"...." Ash was silent, but winced at he hit the cot.

He looked around, before sighing and shaking his head.

"Well, odds are she'll discover the unconscious manticore outside and have it put in the holding area." he muttered. "Damn thing just wouldn't die." he growled, before looking at himself.

"...and neither would I..." he sighed.

He was covered in deep gashes and cuts, as well as puncture holes from the tail, but the big thing was three massive slash wounds on his chest... that should have killed him right there and then.

But he didn't die. He was just soaked in his own blood.

"I know." Ash responded.

"But it just. Wouldn't. Die." he told her.

"Seriously. I let loose my strongest blast of fire when it had its mouth open. I could feel the heat in there. Its insides should have been charred and destroyed. But it continued to live." he said further.

"It got to the point where I needed to find a grove of knock-out ferns and stuff its nostrils full of them before it even went down unconscious, let alone died." he said further.

"And I should have died several times over as well, but it was too close to a village." he then went on.

"I agitated it, and I wasn't about to have the town take the brunt of its rampage."

The fact that the woman before him was scared... scared HIM.

And he didn't quite know how to put it into words. So he merely nodded in response.

"Yeah... sure thing..." he said.

"I can do that..." he told her.

"Odds are I wouldn't have been going on a hunt for a while, anyway." he then shrugged.

"And yeah, I agree, it was super weird, and unnerving as hell."

Ash just shut up at that point.

He'd been through a lot in his life. And the fact that he didn't die to the manticore wasn't surprising. He wouldn't have died anyway, not with the current position he had, that she couldn't know about. Ever.

The fact that the manticore wouldn't die was a very convenient excuse for him to explain away his own life not being taken... but it was still worrying. In a way, though, he was thankful for it.

It made this far less awkward than it always was.

"I can always see my brother, if I need to." he told her.

"But as far as mental trauma goes, I've been through a lot worse in my past."

"..." Ash was silent for a moment as she said what she did.

Considering the offer he'd taken from Emelie a while ago, his mental state had improved greatly, and the chances of a relapse into a state like he had when he was with Vanessa were slim to none.

But she didn't know that. And he hated seeing her worry about him like this, when... practically speaking... there was no reason for her to be. But he couldn't say anything. He had to remain silent about it.

Thankfully, he'd had practice. He'd kept things from her in the past. Things she was better off not knowing about. A burden he chose to bear, and didn't regret it.

So he just sighed again, and nodded.

"All right." he said.

"Know what? I'll make sure Lindsay knows about this, and he can be on standby for if something starts to go really sour, okay?" he suggested.

"Because neither of us wants the situation you described to come to pass." he agreed.

Ash returned the hug, and sighed quietly.

"Yeah." he said. "Fair enough." he said.

"And this situation is... well... it's already stressful enough for everyone, especially you, the least I can do is not be stubborn or whatever." he reasoned.

"I'll just focus on cooking or something." he shrugged, before pausing.

"Or... y'know... gettoworkonthatstackofpapersinmyoffice..." he then said quietly and quickly.

"Yeah, you do that." Ash said.

'...I get the feeling there's a lot more to this then there seems...' he then thought.

Meanwhile, Addison had made his way down to the holding area of the guild, and was doing a routine inspection of all that was there. The only thing he seemed to notice was that the door to the jungle biome they had looked to not have been closed properly.

"Eh?" he muttered.

"..." he was silent, before stepping towards it and opening it slightly.

"Hello!?" he called inside.

"Anyone in here!?"

Addison froze for a spit-second, his body and brain seizing up, before his training and lessons from his mother kicked him back into gear, and he rushed towards her as fast as he could move.

"Holy shit!" he exclaimed, when he got closer and saw JUST how bad a state she was in. To say she was compressed would be accurate, as it looked like she had been squeezed to near-death, with cuts and scratches all over her body.

He carefully got her onto her back, before placing a hand on her chest, and one on her stomach. One he did so, he started to pulse his pure mana into her.

He knew very little about direct, targeted, or spot healing, so he was relying on the mana's natural ability to 'perform triage', and seek out what needed healing the most, before moving on.

His goal was to make it so that she could be moved to the medical wing safely.

"Holy crap, Nailah, what happened?" he asked.

"I mean, given the evidence and such, I think I can glean the gist of it, but I don't want to potentially make an incorrect assumption." he then said.

"So seriously. What the hell happened here?" he re-asked.

As he did so, he scanned the area around them to make sure nothing was trying to be opportunistic here.

She was injured, and he didn't want to be caught unaware.

This may have been just a biome, but it was still to be treated as a jungle.

His eyes widened when she said that.

"...wha...?" he stammered.

"That explains the other blood trail..." he admitted.

"But... you... that... I mean..." he stammered further, before shaking his head.

"The face that you're alive still is a miracle in and of itself." he told her.

"What happened to it? I assume the other blood trail was its, but what made it stop?"