Hours drifted on, as the Worldstriders attacked fort after fort. They avoided confrontation with the human reinforcents, but they never stopped their attacks. Twice, the worldstriders fled the mont Anise's group caught up to them. Every single ti the human forces bunched up, the Worldstriders fled. Every single ti the human forces dispersed, the Worldstriders attacked again. As Anise moved from one fort to another in an endless stream of failed reinforcent attempts, I started to feel anxious.
What were we supposed to do about this? The flight of the Worldstriders had always been troubleso, but this was even worse than usual. The human forces had no way to engage the enemy at all. If it was nightti, Nightsong could have handled the Worldstriders… but it was nowhere near night yet.
I felt anxiety creep up in my stomach, fueling my fears about the direction of the war even further. However, as the day progressed, I had less and less ti to worry. Because every hour, more soldiers arrived in our hospital. Many humans turned into paste or got shot by the worldstriders, but plenty survived their injuries. It was our responsibility to treat those who were injured close to our fort.
Unfortunately, my essence reserves weren’t infinite. After several hours, I stopped using my shaping abilities to treat smaller wounds. My actual dical skills played a larger and larger role as the day wore on. I was more thankful than ever that we had a functioning supply line again. If we hadn't received dical supplies, it would have been impossible to save everyone.
By nightfall, I was exhausted. My hands and legs hurt from moving around so much. My brain felt like it had placed into a pressure cooker. I had a mild headache pulsing at the edge of my temples. My alteration essence was gone. The other doctors and the nurse in the dical bay looked even worse than . In ten hours, we had seen a hundred and fifty patients. Over half were dying, and needed my healing magic to save them. The rest of the soldiers had less dangerous wounds, but had still needed a great deal of work to treat. For three doctors and one nurse, it had been almost impossible to keep up with the inflow of patients. My healing magic could only speed up the process so much, and the waves of patients seed endless.
After a particularly taxing wave of ergency treatnts, I cast my weary eyes upon the door. I knew it wouldn’t be long before another wave of dying patients were carted through the door. I had long stopped thinking - I just moved when more patients ca. But strangely, no new patients appeared. Finally, I finished stitching together my current patient’s wound and blinked in surprise. There weren’t any other patients in need of care. We had finally caught up.
I hesitated for a few monts. After hours of constant motion and healing, not doing anything felt wrong. But my legs felt like they were made of jelly, and I was tired. After a few monts of struggle, I flopped onto a nearby chair. I felt my mind drift off, and started drifting off to sleep before I caught myself. Now wasn't the ti to sleep when more patients could arrive at any mont.
“Where are the new patients?” I asked.
One of the other doctors also frowned. “I don’t know either. It feels like the enemy should have finished another battle by now. I'm surprised that we haven't gotten new patients... or had our own fort attacked."
Another of the doctors frowned in thought. "With how things have been going over the past few weeks… maybe they decided not to attack us at night? After all, Nightsong is available during nightti, but never dayti. It would make sense if they decided to shift the war to daylight hours. Nightsong seems to be unbeatable during the night, but it has a huge, obvious weakness.”
I winced, and then nodded. The doctor’s words made sense. For a strange mont, I found myself wishing that the next wave of patients would arrive. If more patients arrived, that would an the Worldstriders were still fighting, even as night fell. I remained tense for several more minutes, but nothing happened. No new patients arrived. I sighed, as I felt a strange mixture of bitterness and relief wash through . The enemy had learned to exploit our weaknesses. That was terrible. But at the very least, it ant I could rest for a few minutes...
I closed my eyes, intending to give them a quick rest...
I woke up to find one of the other doctors shaking my arm. I blinked myself back awake.
“Miria. Go back to your room if you need to sleep,” said the doctor. “I’ll keep watch over the patients and wake you up if you're needed. You worked hard today. You need to take so ti to rest too. Catch sleep when you can.” The doctor gave a strained smile, and for a mont, I tried to tell her that I would stay awake for a little longer. Before I could speak, a yawn escaped my lips. I realized that my body was at its limit.
I stifled another yawn as I got up and nodded, before I looked at the full room of patients. I grimaced. Too many had died today.
“What do you think will happen next?” I asked.
The doctor I had been speaking with sighed.
“I don’t know,” she said. “The military of Damilius relying on Nightsong. This change is bad... but I also doubt the leaders didn't think of this. After all, Nightsong has such a massive, obvious weakness. The military should have so sort of plan to compensate for it. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”
I sighed and nodded, before I made my way back to my room. Then, I realized I hadn't spoken with Anise in a while. I had lost track of our conversation during the chaos.
said Anise.
I frowned, as I looked at the creature’s eyes. Anise was right. Nightsong’s eyes seed a bit more expressive than last ti. They seed… hungry.
said Felix.
said Sallia.
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