Valthar looked at Amara's pale face as he commanded the life force to flow back into her body.
For a moment this seemed to have worked, the life force taken by the ring slowly trickled back into her body and color slowly filled her cheeks.
But before Valthar could celebrate, the red ring’s syphonning effect suddenly increased in force, slowing even further her recovery.
To worsen things further, Valthar could feel her body start to shut down as whatever had kept her barely alive suddenly started to recede.
Valthar grunted as the pressure on his life force control progressively grew stronger.
Second by second he could see as Amara's eyes started to glaze over.
“Damn it, don’t die on me woman.” He cussed out, before he willed his own energy ring into action.
With mana activating the mana ring allowed a mage to boost the effects of their spells while increasing their mana cost, though Valthar had not tested it with his life force the immediate effect ended up being the same.
Pulses of life force spread through his body, his control over the energy grew finer.
In moments the flow from the red ring to Amara’s body started back up, yet Valthar could feel as the red ring’s syphon effect grew stronger as more life force left it.
If things kept going on in such a way Valthar would find himself at a standstill… one Amara would not survive.
He reached the conclusion fast, but his options were limited and his time to ponder would soon run out.
He could already tell his power far from enough to directly overwhelm the red ring, yet without the life force inside Valthar simply did not have enough to nourish Amara back to health.
Around them not a single soul in sight, only trees and grass, Valthar knew there was no help was on their way.
“Dad, are you proud of me?” Amara lets out a delirious mumble in between sobs, she was already completely out of her mind from the feeling of imminent death.
This bad sign tightened further Valthar's already tense mood.
It was then a small and bold idea reared its head in the back of his mind.
Trees and grass not only had life force, but also their energy should be much easier to pull out than the energy on the red ring.
‘Can my body handle it though?’ Valthar questioned.
After all, one thing was to control a single source of life force that is directly in contact with her skin and another completely different was to guide life force from numerous different sources meters apart.
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If a first ring mage tried such a thing, they would be out cold in less than a minute and that is if they succeeded at all.
Deeply conflicted, Valthar looked down at Amara.
Two trails of tears flowed down her cheeks and snot slid down her nose, she was desperate.
The strong will to live he had felt earlier from a distance echoed again, stronger and needier.
‘This is so fucking dumb, I hate this.’ Valthar cussed in his mind before he willed the life force around the area to flow into her body.
The results were almost immediate.
Grass around them started to wither fast as life force was pulled into Amara’s body.
Yet once more the red ring reacted, increasing the pressure of its syphon further…
Pissed, Valthar gritted his teeth and removed the ring from Amara before throwing it away into the forest.
With one less detail to worry about his focus intensified, by this point Valthar had decided to go all out and consequences be damned.
His goal was clear, he would fill as much life force inside Amara’s body as possible and pray for the best, a crude solution thought of in the heat of the moment.
The grass around the two had already become gray as ashes and trees had started to wither.
From a meter, to two, then three meters, it looked like an ever expanding death bubble consuming every ounce of life that dared to cross its border.
In contrast color flooded back into Amara's face as a tidal wave of life force rushed in under Valthar’s control.
Her dull black eyes grew sharp, the red light on them had at some point vanished without Valthar’s notice.
They gazed around in shock as she watched the circle of death grow wider around the two.
Each extra meter the death bubble grew brought immense euphoria to her body, her every muscle vibrating in pure energy.
Amara had tried many substances throughout her life, but very few could replicate the high she felt at this moment.
By the time her body finally started to reject the infusion the circle of death had reached an astounding 15 meters around the two.
Be it insects or plants, not a single one had remained alive.
“What was that?” She asked in glee.
Valthar tried to open his mouth to respond, but instead his body collapsed to the ground.
From muscles to eyelids everything felt heavy.
Still he struggled to open his eyes, to see if he really did it and when he saw her smiling face, he too smiled in satisfaction.
He had saved a life! In this moment he truly felt… proud of himself.
Sadly however celebrations had to be cut short as before his eyes dead trees and withered grass surrounded the two in every direction.
If the Church found the two in here, another round of purification would be the least of his worries.
“We need to go…” Valthar struggled to say before trying to get back up.
His arms and legs shook underneath him, to the point crumbled back to the forest floor before he even got to his knees.
He felt exhausted, physically, mentally and in ways he didn’t even have words to describe.
Truly the only thing that had kept him conscious this long was the rush of adrenalin the whole situation had caused.
‘I’m finished.’ Valthar lamented in his mind as his conscience started to give out, before he felt something raise him off of the ground.
“I owe you one mate, name’s Amara.” Amara said happily as she casually threw him over her shoulder.
Needless to say, Valthar did not have the energy to respond to her happy little greeting.
“Go… Warmheart inn… Call Marcos…” He said in a last struggle, before darkness took over his consciousness.
