“So what do I call you? Just Vagabond, or do you have an actual name?” Alice asked him some time after departing the village.

“Jonathan.” He simply replied.

“Jonathan… what?”

“Just Jonathan. No surname.”

“Were you an orphan then?”

“No. My parents just were not wealthy enough to get one registered.”

Alice’s eyebrows furrowed at that.

“That seems like a strange custom. Where did you say you were from again?”

“I didn’t” Jonathan answered, but decided to open up a moment later. “Dalmatia. The city of Lenhaven.”

“Haven’t heard of it. Inner or outer ring?” Alice continued her questions.

“Uhh. Outer?” Jonathan said, unsure of his answer. His knowledge of this world’s more in depth details were shaky at best, knowing only what was publicly available for planeswalkers to know. People of this world had little to no actual knowledge of the wider reality, and visitors from outside weren’t supposed to tell them. He was already breaking rules by having to get involved directly to power himself up. That much could be forgiven by the council, but disclosing more secrets than he needed to wasn’t so easily looked over.

“That’s cool! I’ve always wanted to see other rings.” Alice didn’t seem to notice anything odd in his behavior, causing Jonathan to relax slightly.

“But you do need a last name. If your mind is set on fighting the cult, you probably need to join the Order sooner or later, and they’ll ask for it. I’ll just call you Jonathan Dalmatian.”

Jonathan nodded. It didn’t really matter for him, but if a surname was needed in the future, it was good to have one ready.

“So what does your family do in Dalmatia?”

“Nothing. They died over a decade ago when the place was destroyed.”

“Destroyed?!” Alice exclaimed “I’m so sorry.”

“Thank you.”

“So how did you end up here, out in the middle of nowhere?!”

“I’m not entirely sure myself. I was in a.. umm.. you could call it a magical accident. I woke up in the middle of the field some distance away from the village, and you pretty much know the rest.”

“Oh right! I forgot you were some kind of a wizard! Did you go to school for it? Or are you a hedge witch. No, don’t answer! You definitely went to school. What’s your specialization? Or is that rude to ask?”

The questions kept on coming, and a bit by bit, Jonathan started to warm up to the conversation. The thing about Alice that made her easy to talk to, was the fact that she didn’t seem capable of awkward silences. If a lull in conversation was threatening its presence, she changed the subject entirely, starting to ramble about something else.

She had an excellent way of controlling the flow of conversation, and her curious nature about the wider world made Jonathan loosen his lips slightly about his own travels across the planescape, editing the stories only lightly to preserve the larger secrets.

“That’s bullshit!” Alice exclaimed after he had finished his retelling of his former group’s encounter with a pack of magma drakes.

“Nope. They really fled.”

“No! Not that, but the whole thing! There is no way you did all that without getting yourself killed! You’re even at a lower level than I am. Even a normal drake would squish either of us, let alone a pack of enhanced ones!”

“Ahh.. that…” Jonathan paused. He had forgotten that particular fact about the believability of his story. Not really knowing how to respond to the accusation, he told the truth, or at least a version of it. “I told you I was in a magical accident, right? The very same accident that left me here also stripped me back to the beginning. Level one.”

“How did that happen?” She sounded skeptical, which was good. If she had just believed his word, Jonathan’s estimation of her would’ve dropped quite a bit.

“I don’t know.” He admitted it easily. Aether was random, and as experimentation with it was outlawed, there wasn’t much information out there detailing what it could do. “If I had to guess, the wild energies ripped me apart and reconstructed me elsewhere. Since your power is a part of your physical body, rather than your soul, the reconstruction wasn’t perfect. Or maybe the levels were used as fuel for the reconstruction? In any case, I’m alive so I shouldn’t complain.”

“But?” Alice asked, feeling the heaviness in his words.

“But… I lost people. I suppose I’m feeling some kind of survivor's guilt. And knowing that doesn’t make it better. I led my friends into a fight only to watch them die one by one. If I could exchange my place with any of them…”

For the first time since leaving the village, Alice let the silence fall over them as they kept on walking towards the mountain. Jonathan couldn’t tell if she had believed his story, but it was obvious to her that he had lost someone close to him, and he was in the middle of dealing with it.

When she started talking again, her voice didn’t carry the same upbeat energy as before.

“How are you holding up?”

“Honestly? I don’t know.” He let out a bitter laugh. “I’ve been here barely a week and haven’t had the proper time or space to just unwind. Staying in motion helps for now.” Jonathan knew that he was currently avoiding confronting his bottled up emotions. It wasn’t the healthiest coping mechanism for the long term, but it was the only one he could deal with at the present.

Two days passed peacefully. The misty grasslands weren’t particularly memorable, making hours blend easily together. The pair continued their chatting, Alice making sure to avoid the heavy topics, which Jonathan appreciated. She still didn’t fully believe the stories he told about his group’s past travels, but still allowed him to talk, asking questions every now and then. Reminiscing of his friends helped Jonathan in ways he couldn’t put to words. Perhaps that was the reason memorials were held at funerals. Telling stories about lost loved ones held a certain kind of power no magic could properly match.

On their third night the pair was sitting around a campfire. The gathered lumber was wet and smoky, filling the still air with cracks and pops. Jonathan was clicking his tongue every few seconds, sending out sonar pulses to scan their surroundings. It was a habit he had been doing their whole travel, and this night Alice finally asked about it.

“Okay you have to tell me, what’s with the tongue clicking! It’s driving me crazy!”

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Jonathan was about to explain the spell when his latest click brought back something.

“Kill the fire.” He hissed, crouching low.

Alice was about to argue, but Jonathan’s serious expression told her that it was urgent. Alice threw a pile of mud over the flames, making them go out without a sound.

“What is it?” She whispered, looking around in the darkness.

“Something is coming. It’s big, about a hundred meters to our left.”

“How do you..”

“No time. Get ready for a fight.”

Time crawled in tense silence. Out in the near distance Jonathan could hear barely audible footsteps slowly thumping against the ground. The creature, whatever it was, was approaching them quietly. His echolocation didn’t provide too many details. It was enough to get a sense of the land and anything moving within, but wasn’t as accurate to properly identify the approaching threat. But it was powerful.

Alice tensed up next to him, feeling the magical aura spreading across their surroundings. It had to be thirty, no, forty levels above them at the minimum.

“We should run!” She whispered, her body struggling to remain still. Jonathan ignored her, his pride not allowing him to flee.

As the creature approached, so did its smell. Jonathan was good at identifying scents. It was a skill that was entirely unnecessary on this occasion. The beast reeked of the kind of rot that reminded you of battlefields days after the fight had taken place. The smell was too powerful, too visceral to be natural, meaning that it was likely to be an effect of a skill.

It didn’t take long for the creature to become visible through the fog. A large ursine beast emerged, slowly crawling towards them. The bear’s fur was black and matted with dried blood. Its sunken eyes glowed with faint turquoise light as it scanned its surroundings, its nose twitching as it sniffed the air.

If the turquoise light wasn’t enough of an indicator, the fact that the creature’s flesh and bones were visible through holes in its fur told the pair everything they needed to know. The bear was an undead, and clearly of a variety Alice recognized.

“A rot ghoul!” She gasped, a horrified look in her eyes.

Jonathan didn’t recognize the name, and it wasn’t descriptive enough to give him a good sense of its capabilities.

“What do you know about them?” He hissed back,

Alice didn’t get a chance to reply as the bear spotted them, charging into their direction, its mouth hanging open, tongue dripping black, tar-like substance. Jonathan had the feeling that if it could roar, it would have, but the only thing to come out of its maw were white larvae that flew in the air as the bear charged.

Jonathan and Alice split up, dodging in different directions as the bear rushed through them. Everywhere the beast took a step, more of that black sludge was left behind, making the grass around its paws decay at an accelerated pace. Note to self. Don’t let the bear touch you.

Alice stood up and drew out her sword, her hands trembling. It was clear that she wasn’t holding high hopes of their survival. Jonathan couldn’t blame her. Without his experience, facing off a beast of this strength at his level would’ve been almost certain death for anyone. Winning was optional, survival mandatory.

The bear turned around, its eyes glowing a bit brighter. Before it could charge again, Jonathan unleashed a deafening scream, staggering the beast for a moment. The effect didn’t last for long so Jonathan took advantage of the momentary disorientation and threw out a pair of wind blades.

The arcs of solidified air merely grazed the bear’s skin, having little to no direct impact. Well, shit. What now?

Jonathan managed to dodge the bear’s second rush, but as it flew by, a spray of the dark, maggot infested ooze burst from its side, catching Jonathan by his arm. Before he could swipe it off, the maggots had sunk through his clothes and into his skin.

A sudden wave of pain ravaged his body. The maggots were moving up his arm, eating the flesh inside. Jonathan fell on the ground, clutching the inflicted limb. The agony made thinking impossible, completely paralyzing him in place. Somewhere in the far distance, he could hear Alice shouting “CUT IT OFF!”

Jonathan didn’t have the presence of mind to figure out what the words meant. He needed to get rid of the pain and fast. Focusing the scraps of his willpower, he created an air bubble inside of his muscle tissue, right below his shoulder. Converting more mana into air, the pressure inside of the bubble grew. Seeking release, the air flew down his arm and out of the holes the maggots had dug, blowing the white grubs through their entrance.

The pain lessened, but in his current situation, that wasn’t much better. His whole left arm had gone numb, and would probably take weeks to recover under the best of circumstances. These weren’t the best of circumstances.

Wind blades having proven ineffective against the bear, Jonathan wasn’t entirely sure what he could do. He saw Alice dodge rolling away from the bear’s claws, stumbling a bit on the recovery, the soft ground made their footwork unsteady. He didn’t want to leave his newest travel companion fending off the beast by herself, so Jonathan rushed into action channeling spell after spell, trying to draw the bear’s attention away from Alice.

His air cannons struck the bear, making more of the ooze burst out with each blow. Ultimately, that was just annoying the bear. Jonathan didn’t know enough about rot ghouls to devise a plan. What were its weaknesses? Were the maggots the thing that kept it alive, or were they a method of attacking? What else could the beast do?

An air cannon striking the bear’s nose finally caught its attention. The ugly monster turned towards Jonathan. If an undead could show signs of emotion, Jonathan could’ve sworn that the bear looked surprised to see him standing. He didn’t want to take any more chances to dodge its charge, only to be sprayed with the maggots again, so as the bear got close, Jonathan leaped over it, propelled by a gust of wind from his feet. That maneuver alone took almost as much mana as he had spent in the entire fight up to this point, leaving him feeling slightly winded. Too expensive of a skill to use more than in a pinch..

The wet mud sank around his feet a bit as he landed behind the bear and he was barely able to dodge the claw swipe that soon followed. Jonathan gasped for breath as he ran from the bear. His energy reserves were starting to dwindle and he probably couldn’t carry on much longer.

“Alice!” Jonathan shouted, trying to come up with a plan to survive. Outrunning the beast was unlikely. Both of them were tired from the days of walking, and the longer the fight carried on, less of a chance they had to make an escape. “How do we slow it down?!”

“Holy magic! Do you have any?!” She called back. While she was trying to help, that didn’t solve any of their current problems.

“Anything else?!”

The bear charged at him again, forcing Jonathan on the defensive. Now that he was aware of the maggot fluid’s effect, he made sure to blow it away with small gusts as the bear spat it at him. Jonathan was barely able to keep himself out of its claws reach, but each attack the bear made forced him to expend more energy to stay alive.

“Fire?” Alice’s voice came, sounding defeated. They had just put out their bonfire.

If only he had access to some of his costlier spells, this fight would be over in an instant. Storm cleaver would likely take the beast out in a single hit, and weather magic would’ve just been unfair to the bear. But that was a moot point. He would have to make do. Winning was optional, survival mandatory.

Jonathan backtracked more as the beast engaged him again. As it did, Jonathan noticed something that gave him a glimmer of hope. With all their rolling, jumping and charging, the already soggy ground had started to become proper sludge. If he could soften the ground even more, create a sinkhole to trap the bear in, they might stand a chance to escape. But for that, he needed time.

“Alice! Switch!” He roared, sidestepping the bear’s latest attack while throwing an air cannon out from his foot, knocking its head to the direction of his friend and propelling him a few meters away.

With his left arm hanging limp, Jonathan didn’t stick the landing, falling face first into the mud. For a heartbeat, he thought his life was forfeit. If the bear had pursued him, it would’ve managed to tear him to shreds before he managed to recover. However it seemed that luck was on his side as no attack came and he could stand up.

He needed to be fast. Wiping his eyes clear Jonathan could see Alice struggling against the monster. She couldn’t keep it up for long.

Jonathan started blasting the ground with wind, sinking almost every point of mana he had available into the effort. Tiny needle-like breezes penetrated the dirt creating multiple small air pockets underneath, while stronger blasts softened the surface layer even further. The area he was creating was too small to catch the whole creature, but without more time and mana this was the best he could do.

With his last bit of energy, Jonathan sent out another deafening scream towards the bear, drawing its attention to himself once more. Alice withdrew from the fight silently, letting the monstrosity to focus on him. It opened its mouth to roar, causing more white fat grubs to fall.

It started running towards Jonathan, who in turn took slow steps back. If the bear missed the trap, he wanted to be closeby in order to guide the monster into it. In his fatigue however he had underestimated the beast’s reach, and as its back paw sank into the makeshift sinkhole, the bear’s claws managed to make contact with Jonathan.

His skin was torn apart, the claws slicing him from his forehead down to his chest. Jonathan could barely feel the pain on his body, his adrenaline giving him a second wind with just enough energy to flee. He started running, spotting Alice’s figure waving at him not too far away. Jonathan held his chest wound closed with his working arm, trying to keep the flesh together to mitigate some of the blood loss as he ran towards the woman.

“You’re hurt!” Alice’s voice was worried, but there was no time to stop and investigate the damage.

“Run. That won’t hold it for too long!” Jonathan managed to grunt and the two fled into the night.