The following days went by in the same way. I pulled the wagon without any rest, both day and night. During the night, I also had to carry Faye in my arms, in order to have her sleep feeling safe.Sloan fed me only twice a day, at sunrise and at sunset, justifying himself by telling me we needed to save provisions.

I quickly lost track of time, due to the monotony and the fatigue. Despite my high stamina, I was slowly getting tired. More than once the thought of stopping, even at the cost of needing to confront Sloan, crossed my mind, but I continued on to avoid putting Faye at risk.

After an unknown number of days, I finally collapsed. I did not lose consciousness, but for a moment I saw black and fell on all fours on the glassy asphalt. The flow of aura within my body had become erratic. Every single muscle fibre in my body had first contracted, paralysing me for an instant and making me fall to the ground, and then had given way. My body had stopped me before I spent my last energies. It was now forcing me to rest.

I could have still continued on if I had wanted to, but my body had decided to not allow that. After all, completely exhausting myself would have made me vulnerable, unable to react in case of danger. I had already intended to stop before reaching such a level of fatigue, but I had not foreseen that my body would intervene on its own.

With a last effort, I let the chains I was wearing fall to the ground. Soon after that my aura began to regularise its flow, which was focused on my muscles and tendons. Slowly, I felt my senses get weaker and I felt myself falling into a peculiar state analogous to half sleep, in which I was still conscious but was isolated from the outside world.

Before I completely lost my sensory perceptions, I heard a series of grumbles and screams, which I could not decipher. Anyway, it was almost certainly Sloan cursing at me, ordering me to resume the march. Even if I could, I would have refused. I needed to rest. Soon, I stopped hearing any noise and was surrounded by darkness.

“JOHN!”, a panicked voice reached my ears.

In a split second, my senses returned and my eyes focused on the image appearing in front of my eyes: Faye, lying on the ground, and Sloan, above her. His left hand was gripping her throat, while his right was pulling out a knife from a sheath hidden under his clothes. Faye had her hands around his wrist and was trying to free herself, while her legs swung in the air. A pale halo was surrounding her. Mana was trying to concentrate around her, but like a flame in the wind, it was getting blown away due to the Obsidian Path properties.

“I thought we could have some fun together, but who could have imagined you were one of those filthy bastards”, Sloan said scornfully.

I saw him raise the knife high above his head, with his aura rising from him and infusing the weapon. The next instant, I saw my right hand gripping his right wrist and my left hand sinking into his shoulder. I saw my right knee rise up rapidly and hit his elbow violently, causing it to bend in the wrong direction.

A cry of pain escaped his mouth, his grip on the knife weakened and he finally dropped it to the ground. Sloan tried to turn around, but before he managed to, I put my foot on his back and, kicking hard, sent him flying away from Faye. Picking up the knife, I threw it away and it disappeared in the night. In my hands, it would have been just a piece of metal, while in his it would have been a dangerous aura-infused weapon.

“What are you doing?!”, Sloan cried out loud, struggling off the ground with his arm still bent in the wrong direction.

I didn't answer. The blood in my veins was boiling. The muscles under my skin were twitching and my eyes focused on Sloan. My field of vision narrowed on him and my mind was dominated by a single violent thought.

When I was ready to lunge at the target, something brushed my leg. I looked down and saw Faye still lying on the ground, shivering and with her clothes damaged from the scuffle. I lifted her with a single hand and held her until she was able to stand on her own trembling legs, while keeping my gaze fixed on Sloan, who stared at me without moving.

“Take shelter”, I said to Faye in a voice devoid of any emotion.

Without saying a word, Faye staggered behind the wagon.

“Are you really protecting her?”, Sloan asked incredulously, his eyes wide open.

While I had helped Faye up, he had straightened his arm and regained complete mobility. His aura, which surrounded his shoulder and elbow, was nullifying the damage suffered.

“Why did you attack her?”, I asked in response.

Sloan's expression did not change.

“She's a filthy genai! “, he shouted.

My expression remained impassive. His eyes narrowed. A moment later, he burst out laughing.

“You already knew! Yet you took her with you! You're a traitor”

His tone had gone cold.

“What are you going to do? Do you want to fight with me? For that w***e?”

My body tensed. The time for words was over. I pressed with my feet against the ground and in an instant I appeared in front of him. His eyes sparkled. The moment he had so clearly waited for had finally come.

He raised his arms to protect himself, intercepting the fist aimed at his face. The impact rang in the surrounding environment and pushed both of us back. Sliding on the ground, we raised a cloud of dust, but we both kept our balance and remained standing.

“Oh oh, you hit hard!”

Sloan forearms bones had creaked due to the blow. His aura concentrated around the affected areas.

“Now it's my turn!”

His aura encircled his right heel and, lifting his leg, he hit me with a side kick in the lower abdomen. I lunged back and contracted my abs to absorb part of the blow, but I couldn’t completely cancel the force of the impact. Although it didn’t knock the wind out of me, the pain lingered for a while.

I was finally able to gather the information I needed. The blows we had just exchanged had the aim of studying each other. Sloan hit hard, but not as hard as me. I was reasonably sure I had an advantage in terms of pure physical ability. On the other hand, he was much more capable in aura control than I was. Following my attack, he had immediately used his aura to repair the damage he had taken, and had immediately responded with an aura-infused attack.

Overall, I was at a disadvantage. While he could heal his injuries in a targeted way, I had to rely on my general enhanced regeneration, which he could interfere with. I was not yet able to infuse aura into my attacks, so I couldn’t do the same.

This was a determining factor in the confrontation between two archumans, in which the victor was often not the most physically capable or the best armed, but the one who was most adept at hindering the opponent's aura flow.

Sloan broke the silence.

“What do you say? Shall we continue?”

I focused and concentrated on the fight in front of me. I was theoretically at a disadvantage, but that didn't mean I couldn't emerge victorious. I just needed to hit him harder than he could hit me, until his regenerative abilities could no longer keep up.