Chapter 250 - Parasitic Poison
Finally, another year passed by. Des had accumulated the funds to repay Tiger two months ago, but he decided to save some money to fall back on, incase they needed to conduct repairs.
He was now 14, having recently celebrated his ‘14th birthday’. Of course, he didn’t know his real birthday, so he went with the day that he was found by Flora and brought back to the village.
Des walked into Namuh Market purposefully, making his way directly towards the border once again. However, even though he was walking with confidence…he actually had no confidence that he would be able to meet Tiger today, let alone Flora. He was not permitted to enter Namuh Barracks, and sending a message to Tiger wasn’t easy…because he was notorious for ignoring every message sent to him, he didn’t even read them!
So, with these worries in mind, Des was naturally left feeling stunned when from nowhere, Tiger’s booming voice assaulted his ears.
“Des! Thank goodness, you must come quickly, I was just about to search for you!”
What was this? Tiger was actually looking for him?
Before Des knew what was going on, a firm, sturdy hand grabbed his arm, then yanked him so hard that his feet left the ground. Seemingly oblivious to the position he had put Des in, Tiger sprinted off in an unknown direction.
He ran, and ran, and ran…
“T-Tiger, please wait, what, what is it?” Des struggled to speak as his body was waved up and down. He felt like a kite being flown in the wind, it was not a pleasant feeling.
“I apologise but please be patient, we’re nearly there!” Tiger called back. His tone of voice sounded quite severe…
Des reluctantly fell silent, until a few minutes later when Tiger finally let go of his now severely bruised arm. When Tiger glanced back at him, his eyes went round and he exclaimed in shock.
“My god, what happened to your arm?!”
“…”
“I'm sorry Des but there’s no time! For now, please come with me, there’s someone I need you to see!”
‘See?’ Des thought wryly, but he still followed Tiger into a large wooden building.
‘This must be Tiger’s training hall.’ Des realised. However, he had no time to think about why he had been led to such a place. Tiger pushed his way through various figures all gathered in a circle, shouting agitatedly for them to get out of the way.
“Des, here! Please take a look at her, tell me if there's anything you can do!”
Des slowly walked forwards, then kneeled down before the person on the ground. This person was lying down on their back on the wooden floor, and they…did not look well.
After working in a hospital for so long, Des developed the strange ability to see through the state of a person’s health. If someone was destined to die, he could see it. If they were filled to the brim with vitality, he could see it.
This person was not destined to die…but they would be soon.
“What happened, what’s wrong with her?” Des asked calmly. He could feel a strange sensation emanating from the girl’s shivering body.
“My daughter, she-”
“Wait, Flora?!” Des cried out when Tiger mentioned his daughter. However, when he stared back at the girl, he felt certain that she was not Flora, though she certainly bore a strong resemblance….
“Ahem, my other daughter, Fauna.”
“…My apologies, please go on.”
“A guard came across her by chance in the forest, collapsed on the ground, and…well, as you can see, she does not look normal!”
Des hated to say it at a time like this, but it really couldn’t be helped.
“Unfortunately, I cannot actually see her. Please describe her exact appearance right now, what is wrong with the way she looks?”
For a moment, Tiger, and everyone else in the room became stunned. After a while, Tiger coughed embarrassedly.
“Tiger, you actually brought a blind child to examine your daughter?!"
“Tiger, have you gone senile?!”
“A mere blind cripple, what-”
“Again.” Des’s voice was sharp and cut through all the disdain thrown his way. "Please describe her exact appearance, what is wrong with the way she looks?”
Somehow, this small blind child was able to silence a group of veteran hunters with his sharp words.
“Right.” Tiger nodded, ignoring everyone else around him. They might be looking down on Des, but he knew that Des’s medical skills were second only to Doctor Leah! He would have fetched Doctor Leah himself, but the hospital was too far away and time was of the essence.
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“Her skin has turned purple and her veins have turned black. Her eyes are shut tightly, but when they occasionally flash open, they are pure red, as if filled with blood. She is shivering as if cold, but sweating heavily, and she has a fever. She cannot seem to talk, maybe she can’t hear us, or-”
“She can hear us.” Des interrupted as he knelt down beside the poor girl. He could finally see what was wrong…a faint black mist had gathered around her upper torso, mostly within the centre of her chest. The longer they left this ailment, the stronger the black mist would grow.
Once it covered her body, she would definitely die.
Nobody else could see this black mist, only Des. And somehow, when he saw this mist, Des immediately understood that it was devouring her energy and vitality itself…
Without hesitation, Des reached down, gently pressing his index finger against the centre of her chest. For a moment, nothing happened…
After thinking for a moment, Des swallowed an origin berry for the first time in his life. Seeing this, every hunter in the room turned pale with shock.
“Madman!”
“His body is too frail, I’m afraid he will…”
“Even I would be badly injured if I consumed an origin berry without first exhausting myself half to death! Sigh, a shame, he was too rash, he-”
“Silence!” Tiger roared out loud. Immediately, the noisy crowd shut up.
Des felt an overwhelming wave energy storm into his body. As those warriors said, he could feel that soon enough, his body would explode due to the overload of energy.
Des narrowed his eyes and did his best to control the energy. He had never done this before, but his aunt had read him many books on the subject. In theory, he should be able to direct the energy through his flesh and blood…
As Des urged the energy into his left arm, blood began dripping from his nose. His gaze remained calm, even as the blood started to flow from his mouth, eyes and ears.
Before long, he was soaked in blood. His consciousness was blurring, and many of his blood vessels had collapsed under the strain.
The room became silent. As they watched this in disbelief, the hunters all understood what Des had just achieved. Ignoring the pain, a weak, crippled child, actually urged all of the energy from an origin berry to gather within his left arm!
The pain and injury he must have forced himself to endure, just to achieve this…
And yet, Des’s expressions did not change in the least. In fact, despite clearly understanding the morbid danger of the situation, he felt oddly calm and composed.
Now, with the energy concentrated in his left arm, he touched the centre of the girl’s chest once again, urging the origin berry’s energy into his fingertip as he did so.
This time, there was a change.
The instant his finger touched her body, the black mist, which was tunnelling deeper and deeper into her flesh, suddenly stopped. In the next moment, it crazily retreated from her body, rapidly arriving at the surface of her skin, before charging straight into Des’s arm!
Now that they were able to see the black mist, the hunters gasped in shock and horror. Many even took a few steps back, not daring to get close to this unnatural thing!
The black mist stormed into Des’s left arm, devouring the energy which had been tearing his arm apart, until finally, the entirety of the back mist had been removed from the girl’s body!
At this moment, the girl on the ground lost all tension and fell asleep. Des glanced down at her, and after confirming that she was alive, he instructed:
“Have her drink two drops of vital light tincture every quarter hour until she wakes up. When she wakes up, make sure that she drinks as much water as possible for the next three days. She will be fine.”
“Des…you…” Tiger stared at Des, who seemed unperturbed by the growing black mist in and around his arm. His skin had turned grey and his veins were now dark purple, it was truly terrifying to look at.
The black mist had yet to finish feasting on the remaining energy from the origin berry, but once it reached that point, it would begin devouring Des’s own vitality instead.
“Sister!”
At this moment, a familiar voice rang through Des’s ears. With a wide smile, he turned towards the door, and as expected, he saw Flora standing there, frozen in place in her shock.
“Wait, Des?! Sister, how is- ah Des, your arm! What happened, did Des get the same poison as sister?!”
“Well…” Tiger focussed his gaze on Des’s arm. “He removed the monster from Fauna’s body…by baiting it into entering his own…”
Des could feel many strange, unique gazes landing on him, but he ignored everything around him for now. He lifted his arm, watching the poison’s progress, whilst considering his options carefully.
“It’s not a monster, it’s a type of poison, a poison with its own will. Its like a parasite, only it isn’t truly alive…it simply exists to devour, then moves onto the next target…” Des explained slowly as he examined the creature curiously.
The others assumed that Des must have learned about this poison as Doctor Leah’s protege, but Des had never encountered something like this before. And yet, somehow, he was able to understand it just by looking at it.
Des continued to observe his arm. By keeping the origin berry’s energy contained within his hand and forearm, the ‘poison’ remained within his arm whilst having the feast of its life.
Flora walked right up to Des.
“Flora, stay further back! You don’t know what it might do!” Tiger shouted out, hastily pulling his daughter back.
Flora looked at her father without anger, but her gaze was filled with refusal.
“Father, he did this to save sister’s life! I’m not afraid-”
“Flora, you really should get back. I only have a few seconds now, I need to get rid of the poison.” Des suddenly spoke quickly, causing everyone to feel the urgency in his words, despite his strange calmness.
His arm had turned black, his flesh was rotting away, his blood vessels had dried up and his bone was beginning to flake apart…
Despite it all, Des remained expressionless.
“I need a sharp blade, immediately.” He stretched his unaffected hand out towards Tiger, who hesitated only for a moment, before looking at Des deeply whilst handing him a large dagger.
“What are you going to-”
CHI!
Thud!
Without hesitation, Des used the dagger to cut off his own arm. The action was clean and precise, so much so that it took some time before everyone in the room realised what he had just done.
Des quickly moved back for multiple steps after confirming that the others had also retreated to the edge of the dojo. He then returned his attention to the writhing black arm with an expression of intrigue.
“It shouldn’t be able to reach anyone from here. It will continue to eat its host until there is nothing left, and if it is unable to find a new host, it will consume itself and die.” Des spoke out loud, quelling everyone’s nerves.
However, to be honest, most eyes were not on the eery black arm on the ground…
“Des, you…you cut off your own arm…” Tiger, a man who considered himself battle hardened and resilient, both physically and mentally, was thrown into absolute shock. The other warriors were even worse off than him, still hardly able to believe what they had just witnessed.
Des cut through his own arm, removing his own limb permanently, without even hesitating for a second. There was no change to his expression, he did not cry out or scream, he did not grieve or rage…he just continued to watch the arm, making sure that it was well and truly safe.
A minute later, the arm collapsed into dust. At this point, Des could no longer see that malignant black aura, causing him to exhale in relief. He smiled, feeling good that in the end, nobody got hurt.
‘Oh, wait…’ He looked down at his left arm. Rather than an arm, there was now a bloody stump where he had cut through the end of the forearm, just before the elbow.
Des, now highly practised in medicine, quickly took out some bandages from his pockets and expertly wrapped up his stub of an arm, stopping the blood flow without an issue. He smiled and nodded in satisfaction.
When he finally looked up, he felt that there was still a strange atmosphere lingering in the room.
“Everyone, it’s safe now, the poison has been dealt with.” Des announced again, thinking that they were still concerned.
After a long period of silence, it was Flora who stepped forwards, taking hold of his good arm. She looked at his bloody stump for a few second, before turning her head up and smiling at Des in amazement.
“Des, you didn’t even hesitate to risk your life by consuming an origin berry and absorbing the poison into your own body. You remained calm, then cut off your own arm without so much as a change in your expression. Even now, you’re acting as if risking your life and removing your own limb is no big deal…Des, do you understand how amazing you are?”
As Flora spoke on behalf of every stunned hunter in the room, Des finally understood the strange atmosphere. Indeed, his actions were quite unusual, weren’t they? Flora’s words made him snap back to reality…somewhat.
He looked at his arm and furrowed his brows.
“I only have one arm now…”
Des then looked towards the sleeping Fauna, Flora’s sister. As he saw the aura of health and vitality returning to her body, he smiled gently.
“But it’s just an arm. What’s an arm compared to a life?”