A white light appeared as a blinding flash when it was in my eyes.
I blinked a couple of times before I could adjust my vision, the first thing I felt when I woke up was how I felt extremely heavy, like I had an anvil on my chest, the second thing I felt was a slight tingling in my feet and the third thing I felt It was a few relieved looks looking at me.
Before I could clearly figure out who the figures were, I tried to sit on the stretcher.
Only to be pushed back quickly.
"The doctor said you had to rest"
I heard a familiar voice, it was Catalina who was keeping me lying on the stretcher.
"Could you give me some water?"
I asked exposing my thirst.
Catalina turned and received what was a canteen.
I quickly tried to grab her only to drop my arm limply onto the bed.
"Could you give me the water directly?"
"No"
Catalina said sharply, only to open the canteen and bring it to my mouth.
'Are you a Buffon now?'
Desperately drinking from the canteen, I signaled to Catalina to stop and look at the others.
"Why do they have those faces? Did they see a ghost?"
Halgrid who was leaning on the window trying to look cool looked at me and broke the awkward silence.
"No, we have not seen a ghost but maybe if we wait a little longer we will have the honor of seeing the first one"
He spat mockingly as a small smile escaped him.
"How can you say that idiot?"
Nazaria approached Halgrid and punched him in the liver, Halgrid writhed and grabbed his abdomen.
"Don't you think you're being too harsh?"
"I think it's fair"
"Me too"
"I agree"
Carmina, Andrea and Catalina said supporting the punishment.
"You guys have no sense of humor, don't you Rohan?"
Halgrid looked at me for support.
'Generally I would agree with you, but since you made fun of me I won't agree with you'
I shook my head slightly, eliciting a look of utter betrayal from Halgrid.
"That was very rude of you, young Aledrián."
Halgrid's expression was simply hideous, it was as if he had been spat directly in the face and then had mud thrown at him.
"Why didn't you just die?"
Halgrid said with contempt, I frowned waiting for Nazaria's punishment towards Halgrid but it never came.
"What? You're not going to do anything to him?"
"No number 1, I'm not your bully number 2, you deserve it for being mean"
Nazaria responded with flanker.
Look at the others.
"Do you think the same?"
I received a general assent.
"Okay, unite against the dying man," I said with false indignation, but I think that struck a chord or else I wouldn't be able to explain what came next.
"And whose fault do you think it is, you fucking idiot?" Andrea shouted furiously, approaching me only to grab my bandages and shake me.
This was unusual, Andrea and I were very close since we were children since our parents loved to put us together and photograph us because we were 'very cute'.
So Andrea was not my cousin, she was more like a sister, she felt that way even more than with Catalina.
Our slight age difference between Catalina and me, along with her lifestyle that was quite different from mine, caused us to distance ourselves while we were growing up, completely unlike with Andrea, who over the years did nothing more than make us feel like brothers. .
That's why I let it shake me violently, I was just having a hard time processing what was happening.
After a minute of shaking, Catalina pulled Andrea away by her shoulders.
I lay back on the stretcher in pain.
"Don't you think you were very rude?"
"Let go of me Catalina, let me go so I can beat up this idiot"
Andrea spoke angrily.
"Calm down Andrea, when he's healthy you can hit him" Carmina spoke with a tinge of disappointment in her tone.
"It was worth it?"
"Worth what?"
"You already know how to risk your life for pride," Halgrid commented curiously.
"Why do you say I did it out of pride?" I raised my right eyebrow in surprise.
"You don't have to hide it Rohan, we all know you're terrified of that forest" Nazaria walked to the side of my bed and saw Noctia leaning against the wall.
"Was one sword enough to try to repair your fragile pride?"
"You're wrong"
"What exactly is wrong?" Carmina spoke while she looked at the same sword as Nazaria.
"It wasn't because of pride"
"So what was it?"
"For this"
I concentrated for a few seconds in silence, scarlet sparks began to appear in my hand that slowly tried to form a layer of aura.
"So that's why you were so reckless? You wanted to take advantage of the aura level up to heal yourself in case you got a serious injury?"
Five glances stared at Halgrid expectantly.
"Wait, no one has any idea howDoes the aura work?" Halgrid looked at me
"Neither you?" I thought a little and said.
"I understand that if you go through a fight you can reach enlightenment and increase your aura level." From my stretcher I heard the loud slap he had given himself in the center of his forehead. Halgrid touched his nose in a sign of disappointment. .
"Well, my father Halbren is an aura knight, that is, a 4th level user, he told me that to increase the level of the aura, although it varies every certain number of levels, the first 3 levels are learned in the same way with 2 methods"
"The first and most used is enlightenment, which means learning general concepts without being able to see them and then working through practice and error, entering a state of hyper focus and ending up acquiring the aura."
I spoke to ask Catalina for the canteen to quench her thirst, once she had continuously drunk water.
"The second and most uncommon and the one that is a double-edged sword is the acquisition of aura by Ultra pulse"
"What is Ultra Pulse?" Carmina asked, visibly interested.
"The ultra pulse is something like a state that the body finds itself in where it is very damaged and on the verge of death, apparently if that happens there is a small possibility that your heart will suffer cardiac arrest to beat again at 10 times the ability by increasing a person's alertness and perception, which ends up causing you to acquire the aura by inertia like a second breath."
I raised an eyebrow again.
"Didn't you say it's a double-edged sword? Apart from the part of risking your life, I don't see the problem"
"That's not the bad part, the bad part is that after starting the first level body reconstruction, the aura, unlike the enlightenment method, becomes erratic and uncontrollable, making you feel like you're burning."
'and here I thought it hurt because of my wounds'
"Wait and the advantage?"
"The advantage is that body reconstruction is generally done in a state where the body is healthy, it is practically imperceptible, but when it is done when you have broken bones or some damage, it heals to a certain point but in a much more lasting and stronger way. the erratic aura."