INFERNUS ARC

The imposing beast that was called the Demon of Randess began to fall back down toward the ground after erupting from it. The only thing that Amrin could think of that would have woken it, or freed it from whatever was holding it, was broken during the excavation of the Adamantine. It was then he realized why there was so much of it, but didn’t dwell or have time to think about it in detail.

Lestith, Grandall and Kaia were dumbstruck, while Amrin was confused. Wide eyed and filled with horror and confusion, the four of them watched as the Demon of Randess gazed upon them as it fell from the sky. Any hope of them being able to escape unseen was shattered. They weren’t moving. Any signs of recognition at the fact that their lives were in extreme danger were missing.

                “We need to get the hell out of here! Now!!” Grandall shouted.

                “We can’t just let it roam free, we must take it down!” Lestith was quick to refuse.

Unaware of the power and strength the demon had and his never failing sense of justice and the right thing to do, Lestith couldn’t let such a beast go.

                “Sir! You don’t understand, we do not stand a chance against it!”

                “Be more confident in your skills Grandall! We have trained rigorously for moments such as this, we must destroy it, as Knights it is our duty!”

                “That’s madness! We had an army before and all we could manage was to keep it occupied! The four of us stand no chance! Please sir!”

Lestith already had his sword held up, glowing with the intensity of the Luminous Blade enchantment.

                “Grandall is right. You need to run. You are no match for this. The only thing you’ll find here is your death.” Amrin said.

The sense of worry in his voice caused the three to flinch.

Kaia quickly turned away from the monster and towards Amrin. The shock and worry in his voice made her wonder just what that demon really was. She hadn’t fought it before but couldn’t see it as a threat to the extent that even Amrin would be concerned.

                “You know what it is…don’t you?” Kaia asked reluctantly.

                “Yes. It’s a Behemoth. But we don’t have time for an explanation, we need to flee for now and come up with a plan.”

                “You mean to retreat too!?” Lestith shouted.

                “Don’t argue with me boy!”

Amrin looked straight at Lestith. His eyes glowed black and purple in a flash and immediately went back to their normal gray ash color. Lestith swallowed hard and couldn’t speak for a moment. He felt that if he uttered a single word, instead of the Demon taking his life, Amrin would.

                “We’ll retreat deep into the forest. When I give the word, you run as fast as you possibly can, do not stop for anything. We’ll head…”

As Amrin was attempting to relay orders to the others and designate a place to retreat to, the Behemoth began to make odd guttural noises as it fell.

        “Get down!” Amrin yelled.

Massive swirling orbs of fire appeared around the Behemoth and rocketed towards the group. Just before they made contact with them, Amrin, with open hands and palms up, lifted them into the air. A solid chunk of earth sprang forth and created a wall to protect them, but only somewhat. The power behind the orbs of fire was more powerful than Amrin had anticipated, or the earth was just that brittle, and the wall exploded into dust.

Amrin and Kaia were blown back by the force of the explosion and bounced along the ground. The only reason they stopped was due to Lestith and Grandall using their body to halt their momentum, who were also thrown back slightly in the process as well.

                “Run, now! I’ll slow it down!” Amrin shouted.

Quickly standing back up, he performed the same action to produce the wall, only this time a massive cloud of dust and dirt billowed forth and flooded the sky between them and the Behemoth. The second the others saw this, they turned and ran towards the nearest tree line. As the blanket of smoke churned through the sky a loud crash echoed through the air. The behemoth had landed.

Amrin turned his head to watch as they escaped. There was enough debris and ruined buildings to help conceal their retreat towards the forest. And since the buildings could also provide physical cover there was a small window of chance that an attack would make it to them during their escape.

He watched as Lestith and Grandall reached what was once a grassy field just before the tree line. Kaia catching up quickly, her demi-human physique allowing her to close the gap with incredible speed. Amrin made sure not to move from his spot in case the Behemoth managed to get through the ruins. If anything attempted to get through, he could stop it to make time for the others to disappear. Or he hoped he could.

Thinking that they would be fine with the distance they had travelled in such a short time, Amrin began to sigh in relief. But his relief was premature. The same guttural noise that summoned the fire orbs could be heard once more. Whipping around to take whatever it was casting head-on, Amrin narrowed his eyes and concentrated and listened closely.

His expression changed from relief, to concern and then to anger in a matter of seconds during the ordeal. He knew what the beast was trying to do. It was a two-fold incantation, the first of which he knew would be harmless, but the second…the second could prove fatal to the others if he let even one slip by him.

It was still a little bit before the Behemoth could complete the incantation, so Amrin took this time to try and summon the densest minerals in the ground he could. But due the nature of Inernus Pass, almost everything around him was either melted from the magma flows, or brittle from years of heat and tectonic activity. There was no choice though, he had to do something.

If there were more moisture in the air he could conjure an Ice Wall, but that was out of the question with this level of heat. Instead he had to rely on the same earthen wall he used before, but learning from the previous mistake Amrin doubled, even tripled the layers. Raising his hands into the air, the walls began to erupt from the ground.

He made sure to put himself between the Behemoth and the line of sight of Kaia and the others. If they were going to be attacked, the attack would have to go through the multi-layered earth wall. Just as the final layer of the wall was in place the Behemoth had finished its chant.

The first part of the two-layered incantation was a tremendous gale force wind that blew away every sign of the dust curtain Amrin created moments ago to mask their retreat. The second was just as he feared. Three ear splitting cracks impacted the wall he created, splintering and nearly destroying it. A loud and deep sigh exited his mouth, the wall had held, but just barely. It was on the verge of collapsing and even the smallest attack would obliterate it.

Lowering his arms, thinking the assault was over, another loud crack rang out into the air. A massive long blackish green and purple spear punctured effortlessly through the earth wall with no signs of slowing. Amrin’s eyes went wide in surprise, the monster had outsmarted him. The adamantine spear hurtled through the wall with incredible speed.

As if everything was happening in slow motion, Amrin tried to turn to warn the others. There was nothing he could do at the moment to stop it.

                “Dodge it!!!”

The shout pierced the night sky louder than anything before it. Kaia turned her head enough to see what it was that she had to dodge only to see something horrifying. A large black and jagged spear ripping and tearing through Amrin’s shoulder. The blood spurting violently from the gaping tear. She watched as his right arm flew through the air from the force of the jagged spear and continue its path straight for her.

Making the split second decision to jump to her left while dropping to the ground caused it to smash into the eagle head design of her right pauldron, ripping a hole into it, but missing her body. The force of the impact knocked her helmet off as she collapsed to the ground. The velocity of the spear, as well as her running, caused her body to roll and bounce numerous times with tremendous speed and force, until she came to a stop face down in the dirt.

Her head was spinning and ears were ringing violently from it all. She lifted her head, a shooting pain coursed through her entire body causing her to scream out loud and fell back to the ground. Attempting to blink away the blurry vision and oncoming unconsciousness, she wanted to make sure Lestith and Grandall were safe. The only thing she could see was a massive crater with the jagged black spear at its center. Thankfully there was no signs of any bodies. Lestith and Grandall should have been either blown away by the impact or better yet, made it to the forest in time.

Using as much of her willpower to stay awake, she forced her head to rock the other direction to see what had become of Amrin. The image of his arm being ripped off by the spear made her cringe in horror. There’s no way that could have happened, he was too powerful, and immortal. But what could explain the fact that Amrin’s arm had been torn off? Even if he was immortal, could he still sustain damage? And if so, how much would be too much? If he was able to use Healing Spring on his own it would make sense that any damage up till now wasn’t an issue. But Healing Spring couldn’t grow limbs or heal extensive damage of that nature.

Unconsciousness was nipping at her heels, she couldn’t fight it much longer but she had to know if Amrin was still ok. She refused to give in until she could at least see him one more time to make sure. If he was no longer capable of fighting, they would all die. And once the Behemoth was free, the rest of the kingdoms would fall in no time.

Through blurry vision and looming darkness in her vision, she could just make out a figure standing straight up. The telltale sign that an arm was missing in the cloudy and obscured silhouette of where Amrin should be. It was good enough for her. He was still standing. He would figure something out. There was still so much she wanted to know about him, he better win.  Darkness finally won her over.

Amrin stood there silent and unmoving. Blood flowing from the massive and gruesome remains of his shoulder. From where he was standing, he looked at the fallen body of Kaia, her armor dented and mangled in places that made it obvious her limbs were broken. Moving his eyes to where Lestith and Grandall escaped to was only a massive crater from the Adamantine Spear that the Behemoth created. He couldn’t see any signs of them, which put him at slight ease. Even accounting for the tremendous impact force, it was impossible to annihilate all signs of them.

He was furious. Not only was he aware of, and ultimately the cause of, the events to lead to the creation of Infernus Pass, but he also became witness to a Behemoth. A race of creatures that he knew for a fact were extinct. Their kind were wiped out tens of thousands of years ago, there was no possible way that one could still be alive. He also had to witness this base creature not only injure him, but those he came to enjoy the company of, if only just a little.

Complete and utter lack of expression or emotion fell over his face. His eyes dead and hollow. Amrin turned to face the direction of the Behemoth, only to see it standing atop a ruined rooftop, glaring down at him.

                “Looking down on me are you?” he mumbled under his breath.

The Behemoth, as if it understood and heard him, roared into the air with a deafening howl. Then once again gazed down at him with its yellow eyes piercing through him.

Amrin lowered his head and began to exhale slowly and deliberately. The flowing blood from his wound stopped instantly. As he continued to exhale, strands of tissue and blood began to form tiny threads and tubes that grew and stitched together. Chunks of muscle and bone began to reform slowly. His arm was regenerating.

The Behemoth recognized what was happening and jumped at the chance to attack. The same guttural language that it spoke to summon the previous spells flowed from its vicious mouth. Three similarly shaped jagged spears, formed from regular earth, hovered around the Behemoth. The second it was done with the incantation they hurtled straight towards Amrin. The beast growling as if it was certain of its victory.

As the earth spears rocketed towards him, Amrin was still focusing on regenerating his missing arm. Although he was quite aware of the dangers that were coming his way. Without lifting a finger, raising his head or changing his posture whatsoever, the three earth spears turned to dust in an instant and disappeared with the wind. They didn’t even get within a dozen feet of him before Amrin erased the magic the Behemoth used to form them, by overriding it with his own.

It wasn’t something that just anyone could do. The act of spell overriding was not commonly known or discussed. The act of being able to override an existing spell, the caster must be of incredibly high affinity with the element they’re attempting to override, and at least twice the power used to create the original spell would be necessary. And even if someone met those qualifications, to do so would require an exorbitant level of concentration and skill.

Amrin’s arm was almost fully healed. The bones, muscles, tendons, vessels and other major portions of the limb were formed, the only thing that was left was to form the skin around it. As it was, the arm looked like nothing more than a bloody and grotesque chunk of meat hanging from his shoulder.

Before the arm could be fully healed, the Behemoth leapt from the rooftop and lunged towards Amrin. If magic wasn’t sufficient, a brute force physical attack would be.

It was then Amrin lifted his head and looked directly at the Behemoth, his eyes pitch black with purple cloud-like swirls swimming in them. For a split second the Behemoth knew fear. But before that fear could take hold, its body was immediately thrown from the air by a massive increase in pressure, and collided with the earth in a concussive and earth shattering crash.

The beast growled in pain and began to stand. Wobbling and uneasy as it stood it looked around the area and realized that it was inside of a crater made from the impact of its body rocketing into the ground. Digging its claws into the dirt in anger, it howled into the air until it noticed Amrin standing atop the crater’s hill. As it lowered its stance in preparation to pounce and attack him, Amrin disappeared from sight. The Behemoth let out a growl in confusion.

In an instant Amrin was standing directly in front of the beast, just under its jaws. The Behemoth felt an overwhelming and horrifying pressure and quickly jumped back. After it gained some distance from Amrin, the beast looked into his eyes once more, and the same fear it felt not moments ago, took root.

Amrin stood before it, shrouded in a dark purple and black liquid like aura. His eyes the same color. But something else was different. His brow was protruding and ridged in jagged and angled patterns above each eye and along to the side of his head, growing large the further along they wrapped. Once more, Amrin exhaled, a whitish cloud of smoke or frost escaped from it.

The Behemoth was terrified. Like with all beasts, they were fully aware of things that they knew should never be trifled with. Its survival instincts screamed into every ounce of its massive frame. It knew it needed to escape. Leaping straight into the air and backwards with all its might, the Behemoth attempted to flee.

The place Amrin stood moments ago was nothing more than a puff of dust swirling in the wind.

Thinking it had managed to put enough distance between itself and Amrin, the Behemoth looked forward only to come to a sudden and violent halt. Amrin was floating in mid-air, as if there was solid ground just below him. What stopped the Behemoth so suddenly was a massive black shadow coming from behind Amrin.

The shadow was in the shape of an enormous hand and arm. The hand grabbed the Behemoth in mid-air by the front of its neck. The beast began to claw, scratch, and bite at the shadow, but there was no damage whatsoever. Another shadow arm appeared from the other side and slowly moved above the Behemoth’s head. The pitch black hand looming just above it, caused the beast to flail uncontrollably. It knew the end was coming, but would not stop attempting to escape.

The second shadow hand came to rest atop the Behemoths head. The growls and roaring from the beast could almost be pitied if not for the fact that it was nothing more than a killing machine. The howls were non-stop and getting louder and higher pitched.

                “Shhh.” Amrin hushed the crazed beast.

In that moment a deafening and morbid crack filled the night sky, followed by hissing and crackling as the blood from the crushed skull poured down onto the lava and burning remains of the city below them.

The violent flailing, clawing, biting and howling that occupied all the Behemoth’s enormous body, were now limp and slack. The massive shadow arm that held the Behemoth released its grip and Amrin watched as the beast fell into a lake of lava. The impact with the pool caused globs to splash across a large area, adding to the hissing sound as the body began to burn and melt. Slowly sinking into the lava, certainly dead this time.

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Watching as the body slowly burned and dipped below the lava, Amrin exhaled slowly releasing the same white smoke like frost breath, and began to descend back to the ground. As his feet touched the ground, his eyes returned to their normal gray ash color the shadow limbs disappeared with a puff of shadow, and the ridged pattern across his brow receded until it was no longer visible.

Ignoring the smell from the burning hair and flesh from the Behemoth, Amrin made his way back to where the others should be.

Walking by the crumbled remains of the earth wall he had made he saw pools of blood and a trail leading to his arm that lay on the ground. His eyes flashed red and in an instant a torrent of fire engulfed the arm and incinerated it until nothing but a charred black circle remain on the ground. He made sure to do the same with the blood, not to leave a single trace of it anywhere. When he was finished he made his way to Kaia first, since she was the closest, and the only one whose position was known.

Placing the back of his hand against her cheek he checked to see if she was still warm, but then realized where he was, of course she would be warm. So instead he placed his head as close to her mouth and nose as he could and listened carefully. She was breathing. It was labored and erratic, but she was breathing. He sighed in relief and sat back up.

Taking a closer look at her body it was worse than he thought, both of her arms were broken in multiple places, one of her legs was twisted around, and if the huge dent in her cuirass was any indication of damage she would no doubt have several cracked or broken ribs. The impact of the Adamantine spear that the Behemoth made only appeared to be a glancing blow, but the state of her body indicated otherwise.

There was no water anywhere to be found so the chances of him making a Healing Spring was zero. But he knew that Grandall had purchased water skins from New Randess before they had come here. If he could get some of that, then Kaia could be healed. Not fully, but enough to keep any possible, and most likely, internal injuries from killing her.

Amrin stood and looked in the direction of the crater made by the spear and scanned the tree line to see if there was any signs of Lestith or Grandall. Seeing nothing in the immediate area he decided to leave Kaia for now and try to search for the other two. Before he left Kaia alone, Amrin created multi-layered walls to surround her in a tent shape to keep anyone, or anything, from harming her further.

Making his way towards the trees he walked by the crater and moved his hand in a line with his palm out. As he walked by, the dirt and rubble began to get swept into the hole and covered the Adamantine spear.

Pushing passed some rubble that had rained from the Behemoth erupting from the ground, Amrin made his way into the forest. Searching for any clues that could lead to the whereabouts of the other two.

                “Lestith!? Grandall!?” he shouted

Stopping in his tracks and listened for a possible response. Nothing.

He saw signs of rocks and pebbles that were ejected from the force of the spear impacting the ground, destroying some of the trees or embedding deeply into the long dead wood.

                “Lestith!? Grandall!?” he tried once more.

                “…here…” the reply was faint, but Amrin could at least narrow down the direction it came from.

Moving quickly between the trees towards where he heard the voice, he noticed drag marks and heavy sluggish footprints in the dirt and soot. Soon he came upon the two Knights, in bad shape, but far better off than Kaia. Lestith was propped up against a tree, his head slouched to the side and unconscious. Grandall was laying on his back next to him.

Both of their once pristine silver white armor was covered in dirt, soot and deep scratches and dents. Grandall was awake and his breathing was erratic and heavy.

                “Grandall! You are two ok?” Amrin asked as he knelt down to inspect Grandall’s condition.

                “G-great…never felt….more alive...” his words were forced and even though he attempted to keep the mood light, Amrin saw that it was far from a joking matter.

Just below his rib cage and not quite in his back on his left side, was a large chunk of wood that pierced his armor and impaled him.  The blood began to pool below him, but luckily the wood had penetrated the armor with such force that it was a clean puncture. Because of this it in essence prevented the wound from bleeding out. Even though the wooden spike was killing him, at this point, it was also keeping him alive.

                “Grandall, I need the water pouches you bought. Please tell me you still have them.”

                “Y-yeah…here…” he lifted his right arm up to show the satchel that he had placed the Ice Crystals and other provisions in. “T-thirsty?” he asked sarcastically.

                “Funny. No. I’m going to save your life.”

                “Oh…that….would be…great.” His breathing was becoming more labored than before. But Grandall couldn’t help but think how comfortable he was becoming. If his training as a soldier had taught him anything. This was not a good thing.

Amrin fished through the satchel carefully and pulled out four medium sized water skins, which would be plenty to make enough Healing water for the three of them. He had no idea what was wrong with Lestith, but it was better to be safe than sorry at this point.

                “Alrigh, Grandall. I’m going to need you to do something for me.” He asked, hovering his head over Grandall’s face.

                “Sure thing….boss….whatever you….need.” his eyes began to close and open slower and slower.

Taking a water skin in his hand he closed his eyes and his hands glowed blue and in turn made the water skin glow. Soon afterwards it was gone.

                “Drink this…” he popped the top of the water skin open and poured some of it down Grandall’s throat.

                “Ok, and now…Bite down on this.” Amrin shoved the leather coin pouch Kaia had given him before, into his mouth before Grandall could reply, and got into position.

                “Alright. I’m sorry but…this is going to hurt like hell.”

Holding his left arm out of the way and to keep it from thrashing around, Amrin wrapped his hands around the wooden spike and made sure to have a solid hold of it.

                “On three…”

Grandall knew exactly what was going to happen and clenched his eyes hard and bit onto the coin pouch. The soft leather the only thing keeping his teeth from chipping against the coins inside. His hands balled into fists with as much force as he could muster in preparation for the pain.  

                “One!”

Without counting to three, Amrin ripped the chunk of wood out in one rapid motion. The muffled scream from Grandall lasted for only a moment, quickly coming to a stop as he passed out from the pain and shock.

Nodding his head in approval of the wooden spike coming out cleanly he threw it to the side. The blood began to quickly flood out of the wound. With what he had left of the Healing water for Grandall, Amrin lifted his body at an angle to get a better view of the wound and quickly poured the water directly into the puncture wound.

Washing away the blood and debris from the chunk of wood, he looked into the hole of the cuirass and made sure that the water was doing its job. Amrin watched as the skin began to slowly close itself, something like steam being released as it proceeded.

                “Ok, good….good.”

Amrin lowered Grandall and made sure to take the pouch of coins out of his mouth. Imbuing a second water skin with the healing properties he knelt before Lestith and examined his body and armor. Everything seemed to be fine. Looks like he was able to avoid most of the damage, or it could have very well been Grandall that took the brunt of the impact from the Adamantine spear.

Tilting his head up and to the side, Amrin put the spout of the water skin between his lips and squeezed. Most of the water began to spray out of the sides of his mouth but Amrin didn’t care at this point. Gently massaging Lestith’s throat he made sure that at least some of the water made it into his body. Making sure not to use the whole skin, he capped it and placed it on Lestith’s lap in case he woke up.  Amrin now needed to get back to Kaia and make sure to heal her.

Gathering up the other two skins of water, Amrin began to race back to where he had left Kaia. He didn’t have a moment to lose. The longer she lay there beaten and broken, and quite possibly bleeding internally the greater her chances of dying were. The thought of her death infuriated him. It was supposed to be a simple locate and retrieve mission. Visit a hellhole, grab some rocks, and go home. This wasn’t supposed to happen.

Leaping out of the forest he quickly ran to the makeshift earth tent he had made for Kaia. Raising his hands out in front of him as he ran, he quickly lowered it, the earthen walls following the motion and disappearing into the ground. What Amrin saw next made his heart skip a beat.

A massive pool of blood splashed out of where the walls were containing it and soaked the dirt ground Kaia lay on.

                “Son of a bitch!” Amrin shouted and fell to his knees next to her, blood immediately soaking into his pant legs.

He had no idea where the blood was coming from, and he didn’t want to move her for fear that he would cause her even more damage. But now wasn’t the time for that, he had to act fast or she would die. And he refused to accept that. She was in his care, his carelessness would not be the death of someone. Not if he could help it.

He held one of the water skins and it flashed blue, just as it did with Grandall and Lestith. Popping the top off of it, he began to power it over her armor, everywhere he could find gaps and openings. Then holding both of his hands out in front of him, palms up, her body began to lift. He had lightened the gravity of her body and caused her to float into the air. Then ever so gently, he lifted her arm and rotated her floating body to see the damage that was done to the front of her body.

The blood dripped from every crack, gap and indent of her armor. The amount of blood was terrifying. Any more blood loss and she would be dead. He had to stop it. Taking the second water skin, flashing blue as he brought it up to her lips, he poured some of the contents into her mouth. Making sure not to drop any if he could help it.

The state of her body while floating in the air was a macabre scene. Each of her limbs weightless from Amrin’s magic, twisted and contorted in directions no body could realistically hold. Her blood caked all over her armor, her face, and carpeted the ground below them.

He was getting nervous. He didn’t have anywhere near enough water to heal this much damage. The broken limbs and bones were the least of his worries. The internal bleeding and source of the massive loss of blood needed to come first. Lowering her body to the ground as gently as he could manage, he had to think fast. The armor needed to come off, he needed to find the source of the blood loss. But taking the armor off the normal way would require him to move her body and potentially cause even more injuries.

The only thing he could do was tear the armor away. Armor was made of minerals and material from the earth, there was no realistic difference between their raw forms or processed and refined form. What comes from the earth, will forever be of the earth.

Holding an open hand above her chest, he bit his upper lip in preparation and nervousness, and quickly ripped the front portion of her cuirass open. The metal deforming and tearing as if it was parchment. The grinding and screeching sound it made as it ripped away from the whole made him wince. Now that the front of her cuirass was out of the way he should be able to get a better picture of the damage. But he was instead greeted to chainmail after the plate.

                “Ugh, are you kidding me!?” he shouted.

Repeating the process to rip the plate armor off, the chainmail began to pop and tear away just as easily. Taking the remains of the chainmail section he threw it to the side. The only thing covering her body now was her cotton shirt. Not needing magic for this, Amrin grabbed the shirt with both hands, the soaked fabric oozing blood as he did this, and ripped it open.

There was too much blood, he couldn’t see anything. Ripping off his only remaining sleeve, he began to dab and wipe away the blood. Starting at her chest, he wiped around her breasts gently, in case there was a gouge or laceration. Nothing, her chest was good. He would have to apologize to Kaia later for this, but now wasn’t the time to dwell on such things. But made a quick mental note that armor was very good at concealing things. Continuing the cleaning with what was left of the sleeve that wasn’t soaked, he began to wipe away the blood from her stomach. But no matter how much he wiped, the blood wouldn’t stop. This was it. There was a large hole in the middle of her stomach.

Taking the last of the water, Amrin poured it over the gaping wound. He had no idea where it came from or what caused it. There was no external signs of damage on the armor and her chainmail would have prevented this much damage assuming it got through the plate. As he waited for the wound to begin closing, Amrin noticed multiple star like wounds that had scarred over and covered her stomach in other areas. It must have been one of those that tore open from the incredible impact that struck her.

Thinking it odd that someone of her caliber would have so many scars to begin with, let alone in the same area around her stomach, he couldn’t help but wonder just what had happened. The wounds were in a straight pattern from one side of her stomach to the other, as if it was deliberately intended to…his heart dropped. It all made sense now. The way she was looking at them. The sadness and longing he noticed in her eyes. And the nagging feeling that something big was the cause.

Guilt racked his mind. He wasn’t the cause by any means, but couldn’t help but think that he needed to do something. Her behavior, longing, sadness and unwillingness to open up to anyone, was most likely the product of this barbaric act. It would be little to no effort for him to fix it. Probably. Although he had no clue how long ago it happened, which would be a problem.

Normally he would never entertain the idea, but as it stood, the meager amount of Healing water was nowhere near enough to completely heal her stomach wound. And the utter lack of any other sources of water to create more, he was left with little to no options. He had two options, hope the current amount of Healing water would suffice and keep her just on this side of death until they got to New Randess, which was not promising to say the least. Or heal her the only way he could right now and guarantee her life. He gazed at the state of her body once more and made a choice, there was no way he could wait. Her body was still utterly mangled and the possibility of death was too high.

                “Agh! Fuck it!” he shouted and stood up.

Stretching his hands out over her body he closed his eyes and took a deep breath in.

                “Can’t remember the last time I did this...” he said then blew all of the air he sucked in out in one large breath.

Closing his eyes her body began to glow. There was no color indicating what element he was using on her, the body just emitted light. Clear and pure light.

Her limbs began to crack and twist back into place. The crunching of bones made him flinch slightly. It wasn’t a pleasant sound at all to hear. Her leg spun around and stopped in the position they were meant to be. Her arms popped back into her shoulder sockets then began to twist and crack just like her leg. Snapping back into their normal position. The blood below her began to disappear. No, not disappear, recede. All of the bruises and cuts on her skin sealed and disappeared. Then came the wound on her stomach.

The fresh open wound began to stitch itself closed. Seamlessly it sealed itself and vanished. But the star shaped scars remained.

                “Farther still, huh?”

The light glowed brighter around her. Very slowly the scars began to disappear, her skin became whiter and smoother. All of the smaller star like scars were barely visible, but the largest of them was still there. Right in the middle of her stomach and much lower than the others.

                “Oh c’mon! You better not get angry at me for seeing you naked after this!”

One final surge of light erupted from her body and the largest scar vanished in an instant. The second it disappeared, the light surrounding her body faded out. Amrin’s eyes shot open and he began to pant from the effort.

                “So…long…ago…”

His vision was blurry and it was hard to breathe. He couldn’t keep his eyes open. Exhaling one last time, Amrin’s eyes closed and he fell backwards hard onto the ground. Everything went black.