!"