Taboo Online

The medic cut through the last strap beneath Mason’s shoulder plate while another responder held him still.

The black filament had entered above his left ribs and angled toward his chest. Dark veins spread around the puncture in uneven branches, advancing with every shallow heartbeat.

Luke knelt on Mason’s right side with his injured arm still secured in the sling. The nurse set the glass case beside him.

"You are not using Lifeblade until the medic approves it."

"I know."

Luke meant it. Before Lethariel, waiting would have felt too much like doing nothing. Now he watched the medic first.

She exposed the injury and studied the spreading veins. "I can pull the filament, but the corruption is already past the entry point. If I close the wound now, I may trap it inside him."

Luke looked toward Lauren.

She moved to Mason’s other side with Rhea supporting one arm, then rested her uncovered fingers against Luke’s left shoulder.

"Can you map it?"

"One short scan."

The nurse checked Lauren’s wrist monitor. "Five seconds."

Violet light moved beneath Lauren’s blindfold.

Unveiled Weakness followed the puncture into Mason’s body. The filament had crossed a mana channel beside his lung and left corruption wrapped around the damaged flow. The main knot sat beneath the lower edge of his collarbone, where healthy mana still squeezed past it.

Lauren guided Luke aloud.

"The knot is beneath his collarbone. Enter above it, angle toward his spine, and stop before the second pulse."

Her fingers marked the direction against Luke’s shoulder. Through their weakened bond, he felt the timing of Mason’s heartbeat and the certainty behind her correction, but no image formed.

Lauren closed the skill before the pain behind her blindfold sharpened.

"The corruption is beside the lung, not inside it," she added.

The medic studied the point she had indicated. "How much room?"

"Barely more than the width of the thorn."

The medic’s mouth tightened. "That isn’t much."

"No."

For a few seconds, nobody rushed him. The station still groaned below the alcove, and distant boots hammered across the metal walkways as the pursuit team chased the second operator, but the space around Mason narrowed to the medic’s hands, Lauren’s instructions, and the monitor counting out his failing breaths.

Luke could hear the old part of himself demanding speed. He ignored it. Mason was conscious enough to answer, the medic was in charge of the wound, and Lauren had the one ability that could show them where the corruption actually sat. Moving first would only make all three of them work around him.

Mason’s eyes opened.

"What are you doing?"

Luke rested his left hand near Mason’s uninjured shoulder. "I have a skill that can separate the corruption from your mana. I need to pierce above the wound to reach it."

"Used it on a person before?"

"Once."

"Did they live?"

"Yes."

Mason looked at the dark veins approaching his neck and swallowed. "Then do it."

The medic turned to Luke. "One attempt. Stop if the corruption moves toward the lung or his blood pressure drops."

"I’ll report everything."

Dr. Shaw’s voice came through the nurse’s earpiece. "And if your wrist changes, you stop."

"The wrist is cold," Luke said. "Nothing is pulling."

"Keep reporting."

The nurse opened the case.

Luke removed one pale living thorn with his left hand. Water dripped from its surface, and it began drying almost immediately.

He placed the point against Mason’s skin.

Green light gathered along the thorn.

[Compatible living carrier detected.]

[Lifeblade available.]

Luke waited.

"Here?"

Lauren shifted two fingers across his shoulder. "Half an inch higher. Keep the same angle."

The medic nodded. "Go."

Luke pushed the thorn in, stopped at the depth Lauren had described, and activated Lifeblade.

Restorative mana entered the living thorn.

Green light followed the damaged pathway toward the black knot. Luke felt the skill searching for the foreign influence, drawn toward the corruption the same way it had found the decay inside Aelira.

This time, he kept the flow narrow.

Black strands began separating from Mason’s living mana and traveling backward along the thorn.

The wrist inside Luke’s sling turned colder.

"It reacted," he reported. "Still contained."

"Heart rate rising," Shaw said. "Keep it controlled."

Luke did.

Lifeblade wanted to spread through every damaged section, but he held it on the corruption. The torn flesh belonged to the medics once the mana pathway was clear.

Lauren followed his progress through the hand on his shoulder.

"Lower. The last strand is beneath the channel."

Luke adjusted the thorn slightly.

The restorative light curved downward and passed through the final black strand. Dark fluid gathered along the thorn, where green mana burned it away before it touched Luke’s fingers.

The remaining corruption released Mason’s mana and gathered around the physical filament still lodged in the original wound.

"It’s separated," Luke said. "Pull the filament."

The medic gripped it with ceramic forceps.

Luke maintained the restorative current while she drew the black filament out. It resisted for a moment, then slid free and curled inside a containment tray.

"Foreign material clear. Stop."

Mason’s next breath reached both lungs, and the monitor beside him shifted from a continuous warning tone to a steady sequence of beeps.

Luke withdrew his mana immediately and removed the thorn. Its pale surface had turned gray and brittle.

The medic took over, pressing a sterile pad against the new puncture while the rest of the team prepared Mason for transport. His mana pathway was clear, but he still had blood loss, torn tissue, and two wounds that needed ordinary treatment.

A system message appeared before Luke.

[Lifeblade proficiency increased.]

[Foreign-flow isolation improved.]

[Stamina conversion stabilized.]

"I’m tired, but I’m not dizzy," Luke reported. "The cold is easing."

"Remain seated and use nothing else," Shaw replied.

"Understood."

Mason opened his eyes once more as the stretcher lifted.

"You got it out?"

"The corruption. You still need a hospital."

"I can live with that."

His eyes closed again, but his breathing remained steady.

Luke watched the medics carry him away. The impulse to follow and make sure nothing else went wrong rose briefly, then faded.

They had him now.

Luke let that be enough.

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