Chapter 118 Unexpected Plans

In the face of your own mistakes, failures and stupidity… What was the only option to do?

Was it to despair?

Was it to grieve?

Was it to fall to your knees, seize your head and wish it was possible to dig your nails through your head to see if there was actually something inside of it?

For Lukas, the only option was to smile and grin.

When the world showed you your mistakes and taunted you with it–you only responded to it with a smile that revealed not invulnerability, but just plain unacceptance?

Denial, perhaps?

For someone who had to live with his back against the wall, the only option was to smile and think of another way to amend things. No one was going to fix your mistakes for you, it was only yourself who you could depend on.

Maybe it had changed along the way.

Lukas glanced at the figure of Rhea uncertainly staying with him and heard the shouts of Chaerin from the distance–but knew more or less that it was still up to him.

It was his mess–

Ursa was glaring at him and the face of the demihuman reminded him of something.

"It's impossible for me to communicate with the Heart of the Forest, but there are those who can." Lukas said.

"That's…" Rhea started.

"Maybe I can go back–" Lukas attempted to slip away but received a whip of water. He hurtled backwards into the trees and the air was knocked out of his lungs.

His vision turned dark and blurry.

It was about time that the water nymph started to fight back–and it lashed out at the only person who seemed responsible for the change of attitude in the Dryad's.

Lukas.

"Are you okay–I'll control your body if you pass out or something!" Rhea floated above him alarmed.

"I–I didn't know you could do that." Lukas coughed up and tasted blood. He didn't have to look behind him to notice several trees that had broken down thanks to the water nymph's attack.

But it only enraged the Dryad even further.

Now the small patch of ground within the lake seemed to not matter anymore, long tendrils of roots sprouted off the earth and entangled the water nymph.

This time, the water nymph had to fight for its own survival.

Something that Lukas realized was similar with Rhea and the nature being–at least for the water nymph–was the presence of a small core in the center of their being.

Rhea's was tainted with blood since the bond, but Lukas had a feeling that it was physical.

If the core broke then so did–

"What do you want me to do?" Rhea turned left and right.

"How fast can you move?" Lukas tried to sit up, but something was broken. "You can…"

His gaze focused on Ursa and somehow a marvelous plan started to form in his head. A narrative–but there wasn't enough time.

Rhea leaned down as Lukas whispered to her.

"Go."

As much as Lukas desired to go by himself and save the day, it was clear to him that his physical limitations were hindering him. And so all he could do was wait.

He summoned the dagger of the Sanguise House once again.

"Hey, you're awfully unconfident for someone who claims to be the ancestor of the Sanguise House, huh?"

"I am not foolishly blind like you are." Drusilla hissed at him.

"If I throw you, you won't exactly break right? I presume that the blacksmith who fashioned this blade to hold a being like you would make it extremely durable." Lukas eyed the struggle between the Dryad and Water Nymph.

"That question is quite preposterous!" Drusilla exclaimed. "I'm no master of blood healing, but focus on your–"

"Say hi to them!" Lukas threw the dagger.

He hadn't been able to practice well, but luckily his target was extremely huge.

The dagger struck the Dryad's back and glittering green blood like ichor flowed out of the gap.

Lukas whistled. "She was talking herself down it seems."

The water nymph managed to wriggle out free and escape from the Dryad's grasp, and there was a terrified expression on her face–but it didn't matter. The Dryad eerily snapped her neck towards Lukas.

She saw the destruction imminent in his arrival and of the others and easily formed one conclusion. Several large sharp roots sprouted up from the ground and headed his way.

"I'm doomed." Lukas said.

Was it a heroic attempt that dictated him to act this way? Did he want to save the village of elders? The thought had idly crossed his mind, but that wasn't quite it.

He wanted Chaerin to at least get out.

She didn't deserve any of this.

And maybe there was an ebb of guilt when he saw the water nymph too.

Lukas jumped to conclusions far too quickly and presumed that she was someone out to control the Dryad, but it was clear that their relationship was different from the set go.

"Okay, okay, I'm sort of feeling the regeneration now. Maybe I can make it. Ah-Ah…!"

Lukas needed to panic more, because he was damn sure that getting impaled was going to hurt like a hell lot–Vampire or not.

He had been so afraid of dying in the past, been so reluctant to leave Lux City and actually leave the rescuing of Lily to others… but as the impaling roots came to take him?

Only a fleeting sense of a grimace–okay, here was the panic.

It never came.

Lukas opened his eyes–something he didn't even realize he closed–and was faced with a terrible sight.

The water nymph was shirking away, fearing for its life but Ursa, the demihuman that wasn't really supposed to be a hero, tore at the Dryad's chest.

Chaerin clutched the dagger from behind the Dryad's back.

And Theodore moved speedily through the shadows and headed his way.

"What the hell?!" Lukas shouted at the approaching assassin. "Why are you leaving them to attack–?"

"Expected more gratitude." Theodore sighed.