Chương 63: NEW CHAPTER Sixty-Three: Battlefield Healing

SIXTY-THREE Roan jerked upright with a scream as pain pierced through his temporary escape. The sky was alight with fire, burning plumes of it rising in the distance that lit the entirety of the world. Razor white-hot pain continued to pierce him as he thrashed about, but strong hands held him pinned to the ground.

"Keep him still!" Moira ordered, her face wan as she leaned over him. Her hair was plastered to her face as she held up a piece of the mushroom that he'd found from the other dead climbers. It was a finger length piece of flesh, but a glow had started to fill it. In Moira's other hand was her amulet, gripped tightly as she looked him up and down.

"What?" Roan gasped as he focused on his breathing, trying to find the balance he'd been holding for the entirety of the night. It came slowly to him, the mental resistance helping him cope with the pain. It didn't eliminate the pain, but made it so he could focus. Cold. He was so cold. If it wasn't for the pain that radiated through him, he would think he was dead. He couldn't feel his limbs, his lips, anything besides the cold and the pain.

"The piece of shroom you have isn't pure. I'm trying to purify it with my amulet, give me a second," Moira said as more sweat slicked her face.

"We should just wait until we're into the village, this is dangerous," someone said. It sounded like Darren, but he couldn't be sure.

"They won't open the gate and if we try to move him he's going to fall in pieces. We do this now or he dies," Moira snapped. She wrapped the amulet around the mushroom and reached down and rammed her fingers into Roan. He screamed as fire flared through him. His limbs awoke as clarity forced its ugly head. Moira's hand was wedged into him up to her wrist. Heat pulsed through him and he jackknifed. Taoya appeared, haggard and exhausted looking, but his hands were iron as they held Roan down.

"Moira! What are you doing?" Taoya asked, even as he held Roan's bucking body. Tendons strained in his arms and neck as he strained to hold him down. Another pair of climbers rushed over and more hands pushed down.

"He's strong as fuck," someone complained. An itch started at his scalp and hip and began to work their way toward his center where Moira's hand was. Horns blew in the distance, the same ones that had started this disastrous night.

"They're retreating," Darren said as he entered Roan's field of vision. He leaned down over Roan and stared at the wound. He cocked his head to the side and seemed interested rather than disgusted.

"What are you doing?" Darren asked. Roan grunted as he tried to keep his scream buried in his throat. The itch made him want to peel his own skin away from his body, so consuming it surpassed the burning pain. This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

"There's still hints of corruption inside of the mushroom. My bloodline can't purify it, but I'm trying to keep it still while burning through the rest of the flesh. I did this earlier with my alchemy, but I can't here." Moira was looking desperate as she kept focusing. Roan could feel it when her fingers shifted, easing and tightening in pulses. There was a feel of her strength there, pressing against his body that had nothing to do with the physical.

"Then filtering it through the amulet, I see," Darren said. The man looked interested as he leaned down and stared hard at the wound before an eyebrow went up a fraction of an inch.

"Any day now," Roan gritted out. He wasn't feeling great about having everyone staring down at him while Moira had her hand stuffed in his guts.

"Roan, can you move the energy about? Like when you did the body tempering. Right now all this energy is clustering in small spots in your body. We need even distribution," Moira panted. Roan didn't answer, just focused on his earlier lessons. It came easily to him now, even with all the distractions. A bonus for having learned the skill, it snapped into movement as he worked the pattern he'd learn for body tempering. It was different than when he'd moved the stagnant mana around.

That had felt like pools of jello sitting in his body. This felt more like moving plasma about his body. It didn't travel through him, more like it sank through him, deeper into his body until it started to enter his bones.

"Roan! What are you doing?" Moira asked, panic in her voice. She started to draw her hand out of his gut, but when it emerged there was only the dull amulet in her fingers. Darren leaned back and frowned, but his eyes never left the wound Moira had stuck her hand in.

"Shit. Shit. Shit!" Moira said and she went to place her hand back inside of him but the skin had knitted over in the moment it had taken her to realize she'd left the bits of corrupted mushroom in his body. Already Roan could feel energy filling him again, banishing the limp lethargy of near death.

"The gates are opening!" Someone said and Roan heard the grind of hinges as hands went from gripping him to picking him up. He groaned as he realized he wasn't fully healed, skin ripping apart and fresh blood coming out of his wounds.

"What's that going to do?" Darren asked Moira and Roan kept a piece of his mind on the answer even as he tried to move the energy around his body. It was disappearing though, not moving in a circulatory manner like his mana did. It burned his entire body from toes to skull. Every part of him was alive with the vitality of the mushroom. His wounds healed over and he breathed easily… and then paused as right where Moira's hand had been were several small cold spots. They felt wrong, icy, slimy, corrupt.

Then the fire in his body began to burn it away. It reached from his bones themselves and wrapped the small spots up in a tight embrace and burned it away. Hands lifted him up and Roan watched as they passed into the village. Alerts were filling his vision even as someone pushed a potion to his lips and he accepted it without hesitation.

"We need mana rich food or something like that. I need a sitrep now, all wounded to be gathered here. Moira and Taoya will start buying healing tonics. I need volunteers to go out there and try to get to the other villages!" Darren was yelling and leaving the cluster already as he was set down gently. Other wounded were limping toward him, but Roan was focused inward." What is happening to me?"

The small nuggets of cold were gone, obliterated with ease but the fire in his bones was diminished, banked down just a bit. Whatever it had done had weakened it.

"T, do you feel what I feel?" Moira said, her face inches from Roan's. Her breath stunk of healing potion. Taoya leaned over and frowned in concentration. An alert popped up and it took all of Roan's attention. INFERIOR GRADE BLOODLINE DETECTED PURIFICATION