Chapter 314: Worthy Opponents (1/2)
Ilea checked the plethora of messages she had received during the battle in Lisburg. Most of them were kill notifications, the highest level being a 261 mage.
‘ding’ ‘You have defeated [Spearmaster – lvl 151 / Iron Defender – lvl 138]
…
‘ding’ ‘You have defeated [Soul of Fire – lvl 189 / Sharpshooter – lvl 172]
‘ding’ ‘Blood Magic Resistance reaches lvl 15’
‘ding’ ‘Dark Magic Resistance reaches lvl 13’
‘ding’ ‘You have learned the General skill: Stamina Drain Resistance’
‘Stamina Drain Resistance – lvl 1
The more rarely used drain magic focused on Stamina. Its effects are not as immediately noticeable as Health or Mana drain skills but the end result is just as devastating. You have leaned to resist such spells to an extent.’
For all the death and chaos, the yield was certainly lackluster. At least the new resistance boosted her resilience thanks to Avatar of Ash. Probably the biggest change. The three were quiet as they flew towards Hallowfort. Ilea had Terok hold onto her back to allow for a faster flight. It was luckily dark enough already, no arcane storms active anymore. Maro could nearly keep up with her, the added weight of Terok making little difference.
“What was that mist accruing all over the place?” Maro asked when they entered the caves above the town.
“Miststalkers. Can’t kill them yet… well actually. I should probably try again at some point, with all the changes. They drain mana and health, use mist magic when you’re closer so I suggest staying away.”
“Interesting. Yea without a healer even I don’t want to try drain monsters. The benefits usually come with a somewhat lacking defense so you should definitely face them again.” Maro explained. “If you’re looking to fight more monsters that is.”
Ilea didn’t reply, listening instead to the noises coming from the caves around. “Dead.” Maro said after they found the destroyed gate and went inside.
“Sounds like it’s already over.” Terok said, the trio appearing in the crystal lit caves where both the Descent as well as Hallowfort lay. Smoke was rising from the town. Various buildings covered in flames. The bridge had been cut, likely not stopping many of the attackers. They landed on the statue holding the settlement, bones piling up as Maro moved them from his ring to the ground, the wet sounds of corpses landing on stone as Ilea looked over annoyed.
There was blood everywhere, Maro simply adding to the massacre. Dark ones as well as Feynor. Ilea moved a big body to the side, the thick armor punctured in at least fifty places, head dented in. Fuckers. She grabbed the heavy hammer and stored it in her necklace. The thing now manageable compared to last time she had lifted it. May you find peace. She thought and moved on, the two behind her following slowly, more and more of the corpses standing up. “Maro don’t use the dark ones.”
She found an injured one holding a wound on his belly when she reached the square where the Hunter’s Den was located. Crouching down, she healed the wolf like creature, “The Feynor. Where are they? Where are the survivors? Injured?”
He winced, barely conscious as he coughed up blood, Ilea’s healing moving quickly to stitch up the cuts, regenerate the lost arm. “The Abyss… we… are to gather… there. Should an attack… happen… barricade it. Came from… below.” She nodded, standing up as soon as he was stable, his arm recovered. “Thank… you… Warrior of Ash…,” He smiled as she nodded, blinking down the stairs and running towards the inn, Terok and Maro as well as a part of his undead moving quickly.
The inn was warded, her sphere unable to pierce the walls and her blink unable to bring her inside. Instead, she simply kicked in the doors, three dark ones holding them closed were flung backwards as she stepped inside. Lightning smashed into her chest as she moved in, her steps slowed by dark magic wrapping around her legs before she heard Haiden’s voice from further back, “Hold! She is no enemy!”
The spells stopped, the mages looking at her and then Haiden, confused. “Do you have healers?” Ilea asked, blinking to the cat who was wearing light armor for once, head covered in dark steel. “Where are the Feynor?” Dozens of Dark Ones looked at the newcomers with fear and confusion, some with weapons unsheathed, hammers and spears in hand. Others tried to get closer to the walls.
“The injured are in a back room. The city is cleared, the attackers were more numerous coming from the Abyss. Catelyn went down there an hour ago.” He informed her quickly, moving to the room as Ilea followed.
“You two, go help the fox.”
Terok motioned to Maro and the two rushed down towards the Descent, dozens of dead Feynor and skeletons following the necromancer, some of the Dark Ones nearly attacking the former before others stopped them. Ilea blinked into the room as soon as it had reached her sphere’s influence. Since when am I so squeamish. She was appalled by the smell, the sounds, the overwhelming scent of iron, wetness of blood on the floor. A single healer was there as well, a dark one with reddened eyes, tears still rolling down their cheeks as it moved from person to person, sending whatever little mana they had to stabilize the dozens of heavily injured.
Ilea’s ashen limbs moved through the groups, checking on each as she determined the most important to treat. Worse than I thought. She started with those about to die, her mana quickly rushing into them, focusing only to treat the worst of wounds before moving on to the next. Their health would recover on its own, given enough time but broken bones, open cuts, infections as well as fevers and coughs would slow it down, even make it impossible to recover at all.
The battles had been recent, meaning she could take care of missing limbs, ears, eyes or other body parts as well. The lacking knowledge on most of their anatomy had her use the reconstruction skill without advanced methods like she could on herself. The rebuilding was slow, taking much more mana than her own body’s or another human’s would require. Still, together with the other healer, they quickly stabilized the group. The two worked without words, Haiden leaving again when he saw them start. The other healer was at level one twenty and after seeing her work, the being had sat down and started meditating, pulses of healing energy flowing through the room as Ilea saw the health of all recover slowly, infections taken care off and even the blood on the floor slowly evaporating.
She in turn focused on the individuals more, healing the missing limbs and taking care of the bad wounds that the pulses mostly ignored or could only start closing before they opened again. The likely sheer lack of mana and recovery the lower leveled dark one had would make this endeavor difficult anyway but she was glad she wasn’t alone. There were too many here and simply spreading out her ash and healing all of them would suck her dry damn near instantly, not that it worked at all. The control she needed for effective healing could only be delivered with her ashen limbs or by touching them with her real body.