“First Heal Zero,” I said listlessly, starting by removing the incurable wounds that had been caused to my own body.
0 territory: 5%
That text passed through my mind and then my magic dropped to zero and I almost passed out.
“Mr. Naofumi!” Raphtalia’s shout dragged me back to consciousness and I chugged the magic water. After that, it was up to the Demon Dragon.
“My time to shine!” said that voice. “Liberation Heal!” My wounds closed up without further ado, but I had lost so much blood that physically I wasn’t completely recovered yet. My head was still spinning . . . but S’yne needed healing too.
“S’yne, you next,” I said.
“I can hold on,” she replied.
“No, you can’t. Ruft, hold her,” I said. I wondered what she was talking about, saying she could “hold on” with a weapon sticking out of her. She tried to back away but Ruft held her—gently but firmly—in place, and I cast the magic. My consciousness blurred again.
0 territory: 7%
“Now to heal you,” I stammered.
“Mr. Naofumi . . .” Raphtalia sympathized, joined by the others. Healing my wounds hadn’t replaced all that lost blood. I’d concocted some medicine later that would promote blood production. It was a dangerous medicine to use, even in this world.
“Everyone, be ready for more fighting,” I told them. “If they came here for us, it’s safe to assume they’ve gone for Ren and the others too.” I checked the red wound on Raphtalia’s miko outfit. It was pretty deep. It was a very strange situation to literally stab yourself in the back. “All Liberation Heal,” I incanted. I cast healing magic on everyone there, and then I needed another magic water . . . but that was too much hassle. I took out a rucolu fruit, which I kept for emergencies, and stuffed my cheeks with it. It recovered my magic and SP at the same time . . . but did nothing for how lethargic I felt. I wondered if there was nothing I could do about how much magic this new technique used. The magic composition itself was overly difficult. Liberation was a walk in the park in comparison. There was no way I’d ever be using this healing magic in battle.
Raphtalia had been hurt the deepest. I breathed a sigh of relief after healing her wounds. My armor had been slashed up and was covered in blood too . . . That was going to take some repair work. More crap to deal with.
“We’d better get back to Ren and Fohl,” I said. “Smash this cage.”
“Okay!” Raphtalia said.
“I’ve got this!” S’yne added with a nod.
“Why not juzt releaze it?” Shadow asked.
“If you can do that, be my guest,” I told him.
“I have learned zome zuch techniquez,” he replied. He walked around the cage, observing it carefully. “But in thiz caze, I’m not zure how to proceed. Zmazhing it will be fazter,” he concluded.
“You heard Shadow,” I told the girls.
“Okay! It might have a counterattack function, so stay back a little!” Raphtalia imbued life force and magic into her katana and then unleased a skill. “Instant Blade! Mist!” she shouted. Sparks erupted from the cage. Lightning and fire flickered out as the counterattack she had predicted, but she slashed them away too. She had managed to cut it, but not all the way.
“Those counterattacks will be a pain if we let anyone else try,” I pondered. “It’s too small a target to really hit Attack Support . . . not impossible.” Keel hadn’t recovered from her beast transformation yet. It had really taken it out of her. The Demon Dragon had pulled it off with no trouble, so I’d thought Keel could take it . . . but she wasn’t quite at the same level. She’d been a big help, but we’d better not rely on her doing that too often.
The Attack Support thorns thudded into the cage, and Raphtalia cut it again to shatter the prison around us. If it recovered from that, then we’d have to think of another way to handle it, but that seemed to have done the trick. There was a gap big enough for people to pass through safely.
“I’ll put a Shooting Star Shield up just in case . . . Now let’s get out of here,” I suggested. The remaining cage sections were still sparking with electricity and I protected everyone with Shooting Star Shield as we passed through the gap.
“Great! Let’s get to Ren.” I turned to Keel. “You can—” But she cut me off with a moan.
“Bubba, why am I so pathetic? I can’t even keep up with Ruft,” Keel said. She had both hands covering her face, trying to hide her bitter tears from me.
“You bet you can keep up! You saved us all. If you still think that’s not enough, then just get stronger. That’s all you need to do,” I told her.
“I do want to be stronger,” she replied. “That way I can help you all out, Bubba.” She sniffled, still trying to keep her tears in. “Raphtalia, can you send me somewhere safe? I’m only going to hold you back like this.”
“Oh, Keel,” Raphtalia said sympathetically.
“Please . . . I can hardly move. I don’t want to hold you back,” she said.
“Okay. Scroll of Return,” Raphtalia said, using a skill that would send Keel back to the dragon hourglass in Siltran. I silently thanked Keel for everything she had done. I joked around with her a lot, but I wasn’t going to let her powerful determination go to waste.
After treating ourselves on the spot, we headed in the direction where Ren and his party were also fighting monsters.