The Two Week Curse

by Michael Chatfield

  Chapter: Invited

  Captain Quinn had a grim look on his face as he looked up from the impaled body of Grandmaster Eri up to the man who stood in his window. One of the moons was up, light striking his features. Quinn felt that he looked familiar as the man turned around and headed back into the healing hall.

  His arm—is it healing? The slight light of a healing spell could be seen working on the man’s arm, putting him back together.

  A chill ran down Quinn’s spine at that gaze; even Ronhou lowered his head slightly.

  Still, Quinn had his orders. “Break down the gate!”

  The guards who had been splattered with blood were slow to react. They started to hit on the gate, taking a few moments before they made some headway.

  The yelling and cries from inside dimmed down before there was a heavy sound like a body dropping. Quinn and the others winced at the sound.

  The gate finally broke and they threw it wide, pushing into the Healing Moon House.

  They started up the steps when two men started walking out of the healing house: one with a bow, the other without any visible weapon. Both of their faces were revealed.

  The man without a weapon was the one who threw Eri, the other—

  “You’re the man who fled Chonglu!” Captain Quinn’s eyes snapped to the other man. He hadn’t been able to see him as he’d been on the large man’s back as he ran out of the city. “You cured the poison?” Quinn asked.

  “And did your job for you. Seems that Chonglu City hold some people in high regard, but not others.” The man shook his head as he looked at the guards with disdain.

  “We couldn’t do anything,” Quinn said, the words sour even to him.

  “Couldn’t do anything? There is a rule of law in this city but you decided not to listen to it. Very convenient. Don’t worry—I did your dirty work. Now you can stand off to the side and let this go, you know, like the bunch of spineless shits you are.” The man’s words weren’t angry but straight up looking down on them.

  Ronhou let out a roar and rushed forward to attack the man.

  The man let out a roar of his own that seemed to be like a physical thing. It was as if they had walked into the depths of hell as the man unleashed his strength. That same dread Quinn had felt, the senses that he had trained continuously, all warned him that this was an Expert who had crawled through a sea of bodies to get to the point he was. He hid it well, but when enraged or fighting, he would turn into a demon.

  Ronhou couldn’t stop his momentum. As the man’s foot snapped up, Ronhou was sent flying back over the fence and crashed into the ground, whimpering.

  “Stay down, pup.” The man’s voice was a command.

  The pup tried to get up as Quinn dropped to his knee, his brain working quickly.

  “We did it to save Lord Chonglu’s children. The Healing Moon House was the only group that said that they could heal them,” Quinn said. He couldn’t win, but maybe there was another path.

  The killing intent from the man’s body was pulled back. He seemed to be judging Quinn.

  Quinn kept his head bowed. His guards had pale faces and their hands were slick with sweat. This reaper in front of them had swept through the Healing Moon House in just a few minutes. Even going up against Ronhou in pure strength, he’d won.

  Ronhou was a powerful Mana beast that Lord Chonglu had raised himself. His strength wasn’t any less than a level fourteen and he had great strength coming from a powerful beast bloodline.

  “Swear that this is the truth,” the other man with a bow said.

  Quinn looked up at them both. “I swear on the Ten Realms I speak the truth!”

  The power of the Ten Realms descended and then disappeared. This oath made Quinn feel weak as it stole ten percent of his Experience to call the energy of the Ten Realms when using it to ascertain whether one was speaking the truth.

  The man’s hand on his bow relaxed some.

  “Take us to see Lord Chonglu.” The man started walking down the steps slowly, the other man following.

  Quinn was stunned for a moment before he recovered. “Yes, sir.” Quinn stood and waved for the guards to clear a path. They moved back, edging away from the two and spreading out, still not feeling safe enough to put their weapons away.

  Quinn sent a sound transmission to Lord Chonglu.

  “He is waiting for us,” Quinn said as he started walking toward Lord Chonglu’s palace.

  “Good. Someone will need to clean up the guards, Eri, and his apprentice Deng,” the man with the bow said.

  Hope flared in Quinn’s chest. If they’re not all dead, then we might be able to mend some of our relationships with the Healing Moon House.

  ***

  Lord Chonglu was standing outside of his children’s room when he saw Quinn approach. The two men were not what he was expecting. They both wore grim expressions, though there was only a faint aura around them.

  One’s aura is one’s soul and emotions. For them to not have true killing intent and be calm and collected—just who are these two demons?

  Even as he was shocked, he didn’t show it. His features were tired. And he had learned that one had been infected while he was fleeing the city; for him to appear healthy and fine, even healing his arm that Quinn noticed—these two men weren’t simple.

  “You have my deepest apologies. I swear on the Ten Realms that if you are able to heal my children, I will let you go peacefully,” Lord Chonglu said. The Ten Realms created an oath between them both.

  “We swear on the Ten Realms that we will look in on your children; if it is in our power, we will heal them. We will also leave Chonglu City peacefully unless otherwise provoked,” the shorter man said.

  Chonglu was inwardly shocked as the oath was completed.

  The other trusts him so much to agree with this kind of oath; they’re not even brothers.

  ==========

  Erik and Rugrat have sworn oaths to you. If they break their oath, then the Ten Realms will punish them.

  ==========

  Feeling much safer, Lord Chonglu opened the door behind him and walked into the room. The experts hidden in the room all watched Erik and Rugrat as they walked inside.

  Chapter: Poison in the Marrow

  Erik moved to the two. There was one girl and one boy, their features similar and their ages the same. “Twins,” Erik surmised. He placed his hand on the boy’s head as he cast Simple Organic Scan. His hand moved from the boy’s head to his shoulders, down his arms and then his chest.

  Erik paused, his expression darkening as he continued his examination.

  To use such a thing on children, it’s despicable, but it might be the poison that I need to temper my bones. In Erik’s mind, he knew he could heal the two children. Gaining the poison, he could use it to temper his bones and bring his body to the Body Like Stone realm.

  He moved to the girl without pause. After some time, he pulled his hand away from the girl, shaking his head.

  Lord Chonglu’s expression fell. He seemed to age decades in a moment. “It’s okay. It’s just the wild ambition of this old man to help them recover.”

  “What—you don’t want me to even tell you what is happening to them or possible treatment plans?” Erik growled.

  Lord Chonglu’s hand stopped in the air as his body shook. The light seemed to flicker within his eyes as he looked to Erik.

  “I don’t know what poison this is, but it’s nasty as hell. It has assimilated itself into the marrow of both children in different spots. You have placed them into a comatose state through probably some kind of Alchemy solution to stop them feeling pain. The healing potions, healing attempts, and apothecary treatments deals with the effects but it is unable to resolve the main issue. Maybe this could be resolved with a higher healing potion. That I don’t know. What I do know is that this poison has taken over the marrow and is infecting the marrow around it. It is excreting a poison into the bloodstream
. As time goes on, you will need stronger and stronger healing potions to deal with this infected blood. But not dealing with the marrow, it will only come back.” Erik’s words were like thunderbolts ringing out in Quinn and Lord Chonglu’s skulls. They looked at Erik as if looking at some kind of monster.

  Rugrat moved to the children, using his own Simple Organic Scan to check them over.

  Erik didn’t stop talking. “Now, option one: we get a healing potion that is powerful enough to heal this kind of damage. Seeing as this hasn’t happened already, it means that the healing potions here aren’t powerful enough. Two: we cut out the infected marrow and then regrow their bones and marrow. Three, which might be needed to be used in combination with two: we go through intensive rounds of healing to clear out the marrow of this infection. It will take a hell of a lot of Mana and time, plus we will be fighting against time. Would need tens of healers working for months to resolve it at this point,” Erik said.

  Lord Chonglu looked to Quinn with a dazed look.

  “Now this is what I know of, but I haven’t been here long and there might be other solutions.”

  “You said that you wish to cut out their infected marrow?” Lord Chonglu asked.

  “I’ll use knives and saws to break the bones and cut out the infected sections of marrow, pour in some healing potion or use healing spells to help them recover their lost bones and tissues,” Erik said confidently. He had recovered his legs and arm with magic before; if it was just growing a bone, it shouldn’t be too difficult. “They’ll need time to recuperate, but it will be the fastest method.”

  “All of the other healers simply wished to use spells. I have never heard of one tearing out the infection,” Quinn said.

  “Well, that’s ’cause they’re healers. I’m a combat medic. Without Mana, I don’t have to worry about infections and I can remove the root issue, bypassing instead of having to deal with it directly,” Erik said.

  Quinn and Chonglu shared a puzzled look once again.

  Finally, Chonglu seemed to recover some. “What do you need?”

  Erik looked to the children. “Healing potions, pills, powders, also Stamina ones. That should be all.” Erik looked back to Lord Chonglu. He might be a big and powerful man but he reminded Erik of many other soldiers he’d seen—all mean on the outside but once they were around their kids, they turned into teddy bears. Seeing his kids laid up like this was tearing him apart.

  Erik could charge him whatever he wanted, but he wasn’t that heartless.

  A screen appeared in front of Erik’s vision.

  ==========

  Quest: Poison in the Marrow

  ==========

  Requirements:

  Heal Young Master Feng

  Heal Young Mistress Felicity

  ==========

  Rewards:

  Lord Chonglu’s blessing

  3450 EXP

  ==========

  Erik waved the quest to the side. “I would’ve even without the rewards,” Erik said before his tone suddenly dropped. The room turned cold. “My one question for you is how did they contract this poison?”

  Lord Chonglu’s face twisted with an array of emotions before landing on anger. “My wife is from a powerful clan that lives in the Earth realm. She was adventuring in the Second Realm when we met up. We adventured together for some time before coming back to the First Realm and establishing ourselves here, looking to settle in and have a family.

  “Little did we know that her family had other plans. They sent people down from the Fourth Realm to deal with us. They took my wife and told me that they would never allow me, or the spawn that I had desecrated Her Holiness with, to survive.

  “They left and I thought that their words were empty. I looked for her and started to make plans to ascend the realms once my children were old enough. I didn’t know that they had infected my children, who were just toddlers, with this poison. It seeped into their bone marrow and took root. It was only two years ago that their condition turned to how it is today. In my mind, they wished for me to watch as my children died, knowing that I was nothing but a scourge to their family name for stealing one of their own and having children with her.

  “With my impure bloodline, I was nothing more than trash in their eyes, my children a blight.” As Lord Chonglu talked, his aura billowed to new heights, making it hard for Erik to stay upright under the pressure.

  “I had meant to just take my wife back, but now—now I will not rest until I have my foot on their necks and wipe them out from the realms.”

  From what Erik knew, ascending the realms was no simple task. With the look in Chonglu’s eyes, it seemed as if it was not a matter of how he would raise himself up to the higher realms, but rather when. This kind of willpower and the clear love for his children and wife garnered Erik’s respect.

  “All right, you gather the supplies and we’ll see about getting them healed as soon as possible. Do you have a side room here?” Erik asked suddenly.

  “Yes. Quinn, please take them to the room next door. I will get the supplies you need gathered,” Chonglu said.

  “Make sure to have a sharp blade and a strong saw—that would be for the best,” Erik said.

  Chonglu paused before he nodded.

  Erik and Rugrat left the room, Quinn taking them to a nearby room.

  “Well, shit,” Rugrat said when they were alone. He and Erik shared a look. Seeing the state of the kids hurt both of their hearts.

  “Well, we’d best do our part and get them back on their feet,” Erik said.

  “Taking out their bones—it’s not going to be easy,” Rugrat said.

  “Nope. That’s why we’re going to have to try it out first.” Erik moved to a chair with armrests. “I’m going to open up my arm, cut out a bit of bone, then heal it all up. See what the effects are and modify what I’m going to do so that we put as little stress on the kids as possible.”

  “Lovely.” Rugrat moved over as Erik started to put things out on a nearby table. Rugrat grabbed a chair and sat beside him, arranging the different items on some boiled cloth.

  Erik put more cloth on the armrest as Rugrat passed him Wraith’s Touch salve.

  Erik put a glove on his right hand and then started to put the salve on his arm.

  “Do you want to do an IV of a Stamina or healing potion?” Rugrat asked.

  “For this, I just want to do it with my own skills. That way we know that it can be done. Then we can try it out with the different potions and see how it goes.”

  Rugrat nodded. After all, he had spent hours in his smithy going through numerous trials to increase his smithing ability.

  He waited until his arm was numb. “Scalpel.” Erik held out his hand and Rugrat passed him the tool.

  Erik pressed it against his arm; he didn’t feel anything and continued. Using his Simple Organic Scan, he could see what was happening as he cut through the skin and muscle.

  Blood welled up and came out of his arm. The blood loss wasn’t too much, so he refrained from using a healing spell.

  “Retractor.” Erik held out the scalpel; Rugrat traded with him.

  Erik used the retractor to open the wound up more, allowing him to see through the layers of his arm and look at the bone underneath. “Hey there, bone.”

  “When did this become normal?” Rugrat asked.

  “Shut up and pass me the chisel.” Erik gestured to the table. As if realizing his words, he looked up and over to Rugrat.

  “Chisel.” Rugrat held it out to him.

  Erik put it against the bone.

  Rugrat swung a hammer. With a crisp, cracking noise, the bone broke.

  Erik changed the chisel position and Rugrat hit the chisel again. He took the chisel and hammer away, passing Erik forceps.

  Erik slowly pulled the bone out of his arm.

  Erik put the bone to the side, sorting his tools. He poured Mana into the Focused Heal spell. The ma
rrow rapidly grew forward and out, meeting up with the marrow of the other side of the bone. The layers of the bone formed together before creating a complete bone once again. Erik swept it with his Simple Organic Scan before pulling out the retractor and applying spells to seal up his arm.

  He sat back in his chair, applying a healing spell to himself to return blood.

  “Okay, so there’s red marrow that makes stuff in my hand and that grew back fine and is fully functional. When I cut bone that was inside my body and then healed it, it grew back nice and quickly. But what we’re talking about, that poison, is in those kids’ ribs, feet, and hips.”

  A sudden thought appeared in his mind.

  “If I was able to remove most of the poison and halt its progression, maybe we could see the evolution of this place to increase their ability to fight back against the poison. Not only would it make it easier for me, it would mean that the poison would never again flare up as they would have built up an immunity to it. It worked with the other poisons I’ve used to temper my body.” Erik tapped his chin in thought. “I can remove their feet easily and the ribs aren’t too difficult. Regrowing both of those, then resist poisons and cure poisons—I need to practice more.”

  Erik looked over to Rugrat.

  “Why do I have the feeling that I won’t like this?” Rugrat asked.

  “What made you think that?” Erik stood.

  “My balls being located in my stomach right now.” Rugrat shrugged.

  “I’m going to need to test out a few ideas. Healing my body is harder. As I’ve tempered everything but my bones, it takes more Mana to recover. You haven’t undergone Body Cultivation so I can heal you easier. The more tests and trials, the greater surety I know we can heal those kids,” Erik said seriously.

  Rugrat sighed and switched places with Erik. “Don’t forget the damn Wraith’s Touch.” Rugrat pulled out a smithing manual with his left hand to start reading.

  Erik smiled. Rugrat was one of those men, all hardass and angry on the outside, but inside he would put his life on the line for any kid, any man or woman he considered a brother, sister, or innocent.