The One Unworthy of Legends - V:1.1 - Maria's Ascension

~ Chapter 25 ~

Maria laughed as she tossed the clothes aside and stepped into the bath. Clara was blushing, but she smiled softly before hopping into the bath as well.

"Hey Clara, can I wash your tail?" Maria asked as the girl slipped into the water. Clara shyly nodded and turned her back to Maria, her tail rose a bit out of the water, it flicked back and forth in nervousness splashing some water on Maria causing her to let out a little squeak as she covered her eyes to not get soap in them.

"Geez Clara, keep your tail still, why are you so nervous." Maria stroked her tail softly and Clara calmed down before resting her chin and hands on the edge of the bath. Maria began to hum a tune as she lathered up the white tail and began to scrub it thoroughly.

Clara began to let out a low sound similar to a purr causing Maria to chuckle.

"Hey, are you a cat?" She teased causing Clara to blush as she turned around sharply.

"N-no that was, um, not on purpose. I'm just, h-happy." Clara mumbled the second half of her words as her eyes avoided Maria's. "alright turn around, I'm gonna wash your back now!" Clara declared as she shook away her nervousness.

When Cody awoke, Maria was shaking his shoulder. "It's getting late, I wanted to have another chat with you, but you seemed so tired." She apologized, Cody got to his feet, groggily.

"Sorry, didn't mean to fall asleep." Cody apologized, "We'll talk more some other time." He waved goodbye as he stepped out into the rain, he held his hand up and chanted an air spell called wind barrier.

Shielding himself from the rain, he ran down the street towards the Inn. It was chilly out, and the sky was mostly clear of clouds, he could see fine due to the full moon. When he arrived at the Inn he canceled his wind barrier and stepped inside, he headed up the stairs only to stop on the second floor.

Skarlet stumbled down the hall, blood dripped from multiple wounds on her body, she was dragging one of her feet like it was broken or sprained and her sword sheath was empty.

"Woah, hey." Cody rushed over and wrapped his arms around her, he helped her walk to her room. For once, she didn't refuse his help, even leaning on him for support.

"What happened?" He asked as he helped her into the room, she began undressing, completely ignoring him. Though she struggled, her wounds were bad, she kept wincing and making sounds of pain. Cody stepped forward to help her, she pushed him off, glaring at him. "Let me help you." He said, firmly. She sighed, rolling her eyes, she was being far less timid than normal. After that she stretched her arms out and let him help.

Cody slid her cloak off, then unbuckled her chest plate and sheath, before sliding all the equipment off. He looked her over, taking note of her different injuries. The main one was three long claw like marks through her back. She had a wound above one eye and a decent amount of scratches and small wounds just scattered around her body. There was her foot which she refused to put weight on as well.

"You know healing magic right?" Cody asked, wondering why she stumbled back like this.

"No mana." She spoke simply, Cody frowned, What kinda fight did you get into to exhaust all your mana and get this injured, did you win or barely escape I can't tell. Cody thought as he helped her out of her shirt, she didn't seem to care as her bra fell to the floor due to the strap being severed at the back. One of the cuts went straight through it, she simply crossed her arms in front of her chest as he helped her out of her skirt, she was basically cut up and scratched all over. He turned his eyes away a bit as she was left in just her underwear, though she seemed not to have the energy to care as she stumbled to the bed.

I can't use healing magic, ha, it's kinda funny really. A hero apparently summoned by the gods doesn't believe in them. I was told that faith in the gods allows healing magic to be possible. He sighed as he pulled out some ointment and bandages, she resisted at first but eventually settled to letting him apply them. He paused as he kneeled beside the bed, for the first time he was struck by how pretty she was. Aside from the large gashes marring her back, he was taken for a moment at her figure and pure white skin. He shook his head and smeared some ointment onto his finger before coating the wounds. After he'd added a reasonable amount he grabbed the roll of bandages and asked her to sit up. She obliged and pulled herself up reluctantly, she was panting softly from the pain. He began wrapping her abdomen and chest in bandages. He was very conscious of her breasts, trying to be careful not to touch any more then necessary. There was a bit of awkwardness to his movements, a hesitancy that she took no notice of. He was unaware, but she simply didn't care much about it. Her mind had long been consumed by the desire to be stronger, her thoughts filled with the paths she should take to the top. She didn't care for modesty like some proper lady or something, but Cody hadn't had much luck with girls in his previous world, making this a fresh experience for him.

He discovered that her foot wasn't sprained, but dislocated, he reset it in place. She only made the grinding sound from her teeth gritting, she had an amazing pain tolerance.

There was a deep gash down her back, well three, like claws. Most of Cody's attention was on the three gashes on her back. He had to sew them together, she'd been bleeding heavily, with flaps of skin hanging off. How the hell did you survive the trip back to town anyway?

He sighed, "I'm staying here tonight." He spoke up before settling in the chair at her desk.

"What!? You can't just decide that." She exclaimed, she tried to get up only to wince and gasp before settling back on the bed.

"You're heavily injured, I'm simply going to make sure you don't die in your sleep." He explained, she laid down, rolling over to face the wall. What are you a child? Her tail lashed back and forth, and her ears lay flat against her head. It seemed like an hour went by before she finally spoke.

"T-thank you." She said, Cody snorted, she didn't say anymore before falling asleep. Cody kept watch on her, around midnight she started to run a fever, he retrieved a bowl of cold water and a rag. He laid it under her forehead, it was the most he could do.

He checked her back wound several times, it was getting infected like he'd worried about, it was causing her fever. She slept hard because of the fever, not even waking when he changed her bandages and cleaned her wounds, which he did multiple times for the more severe injuries.

Around daybreak, Cody woke her, she grimaced as she sat up. "What the hell, it hurts so much worse than last night."

"Your back wound has gotten infected, your mana should have recovered a bit, but a heal spell won't clear the infection. So don't heal your back, I need to keep tending to the infection." Cody explained, stepping back to let her heal.

She cast several healing spells, leaving the claw marks as the only wounds on her body, She sighed with an exhausted look on her face. She flopped down onto her stomach, her tail tip twitched nervously. Cody spread more ointment onto her back, she hissed in pain or relief he couldn't tell.

After he reapplied the bandages he sat down in the chair again, she simply frowned as she lay on her stomach, tail tip twitching in annoyance.

"I'm fine you can go now." She finally spoke, he just ignored her though. "Hey, I said I'm fine. Get the fuck out." She growled at him.

Cody sighed as he turned to look at her, "Skarlet, I'm not going anywhere till that wound heals. So save your voice." His words caused her to snort as her tail wiped back and forth in annoyance.

"You don't have to do everything alone you know." He told her, she sighed and turned her head away.

"Yes I do, you wouldn't understand." She replied, those words felt really heavy and immediately shut him up.