Chapter 45: Chapter Twenty Three - Part One: The Hearth Maiden
Afra had slipped into nurse mode and was looking at Kaviah and Eriene's wounds, pulling a simple first aid kit from her messenger bag and doing what she could to patch them up.
She'd taken a cursory review of Leta, deemed her healthy and not in need of medical attention, and moved on. The most she got out of the woman was a quick but sincere "nice spear." before she started sewing up Eriene's wounds.
Leta found herself absolutely exhausted, her knees feeling like Jello as all the adrenaline pumping through her dried up.
"That was so dumb…" Leta whispered, chastising herself for how the entire fight went down.
She'd gotten more lucky than anyone had a right to with the Minotaur and battle high had gotten the best of her. She'd charged into a brawl with the Loupgaru like a rage-filled barbarian, and she'd nearly died because of it.
The slight twinge in her ribs and arm from her freshly healed bones was all the reminder she needed that she wasn't at all repaired to take on monsters like this just yet.
In what felt like the most extreme trial by fire, she'd come to the realization that physical combat skills did not equate to immediate mastery like her Magician's Hand skill. While she had the knowledge of how to hold a spear correctly and proper footwork for attacks, she hadn't built up the strength or muscle memory to make the skill usable in a fight.
If the Loupgaru had thrown her in the other direction, she wouldn't have been able to get the nanites needed to heal herself and would have ended up a werewolf's chew toy.
Speaking nanites, Leta got up from where she'd been sitting and went over to the Minotaur that Simon had killed.
[THE HOST HAS ABSORBED 2,702,494 UNPROGRAMMED NANITES FROM CORRUPTED-MINOTAUR. CURRENT AVAILABLE NANITES: 2,794,552]
Leta gave a sigh as she felt her depleted nanite stores begin to refill.
The fight had also shown her how important it is to keep her stores full, which meant that she was going to need to get herself trained on how to fight, and quickly.
"Well, that's gross."
Leta looked up to see that Afra had stopped what she was doing to watch the Minotaur at Leta's feet begin to shrivel up like roadkill that had been in the sun for too long. She'd started to get so used to parasite from the dead Blessed that she'd forgotten that everyone here except Eriene had seen her absorption ability in action.
The dark-haired woman's nose scrunched up in disgust. "Is that normal?"
Leta shrugged, "For me? Unfortunately, yes."
"That's super yuck." She made a face like she'd just eaten something sour and returned to her work.
"At least it makes sure you've got one less person to patch up." Leta pointed out, heading towards the intact Loupgaru corpse that Kaviah had felled.
"Right on. Just wash your hands when you're done."
Leta leaned forward and touched the beast's shoulder.
[HOST HAS ABSORBED 2,402,568 PROGRAMMED NANITES FROM CORRUPTED - LOUPGARU. CURRENT AVAILABLE NANITES: 5,197,120.]
[WOULD THE HOST LIKE TO GO OVER POSSIBLE UPGRADES?]
'Tempting, but not right now.' The fight had made her more conscious of the choices she could make in upgrading herself. She wanted to take her time to really review everything and didn't want to be stuck in a small seizure as her nanites downloaded something.
The rest of the bodies were, as Afra put it, super yuck.
Two were little more than a pile of burnt bones and ash and the last was a disgusting mass of body parts, all of which held some nanites but not nearly as much as a full body.
[HOST HAS ABSORBED 100,418 PROGRAMMED NANITES FROM CORRUPTED - LOUPGARU.]
[HOST HAS ABSORBED 98,792 PROGRAMMED NANITES FROM CORRUPTED - LOUPGARU.]
[HOST HAS ABSORBED 490,637 PROGRAMMED NANITES FROM CORRUPTED - LOUPGARU.]
[CURRENT AVAILABLE NANITES: 5,886,967]
Leta gagged as she pulled her hand off of the dismembered leg muscle. "I think I'm going to be sick.""Well, get sick on the body then." Afra said over her shoulder as she finished putting a large gauze bandage on Simon's forearm, "That's one less place I've got to clean up."
Leta dry heaved then stood and stepped away as she tried to breathe through her roiling stomach.
Sensing that she was no longer in danger, Inimus melted back into her gloves and hidden pauldrons. Afra watched, mouth open in shock and surprise. "Okay, now that is awesome. Where'd you get that nifty thing?"
"It's… a long story," Leta replied, looking sheepishly at Simon who was shaking his head.
"We will review Leta's new equipment and go over what has happened here once we return to the Sect. Right now, we must evacuate the area." Kaviah grumbled, getting to her feet and helping Eriene stand on shaky legs.
Simon scooped up the elderly woman in his arms in an old-fashioned princess carry. "We don't know if more are on their way, so no splitting up."
"Okay, I need you guys in the other room, stat." Afra said with a clap.
Simon, Kaviah, and Leta shuffled into the outer room, Kaviah remarking "Why didn't you pick me up?"
"You would have hit me in the face, and we've both taken enough damage this day."
"Okay, take a deep breath and hold it. Brace yourselves." Afra shouted and held her hands out.
The forges once more burst into blue-white infernos, thick columns of flames crawling out like super heated fire spirits answering their master's call.
Afra's hands moved in an almost Tai-Chi dance around her as she commanded the fires to wrap around the bodies, breaking them down until they were nothing more than ash.
Leta dropped one hand to the floor as she braced herself, the power of Afra's flames creating a miniature firestorm that was sucking in air and everything around them.
After eating away all that was left of the bodies, the fire spirits began to circle around Afra, licking at the blood stains on the floor as they were drawn to their master. With a final push of her hands, Afra used her fire to force the air out of the building, sending the remaining ash through the windows and doors to be carried away by the wind.
Leta tried to get a breath when it was over but was left gasping at the lack of oxygen. After a second or so, the air started to blow back into the building and the group sighed as one, feeling like a thirsty houseplant just being watered.
Afra clapped soot from her hands and returned to them, a slight flush pinking her tan cheeks and a smile on her face. "Okie dokey. Let's get back to the Sect."
Kaviah nudged Leta in the side, who had been standing still in awe as she watched Afra's talents at work. "Get a move on."
"That was…"
Kaviah shrugged, "Meh. The term Hearth Maiden sounds dainty, but they're anything but. In fact, if the words forge, smith, fire, flame, or hearth are anywhere in their title, I'd give them a wide berth."
"Especially you?"
"More than anyone else, me. I don't have time for you crazy youngsters giving me headaches."
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