CHAPTER 4: AMPUTATION

The giant corpse eventually falls face down on the ground with a spear still lodged in his chest and a big silhouette appears behind it. I expected some kind of knight in shiny armor that came to my rescue, but this place never fails to disappoint. It was the fucking demon…

He’s quite a large distance away from me, so I think he threw the spear. That would normally look like an impressive feat, if not for my terrified state of mind. The recent shocks I’ve received still haven’t gone away, and I’ll most likely have nightmares for the rest of my life.

He walks towards his prize with a large smirk on his face, occasionally glancing my way, but he doesn’t seem to want to kill me just yet. He’s just being overly cautious of the corpse. I’ll laugh if it would come back to life and start killing us.

His eyes seem to tell me that he is rather calm and calculated by nature, not a mindless beast looking to kill and eat everything in his path. Maybe I was wrong to judge him by appearance, and even if I wasn’t wrong, my fate is pretty much in his hands right now.

He finally reaches the corpse and grips the handle of his spear, ready to yank it out.

“WAIT!”

I try to warn him by reflex, but it was already too late. The sudden outburst made him flinch for a moment, but he applied enough force to the spear and it was getting pulled out. He realised something was wrong, and he begins staring at me with a worried expression.

*AARGGHHH*

The moment the spear was released from the fleshy grips of the monster’s chest, blood starts spraying everywhere, almost fully enveloping the demon’s left arm in it. Sizzling noise can be heard as smoke comes out of the burning flesh on his body. He starts squirming in pain and falls on the ground.

I try my best and get up, not wanting to waste this chance to get away from all of this mess. I gather my scattered belongings and my trusty dirk. I’m strangely lucky to still have it, despite my continuous encounter with misfortune.

“Vol’nur mas tiff es kull!”

I flinch. Wait … those were words i just heard!

I turn around and the demon is still on the ground, looking in my direction with his right hand pointing at me. They were words! I did not understand what he said, but this one is capable of speech. Which means it should be capable of thinking.

At this point I’m torn between the opportunity to run away, and the possibility to socialise after almost a year alone. I find it interesting that he can mumble words at me, but not understanding each other might be a problem. Though … in the state he is in I doubt he can do anything to harm me.

I move slowly towards him, and he is still pointing in my direction while his blood starts spilling on the floor at an alarming rate. He will probably die soon enough due to blood loss but you can never be too careful.

He’s taken a big hit and it looks like it really hurts, but he has clear resolve in his eyes. It isn’t resolve for survival, it’s something different.

“Oh!”

Now I finally realise. He isn’t pointing at me, he’s gesturing towards his finger. On his finger is a wooden carved ring with shiny imprints on it. It seems to give off a light blue glow.

I move slowly towards him, making sure not to make any sudden movements. I point towards his ring and he nods intently at me. I get a grip of his hand to make sure he doesn’t suddenly decide to strangle me to death, and i slowly pull out the ring.

‘I’m confused. Why would he give me his ring?’

He keeps gesturing me that it’s ok and I’m a little baffled at his endurance for pain, despite his arm being slowly eaten away by the acid.

“Ah!”

He wants me to wear the ring. But that might be a mistake, couldn't it? What if some sort of spikes come out of it and suddenly cut off my finger? Well, that wouldn’t really make sense since it wouldn’t help him in any way. But it still seems a bit of a shady deal. Maybe he wants to capture my soul in this ring? I still can’t see any way he would live even if he did. It’s not like my soul has the capability of instant healing, or I would have been immortal.

With half assed feelings i take the ring and put it on.

“Finally youngling … Agh ... I thought I would be dead until you *cough* decided to wear it.”

‘What?! I can clearly understand it? What is happening?’ His voice was incredibly hoarse, and it perfectly matches his aspect and bulky build.

“You can talk?” With a strained expression on my face I ask him, but I still have my doubts about trusting this man

“I cannot understand, youngling. The ring I gave you is what allows you to understand what I’m *cough* saying”

Ohhh … so that’s how it was. Well i guess I’m not going to lose my finger then. But … what should I do. He’s clearly sentient and he doesn’t look like he’ll kill me anytime soon…

“Youngling, I know … you’re confused. But I could really use a hand here. hehe”

He points as his now almost fleshless hand dripping with blood and full of pus and some sort of yellow liquid. This is hardly the time for jokes, but I guess that helped me trust him a little. But what can I even do to help him?

“It’s not as bad as it looks. The wound is somewhat contained *cough* … only to my arm. If you would find it in your heart to … cut it off. I would be greatful.”

‘Cut it off…’

That could most likely solve the wound problem, but he would probably still die due to blood loss. And asking someone to cut it off, isn’t exactly kindness.

“Don’t worry lad. *cough* … for now, help me with this, will ya’?”

God dammit. If only he didn’t look like a fucking monster, I could have asked him for help even back then. This is probably the worst possible way to meet with someone that isn’t crazy or trying to steal from me.

I don’t have much time, and I do have a bit of experience myself with treating wounds, so I should really hurry it up. I take all the cloth strips that i had and try my best to clean the dirk with what little water I had left.

I get close to his rotting hand and place my dirk just under his shoulder where the blood did not reach. It smells horrible, like rotting flesh, and this guy’s arm is huge, I doubt I’ll be able to cut it very fast. It’s probably gonna hurt like a bitch, so I hope he’s not gonna pummel me to death because of the pain.

“It’s ok youngling ... I’ve had worse.”

‘I honestly doubt that …”

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I grab a piece of cloth and shove it in his mouth to muffle a bit of his yelling and I start cutting away at his arm. As soon as I reach the bone, he screams his heart out and I can’t help but worry that some other monster will hear this. The cloth in his mouth isn’t helping much either. I’m doing such a bad job cutting this, that I feel like a T-rex trying to play the drums.

*MHHHHFFFFGGG*

I finally cut my way through the bone and through the remaining flesh. A stump is left in the place where his arm used to be. I wish I could do more to help him, but for now staying here will only bring trouble. I try my best and patch up his stump with as much cloth as possible. Blood is still dripping and the makeshift bandage can’t handle this big of a wound.

I take out the ring from my finger and place it on his so he can understand what we need to do.

“I did what I could, but we need to move. We’ve been staying here too long and I doubt nothing heard your screaming.”

He nods in acknowledgment and gestures for me to come help him up. I take his right arm over my shoulder and start carrying him. I also take his large spear and place it in his remaining hand. It’s much heavier than I expected it to be. We move towards where we came from so I can grab my bow, and I notice that he had placed a small backpack on the ground too, so i throw it over his spear and he grabs it with his hand.

We walk for about 20 minutes, and his bandage is already not enough to stop his blood from coming out. I need to take care of that wound before he dies or something smells the blood.

“I need to do something about your wound. I’ll let you down here for now, big guy.”

Same as earlier he nods in agreement and i place him with his back on the wall. He obviously looks like he’s in pain. I take out the small sticks and two small furs and i start making a fire. I normally wouldn’t even think about doing something this reckless, but the smell of blood would probably lure something our way before they would even see the light.

“I need to burn out the wound to stop the bleeding. Not gonna lie, it’s probably gonna hurt more than when I cut it off.”

With an obvious displeased look he stares at me and glances at the fire i started, but nevertheless he nods. I guess he at least understand the necessity of it. I throw the tip of the dirk in the fire to heat it as much as possible. It will probably completely ruin it, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take right now. I’d much rather have a muscular demon on my side than a fucking knife. Even a one handed demon at that…

Once the steel on the blade became a mixture of red and orange colors, I pick it up and get a good grip of his stump, removing all the red cloth.

“Sorry…”

*ARRRGGHHHH*

I place the heated steel on his fresh wound and his flesh starts burning away. I make sure to be thorough, and although he’s screaming in pain I don’t leave any spot open. Once I was done, his wound was a bit charred and the big guy looks like he’s dead or dying, but visible breathing and movement of his eyes indicate otherwise. His face looks a bit pale despite his red skin, but other than that he seems unusually calm. I get what little cloth i have left and patch up the stump.

“The wound should be good for now, and as long as it doesn’t get infected, you will live. But we can’t stay here for long.”

He looks very tired and about to faint, but there’s clear will to survive in his eyes, so he should be good. I can’t believe I lasted through cutting and burning a whole hand. I probably would have thrown up if this had happened in front of me a year ago.

He once again gestures to his ring, wanting to say something, so I grab it and place it on my hand. It’s a pretty awkward way of speaking, but it will have to do.

“You have ... my gratitude youngling. I’ll be able to walk in a few minutes so … don’t worry. I’m glad to finally be able to … talk to someone.”

He forces a smile on his face, making him look more fearsome than friendly, but I understand his intention. I feel the same way, so this could be a good chance to preserve my sanity.

“The name’s Vol. I’ll be in your care for a few days ... hope you’ll not throw me as fish bait anytime soon.”

I can’t help but crank a forced smile myself. He knows that I would probably abandon him if the situation asks for it. I’m not going to lose my life to protect him, and he obviously thought the same thing when he first saw me.

His plan to kill the monster while he was focused on me worked wonders, but I almost died in the process. I would have probably done the same, so I’m not going to judge him. Survival of the fittest as they say. Or in his case … survival of the luckiest. If I had just left and ignored him, he would have died for sure.

I take the ring and I place it on his hand again.

“I’m Regis. Hopefully you won’t eat me after you’ve recovered.”

“Hahah!”

It wasn’t the evil type of laugh I was expecting, but the type that you would have when someone said a good joke. Despite his horrible state, he’s still able to somehow laugh it off. He doesn’t seem like a bad guy either. I guess I finally found someone who’s in the same situation as me.

For now ... I’ll take care of him, and pay my debt for him saving my life.

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Had a few problems along the way with moving and college, but I was finally able to release a new chapter.

 He found a companion, but I guess it isn't exactly what you guys were hoping for. But I guess a cripple is better than nothing, right!? Also don't worry, the harem tag will come into play a bit later on. This guy is a bit special in what he knows though, so be prepared for that.

Also contemplating if i should remove the need for naming chapters or not, but I just might make it a multiple volume fiction, so i'll keep it like this for now.

I also got to making a wordpress site, but I noticed it's not exactly what I wanted, so now I'm looking to get a domain and have a bit more customization when it comes to my website. Look forward to it. I will also start posting my other works there once it will be up. I also have no real intention to post other works on this site anytime soon, maybe after i finish this fiction, but idk. Only the future will tell.

I'll keep you guys up to date, maybe even add a chatroom. 

As usual, please point out grammar issues or things you find wrong.

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