Heir Of The Supreme
Chapter 67: The Ambush’s Aftermath

Chapter 67: The Ambush’s Aftermath

A dark-skinned woman sat on the ground. Her once-pristine dreadlocks were now undone, clumped with mud and tangled hair.

The battlefield had stripped her of her beauty, but she didn’t care. Not anymore. The man she wanted to show off for was already gone, after all.

Delsie sat on the damp earth with her knees drawn close to her chest.

Her empty eyes stared into nothingness, hollow and lifeless. The last vestiges of her spirit clung desperately to the bag in her grasp.

"..."

The previous night was a disaster.

Not only had they lost the VIP target, but Delsie... She had lost something even more precious.

Delsie gingerly clutched a bag of black-coloured ash as if the slightest bit of mishandling would be enough to damage it.

She couldn’t let that happen.

This was all she had left... of him.

As her lover’s smiling face flashed across her mind, a single tear slipped down her cheek, lost amid the dirt smeared across her face.

It wasn’t just pain. Delsie felt a cruel, suffocating emptiness like the world had been drained of all colour, leaving only shades of lifeless grey.

Delsie was no stranger to loss. Being someone who practically lived on the battlefield, she had more than her fair share.

However, never before had it hit this hard.... It felt so... personal... as if a part of her had been ruthlessly ripped away.

"Here... your lunch..."

The quiet voice pulled Delsie from her trance, though she barely acknowledged the woman standing beside her.

Ginny crouched and held out a disposable tray of hastily assembled MREs.

Her lunch? Oh, right, she hadn’t eaten in a while.

The aroma of rehydrated rations lingered in the air, but Delsie had no appetite.

Delsie shook her head slowly. Her attention drifted away from the oriental woman and back to the bag in her arms, the only thing that remained of her lover.

A cruel irony lay in the fact that Rick had died by burning alive, and yet cremation was what they used to prevent his body from becoming food for the beasts that roamed the jungle.

Rick died taking a blow meant for her... and now his charred ashes were all Delsie had left.

Ginny sighed, setting the tray beside her. "Even if you don’t want to eat... you need to keep your strength up."

As a trained combat medic, Ginny was well accustomed to tending to people suffering from loss.

However, sadly, the best thing to do was give her friend some space. She needed the chance to properly grieve.

Delsie remained silent. She didn’t move or show any response, no better than a corpse herself.

Pained by her inability to offer her comrade any real help, Ginny turned and walked over to two other women sitting not too far away.

Lyn sat with her eyes closed, still as a statue. However, at Ginny’s arrival, Lorie lifted her head, her single remaining eye glinting with curiosity.

A thick bandage wrapped around the upper portion of her face, covering a significant portion of the left side of her face.

"How is she?" Lorie asked, her voice laced with concern.

Ginny shook her head. "She needs more time."

Lorie exhaled sharply. "I know she’s going through a lot, but we need to keep moving. We can’t afford to sit here forever."

Ginny pressed her lips together, conflicted. "I can’t force food down her throat. She’ll eat when she’s ready."

She wiped dirt off a moss-covered rock and sat down, her eyes drifting to Lorie’s injury.

The gauze was stained dark crimson where dried blood had seeped through.

"How about you?" Ginny asked, "How’re you feeling?"

Lorie chuckled dryly, fingers running along the bandage. "That gorilla-like bitch got me good... but you should see what I did to her in return."

Her duel with Letha had been vicious, pitting speed against raw strength. It had been an even match until both had landed decisive blows.

Letha had torn out Lorie’s left eye, but Lorie had returned the favour by taking Letha’s right.

However, the battle forcefully ended before they could properly conclude their fight.

Ginny had done her best to treat the wound, but her Mana Art and medical supplies were limited in their abilities. Her healing could repair wounds but not restore missing organs or appendages.

...Lorie would never get her eye back.

Still, the woman herself didn’t seem to care. If anything, she looked eager, as though itching to go back and finish her earlier fight.

Ginny could swear she felt a hint of bloodlust from her comrade’s expression.

Lorie had always been a workaholic, but it seemed that this incident had pushed her off the edge.

So, the question remained... Why was the sabre-wielding woman’s battle cut short?

The cause was none other than the middle-aged woman sitting next to the two of them.

In her fight with the fire-wielding 3-Star, Lyn... No... Nuria had somehow managed to eke out a decisive blow on General Wallace, forcing their enemy into an impromptu retreat.

However, instead of chasing him down for the kill, Nuria had prioritized something else.

Running through the moonlit jungle, Nuria searched far and wide for any traces of the princess and her knight.

Unfortunately... her efforts proved futile.

The vast, unrelenting vegetation had swallowed their tracks.

Forced with no other option, all they could do was cut their losses and set up camp for the night.

Before the Kelonian forces could return, potentially this time with reinforcements, their group made sure to thoroughly loot what remained of their supplies before giving Rick a proper send-off.

Unfortunately... None of them could sleep a wink that night, their minds plagued by dark thoughts.

Between finding Cecelia and hiding from their enemies, both monsters and humans alike, they also needed to somehow return home safely.

Needless to say, they had a lot on their plate.

And there was one more disturbing realization that lingered in everyone’s minds... The ambush had been planned from the beginning.

Someone had leaked their movements. The so-called "Holy Ruin" they had been led to find had been a lie, a trap designed to lure them in.

And Rick had been the first to pay the price.

For a brief, terrible moment, Ginny wondered if he was the lucky one. At least he wouldn’t have to endure any more of this hell.

Before she could entertain the dark thought any further, Nuria suddenly shot to her feet.

Her twin daggers flashed as she drew them. Her body was tense, and her sharp, icy gaze was fixed on the jungle ahead.

Then... A rustling sound broke the silence.

Something large was moving between the trees. Its footsteps were heavy, shaking the ground with each slow, deliberate step.

Ginny and Lorie immediately followed suit in alarm, gripping their weapons tightly.

Only Delsie remained still, lost in the sea of her grief, clutching the bag in her arms as though it were the only thing anchoring her to this world.

She was seemingly unconcerned with the looming threat or perhaps not noticing it under the sea of pain drowning her mind.

The thundering footsteps grew louder until, finally, a hulking figure stepped into view.

A monster was covered in thick, matted fur that covered every inch of its body except for its broad, human-like hands, feet, and bestial face.

Its muscular frame was nearly twice the size of a man, allowing it to loom over the ladies.

The beast’s wide mouth parted to reveal rows of jagged teeth, the most prominent being four large, curved canines protruding from its upper and lower jaw.

Ape-like Magical Creature let out a deep, guttural growl, its beady eyes locking onto the humans before it. The monster then lifted its hands and drummed them against its muscular chest.

"ROAAARRRRR"

Studying the monster’s actions, Nuria’s eyes fell on something held in the creature’s hands.

It was a weapon, one meant to be wielded by a human.

However, in the hands of the much larger creature, it appeared to be disproportionately small.

Recognizing that blade, Nuria’s heart skipped a beat...

It was Blaine’s signature longsword.