Chapter 38 Life and death situation
"He is bleeding out," Sabine said in panic.
Yazmeen replied, "Heal him, you have guard echo resonance, do it fast." Yazmeen had torn off a piece of her robe at the bottom, revealing a little ankle flesh which caught the attention of Jaden and Hutrar, who pretended not to care. She used the robe to try and cover the injury as it leaked blood, while Mael struggled to stay conscious.
"I will try." Sabine placed her palm over the wound as she concentrated. A warm blue light shone weakly on the neck injury, but the wound was not closing.
"It’s not closing, do it faster," Yazmeen said quickly.
"I am trying, I don’t know why it’s not working!" Sabine said loudly.
"You are not doing it properly!" Yazmeen yelled back in irritation.
"I am trying! It’s not closing!"
"What type of guard echo user are you? You are so useless right now!" Yazmeen said at the peak of her irritation, trying to clean Mael’s wound, which brought out more blood.
"Enough!"
"Sabine, focus… I know you can do this." Vandal patted her head as he encouraged her.
After a while the bite wound closed a little, and though the closing was slow, it reduced the bleeding.
Sabine was sweating on her brow as she concentrated. It was easier for her to form shields to repel attacks, but healing was something she was not good at at all. She remembered how her mother had blocked that attack back in the forest and simultaneously healed herself of the backlash from blocking such a powerful strike.
"Hutrar, I need you to try and heat this knife till it’s red hot." Vandal brought out a knife and handed it to Hutrar, who was still staring at Mael’s bloody neck blankly.
"Hutrar!" Vandal slapped his shoulder, causing him to snap back to reality.
"Heat this blade. There’s no time to stare. We need to get a grip and try to organise ourselves or we will all die here," Vandal continued. It looked like the wound itself was infected with some kind of black aura that seemed to prevent it from healing. I can’t tell them what I am seeing or they will know the truth about my eye.
"Yes… yes… er, hold on." Hutrar focused his fire resonance into his palm and held the blade as it gradually turned bright red like a tongue.
"Jaclynn, do you have any medication that could serve as a painkiller? I would hate to think you only brought poisons," Vandal asked.
"Yes, I have something to deaden the pain," Jaclynn said as she opened her brown satchel, bringing out a jar containing a blue paste and showing it to Vandal.
"I need an alcoholic substance," Vandal said as he looked at everyone.
"Like rice alcohol or something that can make me drunk. Nobody carried booze on themselves," Vandal said.
"I… I have fermented rice drink," Hutrar spoke up.
"Good, give it here." Hutrar took it out of his belt pulse and handed it over to Vandal.
"Jaclynn, I want you to apply that stuff around the wound area," Vandal ordered.
Jaclynn immediately smeared the paste around the wound area. Then Vandal tore his long sleeve from his arm, exposing his slender but well-built biceps and triceps.
Wrapping the cloth around the heated blade handle, he held it firmly.
"Hold him still, this will likely hurt," Vandal said. Jaden hesitated, reluctant to follow Vandal’s orders, but when he saw Hutrar immediately pin one arm, he knew this was not the time to argue. Jaden moved to pin the other hand.
"Here goes nothing." Vandal slightly stabbed the heated blade into the wound, causing a sizzling sound. Mael screamed in pain as he tried to move, but he was pinned on both sides. As the heat burned his wound constantly, drying the blood and cauterizing it, Vandal carved out the infected tissue with the black aura around the wound at the same time. The stench of fried flesh filled the air. Mael screamed in agony. Vandal poured the fermented rice alcohol into the wound before cauterizing it quickly. The shout subsided. Mael stopped struggling.
"Is he dead?" Yazmeen asked nervously.
"No, he isn’t, and he will be fine. He’s just breathing through the pain and resting. You see his chest rising and falling," Vandal pointed at his chest. Yazmeen calmed down, seeing that he was lying on the floor peacefully.
"Where did you learn that? Usually when someone is injured, we use healing resonance or clean the wound and bandage it after applying antiseptic herbs." Jaclynn was shocked at the process.
"I… don’t know… it was just an idea that I thought of." Vandal couldn’t tell her he learned it from Earth before he somehow died and wound up in this world.
"Let’s rest a bit before we move forward," Vandal said.
"Why would that spoilt brat attack Mael so viciously? She bit him like she was feral, like a wild animal," Chan shivered as he spoke half to them, half to himself, still unsure of the crazy things he had seen today.
"I think she was not herself, or that was not her. Either way, the only way we can find out is to look for her as we go deeper," Vandal said in a matter-of-fact tone.
They rested a bit and no one said a word. Mael regained consciousness but was still weak and needed assistance to walk, so Chan offered to support his arm as he stood up and walked forward.
"Let’s go," Vandal said. Everyone stood up and packed their belongings as they began to head to another open entrance. Upon entering it, they came out into open air, but although it looked like open air, the sky was almost the color of blood.
"What type of weird place is this?" Chan said as he looked.
Before long they arrived at the entrance to a cave. The cave had a cold and dim aura. Everyone stared at the entrance. Subconsciously they had put Vandal as their leader and were waiting for him to say something.
Vandal noticed a pattern on their journey. Jaden lagged behind the group, dragging his feet to a near standstill. He was clearly using the others as human shields in case of danger, and Vandal despised it.
He exhaled slowly, his voice dropping to a cold edge. "Jaden! Why are you so slow? I don’t recall you breaking your leg or using more resonance energy than Hutrar, who is in fact not fully recovered yet."
Hutrar’s expression changed in shock. How did he know I wasn’t fully recovered? Was my performance that bad that he could tell?
"I was only trying to protect our rear. Who knows where that lady might attack from?" Jaden said after a short pause.
"Ok, but that place is sealed, so from which direction will she attack if not from the front?" Vandal pressed on, smiling coldly in his heart.
"Well, I can join you guys in the front if you think she might attack from there, and they all agree with that far-fetched theory or speculation," Jaden said, trying to use the silence or hesitancy of the group to justify his staying at the rear.
But when everyone stared at him like he was being a coward, he decided to push to the front, standing at the same level as Vandal.
Then they entered the cave.
A head was carved on the statue with a scarlet dark devouring black hole carved on its forehead. The two eyes were black as night, and behind the neck was a pair of arms tens of feet long. Facing that statue made Vandal jump.
"This place is very strange. None of this is on the map, and we haven’t even reached the tomb yet."
As they passed, the pitch-black eyes moved.
It was watching them.