Awakening to a Special-Grade Explorer
Vol. 4 - Ch. 171 - An Unimaginable Situation

“——Huh?”

A confused murmur slipped out of Tenji’s mouth. He had coincidentally happened to see a dumbfounded scenario playing at the periphery of his vision—something bounced across the scene like a ball.

In just a couple of seconds, he immediately realised that ‘something’ was a ‘person.’

“L....President Limey!? Why!?”

“Cough ...…“

A dull thud sound echoed as the President Limey’s body rolled over the ground like a fallen spintop and crashed into a nearby huge tree. Her expression laced with an air of unbelievableness as she spit out the air out of her lungs.

All the strength left her body as she collapsed on the ground like a kite with its string cut, a bloody vomit escaping out of her throat along with the coughing.

The explorers around, who were dealing with the underling, swiftly noticed the changes following a loud crashing sound and Tenji’s scream.

“Waa—Limey!?”

“Are you kidding me!?”

“Huh? There’s no way!?”

They were all stunned to the core, understandably so.

In the net of encirclement to trap the underlings, the area Tenji and other explorers were at was the furthest from the central stage of this battleground.

The President Limey they had thought to be fighting all along at that central stage was suddenly thrusted before their eyes.

Certainly, there was nothing wrong in their perception. The screeching sound of battle from afar had been constantly pouring into their ears—filling their heart with the morale to keep pushing forward. There were even bright flashes occasionally lighting the sky, along with the rumbling like peal of thunder—seemingly the aftermath of a formidable skill.

All of this had been indicating that the central act was taking place at a place much far away from their spot.

Yet, when the dark clouds parted away to let the light rays shine upon—the truth was far above everyone’s imagination. Limey was suddenly at their side. The gruelling wound and bloodstain were but a mirror to suggest the magnitude of explosive attack that she had taken on. She had plummeted like a stone, caught in the turbulence of the wind, crashing down with velocity.

The sorry state of the most heavyweight person, needless to say, sprouted a bud of panic even among the professional explorers. Could they take on the monster that even a zero-grade explorer failed in? Not even if they had hundreds of lives at their disposal. Tempered like a steel their nerves might be, they weren’t impervious to the defeatist attitude at the sudden prospect of ‘A Losing War.’

And just as the whirlpool of negativism had been rising in everyone’s mind, there was someone who took action faster than anyone—Tenji.

“President Limey!!”

He was the closest person to where she crashed, and also the one who happened to see her plummeting in this direction first. He blitzes toward her direction, slaying any of the underlings in path with the Flame Demon Blade. His sword was hastily drawing arcs in the air to keep them from creeping up to her.

However his flurries of slashes couldn’t beat down the deluge of underling.

(Ah shit. President Limey would be in dire state at this rate!)

Tenji did boast impressive firepower but the numbers of enemies were dragging his feet. All he could do was to hopefully stop them from approaching her by becoming their target using bold moves and looking for an opportunity to save her.

But the number of enemies was simply overwhelming. They kept pushing at like the incessant rain.

There was no room to create an opening. Just how!? Tenji was fretting when—

“<Shriek - Rashomon>.”

“<The Thousand Curse Wall>.”

Screeeeeeeeeeeeee

A piercing shrill dominated the battleground the next moment. And in a perfect coordination, Chisato’s defensive skill weaved into the surroundings to open a path between the flock of underlings to President Limey. The intricately woven thread-wall binds monsters from taking any step further.

“Gooo, Tenji-kun!! We have your backkkkk!”

“Just ruuuuunnn!”

With no better timing than now, two voices resounded to give Tenji the much needed push.

‘Truly a marvellous execution,’ A sigh escaped Tenji’s lips in admiration at the reaction speed with which the support reacted while he himself looked no further and bolted into Limey's direction. A drizzle of monsters had made their way out but Tenji chopped down with the swiftest speed he could muster and at last arrived at where President Limey had collapsed.

President—Ursula Limey was on the ground, completely still. The one touting the title of ‘one of the strongest four’ was now at the mercy of wind, the candle of her life burning so low even the slight change in surroundings might extinguish it. The battered state of her body hardly held out any glimmer of hope as well.

Tenji hurriedly brought his ear to her mouth and heaved a sigh of relief when he heard her breathing, even if edging inaudible. However the order was too erratic. It was clear it was a matter of time before she fell into a coma.

Her abdomen was dyed in bright red and blood was unceasingly flowing out.

Her face and body was riddled with countless cuts, the skin of her right hand marred as if someone had splashed acid, and a cascade of bright red blood smeared across the forehead. —But a gentle luminous sphere was also floating above her, like a sparkling cotton-like seed.

It wasn’t that hard of a quiz for him to understand that light held the property akin to self-healing. He had seen a similar spectacle before, when she had used the same light during the exam on students. The luminous orb was somehow keeping the thread that kept her alive.

The situation however was—

“She doesn't have much time at this rate.”

The gap between her breathing was gradually widening. It needed but a simple stimulus before completely disappearing away.