Chapter 23: Cores
Nox tried to make sense of things, but the pain was still pretty gnarly and the gods, or whatever they were, kept yapping in his head. That little box at the bottom of his vision, the one showing Auraelia's gifts, looked like the only helpful thing on screen right now.
'Accept,' he thought, putting everything he had into the mental nudge.
The second he thought it, something shifted inside him. It wasn't like the faint buzz from his new regen skill; this was way stronger. The bleeding in his stomach just... stopped. He could feel things pulling back together in there, surprisingly fast. The sharp, burning feeling faded into a dull throb he could mostly ignore.
He felt like he could actually move again, not like every muscle was shot. He took a breath that didn't make him feel like his guts were about to spill out.
He pushed himself up, first onto his elbows, then, with a grunt, he managed to sit. The girls had been watching him, looking completely wrecked, and now they just stared.
"What the... Nox? How...?" Kendra managed, her mouth hanging open a little.
Yeda, who'd been trying to patch him up with a strip of her shirt, yanked her hand back from his stomach, still clutching the damp fabric. She just looked at his torso, which was still a bloody mess but definitely closed up.
"It's... it's healed. Mostly."
"New skill I learned," he said. His voice was rough, but it didn't crack. He got to his feet, a bit wobbly, but he was standing.