I became a legion lich

Chapter 65: Decision

A few kilometers away from the center of the forest.

A purple orb appeared 1 meter above the ground, before disappearing, leaving Emilia, Finn and Caio plummeting in midair. They fell to the ground, but Emilia and Finn managed to land on their feet perfectly.

“Blurghh!” Gaius vomited blood, feeling his chest burning. The spearhead was still embedded in his chest, but it was the only thing keeping him alive. The spearhead was more than three inches wide, and the moment it was pulled out, he would spurt blood and organs to death.

His right lung had been punctured and blood was rushing through the cavities and into his left lung, so he was drowning in his own blood. To make matters worse, the spear had small spikes on its surface and one of them was piercing the heart.

“Caio! Hang in there, I’ll heal you in a second!” Emilia screamed, seeing the pool of blood forming on the floor beneath him. She immediately cast a diagnostic spell, noting how extensive her wounds were.

Emilia cast an emergency healing spell, healing the open blood vessels to stop the bleeding, before casting the comfort of paradise, numbing the body’s pain receptors, making Gaius’ expression soften.

“Thank you, dying without pain is much better.” Caio spoke as soon as the pain stopped, looking at Emilia’s shiny hands. He tried to smile, but a tightness in his chest stopped him. Gaius wasn’t in pain, but that didn’t mean he was okay.

.....

“You’re not going to die you idiot, at least not today. I’m not going to let you. I’m going to need to remove the twig from your body and even with the severed pain feeling it’s still going to be uncomfortable, so grit your teeth.” Emilia spoke, and closed her eyes for a few seconds to cast the best healing spell she knew, before reopening and placing her hands on the branch.

She first generated small blades of light and cut all the thorns, healing the wounds after removing them. Then she pulled the branch slowly, taking as much care as possible not to reopen the wounds and heal the ones she couldn’t. Caio did his best not to scream, but the sensation of something moving between his insides made him make unpleasant noises.

Even with Emilia’s care, the branch was what was putting pressure on and keeping the wounds in place. The moment she removed it, blood and viscera seeped through the hole, reopening most of the wounds. It was then that Emilia cast her best healing spell, massive regeneration, causing the wound to regenerate quickly.

The spell drained the patient and caster of nutrients to heal them, increasing the patient’s chances and the burden on the caster. The blood vessels were restored, the destroyed lung regenerated, the bones were rebuilt, but Emilia had to stop the healing before the muscles healed, or Gaius would die from the effort of healing.

He was already pale, but that would be too much for him to bear. Emilia wasn’t doing any better either, but she couldn’t leave him with her muscles exposed and was racking her brains over what to do when Finn interrupted her.

“Use me if you need to. I’m not injured, so get as many nutrients as you need.” Finn said, offering her his right arm. Emilia thanked him and conjured a thread of light connecting Finn and Caio. Now with Finn’s nutrients added, Emilia resumed healing, slowly rebuilding the muscle tissue in her chest and back.

She cured the skin just enough so that the flesh below wouldn’t be exposed, leaving the rest of the healing for when Caio had more strength. Even with Finn’s nutrient injection, he was on the verge of passing out and starving. Emilia was also weak and needed food and a long rest.

Finn was physically better than the others, but he was the most psychologically shaken. He desperately searched for Athos’ corpse in the hole, but found no sign of him. It was hard to imagine that there was another being in this forest capable of killing the team of mages, so the only hypothesis he could think of is that Treevor had destroyed the corpse along with the bodies of the mages.

Even though by some miracle the corpse is safe and sound somewhere, Finn had no idea where to look and the massacre of nearly the entire unit would raise questions, questions the elder couldn’t cover up without compromising and Finn was sure the elder would rather abandon them than risk the little finger for them.

“Hey, I know we have a lot to think about, but I’m starving and I urgently need a break. Let’s go into town for a bite to eat and get a room at an inn, after that we worry about what to do now.” Emilia said, too tired to think. She had barely fought, but she was exhausted from the healing.

She looked to Caio for confirmation, only to find he was unconscious. She checked his vitals hastily and breathed a sigh of relief to see that he was only sleeping. “See? Caio agrees with me.”

“I agree that we need to regain our strength, but I think it’s a bad idea to go to town. It was chaos when I was there and, according to #9, they’re still pointing the finger at each other to find a culprit, instead of trying to rebuild the city. I suggest we go to a nearby village.” Finn spoke, recalling the report from #9.

According to the report, the city was completely paralyzed. One-fifth of the city’s citizens had died and without any power figures to lead them, the people had no unity. Apparently a gang leader was trying to gather people under his wing, but people were dubious about him.

Most of the crazed had turned up in gang territory and areas with more people, as Athos wanted to ensure that the gangs would not interfere with his revenge, while also killing as many people as possible. The overwhelming majority of the population was living in makeshift tents on the streets, as the houses had been invaded and were still covered in blood.

“I disagree with you. The villages must have already been informed about the catastrophe in the city so they will be on guard against strangers. Three unfamiliar faces may go unnoticed in a city of 8000, but the same cannot be said for a small village. with a few hundred inhabitants, where everyone knows each other.

We can pretend to be homeless people who have lost their homes and spend the night in one of the community shacks, or break in and spend the night in one of the abandoned houses. We can also get food by stealing, although I feel bad stealing from people in that situation, I don’t have much choice.” She finished before getting up.

“I hadn’t thought of that. The city is the best option.” Finn said, surprised that she had thought so much, despite being even more tired than he was.

“I know you hadn’t thought of that. You’re not one of the smartest and you’ve proven that to me more than once. Now load up Caio and let’s go, talking so much has increased my hunger.” Emilia said, leaving before she even heard an answer.

Finn just sighed and didn’t respond to the barb, picking up Caio body and leaning on his shoulder, taking care not to touch the wound. he followed

“What are we going to do about the uniform and weapons? I doubt they let people carry weapons, even adventurers.” Finn asked.

“We’re going to storm the city instead of going through the front gate, but we’re going to change clothes and hide the equipment somewhere as soon as possible, try to blend in with the city and avoid attracting attention, at least until we decide what to do. ” Emilia replied.

“Sounds like a plan to me.” Finn agreed and the conversation stopped there. They walked the rest of the way in absolute silence, unaware that the corpse they were looking for was also preparing to invade Faltra City, but in a much more flashy way.