Gabrio had worked all day. He went to the Carpenter's cabin. Visited the Soldiers who were staying in the fantail of the Galleon. They got wounded because of the fight outside the Fleet Formation. Two days after his visit to the Ark, the enemy forces had started circumnavigating the Fleet.

  Cone Shelled Boats with spiral tips attached with ballistae. The Longships of the Fleet battled them, and the warriors of those Longships showed why they ruled the seas. Before the invention of the gunpowder, they were the masters of the sea. They are the ones who conquered long rivers and had fought enemies in land and seas.

  Dom had witnessed them fought the monsters in hand-to-hand combat. Their war axes burying into the necks of the beasts. The small barrel of gunpowder sinking those cone boats.

  The enemy kept on continuing their raids. Yesterday, they had almost climbed one of the Frigates and would have clambered on the stern of the Galleon if it wasn't for the war canoes watching the hulls and the eyes of the spirits detecting the monsters. They would have to battle the beasts inside the Galleon.

  The Galleon's prepared for a long journey, but this kind of war was not the war that they had wanted. Not when the enemy could breathe underwater and escaped through tunnels that the diving bells couldn't reach.

  Gabrio has thoughts on how to deal with the creatures from below the sea. These beasts were the concern of the Company, and it was not his role to sought schemes for the Company to purge the enemies. They have already started sending barrels of poison that would contaminate the water beneath the corals. It was a plan devised by the Elven of the Ark to purge the unholy creatures.

  If there was anything that the Elven and Humanity could agree, it was a matter of disgust against those who did not possess skin and blood. A concern in which they had agreed on, passed, and one of the many crusades were about purging them.

  The Elven are a strong race that dwells on trees and large biomes where they can build their hidden sanctuaries. But they are no noble savages, and they are the only people in Aon that have created a Dynasty that has lasted for years. There were rumors that they had been hiding in the shadows hoping that the continent could be united.

  It did not surprise Gabrio had been reading about the affairs of the Elven-kind. For they are people who lived longer than humans, and yet the stories about them having a small population was foolish.

  When the war was happening, the Elven showed their might by holding five fronts. It allowed the Chancellor to take power and become Chancellor of the United Aon.

  The blood of theirs had power, and those who have the purity of blood can become like the Lady. Gabrio believed that the Lady was still a flower on top of a mountain. She has been watching the Fleet with diligence, protecting the Fleet from the enemies. She gathered the spirits, create a spear that opened a hole within the coastline. It was then the trackers traced where the monsters came out. When they reached the tunnel that they came out, the monsters struck, and the Lady opened the way.

  On the deck, Gabrio witnessed the barrels thrown on the hole. He saw the process and wondered how it would affect the place. He estimated that there would be little change, but the Dread Line was still.

  The raid of the enemy forces grew silent as the soldiers fought harder. Gabrio's duties piled up one after another. Wiles assisted Gabrio, and Millie helped organize the medicines. Robert, the newly assigned to the clinic, had started managing the patients coming in and out.

  The office became a part of where they eat, and the constant injured was a pain. Gabrio had been able to endure, but his assistants were starting to slip up, and Wiles, who was not so sure about the ways of medicine, would stumble and fail.

  When morning comes, he stays inside the cockpit near the hatchway, watching the sailors climb the rigging all day, and then carry the wounded up the Galleon's crane and ladder.

  But yet, there was something that surprised Gabrio. A brilliant spear made of light pierced the clouds, and what followed was a form of two figures fighting a battle on the clouds.

  A figure made of light and another was that of horrendous dark clouds. The battle lasted for five minutes before it went suddenly out. Gabrio had no idea what happened. What was that vision in the sky that made the very air tremble?

  He didn't get an answer after the scouting ships returned to the Fleet. They reported a way past the island and revised their presumption.

  Of course, it was a stupid enough excuse to allow the Fleet to rest, but instead, the Fleet got no rest, and entered a field of battle, that costed the lives of some soldiers.

  Despite the battle in the clouds, the barrels of explosives and poison was ready. An explosion rocked the beach made of corals, and green vapors began to cover the shore. The sailors started preparing the rigging of the sails, and Longships started accompanying the scouting ships to the direction they came.

Gabrio had worried that something might have happened to the group of Caldor Ando when he saw their group rushing to the Galleon. Wrapped behind Caldor Ando was Zyra, her left side bloodied, and yet she was breathing.

  Gabrio administered first aid and had her taken to the clinic in a hurry. Terin, the young man with the serpent markings, had the look of guilt on his face. Gabrio didn't ask. He had them get out of the operating room with Robert and Wiles guarding the entrance from the group. The woman who emitted the same Aura as the Lady wanted to help, but Gabrio didn't let her. Not out of pride, but because he had seen her pale skin tremble.

  "Will, Miss Zyra, be okay?" Millie said. Other than work, he had no time to speak with Millie when she was always with Wiles.

  Gabrio didn't reply. He flicked the syringe and used a scissor to tore her robe, revealing her bare top. Below her moderately-sized breast was a wound that had been hastily closed. Cutting below her right breast, he wiped her forehead with water. He made an incision on her right side and picked up the fragments on her side. He cleaned up her wound with a sponge soaked in alcohol and used a rag to wipe it.

  After cleaning her wound, he pulled down his magnifying glass and examined her ribs. Her ribs were injured, but there's only a sign of blunt force trauma.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  "Healing Artes?" Gabrio muttered, stitching the wounds on her side, and then taking off the clothing on her lower body. A stone fragment or something similar to it had taken a chunk of her flesh.

  There were shallow cuts on her belly, and some of them looked old. The new ones were shallow, probably stopped by her robe. Four stitches on the upper body, three incisions on the belly, cauterize the chunk of flesh on her hip and then finally treated the wound above her crotch.

  She would lapse into seizure once in a while, and her groans were painful. Wiping her body with a rag, making sure that the blood that dried on her body was clean. Gabrio called Millie to get something that he could cover her naked body.

  Once in a while, she would hyperventilate, and he had to squeeze her hand. Her breathing was shallow, and she would start having a seizure, groaning, body-shaking cry escaping from her body. He had to wrap the two leather belts on her body to prevent her from rolling over to her side.

  Gabrio's shoulders felt heavy. He could tell from the slight rolling of the vessel that the Fleet had started moving again. Unlike the ships he had been used to, the Galleon barely rolls. There were calls for him to attend patients, but saving the Galleon's surgeon was a top priority, and had the medics take care of them.

  He didn't know what time it was other than the shaft of sunlight entering the round bolted windows. Millie delivered her biscuits and water. Wiles would check on him, and then returned to his duties. It was then that the woman named Rosalve entered the operating room.

  "Lady Rosalve," Gabrio didn't bother to stand.

  "Doctor," she bowed her head low, "I see that you have done well in caring for our friend."

  Gabrio folded his arms. "What happened?"

  She raised a brow. "I heard that you do not involve?"

  "She's a patient of mine. I need to know what happened ."

  "She got hit when an explosion came."

  "Zy has injuries all over her body. Shallow cuts. I know my wounds, Milady."

  "Yes, we encountered the monsters."

  "Then should have said it," Gabrio snorted.

  She folded her arms, "You seem to have a problem with me?"

  "I don't have a problem with you," Gabrio said, tugging on his leather gloves. "When it comes to my patients, I am like this."

  "I didn't think of you as a Surgeon as well," she said. "I have been told that you were a Doctor."

  "I am both," Gabrio sniffed, "I prefer the role of a Doctor instead of a Surgeon."

  "You are a good one," she said, "I thought that she would not make it. Even with my Artes, I thought that she would die."

  Gabrio exhaled, "Are you fine now, Madam?"

  "I just needed the rest. Ah, I was going to keel over if I didn't rest. Pardon, but I thought that you would need my help."

  "I would have," Gabrio said, "but I can tell when someone's about to faint. Your group must have been fighting a monster."

  "Indeed, Doctor, we have been fighting a battle that lasted days. We are lucky to survive surrounded by armies of beastmen."

  Gabrio locked eyes with Lady Rosalve, "Will this continue? This battle of yours?"

  "Yes, sadly, for the good of all, Doctor."

  "I see," Gabrio nodded, "I am just a Doctor whose here to treat people. Hopefully, she would remember her role in this Galleon. Not wander about, forgetting it."

  "Unfortunately she has urgent things to do, for the good of the people."

  "I don't mind," he said with a shrug, "as long as she doesn't forget her role."

  Gabrio's voice had a tinge of anger in it. Lady Rosalve raised her chin, examining Gabrio with her pretty eyes.

  "If this happens again?"

  "I might not treat her," Gabrio said, his face straight, not a crease of emotion. "Oh, she's a friend, but I don't tolerate foolishness like this."

  "It's for the good of the people-"

  "Say it whatever you want," he said without a tone, "to abandon your duties without a thought of others is simply irresponsible."

  "Her duties had been approved by the Captain."

  "Then I have no reason to cover for her. I am only a friend to her. I am not her babysitter."

  "But you would do it, won't you? Because you care for your patients."

  "That is my duty," Gabrio said.

  She looked at him for a long time and then nodded. "I cannot decide if you are cold or caring, Doctor."

  Gabrio shook his head. Lady Rosalve spent a bit of her time in the operating room, then whispered a short song that produced a milky glow of light that entered Zyra's navel.

  A moment later, Zyra opened her eyes, groaning, watching the corner, eyes locking with Gabrio, whose face looked worn, and eyebags sinking his eyes.

  "I thought," she groaned, "that you don't do surgery?"

  "My pride is surprisingly not that big to abandon someone that needs help. Besides, I helped in Tascam's point, remember?"

  "Oh, you did, ah, I can't think straight. So ah, you've seen all of me, I thought I was going to die. Ah, why do I feel flying? "

  "The poppy must be taking effect still, hard not to, you were in pain, and honestly, you shouldn't be working for a while."

  "I see," she said, looking at the ceiling, "looks like I had made trouble for you."

  "You did," he said. "Zy, you are your person. I will not tell you what you need to do or what you must do. But, I will you to do your duty to this Galleon. Do we have an understanding of that?"

  "Yes, Gab," she said weakly, "I know that I have been slacking off, but I have started this. There will be a time where I cannot do my duties."

  "I understand," Gabrio nodded, "but I hope that you would spare time for the people here."

  "I will."

  "Zy," he said slowly, "I have lived my younger years as a boy who tolerated the vilest of people. I have patience. I know the preciousness of life. And I know how easy life can go away."

  Gabrio stood. "You should be fine for now. I'll have Millie take care of you. I need to sleep before I fall over."

  "Hmm," she nodded a little.

  "Zyra," he said, "do your duties when you can. Pursue your goals when you can. That's all I have to say."

  Gabrio went with a listless stride. He returned to his room, hearing the familiar clashing of the hulls pushing against the water.