Chapter 12: Rest
Luis woke up feeling like his entire body was on fire. His arms, his ribs, everything felt like it was in pain. He opened his eyes to the darkness of the night sky, hearing the crackling of fire.
"Looks like your finally awake Luis,"
he heard a voice say.
Slightly turning his head, he saw aunt Sera roasting meat at the campfire.
"Ah... it all hurtssss"
Luis groaned as he winced in pain when he tried to move.
"I gave you a healing potion but don’t try to move yet, you’re not fully healed, and you have also been asleep for more than a day,"
Sera said
"You don’t worry about the golem I took care of it and it’s been more than a day, meaning it’s been more than a month so it doesn’t matter if it dies now."
Luis let out a deep sigh, feeling more relaxed. "Finally I thought I failed and would have to do it again."
Sera smiled
"You didn’t fail but honestly I’m surprised you were able to defeat them all, I thought I would have to kill it after you got knocked out."
Luis froze,
"huh....you were not gonna help me unless I was knocked out?"
Sera smirked and shrugged nonchalantly. "Yeah but it worked out didn’t it, Luis you defeated them, a great battle experience I would say."
Luis dropped his head back to the makeshift bedding. Thinking inwardly
"This demon might have actually let me die"
"Anyways,"
Luis said aloud with relief in his voice,
"At least I can finally go home now."
Sera looked at him, raising an eyebrow.
"Who said we are going home, I thought you wanted some cool blessings, we are gonna go get your second blessing now."
There was complete silence as Luis was more stunned than before.
"But my parents said I was only gonna get the golem blessing and would come back."
he finally said staring at Sera.
Sera moved the meat stick in her hand dismissively.
"Oh don’t worry about that, they should understand. You have two cores so, you should have blessings in both"
Luis sit up or well he tried to but the pain wouldn’t let him.
"What do you mean, they.... they don’t know?"
Sera smiled looking at Luis
"Stop worrying so much, here eat up"
she said as she gave him the grilled meat.
"you should get your energy back we are gonna leave in a few hours."
Luis’s jaw dropped, and he wasn’t sure if there was anything left to shock him anymore.
"Wait, so...I am basically being kidnapped?"
Sera looked at Luis and placed a hand over her heart giving an exaggerated look of hurt, as she said in a sarcastic tone.
"Luis, how could you say such a thing? I though we had a bond, I thought you looked up to me, you’re strong, reliable, and trustworthy Aunt Sera, you have changed so much I remember when you used to follow me around wanting to know more about aura and blessings."
Luis couldn’t be bothered responding anymore, he just resigned himself to his fate. "When are we gonna leave"
"In about four hours,"
Sera said sounding very cheerful.
"So eat up and do whatever you need before then."
"What but I can barely move right now,"
Luis said complaining.
"Don’t worry about that your reliable aunt Sera will carry you."
Sera said with a smile.
Luis sighed heavily again, inwardly thinking. "Papa...Mama...please save me from this demon. She’s actually gonna get me killed."
A few hours later, Sera carried Luis over her shoulder, her pace fast but steady, she started to speak.
"Okay, Luis let me tell you about your second blessing as we head there. As you know you don’t have Phoenix blessings because the Phoenix essence consumed them. So we are gonna get you a blessing compatible with a Phoenix blessing if you ever get one. A low tier rank three lightning blessing."
Barely keeping his eyes open Luis groaned as he responded
"Lightning?"
Sera continued
"You should already know this but lightning blessing can help increase the destructiveness of fire. But the one we are going after today is a bit different. It’s a creature that uses lightning to increase its speed. It’s perfect for you since you can’t rely on brute strength always especially with your small body and bad aura control right now"
Luis a bit intrigued.
"What’s the creature called? And... do I have to fight again?"
Sera chuckled.
"Don’t worry about how you are gonna get the blessing just yet. The creature’s called a lightning Lynx. It’s a feline beast about the same size of a large wolf, with silver fur that has zigzags of lightning marks on its fur. The marks also glow in a yellow color and you can hear a faint sound of lightning crackling as it moves. Its eyes are yellow and they look like they can stare into your soul. Its tail is fairly sensitive so if you attack you should aim for that, but it does have lightning arcs surrounding its tail, so hit the tail without hitting the lightning arcs."
Luis shuddered at the thought of fighting it. "Sounds like there’s no way I can defeat it."
"Don’t worry we are going after low tier rank three ones they are not that smart just think of them as 5-year-olds. They also roam in groups so it would be good to isolate one. You can subdue it, blackmail it, negotiate with it, or help them fight off predators, whichever way you think is best to gain their trust so they give you their blessing."
"Use blackmail or trust,"
Luis muttered, laying his head against Sera’s shoulders.
"As long as I won’t have to fight again, it’s fine"
Sera smirked, adjusting his weight slightly so she could continue running steadily so as not to pain him more.
"It all depends on how you approach it, which will decide if you fight or not but for now you should rest up some more."
Luis closed his eyes as the exhaustion took over him again. His breathing became steady.
Sera spoke again.
"Now let me remind you of all the things you did wrong and could have improved against with the golems. First of all..."
She paused noticing he wasn’t responding anymore.
"... already asleep again"
she muttered.
She smiled faintly.
"I didn’t even tell him it would take eight days to get to the next place, well I guess he’s earned his rest, sleep some more Luis, you’re gonna need your strength."