I held Xinran tightly while repeating, "It’s going to be fine, Xinran, it’s going to be fine…"

I couldn’t let Xinran be hurt anymore, so I turned around and covered Xinran’s body completely with my own. At the same time, I raised the Cyan Dragon Shield, abandoned all attack attempts and simply Guarded against Strella’s attacks again and again. Step by step, burst of pain by burst of pain, Xinran and I slowly sank to the infinite depths below.

……

"Is this hell?"

Xinran muttered when she opened her eyes and saw that she was surrounded by thin soil and tough rocks. Then, she saw Strella’s head behind me, and her vision sharpened into focus. She held my neck tight and wept, "Big brother! No! I don’t want to see you like this…"

Crack!

A talon pierced through my back and out my chest, dealing 1.5 million damage to me and killing me. Even as I came back to life, a jet of blood escaped my throat and spilled out from between my lips. I could count the amount of times I was injured this badly in the game on one hand. I pushed the pain away, forced out a smile that I was sure looked very ugly and said, "It’s fine, Xinran, I can still hang...