Rise of the Strongest Soul Mage

Chapter 4 In Thorns

"There was no one with him when they found him lying unconscious in the field."

"Who found him?"

"Newbies. They were on their way to training. They brought him in."

Two healers stood over Sora's unconscious body on the infirmary bed. They both had blue badges attached to their uniforms displaying their ranks.

"And he had all these cuts when they brought him in?" She asked with her eyes roaming over his body

"Yes. They were more than this, but some have closed up. Thankfully they weren't deep cuts. He has been unconscious since the incident but he will be fine."

"How about his healing?"

"I healed him when they brought him in. Thankfully his mage blood works okay for his healing and I have done every other thing necessary, he should be much better by tomorrow."

Sora could feel himself waking up. The voices around him went on and on in his ears, he wanted it to stop. He felt the softness of the frame he was laying on, it was not the hard ground he remembered hitting before darkness took over and he was grateful for it.

Finally he opened his eyes, he was familiar with the surroundings, he had been here several times. He was laying on a bed in the infirmary.

His vision was still blurred but he could make out two figures standing over him, one closer to the head of the bed, and the other closer to the foot.

He was tired, his body hurt all over but he said nothing. Instead he shut his eyes again and listened to them talk.

The nurse closer to the head of the bed spoke first. "This is appalling. Why would anyone do this to him?" Her voice was very different; there was a  certain softness to her voice that was almost soothing.

There was an awkward silence before the nurse at his foot of the bed responded. "You don't know him?"

"Should I know him?" Head nurse asked.

"He's the one." Foot nurse's tone sounded firm.

"What one?"

Sora noticed there was genuine curiosity in her tone. Didn't she know about him?

Sora knew what was coming next and he winced at the mere thought that someone was going to get newly acquainted with him for the most unpleasant reason.

Foot nurse sighed before speaking, "The mage with no powers."

"Ohhh…" The empathy in her tone made Sora hurt more than the darts Konan had thrown at him. "This is him?"

Sora realized he just lost his opportunity to have a normal mage-mage interaction with anyone. An interaction that didn't involve the other party being sorry for him.

"Yeah, it's him."

"It must have been horrible." Head nurse's empathy was apparent in her tone."

"You can almost imagine the pain he went through when he was cut. It would have been traumatizing. Now topped with the inability to retaliate or heal fast, just imagine the horror."

He could feel them staring at him for a while. As though imagining how his life had been up until this moment.

Sora was done listening. He could not bear to listen to them analyze and pity him anymore. He opened his eyes and struggled to get up but his entire body stung everywhere.

The nurses were alerted by his sudden movements and turned their focus on him.

Head nurse spoke first. "You're awake. You should lay down. Your body is healing but not fast enough for you to be moving yet. Just rest."

Sora was glad the pity party was over. He just had to find a way to either get out of the room or get them to leave to avoid further embarrassment.

After pushing him back into bed gently, the foot nurse began the questions; "Do you remember what happened? Can you tell us what happened?

Sora closed his eyes, he re-lived the horror of being turned into a wild prey for entertainment. The feeling of each dart piercing and slicing his skin felt too real and his entire body stung all over again.

He knew he couldn't tell them what happened. Konan would get punished and that would only make him angrier, his anger would be taken out on him. His lack of powers would also become the talk of the Ivy Halls again and quite frankly, he wasn't interested in being the center of attention again for the wrong reasons.

He sighed and opened his eyes "I fell into thorns."

"Thorns? There were no thorns where we found you." Foot nurse obviously wasn't convinced.

"I dragged myself out of them." Sora sounded like he was trying to convince himself more. He knew they didn't buy it but he didn't care.

"There were no thorns in your flesh when they brought you here." It was the foot nurse again.

"I pulled them all out." He kept his tone as flat as possible.

"Everything?" She replied in shock.

"Everything."

"Let me get this straight, you fell unprovoked amongst thorns, you dragged your body out of the thorns by yourself,  and pulled out each thorn by yourself and passed out there?

A brief pause then he replied "Yes"

"That's the story you're going with?" She sounded angry but there was a lot of concern in her body language.

Sora didn't respond, he didn't have to.

Head nurse said nothing. She simply stood with her arms folded watching them converse. She listened to Sora speak but she didn't buy any of what he said. They glanced at each other, all three of them with the same thought. They knew Sora was lying but they didn't push it.

Head nurse spoke next. "We should let him rest. Call us if you need anything."

"There's your cloak, in case you get cold at night. Apparently you had the time to take it off before falling into the thorns. They found it a distance away from where you laid unconscious. Almost like you predicted the fall and took off your cloak in advance to avoid getting it torn." Foot nurse stressed the sarcasm in her voice.