19) The Calvary.

The back of my head hit the pavement of the ramp and the Lasher, who had been holding on to me by my shoulders, rode me down to the ground before lifting one of its clawed hands to slash down at me.

Then there was a 'boom' and its head vanished in a spray of bone and orange goo.

The rest of it fell forward, half covering me up as it leaked out on me.

It smelled horrible.

I thought I could hear yelling, and then more gunshots as another beast landed on top of the two of us and began clawing at me, pulling back bloody claws before it snapped its open jaws forward and bit down on the side of my neck.

It had barely felt the claws tearing me up, but the bite, that I felt, and I screamed in pain.

Someone ran up and kicked it away before dropping down and pressing something white against my neck. I turned my head up against Brad’s knuckles as he looked down at me in concern, behind him the skinny guy I used to work with held up his hand as the air around his fingers twisted around and a square bottle filled with clear fluid with a burning rag stuffed in the top appeared.

He threw it forward, with a yell of “Burn!” while laughing like a loon as a flash of orange light lit up his face.

Another person bent over me and said something as my vision started to go dark around the edges.

“Crap…” Then was dark for a long time.

I slowly became aware that my shoulder was hurting with a dull constant pain, and I wasn’t lying on cement anymore.

There was a soft whimper and something furry half climbed onto my chest, before licking my face.

God, I hoped that wasn't the Lasher.

Opening up my crust covered eyes, I could see a blur of green fabric above me lit up by sunlight, and a furry little one eyed pup’s face as she moved herself to look down into my face before she began to pant and yip excitedly.

My voice broke as I tried to call her off. “Yeck…” and then I was coughing up something thick and slimy from the back of my throat that didn’t want to clear. Breathing in sucked it down right into my lungs, and I weakly tried to keep clearing my throat as I fumbled around trying to get on my side.

Someone young and female lifted a whining Blue away and slowly turned me onto my side with one hand below my back and the other taking ahold of my arm so she could set it down on the bed instead of letting it flop down. Even then a sharp pain shot out from that side before she began propping me in place with a pillow.

"Take a deep slow breath, Mr. Bright, then cough it out."

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The woman who had dark hair and was wearing an army uniform held a tissue in front of my mouth and winced a little as I coughed up something semi solid into it. Pulling the tissue away after a moment before dabbing it at my lips to catch the last of a long blood speckled string of spit going from the wad of tissue to my mouth.

I was probably hurting all over, but the pain from between my shoulder and my neck where I had gotten bit was pretty much taking all my attention. Reaching up with my good hand, I pressed it up against the pain.

[ Slow Health effect will be canceled by Channeling Life ]

[ Do you wish to channel Life? ]

“Wha..ut?”

The woman was talking at me. I guess she must have thought I was busy with something and felt the need to start yapping at me to make it all about her.

“You’ve been badly hurt Mr. Bright. Twenty seven stitches just in your shoulder plus thirteen more in your chest. Miss Foraker used her healing powers on you, but she said your shoulder would need two days to finish healing up.”

Oh. Good, I guess. Is that quicker than me doing it with the Life thing or not?

"Oh! And your dogs are fine. Are they really coyotes? They’re so well behaved. Or at least the mother and the one pup are.”

“Huh.” Well. Good. I guess I still had something to get between me and the next thing that tried to bite me.

The nurse called for someone and the two of them propped me up some more on what I could now see was a cot set up in another big tent with medical stuff all around me. There was an IV stabbed into my arm and as they got me on my back with a few pillows under me, the black haired girl promised me she was going to get the Doctor and she headed out while an army guy that had helped her stepped back to go sit at a desk.

As he moved away I was then able to see Beryl sitting on the next cot over staring at me.

I stared back. “This ain’t a hospital, but I’m guessing they’re still going to completely screw me with the bill.”

She slowly sighed. “Good Morning Harold. No one else got hurt other than a few scratches and Sam took a fall on the ramp."

Then she leaned in towards me. “Thank you... Hermit.”

Aw, carp. She's going to hold that over my head forever.

There was a crying whimpering and I looked over to see Blue up on her hind legs leaning up against the cot with both of her front paws, as I looked over she began wagging her tail.

I glanced over at Beryl without saying anything until she rolled her eyes and walked around the cot to pick the little beast up and set her at my good side, halfway on my hip.

Petting the pup kept it from climbing up further onto me and the bandages I could feel on my chest.

“What do you want woman?”

She smoothed her dress under herself as she sat, then gave me a long look. Taking a moment to collect her thoughts rather than waiting for me to say anything else. She knew me.

“I wanted to check up on you. To thank you. And to give you this.”

She pulled another red lidded plastic container out of the air and pulled off the lid. With another motion, she pulled a spoon out of nowhere and looked for a spot to set it down where I could eat it.

With a shrug, she dragged a wheelchair from a table with first aid stuff laid out on it, then sat on it before scooping up a spoon full of odd colored rice with a bunch of little colored specks in it and held it up in front of my face.

Blue sniffed at it while I gave it, and then Beryl a distrustful look.

She sighed. “Brad made it to help you heal without interfering with Annie's power over you. I told him he had to dice up the vegetables that small so you wouldn't eat around them.”

I kept glaring. “What else is in it?”

We both kept frowning at each other before she shook her head and looked away. "Herbs, spices… mushrooms."

I turned away this time. “No.”

She poked me in the cheek with the spoon. “Magic healing Harry. Eat up or I’ll poke your damaged shoulder next.”

Trying not to grin, I started yelling. "Elder abuse! She's trying to poison me! I need an adult... A younger adult!”

She managed to pull the food away into her storage thing and drive her thumb into my shoulder before the dark haired woman and an older guy in a uniform with the snakes on a stick with wings symbol came in and made her stop.

After handing over the food to the doctor and explaining what it did, she left in a huff.

The Doc gave me some pills. Antibiotics and a pain killer that was strong enough that it was probably going to knock me out. He suggested I eat the food since he had seen what it could do with some of the soldiers that had gotten hurt helping the others as they backed out of the Dungeon with me in my cart and more Lashers following them out.

I held out my hand. “Gimme.” and ate the magic healing stuff since there weren't any witnesses, or at least none that mattered.

Why not? I had gotten Beryl mad enough to sink to my level. And it didn’t taste bad, a little nutty.

Winning.