304 Aftermath of Destruction
As he hit the ceiling of the towering library, he watched as the Dragon Buster crumbled away, relieving its steel form into soft, unwieldy ash as it vanished from his arm from one moment to the next, unable to maintain itself after enduring the throttle of the Dragonheart.
It was difficult to see anything, past his own flickering sight as his draconic armor crumbled away just like his weapon, only able to last mere moments from just the side impact of the Dragon buster shot.
“…Ungh…”
Blimpo managed to pick himself up, pushing the fallen books off of his body as he quickly tossed the drained rune from his glove and popped in the necessary runes with speed.
“I gotcha, Emilio!” Blimpo called out.
The young man didn’t even hear his elven companion call out to him before he suddenly felt something soft catch him amidst his descent, feeling as though he had landed on a cloud. It was a bed of foam, formed in the middle of the air and cushioning him like a mattress.
…Blimpo? Ah, nice save, he tiredly thought.
For a minute, the two were silent in the aftermath of the chaotic encounter; the flames that chewed on the black wood of the forgotten library were snuffed out by the shockwave, leaving silence now brewing.
The elven man lifted his goggles from his eyes, straightening himself out as he caught his breath before he walked closer to the edge.
In the wake of the Dragon Buster’s release, the floor below was completely ruined; it crumbled on top of the unseen War, burying it beneath unknown amounts of tonnes of weight.
“Ha…ha-ha-ha…Ha-ha! We did it…! You did it!” Blimpo stood up, gazing down from the nearly-shattered balcony towards the crumbled ground floor.
Finally picking himself up, the young man coughed, sitting on the sturdy foam as he could still feel the residual heat boiling beneath his skin. It was painful, yet dull due to the vague aching going through his body after withstanding the gravitational force of being directly in the vicinity of the blast.
“That wasn’t…too bad, was it?” Emilio said, picking himself up with a weary smile and a thumbs-up to his partner.
Blimpo looked at him, giving him a thumbs-up in return, “Sad the Dragon Buster 4000 didn’t make it outta the fight, but damn did it go out with a bang!”
A sigh emitted from the young man’s lips as he left the platform of foam, stepping onto the same balcony that the elven inventor was hanging out on. It had become riddled with bullet holes; the black wood cut and torn by bullets that had passed.
He wasn’t much different from the battered library, as once the adrenaline of the battle died down, he fell to a knee, wincing and groaning.
“Ah–you’re hurt!” Blimpo called out, shocked to see him suddenly fall.
pAn,D a-n0ve1,c-o-m Blood squirted out from his clipped, left ear and his grazed thigh, though that wasn’t the root of his problems: he coughed up red fluid, leaking it from his nose and even some from the canals of his ears.
It was internal damage; that much was undeniable to him after having to suffer the shattering shockwaves of the Dragon Buster, even from behind the firing of the weapon.
“Argh! Damn! I didn’t really think it’d be THAT effective, you know!? There’s a limit to this sorta stuff–even for me! That sort of energy will definitely have a backlash on the one firing it, and you put yourself way closer than you should’ve been!” Blimpo told him.
The young man coughed out again, looking down at the ground as crimson fluid had painted the wooden planks beneath him; his vision was shaky and his limbs ached, but he pushed through and forced himself to stand.
“I’m fine,” he assured his companion, wiping his mouth and nose as the blood smeared onto his hand, “–Worst comes to worst, I still have five lives here, don’t I?”
“True…but it still isn’t a pleasant experience,” Blimpo sighed.
Standing up proved to be a task of its own as he nearly fell forward, only caught as the elven man grabbed onto his arm to help him straighten out.
“Woah there! I gotcha,” Blimpo chuckled.
Despite attempting to claim he was fine to move on, he was unable to convince the elf who was adamant about taking a moment to rest.
“Ngh…”
A brief noise of pain left his lips as he carefully sat down on the floor of the library’s upper area, resting his back against the portion of the railing that was still intact.
“Just wait a second! I’ve got something in here that’ll help you,” Blimpo assured him, rummaging through one of his satchels on his belt.
While he waited for whatever questionable medical care his companion had in store for him, he glanced down to the ground floor where all of the rubble had collapsed in.
Though it was silent, save for the subtle trickling of wood chips and dust, he couldn’t shake the feeling that War wasn’t completely down for the count.
“Hey, hey, focus up!” Blimpo called to him.
“Huh…?”
As he looked forward, he found the elven man flipping his goggles over his eyes while wielding a completely oversized syringe that was intimidating in appearance with a shell of steel.
“What the hell is that!?”
Despite his condition, he was quick to scoot away at the sight of the frightening needle. It wasn’t that he had an outright fear of needles, but the length of the one wielded by the less-than-trustworthy “medic” in his eccentricities and wild inventions, was akin to that of a rapier.
“Be not afraid, friend! This is my recovery invention: ‘Angel Piercer!'” Blimpo told him, pushing the piston of the syringe up as it activated the dormant rune inside.
“That sounds like an ultimate move that’ll wipe me out!” He contested.
–Eventually, after enough scooting away from his companion, who was scarily invested in testing out the magical syringe on him, he was too tired to resist Blimpo’s help anymore. It wasn’t entirely made any better by the constant maniacal laughter that emitted from the goggle-wearing inventor, who truthfully seemed a bit too excited to stab him with the needle.