Chapter 601: Moon Outlaw [2]
Without hesitation, he grabbed Moon’s neck, gently lifted upwards and took out a vial from his storage ring.
He opened it in a hurry, and gently made Moon swallow it. He wasn’t worried about Moon choking, the potion would dissolve into energy before it could hurt someone like Moon.
"Why is it not working?!"
Ten agonizing seconds had already passed since he fed Moon the potion, and there was no sign of Moon’s condition improving.
Unsure, he grabbed the communication device at his belt and pressed the emergency channel with fingers that shook slightly.
"Captain Rowan! it’s Kellan, I’m in the main hall! The boss is down! He’s unconscious, his breathing is bad, his face is purple, and he is missing an arm. I need backup, I don’t know what to do!"
Rowan’s voice came through immediately. There was only one person that everybody called boss in the floating islands, and that was Moon.
"Feed him a health potion!"
"I already did! I gave him one like ten seconds ago, it’s not working!"
There was a brief silence.
Then Rowan’s voice returned, harder.
"Feed him another! I’m coming. Don’t move him. Keep him breathing. I’ll be there as soon as possible!"
Rowan cut the channel and turned immediately to the two Evolvers hunting alongside him. The tank had already spotted the worry in his tone. The burly man too.
"What’s wrong?" The tank asked with a frown on his face.
"Boss is down. Kellan found him near the gate in a terrible state... with a missing arm."
Neither of them asked a follow-up question, but their grim expression showed their worry.
The three of them had been sweeping the wilderness near the now-conquered spirit pavilion, hunting a nesting pack of beasts that had been causing problems for the outer patrols. They had been the closest team to the base when the call came in. More importantly, they were also the three who knew Moon best among the freed Evolvers. They had fought Layla, the Witch of Charm, alongside him. They had crossed the wilderness with him. They had shared campfires and broke bread together.
If anyone was going to move fastest for Moon, it was them.
Rowan launched into a sprint.
The tank and the burly man followed a step behind, all three of them pouring every scrap of stamina into raw speed. The wilderness blurred past them. Trees, ridges, and streams passed in a smear of color as they cut across the shortest path back to the base.
Rowan’s mind ran contingency plans as he ran.
’Healing potion didn’t work... If it did nothing, then the issue must be deeper. Internal damage? Poison? Mana poisoning? The boss was meant to be in the tournament right now... something must have happened on Earth.’
His teeth ground together.
’Something forced him to.’
His pace picked up.
Back in the main hall, Kellan held Moon’s head steady and watched his chest rise and fall in increasingly shallow motions. Each breath was smaller than the last.
The purple discoloration was creeping outward from Moon’s mouth toward his cheeks.
He whispered again.
"Please, boss. Just hold on. The captain’s coming. Just hold on for a little longer."
Moon didn’t respond. Internally, his body was being wrecked by the aftermath of Life Burn.
Ten minutes later, Rowan, the tank, the burly man, and a healer from the base’s medical wing rushed through the gate into the main hall.
They caught sight of Moon’s condition immediately.
The burly man’s eyes widened. The tank’s face went pale. Both of them rushed forward toward Moon’s collapsed body without thinking.
"Boss!"
Rowan grabbed their arms before they could reach him.
"Wait. Don’t crowd him. You’ll limit the little oxygen he’s still taking in. Give him space to breathe."
The two of them froze in place, then took a step back. They exchanged a look, understanding the reasoning without needing further explanation. Both of them nodded and settled into ready stances a few paces away, their concern still visible in their expressions.
Rowan stepped forward with the healer.
The healer was a middle-aged woman with gentle eyes.
She had been one of the late captives Moon’s team had freed and had been running the base’s medical wing ever since.
She dropped into a crouch beside Moon.
Her hands moved across his body, casting a diagnosis skill.
Her expression grew tighter with every check.
’His condition is more dire than I expected. Whatever pushed him to this state was severe. His mana channels are damaged. His core is radiating heat that shouldn’t be present in a body at rest... This isn’t something a potion can address.’
She sat back on her heels and looked up at Rowan.
"We can’t move him. Not yet. His body is in some kind of active internal crisis. If we relocate him now, we risk shifting whatever precarious balance is keeping him alive. Movement could disrupt his breathing further, or destabilize whatever compensation his body is currently running."
Rowan nodded once. He turned to Kellan.
"I’m assuming the potions didn’t work?"
Kellan shook his head.
"None of them. I fed him five in the time it took you to arrive. Nothing had any effect. It’s like his body isn’t accepting them at all."
Rowan exhaled slowly.
His eyes moved back to Moon’s face. The purple discoloration around the mouth had spread outward across his cheeks.
His skin was slick with sweat that hadn’t stopped despite the coolness of the stone chamber.
Rowan crouched beside the healer.
"We’ll keep watch. If his condition stabilizes, we’ll move him to the medical wing. If it worsens, we’ll adjust. For now, we hold position and monitor."
He looked around at the small group gathered in the main hall.
"Talan." He turned to the tank. "Position at the gate. If anyone else comes through, intercept them before they reach the hall. Nobody is allowed to enter until the boss is okay, or moved from here."
The tank nodded once and moved to the gate.
Rowan turned back to Moon.
He sat down beside him on the stone floor, one hand resting on his own knee, the other close enough to Moon’s body to feel any change in his condition without directly touching him.
"You always survive, boss. Whatever this is. You always survive." He whispered.