When he came to the room had filled with smoke and one the beds between himself and the door was a blazing inferno, apparently, he had not used up all of the fire in the room. A notification swam in front of his face but he was too hazy to concentrate. Looking down he could still see the sword skewering his leg.

After several seconds he managed to pull himself together enough to read the notification.

WARNING

You have suffered a massive injury. All recovery rates reduced to 10% until healed.

You have an ongoing injury HP regeneration disabled

Your left leg has been crippled, the effectiveness of the agility attribute reduced by 50%

He took a look at his HP and found that it was at 20, his healing spell should have brought him much higher than that. John tried to sit up but when he moved his left leg a burning pain jolted through his body and reduced his HP by 2 points.

He had regained some of his mana and was able to keep the smoke away from him but he had nowhere near enough to manage those flames. He was either going to fix this or he was going burn to death. He tried to use shift to push the sword out but the skill failed as soon as the pain hit.

Instead, he tried something else. Pushing his mana into the sword he felt the orderly lines and layers of the metal, the sharp edges and the sturdiness of it. He could feel the fire and the earth within it and willed the metal to move out of his leg.

Skill Gained NAME: Metal Manipulation Metal conforms to your will, it's tempered nature begs for use.     Effects- Allows you to control the shape and movement of Metal, proficiency and efficiency increases with skill level MP cost- Variable Activation Time- 3s Level 1

The blade dulled and split in the middle, both sides removing themselves from his leg. The pain was unbearable and he fainted before he could finish. One side had been removed the handle and base of the blade still embedded in his knee. When he awoke the flames were getting dangerously close and he could feel his skin beginning to blister.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

Using shift, he elongated his arm just enough to grab the handle of the blade and yanked it out. A loud scream emerged from his mouth and he nearly blacked out again, the heat of the flame the only thing keeping him awake. He could feel the moment his HP regeneration took into effect. By this point, his mana had regenerated enough to heal once more, closing the wound on his knee but his regens were still 10% of normal.

The pain subsided enough from that that he was able to roll away from the flames enough, smashing into the wall beneath a window. Grasping the window ledge he pulled himself to his feet. His head light and his only working leg shaking he pulled a baton from his inventory and smashed the window. He cleared as much of it as he could and then threw himself through.

He was able to use earth manipulation enough to bury the glass so he didn't impale himself and he lay there in the grass.

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

The other guards had been late relieving them from their shift so those on watch had come back to give them a kick up the arse and send them out. Inside the barracks was completely silent and completely empty. There was no-one patroling, no guards, the mages were not in their study and the necromancer was nowhere to be found.

"What the fuck is going on here"

"I dunno but I don't like it, you think that necromancer got out?"

"How? He was in cuffs and there were guards everywhere..."

After that last statement, the whole group fell into silence and stayed on alert. The silence reigned for long moments as they stalked through the halls but was suddenly broken by the shouts and clangs of battle. 

By the time they reached the barracks the hallway was flooded with flames, it looked like the room had been set ablaze and they could just about make out the shape of the bodies of the guards and a horrifying monster on the floor with half a blade sticking out of its leg.

"What the fuck happened here? Is that a monster? how did it get passed us?"

"Have you seen that thing? It'd blend in way too well in the night how are we meant to spot stuff like that?"

"The better question is how did it kill everyone and where are the bodies? do you think it's working with that necro?"

"No way, monsters don't work with pe...."

At this point the thing moved, it's arm stretched and it ripped the broken shaft of the sword out of its knee and rolled. There it cast a spell, produced a stick from thin air and broke the window before flopping out of it.

"Since when do monsters have inventories?"

"Who cares? How was that thing even alive? It was cut to shreds?"

"Did it use magic?

Again that last question gave them pause, so much that it took the flames licking up next to them to break them out of it. 

"We should go finish it off, it looked pretty hurt, I doubt it can put up too much fight."

The rest looked unsure but went along too, making their way outside and round towards the window. That was when they heard the loud bang and the first gnome collapsed with a hole in the middle of his head.