Chapter 1 - Divine Apostasy Book 2

Here is the safety rope you can use to climb off the cliff I left you on. As always, these are unedited pages and will likely change a little before publication. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

Ruwen’s legs were wet with Sift’s blood. Hamma’s Summon Order spell still filled the sky will light, streams of glowing branches, like a giant weeping willow, had almost reached the ground.

“How much time does he have?” Ruwen asked.

Hamma bit her lip. “His stats don’t make any sense. He should already be dead.”

“Hamma? How long.”

“Less than a minute.”

Ruwen took a deep breath and cycled through his inventory. He let go of Sift and Hamma cradled Sift’s head.

Ruwen removed his Rock Serpent Ring of Health and Ring of Exploding Regeneration and slid them both onto Sift’s fingers. The plus twenty-five Health of the Rock Serpent Ring wouldn’t do much, but he needed every advantage he could get. The Ring of Exploding Regeneration would add plus one Health per second to Sift’s Health regeneration, which was more significant, but probably not enough.

Focusing on an area ten feet away, he pictured the icon for Campfire, and five seconds, and one hundred fifty Mana later, a fire appeared.

He pulled his Void Band open and passed his hand under it. He caught the Rod Spider Webbing as it fell out. He handed the stack of ten to Hamma.

“Place one on each wound. It should stop the Bleed debuff,” Ruwen said.

Hamma didn’t argue and immediately did as Ruwen asked.

He reached into the top of the Band and retrieved the Stuffed Centipede of Solace. Ruwen didn’t know what level the poison was on those bolts, but the Stuffed Centiped of Solace would cure a level one poison completely, and reduce the effect by half for each additional level of potency.

“Those bandages are helping,” Hamma said.

“Good,” Ruwen said and then leaned over Sift. “Sift, hey, buddy. Sift.”

Sift didn’t respond.

Ruwen looked up into the sky for a moment. “Forgive me,” he whispered.

He leaned back over Sift’s head. “Hey, Sift. Lylan’s here.”

Sift whimpered.

“Sift, hey, buddy. Lylan’s here. She wants a kiss. Can you manage one?”

Ruwen looked up to see Hamma’s brow furrowed in confusion. But she didn’t interrupt him.

Ruwen brought the Stuffed Centipede of Solace to Sift’s lips. “Hey, Sift, It’s Lylan. I just want a kiss. A simple kiss. Can you do that for me?”

Ruwen held his breath, and after a few seconds, Sift puckered his lips for just an instant. Was it enough?

The Stuffed Centipede of Solace came alive and crawled onto Sift’s face. Ruwen and Hamma both screamed, and Ruwen jerked back. The small stuffed centipede bit Sift’s cheek, and a moment later, black fluid dripped from its tail.

“That is disgusting,” Hamma said.

“Agreed. It should help with the poison, though.”

Ruwen passed his hand under his open Void Band, and his stack of Minor Swabs dropped out. He noticed his Energy bar was half empty from keeping his Void Band open and he closed it. He handed them to Hamma. The Minor Swabs would reduce bleed damage by one Health point per second for ten seconds. They probably wouldn’t need them since the Rod Spider Webbing was working, but he wanted to have everything ready just in case.

“How is he?” Ruwen asked.

The Stuffed Centipede of Solace stiffened and then fell off Sift’s face. Hamma picked it up and studied it briefly before setting it back on the ground.

“His Health isn’t dropping as fast, but it won’t change the outcome. This Rod Spider Webbing is impressive. I think his only chance is to remove the bolts along with whatever poison is on them, and then hope the webbing stops the bleeding before he dies.”

Ruwen nodded and bent down to grab one of the bolts.

Hamma pushed him back. “What are you doing?”

“I was pulling out the bolt like you said.”

“No, that would kill him. I’ll do it. You be ready with the Rod Spider Webbing.”

Ruwen nodded.

Hamma gently put Sift’s head on the ground and moved to kneel opposite of Ruwen. She gripped the crossbow bolt with one hand and then snapped the fletching off with the other. Ruwen realized his Strength probably wasn’t high enough to do that. Hamma quickly broke the top of the other two bolts.

Sift looked pale, and the amount of blood around them made Ruwen sick. He felt terrible for putting Sift in this position. This was truly all his fault.

“Hey!” Hamma said.

Ruwen focused on Hamma and nodded.

Hamma bit her lip. “Okay, this is what we are going to do. I’m going to push these through his body and out his back. You place a webbing on each side.”

“Got it.”

Ruwen eased Sift up into a sitting position. Hamma took the stack of Minor Swabs and placed them over the splintered end of the crossbow bolt. She took a deep breath and then slammed her palm forward. The bolt slid forward and then out of Sift’s back. Hamma grabbed the metal head of the bolt and pulled it out. 

Ruwen immediately tried to stick a Rod Spider Webbing on the wound, but the hole in Sift’s shirt had disappeared.

“Hurry up!” Hamma said.

Ruwen grabbed Sift shirt and pulled up. The cloth separated as it came in contact with the two remaining bolts and then reformed as soon as it passed. Sift’s shirt came off with ease.

Ruwen tossed the shirt to the side and placed the Rod Spider Webbing on the wounds. The blood trickled out, which worried Ruwen. Sift didn’t have much time left.

Hamma’s eyes were huge as she saw Sift’s giant snake tattoo for the first time, but she didn’t waste any time. As soon as Ruwen had the webbing applied, she slid the next bolt through Sift’s body.

Sift looked limp, and his lips had turned blue. Ruwen placed two more Rod Spider Webbings on his friend. He had three left.

“I’m not sure about this one,” Hamma said. “It looks like it's directly over his heart.”

“Then pull it out.”

For the first time, Ruwen saw Hamma hesitate. Her face was twisted in pain. “I’m pretty sure we’ll kill him if we push the bolt through. But if it is in his heart, pulling it out might kill him, too. I don’t want to kill him.”

Ruwen understood. Hamma didn’t want to have Sift’s death on her conscious. A wrong decision here would seal Sift’s fate. He didn’t want Hamma living with that.

Ruwen grabbed the bolt and yanked with everything he had. The bolt hadn’t penetrated very far into Sift’s body and came right out. Ruwen’s momentum threw him backward, and he slammed his head into the road.

A ten flashed across his Health bar and an instant headache formed. He quickly sat back up to see Hamma placing a Rod Spider Webbing over the wound as she laid Sift back down.

She placed her hands over Sift’s chest and chanted under her breath. A soft blue light surrounded her hands and fell like fog over Sift’s torso. He looked dead, and Ruwen’s gut twisted in misery. He should have tried to stop Sift from coming.

Hamma stayed focused on Sift but spoke to Ruwen. “Your campfire is great. I can tell the difference in my Mana Regeneration.”

“Is he going to make it?”

“I’m not sure yet,” Hamma said calmly.

“Why are your hands glowing this time? Is it a stronger healing spell?” Ruwen asked, hoping it was.

“The spells before were combat heals,” Hamma said as the blue fog continued to surround Sift. “They are quick but inefficient. They don’t give off any light because, well, combat. Every archer loves a glowing target.”

“What’s this one? Is it powerful?”

“It’s a channeled heal called Uru’s Breath. Very Mana efficient. I can almost cast it continuously with your Campfire buff.”

“Come on, Sift, you can’t die,” Ruwen whispered.

“Did you notice the tip of the bolt you pulled from his chest?” Hamma asked.

Ruwen looked at the bolt he still held. The metal tip was bent. Like it had struck a rock.

“Maybe it hit the road when I fell,” Ruwen said.

Hamma, her eyes locked on Sift, shook her head. “You only hit your head.”

Sift had mentioned using Spirit to do internal work when they’d been looking at the destruction the Blood Moss had caused. Ruwen hadn’t asked what that meant because he had still been trying to process the Cultivation incident.

Hamma nodded her head to the side. “I heard those three bolts strike you.”

Three bolts lay near each other. Their metal tips were bent just like the bolt in Ruwen’s hand.

“You have some explaining to do,” Hamma said.

“I know.”

Ruwen rocked back and forth on his knees, praying silently to Uru to save his friend.

Hamma spoke softly. “I can’t be sure, because his Health pool isn’t remotely what inspecting him says it should be, but I think his Health has stopped dropping.”

Ruwen wanted to scream. He felt helpless as Sift teetered on the brink of death.

Sift’s eyes fluttered open, and he looked at the Rod Spider Webbing covering his chest. “You covered me in Bendie Poop!”

Ruwen let out a strangled laugh, leaned over Sift, and hugged Hamma. “Thank you! You saved him.”