“Fluffball!” cried Akira as he charged over to his bleeding fluffy companion.

Fluffball's large body slowly reverted to his miniature size. Akira could see a large gash on Flufball’s stomach, dying his white fur red from the blood that was slowly leaking out.

There was a decent-sized piece of black bone sticking out from the stomach wound, which worried Akira even more than the wound.

As quickly and as gently as he could, considering the urgency he felt as well as the wild battle that was still happening all around him, he scooped up Fluffball.

“AWOOOOO!” Akira let out a pained howl ordering a retreat towards the rowboats that had just reached the shore once again.

Several loud booms could be heard behind them as [Chubbustibles] continued to explode, severely wounding and even killing some of the rearguard soldiers including several of the Skeleton pirates.

The surviving werewolves including the large Zundar jumped, limped, and fell into the rowboats. When they were at full capacity they pushed off from the shallow waters and rowed towards the large ships.

Captain Pegleg and his remaining skeleton minions all ran into the water and made their way towards the ships.

Akira looked to the shore worried that the Infected would follow them but he found that they stopped at the shore and did not enter the water or try to attack them in any other way.

They just stared at the escaping prey with blank eyes.

***

“Damn it! Who destroyed my toys?!” shouted Bonestringer angrily as he looked into the distance.

“What? Did something happen?” asked Tibia.

“I lost contact with a large portion of the forces I sent...”

“No! All that energy wasted!” said Tibia, unhappy with the loss of all their hard work.

“I don't know who it was, but when I do find out I'll be sure to use them as a food source for the growth of these guys,” said Bonestringer.

***

With one arm, Akira pulled himself over the wooden railings while holding onto the miniature Fluffball with the other arm.

“Klyn!” shouted Akira in a hoarse growl, as he looked through the crowd of skeletons and werewolves that had gathered on top of the ship.

“Over here!” shouted Klyn.

“I need your help! Fluffball... he was injured by an exploding infected,” said Akira as he pushed through the crowd.

Klyn turned to the other shamen near him, “I'll handle this. You guys go see what you can do for the other wounded. If you can help them do it, if not... see to it that they are comfortable. Just make sure they are not able to cause trouble for everyone else.”

Captain Pegleg climbed over the wooden railing onto the ship and started picking at the ice that was now covering his bones.

“That was crazy. You definitely can not reason with those guys, they are far too gone,” said Captain Pegleg as he shook his head.

“Oh? What's wrong with the bone thief demon?” asked captain Pegleg when he saw Akira and Klyn nearby with the injured Fluffball.

“We need to use your Captain quarters,” said Akira, while he led Klyn towards the large wooden door at the rear of the ship placed under the large wooden steering wheel.

“Eh...well okay. I don't use it much anyways, just don't mess up the décor. It took me a while to get it just right,” said Captain Pegleg. He ignored the two and started to count the skeleton pirates that had survived the fight.

The wooden door slammed behind Akira and Klyn after entering the room, which was full of dusty wooden furniture that looked close to collapsing at any moment.

Akira kicked aside the wooden table in the middle of the room and flipped over the dusty carpet to its cleaner and less dusty side. He placed the small shivering body of Fluffball onto the carpet and started to rummage around in his bag.

Klyn inspected Fluffball from the side while he waited to see what Akira was doing.

Seconds later several glass bottles with deep red liquid were pulled out of his bag. He pulled the cork out of one of the bottles and poured half of the contents onto the bleeding stomach wound.

As the potion contacted the wound it reacted fiercely. Red sizzling bubbles appeared as if he had put grease onto a hot frying pan. A small gray and red smoke cloud started to rise from the wound.

Seeing this, his worries were confirmed. Something was severely wrong with the wound.

Klyn quickly chanted and waved his hand, which was now covered in a glowing white light, through the colorful smoke clearing it up.

Akira gently picked up Fluffball's head, his eyes were closed due to the severe pain. With great effort, he opened his mouth to try and say something but there was only silence.

Akira waited for a few seconds before slowly pouring the rest of the red potion into Fluffball’s mouth, to not choke him. When the bottle was empty he noticed the shivering had lessened but had not stopped.

“Interesting,” said Klyn as he inspected the wound on Fluffball's chest. “The wound has stopped bleeding but it does not look like it is going to heal anytime soon.”

“Can you use your Holy shaman chants to cure him?” asked Akira.

“It's the only solution I can think of at the moment, but mind you, we are still in the early stages of research on the use of holy chants on those who are infected. I can use this chance to test a few of my theories... Don't worry! I feel I have a small chance of actually cracking the mystery,” said Klyn when he saw the torn look on Akira's face.

“How small?”

“... 30% chance that one of my ideas work. It's not that I lack confidence in my ability, but whatever we have tried on the wounded in the temporary hospitals has failed.”

“As for this wound, it is different since we caught it soon after it happened, unlike the others. We'll see what I can do. But first, before I can use any chant we need to remove that piece of bone from his wound,” said Klyn, pointing to the black bone sticking out of the wound.

The area around the bone was now starting to show a darker shade of black instead of pink skin and white fur.

“Are there any tools you need for this?” asked Akira.

“Looking at that dark spot on his body, it's probably not safe to touch the bone with bare hands. I need something to get a good grasp onto the bone since it looks to be embedded quite firmly.”

Akira looked inside his bag and pulled out an old pair of tongs used for blacksmithing and handed them over to Klyn.

“Hold him steady...This is not going to be pleasant for anyone...” said Klyn. He took a deep breath several times to calm his nerves and still his hand.

Akira firmly held down Fluffball's shoulder and rump to make sure that he would not move.

Klyn's steady hands use the tongs to grab onto the black bone piece. With a nod to Akira, he gently pulled on the bone piece trying to slowly pull it out.

“AWWWOOOWWWWOO!” the agonizing pained howl escaped Fluffball's mouth as his head jerked furiously as he tried to escape the pain.

The sound stabbed Akira in the heart but he forced himself to hold Fluffball still.

Klyn let up on pulling after a minute of fruitless results. Fluffball quieted down and only let out a few more quiet whimpers.

“Not good... the bone feels like it is trying to fuse with his body,” said Klyn. He wiped away a bead of sweat that had formed on his forehead. The pained howls had shaken him a bit but his resolve was still firm.

“Let me try something else,” said Klyn.

As he held the tongs which were still grabbing onto the bone, he started chanting part of the holy shaman chant. White light appeared on his hands and extended onto the tongs and from the tongs to the bone.

Klyn again started to slowly tug at the bone piece and weathered the loud howls of pain coming from Fluffball.

The black bone started to slowly dislodge itself from the wound. After more than two minutes of battling with the force that was resisting the holy chant, the thin black bone the length of a pointer finger was successfully pulled out.

With the bone now pulled out a large puddle of blackened blood poured out of the wound as if Fluffball's body was trying to push out the tainted blood. After the large gobs of black blood escaped the blood returned to a normal red. The area around the wound was still a dark shade of black.

Klyn Wiped his forehead and placed both the bone and the tongs into a thick leather bag and placed the bag into a metal box. The bone and tongs would be used for further inspection and research.

Akira once again opened one of the bottles with red liquid and poured half of it onto the wound which started to sizzle again and when it stopped so did the bleeding. The wound still showed no sign of closing.

“These potions are the ones from the demigod's right?” asked Klyn.

“Yes,” was all Akira said, as he picked up and placed the shivering Fluffball's head on top of his lap. Akira gently pet him trying to comfort him after such a painful procedure.

“From what grandfather told me, those potions are even more potent than our healing potions or even the most expensive potions from the Magic Guild. For it to only be able to stop the bleeding...”

“What are you going to do now?” asked Akira.

“The first hurdle has been cleared. Now, I will start the chants, whatever help you can give me will be much appreciated,” said Klyn.

Klyn transformed to exert the most he could out of the holy chants.

Akira thought of what he could do to help as he watched Klyn hold his furry right hand in the air over Fluffball's wound.

With a growl, Klyn started to chant. A bright white light covered his hand and shined down onto the wound.

Akira seeing this had an idea come to him and decided to try it out.

[Darkness domain activated! Boost to nearby allies activated.]

The dark smoky mist spread out and covered the entire captain's quarters.

The holy light shone even brighter in the dark mist and soon it began to seep into Fluffball's body in the area around the wound.

1 hour passed with the two of them sitting still as statues... 2 hours... 3... 6...

“huff... huff... I'm running on fumes I can't keep going...” panted Klyn. His shirt was drenched with sweat and his face was a shade paler and sweaty. He furrowed his brows trying to keep his cold and cramped hand steady.

Akira was not sure if it would help but he passed Klyn a bottle with blue liquid inside and said, “Try this.”

Klyn only glanced at it before taking a sip to test the contents.

A soothing warmth spread throughout his body washing away the cold stiffness in his body making him feel as if he had just woken up from a nap.

He took another sip and he felt full of vigor once again.

They sat there and continued this until the afternoon of the next day.

The area around the wound was now glowing white and was slowly spreading out over time as more holy light was absorbed into the wound.

The wound still showed no sign of healing, but Fluffball's shivering and whimpers had all stopped and he was now in a deep sleep.

By now four of the other shamen had finished their duties the best they could and had come to help support Klyn.

“Even with this potion and my body being refreshed my mind is all fuzzy. I can not go on any further. I need to rest... you four take over for me,” said Klyn. He had a pale face and his sweaty hair was plastered to his face.

He took a swig of the almost empty bottle before standing up and walking over to an empty corner, where he laid down and fell asleep immediately.

The four other shamen, although weaker than Klyn at an individual base, made up a stronger force when combined and the white holy light covered even more of Fluffball's body.

Akira was also tired but he willed himself to stay awake to keep an eye on Fluffball and keep the dark domain up and running the whole time.

All through the trip back, the shamen switched back and forth with Klyn. Doing this they were able to keep Fluffball in a sort of coma, where the wound seemed to be halted from worsening for now.