Zerah cursed under her breath as she worked on the now unconscious Damian’s leg. If she had gotten to it even as little as two hours earlier, she might’ve been able to save the limb but even with the spells preventing Damian from bleeding out there was too much dead tissue for her to heal with her healing magic. Hell, if he hadn’t been so stubborn the other healers might’ve been able to keep his leg in good enough condition for her to save. But she couldn’t fault him for the decision that he made either and in fact she felt more than a little bit guilty for even considering the idea that he would have let other people suffer so that he could keep his leg.

In the end she was proud of all of the decisions that he had made today she just resented the idea that one of her students had to lose a leg because of something that wasn’t even his fault. Even though she had told him that the prosthetic would work just like his old leg would, it would take time for him to learn to use it properly.

Thankfully he had good friends who would help him out like the other two young men who were sitting outside the barrier that she had erected around her and Damian who would keep an eye on him while he adjusted.

While she was thinking this, she was also controlling multiple needles that were just now finishing up stitching the amputated part of Damian’s leg. Once this was done, she placed the amputated part of the limb in a bag that had been put aside for that purpose before deactivating the barrier and turning to Kyle and Hal who had been waiting impatiently while she was working.

“How’s he doing?” Kyle asked calmly as he looked at the stump where his friends leg used to be. It was a hard thing for him to look at, but he refused to give into the desire to look away. He owed Damian that much.

“He should be fine,” Zerah sighed tiredly. “The spells that the other healers used to keep him from bleeding out also slowed the deterioration of the surrounding flesh, so I didn’t have to take off too much of the leg. I need you two to promise me something though.”

“Of course,” Hal and Kyle replied simultaneously making their teacher smile briefly before the serious expression returned to her face and she explained that there was going to be an adjustment period where they were going to have to keep an eye on Damian until he got used to both the prosthetic itself and the idea that he now had a prosthetic limb.

Once she had finished explaining the situation Zerah told the two young men that she had to move onto the next patient who needed her attention and someone else would be by later with the prosthetic.

“Gods,” Hal sighed as he sagged in his seat next to Kyle. “Why did this happen?”

“I know man,” Kyle agreed tiredly. This entire day had been a disaster beyond anything that either of them had ever seen despite their own efforts and even though Fi had told him that it wasn’t his fault he couldn’t help but feel like he was at least partially responsible.

Seeing the stump where the end of their friend’s leg had been only served to drive home just how badly things had gone today and how much worse things could’ve gone. They also remembered that there was an entire group of their classmates was still missing which meant that they were almost certainly dead. People that they had eaten, studied and sparred with. And that was even without considering the other people who had died in the attack.

Sensing Kyle’s depression coming back Fi decided to take a break and after clearing it with the person she was covering for headed back over to her partner.

“Hey,” she said as she landed in her customary position around his neck. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Kyle nodded. “Just thinking about stuff. I know none of this is my fault, but I just wish that I could’ve done more.”

“We’ve gone over this before, you’ve done plenty,” Fi replied shaking her head. “You’ve done more than anyone could’ve expected of you. You all have.”

“Thanks, Fi,” Kyle sighed, and Hal nodded his agreement.

“So then,” Fi said as she decided to change the subject to take their mind off of what was going on. “You have 21 Skill Points to spend, do you want to unlock the Inscriptions Skill?”

“You know what Fi, let’s do that,” Kyle agreed readily. He had been looking forwards to unlocking this Skill for a long time and he knew that Hal had been looking forward to it as well. FI nodded happily and spent the required points before bringing up the Skill description for Kyle to view.

New Skill Unlocked!

Inscriptions-Mastery

Level 1-0% to next Proficiency Level

Allows you to Inscribe various items with different magical effects increasing their capabilities but has a chance decreasing their maximum Durability. Unlocks Inscription Menu. Related Sub-Skills can also be unlocked.

Current Bonuses

· Decreases the chance of lowering the items maximum Durability by 5%

Sub-Skills

· Enchanting School Inscriptions Unlocked!

“Fi can you bring up the Inscriptions Menu please?” Kyle asked once he had finished re-reading the Skill description. As one might expect from the name the Inscriptions Menu showed what Inscriptions one could make with the Inscriptions Skill, and what each of them did.

Inscriptions Menu

Enchanting School Inscriptions.

· Minor Fire Inscription: Inscribes a weapon with fire magic to increase damage. 3 points of fire damage added per 20 Soul Points spent.

“Well then, now that you have the Skill, we can start working on Inscribing out gear,” Hal said once Kyle had read out the description of the only Inscription that he could make right now. Hopefully he would be able to increase his repertoire soon but at least he could create Inscriptions now.

“Yeah, not right now though. I’m still pretty exhausted,” Kyle groaned. He knew that his friend was excited by the prospect of increasing the usefulness of the equipment that he made and that he was even more excited by the prospect of Kyle helping him do that.

“Agreed,” Hal replied with an easy chuckle. “In fact, we should probably wait until there’s a teacher who can keep an eye on us the first time that you make an Inscription as well.”

“Yeah I’m pretty sure Zerah would appreciate that,” Kyle agreed. Making Inscriptions could be dangerous if you weren’t careful and it wasn’t unusual for the first item that someone Inscribed to explode because the Inscription was badly made or because too much power was put into the Inscription which in the worst case scenario could cause the item to explode so having someone who was more experienced was always a good idea.

“As would I,” Fi agreed with a light laugh as she realised that she had successfully managed to improve the mood of her two friends.

They continued talking about what they were planning to do now that Kyle had unlocked Inscriptions for quite a while. Naturally Kyle and Hal had talked about this before and had some idea of all the different options that they had but now that he had actually unlocked the Skill, they decided that they would go over their options again. The primary thing that Kyle wanted to achieve by Unlocking this Skill was having access to a number of different weapons enchanted with different effects so that he could swap them out for different enemies. One of the Inscriptions that he was most interested in unlocking was the Inscription for his Minor Vampiric Enchantment spell because of his own lack of healing magic but also because there weren’t very many monsters that spell didn’t affect normally unlike an elemental Inscription would.

Sometime later a very excited looking Amy shot into the room and started broadcasting her thoughts as loud as she could.

“Everyone I have good news!” Amy shouted mentally causing some people who weren’t used to this method of communication to hold their heads in pain. “The Adventurers and Guards have finally managed to drive the monsters back into the Dungeon! The siege has been lifted!”

A large cheer rose up from everyone present and laughter could be heard echoing from the open door that Amy had come through although those who were more experienced knew that many of the people who were currently celebrating would soon find that they were being a bit premature when they found out that they had lost their homes, shops or even those close to them in the siege. However, for now they decided to let them celebrate, there was no need to drive the morale back down now that smiles had returned to the faces of the people around them.

The ruckus finally woke Damian from his slumber, causing the young man to look around in surprise at the sound of people celebrating where before there had only been the sounds of people crying or muttering instructions to each other as they rushed around checking on patients so waking up to this was quite a surprise to him.

“What happened?” he asked with a slightly dazed look on his face making Kyle and Hal who had been looking out of the gap between the privacy screens at what was going on around them jump in surprise.

“The siege has been broken,” Kyle replied carefully. “But more importantly than that how are you feeling?”

“Me, I…” Damian broke off as he tried to sit up in bed and then realised why Kyle was asking that question and looked down at the bandaged stump where the end of his leg had once been. Blinking as he tried to process the strange sensations emanating from his leg, he started to turn pale before gritting his teeth and forcing himself to look away.

“I’m honestly not sure about how I’m feeling right now,” Damian admitted quietly as he met Kyle’s gaze. “I think that I’m going to need some time to process the fact that I’ve lost my leg but I’m also just glad that this is over.”

“That’s fair,” Kyle agreed. “If it’s alright with you I’m going to go and check on the others outside.”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Damian replied giving his friend a tight smile. “I’ll see you later.”

Giving his friends a nod Kyle made his way out of the room and into the hallway where he found a very strange sight waiting for him. A number of small children were laughing and giggling as they sat on the back of a familiar looking figure who Kyle would never have thought would allow anyone other than his partner to do something like that. But to Kyle’s surprise the usually stern Theodore seemed to be enjoying himself almost as much as the children himself as he made his way down the hall under the watchful eyes of their parents. Seeing Kyle staring at him in surprise Theodore froze in embarrassment before breaking down into a coughing fit as he realised that he had ruined his image in the young man’s eyes.

“Hey, Teddy how are you doing?” Kyle asked with a massive smile on his face as the bear-shaped companion coughed and spluttered as he tried to work out how he was going to explain the situation. He let this continue for a few more seconds before deciding to take pity on the poor companion. “I’m guessing that Claire put you up to this?”

“Yeah that’s right!” Theodore replied quickly seeing a way to regain at least some of his pride and choosing not to complain about Kyle’s use of his nickname. “Claire asked me to keep the kids entertained.”

“Sure, she did,” Kyle chuckled looking around at the amused looks that had appeared on the faces of the parents who knew that this had actually been Theodore’s idea. “Anyway, I’m going to go and check on the others.”

“Ah, yes, of course,” Theodore agreed as Kyle stepped around him. “You do that and- and I’ll just stay here and keep the kids entertained.”

“Alright Teddy, I’ll see you later,” Kyle chuckled. For the first time since he and the others had been forced to retreat from the Dungeon, he had a smile on his face that didn’t look forced which made Fi smile as well when she noticed.

Once they were outside Kyle looked around the courtyard which in some ways looked like it was in even worse shape than it had been when he had gone inside making it obvious that the fighting had been continuing without him which he briefly felt a bit guilty about but then shook his head. Even if he had been out here, he probably would’ve just gotten in Alistair’s way in his current state.

There were sacks that were full of various monster body parts that were being carried to the storage sheds by the more physically powerful students while other who had Skills like Skinning and Butchering continued to work on the corpses of the monsters which had been sorted into piles. The few students who were doing neither of these things were either inside the school checking up on the citizens who had taken shelter in the school or keeping an eye out for any straggling monsters who might be foolish enough to attack them.

Spotting Yuliah Kyle wandered over to her nodding at several of the students who noticed him as he went. Yuliah also noticed him and gave him a smile as he approached.

“How is Damian doing?” she asked making Kyle wince slightly as he tried to think of a way to tell her what had happened to his friend. “Bearing in mind of course that I saw the state that he was in when he got here.”

“Ah, well I’m afraid that things only really got worse from there,” Kyle replied. Because of course she had seen the state that his leg had been in earlier. “Well I’m afraid that he insisted that the healer helped the non-adventurers who were almost as injured as he was first.”

“Of course, he did,” Yuliah sighed shaking her head sadly. Damian had proved over and over again that he had simply been caught up in a bad crowd back in Farholt and she had grown quite fond of the young man despite his flaws which included the stubbornness that she could’ve sworn he had picked up from spending so much time Kyle and Hal recently. “So, what happened?”

“Well by the time Zerah got around to him the wound had worsened t such a state that he only really had to choices,” Kyle responded shifting awkwardly under his teacher’s gaze. “The first one was that she would do her best to repair the leg but if she did that, he would have to give up on the idea of becoming an Adventurer or she could amputate the leg and the school would pay for part of a magical prosthetic which would still allow him to become an Adventurer if he wanted. He chose the second option.”

“I see,” Yuliah sighed. That was a difficult decision for anyone to make especially someone as young as Damian, so she was quite proud of him for deciding that continuing on with his dream was more important to him than living the rest of his life with a painful reminder that he gave up.

“So then,” she continued deciding to change the subject before they both fell out of the good mood that they were in. “I take it that you heard that the monsters have been forced back?”

“That’s right,” Kyle replied with a shrug. “There wasn’t that much I more that I could do in there anyway. It’s not like I have any healing Skills or magic.”

“Fair enough,” Yuliah replied with a no before noticing movement out of the corner of her eye and turning to see Ulrich, Gloria, Resald and Sonia watching them silently. “Hello, you four, I’ll give you some privacy to talk.”

“Thanks, Yuliah,” Ulrich replied. “So how are things looking in there.”

“Well better than they could’ve been I suppose,” Kyle replied sadly then went on to explain the situation inside.

“That idiot,” Ulrich sighed sadly when Kyle had finished speaking. “I can’t believe that he had to have his leg amputated.”

“Now, now Ulrich, I think he made the right decision,” Resald disagreed.

“I didn’t say that he did,” Ulrich replied. “In fact, I might’ve made the same decision myself if I was in the same position.”

“Well I don’t know Damian as well as you guys, but I have to say that was a brave decision that he made,” Gloria said.

“Oh yeah, he really only takes classes on magic,” Kyle recalled. “So, you haven’t really had a lot of time to get to know him.”

“Right,” Gloria agreed. “But I’m thinking I might do something about that. He sounds like the sort of person that I could get along with.”

“Yeah, he got caught up in a bad crowd back in Farholt but he’s a good guy,” Kyle agreed.

“What do you mean?” Gloria asked as the other two shifted uncomfortably at Kyle’s words. Gloria knew that Kyle, Hal and Damian had come from the same village, but she didn’t really know that much about Farholt.

“Well you see,” Kyle began as he tried to think how to explain what he was talking about without offending Gloria but was unable to so with a sigh he just decided to tell her the truth. “There was a man who used to be the Guard Captain back in Farholt who hated non-humans and even Aethereal Humans like myself and he was the one who trained Damian.”

“I see,” Gloria replied cocking her head to one side in confusion. “But I’ve never noticed that he looks down on non-humans and he seems to be quite friendly with you.”

“Yeah, like I said he got caught up in a bad crowd,” Kyle said. “You know what; why don’t I just tell you the whole story…”

Kyle explained what had happened in the lead up to the three of them being accepted into the school including the part where he and his father had chased the culprits behind the discrimination against non-humans in Farholt and arresting them.

“So, your father is the Guard Captain now?” Gloria asked once Kyle was done.

“That’s right,” Kyle nodded. “And from what I’ve heard from my parents, the villagers are happier now. Also, and I found this out recently apparently, the farm where I grew up was bought by a family of Plains Dwarves who have been accepted pretty well by the rest of the villagers with only a few exceptions.”

Plains Dwarves were one of the few sub-races of Dwarves who truly appreciated living above ground, in fact Gloria was a Plains Dwarf herself. Plains Dwarves were also known for being expert farmers that specialised primarily in root vegetables so it was no surprise that they had been readily accepted by the majority of villagers as root vegetables were one of the main staple foods in Farholt so having a steady supply only made things easier for them.

“It seems like the villagers changed their minds fairly quickly then,” Gloria noted making Kyle shake his head.

“Not really, my mother and I had to deal with a lot of harassment over the years while I was growing up,” he explained. “It was only really when I brought Sonia to the village that things really started to change. And even then, it still took time.”

“That’s true,” agreed Sonia who had been quietly listening to the conversation up until now. She didn’t really know any of the other three and couldn’t help but feel like she was a bit isolated from them being the only one who had chosen not to become an Adventurer like Kyle had but she felt that if she was going to speak up then now was the time. “Kyle only really had a few friends up until I arrived and even then, it still took time for the villagers to accept Kyle and his mother despite everyone’s best efforts.”

“Interesting,” Gloria said rubbing her chin. “But what did you mean about ‘being brought to the village’?”

“Oh, well, my parents were killed by monster when I was a little girl,” Sonia explained sadly. “So when Kyle first met me I was starved and feral, in fact the first time I saw him I attacked him but he knocked me out and took me back to his house where he made sure that I was fed and then the next day they took me to the village.”

“They knew that if they tried to raise me, I would just be as badly treated as they were back then,” she explained awkwardly as Kyle placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. He knew how much she didn’t like being reminded of the past like this but appreciated her telling the story to his friends. “The village priest who was an old friend of theirs took me in and raised me and Kyle and I have been friends ever since.”

“Well that’s one hell of a story,” Resald breathed looking at the dark-skinned girl with wide eyes. “Sounds to me like you’ve had a rough life.”

“That’s true,” Sonia agreed looking sad for a second before turning to Kyle as a smile returned to her face. “But it would’ve been a lot worse if I hadn’t met Kyle.”

“Thanks Sonia,” Kyle replied kindly before noticing something out of the corner of his eye and looking upwards.

Flying down towards them was a group of large figures making him tense up thinking that they were being attacked but then as the figures got closer, he realised that they were the teachers who had yet to return. His eyes widened even further as he noticed that someone had even somehow managed to find Malkin; the teacher who had been supervising Ulrich’s group and had stayed behind to try and hold the monsters back when they had attacked.

He wasn’t the only one to notice this and a loud cheer rose up from the other students as their teachers touched down. The siege of Greenhearth was finally over.