Forever

Salim was slammed into the ground, a heavy mass pressing down on his chest as burning pain erupted from his chest. The creature's claws left gashes on his body, drawing blood as he screamed in agony. Like a blender, the wolf sliced and diced, even as he flailed around to try throwing it off him.

Thanks to constitution, he wasn’t instantly dead, and having a moment to act, caught one of the wolf’s legs in his right hand. Pulling as hard as he could, the creature faltered slightly as its considerable bulk shifted slightly off of him. Trying to capitalize on the moment, Salim lifted his chest enough to throw a weak punch at its left leg limb. With a snap, the foot bent outward, brittle bones breaking as his fist made contact.

He heard a strange wheezing sound as the creature attempted to maul his face, tilted to one side as Salim continued to punch its leg, the repeated strikes fully breaking the bone and causing the limb to crumble. The rotted wolf tipped sideways, falling over and onto the ground as it attempted to regain balance.

Seeing his chance, Salim slipped away from the beast and tried to make as much distance as possible. Blood splattered onto the rock under his knees, covering it in viscous red, making him feel sick to his stomach that was close to falling out.

Snapping out of his pain induced haze, he looked back up to find the wolf moving towards him, awkwardly attempting to use its broken leg, a heavy limp in its step. Looking around for anything that could help, Salim grabbed a rock and threw it as hard as he could. The rock soared, going wide and landing to the right of the wolf with a crack, not so much as eliciting a twitch.

Thoughts muddy, he threw his body to the side as the creature leaped at him, his back getting scrapped as the monster managed to hook a claw on the skin of his shoulder. As his back wet with blood, Salim looked towards the cliff, a solid drop that wouldn’t necessarily kill him but would certainly break his legs. Attempting to dash towards it, he was stopped as the wolf managed to catch him with its mouth, serrated teeth clamping around his ankle as he was pulled down onto the ground.

Looking around for something to use as a weapon, he tried to bash its head with his fist, although the awkward angle of his foot made the punch thud into uselessly into its hide. The giant wolf tightened its grip as Salim felt the pressure build around his foot. In a panic, his escape attempt became frantic, even as he attempted to utilize the push spell to make his punches do anything. Tighter and tighter, the jaw of the wolf tighten like a vice, pain an all encompassing buzz around his foot.

Crack.

Surprisingly, he didn’t pass out from the pain, probably from the adrenaline flooding his body, but it didn’t make the pain any less horrible. Still able to move, with labored breaths Salim slowly dragged the wolf over to the ledge, hoping, even praying, that his leg wouldn’t come off. Luckily the wolf stayed locked on his foot, pulping it even further as his extremity was treated like a chew toy.

Finally reaching the ledge, he managed to grab a rock about the size of his hand and braced himself. Looking at his leg sent a wave of nausea through him and made the pain feel far more real as he got ready to bash the creature. Squinting his eyes, Salim raised the rock, holding it in the air for just a moment before slamming it into the head of the creature, causing him to yelp as the creature's teeth scrapped across his foot.

The creature unclenched, trying to readjust as it had been unseated by the first impact. As it released its jaw, Salim reacted, shoving the rock into its mouth, knocking out a few teeth and keeping its jaw locked. Able to pull his foot out of its mouth with a minimal amount of flesh tearing, he grabbed its head with both of his hands, keeping it in place. Getting a firm grasp on both sides of the head and feeling the rotten texture of the creature's fur, Salim pushed as hard as he could to knock it over the edge.

Unable to stop its momentum with a broken leg, the creature’s front half was over the edge in a second, with the back half following close behind. He watched as it hit the ledge below, bones crunching and the rotten flesh splitting open. It was a gruesome sight, but didn’t have time to dwell on it as the blood loss started catching up with him.

You have bested an opponent in mortal combat.

Major Event has been Logged.

You have gained a Level!

You have gained a Level!

Frantically, he threw open his menu to try and save himself from bleeding out. A sense of déjà vu washed over him, as he assigned the first ten points to see if it was enough to staunch the flow of blood. Groaning in pain as flesh quickly inched itself back together, he watched as the wounds slowly dried up, no longer bleeding out on the ground.

His foot was another issue entirely, the process only fixed the immediate damage, and he had been left with a misshapen lump that was stained with his own viscera. Salim made sure to dump the other ten points into his [Resilience] but it didn’t fix his warped ankle or twisted toes.

Lvl. 14

Stats

Confirm

Might: 26

-/+

Finesse: 23

-/+

Resilience: 29 (49)

-/+

Acuity: 27

-/+

Resolve: 26

-/+

Depth: 20

-/+

It took him a while to move, as his joints seemed to be stiff and refused to budge, but as he got used to the difficulty he was able to roll onto his back to stare at the evening sky, its light fading as the moon rose. Noticing this, he tried to get to his feet… foot. With difficulty, he managed, wincing as he put pressure on his ankle, hobbling over to the tree line.

As he approached the trees, however, he stopped dead in his tracks as the last person he wanted to see stepped out of the long shadows. Fallon moved with grace, strides confident and what Salim could only interpret as malicious intent. Wanting to yell at them, he opened his mouth only to start hacking up his organs, his throat too dry to unleash the profanities he was feeling.

As they got closer, Salim tried to ward them off, awkwardly throwing his arm in a wave to get them to leave him. Despite his warnings, they continued to approach, and he was able to get a good look at them without the shadows obscuring them. He could no longer tell that the clothes were fake, and while their face still didn’t look like exactly like Nadalie’s, it looked natural, no longer resting in the uncanny valley. But, despite the improvements, all it did was unsettle him more.

“Why?” he choked out, before his coughing fit cut him off.

“What are you referring to? If you mean the wolf, then I don’t see how I’m at fault. You saw what I was doing and still decided to stay,” they responded, deadpanned.

Salim wasn’t sure how to respond, his thoughts derailing as he tried to think of a comeback.

“Not your fault? In what world is it not your fault, that thing attacked me cough and now look at me!” He yelled, spit flying.

“You did decide to run, what did you expect?”

“Would it not have attacked me if I hadn’t run?”

Fallon paused at that, thinking.

“I would have been able to control it.”

Salim gaped at the injustice, feeling wrong for the blame.

“Piss off.” He tried to push Fallon away, only to find himself falling backwards as he pushed against what felt like a solid wall. Barely feeling himself hit the ground, Salim was reminded once again that Fallon wasn't human, despite how normal they looked. Feeling sobered, he pushed himself onto his feet before hobbling past them.

Fallon watched him walk away, his every movement tracked as he made his way back into the woods and as far away from the cliff as possible. Refusing to turn around, Salim tried to find his way back, limping over harsh undergrowth as he went.

His walk back started at a quick pace as he marched with righteous fury while ignoring the spiking pain from his foot. However, as he continued to walk, and realized he wasn't sure if he was headed in the right direction, the fire inside began to fade. Eventually it cooled, his frustration still there, but doused with the realization that he had stalked off without directions.

As the moon began to slowly peak its way through the trees, Salim felt the urgent need to look for shelter, finding a tree with a large enough trunk to stack branches against. Taking advantage of his stats, he quickly tried to grab any branches he could find close enough to the ground. After getting frustrated with his lack of mobility as he failed to reach a few branches due to his foot, he figured his crude lean too would be good enough.

Plopping onto the ground as his emotional exhaustion caught up with him, eyes aching to be closed with the weight of emotions that had surged through him, all he wanted was to sleep. Letting out a loud sigh, he watched the moonlight slowly wash over his surroundings, bathing bushes and trees in harsh light. The glow seemed to have taken on a malicious aspect to it, his mind flashing to Fallon’s blank, unfeeling face.

He wasn’t sure what to think or feel, impotent, horrified, indignant? His life was a total mess and completely out of his control, as he was at the mercy of the system, Fallon, or random wildlife that thought he looked like an easy meal. But still, he had to remind himself that he wasn’t powerless, he had his immortality, but more important than that, he saw the light of freedom at the end of the tunnel.

Dying hurts though.

Did he have a reason to be angry at Fallon?

Yes, but would it change anything?

He knew that he felt righteous fury at a being that didn’t understand or simply didn’t care what it had done wrong. Annoyed that he had been inconvenienced for the time being, or horrified at the lack of humanity Fallon showed.

But I can’t see myself changing anything.

His mind spun circles, trying to wrap his emotions into an easy to digest package, but as sleep gripped his mind, he hadn’t gotten any further. Nightmares of tight rooms and dead end hallways filled his mind, causing him to toss and turn in the dirt. Salim felt awful as morning came, having woken up several times throughout the night.

Feeling as emotional as a rock, his exhaustion overwrote anything he could have felt as Salim pulled himself out of the lean too and set about retracing his steps. Peering into the forest, Salim was able to catch a glimpse of moonlight mana with his skill, surprised that he could see it through the brown hue of the trees. While he still didn’t want to confront Fallon, he was filled with a calm certainty and also didn’t have any alternative.

Using his skill to navigate, Salim was able to make his way towards the mana, checking occasionally for any other obvious mana signatures that he could use. Finding none, he continued the journey, slowly getting used to walking with a limp. Once he was halfway to the moonlight, he realized that it wasn’t Fallon he was seeing, but most likely the flesh tree, as the mana shone brightly near the ground before spreading upwards towards the sky.

Once he reached the clearing, Salim saw that whatever the tree had spread, the carcass decaying in the middle of bone white grass, creating an image of a field of teeth, waiting for unsuspecting prey. Not spotting Fallon, Salim quickly made his way around the perimeter, finding the bush he had initially spied the tree from and limping away as fast as he could.

Using the bush as a starting point, he was able to make his way back to the river by noon, gaining levels in [Learned Mind] and [Arcane Navigation] as he made out the mana signature of the many fish which populated the river. As soon as he could spot the river with his own eyes, Salim galloped, wading into the waters to try and get the muck that had been caked onto his body.

Fish quickly fled as a black stain pealed away from his body, pulled by the current downstream as fish swam away for the filth. Sighing with relief, Salim relaxed as pressure was finally taken off his ankle. When he opened his eyes, Fallon stood a few yards away, arm resting on a tree as they stared with an unreadable emotion.

Salim felt a headache begin to form.