[center][u][color=lightsalmon][h2]Mar, within the College Infirmary[/h2][/color][/u][/center]

With Sam's help, Lucilia tried to get closer to Mar's wound. The first place she checked was the heart. She figured that the wound was worse there, since Mar's bones were much more vicious when Lucilia's hands got closer. But with Sam helping keep Mar's magic from going too wild, Lucilia took her scapel and tried to remove the flesh that grew over the wounds. A bone peirced Lucilia's hand and caused her to drop the scapel, but she simply grabbed another scapel with her free hand and continued, leaving her wounded hand out for Lidda to heal so she could continue. 

Lidda paused from her manipulation of Mar, her body turned slightly then gently touched the Herbamancer master's hand. A tingling sensation brushed through it and in several seconds, the wound stitched itself up and formed back into its original state. All save for the blood stain upon the woman's palm. The vitamancer gestured towad Sam, who already was collecting one of several vials, then passed it to the stressed teacher. She popped the cork then downed it in one go. 

It would take a bit to take affect and even then, the effects weren't going to be instant despite the extra strength and speed compared to the ones given to novices. Her eyes shifted to spy how many she had already drank, about six, as she let down her disguise into her half snow elf and orc form. Rarely anyone would've guessed it was her original shape, namely as she rarely showed it within the walls of the school. 

"At this rate, we'll run out of elixers before we figure out what's wrong with her." Lidda said through her tusked mouth, her longer ears pulled back in worry. 

Another bone blade lunched out and cut off Lucilia's pinky, but she did not deter. Once Lucilia had managed to open the wound over Mar's heart, she saw a glint of metal, but then her magic sealed the wound again. Picking up her pinky, Lucilia held her missing finger close to her stump and sighed. [color=crimson]"Lidda, heal my wounds please? Also, I think I saw something in Mar's heart. But her magic keeps me from getting to it. We need to somehow stop the magic to get to the object. If we do that, we might be able to stop whatever is happening to Mar."[/color]

Lidda naturally caught the digit just before it fell upon the floor, her palms cradling it gently between them. Her mouth made a frown as well as it could through the tusks. She nodded then reattached the finger, focusing her energy on the tendons, bones, muscle then finally flesh until it was fully healed. Feeling more drained, she listened to Lucillia for a moment then asked. "Do you think that's what is causing this?" 

Flexing her fingers Lucilia nodded. Then she shook her head. [color=crimson]"No... I don't know what's causing this. I've always been aware that magic is capable of doing something like this, but... I don't know what is happening to Mar. But I've never seen that shard before, and I never knew about it until now. I don't know what is happening to her, but taking it out should help. Somehow."[/color] Lucilia picked up her tools, but then used her magic to create vines over her fingers and hand, creating an extention of her hands. 

[color=crimson]"Lidda, I hate to ask you to do this... But I need you to control Mar's body."[/color]

"I can, but I don't like to. I can bind her tendons and such to keep er bones from moving or move them as I like. Her mage blood isn't cooperating and I'm getting more exhausted attempting it," Lidda stated, calmly, as her hand reached out to touch Mar's body. "If it wasn't for the fact she's tearing not just herself up, but us as well, I wouldn't have even considered it." 

She focused on the tendons, their thin string like appendages started to wiggle and sway then contrict abruptly. Mar's back ached in sudden reaction while her figure merely froze in the middle of it, her torso raised and bones held in place. Each time the ribs tried to move, they found muscle and tendons fastening them into place again. Lidda was pale with the effort but she helf fast to the task at hand.  

Lucilia acted fast. The vines streched out and immediately started to operate on Mar's chest. They were far more agile and tougher than Lucilia's own hands, which were already pretty tough to begin with. Even if Mar's magic was still on the fritz, it'd take a lot more than a single blade to cut through them. Lucilia began to cut open Mar's chest, using hooks to keep the flesh parted. Thanks to Lidda controlling Mar's, her body didn't immediately seal up. That's when Lucilia could see some sort of metal shard in Mar's body. Obviously a foriegn object, she used a pair of forceps on the end of a vine to extract it.

[color=crimson]"Found something! I don't want anyone to touch it, so  give me something to put it in!"[/color]

Lidda wasn’t perfect or invulnerable. 

With her mind so focus on stopping Mar’s body from maiming itself, the teacher was caught off guard when a fresh surge of foreign energy poured into the student’s body. It was...dark and twisted. The power  was coursing with surprising strength and abruptly Lidda felt it trying to consume her back, Mar’s body jerked like a wild thing without warning. The Naga’s mouth trickled with blood as it crept along her corner then dripped downward. It stained her filthy skin while her spine started to crack, stretch and pull like a bony serpent from her ribs. Slowly it detangled from the nerves still connected to Mar’s skull, shaking them off like unwanted blue and red vines. 

They pooled at the bottom causing Mar’s figured to start seizuring until it was completely free. The spine’s end slithered out like a living thing, pulling up through the hole created by Lucilia nearest the neck. In less than a minute, its ‘head’ narrowed into spike. It reared then shot out at Lidda’s throat intending on impaling her. With her mind and magic focused on Mar, all she could do was brace for the attack.  

Meanwhile, the shard sank just when the forceps got close enough to grab it. It was located in the heart region when the ribs disconnected and the spine had surged forward. They wrapped about and encased the material, her lungs and the heart protectively, creating a solid mass of bone. It then shot off ‘liquid’ bone to create a thick, stringy webbing that quickly hardened, preventing it from being removed. In many ways it looked like a magnified version of the inside of a bone where the marrow was made save for the solid bone cocoon in the middle.  

Despite its weak look, in order to break it there needed to be some serious force behind the attempt. Blood bubbled into acidity matter where the vines were slowly being eaten away the longer they touched… the scent creating a putrid smell that wafted from Mar’s body. What material that was melted oozed into the cavity where it would become a black, hot liquid seeping through the holes made through the skin in the  back. It dripped down the table and burned everywhere, using the plant material as fuel for the burning.  

Of course things weren’t going to be easy.

Just as Lucilia had managed to spot the shard, it sank deeper into Mar’s chest, and her mageblood went crazy. Lucilia was quite aware that her magic was acting up, trusting Lidda to take care of it, but when Mar’s body convulsed and her spine literally tore itself out of Mar’s mouth, Lucilia knew that this wasn’t merely her blood acting up. Someone was manipulating Mar’s body through the shard, and whoever it was didn’t want to lose control.

Lucilia had her hands full, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t fight. As the spine went to go stab Lidda, Luclia had her own vines lash out and hold it back. She gave no mercy; it may have been Mar’s spine, but right now it was a threat. The vines tighten and began to crush the spine, though Lucilia was aware that it would likely grow harder or try to produce spikes to tear its way out, so more vines wrapped around the spine to break it. 

Lidda recovered quickly enough to see Lucilia's vines curl and attempt to crush Mar's spine into powder, the bone cracking and crumbling. The vitamancer teacher's tusked mouth open in protest desptie the fact she was prevented from being nearly killed. "Lucilia! Stop crushing her spine or it will take days for me to rebuild it and you'll kill her. The more damage you do, outside vitamancy had already done, less I can fix. Lucillia... please. I'm already getting to my limit as it is." 

With that said, Lidda poured more of her magic into the student causing the cracks that were made by Lucilia's plants to fill in then seal. Mar's skin glands started to secrete an enzyme that nulled the acidic nature of the blood, preventing it from eating through the skin. Sadly, she couldn't protect Lucilia's plant matter without it literally consuming through Mar's faster.  

Next was the boney shield and the vicious fluids that prevented her vines from getting close to the shards. Lucilia could recognize that the bones were meant to provide a physical barrier to Lucilia’s vines, and the acidic blood would prevent her from just pulling it out. But Lucilia was also quite adept with acids and other alchemical concoctions.

[color=crimson]”Uicle! I need your help! Use your magic to control this acid and use it to melt through the bones. The shard needs to be removed and that will save Mar!”[/color] With one of her vines Lucilia produced a special metal flask containing a powerful acid. Lucilia carried this for self-defense and never imagined that she would use such a volatile substance in surgery, but she had little choice in the matter. This substance would be strong enough to met through Mar’s boney armor, and strong enough that it won’t dilute easily even if all the blood in Mar’s body tried to fuse into it. But she needed Uicle to control the acid, otherwise it’ll indiscriminately eat through Mar’s torso and kill her.

"Lucilia," Lidda stated, calmly though looking sickly with her over use, "He can also likely alter the acidicity of the blood. Maybe nullify it since it's a liquid."

Though to be honest, Lucilia didn’t think Mar was going to make it even if they didn’t use the acid. Her own spine had been torn out of her body and was being reduced to powder, and her blood had become acidic. She was certain that given a few more minutes, the blood may end up burning through Mar’s flesh and bones, leaving nothing but slag behind. But until that happened, Lucilia wasn’t going to give up. It’d take more than dark magic to stop Lucilia from saving Mar’s life.

When Ucile finally changed the acidity, the blood ceased to burn and pooled in the lower part of her torso. Slowly the Naga relaxed as if her body had exhausted herself. Lidda looked at Lucilia giving her a serious and desperate look. It was clear Mar's body was collecting strength for another all out defense but it needed time, and this was their one and only shot to get whatever was within Mar out. Afterward, they would need to patch her up quick because whatever magical source was keeping her alive would be gone. This put her life in the greatest risk of being lost if they failed to get it out. 

Lucilia struck fast. Uicle managed to nullify the acid for now, but there was only the issue of Mar's bones shielding the shard. She used her vines to pry the protective barrier aside, and Lucilia struck a gloved hand inside the opening. Her flesh and bones were far tougher than her vines could be, and if Mar's body reacted in an attempt to cut off her hand, they'd find it hard to slice through the master vampire's. Once Lucilia felt the metalic tip of the sharp poke her finger, Lucilia grabbed and it out.

For a split second, Lucilia saw the shard. A pure white blade, like the light reflecting off fresh snow. She quickly put it into a box for safe keeping, but the moment it left her fingers it shattered into dust. No - not even dust remained. It simply vanished into the air after breaking part in countless peices. Lucilia saw this with her own eyes and couldn't make sense of any of it. What was the shard? How could it have done this to Mar? Where did it go? These questions would haunt Lucilia for the time to come. But right now, she needed to focus on Saving Mar's life.

[color=crimson]"Someone get me Mar's spine!"[/color]

"Working on it. Sam, can you get the thread and needles?" Lidda stated as she reached for the end then passed its end to Lucilia. Slowly she started to pour some energy into it and mend the fractures enough it was close to being functional. It would take hours to patch the student up but at least she was alive, and likely to fight another day. This made the exhausted master vitamancer relieved beyond words.  

[hr]

~spot saver~