"Be careful," said Damien. If he continued stabbing like this, this man would stab Samuel to death as well.
"I am being very careful," gritted out Xavier with a frown on his face.
Xavier wasn't having the time of his life, alright. As he stabbed at the last layer of flesh around the lower region of the Impert Snake Beast, where her stomach should have been.
He was certain that this was just a waste of time.
He couldn't understand how Samuel, who had been swallowed by this snake, would be alive if he was inside her stomach already.
If someone asked him, Damien was just looking for trouble. He had once seen the insides of a beast's stomach when he was really young and Xavier had nightmares for months.
Half-molten skeletons were just not his thing.
He raised his claws and tore open the fleshy, light pink layer of the Impert Snake Beast's stomach. No sooner did his claws make a slash on her stomach— a smelly, pickle brine-like liquid flooded out.
Staining Xavier's shoes and feet, he scrunched up his nose and shot a blaming glance at Damien who offered him an encouraging smile.
With another roll of his eyes, Xavier turned around before pulling the thin layer open. A horrid tearing sound echoed in the clearing before—
"It's really Samuel," Xavier, who had been dubious throughout the process, was staring at the body of the man for whom they had been looking. His body was covered in grime, injuries and a sticky liquid that could only be the fluids of the Impert Snake Beast's stomach but he was very much alive.
At least he was breathing.
Xavier pulled him out of the pit of the stomach of the Impert Snake Beast and carefully laid him down on the floor.
"He is alive, he is truly alive?" He repeated in a disbelieving voice.
"It looks like he was swallowed and pinched right while he was fighting that thing," said Damien as he crouched down and studied Samuel's injuries. There was a long gash on the side of his abdomen and another one on his left shoulder.
And he had been bleeding for more than seven days which would explain why his body looked weaker and paler than it should have.
The flesh on his wounds had rotten and Damien could see the white maggots wriggling in the rotting flesh.
"But how—"
"This beast has seven stomachs. One of these stomachs is used by it to preserve its prey such that it can feed on it in case it can't hunt a prey down. I believe that it works as a reservoir when this beast hibernates," explained Damien as he turned to look at Maui and said to him, "You can summon spirits right?"
"That's right," Maui nodded.
"Can you summon a fire spirit then?"
"Sure as hell, I can."
Maui beamed up at Damien before snapping his fingers.
There was a popping noise and a ball of orange flame with glowing eyes that were so hot that they looked white and a tiny mouth appeared in front of Damien and Xavier.
"If it was fire, I could have…" Xavier trailed off when he thought about his lack of control when it came to using aura. He had yet to take hold of it in a way where he wouldn't hurt anyone while using it.
Damien didn't seem to hear what he had said as his hands were already moving. He heated the blade of his scalpel before using the knockout spell on Samuel. It was going to hurt and he didn't want this man waking up and flailing in pain when he was treating him.
A cotton ball dipped in the disinfectant and Damien began treating Samuel.
Since there was no bone broken and the large tears were due to the fangs and spikes of the Impert Beast Snake, Damien needed to just stitch that part.
'But this continuous bleeding …and the slow recovering rate..it might become a problem,' thought Damien as he placed the sharp end of the dagger on the side of the rotting wound.
Hiss.
The sound of hissing echoed in the now silent clearing as both Maui and Xavier stared at Damien who was cutting off the rotten flesh from Samuel's wounds like he was dealing with a chicken or boar.
"This—"
"We need to get rid of the rotten flesh as maggots have started to grow on it," said Damien as he wiped the wound which had been cleaned with a disinfectant and activated his sewing skill.
His eyes flickered up at the notification screen in front of him. As soon as read the information displayed on the screen, his hand almost slipped.
Poisoned? This man was poisoned?
However, Damien calmed down and thought about it carefully. He realised that it indeed made sense.
Xavier was frowning upon hearing his words but before he could question Damien any further he heard him say, "Go and milk this beast."
"Milk—what?" Xavier's voice started rising shrilly as he looked at the man as if he had gone crazy.
Damien raised his head and looked at the wolf beastman. "He has been poisoned by the venom of this snake, we need to treat the venom." He was a doctor but he was no expert in creating anti-venom it seemed like his AI system had loaded the information for creating the anti-venom in this world.
'A good thing as well or else we would be bringing a corpse with us,' thought Damien.
He glanced at the process of making anti-venom for the Impert Snake Beast and pondered silently. Could he even make this thing?
** *** **
Half an hour later, Xavier returned from the front of the Impert Snake Beast. He had spent a great deal in getting the venom of this beast and was certain that he was not ever going to do it again.
"Here," he said to Damien as he handed the jar with a lid made from the thinnest layer of fat of the snake itself. "Will this be enough?"
Damien took the jar and peered inside it after opening the lid. He nodded and replied, "Yeah. And one more thing —how strong is the blood of a dragon beastman?"
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