Pushing away the exhaustion, I managed to stand, albeit a little wobbly. There were more messages, other than the one telling me that I had gained experience but for now, I ignored them, focusing on Sigmir who had fought the thing up-close and personal.

“Are you alright?” I asked Sigmir, who was looking a little worse for wear, with gashes marring her skin. Part of me already knew the answer, but I still felt a need to ask.

“Yes, I am.” she answered, as we all came together in the middle of the clearing, near the carcass of our enemy. Here, the noxious smell was even worse, making me gag and grab Sigmir to pull her away, so I would be able to treat her wounds.

“Adra, Rai, do you think there are parts of that thing that won’t smell like that?” I asked, knowing that there was no way I would voluntarily eat any of the meat or wear gear crafted from its hide, not unless there was some way to miraculously remove their smell.

“What are you doing?” Sigmir asked softly, sounding amused while I dragged her away.

“Maybe the claws and teeth, those could be useful, but otherwise? I doubt it.” Adra answered my question, while I took another glance at Sigmir.

“Love, I want to treat your wounds, but not next to that thing, I need to be able to focus.” I explained, before speaking up, to address Adra. “Can you get whatever looks useful? I’ll treat Sigmir.”

After taking a step or two into the woods, making sure that we were upwind from the carcass, to get rid of the smell, I pushed Sigmir down near a tree, so she could lean against it. Even the few moments of calm had allowed Lenore and me to regenerate a small amount of Astral Power in addition to the bit we had left after the fight.

“Relax and let me take care of you.” I ordered Sigmir, ignoring the slightly amused look on her face. Meanwhile, Ylva left her Hallow and flopped down next to Sigmir, which prompted me to take a good look. I realised that she had been hit during the melee, a deep gash dyeing her fur crimson.

“Love, please take off your gear so I can get a good look at your wounds while I take care of Ylva.” I ordered Sigmir, not feeling up to the full-body healing I normally used. I would have to treat each wound on its own, which required me to see and directly feel them.

Centering myself, I placed my hands near Ylva’s wound and reached out, allowing my magical senses to get a better idea of the wound. What I found almost made me sick to my stomach, again. There was some remnant of the wolverine’s Astral Power inside the wound, still slowly eating away at Ylva’s flesh, corroding or corrupting it.

Feeling that this infection might turn into something seriously troublesome, I reached with my blood-magic, carefully searching and scanning to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. Luckily, while I had expended a great deal of Astral Power, I hadn’t needed to focus a great deal so I my mental state was good. I felt Lenore rise up within my mind after she had taken a bit of time to center herself after our use of the Avatar-State and she joined me in searching. It might have been a little early, both of us a little raw and sore from the joining, but I also knew that she’d never risk Ylva’s health by not doing everything she could, and maybe more, when healing her. I would have done the same for Sigmir, so I forced down the discomfort and shared my senses with her.

“You find them, I destroy them.” Lenore suggested after she had seen what was going on.

“That’s fine. Do you think you can use the Ice-Astral Power to contain what you destroyed? Otherwise, I’ll discard it as needed.” I accepted, while adding a bit of an idea of my own.

Her understanding resonated within me and i started to focus on my task, looking for the remnants of power from the Wolverine. I was still unsure what exactly the magic it had wielded had been, I could see traces of Blood Magic in it but there were key-differences that made me shudder. Even after its death, the magic was progressing, making me think of some sort of curse, which might mean some sort of combination element between Blood and Darkness, or it might be some sort of disease, acting like a magical cancer. In sheer terms of lethality, it was worse than anything I could come up with, so far.

Each of us were over ten levels higher than it had been and we had fought it as a team, yet, without magical healing, I wasn’t sure if Ylva would be able to make it. I saw her body fight back against the creeping influence, quickly tagging the locations and letting Lenore help. Which she did, in a way I hadn’t quite expected. When I had first noticed the problem, I had expected a need to cleanse the corruption, excising the surrounding flesh and cutting it out, before healing the damage caused by that. But Lenore had obviously a different idea, wielding her Death-Magic with utmost caution and precision to carefully destroy the corruption while leaving most of the surrounding flesh unharmed. Once the corruption was dealt with, she used the Ice Astral Power I was naturally adding into our bond to freeze the parts and extract them.

It was an impressive feat of magic, inspiring me to focus even harder, trying to make sure that I was getting each and every speck. But at the same time, I knew that we had to hurry, as Sigmir was most likely suffering from the same infection.

Pulling my mind back from Ylva’s body, I needed to blink a couple of times, just to reset my mind into a state that was suited to looking at the actual world, instead of using my Blood Magic to perceive Ylva’s body. I felt Lenore’s agreement, her understanding that we had helped Ylva to the point that she was out of danger. The last step of our job was to draw out the small Ice-crystals that contained the remnants of the magic and flesh Lenore had destroyed. I was still not sure what to call it, it seemed to be both, magical energy and flesh, just that the energy consumed and changed the flesh, to propagate itself. Like a disease.

Looking at Sigmir, I felt myself start to worry, while her wounds were a lot smaller and superficial, only scratches, there were quite a few of them. With extra time to spread, it might become a problem. We had to hurry, despite the exhaustion both Lenore and I were starting to feel.

“Let me help you, love.” I gently told her, pressing a soft kiss to her lips before placing my hand on the first wound. What I found, made me exhale a sigh of relief, it seemed that the amount of magic inserted into the target was proportional to the size and depth of the wound. Just like before, I was searching while Lenore’s mind and magic followed after me, making sure that the influence of the Wolverine was thoroughly banished from her flesh before we closed up the wounds. Again, we used our respective talents without holding back, hunting through her body, almost subconsciously switching from wound to wound, to make sure we didn’t miss anything.

It was grueling.

While the individual wounds, as I had first felt, were less severe, the influence seemed to focus on spreading through her body as much as possible, almost as if there was a mind controlling it. Which was an incredibly discomforting and disturbing thought, a disease that acted with intelligent purpose? Not what I wanted to feel.

Still, we had caught it early and carefully made sure to hunt down each and every speck, acting with speed and caution.

Finally, I felt myself sack, the healing after the fight a lot harder and more intense than the fight itself, that had been a mental and magical cake-walk by comparison.

“I think we managed.” I told Sigmir, letting myself sink into her arms, while I felt Lenore leave her Hallow, hopping over to the resting Ylva.

Sigmir propped me up a little, pulling me into an embrace that was comfortable for both of us and I started to speak, explain what had happened. Maybe I just needed to vent about the supposedly easy quest which had the potential to kill both her and Ylva.

“We knew that quest-difficulty and levels are not precise. Just remember the Devourer, it should have been suicide to even attempt its destruction. This one was the opposite, it should have been easy, trivial even, but death can lurk behind every corner.” Sigmir explained and pulled me a little closer.

“But I wouldn’t give up even a single day. We just have to live each day to the fullest.” she suggested, before pulling my head up, to give me a more thorough kiss on the lips.