The instant I noticed my melting arm a retrieved my knife stabbed myself above the elbow.

The pain was horrifying and I screamed in agony. I didn’t stop running out of fear for the Gazers but I definitely slowed down from the pain.

In one swift movement I severed my arm. Blood quickly splashed from the open end and onto the ground.

I instantly felt my head feel light from the immediate blood loss and pain but I didn’t lose consciousness.

Without sparing a glance at my severed arm I picked up the pace.

“[Incarnat!]”

A hole opened up in the final building with a bang.

As I sprinted through the final building and to my freedom, I used every drop of my remaining mana to set the place alight.

The flames I released were so fierce that the Lamia, Gazers and even the buildings melted under the immense heat.

All the while I continued running as fast I could, blood spraying from arm with every heartbeat.

I was losing blood too fast, but I didn’t dare to slow down.

As I ran, I checked my entire body over for more melting parts and I immediately stabbed, severed or gouged these melting pieces until none remained.

In the end I had to cut half my left foot off, take a massive chunk of my left thigh, dig out a fistful of melting gunk from my chest, and cut 3 of my fingers off my left hand. Not the mention all the other injuries I had sustained from the Lamia beforehand.

Thankfully none of my vital organs or spinal structure was affected, but, I was still losing a lot of blood from these injuries.

My desperate attempt to kill the remaining creatures finally set them off my tail and the instant I realised this I plonked to the ground and started scrambling through my backpack.

Blood and soot covered everything.

At some point a Lamia had sliced my pack and I had lost over half the things inside. I never even noticed it because of the situation but apart of what I had lost was my medical supplies.

The moment I realised this I cut a strap from the pack and used it to stop the blood flow to my arm.

I then used the fabric and whatever else I could find inside to stop the bleeding as much as I could.

At this point I was beginning to struggle to see due to blood loss. If I didn’t stop the bleeding I would definitely die.

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As I scrambled through the pack some more, I found a small bottle tucked into the corner. It was a flask I had found at some point and inside it was shitty booze.

When I first found it I was ecstatic thinking I had won the lottery. That was when I discovered it tasted like horse piss. I decided to keep it to use as a disinfectant instead and thank fuck I did.

I poured the contents over my injuries and particularly my arm as I screamed in agony. Although I couldn’t hear my screams I could feel them thumping inside my head.

My skull felt like it would explode from the excruciating pain I was feeling. I couldn’t decide what was worse. The pain of my missing arm or the intense stinging from the alcohol.

After I emptied out the flask I tried to cauterise my arm with [Incarnat] but unfortunately I didn’t have any mana.

Immediately I closed my eyes and started concentrating on feeling mana.

This isn’t the first time I’ve been low on mana but it is the first time I’ve been empty.

In the past when my mana has gotten low, I have stopped using it just in case I passed out or something afterwards. Thankfully that wasn’t the case otherwise I would have passed out before escaping the Gazers.

When my mana got low, I noticed that it passively regenerates itself by watching [Soul Manifest]. However, this happens incredibly slowly. It takes multiple days for half of it to replenish itself passively. Then by experimenting I found that I could manually speed this up by focusing on its regeneration. It can be a little tiring but when I do this the process is 10 times quicker.

As I concentrated on feeling the mana around me I started absorbing it from the atmosphere.

As I did this I would periodically check [Soul Manifest] to see how much mana I had replenished. The process was a bit slower than usual because of the pain but I was able to quickly recover enough to cauterise my wounds.

I started with my arm and then worked around my body, screaming every time.

Once all my wounds were closed and I had done everything I could to prevent any more bleeding I immediately passed out. The exhaustion from blood loss and pain had caught up with me as soon as I felt safe.

Therefore, I laid there.

Completely exposed and unable to defend myself.

Somewhere outside, close by to the Gazers’ territory.

I slept there for the rest of the day and the next.

*****

The morning two days later I woke up with the sun blaring in my face. I laid there for who knows how long as my eyes adjusted after waking up.

Once I could see properly and I was lucid enough I tried to get up only to fail and slump back down. It was at this moment that I noticed birds flying above me.

Moving just my head I noticed I was also surrounded by at least 20 crows that were eagerly hopping around me, clearly looking for the easiest piece of me to rip off.

With great effort and a grunt of pained anger I swung my leg up in the air to scare them all off.

The birds scattered immediately before returning to the sky above me, waiting for me to die like a bunch of vultures.

I tried to get up a second time and this time I succeeded, however, my stiff body ached and groaned the entire time.

I licked my lips, noticing how dry my mouth is, and let out an exasperated sigh.

‘Can’t believe I’m still alive’.

Inspecting my body I noticed a large number of shallow wounds where the birds had clearly been pecking and eating my flesh.

I already felt like shit, but this took the cake to discover that fucking birds were eating me.

As I struggled to stand up, I swore to myself that I’d kill every damn fucking bird I came across after I recovered.

With my left arm cradling my right stump, I waddled back in the direction of my library.

Even in this deliberated state I can still recognise the landmarks near my home.

After about 2 hours of slow paced waddling I finally got home.

I encountered some weak ass creatures on the way but with half my mana recovered they were easy to deal with.

After getting a bucket of water and setting it on a fire I waited for it to boil, however, I passed out well before then and returned to another 2 day coma.