Iris swayed in place, chest still heaving. The tip of her sword rested on the root-ground in front of her, while her hands limply held the hilt.
"Not bad," the man said, hands stuffed in his pockets as he inspected the corpse. His voice crashed against her ears like a muffled roar.
Victoria formed from a cloud of mist even as it wafted quickly towards Iris. Her feet were still mist when her hands clasp Iris by the shoulders, and she gasped when she got a good look at Iris's face. Victoria whirled around at the man and started yelling, causing Iris to drop her sword and cover her ears with a wince. The man held up his hands defensively while pointing at Iris, and soon Victoria transitioned to a quiet scolding.
Iris felt blood dripping out of her ears, and the right side of her face felt sticky. She tried extremely hard not to think about why, or what pain might be waiting for her when she fully realized her injuries. The blood pouring down the front of her robe from the gashes just below her collar bone was harder to ignore.
After more arguing the man let out an exasperated groan and handed Victoria a large corked vial of bright red liquid, which he produced from a pocket which should have been too shallow to contain it. He held onto it tightly for a moment before relinquishing his grip and letting Victoria take it.
"If you had any idea how expensive these are--" the man started.
"I do," Victoria interjected, then turned her full attention to Iris and uncorked the vial, "drink this, all at once if you can."
Trusting her companion, Iris took the vial and turned it up without hesitation. The liquid was thin and ran freely, and tasted like flowers. She shook the last few drops into her mouth and handed the vial back to Victoria, then groaned and collapsed to her knees. Searing pain covered the right half of her face and pierced her ears, the gashes in her chest burned like fire and the countless tiny cuts on her hands stung like bee stings. She gasped for breath but couldn't draw air, and then she could. She breathed freely, the pain receded, and her vision cleared and widened as her wounds closed beneath the bloodstains.
"Holy shit," she said, looking up at Victoria with wide eyes, "I feel great!"
"Moonrose tonic," the man said, darting a glare towards Victoria, "they're supposed to be for emergencies."
"It was an emergency!" Victoria whirled on him again, eager to yell again now that Iris's ears were healed, "you took out her eye!"
"She could have made it to a healer--"
"You nearly burned off her face!"
"It was about to eat her--"
"Guys," Iris said, climbing to her feet, "it's fine, I'm okay. Just drop it." She cracked her neck and stretched her arms, "thanks for the help, both of you."
They both looked at her for a moment, then Victoria turned back to the man, "who are you?"
"Sergeant Cameron Cole," he replied, returning his hands to his pockets and composing himself, "I'm out passing along intel and stumbled across this little fight just in time."
Iris almost scoffed, nothing about it had felt little to her.
"We appreciate your help," Victoria said unconvincingly, "we'll take that intel now."
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Sergeant Cameron relayed the information about the owl attack, and then the missing scouts.
"There's a body in the thicket," Iris remembered in horror, "I didn't get a good look, but I think he was an adventurer."
Cameron grimaced at the monster corpse at their feet, a thick puddle of white ooze had formed beneath it, "maybe this is our culprit, then. Or one of them."
"It called out to me like a person who needed help," Iris said, shivering as she recalled it, "it didn't feel right, but-- I mean, how do you ignore cries for help?"
Cameron nodded, then handed Iris a small notebook and a finely sharpened piece of charcoal, "write down everything you remember. I'll get the body," he nodded at Victoria, "keep watch."
Victoria followed his orders despite her lingering anger, recognizing his superior rank both in level and expedition authority, "there's no other auras coming from the thicket, it should be safe," she said flatly.
A short while later, Cameron hoisted the body above his head and pushed it out onto the root-ground on the edge of the thicket, then climbed out of the pit himself. Iris kept her distance from the corpse, waiting for Cameron to approach her and Victoria.
"It's one of our scouts," he said gravely, "I don't know him, but he looks the part and hasn't been dead for long."
"Any other bodies?" Victoria asked.
Cameron shook his head.
"Then there might be more of these things," she said.
Cameron nodded, accepting the notebook back from Iris, "I'll pass on the location, we'll recover his body on the way back to camp. For now, I need to get this information back to command, and I need you two to pass on a warning about this creature to all scouts in the area."
Iris and Victoria nodded as the man returned the notebook and charcoal to a pocket, then pulled something from pouches at his waist and cradled them in either hand. He looked to Iris, "you did good, kid." Then he leapt, and quiet explosions blasted out from his palms and launched him into the canopy.
"I don't think I like that guy," Iris said passively, after he had gone.
"I definitely don't," Victoria replied, "let's get moving."
"Just a second," Iris said, pulling her journal from the bottomless bag.
IRIS ORION
Hero Rank, Level 6
Experience Points: 3376 / 6850
Progress to next level: 49.28%
Recent Accomplishments:
Powerful foe slain, 3500 bonus experience awarded.
Attribute Scores:
- Vitality : 25
- Strength : 31
- Speed : 20
- Intellect : 20
- Spirit : 24
Unspent attribute points : 5
She smiled wide, "I leveled up!"
"Congratulations," Victoria said, "seems like these near-death experiences keep working out for you."
Iris made a quick decision on allocating her attribute points based on the many hours of thought she'd given it since her last level. She wanted slightly more Strength to make wielding her greatsword easier, but mana had been her bottleneck recently so she put four points into Spirit to increase her total mana and mana recovery.
Attribute Scores:
- Vitality : 25
- Strength : 32
- Speed : 20
- Intellect : 20
- Spirit : 28
Unspent attribute points : 0
When she was finished, Victoria took the lead, trailing through the woods in mist-form while Iris slowed her blip pace to follow. Occasionally, Victoria reformed to scan with her auravision, then pointed out the location of scouts to Iris. The increase in her Spirit attribute also came with an increased sensitivity to auras, which helped her to spot the stealthy scouts, though she still would have been hopeless to locate most of them without Victoria's help. She startled more than a few of them when she suddenly appeared beside them and introduced herself.