Lost Origins: SS Ranked Awakening-Chapter 171: Source IV

He was standing quite far from him, but he could recognize that energy signature any time, any day. The human aura which had a hint of hidden beastiality. In a space like this which was filled with monster aura, he stood out like a sore thumb.

It seemed like Kieran wasn’t the only one to have noticed him as Jake growled again, still in the same spot.

"Jake?"

Kieran closed in on him, getting close enough to take in his current appearance.

His appreance was beaten and worn. The uniform on him had long since disintegrated, and his body in its transformed state was riddled with serious cuts, injuries and lashed of various sizes, Kieran even spotted a small hole in his torso.

’What happened when I left?’

Kieran felt overwhelmed with worry, seeing the state of Jake which was clearly the result of a battle—one he had lost.

A fight was understandable, considering the discovery that this outpost that they had once thought to be empty was actually inhabited by several monsters of origins unknown to both Kieran and Jake, but seeing that Jake had lost the fight and had also failed to escape at least just increased the danger of the place in his mind.

’I never thought it was weak anyways’

He shook his head, rearranging his thoughts.

Whatever had managed to taken down an entire outpost was definitely not weak, and it’s reasons for trapping them in an illusion rather than killing them straight up was part of Kieran’s objectives for coming this deep rather than looking for a way to run away.

He wasn’t even sure the latter was an option at this point.

Now that he was close enough, he also noticed the pulsing root attached to his leg just like the others.

Bending to take a closer look, he saw several thin black veins spreading slowly from his leg. It was the same kind he had seen in the monsters he killed on his way here and the other’s in the room, just less advanced.

"Grrrrr!"

Another growl escaped Jake’s mouth, along with a slight fluctuation in his aura which settled down quickly.

’He’s unconscious’

Kieran noted. The growls from earlier weren’t because he stepped into the room. He was right in front of Jake, yet he saw not even a hint of clarity in his eyes.

’I have to get him out, but then we’d have to go back!’

Kieran bent down once more to look at his legs. The veins had already reached his knee and it was best if he cut off the root attached to him.

"Hmm?"

Jake’s aura fluctuated again, weaker compared to last time, but Kieran noticed something.

The veins that were about go above his knees were forced back, pausing their advance before starting again a few moments later, although slower and seemingly weaker.

"He’s fighting it"

Kieran whispered, witnessing another impressive feat by Jake.

He basically had an idea on what was going on in the outpost.

The monsters with the appearance of soldiers he had killed on his way here, were once soldiers. At least before they were brought here like Jake and got modified into monsters by those roots.

Not only was this monster capable of illusions but it could also control the humans it captured too.

Its methods were pretty high leveled too considering that they had no idea that the soldiers had become monsters until they revealed themselves.

Thinking over everything he had found so far, Kieran did what he could once again, sensing the aura of his partner in front of him start to fall rapidly.

SHASH!

He swiped his calw on the root, cutting it away from Jake’s feet and caught his falling body, hoping for him to wake up without appearing like the others.

The infection looked far from complete so he didn’t think he was too late.

The monsters seemed to be the direct control of the one that infected them, none of them had shown to be capable of independent thought.

Hence, Kieran had concluded that his intrusion had been noticed the very moment one of those creatures came at him.

’He needs something.’

Kieran dragged Jake’s body to the edge of the room and placed his back against the wall. It was quite appalling to feel the throbbing of the roots but the whole room was pretty much covered with it, so he was forced to ignore the feeling.

He ripped the space pouch off his waist and searched through for medical aids.

He had used up quite a lot of what he prepared in the name of "treatment" and "recovery" while he was still caught in the loop.

Still, he managed to find some after searching through and did his best to patch up Jake with his lacking skills.

The best he could do. Didn’t look pretty but, at least some of the smaller cuts and injuries started to close up and the other, larger ones started to show some signs of response.

’This isn’t working!’

A few minutes later, Kieran was back on his knees looking at Jake’s body with a deep frown.

The smaller injuries were all closed up, but the bigger, more important ones barely moved.

Using his eyes, he could see something external preventing Jake’s natural healing factor from kicking in.

He looked up at Jake who still had his eyes closed in slumber and shook his head letting out a deep sigh.

"This better work"

Kieran gritted his teeth, and brought his hands which shook with slight hesitation forward and placed them above the hole in his torso. That was the most serious injury on him and Kieran was about to attempt something he had only seen once had never tried.

He had no idea if what he was about to do was even possible without wielding the associated with it.

"Huuu!"

He closed his eyes and entered a meditative state.

In his mind, a miniature version of him appeared and he stripped it of each of its features till there wss nothing but a sting of complex pathways left floating.

Trying harder, another miniature figure appeared, highly resembling that Jake on the floor.

Pushing his memory, Kieran tried to replicate Jake’s energy pathways as he had seen them.

Doing that with himself wss relatively easy, not only was it harder doing it with the pathways of another person, but he had never tried this before and needless to say, he failed. A lot.

After several attempts, Kieran finally let out a small sigh. He had managed to make one that didn’t vanish like ash in the wind.

It was far from being exactly like Jake’s actual pathways, but it was enough for the next steps he had planned out.

Looking at Jake’s energy pathways, several red dots could be seen at the points of his unhealed injuries preventing the normal flow of his internal energy.

Since the medications he had given him didn’t seem to make much of a difference, Kieran had the thought to attempt something he had only seen Orion do as a result of his ability — weild his energy externally.

He remembered watching Orion doing it and he felt it was quite workable in theory, but that was no where near enough as a guarantee.

He could injure himself badly if anything went wrong or in the worst case kill both himself and Jake who he was trying to save.

Looking away from Jake’s damaged pathways, he focused on his own and studied the more familiar movements.

Internal energy was like the current beneath still waters, it shifted without being seen.

To capture it and make it break its path would mean that the water was no longer still and,

’I’ll get a backlash and probably die’

Rather than trying to force his energy to flow into his open palm, he focused on the pathways that led energy there, drawing more from it, while trying not to affect the entire system.

Like laundering contents from a bigger system, trying to go unnoticed.

With Orion, when he had witnessed it, I was different. Far more faster and much more efficient. Despite knowing that it was a subconscious thing for him as that was his ability, Kieran still found it impressive, experiencing how excruciatingly hard it was.

He could feel some energy pool at his hands, but he still had no idea if he was doing it right or whether the pain he was slowly feeling was a good thing or not.

Either ways, there was no going back.

He placed his palms directly on the hole pushing down on it did something that could only be considered as reckless. He flooded the spot with his own energy. Just enough to match the external energy preventing Jake from healing.

’He’s tough enough to handle it!’

Kieran was an armature in a field like this and was severely lacking in control, putting Jake at the risk of getting more damage, but he did it anyways on his evaluation of Jake’s toughness.