Rules of Biomancy: A LitRPG Healer Fantasy

The Nightmare rolled across her arms, dozens of red eyes searching the air for the scent of fear they knew so well. She pushed, they bit into her flesh in frustration, and she was forced to give up once more.

“Not this floor either, Fade?” Fox asked her, when her sleeve was rolled down again to hide the markings of the creatures.

“I said as much five minutes ago, Fox,” Fade replied dryly. “But if you keep asking every second, they might just magically appear.”

“Yeah, that’s why I’m asking.”

Why did we ever decide to keep you?

Fade felt her neck tighten at that line of thought, forcing her to let the emotions go and continue onwards. Fang was still a few dozen meters ahead, tearing apart the bodies of whatever monster had decided to visit them this time. In the past hours, it had been over-confident drakes, then spiders that liked to ambush them constantly, and now it seemed that they had moved over to groups of skittish, gangly foxes.

If it had been any of the other monsters in this amount, she and Fox would’ve needed to help, but the worst thing those creatures could do was slash into Fang’s skin before having their skulls crushed. And by the time the next thought themselves smarter, the wounds would’ve already healed.

Need to brew more elixir tomorrow, if he’s going to keep this up.

His heart wouldn't be able to go through this strain for much longer, and that edge of weakness wasn't far off from settling in.

Not that the old brute would ever take her warnings about that seriously.

“You two are falling behind again,” Fang half-shouted as he walked ahead of them, absentmindedly tearing the head off a fox without even looking at it. This place was just pathetic. “Getting any better pulses, Fade?”

“Nothing,” she replied, ignoring the comments Fox muttered about favoritism. The young lady should’ve been happy that Fade didn’t have the energy to discipline that behavior at the moment, lest a Nightmare would’ve already been thrown her way. “The trail still holds true, however. They can smell they’re here somewhere, though not on this floor.”

It was the same information her manifestations had fed her since they entered the Dungeon. Maybe it was the Mana confusing them since they usually gave her more precise measurements of distance, but Fade felt something off about all of this. Something was wrong.

“Oh, these are some real bleeders!” Fang exclaimed, holding one of the foxes up in the air as the red mess inside piled out of the opened back. “Hey, do we need any of this?”

… There was a chance the feeling could be from the small army of foxes around them, which had started growing wise about who they were trying to fight. Nearly the entire remnant of creatures on this floor were just staring at the trio, panting and yowling yet refusing to approach. The blood-covered hands weren't a good incentive to come closer, and the energy she passively sent toward them all likely enhanced that negative emotion.

Yet not all of them ended up as smart as the others, and one thought those who weren’t giant were instead weak. One of the sickly creatures on the left used that reasoning to leap towards Fox without fear, teeth ready to bite into the jugular and kill them instantly.

Instead, they found themselves with their own throat cut open before they could even realize it, briefly clutching at the wound before dying from the loss of blood and having their body devoured by the other monsters.

Oh, right. That’s why we keep you around.

“Are we even sure they’re in here?” Fox questioned, wiping the blood from her dagger with the shirt that Fade had just helped wash two days ago. “We’ve gone through, like, sixteen floors already. Can’t we just give up at some point?”

“Giving up means the Royal Mages kill us,” Fade reminded her, the 18-year-old remembering that fun fact yet again. A working brain really wasn’t her strong suit. “We can’t escape them, if they hunt for us.”

“We killed one of those idiots pretty quick, though?”

“A weakling in comparison to the others.”

“Fair, fair, but… hiding might work then? Not like they’re any good at finding the two they’re forcing us to track down.”

“That’s because those two haven’t had marks burnt into their flesh,” Fade snapped. Even this Fox didn’t bother remembering.

The Dispeller had been so frustrated about having magic on her that she couldn’t remove, back when they had first received them several months ago. Maybe they could’ve gotten rid of them back then, but it had never seemed like an issue. Now, it was the chains that bound them to this task.

‘Right.’

She raised her bleeding arm without thought, letting the dripping blackness fly from her skin and onto the body of the second fox that believed them to be weak. It screamed in abhorrent fashion, as the inky blackness began to devour its flesh. Bubbling was heard in the usual ways before a large crunch came from the head fully disappearing into the Nightmare’s gut. The rest of the monster’s flesh was left behind, and the other creatures were granted the chance to feast when Nightmare returned to her arm once more.

‘Sickly,’ it commented, sending over a flood of memories detailing what life the victim had lived. Not a very endearing experience when it was the lives of monsters. There was barely anything but darkness, some thirst, and hunger before Fade could then see herself momentarily and it was all over once again. ‘Boring.’

‘We’ll find you proper food soon,’ she promised the Nightmare, knowing that it would likely devour a piece of her again if it didn’t get something to feast on. Her arm was already thin as it was. Somebody her age didn’t need to have another fistful of it healed yet again. ‘Perhaps one of those guards that annoyed us a few nights ago?’

‘Two,’ it demanded, and she accepted the idea without too much bartering. Letting the Nightmare have its way often was a great way to be devoured in time, but giving it the rare treat wouldn't hurt. It would certainly make this experience easier for her to deal with.

“And… that was that floor,” Fang commented, wiping off the fox's blood while the green veins pulsed hard under his skin. Even with so many pieces of armor torn, along with the flesh that had been close by before it had regrown, he looked happier than ever. “Ready for the next one?”

“How many are left after this?” Fox asked, yawning as she looked upwards. The tunnel was rather steep, but it wouldn’t be a problem compared to what they had already climbed earlier. “I wouldn’t mind actually sleeping at night for once.”

“We can sleep when we don’t have a noose around our necks,” Fade replied, throwing her a small vial of light-blue liquid. “Drink this.”

“Energizer again?” she said, grimacing as she opened it up and downed it. It only grew worse when the taste reached her. “Ugh. Are you sure you can’t do anything about that horrid taste?”

“Changing it would lessen effectiveness, so deal with it,” came the quick response, making Fox imitate gagging noises. Some of them might’ve even been real at the end, with how pale she was for a minute or so.

‘New fears.’

Fade frowned, letting her arms be exposed to the air once again. It wasn’t enough for the Nightmares, however, as liquidy tendrils began sprouting from all over her body, tasting the air as if a new delicacy was coming closer.

Visions blinked across her normal sight, making her slow in her steps as she tried to hone in on what the Nightmares were so interested in. Old wounds, old fears, some parts reawakened and others being forced down. Nothing too special, and certainly nothing they hadn’t met before, but it had been enough time since the last interaction with such a person that they craved the blend regardless.

“Huh,” Fang commented, slowing his steps as well while they walked up through the tunnel. “There’s people other than us down here.”

“The targets?”

“No, the voices are different,” Fang answered, that grin fading as furrowed brows and confusion replaced it. “Two older guys. One noticed us already. Enhanced hearing.”

“A threat then?”

“Remains to be seen,” he surmised, a brief check on the axe by the giant’s side before going back to his casual walk once again. Even the green veins were repressed, letting them be replaced by normal skin. “No reason to be hostile, to begin with. The smell is somewhat familiar anyway.”

Fade didn’t know what to take from that, though she signaled for Fox to hide her knife in her sleeve regardless. If they wanted to seem peaceful, she would allow it, though there wasn’t much that would hide the blood stains on Fang’s body. Even if some of the blood wasn’t the red that humans usually possessed, the parts that were were enough to get the message across easily.

Making the last two-minute trek to the next floor, what seemed like a forest clearing was revealed to her. Much more vibrant and colorful than what the floor below had shown off, the other being more of a grassy area with nothing but red eyes staring back at you. This could appear as a genuine forest to the untrained eye.

“Fang?”

But, more importantly, the giant that stood some twenty meters away had just recognized their own giant from appearance alone.

Former co-worker?

She wasn’t too sure, the giant of a man not looking too much like anybody she’d remembered working with these past years. The size of the muscles, and the fine axe that he had by his side, implied that there was some form of warrior before them, yet the civilian-level clothing and armor made her think otherwise.

And the other man, a much smaller one who was even shorter than her, did not seem like the fighting type. The cloth and mild leather armor around their core did not hide the thin form, and the gray beard and hair couldn’t hide their age either. The duo couldn’t be much older than them.

Fade was embarrassed it took so long for the truth to click together when she smelled the fragrance of an altered elixir in the air. It seemed the one-in-a-million odds had struck true.

“Butcher?” Fang replied, seeming surprised at first before spotting the slight flinch on the other giant’s face. “Oh, shit, Butcher, it’s you!”

“Fang?” Fade muttered, the giant looking over at her. Her eyes showed the demand for an explanation.

“The Butcher of Verness!” Fang exclaimed at her, the giant excited beyond belief. “From the old Death Squad. Don’t you remember? We had a song for him and everything!”

Try as she might, the nickname of every other Berserker that Fang had hung around with didn’t stay in her memory. Not that she had truly tried to remember a single Hound other than the giant who followed her, and even his name had only settled in her mind when it became absolutely necessary.

“There’s a faint memory of you not shutting up about that title for days on end,” Fade lied, though her words were accepted regardless as Fang was too distracted by the presence of an old friend. She, however, was on guard. “I assume you’re the one keeping the Hound alive then?”

The question wasn’t pointed towards either of the two Giants shaking hands, and giving each other a clap on the back but towards the thin man looking at the display with a grimace. They clearly weren’t a fan of it all, but Fade couldn’t care. She instead focused on the liquid green Aura that surrounded them, along with the spot of gold around their pocket.

“I am,” the man finally answered. He seemed about as willing to share anything as he should’ve been. Fade supposed she was happy to see at least one person around who was as cautious as they all should’ve been. “I was one of the assistants for most of the war. Barely got a promotion by the end, before we left.”

“You left,” Fang repeated, the other giant taking a step back while shrugging. “Makes sense, since I thought you died, you old bastard! I remember you promising me a new rack of skull glasses when we ran in together.”

“Yeah, well… had a bit of an epiphany after having most of my blood outside my body,” Butcher replied, wiping at their nose. “Didn’t see the reason to die fighting for a bunch of people who didn’t care for me so that I could go off killing a bunch of people I didn’t care about. Especially not for how little we were getting paid.”

“Ah, cheers to that! Didn’t get paid at all either, so we left before we had to face any consequences for our time in the fields,” Fang countered, so casually revealing information that they had agreed years ago to keep secret. Even Fox was unaware of everything in the past, and she had been running with their group since she was a child. “We switched over to better-paying work real quick, you know? Turns out a few years’ worth of experience at killing really helps with mercenary work.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah! Had to, if we wanted enough gold to afford keeping this heart going,” Fang continued, before going over and putting a hand on her left shoulder. “Old Fade here might seem like the nicest woman in the world, yet she requires a pretty penny if I want to be kept alive. Nasty business practice, I say!”

It’s because the elixir variant you require has ten different ingredients that are all outlawed on this continent, you idiot.

Her life would’ve been so much easier if he had taken the normal version of the concoction, yet his past in the leadership role had meant he’d been given an altered one which gave him slightly better mental faculties while on a high dose. A great trade when followed by a caravan of people who could grow whatever was needed for such things, but in the wild it had been nearly impossible to find people who even possessed it in enough amounts.

“Never left the fast life then?” Butcher asked, Fade feeling the slight pulse of fear coming from them both as that fact was considered. While her Affinity didn’t allow her to outright read their thoughts, the general view of their minds was certainly hers to interpret. “We quieted down instead. Easier to pass when you’re not running around with blood all over your body.”

A jab at the state of Fang, one which was met by a roar of laughter.

‘We smell it.’

Fear. It was starting to thicken, revealing their secrets to her manifestations.

“When we’re done here, we need to meet up for a beer,” Fang said, to which he got a wavy agreement in response. He looked to talk further about the past years, but a hand signal from Fade got the giant back on track. She sensed something wrong, something that connected those two to their current problem, and he needed it revealed. “Ah, but we should probably finish up our own job of the week. The two of you wouldn’t happen to have met two youngsters on this floor? Kinda meant to bring them to some creepy bastard.”

The pulse of fear was enthralling, Fade feeling the Nightmares pushing out of her skin to look at the duo easier. They hungered, they craved, and perhaps that desire to devour would soon arrive.

“... Ah, shit, you do,” Fang cursed. Neither Butcher nor the adjacent Alchemist said anything. “Since they were half-dead when we left them, you’re probably the reason they’re still alive as well, aren’t you?”

“Perhaps,” the Alchemist said in a monotone voice. The fear didn’t match the calm, however. She was beginning to taste it as well. “Who’s this ‘creepy bastard?’”

“Just that. Man has an artifact to keep his face hidden,” Fang explained, while bringing out his axe. Fade was impressed by the giant actually keeping secrets for once in his life.

She noted that Fox had already started stepping to the side subtly, hoping to start flanking them the moment the fight started properly.

“Listen, Butcher, I really would love to go out for a drink with you, both of you even, but that requires I get this mess over with first.”

“If the reason you’re doing this is gold, we can get you ten times the amount you’re being paid right now,” Butcher tried, bringing out his axe as well before clicking his teeth together with considerable force. A small packet of elixir burst must’ve been hidden inside in a capsule, from how the green veins instantly began to sprout.

“Sadly not for gold anymore,” the first giant replied. “We can find the two kiddos without you, you know, so why waste your lives after so long?”

Fade allowed the Nightmares to fly out from her flesh the instant the fear of both enemies began to dissipate.

“It’s only a waste if we lose.”

She heard the sound of a vial breaking before the world turned white and her ears were shot through from pure noise.