I'm sorry I took a bit of a break, I've been a little buried in schoolwork and personal issues xD I'll try to update again soon :)

Enjoy!

Chapter 4: The scalpel the Surgeon of Death used

"Everyone okay?" Nova came to at the groan which sounded quite a bit like the Magic Knight she'd met just a few days ago. She shook her head, realizing that she couldn't move her legs, before blinking rapidly. Something was uncomfortably stuck in her eye. "Guys, give me a shout if you need help getting out!" Magna. That was his name. Magna Swing. Then, there was a minor explosion somewhere to her right, rocks flying everywhere.

"I'm all good!" that voice was familiar, too. "Ready to fight! Did we get hit by an enemy?" Luck Voltia of the Black Bulls, Nova recalled. Something warm dropped into her eye, which still stung from dust and something else which was definitely stuck under her lower eyelid. "Where's Nova?" Luck asked, making the girl groan and raise her hand into the air, as high as she could.

"I'm here!" she yelled out. "I can't get out!" Not even a moment passed before Luck's and Magna's familiar faces appeared above her, the former looking mildly excited and the latter quite worried.

"Damn, that doesn't look good," Magna said, jumping down and landing right next to her. He crouched down, pushing away the few smaller rocks from Nova's abdomen, then peered down at her legs. "That does not look good at all," he concluded with a frown. "Miss Nova, can you summon up the energy for a mana skin? You only have to keep it around your legs while we get this off of you." Nova shook her head, tears springing to her eyes. She had a killer headache.

"Magna, she's freaking out," Luck said from above, also jumping down and joining the group. "Nova, you need to calm down and let us help you get out of there." The girl looked up, seeing the uncharacteristically serious face of the Magic Knight above her. Then, she nodded. "Alright, get your mana skin on, if you can."

"I've never done that," Nova said in a tight voice. Magna opened his mouth to say something, but Luck was faster.

"Surpass your limits. Right here. Right now." Nova's eyes flew wide open, looking at the blonde Knight. "That's what our Captain always says," he commented, bending down and getting ready to help Magna with the rubble. "Ready?"

"No?" Nova replied, eyes wide and panic gripping her.

"We go on three," Magna glanced over at Luck and the other boy nodded.

"One," Luck said. Nova pushed all the mana she had in her body, focusing as much as she could, into her legs.

"Two," Magna continued. And then, the weight lifted off her legs, without that last count. Nova grit her teeth, doing her best not to scream as Luck pulled her out of the way of the rock. Then, Magna dropped the rock down with a huff.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" Nova realized that she was hyperventilating, panicking at the sight of her two, just moments before, perfectly good legs. Now, they looked like they belonged on farmer Tuck, before she'd performed a double fasciotomy on both his limbs.

"It's alright, Miss Nova," Magna reassured her, kneeling next to her and inspecting the damage. "It's alright."

"It's a crush injury," Nova shook her head, drops of blood falling onto her white top. "There might've been breaks or cracks or loss of blood flow. The worst case scenario is a double amputation and the best-"

"Nova, calm down," Luck interrupted her. "It's not that bad. Just circulate your mana through your legs and perform any healing spells if you know them. We've got you." He was holding her hand, gripping it tight. Nova slowly took bigger and bigger breaths, forcing herself to calm down, before she nodded and followed his advice.

Truly, when she circulated her mana, she could feel everything was intact. The biggest problems were the superficial lacerations which were oozing blood, but no serious injuries.

"Any breaks?" Magna asked. Nova shook her head. "Alright. Do you have anything to wrap the cuts with in your med kit? I can sew, if needed." The girl nodded, grabbing her kit and taking out a needle and some thread, along with a roll of bandages.

"I don't think I'll be able to put any weight on them for a while," she admitted as Magna administered the local anesthesia which she'd given him, before he started cleaning and sewing up the bigger cuts. "You two should go ahead without me."

"Pft," Luck chuckled from her side, shaking his head. "Like heck, we're bringing you with us," he told her adamantly, a grin finally back on his face.

True to their word, the boys had worked on her legs, Nova giving instructions, before wrapping them up and packing the leftover supplies into her med kit. Then, Magna lifted the girl onto his back, gently, but tightly, holding her by the thighs while she gripped the material of his signature black cloak at his shoulders. Like that, the group continued on their way.

"It was a spell, wasn't it?" Nova asked as they left behind the rubble, going down the single path which led into the next section of the dungeon.

"Mhm," Luck confirmed. "There were runes on the rug and on the floor, step activated to detonate."

"We'll have to be careful of those kinds of traps down the road," Magna commented, not sounding bothered by the additional weight on his back. "It wouldn't be good if we had another fall like this."

"More pressingly," Luck spoke up from the front. "I don't think we're the only ones in the dungeon." He gave them a bright grin, making Magna and Nova exchange worried glances. "There are some other mana signatures which don't seem stationary."

"Other mages?"

"Probably," Luck shrugged. Then, he stopped, tilting his head, his grin spreading. "You guys are good here, right?" Magna stopped short, then sucked in a sharp breath.

"Wait, Luck," but before he could say anything, the boy took off with a wide, battle-crazed smile on his face. "I said wait you dumb Battle Maniac!" Magna's shout rang out through the empty corridor, the blonde Black Bull already gone. "Incorrigible, I say."

"Did he go to actually look for a fight?" Nova asked, bewildered.

"Yep," Magna replied, heading down the corridor with a sigh. "He's got an eye for trouble, that one. Always getting into fights."

"I remember him from the entrance exam," Nova commented off-handedly. "He beat up his opponent with unnecessary force." Magna nodded at that, sighing again.

"I remember," he told the girl. "Got himself into a pickle with Squad offers because of it. I mean, if his personality was just a tad more stable, he could've gone anywhere he wished. In the end, only Captain Yami wanted him."

"Better someone than no one," Nova frowned.

"You got no offers?"

"Yeah," she sighed, her head dropping to Magna's back.

"Well, you're here now, so that's gotta count for something?" The fire mage attempted to cheer her up. But, all that did was remind Nova that she had gotten into the medical wing by bitching to the Wizard King himself.

"Yeah, because everyone wants a medic who injures herself in the first five minutes of the mission," Nova bit back with a scowl. Magna, unsurprisingly, didn't have anything to say to that.

The room they finally arrived at, after many dead ends and turns, was round and humongous. Nova couldn't help but look around, taking in the oriental decorations as Magna continued forward, taking care how and where he stepped. There were sparkling veins swirling in complex, but visible letters. Sidestepping the traps, Magna made it to the tall golden doors which were unmistakably the entrance of the treasure room.

"It's open," Nova pointed to the right side, making the fire mage look up from his feet. They peered cautiously at the wide gap which led into the well-lit room.

"Well, only one way to find out why," Magna shrugged, taking a decisive step into the treasury. There was gold. Gold and silver everywhere. Jewels Nova had only imagined in her dreams tossed around in piles for the taking. It was a fortune. A rather large fortune. With only a pocketful she would be able to feed her family for months. Then, the gold in the distance flew up in a cloud of electrical sparks. "Well, I suppose that's why." Magna shrugged, then jogged to one of the gold piles. "Are you good to sit here until I can see what kind of a mess Luck has gotten himself in?"

"I'll be fine," Nova promised, bracing herself for the pain as Magna gently lowered her to the floor. The Knight nodded to her, then ran off in the direction of the fighting mages. Nova dared to peek out, from behind the tall pile of gold and gems, only to see Luck flying back, his magic forming boots of lighting on his legs, and smash into the wall with enough force to shake the whole room. Fire exploded from the center of fighting, then water gushed and finally, another fire spell flew into the air, singing the ceiling.

"Puny Clover Knights," a deep voice growled from the back of the room, a mage emerging through the golden piles. He was humongous, with wide shoulders and dark hair. But, the most prominent of his features was a wide, jagged scar which ran from his forehead and vanished into his shirt. Nova gasped, quickly moving back behind her pile of gold, out of his field of vision. "I sense another little mouse in this room," the mage rumbled, footsteps coming closer and closer to Nova's hiding spot. Lightning buzzed, followed by a groan.

"It's not nice to leave behind a fight, old man," Luck's voice sounded strained, but excited. Nova peeked out again, seeing the two mages clash. Though the large man was definitely physically stronger and bulkier, Luck seemed to be doing alright, buzzing left and right, slamming his lightning armor boots into the opponent whenever he could.

Just when Nova was certain that Luck was winning, the bulky man on his knees in pain, another mage joined the fight, flinging the blonde Black Bull with a swipe of some kind of metal magic. Nova gasped as Luck rolled on the ground, finally stopping right next to her, blood pooling around him. She took one breath, then another, then pushed past the pain in her legs and scrambled to the blonde.

She assessed the situation quickly. Luck had a deep cut in his leg, definitely nicking the femoral artery by the volume of the blood around him. She grabbed onto the limb, pressing down as hard as she could, putting her weight behind it. The mage groaned, looking around blearily.

"I can still fight," the boy told her in a weak voice, pushing himself up.

"No, not with this wound," Nova adamantly replied. She kept the pressure on the wound as she tore off the belt from her pants, wrapping it around his thigh to form a makeshift tourniquet.

"Just patch me up until I win," Luck groaned, falling back to the floor. Nova finally glanced up, seeing the two advancing enemy mages. The bulky scar-face and the lithe woman with metal magic were walking towards them at a leisurely pace, their grins telling her that no help would come. She tossed a look behind the two, seeing Magna in a fight with another man, unable to spare even a second to look her way. Nova grit her teeth, grabbing for her med kit.

"I can't patch this up so you can fight again," Nova gasped out, working as fast as she could to stop the bleeding. "Do you have any long-distance spells?" Luck raised his arm, extending it towards the advancing enemy mages.

"Surpass you limits, right?" he asked with a grin, his grimoire glowing. Nova spotted letters appearing on the page rapidly, writing out a new spell. Then, his magic crackled in a blue light, wrapping around his extended arm and forming a glove, similar to his boots. A barrage of lightning bolts flew out of the tip of the gauntlet, aiming at the enemies.

The lithe woman flew forward, deflecting some, but finally taking one to her chest and dropping to the ground, spasming with the aftershocks of the lightning. The bulky man didn't stop moving. Instead of stopping or reassessing, he jumped forward, his grimoire out at the ready. Luck gave a small groan, managing to push one more bolt of lightning out of his gauntlet. The enemy mage shielded with a fire attack, before advancing yet again.

"Shit," Luck groaned, his face pale, arm dropping as the gauntlet vanished. Nova felt her heart race and with shaky hands, the girl let go of the leg she'd been working on, fingers slipping, slick with blood, as she worked to get her grimoire out of the chest pocket she had it in. She swiped through the pages, not finding anything even remotely helpful.

"Surpass your limits," she told herself under her breath, hands dropping the grimoire to the floor, blood making her fingers slick as she pulled out the scalpel from her pouch in her waist. She ignored the hum of mana in it, choosing to fling it forward through the air instead.

"Puny thing," the bulky mage laughed, catching the blade in his hand. Nova decided to throw caution to the wind. She knew enough to know remotely how to operate the damn thing.

"I'm puny, sure," she smiled, extending her bloodied hands forward. She felt for the trail of unusual magic in the scalpel, grabbing it with her own. "But underestimating me is going to suck so hard in a minute." Her hands twisted in the air, making a circular motion and the scalpel slid into the flesh of the mage in front of her. He screamed, a sound not of this earth, falling to his knees, twisting and twitching as the blade slid further and further into his arm. "You're mine," Nova whispered with a grin on her face, finally embracing the dark twinge of the mana in the Surgeon of Death's scalpel. It called to her with a whisper, promising, beckoning. Who was she to refuse victory?

The man stopped flailing, then he straightened out as Nova's hands moved in a pulling motion. When she raised them up, he stood, perfectly in sync with the tight muscles in her fingers. The energy of the scalpel was all around her now. It was like a drug, like a pull, inviting her gently to follow its lead. And, follow she did.

"Give me your grimoire," Nova said in a clear tone and the man walked forward like a zombie, his eyes glassy, handing the girl his red and yellow book of spells. She thumbed through it, finding a suitable page. "Why don't you go burn your comrade who's fighting over there?" The teen asked, giving the man back his grimoire, pages turned to a specific spell. He nodded, the book rising into the air next to him as Nova's fingers directed his body, like a puppet on her strings, to the fight where Magna was struggling.

The water mage, the only one left from the enemy group, seemed relieved when his companion appeared, only to get blasted with a quick fire spell to the front. He hadn't expected it. He hadn't braced for it. Magna lay on the floor, looking at Nova in shock as her fingers danced in the air, directing the enemy mage to decimate his companion. With a victorious grin, the girl pulled on the strings once more.

"More fire," she instructed, despite the pleadings of the water mage. "Kill him."

"Nova," Luck's voice from right in front of her brought her back to the reality of the situation, like coming off a high. He had a cut to his femoral artery. The tourniquet she'd applied meant that she'd stopped the bleeding, likely severing his usage of the leg in the process. She could fix it. Or kill the enemy.

Nova felt ice spread through her veins, her bloodied hands dropping from their tight position in the air. She'd almost let her patient lose his leg. Unnecessarily, too. She was a healer, not a Knight. She didn't let anybody lose their leg on her watch.

"It's okay, Luck," Nova said, her hands coming down to the leg once more. "I've got you." His eyelids fluttered, and she barely had enough time to think to herself how he had really long eyelashes, before his eyes were shut and he was out cold.

"Magna, can you do some restraining magic over there?! I'm kind of busy at the moment!" Nova yelled out, but didn't look to see whether the mage had listened to her. Instead, she got her sewing kit out of her pouch, the delicate needles for internal organs, and began working on the gap in the femoral artery in front of her face.

She disinfected the field with a spell, sewed up the damage, disinfected again, and then released the tourniquet. Nova checked the lower leg for pain stimuli, and smiled when she saw the muscles twitch. Then, she undid the laces of Luck's boot, slipping it off, then his sock, and carefully watched for any signs of poor blood flow as she worked to close the skin of the laceration. When she was done, disinfecting again, applying salve and then bandaging, the girl released a relieved sigh, dropping back to the ground, suddenly aware of the pain in her own legs.

"Is he going to be alright?" Magna's voice brought her out of her trip off the adrenaline of the surgery, making Nova look up. The fire mage had been there for a while, making himself comfortable on the ground in front of her and Luck, watching her work.

"Yeah," Nova nodded. "Looks like he'll be keeping his leg and surviving the blood loss, as well." Magna let out a sigh of relief, shoulders slumping and head lolling towards his chest in exhaustion. Then, he slightly raised it again, looking at Nova.

"What was that?" He asked, inspecting the tired girl.

"I'd like to know, too," Luck's voice, crackly and exhausted, made the girl rush forward and help him sit up.

"Not too quickly, please," Nova told him, helping him drink some water from the bottle in his pouch. "If you strain too much you'll tear out your stiches."

"Don't avoid the question," Magna warned. Nova looked from one mage to the other. Magna seemed exhausted, but determined, a serious gleam in his eyes. Luck wasn't smiling, had blood on his face, and generally seemed ready to drop. He was too pale for her liking.

"Let's move from all of this blood and I promise to tell you all about it," Nova caved in.

Magna was the one who did the most of the physical work. He carried first Luck, then Nova, to one of the numerous large cushions in the dungeon, helping them get settled in comfortably. Luck's blood had already begun to dry and crust on his clothing, where he absent-mindedly picked at the parts which were peeling off. Nova, on the other hand, was left without much to do, trying to clean the red liquid off of her fingers without water.

"It'll wash off," Magna sternly said to the both of them, sitting down with a grunt and then he fixed Nova with his gaze. "Now talk."

"Do you know about the Surgeon of Death?" Nova asked in a small voice.

"Crazy guy who controlled people and made them kill each other?" Magna asked with a frown.

"Not just that," Luck piped up. "He was a superb mage. He didn't do much battling himself, but he invented a number of spells which we use even today for healing and battling. Curses, for example, were his invention. Also, soul transfer magic." Nova looked at the boy in astonishment. That wasn't easy knowledge to come by.

"Luck, are you a noble?" she asked. If he was a noble, that would make sense. Their libraries were well-stocked and gave quite a bit of information about a number of topics.

"No?" the boy grinned at her.

"Then how-?"

"I went to school with nobles," he shrugged. "Cause of my magic, you know. It's strong."

"Oh, one of those that let you enter if you can keep up with the curriculum even if you're a commoner?" Nova asked, a little surprised. Luck was certainly the last one she'd pegged for a person to attend a proper school. He was a commoner, a little on the unhinged side and didn't seem all that bright to her.

"Mhm," the boy nodded as if it wasn't a big deal. "And, you gotta pay an entrance fee."

"Miss Nova," Magna's warning tone brought Nova back to the topic at hand. She would have time to dig into Luck's past later. For now, she had to give the best explanation she could to the two boys.

"Well, I was curious about the Surgeon of Death," she began again. "He's a great innovator in the medical field, as Luck has mentioned. So, when I saw one of his scalpels at the Black Market, I bought it." Magna almost fell from his cushion.

"You bought a cursed object?"

"I gotta fight you sometime, Nova!" The girl chose to ignore the latter comment.

"Yeah, I was curious," she told the flabbergasted fire mage. "It wasn't like I was planning to use it. I just happened to grip that scalpel first when I reached into my pouch."

"Miss Nova, using it changed you," Magna frowned, leaning forward. "You're aware that you were chanting to that man to kill his comrades, aren't you?" Nova looked down to her bloody hands, picking at the crusted liquid under her nails.

"It was like… like I was a different person," she spoke after a moment. "It felt right to do so, I don't know how to explain it otherwise." When she looked up again, Luck was cheerily smiling and Magna looked troubled.

"Perhaps you shouldn't use that magic until you know a little bit more about it?" the fire mage gently asked.

"I won't," Nova promised, then frowned. "No matter how strong it is, I was about to let a patient lose his leg in order to use the magic more in battle. And, I'm a healer. Until I learn more about it and how to use it properly, to be still in control, I won't use it."

"Alright," Magna nodded, then reached into his pocket and tossed something at the girl. Nova grabbed the glinting object out of the air, only to find it to be the scalpel in question. There wasn't even a drop of blood on it. "I was originally going to give it to Captain Yami. However, since you understand the risks, I'm trusting you." He gave her a pointed look.

"I won't disappoint you, Magna," Nova told him.

"Well, you have my permission to use it on me whenever," Luck laughed from his seat, electricity buzzing in the air. "As soon as my leg's better, let's see what that thing can do in battle!" Nova opened her mouth to tell him off, but then stopped.

"Actually, that might not be such a bad idea," she mused. "If you're willing, I could use some training after I figure out how not to kill either myself or my opponent with this thing." She twirled the scalpel in her hands and then replaced it into her pouch.

"Mhm!" Luck cheerily nodded. "Sounds good!"

"Only under supervision," Magna told them, which made the two exchange glances, before smiling at him in unison. The fire mage raised his eyebrow, then shook his head, waving his hands in front of him. "No, no, I didn't mean-"

"Well," Nova interrupted with a smirk. "Since cursed objects are frowned upon," she shrugged.

"And he already knows about it," Luck added with a smile too wide to be good.

"How nice of you to volunteer to help out, Magna," Nova gave him a sweet smile which spelled evil intentions.

"I have not," Magna grunted, rising from his seat. "I repeat, I have not offered my help and won't offer it to you two lunatics who want to play with cursed objects." He spun on his heel, heading off into the treasury to seek out the important artifacts.

"It's just a little curse!" Nova yelled after him, which made the fire mage shake his head furiously. Then, she turned to Luck, finding him eagerly smiling at her. "You think he'll come 'round?" The boy's grin widened.

"I'm sure we can arrange something to make him come 'round," the Cheery Berserker shrugged flippantly and made Nova wonder how in the world had she found allies, dare she even say friends, in such a strange group of people.

Thank you for reading!

Reviews:

RedBlackNinja:
Cheers! Thanks so much for the review! I actually like to stay a bit ahead of the updating schedule, so I have until chapter 4 written out, but I'm just lazy with updates when I don't have the time to properly proof-read xD I promise I'll do my best to update quick :)

AmericanNidiot:
Thanks for the lovely review! Luck is a little crazy ball, I'm having the time of my life writing a character so unusual xD Yes yes! Law was the main inspiration for Nova's magic, a little homage being paid due to the nature of Black Clover, as well :P I promise their abilities will differ, but yeah, they are really similar :)

Rosie007:
Cheers! Thanks so much for the review :) I promise I'm not giving up on the story, I just have a tendency to take writing breaks when life gets busy xD Hope you enjoyed the update!

Tora3:
Hiiiii! Oh my Gosh a lot of our fandoms overlap, don't they? xD
Glad you're still enjoying the Bedheads! I'm a lazy writer sometimes with a long story, but I haven't given up on it, I swear xD
Black Clover…. I was actually holding off on watching it, I have no idea on why… But I've watched, read, searched fanfiction and due to the low number of stories we got this xD Hope you'll keep enjoying the new updates :)
Take care!

skyblue454:
Cheers! Thanks so much for the review you made me smile xD
Indeed, Black Clover stories I've read so far tend to stick to the main timeline… I have to say I'm a bit of a sucker for prequels, though :P I hope you'll keep enjoying what I come up with :)
Best!