The Gate Traveler-Chapter 22B7 - : Teddy Bear of Fire and Fury

When I woke up, the insanity was still affecting the clinic. I pushed open the treatment room door and stepped into the hall, where Rue walked with a floating stack of linen bobbing above his head.

“Good morning, buddy, what are you doing?” I asked, stretching my arms and stifling a yawn.

He gave me a sharp side-eye, ears flicking in irritation. “John is silly. Now is not morning.”

“My mistake. Good whatever. What are you doing?”

“Rue helping Oos. Rue like helping.”

I reached out to scratch behind his ear, and he leaned into it, tail already swishing. “Yeah, I know. You’re a good boy.”

His tail went into overdrive, wagging so fast it blurred. In the excitement, he dropped the linen, yelped, and bounced in place. “Rue do oops! Rue go give Oos sheets. Oos waiting for Rue.”

I chuckled and gave him one last scratch on the head. “Yeah, go ahead and then come find me in the ER.”

I wanted to check on Mahya, but her bed was empty. Len and a nurse—or a Healthkeeper, as the class was called here—were in the room tending to the patients. When Len saw me, her eyes went wide, and she bolted out of the room like it was on fire. I stared after her, utterly confused. Ri, the nurse, giggled.

“What was that about?” I asked.

She just shook her head with a smile and gave me a playful wink.

I had no idea what was going on. Shaking my head, I made a quick tour around the ER, saw that nobody was on the verge of death, and headed off to wash my face and brush my teeth. Yeah, I had already cast Clean on myself, but nothing replaced toothpaste and that refreshing taste of mint.

Back at the ER, Sue—the guy whose legs I regrew in my last stint at the outpost—was helping Ri with the patients. When he spotted me, he waggled his eyebrows like we were sharing some kind of inside joke. I sighed. Figures. With classes that boosted senses, I had no doubt they’d overheard me and Pi earlier, but the way they acted, they might as well have been teenagers.

I focused on the first patient when Rue padded back into the room, tail swishing, this time floating a plate with protein bars over his head.

“Where’s Mahya?” I asked, glancing at him.

“Go to sleep in home.”

“Why didn’t you go with her?”

Rue dropped the plate on the table. “Oos ask Rue help. Rue like helping.”

“Yeah, okay. But how do you talk? She doesn’t have telepathy.”

He gave me another judgmental side-eye, ears tilted just so. “Rue understands regular speak. Rue can also talk with Oos. Wolf friedn teach Rue.”

“Fine, you’re right. Are you done or still have things to do?”

“Rue have more helping.”

I waved him off. “Dismissed.”

Rue gave me a playful growl out loud, then sent a laughing chuf through our link before trotting off, head high, to continue his “helping.”

I turned back to healing, though Len’s strange behavior kept bugging me. I might have suspected she was interested in me, but since my Perception had risen, I could, in most cases, sense emotions, and she wasn’t giving off anything like that. It was something else, though I had no idea what. Shaking my head to scatter the disconnected thoughts, I refocused on my patient.

Mahya returned a few hours later. Without a word, she crossed the room and pulled me into a hug. “Thank you.”

I patted her back. “Of course.”

She stepped back, eyes narrowing, and pointed a finger at me. “And don’t you dare follow me around to make a point.”

I blinked at her, caught off guard. How did she know?

She laughed. “Don’t look so shocked. I know you and how your mind works.” She squeezed my arm, her expression softening. “It’s okay, your point is made anyway. I’m sorry.”

I waved her apology off with a small shrug. “It’s fine. If you get it, subject closed.” I started to turn back to my patient, but paused. “By the way, what exactly happened? How did they manage to drop you? When you jump, nothing can catch you.”

She let out a long sigh and shook her head, frustration plain on her face. “The Guidance tripped me. My red light blinked, and since I didn’t expect it, I froze for a second. That was enough. The stupid Brutox caught me with its horn.”

“At least it was something good?” I asked.

“Yes. Finally, a level. You can’t even imagine how much effort it takes to gain a level once you cross into the thirties.”

I nodded. “Oh, trust me, I know. Maybe I’m not in the thirties yet, only twenty, but I’ve been healing around the clock for almost two months since my last level, and nothing.”

She patted my back in a conciliatory fashion. “Don’t despair. It gets much worse after thirty.”

“Your pep talk is kinda shit, you know?”

She burst out laughing, gave me another hug, and walked off, throwing me a quick wink as she waved goodbye over her shoulder, still giggling.

Rue finished his “helping,” then trotted over to me to say goodbye. He pressed his head against my side in a quick bump before bounding off to find Mahya and join her in the fighting. He was determined to get those two levels and reach twenty. Apparently, Lis had once told him it was a milestone for familiars. I hadn’t seen anything like that in the book about familiars, and Lis had never mentioned it to me, so I was curious too.

Al checked on me too, made sure I’d gotten some rest, and then went back to his lab. They had managed to use up most of the potions he’d made. I returned to healing.

The next two days were hectic, even more than usual, with a constant flow of injured coming in, but everyone looked oddly cheerful about it.

At some point, I asked Oos, “Why is everybody so happy that the wave got worse?”

“That's what usually happens before the wave ends, so everybody is hopeful.”

Made sense. I added my own hopefulness to the general mood and continued working, helping people get back on their feet so they could fight again. With the extra pressure, I even had to push out the ones I usually left to sleep it off and recover their strength.

On the evening of day two, Fu came to visit me. After shaking my hand and thanking me profusely for all the help, he began fidgeting and avoiding my eyes. I let the silence stretch, waiting him out. After a few seconds, he drew in a deep breath.

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“I have a request for you. It’s not from me, but from the outpost leader. He heard how you stopped the swarm and is asking for your help in stopping the last press of the wave. Too many people are injured or too weak to fight, so we need all the help we can get.”

“What about the injured here?” I asked, glancing toward the crowded ER.

“I have two group healers who will cover this place, and Al made a lot of potions.” He squared his shoulders, voice firming. “We’ll keep them alive until you get back.”

I didn’t feel like fighting, but I understood the need, so I agreed. He thanked me again for what felt like at least a minute before leaving. I treated three urgent cases until the other healers arrived. One of them was Pi. She walked over, kissed me on the cheek as always, and we earned a couple of grins from the spectators, including a wink from Bo.

She walked me out, and before I left, said, “Go end the wave, and I’ll give you Tisus.”

Never in my life had I fought for a piece of shit chocolate, but traveling was all about new experiences.

Activating Malith’s bracelet, I followed its pull to track down Mahya and Rue. A short distance outside the outpost, I sensed a Traveler approaching from behind. It was Al, riding his sword through the air. I slowed to let him catch up, and together we flew on to find the rest of the team.

We followed the pull until the land opened into a rough stretch of broken ground. Bits of stone stuck out at odd angles, half-burned trees leaned over like crooked poles, and the dirt was packed with blood and tracks. The place was crawling with monsters, a mixed mess of claws, horns, scales, and too many teeth. Mahya and Rue were already in the middle of it, with a few other fighters spread around, swinging and blasting to keep the wave from breaking through.

Mahya swapped between her sword and the rifle-wand. One second, the blade was out, cutting through anything close; the next, she had the rifle up, firing into whatever tried to hang back. Rue circled above on his Skyrush, then dropped down like a bird of prey, biting into necks and tossing bodies aside. Sometimes he didn’t even bother biting—he’d grab one with telekinesis and fling it straight at Mahya. She cut them down before they even touched the ground. The two of them had the rhythm nailed down. It was obvious they had a lot of practice.

I didn’t waste time either. Lightning cracked from my hands into the thick of the swarm. The smell of burnt flesh rolled up immediately, and monsters dropped twitching. When they pressed in too hard, I connected to the wind and sent a wind vortex out, tossing a pack of them back far enough to buy space. Al landed next to me and got right to work, hurling spells one after another: a freezing wave to slow them down, a few wind blades to prepare the meat, and blazing orbs to finish the barbecue. It was obvious he also had plenty of practice.

The defenders glanced our way, and I caught more than a few grins of relief. One woman who looked dead tired actually laughed when Rue ripped the arm off a scaled beast and tossed the rest of it into Mahya’s swing. They straightened their lines, braced harder, and pressed the attack like the fight had just turned in their favor.

The monsters kept coming, but with the eleven of us hammering at them, the whole mess started to look manageable. Routine, even.

It took us over an hour to stop the press, but finally the last monster went down. During the fight, here and there, I turned monsters into crystals discreetly, and one of us picked them up. I suspected that one of the other fighters, the one to the right of Al and me, had noticed, but he didn’t say anything.

A large guy who had been holding the frontline with Mahya checked the tablet. “There’s another area we need to support.”

“Where?” Mahya asked.

He showed her the tablet. She nodded, took out her sword, and waved for us to follow. The rest of the fighters ran after us. Mahya took to the air, flying relatively slow and providing support from above with the rifle-wand.

“I thought you weren’t sure if you’d use this thing?” I asked.

“I wasn’t, but the other rifles I have don’t do shit against the higher-level monsters and spawnies, so I have to. I just try to use it as little as possible.”

“Why?” I asked.

She shot me a look. “My mana level,” she said in a tone that was basically duh.

The next area was in worse shape. Some people were down, not all of them moving. I really hoped they were unconscious and not dead. The press here was less severe than the one we’d fought before, but they had only three people left standing, and those three looked like they were on their last legs.

We jumped into the fight and worked in much the same way as we had at the previous point. When the press started to ease, I didn’t wait for it to stop completely but rushed to the wounded. One of them was already gone, but I managed to save the rest. The three people we’d come to support were all injured too, so I healed them as well, and one from our group, the woman who’d laughed earlier, had a nasty gash on her arm. By the time I finished with the healing, the rest of the group had wrapped up the press.

The big guy pulled out his tablet, but Mahya stopped him with a raised hand. “We need to rest.”

His jaw tightened, and his nostrils flared like he was about to snap. I shifted my weight forward, ready to step in if he crossed the line. Instead, he let out a long breath through his nose, lowered the tablet, and gave a stiff nod.

Mahya walked over and sat down beside us, pulling out a baby wipe to clean her face and hands. She scrubbed briskly, the dirt and blood coming away in streaks, then tossed the used wipe aside with a tired sigh.

“Who’s the guy?” I asked, tilting my chin toward him.

“The sector commander from the outpost.”

“Not a friendly dude.”

She waved me off, lips quirking. “He’s a teddy bear.”

Al and I both stared at her.

Mahya giggled. “Yes, he’s a bit short-tempered, but his class is Bulwark of Flame, so we understand each other.”

The commander let us rest for barely ten minutes before he rushed over, his face tight. “We need to go, and this time you move ahead of us,” he told Mahya. “There is a breach to the east.”

He shoved the tablet toward her. She swore and sprang to her feet. “We need to go.”

We launched at top sword speed. I could have pulled ahead, and so could Rue on his Skyrush, but neither of us knew the exact location. Mahya did. A few minutes later, we reached the place. The sight was bad: defenders’ bodies were scattered across the ground, and a massive stampede of mixed monsters was already retreating into the distance.

“Go after them,” I shouted. “I’ll catch up to you.”

I dropped down near the first body and began looking for signs of life. The results were grim. Out of eighteen defenders, only one was still breathing, and he was in rough shape—poisoned, covered in bites, and with bones bent at the wrong angles. I got to work immediately, pouring mana into the healing without holding back.

Halfway through, the others caught up.

“Why are you here?” the commander barked.

I didn’t answer, just pointed at the man I was healing and cast another spell.

The commander’s hand clamped down on my shoulder. “First, we stop the breach, then we treat people.”

I threw his hand off with enough force to make him stumble. “Go ahead. I’ll catch up to you.”

He lunged to grab me again, but this time I blew him back with a gust of wind from my mouth, glad I mastered the technique. He staggered, arms windmilling, and came up looking like a bull ready to charge.

I kept one hand pressed to the patient’s chest while arcs of lightning flickered around the other. “Instead of shouting at a healer for healing, go do your job. I’ll join you when I’m done.”

Veins bulged on his forehead. “Your lightning doesn’t scare me.”

“How about explosive diarrhea?” I asked.

He froze mid-step. “What?”

“Does explosive diarrhea scare you? Or how about igniting pain in every nerve in your body?”

His eyes flickered with doubt, though the anger stayed.

I waved toward the horde. “Go do your job instead of flexing on me.” Then I turned back to the patient, throwing the idiot out of my mind.

When I was done, I had to wake the fighter. Letting him sleep it off in a place like this was a bad idea. I gave his shoulder a shake until his eyes blinked open, confused and unfocused. A second later, clarity hit, and he jerked upright. “My team!”

I took a steadying breath. That was the part I hated most, even back on Earth. “I’m sorry. You’re the only survivor.”

He stared at me blankly, like the words didn’t register. I felt the sting of his pain, but couldn’t dwell on it. My team was out there fighting a horde, and they were more important.

I stood, handed him a bottle of water, and a big chunk of cheese. “Go back to the outpost.” Then I shot up into the air and flew after my guys and girl.

When I caught up to them, the horde was already cut in half. I dove back into the fight, and together we finished them off in about twenty minutes. While we fought, the commander kept throwing nasty looks my way, but I ignored him.

Mahya dropped the last monster and jumped over to me. “What did you do to Af? He looks like he wants to kill you.”

“Your teddy bear wanted me to leave a dying man so I could go fight monsters.”

“And?” she asked.

“And I refused. Then I had to blow him away when he got belligerent.”

Mahya facepalmed and shook her head. At least I wasn’t the only one constantly facepalming.

I treated some injuries, including a deep gash on the glowering Af’s leg. After a brief rest, we moved to another location. The same routine repeated for the rest of the day and half the night, until the calls for help finally stopped.

At the stop before last, once the fighting was over, Rue broke into his “chase his tail” dance. I already knew what that meant. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Rue

Bonded Familiar

Level 19

I petted him. “Congrats, buddy.”

Now he tap danced and howled in victory, making everybody laugh, even the glowering bull.

After the last location, we trudged back to the outpost, if that word could even be used for flying. Whether on two feet, on swords, or carried by wind, it still felt like trudging. Mahya and Rue went to rest, Al headed to the lab, and I returned to the Healing Hall, hoping the wave was finally over.