Divinity Rescue Corps
160- To Pyrohuahua, Or Not To Pyrohuahua

We spent the next two days both growing the plants, drawing out their essential properties of healing and revitalizing magic, and in the case of the henge sage, reactivating damaged chakras.

Entwined Ecstasy: You have entwined with Celine Eckhert. Your relationship status is trusted acquaintances. This bond isn’t easy to forge so quickly. These lovers have shared a bed only a few times, but the action has been intense and satisfying. These two are comfortable with one another’s bodies and presence.

Pleasure from intimate acts between trusted acquaintances is boosted moderately.

The next UI message that arrived pertained to bringing her into the fold.

Entwined Ecstasy: You have brought Celine Eckhert into the fold. She has gained the ability Curecraft. You have gained the ability Myriad Mind from entwining with Celine Eckhert. Entwine more deeply with Celine Eckhert to advance this ability.

You have reached your maximum capacity for abilities gained through Entwined Ecstasy. You may choose to strengthen the associated ability (Eagle Eyed) or gain Myriad Mind.

Although I had no idea what Myriad Mind meant, like before I leaned on my Affinity attribute and Mana Affinity skill to give me some concept of what I was looking at. The UI eventually gave up the ghost.

Myriad Mind is an uncommon ability that allows Wizards to focus equally on multiple tasks at the same time, such as reading several books at once, or reading and writing. Penalties for engaging in multiple complicated actions simultaneously are significantly reduced.

This was potentially a game changer. I’d been forced to make checks with Ingenuity and Mana Affinity a whole bunch of times since starting to brew up multiple cures at once.

On the one hand, Eagle Eyed had been extremely useful and it was now a high enough level that I could see things by their mana signatures or by the heat they threw off. On the other hand, I needed my wits about me right this moment, and this ability would  serve that purpose well.

I eventually chose to replace Eagle Eyed, hoping I wouldn’t regret it. I didn’t like that Eagle Eyed mapped onto Ingenuity and so did this new thing, but there was nothing for it. One could not have totally unlimited superpowers, apparently.

The UI rewarded me by granting me two extra levels of Myriad Mind, from the close relationship I had with Tara. Nice of the system to do that.

Myriad Mind III

(Special Ability, Uncommon, passive)

I- You may concentrate equally on two different tasks simultaneously. Any checks made will result in no penalty to your attributes, rather than the typical -4 penalty.

II- Your attention and concentration have improved enough to allow you supernatural peripheral vision. You may not be surprised except while asleep.

III- You may concentrate equally on three different tasks simultaneously. Checks made will result in a -1 penalty to your attributes.

I had to put this ability to work immediately, so I did… immediately after making sure Jacoby was in the least discomfort possible, then making sure we were on schedule with Vellenia and my new slutty little lab assistant.

Celine was a Wizard, and therefore a natural at doing things in a precise, measured, step by step way. She took to her new Healer abilities and the instructions on how to concoct a cure with relish.

“You are aware of how everybody at Headquarters always does the most tedious busywork for the administration, correct?” she asked. Celine had an overly precise way of speaking that I liked.

“I am aware,” I told her.

“Everyone is trying to get field assignments because we want to get actual experience doing our classes.”

“Yep, yep.”

“Well the situation is not dissimilar to right now with Jacoby,” she said, and tamped the lid over the pot to make sure we kept all the ash inside. “I was stuck ensuring the logistics for supplies and food were adequately managed, which was drudgery. Though to be precise, that was the situation before…” She trailed off, blushing.

“Before you became my little whore?” I whispered.

Celine froze long enough that I had to reach over and stir the other pot she currently had bubbling, and add mana to that as well. She jumped, burned herself slightly on the pot, and apologized profusely. Then, with a chaste kiss on the cheek, she returned to the work we were doing.

By the evening, we had the first salve for the Invineity. The Guardians wanted me to allow them the opportunity to administer it, and I nearly told them to suck my dick.

Hey, it would’ve given them Healer abilities.

I politely reminded them that I was the one with the Administer Cure skill, and promptly proved it by smearing the salve onto the seven chakras on each of its main vine branches, while the creature tried to snap at me and strangle all the Guardians at once. Finally, I had to pry its main vines away from the central part, where its beak was… only I had to get in behind the beak, snapping at me and trying its darnedest to keep me from getting around it. The final Administer Cure check had to be made three times, because the Guardians were turning purple.

It was only when a poison-covered thorn thunked into one of the main vines that the creature fell limp and released all the struggling Guardians. Five Guardians all gasped at the same time, and I turned to behold the fleeing Injectacle doing her gorilla impression to bound away from Jacoby’s team.

Wayne had been put in charge in the absence of healthy team leadership, but the thin Wizard just gawped at the fleeing, naked purple girl with the tentacles for hair.

“Come on, guys!” I shouted. The Invineity was still thrashing, though a significant portion of it was paralyzed. Identify told me that the poison used wasn’t the Heartstopper used against Jacoby, but Limblocker. One last glance over my shoulder showed no trace of the poison aspect Nakamamon who’d come to my rescue now for a third time.

She was sentient, that was clear enough. She knew I wanted to heal this vine creature rather than kill it. She didn’t mind as much about Jacoby’s death, or had learned that I wasn’t about to let anyone die if I could avoid it.

Plucking out the toothpick-sized spine, I used it to jab one more of the Nakamamon’s limbs, and from there the Guardians had a much easier time restraining it and turning it over so I could swab its octopus-like backside with salve.

After the congratulations message, I slumped back on my own backside, and informed the team that they could release it back into the wild as soon as possible. All trace of fighty-ness had disappeared, thankfully. A quick check with Affinity and Mana Affinity showed me that its chakras were back to their normal sap green color; all trace of the furious red had disappeared.

We had a cure for the Hellephant ready also, but we were just as worried about letting it free of the cage so I could get at its chakras. The thing was several hundred pounds of lava-leaking fury. Now, I don’t know how long it’s been since you wrestled a bear that could spout flame from its snout or searing heat from the holes in its back, but I hadn’t ever done that, and none of these Guardians had either.

The chakra at the top of its head and forehead might not be a problem, but the rest were.

“Gather up, people,” I said, and Wayne nodded assent. Wayne had proven himself amenable to basically anything, so long as I didn’t ask his people to leap off cliffs or leap into the jaws of certain death. I sure was glad we’d given him very little to do and a lot of cheerful company while he was stationed in Glumpdumpkin with my team.

“I’m going to douse all of us in resistance magic,” I said. “It won’t make you immune to fire, just like it didn’t make you immune to poison for the Injecticle debacle, but it’s pretty close. That will take one Durability Token from each of you. From there, it’s just a matter of you guys keeping its attention away from me.”

“And keeping it from squashing you to paste when you get underneath it.”

I couldn’t argue this. “If you can get it on its side or back and keep it there, I’d be happy for the trouble. I have five chakras to handle, and the first two are on its very big head.”

The one guy wanted to use his bond mate, which was also a fire aspect, but it was only a tiger dog thing and couldn’t match the Hellephant for size. It also didn’t understand how to spend a Durability Token for Healer’s Resistance. We debated its use, since I could spend the Token instead. The Pyrohuahua wasn’t large, only double the size of a regular chihuahua, but it made up for in attitude what it lacked in size. We finally decided not to use it, since the bonded Guardian was worried about it getting flattened in the first two seconds of the fight. I did not blame him, since Vellenia would be nowhere near the thing. The guy who’d bonded it already had the fire resistance from his fire-breathing doggo, but took Healer’s Resistance anyway.

The Guardians took over with ideas here, and they decided on the ones who could grow to massive size doing that, wrestling with the creature, and the ones who couldn’t grow would keep it from lashing out with its powerful legs while I got in close.

And, for two glorious minutes, that was how it went. Durability Tokens and Healer’s Resistance in place, Guardians enlarged, cage taken to a relatively safe area, and then opened.

“You guys ready?” Wayne called, and took the cage away using a telekinesis spell. I stood there among three Guardians already twelve feet tall, holding my ashen pot of salve and feeling very exposed.

The Hellephant came charging out, blasting directly at me with a gout of liquid fire that immediately splashed against a magical shield. An instant later it had its trunk held by one of Jacoby’s people, while another had swept its forelegs out. The third dove for its back legs but had the creature land on him. He grunted as several hundred pounds pinned his legs to the ground, and a second later the whole creature heated to several hundred degrees.

“Hurry!” he shrieked.

I darted forward, leapt over another gout of lava that began eating away at the cobblestones. A second later, I was smearing a filmy gray paste onto its forehead, and then the crown. A couple seconds after that, a cloud of ash had me retreating, coughing and struggling to breathe.

Mana Affinity had already told me there was a chakra in the trunk, but it was currently in the hands of the Guardian.

“I have to get the trunk!” I told him.

“Oh, no problem, let me just let go of it,” she snapped.

I’d get that one last. An Agility Token spent, I leaped over the thrashing fracas and landed between its legs. Not bothering to ask how things were going—badly by the looks on the faces of the two Guardians pinning its legs—I smeared another spoonful of the salve over its heart, then swiveled on the balls of my feet and delivered another quick dose to the stomach. Another two Agility Tokens allowed me to leap through the cloud of volcanic ash, over the hind legs, hips, and the guy trapped beneath both, currently getting kicked in the face, and deliver another scoop to the butt chakra. This one, thankfully, was located just behind the tail.

Chakras, I’d decided long before, were very weird. I had no butt-based special abilities, and I was a Pleasure Seeker. I’d channeled and released mana from my forehead and a bit from my heart, but the seat one made no sense.

Shouts pulled my attention back from the slathering on the creature’s expansive backside. They were choking and sputtering, and the pinned guy was croaking for some assistance.

It all collapsed when a blast of blue flame came roaring out of every hole on the Hellephant’s body. Everyone backed off, including me. The salve was bumped out of my hand, and crashed to the ground with a twinkle of glass.

I scooped up the remaining cure on the spoon and looked for my opportunity. We would not get another shot at this.

The enraged creature had already slapped aside one gigantic Guardian with its trunk, and caused a second to take flight or be covered in lava.

I have to say, resistances don’t really do much good if your flight instinct kicks in and tells you to run away from the source of certain death. If they’d stood their ground and taken blasts of lava to the forearms and shields like Guardians should’ve, they’d have taken damage that I could heal later. Instead they high tailed it. The other two were helping the guy who’d been pinned, then kicked by an errant foot when the creature stood.

And now it turned my way.

I was rescued, yet again, by several poison-filled toothpick-sized spines thudding into the creature’s head. It trumpeted in rage and surprise, causing the lava spray to miss me, thankfully. It then took two woozy steps and fell over onto its side.

This time, I was ready. I locked gazes with the Injecticle and engaged Psyspeech.

I’m very grateful for your assistance, I told her mentally. I hope to speak with you later, if you like.

The poison Nakamamon paused in the midst of hurtling away, turned two yellow eyes on me, then again fled into the deserted part of town.

Slathering the final dose of salve onto the Hellephant’s trunk didn’t even take a check. Instead the UI message appeared, congratulating me for reversing a condition. I then applied Mending Aura and healed up burnt lungs, smoke-damaged breathing tubes, burn damage that got through resistances, and one broken pelvis. It also helped the Hellephant recover from the Limblocker poison faster, so it could get back to normal.

“Apparently your plan for anesthetizing our patients worked after all,” Wayne said, and helped me to my feet. “The swamp creature likes you.”

I smiled ruefully. “I just freed her… I think she’s repaying the favor.”

“Or she likes you,” he said, smiling.

“Or that.”

My other patients all filed into my laboratory for any additional healing they might need. The Vulpetunia leapt into my arms and licked at the skin of my slightly burnt face. The sensation was a lovely one, and ticklish, and I scratched her all down the back and at the base of her tails.

“I missed you too,” I told her. Ditto for Regina and Tweedle Dee. Saying those words was like a barred gate opened, and the ache of not having my mother or my lovers struck. Vellenia felt this and came over.

“You should name her,”  she said.

I peered down at the adorable fox with the flowers and the tails. “How do you feel about having a name, huh?”

Like a typical puppy, its tails went wagging furiously. It appeared she liked the idea.

While I thought of names, I cooked up a quick potion and gave each of the Guardians a sip to get their hit points back to normal. They talked about how fearsome and powerful the Nakamamon had been, how they would love something that big and strong as a bond mate, and how the guy with the Pyrohuahua had made a big mistake going for his bond mate so early. Mr Pyrohuahua endured this with good humor, and stroked his little ball of fury that threatened to roast the lot of them all over again. For now, spirits were high, which was good. The Vulpetunia endured all of this by sitting bolt upright on my work table and surveying the crowded scene with intelligent eyes.

We still had a Geodile to deal with, and it was far bigger than the Hellephant.

I’d considered a lot of different flower-based names: Rose, Daisy, Chrissy for chrysanthemum, Prim for primrose, Daffodil, and more besides. I wanted a springtime name. “How do you feel about the name April?”

April sprang across the laboratory and into my arms again, settling her face into the crook of my neck and making grown men go ‘aww’.

This is Christopher about to get back to the main story quest.

The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!