Chapter 144—Trial Results

AG. Three chapters this week. Probably today, tomorrow and Thursday. This chapter is 4k words.

Tom woke and almost leapt out of bed. Figuratively, of course, as actually doing it might create a scene which was something someone in his circumstances had to avoid. Instead of taking physical action he transitioned straight into the divine champion’s trial he hadn’t wanted to wake at three am but that was better than sleeping in. His plan had worked. He was awake, bright and early and would be there to greet Kang when he triumphed. It had been a simple adjust. The previous night he hadn’t used his sleep skill despite it being off cool down because he needed to be awake for this.

Today was the day. Excitedly he glanced around the biome that humans were sent to. The area of bluegrass was small and he was not surprised to find himself alone as he wasn’t expecting any action until at least four thirty. Corrine would probably join him first. She had her own version of the sleep skill to get her extra training time and she would have timed it as well to be here to greet Kang when he was successful.

That, however, was at least an hour away.

He paced around and wondered what to do to pass the time. His spear came out, and he spun it around, but from experience practicing physical activities here yielded little skill progression and doing it in the open when you could safely challenge people to duels was silly.

Annoyed, he sent it back to his inventory and then forced himself to sit down. “You can do this,” he whispered. Like he had done hundreds of times before he concentrated, and a blank wooden disk appeared in his hands.

Like he had been watching for this moment Mr Cricket appeared.

“Can you let me know when Kang arrives.” Tom asked him straight away.

The open competitor said nothing. He was still probably annoyed that Tom had rejected training for the last two days.

With the disk in hand, Tom recalled the patterns he needed to insert and started carving. His body was jittery, but his focus was absolute. He refused to be distracted as he laid each line perfectly within the wood and because he understood his own mental state, he triple checked everything.

An hour later, he sent the disk back into his soul storage. It wasn’t finished yet, even when he was in peak form an hour wasn’t quite enough, but he had made significant progress. The basic structure of the rune was in place and he could add in the additional sub routines later to complete it.

Then he looked up, and his eyebrows rose in surprise.

Corrine was sitting cross-legged in front of him. Three fire snakes were curling around her, slithering in an all familiar way. It was like they were alive. Her mental control was extraordinary. He could do impressive things with Spark, but nothing like what she was casually demonstrating in practice. The snakes were being individually controlled and their movements looked life like.

It was incredible to watch and such was her concentration she hadn’t even noticed that he was finished and was watching her.

Contentedly, he watched the display with growing disbelief. He recognised his own talent, but what she was doing… wow; it was impressive. The constructs weren’t a spell, she was maintaining their shape and movements with raw fire magic.

Minutes passed as the snakes which had at first been kept pinned close to her skin became more adventurous. They crossed over each other with sparks flying as their skin made contact. They slithered around her body mimicking what you would see in the wild. and the entire time he could feel the warmth they radiated and hear the crackle of the flames that they were made out of.

It was magical but not with the stale fake parlour trick of non-battle system spells but more the fascinating out of the world delightfulness of fairy, sprites and fireworks.

One head ran into the other, and briefly the two focuses, the dense magical core, of the constructs were merged together. Concentration wrinkles creased Corrine’s brow as she tried with the power of her will to guide the two apart. They separated. One of them kept its serpentine features, but the other looked like a play-dough snake head that had been stomped on. The damaged one crackled loudly, and the flames flared erratically and briefly the orange was replaced with blue. Energy flared down the length of the snake and it imploded with a bang.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Her face screwed up in annoyance. “A fucking amateur mistake.”

“I thought it was impressive.”

She startled. Surprise, confusion and then annoyance flowed over her features. She glared at him. “How long have you been back in fucking reality?”

“A few minutes.”

“And you didn’t say anything. What were you doing. Were you watching me the whole time like a pervert.”

“Corrine! I’m not a pervert I was just giving you the courtesy of not distracting you.”

She laughed. “I know. I did the same. I at least called out to you. Did you even do that much? You know, warn a girl that she’s got company.”

“He didn’t.”

Tom glared at Mr Cricket who had chosen that moment to intercede in the conversation. “You’re not helping.”

Corrine laughed harder.

“Stop that.”

“I’m just amused in how engrossed in that you were. It didn’t look like you were doing anything, but you didn’t hear me say anything. What’s the point of being here if you don’t fucking hear your name when you get called out. If Kang had turned up, you wouldn’t even have noticed.”

“You could have tapped my shoulder.”

“He,” her eyes flicked to Mr Cricket. “Wouldn’t let me.”

“If Kang turned up, I would have interrupted him,” Mr Cricket said formally.

“See.” Tom pointed. “Plus there was no danger of me missing him. He’ll be at least an hour and I was always planning on stopping my crafting around now.”

“You shouldn’t stop crafting. It’s a waste.”

Tom ignored the unwelcomed interruption and concentrated fully on Corrine.“ “But we’ve somehow changed the subject. Your snakes. I meant what I said, that was fucking impressive.”

She waved the compliment aside, though her cheeks reddened. “It’s just a mana manipulation exercise. It’s fucking useless in combat.”

“For now.” He studied her. She was at least half an hour earlier than he had expected. “Why are you here so early?”

“Couldn’t sleep.”

“Too excited?”

“More like I’m fucking terrified. We rode fate to get in.”

“He’ll do the same, and he’s stronger than either of us when we joined.”

“Speak for your fucking self.”

“You didn’t have the darkhole traits and titles.” Tom told her reasonably.

“But my magic was stronger.”

“Your opponents were more powerful, too. He’s only challenging for bucket two. He’ll have a much easier run than the one you went through.”

She nodded. “True, and will you be joining him during the next intake.”

Tom pointedly looked down at his currently empty hands and concentrated. A disk materialised in them.  “The Open Competitors can send people straight through to the next round.”

“I know they did it with me.”

“And I’m winning forty percent of my fights and earning more points than everyone outside the top four. I’m comfortably fifth on the earning list.. Plus, this.” He flipped the coin. “Do you really think they’ll make me contest my position here?”

“Maybe. I reckon you’ve pissed off, Mr Cricket.” Corrine glanced pointedly over at the ball of arms that had been supervising the crafting. The body language conversion screamed out that Mr Cricket was annoyed and angry. “Anyone with eyes can see that Mr Cricket is not at all happy with you. Your continue presence here is not as guaranteed as you think.”

Tom shrugged. “If I get kicked out, I’ll just go through selections. I’m confident I can get through them.” Then he shot a glance at Mr Cricket. “Of course if I’m sent there unfairly I’ll be less likely to cooperate with what those above me demand.”

Mr Cricket did not react to the barbs.

“Yeah,” Corrine agreed. “With the darkhole trial bonuses and the abilities I know you have, yeah you’d make it through.”

“Are you going to do any more crafting?” Mr Cricket interrupted.

“No.”

The ball of arms vanished. One moment he was there and the next he wasn’t. The only sign he had been there was the slight movement of the grass rising from where it had been depressed from the hands that had been supporting him. 

They chatted effortlessly as they waited for Kang to join them.

There was a crackle of energy behind him.

Corrine screamed.

Tom knew it was bad as his exotic senses, driven by his precognition affinity, went wild. It felt like time had grabbed him by the balls and hoisted him up. It was trippy and terrifying. For a moment, it was as if the universe was outside of himself.

His head snapped around to see what was happening, and it was Kang. The face was unmarked, but it was like the trident had gone to work on him. The organs were splayed out, like they had been surgically plucked from the torso. A body that was only still alive because the torturer hadn’t finished yet and it didn’t want to lose its entertainment.

Then the feeling broke and the fake images vanished.

It wasn’t a deliberate torture but more the result of a fight to the death. His stomach had been split open, the intestines had burst out along with his bladder, part of the lung and a kidney. It was like he had been partially caught by an animated industrial shredder.

Corrine out of character was frozen and screaming, but Tom didn’t hesitate. He moved on instinct.

His hands touched the other boy’s already cooling skin. It dimpled under the pressure of his fingers and before any diagnosis came back he recognised the signs. The lack of blood wasn’t a good sign. Kang wasn’t bleeding because he had been partially healed it was because he had next to no blood in him. Somewhere, presumably wherever he had fought most of his blood supply filled the gullet of a dead person, all had been sprayed across the ground.

He remembered his own selection contest and the process that they had gone through at the end. Them all lining up and arguing their case. It was clear in Kang’s instance that had been stopped. From the final battle, he had been clearly sent straight here.

Alive, but only by seconds.

Replenish Blood activated both a free cast and one with ten points of earth mana. He had tested using earth mana in that spell and it created a lower volume of blood but what it generated was a richer, more iron infused version, which was what he wanted.

Instantly, blood started leaking out of the gaping holes in Kang’s body. The stomach wound, while the most visually gripping was just one of many. 

Corrine was adding her magic to his, but she only possessed Touch Heal and a version without any levels behind it. Her attempts did nothing, and he wanted to scream at her not to bother, but he didn’t. Even a small contribution could be critical.

His mind raced.

If Kang left here, his wounds would be instantly transferred into the real world. Blood would go everywhere and there would be no hiding it. Dimitri would do his best to bury everything, but there would be rumours. The incident would stick in people’s minds and when the assassins started mind reading to get results a bloody bed and a commotion in the early morning would be revealed. Then he would be placed under scrutiny and while Briana and Eloise couldn’t betray them, they still spent hours with kids and volunteers who didn’t have those protections. If they were motivated to launch a thorough examination, then his status as a reincarnator would be revealed.

Worse, Tom himself would have to heal Kang in front of multiple witnesses. So not only would Kang’s status be at risk his own would as well.

It would be best to fix him up here, even if it took him all day. But as he worked, parts of Kang deteriorated. The wounds weren’t clean. Malignant energies lingered in the torn flesh. His Touch Heal was specialised to deal with such problems, but even as he started the process to isolate the venom he recognised that his efforts weren’t going to be enough. The problematic materials were in too many places and whatever the enemy had used, it was too potent, for him to counter.

Calculations rushed through his head as he assessed his various options.

Staying here was death, leaving was future death. But… his brain hurt as he tried to find a way out of the situation he was in. They needed others or to do something to boost their own power..

“I could buy something.”

“It won’t let us give him a recovery potion.” He snapped.

“I fucking know that dickhead. I was thinking a spell.”

The suggestion was almost shocking enough to make him stop healing. It was not stupid either. The right ability would make a difference. “How many coins do you have?” he asked.

“Enough. What do I need to get?”

Tom hesitated again. What could an untrained healer purchase to make a difference? Any spell she got would come at level one, so it had to be innately powerful to help purge the evil energy from Kang. Even a tier four spell might not have the punch to stop the venoms that were in the process of killing him.

A tier five might do it, but the cost of that was material. Spending that much would stop her from earning the discounted prize she was aiming for and who knows how many other essential goodies.

“Tom, stop fucking staring into the distance and tell me what I fucking need to buy?”

He met her eyes. “Nothing.”

“Tom fucking tell me. I don’t mind making the sacrifice. If you don’t, he’ll die.”

“He won’t,” he almost snarled. “I have a better solution.”

“You don’t look like you do.”

“I do, I do.” The only path forward coalesced in his mind. They had to avoid spending precious coins and also save Kang with as few people as possible, noticing his injuries. With his mana regeneration, and if he was quick, it could work. While his instincts screamed at him to cleanse the malignant energies and the missing organs, he ignored them and instead focused on stitching up the skin.

With a tweak of his powers, extra blood flowed to the brain and Kang’s eyes fluttered open.

“What’s, what?”

“Kang,” Tom interrupted the delirious response. “You’re dying.”

“What? Where?”

“You’re in the divine champions’ trial foyer. I’ve closed your wounds, but you have severe internal injuries and a venom I might not be able to heal. We need to get adult help and move you to a healing crystal to supplement what I can do until they arrive.”

Clarity had returned to his friend’s eyes midway through his speech as the full effect of his targeted healing took hold. “How?” Kang asked, sounding helpless. It was only a single word, but it was delivered forcefully versus his earlier muttering and caused him to cough wetly and uncontrollably. Tom could see the pink froth of his saliva. 

Dying, he thought to himself. Kang was dying, but he could still be saved.

“In a moment, I’ll get you to leave here. You’ll reappear on your bed. You are on your bed, right?”

“Yes.”

“Next time, do it in a fucking isolation room.” Corrine scolded.

“Once you’re in the real world. I’ll help you get to the isolation room.”

Kang vanished, and Tom followed immediately.

He threw off the blankets that covered him, and his new trait activated as he crossed the distance to Kang’s alcove in an instant. A free point of fate was released, and he spent that on Kang’s immediate survival by using an image of it preventing anything going wrong during the next four minutes. A time frame it could act on. This was a topic he had thought long and deeply about. His fate didn’t work by going into the future because of the title, but that didn’t mean it was useless. He could and would use it to reinforce his healing efforts.

Kang was feebly trying to get out of his own blankets. There was no visible blood and nor any scent of it, but his friend looked bad. His eyes were sunken, and he moved like an old man. 

Tom said nothing. He was conscious that they didn’t want to wake anyone up if they could avoid it. While friends sneaking off in the early morning wasn’t that suspicious, he would prefer if no one found out about it, out of an abundance of caution. Instead, he used a Burst to give him the extra attributes to allow him to lift the heavier boy out of the bed in a single smooth motion and then reposition him so one of Kang’s arms were over his shoulders and then he started walking.

The other boy stumbled next to him.

Tom grimaced and burnt a low level burst to improve his attributes and used the extra speed and strength to stabilise his friend. As they reached the corridor, he applied the couple of available points of regenerated mana to diagnosis and fix the problems that moving him was causing.

A bleed started in Kang’s good lung. Internally, Tom cursed and patched the spot. Fate was spent to aid the heal and to limit the damage the spilt blood was going to do. Even a small amount of blood in the lungs would significantly lower capacity and with only one sustaining him that was a bad outcome. This way, hopefully, the liquid would pool in a location where it would reduce the loss of lung capacity.

Another two steps and the artery heading towards the legs burst under the pressure of the thumping heart. Tom sealed it and gave it the same fate treatment. He wasn’t sure the attempt to improve the strength of the patches worked, but he did it, anyway.

This felt like a game of seconds and a few extra could save him.

As they started shuffling down the corridor, he tried to think of what else he could do. His mana was in dire straights, the reserves of Earth, Precognition, Life and Water and his own unaspected mana had been required to fix the, ‘kill Kang in the next six seconds’ injuries and then to stitch the skin. The lightning affinity mana remained ready to be deployed but given its nature and that he only had eight points of it Tom wasn’t sure it would be useful. Beyond that, he was relying exclusively on regeneration.

Thankfully, there wasn’t far to walk. Less than forty metres and the strain it put on his muscles was less than what he forced himself to do every day in training. He would save him.

“Where, what’s happening?” Kang muttered.

Internally, Tom cursed. The slight slurring spoke to the rising confusion. Tom wasn’t going to lie to himself. Kang was losing it. The delirium was returning and with his mana reserves depleted as they were there wasn’t much he could do about it.

Kang tripped and Tom struggled to hold him upright.

“Where?”

He wanted to tell him to shut up.

“We’re getting you help.” He whispered instead.

“Assassins?”

Tom winced and burnt a burst to double his attributes and continued to drag the now almost unresponsive Kang forward. The extra power flared through him and his only struggle was suddenly how awkward the load was.

Dragging a barely functioning body was difficult.

Kang’s heart stopped. Two points of lightning mana, one precognition, earth and normal shocked it into restarting and healed it so it would keep going. 

He reached the doors he was aiming for. It was a standard isolation room, and he had to use his card just like during the day to open it. The visit would be recorded, but there was little risk of exposure from the act. His entire cohort was using the rooms regularly outside of the mandatory alone time. Even a five am entry was not an issue because the nightmare illusions were no longer in the corridor. 

The lock clicked and he pushed through and at the pace of a strained trot he dragged Kang across the room. Finally, there he placed Kang’s hand on the crystal.

The door behind them shut and locked loudly. 

Desperately he measured the flow of energy in Kang, but nothing was happening apart from the spread of the necrotic venom. 

“Kang,” he whispered and grabbed the other man’s mouth. “Wake up.”

There was no reaction. Tom forced an eyelid up and he saw white flecked with black. The white of the eyes was normal but the black was necrotic venom sinking in and infecting the eye. The pain such a spread would be inflicting would be significant and it was good the other boy was unconscious but those specks told Tom exactly how quickly Kang’s condition was deteriorating.  .

“Shit,” Tom whispered and wondered what to do. There weren’t many options.

There was no choice. He had to act. He focused on the image of Kang waking and becoming coherent. A third of his fate went to the desire and then he infused Touch Heal with Lightning affinity mana, and sent it to Kang’s brain.

Kang jolted and then gasped like a fish out of water.

“Heal yourself,” Tom screamed at him. 

The other boy blinked before his eyes flickered around, as he clearly tried to place his location.

“Use the crystal.”

Understanding flared in the damaged eyes. Mana to began to flow from the crystal and while Tom lacked mana to do anything magical, his connection with Kang via Touch Heal was still open so he was able to monitor what was happening He could see the small burns he had inflicted on the brain vanish. The march of dying tissue slowed but did not stop.

Tom was an old hand at interpreting the flood of information that reached him. Even with the crystal’s help they faced a losing proposition. 

There were missing organs, and the freshly healed skin he had created to stop the bleeding was already going black due to the hostile energies. 

“What’s happening? The girls? Snake, monster!”

Kang flapped backwards, falling away from the crystal.

With a curse, Tom righted him. “Kang,” he snarled. “Keep the healing going or you’ll die.”

“I am but the girls. The snake.”

“I’ve taken care of it.” He lied.

“But, but how… I don’t.”

“Just heal yourself.” He repeated. “Whatever you do don’t stop healing. I need to check in with Corrine, but don’t worry I won’t be gone long.”

“Don’t leave.”

“I have to, but it’ll just be for a moment.” He hoped that his avatar would keep supporting Kang and make sure he kept healing himself. There was a risk it wouldn’t, but it was one he had to take. The situation was not critical, but without action, without getting help, Kang would die, even if it would take a couple of hours for him to do so. 

He concentrated and then he was back, standing on the blue alien grass once more. 

“Is he going to live?” Corrine demanded.

Tom forced his heart rate down and controlled his breathing, and met her eyes confidently. “Undoubtedly, or else, I would have accepted your help. I do however need, someone specializing in organ regrowth and another able to burn out tier two necrotic venom and possibly a more subtle paralytic tier three or four one.”

She licked her lips, stressed. “What’s the time lines?”

Tom grimaced as he understood the reason for the question. “Sorry Corrine. Now. It needs to be now. If it’s too much I can do it.”

“It’s not.” She agreed hurriedly. 

“I mean it. If you think it is too risky, I’ll open the isolation room door and start screaming about an assassin attack. I’m already exposed, so the added risk won’t be much.”

“No Tom. It’s okay. I said I’ll do it.” Her voice was hard. “Consider help to be on its way.” With a brave smile, she vanished.