Chapter 38: A Little Conversation
The frequencies danced wildly over the Resonance as Valens focused on a worm nibbling at the lung of the unfortunate man. It wasn’t alone, as a host of them tried to gobble down the whole thing, oozing with pus and rot and anything wicked that he could think of.
“Ahh,” Marcus belched out in the back, one hand pressed hard into his stomach, emptying his sins and wrongs into a bucket Celme had fetched from the carriages down the road.
“Can you do something about it already?” Valens scowled over his shoulder to Celme, who was busy patting the man on his back. “Whatever that it is, it’s clearly not working.”
“What do you want me to do?” the Berserker glared at him with one of her sharpest glares. “He’s at it for some time. I’m sure there’ll be nothing left soon.”
“So we’ll wait for him to be off with anything in his belly? That’s not wise.”
“But practical.”
“Not wise, and it reeks here.”
“It’s coming from those worms, not Marcus.”
“Really? I don’t smell it.”
“That’s because you’ve both your hands deep in that man’s guts. Take a step back, then you’ll understand.”
“Uh,” Valens grunted, turning back to the patient. It was the most severe case he’d seen during the short time since he’d turned this tent into a healer’s den. The rotten mana that animated the skeletons had infected the tissues of the man’s lungs. That wasn’t anything special on its own, but those infected tissues were turning into bloody worms at an alarming rate that flooded the man’s innards.
Keeping the Lifeward active around the area, Valens felt his hand squelch through the wriggling guts as he sent a Lifesurge up the lungs. Lifemana could kill these worms off with a wave, but to stop the constant reproduction, he had to carve out the infected parts of the lungs while making sure they were still supplying enough air for the man to breathe.