Chapter 25 #2
Everything is just as noisy as it was before Guy cast his spell, but he’s grinning ear to ear. I almost ask why, but he points, and I have to laugh as well. The mage is stomping his foot in frustration, and the healer next to him is shaking his staff like that will somehow make it work.
“I put the dome over them,” Guy explains. “They’ll have to get a lot closer to cast any spell now, and I don’t think he wants to be anywhere near—” He stops, his eyes and mouth wide in horror, but I can’t see anything wrong.
“Guy, are you all right?” I ask.
Guy turns his terrified face to me and grabs onto my cloak.
He tries to talk, but he can only croak.
I look down and see a dagger in his lower back, causing blood to bloom across his robes.
Something whizzes by my head, and I turn to look at where it came from.
Tara, half-hidden by a tree, has her hand poised to toss another dagger.
Her eyes narrow in concentration as she looks directly at me.
That fucking bitch.
Before she can throw another, I fling myself to the ground, pulling Guy with me. “This is going to hurt,” I whisper.
I don’t wait for him to respond because I doubt he can, and I don’t know how long it will take for another dagger to cartwheel toward me.
When I pull the dagger from his back, Guy screams. I ignore that for the moment and glance up.
Sure enough, another dagger is sailing in our direction.
I roll away just in time, but the dagger still slices my earlobe before it buries itself in the dirt beside me.
“Heal Major Wound!” I yell, hoping that just having my staff on the ground near me will be enough to make that work.
It’s not. Frustrated, I pull up the spells in my menu and tap on Heal Major Wound while concentrating on Guy’s wound.
Guy sighs, instantly healed. I don’t even take the time to look up before rolling us over again.
Thank God we moved when we did because this one actually pinned my cloak down to the ground.
I know I’m a healer, but I’m fucking pissed now. I grab the dagger that’s piercing my cloak and stand up to fling it, but Guy grabs my wrist.
“Don’t stop me!” I shout. “She’s trying to kill us!”
Guy shakes his head, takes the dagger from my hand, taps on something on his menu, and flings it himself. It lands solidly in Tara’s shoulder, causing her to stumble backward.
“What did you do?” I ask.
“True shot spell,” he says. “With Sylvia around, I don’t usually need it but—”
“Roots!” I hear Miko shout, and the tree beside Tara shifts. Its roots burst from the ground and bind Tara’s arms to her side. Miko looks at us with some mixture of concern and mistrust. “Great friend you’ve got there.”
Someone shouts, “Flaming Serpent,” and I know it can only be the other group’s mage. When Tara hit Guy with the dagger, it must have broken the silencing spell he’d cast.
Unfortunately, there’s no time to react. Giant, undulating flames shoot across us all, friend and foe alike. The force of the fire spell knocks everyone but the mage down, since they’re on the safe side of the blast. While the flame doesn’t engulf any of us, we’re surrounded by walls of it now.
The smoke blinds me and fills my lungs. Everything around me spins. I fall to my hands and knees coughing. The Soothing Grace favor calms me, but that’s the last thing I need. Without my wits about me, I might die of smoke inhalation.
“Rain!” someone shouts. It’s not Guy or Miko. It’s…the same mage who cast Flaming Serpent?
A torrential downpour floods the road, dousing the fire immediately.
I’m still weak, but I can breathe and see again.
I scream when I see that everyone but the mage is laying on the ground, bleeding, burnt, and moaning.
No one seems to be dead, as far as I can tell, but they’re all pretty fucking close to it.
The mage runs to the healer, who has fallen like everyone, and shakes his shoulders. “Bruce, wake up! We need you! We—” He stops when he sees me approach and holds his hands up in surrender. “J-just kill me quick.”
“I’m not going to kill you!” I shout. “I’ve been trying not to this whole time! You’re the murderers!”
I see Cait at that moment. She’s still—too still. The others are twitching and groaning in pain. There’s no sign of life in her at all. I shouldn’t waste time on this asshole mage.
“Stay here!” I tell the mage, then dash over to my staff. Raising it high, I shout, “Mass Heal!”
The strength of the spell nearly depletes my entire reserve of energy. However, Sylvia, Joshua, Guy, and Miko slowly sit up, without even a burn or scrape. Cait remains still.
“Fuck!” I scream and flee to her side. “No, no, no!”
I press my palms to her chest and don’t feel even the slightest stir of breath or a heartbeat.
This close, I see the gaping wound in her stomach and the great axe still sheathed on her back.
She hadn’t wanted to kill a player, so much so that she didn’t even defend herself. She was dead long before the fire.
“No, Cait…” The words come out of me high-pitched and pathetic. I pat her cheeks, like I can wake her up from a deep sleep. “Please, no! Please come back.”
Guy puts his hand on my shoulder and tries to pull me back. “She’s dead, Lauren.”
I yank my shoulder away and glare at him, “Fuck you! I can bring her back!” Pressing one palm to her wound, I raise my staff. “Heal Major Wound!”
Nothing. She’s still just as dead.
Maybe this takes a different magic. I’m a Cleric of Aphrodite. I can heal her with love, right? That works in anime. I just need a magic tear to drop onto her face. But my tears are already all over her. A kiss! Yes! Aphrodite wanted me to kiss her. This must be why!
I press my lips against hers desperately, but it’s like kissing rubber. There’s no life in her, no response. There is no life-giving magic in my touch. I collapse onto her chest and sob.
“There’s another way,” the other group’s mage says. “There’s a Revive Life spell.”
“Fuck off!” I scream at him, not leaving Cait’s chest. “If I had that spell, I would have used it already!”
“Our healer has it,” he says.
This makes me sit up and look at him. “He does?”
The mage nods. “If you can heal him, he can bring her back.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “How do I know you’re not lying?”
“You don’t,” he says, “but you can kill me if I am. Without my party, I’m as good as dead anyway.”
That’s the best I’m going to get, and honestly, it’s worth the risk if there’s a chance to bring Cait back.
I get to my feet and shuffle to the other healer.
I lift my staff and say, “Heal Major Wound,” my voice weak from grief.
Exhaustion nearly has me buckling at the knees from the hit of the latest spell.
I’m fairly certain adrenaline is the only thing keeping me on my feet.
The other healer takes a sharp, wheezing inhale and coughs. The mage helps his friend sit up and says, “Bruce, I need you to bring the barbarian back to life.”
Bruce shakes his head. “Are you stupid? They’re the—”
The mage covers Bruce’s mouth. Then, he looks at me, back to Bruce, and over to me again.
The healer turns to see me. I’m sure I look like a mess.
My hair is probably both singed and matted with Cait’s blood.
If my face is even half as dirty from smoke as everyone else’s, my tears must have left wide paths down my cheeks.
“Okay,” Bruce says. He gets to his feet, and the mage hands him his staff.
Bruce doesn’t need to ask who needs reviving.
It’s clear that it’s the woman laying as still as a frozen lake.
He staggers over to her and then lifts his staff.
After a fit of coughing, he croaks, “Revive Life,” then groans as he collapses into the mage’s arms. I’m surprised such a powerful spell didn’t make him pass out immediately.
Cait moans, and I rush to her side, sliding to my knees the moment I’m near her. “Cait, Cait, wake up.”
“I hurt…” she whispers like she’s sleep talking.
Of course, she hurts. She has a damn hole the size of a softball in her stomach.
My healing spell didn’t work before, but it should now that she’s alive.
I grip my staff tight as I say, “Heal Major Wound!” Dots pepper my vision, and I know one more spell will knock me out.
When the puncture closes up, my whole body releases a tension I didn’t realize it was holding.
Cait’s eyes flutter open, and she looks up at me. It takes a moment for her to recognize me. When she does, she smiles and puts her hand on my cheek. Her eyes are hooded, and her soft voice is floaty when she says, “I had a dream that you kissed me.”