CHAPTER 304 – LIMB REPLACEMENT

Crimson covered the ground, and adrenaline rocketed through Tom. He needed clarity of mind, so by rote; he suppressed the feedback from Earth Sense. Having all those sensations hammer into his mind was not conductive to clear thinking. He did not dismiss it as he was in a war zone. That would be stupid. All he did was minimise its footprint. Like he had been training, he dulled all sensation from the inner circle and kept only the perimeter primed so he would know if any enemies were coming for them. Only then, satisfied that he could concentrate to his fullest did he focus on Toni.

She was missing a leg. Her breath was shallow and laboured and he could see blood well out of the wound with each heartbeat.

He blanched, these sorts of near critical injuries weren’t supposed to happen to them. Logic said that even a missing leg was not a problem in a world of magic unless there were unexpected energies or curses included in the attack. Tom knew he really shouldn’t have cared. To him what was a little blood? But the fact was that it was happening to a friend and not to him.

That made it harder to deal with.

Tom engaged his remote healing desperate to help and prevent what happened to Roland occurring here.

His magic connected to Toni’s body and he found he wasn’t the only one acting. Power was already flowing from both Michael and Clare. He triggered Healing Tranquillity to better direct his own contribution.

Time slowed and gave him a moment to think. His mind when he had spun to face Toni had tracked everyone. All of them, excluding Everlyn and Harry, had been rushing to help. He made a mental note to discuss discipline. It was only the healers who should have been reacting. Keikain and Thor should have known better.

Before he can chase the thoughts any further, the results from his spell came flooding into him.

The injury was confined to a single spot. As best as he could tell, she had been struck once, which made sense in the context of what they were fighting. Something had struck her mid-thigh, and it had cut through the bone and then, after the slicing damage had gone through it had exploded. The lower leg was gone and the upper leg right up and, including part of the hip bone had been mangled.

The volume of blood that had been lost in the few seconds that had passed was immense. Tom stopped the pursuit of why and focused on actions that he could undertake. There was not a lot for him to do. Both Michael’s and Clare’s magic had beaten him to the wound. The torn open blood vessels were already closed, the internal bone on the hip mending.

Between their combined efforts, she had gone from critical to stable in a literal blink of the eye. Clare had the magic to restore limbs far more efficiently than what he had done with Mac and he suspected her healing was already being sent in that direction.

At this point, he was more likely to get in the way than to be helpful.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spied Harry who had stopped jumping but was instead clutching the stump of his hand.

A stump?

Shit, he thought, spinning to face the ritualist and switching the target of his remote heal to the person who actually needed it.

In moments, the remote version of Healing Tranquillity allowed him to connect and assess the injuries. Tom was not expecting anything too problematic. The ritualist was conscious and, providing he survived the first few seconds that meant safe. With their collective healing proficiency, especially the chosen there was nothing a rank twenty-two zone could generate that could truly threaten them beyond the ever-present risk of near instant obliteration. While it could do that, it could not curse, infect or poison them to death..

It was a missing hand with moderate bleeding. The first act he did was to turn off the pain and fuse the leaking blood.

Harry’s face relaxed when he did so, and he smiled wryly. “Thanks!” With the pain and blood lost mitigated, the ritualist lifted the stump to examine it like a scientist would a bug. The wrist was shredded and Tom could see the broken bones in the mix. Harry chuckled darkly. “It’s times like this I appreciate being in a magical world with limb regeneration.”

Tom smiled at the gallows humour. There were traces of anti healing magic in the mangled flesh, but that was easy enough to push out. The ritualist shuddered slightly as the slightly green blood oozed out to splatter on the ground.

“Residual poison,” Tom told him.

“Yeah, I figured.”

Tom hesitated for a moment unsure about what was the best action. He was conscious that the hand would be reconstructed, and he didn’t want to make that process more difficult. Standard healing would leave a stump covered in either scar tissue or skin depending on the skill of the healer. That extra skin would have to get discarded when they regenerated the hand and probably cost the person regenerating the limb considerable mana to undo the false healing. He didn’t want to make things harder, so after a few seconds in the time dilated space of Healing Tranquillity he resolved to take a different route. Instead of falling back into standard healing he focused instead on sealing leaking blood vessels. He chose a detail oriented approach. First fusing the larger veins and arteries and then going a step further to fix the capillaries as well. Then when that was done he diverted capillaries to supply the remaining flesh with blood. It was the best way to keep it alive while he waited for a better healer to regenerate the limb.

Harry watched his stump carefully. “It’s no longer changing. Is it done?”

Tom nodded in confirmation.

It did not look healed. There was exposed pink flesh and the white glint of shattered bone, but it was stable and the dripping blood had been cut off. It was an eerie effect. The sort of sight you would see in something freshly killed where decompensation had not kicked in, but the heart was no longer beating to create liquid flow.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

The ritualist swallowed and to his credit had no further reactions. Instead, he appeared thoughtful. “I assume you’re leaving it half done in order to help with later healing?”

“Of course.”

Above them, four eagles swept in to attack them once more. It was their second strike and Tom, in the excitement of the loaka attack hadn’t even noticed the first when two had been killed and the others repelled.

Crack.

He watched in surprise as one of Everlyn’s arrows arced up in advance of the chosen’s attack.

Her target ducked to the side but it was too slow. The arrow hit and part of its beak was torn off by the resultant explosion.

All four kept coming.

The chosen’s magic flashed into the sky as they used the spell forms they had created pre battle to attack to amplify their magic. The powerful attacks curved through the air, adjusting and compensating for their attempts to dodge. Despite the evasive actions, the missiles struck dead centre on each of the birds’ chests. Each of the five strikes was different, and they all created a variety of effects. One of the monsters burst into flames, another had its breast bone destroyed like a massive drill was tearing it apart and a third was frozen near solid.

There were thuds around them as eagles, already dead, fell from the sky and crashed into the earth.

“We’re not waiting to heal. Get in the air.” Everlyn ordered. “That was terrible. While we’re in the air and waiting to get back into fighting shape we’re going to discuss battle positions and triage.”

He obeyed and leapt onto the nearest chosen.

The paranoia driving Everlyn to act immediately and get off the ground felt superfluous. After all, they had just repelled a significant attack comprehensively and there was unlikely to be another raid group close enough to trouble them. However, he figured she was probably building good habits, and that was worth supporting, and he was glad she was going to discuss their responses when one of them was hurt and incapacitated. What had just happened was inexcusable. Even if he had been part of the problem, it had to be addressed and fixed.

In seconds he sat on the second elder and with Harry sitting opposite him, they took off.

Then they were spiralling up into the safety of the sky. Tom glanced at the ritualist. “How did you let a loaka hit you?”

Harry shrugged. “The bastards coordinated. Your spell was holding them in position and I think I relaxed slightly. That was a mistake. They weren’t stunned just physically constrained. They responded by casting the spells remotely. The first three missiles were easy enough to dodge. I stepped around one and blocked the other two with my spear. Then the last four loaka combined their abilities. It was something like Toni’s air blender, but fast.” He shook his head. “So, so fast. It was coming right at my chest, glowing with power. For a moment I thought I was going to die, but I got my hand in the way. I knew it was going to do this.” He waved the stump to illustrate. “But it bought me the time to duck out of the way. The bloody thing they had created kept going too. I reckon if I had stayed still it would have done the same job to my chest as it did to my hand.”

“Lucky,” Tom said absently. Then punched his thigh in annoyance. “You’re telling me on top of everything else, they can combine their abilities?”

“Yes, and no. One of them had the skill to do it. I don’t think it’ll be wide spread but occasionally… and that’s a problem.”

“You can say that again.”

All Tom could think about was that Harry had been hurt and Toni badly injured. They had done everything right, and they had still almost been brought undone.

Harry used his hand to brush off some dried blood from his forearm and then stopped with a look of annoyance when he started to smear a wet section which had been hidden by the crusty blood above it “The problem isn’t their power as such. It’s that there are so many of them and one of them is going to have exactly he right key to get through our defences.”

“I know.”

“It’s all the various ability types they have. Take air? if I’m expecting that with Toni’s help I can create a ritual to block it. That’s fine and everything. But if I do that, then I’ve no defences against one with earth abilities or lightning… or whatever else you want to dream up. Against a single opponent type, it’s easy to plan to mitigate their strengths, but if it’s random, it’s hard.”

“And there’s so many of them when they attack.”

“I know.” Harry startled slightly and looked at his stump. “It just started itching.”

Tom didn’t have anything he actively needed to do, so he watched the process in fascination. The second elder was obviously regenerating the hand while they flew. What seemed like uncontrolled flesh growth was occurring. It grew out from the wrist in a ball of disorganised flesh and bone. In moments it went from nothing to tennis ball sized and then it kept growing to be softball sized. Its volume was three or four times more than a normal hand, and it was hideous. There were bits of bone mixed into the flesh, small strips of tendons or veins that went nowhere. It was like a cancerous uncontrollable growth that a surgeon had peeled the surrounding skin from.

It was the stuff of nightmares.

Tom looked down at the person that he sat on. The rocky texture that hid the immense magic that it exhibited. “Second Elder are you sure you know you’re doing? Humans have different physiology to you guys.”

The chosen bobbed in the air, making both his and Harry’s stomachs flip.

“Blessed one, this is a standard technique that splits the growth and specialisation phase for regeneration. We find this method to be between eight and forty-seven percent more mana efficient than the more standard undirected spells.”

If you say so, he thought as he watched the ball of flesh. The specialisation phase must have started because the tissue was withering and moving like it was filled with insects. The flecks of bone vanished, skin started to grow and as it boiled and shifted, it seemed to contract inwards, shrinking in on itself and the volume contained was reduced.

“Incredible,” Harry poked the ball of flesh with his other hand. “Can’t feel a thing. Only that I’ve got a weight attached to my wrist.”

“Ritualist specialist, do not be alarmed about the lack of feeling I haven’t connected any nerves yet.”

The skin spread, a boneless thumb. It was like empty skin as it flopped there for a moment before it firmed up and inflated back to real size. Even if it still seemed suspiciously bendy.

Harry’s eyes were wide. “This is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever watched, and it’s attached to me.”

Tom thought about pinkwing and the smell until he had the decay under-control. Her flesh had done similar stuff, and it hadn’t been because it was being healed. “I’ve seen worse. I think it’s incredible.” The thumb was now fully formed complete with a nail, and the size of the flesh had been reduced to close to the dimensions of a hand. If this was more mana efficient, it was a technique he wanted to test. Theoretically, it wouldn’t even be that hard. He intuitively already understood what the chosen was doing. It was very similar to how he healed when using Healing Tranquillity. Fingers appeared, then it was fully formed but heavily swollen for a moment and then it slimmed down to normal.

“Ritual expert, it is done.”

The fingers that only half a minute before had been chaotic flesh wiggled. Then it clenched into a fist.

Harry smiled as he used the hand to touch his armour, the skin on his other palm and then a more natural gesture when he stroked his beard. “Wow. It feels the same as always.”

“We’ll circle here until everyone’s mana is recharged, and we’re all healed.” Everlyn said abruptly over the party chat. “And then we’ll keep going and while we wait, we’re going to discuss the cluster fuck that happened back then. What the hell were you all thinking dropping your battle awareness like that. It was disgracefully incompetent!”