NOVEL NEXT 56. She Could Have What?
I'm so exhausted after the battle that the rangers practically have to carry me back to camp, where I sit, staring into my lap and sullenly petting Nipper. The poor little guy got dislodged in the fighting at some point, but the rangers were kind enough to track him down for me before leaving. He's shaken and a little bitey, but he came out of it much better than I did.
Talla carefully pulls a piece of stone shrapnel loose, causing me to clench my teeth and suppress a whimper of pain.
"[Sorry,]" she sighs. "[I told you to be careful with that healing skill.]"
Yeah, Violet, she fucking told us, didn't she? I don't actually say anything, but Vi must feel me glowering.
"I'm so sorry!" she cries. "I didn't think this would happen."
It turns out that rapidly healing yourself while peppered with shrapnel is what those in the business call a "rookie move." The sharp stones lodged in our skin are now firmly stuck there as the flesh forcibly healed around them. Taking them out is a slow and painful process, but necessary to prevent infection and other problems.
So yeah. We fucked up. Mostly Violet, but I'm not without blame either. She used the healing skill, but I'm the one that got us hurt in the first place, but she's the one who dumped me into that situation. Call it seventy-thirty.
I wince as Talla pulls out another shard. Her first aid spell helps to keep me from bleeding out, but that doesn't do anything for the pain. I may have thirty percent of the blame, yet here I am getting saddled with one hundred percent of the consequences.
"Ow, fuck!" I swear and pull away as Talla pries a particularly stubborn bit out with a small knife.
"[I know it hurts, Allie, but we need to take these out,]" she reminds me apologetically. "[Trust me, the knife is a much better alternative to just ripping them out right now.]"
"I'm not fucking Allie," I complain under my breath, but let her do her job.
"[Right!]" the musclebound leader announces, returning from setting up some sort of lizard stew along with the bow twink. "[Food's on and we've cleaned a few basilisks. No way we'll be able to get to all of them, but it'll certainly give us something to do while Allie recovers. Speaking of which—how is our reluctant rookie?]"
Talla sighs and looks up at him with a frown. "[Justifiably crabby after being blown up. The emergency healing skill has left her full of jagged rocks, sleep-deprived, and even more starved than she already was.]"
Reminded by her own words, she urges me to eat more of the crackers she keeps stuffing into my hands. I dutifully choke down another bland bite and wash it down with some water—which she is also determined to make me drink until I burst.
Muscleman winces at the sight of me, even though he already got a good look at my condition when he was carrying me back. "[Ouch. Skills like that are always a mixed blessing. They'll save your life, but they might make you wish they hadn't.]" He sighs. "[I hope you've learned your lesson for next time, but just in case—time for a debrief.]"
Talla and Bow-guy both groan. "[Really?]" Talla complains. "[The only thing keeping Allie conscious right now is the pain from removing these rocks,]" she says, pulling one out a little too roughly for emphasis. "[I'm not sure this is the time.]"
"[That's why it's precisely the time,]" he counters. "[Pain is a good teacher. I want her to remember how she feels right now before she does something like that again. So no more complaints.]"
She sighs, but doesn't offer any further arguments. I'm on Talla's side, though. I can barely follow what's going on right now. Everything that isn't me, Nipper, Talla, or these fucking rocks is an afterthought.
"[We'll start with self-assessments,]" Muscleman continues. "[I think I handled myself well in the fighting and kept our rookie out of serious danger until the incident at the end. On a personal level, I may have relied too heavily on Talla's healing and my own Resilience—taking blows head-on like that is never ideal. It only takes one piercing blow to a vital point to render all of Talla's efforts void.]"
He pauses for a moment, letting his words sink in.
"[As leader, I clearly failed to properly assess Allie's abilities and limitations,]" he adds. "[Our communication difficulties aside, I think she needed a better briefing.]"
Is he blaming himself for what Violet and I did? The hell? That's not what bosses are supposed to do. You're supposed to pass the buck down to the lowest rung on the ladder, fire them, then award yourself a bonus for doing such a good job.
He gestures for Bowguy to go next.
"[I kept the lizards off us. Killed the most,]" he answers simply, before the leader's glare forces him to add a bit more. "[Should have seen the big one and shot it first. My bad.]"
"[Good,]" the leader nods. "[Talla?]"
"[I'm partly to blame for the miscommunications,]" she admits without looking up from her work. "[I've got the best rapport with Allie, and it's my tacit responsibility to handle communication with her. I think I acted fine in my role when things were going to plan, but I froze up when Allie broke formation. I've got a spell that might have worked against the flaregaze basilisk, but I was afraid to use it under the circumstances.]"
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"[Good! I'll spare Allie the self-assessment since she's injured and also can't speak,]" Muscleman chuckles.
"I underestimated how hard it is to fight in a group," Violet cuts in. "I held the line despite my inexperience, but I can tell I was holding the group back. I don't know what I could have done better when the irregular showed up, but it's obvious that I mishandled it."
"Who the fuck are you talking to?" I ask her. "They can't hear you, nerd."
"In hindsight, putting my faith in Maggie might have been a mistake," she adds.
"Fuck you too, bitch."
Talla furrows her brows while the other rangers stare at me, but I ignore them and go back to cuddling Nipper. He doesn't judge me. Do none of these ingrates realize I saved their lives?
"[Ahem, yes, thank you Allie,]" the leader responds, coughing awkwardly. "[Let's move on to group assessments. Saban, can you identify any flaws in our plan and ways we could have done better?]"
"[The choke point strategy was fine when we could retreat around a corner if we needed to,]" he responds. "[But we should have come up with something else for the den. The long corridor limited our escape options once we engaged.]"
"[Good. Talla?]"
"[I mostly agree with Saban,]" she says. "[Though with only one variant, I could have kept it blinded long enough for us to get away, that wouldn't have mattered if there were more of them.]"
Hold on, what was that?
"[Fair enough,]" the leader agrees. "[That's another strike on me, then. I assumed your light would be enough to handle their eyes.]"
"Oh no..." Violet gasps, coming to the same terrible realization as me. "She could have what? Did I—was this all my fault?!"
I realize that I said the last part out loud when the rangers all turn their gazes on me. I duck my head, blushing. What a terrible time for a switch.
"[Looks like the rookie is starting to catch on,]" Draga sighs. "[Orders are given for a reason, Allie. I know it must be frustrating not being able to communicate, but you can't just act on your own. Your stunt forced us into a pitched confrontation with an evolved variant we weren't prepared for.]"
"But I thought that—" I start to protest, but the words die in my throat.
I thought that I knew better. That I couldn't trust the rangers. I trusted Maggie more than I trusted Draga, and putting it that way it makes me wonder what I was thinking. But I can't even blame her. She did exactly what I thought she would—found a way to deal with the lizard using magic. And by ourselves.
I don't even trust Talla as much as Maggie and Allison do, and I'm starting to worry that I might be just a little paranoid. I assumed the worst of Maggie when she first appeared too, didn't I? Not that she didn't give me every reason to, but still.
"[Anyway,]" Draga continues after giving me a moment to stew in my own doubts. "[I suppose that brings us to the last issue. The burning question on all our minds...] He turns to me and crosses his arms. "[What in all the Goddess' names was that? That explosion nearly brought the entire cave down on all our heads, and last I checked your appraisal came up leader/traveler.]"
How am I supposed to explain any of that? I literally don't have the words. I turn to Talla, feeling frustrated and helpless. I hate having to rely on somebody else to solve my problems—despite literally just concluding that I might be too distrustful.
"[I might be able to explain...some of it,]" Talla hedges. "[Allie has mastered a highly specialized magic class. Two-star, related specifically to these candles and embergaze basilisks. Under the right circumstances, and with a strong enough source of magic to fuel it, a class like that can have outsized potency.]"
"[Outsized?!]" Saban interjects incredulously. "[She nearly knocked over the whole damn mountain. Is this how she took out Reyna, too? Out-fucking-sized?]"
Draga purses his lips, ignoring Saban's outburst and staying focused on Talla. "[So it's not chaos magic, then?]"
"[No. I'm confident that everything she did during that encounter was within the bounds of her class.]"
"[And why didn't you tell us about this class before?]"
Talla shrugs. "[I didn't want you overreacting to unsanctioned magic. I've been on the wrong side of that accusation a few too many times myself.]"
"[Tsk. Blood and acid, Talla, I know we've got our differences but I thought you knew me better than that by now,]" he sighs. "[Alright, but no more secrets, understood? We can't afford surprises like that if we're going to work together as a team.]"
"[Understood,]" she agrees. "[Is that alright with you, Allie?]"
I nod slowly, though it's a bald-faced lie. I have every intention of continuing to keep secrets from the rangers, but with how much we've trusted Talla, it'll be up to her how much we actually reveal anyway.
"[That'll have to do,]" Draga says wearily. "[Take all the time you need to recover. You probably lost most of the progress on one of your classes when you switched, didn't you? If anything, this fiasco just proves that you're not ready to hunt an unknown demon. We'll take our time, do this right, and if we're lucky, we all make it out of this alive.]"
His words ring hollow when he's the one forcing us to cooperate out of some obligation to an organization I've never heard of, which may or may not want to kill me on sight. But maybe I'm just being paranoid again.
Either way, as Talla goes back to removing the shards of rock I stupidly fused into our skin, there's one thing I can agree with the ranger leader on—we are making it out of this alive. I'll make sure of it.
"[One more thing,]" Draga adds before leaving. "[It's a shame about losing Reyna's spear, but no ranger under me is going to suffer improper equipment.]"
I almost flinch away when he suddenly reaches towards my face, but he just gently taps the side of my glasses.
"[Basic Mending]," he recites by way of explanation as his skill takes effect.
The uncomfortably bent frames readjust themselves on my face, reverting back to a perfect fit. The cracks in the lenses fade, though they don't disappear entirely, and even the grime and smudges disappear, letting me see more clearly than I have for days.
"[There,]" he says, nodding with satisfaction. "[Come to me if there's anything else you need.]"