Lydis let out her breath and turned to face the grinning Blair."What? I got one hit so it"s my win. Don"t forget our deal." Blair nodded to her and Lydis turned around, trying to figure out how to explain her dislocated elbow to Piti and how to fix it before Lydis sees her again. As she bent over she placed the lower part of her arm between her legs and pinched it in place. Waves of sharp pain climbed up her arm, almost causing her to black out but, she bit the inside of her mouth to keep conscious. As she moved her upper body to pop her elbow back in place the pain became too unbearable for Lydis to handle. Giving up on doing it herself Lydis tried to walk away towards the tents but fell backwards, her back caught by Blair"s arm.
"Not so fast. First we need to go to Ami for some medical aid. Then, we"ll se what happens after that." Lydis tried to struggle but her weary body didn"t put up much of a fight against Blair"s firm hold. Lydis finally stopped struggling and let her self be carried away by Blair in a princess carry. As they entered the clearing the timer on the floor read, 00:56:23, the whole match only took about three and a half minutes total. Blair used one hand and reached for the device. Little legs popped out from under it and it crawled towards Blair and leaped into her hand.
"Let"s go." Lydis nodded begrudgingly as Blair left the training grounds. Lydis could feel herself getting consumed by the pain, as she sweated heavily her face paled to a dangerous color. Blair noticed this and hastened her sprint to the medic tent.
In the medic tent Ami was humming to herself as she rearranged the bandages and medicines.
"It seems like we need more painkillers, hmm, and some more antibiotics…" Ami was busy noting this down when Blair bust through the tent flaps carrying Lydis. "Gah! Blair! What happened?!" From Ami"s perspective she could only see the blood covering Blair"s face, Lydis"s missing arm as well as her dislocated arm.
"Ami, is there any way to fix her arm?" Blair set Lydis down on one of the nearby cots.
"W-Why is she like this? And what happened to your nose?" Ami was fussing over Blair"s nose and Lydis"s arm when Valeri walked in, her gaze turning solemn upon seeing Lydis laying on the cot with a messed up arm.
"What is this? I came in because I heard Ami making a scene and I didn"t think it would be such a disastrous sight." Valeri"s steps as she walked closer sounded like lightening to Blair and Ami. Their captain had unleashed her bloodl.u.s.t as well as her slyphir pressure on them, causing Blair"s face to sweat profusely.
"I-I"m at fault!" Blair was kneeling on the floor. "To start her training I suggested a mock battle against Lydis to see where her abilities were and if she were to land one hit on me it would be her win!" Valeri"s eyes dimmed, her previous carefree demeanor replaced by a general"s intense stare.
"And? How, did a "mock" battle result in, this?" Valeri gestured at Lydis on the cot as well as Blair"s bleeding nose.
"The results are obvious as can see! Lydis managed to land a solid hit on me, although it costed her to dislocate her elbow…" Blair"s voice trailed off. Valeri stood silent, her eyes scanning Blair"s nose and Lydis"s elbow.
"Ami…"
"Yes!" Ami was nervous, she had never felt this kind of pressure from her captain before.
"Make sure both of them are healed into top condition, I"ll have to personally train both of them in some common battle sense." Valeri"s eyes truly looked like a devil"s to Blair. Upon hearing how the captain was going to personally train Blair again and Lydis Ami felt a bit sorry for them. She recalled her training days with her captain and felt herself shudder.
"Yes ma"am!" Ami and Blair saluted to Valeri as she left the medical tent.
"Well? Can you fix her elbow?" Blair was anxious as well. She didn"t expect Lydis to go that far. Ami put on a pair of gloves and gently poked Lydis arm.
"Hmm, Pax?" A small robot eye lifted off a charging station and flew over to Ami.
"Yes doctor?" The robot eye was about the size of her fist. In the middle it"s blue scanner acted as the pupil of the eye.
"Do an x-ray of her arm. I need to know if she has any fractures or torn tendons. Also check on her other arm. Make sure there are no abnormalities."
"Yes doctor." The eye flew down and hovered over Lydis"s dislocated elbow and began to scan it. Ami reached into a nearby drawer and pulled out a white injection syringe with two red bands at the top. Without hesitation she stabbed the point into Lydis"s leg and waited for the fluid to be fully injected into Lydis"s body. Upon hearing a little click Ami removed the syringe and placed it into a disposal hatch next to the drawer. As Ami looked at Blair"s nose she noticed an unnatural bruising of the tissue around it as well as weird b.u.mps below her eyes. Making a quick mental note of this Ami turned to face Blair.
"Now on to you vice-lieutenant." Ami soaked a white swab with disinfectant and wiped away the dried blood as well as the new blood dripping down. After clearing away most of the blood Ami could tell that the purple bruises forming were swelling as well. "I"ll need you to lay down on one of the cots." Blair agreed and laid down. "This might hurt a bit, do you want any numbing agents?"
"I"m good. Save those for more serious wounds." Ami sighed and placed her hands on both sides of Blair"s nose, feeling the bone and where it broke. After a few pokes and ma.s.saging of the surrounding tissue Ami could tell that something was weird. With one little poke a new gush of blood would pour out.
"How are you feeling right now?" Ami was still observing Blair"s nose.
"Uh, actually my head feels really lightheaded. There"s this throbbing in the front and back of my head an-" Blair suddenly leaned to the side and coughed up some blood, a trail of blood also slid down her neck. "Ami…" Ami was shocked. Having a broken nose shouldn"t cause a patient to cough up blood and the bleeding shouldn"t be this much.
"Excuse me vice-lieutenant." Ami pulled out an anesthesia syringe and stabbed it into Blair"s arm. A look of confusion pa.s.sed Blair"s face before she slumped into the cot, fast asleep.
"Pax, how"s the scan?" The little eyeball hovered over and displayed it"s scanning results.
"A dislocated elbow doesn"t even begin to cover this. Fractures in the humerus, tearing of the tendons and anterior band?! What the h.e.l.l?!" Seeing the results made Ami question how Lydis and Blair had trained in their mock battle.
*sigh* "What else Pax?" The little eye switched screens and gave her the diagnostics on Lydis"s severed arm. "Hmm. Looks about a year old, the bone has already regrown into a nub, muscles have already covered it again. The veins and nerves have just closed off but, the tissue remains scarred, almost like tattoos. Pax go scan the other patient."
"Understood." Ami picked up Lydis"s nub and began to look at it closely. She squeezed slightly and found that the bone wasn"t far from the initial injury. As she was testing it Pax beeped loudly. Ami quickly got up and rushed over to Pax. Upon seeing the diagnostics she quickly pressed a small red b.u.t.ton on her waist. A few moments later four more people arrived through the entrance of the medical tent. One had a half-eaten silver bundle in their hand, one was half dressed in armor, one was sweating a lot while the last person was holding a training sword.
"What"s going on Ami?"
"Yeah, why"d you press the b.u.t.ton? That"s only in case it"s something you can"t handle alone." All four waited for Ami"s response.
"We have a weird situation. Patient Lydis has a dislocated elbow while vice-lieutenant Blair has a fractured nose."
"That"s not too bad." The man holding a silver bundle began to eat again.
"Lydis has fractures in the humerus, tearing in her tendons and ligaments. If we don"t do something she may never be able to use her only hand ever again." The man with the silver bundle stopped eating.
"What?! How did that happen?" The girl holding the training sword placed it near the doorway. "And, what of the vice-lieutenant?"
*sigh* "It"s worse. I don"t know how but when she broke her nose the fractures flew inwards and lodged themselves into her nasal tissue, with the swelling of her eyes and cheeks they could possibly stay stuck there. She coughed up some blood earlier, watch out for that puddle…" Ami pointed to the dark red blood splattered on the floor near the man"s foot. "…And it looks like some entered her respiratory system." When Ami finished the four of them stood there shocked.
"Wh-what? How?"
"No time to ponder things like that right now Quinn. All of you get dressed for multiple surgeries."
"Yes doctor!" All four of them scrambled to the changing areas and got into their proper clothes. They lifted Lydis and Blair onto a stretcher and moved them from the common area to the surgery rooms. These rooms were disinfected and contained all the tools and machines needed to do a full surgery. Lydis was placed in room One and Blair in room Two.
"Uh doctor? How will we do two surgeries at once if you"ll only be in one room?"
"Quinn and Bay will oversee fixing Lydis"s elbow. You, Olive and I will be working on vice-lieutenant Blair."
"Understood!" The group of five split off and the surgeries began. In Lydis"s case Quinn and Bay were experienced enough to be called doctors each but refused to move up from nurse. They put her under anesthesia and cut open her elbow, removing the fragmented bone as well as using a bone replacement substance. The tendons and ligaments had to be repaired using nano-technology. This process is very slow and stressful as the doctor must infuse his slyphir with the nano to be able to use them freely. In Blair"s case the process and steps were similar except it was even more stressful as areas close to the brain and lungs had to be dealt with very carefully or else the patient could die. Lydis"s surgery took about nine hours while Blair"s took about thirteen.
The next evening Lydis woke up in a bed of some sort. She turned her head to look around and found that she couldn"t move her arm. Panicked she turned her head left and saw that Valeri was gripping her hand tightly.
"Valeri…" Lydis could see the tear stains on the sheets as we as the dried mucus on her hand. Upon seeing that she tried to move away but Valeri woke up.
"Lydis… I"m so glad… I thought I lost you for a second time…" Valeri"s eyes were watering up, her pent up fears escaping.
"Cheer up Valeri, I"m stronger than I look. By the way, what happened to Blair?" Seeing as she was the only one in the medic tent she a.s.sumed Blair must"ve gotten better already.
"Ah, she…" Valeri went silent. Just when Lydis a.s.sumed the worst Blair bust through the tent"s flaps carrying an armful of silver bundles followed by a tall lean man holding a large crate.
"Lydis!" Blair came over and sat on the cot, the silver bundles dropping onto the cot. "You woke up pretty late huh?" The tall man grunted towards Lydis and placed the crate on a nearby desk.
"Blair, I"ll take my leave now if you don"t mind." The tall man tipped his cap at Blair.
"Thanks for helping Kyle." Blair went over and knocked him in the arm.
"No problem. Just make sure next time to get one of the carriers to help." Kyle saluted towards Valeri and left the tent. Blair hopped over and sat down next to Valeri. She was busy opening one of the bundles when she saw Lydis staring at it intently. Blair tossed the bundle at Lydis and grabbed another. Right at this moment Ami walked in through the flaps.
"You"re here Ami." Valeri made some s.p.a.ce for Ami to sit down next to Lydis.
"So, I just need to do some checkups and we"ll be good." Ami lifted Lydis elbow and felt around a bit. She told Lydis to do some light movements as well. Then she moved on to Blair. After about twenty minuets Ami let out a relieved sigh.
"They both look fine. Blair is good to go at any time while I would recommend Lydis to stay in bed for another day. Also…" Ami got up and went over to her medicine drawers and pulled out a light pink syringe. She walked over and stabbed Lydis in the arm with it. The pain was sharp and quick. "This will help your arm repair itself faster." And with that Ami left the tent. Blair was still eating her bundle when Valeri finally snapped.
"What happened that you both had to go into surgery for?!" Although she had been trying to hold it in, seeing as no one was going to say anything Valeri couldn"t hold back. Since Lydis was unconscious the whole time Blair took responsibility.
"I"m not sure but after I woke up the surgery was already done. Seems like both of our conditions were beyond what it seemed like initially. Ami had no choice but to rush into surgery." As Blair explained what Ami had told her after waking up Valeri"s scrunched up brows loosened.
"It"s good that you"re both ok but, I"ll have to adjust your training to be stricter tomorrow." Before Blair could retort Valeri was already out of the tent. Blair cried silent tears as she ate her ration. Lydis had no idea what was in store for her come tomorrow.