It’s strange being out in the cold under dressed but not being cold. Standing at the bus stop in the heavily falling snow I realize my light winter jacket shouldn’t be enough to keep me warm. It’s just past three in the afternoon, twenty degrees, and a light wind to boot. Yet somehow I’m not cold. It’s not that I can't tell it's cold, I can still feel it, I just don’t feel as cold. Ah well, just another freaky side effect of the demonization bullshit. I feel myself frown just thinking about that crap again. I instead go back to focusing on my phone, watching more cat videos on vidshare. This time it's cats falling into water. So I’m just minding my own business looking at my phone, just like the other two people at the bus stop. One is a business lady who’s in a nice suit, fancy coat, and clearly shivering as the coat is made to look good, not function well. The other is a burly dude who I think I recognize from the registration seminar. It's kinda hard to tell since he’s wearing a mask and heavy jacket to keep the cold away.
The bus is running late, the online schedule shows it as supposed to be here every hour on the dot. But it's now three ten and no bus, and no notice from the Shimerview official channels saying buses are canceled. Still, the buses have operated in worse, so I highly doubt they would be canceled for this weather. Well who knows? Shit's probably still fucked up from Friday, honestly I should just be happy the buses still run.
The soft sound of snow getting compacted underfoot comes from behind me and I turn my head to get a look at the poor schmuck who's decided to stand next to the pole with us. Instead I'm greeted by some sort of blue canine-like creature pouncing at me from several feet away with its fangs out. I barely duck in time to avoid its attempt at my throat, instead getting my hair smacked around by its paws as it fly overhead. In that moment i do manage to get a feel for it though, having my horns out under my hat. It's barely more powerful than me, and for some reason I find that helps alleviate my panic. The creature lands as I pop back up, skidding across the slick roadway with the salt and sand mixed with slush grating under its feet. The woman next to me shrieks as the creature, no, the demon lets out a guttural growl that sounds like a hyena mixed with an overly angry cicada. It looks like a blue wolf, but it has a lion mane around its neck, and horns protrude haphazardly up the length of its snout. Its feet bear no claws, but each is as large as my head, while the creature itself is the size of a mastiff. It bares its fangs as it growls, revealing sharp teeth punctuated by two huge canines at least an inch and a half long.
This demon seems familiar, but I can't quite place it. But before I get to figure it out the demon lurches forward again. Its feet slip for a moment on the semi slick the roadway, giving me just enough time to dive out of the way as it makes another running jump at my neck. I hear the woman's shrieks getting farther away as I scramble back to my feet. I get up and spin to face the damned thing again just in time to throw my left arm out to protect my neck. It bites down savagely as a pulse of pain shoots through my arm. It starts thrashing violently, trying to tear my arm apart. Surprisingly it has little effect, the demon only managing to move me a step throwing the full force of its weight around. I realize just how freaked out I am as my brain slightly lowers its fight or flight response at that revolution. I can hear my heart thundering in my chest and every heavy breath I take as I desperately try to keep the demon from thrashing me about.
Now we're at a stalemate of sorts. The demon is clearly faster than me. But also hasn't done much damage aside from the initial bite, which I suspect only did as much as it did because of the two large teeth it sunk into my arm. The stalemate only lasts for a moment though, as the thumping of boots in the snow and a war cry from the side draws our attention. The man from before, the one who I suspected I saw at the seminar, comes rushing over, his fist glowing while he screams something in a language I don't understand. The demon gives him the side eye for a moment, then seems to ignore him in favor of continuing to try to rip my arm off. It regrets that decision a moment later as the man slams his fist into the demon's shoulder with a nasty crunching sound. The demon lets go of my arm with some sort of yelp mixed in with a screech.
I stumble back, cradling my wounded arm and assessing the damage. The sleeve is shredded, and two large holes slowly ooze blood that drips off my arm onto the fresh snow. I expected worse, but the arm still throbs in pain with every second from the wounds the demon did manage to inflict. An angry yell draws my attention. I look up from my arm to see the man squaring up with the demon, the audacious beast's clearly broken front shoulder not stopping it from trying to bite the man. The man for his part is holding the demon back. Its reduced mobility allowed him enough room to dodge its bites, but not enough to effectively strike back himself.
This continues on for another moment until the demon changes its attack, instead of biting at the man's hands, it goes low for his leg. Realizing what's about to happen I don't think, I just act. I pull on my magic into the only offensive spell I have, pushing as much into it as I can. I open my mouth and let loose a damage screech as powerfully as I can muster. The attack slams into the demon's side not even a full second later, causing it to flinch in pain as its fur is shredded and several patches of skin underneath receive scratches large enough to visibly bleed. The flinch causes it to miss, instead its jaws snapping shut on air between his legs with a nasty crack. The man doesn't waste the opportunity, screaming something I don't understand once again as he swings down on the demon's head with a glowing fist. The attack connects, and he drives its head into the asphalt with a nasty, but relieving crunch. There's no way in hell it survived that right? At a minimum it's gotta be knocked out now.
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My suspicions are confirmed as the man pulls his now bloody and slightly mangled looking fist out of the dead things skull and tries to shake the brain gore off, only to wince and cradle his hand. I feel a wave of relief wash over me as I realize it's over. I stumble back into a pole, and slowly slide down it to sit down as the feelings from the fight start to catch back up to me. I cradle my arm and reassess the damage, breath still heavy and heart thundering in my chest. Two giant holes in my arm let blood flow freely as several smaller scratches, likely from its other teeth, surround the main wounds. I'm pulled out of my inspection by the man from before. He's walked over and is trying to get my attention, but I can barely focus on him with the state of my arm.
"You hurt? Ah skit, blood bad!" He says in broken English with a Swedish accent.
Swedish huh? I've heard Sweden's been trying to hold off waves of wild demons ever since Russia fell and Finland got overrun. Guess that would explain why he was hell bent on beating its ass. The Swedish really hate demons.
He grabs a piece of cloth from somewhere and starts pressing it on my wound to stem the bleeding. It takes me a couple of seconds to realize that the cloth in question is actually the lower part of my jacket sleeve. Damn it! This was my favorite jacket too! Well, now it's gone from saving me from the cold to saving me from bleeding out. A worthy sacrifice in my book.
Slowly I calm down as people come out of various buildings and streets, huddling around to oogle now that the danger has passed. Slowly the sounds of sirens close in from the distance. I just focus on my arm and try not freak out until help arrives. What feels like an eternity later an apc comes tearing around the corner, and several heavily armed soldiers pile out of the back to take control of the scene. They're jumpy and agitated at first, but once they see the dead demon and someone assures them it's been dead for a while they calm down. After that one of the soldiers comes over to me with a first aid kit, and my wounds finally get some proper medical attention. My arm gets some proper wrappings and finally the bleeding seems to stop. Unfortunately, despite painkillers it still hurts like a bitch and I can barely move it or my hand. Fuck, I'm gonna have to go to the hospital aren't I? Do I have the mana for that?
Mana: 772 / 2882
That's a big no. And my arm is fucked… fucking great! While I think of ways to weasel my way out of going to the hospital, some paramedics wheel over a stretcher. Looking over I can see Swedish guy already getting loaded as well, but he's also talking with someone. That someone touches swedish guy's hand and a faint green light envelopes it. After the light vanishes the swedish dude starts flexing his hand like it was never injured. Holy crap that's healing magic, that guy’s so lucky! Or he’s rich as all getup. Healing is expensive, it has something to do with not many people being healers and it being able to fix most physical ailments. Just getting his hand fixed like that will probably cost him a couple hundred bucks. To some people and professions the cost is worth it, but no way in hell can me or my family afford that. I doubt the dude is rich though, they say don’t judge a book by its cover, but he ain't wearing anything flashy. And he’s talking to the dude like they know each other. So I'm guessing the dude is lucky enough to know a healer.
As I’m being strapped into the gurney and having an IV put in by the paramedics, the Swedish guy looks over and points me out to his friend, who nods and starts in our direction.
“Hold on! Hello, you got injured fighting the demon? Would you like healing?” He asks with a Swedish accent, but slightly better English as he gets close enough to us that he doesn't have to yell.
“Yea, the demon messed me up. But I can't afford healing.” I reply while looking at my arm, the bandages are starting to turn red. I’m gonna bleed out before we get to the hospital, great……
“No charge! My friend says you did good work. We hate demons more than we like money.” He says with an enthusiastic smile.
Holy shit it's my unlucky-lucky day!
“Oh um, sure, thank you!” I manage to stammer out while holding my arm up to him.
The paramedics immediately stop trying to stick me full of needles and start packing their stuff; seemingly understanding that they’re no longer needed. The man’s hand started glowing a light green color as he placed his hand on my arm. What followed was a numb burning sensation that overtook my forearm. After a few seconds he pulled his hand away, but the sensation continued.
“Ok, should be good in a few minutes. Make sure you eat well tonight. Healing does not fix blood loss, so no hard work until tomorrow.” He says, then he turns and starts walking back over to his friend.
I forget to thank him again as I start pulling the bandages off, trying to get a look at my arm as the burning sensation continues. I get the final layer of gauze off and stare at arm in a mix of awe and horror as I watch the flesh slowly grow and knit itself back together. The surface cuts are already gone but the two big holes are still slowly filling in, muscle and skin rapidly stretching out and expanding until finally the wounds close. I only saw the last few seconds of the process, but that might leave a few mental scars, because it was freaky as hell to watch. Now my arm looks like nothing ever happened to it, the skin as flawless and smooth as it was before. A quick flex brings no feelings of pain, just weakness. Makes sense, it did just rapidly regrow, and he did tell me to eat well, probably to compensate for what it took to fix the arm. I hop off the stretcher still flexing and examining my arm, only to be interrupted by someone walking up behind me.
“Excuse me miss, now that you’re feeling better could you answer a few questions for us?” A somewhat familiar voice asks.
I turn my head to find Reina’s father standing behind me with a not taking no for an answer look on his face. Well shit, guess I’m not getting home anytime soon after all.