Chiying felt her legs go completely limp and she slowly closed her eyes, mentally preparing herself to accept whatever terrible fate awaited her.
Just when the Black Spirit's massive hand was about to crush her into the ground, Uehara Shiroha used his spatial movement technique to instantly teleport to her location.
In the midst of the chaotic battle, he grabbed Chiying's hand firmly and pulled her away from the deadly strike zone.
The moment the two of them cleared the danger area, the Black Spirit's enormous hand slammed down onto the ground with tremendous force, sending clouds of dust and debris flying up around them.
At this moment, Chiying was still in complete shock and couldn't quite believe that she had nearly died in such a horrific way.
The other surviving team members had also fled in different directions to save themselves. Fortunately, the Black Spirit didn't seem interested in pursuing any of them.
While running away from the battlefield, Uehara Shiroha took the opportunity to glance back over his shoulder, and he saw that the Black Spirit had already returned to its previous activity of systematically destroying and widening the dimensional cracks.
This particular behavior pattern raised some serious doubts and questions in Uehara Shiroha's mind about the creature's true nature and motivations.
They ran desperately all the way back to their previous camp location, each person holding their knees and gasping heavily for breath.
Uehara Shiroha straightened up and looked at the blonde man cowering nearby, then walked over and grabbed the coward by his collar.
"What exactly were you doing back there? Didn't you hear what we were shouting at you?"
"If you had just rescued Fasius when we told you to, how could our leader have died like that?"
The blonde man irritably pushed Uehara Shiroha's hand away from his collar, then replied with a look of obvious disgust and defensiveness.
"You guys talked a big game, but you were all standing there just as frozen and useless as I was."
"Since you think that charging in could have saved him, why did you just stand there doing nothing and expect me to go die instead?"
Uehara Shiroha responded with a deepening frown of frustration.
"You and Fasius were assigned to the same attack group, so of course it was your responsibility to go and rescue him when he was in trouble."
"If the rest of us had acted rashly and broken formation, all the tactical strategies we had carefully designed would have been completely invalidated."
The blonde man replied with an even more contemptuous expression.
"Oh, come on! I think you're just as afraid of dying as I am, if not more so."
"At least I can honestly admit that I'm scared, unlike you who doesn't dare to take action but still tries to act all high and mighty like some kind of heroic leader."
Uehara Shiroha became so furious that his hands were visibly shaking with rage. He grabbed his Zanpakuto firmly and raised it to strike the blonde man down from above.
Unexpectedly, Raymond quickly stepped in from the side, raising his own weapon and positioning himself protectively in front of the blonde man, successfully blocking Uehara Shiroha's deadly strike.
If Uehara Shiroha had truly wanted to kill the blonde man, Raymond wouldn't have been able to stop him at all. However, Uehara Shiroha chose not to continue applying force, instead turning to ask Raymond with obvious curiosity.
"Why do you want to keep this kind of worthless person around? He's going to get us all killed sooner or later."
Raymond answered with a conflicted and troubled expression on his face.
"This situation is definitely his fault, and I'm not defending his cowardice, but we can't afford to kill him right now."
"With Fasius dead, our team's overall strength has been drastically reduced. We may no longer be a match for the Black Spirit even working together."
"If we kill him now and reduce our numbers even further, how are we supposed to deal with that monster next time? How can we possibly repair the dimensional rift?"
Uehara Shiroha gritted his teeth in frustration but finally lowered his Zanpakuto.
The blonde man had been so terrified by Uehara Shiroha's murderous intent that he had nearly wet himself in fear. After seeing Shiroha lower his weapon, the coward began to regain his arrogant attitude.
Seeing that smug expression returning to the blonde man's face, Uehara Shiroha really wanted to go over and cut him down with a single strike, but he managed to hold back his violent impulses.
What Raymond had said made logical sense. The team was already severely short-handed now, so they needed to avoid reducing their numbers any further if possible.
Chiying approached them at this moment and spoke to Uehara Shiroha with genuine gratitude.
"Thank you so much for saving my life back there. If it weren't for your quick thinking and brave action, I would have definitely died at the hands of that monster."
Uehara Shiroha shook his head slightly and replied with characteristic modesty.
"It was nothing special. Anyone would have done the same thing in that situation."
But even as he said those words, he knew that wasn't entirely true. The blonde man certainly wouldn't have risked his own life to save a teammate, and the incident had made it clear that their group was far from united when it came to facing real danger.