Evolution of a Healer

Spam was closer to her and the Warrior than Hex, and the fat frog was in trouble. The sixth and final large vine originating from the pool was wiggling around the familiar’s small form, and to Cyn’s shock and horror, appeared to have a hold on it. Fighting the weakness that still gripped her, Cyn formed and sent multiple mana needles towards the pair while making her way over. She was moving far too slowly for her liking, unable to run without risking a fall, but the needles did as she hoped, creating large holes and tears in the attacking vine. She even managed to nearly sever it in one spot.

In the back of her mind Cyn was able to breathe a sigh of relief that at least her Freeform Mana Casting seemed mostly unaffected by the extended period of internal pressure from the mana build-up. There had been a tiny whisper of concern that her blown out mana veins would create a problem, but she seemed fine. At least in the short term.

Cyn’s panic turned to confusion rapidly as she got close enough to actually see what was going on. At first she had a horrifying thought that the vine had stabbed through the familiar, but as soon as Cyn realized she would probably feel if Spam was that injured and in her head the frog felt fine. Is…is Spam eating it? Completely baffled, she stopped long enough to watch the creature slowly chew and take more of the vine into its mouth, as if it was just an extra-large noodle the frog was slurping.

The damn vine was as big around as the familiar itself, and significantly longer, but Spam did not seem to have any trouble continuing to gulp it down. Even the thorns just…went right in. It was totally uninjured by the process, and even if the vine thrashed enough to hit Spam, the familiar would just move a bit to avoid the damage. Three void-black eyes stared at Cyn when she got close, blinking in turn, but the familiar made no move to stop its feast.

Deciding it would be in everyone's best interest to leave Spam to its business, and making a mental note to consider later that the creature was probably more than it appeared on the surface, she turned to help Hex next. The Rogue was being chased by a mass of twisted vines when Cyn last looked, but that was quickly changing.

Just as she looked over to assess how to help, Cyn watched as the vines stopped chasing Hex and pulled back closer to the pool of blood. The Rogue slowed, clearly a bit confused, and they both watched as the mass rose from the floor to instead form a sort of stalk. While it was mostly still, Hex took the opportunity to then rush forward and attempt to sever the vines part way up, but his blades did not cut through the flora like expected. Instead, he left only a shallow wound that quickly closed as Hex was forced to jump back to avoid a small vine shooting out from the mass. Cyn also tried to attack with one of her mana needles, but found she also was no longer able to do much damage to the vines, at least not when they were twisted together like that. And any damage done simply healed too quickly to try and whittle it down.

Sanguine Lily Vine - Level 8

A carnivorous flower-bearing vine.

Not helpful, and the lack of information told Cyn this was probably not a ‘creature’. Not that she would expect a plant to be, but you never knew. She had used Inspect in the hope of getting a clue on how they were supposed to stop or kill it while her and Hex backed off. A bulb had formed at the top of the vines, high in the air, and was growing steadily. Although the large vines originating from the pool did not have the same kind of flowers on them the smaller vines did, it was clearly some kind of flower bulb.

Distracted by the growing stalk and bulb, she did not see the small vines creeping up behind and under her until it was too late. Detecting movement in the corner of her vision, Cyn turned in time to barely register the thin vines assaulting her before she was pulled roughly to the ground. The weakness that hit after expelling her pent-up mana was still affecting her, and Cyn had no opportunity to dodge or try to fight off being snared.

She was rapidly made completely immobile, the small, blooming vines wrapped tightly around her major joints and twisting up her limbs to anchor Cyn to the ground. While previously the smaller vines had reminded her of dull steel, they now shone bright silver while still being mottled with small red blooms. She had been easily caught, and watched as Hex was able to briefly dodge his own capture before ultimately being just barely too slow to dodge all of the vines. His attacks proved equally ineffective against the clearly empowered flora as they had against the twisted mass of large vines that had risen above them. Sam had been caught as well, since the Warrior was still struggling with the large vines, but it had taken more of them to actually drag him back to the ground.

Cyn felt the thorns dig into her flesh, and a steady stream of blood formed leading back to the center. It was not as neat as the stream Sam had formed before she and Hex entered, since she was not near one of the pre-carved channels spread around the room, but the vital fluid appeared to be drawn in all the same. It wasn’t overwhelming damage, especially since her regeneration increased as her health points got lower, but it would definitely pose a problem for her party. With all of their limbs bound, they could not even supplement the health loss with potions.

This is some kind of trial, right? So there has to be a solution. The plant was labeled as carnivorous, and based on the situation as a whole she guessed it only fed on blood, not their flesh. Perhaps the test was just if they could provide enough ‘food’ for it. That sounded like a vitality trial to her, anyway. Never mind the fact that the swimming pool of blood should have been enough to feed anything. But if Cyn’s hunch was right, they just had to hold out long enough for the flower bulb that had formed to bloom.

Cyn would be fine, most likely, and given enough time could probably supplement the whole trial herself. But without knowing how long this would take it was a massive gamble for the others. Especially since they had increased the trial’s difficulty by entering it while it was in progress. Cyn was now really regretting not doing any experimentation beforehand with healing using Freeform Mana Casting. She obviously couldn’t reach her party members to touch them, a requirement for Restoration, and that was the only thing she had to heal with.

She couldn’t physically touch them, anyway.

Feeling Hex and Sam’s health steadily drop in the back of her mind, and working with a half formed, slightly crazy idea, Cyn used Restoration on herself. Not for the health gain, she didn’t need it, but to focus on how her mana was used on delivery of the skill in order to heal the body and health pool. After a short while, it was clear this skill wasn’t going to work for what she was planning. Restoration wasn’t an instant health points boost, it sped up the rate at which the body naturally regenerated. The skill was just too complicated for her to replicate with Freeform. Focusing on the interaction between her health and mana did give her a better understanding of health points, though, and produced a second, much sketchier idea.

Since there was no longer a skill involved she would just have to wing this whole thing. Hex and Sam were both entering dangerously low health, giving her mental alarm bells that they were running out of time. Throwing a whole lot of caution to the wind, Cyn attempted to inject some of her mana into her health pool. Her health pool felt like it was in the same place inside her as her mana pool inside of her chest, but separated in a way she did not fully understand. Her first attempt to push a little mana over resulted in feeling like she had taken a bolt of pure pain straight to her brain. It also didn’t work.

Neither did a second try. Nauseous now from the splitting headache she was giving herself, and getting angry it wasn’t working and her party was dying , on the third attempt Cyn pushed every ounce of her will into moving her mana across the barrier between the two resource pools. Something felt like it snapped into place, a missing piece of an enigmatic puzzle, and the barrier between her resources was no longer an issue.

Cyn let herself mentally celebrate how much of a stubborn bitch she was for only a fraction of a second, purposefully ignoring a notification, before ‘scooping’ out some of her own health points and surrounding the scooped health in a layer of mana. It felt deeply wrong, but that did not stop her. Cyn didn’t know how to create health from just mana, but she was pretty sure her mana could be used as a delivery system, sort of like a syringe. And based on how her party members' health currently felt, ‘pretty sure’ was going to have to cut it.

Cyn’s current veins of mana were not going to work for this bubble of health points and mana, and it also felt like the health was dissipating at a pretty fast rate once outside of her health pool. To avoid losing too much of the encapsulated health, and not wasting too much time carving out a new metaphysical path for it, she vented it straight out of her chest. It did not leave her body like the raw mana mist did, instead it just moved out of her chest like the image of a fully formed, violet bubble, and only became solid once it was no longer inside of her body.

She quickly molded the shape to resemble one of her standard mana needles, if a bit rougher and fatter, and without any hesitation shot it directly at Hex. As long as it doesn’t kill him outright, this will work. It has to.

The Rogue was still, making him an easier target to hit over the still-struggling Warrior, and since he had closed his eyes Hex did not see the high-speed mana syringe coming for him. He sure felt it, though, when it hit him directly in the neck. Cyn winced as it struck, having been aiming for Hex’s shoulder since it was one of the larger areas without a vine covering, but the addition of health made her mana harder to control directly.

Ignoring his bewildered glare, she focused on making another one with more of her health. On impact of the first syringe, the Rogue’s health dropped to a precarious position for a fraction of a second before abruptly increasing. It was barely more than he had before she tried to help, but Cyn just considered the first attempt a proof of concept. If she could fit more health into it, and deliver it faster, she should be able to overcome the impact damage. It would be easier once they were no longer in danger of dying from the delivery method.

Cyn sent two more to Hex a few seconds apart, both better made and with more health points inside of them, before attempting to do the same for Sam. The second one she sent to the Warrior missed, since he was still weakly thrashing around, and probably thought the sudden pain in his back was just from the vines. Before attempting again she called over, “Hold still Sam.” He obliged quickly, and Cyn was able to alternate between them more comfortably once their health was no longer in the danger zone. The magic was in no way efficient or easy, but for now it worked.

It was a precarious balance to keep all three of them alive, since Cyn was now not only feeding the Sanguine Lily, she was also siphoning away even more of her health to the others. Her overpowered boots could not fully keep up, and she had to keep an eye on her dwindling health. At least she did not have to also heal Spam, who was being ignored by the Sanguine Lily entirely save for the single vine he was still eating.

Luckily, Cyn did not have to keep it up forever. She had managed to move her head enough to comfortably stare up at the growing bulb, and watched as it slowly bloomed. If it had not been trying to kill them, she would have thought it rather pretty. It reminded her of a water lily, featuring many long petals in various shades of crimson. The imagery became even more evident as the flower started to bloom in full.

As the petals spread and unfurled, all of the vines unwound themselves from the party and retreated back into the cracks between the stone slabs beneath them. The larger vines, consisting of the stalk and the single vine Spam was eating, also began to move back into the pool they were sprouting from. The ones that had been severed just drooped and stopped moving entirely. The familiar, unwilling or unable to let go, was being dragged along very slowly as even the vine seemed to struggle with its weight.

Cyn stumbled to her feet and quickly hacked the final vine apart to free the frog. Once the vines were mostly inside the pool, stones began to shift to close over the hole. When everything stopped moving, the now-familiar chime rang through the labyrinth and they were left with just a flat obsidian arena, with the massive Sanguine Lily fully bloomed right at the center, appearing to have blossomed straight from the ground where the pool once was. On the other side of the bloom from her, a trio of chests also appeared.

“Your desire to stab me has been fulfilled. Can you heal me a little less painfully next time?” Cyn tried to laugh at the Rogue’s bit of dry humor, but it came out a little closer to a sob, much to Hex’s clear alarm. His eyes went wide, and he sounded almost panicked while sputtering, “I was just…look…Joke! It was a joke!” Hex went to pat her arm, but quickly pulled back when he found his hand was sticking to Cyn.

She was just overwhelmed, along with being both mentally and magically fried. Drenched in drying, sticky blood, low on all her resources, having to on the fly create multiple solutions to problems back-to-back in a single fight without any time to consider the consequences or better answers. It was all just a little much.

After a few deep breaths, giving Sam time to also wander over, Cyn gave the Rogue a small smile. “I’m…I'm ok. I probably wouldn’t feel so bad if I had access to a shower but…” She trailed off with a sigh. “I need to go back and get all those potions I dropped before we came in.”

Seemingly eager to remove himself, - or be helpful, Cyn wasn’t sure - Hex quickly offered, “I’ll grab them, go out the other end and I’ll catch up in a minute.” Desperately wanting to try and wash off with her waterskin, she didn’t protest and followed a clearly exhausted Warrior out the other side of the arena after they both grabbed their rewards, with Spam following behind. The familiar clearly would rather hop than be sticky.

Once out she started checking her notifications while trying to rinse the blood off of herself, Sam awkwardly trying to help with his own waterskin, and found among the expected notifications was one that made it clear she had fucked up.