Insect Tamer's Ascension-Chapter 344. Restrained from help

Theo kept his eyes on the dim light coming off his sword’s blade. He forced himself to be as cynical as possible at the moment, which made him wonder whether it was merely shining due to reflecting a nearby light source.

’That glow...’ Theo thought, his mind seemingly drifting away. He had fought with everything he had until now.

’Just once. I need to do this once.’

For one final time, Theo gripped the sword’s hilt as tightly as he could and pushed one single step forward.

He swung the sword in a horizontal slash, its blade cutting through the air.

The beast was still a few inches away. It didn’t even need to move for Theo to fall to the ground.

’It’s so fluffy... is ground supposed to be fluffy?’ Theo wondered as he felt something like a fur mattress beneath him.

The beast looked down at its body, especially at the cut that had formed.

For the first time since their fight began, blood oozed from its body, and the beast screamed at the top of its lungs.

But in mere seconds, the screaming stopped and its legs started trembling.

After the legs, its entire body started shivering as it looked around wildly, its face lowering toward the ground.

"If you want to live, then run," a voice said, so heavy that even Theo felt the pressure despite being asleep.

The beast’s head kept on sinking lower until its claws touched the ground. It completely ignored the fresh wound on its body that was still oozing out blood.

As if understanding what the baron had said, the beast turned and ran up the slope, vanishing from sight.

The baron rushed forward and placed a hand on Theo’s face. The pain on his face was so deep that it felt like something inside him had broken.

"I am sorry, my son," he spoke while rummaging through his spatial storage and pulling out a gold-colored potion.

"This was necessary for what’s coming next..."

While Theo remained conscious, the baron made him drink the potion. His gaze lingered on Theo’s hand that was still gripping the sword’s hilt for dear life.

As the gold potion entered Theo’s body, every wound on his body began to glow with a bright, golden light.

Before anything else could happen, the mantis was already on Theo, scraping across his whole back and leaving long scratch marks.

It then went on to feed every single flower and crimson moss to Theo while the baron silently watched.

The baron’s hand went to the head of the beast whose body had cushioned Theo while he fell.

"Thank you." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Within a minute, Theo’s body was completely healed on the exterior.

Still, anyone could tell how pale he looked with just a glance.

Using the beast Theo lay on, the baron began moving back to the camp. Not for a single second did the mantis leave Theo’s side.

When they finally entered their camp’s territory, the baron looked toward the center, where the campfire burned.

Instead of the camp, there were two individuals all tied up on the ground.

"YOUNG MASTER!?"

The moment Clara saw Theo, his body completely drenched in his own blood as he lay upon a certain beast’s body, it was as if her soul left her body.

Her hands and feet were tied, and a small ball of cloth lay near her. It wouldn’t take much for anyone to realize that she was forced to remain silent till now.

And that suspicion was confirmed when muffled sounds came from Elias as well. A piece of cloth could be seen stuffed into his mouth, preventing him from speaking properly.

At the side, all the beasts were tied up the same way. They had stopped moving completely now, as if they had given up.

The baron stared at the scene before him and didn’t know what to say.

"He is okay now," he could only mutter.

Clara was frozen in shock upon hearing his words. "What do you mean he is okay, my lord?!" she cried. "His body is drenched in BLOOD! LOOK AT HIS PALE FACE!!"

Her voice came from deep within her chest, as if she were shouting through her lungs rather than her tongue.

"Please untie me, my lord. I need to care for him." Tears streamed down her face as she spoke with a trembling voice.

With a defeated sigh, the baron walked toward Clara. Taking out a small dagger, he cut both the rope binding her hand and feet, allowing her to finally get up.

She glanced at Theo, her jaw clenched and grip tight. Elias kept muffling loudly in panic, fearing that she might actually hit the baron, but she just clicked her tongue and hurried toward Theo.

She paid no attention to the ferocious-looking beast beneath him.

"Your wrist is broken, Attendant Clara," the baron said.

But Clara didn’t even look at him.

Realizing that she couldn’t carry Theo with an injured hand, she gently scooped him up using only one arm and supported him with her shoulder.

"..." The baron didn’t know what to say. He moved on to cut the ropes on Elias’s restraints as well, which made the fellow immediately get up and remove the cloth from his mouth.

"My lord..." Elias spoke, his breathing ragged.

"You did not do good by restraining us like that," he continued, his voice serious. "Our duty is to protect the young master. To make us unable to do that is... the worst thing you could have done."

The baron met his gaze with an equally serious expression.

"You... you don’t realize what it takes for a man like Theo to grow in a society like this," he said, his fingers clenched tightly into a fist.

"He needs to push himself if he wants to survive this world, attendant."

It almost sounded like he was speaking to himself, consoling himself rather than justifying his actions to Elias.

"I didn’t need you interfering in this when I knew neither of you could handle it," the baron added, his piercing stare forcing Elias to look away.

"If you truly wished to protect Theo... then you should have been stronger."