“God dang it,” I hear someone else saying. Though I pay no attention to whatever else he says afterward mentally filing it as the useless mumblings from someone in shock.

Holding my emotions steady and being deliberate about my actions, I pull two potions from my inventory and pour one of them down Alex’s throat, who still has the awareness to swallow it even after his arms start to go limp.

Next, I pull one of the health fruits from the inner world, something that works in similar principles to the potion, but both effects could stack.

I squeeze health fruit, feeling satisfaction as the juice drips down his throat.

Someone else delivers me a bandage with plenty of healing salve pre-applied, and I place it carefully before withdrawing the roots from the surface of his skin, hold the pressure with my hand and intertwine the roots with the healing patch.

A pair of people kneel and get ready to move him, but a look from me send them stumbling back.

“Don’t you fucking move him.”

“I, I... Richard told us…Uhh…”

On the other side, I finally notice the other five people who are being attended to, though none with injuries nearly as serious as Alex’s.

Greg, whose tall frame dwarfs everyone else here, approaches me and says:

“Richard says there is someone in the village that may have a chance to help him. Some kind of healer. Now we will be careful…”

He stops seeing hundreds of roots start flowing out of the ground and grabbing hold Alex firmly but gently evenly lifting him from the ground. To my back, the flying craft sets down. I move to grab one of the sides of the makeshift stretcher.

Kneeling Greg and two more grab hold and lift the stretcher and gently, not even jostling Alex, we all carry him to the flying craft. I hold my tongue wanting to leave everyone outside behind, though they only delay departure for a few seconds.

As soon as the last person has a single foot inside, Ricard hits the gas lever like the most impatient of bus drivers. Turning the floating rune mana stream knob all the way clockwise and cranking forward the power lever we quickly get on our way.

I look at Alex.

What could I do to maximize his chances?

One of the soldiers asks Richard: “You talking about when you said that we could help him?”

“Well, it’s not certain, but there is someone in our village who has had mild success in healing small injuries.”

Anger bubbles up in my chest, and I nearly yell:

“We have a fucking healer and you didn't think that it was worth bringing him?”

Calmly but not apologetically he answers:

“No, we decided that it wasn’t something even worth mentioning, not with only a single one who barely has control of his powers.”

“He would be safe with you here, what actual danger?”

“You were very clear in your descriptions of the danger even if we are flying.”

“Yes, inside the HLZ. Not against a single beast out here.”

“Look, Ludmar’s powers are very new and limited. The fact we have only a single person shows that this limited resource seemed more important to preserve for when he becomes actually useful, instead of trying to rely on luck.”

“Urrgh, “ I hold my tongue, still frustrated, but at least vaguely seeing his point even if he is wrong.

I think for a few moments before starting doing the math.

With a strong mana pulse, I could send a data message, pig backing on the system the scouts put in place for when going outside the current network.

I could probably bridge the 21 kilometers gap to send audio through but it wasn't needed, a message now and then would suffice.

I see him starting to pull back on when we reach about 200 kilometers an hour, faster than our cruise speed, but lower than when pursuing the beast. From my spot, I extend my hand and send tendrils pushing his hand around the thrust lever all the way forward again.

He looks back at me, kneeling beside Alex and he just asks me:

“Are you certain?”

Seeing my nod, he returns one of his own and we both turn to where we could do the most help. He pilots as constantly and smoothly as possible and I start work on a few runes.

I grow the design that was in place for a ‘pager’ a few scouts carried.

An encoding unit, a few dozen cells of data storage and an input rune. Tapping a short but meaningful message I spell out.

“Send healer to meet returning flying craft.”

A few moments later I send the next message.

“Straight-line starting 30 kilometers south of village 12.”

It wasn’t perfectly accurate, but it would be enough and should at least get them moving and when we were hundreds of meters from the network we could have something approaching a proper conversation without being forced to spend thousands of points of mana.

“Send fastest craft, maximum speed, mana from Nash.”

Having taken care of what was immediately in need, I pour another health potion on Alex’s mouth and send my perception fully into his body focusing on his neck and severed arteries. He tries to speak something but I shush him.

“No need, just rest, a healer is coming to meet us on a flying craft.”

He tries to speak another couple of times, but he eventually just gives up and I go back to fully concentrating on his injuries.

I don’t have anything even remotely approaching proper healing powers and even the few hours here and there I spend trying to use nature magic for the purpose were of no help.

Information on it is scarce and I wanted to throttle someone who had it and didn’t share it with the rest of us. I make a mesh of very thin roots shaped like a stent grown inside his very veins helping to provide the structure for the catalyzing agents in his blood to fully staunch the wound.

Without piercing his skin or using some type of glue, I couldn’t take the slippery tissue and draw it together, but even this should be helpful and I smile at having something else that I can do to help.

I grow and grow the root network with thinnest and most inconspicuous and malleable hair-thin roots that I can, and make a full mesh both in the inner and outer part of his circulatory system growing beyond his neck, trying to grip itself in.

Sometime later, I fell the mana drawfrom the craft increase as Richard starts to talk.

“Yes, coordinates.”

“Alpha 2 degrees 32 minutes,… by…. heading ..”

I ignore most of it, just letting the fact we were inside the comm network again be a comfort, though it lasts less than a spoon of ice cream in a child’s hand.

“Negative on midway encounter, I repeat, negative. He isn’t feeling safe, he will remain in the village, just come as fast as possible.”

“Gods…” Richards starts cursing but gets a hold of himself, and the roots I grew inside him now seem even more important than before.

It probably wasn't making that much of a difference, but if it saved a single droplet of his blood, it would already increase his chances and I would take that.

Using my entire, though admittedly limited knowledge of anatomy, I continue growing the mesh over the affected arteries in his neck and trying to find good attachment points so I can help the torn tissues to come together.

I’m not very successful in mending his flesh together, but at least the thin mesh is firmed in place and allows his blood to coagulate well. Enough to stop the bleeding.

Though, after I have made as much progress as I possibly could with the roots, I’m left without anything to affect, without anything to do. Without any actions that will increase his chances of survival. That is when I start to send nature mana over to him.

Before now I never succeed, but if I learn the trick to healing someone right now would be the perfect time.

A torrent of mana flows from me and I attempt to give it the healing property. There are no runes, no known path and even the fact that mana could have a healing property was just speculation, but I do my best nonetheless.

Two hours of fruitless work. Even as I pull a sliver of Aether, teetering on the edge of what my gut tells me would be a shot in my foot. But even as we get in view of the village I don’t even manage to increase his HP by a single point or have any idea of how to go about healing someone.

In the last few seconds coming to the village at full steam, Ricard starting to bleed our speed over a few hundred meters, and though it’s relatively abrupt, the deceleration is at least constant and doesn't seem to put much stress on Alex’s wounds. We pass right over the sidewall having already informed the guards in the walls so nobody would be shooting us out of the sky.

After Richard nearly skids the flying craft in the central square we carry Alex, still unconscious following a messager waiting for us specifically for this and we head for the hospital.

Inside, I see two of doctors and a nurse, but beside them, is the one who is supposed to be able to heal. I recognize him as one of the mages I had stopped seeing with Merlin, so he didn't go to another village, he was just on other pursuits.

The short man with an angular face looks sharply at us and them at the makeshift roots stretcher holding Alex perfectly still.

Impatient, I say:

“Come on, heal him already.” I gesture him over while growing a stand to hold Alex with there in the middle of the office for the moment but the words out of his mouth halt me.

“First, there is the question of payment.” He says and I cannot believe him. With my mouth agape, I’m speechless. “I charge a silver per day and you have to provide the mana.”

I wish to strangle him for his time waste, but instead, I hold myself back and pull one gold coin from the inventory and put it in his hand.

“That should be enough for months, next time just treat who comes to you. And mana is no object.”

He opens his mouth to say something, but a look at me and he snaps his mouth shut and dry swallows. I idly wonder what he saw on my face, but as my gaze goes back to Alex, all other thoughts fade and he approaches to heal one of the only friends I had on the instance.

Before he touches Alex, he starts assessing the injury and says:

“Everyone out.”

Frowning, I look at him, but he doesn’t even acknowledge me as he touches the patch on Alex’s neck.

Seeing both doctors file out as if this was a normal occurrence, I follow them. They close the door and walk off, but I sit right outside.

My entire awareness goes just a few meters behind me on the healer and Alex. A tread of mana follows from his fingers and I try to parse out the runes, but with only the mana manipulation skill and the complex and intricate runes from his system gifted skill is all a blur.

As the minutes pass, I start getting snippets. Small runes slightly unbalanced as his mana control is not quite to my level and the few runes that receive more mana glow in sharp contrast.

With the roots in his neck, I feel something passing over them, but as it goes up and down, I don't feel any change yet.

That is what I realize this is something akin to a diagnostic spell, it’s the only thing that makes sense. After about two minutes, a much more complex runic formation. Something that only a skill relying on runes or the could provide. Not even Merlin could hold this many runes at once. Even trying to replicate it with Runes would be troublesome as the system’s skills morphed the support runes too frequently to be reliable with static runes.

Pulling mana from the receptacle on the wall he starts on closing the wound. The minutes pass as the flesh knits together and scabbing hides the wound.

A thousand mana, two thousand. As he approaches three thousand mana in total he stops. There is something he is doing. The runes make no sense, even without understanding the entire schematic, I can tell they are not altering the mana in any way I can perceive. From his very hands the mana leaves, these runes are all about making the mana more effective, not about giving the healing property to it.

Almost an hour working and he is still quite injured, but at least now he is no longer at risk. As soon as I get up and about to enter it again, Ludmar makes his way to the door.

“Now, we need to have a talk about your manners,” Ludmar says taking the words out of my mouth.

“Is he ok? Shouldn’t you keep going?”

“He is stable. Not everyone can handle that amount of mana that you can. Now let’s go somewhere else.”