Underworld - Book 2 - Chapter 27

My first breath waking was troubled and miserable. Without thinking, I cast Heal.

“Elorion!” A distant voice called.

I tried to get up, but nothing seemed to work.

“How can he possibly be alive?” A different voice said with a cough.

“Because he’s as hardheaded as I am.” The first voice rebuked. It was Olivia.

Trying to open my eyes, I found it impossible. I forced Advanced Healing Magic to permeate the area, when I felt the tissue around my eyes start to burn. It wasn’t the burn of flames, but of red hot metal searing into the skin. Despite the pain, I channeled as much mana to the area as possible. I wasn’t on fire. My eyes were regrowing.

As my sight returned I knew what I was going see before I saw it. Titan’s Bone Defense hadn’t been in time. My torso was mostly in one piece with my bone plate mail in ruins on the floor beneath me, but my arms and legs with a thinner coverage of bone had been blow to ribbons in the explosion. I had probably only survived because I had raised my arm to shield my face.

I didn’t know how long I had been out, but my HP was down to 4,628/41891 even after I had already healed myself. It looked like growing back limbs and bodily organs was going to take a lot more mana than normal.

Seeing my mana, I was at 16,009/190,393. I must have only been out for a few minutes. I was unsure how much mana I would need, so I would hold judgement on whether that was a blessing or a curse.

There was no use delaying. Better just get it all over with as soon as possible.

I focused Healing Magic into my arms and legs. The agony that followed caused me to pass out momentarily, but I regained consciousness while the job was still underway.

My arm that had shielded my face was entirely gone up to the shoulder. For every inch it regrew, it seemed I had to purchase my healing with another 10 seconds of searing pain. My left arm that had been hanging at my side, had been severed at the elbow. My legs were in slightly better shape. On my left leg it was only my foot that needed regrowing. My right leg was missing entirely just below the knee. My chest and gut region may have been charred in places by Dark Magic but healed almost instantly. My undergarments were in tatters, but still covered my shame.

After a few minutes of unbelievable pain, I looked up at a dozen people looking down at me. Russ reached out his hand.

His smile was real but laced with dread.

Taking it, I let him heave me up, as my Buffs were activated, and Skeletal Armor covered me in its familiar embrace.

My first words were the only one’s appropriate. “Where can I help?”

The crowd split as Olivia pointed to the bridge. Looking around I saw I had been blown clear to the wall. Thankfully I hadn’t fallen into the chasm to the rock below. 

“Russ. Are you hurt?” I asked hastily when I remembered he had been stabbed right through the chest.

“I’m fine. It only took a quarter of my HP.” He replied with a reassuring nod.

I cast a blanket of Healing Magic above the group as I hurried past them toward the others.

Trevon’s broken arm was a quick fix. So was Perry’s cracked ribs. I turned from them with a quick Lesser Heal to the more serious injuries.

Audrey looked terrible with a fractured collarbone and a broken nose, but she was also easy enough to heal. Three of the others were in worse condition.

The bone shelter I had hurriedly erected has been destroyed in the blast, but the far end of it had fragmented into shrapnel and peppered Clarissa, Mel and Zorik. 

Taking a knee at Clarissa’s side, I yelled at Audrey to join us and hold her friends hand.

“This is going to hurt,” I told Clarissa. Her eyes were hardly able to focus, so I looked at Audrey in turn. 

She nodded that she understood. 

A bone in the shape of a palm sized shark tooth was lodged into her shoulder. As I grabbed it I sent a flow of Healing Magic into her through my hand that was braced against her chest. I also let healing flow into the bone itself as I removed it slowly for fear of arteries and other such things that might complicate things that were beyond my understanding.

Her arms grabbed my hand pulling the bone fragment as she screamed.

I pinned one arm down and Audrey did the other. As the fragment slipped from her shoulder, a long claw like fragment appeared at its end that looked to have gone right through her and out her back. The healing was quick after that.

With the healing done, I sat her down quickly in Audrey’s lap and hurried to Mel. Zorik was probably in worse shape but I couldn’t head him, because of his Dark Alinement. It was possible that Mel could.

His surgery was similar to Clarissa’s but there were three bones shards to remove. Russ didn’t wait for me to ask. He bent down and held one of Mel’s arms. Steven, our assassin, did the same with the other.

Instead of screaming, Mel howled in something that resembled laughter. After the first shard was removed and he had a moment to breath, he looked at me with a whimsical grin. He was delirious.

I went straight to the next shard and removed it, keeping my pace steady. The last one came out clean, finishing the job.

“Mel!” I shouted, trying to get his attention as the skin finished closing around his thigh.

His eyes rolled around in head for a moment before Russ smacked him firmly on the cheek. He sat up with a jerk, shaking his head.

“We made it?!” He asked, looking at me like he had seen a ghost. 

“Yes. And I need your help.” I demanded.

I picked him up as much as helped him to his feet and placed him next to where Zorik lay. A large shard was jabbed into the side of the Imp’s neck.

I walked Mel through the healing of our monster friend. He used his magic in a similar manner I did when healing when he revived and healed his skeleton’s. The process went smooth.

When the shard was removed and Zorik regained consciousness, I fell back to my rear and finally allowed myself a moment to relax.

Zorik looked up at Mel in wonder that he had been able to heal him and had been willing to.

After a few deep breaths I saw several relieved faces looking down at us from those gathered around. When I didn’t see Aeris, I shot to my feet. I searched everyone’s face one more time, just to be sure.

“Where’s Aeris?” I asked once. When I was met with nothing but the shaking of heads I asked again. This time I commanded them to answer.

“She fell.” Olivia said, choking back a sob.

With a look at my mana, I now had just over 25k. I cleared everyone from the edge of the bridge with a wave of my hand and jumped.

Titan’s Bone Defense greedily enhanced my armor as I fell. With Mana Sight amped up at full power, I saw two bodies bellow. One was leaning over the other. Skyler had survived.

He was examining Aeris. I wasn’t sure she was alive.

I crushed the jagged rock underfoot as I landed with a solid thud. Racing over to them, they was just a few meters from where I had landed.

Skyler turned at my approach. He must have saw the look on my face, for he scrambled back to get out of the way.

Taking a knee at Aeris side, Healing Magic leaped into her at the touch of my hand.

She didn’t move.

Her life blood had spilled out on the stone beneath her, which was immediately apparent through Canine’s Sense of Smell.

My gut wrenched as I realized I was too late.

“No.” I said with a whimper.

Shaking my head, I just couldn’t believe it.

What could I do? If Healing Magic didn’t work…

In desperation I let Force Learn build, then cast it the moment it was ready. My senses were catapulted into what was left of her dying form.

The silvery glow of her Wind Magic had almost full disappeared. It had mixed with the Light Magic in her blood, which had bled out from the wounds in her back. I wanted to stay here, in this moment with her forever, but there was almost nothing left.

In this state, with no body and no hands to reach out and hold her. Still, I had managed to interact with the dark elf’s mana before.

I tried, but there was no orb to discover. She was fading further, I could tell. How that was possible, I didn’t understand. I thought there was no passage of time when I was in this state.

An orb of power. Humans did no possess them, for our power was in our blood, but I had seen an orb, more than once, hold a monster together and give it its form.

Since there was nothing to grab ahold of, I poured myself into her. To my astonishment, an orb of Light Magic started to form in her center. The mana that was left was drawn to it like a magnet until some of the energy that had left her body started to return. 

There was only a fraction of it that I was able to recover, but, when all of it had gathered together, I felt healing energy flow through my hand. It was the first time I had been able to feel my body as my consciousness was in this state. It would have to remain a mystery for now for I had begun to rebuild the boundaries that held her mana in place. When I was finished, the fog of mana inside her started to flow.

As I returned to my body, I found I held Aeris in my arms with my lips against hers. My tears wetted her face.

When her mouth pushed firmer against my own, I gasped.

She looked up at me with a woozy grin. Aeris was alive.

“I am so tired.” She muttered, not bothering to move from my grasp.

“You almost died.” I said pointedly. 

“That explains it. Why is my face all wet?”

I opened my mouth to answer then closed it, trying to think where best to start.

She snorted in weak laughter.

“I’m kidding.” She said.

I could help but roll my eyes, but a chuckle escaped. 

“I feel different.” She said, bringing her hand to her chest.

With a nod I admitted it. “I did something.” 

“Oh?” She said, shaking her head. “You did something? You did a lot of somethings. Saved my life. Drenched my face with tears. Made out with me while I was unconscious…”

“I also put an Orb of Light Magic inside you.”

“Stop talking.” She said, putting her finger to my mouth. 

Turning to Skyler, she said. “Do you mind giving us a minute? I’ll fly everyone out of this pit in a moment.”

Skyler froze like a deer in headlights. After a moment of not answering, he turned and walked away.