Upon seeing the creature's corpse in front of him, the man couldn't help but feel a sense of triump.

"Kai?" he shouted, joy and worry mixing in his voice.

Without really thinking about it, he sent the cube to levitate a few feet over their heads, shining its light over the slowly darkening scene.

"Here," the boy muttered as an answer to the man's shouting. "Be more quiet or you will draw attention towards us."

"I doubt there is anything in this forest that didn't hear that thing scream," the man said, wearing a broad grin. The rush of a won battle flooded his brain with endorphins.

He reached the creatue's corpse and circled it, finding Kai sitting in a puddle of blood and his own sweat. The man's heart froze for a moment.

"Your shoulder," he mumbled in shock. Without thinking about it he reached his hand towards the wound, but the boy slapped it away with his working arm.

"Stop that," he grumbled. "I'm fine."

The man knelt down and took a good look at the boys wound.

His shoulder looked like it had been roasted over an open fire for too long.

Where the black liquid had touched him his white skin had merged with the muscles underneath, creating some kind of fleshy black pudding. His blood was seeping out of it.

Around the edges of it a red swall had begun to spread along the arm and a foul smell was oozing out of it.

"No, you are not. That almost looks like wet gangrene"

But it moves significantly faster, the man added in thought.

"It's nothing," the boy muttered between clenched teeth.. "My tribe has a very powerful healer. Her Heartshape can fix almost everything.

More important is that I ... we get the creatue's heart out as long as its fresh or all this would've been for naught."

Despite his words, worry fluttered through his eyes.

He sat up and tried to rise to his feet but tilted to his right and plopped back on his butt.

The man sighed and slipped out of his coat. With a sudden motion he ripped both sleeves off it, creating two green bandages.

"That's all nice and well, but we have to take care of your shoulder first.

After all even the best healer can't help you when you die before you get to her."

And you can't show me the way to your tribe if you lose concisousness, the man added in thought.

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Ignoring his words completely the boy started another attempt at standing up which failed just as pathetically.

His eyes shot towards the man. Their lids were clenched and his brow furrowed.

"You need to ... cut the heart out. Take my knife."

Kai pointed his healthy hand towards the weapon that was still stuck in the creature's back, before letting it fall to the ground.

Now that the adrenaline subsided the pain was washing over the boy like a storm.

The man rummaged his brain for ideas. The word bacteria came to mind, but the man was too busy pondering what to do to wring out of it his mind the meaning of the word.

Whatever this was, he had to stop it from spreading.

He had no water he could use to sanitize the wound. Another idea came to mind but he discarded it.

Heat was the next thing he could use.

If the boy had spoken the truth, all he had to do was slow down the spread of whatever was causing his arm to rot.

The stuff was moving significantly faster then the bacteria that caused wet gangrene, but maybe it abied by some simular principle anyway.

After all he was all out of option anyway.

"Ok, we do the following," he began. "You let me clean your wounds to the best of my ability and then I get the things heart out."

Despite the paleness that was already creeping in his face, Kai opened his mouth to protest but the man beat him to it.

"Either that or we stand her and discuss untill your dead and the heart has gone bad."

Kai pondered for a moment before nodding.

"Hurry up then," he said, his voice already reduced to a hoarse whisper.

The man nodded and withdrew the cube from its position over their heads, now causing it to orbit around them.

He crumbled up one of his former sleeves and held it in front of the boy's face.

"Take that into your mouth. I will try to burn your wound enough for the bleeding to stop and to kill some of the stuff that is trying to kill you."

Suspicion mixed into the platera of emotions that was the boys expression. "And that will work?"

Sticking to the honest approach the man shrugged.

"It might, it might not. I have no idea what that black stuff is, but hopefully, I can prevent it from getting inside you and damaging more vital organs.

After that I hope your healer is as good as you say."

Expecting another question the man was surprised as the boy nodded,

whispered a weak "I trust you," and stuffed the green gag into his mouth.

He drew a deep breath, clamped the other sleeve into his hands and made the cube to press itself against the boys shoulder.

A ripple went through the boy's body.

Then the man made his shining tool heat up.

Instantly the air was filled with a sickening sizzle like meat being seared on a hot skillet.

Kai's body tensed violently, his muscles locking up as a scream tried to force its way past the makeshift gag in his mouth, but all that escaped was a muffled, agonized groan.

His eyes went wide and tears filled them as if they wanted to extinguish the fire that burned his skin.

In his desperation, Kai's uninjured hand shot out, clutching the man's left hand with a vice-like grip.

His fingers dug into the man's flesh like the two ends of a pair of tongs.

"You're doing great, Kai," the man reassured the boy, despite his own stomach being close to turning.

Despite not knowing him, he couldn't bear to see the pain in the boys face, so he looked at his shoulder,

choosing to have the mutilated wound burned into his memory rather than what he would see otherwise.

The seconds crept by, one after the other, as the cube slowly moved up and down, rubbing its burning surface over every inch of blackened flesh.

After it had reached every edgy of it twice the cube fell to the ground, a sickening black crust sticking to it.

A moment later the boys body went limp and leaned against the mans torso.