Eliona's War 1: Hesitant Healer

Chapter 21

It was a pretty room, as far as cavern death traps went.

From the relatively smooth floor, craggy walls rose into a rough dome shape. Stalagmites stabbed upwards from the ground, as if rising to meet their stalactite cousins that jutted down from the ceiling. Little sparkles of light shone like stars from their surfaces, as if the night sky itself had sunk down to envelop them.

Severance looked around in awe. This room was very similar to the first one of the dungeon, but there were a lot more stalagmites, which covered more than half of the ground.

In the center of the room were two creatures. They looked like ordinary panthers, if panthers had black glittering scales instead of fur, and metallic teeth and claws rather than natural bone. Right now, the panther creatures lay lazily on the ground, tails and ears twitching.

"All right," Maun stopped everyone before they got too close. "We call these prowlers. They're not difficult to take down, but Sev, they hit hard. We'll avoid them as best we can, but be ready to heal."

+1 Wisdom

Prowlers, huh? Severance looked at the strange panthers carefully. If Maun actually admitted these things were dangerous, then they had to be crazy strong.

"I'll take the left one and keep it busy. Rasin, Dhin - you have the one on the right. Sound good?"

Dhin sighed. "This is going to hurt."

And he was right. It hurt.

Just like Maun promised, he pulled the left one away and proceeded to dance around it, attacking it with quick strikes whenever he could. Dhin grabbed the attention of the other prowler, while Rasin stabbed it in the butt. The catlike creature yowled and predictably struck out with a paw.

Dhin's health shot to a tiny sliver in an instant. He dropped to the ground like a stone.

Rasin cried out hoarsely, and ran up to pull the prowler away from his fallen son. "Sev, help him! Hurry!"

Severance didn't need to be told twice. He was already focusing on Dhin's limp form. "Radiant Dome."

The dome fell into place, but it would take a while before its effects made a difference. That was fine. Severance just wanted it to help Dhin recover faster. "Mend."

The skill settled in, restoring a fifth of Dhin's bar. It still blinked red, however, and Dhin didn't stir. He lay like a man in a coma. Very slowly, the red bar inched up by millimeters.

There was nothing Severance could do except wait. Wait for the cooldown to end and wait for Radiant Dome to do its job.

Out of his peripheral vision, Severance glimpsed Maun moving around his target, face set in a deadly serious focus.

On the other side, Rasin was much less composed, aggressively throwing himself at his prowler cat with a startling ferocity. His movements weren't as smooth as Maun's, appearing almost reckless.

Something quaked inside Severance at the sight. Rasin was usually very calm, like a buoy in a storm. It gave Severance a sense of helplessness. If he was a higher level, with better skills, then maybe he could do more.

"Mend," he murmured, and finally, Dhin came out of the red. He began to stir, eyes fluttering open.

"Dhin!" Rasin's shout was hoarse, but full of wild relief. The split second he took to look at his son was a mistake. A grunt was forced out of Rasin as he received the full force of the Prowler's displeasure. His health plummeted to a thread. Unlike Dhin, he did not fall, but he was a single sneeze away from becoming worm food.