Bosses and Broken Bones

Sunlight streamed down towards the lone dead tree in the center of the wide, circular cavern. Surrounding the tree was pale loose sand, the kind that the party had already learned to be wary of. More than one pit of sand had led to an ambush by dungeon monsters. Looking across, they could see what appeared to be ruins on the other end of the chamber, a stone doorway shrouded in shadow was the only other opening in the room.

“I don’t like the look of this. Gives boss room vibes.” Ethan pointed towards the exit on the far side of the cavern. “Unless we can scale the walls, we’re going to have to cross the sand to make it through here.”

“I can Shadow Bolt the sand?” Penny suggested, eyes scanning the room. “The vibrations might draw out whatever is waiting for us.”

“Good idea. Do it”

Penny cast the spell, the array of Shadow Bolts forming before her, hovering for a moment in front of her before they shot off in different directions. The bolts threw up sprays of sand, and they waited… and waited.

“If this is a boss room, it may be intelligent enough to not fall for it.” Grace was standing ready to react, eyes forward as she spoke. “I could go in. I’ll keep Momentum Breaker primed, if the boss does jump me, I’ll be able to tank the first hit.”

“I think maybe we let Alice take this one, Grace” Ethan replied, the unspoken implication being her lack of a bond and subsequent lack of healing. He turned to Alice “I’ll keep the Boost channeled, and you can Surge out of the way if you get attacked.”

Alice nodded in understanding. “I’ll head for the tree in the middle. It looks rocky there, which should give me some cover if something ambushes me from the sand.”

They got into positions, ready to react as Alice stepped out into the loose sand. She froze after the first step, testing to see if something would strike immediately. Her eyes scanning side to side, she began to move forward, her steps steady despite the loose footing. She was at the halfway point between the cavern entrance and the island in the middle when the creature struck.

A large scorpion's tail lifted up, over 15 feet in length, sand streaming off of it as it moved to strike at Alice. It came at her with a blur, the stinger tip glowing a sickly green. Alice reacted immediately, Surging forward to the dead tree. A second tail lifted up, similar to the first, striking at Alice as she moved towards the island.

Alice leapt and spun as the second tail lashed out at her. Her blade made contact with the stinger as she moved, the crack of her Shock reverberated around the cavern, leaving a scorched mark on the tail where she had struck it.

Grace moved forward, her Leap Thrust letting her close the distance. Jabbing forward, she drove the tip of her halberd into the first tail, the spike penetrating and cracking the chitin shell. A screech rang out in response and the sand beneath Grace began to vibrate. The body of the creature began to rise up, forcing Grace to back off, avoiding the sharp legs that stabbed at where she had been a moment before.

The creature continued lifting itself up, revealing its body to be nearly as long as its tail. When it fully moved above the sand, they all saw what looked to be the naked torso of a woman from the waist up where its head should have been. The woman’s skin was a pale sickly gray, with long strings of dark ratty hair tied up to fall down her back. The creature turned to look at Ethan, Mei, and Penny, large eyes solid black, with what appeared to be extra sets of smaller eyes wrapping around the sides of it’s head.

“Aqrabuamelu!” Ethan shouted, recognizing the creature from their bestiary classes. A hybrid between man and scorpion, straight from Mesopotamian mythology. There were dozens of theories around how dungeons were creating creatures from human mythos. Whatever the answer was, it mattered little as the creature attacked.

A Boosted Earth Wall rose just as the creature lunged forward. The two large front claws of the beast slammed into the wall, sending cracks through it,, but the long spiraled spear the women’s human arms held pierced straight through the wall to slam against Ethan’s shield. His feet slid backwards from the **** of the blow, prompting them all to move, with Mei responding with Boosted Rock Shards as she ran. Sand streamed up and condensed into hard slivers before her and she fired them into the face of the creature, aiming for the eyes.

It reared up and blindly slammed its claws down on the other side of the wall while it screeched again, the creature's human looking jaw opening sideways to reveal pincer-like appendages. Unlike the first time, they were feet away and the sound deafened them, blood running from their ears. Alice and the Shadow Minion were there together the next moment, each attacking from different directions. Alice Surged forward and leapt up to the top of the scorpion’s body, thrusting her blade into the shoulder of the human torso while the minion’s claws ripped into the stomach of the creature's human body. The minion’s claws were torn downwards through flesh by the **** of the scorpion creature leaping backwards. The minion was thrown loose as soft flesh turned to hard chitin, but the creature wasn’t so lucky with Alice. Grabbing a handful of hair to steady herself, Alice remained on the creature, beginning to channel her Shocks as quickly as she could.

Penny’s shroud came down around the creature as it landed, covering Grace’s charge. Her halberd swung, the blade shearing a leg from the beast cleanly before getting caught tight halfway through the next leg, the blade pinched as the leg flexed.

The creature threw itself sideways, slamming into grace and tearing her weapon from her grasp. It stumbled as it tried to support itself on its weakened left legs, forcing Alice to leap off the back of the creature or be thrown off. She landed hard, rolling to soften the impact, ending up face down in the sand. She cried out for only a moment before her breath was driven from her body, a pincer slamming down onto her.

Time seemed to slow for Ethan. He watched as the creature slammed the claw into Alice, hearing her scream cut off with the **** of the blow. Rage and fear drove him forward and he moved. He felt a large expenditure of essence, and suddenly he was face to face with the beast, screaming out as he swung. He put every ounce of momentum he had into the blow, mace striking the women’s sternum and caving it in.

It tried to scream, only for nothing but a gurgling sound to be heard as it scrambled backwards. It began to spew blood and bile as it lashed out wildly, Ethan’s hit driving it into a panic. Penny and Mei’s attacks came in next, Rock Shards and Shadow Bolts tearing the human torso apart until the creature collapsed dead.

Ethan had no mind for it, moving to rush towards Alice. Another expenditure of Essence and he moved again, appearing by her side in a rush. She looked up at him, coughing blood. His hands on her, he began to heal, the Essence rushing from his hands towards her wounds. He could feel the damage that had been wrought by the blow. Broken ribs, a punctured lung. He willed the Essence to continue flowing even as Alice ran empty, continuing with his own store of Essence.

She continued coughing as he healed her, cries of pain escaping her as the ribs began to realign and knit themselves back together.

“Ethan! I need you!”

He looked to his left to see Mei kneeling with Grace. Another glance down at Alice, he judged her stable for the moment. He ran to Mei and Grace, pulling his med kit out of his bag. Grace’s right forearm was broken, sitting at an awkward angle. He sprayed the quick heal on the wound, then began wrapping gauze pads where the bleeding was. A splint was next, Grace cursing as he wrapped the arm to immobilize it.

“I’m fine! What about Alice?” Grace got out between pained breaths.

“I healed her, Penny’s with her. She’s going to be fine.” He responded, undoing the straps of her breastplate. Another cry of pain as Ethan lifted it off and pushed up her shirt, seeing bruises already forming along her ribs. “Okay, Grace, you probably have some cracked ribs, at the very least. You’re already bruised.”

She attempted to push herself up by her good arm, wincing as she lay back down. “I said I’m fine. Let’s just get the loot and get out of here, yea?”

Ethan looked to Mei, taking her hand and casting a quick heal for her ears, gesturing for her to do as Grace suggested.. “Penny, let’s check out that doorway and make sure we’re clear.” Mei called out.

The two left as Ethan moved back to Alice, a quick heal for Penny as they passed, seeing Alice smile as he returned. “Hey, doing alright?”

She gave a short nod and he placed his hands back onto her, attempting to heal her again. He saw more damage. Bruising, muscle strain, but nothing life threatening.

“We’re clear!” Penny called out across the cavern. “Loot chest, no monsters. Mei’s grabbing it now.”

“Okay, Alice, we’re going to try and stand up.” Another quick nod as he took her hands, prepping to help her up. “Ready? On three. One.. two.. Three!” He pulled, and Alice managed to make it up, leaning onto him to keep her balance.

“Just give me a second.” She whispered out, voice pained.

A grunt from Grace to the side showed her managing to stand on her own. Mei and Penny returned moments later.

“Are we okay to move?”

“Yea.” Alice took a hesitant first step, then another. “I can walk, as long as I have someone to lean on.”

“Do you need help?” Mei asked Grace, offering her hand.

“No, but I wouldn’t mind it if you carried my halberd for me.”

They made their way back to the entrance of the dungeon, thankful they had taken the time to thoroughly clear the way in.

Penny walked on the other side of Alice with Ethan, each helping support her. “Ethan, how did you move like that?”

The question from Penny caught him off guard. He’d been so focused on doing the next thing his mind hadn’t had time to review what had happened.

“I.. I don’t know. When I saw Alice get hit, I just moved. I felt the Essence drain when I did. It wasn’t conscious, I just knew I needed to be there.”

“Did you Surge?” Alice asked, wheezing as she spoke.

“I’m not sure. Maybe?”

Penny nodded at Alice’s suggestion. “I think Alice is right. It looked just like when she Surges.”

The revelation of Ethan's new ability was forgotten as they stumbled back through the portal to Earth. Immediately swarmed by medical personnel and handing off Alice, Ethan gave them a quick rundown on their injuries before he was convinced to let himself be checked out.

Sitting on a cot outside the mobile trauma center, he winced as the medics helped unbuckle his armor. His shield arm was heavily bruised from where he had blocked the spear thrust. The sight of it brought a wave of pain, as if his mind had chosen to ignore it until he was safe. He squeezed his eyes shut, jaw tightening as he worked past it. As the worst of the pain faded, he reached into his Mark and channeled healing Essence into his arm, feeling a wave of relief as if he’d been icing it for days, watching the bruise fade to a yellow color.

He laid back on the cot, closing his eyes as he felt the last of his Essence stores drain before the bruise could completely heal. His chest tightened as he realized how close he had been to not having enough Essence to heal Alice. How lucky they were that Grace wasn’t hurt more severely.

“You’re sure of this?” Strategist Lee questioned.

“I am. I felt a huge amount of my Essence pool drain as it happened. The next moment I was halfway across the cavern.” Ethan explained. The reactions of his advisors were varied in response to the revelation that he had some ability to channel abilities from his bonds.

Trainer Harris leaned back in his chair, folding his arms against his chest. Mage Thompson had a thoughtful expression as she mentally worked through the implications.

“We have quite a bit of testing to do in that case.” Lee continued, writing as he spoke. “First, I want you to focus on repeating the ability reliably. Start with Surge, and then work on channeling an ability from another bond. Once you’ve done that, we’re going to need to establish the limitations of the ability. Relative Essence costs for different abilities, range limits—if any exist—to your Bonds, strength comparisons to the original abilities. That won’t be the extent of the testing, but it should allow for a baseline understanding to work from. Understood?”

“Understood.” Ethan acknowledged with a sharp nod.

“Do either of you have anything else?” Lee asked Harris and Thompson.

Harris leaned forward, putting his hands on the desk in front of him. “When will Ms. Olsen be forming a bond with you?”

Ethan was caught off guard at the subject change to Grace, unsure how much of Grace’s reasoning on the topic to reveal. “I… I’m not sure. We have discussed it, and there still remain a few points of contention. I’m not comfortable sharing them without Grace’s permission.

Harris made a dissatisfied noise at the answer. “If this new ability of yours does let you channel abilities from Bonded, it means you’re leaving more power on the table than we had thought.” He paused for effect. “I suggest you make that point to her, and I trust I don’t need to elaborate on the dangers of her not having access to healing in light of her injuries.”

“Understood.” Ethan repeated.

“Thompson? Anything to add?” Harris leaned back in his chair again.

“We’ve seen some small growth in Essence pool capacity so far, but we haven’t been able to isolate the source of the growth. There’s a possibility that it works much like mana pools do, where active use of the resource can grow the capacity much like working a muscle. Once you’ve done as Lee instructed and mastered channeling the abilities reliably, come see me and we’ll work up an exercise regimen to test the theory.”

“Understood.” Repeated Ethan for the third time.

A nod from Thompson as she stood up. “Unless there are any last thoughts, I believe we’re finished here.” Seeing Lee and Harris shaking their heads, Thompson continued. “Then you’re dismissed, Ethan, please give Alice and Grace my best wishes when you visit them.”

Ethan’s shoes squeaked, wet from the snow, as he walked down the hospital hallway towards the nurses station. “Hi, I was wondering if you could help me find my friends rooms?”

The nurse finished typing, looking up over the counter top. “Sure thing, name?”

“Alice Anderson and Grace Olsen.”

“Mmm, looks like they’re sharing a room. Room 1304, go down the hall here, then take a left. It’ll be near the end of the hall on the right.”

“Thank you.” Ethan continued, turning the corner to see Penny walking down the hallway from the other direction, carrying a handful of drinks from the vending machine. “Hey.”

“Hey. How’d it go?”

“Good. How are they?”

“Bored. Extremely bored. The nurse told us it’d be a few days before a healer was free for Grace, told us to page them if you wanted to try and heal Alice again.”

“Ethans here!” Penny called out as they entered the hospital room. Alice and Grace were both lying in bed, Mei was sitting on the couch under the windows on the far side of the room. Each of them welcomed him in turn.

“Oh pleaseee tell me you have enough Essence for a heal, I’m going crazy in here.” Alice lamented.

“I do,” Ethan saw Alice’s eyes light up. “But, I think the doctors want a chance to watch my healing in action.”

“Uuuhhhggggg” Alice let out a load groan, reaching over to press the button to call a nurse. A few moments later and one popped into the room. They explained that they were reading to heal Alice, the nurse leaving to retrieve the doctor.

“In the meantime, I brought lunch.” Ethan lifted up the plastic bag full of take out. He began passing around everyone’s favorites, digging in while they waited for the doctor to arrive.

“So, what’d they have to say about us getting hurt?” Grace asked.

“We didn’t spend too long on that. I’m guessing they wanted to wait for all of us to be there. They were mostly focused on me being able to channel Surge from Alice, Lee and Thompson have a lot of testing they want to do. They didn’t seem too surprised about it.”

“You’re S-ranked, if anyone is going to have crazy abilities hidden in their Mark to discover, it’s going to be you.” Mei suggested as she walked across the room to throw away her rubbish. “D-ranked classes got figured out years ago, but at the start it did take a few years before everything about lower ranked classes was discovered, though you still hear the occasional discovery people make.”

“Yea, that was the vibe I picked up from Lee, it was straight into designing a way to test the limits of the ability. I’m still not sure how it happened. It wasn’t anything conscious.” Ethan turned to Alice. “When I saw you get hit, I just started moving. Now, when I reach into my Mark I can tell the ability is there, but it feels… slippery? Like I’m not able to grasp it.”

It was silent for a beat before Mei broke in. “What you’re describing sounds a lot like what Elementalists have to go through to access their additional spells. We have more abilities than most Marked, but only a few spells are instinctive, the rest we have to practice. Maybe we can go through some of the techniques together, later?”

He nodded at the suggestion, the talking picking that moment to enter the room.

“Good afternoon, I’m Dr. Ali, you must be Ethan?” She offered her hand with a polite smile.

Ethan took it, shaking her hand. “Nice to meet you. I was told you needed to be here when I healed Alice.”

“That’s right,” Dr. Ali said, nodding. “Guild Master Thompson briefed me himself. He mentioned your healing appears to be comprehensive, though your usage is restricted. Is this correct?

Ethan hesitated, his expression guarded.

Dr. Ali raised a hand gently. “You don’t have to worry, your classification and skill details are fully protected under guild privacy statutes. Nothing leaves confidential medical records without your written consent.

She paused, her tone shifting to a more clinical manner. “That said, I do need to explain why I’m here. Since magic has become part of medicine, we’ve learned the hard way that not all healing is as complete as it seems. Some methods regenerate tissue, leaving fractures untouched. Others enhance cell growth in ways that have caused problems years later. Even the best healing can’t fix everything.

She met his gaze. “So, we record before and after imagery of patients undergoing healing when we can. It’s not about doubting your ability, it’s about protecting your team long term. We need that long term data before we can say with any certainty that your healing can be called truly comprehensive.”

Ethan relaxed as the doctor explained. “Then yes, my usage is restricted. I can only use the ability on those I have formed bonds with. My current understanding is that my Class provides above average healing in exchange for restricted usage. When I healed Alice in the raid, I was able to repair several broken ribs and her lung being punctured.”

“That appears to be fairly consistent with the remaining injuries,” Dr. Ali nodded as he explained. “Can you explain why your healing left the injuries that remained untouched?”

“When I heal, I have a sense of what is wrong with someone. It’s vague, but detailed enough for me to direct my healing to specific injuries. I’ve taken the standard medical courses on campus, and focused on healing what I judged to be life threatening. I was light on resources at the time and had to triage what I did and didn’t heal.”

“Well, you made the right decisions, Alice is doing fairly well,” she turned to Alice. “Anything new to report since we spoke earlier this morning?”

“No.” Alice shook her head. “Just the same soreness.”

The door to the room opened, a nurse pushing a cart with a complicated machine atop it. The nurse and doctor worked to set up the imaging device for Alice, wires being stuck all over her.

“Alright, I think we’re set to go. Do you need any prep before healing her?” Dr. Ali asked. “If not, feel free to go ahead.”

Ethan took Alice’s hand, reaching into his Mark and beginning to heal Alice. She let out a long breath as the Essence passed through her, the scrapes and bruises on her arm and neck fading away. As he finished, Alice spread her arms in a long stretch. “Oh man, I’ve been waiting all day to be able to do that without crying.”

Dr. Ali looked extremely satisfied as she studied the monitor on the device. “The results look fairly promising. Once we’ve had time to thoroughly analyze the results, we’ll be reaching out to you both.”

Alice got out of bed, doing exaggerated stretches as the doctor and nurse left the room. “I know it was scary as hell in moment, but I can hardly tell I had half my ribcage broken less than a day ago. S-ranked healing is some bullshit, I swear.”

“We got interrupted, Ethan, how was the rest of the debrief?” Grace asked, watching as Alice changed out of the hospital gown and into her own clothing, a hint of jealousy on her face.

“Uhm, that was most of it.”

“That’s not like Harris to just let things sit, I know he had something for us. Something about how we should have known what the boss was going to do before it did it, I’m sure.” Grace gave a half decent Harris impression.

“Well, he did have one thing..” Ethan searched for the words. “He was as blunt as he always is. Asked when you were going to form a bond.”

Grace leaned back into the bed as the room went silent.

Penny was the first to speak. “Listen, you don’t need to care about what Harris says, you can take the bond at your own pace.”

Alice moved to back up Penny, Grace cutting her off as she shook her head. “No, Harris is right. If we were bonded I’d be on my feet right now.”

She took a deep breath, wincing as she adjusted her broken arm. “So, wanna go over how Bonding works one more time?”