The smoke was blown away, together with the horrible smell of the scarred black flesh.
It hurted Mikael's eyes, making him blink repeatedly.
As he saw clearly again, the picture before him could have escaped a horror tale.
The front right half was black, the fur gone and flesh like charcoal. The burnt bones were showing and nothing from that perspective made one think this once was a mighty and threatening evolved monster.
The other side escaped the inferno, but was instead mashed into paste by René, parts of bones and rotten flesh on the ground.
The torso was know completely separated from the bottom, with no chance to regenerate.
'At least this should be a feat only for the gods.'
Hesitantly Mikael creeped forward, despite all the unbelievable injuries and lost body parts he thought of that thing still as danger.
As he now stood only a arm length away from the creature, only a quarter of its face recognizable, suddenly its eye opened, staring right into Mikael's.
Stiff from surprise, he completely forgot to retreat, back to a safer distance. Despite the loss of its paws and some of the tusks, it inflicted a natural instinct in him as if he was merely prey.
But instead, in that fleeting moment, Mikael felt not the hate filled murderous aura, but instead another, slightly different one. As it brushed past Mikael like a gentle but persistent breeze, what he detected resembled pride, graze and sorrow.
The beast shed no tear, most likely it lost all means to show emotions, but with its aura it transferred to Mikael that sensation, and Mikael guessed its plea.
He stopped shivering, instead looking deeply into the frightening eye. With his han he touched its forehead, a deep growl coming from the throat of that creature, but not more.
Mikael's expression became serious, inhaling deeply as he lifted his hammer high, and striking down in a single motion.
"Find peace, and leave only your body to nourish Mother Earth."
'This emotion I felt was as if a person was before me. More wild and unrestrained, but clear and unmistakable.'
This aura he perceived in this creatures dying moment was left in his own body like an imprint, the wild nature somehow influencing his own. It didn't hurt, or changed anything inside him. But he felt it, it was there, unmoving.
'I may have to ask René about that. Not that this is some kind of curse.'
In that moment as he looked down on the broken skull of the monster they had so much trouble escaping and now hunting, the realization hit him.
"We did it... Hey, we did it! Our target is down!" he called out, searching left, right and back for his companions, waiting for reactions.
"Yaaaay, hurray." came the weak response of Sophia, climbing over a fallen tree and removing stuck leaves and sticks from herself. She looked at the almost completely destroyed corpse.
"Smashed, charred and broken down. Not a pretty end, but a deserved one. This ass gave us one pretty bad time." she commented, kicking its side, her foot ripping through the rotten side and dirtying her shoe.
"Stupid piece of Levitan, why do I always get stuck inside a stupid monster?"
'Why do you kick almost every and anything?' Mikael added, feeling a pinch of pity as her kick hit, despite the damage he himself did.
'Weird... Why did I feel compassion for this monster?'
Herald was the next that came from behind him. He had filled up his quiver, three lonely arrows making for a sorry sight.
"Give me my pouch back, and you owe me 5 Gold."
"5 Gold? Are these balls that valuable?"
Surpressing his inner rage, Herald responded through clenched teeth:" Yes the are. Handcrafted half magical bombs only produced in the city of Vertikas. The use of many connections and some favors. Originally the price is higher, but as you are still young and can be of good use later one if I need a hand, I lowered your debt. So, only 5 Gold. And my pouch!"
'Woah, such honesty. At least he doesn't try to hide his thought.'
Mikael gave back the alchemical equipment. Herald clenched it, due to the lack of content, his facial muscles slightly twitching.
"I get every piece of bonus and reparation from this damned Guild Master. Stupid Copper rank quest, my ass." he mumbled, but this time not controlling his volume enough.
"How are Mark and Meri? I saw that Meri wasn't attacked, but Mark took a nasty one."
Cleaning her shoe and emptying it from stones and dirt, Sophia sat on a big root, which was charred black.
"Leon should help him right now. Don't exactly got what was going on, but apparently he got thrown away pretty far, and his leg bent in a not so nice angle. No strong shoulder for Meri to lean on on the way back. If it is any worse than that, either he dies or we have to carry him back. Sure you don't know, but getting injured by an undead isn't nice.
As all creatures got mana, even the dead ones, it makes foul mana when left in a corpse. It can invade you when injured, leading to serious damage or diseases. Look at Meri. Hers is a mild case, and it immobilized her."
Anxious, Mikael checked himself, and all the small injuries over his body looked more scary now.
"It must be transmitted in some way. Saliva, blood, or contact into your blood. Your small scratches are superficial, nothing to worry about. Alf and René are risk patients, as they git hit directly by monsters. Not sure how effective their potions are, but I at least got nothing on hand against mana infection."
"Thanks for explaining that to me. Would have been nice to know beforehand tho." Mikael said out loud, the last part normally kept internally.
"Well normally that is considered general knowledge. We forget to teach stuff like that to a rookie with no understanding of anything." she bit back, wanting to throw her shoe out of spite before rethinking that.
Mikael had crouched in fear of her retaliation, mumbling a small "sorry" before scrambling away.
'She has some serious obsession with her feet. Is this intentional or how does one develope that?'
He walked over a slight hill which crossed their line of sight with the rest of the group.
René in the back was already bandaged up by Alf, who helped him standing up and handed over a bottle of water, or whisky.
Leon kneed next to Mark, who laid now on the ground, two long branches next to him.
Meri was talking to Leon, shaking her head and pointing at Mikael as she saw him appearing.
"He can help you. I can't overcome myself to hurt him in any way, not even like that. It is stupid, and dangerous, but I just can't."
She teared up, her skin turning pale again before having to lean on the tree next to her, grasping for air.
"What should I help with?" Mikael asked, but as he looked over Leon's shoulder, he saw how damaged Mark's leg was. The bone between his knee and foot was obviously broken, and a part of it seemed to stick out, making a nasty sight.
"I need you to hold his leg in place as we make a simple support. To have a chance to get it healed later, it needs to be kept straight and clean. I got alcohol and have everything prepared, only need you. He is in a delerious state from the pain, but when we put this back, I guarantee he will try to wind out your clutch. Can't let that happen."
"Count on me. But before that I may have something for Meri." Mikael had taken his backpack which he left near the spot Meri had collapsed on his way, now knowing of this mana disease and its effect. A small box appeared in his hand, and he gave it to her.
"It's a root from a Kanalis plant I found. Not sure if it helps, but maybe it dies against your poisoning."
'On her black veins had appeared. The others didn't have any of that, so no harm in giving it her.'
"Just chew on it, but don't swallow. When the bitterness fades, spit it out."
He recalled the detail written in his book.
Meri received the herb, looking unsure between him and the box, then to Mark.
"He doesn't show signs of being infected, use it yourself. Maybe it helps, maybe not. Not that anyone of us is an specialist." Leon mentioned, motioning to Mikael where he has to pull Mark's leg to straighten it.
"When you pulled, use your whole weight and keep him from struggling. He may cry, yell and curse, but this is only temporary." he shoved a piece of wood wrapped with leather into Mark's mouth.
With a sigh he asked:" Ready when you are."
Meri who looked uneasy turned away, kepping her ears closed with her hands.
Mikael nodded, and when Leon's three lifted fingers closed one after another, Mikael pulled while Leon had to push back the bone into the leg.
Immediately Mark reacted, about to jerk together, trying somehow, in some way to escape this pain. A mark shaking wail of pain escaped his mouth, quickly dying down as he began to use all his strength to bite on the gag.
Mikael threw himself downright on top of him, keeping his arms and torso on the ground while Leon cleaned the wound roughly, bandaged it up and used the branches to keep it straight. After a solid two minutes of pain and muffled cries, Mark's protest died down as he fell unconscious.
"That makes it a bit easier. Sad he had to endure it for so long. But a pain relieve potion in this situation would surely make matters worse. He had already taken one in the fight, another would likely be toxic." he unwrapped a line of bandages he made too loose before, correcting it.
Mikael slowly lifted himself up, still having his hands pin down Mark his arms.
"He is burning up. We need to somehow cool him down." he noticed as he felt from the close contact the body temperature.
"I can give him one of his own pills." Meri said, falling besides Mark and also feeling his forehead.
"He keeps some for such moments. I often get fevers when I'm cold, so he prepares plenty. I forget to bring them with me, so he keeps them."
She took from her own bag a small tube like container, a small tablet falling into her hands which she put into Mark's mouth.
"It dissolves in contact with water."
She said, even when no one asked.
After Leon finished his treatment and Mikael smeared a bit of his own ointment on his wounds, they made their way towards René, taking Mark on a crudely build stretcher with them.