The blast covered my vision in a blinding white light. If I were a religious person, I would probably believe that I had died just then. But I was in too much pain for that to be the case. Shifting my body so I could see what happened around me was a bad idea. The moment I did so, I felt a sharp pain in my back. It seemed to be focused near the shoulder blades, but there were smaller stabbing feelings on my lower back. Still, looking around wasn't really helping as I was still blind due to the flash caused by the explosion. But I had to figure out what was going on. More importantly, I had to know if the Guardian Eater was truly dead or if it was coming back to attack me.
'Sys, use {Body Regeneration} and focus on my eyes.'
[Acknowledged.]
A tingling sensation appeared around my eyeballs. Honestly, the feeling was excruciating in more ways than one. There was no pain attached to it, but it was such a strange sensation. Thankfully, I slowly started to see some shapes in the distance that were moving around, meaning that even if it felt absolutely terrible, it was possible to recover my sight using {Body Regeneration} like this. I looked down, forcing myself to push through the pain in my back, and couldn't see any large shapes towering over me or anything else, making me assume the Guardian Eater had also been killed. Or more specifically, it destroyed itself in order to take us down with it.
Trying to go for a different way to confirm this, I asked, 'Sys, did we get the particles when the thing died?'
[Currently, user has not acquired the large amount of particles that would represent the death of the Guardian Eater.]
'But has it died?'
[Due to user's current state, the System cannot give a proper evaluation.]
I grumbled while forcing myself to get back up onto my feet. The pain in my back was so fierce that I shouted as I moved. Yet, once I was standing up, it subsided. Only certain motions seemed to be triggering the worst of it, and as long as I avoided making them, I wouldn't need to worry about being in so much pain that I couldn't function properly.
"Cass?" I heard someone calling me as they approached. My ears were still ringing, but even despite that, I could recognize Michael's voice.
"What happened? Is everybody okay?" I asked, still trying to make sense of the blurry shapes in front of me.
"I don't think most of us are," the archer replied.
"What about the Eater?" I tried to brandish my staff, but without being able to see properly, I was just pointing in no particular direction.
"It's gone." He replied.
"What?" I asked, "It ran?"
"No, it vanished." Michael replied.
"But we didn't get the particles. That doesn't make any sense," I said with a frown.
"It actually does." Riley's voice reached my ears.
"What do you mean by that?" I turned in the general direction that the silk witch came from.
"Eaters might be getting smart about being big bags of particles. So instead of letting us have it, it just blows everything up when it realizes it's about to die, destroying all the particles to make sure that no one gets them, or maybe sending the particles so far away that no one can acquire them."
"That's a fair point," I sighed, but the motion made me flinch."
"How are you?…" Riley said in a half breath, their voice full of worry.
"What? what's happening?" I asked and saw how Michael stepped to the side, almost behind me.
"Oh no, that's bad," he gasped.
"What? What's going on? Please tell me."
"Large spike on your back," Astrid quickly spoke up. Her voice was coming from a bit farther away, and there was some strain in it, as if she was also struggling with something.
"Are you hurt?"
"Yes. Nothing dangerous," the Huskcarver replied.
I could feel my eyes slowly starting to return to what they should be. Everything was still somewhat blurry, but I decided to focus on something else.
"System, tell me how badly injured I am, and I don't like the way they are acting."
Acknowledged.
User Cassandra indeed has a large wound on her back. Said wound is currently being kept open by a shard of Eater's skin that is stopping the System from being able to close it, even with the help of {Body Regeneration}.
"Okay, got it. You're going to have to take this out of me," I turned to the blurs that I was assuming to be Michael and Riley.
"What?" Michael gasped. "I'm not touching that thing. Maybe if I do, it's going to just make everything worse."
"How can it possibly be worse than having a giant spike of metal in my back?"
"What if I take it out and you start to bleed out?"
"I survived an Eater stabbing me through my guts. I survived thanks to the System fixing my entire stomach and intestines, so trust me when I tell you this is nothing. Just help me get it out so I can start using {Body Regeneration} and remember, I have {Enduring Heart}, I'm better at surviving this kind of thing than most of us. Just take this thing out of me because it's really hurting," I pressed.
But neither Michael nor Riley seemed to be willing to do anything about that. Instead, it was Astrid who stepped forward and, without saying a word, just yanked the shard out of my back. I could tell that she managed to remove the big one, but there were still more in my body, which were stopping me from being able to recover from the wounds properly. Still, the big one was out, and I could feel the blood starting to leak from the wound in my back.
'Sys, would the shard have been enough to pierce through my spine?'
[This would result in the user becoming paralyzed.]
'Would {Body Regeneration} be able to fix that?'
[The System has never attempted such an intense type of recovery. It is theoretically possible. However, the System could only give a definite answer once user has experienced something as such]
'Yeah, I truly hope I never need a definitive answer then.'
Eventually, {Body Regeneration} did its job, and my eyesight returned, as well as the hole in my back being slowly fixed. It would still take a while before I was 100% again, but I could move now and try to help the rest of the Rodenti. Because even if I was in bad shape, what happened here wasn't a fight. It was a massacre.
Of the 15 people who were fighting in melee range, none of us came out unscathed. Most were badly burned and full of injuries, and there were a couple who lay motionless on the ground. Unfortunately, no one was in a good enough state to even check their conditions.
Yet it seemed like my companions were among the people who were the luckiest. Astrid had a couple of bruises, but they were mostly due to her tumbling forward in order to avoid being caught by the explosion. The cloak made from the Ice Devil's fur managed to protect most of her back from the debris. Michael and Riley only had a few scrapes as they were hit by the shockwave and not the blast itself. And Rex was quick enough on the draw to not just avoid the explosion completely, but even create a stone barrier that he used to protect not just himself but all the mages that were around him.
Eventually, we were able to gather our bearings and take a proper look at what happened. Three people were dead as they were directly below the Eater when it exploded, including one of the more seasoned hunters. Apparently, people saw him rushing to try to help someone else who tripped and fell. The irony was that while it was very nice of him, was an action that the hunter himself constantly tried to make people stop thinking about, often mentioning that in a situation where they were truly in danger, going back to save someone else could cost the rescuer their life. And that was exactly the case here.
There was another Rodenti who perished who was just unlucky enough to be on the path of one of the shards of the metallic shield that protected the legs of the Guardian Eater. The debris flew off at high speeds and hit the Rodenti directly in the head. Her corpse was still there on the ground with the piece of metal piercing one of her eyes and most of her skull.
Aside from that, everyone who was below the Eater or near it was injured. About half were in a state that would require some time before they could move around again, and the other half were filled with bruises that would heal on their own. But it was pretty obvious that this group might not be able to participate in the attack on the nest anymore, especially since there were so many of us who were completely out of commission.
To add insult to injury, with the explosion, the Eater stopped anyone here from getting particles from it, meaning that our attempt to get stronger resulted in nothing. Less than nothing. After all, if we just tried to become stronger, we would still be healthy, but now not even that was left. The only hint of a silver lining was the fact that some of the shards of the Eater's metallic skin were not quickly putrefying as their bodies tended to do, meaning that maybe we could use that to create a weapon or something that could assist during the attack on the nest.
We were still gathering ourselves and doing our best to help the wounded ones when Rixnala stomped in our direction, growling at Rex.
"All your fault."
Rex paused, then turned to his sister with a confused expression before saying, "How? How Rex fault?"
"You weak. If stronger, could kill Eater."
Rex continued to stare at his sister, not really reacting to her words.
"If you not here, we be more careful. Less numbers. Would be different. And now, because you came, I lost my warriors. I lost fighters. I"
"Lost nothing," Rex replied. "Rixnala lost nothing. Still can walk, still can train, still can be strong. Hunters lost friends. Hunters lost family. Hunters lost health. And Rixnala lost what? From what Rex can see, sister not even hurt. Where was sister when Eater explode?"
"Rex saying Rixnala is coward?"
"Was under Eater when your friend told everyone to run. Not Rixnala's fault others not quick enough."
"As much as it hurts to say this, she was fighting with us," I confirmed.
Rex's sister shot me a dirty look but quickly turned back to Rex.
"Fought, did best. Rex in no danger. Rex didn't lose anything!" Rixnala snarled.
"Rex lost something already," he gestured to the stump on his leg. "Not because Rex weak, but because Rex tried everything to help friends. If Rixnala can't do same, maybe not fit for leader. And if Rixnala can't see people hurt and worry first, Rixnala definitely can't be leader."
Rixnala huffed, then started walking away without saying anything else. It was pretty obvious that Rex managed to hit the mark with what he was saying, and in all honesty, I was not expecting him to be as blunt as he was. Still, it was a nice change of pace since he always seemed to be on the back foot when dealing with his sister.
"Well done, little man," Michael said with a smile.
Rex tried to smile back, but it was clear he was not in the mood for that.
"Hoped sister be better. Disappointed."
"Some people don't change," Riley tried to cheer him up.
"And others only care about themselves," I added.
Rex didn't reply. He just nodded, and we all did our best to help the other Rodenti gather themselves and recover whatever they could, be that equipment or the pieces of the Eater, before we headed back to the Sister Village. Even if it wasn't the intention or not, it was pretty obvious the Eaters were able to deliver a heavy blow to our plans.