Healing

With one successful experience under his belt, Roy was very successful when he drew the divine pattern again.

He was just a little too hasty when reciting the prayer, causing the divine spell to fail.

Watching the divine pattern before him scatter like countless grains of sand in the wind, Roy could only sigh silently.

Before the ball of light in his palm had fully faded, Steve arrived with a group of friends.

This time, Steve had brought five more young elves than yesterday.

Seeing Roy and Klayr standing beneath the tall hedge wall in the alley, Steve shouted resentfully, "So it really is you two idiots who don't know when to quit..."

Roy and Klayr had not run away this time. Instead, they were waiting at the place where they had fought yesterday. Steve, his face full of resentment, seemed somewhat impatient.

Yesterday, he had been pinned down and beaten senseless by the two of them...

Although the companions who had come with him had also beaten Klayr and Roy terribly, he had still taken a severe beating himself.

Today, he had gathered a group of friends, determined to block Roy and Klayr outside the academy no matter what.

He had not expected the two of them to be bold enough to wait in the alley where they had fought yesterday.

Now that the whole group had entered the alley, Steve seemed to have lost much of his swagger.

Two carriages were parked at the street corner outside the narrow alley.

Both Coachmen sat obediently in their driver's seats.

Though the two carriages looked almost identical from the outside, the family crests on their compartments were clearly different. They likely belonged to two separate families.

The two carriages nearly blocked off the entire alley, leaving almost no pedestrians able to peer inside from beyond them...

Inside the alley, Roy and Klayr stood together.

Facing Steve and more than a dozen young elves, Klayr stared at Steve with a faint, scornful smile on his delicate face.

Steve was somewhat angered. He raised a hand to stop the few friends who had just joined them, signaling for them not to make a move yet.

But while he was holding those friends back, the other young elves had already charged forward.

A chaotic street brawl erupted in an instant. Roy and Klayr had a clear target: beat the living daylights out of the first elf to rush at them.

Because Steve had stopped those newly arrived friends, he did not charge in immediately. Roy and Klayr lunged together at the young elf with tied-up blond hair who had rushed in first.

They gave him no chance whatsoever to use any martial technique.

After knocking him down, they pinned him beneath them and hammered their fists viciously into his face.

Klayr in particular landed a punch on that handsome young elf's face. The heavy blow sent his head flying to one side, while Roy locked his arms tightly around his waist. The elf lost his balance and crashed hard to the ground...

Steve and the other elves immediately pounced as well, and the young elves practically rolled into a tangled heap.

Tearing, punching, kicking...

Both sides tacitly refrained from using weapons. Not even clubs were brought out.

Under the beating from the young elves who had surrounded them from behind, Roy and Klayr endured the raining fists and kicks as they savagely beat the young elf pinned beneath them...

This fight lasted a little longer than the previous one.

Perhaps because the two carriages at the street corner blocked most pedestrians' view, by the time the Elf Rangers arrived, both sides had nearly exhausted themselves.

Several young elves stood around them, panting heavily.

Roy and Klayr stood back-to-back against the hedge wall, with the unlucky elf who had struck first still beneath their feet.

Even the effect of Klayr's Strength Blessing had already faded.

Yet Klayr's valiant performance made those young elves see him in a new light. None of them had expected Wagner Klayr, who usually looked frail and delicate at social gatherings, often hid behind his sister, and seemed a little like a young girl, to have such hard fists.

Several times, they had rushed in to save their companion, only to be driven back by Klayr's fists.

It was as though those young elves had seen a shadow of Wagner Klayr's sister in him.

At that thought... everyone felt a chill run down their spines. Angering Miss Klayr was definitely not a good idea.

Klayr and Roy had been beaten badly, but neither of them retreated...

At that moment, the whistle of an Elf Ranger sounded from the street corner.

Steve hurriedly called for his friends to leave. Two young elves took the opportunity to snatch back the unlucky kid, who had been beaten into a limp heap, and dragged him all the way to a carriage.

Roy and Klayr did not wait for the two Elf Rangers to come question them either. Enduring the pain all over their bodies, they supported one another as they limped toward the street corner.

At that moment, the coachman from the other carriage jumped down and opened the carriage door for them. Klayr pulled Roy inside.

The coachman then raised his whip and drove away at once.

The two Elf Rangers merely stood at the street corner and watched the two carriages speed away.

The carriage moved slowly along Edward Street beside Elf Academy.

Inside the carriage, Klayr slumped miserably against the sofa. His right cheek was badly swollen, and a purple bruise surrounded his eye. While shivering and whining about the pain, he pulled the cork from a small bottle of Tree of Life Sap and tipped it back.

The Tree of Life Sap, brimming with a powerful life aura, rapidly nourished Klayr's entire body.

Roy could even see that dense life aura swirling around Klayr...

Sitting on the long sofa opposite Klayr, Roy carefully examined his injuries.

He was more severely injured than Klayr. Those young elves who had ganged up on them had still held back somewhat when facing Klayr, but they had shown no restraint at all when beating Roy. It felt as though they had nearly knocked the bile out of him.

Moreover, Roy was not wearing leather armor, and his clothes had been torn in two places.

After taking a sip of the pale green Tree of Life Sap, Roy discovered that this bottle was far richer than the sap he had drunk before. Vast life force rapidly spread from his mouth throughout his body.

He tossed aside the empty bottle and copied Klayr, lying down on the long sofa inside the carriage.

He brushed at the footprints on his clothes, but when he found that they would not come off at all, he gave up...

He took the ice pack Klayr handed him and pressed it against his swollen cheek.

"Where are you going? I'll take you there... There are still two hours before afternoon classes. I'll wait in the carriage until the bruises on my face fade," Klayr asked weakly from the long sofa.

He had felt nothing much during the fight, but once it was over and that rush of excitement faded, his entire body ached.

He had never done anything this crazy in all his life.

Over the past two days, Klayr had truly experienced the thrill of fighting...

"Castleton Harbour," Roy said.

"Is your home there?"

"Yeah."

Klayr propped himself up with one arm, pushed open the carriage window with difficulty, and said something to the coachman in front.

The coachman immediately turned the carriage around and drove toward the Lower District...

Klayr lay back on the long sofa and laboriously rolled over, staring up at the carriage ceiling.

Although his whole body hurt, he did not feel the slightest fear. With an excited expression, he said, "Yi Lan Duo cried after we beat him up today. He probably won't dare show his face around me at parties next time..."

"You know those Silver Moon Elves?"

"I know a few of them. Castleton is only so big, and we all move in noble circles, so we often meet at balls. They're all Steve's friends. They've never thought much of me," Klayr answered.

Enduring the pain in his body, Roy sat up from the sofa and asked Klayr,

"Klayr, do you know the route Steve takes home after school?"

Klayr lay on the sofa with his eyes wide open, turning to look at Roy. It felt as though his heart were about to leap from his chest.

Seeing the extreme determination in Roy's eyes, he felt a rush of hot blood surge from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. He blurted out, "I do!"

Roy slammed his fist hard against the table...

"Then tomorrow night, we'll go block Steve!"

Seeing Roy's refusal to yield, Klayr was completely fired up as well. He immediately echoed, "All right, we'll block him."

Roy limped through the gates of the temple, where Jasper happened to be on guard duty.

Seeing Roy in such a battered state, Jasper hurried out to help him into the courtyard and asked, "Roy, how did you end up like this?"

"I got into a fight with those Silver Moon Elves..." Roy replied.

Jasper knew Roy had clashed with the Silver Moon Elves at Elf Academy yesterday. He had not expected Roy to end up this badly battered again today.

Jasper was also a Half-Elf, and he often suffered exclusion from the Silver Moon Elves in Castleton City. He could not help cursing in slang.

Jasper helped Roy into the lounge.

Roy changed into a Novice Priest's robe. More than half the bruising on his body had already faded. That bottle of Tree of Life Sap had truly been remarkably effective, and it did not hurt like Hydrotherapy...

"Roy, how about I use Minor Healing to treat you? It may not be as effective as the three High Priests, but at least it'll hurt less," Jasper said to Roy, who had already changed into his Novice Priest robe.

"Sure! Thanks, Jasper!" Roy quickly thanked him.

It was Roy's first time experiencing the healing effects of a divine spell. Amid a string of complicated prayers, a warm holy light transformed within the divine pattern into sacred symbols and flowed into Roy's body. Roy felt the surging Holy Light Power within him instantly drive away the pain throughout his body.

The bruises on his body actually healed at a visible rate beneath the holy light's radiance...

Minor Healing was far more effective than Hydrotherapy, and it was not nearly as painful.

Roy was a Half-Elf, not entirely of elven blood. The healing effect of Tree of Life Sap was halved for him, making it far less effective than Minor Healing...

"Much better, Jasper. This Minor Healing is really useful. I'm planning to learn it as my third divine spell."

Roy raised both hands and tested his arms again, then walked two laps around the lounge. He spoke with delight.

"You should learn Strength Blessing first. You can't chew more than you can swallow when it comes to divine spells..." Jasper reminded Roy.

Then he asked Roy, "Have those Silver Moon Elves become so blatant now? Isn't there a Half-Elf Mutual Aid Society at the academy?"

"I beat them up pretty badly too." Roy straightened his clothes as he spoke to Jasper.

The two walked out of the lounge.

Before the corridor, Jasper put an arm around Roy's shoulders and asked,

"Do you need our help?"

Roy grinned. "No need. I can handle this myself. I'm already very grateful that you can treat me when I'm hurt."