"Ugh..."
Stone blinked, feeling the weight of his eyelids, slowly bringing himself back to reality. Each exhale of his brought a sting of pain from his chest and right shoulder which were both mangled and bloody.
Pain circulated throughout his body yet the body could not regenerate and heal him.
As soon as Ston acknowledged the throbbing ache that had spread across his body he sprang up from his lying position.
"Augh.."
Once again he groaned as the sudden jerk caused the pain. When he looked around himself he realized that he was lying on the dead bear amidst of nowhere.
'Damn it, I passed out. That could end badly.' Fortunately, nothing bad happened during his sleep as this place was the territory of the bear and other animals didn't dare to go there.
Stone didn't dwell on it for long and assessed the situation despite the pain he felt. He quickly remembered that his arm was missing and found her lying in the snow and then on his right shoulder.
With this experience, he finally got to know that his regeneration can't regrow the limbs. For now.
*Sigh*
Losing an arm wasn't uncommon in the warrior's path but he was still young. He didn't want to end like Zephyr...
But when his thoughts turned towards this girl's crying face he felt some inconsistency suddenly. As if his instinct tried to tell him something was off...
He shook his head and stopped thinking about it. He can always think about that later.
For now, he needed to get back to the Bakur Tribe's camp. The camp of the alliance was already abandoned and barren so it would be meaningless to go there.
And so he tried to stand up. But the extreme sting of pain in his chest stopped him. He looked down and showed a surprised expression.
'I almost forgot about it.'
Right in the center of his chest was seen hilt. It was the hilt of the jagged blade that Triston used!
Stone frowned at that. The wound already 'healed' with the blade still embedded in him. This will cause even worse injury than when he was stabbed with it.
'Damn it.' He knew that the best he could do was to wait until he got to the camp so someone else with operate it out. Unfortunately, if he did that he would need to go back weakened. When he thought about this he remembered how he managed to kill the bear.
At that time the adrenaline allowed him to fight with it. Furthermore, he felt that he could muster much more strength yesterday. So much strength that even his muscles damaged themselves from the strain they developed.
'I don't think I can do that again. It felt like some limiter being lifted for a moment of danger.'
When Stone thought about it he was amazed at the wonder of the human body once again. He was convinced that this wasn't the power of his gift and that was why he was so surprised.
But that wouldn't help him in this situation and so he focused on the blade in his chest. He tore off the clothes he had on himself and put them beside him. He was still on the bear but thanks to its gigantic mass he didn't have any problem. In truth, he felt more safe on it right now.
Once he prepared the clothes to stop bleeding he put his left hand on the hilt.
*Hiss!*
Just that hurt him like hell as he hissed at the pain. But he preserved and squeezed it firmly. He had to do it slowly as the violent force could make it even worse. Of course, the wound would heal but he feared that he could bleed out with so big a wound.
And so he started with a grimace on his face. He didn't stop and did it on one slow push. The jagged part mangled his flesh but he endured it until he held the weapon in his hand.
Instead of checking it out he threw it aside and put the torn clothes to his wound trying to stop the bleeding. He slowed his breathing with meditation and pressed the wound. A few minutes later he felt that the wound was already closing and sighed in relief.
He feared that it wouldn't heal just like yesterday. But it seemed that the energy or at least stamina was needed for the regeneration to work.
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With this discovery in mind, he stood up, this time with the smaller problem, and slowly climbed down for the bear.
Looking at its ice armor he realized that this couldn't be a normal bear and instead some supernatural entity. And those tigers were also weird in Stone's mind.
'Are those the creatures the northern tribes fled from ?' He already found the answer after a few seconds. Despite knowing about them for some time this was the first time he or any other member of the tribe saw them. And they finally understood why some many tribes fled.
He went towards it and took the dagger in its eye. Then he turned to the jagged weapon and took it too. It was a good weapon. Now that he looked at it he thought it was quite long. Before he thought it was a long knife but it seemed to be a short sword instead. It was long enough to pierce through his chest and back. He just didn't realize.
He strapped it to his waist and then looked around. He didn't know how much time had passed. He was hungry and thirsty. So before going out on his way, he will need to eat.
And for that, he had the perfect candidate.
........
Later that day, Stone was roasting on the campfire the meat of the bear to eat and was boiling the snow to drink. It was hard to prepare it all as he wasn't used to having just one arm. So when he let the meat roast he turned to the arm tossed in the snow. He went to it and took it in his hand.
'What to do with it? Should I cremate it? I can't just toss it somewhere. It would be eaten or it would rot. In an even worse scenario, it would turn undead or something.' He sat down back to the campfire and thought about it. But he suddenly felt a little itchy on his right shoulder.
He felt that his instincts telling him something. And so guided by them with a frown he tried to put the torn arm on the stump. He already checked and the arm fortunately didn't start to rot. It seemed that he had a lot of vitality and the cold preserved it.
And so he put it on the stump without thinking much. What he didn't expect was that tissue from both his arm and shoulder started to move as if wanting to reunite. Stone was really surprised.
'I can reattach the limbs? That's great!' He was excited at this knowledge. He waited but it seemed that it would take a lot of time. So he put it aside before it could connect and instead went to eat. He was hungry and meat was a good input of energy.
The meat took a really long time before it was cooked but it was worth it. The meat was the best thing he ever ate. Or maybe second. He always liked eggs which his family had always small amounts. It was something special when he was young and the nostalgia made him more biased to it. Unfortunately, there were no chickens in the Valas so he could only take once a time eggs from bird nests. But there were not many birds living in these lands before let alone now during this cold winter.
Once he filled himself he used the rest of the hot water to clean himself. He was covered in blood of many origins and wasn't comfortable with it. Moreover, once the animals smelled the scent of blood he needed to get rid of it.
After that, he took the torn arm and put it in its place again. This time with patience he waited. It took several hours to make a slight connection making him realize that it would take at least several days for him to be able to move the arm again.
And so once he made sure the arm clings to the stump he went to lie down. Close enough to the bear so weak animals won't go near and far enough so the strong animals attracted to the blood won't find him first.
He didn't know if there were other creatures like the bear but he didn't want to risk it.
........
In this way, he spent another few days waiting for his arm to heal to a satisfactory level. Every time he got hungry he would eat a little from the bear's body or try to find some herbs in the local area and create basic medicine from them. The effect wasn't really good since he literally lost his arm but the energy from those herbs accelerated the process of the regeneration.
Unfortunately, some of the creatures got wind of the death of this beast and invited themselves to feast on the corpse. It seemed that this place was infested by them. Stone had to leave prematurely but fortunately, he didn't meet any dangerous animals on the way.
Sneaking around was his second nature after so many ambushes he managed to go around unnoticed. Since he couldn't just go climb that cliff he had to circumvent it which would take him several days.
Since he left the body of the bear he had to hunt to keep himself full. Every day he had to waste time hunting or foraging for something. If the entire preparation is taken into consideration the entire food problem wastes several hours a day.
Thankfully no other accident happened along the way as he strode towards the tribe's camp.
........
On the other side, Kaoran and Degres were already in the camp looking worried.
"Still no news about Stone's whereabouts or at least his tracks."
"Damn it. Those fucking tigers! Without them would our mission end so miserably ?" Degres was visibly furious.
"Calm down Degres. Being angry won't help you in any way." Said Kaoran while he smoked a pipe. He was in his tent while resting so he could heal better. After that raid despite the seemingly successful raid only 14 men came out of it without big injury. Another five were injured. The rest was either missing or dead. From the Bakur Wolves, only 6 remained.
"How can I be calm when all of this happened ?"
"I know. But we were already aware that this time would come the day I divined. It is an unfortunate accident that it happened when we were in the midst of the raid but we can't do anything with it. We must now focus on reigning the chaos in the tribe. The fact that those creatures were real and my divination was real made many restless. Because of the loss of our elite warriors, we are in a vulnerable position and need to act. I know you are worrying about him but there were no tracks which means he could be still fine. He has the gift which gave him the best survivability anyone could get. Now go the fuck out of my room and take care of your tribe! My wound hurts again because of you!" With that Kaoran stopped talking with Degres and closed his eyes to rest his mind.
He tried to look for anyone missing with the wind spirits but it was hard. He didn't have any contract with them or anything and had just a good affinity with them because of his gift. Because of that with their childish nature, they helped him only when they themselves wanted making him highly frustrated.
"Old man, do you thin-"
"Grand Shaman! Grand Shaman! Frozen Worm returned!" Suddenly someone entered without permission into Kaoran's tent and yelled this. Both Degres and Kaoran stiffened for a moment until a relieved smile appeared on their face.
"I knew he would be fine!"
And with that, they set out of the tent going receive their 'undying' warrior.