Healer Book 4 -- Chapter 44

Chapter 44

Thaden felt like he was flying as he literally danced the night away with Corinna in front of him, and he felt like he couldn’t take his eyes off of her.  Hours passed as they continued dancing to a variety of hit songs translated and recreated with the musical implements of this world, which were done much better than he would’ve expected without direct access to modern instruments. 

The two of them lost track of time as they danced, but soon enough Thaden found the will to pull his eyes away from the beautiful woman in his arms.  Quickly glancing around, he didn’t see any thinning in the amount of people in the Hall, but there were definitely more people standing around and talking with each other, but additional chairs were also taken from the side of the Hall where they had been stacked up, allowing for many more people to take a load off for a while and just relax. 

“You think it’s safe enough to skip out on this party?” he asked loudly enough to be heard over the still-loud music, and she grinned back at him and nodded.  Taking his hand, she started leading him through the crowd, working their way through those still dancing and the various groups of lounging around and ignoring the glances sent their way.  Or sent his way, as he was fairly conspicuous in his white robe, though Corinna was both a Lieutenant in the Guild and a beautiful woman herself.

It took a few minutes to work their way to the edge of the massive room, as it was a bit complicated finding a way straight toward the exit, and once they got there, they were momentarily stymied in their advance by a group of dancers migrating in their way.  Thaden was startled when Corinna abruptly pushed him against the wall before staring up into his eyes, her breathing growing heavy.  His own quickly matched her intensity, and he leaned forward to kiss her as she did the same.

Complete and utter bliss flowed through him as their lips locked together, and the desire to do even more was nearly overwhelming.  After what felt like both hours and only a second, they pulled away, the beautiful tease of the kiss promising more to come. 

Catching their breath as they stared at each other from only a few inches away, he chuckled lightly as he gently pushed her arm toward where the exit was located in the distance, eager to get moving again since a quick glance at their temporary obstacle showing that their way was now clear. 

Corinna took a single step before she abruptly doubled over, Thaden seeing a frightened look on her face before she was facing down toward the ground.

“Corinna?  What’s wr—?” he started to ask, reaching for her, before a piercing scream erupted from her throat that froze the blood in his veins.  It didn’t actually do that, despite such a thing likely being possible in this magical world, but it was so frightening that he literally took a step back in fear. 

It was only made worse when she wasn’t the only one to scream inside the Hall.  Drowning out the music, which quickly faltered and came to a stop, the cacophony of an unknown number of other people screaming as if their souls were being ripped out of their bodies reverberated throughout the Hall.  While his focus was largely still on Corinna, out of the corner of his eye he couldn’t help but notice some familiar figures, such as the Guild Leader, kneeling down in pain, the screams tearing from their bodies in excruciating pain.

Before his mind could comprehend what was happening, he looked down in horror to see the sexy Lieutenant’s body suddenly swell and turn black, ballooning up as if necrotic growths were making her look like a naughty child who ingested some bad candy at a chocolate factory.  It all happened so quickly that even with all of his Mentality, speeding up the world around him, that he didn’t even have time to react to what was going on.

Fortunately for him, someone else was.

“Thaden, I’m sensing—LOOK OUT!”

In a split-second, Sadia materialized next to him faster than he thought was possible, but he only had a chance to start screaming himself when he felt an unbelievably heavy pressure fall upon him, followed by the feeling of a spell being cast that targeted him. 

The next thing he knew, he witnessed Corinna rapidly swelling to the point where she burst, but it wasn’t an explosion of simple body parts; instead, something came out of her with such violence and speed that he it warped the very nature of the space around him.  The explosion was so great that he was sent flying through the heavy wooden wall behind him, the structure splintering nearly into sawdust as he was propelled through it.  Another impact rattled him and tore at his Health pool as he had a vague view of rocketing through another building, followed by another, and another after that.  After one of the first impacts hit his head so hard that he couldn’t see straight, let alone cast, he was left at the mercy of his dwindling Health as he nearly blacked out as he lost count of the walls he was sent through, some of the half-stone, but most of them heavy, thick wood. 

By the time he finally stopped, when he slammed up against the wall that surrounded the city, he was an utter mess.  Despite his high Physicality, his body was basically jelly by this point, with broken bones and leaking internal organs from the abuse that it had been put through, and as he lay face down on the dirt next to the internal city wall, he tried to scream in pain as he coughed up a glob of blood that had filled his lungs after his ribs had punctured them.  Unfortunately for him, his throat wasn’t working very well, as something had nearly severed a portion of his neck, including his vocal cords.  He felt his lifeblood leaking out of multiple wounds along his body, but the one in his neck was probably the worst, as his artery was pumping out his vital essence at an alarming rate.

Sadia!  I know you can’t hear me, but I need your help!

Unfortunately, your SADIA has been temporarily obliterated and is currently reconstituting within your Adaptable Mimicry Plates.  While normal communicative functions should be accessible within the hour, the level of destruction inflicted upon your SADIA’s physical form may require longer than the standard 12 hours for full stabilization. 

The notification suddenly popped up in his vision, which was difficult to read as he could barely concentrate, but once he understood what it said, he dismissed it in despair.  Recalling the events before he found himself broken and dying on the ground, he remembered Sadia appearing for just a moment before the explosion, and he realized she had sacrificed herself to save him – because the spell he felt fall upon him was none other than Death Ward.  It had saved him from the initial explosion, but it did nothing for the subsequent impact against and through countless buildings. 

I let all my defenses lapse.  I was so enamored with Corinna and the moment that I didn’t have a single spell other than a relatively weak Damage Shield defending me.  Normally, even if he wasn’t fully defended all the time, especially in a city or in his room at the Coalition, it was almost an automatic process where he constantly recast at least Death Ward whenever the duration began to run out, but all of that had stopped when he was dancing with the beautiful woman. 

Was that some sort of mind-control?  Or was I simply so distracted by her that I dismissed everything else.

While it didn’t really matter as he lay dying, his mind unable to focus on doing something as simple as casting Regeneration upon himself, he didn’t think he was mind-controlled or even psychically influenced in any way other than by simple infatuation and perhaps lust; his Psychic Resiliency, and especially his Psychic Edging Advancement, wouldn’t eventually countered anything like that after a while.  If it had only been a few minutes, then he might be more suspicious, but he had been dancing with her for hours – so it wasn’t likely that which caused him to let everything lapse.

As he struggled to breathe, his vision began to darken as his view of the sturdy wooden walls in front of his face began to become hazy.  He strained his mind to grasp onto the simplest of spells to heal himself, but no matter what he did, it was like he couldn’t hold onto anything for more than a fleeting moment.  He was dying, and as powerful and “bad-ass” as he was, there was nothing he could do about it. 

“What the fuck is that?  Is there more of that developmental bullshit happening here?” his fading hearing detected nearby, and he tried to open his eyes again, but at some point they had closed entirely.  The weakness in his broken form ramped up to the point where he simply felt completely numb, the pain only a memory as he lost all feeling throughout his entire body.  He was fading fast, but he wasn’t dead yet.

“I don’t know, but I don’t want to mess with whatever’s over there; can’t you feel it?” said a different voice, and it was all Thaden could to stay even halfway focused on the approaching people.  “Hey, what shot through this wall here—?  Oh!  Who’s that?  And why is he naked?”

Naked?

He hadn’t noticed any naked people around him, but then again, he wasn’t exactly in the right place to see something like that as he’d been catapulted through half the city. 

“Ah, it’s that Rank #1 dude,” said the first voice.  “Leave him; with him gone, our Guild will likely be able to catch back up.”

The second voice seemed angry.  “You know I can’t do that.  I became a Support Class because I want to help people, so I’m not going to leave him to die if I can help.  Of course, my healing spells suck, so this might not even work, but no one deserves to die naked in the dirt.”

Naked in the dirt?  Is she talking… about… me…?

As he felt his life slipping and his consciousness shutting down, a small amount of healing energy suddenly flowed into him, which only served to bring back the pain as his mind tentatively reconnected with his body.  A second burst of healing was just enough to stave off death for another minute or so, but it was the third one that finally made a difference.

His concentration and focus sharpened just enough for a split-second, and he pounced on that split-second and cast Exceptional Regeneration on himself before his focus faded again.  A few seconds later, excruciating pain shot through him as his body repaired itself as he was healed, but he wasn’t healed completely; it took another 10 seconds before he felt his Health pool fully fill up, which was definitely not what he was expecting – especially since his healing bonuses should’ve been enough to heal him almost instantly.

“See, he’s fine.  Now, let’s get out of here before whatever is in the center of town comes over here.”

As he heard the sound of footsteps hurrying away, Thaden groaned as he picked himself up out of the dirt, his body still putting itself together despite having a full Health pool.  Every second he felt better, thankfully, and his mind was finally clearing completely.  Without any hesitation, even before he was fully upright, he had cast a battery of spells on himself, replacing all of the protection spells that he’d let lapse or had cancelled because they got in the way, such as his Incarnation of Protection.  With another few healing spells flowing through him, just to finish up what was already happening, he felt so much better than he had just a few moments ago, and he was able to look around and actually see where he ended up for the first time.

As he already knew, he was at the interior wall of the city, but what he hadn’t noticed was how he had left a significant crack in the thick wooden log that made up the base of the barrier, along with a vague imprint of his torso where it had slammed into it.  Looking back toward the center of the city, there was a blasted-out hole in the nearest wooden-constructed building where he had busted through a short time before, and he could see directly through it toward not only the next building but the next; after that, it appeared as though some of the structures had collapsed, as he couldn’t see all the way through to where he had come from.

The Coalition Meeting Hall. 

What happened?

He still wasn’t precisely sure of the what and the why of the explosion, though he could take a guess.  Based on who he saw affected, he could only assume that it had something to do with the fact that they were all those that had accompanied him into the Descent into Darkness dungeon; he hadn’t necessarily seen Steven or his core Raid Party among those who were screaming, but he couldn’t rule it out since it had only been a quick glance while he had been trying to figure out what was happening with Corinna.

 The thought of what ultimately happened to the beautiful Lieutenant was painful to contemplate, but he could only hope that he found enough of her body that he might be able to Resurrect her – along with anyone else who may have died, since he doubted he was the only one inside the Hall that had been affected by the explosion.  Once he brought her – and everyone else he could find – back from the dead, he would find out what happened and pay them back for the death and destruction that they caused.

Cracking his neck and stretching his muscles, enjoying the feeling of being put back together through magical means instead of having to suffer through months of healing and therapy which would’ve been common back on Earth, he took a step toward the Contender Meeting Hall, determined to help clean up the mess that had nearly killed him and Resurrect the woman he’d danced with all night, but as soon as his foot hit the dirt in front of him, he discovered that something was wrong.

He wasn’t wearing anything on his feet.  When he looked down, he also realized that it wasn’t just his feet that were uncovered; it was his entire body.

“What the—?”

The voices of the Contenders that had stumbled upon him and saved his life had been right; Thaden was completely naked.  In a panic, he searched his Inventory for anything equipment to wear, but all he had was an old set of clothing from back when he bought some attire back in the town of Ashcleft.  He quickly slipped it on, knowing that he didn’t really have any other choice at the moment—

—though that wasn’t entirely true.  He had the new Lucky Vagabond set that he could equip if he was Level 250, which was very tempting to do right now.  Still, he hesitated to bump himself up that far quite yet, because they still hadn’t figured out the most efficient way to utilize his PICK without worrying about hitting his body’s capacity, which was something he was going to talk to Rachel about the next day.  Once he brought everyone back to life, he would feel more comfortable taking that step, and now without any alternative equipment, it might be a requirement.

Unfortunately for the Guild’s leadership, waiting until he had a chance to talk to him about Leveling-up became a problem a moment later when the second thing the Contenders who saved him had said also proved to be true.  He hadn’t noticed it right away because it didn’t affect him as strongly as it did everyone else, thanks to some of his bonuses, but it was undeniable once he extended his senses outward.

There was an aura of Level Compression coming from somewhere in the city, which he suspected was coming from the Contender Meeting Hall. 

And, sadly, it felt very familiar.