The scream which followed the roar was piercing and unholy, as though a demon itself had risen from hell. Kyto shuddered, his whole body freezing and nerves going on edge. Then, the automatic gunfire started.

The door to the bar Kyto was just about to enter flew open, and TJ came running out. He almost collided with Kyto, who had turned and looked in the direction it had come from.

"Where?" TJ yelled.

Kyto just pointed, having lost the ability to talk. He tingled all over his nerves, having been sent on edge.

Two other guards followed TJ out of the bar as he sprinted for the pedestrian gate. They both had automatic weapons and as TJ ran, he unholstered his pistol.

They sprinted out and turned towards where Kyto had indicated the sound of the gunfire. It was coming from the woods across towards the fishing compound.

Others came out of their homes, and soon, a small group stood listening to things unfold.

The initial automatic fire had ceased, and they could hear voices calling and shouting as they moved into the woods. It was soon taken up again with two more automatic weapons joining the firefight, and Kyto then heard the cracks of a pistol firing as well.

The mother of the two children who had been playing with the ball had ushered them inside, and she had closed her door.

The firefight lasted for a couple of minutes. Then, they heard the loud roar of a Wild One, crashing as it seemed to be moving off into the woods.

They stood whispering to each other as if not wanting to disturb what was occurring just a couple of hundred feet away.

They could not see anything from where they were, and silence eventually fell again as the sounds of the crashing through the woods faded into the distance.

Another couple of minutes passed, and the people around started commenting about what it may have been when one of the guards who had left came running back towards the compound.

As he neared, he called out. "Who is Kyto?"

"I am." Kyto's voice cracked slightly as he answered, his throat dry from the nerves he had felt.

"TJ said he needs you now." The guard called.

Kyto stood frozen.

"Now hurry." The guard yelled.

Kyto began to move, he quickly ran after the guard who had turned and was heading back to where he had come from.

It took under a minute for him to reach the scene of devastation. Whatever the Wild One was that had attacked had made a mess.

There was one guard with his chest ripped open, clearly showing his white ribcage and throat torn out. The man's eyes were still open in a last defiant scream of agony, but he was dead.

The second guard had also been mauled. His arm was shredded with huge lacerations, and his leg also looked at a strange angle. TJ was crouched by his side.

He turned as Kyto arrived.

"Heal him." He called.

Kyto looked at the man, and the other two guards stood with TJ. They all had panic in their eyes and were standing at the ready, their weapons back into their shoulders, scanning the woods.

Kyto looked at TJ in shock.

"Heal him." He said again sternly.

"But..." Kyto started to respond.

"I do not give a flying fuck about the repercussions. Just fucking heal him now." He snapped.

Kyto walked over to the man, his heart was hammering in his chest, his nerves on edge and he had broken out in a cold sweat seeing the man lying there.

The wounds on the man's arms were horrendous. He could see where the muscle fibres had been torn through and ripped away from the bone underneath. The large claw marks had torn chunks of flesh from the limb.

Blood was pumping from his wounds and seeping between where TJ was trying to stem the flow with his bare hands.

Kyto struggled to focus and centre himself. He took a deep breath, steadying himself, and tried again. This time, he could feel his mana fighting through his body's nervous tension and natural flight reaction.

His pool was full, and he began to construct his healing strands. They slowly formed and began to move towards the prone man whose breathing was getting shallower, clearly unconscious and looking at the slowing blood flow close to death.

His healing strands reached the man, and his body seemed to tense as the mana moved inside him. His pool began to plummet.

"Shit, my pool. I need my familiar." Kyto said.

"Do it," TJ replied.

Kyto called his familiar, and the bright yellow ball appeared by his shoulder.

"What the fuck is that!" One of the guards exclaimed.

"Nothing for you to worry about," TJ replied, giving the man a deathly stare.

Kyto was focused on his task. He was drawing from his surroundings one life form at a time, moving from trees, bushes, plants, anything that contained the yellow glow of a mana core. At the same time, channelling his healing stream. His pool was still dropping too quickly, and the man's wounds had not begun to close up yet.

"I need more." He said to TJ, sweat beading on his brow with the strain.

"Use me," TJ replied.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, do it," TJ answered.

Kyto focussed on TJ; his mana glow was bright and deep. He had noticed that people all had varying pools, and TJ's was a deep golden yellow.

TJ did not react as he started to draw from his pool. His pool started to slowly increase at last, drawing enough to offset his outlay on healing.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

The wounds on the man's arm gradually began to knit together the muscle repairing. Kyto was amazed watching the fibres knit together, and then the tissue and, eventually, the skin itself began to close.

The man's breathing had strengthened, and Kyto knew he would survive. He had not been focusing on TJ as he drew from him, and he suddenly slumped forward onto his hands and knees from where he had been kneeling next to the injured man.

Kyto cut the stream immediately and saw that TJ's pool was nearly exhausted. His pool was still at around 400, suddenly dropping again as the wound finished closing.

"His leg," Kyto said.

TJ lifted his head at the guards, who stood in open-mouthed amazement at what they were witnessing. They could not see the mana, but they had just watched their colleague's wounds knit back together without leaving a blemish on his skin.

"John, your next." He said, lowering his head again.

"For what?" He stammered.

"Just stand there and don't move," TJ said, not looking back up. He was exhausted.

Kyto looked at the guard. His pool was not as bright as TJ's had been but was still much stronger than any of the plants and trees around.

He drew on him, his pool stabilising as the man's leg audibly clicked and began to reform, moving straight again. The guard John, who he was drawing from, suddenly staggered and dropped to one knee. Staring at Kyto, whose hand was facing him.

"What the fuck is happening? I feel drained." He said.

Kyto's healing strands continued to heal and then, after a few more moments, began to withdraw from the guard, his unconscious form now breathing steadily where it lay on the ground. His display triggered.

Congratulations, you have healed traumatic lacerations and a compound fracture. You have earned 3610 experience.

"It's done," Kyto said, dropping his hands down at his sides.

TJ looked at him. "Thank you." He said, smiling weakly.

The second guard was still standing wide-eyed and mouth open.

"If either of you ever whisper a word of what you just witnessed today, I will fucking skin the pair of you. Do you understand?" TJ said with authority.

Neither guard replied.

"UNDERSTAND," TJ said vehemently.

"Yes, sir." A stammered response came from the open-mouthed guard. He could not take his eyes from the glowing yellow sphere beside Kyto's shoulder.

Kyto dismissed his familiar and it vanished as if it had never existed.

The guard snapped his head, looking at Kyto.

"What the fuck are you?" He said.

"It is difficult to explain," Kyto replied.

"He is Kyto to you and not someone you want to upset, or you will have me to deal with," TJ said, slowly climbing to his feet. He looked unsteady, and Kyto reached out, grabbing his arm to support him.

"Sorry." He said to TJ.

"Don't be sorry. You just saved a man's life. If you had not been here, Gar would have died. There was nothing we could do for Mark, but at least you have saved Gar, and I won't have to explain to his wife when we get back to town." He said.

"But how?" John said, himself now standing again.

"Not now." TJ snapped.

Both the guards looked at him, his face was ashen coloured as if his life essence had been drained, so was John's but not as badly as TJ.

Kyto had nearly emptied TJ's pool, which ended up much lower than when he had used Tabs. It was still there but much fainter than when he started.

"We need to get Gar back and also Mark's body. I am not leaving it here for Wild Ones to snack on." TJ said.

"What was it that attacked?" Kyto asked.

"A fucking Grylack and a very fucking big one as well. I emptied two clips into it, and these two at least two magazines each before it retreated." TJ answered.

"I have not seen one so large before," John said.

"Tim, help me with Mark's body," TJ said.

"I will help," Kyto said, walking over to where the man's body lay. He looked half-eaten, and as Kyto bent to pick him up with Tim's help, he had to fight back the bile that raised in his throat. He doubted he would have been able to heal the damage he had received even with fifty strong sources around him.

TJ and John lifted Gar between them and they made their way back out of the woods, on reaching the road they saw two of the compounds guards by the gate both carrying shotguns. Upon seeing the men, they came running over.

Some of the workers from the houses also made their way towards them. A couple of the men offered to take Gar from TJ and John but they refused carrying him back towards the fishing compound, he was still unconscious and the tear in his clothing and blood stains clearly visible.

They reached the compound, and Carl met them at the gate.

"You boys, ok?" He said.

"We lost Mark, but Gar will be okay after some rest," TJ replied.

"You look like shit yourself," Carl said.

"I feel like it, don't worry," TJ replied half-heartedly.

The two men were taken into the accommodation, and Mark's body was placed in a small room by itself, and a sheet was lowered over his body. Gar was carried to the room they must have been using and placed on one of the camp cots. TJ took a blanket and laid it over him.

TJ sat heavily on the side of another camp cot, John and Tim on the other, respectively.

Carl walked in with a small bottle and some glasses, pouring the thick milky white liquid into the glasses and then handing one to each of them.

"I don't drink," Kyto replied as Carl went to hand him one.

"I'll take his," John said, holding his hand out.

Carl just nodded, accepting Kyto's response, handed a second glass to John, and raised his glass.

"To ones lost and fallen whether by beast or sea. We send the spirits to set you free." Carl said, raising his glass to his mouth and tipping the thick, milky contents in.

"Set you free." The others replied.

Kyto had never witnessed anything like this before and stood a little confused, not knowing what to do.

"Don't worry, lad, it is a fisherman's call," Carl said, patting him on his shoulder.

TJ explained what had happened to Carl, and Carl eventually left them alone. John had drunk both shots of the milky liquid, and on top of his already exhausted feeling, it had not taken him long to flop onto his cot and close his eyes.

On the other hand, Tim was wired, and Kyto knew he was dying to ask questions. TJ had started slowly getting some colour back in his face, and Kyto could see his pool was already beginning to glow stronger.

"Not tonight, Tim," TJ said with a yawn catching him as he spoke.

Kyto had completely forgotten that he had been going to get food before the attack, and his stomach suddenly growled loudly, reminding him.

"I need to go eat." He said.

"You go, Tim can go with you. We will be fine, and I will keep an eye on Gar," TJ said.

"If you are sure?" Kyto said.

"Yeah," TJ replied, rolling onto his camp cot.

Kyto and Tim made their way back to the housing compound. Kyto had not realised how much the light had begun to fade in all the excitement, and as they reached the compound a bright spot light was turned on bathing the road between it and the compound in an ethereal light. As the night had started to creep in, so had a mist from the lake, and Kyto could feel the dampness in the air, making him shudder as they entered the compound.

They walked to the bar and entered Captain Nemo's. There were about ten people inside. Kyto recognized some of them from earlier at the warehouse. A man walked over to them as they entered.

"Names Peter." He said, offering his hand to Kyto.

"Kyto." He said.

"Paul here says you are working for the site." He said, indicating to the guard who had been at the gate earlier when he and Greg had arrived.

"Yeah, here for a couple of days while waiting for some parts to be sent up." He said.

"Well, you are at the right place for food," Peter said, smiling.

"You back for more, Tim?" Peter said, turning to him.

"Yeah. I will have another bowl of stew if you don't mind and a nectar to wash it down." He replied.

"And you, Kyto."

"The same, but do you have any of the 'free' nectar?" He asked.

"I do," Peter replied, smiling.

"Take any seat that is free." He added.

Kyto went to a table by a wood burner and removed his jacket, Tim following him. Peter walked over moments later with two bottles.

"Free for you and normal for you." He said, placing them down in front of them. "Stew won't be long." He finished leaving them to it.

The patrons in the bar did not disturb them and left them to eat and drink quietly. Eventually, Tim could no longer resist asking Kyto.

"So, what are you?" Tim asked.

Kyto looked up thoughtfully before replying. "A healer of sorts."

"I thought you were an engineer?"

"Well, both then."

"But that thing and how?" Tim asked.

"It is difficult to explain, but I suppose the easiest way is through the System upgrade."

"That fucking hurt when that happened. Never felt pain like it."

"Nor me."

"So what about the upgrade?" Tim asked.

"Well, you know we all have professions and classes. I am guessing yours is guard or similar?"

"Yeah, professional brawler, class guard."

"Before the upgrade, I was a scavenger and tinkerer,"

"So what are you now, then?" Tim asked questioningly.

"I am now a Chosen Wielder."

"What the hell is one of those?"

"That is where it gets difficult to explain," Kyto replied.

They sat for a couple of hours talking before returning to the compound. No one had disturbed them all evening, and Kyto had enjoyed talking to Tim. It felt nice to share with someone else outside their immediate group. Tim had not really fully understood what Kyto had explained but took his word for it after witnessing what he had earlier.

On returning to the compound, Kyto bid Tim farewell and went to his own room. He climbed onto his cot, pulling a blanket over himself. He felt tired after the recent events, and having a full belly did not help. It did not take him long to fall asleep.