Chilled exorcist.

Chapter 17: "Eternal Hunger"

"Hey, fifth-character adventurer, wake up! Lemming of the Dark Forest, can you hear me?" The voice of the Castle Keeper echoed in my head. "Someone's brains are about to be eaten! And I don't want your rescued companions to share the fate of such a brainless fool as you may soon become."

I tried to get up, but I was very dizzy. With a grunt, I could only lean on my elbow.

"If you don't wake up, I'll point my finger at you again, and you'll spend another five years on the wall!"

That last phrase felt like an encouraging shower. I jumped up and shot the mushrooming impudent, sneaking guard in the darkness. The arrow glinted and went back into the crossbow. I carefully, with my healthy hand, picked up my green crystal and put it in my pouch. I walked over to the girls and felt for a pulse. They seem alive.

"It always works," the illusion of the Guardian of the Outpost was rubbing his hands together.

There in the Order we were taught various forbidden techniques that we should not use. For example, one of them - the one the girl did - is called "living candle". The green crystal is not taken in the hand, but is placed on the knees and covered with two hands from above. The person who applies it literally burns alive. At that very moment, when the person puts the crystal down and covers it with his hands, the spiritual flame bursts out of him. The defense mechanism of a living being. And that is why instead of coldness and weakness, a feeling of burning and vigor comes over the one who applied it. But for a very short period of time, after which the remnants of heat gather in the center of the body, and the person experiences a vision of the "Distant follower of the soma", as if somewhere ahead is a distant white light.

I rummaged through my bag and pulled out all the herbs in a cluster in search of the right one; most were from a local shop. I quickly built a fire from the wood I'd retrieved from the gate, and hastily brewed an invigorating infusion and slipped it under the girls' noses. I reminded myself, "Now we must bring them to their senses, and then we'll do self-medication." The invigorating liquid had an immediate effect: the fair sex moved. The witch opened her eyes; she didn't realize where she was. Arsa, however, was cold and shrank into a ball. I added more wood chips to the fire and, to my joy, the girl began to warm up.

"Where am I? My head hurts!" said the witch of the forest with painful words. She felt much better than the huntress and was even able to get up on her own. Her arms and legs were shaking, but overall her condition was satisfactory.

"Mmm..." Arsa couldn't speak, she just didn't have the strength. After examining my mangled hand once more, I began to treat the girl first. Another taboo of the Order was lifted: In danger, the hunter must bring himself to the maximum fighting form, and only then take care of others. If there are sources of spunk nearby, the hunter must put the mask of the milchemist on himself first, then others.The hunter must always have a spare mask for himself. "Wow, how many prohibitions have I just broken!" I even felt a chill.

"Where is your mask?" I asked my laughing sister from the Dark Forest.

"I don't need it, I'm a witch and I use a breathless infusion," the girl demonstrated a vial from her bag and put it back away. "Looks like she hasn't fully recovered yet," I reasoned.

"How long does it last?" I asked, pulling out the knife attached to my belt and scorching its cutting part on the fire. "I need to help the huntress now, and if I have any strength left, I'll examine the witch as well," I nodded to my thoughts.

"If you drink it a little at a time, as much as you like, but when I'm asleep or unconscious, I'll forget and start breathing," the witch explained.

"Are you going to drink it?" I dug into my bag and pulled out a spare mask, tossing the melted one aside. I put Arce's milchemical mask on my face.

"Why do you ask?" the girl inquired. Instead of answering, I pointed to the end of the corridor. The Contemplator seemed to have finally left here, since oserenie was climbing into the castle from all sides. A white veil was swirling in the air. The witch opened and examined her bag, looking for the vial she had already shown me. I didn't see the huntress's bag anywhere.

"And yet, how was I going to help her with an injury like that?" I realized as I came to my senses. "Looks like I've been hurt pretty badly, too." Then I extracted and poured a special binding infusion into my arm to cover the wounds on it. Only then did I start to treat the crystal burns on the huntress. I didn't have time for ceremony, so I just ripped my clothes open at the seams. And froze. Even someone as stubborn as me realized, "She's really beautiful, isn't she? It's like the girl kept her skin in milk to make it supple and soft. Oops." I caught the witch's gaze and pretended to check for tibia damage. And then I tried to abstract myself from the process, but involuntarily I still paid attention to the young girl's body. After treating the wounds, I began to sew back the clothes through the special loops provided on them. The whole set of 'hunters' armor is thought out in a special way and takes into account such a possibility.

When I finished, I double-checked everything and looked at the Castle Keeper. He nodded in satisfaction and disappeared with a snap of his fingers, scattering sparks.