My breathing was ragged as I approached the subjugated creature. Its eyes were following all my movements, acting defiantly even though it couldn’t move anymore.
A sudden thought came to my mind as I witnessed this spectacle. With the vines and branches surrounding it from all sides, didn’t it kind of look like… tentacle porn?
“Wake up, mama! Wake up!”
Dyla’s cries woke me up from my random delusion. She was shaking her mother, who had now fainted on the ground, missing her left arm. She looked pale, probably because of the loss of blood, which was still happening at this moment. That’s right, we weren’t completely done yet.
One of the reasons earth magic was called versatile was because of a certain property of plant magic. Its greatest strength was the possibility of transferring some vitality from the vegetation to people. In simpler words, it was possible to heal people.
I rushed toward Libes’ separated arm, shivering as I took the bloody, dead flesh into my hands. Then, I ran toward my friend’s mother, placing her arm next to her shoulder.
“Move away, Dyla. I’m going to heal her.”
The crying Dyla wasn’t of any help right now, so I shoved her away quickly. The other women were also starting to come to their senses, approaching us slowly. I didn’t pay much attention to them, preferring to focus on my task. I had wanted to bang Libes almost as soon as I opened my eyes in this world. There was no way I would let her die so stupidly.
Even though my last action used a good quantity of magical energy, I still had plenty left since I only cast magic three times. Once again, I asked for the plants to come to my help.
Heal Libes’ arm!
A normal earth shaman would be able to close wounds. A skilled one could handle internal injuries. An incredible one could regenerate flesh. It all depended on the strength of the will and the magical reserves of the person using magic. My will to do the dirty with her was infinite, and I still had plenty of juice left in me.
The plants responded to my call, under the fascinated looks of the women around. Just like for the warek, they rushed toward their target except that they stopped right in front of the debilitating wound. Then, they started to wither at a fast speed, transferring their life energy to Libes. A green light surrounded her injury, and the flesh began regrowing in real-time. It was initiated from her shoulder, filling out the wounds first, and expanding toward the separated arm.
Soon enough, the flesh came into contact with the arm muscles and bones. The magical process continued as the arm was moved into the correct position, and the disconnection filled with new flesh. After a short while, even that was covered by skin. In a matter of minutes, her arm was back to normal. One could think nothing ever happened if not for the large pool of blood all around her.
“Let’s move her to a comfortable position.”
The women and Dyla, who had witnessed the whole process with marvel, obeyed naturally. They used the pelts they were wearing to form a makeshift bed and placed Libes there. Now, she only looked like she was in a deep sleep, and there was nothing more we could do.
I looked around, witnessing some of the women being nude due to sharing their pelts. Nudity wasn’t a very big deal for our tribe, and maybe to all humanity in this world, with us bathing together every day and the like. Furs and pelts were mostly worn to keep the body warm. Fortunately, young children started their initiations in spring, which meant the weather was pleasant enough right now.
“Gul gul gul gul gul.”
As they say, there is never a time when perversion is irrelevant. I sat on the ground to take a break while ogling at the few women in their birthday suits.
Now that her mother was safe, Dyla came to me again, gluing herself to my side.
“Thank you for helping Mama, Keon. You were very brave.”
I smiled at her, caressing her hair idly. She was watching me like I was a hero. I couldn’t deny that this felt sort of good, in a different way from being seen while on an exhibitionism expedition.
“You were amazing, child.”
“That’s right. Aren’t you just out of the cradle?”
“Your future is bright.”
“You’ll become a great warrior.”
The women around came closer, praising me as if it would help relieve them from their previous terror. Speaking of which, we still had something to take care of. I pointed at the beast, still bound by the vegetation.
“What should we do with the warek?”
Everyone stared at it until an older woman responded.
“We should kill it and transport its body to the cave. It’ll provide a lot of meat for the tribe.”
“Oh… Of course.”
I said that without thinking about it too much. However, even as I waited on the ground, nothing happened. I checked around me once more and saw that the gazes were focused on me.
“Huh? What? I should kill it?”
They all nodded.
“It’s a warrior’s duty to kill beasts.”
“I’m not a warrior, though.”
“You’ll be a great warrior soon.”
“Uh…”
From the way they were peering at me, it didn’t seem like they would ever do it themselves. I examined my prey, wondering how I should handle the problem. Now that it couldn’t move anymore, earth magic would be the most effective. I concentrated one last time, querying the earth for help.
Kill the beast!
Just like I envisioned it, a spike of hardened rocks shot out of the ground. It pierced the creature, who let out one last piercing howl of agony. It twitched a few times in its death throes, only to stop moving soon after.
I waited for a bit longer, just to be sure. When the kill was certain, I removed the vegetal binding, revealing its large body, which fell to its side. It truly was enormous. It was a wonder how a small child like me managed to kill such a monster.