BXBX NOVEL Chapter 149: I can help you
"You look terrible," Strax said, breaking the mood and drawing everyone's attention to him. In fact, he hadn't even realized what he had said, but he approached Evelyn more closely and examined some points on her body. "Hey! Be more polite! You rude guy!" Lyana exclaimed as she moved to push him back, but he grabbed her hand and threw her upward, focusing particularly on Evelyn.
"Hey?!" Lyana did not feel his movement, only seeing herself upside down. "When did he... get so strong all of a sudden?" she wondered as she tried to land properly. Furious to see him approaching her master, she leapt, clearly stronger, but...
"Quiet." Strax said, turning towards her and holding his sword with bare hands, without taking any damage.
"I'm sure you're a Grandmaster, but it's quite amusing, you know? My eyes don't detect any trace of mana coming from you... And we know that's impossible. So stop playing around and remove that strange amulet," Strax said seriously. Twirling the sword that Lyana refused to let go of, he threw her several meters, making her crash against a tree and break it.
"Ugh!" She groaned in pain, feeling as if she had broken some ribs.
"Now... let me see clearly," Strax said, looking deeply at Evelyn, who had moved slightly away, frightened. For some reason, she did not sense any ill intent from him. "Let's see..." he said as his eyes glowed faintly, and the System began to analyze her completely.
[Name: Evelyn Parker
[Age: ???
[Cultivation: Master Stage Mana Cultivator
[Talent: Rare
[Race: ???
[Physique: ??? (Destroyed)
He read it all. Unlike before, now he could see even the special physique of the target through the system's technique, but this did not help much with what was happening to Evelyn. In fact, he did not know if it mattered much, but the word "Destroyed" said a lot. He had experienced a similar situation recently, but the cases were different.
Strax had the System to guide him on what he could or couldn't do with a destroyed physique, but she? Any mistake could have caused all these problems.
"But... why isn't her race appearing?" Strax questioned, puzzled by the [???] in Race, when it was clear that she was human. "What the hell is behind this veil, huh? Is that why she wears it?" he wondered, but he would not do anything to harm her.
"Miss!" Lyana shouted, seeing that he was about to touch Evelyn's shoulder. "Hm... mana restriction... it makes sense why you're not functioning properly and running out of energy," Strax said aloud. "Can this be fixed?" he asked directly to the air, and no one understood who he was talking to. "Has he gone crazy?" Lyana thought as she crawled towards her mistress.
"Oh, you stay there," Strax said, looking at Lyana. His gaze seemed completely different from the man who was there before.
"Miss, stay away from him!" Lyana shouted again. "Quiet." Strax said, waving his hand, causing Lyana to fall to her knees. "Adults will talk now," he said, but...
"Girl, you will die in two days," Strax said, his tone completely different. "The mana core is like a heart; it pumps mana and blood, making circulation more precise and increasing your body's productivity. But there are several blockages in your veins now, so the buildup of mana will cause you to explode in a few days.
You've lost your muscles because the mana is consuming them, and you will probably wither away until your body becomes nothing but ambient mana," Strax explained, looking at her. "I can help release some of it."
"But..." Evelyn murmured, his words were too serious to ignore, and she could already sense his sincerity in his tone of voice. "What do you want?" she asked.
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"Seriously, why did you swap with her? I deal with these problems much better than she does!" The woman sitting on his lap complained incessantly about his decision. After all, the draconic rivalry was still in the air.
"So you wanted her to stay here with me? Well... I chose her precisely so I could spend some time with you..." Strax said, pouting. Ouroboros was clearly furious for not being chosen, but now? She had fallen into a trap, a trap so strong that she couldn't even understand how it had happened.
"That's not what I meant!" She said, hitting Strax's chest, which he was gently caressing while running his fingers through her long black hair. Her body was completely pressed against his, the contact and warmth making the position even more comfortable for him. "Is that so?
Next time I'll take Tiamat and let you work hard since you didn't want to stay here," he said with a mischievous smile that clearly made her blush.
"No!" She said, gently tapping his chest, more like a small pat that didn't hurt at all, just to express her indignation.
They remained silent for a few seconds, just enjoying each other's warmth. Even though it was only a form of spiritual illusion, the sensations were real, as if their consciousness was in spirit form, aligning their existence with the spiritual world, causing this reaction. That's why he could feel her body, though he was still convinced that he wouldn't deal with her any more.
"Do you know anything about that woman?" Strax asked, breaking the silence of the moment, which made Ouroboros furious again. "Do you have to talk about another woman when you're with me?!" she roared. She was truly angry, but his damned smile completely melted her. "You bastard..." she murmured, knowing he wouldn't do anything to her until he got an answer.
"As you already know, the stupid bodyguard has a camouflage amulet, and so does she, but hers is much more refined, probably made by dwarves or a truly incredible artisan, given that this world is pretty weak in terms of magic," Ouroboros said like a teacher. "The fact is, she has something that camouflages her race, so with her current cultivation, it's impossible to discover.
But you can just remove the veil; seeing how the stupid bodyguard treats her, she's probably a Noble," she said while snuggling into his lap.
"Now... how about you hug me again? With all these women around, I'm feeling insecure, you know..." Ouroboros murmured, pouting. Of course, she intended to make the most of it. "So greedy," he murmured, pulling her closer while watching what Tiamat was doing as they used assimilation to change bodies.
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"I can release some mana points to alleviate the burden; you'll feel much better and might survive for another month or two if these points don't close up completely," Tiamat, in Strax's body, said. As a dragon, and using Strax's body, it was as if their bodies and souls were perfectly connected... it could even be pleasurable in a way, much like sex...
Well, Strax didn't feel it, of course, but Tiamat was holding back a lot in that situation.
"Miss! Don't trust this man! He has changed completely!" Lyana shouted while still being forced to the ground. The knights watching were completely desolate, because... they knew how strong Lyana was, the strongest one there in fact, and she was being treated like a child.
"What guarantee do I have?" Evelyn ignored Lyana's screams. She wanted to understand what was happening, what sudden change this was... well, she had a notion, since in her vision that Tiamat couldn't see, she was fixated on the golden sword that had completely lost its aura.
"I just want you to be okay so we can negotiate, considering you're about ten minutes away from passing out again, your heart rate is accelerating, not out of fear, but anxiety, and that's a problem, your heart won't pump blood sufficiently and the mana is blocking circulation," Tiamat said, looking at her deeply.
Evelyn pondered for a few seconds what she could do, but the words were really compatible with her diagnostics: blocked mana flow was what they wanted to fix, and the remedy was precisely to cleanse all her mana points from her body...
"Alright..." Evelyn agreed, looking directly into the red eyes of the man, which she had avoided as she was too busy thinking about everything... "It's good doing business with you," Tiamat said, extending a hand as if making a deal.
A/N: I would like to know if the interactions with the Spirits are satisfactory. I'm considering giving them more focus, even if it's in small pauses to make deeper and more significant comments. I feel like they might not be getting the importance they deserve. I'm open to suggestions!