Sarah seemed gravely injured.
She was barely able to walk but she kept going, keeping her gaze fixed toward the depth of the training area.
"Bru..ce. Need… Bruce."
Her soft words could only be heard by Noah as she continued to limp in his direction.
Noah acted almost instinctively, he activated the warp spell and teleported right next to her where he supported her with his body.
He was the cultivator with the highest status in the training area at that moment, it was normal for him to be the first to react at that scene.
Sarah fell on him, her strength left her as soon as she had Noah's support but she managed to make one last plead before fainting.
"Bring me to Bruce."
Silence reigned in the training area, Noah inspected her body only to discover that her injuries were quite severe, even her dantian seemed to be wounded.
A notebook appeared in his hands, he quickly found Seth's mental imprint and sent a message before lifting Sarah with both his hands.
"Inform Roy, I'll bring her to the Leader."
Noah ordered before walking toward the end of the training area, he didn't even look at the other disciples as he sped toward Bruce's cave.
It took him only a few minutes to arrive in the area where drops of "Breath" accumulated on the surface of the purple walls, he could have arrived faster but he was worried that his speed would worsen Sarah's injuries.
He kicked on the entrance of Bruce's cave a few times, interrupting a cultivator during its training could be dangerous but that seemed an emergency.
"Who-!"
A loud shout resounded from the cave, Bruce interrupted it in time when his mental energy swept the two people outside.
The entrance opened, Bruce saw how Noah had his eyes closed and his brows knitted, he had protected Sarah from the Leader's shout but that left his mental sphere unguarded, his sea of consciousness was still trembling when Bruce came out of his cave.
"You really need to learn how to control yourself, she would have never been able to withstand your pressure in her condition."
Noah complained as he slowly opened his eyes, Bruce's words alone weren't enough to wound him but they still generated waves of pain when he didn't protect his mind.
Bruce, however, was speechless.
His gaze was fixed on Sarah and a conflicted expression appeared on his face.
He raised his hand toward her but then he retracted it and pointed toward his bed inside the cave, he seemed scared even to talk in that situation.
'Is he scared that he would hurt her due to his lack of control?'
Noah saw that Bruce was doing his best to control himself, his eyes couldn't leave Sarah but his mind forced his body to stay away.
Noah hurriedly brought Sarah inside the cave, he laid her on the bed and inspected her condition again.
Her body seemed on the verge of falling apart, most of her bones were broken and many of her organs were injured, even her dantian seemed damaged.
"What happened?"
Bruce spoke, his words were softer than water, Noah was surprised to discover that no pressure at all was exuded by them.
"I don't know, she appeared in the training area like this, she was only able to say your name before fainting."
Noah summarized the previous events.
Bruce nodded and neared her, he stretched his left hand toward her face while his right one clenched itself on his left arm, the grip was so tight that almost no blood was able to reach the extremities of the left hand.
Yet, he was able to safely caress her face like this, Noah understood by the affection radiated by that gesture that their relationship wasn't a simple Leader-captain one.
"Do you want me to leave?"
Noah asked, he wondered if Bruce wanted to stay alone with her.
"No, I need to push myself to the limit to control myself, if something happens, I'm afraid that I won't be able to touch her."
Bruce said while shaking his head and retracting his hand.
Sarah's condition wasn't stable, if anything happened, Bruce would only harm her with his scarce control.
"You did good, it seems that you aren't as bad as the reports say."
Bruce spoke as he took a notebook from his space-ring, messages were sent to many mental imprints as he browsed through its pages.
Noah didn't answer.
He knew that he wasn't a good person, he had realized that long ago.
Yet, that didn't mean that he couldn't feel affection for someone or that he didn't know which was the "good" action.
His life had always been on the edge of a knife, one mistake and he would have lost everything, he was used to destroying everything that opposed him.
Also, every organization in the past had always tried to exploit him, it was only in the Odrea country with Nina's affection that he was able to relax a little.
However, he was still an outsider in the Odrea country, he had never blended in too much.
The situation with the Chasing demon sect, though, was entirely different.
He was a proper disciple and most of its members were cultivators with an attitude similar to his.
Noah was still far away from feeling that he belonged to the sect but he had a clear image of his role in his mind.
He knew that he was going to be a captain sooner or later, even though he was a lone wolf, he had to do his best not to isolate himself.
"I just did what seemed right."
In the end, Noah's answered truthfully.
Bruce nodded and didn't speak again, the two of them stood silently with their gazes fixed on the wounded woman on the bed.
Then, Bruce opened the door of his room, Noah turned to see that Seth and Byron were hurriedly running toward the cave.
"Damn, where did you send her? It seems that a mountain has fallen on her!"
Byron yelled before taking a piece of glass from his space-ring, he carefully inspected her body through it, he kept on shaking his head as he did so.