Chapter 45: The way out.
McNeesey was lying in the middle of a huge crater. Now he no longer had the magnificent and domineering demeanor he used to have, and his current situation was embarrassing to say the least.
His gorgeous robe was already torn apart, and the only remaining bits of the robe were still being slowly eroded by the residue of Lunka's battle qi. His body was filled with scorched burn marks, and these wounds were still exuding a faint red light. The most terrifying thing was that McNeesey's entire lower half of his body was gone. There was a tearing wound in his chest, and below it, everything burned into flying ash. And his beating heart could even be seen through the broken ribs.
Usually, with such severe injury, even an official-level professional would die, but Mcneesey didn't, and it looked like he used some unknown method to preserve his life.
Punk could see large tracts of tender green seedlings growing on the fracture of McNeesey's chest, and finally, all the seedlings intertwined with each other into a ball on the fracture. These seedlings were constantly suppressing the violent battle qi still remaining in McNeesey's body while also constantly transforming the mana from the surrounding environment into vitality and then injecting it into McNeesey's body. So at least from the outside, it didn't seem like McNeesey's vitality was weakening; instead, it was constantly strengthening.
Seeing such a scene, Punk was a little surprised. A person who lost half of his body not only did not die but was recovering quickly. This was really shocking!
The surrounding flames have spread to the southern area of the city. Many screams of the refugees whom the enemy soldiers were slaughtering could faintly be heard in the distance. So Punk's urgency was increasing by the seconds, as once the enemy found out that McNeesey was not dead, the consequences would be unimaginable!
"Cough...cough cough"!
Just as Punk was considering how to hide McNeesey, who only had half of his body left, a few hoarse coughs came from the bottom of the pit.
McNeesey, who slowly opened his eyes, was no longer able to release his mental power to scan, so he could only prop up half of his body with his hands and turn his head to look around.
Soon, he spotted Punk, who was standing on the edge of the crater with a profound expression on his face. When McNeesey turned his head and noticed Punk, one of his eyes started to exude blazing red fire that almost covered his entire eye socket, which looked terrifying.
"The young man over there... is called Punk Saian, right?"
McNeesey asked with a faint voice like a broken bellow. With the excellent memory of an official-level professional, him remembering the names of his subordinates was not really that surprising.
Punk quietly took a step back, and his pupils were quickly lit by the radiance of magic. As the saying goes! "a skinny camel is bigger than a horse," So even if McNeesey was seriously injured and on the verge of death, Punk still would not forget for a second that the other party was a powerful official-level mage.
McNeesey didn't seem to see Punk's slight movements at all. He just looked at the tangled and twisted green sprouts on his wound and said succinctly without raising his head:
"Lunka will definitely not let anything living out of the city, But... there is a secret passage, that is everyone's only chance to retreat, and..."
McNeesey turned his head slightly, staring at Punk's deep eyes:
"... Only I can open it!"
Punk sighed lightly. Although he wanted to find out where the secret passage was and then leave McNeesey alone, it was apparent that McNeesey only lost his thighs, not his brain! He almost explicitly stated to Punk that 'you can't go anywhere without me.'
"Your Excellency McNeesey, It will be my honor to follow you to save our Kingdom and the beautiful princess."
Punk uttered some more cliché nonsenses as the gesture of cooperation. Then he softly chanted a spell, and two, two-and-a-half-man tall wolves emerged in the summoning formation in front of Punk in less than two seconds.
One of the wolves ran over to the side of McNeesey and tilted his head, signaling Mcneesey to get on its back.
"Sorry, Lord McNeesey, we need transportation tools to pass through the ruined city quickly. Please put up with the simple mount for the time being."
Punk lowered his head a little to put out a standard mage etiquette, but there was no so-called respect in his tone. He put on a "please" gesture in order to signal McNeesey that they needed to leave as soon as possible.
Punk's main reason for summoning the wolves, of course, was not to travel through the city quickly; he just didn't dare to approach McNeesey casually. Who knew if this old official mage, who obviously cultivated life elements, would have some means to absorb the vitality of others. So to be on the safe side, Punk decided no matter what, he would not get close to McNeesey.
McNeesey obviously also saw through Punk's thoughts. Although a trace of displeasure flashed in his eyes, he finally waved his hand and said:
"never mind. Now It's more important to find the princess."
After speaking this, he gently propped his hands on the ground, flipped his half body easily, and landed gracefully on the wolf's back. It seemed as if loss of most of his body did not constitute any influence, but it relieved him of a burden.
However, Punk still keenly captured the obscurity and weirdness with the energy flow in McNeesey's body. Although his body's vitality was thriving, it had a kind of 'out of place' feeling!
Punk breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. Now he was almost certain that the current McNeesey was just using some secret method to forcefully stimulate his vitality. So although It might seem like he was recovering very quickly, in fact, he was still seriously injured.
"The secret hideout is in the Laurock Hotel. If you have seen the military map, you should remember it."
While talking, McNeesey summoned a thin vine and tied himself to the wolf. After he had done all these, the twisted green sprouts on his wound seemed to have become a little more active.
"Yes, I remember it very clearly."
While Punk stepped on his own wolf, he answered Mcneesey in a "respectful" tone. As a trainee-level professional, a strong memory was the most basic ability. Although he didn't pay attention to the inconspicuous small hotel when he first looked at the map, he could easily remember its location as long as he thought about it. And a divination spell could easily figure out the way in this unrecognizable terrain of present ruined Konola City.
……
Two giant silver-white wolves were jumping in the ruins of the remote southern area of Konola city. The rugged ground with a lot of big stones wasn't an obstacle for the wolves. The giant wolves showed such flexibility that doesn't match their size. Naturally, Punk, who was sitting on its back, experiencing a lot of violent jolt like riding a roller coaster. And such constant left/right up /down jumps made Punk, who had never ridden a mount, want to kill this stupid wolf with a fireball. His order to the wolf was to run faster, not run crazily. He really couldn't understand why this wolf would specifically jump on those uneven stones; Punk even had to use a spell to avoid being thrown off its back.
In his peripheral vision, Punk could clearly notice the undisguised smile in McNeesey's eyes.
As, Unlike Punk's, the wolf McNeesey was sitting on was so clever and obedient that it looked as if it was possessed by a Husky!
However, despite its shortcomings, the fighting power of this wolf was pretty good. At least it was enough to cooperate with Punk's spell to clean up some scattered soldiers.
In this way, the two giant wolves, like two white clouds, shuttling between all kinds of obstacles, soon reached near to the Laurock Hotel.