Dawn sighed in exhaustion, barely stopping herself from rubbing her eyes. Shaking her head, she wandered over to a nearby bucket, using the provided water entment to her hands, dumping the dirty water into a pit nearby. Returning the empty bucket to the water source, she looked around.

  In the past hour, over two dozen people had been carried in, with injuries getting worse over time. This st fighter who was brought in had died before they could stabilize him, and it was eating away at her. The man himself had told her to not bother, but she had promised herself to save everyone, and failed to keep that promise.

  It was a struggle to focus on anything but her failure, though she tried her hardest to focus on how many had been saved. They had even saved the man who had fallen from the tower, though he would never walk again without an expert healer’s help.

  Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she focused back to the triage ter’s entryway. Surprisingly, they hadn’t had anyone brought in for several minutes now. Gng around, she noticed that the town’s healer had va some point, though the other woman was cheg on the wounded, and seeing her unhurried state, assumed it was safe to take a short break.

  Wanting to remain helpful while she rested a bit, she moved to a bloody pile of discarded bandages, bringing a bucket of water with her. Dunking several of the strips of cloth into the water, she crossed her legs as she sat on the ground, and begaly tumbling the bao remove the gore.

  A few moments ter, she had a somewhat and damp pile of cloth. Still, no one new had been brought in, which was starting to worry her as it had been rather busy for a while before suddenly stopping. She decided to go see what was going on, but only after sterilizing the bandages she had ed.

  When she finished, Dawn brought the bandages with her as she circled the tent, restog each set of supplies with the newly sterilized s. On her way out, one of the medics thanked her, removing the soiled bandage from one of the women that had been healed by the old man. As she flipped the fp open, she nearly collided with said old man, his expression absolutely furious and his entire body shaking.

  Armed, and wanting to avoid him, she lurched to the side, just barely missing him, although he did not seem to notice her, despite being right in front of him. Fag back towards the camp, she noticed several tents had been taken down, revealing a rge ramp down into the ground. To the side, she saw the cause of the man’s fury.

  A number of injured warriors were carrying corpses out of the tunnels, many horribly maimed, and several with their chests torn open, all with expressions of horror and agony frozen on their faces. It was quite clear they had been the people who were captured due to their ck of clothing, armor, or ons, and the sight caused her stomach to .

  After looking down and f herself not to puke—though she still tasted bile—she struggled to look up again. Fortunately, the sight was blocked from her, though the warriors heading towards her looked quite bad as well. The man who had led the charge at the beginning approached in the lead, a sword impaling his right hand, another pierg his left leg, and an axe lodged in his right shoulder. Additionally, blood ran down his head from a jagged tear across his forehead. Shogly, however, he did not seem to be hindered muor in any serious pain.

  Beside him, several others had rge cuts in their armor, and the woman who followed him had a splintered shield attached to a clearly broken arm. Prior to reag the field hospital, Leanna intercepted them, talking with the leader for a moment before they tinued onward. Simir to the elderly healer, Leanna appeared furious at what she had heard, st off towards the tunnels as she shouted for others to follow.

  With a moment of thought, Dawn spun back around, re-entering the tent in order to prepare for the new patients. As she did, however, she was shocked once again. The old man who had been so hostile to the idea of healing bandits was moving among them, healing the most injured of them. Gd of the ge, and unwilling to risk ging his mind again, she kept quiet and instead began moving supplies closer to the open cots.

  Momentarily, the bandits entered, heading towards the free cots as they spotted them. Their leader, however, instead looked around, frowning as he saw that one of his men had died. After shaking his head and sighing, he remarked in a deep, rumbling voice, “I see that one of my men died. That is unfortunate, but I must thank you for saving so many. Just among those I saw fall beside me, five were certain to die without your assistanbsp; My Ragers will not fet your as today. Should you ever require assistance, find my men and ask for Durok, and we shall help however we .”

  As he finished speaking, he bowed deeply towards them, which revealed multiple daggers imbedded in his back as well, causing Dawn’s eyes to widen in shobsp; It seemed insane for the man to be walking in that dition, and if anything, she would have thought he should be dead. Rising back up, the man saw her expression, chug as he walked towards his men and sat on the grouhe ter of them after yanking the sword from his leg.

  Both Dawn and the other woman gasped at the senseless a and rushed towards him to try to stem the bleeding, only to be stopped as he held up his uninjured hand towards them and procimed, “This won’t stop me. Focus ohers, I will be fihout any help. The others will not, especially not the poor souls we saved from those beasts.”

  Though such a statement was difficult to believe, they followed his instrus, even the old man assisting in helping the men. A few moments ter, however, he did end up asking for assistance, although only because he was uo reae of the daggers in his babsp; O was removed, he waved them off, stating he would just need someoo sew up the wounds when everyone else was treated.

  A while ter, Leaered, hurling a tied up, limp, and well-dressed man with broken limbs to the ground before stomping on one of his arms, shattering the bone further. Dawn was shocked by the treatment, but the old man grimly nodded, gesturing for them to follow. A feral grin crossed his face as he stood over the man before he turned and spoke to them, “This trash was the one in charge of this horror. I am sorry for not helping earlier, it took hearing that he had captured and maimed my granddaughter to snap me out of my prejudice towards w with bandits. We o keep him alive, but he does not o be intact.”

  Leanna owards them before tinuing where the ma off, “It appears we were actually dealing with a cell of the Bloodfang Cult, extreme fanatics who nominally follow the god of flibsp; Even the Red Church despises them, as they sacrifid eve people they capture…”

  She shook her head before tinuing, “I need one of you to ensure he does not die and be interrogated.”

  Even before she could finish speaking, the town’s healer demahe job. Dawn was relieved she would not have to deal with such a horrible task, and seeing the look iher healer’s face, it was clear she felt the same. Seeing that no one argued with him, the old man stepped frabbing one of the captive’s broken arms, and began roughly dragging him out of the infirmary tent.

  As Lean with him, Dawn and her fellow healer retur to heal everyone, despite being low on both mana and energy after so long w on the wounded. Eventually, they mao stabilize everyohough they were uo fully heal most of them. True to his earlier words, Durok did not accept any help until the end, at which point he simply asked for a medic to sew shut the wounds, not even using the painkiller powder he was offered. Insanely, he also told them not to bother ing the wounds or sterilizing anything.

  When they insisted, he likewise demahey save their supplies before finally expining, “I spent a long time tempering my body, nothing here i me. It isn’t until about a week into the wilds that I have to worry about iions, this will heal fine on its own.”

  Upon hearing his expnation, they finally relented, merely sewing the wounds shut before leaving him alone.

  Finishing up, they left the tent, the men outside waiting for them. Seeing them emerge, one of the men jogged off after telling them to wait for a few minutes. Soon after, he returned while following Leanna, who promptly offered private shelters for them to rest. Additionally, she informed them that roughly sixty others had been saved after being captured and were in bad shape, but already stable.

  A moment ter, she smacked herself on the forehead before telling Dawn’s fellow healer that her friend was unharmed aing already. After thanking Dawn for her assistance, she accepted the offer, following the man after he was given instrus from Leanna.

  While torn on the idea of staying with bandits, Dawn had to admit they had been honorable so far, and decided to accept as well. She had brought her cart and supplies with her on the way here, but she really didn’t feel like walking for hours to get out of sight sihe grasses had all been burned down, leaving clear sight to the horizon.

  After stating her acceptance of the offer as well, she was surprised when Leanna herself led the way. A momehe reason was expined as she spoke, “I apologize for fetting your name, I remember that Lord Jerald said it again whe met, but I’ve been too focused on preparing and pnning for this.”

  Dawn nodded, replying, “That is fine. My name is Dawn, I’m sure you don’t try to remember the names of everyone you meet on the road to begin with, so that does not bother me.”

  With a smile, Leanna responded, “Thank you for being uanding, Dawn. I wao thank you in particur, as I know you are quite young, and this has been a tough situation even for those of us used to injury ah.”

  She shook her head sadly before tinuing, “If I recall correctly, you were heading to the capital, correct?”

  “Yes I was, but I don’t think I told you that before, did I?” remarked Dawn.

  Leanna shook her head before answering, “No, Lord Jerald and I discussed you a bit while we talked about this operation. If you are willing, I spare one of my elites to make sure you do not enter any trouble along the way.”

  Having already decided to trust her, Dawn only took a moment before responding affirmatively, earning a smile from the woman. Shortly afterwards, they reached a medium-sized tent, and Leanna informed her that she could stay there for now.

  Thanking her, Dawn headed into the tent to rest after the long day.