FMH: Everything ~ Thirty-Four

After several hours of harassing and haranguing, Zed finally convinced Luke to take a break from the slaughter and come back to discuss various strategies. He assured them that he was very unhappy with having to stop watching his Potentia counter increase and informed them that the break in going Full Murderhobo had better be worth it.

What truly convinced him was the fact that his efficiency had increased to ridiculous heights, thanks to a simple one-off comment from Andre. If the Druid could give him more helpful tips like that, he might even be more inclined to pay attention when the man spoke outside of advice. It was doubtful, but everything could happen in a universe of infinite possibility. By the time Luke joined the duo, they were deep in a heated conversation.

“I understand that she's going to be in pain, but if you don't wake her up, she's going to miss out on all of the Potentia.” Zed was arguing furiously. “What do you think she would rather do? Miss out on all of the new monsters that are easy to kill, and give high amounts of experience, or sleep through it so that she doesn't have to ‘hurt’?”

Andre leaned in, his voice going low and dark. “She was charred to the bone, Zed. It's not about if she'll be in pain or not. Frankly, her nerves could be completely destroyed. There's a chance that she just doesn’t survive waking up. Not unless we do something that gives her a better chance or anything to regrow what has been destroyed. She needs a Healer, and we don't have one.”

At first, Luke wasn't going to join in on the conversation, but then he realized what they were talking about. “That's why Taylor is in the lotus. I thought you chucked her in there because she was causing you problems.”

Andre and Zed both looked at Luke blankly, their eyes full of confusion. Unsurprisingly, it was the Druid who replied. “What are you even talking about? Do you have any idea how hard she would try to kill us after we let her out of a lotus, if we had put her in one without getting her permission? I don't think I could even force the issue, unless I had a whole lot of land that I was bound to, and I went all-out. Even then… she's pretty quick to shoot lightning around.”

“She blew herself up.” Zed helpfully explained. “I was trying to tell her that using fire on this world was a bad idea, and she wanted to test why that was. Sent a full power blast of flame out of her hand. It was super effective, but she hurt herself in her confusion.”

Luke nodded solemnly at that information. “Fire is way too explosive here. Burns too hot for too long. On the plus side, it will stop at Zone boundaries.”

“You're saying we don't have to worry about igniting the atmosphere and killing everything on this planet in one giant conflagration?” Zed’s eyes were sparkling as he spoke, though his tone was disappointed.

“No. That's not what I'm saying. That might actually happen, if you were to use a ranged fire Spell and aim up.” Luke sternly warned the Bard. “But if it’s just the ground on fire, eventually it will go out, and it won't cross the Zone boundaries. How close to death was she?”

“They were shaking hands and playing rock-parchment-shears.” Zed started to spin up a story for the Murderhobo, but he lashed out and clamped a hand over the Bard's mouth.

“Andre?" The Murderhobo growled, trying to get some information that was actually useful.

The Druid actually agreed with the Bard for once, “He’s correct. She was down in the double digits, and if she sneezed too hard, she could have died. That might not seem like much to you, since you can just regenerate with a sip of liquid, but to the rest of us-”

“That would work.” Luke hesitated and started rapping his knuckles on Cookie's outer edges. “I probably wouldn't smash her face in accidentally, if I knew she was going to be doing it.”

“Smash her face…? Luke, what?” Zed moved protectively in front of the lotus that contained Taylor, an action that increased his reputation in Luke's brain. The Bard was the most outspoken against the Mage, even years after her mental rescue. The fact that he would protect her from a perceived threat, even from one of their own team members, was a huge step in the right direction for unit cohesion.

Luke tapped the Bard on the chest. “You should learn it, too, but you won't be staring at me. That'll make things easier. It won't feel quite as challenging. Heh. Alright, wake her up.”

Now it was Andre's turn to get defensive, “No! I don't know what is the matter with the two of you, but I am not going to be waking up a person who is being held together by charred ligaments and carbonized flesh. Not without a good reason!”

“Sure you are. Pump her full of the best painkillers that you can whip up, keep her focused and alert, and we'll have her fixed up in no time flat.” Luke slowly held out a fist, letting it inch through the air closer and closer to the Druid, then lifted his thumb ever so slightly until it was finally in the upright position. “We got this. Go team.”

“Thank you, Luke. You know, I was just trying to figure out how to make giving someone a thumbs up as creepy as possible, then you stepped up in a big way.” Zed had scooted to the side so that he was out of the way between Luke and the flower-encased female. “Just so we all know what you're planning here, can you explain it as though we had no idea what you were talking about? As in, no clue at all?”

“She needs to heal; we don't have a Healer. We can make her heal herself.” Luke turned to start walking toward the monsters once again, as his companions tried to see if there was any information in what he had said that was usable at all. They seemed to decide that there was not.

Zed scooted up next to him, stopping when he was about fifty feet away from the monsters, also right at the edge of their range. “Maybe just a tish more information, buddy? Otherwise Andre will get all grumpy about not knowing what he is supposed to do. You know he doesn't like that. He's the sort of guy that really likes to have a plan, a man with a-”

“If you stop talking, I will start.” Luke closed his eyes for a moment. Then he opened them and turned his full attention onto the Bard. “I will say that I don't understand why you can't come up with these plans yourself. Andre was able to optimize my attacks with old information. Why is he not using the correct new information to make his plans? Taylor got access to Meta-magic. All she needs in order to make a Spell version of something is to see it in effect. I'm going to go and intentionally get damaged so she can watch carefully and turn my healing Skill into a single-use Spell effect.”

Zed's eyes bulged to the point where Luke idly wondered if he would need to catch them as they popped out of his skull. “That's… that's brilliant! Just like you said, I can do the same thing with Echoes of Reality! I'll tell Andre! Maybe give us twenty minutes or something, so that we can make sure she is all painkiller-ed up? Also, I still need to convince Andre about the importance of waking her up at all, and will do a little vote to see if we think that your plan will work at all. Then we could-”

“Bum Thunder.” The shockwave that followed his movement sent Zed tumbling, even as Luke appeared in front of the wall of monsters. He needed to do a bit more running to get in range, then he went straight into fighting. For the first time, some of the needles being fired off were not sent at him, instead being launched toward the Bard who had dropped to his butt. Luke wasn't worried, as he had ensured that Zed was out of their casual range. Still, it was funny to hear a yelp of fear in the distance, followed by the sound of feet pounding on soft grass. “Never gets old.”

He had earned nearly a thousand Potentia by the time Andre angrily shouted at him that they were ready. Luke glanced backward, seeing a wraith coated in flower petals staring at him. For a moment, he almost went on the attack, then he realized that he was looking at what was left of Taylor's face. Without another word, he positioned himself correctly, called Cookie to hand, and swung. “Shockwave Cleave!

Damage dealt: 34,881 blunt.

Potentia gained: 2,652.

Damage taken: 349 damage from rebound.

Current health: 581/930.

Then he was flying through the air, his body nearly half destroyed. Blood flew out in huge arcs, and his clothes were shredded even further. He had been noticing that his manifested armor was holding his clothes together, but he was pretty sure that, if he were to drop the manifestation at this moment, he would be completely naked as soon as he was hit by the first gust of wind. Instead, Luke landed and tore through the ground, coming to a stop only a few feet away from his mummified teammate. “Ow.”

“Seriously Luke, I have no idea how you're able to consistently damage yourself over and over! I bet that, if you would just take the time to-”

Luke interrupted Zed’s tirade by holding up a hand and wheezing out, “This is probably going to be really hard for you to learn, Bard. Pretty sure that, in order to ‘hear’ a Skill and turn it into a Mastery, you have to be quiet.”

A look of dawning horror crept across Zed's face. “Oh no! He's right! Those monsters finally did it! They beat sense into him!”

Then he scampered over and got on his hands and knees, pressing his ear up against Luke's actively bleeding chest. Luke let his head slide to the side, and he locked eyes with the Taylor almost-corpse. “I hope you're ready; I don't want to have to do this more than I need.”

He dumped a mouthful of mana into his mouth, then onto his chest, narrowly missing the Bard. To Zed's credit, he was so focused on listening that he didn't react to the liquid death that was mere inches from his head. Usually, Luke would get to his feet as soon as he was physically able to do so, but now he held still until ‘You Need to Stop’ ran its course fully.

“This Skill allows me to take mana from my environment and use it to regrow and replace damage to my body. It also makes it impossible for poisons and hallucinogens to take effect and slowly increases in potency when I find something that can make it through the resistance.”

“I refuse to be part of increasing this Skill for you,” Andre warningly stated, getting an annoyed glance from Zed and Luke almost at the exact same moment. “Did you get it, Taylor?”

It took a long moment, but she was able to rasp out a harsh, “No.”

“If we did it again, do you think you could learn it?” Luke stood up and asked her, trying not to loom over her desiccated form.

Again, there was hesitation, but he could tell that she was trying to form the word ‘yes’. Luke nodded then ran toward the still-agitated monsters. “Then we try again!”

In just a few moments, he had returned to his crater and was drinking liquid mana. He let the Skill play out then got to his feet and sent a questioning glance at their Mage. Luke didn't need to ask if she had been successful. The reforming trachea that could be seen through her sloughed-away skin told him everything he needed to know. He took a quick step toward her, dumping the remnants of the liquid mana down her open mouth.

“Luke!” Andre wailed in fright as he walloped the huge Berserker away with a sapling-sized tree trunk. “You killed her!”

The Murderhobo returned in an instant, backhanding Andre so hard that he went tumbling like Luke had only a few minutes ago. He shouted after the bouncing form, “Careful, Druid! You don't have a bunch of grass fighting your battles for you!”

He looked at Taylor, whose flesh was actively bleeding now that her body was rapidly producing blood once again. “Huh. You need to prioritize growing skin so that you keep that blood inside of your body.”

“Is that… possible?” Taylor's voice had energy in it again, even though she coughed and sent out a handful of charred black particles, whose origins Luke didn't bother to put too much thought into.

He shrugged, “It might be. I usually just dump water on myself until the process is completed. How long do you have the Spell for?”

“Until I am… fully healed… or the concentration of… mana decreases.” Taylor managed to gasp over the course of a few seconds. “I’m so weak… I need more mana. Get me some?”

“Mana? More like man up.” Zed appeared next to Luke, a huge smile on his face. “You've got to be at least half healed by now; go get your own water! Hey, Luke! I got my own version of it, too! Andre, looks like you're the easiest to permanently damage while we're in this dimension!”

“Yeah, I am.” Andre woozily walked over, his jaw obviously broken. “Pleash shtop hitting me.”

The Murderhobo shrugged at that, even as he offered a water skin to Taylor. She was healthy enough she could push the flowers away and reach out for it. “You started it. Don't hit other people if you aren’t okay with getting hit back.”