(SA) Chapter 24: Up the Mountain (Patreon)

Sybil and I quickly made out way out of the forest without any further conflict. That kinda surprised me, considering that I knew there was at least one more enemy that should've been lying in wait for us.

Before I could work myself into a streak of fear mongering, I put the hidden foe out of mind. Knowing the relentless nature of goblins, it was possible that the issue would eventually come back to bite us, but I could only keep moving forward.

If the actions resulted in the consequence of conflict later, then that's just what would have to happen. Distracting myself with fear would only allow the monster to become even larger in my mind. If I spent the rest of my life looking over my shoulder, then the mage would get its revenge whether it came for me or not.

As we walked, now climbing up a mountain, I noticed that my armor had taken a few scratches, so I removed my gauntlet and created a slash across my hand with the Bleeding Edge of Sacrifice, then put the gauntlet back on. It hurt, sure, but I'd had much worse.

Sybil noticed what I'd done and put a hand on my forearm, slowing a bit to walk and talk more easily. "Are you alright?"

I nodded at her, having removed my helmet to get a better view of my surroundings, and informed her, "My armor is a bit banged up, and I wanted to make sure it was patched up before we got in another fight." I gave her a shrug. "It really doesn't hurt that bad."

She pursed her lips. "Even if its purpose is entirely utilitarian, that's still a bad habit, Abby. Don't do that again, okay?"

The nickname threw me off a bit, but I managed to keep my brain on track for once. "Well, what would you have me do? It mends when it gets my blood. I really don't see how else I could be doing this."

She smirked a bit and pulled one of her Blood Crystals from a pouch. "This," she stated confidently.

I shook my head in confusion. "I still don't see what you mean, Sibby. That isn't my blood. I couldn't use it if I tried."

She raised an eyebrow, and her smirk grew a bit wider. "Abel, oh sweet Abel. I thought I taught you better than that."

My own eyebrows creased in frustration, and I took a tone that was probably too harsh for the situation. "Sybil, I have no idea-" She placed two fingers against my lips, having removed her gloves at some point while we were walking, and I shut up.

"Abel, how do these Crystals work?" She moved her fingers down to instead rest on my breastplate.

I let her lead me to the answer, even if I truly did not know where this was going. "They act as a substitute for real blood, since they've got Blood-attributed Mana in them."

She shook her head. "Close, really close, but not quite. They're not a substitute, Abel. What Vampires take from blood is the Mana. That's all we need, really. The blood might as well be dirt for our purposes, so long as it's got the Mana."

My eyes widened, and I continued the thought for her, "So you mean to tell me that my armor is healed by my Blood Mana instead of by my blood itself?"

She took her fingers back and gave me a slight shrug. "Maybe? It's worth a try, and in my opinion, it's much better than cutting yourself open whenever your armor needs a little help." She frowned again, and took the hand that I'd cut, removing the gauntlet. It was still Bleeding, but was quickly healing up.

In short, the Bleeding condition effectively increased the blood loss per second caused by all injuries by 5%, and made wounds more difficult to heal with only Vitality by half that amount. Healing potions would effectively make stacks vanish instantly, though, as would most magical forms of healing. The stacks could go up to 20, and according to Sybil, would only increase after that under certain conditions, like applying stacks of Hemorrhage, though that wasn't something I could do currently. Apparently there were levels even beyond that, but they were all outside of my reach for now.

She took my hand in both of her own and looked down upon it with concern. Her skin felt frosty against mine, but it wasn't in a bad way. If anything, the stimulation felt good, like using ice to cool down inflammation. While back on Earth, I'd been a complete weakling and was too cold to really enjoy the sensation, now I could really appreciate it.

It was a bit disappointing when she took them away. She fished some wrappings out of her bag and tightly bandaged my cut. This time, her hands lingered, and she pursed her lips while looking up at me.

"Don't do that again, okay?" She repeated with a hint of timidness, and I could only nod.

"Good," She said quietly, and slowly withdrew her hands.

We continued our hike up the mountain in silence.

By the time we'd reached the peak of the mountain, which was extremely tall, breaching the cloud layer, my cut had healed. I mentioned this offhandedly to Sybil, hoping to get her to unwrap it for me, but she'd just looked away and told me to handle it myself. I knew her well enough to hear the smile in her voice, though.

When we reached the top, I was stunned by the view. The huge chunk of rock we stood on overlooked an entire mountain range, the forest we'd traveled through, and all the way back to the plains we'd originally passed. I could even see as far as the next city.

That wasn't what was most impressive, though. The most beautiful part of the view was the water. Huge lakes filled the space between the mountains, and the distant eastern horizon was covered by an ocean that sparkled under the setting sun. Oh yeah, that's right, the sun set in the East here, and rose in the West. Another reminder that this place was so different from Earth, though I was growing used to this sort of thing.

After I'd admired our surroundings for a few minutes, Sybil took me by the arm and led me over to a nearby rock, where she sat me down, facing the ocean.

She stood in front of me and put a hand around my head, gripping me by the hair. I tried to pull away, fear mixing with awkwardness, and butterflies entering my stomach as she leaned in, but she was just too strong; I couldn't move. She pulled me

Rather than kissing me, though, she pressed a knife against my face. I tried to squirm out of her grasp, and anxiety filled my chest, quickly replacing all of the butterflies I'd felt.

Had I misread the situation that badly? What if she was just tired of dealing with me, and had only taken me this far to get away from her father?

Sybil grinned at me, and stated, "Now, I think this bit here has gone on a bit too long for its own."

I closed my eyes. My heart was beating too fast for me to think, but I started to cast the spell I knew best, a Bolt when I felt the flat of the knife draw across my face, and it dissipated as I realized what was happening. My eyes opened back up, and I watched in shock as she carefully went over each spot on my face. She was shaving the scruff I'd accumulated over the months, not preparing to slice my face open.

I realized something in that moment, while she ran her blade over my face. This girl was going to be the death of me. As it stood, chances were that she was going to give me a heart attack, but at the same time... I trusted her with everything I had.

She pulled back for a moment to look my face over, her focus clearly still unbroken, but I pulled her back into a hug. She resisted, but only slightly, and I could overpower her hesitance with an amount of force.

I was still seated, so my arms went around her waist. After a moment, she returned the gesture and leaned back into me, arms wrapping around my head, nestling me into her.

She let me hold her for a while as the sun crawled down from the sky, but eventually pulled away and ran a hand through my hair.

"Sorry, buster, but you're still in dire need of a haircut." Some scissors found their way into her right hand, and she stepped behind me. I did my best to hold still as she cut my hair short, and she got done quickly.

She leaned against my back, and we watched the sun set in the distance together.

While neither Sybil nor I had any need to sleep, we still made camp, set up our tent- one that I hadn't even known we had- and got a fire going. They were good habits to have, even if Sybil could see just fine and neither of us had any need to sleep. The fire kept me warm in the night, which was made colder by our elevation. Well, that and Sybil leaning against my shoulder all night, but I wasn't going to complain about that.

The sun rose behind us much too quickly.