Crystals all around.
It reminded Lily of that strange vision she had witnessed earlier. That one crystal of light that floated in front of her. Was it the same? She looked around, expecting to see darkness once again. But she remained where she was, with Marcus just a few steps away. She looked up as a small fragment of crystal floated down towards her. Just like in her vision. But somehow, she knew that it was different. She reached out a hand to catch it. Will it turn dark again? She couldn't help but wonder. She watched it as it floated closer and closer to her hand. As its tip touched her palm, she felt it push and wrap around her. And then suddenly, she found herself in a strange floating sphere. A mixture of excitedness and panic coursed through her. What was this sphere? Some kind of attack or a friendly act? Will it crush her or will it float her to safety? She looked around and was slightly relieved to see Marcus trapped in the same sphere as she was. Not that it was a good thing---being trapped. There was just that sense of relief of knowing that she wasn't alone in whatever it was that held them.
She would have asked Marcus what he thought of all this but the events unfolding below caught her attention. She reached forward, held her hands against the smooth inner surface of the sphere and began watching the scene below. From this new vantage point above ground, she had a perfect bird's eyeview on the remaining monsters: the huge golem, the spaghetti and meatballs monster and finally, the eye scropion Marcus shot at before the crystals appeared. There were all struggling to break free of the crystals that were now forming around them in a prison of sorts.
Still transfixed, she watched the crystal dome completely seal off the monsters they had just been fighting and then implode. Strangely enough, she felt a sense of accomplishment as she watched the nightmarish monsters obliterated, even though she had no hand in destroying them.
Wow... whoever did that must be one heck of a person, she thought as she stared at the deep crater the implosion left behind. As she stared, she felt the sphere encasing them slowly float down back to the ground. And probably like the rest of the students, she found herself wondering why newbies like them were sent out into battle when people way way stronger and more effective than they could ever be were present. Combat assessment? Putting their lives in serious danger just to assess what they can do? Some school they were in.
Aren't they supposed to put us through training first? The thought was frustrating and it threatened to pull her mood back down again.
As soon as the sphere dissipated, she looked at the small crowd. Some people were missing. Most probably dead. Who were the ones that had died in that sickening battle? Her thoughts drifted back to the horrible scene she had witnessed earlier. One of her team mates had fallen, eaten by those horrible squirrels. Padma. The memory flashed through her mind in a loop and she felt sick. How many more would die in future battles like the one they were just in?
"Lilianna! Front and center! You're taking all the other injuries and healing through them with this guy's blood!" a barking order floated into Lily's ears. Thoughts about squirrels and blood and screaming team mates flew out of her head and she perked up at the sound of her name. Her head poked out from behind the other students standing around, the order making her acutely aware of the injuries of everyone. Even without seeing them, she could sense them. And there was a lot. By the time she had siphoned off each and every injury there is, she would no doubt be reduced to a ball of pain and suffering. She wasn't looking forward to it but there really was no going around it. This was her purpose and it was how she could help everyone. Wasn't she just thinking about how best to help when the battle was over? Well, here it was now.
She was just about to take a step forward when she felt a hand tap her shoulder.
"
Hey Lily," Callan hastily stepped forward and tapped the girl's shoulder with the back of her hand before she got too far. She lowered her voice and took a breath before speaking, her forehead creased with concern. "
Don't worry about my injuries, alright? I'll heal up later."
"
Yeah, and if you give me that shoulder injury back, I can rewind that away, no problem." Marcus said, standing slightly behind Callan. The whole situation felt a bit weird to him; he hadn't come to a point in that entire fight where he felt like he was in grave enough danger to rewind, and saved it for a worse situation that never happened. That'd look good on the assessment, for sure. He turned to go back to wherever their little group was going, but caught himself, looking back to Lily with a snap.
"
Good work, by the way. Even though you blew me up and I shot you in the leg, I'd say we made a pretty good team out there. Although, let's try to keep the friendly fire to a minimum next time, 'kay?" he said, grin parting widely across his face. They'd managed to fight some of DC's goons, even if they were lower power and technicaly not DC's, but they'd still come out on top.
Lily looked at her two team mates. She didn't mind taking their injuries. They were part of the same team. They were supposed to look after each other. She stood there and stared at Cal for a second, wondering why she didn't want her injuries to be taken away.
"Are you sure?" she asked. Callan nodded in response.
"
I don't want him to lose anymore blood than he needs to right now...," she mumbled. It felt weird to talk about this outloud-- drinking someone's blood and transfering injuries.
Lily looked a little skeptically at Callan, not really paying attention to what she mumbled and then turned her attention to Marcus. This time, she shook her head.
"No need to give it back when i've already taken it," she gave him a smile.
"Don't worry. And thanks. I'll make sure not to accidentally throw any more grenades at you." Grenades. Right. She still had the grenade belt strapped around her waist. She ran towards the soldier she got it from, unfastened it from her waist and handed it over to him. She didn't wait for him to say anything. As soon as the belt was safely back in his hand, she ran back as fast as she can to where she was needed. She stopped where Ethan was and caught sight of someone new to the group. Someone with...pink hair.
He's probably the one who made all those crystals. she thought in awe to herself. She would have stared at him in awebut pink haired crystal guy was holding a cup that was stained red. Her eyes zoned in on its contents...or what was left of it.
Blood? Lilianna! Front and center! You're taking all the other injuries and healing through them with this guy's blood! The command echoed in her head.
This guy's blood... She stared at the cup and then at the unconscious Christmas and then finally, it dawned on her what they wanted her to do. Transfer all the injuries to herself and drink Christmas' blood. It made sense...in a way.
But blood... Suddenly, she could smell the irony scent of it. She looked around frantically. Wasn't there any other monsters she could just transfer the injuries to? Did she really need to drink blood? Did he even have any left? He was so pale she doubted that there was any left.
"Shane--behind!"Lily turned her head towards the charging Sander just as the crystal wall came up to block his path. She cringed when the crimson eyed mage slammed into it. Was he heading towards the bleeding Christmas? What would have happened if there wasn't anything to block his path? Instinctively, the black thread appeared on her wrist, the other end fastening itself onto Christmas' wrist. She immediately crumpled down onto the ground as wire cuts appeared on her left leg up to her mid thigh, blood soaking through her pants. Lacerations spread out all over her body as well but she made sure to leave one of the deeper lacerations on her target. If there wasn't any other monsters to transfer the injuries to, then she really needed to drink his blood to heal herself. That or die. After going through all that shit, she really really preferred to at least be able to walk back to school and pretend that they were all living normal lives. It'll be real sad not being able to eat donuts again.
She took the wrist wound last, immediately clamping her other hand onto the wound as to prevent herself from losing too much blood. Funny to be worrying about losing blood when her left leg was already losing it. She gritted her teeth to prevent herself from crying out from the pain as she shifted the weight off her now injured leg, the black string tying her to Christmas gone. She took a deep breath.
"W-who's next?" she asked.
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