Doctor Katz

The golems suddenly stopped firing at us. There was silence with some explosions in the distance still. “There is ambient energy coming back,” Jacob said.

“We need to move, Michelle?” Clarissa asked. The platform we were cowering under broke apart and reformed to the side. We quickly got on and it lifted off. Michelle was sending out more summons in a supporting envelope around us. I had thought we would have died there at the end, leaping off the airship.

The structure that the sphere had been in was heavily damaged, even the portion that was still standing. “Hahahaha,” I heard laughter coming in through my mind as we cleared the edge of the reflective chamber and could see the bottom.

Small glowing white shards were scattered about, burning with a golden flame. The Avatar was somehow still alive, laying on the ground. Michael was to the side. A glowing white chunk was on his chest, burning as well. His right arm was completely missing, and bleeding. His face, and armor had also taken heavy damage from an explosion.

Michelle quickly moved us towards him and I jumped off the platform. “Michelle, can you get that off his chest?” I pointed at the glowing white shard on flames. I quickly began to put a tourniquet around the stub of his right arm.

I noticed several summons instantly turn to dust when they touched the glowing white shard. The golden flames flickering onto the summons, destroying them. Clarissa had ran off to grab a piece of debris. It melted as she pushed, but she managed to get the burning white shard off his chest. That wound didn’t look good.

Imbue Life. I stabilized him, but his condition wasn’t good. “Oh, how the mighty have fallen from grace,” the Avatar laughed.

“Well, you were going to get a lift out. But now, you can stay here, I think Michael would have wanted that,” Clarissa said while glaring at the human nugget. I focused on my patient in front of me. I kept spamming my skill, to stabilize him. His face was healing, along with the rest of his body, except for his central chest area around the sternum, and his right arm.

“The cluster bomb mis-fired. I need to disarm the rest of the munitions. Make sure I am disturbed,” Jacob called out to the Captain and Michelle.

“How is he?” Clarissa came over to ask me.

“Unconscious and heavily wounded. I have stabilized him enough that he won’t suddenly die. But the arm wound is heavily cursed. There is nothing to build there. Without Michael’s help in the process, that isn’t getting fixed. But the real issue is the chest wound,” I explained while staring at his melted armor, flesh, and bone.

That burning white shard had melted partially into his body. “That I would call super cursed. It has twisted his armor and flesh togeather. This will require surgery to remove it, and then fixing it? He will need to be awake as well.”

“But he won’t die for the next couple of days?” Clarissa asked.

“Oh, but to cry and die before the very end. To lament one’s woes. To suffer defeat and not even taste victory. It is but ash,” the Avatar said. I was beginning to come around to Michael’s point of view that she was incredibly annoying.

“And done,” I heard in the distance. “It shouldn’t activate. Can’t say anything about the rest of the bombs,” Jacob said and then I looked at Michael. I quickly began to remove the annihilation bombs on his person and set them carefully to the side, far enough away we wouldn’t be impacted by them going off.

“Cry terror. And run, like the feral dogs you all are.”

“Jacob, I could use your opinion,” I called out once the bombs were removed. Jacob came over to me along with everyone else, except the Avatar who was content to moan on the ground saying pointless things. “The chest injury, what do you make of it?” I asked for a second opinion. While I disliked the man’s past, he was capable, and I needed capability right now.

“I will need to touch, may I?” he asked me, and I nodded. Clarissa gave me a look which I ignored. He reached down and began poking around the wound, releasing some of his energy in bursts. I noted Michael’s flesh wiggling slightly under each poke and then after a minute he stopped and looked up at me.

We looked at the shard that was still burning in golden fire. It had barely diminished. “What is it?” Clarissa asked.

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“When that shard hit him, it broke some more. The flames, the glow, that reaction is only a small portion of what we are seeing. The System’s attack is degrading the shards, but the shards are trying to spread out. That is why they are almost balanced and still burning. The problem is that, small bits broke apart when that larger shard struck him, and are in the wound. We should cut it all out,” Jacob said and looked at me.

“Alright,” I replied. I had an emergency surgical kit on me, just in case. But I wanted to be sure before I attempted something so radical. I pulled out a knife and tried to cut. The knife went through the armor, but once it hit his flesh, it was like hitting a brick wall.

Imbue Force. Imbue Melt. I began to use my skills carefully to get around Michael’s stats. Imbue Life. I focused on healing around the injury, imparting curse damage. Soon a huge divot of flesh was removed, included portions of his lungs that had been impacted. I tossed the corrupted chunk to the side. Jacob poked Michael’s chest again.

“You got it all,” he said. I then noted Captain Francis destroying the chunk that had been removed. Jacob had a slight frown for a moment there, but didn’t say anything.

“Is he better?” Clarissa asked.

“He is stable for now. And thing’s aren’t getting worse,” I said.

“Oh but they are you mad doctor. They are getting much worse. For this is just the appetizer.”

“If you have something useful to contribute, then say it,” Clarissa called out.

“Is that how you thank me, your savior. For without my presence, Michael would have failed,” she replied.

“And that was his doing as well. Bringing you along. Is the sphere coming back?” Clarissa asked.

“I warned Michael. I warned him about the danger that was coming. But he believed that his way was best. Now we are doomed. DOOOOOOM!”

“If only there were some more limbs to remove or brain surgery,” Jacob muttered. I glared at him but didn’t say anything. The ground shook a bit.

“We need to leave. Michelle?” Clarissa called out. The platform floated down next to our group. We all carefully moved Michael onto it.

“We need to consider getting a sample. A portion of that sphere, would be useful in fighting it again. And the System energy,” Jacob pointed out.

“And how would you bring along a sample?” Clarissa asked.

“I have a sample case on me, with your permission?” Clarissa hesitated and then nodded.

“Only one small piece, and we need to watch it carefully. The risks are immense,” she said.

“I know. Trust me, I don’t want to die. But we need to be ready in case another one shows up,” Jacob said and the ground shook some more and began to move downwards slightly. All the blocks seemed to be sinking.

Jacob went over pulling out a small sample box. Using a piece of debris he pushed the sample into the box and closed it. He also picked up several pieces of debris scattered around him as he got back on the platform.

“You need me. Now more than ever. For there is DOOOOM!” We all ignored the Avatar and began to lift off. “No! Don’t leave me!” We all looked at Clarissa.

“Leave her. We won’t help or hurt her. But she can call on the System to sort out her own problems,” Clarissa said. I didn’t like that decision but didn’t say anything. No one else spoke up as we flew away. Michael had never hidden his disdain for her and leaving her here, didn’t seem to trigger her doom warning for threatening her life. Leaving someone, anyone behind, let a bad taste in my mouth and I spoke up before I could regret it.

“She helped out. While she is annoying and trouble making, she intervened at the end if the golden flames are anything to go by. We can toss her at the next threat,” I said.

“Michael would want her left behind,” Clarissa countered.

“Most likely. But we shouldn’t leave someone behind. She is damaged in her own way, but she is still a human,” I said.

“A human nugget,” Jacob added, and I glared at him. That wasn’t helping things.

“Michelle, Francis?” Clarissa asked.

“I say save her. It looks like she did something,” Captain Francis said.

“No. She is a betrayer and schemer. Leave her behind,” Michelle added. That left Clarissa as the deciding vote. I could tell she wanted to foist the decision off on the group. But we were split two to two on the issue now.

“Michelle, go back. Doctor Katz, she can be your patient as well. Hopefully she provides useful knowledge. She is claiming the threat isn’t over. And while I think she is trouble, anything we can learn from her ramblings could be important. Also, Michael should get the final say on what happens to her, since he was the only one that saw,” Clarissa said. Michelle turned us around.

“And so, the lame ducks, quack across the hellscape to retrieve the princess. But I am afraid you guessed wrong. Please check somewhere else,” the Avatar rambled. We moved her onto the platform and set off again.

I noted the obfuscation effect was coming into play once more. There were inky black patches below us, and I noted that the system terrain in the distance was at a higher elevation. The block terrain was sinking into the inky black.

“Is the container holding?” I asked Jacob.

“It appears to be,” he replied, and I relaxed slightly at that.

“We won. We actually won,” Clarissa muttered. We had, but at great cost. I looked down at Michael and checked his pulse again. It was stable, but his energy was a mess. Even with a chunk of his chest removed, the edges around the divot I had carved out had residual damage. And his arm was still missing.

The fact that no one had died, was the impressive part. I felt for sure the Avatar would die in a blaze of glory, but somehow, she had survived. Michael had pulled through once again. While I disagreed with him on many things, he wasn’t wrong that strength was needed in order to survive this place.

“A huge victory celebration for when Michael wakes up,” Captain Francis said.

“Sleep. I am exhausted with how much I have had to figure out. Lots and lots of sleep,” Jacob added. We all chuckled at that. He wasn’t wrong. This crisis had been exhausting.

“Sleep comes for the wicked. And the sinners shall perish in golden flames.” Then the Avatar had to ruin the mood. I was almost regretting about asking to bring her along.