Chương 28: Farewell for Now

The fox couldn't use its Iron Quills Skill because Scarlet was underneath it, where its vulnerable underbelly had no quills. This would have been the perfect angle for her to do some damage. If only she was able. She had no weapons apart from the one in her hands; trapped in its sheath by the same snarling maw that was actively trying to rip into her. Even if she did have a proper weapon, she didn't have enough strength to penetrate the ridiculously tough hide of the Level 8's body.

Especially not after whatever it did to power up had left it saturated in mana that she just knew was reinforcing it. She knew it. The fox knew it. And they both knew who had the advantage. From its awkward angle, the fox couldn't land an immediate, killing blow. Instead, it raked her side with its claws. tearing jagged gashes from her shoulder to knee. Burning-hot pain lanced through her, and her vision went white.

Sheer will kept her arms from buckling and she nearly bit through her bottom lip trying to hold back her scream. Her blood-slicked fingers fumbled for the button on her cane that would let her unsheathe its blade. She simply didn't have the speed or dexterity to manage it while she struggled to hold off the fox. The pain made it hard to think, but her mind was the only real weapon she had to fight with Dark eyes glinting, the fox pulled back, then pounced toward her. For a moment its entire body was airborne.

Scarlet knew that even if this next attack didn't finish her off, blood loss would do the job. She needed to staunch her accumulating wounds, and soon. The fleeting thought that this wasn't even the worst she'd been hurt before was tempered by the reality that this time help was not on its way. The best she could do was tuck her knees up before the fox landed on top of her and hope she could divert the impact. She wouldn't go down without a fight.

She wouldn't– She almost didn't notice when a tiny creature darted out from her shirt, kicked off her chest with an unexpected boost of mana, and slammed into the soft underbelly of the adolescent earthen fox. There was another flare of mana on impact, and the force was enough to throw the fox off target. It hit the ground hard, tumbling with her tiny companion. Scarlet turned just in time to see Maus and the fox roll, get up and engage in a brief but brutal battle.

She staggered to her feet, unsheathing her blade, but Maus had already blinked back in and landed a devastating ravaging bite aimed for the underside of the fox's neck. The fox was fast enough to avoid a direct hit, but Maus managed to catch part of the neck and into its front shoulder, causing the Level 8's leg to buckle as it slammed into the ground once more. The quills on its back clinked together, sounding like wind chimes. The gentle tinkling ceased abruptly as it bristled, quills spiking as it reared up.

Maus tried to dart away, Scarlet threw the shaft of her cane. The fox descended. Scarlet was too slow. Maus was too weak. Neither of them made it. The fox slammed down, both paws landing directly on the tiny mouse with multiple times the body weight of a predator made of dense metal. It didn't even take much effort. Maus was gone. The tight control Scarlet had been holding over her emotions, her thoughts, her mana, shattered.

She sank into the sea of energy around her, matched frequencies with that pool inside of her she'd barely begun to understand. Her mind speeding up as her world became nothing more than energy and data. Reaching within herself, she grasped at where she'd felt her mana heart before, in those fleeting moments of meditation. She was not calm. There was no relaxed breathing or circulation, no careful feeling out of the energy. She just grabbed what she could and pushed. It hurt. Everything hurt so much.

She could feel her nose bleeding, and there was a reddish haze to everything, but she refused to falter. Instead, she pushed harder. A notification. [Skill Available: Mana Imbuement – Tier 1] The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. [Yes | No] [Yes] She barely even looked at it before she said yes. The fox was charging at her once more. She could almost feel what it was thinking. It was going to leap.

It was going to slam her down again, only this time she was weaker, more exhausted, easier prey. There wasn't much distance between them to begin with, and the fox closed the rest of it quickly. The mana that had been like an untamed torrent was now flowing smoothly through those pathways she'd just barely discovered. Into her arm, out through her hand, into the cane. With as much precision as she could muster, she channeled her rage, and loss, and pain, and exhaustion.

For once, her body did exactly what she needed it to. The blade glowed brightly. The fox leapt. Scarlet slashed. Two bodies-slammed into the ground once more. One breathing deeply, the other not breathing at all. As the head of the Level 8 tumbled to the side, she felt no sense of accomplishment. Only bone deep weariness. The forest was quiet, she was out of combat, and her system notifications were flashing. Hollowed out from the inside, Scarlet opened the incoming notification. [Synergy detected…] [Combine Mana Imbuement with Mana Sense?] [Yes | No] Scarlet stared blankly at the words in front of her for a long moment. Her mind, which had been moving so quickly and with such alacrity before was suddenly very quiet. Her thoughts were a dial tone, signal static, a spinning cursor on a loading web page endlessly circling nothing. A wave of vertigo struck her, which was not a great sign. Her body was reminding her that she was bleeding out. By some miracle, none of the lacerations had hit a major artery.

That didn't mean they weren't oozing blood everywhere. She needed to get up, bind the wounds, then find somewhere safe to rehydrate and rest before she considered continuing the quest. Right, she had two quests. Was she going to fail one because she got stuck convalescing in a portal world? She needed to move, dammit. But the thought of doing anything- No. She needed to get up. She decided to tap into her empathy, maybe try to bolster her emotions while she got herself sorted.

She knew she couldn't afford to become reliant on the skill, but she also knew that using a crutch when you could stand on your own was completely different from using one when your leg was broken. Except when she reached for it, when she tried to tap into her empathy and boost whatever emotion would keep her going, she realized there was nothing there to reach for. This wasn't using a crutch on a broken leg. It was trying to use a crutch after your legs had been cut out from under you.

There was nothing there to bolster. No hidden well of resolve or sudden burst of motivation. There was nothing to keep her going except the pure, rational logic her mind had retreated into when nothing else made sense. Okay then. Reason it was. Reason told her Maus wasn't dead forever. He'd be back in five days. Reason told her the smashed corpse of her best friend and only true companion wasn't evidence of a loss, but of a temporary separation.

Reason told her she wouldn't see him again if she didn't get the hell up, patch her damn wounds, and very carefully put on her big girl pants. And reason told her that after she did all of that, she needed to go back into her interface, pull up those notifications, and accept the prompt. In that order. So that was exactly what she did. This wasn't exactly the emergency she'd pictured when she raided that pharmacy, but she was incredibly glad she did.

She pulled out a cocktail of drugs that would fight infection, dull the pain to manageable levels, and keep her going when she really shouldn't be. Two liters of water, two packs of bandages, one wildly inadequate painkiller – she needed to dull the edges, not blur them – and a change of clothes later, Scarlet was about as patched up as she was going to get until she found somewhere to properly clean up, and maybe get some actual medical care. She knew her limits.

As it turns out, First Aid 101 does not adequately prepare someone to deal with injuries left by magical, projectile launching, cannibalistic foxes. Once she was sure she wasn't gonna bleed out, it was time to get back into those notifications and see just what it meant to merge a skill. Scarlet was running alarmingly low on empty skill slots, and she had no idea when she'd get more. Also, she was curious about what exactly a skill merge was.

[A skill merge occurs when two highly compatible skills come together to form a new skill. This new skill often incorporates an individual's proficiencies, affinities, action and attunements.] The guide informed her. If Scarlet was understanding it correctly, a skill merge occurred when two skills were compatible, and the new skill that formed was tailored to the individual. There were other notifications she would eventually need to check. Right now, though, she only had the energy for one.

Most could wait until later, but there was one in particular she was hoping to see, one she couldn't really afford to ignore if it might help her survive. She tried to recall that specific message, and to her relief it popped up. [You have received System Rewards] [View Contents] [Retrieve Contents] Apparently, she's done enough to earn a pat on the head from the System. Now, to see what the System thought was worth the life of her companion, and nearly her own.