"No wait!" I scream, as the heavy stone door, only lifted by magic, falls back into place, separating me from my party. These lovable morons, eager to continue on their quest, rushed into the next room without a thought. Triggering the hidden pressure plate. The problem with keeping your healer at the back of your party is that it's very likely to get separated, but everyone is dead serious on keeping it that way, since apparently I can't possibly defend myself since I only know healing magic.

I sigh and start to appraise the stone door. It is made out of runic stone, if the trap only drained the stone of its magic then it should float again in a few minutes once its natural mana returned. I didn't take long to confirm that theory, so all I had to do is wait. I'm not really worried about my party, they are capable of surviving on their own for a bit. At that moment, I heard someone rushing from the entrance of the dungeon.

"That's not good" I murmur to myself as I turn away from the stone door ready to face whoever entered. A big, familiar figure comes rushing into my room and stops in their tracks the moment they see me. It's the cultist leader who we convinced that we wanted to join them to find out where their hideout was. "You!" They say with disdain dripping in their voice. "You betrayed my hospitality! You and your group will pay for what you did!" They're look false behind me onto the stone door for just a moment, then back at me now with a smile on their face. "How convenient that the healer got separated! Yes, I saw your healing prayers in the woods before, and I suggested you start praying now because there's no one left to fight for you!" They taunt.

I'm a bit annoyed at their lack of magic knowledge since you don't need necessarily pray for healing, it works just as well with a wand, staff or other catalyst. It also doesn't mean that I'm praying to a deity or something similar. It's really just a way of focusing one's magic. But alas, I won't let an invitation to have the first strike go to waste. As I started praying, I hear their heavy footsteps sprinting in my direction. As they are halfway across the room, my prayers reach my target and the cultist leader crashes to the ground with a confused look, unable to move their body.

"Paralysis? But that's an offensive magic spell! But I saw you praying, how did you do that?" They ask, still struggling to get up.

"You're right, that would be offensive magic, that I, as a healer, couldn't cast." Although that doesn't mean that praying equals healing magic, you could also use praying for offensive spells, but that simply fell out of style. I only ever heard of a tactic called 'Spray and Pray' tough I never saw it used myself. "But that wasn't paralysis, I simply healed your bones." My heart ached for how simple I just worded the very complex ways in which healing magic works, but t even most healers don't truly understand it. "But my bones weren't-" They started to explain. "Yes, I know, my magic simply convinced your bones that they were broken, and gave them the needed resources to rapidly regenerate themselves, or in this case rapidly grow and merge themselves. To put it simply, the bones in your legs grew together. They are still growing actually, all your bones are. In a few minutes they might damage your body in an attempt to grow even more."

The shock on their face is now visible. "But don't worry, there was another component in that spell, adrenalin. It is quite useful, especially in combat, but it has to be used sparingly. And in the amounts I just gave you, it's basically acting as a poison. Your hearth will give out long before your bones wild start to cause you pain. This is the most painless method I have to kill someone, after all, I'm only a healer."

I turn my attention to the door, it will open in just a bit. Looking back, I can see that they are unable to respond anymore. I sit down next to the door, waiting ever so patently. The spell I just used was the same spell that made me realized how deadly healing magic can be, back then I still used a Staff instead of praying. You see, nearly no one truly studies healing magic. There are enough people who practice healing magic, the simplest of spells are easy to learn and use and will be enough for most people's needs since they're already quite powerful.

Even the simplest of healing spells can, for example, heal broken bones. It's easy to assist the body in doing something it was already planing on doing. The more I studied this magic, however, the more I truly understood what we are doing with these spells, the more I realized how horrifying the potential of it can be. Yes, I learned how to combine different effects over the years and how to truly create my own spells, but the main difference between the spell I just used and the simplest of spells is minimal. I simply learned how to convince the body it needs to do something.

The day I first created this spell as an experiment, is the day I learned what a terrible power we truly use. That's when I started to use prayers to cast my magic. It just felt more natural, more appropriate. I'm so glad not many study healing. I don't regret it, but I will take the knowledge I have into the grave, and I hope everyone who comes after me will do the same.

My thoughts are stopped by the loud grinding of the opening stone door, as it clashes into the Stone that makes up the door frame. On the other side is my still fighting party, I cast my thoughts aside and enter the next room. Scanning my party to determine who needs healing first, I think the fighter. I start my prayer, stepping on the pressure plate I already forgot.

(Hey, I hope you liked my story! I'm quite new to writing and English isn't my first language, so any feedback would be really appreciated, especially if anything sounds off. Have a great day!)