Mirelle did a swift check around us to see if there were any more of the Stonebark treants, thankfully all the stonebark who had been attacking her were now completely gone and defeated. However, there were a few stragglers within our surrounding area. "Mirelle, can you handle the rest of the stonebarks?" I asked Mirelle, as I added. "I need to tend to their wounds." I told Mirelle, pointing towards the bleeding man. "Mirelle can handle the rest, Lady Celeste!" Mirelle replied enthusiastically.
Mirelle went off to face the remaining Stonebark Treants, while I once again approached the heavily injured and exhausted Adventurer Party. I raised my staff, lightly tapping the head of the staff on the dome surrounding the party, and as the staff came into contact with my spell, the dome slowly cracked, and suddenly turning into light particles before completely disappearing. "Are you all right?" I asked them, I wanted to make sure there weren't any injuries I haven't seen with my own eyes. "Thanks for saving us." one of their party members said, as another one added "Other than being completely exhausted, we're all mostly fine." before continuing to say. "But Jack is seriously injured."
The member then started explaining how their party's leader had gotten injured, and as I listened to his explanation, I didn't waste any time as I was examining the bleeding man's injuries, treating his injuries to the best of my abilities before using [Healing Magic] to close the wound off. I couldn't use any other healing magic, as I haven't learned and made deeper and complex [Healing Magic], at most I was able to use basic tier healing magic without difficulty and my one named spell wasn't fully done yet and still needed to be calibrated and fine tone. Right now, the best I could do was clean the wound, close it with healing magic and send them back into the city walls.
Before the bleeding man lost any more of his vitality, I was done with cleaning his wound I was now ready to use [Healing Magic]. "<<< [Healing Magic]— Heal>>>!" as I finished my chant and calling out the spell's name, the surrounding mana started to move into his wound, his wound now glowing lightly as the wound was starting to visibly close us and just like that, his wound was now closed. I turned to look at the party member, explaining what I had in mind and how my [Heal], was only meant for the wound to close, it's far too deep and serious for it be healed with just "[Heal]' alone.
They thought for a moment talking with one another, before turning to look at their leader's pale face. They all nodded as they agreed to returning back into the city walls to heal their wounds, and have their leader's grave injuries treated immediately. "Okay, I'll guide you back to the gate." I said to the Adventurer's Party, as I turned to look at Mirelle. "Mirelle, are you done?" I said to her, as she turned around to sheathe her katana as the last of the Stonebark Treant falls back as all of its branches were cut off and how it was now cut in half. "I'm done, Lady Celeste!" responded Mirelle, waving her arms towards me, as she quickly came back to my side.
Mirelle and I continued to do this for quite a bit of time, providing support to the cornered Adventurer Parties, to rescuing injured Adventurers, Town's guard and Knights. We would guide some of them back into the city's walls before going back out again, fighting the relentless wave of monsters coming our way. Despite all my efforts to help as much people as I could, I couldn't really help everyone as some of those Adventurers would lose a part of themselves permanently, some of them would not even make it.
The only thing I could do was focus on those I could still save, if I spent more time on pondering how to do better, how I could've saved them, more people might die before I could really save them. This wasn't the time to be sad, I had to stay focus, monitor our surrounding, have a sound mind, make split decisions, I had to be in the moment otherwise I wouldn't be able to save anyone, I wouldn't be able to protect not only those people but the people behind me, and most importantly, if I can't stay focused, I wouldn't be able to protect Mirelle and I.
Mirelle and I continued to fight the monster, rescue Adventurers, assist cornered parties, and as we continued to fight off the monsters, defeating Monsters Upon Monsters. However, I didn't allow myself to let these negative emotions, these pessimistic outlooks cloud my vision, I had one job. I had to stay in the moment, I had to focus on the moment and fight off these monsters.
Just as Mirelle and I were fighting some Gnolls and Goblins who had teamed up, a fast-moving creature had moved past our field of awareness before it could alert us, ultimately resulting in Mirelle and I getting injured. Mirelle however wasn't all too injured thanks to her racial trait of being a Terrakin. Her 'Injury' wasn't anything serious as her flesh and bones and entire being was made out of living earth. However, I couldn't say the same for me as I was only human made out of ordinary flesh and bones.
While we were fortunate Mirelle's injury weren't anything real, mine however were real and I was now bleeding out from my neck. Tsukihana who had been silently accompanying us slay numerous monsters hissed at the creature who had inflicted the injury, without wasting any moment Tsukihana immediately put our surrounding area in a time bubble and Mirelle saw blood flowing down my neck, her expression twisted with raw fear, as she stood frozen in her place, I too was very much scared.
I wanted to scream. To fall down to the ground. To panic. To Collapse. To even cry out.
It hurt. It hurt so much. The pain was beyond my imagination, my vision blurring, and the dizziness almost overwhelming. My whole body was screaming, but I had to stay calm, allowing for these things to happen won't help me now.
I was barely keeping myself calm, I needed to be calm otherwise I could lose it all. Mirelle and Tsukihana were visibly affected by this, Mirelle who had been carefully fighting these monsters was now attacking the monsters relentlessly and with reckless abandon, using her racial trait to her advantage, allowing herself to be hit as she hit back harder just to get to me sooner. Tsukihana who had been following my order to stay close and not engage in any fights in my fears of it exposing her powers to the people was now using her powers to keep the fast creatures at bay as she protected me, I needed to stay calm.
Gritting my teeth I placed my trembling hand on my bleeding neck, I toned out all outside destruction placing all my faith in my companions, but just before I focused on healing myself, I turned to look at the panicked stricken Mirelle and used mana to carry my voice to her.
"Mirelle, help Tsukihana."
She froze for a brief moment, as she heard me again.
"Protect me, while I heal."
My voice was trembling and weak, barely a whisper but it carried all the meaning I needed to convey. Mirelle who had been ruthlessly cutting down the monsters with reckless abandon just to reach me faster, heard it. She heard my voice. She turned to look at me, tears were in her eyes. She knew what I meant and I didn't want to see my precious companion being hurt just as she didn't want to see me bleed.
With one last look at Mirelle, I smiled with all the reassurance and gentleness I had in me. For the last time I used mana to carry my voice to her.
"I'll be okay, Mirelle"
My voice was getting weaker, I couldn't waste any more time. Tsukihana didn't stop time only slow it, I had to use all the time I had left to completely heal myself, I had to ignore everything outside to focus on healing. Without waiting for Mirelle's response, I closed my eyes as I casted a spell.
"<<< [Light Magic]— Hikari no Kekkai...>>>"
As I finished chanting, a much more compact and smaller dome had surrounded me. With the dome surrounding me, I now had two layers of defense, Tsukihana and Mirelle and lastly [Hikari no Kekkai]. A feeling of warmth that had been present in my neck had now reach my tummy and elbow, but I continued to ignore it as I continue to hold my neck tightly with my trembling hands.
Despite my abundance of Mana Potions, I was made aware of my lack of Healing Potions from rescuing numerous Adventurers, Knights and Town's Guard. They existed in this world but were far too expensive for normal adventurers, but there was a diluted version of it being sold somewhere in town. I wanted to use [Creation Magic] to make the Healing Potions, but I couldn't really make them due to having no clear image of it and having no time to experiment. Fortunately, one of the Adventurers we had assisted gave us a diluted potion.
Taking the potion out of my dimensional pouch, I took the cap off with my mouth and as I drank it, and despite the bitter taste, a warm feeling was permeating throughout my body. It healed minor wounds and took some of my fatigue away, but it didn't completely heal my neck wound, but the sensation I felt and the feeling of neck wound heal slightly was enough of an image for me. It was everything I needed to heal myself.
I couldn't really use [Yashi no Seiiki] as it was still unrefined and unstable, it was basically an incomplete spell, furthermore I didn't have enough time to refine or fix that spell and it was just the wrong spell to use at the moment. The spell was an area of effect spell, not an individual healing spell. I had to create something new, and thanks to the Healing Potion's inspiration, I am able to do just that and If I were to use [Creation Magic] along with it, I could bypass my lack of skills and knowledge as well as other requirements.