Gong looks at me imploringly, clearly wanting me to come with her as quickly as possible.

With a quick nod, I motion for her to lead the way so we can get there fast.

She surprises me by saying, “Excuse me,” and picks me up. The area around me turns into something like a blur, as we move through the dark tunnels so quickly that it takes my eyes awhile to adjust to the darkness and high speed.

She speaks as we move.

“One cultivator that regularly fights in this area was having a fight outside the walls. My friend, Jenn, was on her way back from a scavenging run, when one cultivator accidentally hit her in the arm, completely tearing it off.

“From what my sources are telling me, it’s bad enough that if we don’t get there in time, she’s not gonna make it.

“I’m sorry to ask this of you, especially after telling you not to use this. Please, I’m begging you, can you help my friend and heal her?

Is there even any question here, on the right thing to do?

“Of course, Gong. I’ve even come prepared for something like this.”

Looking down at my waist, I have a bag that has several concoctions, elixirs, and potions, that I can essentially use as excuses to heal people.

I haven’t been spending this week idly. If I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it the right way.

I’ve learned my lessons. At the very least, this is within the genius level of territory.

I take a quick look up at Gong, with her still carrying me. I can see the remnants of tears running down her face. The anxious look I saw there previously is mostly gone.

There’s hope there.

One thing I do notice, while we keep moving, is that I’ve never been in this branch of tunnels before. This seems to be one that leads outside of the normal exit and entrance points. The exact ones she always warns us to not go through.

But since we’re talking about Gong, she probably knows what she’s doing.

At that exact moment, I hear the sounds of some type of strange insect echo behind us, from one of the other corridors we passed. Gong seems to speed up just a tiny bit more.

Soon after, though, we emerge onto the surface. The sunlight practically blinds me, and potentially her as well. However, she doesn’t stop for even a second to adjust. Right after my eyes adjust to the new light, in the distance I can see a group of demi humans huddled around an injured woman, as we fast approach from on top of all the buildings.

The woman appears to be a lizard human mix. Generally, her features are primarily human, but she has scales and a tail. Injury-wise she’s not moving and the blood flow from her missing arm is still coming out, but it looks massively slowed.

Gong looks down at me, and says, “I can throw you and have you land safely with the web on you. Would you be OK with that? Are you ready?”

Oh crap. I’m definitely not ready for that, but if it’s this serious then, will need every second we can get.

I quickly make sure that my bag is secured to me and closed. After confirming that, I look up at her and give her a terse nod.

Before I can even blink, I realize I’m up in the air, flying at an absurd speed, with a web attached to my back.

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!

Just before I reach her location, with some scary accuracy, I can feel extra webs (that I didn’t even know were there) on my neck, head, and waist, slow my descent.

Since it’s clear that she has this under control, I reached my hand in my bag tightly and prepare to splash the contents of the little Phoenix elixir over the woman’s arm stump.

Finally reaching her location, I float onto her and cover her in the elixir. A gasp erupts from the surrounding crowd, with some of them scrambling backwards in fear.

I yell out to prevent any surprise attacks, “I’m here to help! I’m here to heal her.”

Immediately, the elixir shows to be doing its work. It begins knitting the stump together, slowing the blood flow from her.

I yell out to the group, “Hurry, grab her arm and bring it to me!”

No one moves. I point to a random person in the crowd, looking directly at them and yell at them, “What are you doing?! You, hurry up and grab the arm for me and bring it here!”

The young man, no older than 18, seems shocked, but gets up and runs over outside the crowd and brings over the clearly decimated arm.

Grabbing the arm from him, I put it up against the wound and dump second elixir over the connection between the two, as well as the arm itself.

I pour a second elixir over the arm which then begins to heal any damage, extending out and bringing it back to a normal state.

My scan reveals that it was actually right for Gong to throw me at that time. If she hadn’t had rushed us here, only 30 seconds later and she would have been dead.

Much too close for comfort.

Her breath appears stable, and her arm continues to regrow. After all this, she may be even healthier than she was before.

This is pretty amazing, though. I didn’t even have to use any of my powers on this.

This.

This is the power of preparation and the culmination of our efforts.

The craziest part about this, this was done with an elixir that was made with pretty cheap ingredients.

Obviously, I’m going to need to say how much this ‘cost’ to make as an aside in front of everyone. This has the capability of causing too many waves, if it gets out in the wrong way.

Finally, feeling like I can relax, I fall back onto my butt. Taking a look around, everyone else still seems to be somewhat frozen. Gong is already arrived, albeit 10 seconds after I had already arrived via ‘parachute.’

Looking at Gong, I speak loudly so the bystanders can hear.

“Don’t worry about paying me back for these ingredients. Even though they’re extremely expensive, it’s definitely worth our friendship. Even more so, since this was someone precious to you.”

Gong’s face tightens up for the briefest second, but the look quickly disappears as everyone turns to look at her.

She responds, “Thank you for that. I know how much these cost you to make. Let’s hurry and bring her away, so we can do more detailed care for her.”

Once again, almost before I can blink, she whisks me and the other woman up into her arms and away. Speeding off, back towards the caves.

As we move forward, she gives me a grateful look, but then sighs.

“Thank you for your help with this, James. I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

“You don’t even have to say that. If you need my help with anything, I’m here to help.”

She gives a quick smile before it turns slightly wry.

“I think I know why you said what you did. Though, I don’t think you meant to give off the connotation that may have come off. It’s not that bad, though.”

“What do you mean? I meant to have it so that people wouldn’t believe that this is an easy produce elixir.”

“Yes, I believe that will come off correctly. However, they also will take that as we have even more special relationship, which isn’t that bad, honestly. Just different from the rumors that I’ve been spreading around.”

She thinks on it a bit more, before continuing, “I think I can make this work.”

Well, if that’s not going to be much of an issue, then I say it’s a job well done.

As I think that, the woman held beside me, starts to stir from unconsciousness.