"She said she is fine when I checked on her!" Sasha reassured.
"Everybody alive?" Elias asked again.
"Well. Yeah!"
"Then why aren't we being rescued?" Elias frowned. Each word rattled his body, and his bone protrusion sent shivers of pain to whole being.
He wanted the pain as that would show him he was fine. Not to mention, the silence was worrying; he needed his mind outside the coast he had been on.
"Can you pick us up?" Sasha sheepishly asked. Elias frowned; she wanted to show off. He wanted to laugh but felt strained—the last laugh didn't feel good.
He had no energy, but his connection with the book was good, so gravity force rippled out toward her and she floated toward him. Then they drifted toward the nearest person.
"Hey, are you dying or taking a nap?" Elias teased Buddhist Hand.
"You talk... too... much.!" His voice was strained. Gravity force enveloped him and he was pulled; the spear spinning on him stopped and toppled down.
"Haha. We won. We survived. I survived. We killed the Calamity beast!" Sani Elvin had gone insane.
But he too was pulled toward them. Each floating around the stone craft chair. Elias felt sleepy; he had lost blood and his body finally wanted to rest.
The chair became a platform. He lay, his body straightened. Beneath the platform though were spikes of rocks, painting an image of an eerie bed of comfort above and sharp spikes beneath.
Dicing Edge was picked up by the doctor, as she was more critical than them all. Vera Lance was too far away for Elias to reach her. In fact, the doctor had reached her already.
The drifting reached the tent when the sliver of Elias's consciousness faded away to oblivion.
They were all wrecked, but the gazes on them were of awe, envy, and fear. And the one that the officials gave them was of approval and concern.
Elias Thunderspark resisted the urge to run to his sister and heal her. So he walked away. "Let's see nothing anymore," he said. His team was surprised.
"Yeah. We have to prepare for that mission!"
***
Elias was deep asleep with a phantom pole stabbed in his chest. He snapped awake where he was suspended in a vast colorless plane with a one-foot-thick pole staking him.
"Dream!"
He snapped awake again, and a sigh reached him. Her concerned figure was beside him with a smile.
"Welcome back!" she said, her voice trembling. Elias found his tongue heavy, and his throat filled; he couldn't speak. His whole body was heavier than before and also numb.
IVs of different kinds were connected to him, pumping life-support medicine as well as water into him.
Elias smiled at Sasha and she nodded. "I'm glad you woke up. You are healing at an incredible speed, and I hope your mental health is normal."
Elias smiled more at her. He understood her worries; he had just woken up from a coma, which was something bad for a person until they were awake.
"I will let you rest. Doctors said you will have a splendid recovery!"
As she left, Elias's eyes began to become heavy until they closed. Now he was asleep, and the healing continued.
In another tent, it was filled with laughter, a boy covered in bandages speaking non-stop. "Yes. We are brave. We defeat. We defeated the enemy of humanity. Haha."
Sani Elvin's body was recovering normally. But his mind had taken a blow; psychiatrists were analyzing his case and coming up with solutions.
Sani Elvin's reaction and trauma were normal. Sasha and those that didn't suffer like him were the abnormal ones.
A distance away, in another tent, was a girl, awake. For the last four days, she had not rested; staked on her stomach was the spear covered in blood, but she was fine, alive but couldn't speak and was afraid.
The head doctor was before her. "Are you sure about what you want?" she asked Vera Lance, and the girl nodded despite her misgivings.
"Fine. I have recorded this as a form of your signing up!"
Sasha had been a regular visitor to all of them; now that Elias had woken up, she was at peace.
"How did we reach this stage?" Sasha thought. She felt like a girl who carried the weight of responsibility all of a sudden. "Is this what brother is feeling?" she wondered.
"I don't like it!" It was tasking to her heart, mind, and body. "That chaos. How did we even survive?"
She shook her head and passed a group having small talks and drinking tea. And reached a man close to another tent.
"Greetings, sir. Have you seen my brother?" she asked. Her eyes had been searching for him but failed to find him, but she didn't have the peace of mind to ask about him until now.
"He left four days ago. Something about some preparation for his next mission!"
Sasha sighed, she was going back when she was called to the leaders of the camp.
Buddhist Hand was drinking tea, surrounded by his people. With no injury or even scar on his body, he was perfectly fine. To be precise, he had healed three days ago.
Not only that, he had regained his full physique that pulsed with power and great stamina. He was the most powerful he could be at the moment.
He shook his head as the memory of the fight came to him. That was the most intense and deadliest fight he had ever been in. Even now he was filled with fear, not of him being injured or dying but of one of the fighters dying.
So many close calls, so many brushes with death that kept sending shivers down his spine.
Buddhist Hand still hadn't considered them his friends; he didn't make friends easily, but he carried their emotional weight in him. Their deaths would be a blow to him.
"This is just the beginning. What will happen if I lose any of my teammates?" The teacup almost tumbled from his hand before he steadied it. "I had pushed myself to the limit, but it was nearly not enough!"
He shook those anxiety-inducing thoughts and drank his tea.
Sasha was in a tent surrounded by four people. One of them was the doctor lead.
"Sasha Thunderspark. Marvelous are your exploits. You make a great team leader and put down two calamity beasts into hibernation!" a chubby man said.
"Thank you, sir!" she said with a soft smile tugging on her lips.
"Unfortunately, we have to punish you for causing large-scale destruction."
"What?" Sasha snapped at him unconsciously.
***
Can you imagine that my Contract Application was rejected and no reason was given. I wonder why, if you have inkling please tell me.