“Mufasa?” Noa asked, blinking.

“What?”

“It, erm... is the name of a famous Lion King from where I’m from.”

“A story you will have to tell later,” Baby-blue said, and turned his head, looking to his right. There, Chief clung to the rockside, contemplation on her face.

“They are guarding the ledges,” she said. “We have not hunted since the last time the humans came with us. It’s given them time to order themselves.”

“These are smart lions,” Noa said, raising his eyebrows.

“No, lions aren’t this smart, something’s different,” Chief said. “Something is... I don’t know. The earth speaks to me. Something has been wrong this entire climb. The wind has been silenced.” She narrowed her eyes, the look on her face a mix between frustration and thoughtfulness, sinking into the valley of determination as her expression steeled.

“Pass it down the line. Our spearman will proceed with me. The humans must hang back, protected by you three guardians. We will pull in the fight, push it away from the ledge to allow the humans and stone slingers up. As we push onward, mothers will climb over the ledge last,” Chief ordered.

Baby-blue nodded, turning his head the other way to tell the dark brown troll that held Armael, the word being passed on from there.

Noa pulled his pack over his shoulders, then slipped a hand in his pocket, grasping the diamond stone he had left from dealing with burns. It was the only one he had, all others having been consumed by Armael’s healings and Caradec’s transmutations that day. Then, he waited.

The waiting was hard, especially when a roar pierced the silence, echoing across the mountainside. Pounding, pounding, pounding, and finally a warcry from the trolls that proceeded above. Every yowl from a lion was either frightening or hopeful, each a possible attack against the trolls, or an injury against the lions.

He flinched when a very guttural, trollish yell hit the sky.

“Go now,” Noa said.

“No,” Baby-blue responded, shaking his head. He peeked over the ledge. “Not ready for us yet.”

“Someone’s injured, aren’t they?” Noa asked.

“Yes,” Baby-blue said, his calm eerie. “Two injured.”

“They need healing.”

“Yes.”

“Then let’s go,” Noa urged, grasping at the edge of his basket and standing up, diamond still in hand. He looked over Baby-blue’s shoulder, finally able to see just a part of the scene. Muscles flexed, covered in bronze hide that pulled from the shift in tension. The lion leaped, soaring over boulders and towards the trolls, followed by a second lioness, who ripped into a green troll’s arm. While the troll howled, the lion fell limp, the green troll yanking his spear from the lion’s neck with a scowl.

“We have to help,” Noa tried again, then jumped as a lioness landed just in front of them. Baby-blue ducked, hiding them back beneath the ledge. They waited for the lion to pass, a knot forming in Noa’s stomach as another then passed, and another.

He gulped.

“We wait for their backs,” Baby-blue whispered, and Noa nodded. If they climbed up now, they’d be clobbered off the mountain.

I should have tried healing him when he was in sight, he thought, kicking himself for being so slow.

“Now,” the brown troll said next to them.

Baby-blue peeked again, and sure enough, the lions were now pinched between the trolls. He practically leaped up onto the ledge, fully airborne, the inertia shoving Noa deeper into the basket. When they landed, he bounced, then scurried up to his feet, and looked over Baby-blue’s shoulder.

“Stay in basket, Bard,” the troll said. “You can heal from there.”

He didn’t need to tell Noa that! Leaning over the basket ledge, Noa sought out someone to heal up ahead, refraining from looking at the stone slingers that landed beside them, loading and spinning their slings.

The green troll was the easiest to spot, and while his arm bled, it wasn’t nearly as bad as Noa thought it’d be. Rather, he fought with as much vigor as any healthy troll beside him did. Just before he looked for someone else, he could already see the wound starting to change, either Tin or Armael seeing to the green troll━good to know that they could heal from this distance.

Eyes scanning past bronze tails and over the some ten trolls that still fought, Noa landed on a gray troll that had been grounded, bleeding from his shoulders. Pushing aether towards the troll, he realized a significant time delay to healing from this distance.

The aether strand flew through the air, whizzing past lions and trolls, before landing on the downed troll. Designating it felt more challenging, but once he had it against the wound, Noa tried for [Lesser Appeal].

System Direct [Lesser Mend}?

Yes or no?

A sigh escaped Noa as the spell took, but he found the mending to be just as slow as when he pushed the singular aether strand. The time it took him to get another notification was concerning.

System [Lesser Mend] level 99 → 100.

System [Mend] unlocked.

System [Mend] level 1.

System Class [Mender] level 22 → 23.

About damn time he evolved [Lesser Mend]!

“Just focus on getting them to stop bleeding!” Armael yelled over the noise. “Anymore, and you might not have enough aether for other injuries!”

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Noa nodded, pausing to consider that. With [Lesser Appeal], he could cover a small area and heal it, but if he stretched that with a specific purpose rather than a full healing, would it take? Trying that on the next shoulder of the troll, Noa smiled at the new notifications.

System Direct [Mend]?

He pushed [Mend], finding it to be twice as fast as [Lesser Mend], or rather, it took less to stop the bleeding.

System [Lesser Appeal] level 40 → 41.

System Levels consolidated.

What... did that mean?

System [Mend] level 1 → 6.

Oh, likely to save visual space from six notifications. Thanks, System.

System You’re welcome.

Noa blinked. Uh, System, can you communicate?

No response.

Curses, nevermind that! Noa moved back to the first shoulder, realizing that he still needed to stop half the bleeding. Focus, Noa, he thought, scowling at himself.

System [Lesser Appeal] level 41 → 42.

System [Mend] level 6 → 7.

System [Mend] level 7 → 8.

System [Mend] level 8 → 9.

As soon as that was done, a shrill cry sounded from a massive boulder off to the left. Chief bounced off the rock, face smashing into the stones below. The largest lion to ever live loomed over her, roaring loudly━the king. He was easily twice the size of the females, if not bigger, and his full, dark bronze, almost black mane shook with every pounding step.

“I’ll worry about the trolls fighting the king and the downed ones, you two focus on the trolls fending off the females,” Armael called, and in the blink of an eye, Chief’s face was put back together, though the blood still smeared it.

Trolls were resilient. Despite arms, legs, and shoulders being bitten and scratched, they fought on. The ones that didn’t were pulled back by their allies, probably having bled out too much before they stopped fighting. A troll didn’t simply just stop.

Noa growled, focusing his efforts towards the next troll, six still standing and fighting ten lionesses, one worrying about dragging the injured aside. A black troll howled as he was bitten on the arm, and was freed a moment later by a companion stabbing at a dodging lion. His skin was so dark, it was impossible to even see the bleeding, so Noa cast [Lesser Assessment].

System [Lesser Assessment] level 16 → 18.

There were two moderate injuries, one on the left thigh, and the other on the speararm. Noa focused on the arm, pushing aether as fast as it would go. It pressed into the arm, and he spread it, intending to stop the bleeding with [Lesser Appeal].

Instead, he healed the lacerations completely, [Mend] taking it further than he expected.

System Levels consolidated.

System [Mend] level 9 → 13.

I wish you’d consolidate all the others too, Noa huffed, furrowing his brow and narrowing his eyes. The black troll continued to favor his opposite arm as he chucked a stone at a lion, and from this distance, Noa couldn’t tell why. Blackie jumped back, dodging both the lion and Noa’s strand of aether. He growled, swiveling it until he managed to push [Lesser Examination] against the troll’s arm.

System [Lesser Examination] level 24 → 25.

The bone was broken. He got the sense that it was something that could be fixed with [Mend], so━

A lion mauled Blackie.

Noa froze, the reality of the danger slamming into him as a second lion piled on, ripping through Blackie’s stony skin. Dead, he was dead. There was nothing that could be done for him. Noa clenched the edge of the basket, knuckles white, and mouth agape. The only respite the troll’s lifeless form received was when other trolls took the opportunity the dead allotted them, stabbing into the backs of bloodthirsty lions.

“Pull it together, kid!” Armael barked.

Snapping back to action, Noa growled. He’d be damned if he let another troll die that way!

Seven lions left, he thought, squinting as he spied out a troll that’d staggered behind the four that took up the front. She favored her right leg, nearly collapsing with every step on her left. The four protected her, but they weren’t enough to stop a lion from slipping through. A well aimed shot from a stone slinger knocked the lion off course, granting Noa enough time to cast [Lesser Assessment].

System [Lesser Assessment] level 18 → 19.

There were a dozen superficial wounds, but one moderate to severe wound on the troll’s upper leg. Unfortunately, it wasn’t visible from this distance, and he couldn’t risk expending the time to cast [Lesser Examination]. Gambling, Noa sent forth an aether strand to heal blind, hoping that [Lesser Appeal] would take to the wound.

Nothing. The aether faded, and Noa nearly jolted out of his basket as the lion locked its jaw on the troll’s already injured leg.

“Curses!”

Stones slung at the beast didn’t hardly deter it, despite the size of the stones and the trolls throwing them. Rather, it tossed its head, the troll it latched to howling from the pain.

“Get me closer!” Noa shouted.

“No,” Baby-blue said.

“Curse you! I have lives to save, so help me Elorn, I will leap out of this basket if you don’t get me closer!”

“Curse you, kid!” Armael barked. “You’re healing dumb, and distracting me! Noa, focus on your [Assessment] spell. Communicate with Tin your findings. Tin, have your aether prepared for [Examination], then you can direct the heal, kid, while Tin starts [Assessment] on the next troll. Heal smart!”

“I hate you sometimes,” Noa huffed, mad that his mentor could come up with something that seemed so simple━working together.

“Then I’m doing a cursed good job,” Armael said.

It took a second troll to help free the one Noa had been focusing on, despite how many times the injured troll stabbed the lion.

“Red troll, Tin,” Noa said, pushing [Lesser Assessment] on the injured troll, “Two injuries on the left leg, both severe. Upper thigh and just below the knee.”

System [Lesser Assessment] level 19 → 21.

“It’s a break below the knee,” Tin relayed, Noa already shooting out more aether, “along with the bite wound. Bleeding, a lot.”

Attaching the aether there, Noa cast [Lesser Appeal], relieved when it took to.

System [Lesser Appeal] level 42 → 43.

System [Mend] level 13 → 14.

System [Mend] level 14 → 15.

Damnit, just consolidate the levels each time!

System [Mend] level 15 → 17.

Huh, that worked.

System class [Mender] level 23 → 24.

“The upper wound is a large gash sweeping from the groin to mid thigh,” Tin reported.

“I took care of the open wounds, below the knee, but my [Lesser Appeal] couldn’t touch the break too,” Noa said.

“My aether is ready again, I’ll take care of the break.”

“I’ve got the gash,” Noa nodded, casting another [Lesser Appeal] and [Mend].

System [Mend] level 17 → 19.

Once he finished the wound, he focused on an orange troll that had fallen behind the group this time, now defended from the others as his spear fell from a mangled arm.

System [Lesser Assessment] level 21 → 22.

“One severe wound on Orange, upper right━”

“Problem!” Armael yelled, and Noa looked to where the priest was pointing.

Three new lionesses crested over nearby boulders to their immediate left, one of them looking straight at Noa.