Critical Misclass Ch 19 21

CHAPTER 19 - Old Wounds

First the cave rat queen, and now these wolves. I hoped that Ves and Thia also noticed that the snarling wolves were undead, because there was no time to say anything before the creatures reached us. One of them slammed its snout into Thia's shield as she blocked at just the right moment. Another one lunged at Ves, who managed to make dazzling light appear right in its face, briefly disorienting it.

The third one came straight at me, making grotesque bark-like sounds. I jumped back without thinking about it - not that these things were giving me any chance to actually think. With quick motions, I slashed the creature with my daggers. Although I could tell that I had made contact, the wolf zombie didn't react to the cuts at all. Its jaws opened, unleashing both maggots and a foul stench, and snapped shut on my arm.

Even with my armor, the fangs pierced my skin and hurt like hell. The strength of its jaws alone was incredible.

The undead pack had us divided, unable to focus on one target at a time. I needed Thia to distract this wolf so I could get around it and try to strike some weakness... if it had any. All I could do for now was keep slicing and stabbing and hope it would eventually be enough to keep it down for good.

Thia screamed. I whipped my head in her direction and saw that the wolf she had been trying to keep back had managed to bite her ankle. It pulled on her, and she fell to the ground. The monster's attack had been so relentless, she hadn't even had a chance to draw her sword.

I barely took one step in her direction when my opponent snapped at me again. Much like when it first attacked me, I somehow stepped quicker than I thought possible, narrowly avoiding its bite. There wasn't much I could do while this thing kept coming at me, so I continued attacking it with my blades.

A bright light appeared in my peripheral vision. Ves had cast another light spell right in the face of her enemy, but it shook it off faster than before. Her face contorted in fury and she held out both hands, her palms glowing once again. The glow appeared on the wolf's body, a pained look on its rotting face. It made a horrible, gurgling, whine as its remaining flesh fell off its body in chunks, followed by bits of bone.

There wasn't any time to feel relieved for Ves. The wolf attacking Thia had started tearing apart her legs, blood smeared all over its snout. Thia was in shock, unable to even scream.

I couldn't help but run in her direction, slamming into the wolf, but it was so big that I barely budged it. I did, however, get its attention. With a rattling growl, it lunged at me, but I dodged the attack again. That seemed to be the easiest Rogue ability to use, since it was more like a reflex than a conscious action.

The wolf I was originally facing ran behind me. I was now being flanked, and felt pretty confident that I'd have a harder time dodging both their attacks. I kept turning around, yelling, trying to keep their attention while also hoping I could prevent them from attacking me.

Their attention definitely stayed on me. One wolf bit my leg as the other rushed me from the side. The unbleeding cuts all over its face and neck told me that this was the wolf I'd already been stabbing, to little effect. Having no other options - as far as I knew - I continued slashing and stabbing at it with my daggers as it snarled and bit at me.

For once, I wished that Kael and Ullun were around to help us out of this hopeless battle. Especially Ullun - if she were here to cast a fire spell on my daggers...

Just as I thought that, my daggers actually

did

burst into flames.

Are they actually here?!

I stabbed the wolf again, igniting its flesh. It thrashed about in a desperate attempt to put out the fire. Since my leg was still clamped in its slimy, rotten jaws, I fell onto my ass. The pain in my leg was intense, and got worse as the wolf's frantic thrashing snapped my bone.

Grunting in agony, I kicked the creature's decaying head with my other leg, caving it in. It fell over, still burning, but no longer moving.

I was panting.

Why didn't the other one attack me??

I looked around and saw Thia facing down the remaining monster, holding up her shield, and occasionally hitting it with her sword. Her dress was stained with blood, but she didn't seem to be injured anymore. Ves was several feet behind her, her hand extended, ready to cast more healing magic.

"Thia!" I called out to her, relieved that she was okay, but immediately regretted it. The wolf turned its attention to me, moving into an attack stance. "

That,

" Thia grunted, "is

my

job." She swung her sword down, cutting halfway through the creature's rotting back and knocking it flat. "I distract; you attack." The expression she gave me was deathly serious, but I saw a flicker of a smile.

"Right... sorry." I limped over to the wolf as it tried to get Thia's sword out of its body, and stabbed it with my flaming daggers. It squirmed around on the ground as it burned.

As my adrenaline faded, I dropped to my hands and knees. The pain from the wolves' attacks was overwhelming. I heard the women call my name, moving towards me, but then they both gasped. Panting, I raised my head. There, about ten feet in front of me, stood an old man.

A guttural cough burst from his throat. "Gotta say: that was pretty pathetic."

I had only seen this man once before - just the prior day - but his distinct appearance wasn't easy to forget. This was the old man from Perrenbrook who claimed to be a Healer. The old man who apparently didn't actually live in Perrenbrook. The old man who entered a house that I later learned wasn't his.

As before, he was dressed in the same kind of simple garb as most of the people who lived in Perrenbrook. That is, with the exception of his aged cloak. Much of his head was still wrapped in gauze, but it wasn't the same gauze as last time - the bloodstains were fresh, and on different parts of his face. One of his eyes was covered this time. It was as if his wounds had healed overnight, and were replaced by entirely new wounds, but the unbandaged scars on his head were the same as before. A trickle of blood seeped out from the lowest strand of gauze and ran down his withered chin.

I tried to stand, but the pain was too much. "What the hell... Did you follow us? Why are you

here

?"

The old man coughed again, then spoke in his raspy voice. "I knew you were lost. Didn't realize just how bad it was."

One of the wolves, still burning and not fully defeated, made a disgusting and unnerving whine. The old man waved a hand dismissively, and all of the zombies immediately collapsed into piles of meat and bones. It was like Ves's anti-undead spell, but significantly faster. While it spared us from seeing the undead creatures fall apart slowly, seeing a body basically disintegrate like that so quickly made me feel sick.

The man continued as if nothing had happened. "You're lucky those wolves were undead. If I'd sicced some living wolves on you, they'd show you some

proper

teamwork."

"

You

sent them?!"

"Wanted to see your potential. So much for that. But I know it's there." It sounded like he was coughing again, but then I realized he was laughing. He clutched his stomach. "Not at first. Definitely not! But it

is

there. Took me a while to see it."

Moving slowly, but with determination, Thia positioned herself right in front of me, her shield still raised. A sudden tingling sensation spread across my back, as if I were being poked by a series of tiny but especially sharp needles - Ves had aimed a healing spell at me. Now I could slowly rise to my feet, not taking my eyes off of the old man.

He looked at Thia, then his gaze lingered over Ves. "Never did get the chance to team up with a netharri. Almost did, once, I think. But she died." The words hung there for a moment, then he turned back to Thia. "But I

did

have an aevrana in my party for a time. Toughest motherfucker I ever met, that guy."

"What the fuck do you want?!" Ves shouted, causing some birds to fly from nearby trees.

His expression unchanged, the old man merely pointed at Ves. She screamed, clutching her right arm, just below the wrist. She pulled off her glove. With a burst of blood, the flesh and muscles on her fingertips began to peel off her bones - which were somehow still twitching. Ves turned pale and fainted, falling to the ground. Blood continued to gush from her hand.

"You can dish it out, but you can't take it, huh?"

Furious, I ran straight to the elderly bastard. Without a second thought, I plunged my daggers into his chest.

"Hah," he gurgled, coughing up blood. I wanted to keep stabbing, over and over, not stopping until this monster was dead... but something was holding me still. Aches filled my bones. "Don't think you're ready to attack someone head-on,

Rogue.

"

I felt some invisible force yanking me backwards, making me fall back to the ground. Thia rushed him with her sword raised, but she was also pulled back, landing on the road. Ves was still screaming in what must have been unimaginable pain, and I was completely unable to help her. Try as I might, I couldn't move. The aching in my bones felt worse the more I tried to resist.

The man grabbed both of my daggers, pulled them out of his chest without even flinching, and casually tossed them aside. His hand filled with a familiar warm light as he touched his stab wounds, healing them instantly. "You're all in over your heads." His voice was dripping with phlegm and disdain. "I should just--"

The words caught in his throat as he stared at his hand. The healing light hadn't faded, but was now crackling with energy, which was intensifying with every second. "

Dammit.

"

He snapped his thin, wrinkled fingers, and a mote of light appeared in the air between me, Ves, and Thia. A moment later, it burst into a flash of white light. I felt like I was spinning. All I could see was a mess of various bright colors and I wanted to vomit, but it somehow only lasted a few seconds.

Once I could see clearly again, I dashed over to Ves. Blood was everywhere. "No, no, no, god dammit, NO!" I had no idea what to do. It was hard to even look at her hand. My eyes darted all over, as if there were some solution laying around. I turned to Thia in a panic. "What the fuck do we do?!"

Thia looked like she was close to fainting, as well. "I... I don't..."

A memory of our first meeting flashed in my mind. "You- you gave her some kind of healing potion, didn't you? In the Cave?"

"I-It was the only one I had!"

I pulled my cloak off from around my neck and wrapped it around Ves's hand, knowing full well it wouldn't be enough. Even assuming it wasn't already too late.

Maybe Ves bought one?

I opened her backpack and rooted around in desperation. While I found some basic adventuring gear - rations, rope, waterskin - there were no potions.

"I... I will check your pack!" Thia rushed over to where I had left my larger pack by the side of the road. I was certain she wouldn't find anything, since I had already dug through the contents when retrieving our lunch, but hoped that I might have just overlooked something.

"Why is this happening," I whispered. "We just started... it's not supposed to be like this..." Ves was still breathing, but only barely. I felt like there had to be

something

I could do, some last-ditch attempt. One idea came to mind: a tourniquet. I had considered making one when I first got to Fielende, and was losing a lot of blood. I had been stupidly, ridiculously, lucky to get healed by Ves just in the nick of time. I had to return the favor.

It had been close to fifteen years since I learned how to make a tourniquet, and I hadn't thought about them at all between then and finding myself in the Starting Cave. Only the basic concept stuck with me, but it felt like it was worth trying. I asked Thia to find a sturdy stick while I grabbed the rope from Ves's pack. Thia brought back a few sticks almost immediately, all of which seemed like they would work for this purpose.

"I've never done this before, but it's better than nothing." I tied the rope around one of the sticks, then around Ves's arm, and began turning the stick to tighten the makeshift tourniquet.

A tear fell down Thia's face. "What is that supposed to do?"

"It's supposed to prevent someone bleeding out in an emergency." My own voice was shaking. "Even if it works, she might lose her arm, but..." I couldn't continue. I didn't want to think about what could happen to Ves.

Thia hugged me from behind, and I just broke down in tears. We knew the risks of adventuring, of fighting monsters... but this? Some evil son-of-a-bitch shows up at the start of our adventure and takes us down like it was nothing? If he hadn't left so suddenly, it felt clear that Thia and I would have been dead by now. I felt her lay her head on my back as she cried.

Then it hit me: could I use Ves's magic?

I had somehow managed to set my daggers on fire. Ves dodged the zombie rat's attack like a Rogue. There was obviously a connection.

Focusing as hard as I could, I placed my hands on Ves's body. I grimaced and tensed, trying to activate some inner power.

Thia lifted her head. "Jeremy, what..."

I didn't reply. All I could think about was trying to use Ves's class power. The spellblade magic had happened without even trying, in the heat of battle, but I did think about it first. Now, however, I felt like I was overthinking things like I so often did. Worrying about what could go wrong and what we would do next. Wondering what I could have done differently.

In an attempt to stop this, I instead focused on Ves. I thought about meeting her, finding the rune with her, going to Perrenbrook for the first time, waking up with her cuddling me, fighting rats with her... kissing her...

"JEREMY!"

I gasped, snapping out of my reverie. Thia was squeezing me tighter than ever.

There was a warm light coming from my hands.

CHAPTER 20 - The Aftermath

As soon as I noticed the magical light, it flickered and disappeared. "Shit-- NO!"

Thia grabbed my shoulders. "What was that?? What did you do?"

"I... I was trying to..." It didn't feel like the right time to start explaining. It had worked - even if just for a moment, I had definitely used healing magic. That meant there was a chance it could happen again. If I could just make it happen before it was too late...

"Jeremy?" Thia's voice was barely more than a whisper. She sniffled, and I felt her release a hand from my shoulder, most likely to wipe her tears.

I didn't respond, instead focusing on channeling the healing magic again. Trying to retrace my steps, I grimaced and tensed up, hoping to trigger some internal power. Almost immediately, however, I could tell that it wasn't working. Something felt different than before.

"God damn it." I punched the ground as my tears returned. I wiped my nose with my arm and took a shuddering breath. "I-I tried to use a healing spell."

"Oh, Jeremy..." The petite blonde hugged me from behind again. "I am certain that Vestele would have been overjoyed by your efforts..."

"But it wasn't

enough

." I spoke louder than I had intended. "The

second

we suspected something, I should have... I don't know, tried to figure it out. Jesus. I could have saved her if I was even just a

little

better..."

"There's no way for us to know," Thia said softly, moving to my side and holding my head against her bosom. She was trying to be strong, even through her tears. "It... that is to say... it is a heretofore unheard-of ability. It is astonishing that you were able to restore some of her hand with your first attempt--"

"What?!" I pulled away from Thia's embrace and looked at Ves's flayed hand. It was difficult to remember specific details of how awful it had looked, and I felt like I might have been imaginging things, but it

did

seem like some of the flesh had started to "reattach" to her bones.

It worked... a little.

My eyes darted all over her horrific injury, as if looking for a clue. I soon realized that something did feel off: she wasn't bleeding out anymore. I hadn't finished tightening the tourniquet when I made my attempt at using magic, so the only other option was that she was, in fact, dead.

Just thinking that made me furious, at the old man and at myself. My mind was swarming with hypothetical scenarios: encountering that monster again and how I would react, how I could make sure nothing like this happened to Thia, how to honor Ves's memory...

Eventually, something caught my attention in the corner of my eye. I looked at Ves's hand again... and it was healing. The skin and muscles were slowly,

slowly,

coming back together. My breath caught in my chest as I just stared, having trouble believing that it was actually happening.

Finally, I was able to croak out Thia's name. She looked down and clapped her hands to her mouth. We exchanged a wordless glance, and I knew that we were both wondering if this meant what we hoped it meant.

I hadn't thought to check her pulse - partially because, like the tourniquet, I hadn't even practiced it in over a decade and a half, but mostly because of Ves's significant blood loss. But now I was more desperate than ever, and hoping for a miracle. I placed my fingers under her jaw and held my breath anxiously.

I felt a pulse.

It was slow, but it was there. "She-she's alive," I gasped. Thia's silent teardrops turned into full-on sobbing. I'm not sure if I was being pessimistic or just realistic, but as excited as I was, I kept hoping that this was actually happening and that the rug wouldn't get pulled from under us.

Thia and I watched as the healing gradually sped up. Any other time, I might have found this sight to be disgusting, but it was the most wonderful thing I'd ever seen. Watching her entire lower arm and hand stitch itself back together - the veins, the tendons,

everything

- was beautiful in its own way. It was easy to think of healing magic as just restoring a game character's hit points, but to see it work to this degree made me realize just how amazing magic really was.

The two of us nearly jumped backwards when Ves made a sudden, gasping breath. Her eyes were still closed, but my jaw dropped and Thia couldn't stop smiling as her tears continued to fall.

Minutes later, Ves's hand looked as good as new, and color was returning to her skin. As much as I wanted to try to wake her up, I knew it would be best to give her all the time she needed. Well, in actuality, I was using every ounce of willpower I had to hold myself back. But

logically

, I knew it was best to give her time.

Fortunately for everyone, it wasn't a lot of time. Maybe fifteen minutes after she looked externally healed, Ves began to stir. Thia was the first to give in and embrace Ves, lifting her upper body off the ground and holding her tight.

"What... what's happening..." Ves was still disoriented, but hearing her voice made my heart soar. "Fuck... why does everything hurt so much?"

I gently held her hands. "Are you okay??"

"No!" She coughed. "My whole body fuckin' hurts!"

Did my spell do something wrong? Did something get put together in some messed-up way?

I slapped my own forehead as I realized what it likely was. "I think that's from my healing spell. Guess it

is

harder than it looks."

"Yeah, no kidding. Wait, what?!" She sat up quickly, pulling Thia with her.

Thia and I explained - through tears and lots of interruptions - what had happened with the old man and with Ves. At the end, Ves hugged me, and with her voice muffled against my shoulder, said "...Thank you."