Chapter 80: Life Blood

Kaius felt cold, ever so cold, as he lay in a growing pool of his own blood. He could faintly hear the ongoing cries of his friend’s fury as Porkchop savaged the Champion who had slit his throat and ruined his chest.

He coughed, a spray of red glugging out of the ragged tear in his neck.

**Ding! Stone Blood has reached level 20!**

Shoving his agony and panic to the side he redoubled his grip on his Health, forcing the resource to power through whatever skill the Champion had used to inhibit his healing. He could do this. Enough focus and will and he would get through this.

**Ding! Efficient Healing has reached level 15!**

He could feel it, the energy left over from the attack, slowly weakening. With every push it gave out quicker. Enough time and it would have passed by itself. Time he didn’t have. His only saving grace was the fact that his chest plate had saved him from getting stabbed in the heart. Even with Stone Blood, he doubted he could have survived that.

**Ding! Efficient Healing has reached level 16!**

He clenched his teeth and heaved again, shoving a great wave of restorative energy towards his blood vessels. One by one they made contact, slowly rejoining as they stemmed the tide of his health. Not fast enough. The bloodloss had sapped his strength, leaving him feeling like he had an anvil on his chest as his heart fluttered, trying to keep its beat as his blood pressure fell through the floor.

**Ding! Efficient Healing has reached level 17!**

Again!

He shoved his health, battling against the energy that coated his wounds. It wavered, poorly suited to counteracting Health that was bolstered by skills and personally directed with his will. As the Champion’s skill shuddered, he slipped through the cracks, dumping Health into his jugular. It snapped forwards like a striking snake, healing itself whole.

**Ding! Efficient Healing has reached level 18!**

The skill that was dampening his healing shuddered back into position, stopping him from moving on to his other vessels. It was failing, quicker than he expected. Kaius had to do it now, he could feel himself fading. It was a race, what would fail first?

He shoved again, ramming against the barrier that halted his regeneration, screaming in fury as he corralled his health, slamming it into the wound on his throat.

The sapping magic shattered, health rolled over his throat in a wave.

**Ding! Efficient Healing has reached level 19!**

Something nudged him. He ignored it. If it was the Champion he was dead anyway. He felt the flesh on his neck boil, morphic as it flowed. Resealing itself. Now that there was no skill working against him, his Health burned at a prodigious rate as he encouraged it to move faster. Even as he guided it to efficiency, supported by Efficient Healing, it vanished at an astonishing rate.

His throat was last. His airway sealed and kaius coughed, spraying chunks of blood and stray flesh into the air. It splattered down on his face, paralysis stopping him from turning his head.

The wound on his chest was still there, pulsing with agony as more blood pumped from his surface. Without the pressing need of his cut throat, it was his next target. Left alone it could still kill him. Unfortunately in his mad dash to stop his arterial bleed he had burnt through the vast majority of his health pool.

It might not be enough.

Whatever had been nudging him moved him again, clawing at something at his waist. Words rang in his mind, but he shoved them to the side.

**Ding! Rapid Adaptation has added a new Resistance: Paralysis!**

Kaius gasped, twitching his finger. Even with Rapid Adaptation having gotten the measure of the affliction, it wasn’t an instant process. It would fight off the rest of the paralysis quickly, but the Champion’s skill was too strong for him to fully resist it. The skill had weakened it, sure, but his entire focus was devoted to healing. Wasting the mental energy to try to reach for a potion might just kill him before it could do any good.

Hard claws pulled open his mouth, cold glass clinking against his teeth. Liquid poured in, running down his throat. The taste of a year of safety and rest, of a flower in full bloom, coating his mouth.

**Ding! You have Imbibed a Tonic: Lesser Blooming Rejuvenation **

He gasped, a flood of Health exploding out from his stomach to rush directly towards the wound on his chest. Joining the scattered remnants that he already held in his grip.

Porkchop must have fed him a potion, the giant lunk. Kaius could kiss him.

Snatching up the new source of power, Kaius directed the revitalising energy to the wound on his chest. Pierced muscles and organs threaded together. His lung, nicked from the Champion’s assault, reinflated. Kaius took a deep breath, coughing up the blood that had settled into his lung.

**Ding! Efficient Healing has reached level 20!**

With the remainder of his health he stitched blood vessels, reweaving his chest into fullness. It wasn’t enough to fully recover from the wound, but it would keep him stable. Alive, while his natural regeneration did the rest.

His eyes fluttered open to see porkchop leaning over him in concern, spinning in his sight. His friend had clearly not gotten out of his battle with the Champion scott free, dozens of deep cuts lacing his muzzle and shoulder.

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“Hey.. Did you get ’em.” He asked weakly.

“Kaius!” Porkchop said frantically, his concern making him frantic. “I thought I lost you.”

“Need more than a cut throat to kill me.” He said with a chuckle, quickly turning to a wince as he disturbed his only partially healed chest.

Porkchop shot him a look, staring at the ragged punctures in his armour. “You need another potion! I’ll get it!”

“No, no it’s fine.” He said, struggling to twitch his fingers in an effort to wave Porkchop off through his slowly weakening paralysis. “I managed to heal everything important, I can wait for the regeneration.”