Chapter 35 - Restoring Caisleán (Part Six).

Neeka glanced at the party status bars on the left side of her interface and noticed Søren's health bar was nearly empty and blinking red with a blood red icon in the shape of three drops of blood beneath it. As she tried to puzzle out the meaning, his health bar dipped precipitously low and the flashing red overlay pulsed with deadly intent. The Fuerven Speaker hurried across the glade as quickly as her legs carried her. She couldn't see Søren beneath the pile of harpy flesh, blood, and feather. Just the tip of her spear jutting out from the slain harpy's back.

She slammed her shoulder into the corpse of the harpy and shoved it free from Søren. The front of his jumpsuit was painted red and covered with dirt and feathers. Both his jumpsuit and the side of Søren's chest were flayed open, revealing stark white ribs spotted with blood. Neeka looked at the wound, horrified.

"There's no way the bandages can stop this bleeding," she whispered to herself as she knelt next to Søren. His health bar flashed again and dropped lower. A new icon was added next to the drops of blood, showing a stylized face with eyes closed. A memory surfaced in Neeka's mind, of a song her Grandfather had sung to her during training to become a Speaker. It was rumored to be a Word of Power for healing, but they had never been able to produce any effect from using it. Neeka realized the interface was likely the key and she opened her interface faster than she could blink.

Her mental star-map full of constellations spun wildly as she navigated towards the Logos node. Lines and points of light blurred into smears of white against a multi-colored nebula. Her quick mind bounced between different nodes until she found the one she was looking for, [Song of Restoration]. She tapped on the skill and a prompt flashed into view.

Congratulations traveler! You have completed the requirements to unlock [Song of Restoration (Copper I)]. Would you like to spend a skill point to learn the skill? Y/N

Neeka spent the skill point and began singing, her hands resting on Søren's wounds. The tips of her claws dug into the skin and pulled the wound closed as she pushed her essence into the song. Her voice took on an ethereal quality neither her nor her grandfather had ever achieved in the past. The flow of essence, draining from her body increased the longer her song continued. The health bar flashed several more times, dropping lower and lower until the icon of three drops of blood began to blink and fade away. Neeka's essence bar bottomed out and her song ended.

Søren groaned and then coughed. A spray of blood ejected from his mouth and spattered across the grass next to him. He turned to his left and found Neeka swaying next to him, looking like she was about to pass out.

"Neeka!" he shouted and tried to sit up. The pain that he had felt in his chest and ignored flared up into a blinding pain he couldn't ignore. He fell back down to the dirt and reached out to take one of Neeka's hands, heedless of the danger of her claws. "Neeka! Wake up!"

Neeka stopped swaying and opened her eyes, a smile on her face. "Good, you lived. Spent nearly all my essence at once. Healing song."

"Why? Why not just let me revive back at town?" Søren asked.

"You forgot something, Dirt," she said, tapping him on the forehead. "The resurrection shard is not installed yet. Six days left still. Where would you go if you die? Would you respawn? Must stay safe until you learn more."

Søren realized that Neeka was right. There was no way to know for sure where he would end up if he had died. The next six days are going to be nerve wracking, he thought to himself. I could have ended up on one of the Gateway stations or somewhere else on this world.

"I am so sorry Neeka." Søren managed to work himself onto his side without touching off the healing wound on his chest.

"No Søren, it was my fault. I believed these woods to be safe as they were in my time," Neeka explained. "I did not account for so many cycles of changes. The harpies were a distant foe in the past. Further north near the Scrappers. I think the Scrappers could driven the harpies away from their nesting grounds or the feathered nuisances have expanded their range."

"They seem like a fairly dangerous foe," Søren said and then looked over at the blue engram. "Good for loot though."

"So it may be." Neeka rose to her feet, groaning and struggling as if she were exhausted. She picked up the engram and brought it over to Søren. "Store this for later. We need to move. The third harpy may gather more of their flock to hunt us."

"That's motivation to get moving for certain," Søren gasped as he pushed himself to his feet after storing the engram into his inventory. He checked his status and saw that the natural health regeneration was ticking up steadily. He hobbled over to the corpse of the powerful harpy and noticed a slight glimmer around its corpse. He tapped the corpse and a notification appeared in this interface.

Would you like to loot the corpse of [Bloodcrest Harpy (Copper XI)]? Y/N

"Yes, I think I would like to do so very much," Søren said to no one but himself. Neeka was already making her way out of the forest glade, heading back towards Caisleán. The shimmer around the corpse vanished and two engrams, a [Rare Engram] and an [Epic Engram], appeared, as well as a brilliant blue gemstone. The two engrams quickly vanished into his inventory and then he picked up the gemstone. A mission update notification sound dinged inside of his head.

Build the Icon of Heroes

You have discovered a Champion among your people deserving of a reward after death. Build the Icon of Heroes to grant them the ability to use Waystones and respawn as the Travelers do. Citizens of Caisleán may contribute TEK to complete the icon.

Requirements

* Defeat an enemy at least five ranks stronger than you

* Loot the essence of its strength

* Imbue the essence into an icon of your settlement

* 1 / 1 BP (build point)

* 5000 / 5000 TEK

Rewards

* Construction of the Icon of Heroes

* Increase number of Champions to 3

* Gain 1000 reputation with Citizens of Caisleán

"There's four of five requirements for that quest. Now to figure out what it means by an icon of the settlement." Søren followed after Neeka, neither aware of the third harpy circling high above and tracking their progress back towards Caisleán.