Sweat rolled down Iris' face as she continued to heal Leon even though she had just started to recover some energy.
Iris appreciated Mako's assistance and didn't want to add to his already considerable load of responsibilities. Therefore, to resolve one of his burdens, she decided to be useful to him and heal his friend.
The healing session continued for around 20 minutes with barely any conversation occurring as Iris requested them to remain quiet as she needed to concentrate.
The healing ability was quite a unique ability in which the main concept was to convert one's own energy into life force and then direct that life force into a foreign body in order to heal any damage that may have occurred there previously.
After 20 minutes of constant healing, Iris instructed Mako to remove the bandage. It was risky to remove the bandage as it would expose the stitches if the wound reopened, it would most likely bleed and may even become infected. However, Mako wasn't a medical professional so he trusted that Iris knew what she was doing and followed her instructions.
He carefully removed the bandage and he saw that a lot of the burnt skin was gone, but the cut that Mako had made was almost exactly the same as before. Seeing this, Mako was confused and he turned toward Iris for answers, but she just kept her eyes closed and continued to concentrate and heal Leon.
"Now, carefully remove the stitches," Iris instructed.
Now, Mako was really confused as to what Iris was trying to do. The healing pill that Mako had fed Leon earlier couldn't replace all that burnt skin on his body so it was clear that Iris was indeed healing him, but now she had asked Mako to remove the stitches, which were holding the wound together and preventing Leon from dying.
Iris was waiting for Mako to follow her instruction and even gestured with her closed eyes to hurry up, but Mako was still afraid to try. However, before Mkao could waste any more time, Leon grabbed Mako's arm and said in a weak voice," just do whatever she says,".
Mako reluctantly started cutting open the stitches but to his absolute surprise, the wound didn't open at all. Even after all the stitches were removed the wound looked exactly the same.
After all the stitches had been removed, Iris' hands started to glow with greater intensity and Mako watched in real-time as flesh started to grow on Leon's chest and close the wound.
Within 5 more minutes of healing, Leon's chest was looking brand new with not even a scratch. As soon as she was done, she collapsed against the tree trunk, Mako and Leon both feared the worst and quickly moved to see if she was okay, but before they could do so, she assured them she was fine and that she gets a bit light-headed after an intense healing session.
Leon was completely healed now and kept rubbing his chest in disbelief as moments ago he thought that he was dead and now he was perfectly fine. Leon stood up on his feet and Mako threw him a new shirt from his backpack.
Each cadet's backpack had multiple pucks inside which were super-compressed clothing. By adding just a tiny bit of water, they could be unfurled into clean new clothes.
Leon quickly put on his shirt and approached Iris who was still leaning against the tree half conscious. He asked if she was okay to which she replied yes, and Leon proceeded to take her hand and gently kiss it.
"You have saved my life. I am in your debt," Leon said to Iris.
"WHAT THE ****!" A loud voice resounded just as Leon kissed Iris' hand.
Erin had woken up just in time to see her best friend collapsed beside a tree and one of the boys kissing her hand.
She quickly jumped up in the air using her wind ability and effortlessly switched to her water ability mid-air. Using the water from the rain, she quickly formed multiple spikes of water around her as she dived in toward Leon.
"Get away from her!" She shouted as she came in close to attack.
Despite the great display of skill and ability, Leon remained still in his position and the water spikes just bounced right off his body. Erin was a bit surprised to see Leon completely unfazed by her attack, but she couldn't do anything about it as she was next.
She still extended her hand outward as she prepared to give a strong punch to his face using all the momentum and speed of her dive, but just as she got close enough, Leon shifted ever so slightly to the left and the punch grazed by his face.
However, Leon did let Erin crash into the ground head first and so as soon as her fist crossed his face, he grabbed her by the wrist and wasted the extra momentum by spinning around, making it so that Erin land softly on the ground.
Erin was beyond amazed by Leon's skill and reaction speed but she was still angry as he had just tried to make a move on her best friend. She continued to struggle to try and escape from Leon's grasp and launch another counter-attack, but before things got out of hand too much Iris woke up completely by the commotion and quickly rushed in to stop Erin.
"Erin, stop! He didn't hurt me or anything. I saved his life and so he was expressing his gratitude!" Iris said to make Erin calm down.
"What...?" Erin said as she was quite confused as to what was going on.
*************
An hour later, all four of them were huddled around the campfire and this time, Leon and Erin were filling their stomachs with the tasty cooked fish. The tension between the two of them had been reduced but they were still feeling awkward while talking to one another.
All of them had exchanged pleasantries with one another and had caught up on what was going on. Bill was still knocked out from the injury and Iris wanted to heal him too but this Mako stepped up and stopped her from doing so.
"You are in condition to heal him. You won't be able to heal him completely but you will exhaust yourself and then we would have to look after two people instead of one." Mako explained his reasoning.
Iris just didn't want to feel useless and that was why she healed Leon in the first place too even though she barely had the capacity to do so. This was just Iris' nature, she always wanted to help others and would feel quite embarrassed if she was the one receiving help.
After some time of silence, Leon turned toward Mako and finally addressed the topic that had been bugging him ever since he woke up.
"Since you did beat me, I will follow you as I promised. Are we still going to travel to that same location that we discussed earlier?" Leon asked.
Mako was happy that Leon had finally changed his mind and was willing to cooperate with them, but he just wished he would have done it sooner so that they wouldn't have been in this predicament.
"No, we can't," Mako replied.
Mako explained his reasoning for postponing their journey: Bill's injuries were still too severe, and they needed to ensure that everyone was healed and energized before venturing into unknown territory. The group had to be cautious as they were unsure of what dangers lay ahead, and it was important that everyone was able to watch each other's backs.
"Then what should be our next course of action? We can't remain idle until Iris can heal Bill. If we do, we will be vulnerable and defenseless." Leon voiced his concern.
Mako agreed to Leon's concern as it was a valid point, they couldn't stay in one place for too long, or else they were most likely going to encounter another beast. Mako turned toward Iris as he explained their plan going forward.
"Iris informed me that her group intends to build their shelter upstream. I say we accompany them to their camp, where we can tend to Bill's injuries and recuperate before continuing our journey." Mako proposed a solution.
Leon had no problem with this plan and Mako turned toward Iris and Erin to see if they agree to this plan as well because, after all, it was their shelter they were going to so the least they could was ask permission before marching in.
Iris and Erin both had smiles on their faces as they would finally be reunited with their group once again. They agreed to Mako's plan too and they decided that it would be best to start moving now as the sun was still up. It would be more dangerous to start traveling at night and if they weren't able to locate the shelter before nightfall, they could at least find a better spot than just camping in the middle of the jungle.
The rain was still pouring heavily and everyone knew that it wasn't going to be an easy journey; nevertheless, they quickly packed up everything and Mako carefully picked Bill on his back once again as they were ready to start moving.
"Uh... I am gonna make you pay me back for all these piggyback rides." Mako said sarcastically to an unconscious Bill as he started walking with the group.
Erin used her water ability to create a bubble around them so that they wouldn't get wet and they were on their way to find Sven, Finn, and Andrew.
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