Empire Building With Infinite Warehouse-Chapter 98: Bravery and Foolhardiness

She aimed directly for a random, low-level Awakener who was just standing a few feet away, quietly watching the argument unfold.

The sharp blade cut completely through the man’s arm like it was made of warm butter. It was a flawless, terrifying strike. His severed hand and forearm detached cleanly from his elbow and fell to the dirty ground with a wet, heavy thud.

Dark red blood instantly sprayed everywhere, painting the nearby canvas tents.

"Ahhhhh!" the man screamed at the top of his lungs, collapsing to his knees as he grabbed his bleeding stump.

He started weeping loudly in pure agony, rolling around in the dirt.

The entire public crowd gasped and stumbled backwards in absolute shock. Nobody expected the famous, rule-abiding military commander to just maim a random bystander in the middle of the street for absolutely no reason.

Julien was equally dumbfounded.

He just stood there, completely frozen, staring at the crying man bleeding out on the ground.

Lena simply flicked the wet blood off her silver sword and looked right back at Julien.

Her face was completely calm, showing absolutely zero remorse for what she had just done.

"Heal," she commanded.

"Why did you just do that?" Julien asked, his voice tight as he looked down at the guy screaming in pure agony on the dirt floor.

The severed arm was just lying there, completely discarded near a pile of empty wooden crates.

"That does not matter to you," Lena replied, her tone completely flat and bored.

"Heal him. I will not repeat myself twice."

Julien looked at the terrible, bleeding stump.

The blood was pumping out fast.

"I can only stop the blood flow and close the wound," Julien stated clearly, making sure to set the expectations right now.

"I cannot make his arm magically reattach to his body. It does not work like that."

Lena just nodded slowly.

"That is enough," she said, her gold eyes locked onto his face.

"I just need to know if you can actually cure a fatal injury. That is all."

Julien looked at her like she was completely crazy.

’So she obviously knows it cannot be repaired,’ Julien thought to himself, his heart beating fast.

’She just casually ruined a man’s entire life just to test a product demo. Fucking psycho.’

He crouched down in the dirt next to the screaming man.

Julien reached into his deep pocket and pulled out a glowing health potion.

’Thank god I actually moved this to my physical pocket earlier when I was getting ready to show Eric,’ Julien thought, feeling a cold drop of sweat slide down his neck.

’If I reached into an empty pocket and summoned it from my system inventory right now, she would have definitely caught me and would have ripped my coat open to see where the bottle came from.’

He popped the small cork off the top of the glass vial and grabbed the thrashing man by the shoulder and forced his head back.

"Drink this," Julien ordered, pouring the thick red liquid down the guy’s throat.

"Swallow it all."

The man choked and coughed, but he managed to swallow the potion.

Julien took a step back and watched the stump.

He expected the wound to instantly knit together and stop bleeding, just like it always did when he used the system items.

But it did not work like it used to.

The healing process was slow.

The flesh around the severed elbow bubbled and hissed, but the blood kept flowing.

Julien quickly realised what the problem was. Lena’s sword strike was not just a physical cut. She must have heavily imbued her blade with her mana right before the swing.

The residual magic was still clinging to the open wound, actively resisting the healing effects of his potion.

It was a total battle of stats. The system potion was fighting against the leftover energy of a top-tier Awakener.

It took ten agonising minutes.

For ten whole minutes, the market was completely dead silent except for the harsh breathing of the injured man.

Everyone just watched the gruesome scene play out. Finally, the bleeding stopped.

The torn skin slowly stretched and patched itself over the raw muscle and bone, leaving a thick, ugly scar where the arm used to be. The injured guy could not handle the pain and the blood loss anymore. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he fainted right there in the dirt.

Everyone in the massive stadium market was absolutely terrified of Lena, but they were also completely shocked by Julien’s potion.

The raiders and scavengers were whispering to each other, their eyes full of pure greed.

A potion that could fight off an S-class wound and stop a fatal bleed-out was basically a second life in the ruins.

"It is good," Lena said.

She sounded satisfied.

Ken, the silver-haired market boss, smiled and clapped his hands together once.

The sharp sound was a signal.

A group of four heavy-set guards stepped out from the crowd.

They grabbed the unconscious, one-armed man by his legs and dragged him away down a dark alley.

Who knows where they were actually taking him? They probably just threw him outside the stadium walls for the scavengers to deal with.

Julien stood up and brushed the dirt off his knees.

He looked right at Lena, and he let his merchant mask slip just a little bit.

His face clearly showed absolute disgust.

"My potions are not your plaything," Julien said, his voice cold and hard.

The whispering in the crowd stopped instantly.

People took another step backwards. Nobody talked back to the military commander.

"It took immense effort and extremely rare resources for me to create this batch," Julien continued, pointing a finger at the empty glass vial on the ground.

"It is not meant to be wasted on some random nobody just to prove a point."

Lena raised an eyebrow.

She actually looked amused by his anger.

"You are brave," Lena said softly.

Then she casually raised her silver sword again.

Kyle did not hesitate for a single second.

The giant mercenary immediately stepped right in front of Julien, blocking him from Lena’s view.

Kyle reached over his broad shoulder and gripped the hilt of his massive sword, ready to pull it free and start a total bloodbath.

The reaction from the camp was instant.

All of Lena’s heavily armed military guards and Ken’s market thugs immediately closed in on Kyle and Julien.

The sound of guns cocking and swords being drawn echoed through the tense air. At least thirty highly trained killers surrounded them.

Lena did not even look at Kyle.

She kept her gold eyes locked right on Julien, looking past the giant mercenary’s broad shoulders and slowly raised her pristine blade and actually licked a stray drop of blood off the flat metal edge.

"But here is the thing about being brave," Lena said, her voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.

"There is a very thin line of demarcation between bravery and foolhardiness."

Julien gritted his teeth.

He honestly did not expect her ego to be so incredibly fragile. He treated her like a difficult business client, but she was a warlord who was used to absolute obedience.

He miscalculated the situation badly.

’Fuck,’ Julien thought to himself, staring at the surrounding guards.

’Did I just completely blow my chance? We are going to have to fight our way out of this entire stadium.’

Lena shifted her weight, preparing to swing her blade and cut right through Kyle’s heavy armour.

"Wait."

A voice spoke out from the back of the crowd.

It was a woman’s voice.

Julien’s eyes went wide.

He knew that voice anywhere. His eyes quickly looked to the side, peering through the tight circle of armed guards.

The crowd parted slowly, and a familiar figure walked through the gap.