Chapter 248 The Surgical Operation

A crowd of soldiers and spirit manipulators gathered by the side and were shocked when they heard what Rocky had said. Disbelief was written on their faces, and they exchanged looks, as if saying that Rocky had overestimated his skills.

"Did I hear that right? Rocky claimed that he could treat and cure Commander Marin's spirit-manipulated beast? He has to be lying! Everyone can see that it is hurt beyond any help. Even Sheridan has said that it is incurable, and he knows what he is talking about because he has seen and healed so many cases of severely injured spirit-manipulated beasts. Then, who does Rocky think he is, to say that he can do what Sheridan says is impossible? He is simply showing off to feel big!"

"I agree with you. I bet he wants to ingratiate himself with Commander Marin. And he is doing that because he is desperate that she recalls him to the spirit manipulator squad from the beast farm.

"If he can cure it, then so can I."

All of a sudden, everyone started protesting and the atmosphere at the training ground quickly turned tumultuous. It became crystal clear that no one present, believed an iota of what Rocky had claimed he could do - that he could treat and cure Verdanim.

Marin, who had always relied on Sheridan to make her war-damaged spirit manipulated creatures healthy, and ready to go to another battle, was no exception. She too, like the others present, had misgivings about Rocky's claim.

"You don't believe me, do you?" Rocky asked Marin. He didn't care about what people thought of him or what he said, but he respected Marin, and wanted to know what she really thought.

"Rocky, can you really help Marin, to make Verdanim well? I hope this is not a false claim." Sheridan, who had been silent all this while, asked, as he was surprised at what Rocky had said. Although he knew that Rocky came up with novel ideas from time to time, not knowing how truthful or skilled Rocky was, he was genuinely intrigued and wanted to know how he planned to cure Verdanim, for, in his eyes, that was a formidable task.

"Yes, but what I have in mind is untested and can be dangerous. Yet I think, I should try my approach. It is possible that it might endanger Verdanim's life even more. However, in my opinion, that is the only option we have at this point," Rocky said in a serious tone. His way was to operate on Verdanim, and that came with risks. Also, till then, Rocky had performed surgeries only on small spirit-manipulated beasts, not on any gigantic creature, like Verdanim was. This being his first, it would surely be a high-risk procedure.

"How can I trust you? Even Sheridan said that he could not help Verdanim, as his condition is beyond help," Marin said sceptically.

"Well, it is up to you to trust me or not. Obviously, it is your call," Rocky spoke calmly. It seemed that he did not care whether or not Marin believed that he could treat Verdanim and restore his health.

Marin was torn. Sheridan had run out of solutions and she did not know if she could trust Rocky. In her heart, she did not believe that Rocky knew what to do to make Verdanim regain his health and strength. Finally, she looked to Sheridan for help, for bein

inexperienced," perplexed, Sheridan murmured to himself. But he was reassured on seeing Rocky, who was standing in front of Verdanim, looking like a picture of confidence. Then he left the beast stable.

After Sheridan had left, Rocky brought the sterile basket of surgical tools into the stable, where Verdanim lay on the soil floor. After clearing and leveling a small area, he spread a white cloth on the ground and placed the tools on it, symmetrically one alongside the other. After that, he dipped a rag cloth into one of the two buckets that he had fetched and placed near Verdanim. Finally, Rocky started cleaning the blood from its wounded body with the wet rag.

By now, Verdanim's condition was rapidly deteriorating. Nearly unconscious, it was struggling to keep its eyes open, and having trouble breathing. It seemed that the pressure in its abdominal cavity was so much that it would explode.

After scrubbing and completing the pre-surgery procedures, Rocky started operating without any further delay. He first suctioned out the hematocele from Verdanim's abdominal cavity, to reduce the pressure on other organs.

"Sleep well," Rocky said, and fed Verdanim some diluted Centipede-snake venom to anesthetize it.

Seeing that the anesthesia had taken effect on Verdanim and it was completely unconscious, Rocky immediately took the largest scalpel and cut open its lower belly. He repeated this move three times to completely rip it open. Immediately, a pool of blood was all over the stable floor.

When Verdanim's abdominal cavity was totally drained off the blood, using tweezers, Rocky started tucking the loose flesh so that he could find the ruptured aorta. Moreover, that was easy to spot, as it was gargantuan in size.

Rocky then, quickly found the bleeding aorta whose diameter was the size of a small water pipe. Its condition was much worse than what he could imagine or had expected it to be. As more than one segment was ruptured, it was difficult to fix it. Also, he knew that if anything were to go wrong during the operation, the aorta might rupture again, and Verdanim would not survive that.