All My Summons Become Divine Girls

Chapter 254: The Healer Walks Forward

Vella left Garret’s treatment cart as six hounds entered the drainage channel beneath the field lane.

Their heads remained below the grass, but every purple growth pointed toward blood carried on the clinic frames.

"Move the carts," she said, keeping both hands away from her patients, "Sable stays behind the last wheel until Juna clears the lane."

The driver looked toward the moving channel before pulling his horse forward, leaving Vella between the hounds and the stopped shelter post.

Violet mana spread from her fingers across the drainage cut, forming a low barrier beneath the grass instead of above the road.

The first hound struck it with its mouth open, forcing the barrier inward until its purple shoulder growth touched Vella’s power.

She felt the foreign mana branching through its legs, feeding the corrupted tissue wrapped around every joint.

Narrow violet threads entered those branches without reaching the muscle beneath them, cutting the corruption from its own supply. Both front legs folded as the growths lost pressure, dropping the hound inside the channel before it reached her patients.

The next two climbed over it, carrying more corruption around their eyes plus the base of their jaws.

Vella widened the barrier around their heads, then drove violet mana through the growths covering their sight.

The foreign roots broke apart under her touch, leaving both monsters blind while their ordinary tissue remained intact.

"Spears from the side," she said, pointing the village hunters away from the clinic carts, "their legs still work, so stay outside the channel."

Two hunters struck the blinded hounds after they turned toward each other, killing them without crossing Vella’s barrier. A mother near the shelter post pulled her child backward when the violet threads returned to Vella’s hands.

The same child had a bandage around one ankle from the stockade retreat, carrying Vella’s gold beneath the wrap.

"Take her behind the cart," Vella said, keeping her attention on the channel, "the barrier ends where the rear wheel passes."

The woman obeyed without leaving the lane, moving her daughter through the safe side Vella had indicated.

Three hounds remained below the grass, splitting around the barrier after seeing their pack collapse against it.

One turned toward Juna’s Wing, while the others followed blood dripping from the headman’s wrapped arm.

He had finally taken a frame near the rear convoy, though his injured arm rested outside its edge.

Vella walked past the shelter post instead of pulling the treatment cart back, keeping both hounds inside her reach.

"Lady Vella," the headman said, trying to sit up as she passed, "they are following this wrap, so throw it into the field."

"They are following you under it," she said, tightening the cloth without stopping, "keep that arm on the frame."

The first hound left the drainage channel behind her, jumping across the field lane toward the wounded man.

Juna cut down the hound on her flank, then kept her Wing across the evacuation side while Vella faced the other two. Vella raised one hand behind herself, placing a violet wall between the hound and the frame before its claws landed.

The impact drove her two steps forward, though the barrier kept its edge above the people carrying the headman.

Golden healing remained inside his torn forearm while her violet power reached around the monster pressing against them.

She separated both flows without letting the destructive threads touch the wound beneath the man’s wrap.

Violet mana entered the hound’s jaw growth, severing the foreign root that held its mouth open for the bite.

Its teeth snapped shut before the barrier released, leaving Sable room to strike through the neck from the cart side.

The body dropped beside the lane as the frame crews continued without lowering the headman.

"You kept healing him through that," Sable said, pulling her sword free, "I thought the violet part would break the gold."

"It breaks foreign mana," Vella said, checking the man’s arm as the frame passed, "the hard part is keeping it away from everyone else."

The final hound came from the opposite side, using the stopped shelter cart to hide its approach toward Garret.

His wound had stopped bleeding, but the torn shirt still carried more scent than every frame around him.

Vella felt the monster before she saw it, finding her golden thread pulled when Garret tried leaving the cart.

"Stay where I put you," she said, crossing the lane in front of the shelter post, "your side opens again if you stand."

"It is coming around the cart," Garret said, reaching for the knife near his frame, "the driver cannot see it."

"Then warn him," she said, strengthening the healing along his ribs, "I am taking the other side."

The driver pulled forward at Garret’s warning, exposing the hound beneath the rear axle before it could climb into the wagon.

Vella met it beside the wheel, catching one claw inside a violet barrier while the other opened her sleeve near the shoulder.

She locked the barrier around its foreleg, then followed the corruption toward a thick growth beneath its chest.

The root connected every altered joint, giving her one place where foreign mana could be cut without reaching its heart.

Vella closed her hand, breaking that connection before the hound’s second strike reached her.

Its altered limbs stopped together, dropping the monster beside the wheel while its breathing continued.

Village hunters approached with their spears until Vella raised two fingers toward the corrupted chest.

"Wait," she said, keeping the hound pinned, "the growth is rebuilding its path through the heart."

Her violet threads removed the final roots, leaving the monster unable to move before the hunters ended it through the throat.

The mother who had pulled her child away reached Vella after the body stopped, carrying a clean cloth from the clinic cart.

"Your shoulder," she said, holding the cloth near the torn sleeve without touching, "the claw reached you before the barrier closed."

Vella looked at the shallow cut, then took the cloth while the woman stayed beside her.

"Press it once," she said, turning toward the moving convoy, "I need both hands for the next frame."

The woman covered the cut as Vella drew golden healing across Garret’s side from several paces away.

Juna kept one Wing above the field road until the final family passed the shelter marker.

"The lower lane is clear," she said, folding the Wing after checking both ridge scents, "Dreth’s men stayed outside bow range."

Hans’s runner reached them from the western checkpoint, carrying a bell sheet marked with every evacuated household.

"The storehouse is lost," he said, giving the sheet to Vella, "but the head count matches Lana’s list, while the checkpoint remains open."

Vella checked the treatment names against the frames, finding every injured person beside a living carrier.

"Take this to Hajin," she said, returning the bell sheet, "tell him the clinic road works without the bridge."

The runner climbed toward the Gate ravine while Vella directed the carts toward the next shelter.

Behind her, village hunters dragged the disabled hounds away from the lane before another group could follow their blood.

The mother tied Vella’s shoulder cloth in place, then returned to her daughter without avoiding the violet mana still covering Vella’s hands.