I know nothing about the use of a halberd.

That much became clear to me very quickly, as I gave the pole-weapon a few practice swings inside the shack. The blade on its end gouged a line through the wall as I accidentally brought it too close, and when I tried to correct that movement, the axe-like portion cleaved into the collapsed fragments of the bed I’d noticed earlier.

I froze.

Very carefully, I lowered the halberd back to the ground, then backed away. A moment later, I took a seat on the ground and just stared at the offending object. It occured to me that I might be better suited for something else…

But then, I hadn’t exactly found any other weapon lying around. I couldn’t just give up so soon–I’d give it another try.

This time, I used both arms to take hold of it before anything else. The halberd wasn’t heavy enough to make that strictly necessary, but when I took another slow practice swing, it offered me much better control.

I took a step and thrust forward, imagining the ghoul right before me. It leapt back to dodge the incoming blade and yowled at me in animalistic rage, then jumped to the side and charged at me at an angle. I responded by twisting the halberd’s pole and swinging it parallel to the ground. The ghoul barely got out of the way in time before the weapon would have cleaved into its skull.

However, I overextended, and the monster shot in close before I could bring the weapon back around. It pounced forward, then disappeared.

Damn.

I reset my stance and paused to consider my imagined battle. The ghoul was fast, and while it was nearly the same size as myself, it presented a much smaller target to attack at any given moment. The fact that it had a habit of suddenly changing direction with very little warning only made it even more frustrating to face.

I was able to kill it by moving very quickly and taking it by surprise at the time, and I realized that might have been the best way to handle it. Slow, obvious attacks like I was making with the halberd would likely never work against one of its like. If I had more experience, I could probably make better use of the weapon, but as I am now, it would likely be better to fight barehanded against more agile opponents.

I’d keep training with the halberd and take it with me when it was time to leave the shack behind, and maybe I’d improve my skill with it somewhat by then as well, but I resolved in my mind that it would only be an occasional tool. If the situation ever called for it, I’d drop the weapon in an instant.

Sometime later, while I was still running imaginary battles with the ghoul, I felt something change. Slowly–slow enough to be nearly imperceptible while I was in a focussed state–an indefinable charge that I hadn’t even noticed was with me all night started slipping away through air.

I took true notice of the fleeting sensation for the first time just as the warm rays of dawn started sneaking through the many holes in the shack’s exterior. I stopped my flailing attempts at wielding my halberd all at once and looked on at the light’s approach.

What…is this?

And when the leading ray finally fell upon a portion of my exposed skin, that atmospheric charge disappeared altogether, leaving behind only an intense, sudden lethargy and a sharp spike in the sensation of wrongness that never ceased to envelop me. The edges of my vision started fading to black–the darkness encroaching.

I tried to fight it, I really did. The shining rays of dawn pushed me into the shadows regardless. My body lowered itself to the remnant pile of bedding in a stumbling retreat, and when I closed my eyes, I felt nothing.

----------------------------------------

When my consciousness returned to me, it did so all at once and I rose halfway from my prone position in an instant. However, my reason lagged a moment behind so for some reason unknown to me, I awoke with a piercing scream.

“AaahhhH–urghk!”

Something flew down my throat and silenced my cry, causing me to choke. I fell forward, barely catching myself a moment before I would’ve planted my face in the dirt floor, and started laboriously coughing.

Oddly, I didn’t feel any physical block in my windpipe even though none of my efforts could draw in a single breath of air. Something inhibited me and I could sense it moving about halfway down in a deeply unsettling squirm.

But the desperate need to breathe that I had expected never came. I kept struggling, practically clawing at my throat, but several minutes later I was no worse off than before I started choking.

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Except the thing that had invaded my body needed to get out. From the beginning, it never stopped erratically squirming halfway down my throat. I coughed, I clawed–I even tried swallowing it down in one particularly irrational moment, but not one of my actions disturbed its position.

My eyes drifted over to the halberd, where I’d dropped it on the floor before passing out, and I got another terrible idea. I started crawling in its direction.

Just one little cut…If I’m quick, I doubt I’ll even feel it~

It would be simple to puncture a hole all the way to the invader. Not an issue at all–the ghoul had shown that. In the heat of everything that was going on and amidst the haze that was slowly lifting from my mind, I’d almost forgotten how that monster had bitten into my neck. When I came to in its lair, I hadn’t had any persisting injuries, so surely this would be fine…

My hand fell on the weapon’s pole, and I brought it close. The piercing blade on its end was incredibly thin, and its tip was sharp. It would hardly leave any damage at all.

I pressed the blade to my neck before I could talk myself out of it, positioned carefully so that it would pierce straight to my target and hopefully not harm much else. The grip I had to adopt on the weapon’s pole had it extending awkwardly out in front of me, but I made it work anyway.

Then I pulled sharply and stabbed it in. There was a single moment of resistance as the blade struggled to break my skin before I felt it puncture all the way to my target. For an instant, I was captivated by how entirely…forgettable the feeling of the wound was–then I put the thought out of mind as my entire focus went to the invasive thing that continued to squirm in my throat.

That didn’t work at all!?

The halberd’s blade pierced unerringly, but it didn’t feel as if whatever it was within me was even slightly bothered! Its movements hadn’t changed one bit–whether to slow or speed up frantically. Hell, the blade had done more damage to me than it did to it.

I growled out my frustration and removed the blade from myself mostly as an afterthought. There was absolutely no way that I would allow this creature to remain within me. Even if I had to rip it out with the rest of my throat, I would see it gone. I would see it dead.

The mere thought of it taking over part of me had my fury rising. The rage felt like a physical force as I clawed at my neck–not all that unlike the invader. It made me wild in a manner beyond even the most savage monsters in this world. I ripped into myself with no regard for self-preservation, and where the halberd had initially struggled, my claws felt no resistance.

The fury became me, I became the fury. It rose up from someplace deep within, and when it reached the spot where the creature squirmed, I felt a collapse. A piercing wail filled the air, one that I heard with something other than my ears, and suddenly the inhibitory block I’d felt disappeared.

[*ding You have slain [Death Sprite - level 42]!]

[+1 INT]

It’s gone.

I smiled in near-irrational joy and fell backwards to sit on my legs, then further until I was once again prone on the floor. I did it. The invader–death sprite, I suppose–was gone. Dead, by my hand. That felt right, for some reason.

I didn’t think of what it had taken to get rid of it, nor whether my wild actions had been worth it. I could feel the gore on my hands, but I felt no pain even as the shadows encroached on my vision once more.

I just lied there and waited.

My vision went dark a few times, but never for too long and not in the same way as when the sunlight overcame me, nor was it precisely similar to the unconsciousness the ghoul’s ambush had put me through.

It hadn’t been long since I’d awoken in that ravine. Only around a day, and since then, there had been three monsters to threaten me and I was nowhere close to completing even one of my goals. The world was certainly a dangerous place. It struck me then, that if I had any hope of finding my way, I needed to be the greater danger.

For that, I didn’t regret my impulsive actions, nor the bestial fury that preceded them. That had been the executor of the sprite’s demise, somehow. It had led me to my desired result.

But I knew I’d have to become capable of doing the same without losing my mind. I couldn’t let myself fall all the way to the level of things like the ghoul and wight. I killed those things, and I did so relatively easily. Those fights would have been incredibly more difficult if they had any true intelligence.

The ghoul could have taken better advantage of its speed instead of leaving itself vulnerable in the air. The wight could have done anything more than just drag me into the depths–that one hadn’t really fought me at all. They were each proof to me that setting aside my reason would only result in my inevitable failure and end.

But that didn’t mean I could abandon that fury either. It gave me strength when I needed it and slayed what all my physical efforts couldn’t even harm. I would use it, and I’d just have to make sure it didn’t blind me while I did.

With that decided, I chose to set aside all my concerns for a little while and rest. There would be another fight in my future, and soon, I had no doubt. It felt wrong to be still when I could prepare, but for now I simply relished in the quiet.

Eventually, my neck began to itch. I did my best to ignore it, but it grew to highly distracting levels all the same. When I finally chose to alleviate it with a scratch, I immediately froze in confusion at what I felt.

Nothing. It’s gone.

My throat was entirely smooth and unmarred by my claws. The wounds I’d given myself were gone, and I almost doubted they were ever there for a moment before I was reminded by the mess that still coated my hands, and even some of the floor.

I’d ripped my throat out to get at the death sprite, and its remains were still all around me–and yet I was fine. My confusion only grew when the itch left me and those remains started to dissolve in a dark, wispy smoke. I watched it all vanish before my eyes as if it were never there until my hands were entirely clean.

All the while, that feeling of wrongness coated my senses.

What…am…I?