40 Mana Tendrils 2 (1/2)

Sebastian looked at the bleeding adventurer in front of him. To be precise, he was looking at the ethereal tendrils coming out of both him and Fred. His tendrils were long and golden in colour, while Fred's tendrils looked like it was swaying weakly and ashen in colour. With his accelerated thinking, he quickly a.s.sumed that the tendrils had something to do with their life force. He could only think of one other situation where he started seeing the elegant tendrils. It was when he tried to over saturate his body with all of his mana. When he desperately tried everything he could to save Becky.

Even while he was lost in his thoughts, his body was still moving as if his muscle memory had taken over. He was deftly applying pressure to the bleeding areas without moving Fred's exposed innards. With a start, he quickly remembered what he was trying to do. He looked at the tendrils coming out of his right hand and moved it over Fred's stomach. He then willed for his lively tendrils to intertwine with Fred's weak, pale ones. Immediately he could see that Fred's tendrils were slowly absorbing his life force, which he a.s.sumed to be mana at this point.

While Fred's mana tendrils were slowly absorbing Sebastian's life force, he started to regain his colour and he started to move around, wincing in pain. Sebastian found this rea.s.suring as he continued to transfuse his mana onto the slowly dying adventurer. Thankfully with all his nightly training, he had a huge mana reservoir compared to when he started in Kalonia.

Hearing a rustling noise behind them, Sebastian looked up as he was still transfusing his mana. Aima and Zes came running over with their weapons drawn. Aima couldn't hide her shock as she drew close to the morbid scene in front of her. From her point of view, Sebastian was applying pressure while his other hand hovered around the heavily injured Fred.

”By the G.o.ds -” Aima couldn't finish her sentence as she stood with mouth agape.

Without any hesitation whatsoever, Zes found herself beside her master who appeared to be continuously using his mana. ”Are you okay master? What can I do?” Although she appeared calm outside, Zes was still fl.u.s.tered when she heard that Sebastian took a hit from the wolfbear. It was apparent when she reverted to calling Sebastian as 'master'.

”Zes? Are the others fighting with the wolfbear then? Take Fulgur and wield it for this battle. I've shown you how to use it before. They will need your support. Aima and I can handle this here.” Sebastian directed with his gaze to his two swords on the ground near them. With a single nod, Zes immediately took the sword in the black sheath and started running back to the sounds of combat.

”Aima! Focus. I need your help. Cast [Heal] continuously on Fred. I'm only keeping his fatal injuries at bay with my makes.h.i.+ft treatment. I can't use [Heal], you'll have to do it yourself.”

”Eh? Ah right. [Heal]!” Aima snapped back to her senses after Sebastian's pleading. With her shaking hand, she directed her mana towards the fallen adventurer, who looked better than when she arrived for some reason.

After a few rounds of [Heal], Fred's bleeding finally settled down and his breathing relaxed as if he was sleeping. Both Aima and Sebastian also plopped down beside him to catch their breaths.

pant ”What did you do? That was effective.” Aima looked at Sebastian who looked more tired than her even though she was the only one casting the healing spell.

”I can't explain it now. Not here, not now. First, let's stabilise him enough so we can bring him back to the carriage when the fight has settled down.”

”Sebastian. I know that you're keen to do that with your otherworldly background, but we don't even know if the fight is in which favour. We could well be walking back into the wolfbear's arms.”

As if in response, Sebastian's eyes flashed golden before they returned to their brown hue. With a gentle smile and a sigh of relief, he then looked back at Aima.

”They've finished. Jin has dealt the final blow. Just a few scratches here and there, but they'll be okay. I'll carry him now.” Sebastian was about to stand up and pick up Fred when Aima stopped him.

”Um, Sebastian? What do we do about that?” She pointed towards Fred's exposed intestines which were haphazardly wrapped in his cloak.

”Ah. It should be fine for now. As long as he doesn't get shaken up pretty bad, he won't spill the rest out.” Sebastian nonchalantly replied while he picked up Fred in an awkward princess carry. He felt like he was stretching his limits with his [Augment] skills today as he continuously used mana for transfusion and now to physically reinforce him.

Upon seeing Fred's condition and with the near-fatal fight breaking out that day, the coachmen agreed that they should make haste for Klance City, cutting down their travel time from 5 days to 2 days. Of course, the spellcasters and anyone that could cast [Heal] had to take turns using it on the horses and the still unconscious Fred.

***

After 2 days blurred by, the carriages slowed down to a walk in front of a city gate. It was more ma.s.sive compared to Wildecross City and was manned by more guards as well. The first carriage which now carried Sebastian, Elora and the coachman was first approached by 3 guards.

”What business do you have here in Klance City?”

The coachman ruffled around his huge winter coat before pulling out a piece of paper. He handed it carefully to the guard. ”We are carrying goods for Yokkun Orebasher. This is his permit and wax seal attesting to this. Also, we have a gravely-injured adventurer with us.”

After studying the paper for a few minutes, the guard returned it to the coachman. ”You may pa.s.s. There are a total of 3 carriages right?”

”Yes. Thank you.” The coachman immediately urged the fatigued horse to trudge on.

Even with multiple reinforcement spells and healing spells, the horses were already on their limit. It almost seemed that they were running only on mana now.

When they were outside of earshot from the guards, Sebastian turned to Elora beside him. ”Didn't they need to inspect the carriages before they could let us in?”

With a smirk, she didn't even turn to face him while answering him. ”Looks like you're new to Klance City.” She turned to the coachman to remind him. ”Head to the monastery first. We'll have Fred treated there. This should already be safe territory for you. We don't need to escort you to the doorstep.”

Sebastian could only glance at her blankly before looking around the city streets. He kept mulling over her nonchalant reply as he took in the city views. The first few blocks from the city gates were all lined with various shops. Being a commercial city, he found shops that sold the usual items for adventuring, and some speciality shops that catered to clients from all walks of life. There were even some slave shops blatantly mixed in the commercial district. These streets were full of carriages and people that had businesses to do in the commercial area. If it wasn't for the designated streetway for carriages, he wasn't sure if they would be able to pa.s.s.