"Because, I overheard a guy from the logistics support, most people that having magic powers like healing are more volatile, for broken bones or if I have a broken rib or two, which I probably do, they can heal it the wrong way, and that means needing to break and heal until it is right."
”Yikes.” she shuddered at the idea of having to break a bone more than once. ”So I guess we'll just stick to the old fashioned way of healing then. I’m a little surprised they haven't tried setting the bone first then using their magic. Or just using small ”doses” of magic to speed up the healing a little.” she suggested.
"Patients receive great pain from having their bones healed quickly, so setting up the bone is a no go. Small doses will drain the caster more as it uses more mana and i-" He coughed as he groaned.
"F*ck, why?" He swore as he hurried, blood dripping and covering the hallways.
”Hang on, James. We’re almost there.” she told him, increasing her speed slightly. Though she wondered when he had learned so much about magic. Mana? She wasn't sure if she had even heard of that before.
"This knowledge, Liz? Why do I feel like I gained something from the titan?"
Liz almost stopped dead in her tracks when he said that. She hadn't said anything about that out loud. ”W-we’ll worry about that later.” she told him, heading for the doors of the medical bay. ”Right now, let's focus on getting you taken care of. Then I believe I owe you a kiss.” she smirked in her familiar teasing way, though her eyes betrayed her sincerity.
"If you so want to, my lady." He laughed weakly as they entered and soon, he was on a medical bed wired up to a machine.
Liz was watching him as she sat on a nearby bed, getting her own arrow removed. Fortunately for her, the arrow didn't seem to have done any serious damage but she still needed stitches.
"Liz… I was thinking about how I know these things and I… Remembered that something appeared in my pocket when I well, levelled up I suppose…" He sighed and struggled to get something out of his pocket.
”What, like a talisman or something?” she asked, curiously. ”You think whatever appeared in your pocket gave you more information about magic?” she watched him struggle for a moment. ”Need any help?”
"No it's fine." He finally brought it out and his eyes widened.
"Liz, this is the artifact, the one we found. How… Impossible.." He stuttered.
”What the…!” Liz exclaimed. ”How the Hell did that get here?” she asked, recognizing the object in his hand.
"I don't know… But I think this is why… Maybe? What… I.." He was very confused as he started coughing loudly.
”Hey, hey. Take it easy.” she instructed gently. ”I’m freaked out too but we’ll figure this out. You think this thing gave you a power boost or just more information?”
"I think it takes something from the enemies, their knowledge?" He took a deep breath and thought about what the stone did.
”And gives it to you, in this case.” she added thoughtfully as she looked at the strange object. ”Leech stone.” she muttered.
"Of sorts, but perhaps that isn't all, I mean, from how we got this stone and how it appeared, there must be something else about it too… Right?" He looked at her.
She shrugged. ”I wouldn't be surprised.” she admitted before sighing. ”I could really use a magic 101 course for this crazy stuff. Not like a ”how-to” thing, more like just a little more in-depth than what they already told us.”
"Guess I'll have to become your teacher for a day," He joked.
"But seriously though, there should be one, I suppose we should ask around." He said with a frown.
”Yeah, we probably should.” she nodded before looking at James. ”But not until you get a clean bill of health. In the meantime, I am interested in what you learned from that thing.” Liz told him.
"I don't know myself, it just kind of comes out, well, I suppose I can go over mana. Mana is kind of that energy bar you would get in games except it is used everyday at everytime, if you use all your mana, you get mana exhaustion. Which either means death or a coma for more than just a few years. Each power, they have a different set of limits and abilities they get and mana is required for all of it. Even if you aren't a magic user, you use a very small amount of mana everyday. That regenerates once you sleep." He started explaining but paused.
"This is way too overpowered, would you like this instead Liz?" He asked as he shook his head in pain.
"I think when you don't know anything and you learn the knowledge from scratch without any base knowledge you had already, you get a massive headache, actually I know it does." He tried grabbing a glass of water.
"Well anyways, I think that is all that my brain can process for today. There was uh, something else important that was supposed to happen." James smirked as he looked at Liz.
Liz chuckled at the subtle reminder and stood up, sauntering over to his bed before sitting beside him. ”Yes, I believe there was. Very important.” she almost purred as she brought her lips closer to his. ”Thank you for the brief lesson by the way.” she smirked.
"Oh it wasn't a problem, not at all…" He chuckled as he lifted a hand and softly touched her cheek. His eyes looked into hers as he serenely smiled.
She smiled sincerely at him, leaning into his touch a little before lowering herself down to him and gently captured his lips against her’s.
James answered, pushing his lips against hers gently and softly, closing his eyes as he enjoyed this moment, wishing time would stop at it. Forever.
Liz responded in kind, feeling his tender advance. This was not her first kiss by a long shot but she was starting to think it could be the best so far. He was, perhaps, a little shy at the moment but he was still very good at this. And she was no amateur either.
He pushed her closer to him as he opened his eyes once more and looked into hers again. Silent sweet things said through them.
He continued kissing her, a smile forming on his face for a second.
His hands held her in a sweet embrace as everything around him began to quieten.