Hand on wrist, pull...strike shoulder blade, the sequence flowed untroubled and unforced in his mind as thought and reality moved together.

A sharp pop followed by a short scream.

Hemlish felt detached. Calm. The world moved by him and nothing he thought seemed...anything to him. He saw something happening and just followed with it. The only oddity that touched his thoughts was the way he could look around even while focused on the current foe.

He seemed to be behind and above himself. Watching as things developed.

This also meant he could see what had happened to his group, his party troupe, his team...His friends.

Tam was split in half. A club or hammer had caught his head and a blade had cleaved him in half. The brute must have fought hard to draw the attention of such a massive native of these lands that could kill him.

Off to the right, Shyl'ee was dismembered with parts missing. Only the dead-eyed look in her eyes matching what they had been in life. Her bow, broken and ruined, with an arrow still tangled in it was still in her hand.

And great Oirl the wizard. His body was surrounded by the Kings troops but all were dead, burnt back in an expanding circle of fiery death that must have marked Oirl's last spell as the power he could wield consumed him as its cost.

Turn right, drop...closed fist to neck front, he commented internally as he watched the next one fall. The crunch of cartilage snapping allowed Hemlish to move on. Following his awareness on to the next threat.

Hemlish flashed on Tam and the memory that had suddenly occurred to him.

"Ya, Healer...still haven't learned a real weapon?" they had all laughed at Tam's comment. Hemlish had laughed too but it was something he wondered about. While a healer was a must have in an adventuring party they still got the smallest cut, usually were ignored when in a fight, and were the first to die when a fight broke out.

But still those three had meant everything to Hemlish. They had been his world. His friends.

And they were dead.

He had broken inside as Shyl'ee died. It had hurt him...so much...so...

Step back, grab...twist forward under chin. A sharp crack of bone breaking fills the air cutting off a brief shout of pain.

...Then he was here.

Healing was an art.

The body was constructed for a task. The task of being us, me, I. But it is a machine. Moving parts. Component after component of systems supporting each other. Allowing the I that was a person to be a person.

And Healers knew them all very well.

Slide left, push...release and kick forward. A loud grunt punctuated the spear passing into the second warrior who had been so unlucky as to be behind the warrior Hemlish had first stabbed. He had this spear from a warrior...what? Two warriors back?

What should I call them? Kills?

Yes, Kills.

Had removed from the warrior two Kills ago.

Now that caught Hemlish's attention, How many have I Killed?

246 men of the King's Guard.

246 and counting...