When Edge snapped back into his body, he realized that he was high in the branches of an enormous tree. Not so much hanging from them, as transfixed by them.
Apparently, plunging through the canopy had broken his fall and saved his life. It had also impaled him in a half dozen places. He had a shorn branch jutting through the meat of his shoulder, and another sticking out of his thigh.
A third was piercing his neck, millimeters short of having nicked his jugular and sealing his doom. Well, that explains why I hurt so fucking much.
If Edge tried to free himself, he was going to cause some serious damage and probably fall to the ground, which might just finish the job in his condition. He was slowly regenerating, but it was going to take quite some time to patch him up at this rate.
He wasn’t ready to move just yet, which brought him to the only other thing he could do to improve his situation. Spend the nine attribute points he’d earned from killing Warren and cycling-up his core. Under the circumstances, my only priority is getting down from here alive.
After a moment of deliberation, Edge decided on an even three-way split.
First, he would take three Durability, to mitigate the damage he suffered while extracting himself from the branches that were impaling him. Having more Durability would be welcome regardless, since it would help prevent a similar situation from arising in the future.
Then Edge would grab three Amplification, so that regeneration could patch him up faster, and three Generation, so the skill had enough mana to do so.
Since he was already close to passing out from sheer sensory overload, he spent the points one at a time. Normally, he would have enjoyed the feeling of his tissue reconfiguring. Of the components to his core growing more efficient and complex.
As it was, he just focused on his breathing and tried to get through this rather unpleasant moment without screaming. When the bolts of potentia were released from his core, Edge closed his eyes and waited for the upgrades to work their magic.
An hour later, he was in considerably better shape. He was still run through by several big sticks and sprawled out in the least comfortable position of his life. But his wounds had closed, and his organs weren’t so bruised. His reservoir was slowly starting to fill, since there wasn’t any more damage for regeneration to heal until he removed the foreign objects from his body.
Fuck it. It’s time to get down. He probably should have waited until his reserves were full, but by this point, Edge had experienced all the pain that he could take.
The first thing that he did was move his neck to one side, trying not to scream as the wood was pulled through his flesh in the opposite direction of his vein. When the gruesome task was finished, the cut began to seal, and he didn’t have to worry about bleeding out anymore.
Now that he could look down, he did, relieved to find that he was only fifteen feet in the air. He had been afraid that he was stuck higher up. Now he didn’t have to worry about the fall killing him either. He activated shadow step, so that he could slide his body through the branches without pulling them out one by one.
He continued down to the ground, absently noting that although he didn’t feel like he weighed anything while in shadow form, he still hit the dirt just as hard as he normally would, so a longer fall would probably be bad news.
I’ll figure out the physics later. I need to get back to town before anything finds me out here. I don’t want anyone to know what happened, and I’m in no condition to fight off predators drawn by the scent of blood on the wind.
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Edge resolidified, and immediately put pressure on the holes where the branches had been. He couldn’t afford to lose too much blood before regeneration sealed them up. A few minutes later, his flesh was whole, and his tank was empty, but he was good to go.
Out of the tree and free from pain at last, he took a long look around. His jaw dropped when he witnessed the devastation that had been wrought to this section of the grasslands. Now that he wasn’t caught up in fighting for every breath, he could appreciate how much firepower the manslayer had brought to bear. How lucky he was to have survived, although quick thinking and determination had played a role too.
One massive patch of grass was razed to the ground. Steam and ash still wafted through the air, although most of the smoke was gone. If the plains’ magic hadn’t been able to contain the blaze, the whole region would have burned, and Edge along with it.
A big patch of yellow flowers was torn to shreds. Casualties of the magtech device Warren had used to escape entangle. The adjacent area was flooded, where he had used the ocean’s prison spellshot. The thirsty earth had begun to absorb the moisture, turning red earth to wet clay.
The ground by his feet was free of loose sticks and rocks. They had all been sucked into the prison before falling back down, forming a massive pile.
The final section of soil he inspected was simply gone. The place where Warren’s body had exploded was now a smoking crater ten feet deep in the middle. Edge swallowed as he realized how close he had come to getting caught in the blast, joining the man in death. Crazy bastard. Who would waste Mortium and implant slots just to take out whoever managed to kill them?
Edge had no desire to linger in the area for long. The intense mana released during the fight was sure to draw attention sooner or later, and he was in no condition to deal with curious critters. Not to mention the questions that would arise if another person found him out here under the circumstances.
But he wasn’t leaving without his gear. His pack had come off while he was trying to get down from the tree, and everything he owned was inside. He set down the revolver and potion, then climbed back up to retrieve it—glad that the flap was shut tight. He put everything inside and then moved on. That just leaves my naginata.
He eventually found his polearm sitting in the flooded area. After he shrank the shaft and strapped it onto his back, Edge spent a few minutes looking for Warren’s body, on the off chance that more of his gear was still intact. But he quickly gave it up as a lost cause.
He couldn't find so much as a scrap of leather or fragment of bone near where the manslayer had detonated the powerful magtech implant. He shrugged and then started walking, with a wide grin plastered on his face. It was impossible not to be satisfied after escaping with his life, claiming the most valuable item Warren owned, stealing one of his skills, all his Mortium, and picking up the experience from the kill.
As Edge started heading south, he took a closer look at his inventory, ready to find out how much damage the fight had done to his equipment.
His pack was a bit melted but still ok, and his belt was only a little singed. But his armor was in bad shape. While it was probably salvageable, he would need a skilled leatherworker to repair the rents and holes. Not a bad deal at all. The cost of repairing his gear would only be a fraction of what he’d made from the fight.
His clothes, on the other hand, were a ruined mess. They were covered in tears and burns. Stained with grass, mud, blood, and a few exotic colors he wasn’t honestly sure what were. Fortunately, he had a change in his pack.
After taking a quick look to make sure that no one was around, he stripped to his skin, rinsed himself off with the last of the water in his canteen, then changed. Rather than carrying the evidence of the fight with him, he dug a shallow hole, activated conceal to erase the trail leading to the spot, then buried his shirt and pants. He used the skill again after moving away, eliminating all signs that he had passed through the area.
Since he didn’t want anyone to know that he had been involved in what had happened, Edge circled the grasslands for the next hour, planning to enter town through the south gate this time around. On his way, he stopped to kill a few small animals, so it would look like he’d had a poor day of hunting instead of returning emptyhanded.
When he came across a shallow pool, he removed his armor and washed it off as best he could. Then he rolled it up and strapped the bundle to his pack, so that no one would see how badly it had been damaged and wonder what had happened. He didn’t think its condition would reveal anything suspicious, but the timing would raise eyebrows for sure. He took his hat out of his pack and put it on his head, then continued on his way.
Today had been the most dangerous day of Edge’s life, and also the most rewarding. Now it was time to celebrate the fact that he was still alive before his exam began.