I Reincarnated to An Chapter 320: Running on Empty

Chapter 320: Running on Empty

Arthur sits down on the sofa inside the DEU Chief’s office. He props both feet up on the coffee table, his head resting fully against the back of the sofa, and massages the bridge of his nose.

Everything about him radiates exhaustion.

He can’t help but listen to Alicia’s call with the Solarys Governor.

"But sir. It is impossible. We do not have any more personnel that we can send. No one, sir. No one." She emphasizes the last two words.

Her voice is slightly higher than before. Her patience has started running out.

Arthur knows he should remind her. He has seen enough to know it is only a matter of ti before Alicia starts yelling at the Governor outright.

A pattern he has witnessed far too often in the last twenty four hours.

But right now he can’t be bothered. It would probably be good for the Governor to get yelled at. Healthy, even.

Arthur snaps out of his own thoughts.

Good? Healthy? Where did those thoughts co from?

He sits back up, feet back on the floor, eyes on Alicia.

"I don’t know how else to make you understand, sir. We have no one left to send out. Everyone has been deployed. I myself was on my way out when you called. I figured I would answer, since I won’t be able to hear you out there over the storm."

Alicia’s last thread of patience snaps with a sigh.

She listens for a few more seconds, then hangs up before the Governor has finished berating her.

She turns to Arthur, smiling, though it doesn’t reach her eyes.

"Hi. How are you? Pissed or rely annoyed? ? Thanks for asking. I’m past annoyed and well into pissed. How about you?" She delivers it all in one smooth breath.

Arthur doesn’t say anything. He gestures at Alicia to do sothing instead.

"Don’t tell

to breathe." She snaps.

"I have been breathing since the day I was born. I can do it with my eyes closed. And I have been doing the calming exercise since I first answered his call." Alicia protests vigorously, but even as she finishes speaking, she is already breathing in and out.

Visibly trying to calm herself.

Arthur smiles weakly. He gives her a thumbs up.

They both stay silent, until Alicia finishes.

"Okay. Thanks for that." She plops down beside him. "The patience window is getting shorter, Art. I have to constantly remind myself that I’m about to get irritated or angry before it even happens. It’s exhausting."

Arthur only looks at her.

He swallows.

"Yeah. I know exactly how you feel. I’ve been holding back my temper since last night and I feel like I’m ready to explode at any mont. I just need one small thing to set

off." He lets out a long sigh.

"What are we going to do? We can’t go breaking up other people’s fights when all we want to do is fight ourselves." Alicia looks at him, lost.

Arthur sighs again, his breath coming out shaky this ti. He is barely holding on.

"I think we need to call Liam. His Water might calm us down." Arthur finally voices what he has been thinking for a while now.

The mory of that particular night had stopped him from suggesting it sooner. But he knows he can’t keep letting that get in the way. That is a personal matter.

This is a city-wide matter.

Arthur and Alicia have spent the past two days running around Solarys, calming people down, helping with evacuations, and breaking up fights across the city. Most regular vehicles can’t navigate the flooded streets, making Arthur and Alicia, who drive Montrose Pods, among the very few people who can still move around freely. It has only added to the burden already on their shoulders.

"Speaking of Liam. He’s Water. Can’t he do sothing about the storm?" Alicia asks.

Arthur looks at her. "You’re Wind. Can’t you do sothing about the storm?"

Alicia sits up straighter. "I actually want to try. But I know I can’t do it alone. Liam and Thea would need to do it with ."

Silence.

Arthur thinks it over.

At the ntion of Theo, he rembers sothing Liam had said. Theo hasn’t been feeling well since coming out of the dungeon.

Arthur himself hasn’t gone to see him yet. Liam had suggested leaving him alone, which to Arthur ans Theo is physically fine but not ntally.

Arthur scoffs inwardly. Aren’t we all? Well, at least she’s okay.

Alicia doesn’t know yet. No one has told her. She has been living out of her office and hasn’t had the chance to return to Rhaenas HQ.

"I can feel mana in the storm, Art. I think I can influence it sohow. Even if I can’t stop it completely, I might be able to bring it down a bit."

"I’m really tempted to let you try. You’re right, I can feel the mana in it too. But there’s sothing else there, sothing beyond just the mana. I can’t describe it exactly. But I believe it is what’s affecting people." Arthur shares his thoughts, voicing sothing he has been turning over in his mind.

"Teacher Theo once said that fire can be used to purify. If this storm really is affecting people sohow, I’d like to try purifying it with my Fire."

He takes a breath.

"That said, we can’t do it blindly. We need Teacher Theo’s guidance. Or at least Thea’s."

"I really hope I get to et this Teacher Theo soday. He sounds aweso." Alicia says.

"But I’ll settle for Thea right now. Shall we?" She gets up, ready to head out to Rhaenas HQ.

Arthur rises slowly.

"Yeah. I see no other way."

------------------------------

"Well, well. After all the proud talks of how you are going to destroy , you cannot deliver. I see that you are a bunch of worthless n." Baroness Voss says in a tone of complete arrogance.

Hawk grits his teeth so hard that his jaw trembles.

He punches the floor and gets up slowly. There are many cuts across his body. So shallow, so deep, and most of them oozing blood.

His friends are not in much better condition.

The Hunters have been sparring with the Baroness for the past twenty hours.

"Sparring" is a generous word. The correct word would be getting the crap beaten out of them.

Baroness Voss has been beating the crap out of the Hunters in the na of training.

"Oh? You’re getting back up?" She says in complete mock.

She opens her arms wide.

"Co at , you worthless scum."

"Argh!" Hawk bulldozes forward, leaving his friends who are still on the floor, struggling to get up.

"Wait, Hawk!" Ethan calls him, only to be ignored.

"It does not matter how many tis you get up again and co at , the result would always be the sa." The Baroness says, waving her wrist.

Hawk cannot go further. There’s a wall made of wind that blocks him. The Baroness smiles in satisfactory and flicks her fingers.

The wall of wind changes into sharp blades, cutting Hawk.

He ignores the pain, trying to protect himself with his fire. But the shapeless sharp wind cannot be blocked. They keep cutting him across his body, until the wind changes again, lifts him up and throws him to the wall of the training room.

Hawk crashes to the wall, and slowly falls to the floor, leaving a dent on the wall.

"Hawk!" His friends call him, and runs to him.

The Baroness laughs.

Her laughs sound like the ultimate insult to the Hunters.

She glances at the clock on the wall.

"Enough. It is morning tea ti for ."

The Baroness turns around elegantly, and walks towards the exit.

Just before she opens the door, she stops.

"It is enough for today. I see no improvent. I do not want to waste my mana and ti tomorrow or day after tomorrow. I will inform you when I feel like continuing."

The Baroness flicks her fingers and the door opens.

She exits the training room, leaving five Hunters slump on the floor, all beaten up.

No one says anything, only laboured breathings are heard.

"This is humiliating." Ethan says.

"To say the least." J.C. says.

"But we have to admit, she’s strong." Taylor says.

Silent.

They are all breathing hard.

Hawk groans in pain.

His friends turn their attention to him.

"Hawk, you alright?" Carter asks.

Hawk is holding his left side. He groans again.

"I think several ribs are broken." He’s trying to sit up straight.

"Ethan, we can’t keep doing this." J.C. says.

Ethan looks at him, face red and dripping with sweat. "But this is only our second training."

"You call this training?" J.C. asks.

Ethan looks at him, unable to answer.

"Well," Hawk says, wincing, one hand pressed against his ribs.

"I don’t like her at all. But we have to admit she’s strong. Even if she doesn’t know the first thing about training people." Hawk continues.

He looks at his comrades. "And let’s face it, she doesn’t know a thing about training. She only knows how to beat people."

"But." He adjusts his position to lean fully against the wall and groans.

His breathing is short and shallow from the pain. "If we can beat her one day, how satisfying would that be?"

He is half grinning, half wincing.

The other four n stare at him like he has completely lost his mind.

"You’re saying we should just keep going through this?" Taylor asks in disbelief.

Hawk answers him with a forced laugh.