Healer Book 5 -- Chapter 19

Chapter 19

“It’s you!” the Aelveen shouted as soon as she regained her full facilities after being Resurrected.  Lyn’ar’deia ran up and grabbed him, picking him up in a full bear-hug type lift, before putting him down just as quickly.  He was so stunned that he didn’t even try and stop it, and he was speechless afterwards.  “After seeing what you did during that Horde Siege Challenge, I just knew that you’d come back for me—us!”

He heard Sadia snickering behind him, which kicked him out of his stupor. 

If there was any problem with the Resurrection spell, it was that it didn’t do anything to replace equipment that might have been destroyed when the person was killed.  Therefore, after finding a leg and an arm, both of which belonged to someone he somewhat recognized, he immediately Resurrected them without thinking too much about it.  He should’ve realized, especially as it had happened with Corinna when he’d brought her back to life after finding only a small piece of her flesh, that if all of their clothes or equipment was destroyed along with most of their body, then they would appear without it.  Corinna, despite being confused at the situation she was in after Resurrection, had quickly donned her equipment, so there was only a few seconds of her being unclad.

The Aelveen that he had just brought back to life, however, either didn’t seem to realize she was naked or didn’t care.  And being taller than him, when she grabbed him in a hug, his face was inevitably plastered against something that made him… uncomfortable.

“Lyn!”  The Warden that he’d saved from death shouted at the recently Resurrected Aelveen, and only then did she seem to realize her current state of dress – or lack thereof.  Since arriving on Tarth and helping to bring back to life quite a few people, with the most recent example being after he’d killed the Soul Harvester, he’d become relatively numb to the full or partial nudity that came with Resurrected bodies.

But the Aelveen were different.  He’d barely gotten a good look at them when he had been involved in the Undead Horde Siege inside The Ghost Town Dungeon, but even then he recognized that they were an extraordinarily attractive people; at the time, it was more of an observation with all of the activity going on, but once he finally had a chance to see one outside of a crisis-like situation and actually speak to them, he found himself becoming somewhat tongue-tied and shy like a teenager attempting to ask a girl he liked if she would go to prom with him.   

To combat this feeling, as he wasn’t sure if it was just a natural response among the Aelveen or if it was simply because he was an example of a creepy male of his species, he both had to look away from Fer’la’vina occasionally to recenter himself and to act a bit more intense and gruff than he would normally.  It seemed to work, for the most part, as he got the answers he needed – even if they weren’t what he wanted to hear – and could make a proper decision, but he was seriously rethinking his decision to come rescue these people.

Thankfully, he was becoming more and more numb to their appearance, especially after the familiar Aelveen who’d just nakedly hugged him covered herself up, so he was feeling a little better about it all.  He still didn’t appreciate that the System apparently put a hit out on him, even if it was supposed to be after an investigation into how much of a threat he was, but he supposed that it was better than being dropped in a void or trapped at the bottom of an ocean somewhere. 

In addition, from what he could gather about the nature of these Wardens, they were essentially just powerful individuals tasked with keeping the Contenders in line using normal methods afforded to those in power: Overwhelming force.  While it didn’t necessarily show in their fight against the Dramolga, whenever he looked at Fer’la’vina, he could sense that there was a great strength hidden inside of her, locked away for some reason.  What he didn’t feel, thankfully, was any sense that the woman could simply snap her fingers and throw her into a void, as all of her abilities were relatively “mundane” when it came down to it. 

When he looked at Lyn’ar’deia, he didn’t get the same feeling of locked-away power; if anything, her strength felt stretched and thin, as if it was barely there – despite being Level 567.  He wasn’t sure what any of this meant, and he resolved to ask Sadia later to see if she could shed any light on the subject; he’d ask the Wardens themselves, but thus far he got the impression that they were even more constrained by the System in sharing knowledge than his squirrel companion. 

Or they were just reluctant to share anything with him.

Shaking himself out of the temporary fugue state he’d been in after the whole hugging debacle, he ignored the low conversation between the two living Aelveen as he concentrated on the next body in need of his help to rise from the dead.  This one was male, and while they had been ripped apart, their clothes were still relatively intact.

As he cast the spell, he couldn’t help but notice that the male Aelveen that he was Resurrecting was also familiar, or at least his name was; it took him a few seconds to remember that he’d seen him briefly inside that Horde Siege dungeon along with Lyn.  Thankfully, he didn’t run up and hug Thaden once he fully regained his awareness of the world; instead, Gen’or’fein simply looked shocked as he seemed to recognize Thaden, before bending at the waist in a bow.  “Thank you,” was all he said, before joining the others.

While his Resurrection cooldown was ticking down, he sensed the power inside of the male Aelveen he had just brought back, and it was very similar in its lack of depth as Lyn’s had been, which just made him even more confused.  What was more, now that he had another example of it, there was less of what he would call “the System” inhabiting their bodies, unlike Fer, who practically radiated the same sensation that had clued him into their existence in the dungeon in the first place.  If he had to guess, then he would probably say that these two weren’t Wardens at all. 

His first problem came when he brought the next Aelveen back to life, a female individual in a damaged – but not too damaged – robe named Che’ga’lera.  Within seconds of her being brought back to life, as her mind caught up to her current state of being alive, Che focused on Thaden’s presence nearby and a flash of rage overcame her features instantly.  Without even stopping to question exactly what was happening, she unleashed her fury upon him, as spell after spell emerged from her raised hands, slamming into Thaden one after another.  He stepped back once because of the sudden onslaught, not because he was hurt, and he just waited while he was swallowed by fireballs as big as a bus, encased in ice that attempted to freeze and crush him to death, and even electrocuted by circles of lightning that rotated around him in a dazzling display of destruction. 

While his complete nullification spells like Protective Guards weren’t useful against the attacks since they came from a source a much higher Level than they could defend against, his damage mitigation was so high at that point that even with everything the Aelveen threw at him, he never got close to running out.  Even if he did, it would be easy enough to replace most of it with a few quick spells, so he was in no danger from dying. 

Of course, that didn’t mean he wasn’t affected by some afflictions at first, such as being burnt or frozen solid, which was why he activated Affliction Shelter a few seconds after the attacks started.  At its Exceptional strength, it prevented afflictions from sources up to 100 Levels higher than his own, though with his Advancements, that was kicked all the way up to 120, which easily covered who he was up against. 

He just couldn’t move as a result of the spell, but that was fine with him, as he was planning on just weathering the storm and let her vent her anger at him until she realized the futility of the attacks.  However, no more than 10 seconds went by before Che was tackled from the side by Fer, the two of them rolling a few times before ending up in a heap, with the furious Mage Class ending up beneath the stoic expression on Fer’s face.

“Get off me!  He has to die!”

Surprisingly, Fer slapped the other woman, which didn’t actually do any damage, but the sudden blow seemed to short-circuit the Mage’s brain for a moment.  That was all that was needed as Fer bent down into Che’s face and said angrily, “Get it together, Che.  You’re experiencing Resurrection Rage; don’t make me slap you again.”

The furious rage in the Mage’s eyes began to clear, though to Thaden, she still seemed fired-up.  There were another few tense moments as the two stared at each other, before Fer grunted and pushed herself off the robed Aelveen, before extending her hand to help Che up off the blood-soaked ground.  When she finally stood up and looked in Thaden’s direction, he could see the anger still flowing through her body as she shook involuntarily, but she didn’t attack him again.

“I’m guessing we have you to thank for bringing us back?” she asked through gritted teeth, her stare pointed enough that it felt like he was being stabbed long-distance by her eyes. 

Thaden nodded slowly, trying not to provoke her again.  He wasn’t afraid for himself, because he now knew that she couldn’t hurt him, but he worried that she might hurt the others if she went all-out and cast some sort of wide-ranging destructive spell.  That, and now that he had stopped and wasn’t running to get away from these people, he really wanted the corpses nearby to be intact so he could extract loot. 

I wonder what is this Resurrection Rage thingy is?  Yet another thing to ask Sadia about. 

After a few seconds, Che turned away from him as she visibly tried to get ahold of herself with long, heavy breaths and her hands so tightly clasped together that he expected them to start breaking at some point.  Fer looked at him briefly and gave him a nod, before looking at the final deceased member of their group.  With all the drama of his last spell, his Resurrection was already off cooldown, so he instantly cast it again at his new target; a few seconds later, another Aelveen was alive and on his feet.

Fortunately, this Resurrection went off much more smoothly, as by the time Tac’fe’hodu seemed to come to his senses, he simply looked around briefly and then calmly picked up his battered shield and sword nearby.  Thaden halfway expected him to attack once he had his equipment, but he stored it away in his Inventory with the same calmness he’d displayed since he was brought back to life.

“Thank you for your assistance.”  The deep voice of the Aelveen was a bit of a surprise, as for some reason he expected them all to have stereotypical effeminate “Elf” voices, but it was the confidence and authority he heard in it that impressed him.  He instinctively knew that this was their Party leader, and was chock full of the same intense Power as Fer and Che before him, if not slightly more than them.  “Unfortunately, that assistance doesn’t eliminate our primary reason for being here.”

As the powerful Aelveen slowly walked over to the others, he could see them come together as a group, each of them feeding on each other’s confidence and authority.  The sensation he received when they moved together wasn’t something he could easily explain, almost like the whole adage that their whole was greater than a sum of their parts.  While he didn’t need further proof that they were some dangerous individuals, at least to others, this certainly added to it.

“I’m aware of your purpose here, after talking to Fer here.  But we’ve already—”

He was interrupted by Che, who seemingly hadn’t completely gotten over her rage from earlier, “How dare you shorten our names!  You do not possess the familiarity and respect to get away with such dishonorable acts.”

As Thaden could tell she was going to attack him again, he sighed and activated his Affliction Shelter, ready for the onslaught until the others managed to talk her down.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t what happened.  Instead of tackling her or even saying anything to get Che to stop the bombardment of spells that suddenly attacked him, the others did nothing.  He could see some indecision in the faces of the two familiar Aelveen that he’d seen in the Horde Siege Challenge, as if they wanted to interfere but were held back for some reason; it was at that point that he deduced that that pair weren’t actually Wardens, but were instead simply two individuals who had been brought along solely because they had a connection to their Quest objective. 

They knew what he looked like, after all, and he already knew that he System had trouble really seeing him – so it made sense, in a way.

The way they felt so much weaker made him think that their Levels had been artificially inflated by the System so that they could accompany the actual Wardens in their search, and the reason they didn’t act to stop Che was because they were the equivalent – in terms of power and authority – to some children accompanying their parents in a “bring your kids to work day.”

After about 5 seconds of being subjected to all matter of destructive magical spells, which did nothing to him, it seemed as though the other two – including Fer’la’vina, who had promised not to attack him – decided that with all of them participating, they now had a chance to take him down.

There was no negotiation, no investigation, and nothing but a few furtive glances between Fer and Tac to give him any warning.  They simply attacked all-out, and even the two Aelveen who weren’t Wardens seemed to be forced into action.  Thaden could see their reluctance in their movements, even as vines suddenly encircled him and an arrow was launched at his head, but it was at least there.

Really?  Are they that sure that I’m bad that they would resort to something like this?

With a thought, he activated Incarnation of Protection, which suddenly flashed in front of the quick assassin-like Aelveen as she appeared behind him, and he prepared to cast his Indomitable Aegis if the situation called for it.  A shield bash slammed into him, knocking him slightly backward but did no damage, nor did the follow-up slice of an extremely sharp-looking sword cause any harm, but he could feel his damage mitigation taking a serious hit.  He replaced it almost immediately, but he knew that if he didn’t do anything to stop the attacks, they might eventually find a way to harm him.

They might not be as powerful as him, but they were powerful individuals, and even more so as a group.  He’d seen what they did against the onslaught of Dramolga, after all, and while they eventually fell under the sheer numbers arrayed against them, it had still been impressive. 

Therefore, he decided on the diplomatic approach before he resorted to anything drastic.  With a look at Sadia, who had hopped away and was even now staying out of the line of fire at the top of the wall of corpses around him, he knew she had his back with additional protective spells if he started to get behind in his damage mitigation.  “Alright, this is entirely uncalled-for.  I already negotiated a peaceful way for us to resolve this problem of your Quest, a way to prove that I’m not a threat to this world or an agent of the Adversary.  I’m trying to be polite here, but—”

“POLITE!  WHY DON’T YOU BE POLITE AND JUST DIE!” Che shouted, even as she redoubled her efforts to blast him apart.  For her part, Fer continued in the same vein as before as she rapidly attacked him so quickly that it was a blur; Tac, on the other hand, hesitated for all of a second before a resolution seemed to settle over his expression, and he continued attacking, utilizing flashy abilities that made him actually stagger back a step and fall on his back – because he couldn’t move properly due to the fact that he was being constrained by numerous vines.

As he landed on his back, he warned, “Stop now and I won’t have to retaliate.  If not—”

“DIE!”  He was again cut-off, and he sighed.  A glance at Sadia through the blows and spells absolutely ravaging his damage mitigation showed her reluctantly nodding, so he knew there wasn’t really any other choice at this point.

 Without another word, he activated his Leach combo while he was still on his back, unable to move, and the cessation of attacks happened very quickly.  The leader of the Aelveen Party was the last to fall, as he seemed to have some sort of damage mitigation abilities, but they only lasted so long.  By the time his eyes widened at the sight of his companions dying from no particular source around him, it was already too late; he took a step back from Thaden and opened his mouth to say something, but then he died later as millions of points of Health was Leached from him. 

The vines around Thaden disappeared as the only sound he heard was the erupting volcanoes around the perimeter of the dungeon, and he sighed dramatically once again as he picked himself up.  Sadia jumped down and stood next to him as he stared at the Aelveen bodies scattered around where they had suddenly collapsed in death. 

“You had to do it.  They weren’t going to stop until you were dead.”

He nodded, knowing she was right.  “I could see that.  Am I that abhorrent that they’d rather just kill me rather than investigate me further?”

“I’m not defending them,” Sadia prefaced, “but they can all feel the touch of the Adversary on you, which is extremely damning evidence in their eyes.  If it was just that, though, they would most likely spend some time to confirm that you were a threat; unfortunately, something else is coming into play here.”

“And what is that?” he asked, but he already thought he knew the answer.

“They’re afraid of you.  Well, the three Wardens are; not the other two.  You’re too powerful and they can’t understand how you can do all this,” she said, waving to the corpses around her – including the now-deceased System agents.  “In truth, they should be afraid, but they shouldn’t be afraid of you.  If they would just see past their pre-judgmental biases and their fear, they’d be able to see that you aren’t trying to harm Tarth, but instead are trying to help it.”

That’s certainly the crux of the matter, isn’t it?  How do I convince these people that I’m here to help, not harm, when they already think I’m guilty?

He honestly didn’t know, but he was determined to give it a try.  While he didn’t necessarily want to work with these Wardens, especially after they tried to kill him after one of them broke their promise not to attack, the consequences of their deaths could impact him more than he was prepared to weather.  For instance, now that he had technically killed them and then refused to Resurrect them, it was entirely possible that he’d have a black aura attached to him.  While the System was relatively blind in this dungeon, as far as he could tell, he wasn’t going to take the chance that it would suddenly know what happened once he left.  For all he knew, it might even consider killing Wardens to be a much greater offense and therefore make his life a living hell somehow.

All it would take would be the System issuing something like a bounty on his head worth 100 million PICK and he wouldn’t be ever be able to rest.  Sure, he could retreat back into a disguise as he changed his name and Level, but now there were too many people who knew what he looked like for that to work for long.  Besides, he didn’t want to go back to hiding in plain sight for fear that he might be recognized; it had caused him problems in the past, and he didn’t want to revisit those problems if he could help it.

Of course, if these Wardens didn’t play ball and he was forced to leave them permanently dead, then he might not have a choice in the matter.  Then there was the threat that more might arrive to either avenge the deaths of their fellow Wardens or to complete their objective, which was to kill Thaden.  He didn’t want to die, obviously, and if he couldn’t lose them, then he would be forced to kill them.

Meanwhile, the Adversary would be working to undermine the System inside of Tarth, while the Wardens – who Sadia said should be handling the crisis – were off on a wild goose chase with someone who wasn’t harming Tarth, but was instead helping it.  If only I could get that through their heads.  Well, it’s worth a try, at least.

“Ready for round two?” Thaden asked, as he prepared to cast Resurrection yet again.

She nodded, likely having come to same conclusions that he had.  “Bring back Tac’fe’hodu first; if we can get him on our side from the beginning, we may have a better chance with the rest.”

Shrugging, as he didn’t really have a better idea, he cast the spell on the Fighter of the Party, ready to kill him again if it proved necessary….

Chapter 20: https://www.patreon.com/posts/120407994