The sky began to lighten, the night shattered by laser beams and fire. The small patch of woods was almost entirely consumed by the raging inferno.
With such a commotion, Luo Qi estimated that not only Ye Mu, but even Cesi, should have noticed by now. However, he could no longer afford to worry about them.
Even if 111 could fight the Devouring God to a standstill, Luo Qi couldn't withstand so many opponents. In just twenty minutes, Luo Qi found himself at a disadvantage.
When a powerful impact struck him, Luo Qi experienced a moment of blankness.
Upon regaining consciousness after a brief blackout, he reached out and felt the broken tree behind him.
His left arm throbbed with pain; his bone was likely broken. Blood trickled from his forehead, blurring his vision. He wiped it away with his other hand, his palm becoming almost soaked with blood from the laser gun.
The laser gun felt hot in his hand, but it had no remaining energy to fire another shot.
Besides his forehead and arm, he had several minor abrasions. While not too severe in comparison, they caused Luo Qi to convulse intermittently, making it difficult to stand upright.
He mustered the strength to stand, looking directly at Mo Jue opposite him. Mo Jue had raised his laser gun.
Mo Jue had a wound on his leg from a ricocheting laser projectile, deep enough to expose bone. Yet, compared to Luo Qi, he appeared more composed, even though all his teammates behind him had been rendered completely incapacitated.
Mo Jue let out a sinister chuckle. If he had hesitated slightly when facing Luo Qi earlier, the sharp pain in his leg now urged him to act quickly.
The Devouring God and 111 bore increasingly numerous indentations and scars, but it was still unclear who would emerge victorious. If he eliminated Luo Qi now, then they would undoubtedly win.
Luo Qi shivered, extending his wings. One wing had a long gash across it, stained with blood, whether his own or someone else's, he didn't know.
Flames raged all around, and the air was thick with the smell of blood. The scale powder on his wings had lost almost all its effect; any movement sent waves of agony through him.
Luo Qi's mind raced, searching for any possible way to escape his current predicament. His dagger was broken, his laser gun was out of energy, 111 was struggling to fend for itself, and Mo Jue opposite him watched him with predatory intent.
It seemed to be a dead end.
This was within Luo Qi's expectations, but he was unwilling to give up just yet.
His gaze fixed on the laser gun in Mo Jue's hand. For such large weapons, the first year curriculum did not teach their use, hence Mo Jue's handling of it was far from proficient.
It was precisely because of this that he had been able to use his wings to nimbly evade so many attacks, even managing to counter-kill some of his teammates.
However, as time wore on, his stamina waned, and Mo Jue finally found an opening.
Luo Qi refocused, his attention returning to the laser gun before him. The gun accumulated energy when firing a laser projectile, taking about two to three seconds.
This duration seemed very short, but if timed correctly, Luo Qi could reach Mo Jue.
If he could get close enough to block the muzzle of the laser gun, preventing the accumulation of energy for the laser projectile, the projectile and the energy generated to fire it would overflow, resulting in an explosion.
It was precisely because such large laser guns had a charging period before firing that they were generally used for long-range suppressive fire or cover in actual combat, rarely at such close range.
Luo Qi looked at Mo Jue, wondering if Mo Jue was completely unaware of this or simply didn't care.
Luo Qi's entire body ached, causing involuntary tears to stream down his face. He forced himself not to cry out, his rationality sharper than ever.
If he could seize that fleeting moment, he could achieve a mutual destruction with Mo Jue.
He had always considered himself rather unintelligent. After arriving here, surrounded by even smarter individuals, he felt even more so.
He could no longer conceive of any method for himself to survive this dire situation. At best, this was the extent of his options.
In a fleeting moment, Luo Qi felt as if he were experiencing a life review, a phenomenon rumored to occur before death. Faces flashed rapidly before his eyes, then vanished just as quickly.
Luo Qi took a deep breath. When he looked at Mo Jue again, a hint of a smile emerged in his eyes.
111 had said he was the protagonist of this world, so he should do something a protagonist would do!
Mo Jue pulled the trigger. Simultaneously, Luo Qi, enduring the pain, flapped his wings and charged towards Mo Jue, tightly gripping the small laser gun that had completely lost its energy.
The ball of light grew larger before him. Luo Qi could almost feel its heat. Just as he was preparing to make his desperate move, the world suddenly went dark, and something shielded him in its embrace.
Then came a deafening impact. Luo Qi could see nothing but felt a violent tremor.
Even while being shielded, he grunted from the shock. Whether it was his imagination or not, he thought he heard another suppressed grunt simultaneously.
The tentacles were cold metal. Luo Qi had a suspicion.
Amidst the blazing fire and scattered smoke, he strained his eyes to look at the arm that protected him, meeting a pair of gentle eyes hidden behind a transparent cockpit door.
It was Ye Mu.
He had traversed an entire forest, broken through the night, crossed the wreckage and scattered corpses, and blocked the laser projectile from Mo Jue's hand.
This was a mecha equipped by the school, a basic model only allowed for transport and deterrence during the assessment. Luo Qi didn't know how Ye Mu had arrived so quickly, nor how he had managed to block that attack.
Blood and sweat, perhaps even tears, blurred his vision. He saw a trace of blood sliding down Ye Mu's lips.
Ye Mu's lips moved, and Luo Qi struggled to decipher his lip movements.
"Why are you so disobedient?"
The scene flashed by. Before Luo Qi could get a good look, he was swept away. After a moment of weightlessness, he landed on the ground, held by the mecha.
It could hardly be called a mecha anymore. The laser projectile had shattered half of it, and Ye Mu's body was exposed more than halfway from the cockpit.
Luo Qi practically shrank into Ye Mu's embrace, his face pressed into Ye Mu's chest by his hand. He reached out to hold Ye Mu tightly, his hand finding something wet.
Ye Mu's back must have been injured as well, though Luo Qi didn't know the extent of his injuries.
He must be quite far from the camp now. How had Ye Mu arrived so quickly?
What about the others? Had they arrived too?
Luo Qi felt a mix of happiness and worry.
Lost in thought, he adjusted his position to hug Ye Mu back, preventing him from bearing the pressure alone. They rolled a couple of times on the ground before finally coming to a stop.