Healing Skills

Chapter 8: Blood-Eye Liar

Chapter 8: Blood-Eye Liar

The silence was filthy.

It was not soothing. It was a sort of silence, which smoothed itself against Kael as a wet wool, and caused him panic. It set his skin a crawling, as though the air itself were suspended.

Nox, who could no longer be called, poor cunt, stood still. His arms were loose and his smile was as barbed wire across his face.

Then laughter erupted. It was sharp, wet, and warped.

"Ha... hahaha..." The voice, which came out through the mouth of Nox, was not human. It snapped like burnt bones in blaze.

"Was it that obvious?" dripping mockery the voice said.

Kael stayed silent. He just gazed and his eyes tore the illusion with a knife. Nox was not that. That was another one, a gastropod in a meat suit, a puppeteer smiling inside the lips of another, a puppet.

"The monster," Kael thought. The System had warned him.

It was an illusionary being. Fiction constructed on teeth and bone. But was it still a lie? Why did it feel so real?

Nox threw back his head and his smiling was as sharp as a knife being sharpened. "Are you scared?" he asked.

Kael did not miss a beat. He was not frightened yet, but he was conscious.

His eyes flicked. He observed motion somewhat out of the trees. He didn't look straight ahead. His sideline vision was a weapon, to kill its prey, and disguise itself among its prey. What he observed there contracted his stomach.

A figure. Tall. Slender. One of its eyes, as a curse, opened in the middle of its face.

It was under the shadow of old trees, standing, and looking. It was hiding, cautious.

Kael leaned over. Only a little. Then fell in a great heap, hands trembling.

"P-please, don’t hurt me!" he stuttered, and his voice was as a child.

The creature in the woods took the bait. It stepped closer. And Paul’s—no, Nox’s—mouth twisted into something that was no longer even a smile. It was an abyss wearing lips.

"Don’t be afraid," it said. "I’m not going to hurt you."

Kael grabbed a rock.

He flung it at Nox’s possessed face.

Crack.

The rock hit. Hard. The expression didn’t change. In fact, it grew wider.

‘Why the fuck is this cunt moving so slow?’ Kael thought.

The creature crept closer.

Closer.

It stopped just within arm’s reach. That’s when Nox tilted his head, the expression beginning to fracture.

"You’re not afraid," it said, voice almost offended.

Kael moved.

He didn’t hesitate.

He struck.

His fist collided with the creature's red eye.

It screamed.

Not a sound. Not a word. A fucking scream. Like glass shattering inside Kael's skull.

Suddenly, the forest bled hallucinations. A dozen floating eyes blinked into existence around him, staring with hatred, with hunger, with madness.

Kael ignored them.

Illusions.

Just noise.

-Bam.

His fist met the monster’s face again.

-Bam.

And again.

-Bam.

And again.

The creature started weaving. Fingers moving like snakes. An incantation. No, a trap.

But then—

Crack.

Kael heard it before he saw it. Behind him, bone breaking. Flesh warping. The sound of something beautiful being ruined.

Nox’s body jerked upright. Dead, and yet moving. His skull split open. Brain matter leaking like spoiled soup.

The corpse charged, sword in hand, eyes lifeless but driven by something unnatural.

It swung.

A wild, stupid, useless swing. So far off Kael’s head it nearly made him laugh.

The monster couldn’t control Nox’s body properly. The reanimated meat was drunk on distortion.

Crack.

Thud.

The corpse collapsed, its body finally giving up.

Kael didn’t let the opening slip.

One more punch.

Then he grabbed the longsword off the grass and drove it into the creature’s red eye.

The shriek that followed wasn’t of this world. It tore at the seams of reality, bleeding sound from every direction.

Blue light exploded in Kael’s vision.

[Mind Stalker (Level 50) Killed! +10000 EXP]

[Generating New Title!]

-DING-

Ruthless Combatant

Raises all damage by 10% when facing enemies at least 30 levels above you.

Kael blinked. His hand still trembled, knuckles stained with something black and steaming.

"Ten thousand experience," he whispered. "In one fight."

You’re welcome, the System hummed, smug.

“Fuck you,” Kael muttered aloud.

Don’t be like that. You were lucky. That thing focused all its magic on the others. Barely had anything left for you. Besides, you’ve got Discipline. Mental magic doesn't hit as hard on you.

“That would’ve been nice to know before I was being haunted by a fucking red eyeball in a meat suit,” Kael snapped.

Relax. Its physical stats were trash. Level 15–20 at best. You punched a coward. Don’t get cocky.

Kael stood, breathing steady. The creature’s corpse had shriveled, now no bigger than a doll, its red eye extinguished.

Nox’s body, though... that was another story.

Kael tried.

He cast Greater Heal.

Twice.

The golden light swirled, soft and holy. It faded without effect.

Dead.

Truly dead.

"Pity," Kael whispered. Nox had been an arrogant cunt, but he could swing a sword.

‘System,’ Kael asked, frowning. ‘Why did I get 50 EXP for using Greater Heal now?’

Skill rarity scaling. The rarer your skill, the more experience you gain. Welcome to progress, baby.

Kael opened his status screen.

+---+

Name: Kael

Age: 9

Race: Human

Class: Healer [Common]

Level: 11 [150/11000 EXP]

Titles:

Ruthless Combatant

Raises all damage by 10% when fighting enemies 30+ levels above you

Stats:

HP: 416/498 [+50]

MP: 770/870 [+50]

STR: 50

END: 58

AGI: 47

INT: 120

CHA: 16

Skills:

Hand-to-Hand Combat [Lv. 5] – Increases STR by 5% when fighting barehanded

Discipline [Lv. 7] – Mental magic has a 7% reduced effect

Shooting Mastery [Lv. 6] – Projectiles gain +6% velocity

Greater Heal [Lv. 1] – Restores 600 HP, Costs 20 MP

Purify [Lv. 0] – Cures diseases, Costs 100 MP

+---+

‘No EXP for healing myself, huh?’ Kael muttered, wiping sweat from his brow.

He glanced over his party.

Joanna and Zane were insensible.

Nox—forever offline.

Eric?

The bastard looked into the nothingness as though it should say something to him.

Kael sighed.

"What now?"

"Stay here," the system said.

'That's it?'

In due course somebody will arrive.

'Probably?'

Probably.

Kael stared up at the trees.

"Fucking hell."

Elsewhere

Elira trailed Kael with eyes open and silent feet. Drennov had designs, and what nature they were she would know.

She darted through the corridors and followed the group of Kael until they got in the doorway.

She waited.

Waited.

Then she entered after them.

However, there was no training room.

White.

Blinding.

Infinite.

A single note on the floor.

She picked it up.

Glad you made it, Elira. Your betrayal, I heard, was told me by Maren. Wish we should have decided to leave you alone? Enjoy your new home. You'll be here a while. -- Drennov

Her expression darkened.

Elira torn the note with her mind.

The flow of psychic energy rose and her telekinesis was brought to life.

She blasted the walls.

Nothing.

She could not break the paint even at Level 120.

This was no ordinary room.

This was a seal.

A dimensional prison.

Powerless.

Circuses she dashed--right, left, round and round.

No doors. No breaks. No hope.

She resumed the situation in which was the note.

There was another.

Different handwriting.

Different ink.

You can't escape.

Written in red.

She flipped the paper.

A cut.

Tiny.

A drop of blood.

Her blood.

It was a warning.

It was a sentence.

Even gods were able to bleed here.

Elira fell to her knees.

"Fuck..."

Her fists clenched.

Her mind screamed.

But she was powerless.

'I'm sorry, Kael...' she thought.

And the white consumed her.