“Here,” said Bane, stepping out from behind a box near the trio and walking over, ignoring their glares. He passed me a mana potion first and I bit down on the cork, pulling it out and spitting it onto the floor before chugging it. Oracle went to work almost before I’d swallowed the last drops, channeling ‘Battlefield Triage’ into me with tremendous power, I stared in shock as my mana bar barely dipped, before refilling to full, and I grinned through gritted teeth as she went on, hitting Barrett and Bane next.
“It’s considered bad form to cast spells under a flag of truce, friend.” The first elf said, glaring at me.
“Aye, well, is it better or worse form to let people die while we talk?” I asked, gesturing to the wounded girl.
“Hmmm…”
“Exactly. Look, I don’t know who you are, beyond one of you is called Yen, but I’ve had a pretty shitty day so far, so why don’t you fill me in on who you are and what you want while I heal her, or we can just cancel the whole ‘truce’ thing and go back to killing each other?” I said, gesturing towards the girl strapped to the table at the back of the room.
I turned without waiting for an answer and walked in her direction, checking my mana levels.
“Bane, how many…” I started to ask before he threw a second potion to me.
I snagged it out of the air and looked at it, noting the filigreed silver chasing on the bottle and the thicker glass it was made from.
Greater Potion of Mana
Further Description Yes/No
Details:
This mana potion will restore 400 mana immediately, followed by a further 20 mana per second for 90 seconds.
Rarity
Magical
Durability
Charge:
Rare
Yes
99/100
N/A
“Damn…” I muttered seeing the strength of the potion, and I checked my mana, seeing it was rising steadily and was close to full again. I pocketed the potion and drew in a deep breath as I walked over to where the girl had started to make faint sounds, her Grandfather crouching down next to her.
“Oracle, you ready for this?” I asked, and she flew over to land on the table by the girl’s side. She began to examine the damage again, and I motioned the older prisoner to step back. “You owe me for this, you old fart, I’d have done it anyway, but you offered payment and then acted the arsehole, so now you’ll be helping me get my people out when we get to Himnel, right?” I snapped at him and he nodded.
“Now, see here!” The second elf said, stepping forward before being shushed by the first, who watched me with calculating eyes.
“We can wait…Jax…” The first elf said, and I looked into her eyes, recognizing the voice as the one who’d spoken earlier. I mentally tagged her as Yen and went back to the girl.
“I’ll be with you soon.” I said, before gently easing the peeled skin back into place on the girl’s back. I pressed it down, shifting it to rest as close to where it would naturally as I could, hearing the hisses of pain from the girl as the paralysis began to wear off. “I’m sorry,” I apologized, crouching down to look at her, and I saw her eyes track to me for the first time, before I stood up.
Oracle and I began to cast ‘Battlefield Triage’, focusing on her head at first, purging her of any damage as far as we could. We slowly moved down, the first few seconds building up a picture of the greater damage, as the spell attempted to fix everything at once. We examined the injuries to her back, guiding the skin to knit together, flowing like thick cream to join up with the careful slices that had been used to peel her skin back.
I sank my consciousness in deeper, feeling the skin on her back as I did so, it’d begun to die, being without blood for so long, but as we worked, the cells began to spread, slowly rebuilding. The cells that were totally dead began to slough off, while healthy cells grew in their place. Injured cells stayed, gradually repairing, and Oracle and I went on. She provided the majority of the specialist knowledge that made the spell work, combining her own magical knowledge with the spells she had known details of, while I brought the actual power, and ideas from my own past.
Skin regrew, sealing the peeled slab back down, even as a band of fire whipped out, passing between the skin and the muscles, making her scream in pain, but removing anything that was alien to her body.
The Drow had left all sorts of crap behind: hair, crumbs of food, and worse when he’d been working. The only thing he’d cared about was clearly making sure the skin was perfect. Her body would have died from infection just as surely as blood loss and dehydration if she’d somehow survived the experience.
Minutes passed, and I chugged the second potion; still I was gasping as the final sections reattached, and I fell to my knees, totally drained.
It was done. Her body was repaired, and judging from the shaking and sobbing, she was both alive and conscious.
I forced myself to my feet, shakily drawing in great gasps of air, as Lydia and Miren undid the leather restraints and helped the girl free.
After everything that I’d just done, the last thing I was expecting was the slap that sent me staggering.
“I hate you!” The girl screamed, before running the waiting arms of her grandfather.
“Are you shitting me?” I growled, rubbing my chin, and glaring at her. The previous inhabitants of the cage were glaring right back at me and I threw my hands up in annoyance. “I just saved you all, and I get this?” I turned back to the waiting three, noting they looked unconcerned by being surrounded by my people, and I wondered if that was down to the Oath or….
“Don’t!”
