While Grenzer argued with the other three Outriders, Vara sneakily led me up to Karavos’ head. We crept onto the giant’s face, and she nodded to me.

“My potions won’t do much for him in this state, but that magic of yours… It’s powerful.” She retrieved three more bottles of blue liquid (mana potions) from… somewhere, and indicated the diseased dino with an open hand.

“Go on,” she said impatiently. “I’ve got to deal with that wound.”

Without another word, Vara dropped the three bottles next to me and faded into the shadows as she crept down towards where Grenzer had stabbed the titan.

Well, I guess that’s that, then.

I focused, closing my eyes and breathing deeply. A tingling sensation ran across my skin as I tried to summon the power again. It flowed across me, bringing my attention to every part of my body.

Slowly, the familiar wave of power built within my stomach. I held it, breathing slower as I concentrated on building it up. It flowed throughout my body, dancing with excitement as though it couldn’t wait for me to release its restraints.

The power built up, cascading throughout my limbs and into my throat. It was like I was drowning, but from the inside out. As my mouth began to glow green energy again, leaking trails of viridian, I opened my jaws in a roar, unleashing the power.

This time, I was focused. No arrows were being fired at me. I wasn’t forced to dance to the tune of the bowstring. No, this time, I could put my all into the cast.

I forced more and more strength into the silent roar. The green energy washed across Karavos, illuminating the surrounding area, and revealing the swelling lake of black blood on the other side of him. The waterfall crashed into it, and like a faucet pouring into a blocked sink, the lake rose. Some of the water had found cracks between Karavos’ legs and dripped away towards the forest. The rest of it forced its way out from under him.

My mana dropped like a toppled tree. The blast of green energy was far wider, stronger than before, and drained my mana much faster. It danced through the droplets in the air, a strange effect resembling the aurora borealis.

Your [Heal] has leveled up. It is now level 4.

Hey, at least it was a good way to farm skill levels. I’d just have to find more gravely injured dinosaurs to heal. Or… I guess I could always injure and heal myself… If only I could recreate these mana potions. I made a mental note about it for myself in the future.

My mana depleted, the green glow dissipated, leaving me blinking into the blackness of the stormy night. I groped around me for the blue bottle, and ripped the cork off with my mouth, tossing it to the side before chugging the bottle.

Swiftly, my measly bar of 380 magic points refilled itself. I waited patiently as I watched it rise.

From in front of Karavos, I could hear the sounds of metal clashing, cheers, and gasps. I could only imagine Grenzer was now fighting the Outriders. Or perhaps, only Brin.

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With how much rock the guy was covered by, I doubted that Savage Santa stood a chance, but maybe the man had a few surprise presents in store.

With how the Outriders were currently fighting my problems, I hoped he didn’t. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right? And Vara seemed helpful enough.

Maybe she was using me. It was impossible to tell.

Hopefully, Karavos would be thankful, though.

The blue bar representing my mana had finally restored itself, so I focused once more. While summoning the power had come easily the first two times, it wasn’t so simple now. Perhaps the anger and pain I’d felt made it easier, but as it was, I had to focus to summon the heal.

I thought about Karavos, how his eye had pleaded with me to do something. I remembered how I was going to kill him, but it had become too difficult to do so. Killing an intelligent creature was hard. The only other time I’d done so was with the Deotrexaptor, and that was simply in self-defense.

I still felt disgusted by that kill.

The beetles… well, they were bugs. And none of them had shown any measure of sentience until that Queen’s Exile had appeared. So I didn’t feel like I was really killing anything. Do you consider the life of every ant you crush?

But you probably wouldn’t find it easy to kill an animal like a dog. Maybe if it was attacking you, but would you really feel good about it?

I wouldn’t.

Which is why, I thought to myself, from here on out, I would be slaughtering as many bugs as possible, and avoiding those damn xaptors.

The energy was leaking from my jaws again, but as an experiment, I held it in even longer. My body began to shake as the healing power tried to escape. I clenched my fist, my muscles trembling as I withheld the power.

A bit of energy escaped me as my willpower to hold it faltered, but I quickly reined in the rest and continued holding it until the world was visibly shaking.

If I had hair, I’d expect it to have become yellow by now.

My entire body was surrounded by green light, and at once, I unleashed the beam of energy directly at Karavos’ chest.

Your [Heal] has leveled up. It is now level 5.

Wow. You’ve developed a branching skill: [Healing Blast]. Its level will remain at the same level as [Heal]. [Healing Blast] can be activated at instant speed, but greatly depletes magic, and cannot be controlled.

Yep. Definitely a good way to farm levels.

The blast crashed into Karavos’ chest, instantly being absorbed into his body. Welts disappeared as the corruption coating his skin was sucked away into nothingness. The healthy color of his face spread further down his body, erasing any traces of the disease left.

This illness was powerful, but with two more of those healing blasts, it might just be completely wiped away.

Hopefully.

I listened for a moment to check on the sounds of the fighting.

The snake-headed dinosaur that stared down at the obscured brawl showed that yes, Brin had most likely taken Grenzer up on his challenge.

Well, for the idiots’ sake, I hoped they were allowed to leave. Though they might’ve been a pain in my side, literally, I didn’t want for them to die.

Especially since I wanted to slam dunk their faces into some of this bloody water. Of course, Karavos could have a go at them if he was feeling up to it. We’d see how they like being picked on.