Chapter 46

  Shrapnel And Servitude

  It was over quickly.

  Madam Voyou, aka Death Machine, looked haggard from the beginning. Added to that was the fact that her opponent was a perfect counter for her, a speed fighter that always twisted directly into Death Machine's blind spot and it looked like she almost never stood a chance.

  “Never has a machine looked so human,” Sal’s voice cut in over the speakers, stating exactly what everyone was thinking.

  There in the center of the ring was a knocked out and partially burned Death Machine.

  Blur.

  I was already running, my movements on autopilot at this point as I knew the exact length to the ring, beginning with my outstretched foot, I powered forward and quickly swooped in between the ropes. Only to see what I expected to see, what the whole arena had just witnessed, Death Machine was down.

  Standing over her was her challenger. Who had her own assortment of cuts, bruises, and wind torn lesions due to Cutting Words, or some such Skáld power. Yet, the amount of power behind Death Machine’s attacks was minimal.

  It wasn’t truly surprising in the grand scheme of things, as Death Machine had just used a lot of her energy to give an impromptu performance. Using her power liberally to make every moment, every word spoken memorable to the gathered crowd. When she was done, I could see her wobble slightly, as exhaustion seemed to overtake her.

  Making matters worse was the fact that she was likely out of shape. While she still had the fit and toned body needed of a fighter, her body was softer, less capable of taking a hit and the rigors of punishment like her younger opponent’s body.

  In the end, it was her own hubris that did her in. At least that is what I would chalk it up to, still thinking she was as young as she used to be, and able to overcome all obstacles, despite being a moment or two past her prime. That said, she did put up one hell of a fight, even her opponent seems to have been shocked that she got knocked out so easily.

  Going to her, I grab hold of her hand and am instantly pulsing waves of healing energy into her. My mind tracking the damage that she suffered during the fight, only to be momentarily shocked by the true damage that I see in her body.

  Looking at her, seeing her the way I can now. The way only my magic can tell me, I realize that Madam Voyou, aka Death Machine is far more of a badass than I thought. Her body is telling me that part of why she passed out was an over loading of pain from her pain receptors. The heat from the flames and bruises caused by blows to her body were ultimately mild. Had she been even a little more healthy, she likely would have survived the fight and been more than capable of winning. A fact that even her opponent seemed to recognize.

  Unfortunately, the past had done a number on Madam Voyou. I never noticed before, but according to what I am seeing, according to the nerve pulses in her body all flowing to her brain and still overflowing her nervous system, she always feels pain. Not just a small amount of negligible pain, but full bone searing, muscle burning pain, worse it comes from two different places, her right leg, and her right eye socket. An eye socket where she still has the eye, but it is not doing well.

  I could heal the body, the superficial wounds caused by the fight in no time. Those were relatively light, but that would only be treating the symptom of her collapse. Her true pain comes from her older scars, the ones that she never even showed signs that they were bothering her.

  Working quickly, I do as much as I can. For the moment, I disable to nerves at the base of the spine, the ones that relay both the pain of the missing leg, and the excess pressure on her lower back from having to compensate for her now off balance movements.

  Relax.

  Just doing that much, not getting rid of anything, just making it so her body can’t tell her she is in pain causes her unconscious body to relax, as some of the tension in her face relaxes. That is good, as it lets me know I am doing something right.

  Continuing, I then go for her eye, it’s infected with something. Oh, likely due to a piece of metal being stuck in there. For a moment I wonder why she hasn’t had it removed, but then I realize it is in a spot that is really close to her brain. As it has apparently gone past the skull and is almost touching the brain. Likely the prognosis was to leave it alone and hope that the body is able to reject it, on its own. But that does not seem to be the case here. A quick check lets me see why. The blade that broke off is serrated. Not much, but just enough to have it hook on part of the skull and refuse to leave.

  However, her body has seen the foreign entity in it, and has begun to create a protective layer around it, separating it from the rest of the body. It’s not much, but thinking about it, I do something that is likely unethical. While I have implied consent for dealing with the fighters and their injuries sustained from the fight itself, this goes to a whole other level of authority.

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  I don’t even know if I can do, what I am thinking of, as I have never used Trash in this way, on something that is part of another person’s body. However, this is slightly different, as the wedged item has been in there for so long that her body has created what is effectively a second layer of skin around the lodged item. Which my mind equates to being the same thing as having Trash on the skin, which is something I can and have been able to remove in the past.

  Part of me wants to wait for consent, in case this doesn’t go the way I plan. But then I see that this sac is infected, which sort of makes sense when you realize that part of a broken blade is broken off and lodged deep within your eye. I almost want to ask her how she got shrapnel from a sword stuck in her eye, but I decide to just focus on the task at hand.

  A task that gets trickier every second that I think and then overthink the situation.

  “Everything okay?” Markan’s voice cuts in, distracting me from my musings.

  Pausing, I look up and see that everyone is still staring at me. That’s when I realize that this is an oddity, as Death Machine is still knocked out, despite the amount of time I have spent tending to her. Normally the patient is at least conscious by now.

  “Yeah, she has shrapnel in her eye, I am going to have remove it,” I state.

  “Wait, it’s too close to her brain,” Markan tries to stop me, apparently knowing of her condition. Which I guess makes sense as he is a fan of these fights. Hearing him, I pause and look up at him.

  “I know, but it is infected, and an infection that close to the brain is dangerous,” I reply.

  “What?” Everyone stammers out.

  Realizing I have spent far too much time on this, and am getting distracted, hold up my right hand in a pausing gesture.

  “Shh!” I shush them, before I get back to focusing on the issue.

  Just like earlier with my alternating Skills, I do the same thing. Though I first pause, while I regenerate my mana to its fullest, as I will need every last drop for what I am about to do.

  Then once it is filled, begin.

  Pulse.

  First I send out a pulse of energy into her body, finding the infected sac of skin that is coating the piece of lodged shrapnel. Then I focus inside the sac and cast Trash.

  I can only do so for a few seconds, as my mental image provided by the sonar pulse of her body provided by my Rejuvenation Healing goes away in a few seconds. Still that is enough as I can feel the sac tightening around the now reduced piece of shrapnel. That’s when I push a little further, this time removing even more of the metal fragment with my Trash Skill.

  Slowly, painfully slowly, I move methodically, removing sections lodged in bone, then in the sac. Finally, I remove the external dirt that was causing the initial infections.

  Pausing for a moment, I even use Trash on myself to keep my own sweat from beading down into my face. Then I continue until finally every fragment is gone. For good measure, I continue pumping healing magic into her body. Pumping enough energy to help her body flush the now empty sac of skin from her eye and down towards her digestive system. Then focusing on the eye, I check to make sure all the nerve endings there are turned on and responsive. Even trying to help heal back some of the bone that got fractured from the initial blade.

  Finally, wanting to see my handywork, I reach down and gently grab the eye patch over her right eye and look.

  GASPS!

  I pause, mid-reveal, suddenly feeling like I had just removed a tiny bikini top from her. At least that is the way everyone seems to be reacting to my actions. Yet, looking at her, I can see that my work is already paying off. The eye is still puffy, still showing signs of a recent infection, but the puss and rot that had been underneath is now excreted from the eye, eww.

  Trash.

  A quick application of Trash to remove said green puss, the eye and socket looks good. There is still an old scar, one that had been healed long ago. I’m assuming it was from around the time she got the injury to her eye to begin with, but I can’t tell for certain just by looking at her.

  Pausing for a moment, I realize something is off, as she should be waking up now. Only then do I pause and remember, I need to release the motes of green energy into the air. Shaking my head at my oversight, I just grimace and begin cycling my mana to full again, before poof. A plume of green mana flies up from my hand and begins falling down to the unconscious and silently sleeping form of Madam Voyou.

  I watch as the first motes of mana hit her, causing the involuntary twitches and muscle movements that have become surprisingly common here. Then the dual rapid eye movement of both eyes stirring just below her eyelids. This is good, and enough for me to realize that she should be fine. If there as a problem, the eyes would likely be off rhythm with each other, at least I assume they would. Still the fact that they are moving in synchronization with each other is a good sign.

  Blink.

  Finally, two perfectly beautiful dazzling blue eyes open up, and seem to focus at the same time.

  “Gasp!” Rising from the ground, Madame Voyou reaches up for her eye patch, for her face. Hands desperately clawing for something that isn’t there. Then looking around, she looks, only to see her eye patch, still dangling in my left hand like a tiny string bikini meant to cover only half of her assets.

  “Give me that!” Madame Voyou hisses, lunging forward angrily as she grabs the strap from my hand.

  I don’t resist, and for a moment I think I did something terrible. It isn’t until she picks it up, and is about to put the patch back over her right eye that she stops.

  “Wait, I can see?” Madame Voyou asks, her voice cutting through the hushed murmurs of the crowd. Then pausing to realize where she is, she turns her head and seems to glance about the entire arena glancing at everyone and taking it all in. I can see the moment her body tenses up with excitement, it is in her shoulders and continues to build, even as she breaths out slowly. Then excitedly she turns to me, and locks gazes with me.

  “You,” is all she manages to state, while reaching over and clasping my hands. There is an entire volume spoken in that exchange as her body and mind still seem to be synchronizing to the recent changes that she has undergone. Changes that show she is back to normal. She even steps with her metal foot. Pausing slightly as she looks down and realizes, “there is no pain.”

  “Vivienne, can you actually see?” Markan asks, cutting in and making it so Madam Voyou is aware that others are still here.

  “Yes, how does it look? You know what, it doesn’t matter. It can’t be worse than that damnable eye patch!” Madame Vivienne Voyou, responded. Seeing that she was both okay with the removal and more than fine with the side effects, of what happened, I relax a bit.

  Double checking to make sure that the excess healing in her body took care of the bruises and burns that she had also suffered, I exhale, realizing she is safe. Then going on I nod, gently removing my hands from her grip and turn to her opponent.

  Fortunately, her opponent was far more manageable to deal with than Madame Voyou was. I can hear her and Markan talking, Madame Voyou switching to French and talking to Markan like they were lost friends.

  As for me, I tune it all out and focus on healing the last injuries to the underdog opponent who apparently pulled off the upset of the arena. For a moment, I would have thought this was all a set up, but after seeing the level of trauma that Madame Voyou began with, I can’t really say it was anything other than someone pushing themselves too far, too fast.

  “That is all for today, remember to settle up your bets on the way out. Don’t worry though, for those of you who might have lost more than you were capable of affording, remember that Academic enlistment will pay for up to fifty percent of your gambling wages,” Sal’s voice cut in, reminding me of just how dark and depressing this world could be.

  Taking advantage of people while they were in a weakened state to get them to not only join the military, but if I was understanding correctly, these new soldiers would be Enlisted, versus officers. Further keeping them repressed in the standards of society.

  Still, gambling was their own vice. At least that is what I tell myself to make my compliance in this endeavor bearable.

  “I will see you all tomorrow, starting two hours early, due to it being our weekend starting time. Come along, and be sure to bring the family, for things are only going to get better from here!”

  And like that, I realized the night was over.

  At least, I thought it was over.

  per day, until our reign on the top 50 stops.

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