023 Bounty Of The Persistent

We promptly arrived back in the main room of Otto's underground hideout. I headed towards the living area while Ven made her way towards Otto.

The master craftsman looked up from his work as Ven came by. She glared at him with the utmost condescending look anyone could ever hope to muster.

Ever so slowly she reached for the dagger that I had lodged on the wall earlier. As she pulled the blade out, she gently skimmed it over his beard.

He didn't move once but fear was instilled deep within.

The eye contact between them was never broken. Thanks to that the message had clearly made its way from Ven to Otto just fine.

He swallowed his saliva and immediately dove back to his work with a newfound fury. Afraid to even raise his head.

Ventus finally arrived to where I was at. She gave me a foreboding smile as she raised one eyebrow at me.

I shivered at first glance. What could it mean? The feeling of puzzlement didn't last long as her facial expressions and tone of voice normalized to what I was used to and it helped steady my heart.

"Are you ready for this again?"

I nodded and turned around. I needed to mentally prepare myself again.

"Ok Ven let me just take a dee-AAHHHHHH!"

She sliced my back up again in a similar fashion to the previous time. Could I say it was similar? This time it almost seemed too Vicious. An overwhelming amount of damage that was not present the first time had shown up now.

Was this because I saw her nude? Is she taking further revenge? Honestly was the slap not enough?

Once again I fell to the floor. White hot Searing pain flooded my senses. Already a considerable pool of blood had formed around me.

"Dammit Ventus! I wasn't ready yet!" I managed to grunt.

Too gleefully she responded.

"I'm sorry I thought you were."

Ignoring her comment I hurried and focused just like last time. I struggled to get up again. Fighting through the intense pain was a battle. Just trying to stay conscious was near impossible and yet I refused to concede.

I must have been successful as in the middle of this I had time to curse Otto.

"Damn you Otto. Why are you so skilled?!"

Ventus had barely swung the dagger but the amount of pain I'm in is a testament to the damage caused. Truly your weapons are beyond compare.

I gritted my teeth as I stood up. It seemed like an eternity for me but in fact only mere moments had passed.

Clasping my hands together I began to move the mana within me. I focused and concentrated my very being into pooling the mana onto my back.

I started to spread it throughout so that it could cover the wound and it's surrounding area.

Everything was going perfectly so far.

Slowly once again I introduced the basic magical essences my mana.

Fire

Ice

Life magic

They began to move about in a crazy fashion. Restlessly working towards the goal I had instilled within them. Eventually they settled down, calmly melding with my mana. Finally, accepting that they were now the foundation needed for this spell.

I had to forcefully circulated the essences throughout the entirety of the injury with an even bigger amount of mana than before for this to finally occur.

The difference between this time I attempted this with less mana and this time was immediate. The pain that had been antagonizing me was removed completely instead of slowly fading away.

This gave me further hope that I was on the right track.

I looked at Ven with excitement in my eyes.

Before she could say anything I shook my head and continued. I couldn't afford to lose focus now.

I began to draw on all the mana supplies I had access to.

Both Ventus' and mine.

I greedily took more and more as I began to infuse my will into this spell.

It didn't matter if every single drop of mana between Ven and I was exhausted. This had to work.

As I did this something Unexpected occurred. The words for the spell incantation came to me. This has never happened before in the past when I tried spell crafting.

I didn't know what was going on but something about this chant seemed right. I decided to let it guide me.

My back was starting to illuminate itself as the injury was being seared away with mana. Both my long silver hair and the black cloth over my eyes began to float about around me. It looked as if there was a wind current flowing in.

I continued to flood my will with every drop of mana I could muster. The massive now shared pool was now starting to run dry.

Soon I was breathing hard and exhaustion toyed with me. Keeping up this insane amount of concentration was definitely nothing to scoff at.

Both the seals on my hand were glowing brightly, further illuminating the surrounding space. When I turned to face Ven, the seal on her back was also radiating through her shirt as well.

All of a sudden without warning Ventus fell to her knees. Sweat poured forth from her brow and onto the floor. She too was out of breath. Her shirt drenched and her hair damp.

I wasn't surprised. After all I had greedily consumed her dry. This was just further evidence that the seal was working.

After taking all this in I was trying to hone in on my concentration and not lose any progress that had been made so far.

My aura had somehow leaked out of me and the pressure in the atmosphere was becoming almost too much to bear.

I was cloaked in a purple flame of majesty.

Even still I didn't allow it to distract me from the task at hand.

The willpower required to stay conscious at this point was simply astounding.

Otto had stopped working and was now struggling to stand up himself. Honestly I was shocked he hasn't passed out yet.

Finally able to regain and center my focus, I began to pour out my mana infused will. As I did the words to the chant came naturally.

Multi colored Magic circles in layers were forming around me with each syllable of the incantation.

It was beautiful.

It was awe inspiring.

It was to be the envy of all.

"Righteous ire, as I stand here torn and weary I demand that you become my untainted salvation. Consume my enemies in burning spite so that I may gain unadulterated immortality. Reverse the throes of death circling above and instead bathe me in the beauty of the everlasting spring. Empower me to conquer over all!"

PIIIINNNGGG

I smiled at the system notice. I had succeeded.

The radiating glow coming from both Ventus and I had finally calmed down. Slowly the atmosphere was returning to normal.

I couldn't wait any longer and I hastily opened up the system menu to look at what has been created.

[Healing Spell Crafted]

[Rampaging Bounty] [Rarity S+]

According to the will of the creator, this spell uses the life force of the enemies present to restore health. It consumes 80% of enemy health to restore Target.

If no enemy is present when used, spell will instead heal its target back to 100% health.

Insane. Too powerful. Absurd. Broken.

How many more words can I use to describe how crazy this was?!

Ventus as impatient as always demanded to know if we succeed.

I nodded and explained the description of the spell.

She smiled in response.

"I'm...glad...you...did...it"

She struggled with each word as she was having a hard time catching her breath.

I was about to ask if she was ok when all of a sudden Ventus fell onto the floor unconscious.

"Ven! Ven! Ven! Hey! Get up!"

I hurried towards her to no avail.

My legs gave out and I crashed onto the floor light headed and with no strength left in me.

What happened? What went wrong? What's going on?

Slowly I slipped into the dark realm of unconsciousness for the second time today.