Chapter 87

  Blood, Lights, Shadows

  In a world of magic, the only limitation is imagination. Imagination and apparently applicable Skills, that is what I am finding, right now.

  Adonis, a moron who committed the ultimate sin of being overconfident in their abilities is for all intents and purposes healed. All bones are now back in their proper places, skin and muscles are knitted back together. There is just one problem, a problem I have fortunately not had to deal with before this point. Even now, the only reason I realize this is the issue with why Adonis is not waking up is due to training from my past life. Everything that can tell me that he is having trouble is right there before me. Weak and frantic heartbeat, working two or three times harder than normal to push around the meager blood supply that is inside the body. His shortness of breath, the flush and pale look to his face that somehow even makes bronzed skin look sickly, are all signs.

  Essentially, everything that an unconscious body could do to show that he is missing too much blood is being shown. If he was awake, I would probably see more markers, like excessive tiredness, dizziness, and lack of strength, but those would just be extra findings that prove what I already know. Seeing his body in such a state, I can’t help but realize I need to do more to actually help him, lest my all my work up until this point be wasted. That’s when inspiration comes, as I can imagine what needs to be done and where to create the blood, by stimulating the recently healed bones to awaken and generate more life saving blood. That’s when the system lets me know that once again my imagination is enough to bridge the gap from where I currently am, to where I want to be as a healer.

  Seeing the class Skill being offered, I give a cursory look around, but am momentarily confused by the fact that I don’t see my mentor Madame Bloom anywhere in the crowd.

  Seeing her typical section empty, I try to scan the crowd, wondering if she has gone to the lavatory? Though having gone this early in the contest seems like it would be odd. As I am looking around, I feel a gentle tap on my shoulder.

  Looking back, I see that Markan is there and leaning down close to my ear to speak to me.

  “The General said you could choose any Skills you wanted tonight, she trusts your judgement,” as Markan spoke, I could see him looking up and to the right, a sign that he was trying to remember something. Which meant that she likely said those exact words.

  Realizing that I had been given the green light, I pause as it felt slightly freeing to know that for the moment it felt like I was being granted autonomy over my own growth. For the first time in a while, it felt like I had control over my own future, which was an odd sensation. That said, this is no time to be caught up in the novelty of my newfound autonomy. Instead, I focus inwardly accessing if this is the best Skill I can get.

  Part of me thinks that if I just wait a second, I can probably get a better Skill. But during that time who knows what could happen to my patient. I pause only for a second, but then ultimately realize I have two Free Skill slots open that I could use for any Skill. Given that I still have time to choose other options, I ultimately decide to go for the Skill I need at this moment.

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  I don’t even take a moment longer to check out my Class build to this point or try to see my development. Instead, all I do is focus on taking this newly acquired Skill and using it for everything it can offer.

  With my hand on his body, I channel energy through my body, through my hand and through the Skill that feels like a mental door that has always been in my mind. I imagine this would be how it would feel to awaken from amnesia to explore your house and see a door in your house that you didn’t know existed before, but as soon as you see it, you know exactly what was in it all along.

  In this case, there is hope and an ability to focus my knowledge of how the body works and somehow amplify it through the application of a Skill. I don’t understand Skills, nor do I truly understand how magic is applied to Skills to amplify their effect, other than they seem to act like microscope lenses that help focus effects. Even now, using this Skill, a Skill based on my own personal knowledge from my past life still seems to have a few parts that just make no sense to me. Maybe it is the effect of magic, how magic is the over simplified way of naturally explaining phenomena that can be described, once we understand the underlying factors. I feel that this could be the same here, with Skills, particularly those that use magic, but for now it is enough to cause the bones within Adonis’s body to awaken and actively begin pumping out blood at an accelerated rate.

  The signs of my success are slow, and almost unnoticed at first, like inflating a flat tire, you don’t notice the minor points at first. I didn’t notice the exact moment that Adonis’s breathing became less strained, nor the moment that his heartrate stabilized to a normal level. Instead, all I saw was the rapid awakening effect of his body coming back to life, his eyes moving rapidly showing brain activity, and finally the moment he became fully conscious, opening his eyes and gasps violently to fill his lungs with a fully stabilizing breath.

  Adonis awakens and seems to mimic a floundering fish by splashing around in the pool of blood that had been gathering beneath his unconscious form. As he rises, his hands slip, but the strong hands of Markan and even his opponent Lefty reach down to grab him and help him up to his feet.

  I stay crouched, using my Trash Skill to clean up the ring, making sure to cycle new Life Mana as I work on cleaning the blood and viscera from the ring with my modified Skill. Looking at the clearing arena, I know that there is a hint of lingering Life energy left behind, but I can’t quite see it once it fully settles into the ring.

  “Let’s hear it for our contestants! That is the ultimate form of sportsmanship” Sal cuts in, apparently trying to play up the camaraderie aspect of these events. Kam uses the moment to raise both contestant’s hands in a victory pose. A clear sign that both fighters won one match apiece. All I can see by this act is that the house always wins.

  I used this moment to clean off the blood from Adonis, even though it is his own blood, it is still best to try to get rid of everything I can. While I am relatively certain that I got rid of all signs of the necromantic fungus that had infected and nearly ended Lefty’s career as a soldier, I didn’t want to take any chances. Even going so far as to hold my hand up to make sure all blood was gone from both contestants, before I let them leave.

  “Thank you!” Lefty is the first to thank me, even going so far as to bow a knee and lower his head in an act that seems oddly reminiscent of how Knights would have back in the Middle Ages of my old world.

  “Yes, thank you,” Adonis replies and he too bows but only after placing his fist over his heart then bowing at a near ninety-degree angle towards me.

  I just awkwardly wave at them, before leaving the ring first. Only after I get down from the ring do I realize that I am smiling. It takes a moment, but I feel a slight weakness in my body, but it is the good type of weakness. This is the type of weakness you feel after a great workout, one that you are going to recover from shortly, but still can feel the tingle burning through your whole body.

  “You okay?” Markan asks once we are in our section. I nodded, opening my mouth to reply, but only now do I realize I need to take a deep breath. Instead of replying, I just nod, realizing that this might go back to my Acting Skill. Building up the mythos of my being a silent Healer, though I am terrible at not talking, apparently.

  The opponents walk off past us, Adonis being the winner goes past me and seems to try to give me a wink. Of course, there is just one problem, Adonis might not realize just how haggard he looks, which makes his gesture more awkward than anything. As he passes by, I am glad I have my veil on, as I am pretty sure that my gaze wouldn’t be the most encouraging at this moment. Particularly as I can feel my face going from a hard workout smile to a grimace I would give to someone who looked like they were covered in garbage and asking for a hug. Fortunately, Adonis goes on, but it is clear he might have seen something in my eyes that caused him to move on faster than he would have liked.

  “With that, the first round of our competition is finally over,” Sal called out, distracting everyone and letting us all know that we were about to begin the second round of competition. Normally there would be a delay, but I guess I took so long between matches that Sal is ready to push this forward. He does offer me a chance to ask for a break, “healer, are you ready?”

  At that comment not one, but three different lights from the overhead rafters turn to focus on me, somehow managing to get rid of ay semblance of a shadow. Realizing this is all up to me, I nod my head and raise one glove covered thumb up.

  “That healer is always ready for action!” Sal calls out, getting the crowd excited as the next opponents are ready to come out. “Are you ready for the second round?”

  More cheers!

  The crowd begins stomping their feet and yelling in excitement causing what feels like a minor earthquake to happen in the stadium. Feeling their anticipation, I can’t help but also feel exhilarated by the shared excitement that is only possible in a large gathering of people.

  “Now let’s begin our round of repeat fighters. To our left, we have the flower that Devours, Johny DiVoratore!” Sal called out. As he spoke, three overhead lights all turned to highlight Johnny and Lucia, who was holding the oversized curtain open to allow Johnny to exit to a surge of fanfare.

  As he moves out, I can see that he looks off. There is a slight tiredness to him. A look of slightly dark circles that his somehow perfect life is not going as smoothly as he would have wanted. But there is something else, something that my mind notices and recognizes as wrong, but I can’t quite explain. The more I look, the more I don’t see anything too out of the ordinary.

  It isn’t until he makes it a few feet down the walkway and the light of all three overhead lights shine on him and Lucia that I begin to see the oddity. Just like what I experienced earlier, all three overhead lights converged to get rid of Lucia’s shadow. There was just one problem, the shadow under Johny’s feet remained. More oddly it seemed to bubble and wiggle as he continued to move forward.

  Watching the shadows, I could only stare trying to figure out how his shadow was not affected by the overhead lights.