"Centre-Manager Biossg." I greet as I walk into St. Bruttar's Brief Recovery and Healing Centre once again. Hopefully, this would be the last time I walk in here as this was a place that was beneath me as a professional. Yet, I wanted to be rid of this place more so because of the mood within the place. The woman at the front desk wasn't the only one with a superstitious air about her.
"Let's see this become over and done with." he said with an outwardly calm expression yet with a quivering voice. It was abundantly clear even he was feeling the pressure of what was going on. So much so that members of the city guard had been posted throughout the building. All armoured and fully-equipped to tear this place apart.
Yet, I also could not help but guess that it might be them looking for the killer. Everything I have read since coming here suggests that they take his many appearances very seriously. At first, they didn't seem to from what I have read. At least until some bigshot lost his daughter to this sadistic man.
However, clearly, they have had no luck in handling this killer. For several decades the stories went back. For many of the city, it seems, he has just become a part of their daily lives. Many news articles had a pessimistic attitude about them.
Defeatism in its purest form and this killer made sure to rub it in each time. Yet, maybe this was a moment for me to be more than just a skilled surgeon. Maybe I could be the one to put some light in this shadow-ruled city. The idea was an entertaining one, but, it was fantastical without a doubt.
"Hm, so that's the one who has caused all the damage." I eventually commented as I walked past the observation room. Inside was a small group of many different backgrounds. All of them were quite beautiful, the girls anyway. And one of them was clearly a relative of my patient.
However, the one that caught my eye the most was the giant of a man covered in bandages. Not only was it a strange fashion choice, the Centre-Manager clearly hated him. Albeit, maybe feared him was more likely? It was very clear he made the atmosphere tense.
Yet, so long as this man stayed on the other side of the glass. I could not care. Whatever his reasons were for causing such distress, so long as they did not interfere. I was completely fine with it all.
"Is the equipment set up as I asked?" I immediately ask the clean and stressed people working already.
"Yes, Operating Surgeon." one of them nods before they start to stand back.
"Hm, nasty." I comment as I look at my patient carefully. As per the usual since I got here, there has been no improvement in her health. Jaw was still broken, and the cuts and holes were all still there. Thankfully, the bleeding had been long dealt with.
Yet, I might require some help handling it as I was going to set it all flowing again. They had not been able to heal her, but that hadn't meant they could not help her. The devices she was hooked up to, however, would need to come off. So all that was needed now was for the light to signal my start.
"Blessed light in three, two, one..." I started to call out as I prepared myself. Some might've needed a few minutes. But the seconds leading up to an operation is all I have ever needed. However, something seemed different this time.
I could already feel sweat on my brow...
"Detaching equipment!" one of the assistants calls out before a gust of emerald light fills the room. And, with professional, well-practised skill, I caught the magic and swirled it about. Not to show off my skill at manipulation, but to get it ready for incision.
"Clear the floor!" I gave the order just before I, for lack of a better term, blasted my patient with magic. One hand kept the magic flowing while the other carefully prodded at her injuries. With one brave assistant keeping a sedative mixture near her nose as I sorted it out. And, so far so good, her jaw was quickly fixed up.
There were likely some fracture lines and cracks still present. But so long as her old skull shape was back, it would go back together in subsequent appointments. And, as I moved away from her head and towards her body, they changed the machines about. So now I had more room to move about.
And I needed as much room as I could as leaning over her would be very dangerous. I had to make sure this magic went straight to the injuries and did not spill into the rest of her. If I let it do that, she could potentially die. And I had no intention of letting my patient die.
"Preparing to seal the primary area." I tell everyone present as I begin to systematically close up her torso. Stab wounds were vanishing and the cuts were scarring over. However, as I neared the end of the operation... Something disturbed the flow of magic.
"HAHAHAHAHA! I can't have you interfering." a mad voice said right into my ear. But, despite the shiver it sent down my spine, I did not take my patient off the patient. However, something unexpected happened. And I was forced to back away and withhold all that magical power.
"SEAL THE WOUND! SEAL IT!" I start to shout as I stumble away from my patient after a new wound was suddenly slashed into her. And, whatever that man did, it also woke her up.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" she screamed maddeningly as she started to spasm and contort as blood flew out everywhere.
"LARISHAZZA!" someone roared from behind me as the wall began to leak interference.
"HANDLE THAT!" I shout to the guards on the other side on the door before I move to seal the new wound. All to the backdrop of that sickening laughter that preceded each new wound.
"SURGEON!" one of the assistants shouts before they suddenly shut off the magic.
"GET ME MY TOOLS, NOW!" I bark as I prepare to switch over to a manual handling of the wound. If the supply of magic was somehow corrupted by the killer. Then I would have to make do with my tools. And, for the first time in a long time, I worried about my patients life.
I have never failed a patient before yet these circumstances suggested I might...
"Close, dammit!" I urged her wounds as my steady hand cleaned and sealed them up. Rapid, well-practised twirls of the stitches did some of the work. Chemicals for once in my career handled the rest.
"Are you alright, Operating Surgeon!?" someone asked me as I stumbled away from the patient with a racing heart.
"DAMMIT!" I roar before throwing my tools to the floor.
"Get her cleaned up!" someone said before that laughter came back.
"HAHAHA! Don't interfere!" he taunted before that strange presence vanished from the magic about us. At the very least, she was in a far better state than when I found her. But she needed to be walking out of this room to see her friends and family!
"Damn you..." I growl before I kick a trolley on the way out. And I ignored everyone during my stomp through the building until I got out back. From which I then screamed in frustration while I wiped the blood off my face. Eventually, I calmed down.
At least, visibly, anyway. On the inside, I was still full of anger and annoyance about what had just happened. Not only did that confirm someone was interfering with this girl's recovery. That killer was taunting and threatening me directly...
"What happened...?" a distraught, female voice asks me as I breathed into my palms.
As I did not recognise the voice, I chose to rise my head, "I take it you're her sister?" I ask.
She nods, "Can you answer my question..." she asks nervously as if something bad was going to now happen.
"I don't know!" I exclaim, "Whoever this Smiling Jhurack is, I assume that was him anyway. He is able to directly interfere with the magic supply of this place! I cannot do my job so long as he is here!" I explain to her with evident frustration.
"Nin? Nin!? Where're you going!?" this girl asks someone before the slamming of the door echoed all the back here.
"I know this is a strange thing of me to ask... But, can you please make it clear to your father what has happened?" I fearfully ask of her as I worried for my own safety now. Not only had I effectively failed the job put forward to me by the King... I had a dangerous man breathing down my neck to get this done...
Unexpectedly, however, the girl started to sob, "I-I'll... D-Don't worry..."
"I am sorry..." I whisper pointlessly as she likely could not hear me as she ran off with tears in her eyes.