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 hisHealth, 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 withStone 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 counteractingHealththat was bolstered by skills and personally directed with his will. As the Champion's skill shuddered, he slipped through the cracks, dumpingHealthinto 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 neckboil, morphic as it flowed. Resealing itself. Now that there was no skill working against him, hisHealthburned at a prodigious rate as he encouraged it to move faster. Even as he guided it to efficiency, supported byEfficient 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 withRapid Adaptationhaving 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 ofHealthexploding 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.

Stolen novel; please report.

“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.”

Porkchop growled at him, but backed away from the potions he had knocked free of Kaius’s potion pouch.

“What thehellswas that! I had no idea where it came from.” Kaius asked. Now that he had a moment to process, it was hard to digest the last few minutes of his life. He had had no idea where it had come from, no signs it had been in the building at all. One moment he was trying a vault door, the next some goblin had ripped out his throat and was doing its best effort to do the same to his heart.

“Assassin. Looked like a goblin, but small and twisted. You didn’t get the kill notification?”Porkchop asked.

“No.” Kaius shook his head in response, before he shot Porkchop a blood soaked grin. “Hey, that means it's your first solo kill right? Only two more!”

“Stupid!”Porkchop said, slapping him lightly in the side, just hard enough to draw a gasp of pain.“You nearly died!”

His friend snapped at him, massive jaws closing a handspan from his face. A moment later he backed up, sitting down next to him.

“But yes, I did.”Porkchop looked smug, pleased with his success.“It was too small to fight back properly once I had a hold of it, though whatever skill it used was annoying, these cuts sting.”

“Tell me about it.” Kaius muttered. “Thought I would bleed out before I could force my health to work like it should. I think it should fade quickly though, I bet it's more meant to stop someone healing from a lethal wound than prevent long term recovery. I did however, manage to cap the rest of my healing skills! So that’s nice” Kaius tried lifting his head to shoot Porkchop a wide grin, his numb lethargy twisting it into a grimace.

“That’s great! You should merge before we leave.”Porkchop said, before his eyes widened and he jumped up to race over to the slain body of the Champion.

Kaius watched him in curiosity, wondering why he had run off mid sentence before Porkchop closed his mouth over ..something, before he wrenched it away with a snap.

Trotting back to him, Porkchop dropped his prize next to him. It hit the stone with a crisp ting, giving away that it was metal. Unfortunately, Kaius was still struggling to move his head, so he couldn’t actually see. Instead deciding to stare at his friend with a cocked eyebrow.

“Oh..Right… It’s a key!”Porkchop said when he finally processed that Kaius was paralysed

“A key?!” Kaius said with excitement. He bet if he could look at it he would find the same quality steelwork that covered the vault door behind him. The Depths were nothing if not consistent.

“Yeah! Shall we see if it opens it?”

Kaius shot him alook, before flicking his eyes down to his limp body.

“Oops..? After we’ve recovered, I mean.”

“That would be good, yes.” Kaius said with a sigh.

Kaius slotted the steel key into the crankshaft, turning it until it let out a satisfying click. The tiny runes that covered the surface of the vault door lit up, glowing with an inner radiance as the visible gears rotated with the heavy grind of metal on metal.

Bars set into the walls slowly retracted, settling into place with a thunk.

Kaius grinned, a giddy glee bubbling within him at finally getting to see what was inside. Lying paralysed with the knowledge that the vault was in arms reach had beentorture. Thankfully, the paralysis affliction had faded rather quickly. He’d been able to sit up after just a minute, but both he and Porkchop had decided to wait until they were at full fighting strength to check the treasury.

Afterall, as they had just learned, the Depths were more than happy to surprise you with something deadly. He was more than a little furious with himself for falling for the Champion’s ruse. Heknewthat complacency meant death in the Depths. Father had drilled it into him over and over again. If you think you’ve found a pattern, don’t trust it.

Yet after so many Champions being clearly signposted fights, out in the open, he had come to trust that theyallwould be. It had nearly gotten him killed. He couldn’t let it happen again.

Sure, they had never been attacked after killing a Champion before, but neither had they been ambushed by one.

So they waited until the lingering numbness had dissipated and both of their wounds had healed. Porkchop had wanted to wait until theirHealthpools were completely full, but by the time Kaius had reached the halfway point he couldn't bear it any longer and had pressed the issue.

He turned the crack shaft, well oiled metal spinning smoothly. Some interior mechanism inside the door activated, a series of rapid clicks echoing through the hall before there was a loud thunk as the main bolt of the vault slid free.

Kaius yanked on the crank, Porkchop waiting off to the side, ready to deal with anything that might be waiting inside. Despite how heavy the door was, it swung open with ease, though its momentum meant it moved slowly.

Shuffling back as the door inched open, he kept himself behind the cover of the stride thick steel as Porkchop burst forwards, rushing into the chamber. Kaius dived after him, pulling his sword free as he raised his hand up. Ready and willing to blast anything that moved with anArcane Dart.

Nothing.

All there was was a perfectly bored semi-circular tunnel of steel, lit by runic wardlights. It punched deep into the solid foundation of the city, opening up into a large room. They walked forwards, eager to claim their prize.

As they stepped into the open space of the vault, Kaius was awed at the sheer work that went into its construction. Like the tunnel, every surface of the room had been built from metal. He sharpened his eyes, staring at the ceiling above with enhanced acuity to find that the same miniscule runes coated the surface of the steel. They swirled in complex geometries, linking into a single cohesive formation.

Kaius stared at it slacked jawed. It must have takenyears.

“Loot!”Porkchop cried in excitement, dragging Kaius’s attention away from the sublime runework to see his friend bounding towards the centre of the vault.

Like Kaius had half expected, the vault was almost entirely barren. Utterly empty, except for two pieces that lay on the centre of the floor, haloed in light from the wardlights above.

One was a ring, gleaming gold. The other, a fine set of scale mail greaves that covered the waist and thighs, ending just below the knee.

“Loot indeed.” Kaius said with a smile, hurrying over to join Porkchop who was leaping over the artefacts in excitement.

He couldn’t wait to see what they had gotten this time.