I’m not sure how long I spent healing her, but when I felt the process finish, I let [Sanguimancy] drop and fell back on my ass. Blinking a few times, I looked toward the center of the room to find Arlian, the [Obsidian Knight] standing at attention outside my [Wall of Force] with his massive black glass spear planted in the stone circle that once hosted the [Flame Golem].

The threat gone, I let the barrier fall. Jaegan and Ylsa jumped at the sudden change and moved to join Raiju and I quickly, while Volta and Voltaire stood guard by the entrance. The old man looked concerned, but I was mostly worried about Ylsa.

She was pissed.

For some reason, I was getting more ‘disappointed mom’ vibes from her than I was ‘furious berserker’, but that was almost worse. I could deal with an angry party member, but I’d always had a soft spot for maternal figures.

She loomed over me like a tower of feminine perfection as she stared at me, unblinking. “Storm-Blessed…” She shook her head. “No. Arthur Bajbub Neilson,” I shivered at the full name usage knowing I was in big trouble, “what in Dominus’ name were you thinking bargaining with the System in the middle of a fight!”

I was glad to be seated, as her enraged yell would have knocked me off my feet as she subconsciously tapped into the wind element of her Class.

“Not only that,” she was practically frothing at the mouth, “you left [Wall of Force] active while also using [Sanguimancy] at the same time! Do you want to die? Please, as your vassal, let me know. For I’m happy to assist if that is your wish!” She hefted [Bloodsplitter] in her off hand.

The old [Mage] reached up to put a hand on her shoulder. “What she means, lad, is–”

She cut him off. “Do. You. Want. To. Die?” She punctuated each word with a finger to my chest that seriously hurt.

“No, I really don’t.” I tried to stand, but she was surprisingly able to shove me back down with a single finger to the chest.

“Then what were you thinking!?” She roared and the temperature around us dropped from a balmy one-forty, to merely a hundred degrees as snowflakes flew from her enraged form. “Jaegan told me how both of those Skills of yours work and using them together should almost always be lethal.” She sounded defeated and, more salient to me, sad. “My clan is relying on me to save them and I can’t do that without you. Please, for the love of Dominus, don’t make me regret serving you…”

I waited a moment before trying to stand again which, surprising only me, required the help of the newly healed Raiju to complete. My vision swam as I got my feet underneath me, but Raiju stayed beside me to keep me grounded as I addressed our companions.

“I’m not sure what you mean about using [Wall of Force] and [Sanguimancy] together being lethal. I feel–”

“Check your health in the Party Interface, lad.” Jaegan’s tone was dire. “I know we have been since we took out that big bastard two hours ago.”

With a frown, I pulled up the Party Interface and gaped at what I found.

[Arthur’s Party:

Party Members:

Arthur - Starlord (Suzerain)

Party Leader

HP: 2%

Mana: 13% (7% missing - 2% Volta, 2% Voltaire, 3% Arlian)

Stamina: 4%

Raiju - Evolved Gale Wolf

Bonded to Arthur

HP: 100%

Mana: 100%

Stamina: 100%

Jaegan - Mage

HP: 30%

Mana: 25%

Stamina: 35%

Ylsa - Mountain Tempest

HP: 80%

Mana: 55%

Stamina: 92%]

“Two percent HP?!” I suddenly felt far more vulnerable than I had a moment before. My fingers twitched toward my potion bandolier, but I held off for the moment. “What happened to me?”

Jaegan saved me from my burning curiosity, despite his shaking head. “You didn’t learn how [Wall of Force] worked before using it, did you? Same with [Sanguimancy]?”

“I…saw both of them being used.” I averted my gaze. “What did I miss?”

He cackled despite it earning him a glare from both Raiju and Ylsa. “Basically the fundamental properties of both Skills.”

His tone irked me, I’d always hated when Dad used that self-aggrandizing tone when explaining things to me. Thing is, he was my vassal, not my Dad.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Tread lightly.”

My tone bore the full weight of a displeased [Suzerain] and the aged [Mage] nearly crumpled to the floor before Ylsa caught him. “No disrespect was intended, milord.” His voice shook. “I was just–”

Nearly imperceptible threads of energy streaked out from Volta and Voltaire to my feet, filling my body with a curious amount of energy. “Making me out to be a fool for saving all of your lives.” I deadpanned and Raiju, picking up how truly ticked off I was, started growling deep in her chest.

“I’m not used to not being in charge.” His eyes flicked side to side before he deflated even more. “It won’t happen again, milord.”

“That’s not what I’m saying.” I walked up and put a fist to his chest. “I’m not asking for all the bullshit ‘milord’ stuff while we’re in private. I just don’t want you to treat me like some fool when I was just saving all of our asses.” I let that sink in for a few seconds before speaking softly. “Now tell me what I need to know so I don’t accidentally almost kill myself again.” I snorted. “At least not with those two Skills.”

“That combination is as dangerous to use as it is rare to see in one person.” He looked up at me with a bit of his former spark, but it was measured with a newfound respect. “I had a friend who used to heal for my party, back in my Dungeon days with the rebellion. He had a few healing Skills, but his most powerful was [Sanguimancy]. He only used to bust it out when one of us was at death’s door and never during a fight where I was using [Wall of Force].”

I frowned. “I don’t see the connection.”

He nodded. “I can see why you wouldn’t, with you providing both parts to the combination. With me only providing half, I was able to see what happened when he used [Sanguimancy] even twenty feet away from me. It’s the blood vortex, it may seem like it pulls all the energy from the area that it needs at the beginning, but that’s patently not true. Instead, it pulls from all living creatures not being healed by the ability to fuel the healing. It’s not a one to one ratio, but I’d hazard a rank S beast like Raiju,” he bowed to her, “no disrespect, has almost a thousand HP at your level and I’m willing to bet you have less than a third of that.”

“Almost exactly a third, actually, but continue. I think I see where it’s going.”

“In that case, I’ll speed this up.” He gestured between himself and me. “Sanguimancy keeps pulling HP until you cut it off or you reach the HP threshold you set in the System menu for it, which I don’t think you did. It defaults to twenty-five percent.”

“Which is less than my [Hydra’s Regeneration] would trigger at, that being thirty percent.”

“That’s even worse.” The [Mage] leaned against Ylsa for support in an uncharacteristic show of his age, “If that’s the case, I’m willing to bet you don’t have any limit set at all, or it might mess with your regeneration ability. Top that with your [Wall of Force] hitting you for a few points here and there, due to what I have to assume is a truly monstrous [Arcane] stat given how you tanked that fire, you probably skipped right over the percentage to stop if you even have one.”

“Long story short,” I cocked my head to the side, “both were a drain on my HP and I didn’t have any safety protocols in place to stop them from draining me out?”

“Exactly.” Jaegan looked downright haggard for some reason.

I flicked open the System window for both Skills and found he was right, the threshold for [Sanguimancy] was set to unlimited and [Wall of Force] was the same, which was less egregious since it was a damage prevention ability in essence and any damage it absorbed was going to be more than it drained.

“Done. I set it to thirty-five percent, just to be safe.” I checked the Party Interface again and was shocked to see his Stamina was falling steadily, somewhat like how Raiju’s HP was before, but much faster. My voice grew stern once more. “Jaegan, what’s wrong? Your Stamina is cratering.”

He coughed weakly. “This old body of mine can’t handle all this excitement.”

That’s bullshit and he knows it. Something else is going on. What could it be?

I wracked my brain, but nothing came to mind that could cause that effect. A bit desperate, I triggered [Essence Reading] deliberately on him and scowled at what I found.

[Name: Jaegan “Wallbreaker” Toretto

Race: Human

Class: Mage - Uncommon - Rank C

Level: 33

Emotional Status: Exhausted/Proud

Physical Status: Mortally Wounded (Cause: Spirit Wound)

Current Estimated Lifespan: 143 Hours]

“When did you take a spirit wound?” My voice shook with emotion as I considered losing Jaegan.

I’d never lost anyone before, not really. Grandma died before I was born and, while it still hurt for Mom and Grandpa, it didn’t really hit me when they explained why she wasn’t around. I was no stranger to death, but losing someone I cared about? That was new.

I immediately resolved not to do anything I could not to get used to it.

The dying [Mage] didn’t want to answer, but Ylsa’s outraged glare finally shook the answer loose. “It was the final middle finger from the big flaming bastard.” He tried to stand up straight, but nearly fell instead. “Ugh, I hate this.”

“How did it get–”

“Through your [Wall of Force]?” He smiled weakly. “They’re great for energy and physical attacks, but not much use against mental abilities or spirit attacks.”

The room started to spin in my vision and I grabbed onto Raiju like she was the only real thing in the world. Meanwhile, Ylsa pulled Jaegan close.

“We have nine more of them to kill before we can leave this level.” Ylsa’s voice cracked. “What are we going to do? None of us can take wounds like that and survive.”

Before any of us could come up with an answer, Arlian spoke from the center of the room as he strode closer.

“That’s not technically true.”

“How so?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“That’s simple,” he spun his obsidian spear around one finger as easily as I would a dagger, “us summoned elementals are immune to spirit attacks.” He grabbed his spear and spiked it in between his feet as he stood tall in front of us. “Plus, I’m immune to flames. I can clear out any more [Flame Golems] for you without much of an issue. I do have a request though.”

“If you can do that for us?” I couldn’t believe my luck. “I’d give you almost anything.”

The [Obsidian Knight] took a knee and held out his spear. “Swear that, when you establish a stronghold for yourself, you’ll form a permanent contract with me, Pactlord.”

Despite how solid Arlian was, it was obvious he was nervous to impose as he just had.

“You see, where I’m from–” He continued until I cut him off.

“I’ll do you one better, if you’d like.” I went to reach for his spear. “If you can do that for me? I’ll form a contract with you before we go to the next level of this Tower.”

He leaned back to avoid my reach, but his black glass visor did nothing to hide the violet flame of his eyes lighting up. “We have an accord. The proceeds of my kills should appear in your Loot Tab in just a few minutes.” Before I could respond, he sank straight into the floor with what I can only describe as a happy cackle.

For just a moment, everyone but Volta and Voltaire were shocked into silence before Jaegan started laughing weakly.

“Should have known, that [Elemental Pactlord] of yours is one of the most broken Skills I’ve ever heard of, let alone seen.” He leaned back against Ylsa’s rock hard abs. “I’m going to take a nap. Let me know when he gets back.”