NOVEL NEXT Chapter 18: Life Gave Them Lemons
Leo looked over and saw that the other wolf had, as the box claimed, died as well.
"That's two for me and one for you bozos," Hugh said proudly.
"One and an assist," Lily replied, her eyes staring out at nothing.
Leo looked at his leg, seeing the mangled tissue and the blood pouring from it. He was instantly queasy. "According to that helpful little stat box, I've got about three minutes to live if we don't fix this. Can I get some of the magic mushrooms, Lily?"
"No," Lily said absently, her eyes still glazed over.
Is she leaving me to die? "What?" Leo asked, his voice dark and his teeth clenched against the pain.
Lily's eyes lost their dreamy look at his question, and she turned to him.
She blushed and coughed. "Sorry, Leo, that's not what I meant. I leveled and decided to take a Regeneration power. I'll use that instead, and we can save the mushrooms until I have time to convert them into a more powerful potion."
Oh. Leo was a touch embarrassed as well. I shouldn't jump to the worst conclusion immediately. Although her comment seemed pretty damning.
Lily walked up and put her hand on Leo's shoulder. A relaxing warmth spread through his body, and Leo stared at his wounded leg, fascinated, as the mangled flesh slowly straightened and began to knit itself back together.
Lily has used Regeneration, Rank I, on Leo. Bleed is removed. Leo will receive 1 health back every 6 seconds for 1 minute.
"We've got a healer now!" Hugh said. "Sweet. Healers are pretty rare as adventurers."
Then he grinned his goofy grin at Leo, his eyes crossed weirdly. "Huh. We've got the guardian and the healer, now. Huh. If only we had someone who was spectacular at hurting things, we'd have the three basic adventuring roles filled. Huh."
"Ass," Leo said affectionately as he watched his leg continue to regrow in front of his eyes. "I'm sure when I make the next level, I'll turn into a deadly warrior."
"So," Hugh said, turning to Lily, "Can I get a heal as well, please?"
"For the back of your leg?" Lily asked, walking around Hugh's eight-foot form to stare at his hindleg.
"Yeah."
Lily reached over and probed it, her brow furrowed. "How much damage did your notification say you took?"
"One," Hugh said, his voice low.
Lily gave a slight smile. "Don't be a baby—it takes me two essence to use Regeneration, and it would only heal you a point of health. Between myself and Leo I've already used four, which is a significant portion of my reserve. Let's not waste my abilities, 'k?"
Oh, yeah, she doesn't seem wounded anymore herself. Not sure how I missed that. Probably because I was staring fascinated at my own leg as it healed.
Also, she picked the magical ability and can use it four seconds later? That seems weird. I wonder how that works.
"But it hurts," Hugh whined.
"Hurts—or stings?" Lily asked, one eyebrow arched and her hands on her hips.
"…Stings."
Leo laughed. "Suck it up, buddy."
Leo's leg was fully healed. He stood and dusted himself off. Although my pants are basically just blood-soaked rags at this point. They barely even provide modesty.
He glanced over at Lily's once-beautiful dress, now reduced to bloody strips of silk. And she's one or two well-aimed hits away from becoming an involuntary nudist herself. We really need to find some clothes or armor soon.
"Spoken like the guy who got a heal. It's anti-dragon prejudice, I'm telling you," Hugh groused, but Leo could tell that he wasn't really upset.
"Let's go get the treasure," Leo said. "I'm sure that'll make it feel better."
"Oh, yeah, that'll definitely take away the sting… of being unfairly denied a heal."
"Oh, wordplay, I'm impressed," Leo said. "I didn't know you had it in you, bud."
Hugh chuckled and head-butted him affectionately where he stood, nearly knocking him back to the ground.
"Well, c'mon," Lily said. "The sooner we get the dragon his dad's ill-gotten goods, the sooner I can get to rebuilding the kingdom."
Hugh glared at her for a minute. Leo was pretty sure Lily's banter had crossed the line into irritating Hugh, but Hugh let the matter drop. Lily walked determinedly around the outside of the huge, marble plaza and then started down a broad thoroughfare that headed due East from the great market.
Leo and Hugh hurried after her. As he turned down the large boulevard, he got his first full glimpse of the royal castle, a mile away.
It was everything he imagined a medieval fantasy castle should be, and then some. It had two walls—a huge outer wall and a taller inner one. There were a large number of towers around the outer wall, and he saw multiple interior keeps, connected by bridges made of the same marble as the rest of the castle. It was gleaming, white marble, and what had been done with it was impossible, according to Leo's knowledge of civil engineering. Parts of it seemed to flow, like natural grown wood. And it barely appeared to have decayed at all. And the bridges… Did they cut a marble bridge in its entirety and then move the multi-ton stone to rest in niches? How did they do that?
"That's an impressive castle," Leo said. "How, exactly, did the architects manage to do all that with marble? Especially the curved walls? Was it slowly chiseled over time to look like that?"
"What?" Lily asked, confused.
"Magicless dirt-grubbing world, remember?" Hugh said.
"Oh, right," Lily said. "Sorry, I forgot. No, it wasn't chiseled. Earth magic using masons carved the stone, and in most cases, smaller chunks were taken up and the mages used their power to melt them back together. Then they caused it to flow into the shapes they wanted. Earth magic is less common among elves than many other races, but it's still an elemental magic and relatively common."
Hugh told me the Elemental magics were the most common, but I can't remember them all. Earth makes total sense, though, Leo thought as he gracefully walked down the marble path toward the castle.
Lily was continuing. "We had numerous famous Earth magic wielding artists and builders over the generations in our kingdom. And the stone of this entire palace was improved with the hardening magic abilities, as well. So it supports weights it couldn't normally handle in places, allowing for far more graceful buildings."
That makes a lot of sense, actually. Magic as a substitute—or accompaniment—for advanced engineering.
A while later, they reached the castle.
The front gate to the castle, through the outer wall, was wide open. The portcullis, a much more normal wood-and-iron affair, partially rotten and rusted, lay on the ground about fifty feet from the gate itself. It appeared to have been ripped from the door and thrown by some angry giant.
"Dad always did believe that no problem was so tough, it couldn't be solved by the judicious application of violence," Hugh noted.
Ripped and thrown indeed, by an angry dragon. If Chao isn't gone, we're royally screwed.
They passed through the massive gate, a marble hall filled with arrow-slits and murder holes. They exited into the inner courtyard. A procession of beautifully wrought pillars, each of marble, about ten feet tall, and bearing a small, glowing crystal, lined the walkway to the largest of the inner keeps. The entire front wall of that keep had been smashed open, and the central floors and interior walls were ripped out, leaving just three outer walls and a ceiling surrounding an otherwise empty space.
"That's Dad's lair!" Hugh exclaimed, laughing, as he left the group, running forward.
Something about the whole thing looked odd, and it took a moment for Leo to get it.
Lily's gasp came just as Leo asked her, "That place looks entirely bare… Where's the hoard?"