Assimilate All Talents-Chapter 396 - 395: Sincere

In a small crater not far from the battle, a hand reached out and grabbed the outer edge. Using it for support, Jendar pulled himself up, his other hand clutching his pounding head.

He could barely think through the pain.

"What... happened?"

He struggled to recall how he got there as he tried to gather his bearings. It was only then that he noticed his vision was tinted dark red, blood was seeping down his face. The moment he realized that, the memory of what happened came rushing back.

"Shit... that human!"

Anger and rage flared in him as he retrieved three red potions from his spatial ring. He popped the caps off two bottles and drank them simultaneously. The last one, he smashed over his head, letting the liquid rain down on him. Almost instantly, the effects took hold, his wounds began to rapidly close.

Even with A-Rank vitality, as a Guardian, he was never short on rare resources like high-grade healing potions. One wasn't enough for someone of his tier, but three together came close to the strength of one of Simina's healing spells.

Wiping the blood from his face now that it had stopped flowing, he frowned.

'Now that I think about it... where is Simina? Why didn't she heal me?'

As his now-clear vision scanned the battlefield, he got his answer.

Before him was a scene of utter devastation. The trees in the area had been obliterated, creating a vast clearing of shattered vines, cracked earth, and scattered ice.

In the middle of it all stood the towering wolf-man hybrid: Solwyn. Not far from him, Jendar spotted the unconscious forms of Minfessel and Talma lying limp in the dirt.

Seeing them downed, he searched for Simina and finally found her, under assault by five disembodied wolf claws, all firing magical projectiles while the ground beneath her erupted with stone spikes. She dodged as best she could, healing herself on the fly, but clearly couldn't spare the attention to help the others.

As for Urthl, Figmar, and Kinrel, they were doing their best to keep Solwyn pressured, but to little effect. The wolfkin danced effortlessly around their sluggish attacks, laughing all the while and countering with ease.

During a brief opening, Simina desperately chanted a support spell. "[Aurora of Dawn]!"

A rainbow light burst from her staff and flowed through the three engaged elves, imbuing them with a surge of speed and power.

With multicolored trails streaking behind them, they charged at Solwyn.

But Solwyn simply let out a hearty laugh and spread his arms wide. "[Ignition Wave]!"

Explosions erupted around him in a lightning-fast ripple, spreading outward. The three elves' eyes widened as they realized they couldn't stop in time.

"Help!"

"Argh!"

"No—!"

Simina instinctively braced herself, but the blast stopped just short of her. As she cautiously opened her eyes, she saw her three comrades knocked unconscious. Before she could react, two of the floating claws seized her by the shoulders. Electricity surged through them, paralyzing her, not enough to knock her out, but enough to render her immobile.

'How... are they this strong?! This doesn't make sense!'

Jendar couldn't believe what he was seeing. He could understand a fusion would logically result in a substantial power boost, but this was beyond that. Even now, he couldn't tell if Solwyn was even exerting himself.

What he didn't know was that the power wasn't just from Sol's high attributes combined with Thorwyn's law technique. It came from the complete sharing of skills and combat experience between them, skills like: [Advanced Weapon Mastery], [Perfect Balance], [Invincible Physique], [Death's Dance], and many more. All of them were further amplified by Thorwyn's naturally high agility and law technique. It was a synergy that couldn't be calculated.

But even as he watched all his fellow Guardians fall, Jendar didn't retreat. He couldn't.

'I will stop that human, even if it's the last thing I do!'

Gritting his teeth, he gripped his bow and nocked an arrow. But as he pulled it back, his arms trembled uncontrollably, and the arrow clumsily fell, lodging itself in the dirt.

It was a familiar sensation. The bow felt foreign in his hands. "My law technique..."

"Hiya!" A voice called from behind as a shadow loomed over him.

Jendar turned with a fierce glare, already knowing who it was "Human!"

"Nope. I'm a Raijin! Huh? You want to swap? Okay!" Solwyn's expression instantly shifted from playful to serious as a certain someone took control of the body.

Solwyn stared into Jendar's hate-filled eyes and sighed. "You really don't know how to stay down, do you? Can't you just step aside and let us pass through the forest? I truly don't want to kill you, I even promise you we'll never meet again."

Jendar scoffed at the absurdity of it. "Hah! What you ask is impossible! I will never surrender to a human! Never again!"

'Again? What's he talking about?' Sol frowned. 'Did someone else try crossing the forest before, and it went badly? I have no idea what he's referring to... but just knocking him out doesn't feel right either. Looks like he's carrying a lot of baggage... and I don't want to make it worse.'

Since it was just the two—or technically three—of them and the battle was already won, Solwyn decided to try one final time and bent their knees slightly so they were eye level.

"Look... I can respect your devotion to protecting Sylmasera. If my home or my friends were threatened, I'd be the first to take up arms. But..." They held Jendar's gaze, not in a stern manner, but full of sincerity. "I'm not here to burn your forest. I don't want to hurt anyone. I'm just trying to find my parents."

"Your parents?" Jendar asked, his tone softening almost instinctively. The mention of family stirred a memory of Reena. "Were you separated from them?"

Solwyn nodded.

"I was separated from them when I was little. I only recently found out they're somewhere in the Sapphire Scales Alliance. I don't know how long they'll be there... that's why I'm trying to cross through here, to get there as fast as possible."

"I see... You're fortunate to have a chance to see them again."

Reena had been separated from her parents as a baby. Because of this, she'd never really known them, having only heard of a few stories here and there. Though Jendar had raised her as his own, he was painfully aware of her unspoken longing to meet them. Though she never admitted it aloud, she didn't need to for he could tell it was something lingering in her heart.

For a moment, Jendar looked at Solwyn and saw his daughter reflected in their eyes.