Ball of Nothing

#79: Once Bitten Twice Obliterated

Night fell. Merlin was taking a break after a day of healing. Zero had woken up sometime in the afternoon and was shocked to find Truen in a bad state. He was more shocked at how he'd been found by Hua Tuo but relaxed when Buddha confirmed that Hua Tuo wasn't a suspicious person.

Merlin found the chirpy brunet interesting to talk to. While Zero had the mind of a child, he sometimes displayed great knowledge about other things and had interesting insights. The wizard thanked Hua Tuo for the delicious dinner and offered to set up a stronger magical barrier to guard against the moontaur sisters lying in the wait outside.

Hua Tuo learnt that Zero had peculiar eating habits. The boy ate like a starved man and had a bottomless void for a stomach. He devoured everything without much chewing and his stomach still growled even after five bowls of rice.

Merlin was intrigued by his appetite when Zero recounted how he met Truen at the Mega Gourmet competition.

"I see that you have quite the appetite. I understand from Isis that you have the free-to-dine voucher, shall we visit La Boutique?"

Zero appeared conflicted. He briefly glanced at Truen and the Sage Gods exchanged looks.

"I'll take care of Truen, don't worry. A growing boy like you needs to eat. I'll inform you immediately when he wakes up so don't worry."

Zero nodded before holding Merlin's outstretched hand and stepping into the portal. Hua Tuo watched them leave and waved with a gentle expression on his face. That quickly changed after the portal closed. It was finally time to get rid of the pests.

Without Merlin around to maintain the newly erected magical barrier, it collapsed. Sensing that the opportunity had presented itself, Kayla and Layla got into position quickly as planned. Hua Tuo appeared to be busy with the elf and had his back faced against the window. This was all the sisters needed to launch a sneak attack.

Their plan was simple. They would attack from two directions. One would hide beneath the window and the other would charge through the door to distract the old man. When the old man was engaged, the hidden one would grab the elf and use him as a bargaining chip.

Hua Tuo continued to dress Truen's wounds and check his vitals while the sisters readied their sneak attack. Unknown to Zero, the Sage Gods agreed to take care of the nuisance without Zero's knowledge. The young boy was still to green and if he knew that the sisters he saved were facing a crisis, he would try to offer them help. The Sage Gods had seen too many cases like this and knew that these girls were merely expandables. The tribe sent them here on a death mission and it was clear that short of death, nothing would stop these sisters from getting what they wanted.

Moontaurs were not creatures easy to deal with. Although there was a way for Merlin and Hua Tuo to help them, who was to say the people they saved wouldn't bite them in the back one day? Selfishness was a human trait, not even half-beasts were freed from it. There was nothing good in helping the moontaur tribe, it would only bring trouble in future. When given a foot, one would tend to ask for a mile.

Hua Tuo knew that the moontaur tribe was fated to be extinct. After the fall of Star Guardians, it was only a matter of time. Star Guardians were now considered myths by the people of this new planet. When the old Earth was destroyed, so was the galaxy and space-time construct. The new God born from human hopes could only replicate whatever he knew about humans. He didn't have the power to bring back the fallen powers of the old planet. Preserving them through diluted traces of fallen power was all he could do.

The door was kicked down and swift like the wind, Kayla attacked. Layla lay waiting for the opportunity to grab the elf but was shocked by the old man's counter.

Blood spewed everywhere when Hua Tuo slashed Kayla's neck with a scalpel in hand. The small but deadly sharp blade cut deeply and Kayla choked in blood. Her windpipe was cut but it wasn't deep enough to kill her instantly.

Seeing her sister's state, Layla flew into rage and launched herself at Hua Tuo. Sadly, she couldn't react fast enough to the cloud of poison powder thrown in her face.

With one bleeding to death and one suffocating from poison, Hua Tuo looked at the girls emotionlessly. He had nothing against them but for the greater picture, they had to be sacrificed.

"If you want to blame someone, please blame it on the one who created this world. Moontaurs were never supposed to exist. It is the fate for all descendants of Star Guardians to die out. Even if you moved from Endow Hill, you cannot escape the wheel of fate."

Unseeing and unhearing, the sisters departed from the world of the living.

Hua Tuo had no enmity with the moontaur tribe. However, they had gone too far when they tried to take his patient by force. A doctor's mission was to save any lives that they could. When their patient was in danger, a doctor can do anything at his disposal to ensure his patient's safety. Hua Tuo only did what was expected of him as a doctor. If the girls had chosen to kidnap him instead of taking his patient as hostage, he would've complied. Sadly, they didn't and so they had to die.

The doctor used his hand to close the eyes of the deceased. He carried the bodies one his cloud mount and decided to return them to the forest where they belonged. It didn't take long for Hua Tuo to single-handedly dig two graves with qi enforced hands. He laid the sisters to rest and marked the dirt mounds with boulders. On it, he engraved the following words, "In memory for the brave moontaur warriors who were once part of Endow Hill. May your souls rest in peace".

Standing in front of the freshly dug graves, Hua Tuo waited for roughly an hour before making his way back. It was unfortunate that they had to die but Hua Tuo wouldn't betray the vow he'd taken back when he was still a mortal. He would do anything to save his patient, even if his patient wanted him dead.