Surgery

Evening.

The sun is descending; its last rays of light illuminating the forest.

A boulder of considerable size bathes in those rays.

*Rustle*

A small, white-furred, rabbit hopps outside the luscious bushes surrounding the boulder.

It's small snout twitches as its expressionless eyes observe the clearing.

Suddenly-

*Crack*-

*BOOM*

Part of the boulder breaks and falls down on the ground.

The rabbit runs away in fear.

After the dust settles, it comes back to inspect the situation.

Its small body hops towards the debris, while periodically stopping; its small snout twitching.

What the rabbit discovers is that inside the rubble covering the ground, a body resides.

Blood everywhere.

Bones protruding out of torn flesh and muscles.

Its skin is green, meaning it isn't human.

The bunny approaches cautiously.

It arrives next the body's head.

It lowers its snout, as if trying to lick the green boy's face.

Suddenly the green boy's eyes shoot open.

Two deep, blue eyes.

The bunny, startled once again, hops away in fear.

Heavy breathing.

The boy takes deep breaths, trying to oxygenate his body. Every breath feels like it is tearing his chest open.

He tries to lift himself up only to find it impossible.

He lost too much blood.

Being alive is a miracle.

"Calm down", he thinks.

The heavy breathing accelerates his blood flow, which is not particularly good, given that he has holes in his blood vessels.

The bleeding needs to stop or he will die.

"Calm down", he thought repeatedly to himself.

"Inspect your body using energy; get a clear image", he organizes his thoughts.

His Prana floods his body, feeling every corner.

A rough picture of his anatomy appears in Iono's head. The points where he's hurt are clear now.

Four broken bones in the arms.

Six fractured ribs.

Punctured left lung, and small intestine.

Three major arteries pierced.

Two blood clots obstructing the blood flow in his legs.

With every passing minute he loses more and more feeling in his legs.

"Possibility of paralysis...

Necrosis...

Amputate? No, I can fix this."

He uses the energy coursing through his body to control the air to lift his arms.

A green glow appears in the air in front of him, as he uses incredible energy control to move his right arm.

A dark window appears out of thin air.

From inside, he pulls out a dagger.

He closes his eyes.

"This is going to hurt."

*Sigh*

*Slash*

Using the dagger, he slices his thigh open.

As his dagger digs through his flesh, Iono feels every muscles fiber tearing open.

His eyes almost pop out of his head; he is clenching his teeth so hard, one almost cracks.

He can't see his lower body as he is still laid down, therefore he can only use the energy coursing through his body to see where the clots are.

After cutting his thigh open, he searches for the vein in which the blood clot resides.

His vision starts diminishing.

His was already anemic but after cutting open his thigh his blood loss is immense.

"I will bleed out before removing the clot.

Plus the punctured lung does not help, I'm not getting any oxygen in my brain."

"Hup-"

*Belch*

He vomited blood.

"I need to make an energy ring. But the precision it requires... It hurts every time I move my fingers, can I even draw runes?

It's not like I have a choice. Either I draw this ring or I die!"

With great concentration and willpower he lifts his arms, using the air surrounding them.

His fingers move nimbly through the air, drawing up strange, luminous, yellow symbols.

Energy is concentrated on the tip of each finger.

The yellow symbols drawn trembled, up until they were completely drawn, when for some inexplicable reason they simply hovered in the air.

Every symbol was unique and obscure, every stroke was steadfast and swift, as if years of experience were put behind each one.

Little by little, symbol by symbol, a circle appeared, hovering in the air above Iono.

The moment the last symbol was drawn, the circle that was created trembled; its colour turning green.

Slowly it descended and attached itself to the ground, right below Iono.

He felt a refreshing feeling wash over him, as his cells were put into overdrive.

The ring absorbed the surrounding energy and transferred it to his cells, in order for them to work faster and even reproduce themselves.

Slowly the hole in his left lung and small intestine starting closing.

His breathing became stable, and blood was produced at a faster rate.

His body was healing at a slow but steady pace. But the clots remained in place, obstructing the blood from flowing to his legs.

The colour of his toes had become blue-black, signaling necrosis.

Who knew how long he was passed out? He had to removed the clot or he would have to amputate.

Regrowing a limb was possible but far, far too difficult.

He took one more deep breath and, while clenching his teeth, dug the dagger into the vein, at the place were the clot resided.

Blood sprayed out of the vessel like a fountain.

The pain was unimaginable.

He tried numbing the area but to no avail since his body was rather strong after being tempered by energy.

This was open surgery with no sedative.

Much less, he was performing it himself.

Every mm of vein sliced open was enough to make him scream till his lungs were void of air.

The pain wasn't constant, but in intervals meaning he would pass out from it and the wake up from it.

Although painful, this helped the situation as passing out now, would be rather inconvenient.

Finally, enough of the vein was open for him to remove the clot.

He placed his finger inside the vein and picked up the bood clot.

Pain.

So much pain.

Enough for one lifetime.

After taking out, he breathed out, finally releasing the air he was holding.

The blood, no longer obstructed, flowed through his leg, revitalising it, basically bringing it back to life.

Unfortunately, he lost his smallest toe to necrosis, meaning he would have to amputate it. Thankfully, it won't have much of an effect but he WILL try to regrow it.

He threw the blood clot away and opened his [Ego space] once again.

From inside he pulled out a thin thread and needle.

His eyes were out of focus as he was trying to pass the thread through the needle hole, and sew up his vein.

The sight made one wonder, how the hell was he even alive!?

The answer laid in the unimaginable amount of vitality his [True Serpentine Body] surrender to him.

The bone marrow he transplanted was actually full of vitality, meaning his blood was created at inhumane speeds and his regeneration had reached another level.

A body tempered by energy and the withered skeleton that belonged to Ophiuchus.

This made his ability to preserve his life, even after getting beaten near death, reach a whole different level.

Finally he sewed up his vein, and proceeded to remove the other clot.

By the time he was done, he had closely escaped death.

He lost a toe in the process, but it's better than losing his life.

Escaping death was one thing; he still had broken bones and maddled insides. But he was too tired to fix anything.

His eyelids felt heavy as he was slowly falling asleep.

He blinked repeatedly, his eyes almost closing, when suddenly-

He couldn't feel the cold breeze he had felt up until now.

His eyelids felt frozen in place, as if time itself froze, making it impossible for him to move them.

*Crack*

The space in front of him cracked like glass, as a rainbow coloured rift appeared.

From inside, a purpled-robbed jester seemed to appear, a wide grin on his face.

The last thing Iono saw before passing out, was the jester lowering his grinning face and manically staring at his...