The two blades made a swoosh sound as they were pulled out of Matt’s back.

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  He clutched at his heart as he took a few involuntary steps forward, mind racing, thoughts all over the place.

  Something was wrong. His heart wasn’t beating anymore. Why was his heart not beating? Did the pain make him not feel it?

  He removed his hand, finding it red and bloodied.

  Am I dead? Is it over? Just like that? He kept trying to make sense of what had happened, yet he couldn’t

  He coughed another mouthful of blood, dropping to one knee. His body was rapidly losing strength, and his mind was slowly getting overwhelmed, unable to form a coherent thought, as a slew of emotions took over.

  Anger.

  At his stupidity for missing the clues. It was so obvious now, clear as day, that the huntress had a stealth skill of some kind, yet he had ignored all signs, becoming complacent, overconfident.

  Sadness.

  That he wouldn’t get to see the state of the world after the system. How humanity was going to conquer this new foe, tackle this new challenge, and eventually come out the other side stronger.

  But most of all, he felt regret.

  Regret that he never stood up to his family. Never told them how much he hated the life, and all they had done to him.

  Regret that he never called out his ex, Julia, for all her manipulations and schemes, ending up as her puppet instead.

  Regret that he broke his promise to himself to free his brother, William, from their poisonous fangs.

  Regret that he never thanked Izzy and Jackson for how they’d saved him by simply being his friends, standing by him, and making him feel whole again, like he actually mattered.

  But most importantly, regret that he had failed.

  He clutched his right hand in an attempt to get some semblance of control. It had been dangling by his side the entire time, casting [Mend]. He remembered instinctively casting the skill in hope that it would help somehow, even if his mana was running on empty, meaning he couldn’t push any more into it. The two mana waves he had used contained more than half his mana, with the rest of the fight leaving him at 22%.

  He could already feel the onset of a headache as it dropped more and more, but what would a headache do in face of the pain he was feeling, the weakness he was experiencing, and the flood of emotions invading his thoughts.

  His body was losing strength, he couldn’t breathe, and it was taking all his effort just to remain conscious. It would be oh so easy to simply… let go. To embrace the icy touch of death with wide open arms, but he was too stubborn for that.

  He didn’t know why or how he was still alive, nor how long he had left. A stab to the heart was a fatal wound, you couldn’t survive without a heart after all. But even if he could, the huntress was thorough, making sure her blades had left him with two punctured lungs on their way to skewer his most vital organ, leaving him unable to even breathe.

  [Mend] was doing an admirable job. Probably. He was too afraid to check.

  He had wished for the sweet release of death countless times when he was under his family’s control.

  But not now.

  Now he was finally happy with his life, with his friends, with the people that he had surrounded himself with. They were his new family.

  Even the system.

  He had seen the opportunity in it and was much happier for it. But the cruelty of life knew no bounds, for it now tried to take it all away from him, and for the first time in his life, he was truly… scared, and if [Mend] was unable to keep up with the damage, then he didn’t want to find out. As foolish as it may seem, he wanted to hold on to the hope that it was working, even if it wasn’t.

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  In your darkest moment, there wasn’t much to do, yet for him, there was. He might die today, but he wasn’t going out alone. Taking out the person responsible for all of this, the one who had left him in this sorry state, the huntress, was his act of defiance.

  He hadn’t received a kill notification, which meant she was still alive. He had no idea why she hadn’t finished him off, but that was a decision she wasn’t gonna live to regret.

  Still on his knees, he gritted his teeth as he shuffled around facing the other direction, where the huntress had been when her blades destroyed his heart. His eyes fell on her form, and he finally understood why he was still alive.

  She was kneeling, using her daggers for support as each breath came harder than the last. Countless wounds marred her toned body, leaving her looking beaten and bloodied, probably even worse than he was. The only oddity being the blindfold, unblemished, a stark contrast to the ragged state of the huntress and the rest of her simple attire. His mana orb and wave combo must’ve really done a number on her.

  He had no idea how she was still alive either. She looked like she was a breath away from death, but was he any better with his heart and both lungs gone?

  She looked haggard, but so was he. It was a race to see who would take their last breath first, one that neither of them seemed willing to lose. It was time to finish the job, or die trying.

  Matt tried to steady himself as he took short, slow breaths. It was coming to him easier now, but he didn’t know if it was his lungs getting better or him being less panicked. Either way, his goal was the same.

  He tried taking a longer breath to calm himself, but he couldn’t, coughing another mouthful of blood, almost keeling over.

  Steading himself once more, he attempted to get back up on his feet instead. He could feel his legs shaking, knees about to buckle, body heavy like he had the entire weight of the world on his shoulders. He could feel it all, pushing him down, holding him back, yet he resisted, summoning every last shred of power in his debilitated body.

  This wasn’t the same Matt from four years ago.

  The beaten and broken Matt with no life in his eyes.

  The shackled Matt, who couldn’t stand up for himself, who couldn’t fight for what he wanted.

  The gullible Matt, who had to take all their abuse and manipulation, and thank them for it.

  The Matt who had to smile in the face of people who stole, lied, cheated, and murdered, only because it was ‘what’s best for the family’.

  Screw the family, and screw that Matt. He was long dead and gone.

  He swore he’d never bow down, never take shit from anybody, make something of himself, and show the ones who denied him the tutorial what a grave mistake they had made. He was going to carve his own name in history, prove to himself and to everyone, that the new Matt was inevitable, and so when the day finally came, where he would take his last breath, he’d do it on his own two feet, proud of the life he’d led.

  And that day… wasn’t now.

  He took a single step forward, unsteady, shaky, legs wobbling as if threatening to give out at any second, and yet he did it. Slowly, he started raising his scepter, pointing it towards the still kneeling huntress. His arm was struggling from the strain, from the effort, his grip around the scepter flimsy at best, but it was okay, he only needed it to hold on for a little longer.

  Mana started making its way into the scepter, charging it, preparing one final orb. His resources were dangerously low, and getting lower by the second, the headache becoming harder and harder to ignore. He only had this last attempt, and he needed to make it count.

  The huntress took notice as she realized that his movement wasn’t the last efforts of a dying man, but one who was coming for her life, raising her head and looking straight at him. She was clearly struggling, but she still managed to push herself into a seated position while crossing her daggers in front of her face with weak, shaky arms, ready to intercept. She tried pushing herself up to her feet, but failed, falling back on her knees, almost dropping one of her daggers in the process.

  She was a fighter till the end, and Matt respected that, but that didn’t mean he was going to let his guard down. Not now, not ever.

  He straightened his back and fired the mana orb.

  The huntress wasn’t going down without a fight either. As if sensing the projectile was already in motion, she instantly reacted, throwing one of her daggers at the incoming orb and causing it to explode on impact, with the second following on its heels, headed straight for Matt.

  Tired couldn’t begin to describe the state he was in as he watched the dagger inching closer and closer to him. It was the huntress’s last gambit, if it failed, then she would have nothing left, and it was a gambit that Matt had anticipated.

  He could tell from a glance that she had not given up, not by a mile. Her shoulders were back and down, neck stiff, chest slightly forward, and her breathing turned calm, controlled, with minimal movement as she became fully aware of her surroundings, even if but for a moment, waiting for the perfect time to strike. A fighter till the end.

  Matt had no energy to react or dodge the incoming blade. He was utterly drained, both physically and mentally, so he just… didn’t. As he fired his orb, he let himself go, the burst as it left the scepter, enough to push him off his feet, with the following explosion speeding his fall further.

  The dagger whooshed through the air, cutting a deep gash from his eyebrow to his hairline, before continuing on its path.

  Matt landed with a thud, firing one final mana orb that contained what was left of his dwindling mana at the now defenseless huntress.

  He watched with weary eyes as the last of his mana made its way towards its intended target, before hitting her directly in the sternum, her body going completely limp.

  With a strained grin on his face, and only one thought on his mind, he finally let the darkness take over.

  Fucking healers man.

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