Chapter 3: Rebirth
“ There have been three major eras in the last millennia that have propelled humanity beyond the confines of gravity and into space… Can anyone tell me what event is often emphasized as the start of this new era? Precisely, mana, the discovery of mana. An intangible existence that embodied an inexplicable, untameable, and extremely malleable form of energy that could only be described as life force… This single event symbolized the beginning of the age of mana."
* An excerpt from a transcription of a lecture from Professor Klynebern's course MPHYS 100A: Introduction to Mana Driven Physics from the University of Earth Europe
The silence washed over Ash for a brief moment before an explosion of splinters and leaves showered the clearing where the trio had set up camp. A heavyset creature walked into the clearing, barely illuminated by the flickering campfire. It easily towered over Ash, standing tall a full eight feet, arms boasting bulging muscles, and its hide overlapping itself in rolls and folds. Its head swiveled left to right, looking for the skinny human that had attacked its manhood and embarrassed it in its own home.
As it scanned the clearing, the creature locked eyes with Gregory and shrank before his gaze. It went down on one knee and bowed its head, showing deference to the elder thing. Although Gregory was disguised as a human, the ogre had picked up on his smell and felt fear. It opened its maw and out came a gravelly rumble that reverberated against Ash’s chest. It seemed to be communicating with Gregory, using angry gestures and exaggerated motions to supplement its presumably weak grasp of any spoken language.
Gregory raised an eyebrow before turning to Ash.
“You didn’t tell me you kicked the ogre in its genitals. I guess that explains why it followed you this far. It wants to kill you, which should not come as a surprise to anyone, and I’m giving it my word that I won’t intervene.”
Gregory turned back to the ogre and nodded. The ogre lifted his head, but didn’t raise his body, still unsure if Gregory would intervene. Gregory stepped back and took a seat at the edge of the clearing. His inaction made clear, the ogre jumped into action, charging slightly toward Ash’s left, its palms open and making to grab her.
Her eyes hadn’t left the ogre ever since it had entered the clearing. Their last battle had cemented in her mind the ogre’s unbelievable strength and a speed not often found in a creature so bulky. Her ability to flee from the powerful foe was testament to her own strength just as much as it was a testament to her powerlessness. Still, she was fairly confident. The creature was strong enough to uproot trees from their base, but not smart enough to wield the tree trunks as clubs. Its head was stuffed with bat shit and wet straw, and she already had something of a plan to deal with the ogre.
She watched the ogre as it drew closer, noticed the ogre tensing its left leg for a pivot, and dodged left, mere inches away from the turning ogre. The ogre did as she expected, dragging its left leg behind and allowing its momentum to rotate its body counter-clockwise around the lagging leg.
Ash’s sidestep took the ogre by surprise. It had expected the human to dodge in the same direction it had the last time they had fought. Instead, the ogre had left its back wide open to the armed human.
It wasn’t terribly afraid, however, as their last battle had proved the human’s strength incapable of leaving lasting damage.
Ash didn’t let the opportunity slip, her arm glowing with a soft, red light. She swung her sword down in an overhand swipe, the blade sinking into the thick hide but not drawing blood. Ash quickly stepped back, anticipating a wide swing haymaker from the stupid oaf. She knew she hadn’t dealt any real damage. Her plan, really if it could even be called a plan, was to just hit the ogre in the same spot until it started to bleed, then hitting a different spot and repeating the same action. It wasn’t much and it’d be difficult, but it wouldn’t be impossible.
The ogre swung its arm back towards Ash in a wide, sweeping motion, just as she’d anticipated. Its arm whistled through the air as the ogre let out an excited roar. The ogre turned itself around to face Ash, its mouth parting to reveal sharp teeth, its lips curling up into a twisted grin.
Contrary to expectations, the ogre stayed put, carefully eyeing Ash. Ash began to worry that the ogre may be smarter than she’d thought, but her worries were put to rest as the ogre charged slightly toward Ash’s right.
‘Yup, as smart as a bucket of wet sand.’
Ash prepared to dodge right in response to what she assumed would be the ogre’s pivoting right leg. The ogre dragged its right leg behind and used its momentum to rotate its body in a clockwise direction, once again coming face to face with nothing more than a light breeze.
The ogre arched its back in pain, letting loose an angry roar. Ash stepped back once more, dodging another back-handed swing. Her sword had found purchase in the same groove that she’d made the first time she swung her sword, and although the strike hadn’t gone deep, she’d drawn blood.
Ash smiled, this was going to be easy.
~~
“Hurry up or it’ll be too late~” Sister cooed in a sing-song manner while Ash stared at the ogre’s corpse.
The creature had become increasingly more agitated as more of its attacks failed, and after the thirteenth charge, the ogre had wisened up. It was stupid, but it was ultimately still a sapient creature, if just barely. The monotony of the fight had gotten to Ash and she’d let down her guard as the ogre spread out its arms in both directions to catch Ash, regardless of which direction she dodged.
The creature’s arm smashed into her torso with a loud crack, the red glow that wrapped her body shattering like glass before she hit the ground like a sack of potatoes. Although the impact winded her, she’d kept her wits about her and rolled out of the way just as the ogre’s fists left an imprint in the dirt where she had just lay.
She’d been wearing leather instead of plate, otherwise the steel could very well have cracked inwards, potentially stabbing into her torso-- or worse. However, the leather had done little to mitigate the ogre’s powerful blow. Ash winced as she tried to get on her feet, her lower ribs feeling very broken. Her sternum had likely cracked on impact, and though some of her ribs had snapped, none of the bones had stabbed into her lungs.
Feeling a distinct lack of wet viscera beneath its fists, the ogre finally snapped. The repeated strikes against the ogre’s hide had successfully drained the ogre’s stamina, but it had also grown tremendously in anger before finally snapping and entering a state of blind rage. The creature became more reckless, its moves full of openings but simultaneously becoming more unpredictable.
Ash continued to keep her distance, but her movements had slowed. She continued to wear down the ogre, each successful strike sending it deeper into a raged frenzy. The ogre continued to recklessly launch itself at Ash, every once in a while clipping her arms or legs with a wild swing.
Ash stopped trying to retaliate and only dodged, waiting for the ogre to bleed out or collapse out of exhaustion. It was a battle of attrition. Ash’s every move felt like she was fighting through molasses while the ogre began to visibly slow. She fought against both the pain and the fatigue, and in the end, the ogre came to a grinding halt and collapsed face up onto the ground with a loud thud.
Ash hobbled over to the ogre, not having forgotten her purpose for fighting the damn thing in the first place. Though she was scared, she couldn’t help but start to feel a bit excited, afterall, a monster’s heart blood was a potent toxin. The way monsters gathered their essence was a distinctly different process than how humans processed theirs, and the two resulting products, mana rings and heart blood, were very very incompatible.
No sooner had Ash placed her hand on the ogre when a sudden flurry of movements knocked Ash off her feet. She fell face up and saw the foot coming before her body could register what was happening.
The ogre’s foot fell, making contact with her left leg with a sickening crunch. Ash let out a pained scream, her vision fading to black before another impact wrenched her mind back into waking and prompting her to let loose another scream. The ogre had slammed a leg into her side, sending shards of broken rib into her lungs and sending her sliding a few feet away.
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Ash closed her eyes, bracing herself for another impact. A loud thud reverberated in her ears, but the attack had never come. She struggled to look at the ogre, matted hair and a mixture and blood and sweat having found its way into her eyes.
It had collapsed backwards, facing the stars before departing forever into dream. Ash fought back against the pain and remained vigilant against the ogre. She hoped it had finally succumbed to blood loss, but she couldn’t be too sure, at least not until Sister spoke up.
“Hurry up or it’ll be too late~”
Ash took Sister’s remark as a sign that the ogre had finally bit the dust. She dragged her broken body towards the ogre and grabbed at its hide, her fingers trying to find purchase in the craggy exterior.
It fortunately did not take long to position herself atop the ogre stomach. She didn’t have the strength to crack open the chest or push her way through its ribs. Instead, she opted to reach under the ribcage and pull the heart out that way.
She extracted the heart and held it in her left hand, a boot knife in her right hand. The blade glowed red as she lopped off the top of the heart. She reached in and pulled out a rubbery flesh sack, careful not to spill its content, though that itself was a difficulty in and of itself. The sack was warm and it took more willpower than she was willing to expend just to keep her dinner down. The smell was horrible, the putrid stench of ogre’s blood and excavated bowels making itself an unwelcome guest in Ash’s sinuses.
Ash calmed herself. Sister said all she had to do was drink it when her body was on the edge of collapse. She wasn’t sure what that entailed, but blood pooling in her lungs, broken ribs, a cracked sternum, and one shattered leg made her think she was close. If anything, maybe the toxic nature of the heart blood would qualify her body for being ‘on the verge of collapse.’
‘Bottoms up,’ Ash thought to herself before she downed the contents of the sack in one go.
“Wasn’t too bad,” Ash muttered to herself right as she collapsed into a spasming heap of arms and legs.
“Oh shit oh shit oh shit” Sister exclaimed as her steps quickened toward Ash’s twitching figure. “I didn’t think she’d actually do it!”
Gregory followed closely behind, not excessively concerned, but still, a feeling in his gut compelled to move quickly. The two arrived just in time to watch Ash’s body calm down, but she remained catatonic. Sister materialized a towel in her hand to wipe off Ash’s face of what blood and sweat she could before lifting her other hand to Ash’s forehead. A brief touch indicated the telltale signs of a high fever.
Gregory moved Sister out of the way, a dark glass bottle materializing in an outstretched hand. He deftly unstoppered the flask, lifting Ash’s head and allowing a small stream of liquid to dribble into Ash’s mouth. Ash hacked and coughed as some of the liquid made its way into her lungs. Another touch to the forehead brought Sister a measure of relief as her hand retreated from the now cool skin.
~~
Janice jumped in her seat at the sudden roar that shook her home. She looked down at her hands, now splattered in herbs and chemical reagents. A tremor caused the walls of her cabin to shake again, various tools jumping and rattling off their hooks as a result. Experience told her that a fight was underway maybe five to ten minutes away from her humble abode. She put down her tools and grabbed her travel pack stuffed with various healing salves and medical supplies.
She had a fairly thorough understanding of the various creatures that called this place home and the boundaries of their respective territories. There weren’t many strong monsters out here, but just half a day’s travel away there lived a terrifying creature. She wasn’t too sure, but experience told her it was stronger than a Named, much much stronger. Thankfully, it seemed content to sit in its dungeon, only sending out the occasional band of gnolls to survey the area and scavenge for supplies. Its indisposition for active management had allowed weaker hegemons free reign over the region of the wilderness.
Judging by the sound of the roars that continued to assail her ears, it sounded like an ogre had met a foe that it couldn’t overcome. She’d wait a bit longer before heading out to go take a look. If the ogre was fighting another monster, then whatever, she’d back up and go back home, but if the ogre were fighting a human, she’d immediately try and rescue the poor sod that had the good fortune of pissing off an ogre.
For now, she’d wait for the roars to die down before heading over. With any luck, she’d arrive at the end of the fight.
~~
Janice arrived just in time to see a male figure pour, what she assumed to be, a healing concoction of sorts. She would have taken that moment to introduce herself, but something about the male and the loud female figure next to him made her feel uneasy. It was stranger than strange to see three humans this far into the wilderness, but they were clearly strong enough to take care of themselves. There was just something off about the two conscious humans. Just looking at them sent a shiver down her spine.
It looked like they had things under control, despite her own apprehensions. The clearing bore remnants of a campsite for three, and only the female on the ground displayed any signs of battle, so she felt assured that this was some sort of training mission for the girl on the ground and the other two were protectors of sorts. Janice made to back away but couldn’t move. The male had at some point reached out a hand in her direction, and following a grasping motion, Janice felt herself launch towards the man before coming to a stop, hovering inches away from the man’s hand.
The man eyed her, taking in her attire and pack before setting her down gently on the floor.
“Healer?” Gregory asked.
Janice stayed calm, her experience out on the battlefield having steeled her nerves and tempered her instincts. The uneasy feeling she’d felt earlier had intensified, reminding her of the time the expedition had awakened a primordial dark shard during the empire’s expedition beyond the divide. The dark shard’s mere presence had shattered the scouts, the minds of the soldiers turning against themselves and carving insanity into their souls if not killing them outright. They’d escaped only because the dark shard had been disinclined to leave its chamber. The expedition could only leave the bodies and retreat while condemning the passageways to the chamber on their way out.
The man in front of her felt more dangerous, like an explosion waiting to happen. She could feel that there was power being contained, but how much power she could not tell exactly-- only that it was more powerful than the expedition captain herself.
“Medic, to be precise. Janice is the name,” she spoke, her voice steady. The man hadn’t openly expressed any hostility, at least she didn’t think so. The pull was questionable, but for a being so strong, she figured death could come regardless of distance. She was pretty sure that he merely wanted to ask some questions and maybe elicit some help from her-- help she was willing to provide if her medical expertise was necessary.
Sister whistled when she heard the newcomer’s response.
“She’s fine Gregory, she’s only here to help,” Sister said before turning to Janice. “I never expected to see a real medic out here! They’re a rare breed, Grego, and they’re very very despised by the healing guilds. Free healing, practical training, and never before seen techniques and knowledge have both pissed off the guilds and incited jealousy. I thought you lot were disbanded and hunted down. Never heard a single whisper let alone seen the coattail of a medic while traveling the kingdoms.”
Janice shrugged. The purge had happened more than thirty years ago and she’d long since made her peace with the horrifying event.
“The order is gone, but the creed, the teachings, and the people remain. We knew what we were getting into when we went against the guilds. It was only a matter of time before they realized we followed a school of peregrinus.”
Now that grabbed Gregory’s attention. Gregory was a dabbler, someone who liked to learn and indulge in various crafts and practices. It wasn’t every day he met someone he could converse with someone on any topic of peregrinus. The knowledge was rare and oftentimes fractured and compiled into useless babble, but sometimes, like right now, you’d find someone versed in an entire school of it. Knowledge foreign to this world-- to this realm.
“A peregrinus school of healing. I have much I’d like to discuss with you,” Gregory said, his words followed by a cold gust of wind. Janice shivered, but the implied threat bounced right off of her. She stared back at Gregory with a defiant spark in her eyes, but before she could fly off the handle about the creed and how she’d rather die than yield, Ash’s body began to convulse again.
Sister panicked and Gregory looked lost. The two had planned to give Ash a little boost in power, but they’d underestimated the true danger of a human ingesting an ogre’s heartblood. Gregory had read somewhere that it was a widely practiced ritual in the west and Sister had heard that some barbarians grew strong enough to topple mountains by continuously indulging in the heartblood of powerful monsters. What they didn’t realize was that Gregory’s books were centuries old and outdated while Sister had failed to differentiate between fact and folklore. Gregory had read that it was a comparatively safe process that could be supplemented with a high quality healing concoction while Sister had heard that as long as one was on the verge of death, the adaptability of the human body would go into overdrive and tame the heartblood, absorbing the power of the donating beast.
While Gregory and Sister were struggling to think of what to do, Janice immediately sprang into action, bringing all her attention to the spasming figure on the ground. She placed her hands on Ash’s chest, a small stream of blue light diffusing into the body at her fingertips. Janice frowned, feedback from her probing had returned that Ash’s body was quickly falling apart as a level she couldn’t gauge. Her cells were aging rapidly, undergoing cancerous levels of growth while simultaneously experiencing levels of decomposition you’d find in a corpse. Janice could feel Ash’s heartbeat rapidly increasing, almost as if it were trying to pump the blood out of her body.
Feeling Ash’s body heat climb, Janice withdrew her hands and chanted an unintelligible mumble of words beneath her breath before a ten inch thick sheet of ice about six feet long and four feet wide slid onto the ground from her glowing blue hands. Without missing a beat, Gregory held out his hands and willed Ash’s off the ground and onto the ice. The ice squealed as it melted, the resulting water sizzling and steaming off into the air and making space for Ash’s body to sink into the ice. Her body sunk a few inches before an equilibrium was reached, her body temperature leveling out at a safe level.
Janice sighed in relief. She hadn’t known what the girl was suffering from, but the information he gathered from the probe and the resulting symptoms of the poor girl’s body had narrowed down the list of suspects to a smattering handful. The high fever made her think it was an infection, but the convulsions led her to think poison. Ultimately, it was the strange behavior of the heart’s vigorous pumping that had her settle on monster heartblood ingestion. It was a rare practice seen outside the western tribes, and for good reason. The fatality rate was too high and in the east, the practice was seen as barbaric and primitive-- the latter of which was true. Primitive it may be, but its effectiveness and efficacy could not be dismissed. The tribes had their own methods to increase the success rate, knowledge Janice did not possess.
She too had heard of the folklore surrounding heartblood, but more about the deaths rather than the rebirths. Rumors had floated around about people turning into blithering idiots, human bodies collapsing into boiling sludge, and bodies turning into desiccated husks after all their blood had been expelled through the orifices. So although she didn’t know how the tribes handled the process, she did figure out some impromptu measures to relieve some of the more immediate issues and deduce which of the rumors was true. The ice block would help regulate Ash’s temperature and prevent the high fever from cooking her brain and turning her into a ‘blithering idiot’, as one patron of the Hanging Rat had slurred out to her before falling off his stool.
As for the rest? There was little else she could do except hope Ash’s body, and whatever concoction the man fed the girl, was strong enough to hold everything together.