'His breathing is clear, that's a good sign. If she had stabbed him… Instead of swiping him with her claws… I don't think he'd make it out of this…' I tore away some cloth and started applying pressure, getting help from Tabernath not long after, but the wound wouldn't stop bleeding. 'He's losing way too much blood… Did she curse him, too? Can she do that? No, it might even just be a trait of all wounds caused by dark magic.'
"Hey… Hey!" I shouted, lightly slapping him. 'He is starting to black out… Still… Assuming that bleeding is the only problem…' I shuddered. 'Mr Dragon… You can control when I sweat that flammable slimy stuff, right?'
'You wouldn't…'
'Oh, but I would.'
He sighed. 'Just watch your hands when you light it…'
It was probably one of the grossest things I had felt, at least in recent history. "Take the cloth away, I'm going to seal the wound…"
He slowly raised his head to look at it before I punched him unconscious. "He's not going to want to be awake for this…" I muttered, shaking out my hand as I started filing the gash with the slimy goop that, thankfully enough, seemed to not mix so well with blood. When I was done, I scrunched up my face like a cat coughing up a hairball, trying to build up more fire, and when I was ready, I let out a small puff of flame that set it ablaze and cauterized three of the four gashes. The fourth stopped on its own. To make sure he survived, I used some recovery magic as well… But it didn't make me feel any better about watching his body tense up. Even though he was unconscious, it was like he was still screaming in pain. 'Yeah… That's going to hurt when he wakes up…'
He finally relaxed, and after a few moments, his breathing stabilized as my manna ran towards the empty again. He had enough blood to be safe, so all in all, he was probably going to survive… "He's going to pull through… But…" I looked down at the massive burns. "Well… These burns need to not get infected at just about any cost… And then if you don't want him to pass out from the pain shortly after waking up… I suggest you start giving him some medicine now…"
Tabernath sighed, sitting back as everything finally started to calm down. "You hear all that, Bosta?"
Another soldier came up and quickly knelt next to us. "Yes… I'll make sure to treat the burns properly… And keep him sedated for a couple of days until it heals."
'A couple of days to heal? He's… He's Joking… Right? Even if we are superhuman, that's a bit–''
"Stopping the bleeding with your fire breath, smart." He nodded to me before directing several others and carefully loading him onto a stretcher, carrying him away.
'Calling it smart is pushing it, I think… Sure, it's not as bad as sealing a wound with gunpowder, but…' I let out another heavy sigh. "So… Did I pass?"
He chuckled, patting my head as he stood up. "You passed. In another era, you'd be a general already."
'I feel patronized… Why do people still treat me like a kid even when I look like this?' "Why another era?"
He chuckled again. "Well… To put it plainly… All of our generals right now are kind of freaks. I mean… There's your father, the king's twin sons are both monsters. The general who replaced your grandmother when she retired is called the little devil for a reason… And General Eincraig the Iron may be over 75… But no one in their right mind would want to fight him."
"That's only five, though, right? There should be six."
"Ah… Right… The sixth general… Ulf the Undying. He's been around for over 120 years and still fights like a mad zombie."
"He's… Not though… Right?"
He looked off into the distance. "People thought he might be for a while, but apparently, despite his scars, he still has human skin… So…" He shrugged. "Rumor has it that not even the king doesn't dare to ask him to remove his helmet, though."
"Not sensing a lot of confidence here…"
"Yeah, well, He's still sharp and strong, that's all that matters."
"Right…" sounds like how this culture would react…' I glanced back at Vive, still holding onto Rune and shuddering like a cat backed into a corner. "I'll uh… I'll meet back with you in the war room once I've checked on my friends. Is that ok?"
He nodded before heading off in the opposite direction.
As I approached her, for a moment, she looked even more scared. 'Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to bring them…' I knelt on the ground so I wasn't towering over her and lifted out my hand. "Hey… It's ok now. It's all over, alright."
Suddenly, she went from protecting Rune to hiding behind her. "Did I kill him?" She muttered, her voice like an echoing whisper.
'Oh, is that what she's so afraid of?' I almost laughed, feeling relieved. Not only because she was worried about something like that, but also because she wasn't scared of any of the countless other things she could have been worried about. But most importantly, because it probably meant she wasn't at any risk of turning demonic in the slightest.
'Alright… Stop and think. In a situation like this… The most important thing is to be encouraging, right? And then I'll have the lecture later… Once she calms down. I'll be careful with every word… I can't compare her current abilities to her being a demon since she's probably also anxious about it, so I'll just say it like… This… "He'll be fine. It was actually pretty impressive, really, I didn't know you could move like that. Taking out two guild leaders in a flash… seriously awesome."
She stopped shuddering, her ears relaxing and flopping down again. "What? But he's really hurt, isn't he?"
I looked back over to the people carrying him away. "Well… Yeah, but I mean this was a mock battle. I'm sure he's not the only one… And you were just protecting your sister… How about you? And Rune, are you two ok?"
"Sis?" Rune mumbled before slowly nodding, holding her hands over her chest as if she was afraid to move, still a little confused and awkward about being clung to so intently.
'Oh… Right… That probably did sound weird to them.'
"My arms… They really hurt." Vive mumbled, staring at the ground.
"Come here, let me have a look then."
After slowly stepping out from behind Rune, she hesitantly came closer and lifted out her arms to me. 'They were massive and covered in black scales, but they already reverted…' I slowly knelt down and gently took her hands in mine. 'I guess the moment I left, they started to change again, though… Still, they look more draconic than anything resembling a demon, and her claws are almost just giant versions of mine… Was she mimicking my soul? No. She teleported to didn't she? Just what kind of crazy powers does this girl have?'
The claws and scales began to melt away until they were back to normal, her skin turning pale again as her little fingers twitched a few times, like her brain was trying to figure out what was happening. "Do they still hurt?"
"Kind of…" She muttered uncomfortably, looking to the side. "Not really…"
"Ok. But if they feel mostly better, that's good… good… See, you're both fine." I closed my eyes, tilting my head back and taking a deep breath as I finally started to feel relieved
Before I could finish inhaling, she suddenly stepped forward and hugged me, starting to shudder again, but after just a moment, she calmed down too and let go, shyly stepping away.
"Can I get a hug too?" Rune asked, still unmoving from the same spot.
"Hahhh… Sure… Come here, girls." I said softly before wrapping them both up and squeezing as tightly as I could.
"What about me?" Mo asked sarcastically from behind, twirling one of her knives into its sheath as she took a step with a limp, folding her arms with a satisfied grin, having won her fight.
I knew she was joking, but I went ahead and gave her one anyway… Even though she almost stabbed me on reflex, inhaling sharply and tensing up like a pencil. "You asked for it…"
She slowly relaxed before pushing me away. "I-I… I was joking…" She grumbled back.
"Come on, was it really that bad?"
Rune pushed herself between us, baring her fangs. "How dare you? Siya's hugs are the best!"
'I really did a number on her when I went inside her soul, didn't I…'
Mo crossed her arms, looking between us. "I admit… I didn't hate it… Not as much as I thought I would, at least…"
Rune's tail and ears suddenly dropped. "Do you hate hugs? Does that mean you hate my hugs, too?"
It took everything I had not to laugh as I watched Mo slowly break under the pressure and awkwardly try to give Rune a hug to make her feel better, moving like a robot with rusty hinges.
Holding onto Vive's hand for safety, I went to check on Bear too, crouching down next to him and snapping my fingers. "You woke up a while ago, didn't you?"
He sighed. "Well, yeah. But you know it's actually pretty nice down here."
"Hey, turns out he does have a sense of humor… Are you hurt?" I groaned, helping him back up. "Can you and Mo make sure the girls get back to the room alright? I have to meet with the other commanders."
He quickly checked his body, and although he was bleeding from a small cut on his arm and his head, he seemed fine. He sighed again, kneeling down. "It's Vive, right?" He let out a long groan. "I'm sorry… I wasn't able to beat him… So you had to fight him for me… That's my bad."
Despite turning a little red, she actually stepped out from behind me and faced him head-on. "No… It's fine…"
He smirked, patting her head. "Glad to hear it. Trust me, next time I'll protect you."
She shooed away his hand, bearing teeth like a stray dog. "How will that work when I'm stronger?"
Watching his face, it was like lightning struck as the realization set in that she somehow took out the man who beat him… "Yeah… Maybe she should protect you?" I said softly as I patted him on the shoulder. Vive snickered as he tried to hide his depressed expression from twitching onto his face, but he was no Airsidh, and couldn't fully hide it.
After a moment, he wiped the blood from his head, patting her head again, only with his knuckles, rubbing them in. "Fine then… We'll just have to watch out for each other. How about that?" She groaned as he walked past her and met up with the others, looking back. "You coming?"
I nodded to her and she left. With her went almost any sense of lightheartedness I had left, leaving me with my own thoughts. No matter how much I forced myself to stay calm, it was only because I felt like I had to for them… And the moment I was alone, I suddenly felt my heart pounding. 'That was… Yikes…'