The monsters began to slowly creep closer to Garrett, their eyes trained on their latest prey. Garrett held up his shield with one arm and began to spin the chain with the other. True, he really didn't know how to use this weapon, but he could tell it was heavy, and heavy things hurt. Wrapping the other end of the chain around his hand, he threw the ball toward the crowd. It barreled through the monsters, knocking aside any monsters that weren't killed on impact. Garrett smiled until the ball reached the end of its chain, yanking Garrett's shoulder forward. He groaned in pain, but he could feel that it hadn't been dislocated.
"Whoa, Garrett! You got a Chain Ball!" Min-Tul said as he continued to swat away at the bats. "Little help here? Get off me!" Min-Tul said as he threw one of the bats into a wall.
Garrett nodded and yanked back on the chain, taking out a few monsters on the ball's return trip. Now with a path, he rushed over towards Min-Tul. "Duck!" Garrett shouted as he threw the chain around the bats. Min-Tul ducked just in time as the metal ball scattered the bats around. Before it extended its full reach, Garrett yanked on the chain, sending the ball flying backward behind Garrett. Using the chaos, Garrett managed to grab his sword and cut down the remaining monsters around him.
The two adventurers breathed heavily as Min-Tul finished off the last bat. After being able to breathe properly, Garrett began to go and pick up the dropped Helioxene and one brown God Chest. Inside was a few silver coins, which had a moon symbol on one side and a sun symbol on the other side. Garrett was a little surprised, as this was his first time encountering any currency in this world. Still, he put it in his pocket and met back up with Min-Tul.
"Got your loot?" Min-Tul said, opening a green chest that he got from one of the bats. Inside were some more silver coins and a small dagger. He put them away and pulled out Xul's head.
"Did anyone ever tell you that your bag smells really nice?" Xul said, smiling with the half of the face they had. They looked over at the battlefield, their eye darting from corpse to corpse. "Okay, there's enough here that I can make a working body. Set me down in the center and put my staff near me." Min-Tul set down Xul'Gomoth and put the staff down beside them. They began to chant in an unknown language and glowed a deep blue color. Soon, the corpses around them began to glow as well, rattling and being dragged towards Xul by an invisible force. Then, there was a brilliant flash of light.
"Ah, much better." As the light faded, Xul'Gomoth was standing there, their body a hideous Frankenstein creation of body parts from various monsters parts. "Yeah, quit staring and hand me my cloak." Min-Tul reached into his bag and handed the cloak to Xul'Gomoth. They quickly put it on, covering up most of their stitched-together body. "Now then, shall we keep moving on?" Similar to before, Xul'Gomoth's voice was back to being a collection of various voices; however, unlike before, the collection of voices was more monstrous and scratchy with a low groan mixed in.
"And that's all it takes?" Min-Tul asked, looking at the newly formed Xul.
"Yeah, that's all," Xul'Gomoth said, flexing their new fingers to get a feel for them. "I dislike using monsters." They wrapped their arms around themselves and shuddered. "All the horrifying and cruel thoughts they have just swimming around in my head. But, I prefer having a body over being just a head. As soon as we find better replacements, I'm taking them."
"Well, at least we got out of there witho-AUGH!" Garrett shouted in pain as the adrenaline from the fight began to wear off. His wounds burned and his muscles felt heavy. He collapsed onto the ground, struggling to breathe.
Min-Tul and Xul both rushed over to his side. Xul began to chant something in a foreign language while Min-Tul began to pull out his containers of herbs. "He's definitely been poisoned. Here," Min-Tul said, handing a jar to Xul'Gomoth. "Grind a bit of this up." Xul wasted no time, crushing the leaves using the end of their staff. "Put it under his tongue. Don't swallow." Xul opened up Garrett's jaw and lifted his tongue, placing the herbs under it. Garrett had to fight back his body's instinct to swallow. It tasted like a mix of mint and lemon with a hint of asparagus. "Come on, stay with us Garrett. Just don't swallow"
Garrett struggled to not swallow the herbs in his mouth. However, he got fairly far in this timeline, but he wasn't about to quit here. His breathing slowly became deeper and more stable. The weakness in his muscles began to fade and his body no longer felt like it was burning. He took a few deep breaths to assure himself before getting back up to his feet.
"Oh, thank goodness," Xul said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Glad you were here, Min-Tul," they said, giving Min-Tul a pat on the back.
"A good adventurer is prepared for anything," Min-Tul said as he put away his supplies.
Xul chuckled a little before looking away from both Min-Tul and Garrett. "Uh, sorry."
"What are you sorry for?" Garrett asked. "Also, can I eat this stuff now?"
"Yeah, go ahead," Min-Tul said, putting his backpack back on. Garrett immediately swallowed, happy to begin to get the taste out of his mouth.
"This wouldn't have been an issue if I knew how to cure poisons," Xul'Gomoth said. They looked disappointed in themselves like it was their fault that Garrett was poisoned in the first place.
"Then you can learn," Min-Tul said with a chuckle. "That was some Twigin, harvested from the forests around here. It's a natural antidote to the monsters around here, but that's about it. Though, it does go great on some roasted park."
"Anyways, we should get going," Garrett said, winding up the Chain Ball. "These bodies will probably attract more of them." The other two nodded and continued down the hallway.