Lia looked down at her mirror. She had 2 days, 3 hours, and 23 minutes remaining for the first portion of the tournament. She was currently ranked first place. She had five kills, meaning that Yura was still alive, or someone else had finished her off. Second place had three kills. Meanwhile, the third, fourth, and fifth places had two kills each.
Lia decided she should tone down the experiments a bit. She was pretty sure that someone was watching the event unfold, and her, frankly brutal, kills were sure to garner a lot of attention.
She had decided to search for a nice place to set up her camp. The idea was to claim a section of the map and remain there. It wouldn't net her as many kills, but it was a decent enough strategy. It would be safer, not that Lia cared about that. It was more so a matter of convenience rather than safety.
.....
Three humanoids sat in a large room. In front of them, a large disk lay on a table. It projected Lia's latest kills via high-definition hologram.
"She's too brutal. Using blood magic in such a manner. It's barbaric." The man who spoke wore white armor that was accented with gold.
"She's brutal, but I think it's just experimentation. I can't be certain she would act the same way in the real world. Though, I can't deny that she might." He was old and had a long beard that was well-kept. His hand stroked his beard as he spoke.
"I think she's fine. She would make a great addition to our ranks. I don't mind the brutality so much. The blood-lust previously displayed is my main concern. Controlling one's blood lust is taxing, especially for vampires." The woman who spoke wore an extremely large witch's hat and seemed ageless. Her face held an expression of genuine curiosity.
The man in armor spoke with disdain. "Fine. The vampire can be in your class then, Silvana."
.....
It took her a while, but Lia eventually found a small mountain. Searching around the base, she found a small cave and decided this would be a perfect place to set herself up.
By now, night had fallen, and the accursed sun was no longer around to pester Lia. Starting a fire for warmth would be a last resort. The smoke from a fire would easily alert those who could see it, and Lia had very limited access to such magic, so she didn't even consider it. Instead, she pulled her excess clothes out and decided to create a makeshift sleeping bag. It would keep her at least somewhat warm.
Before deciding to rest, Lia began forming a trap near the entrance to the cave. 'I don't want it to outright kill people, but it should at least keep them immobile. I will wake up when it's activated. I presume some form of thread and decay trap will be enough.'
She set a rune on the ground and used her limited arcane magic to conceal it with an illusion. It wasn't perfect, but it should be enough. With that, Lia decided to rest. She wouldn't enter full REM sleep, but she needed to rest in some capacity, lest exhaustion claim her in the middle of a fight.
....
*THWIP* Lia snapped awake, her trap had caught someone. It was almost sunrise and she groggily stood up and slowly walked toward her trapped prey. On a whim, she checked the rankings and found that she was now tied for first place. Second place had caught up to her.
When she arrived, she saw a woman with dusty brown hair held in place by countless black threads. Each one was leeching her prey's strength and willpower. As she got closer, summoning a small amount of light, she immediately recognized the woman.
"Lacey?" Lia's shock was somewhat evident. Finding someone you knew was a very rare sight.
There was no answer from Lacey. She remained standing with her head held down. Lia released her magic and set Lacey down.
She was in bad shape. Lacey had deep wounds, numerous scrapes, and a large hand imprinted on her face. Large sections of her body were injured, stabbed by a large object. Lia's rage began to grow, and she was barely able to keep it down. 'She must have barely escaped. She is lucky to have found me. Anyone else would have killed her.'
After reassembling the trap, Lia began carrying the unresponsive girl toward the back of the cave. She wasn't sure she had the experience, nor aptitude to heal her.
Saro interrupted her thoughts, her rage evident by the way she spoke through gritted teeth. 'You can use blood magic to heal her. It's much more difficult, but we can do it, I'm sure.'
Lia motioned as the ball of light moved and illuminated Lacey's beaten and bruised body. Someone had tortured her. For information or pleasure, Lia wasn't sure, but she would make whoever did pay a very dear price.
Lia jumped to work, summoning strands of blood and wrapping them around Lacey's wounds. Her strands threatened to devour Lacey, and Lia's determination solidified.
Slowly, the blood strands began fusing into the cuts, reforming Lacey's flesh. The surface wounds were the easiest. It took Lia almost ten minutes to clear them. The internal wounds were going to be a challenge.
Weaving her mana strands into Lacey's bloodstream, Lia expertly controlled them as they traveled to her abdomen. Assessing the damage, Lia noted that she had three broken ribs and a ruptured spleen. She cursed under her breath.
'Saro, help me out. I'm not sure I can do this alone.' Lia spoke to Sarovitch with a hint of desperation.
'You're not ever alone. Not while I'm here. Get to work, you can do this. I know it, Kova.'
Lia steeled herself as sweat formed on her brow. The blood strands wrapped around Lacey's cracked ribs as Lia funneled tiny amounts of healing magic into them, using the strands of blood as a conduit.
Multi-casting like this was exceedingly difficult. One had to split their focus up, and doing so with blood magic was even more difficult. This type of healing was at the skill level arch-mages wield. Sweat gathered atop Lia's brow, strain evident on her face.
It took thirty minutes to heal her ribs and Lia's head began to ache. Putting the pain aside, she moved the strands of blood magic toward Lacey's spleen. She hoped this one would be easier.
It wasn't. The blood strands wrapped around her spleen. Lia fed more magic into the strands as they grew larger and more uncontrollable. Lia's head began to pound, the pain was nearly unbearable before it suddenly disappeared.
Sarovitch spoke softly. 'I'll handle as much of the backlash as I can. Focus on healing.'
When the strands were large enough, Lia wrapped them around the ruptured organ, encapsuling it completely. She began to infuse healing magic into them. It took a massive amount of effort to maintain.
Saro spoke in between gasping breaths. 'You have to speed...up, She's going to enter hemorrhagic shock.'
Lia clenched her jaw and began infusing more and more healing magic. It took five minutes, but eventually, Lacey's spleen was repaired.
Lia fell back, exhaustion clouding her mind. Sarovitch yelled between gritted teeth.
'We aren't done. We have to filter and cleanse the tainted blood, or she will go into shock. You can do this, Kova.'
Lia fought through her exhaustion. Her limbs ached and her mind raced with thoughts. Why did she care so much? She only met this girl today and didn't have any connections to her.
Lia worked through her exhaustion and tossed her thoughts aside. She filtered the magic of decay through Lacey's bloodstream. It was a lot easier to perform due to the nature of decay magic, but the task felt grueling and tedious. It took a further thirty minutes to fully cleanse her bloodstream.
Lia collapsed backward, she was exceedingly tired. This was the most grueling task she had ever performed.