Chương 92: Chapter 3-91 – KIA Healer

I was impressed. It really would strengthen his team and help their staying power to have a skilled Healer around.

"You aren't even sure there's extra Healing spells around now, are you?" I had to ask him, my smile a bit lopsided.

"I figured the odds were pretty small there weren't," he confirmed with his own wry smile.

"Also, all the Healers I know get really obsessive about their medical knowledge and training, so I'm kind of leery about this... but I'm hoping the extra spells mean I won't have to obsess with the subject."

"The basic Healing Element magic is very unimpressive," I told him with a sniff.

"It has almost no ability to deal with poisons, disease, injuries to the soul, genetic conditions, or the infirmities of age. Oddly enough..." He laughed despite himself.

"I'm going to be a relative idiot, and using the best Healing magic in the world?" he had to ask.

"There are... many uses for Healing Magic, and some very powerful Feats that rotate around it and the positive energy it channels," I informed him carefully.

"Also, and this is important: Your Ranks, your knowledge in the Healing Skill, can substitute for your Wizard Caster Level in Healing Spells." He blinked, unsure of what that represented.

"Your Wizard Level is Five. Your Magery Level is Ten, and will soon enough be Fifteen." He blinked.

"Oh. Ohhhhh..." he murmured. Right now, if he was maxed on Heal Ranks, he would be Casting Healing spells at +5 Levels higher, or 16, equal to an Archmage!

"Also, vivus is a primal extension of Healing Magic," I told him, as it was basically the universe's way of healing itself. His eyes lit up.

"Light is also affiliated with positive energy, there are multiple synergies to exploit. They are particularly nasty against Dark Magic and the undead." He smiled broadly.

"So... a specialist in another field." His hazel eyes flashed.

"Learning Healing is a lifelong path, according to most Healers, and the top secrets of Healing magic are as protected as any Family secrets." I just scoffed and rolled my eyes.

"What they call closely-held secrets I call minor tricks. Pure knowledge is always something you can expand. Happily, magic helps with learning things, especially just normal data, quite well." He hesitated, a question in his eyes, and I just waited.

"The... Acropolis, the great temple of Healers in Greece. Their greatest power is to restore the dead to life..."

"Yes? Are you asking if you will be capable of that?" I asked archly, and he nodded.

"Restoring someone who has died within the past minute, as long as their body is intact, is a Valence V effect, Cure Deadly Wounds." He swallowed despite himself.

"Bringing back someone who has been dead one day per Caster Level is a base ten-minute Ritual requiring a Life Diamond worth five goldweight.

"Restoring someone who has been dead up to a decade per Caster Level, even if their body has been reduced to dust, is a spell requiring a Life Diamond worth ten goldweight, Cast at VII or higher. Oh, and probably requires Divine approval at that point, so you probably shouldn't try it, or someone unwanted may reach in and mess with your spell." I thought about that as he just stared.

"Actually, we'll try to stay away from needing revivifications if at all possible if they are Dark Magic users entirely, as the Lords of the Dark Realm can totally mess with those spells." Red just shook his head in disbelief.

"The entire power of the Acropolis is said to rest on the power to bring back the dead, Lady Fae," he said softly.

"They will... go to incredible lengths to retain that absolute power."

"Then it would probably be a very good idea to keep said power under wraps until we are strong enough to defy them, Red," I told him calmly, and he could only nod helplessly. ===== There wasn't any doubt in my multiple thoughtstreams that the Sunbreasted Robin was going to stick with him. Not only were Red's Fire and Light Elements appropriate, especially with his Sundrop Seed, but Red was pursuing the path of a Healer.

If the Robin valued a noble Lineage, then being Contracted to a Healer could only be the best of roads for it to travel! The rare Avian lineages that could Heal were all the highest of the Noble Bloodlines, with the Phoenixes and Luans on top. Aspiring to equal them would only help the Bird. Also, it was now Bonded to a Mage, someone a whole Rank higher than its own Warrior rank. It already possessed the noble Lineage to become Commander-Class, and the Bond would only help that.

The Mick's Lightning Runner, Hopper, was already starting to grow, feathers shifting hues as he evolved towards a Commander-Class existence, a Storm Runner. His blues and purples were more vivid, replacing the greys, and a white crest was slowly sprouting on his head, while his claws were starting to look more crystalline. The Runner could also Lightning Jump a mile at a time now, which he really enjoyed.

He and the Mick often went zipping out and around to extend their Lived-Lines, venturing into Beast-held territories where Humans couldn't drive. Lightning Jump was a fast way to get away from pursuers, after all.

I watched the Fire Magic explode forth with everyone else, a contained inferno in the Cracked Mana Bubble, blazing and bubbling around everyone without doing any harm. The Robin settled right down as it felt the power swelling, and when the final eruption and push came, it was as surprised and delighted as anyone when the Fires all converged on Red. The Bird felt the explosion within Red as Red's Starfield was pushed open and a burning Nebula blossomed inside him.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Fires were billowing out his nose and lips, bright red Mana dribbling out and dissipating into the heavy atmosphere. The Robin's feathers were also showing orange tips that hadn't been there before, and it was obviously quite excited.

"Well?" I asked him, as the after-effects of the Seven Stars Formation gradually let up.

"It helped, it really did," he nodded.

"How much, I can't say. But having those Valences there wound up with the other six Stars and the right Mana seemed to really make my Core surge with power when it was time. The spin of the Arcane power was a lot stronger than I expected and Mick described."

"Good." Testing, improvements, feedback!

"Write it all down, and we'll see if we can't come up with something else to help. Ideally, we want to get this down to the point where you could break through on your own completely without any help, one hundred percent of the time." That was basically unheard of, as so, so many people tried for Magedom and failed.

"Okay, let's give Red a nice boost for starting up his Stars, everyone!" Much more relaxed now, everyone refocused, settling into the Formation with its extras. Even the Robin completely relaxed and basked in the flow of the power moving past it, realizing that it had lucked into a good thing and a great Contractor, and its bad luck had worked out okay in the end.

Boston's Boonies, the present... I whistled as I Shaped up the fourth of the 'extra towers'. Really, they were just short towers being put in for some extra elevation, just far enough from the Breakwater to not be of benefit to any Aquatics who reached this far. Such things would normally be occupied by watchers, relay signalers, or spotters, but they had a different use today. The tall dark-haired Sondra grinned as hands clapped her shoulders in encouragement, going up the ladder as smoothly as possible.

The extended barrel of her Dragonfly-pattern Gritworks long gun was poking over her shoulder as she squeezed into the covered room at the top of the tower, and a minute later, the muzzle of the sniper rifle was barely visible in the shadow of the sniping slit above. -Alright, all squads in position. Squad One. Two. Three. Four. - Briggs' /voice was no-nonsense this time, each Squad's callout accompanied by visualization of the area they'd be working, and which sniper was on oversight.

-You are going to be blowing a LOT of money tonight, people. Mark what works, what doesn't. - He punctuated that all with a Vajra-aided stream of thick slugs being pushed into the massive Shotgun in his hand in a flow of death. Even if he was a Gunsmith, he still couldn't wield the better firearms reliably as an Ancient. But shotguns were about as complex as crossbows in usage and so didn't make him blank out on more complex applications.

Sama was not so restricted, and had a pair of Revolvers waiting on her hips, with basically an elephant gun resting on her shoulder. Tremble was poking up on her shoulder, watching, although nobody not in Allegiance had any idea she or Endure were intelligent Weapons. It was time for field tests with firearms!

Mine wasn't enchanted, but everyone on the ground team had +IV Greater Magic Weapons and Bane/Aquatics on theirs, and were ready to show the incoming creatures on the Tide a good time, especially when they would start layering spells onto the bullets for some extra fun, not too much different from using a Windbow to do the same. The snipers on overwatch didn't have the Bane, but they had Enmity/Supernatural, which was a broader, lesser effect that applied against Fey, Magical Beasts, and Magical Humanoids.

We didn't want the enemy seeing where their bullets were coming from, after all. Down here? They could see all they liked, and it was kinda the point.

The training program had been pretty good. I should know, I had to spin up the Programmed Illusions for those learning trigger discipline. The bones of these creatures could be impossibly strong, so avoiding hefty carapaces was important, unless you had AP rounds specifically designed to punch holes in such things... and not incidentally open up said holes for shots from your comrades. The big slugs from the cannon Briggs was hauling around were pretty good at making those holes.

Of course, said hole was usually enough to kill something, and if not, the follow-ups were. The cracks, bangs, and pops of gunfire joined the roars, booms, and ringing explosions of spells, along with the bellows and screams of the incoming Aquatics, and the cries and calls of the defenders out here in the Boonies. I didn't use a firearm, having my Darts... which didn't mean I wouldn't carry one, I just wasn't today. I was killing stuff incidentally, focusing on my Healing role at speed. The guns...

were doing juuuuust fine. Tie almost any spell to a shot and Servants went down, generally with a bullet to the throat, chest, or the side of the head if possible. Once inside, the spell tied to the bullet would burst forth, and kill the inhumanly tough things from the inside, if the initial entry didn't kill them first. Hollowpoints with nihilor would shatter and spray across their insides, inflicting horrible internal injuries that ignored their magically-toughened physiologies to just tear them apart.

The results were comparable to spell-boosted shots because the Damage Reduction of the Aquatics couldn't stop them. The snipers had a field day. They were all experienced Artificers, using Cyclonic to ignore range for today on their weapons and cooling the barrels as they continued to fire.

They picked off Servants, opened holes in Warriors and Commanders, and occasionally got a headshot that would level a Warrior-class Creatures threatening someone, spraying brains around and dropping them like an unseen hammer of the gods. The Aquatics and their minion Beasts naturally had no goddamn idea what was going on as the strange tubes were pointed at them, spat fire/lightning/cold/acid/thunder, and they watched those hit by the shots go down. No real spellcasting. No movement of Mana.

No Human mages wielding power against them. Just... metal sticks pointing at them, and death coming out. They were attacking regardless, but their instincts didn't tell them how to defend. The biggest problem for them was that the firearms were fast. It wasn't draw a Starmap, Startrail, or Constellation. It was point and shoot, and if you had a spell ready, dump it into the gun at that time, wrap it around the bullet, and pull the trigger then, no Casting or throwing the spell.

Tiny little streaks moving impossibly fast plowed through reinforced scales, hides, and meat, and delivered their loads of shattered lead and internal spell detonations.