A Jaded Life Chapter 608

The last Radiant Sprite was overwheld by a flurry of attacks and a hush fell across the clearing. it was only disturbed by quiet noises of pain from Rai, still burnt from the desperate counter-attacks of the Sprites and my own, laboured breath. I was feeling a little light-headed, the exertion of flooding the world with that much Astral Power nothing to be done lightly, even if it had been effective to overwhelm the sprites’ defences, allowing us to destroy them.

“We learned sothing,” I ntally told Lenore, making my way out of the shadows of the forest and onto the clearing itself. Just looking at the bodies, I continued to learn, even if this lesson was an annoying one, naly that the sprites weren’t studied casually, not even in death. Upon their death, their bodies had set themselves alight, burning with a fierce fla, radiating strong magic, to the point that I had a feeling their bodies themselves beca the fla. Elf-immolation, if you will.

“Mostly that they are incredibly fragile, even worse than normal spellcasters. What did you call it, glass cannon?” Lenore asked, rembering one of the phrases I must have used in my mind at so point.

“But I don’t think we’ll be able to figure out anything with their bodies, look, there’s almost no Death in their systems, they simply burn away as the Fire in their soul gets unleashed,” she added, even leaving her Hallow to get a better look.

“It’s almost as if their bodies are rely shells that hold their spirits,” I muttered, looking at the strange sight through her eyes. There were implications there and things I had to consider, but for now, there were more important things.

Instead of focusing on the small bonfires that were the sprites, focusing on my companions, rembering that we no longer had the privilege of having two healers in the party, but that without Olivia, the responsibility rested on alone. Rai had visibly taken a couple of wounds, while Sigmir looked completely fine, her aura sowhat frayed but her body uninjured.

“Let see,” I ordered, stepping up to him, pushing him upright so I could actually see his wounds. He let out a hiss of pain and I was taken aback by the damage he had taken. The worst wound was on his shoulder, where an almost palm-sized patch was completely black and carbonised, making swallow hard, realising just how dangerous those things had been.

“This has to go,” I muttered, noticing that there was already faint energy of Death spreading from the carbonised flesh, slowly poisoning the rest of his body. Letting out a soft curse, I drew out my Atha, calling Lenore back into her Hallow. A brief glance and a surge of Death-Magic made sure that the Atha was completely clean, before pushing Rai to the ground.

“What?” he asked, taken aback by my sudden actions.

“The flesh on your shoulder is dead and needs to go, or it’ll poison the rest of your body,” I told him, calling out to Adra, “Adra, help , I might need your magic,” I told her, already considering what to do. She ca over, her bow still ready, but her magic wasn’t really suitable to heal.

Maybe it was sothing in my voice, maybe he could feel the damage himself, but he didn’t try to argue but let go to work. Lenore returned to her Hallow, and I briefly closed my eyes, shutting out all extraneous thoughts, completely focusing on the task at hand.

Filleting my disciple.

“Take his hand, you’ll need to give him company,” I told Adra, realising that he would either have to suffer the side-effect of my Mind Magic or the pain of getting his shoulder carved up. Hopefully, having Adra at his side would sowhat alleviate the effects of my Mind Magic.

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She didn’t quite get what I ant, but dutifully took Rai’s hand, while I pushed his mind with mine, ready to smother at least so of the pain he was about to feel. I didn’t have any anaesthetics, so it was the best I could do.

With a resolute mind, I pushed my Atha into Rai’s shoulder, guided by my ability to see and feel the dead flesh. The carbonised flesh had to go, all of it, or infection and greater trouble would follow. With my actions, I could see Rai twitch and detect the signals fired from his body into his mind, telling him that sothing was wrong. The universal bodily signal for trouble, pain, the body telling the mind, ‘whatever it is you are doing, stop it, idiot,’ only in this case, stopping would an a slow, agonising death in the future.

And so, I pushed against the signals, trying to blunt them as much as possible, even if it ant that Rai had to endure the curse of the Dark Moon that had beco part of my Mind Magic.

I couldn’t allow myself to be distracted any further and focused on the dual task of cutting away the burned flesh while using Blood Magic to keep him from bleeding too badly from the wound I was creating. If not for the use of the Atha, made to focus my Blood Magic, it would have been incredibly difficult and even with it, I felt myself start to get a little wobbly. Other than the massive wound on his shoulder, where I had to cut away almost a centitre of flesh, there were other wounds that needed to be treated and so I had to keep cutting, even as exhaustion had in its grip.

“Adra, your hand,” I ordered, as I focused on yet another wound on Rai’s body. The mont she held it out to , I pierced a wound into her palm, giving access.

“Need so power,” I explained, not bothering to explain further. Instead, I placed my own hand over the wound, drawing so of her magic out and causing her to hiss in pain. Having Blood Magic used against you was never a pleasant sensation, even if she tried to help with the transfer of power as much as possible, it was a violation of her being. A necessary one, but a violation nonetheless.

I felt Sigmir step up behind and so physical strength was flowing into , so resilience. I recognised her Aura, transferring an echo of her power in an attempt to protect , but it was more of an intimate gesture than practical use, her ability was to protect from physical harm, not to give strength when exhausted. But just her presence allowed to push on.

Finally, as the last bit of blackened flesh fell away, I let myself lean into Sigmir, magically completely exhausted.

“I’m done,” I told them, feeling bone-weary. Looking at Rai and Adra, I could see that they were just as wiped as I, and even Sigmir looked a little tired.

“Love, can you gather so of those ashes? They might tell us sothing, or maybe not,” I asked her, trying to stand by myself.

“Certainly,” she promised, helping stand and quickly moved to do as I had asked.

“We should get going, you alright, Rai?” I asked, getting a nod, though his pale face told sothing different.

“I collected samples from each of them, kept separately,” Sigmir said, after quickly gathering so of the ashes into small bags.

“Great,” I replied, a tired smile stealing across my face, “Let’s get going, I’ll keep an eye out from above,” I promised, pushing myself into my Hallow, relishing that I could use it again. Lenore took off, flying from tree to tree, not really trying to move away from the party, not staying too close. A convenient distance.

“What do you think about those Sprites?” I asked Lenore, now that we had a bit of ti.

“They, too, have been infused,” Lenore muttered, sending so of her mories and impressions of the fight. With her eyes, it was quite visible that the creatures hadn’t primarily run on Vitality, as a living being would but more as if they had been running on Astral Power. It made wonder. What would happen if I managed to get my hands on them and use Blood Magic? Sothing to consider and maybe try out at so point.

I left most of the scouting and guarding to Lenore, as my mind slowly drifted away, the safety of my hallow luring into sleep. Magic was hard work and contending with a group of Sprites even harder still.

Maybe just running away and ignoring the incredibly dangerous creatures would be the wise thing to do.