Glax only had time to pick up the chair in front of him and parry the jump of one of his opponents, avoiding being pierced by a javelin. He was still reeling from the impact when Uniq grabbed the attacker from behind and threw him away.
"You're welcome, Lord Kroton!" She broke into a smile, before grabbing a jar on the table and hitting another approaching attacker with the ceramic object. At a glance, Glax saw Chris and the elite soldiers rejecting the violent mob with even more violence and wickedness.
Hikesias was pulling Aryn out of there, and Glax pulled the javelin stuck in the wood to keep fighting.
'Why the hell are they facing the Echelian soldiers? Shouldn't they just run like goblins without the leader? And why don't the soldiers just let them go?'
He had little time to think while stocking up on some enemy flesh. He was nowhere near as effective as Chriseis and the relentless Echelian soldiers. The aggressive enemies did not retreat, and fought fiercely. Even the best of them, however, were no match for the elite group's expertise, along with the general.
Glax was too busy not to be hit, but even so, he felt his flesh being torn and the wood splinter scrape his bone, at the same time as a powerful blow pushed him to the ground. He closed his eyes before the nerve cells sent the message to the brain and received the countermand, thinking, 'This is going to hurt the ass!'
And he was not mistaken.
Unfortunately, he did not pass out from the pain, and saw when Chriseis stuck the spear handle into his attacker's stomach. Glax was now slumped between her legs, avoiding looking at his own arm but watching the man she pierced squirting blood and guts as she pulled the spear back.
He still held his javelin, and used it when an enemy managed to pierce the defense and thought about attacking the general from behind. Glax impaled him from below, in a reflexive movement. Nor did he suspect he had so much strength in his dominant arm.
Chriseis turned and grabbed the man impaled by the neck, with his mechanical arm, and squeezed his neck until Glax heard CRACK, and then threw him away.
"For Selene! Look at your arm!" She exclaimed, the expression on her face still hard from the heat of the fight.
He shook his head because he didn't want to look at his arm. The pain came in waves that even made him deaf to the sounds. Chriseis helped him to his feet and looked around him as soon as he was on his feet.
Glax also looked around. Being half-deaf and in pain gave a strange euphoria, and he grabbed a fallen sword to continue fighting, but the general said,
"Enough. It's over. Stapolis' guard is coming. "
It had been fast and intense, and Glax certainly didn't see it at all. Some men were not yet dead, but the soldiers finished them off on the ground. A part of the group of invaders, who were in the rear and did not engage, fled shamelessly.
"Why ... Didn't they use firearms?" he asked, breathless.
Chriseis looked at him as if he didn't understand his question. "You look pale!"
"It's just ... I drank a lot." He wasn't going to tell her he was seeing black dots and thought he was going to throw up the fish on her feet, because of the pain. "But I am fine." He made a positive sign with his other hand, forcing a smile.
Chriseis was intrigued by the positive sign, and imitated it. Probably thinking it was something from Valosia. She seemed totally uninterested or impressed by the wound on her husband's arm. In fact, she looked around again and said,
'Uh, the redhead is not bad...'
It was that feeling of indignation that made Glax look at his arm. 'Is it so small that she doesn't even consider it an injury?'
But in fact, a 'huge' piece of wood was still lodged in the muscle of his biceps, and blood was running down the length of his arm. It was considerable damage.
"Uh, okay, call the paramedics ..."
:::::::::
Glax wondered if there was still any chance of not totally losing his arm movement when it was over. He was sitting on a stone stretcher - or altar - depending on the point of view, while the iatromancer removed the piece of wood from his arm.
First, he had put Glax in a bathtub with black liquid. After a few minutes immersed in that dark water, Glax began to lose his body's sensations. It was a potent anesthetic, but he was conscious.
An iatromancer was a type of shaman, or healer/cleric, Glax labeled. He seemed to mix pharmacy knowledge with superstitions.
Chriseis was sitting watching the procedure, since she had been the one to demand an iatromancer for her husband.
The healer wore long, black clothes, and an ornate hat that resembled a hazelnut on top, but had lapels on the sides. He murmured to himself as he did his job, and he was quick and accurate at that. His assistant was a young man who wore gray clothes with a sun symbol on his chest, and basically held a tray with the items the healer wore.
Since Glax felt totally anesthetized, it was like being at the dentist. He could see the man pulling and pushing, but he felt no pain.
"Hmmmmmm ..." The man looked at his face, with an indecipherable frowning expression, after moving and rummaging in the hole in Glax's arm.
"Does that mean there's no fix?" He managed to speak with his mouth paralyzed as if he had had a stroke.
"Oh, nothing like that. Under the Blessings of Asklepion, this little incident will be cured."
"This is a minor job for an Iatromancer as famous as Crionte," said Chriseis. This made the man with a plump, round face and a woman's thin eyebrows as she pursed her lips.
"General, it is not a minor job, but perhaps I have done it so many times that I have become fast at it. Thinking in terms of a 'minor challenge' is what generated the inattention that led to that injury."
"What I mean is that an iatromancer who cared for the imperial family is very skilled," Chriseis replied in a bad mood, for having been brought to attention so gently by Crionte.
"In addition to the fact that Lord Glax is in excellent health. Asklepios is pleased to bless those who follow his health advice."
"I'm a mountain man," Glax said, and ended up drooling.
"Ah, how interesting. Where?" Crionte got up and started washing his hands in a basin, while Glax wondered if he was finished yet, because he was sure the hole was still open, even if it wasn't bleeding.
"Glax came from Valosia," Chriseis answered for him. "And he's the only son of Kalanthe de Valosia and Adrastos, who were at Argos II."
The man straightened his shoulders at the information, and turned to Glax again, his eyes piercing his patient. "Oh, I understand. Your heroic blood must be the cause of such good health ..."
Glax noticed the subtle nuances in Crionte's voice. He was implying something, but it was lost when they heard footsteps arriving in the great hall where they were.
Glax was unable to turn around, but he noticed some people entered the room. The iatromancer also ignored them, and approaching Glax and raising his hands to heaven, he invoked divine blessings.
He failed to pay attention to the words littered like a litany, but he felt a growing and intense tingling in his body. It was as if his blood was flowing to the wound area. He was being ... Magically healed?!
There was no halo of light around him. His body was not floating or anything, but he felt the healing magic at work in his body. So far, Glax had found something that could be considered magical - the ichor - but it didn't look like Stygia was a place of high magic. And maybe it wasn't.
However, the magic recovering and rebuilding his arm was real.
The litany ended, and with it the effect of the anesthetic. Glax felt an uncomfortable pain in his arm, but when he looked at it he noticed the wound was completely closed. There was a huge bruise, but only a slight scar. Dumbfounded, he asked,
"So can an iatromancer do that?"
"Ah, I know iatromancers are not the most common thing to find, but the fact you don't know what we can do amazes me..." The healer spoke softly, at the same time satisfied with his client's admired reaction.
"Master Criantus is just passing by Stapolis, and we were very lucky to have found him here." Chriseis came to examine her husband's arm, and was also pleased with the result. "We cannot afford to have masters of healing and pharmacy on a battlefield, especially at this level of excellence... If this knowledge were disseminated, death and pain would no longer be a problem."
The old man sighed, looking sideways at Chriseis's mechanical arm.
"I understand, general. But both the art of war and the art of healing depend not only on study, but also on talent." And turning to Glax, he spoke. "Lord Glax can now get dressed. The bruises should be gone in a few days."
How ridiculous can a naked guy with a half mask on his face be, Glax wondered, suddenly alarmed. But Chriseis turned to the newcomers.
"I hope you came to thank and not judge. Finding out that a bandit has fun torturing his enemies to make the crabs eat them, and even more, he operated with banned items so shamelessly…"
Glax looked at the group. Two men stood out. One of them was older and reminded him of what he used to think of as 'Zeus': an old man with a muscular physique, long gray curly hair and beards, and the expression of a charismatic charlatan. The second was a man with dark hair, with a thin, tired face. Clearly unhappy to be there.
He was the one who spoke,
"Lady Chriseis. Lord Glax. We just learned that you were in Stapolis. I am the provincial commander-in-chief, Eustakeos, and this is Archon, Lord Sefos."
Glax saw the general's tired eyes sparkle, but she shook her head and smiled.
"Medon benefited from a strategic place like the old factory, and behind his shady business, he was responsible for the disappearance of many people. Humans were thrown to death so they could have fun. So far, possibly only commoners were disappearing, until he even dared to do so with a Kroton! What really dumbfounds me is the bold way this man lived up to this moment, and how he thought he could defy the law and get rid of the witness, a nobleman who would certainly be heard. This lowly bandit had no respect for the laws of Stapolis or its citizens!"
"Oh, General Chriseis ..." The Archon, or provincial chief, tried to hide his discomfort at the young general's harsh words. "The Officina has always been a problem, but it was a ruin that the Emperor forbade us to destroy. The building belongs to the empire now, right? And… Lord Glax got lost in the hills of Stapolis? How come he…?"
"No. I went straight there. I didn't understand it was an illegal place until I got there. I was looking for a merchant who could legally sell me something. I wasn't looking for bandits or smugglers, of course."
His explanation surprised the men, and Glax continued, knowing it was better to pass as a simpleton from the mountains than to admit he knew what he was doing.
"Well, now it won't be a surprise anymore, I fear that I'll have to reveal it in front of Chriseis. I wanted to celebrate our wedding with fireworks. I wanted to be very extravagant to demonstrate how happy I am for being her pick. And I didn't imagine I would have the unpleasant experience I had in Stapolis."
The men opened their mouths in sync, in shock.
Chriseis turned to Glax, her cheeks red. Glax lowered his head and swayed, looking at his bare feet. At that very moment, he was sure Chriseis was thinking the same thing: perhaps they were not so ignorant of what was happening at The Rust. Even if they considered Glax's excuse weak, it was best not to question.
"Fireworks are not easily sold. The city has strict control over this product, Lord Kroton," said Eustakeos.
"Yeah, I know, I know… I'm an idiot. The only thing that consoles me is that that disgusting man has finally been contained..." Suddenly a thought occurred to Glax, and he asked it out loud. "He died, didn't he?"
After all, there were iatromancers.