It had been nearly 30 minutes since the woman and the deer started fighting. The surrounding Knights were actually starting to win the fight and only a few men were left. Amazingly, the superior weapons were more effective than Sol thought.

Without a proper way to defend against the blades, the militia was forced to use human wave tactics against the Knights. Unfortunately, they realized far too late and the ground was littered with corpses. The militia were unable to gain speed with so many obstructions and thus, were cut down before they could become a threat.

Sol’s body felt drained and it was hard for her to even think of a time in the past where she was as weak. She was hardly conscious and only managed through sheer force of will to remain cognizant. The woman and the deer exchanged multiple blows, however it was clear the deer was on the losing end. If not for its abnormal vitality, the creature would have dropped dead long ago.

Chunks of silver littered the small battlefield and the beast was missing one of its horns along with that chunk of its skull. Despite that, the beast never waivered. It grunted once more and stomped the ground as if to threaten the woman from further actions.

The female Assembler was bruised and breathing heavily, yet her desire to kill never left her eyes. Her gaze darted to the surrounding Knights and she realized to her astonishment that the Knights were nearly victorious. Of the 500 man militia, only about 60 were left.

Time was no longer a luxury and her attention focused onto the swaying Sol. Although exhausted, Sol was keeping track of the battle with her spiritual awareness. She felt magic move in the environment and surge towards the woman. A pang of fear clenched her heart.

Although it was subtle, she felt the same effect the second time the woman teleported to attack her. Sol wasn’t sure she could dodge another strike with her current strength. Whatever that creature was, it drained her of strength and she had yet to even recover a sliver of what it took.

Sol felt as if there was a channel between her and the creature. All her magic and stamina was funneled away from her and into it. As if detecting the fear in Sol’s heart, the beast charged at the Assembler while grunting.

Mid charge, the deer charged through the woman’s after image. She flickered from view and appeared beside Sol with her blade drawn. Sol roused the last burst of strength she could and swung her dagger at the woman.

The blade cut through her scaly skin and drew a grimace from her yet her falling dagger continued. Sol felt pain from her shoulder as if a hot blade were pressed against it. Immediately after, she lost feeling in her arm and a flood of warm liquid soaked her clothing.

Enraged by the events, the silver deer let loose a guttural roar and charged the woman once more. Sol suddenly felt her body go limp and her conscience gave out. Her blackout went unnoticed by the woman who was distracted by the monstrosity charging her. The deer’s jaw unhinged, tearing apart its cheek muscle and skin. Its once smooth tongue extruded moving silver barbs.

The tongue lashed out like a whip at the woman. Her dagger clashed against the appendage, slicing it in two. Despite the injury, the beast ignored the pain and continued its charge. As the woman refocused her attention on the beast’s main body, she failed to realize the barbs on the cut appendage were still moving.

Just as she was about to dodge the monster’s charge, the barbs ejected from their host and stabbed into the woman’s flesh. The sudden pain brought the woman to her knees and immediately after, the deer-like creature smashed into her with its mouth open. The beast’s mouth clamped down on the woman’s shoulder with full power, yet it only managed to draw a slight amount of blood.

Despite that, the woman had a look of panic on her face. She was able to feel something moving inside her body. To her horror, the arm that held her dagger stopped responding. Moments later, it fell limp and she could see bumps moving down the limb under her skin.

Fear gripped the woman’s heart and she immediately sacrificed a portion of her vitality to fuel another teleport. Her body flickered from view and she escaped the battlefield. The monstrosity gazed in the direction the woman left before turning its attention to Sol. Its snout nudged her once and let out a weak groan.

Sir Leory was watching the entire fight and was extremely worried about Sol’s health. He risked injury and took a stab to his leg in order to bring down the three men blocking him. He limped to Sol and hesitated after the horrific beast looked up at him.

Sweat ran down his forehead and he managed a nervous comment. “I’m going to help her.” As if magic words, the beast’s visage dissipated into the air. Sir Leory put the beast to the back of his mind and immediately started looking over Sol’s wounds. The girl’s shoulder was slashed to the pearly bone on one side and there was a small hole on the other shoulder. Both wounds were pouring blood.

The injuries were so serious that Sir Leory’s face blanched. It was clearly a fatal wound. There was too much blood loss. He was at a loss of how to proceed when a shadow blocked the sun in front of him. An gazed down at the injured girl in deep thought. He turned his attention to the remaining men and swiped his arm.

Dozens of militia fell on the spot. A hole nearly a quarter inch wide appeared between each of their glabella. An allowed the Knights to finish off the remaining forces. He prioritized Sol and pulled her limp body from the ground.

“I’ll be back. Rest here after handling them.”

An’s figure then swayed before disappearing from Sir Leory’s view. Deep in the woods, An’s figure reformed along with Sol in his arms. He laid the girl on the ground and tore the dress along her back. His focus landed on the deep gash along her shoulder.

It was nearly a foot long and ran from the tip of her shoulder, down her back, and nearly reached her spine. “You got lucky Sol. A few more inches and you would have been paralyzed.” Although he spoke to himself, An knew the girl would have been fine even if the strike paralyzed her. He was watching the entire time, after all.

Magic leaked from An as he ran his hand across Sol’s bloody shoulder. Since the Assembler used the dagger Sol sharpened, the cut was abnormally smooth. It was as if the skin and muscle were never connected. Granules of flesh reacted to An’s stimulations and budding tendrils of muscle, fat, and bone reached across the divide.

An continued to cycle his magic and stimulate the cells near Sol’s shoulder. The tendrils grew in size and eventually merged together. The scene continued as An’s hand trailed down Sol’s naked backside. Eventually, only a slight white scar remained from the original foot long gash. An’s attention then turned to the hole on Sol’s shoulder.

The damage wasn’t nearly as neat here. Chunks of skin and meat were mixed together after the staff tore through it. Even so, An’s stimulation got to work and the area gradually repaired itself. The process continued for nearly 20 minutes and by the time he was done, An saw Sol’s scars fading away as well.

He pulled An’s body to a tree and covered her with a cloth. He left a note in front of her and set up a few runes to hide her from wildlife. An’s figure then accelerated into the depths of the woods. Trees and shrubs passed him by like a blur and not much later, An found the female Assembler.

The woman appeared to be in pain and was twitching on the ground while letting out the occasional groan and grunt. An dropped to the ground beside her and sent his spiritual awareness into the woman. Immediately, his expression changed.

Heavy thoughts crossed through him and Sol’s innocent visage came to mind. You really can never tell someone from their appearance. An’s thoughts aside, he continued to observe the woman’s condition. Bumps left dark trails across the surface of the woman’s skin.

Her painful groans gradually turned into frustrated and helpless sobs. Small holes breached the surface of her skin revealing a sliver of silver before blood would pour ceaselessly from the wound. The woman’s thigh collapsed a few minutes later as if the bone and muscle were liquified.

Like a sack of water with a leak, her thigh shrank in size as blood pooled below her body. Soon, her right arm followed and then her other thigh. An was amazed to find the woman was still alive after the damage done to her.

He could tell with his spiritual awareness that the woman’s body was being butchered and ground down from the inside out. Small beads of silver destroyed connecting tissue in some locations while it diced more solid materials like bone into a fine powder before moving on.

The process was slow and the woman was forced to live through it due to the superior vitality Assemblers contained. It was hard to know if her sobs were from the pain or the terror of feeling her body consumed from the inside.

An watched the whole process until the woman’s vital organs failed. The silver blobs refused to halt even after her death and continued to deconstruct the woman’s body. Eventually, there was nothing left of the woman aside from an empty skin sack.

Even An couldn’t help but feel a chill run down his spine at the sight of the hollow eyes of the skin sack. The silver blobs soon escaped the woman’s remains and dissipated into the air. An burned the woman’s remains then proceeded to collect Sol.