Clay was abruptly awakened by Mia shaking his body. He immediately jerked into a straight posture, about to reach for his sword, before he realized who awoke him. Sighing, he tried to mask his shook, he must have been more exhausted than he dared to admit.
From her expression, he also knew that Mia already knew, she wasn’t stupid, but he kept the act nonetheless. “Hey there, what’s up, I was just dozing a little.”
“Clay, you…” biting herself on the lower lip, she stopped mid-sentence, “Never mind it’s about to turn night.”
Nodding in understanding, he rose from the couch, a blanket sliding away that he never put there. Circling his shoulders and stretching his neck, he grabbed his scabbard and went outside. Stopping at the door, he turned around to speak with Mia, but she just nodded her head slightly, her gaze directed to the ground.
He was about to say something, but when he opened his mouth the words refused to come out, so he just patted her on the head and closed the door. With a push of essence, he was on the roof and drew his blade, looking over it carefully. The double-edged blade had some small nicks and dents along the edge.
Just another night, my friend, just another night to survive. Nothing new, nothing to be afraid of.
Taking a deep breath, he tried to stifle the bad feeling that was only getting worse since he woke up. He just had to be efficient, kill every beast with as little essence as possible. On cue, he felt the crushing feeling around his body raising, as the atmosphere pressed against his aura.
As if tensing a muscle, he drew his aura closer, steeling it for the coming night. Feeling the comforting pressure of his aura, he calmed a little. The blue moon barely rose from the horizon when he heard the first howl of a dire wolf in the distance. What followed was an orchestra of howling which sounded like a war cry to the heavens itself.
Upon the sound, each hair on his body rose in anticipation, his every sense giving him a warning. He stood there for what felt like minutes, having a lengthy argument with himself on what to do, weighting the pros and cons of several options and eventually came to a conclusion.
With a plan in mind he moved his legs, grabbed his scabbard, sheathed his sword jumped from the roof, opened the front door, practically kicked the one to the cellar in and saw a startled Mia quickly raising to her feet in confusion. “W-What’s going on?”
Grabbing her with one arm, a high squeal escaped her lips, as she was suddenly lifted from the ground, causing her cheeks to redden in embarrassment. “C-Clay! I’m not a child anymore!”
“Hold on, we have to leave,” the sentence was short and spoken with a coldness, unusual for him. This was enough for her embarrassment to fade and be replaced by fear of what might happen as she embraced him with arm and legs, burrowing her head in his shoulder, her head racing with bad scenarios, each new one worse than the last.
Keeping her secure with his arm, Clay kicked the cellar door open which directly lead to the outside, and walked to the torn and overgrown road back to Churchville. Once his bare feet touched the concrete, he erupted into a sprint. Releasing his essence at just the right moment for his regeneration to keep up, as his inner flame rose to fuel this endeavor.
Fully concentrating he fell into a trance of running, ignoring everything else as he moved, occasionally jumping over bumps or avoiding the few cars which were long ago abandoned.
Only a few hundred meters from Churchville, the city already in sight, he heard the rustling of something huge jumping alongside him. It was using the trees near the road to follow him. Ignoring it he kept going for as long as he could, but eventually it overtook him and with another jump left the thicket of the trees and jumped into his way.
Seeing the creature in the full light of the two rising moons, Clay directly recognized it as an awakened dire wolf. It was the reason for his sudden departure and even with his head start it was able to catch up. Its body was littered with scars, painting a strange picture as streaks of fur were replaced with pale skin.
With a loud crack, it swung with his left arm. Seeing this, Clay let himself fall, letting his momentum carry him along the ground as his pants, and skin were ripped open. Wrapping his hand around Mia’s head, he pressed her face closer to his shoulder.
As the arm moved closer to his face, he bent closer to the ground, until he could feel his lower back touching the rough concrete, before the claws barely missed him slicing through his hair, as a few strands were cleanly cut off.
Moments later, he lost his momentum and carefully sat Mia on the ground, before drawing his blade, while he turned around and jumped to a stand. What greeted him was the first dire wolf, which towered a good head over him, as it held the few bright silver strands of hair between its long claws.
It was grinning dangerously, fletching it’s teeth in the process. For what felt like an eternity they were gazing at each other, gauging the strength of the other, as they prepared for battle. Clay didn’t have much heart blood left, but he couldn’t show fear. He knew how these beasts hunted showing fear meant admitting defeat, it was the moment where it would strike.
Observing its every movement, he noticed its gaze shifting. What? Suddenly realizing where it was looking at, he turned around to see Mia sitting trembling on the ground, her eyes wide, her breath haggard, turning quicker with the moment.
“No!”
It all happened too quickly for Clay’s brain to process. Before he came to a coherent thought, his body moved and jumped in front of Mia, stopping the dire wolves arm just before her face. A drop of blood fell from one of the claw’s on her nose, as she fell backwards. Watching, she saw her eyes turn from glossy to wet, as tears trailed along her beautiful rosy cheeks.
Tensing his muscles, he made sure to keep the arm of the dire wolf lodged into his body, as his right arm held unto the arm. Looking down, he saw that it ripped through his stomach, thankfully it missed his heart.
Seeing Mia’s body tremble involuntarily, her limbs giving away, he knew she was close to a breakdown. “Mia?” She seemed confused by where the sound came from, as her eyes focused on his wound.
“Mia!” Hesitantly moving her head upwards to his face, Clay smiled, while locking eyes with her. “Just focus on me, okay? You can stand up, right?” Her head slowly shock in defiance of the situation.
“Shh, Mia, everything is okay, I told you that,” taking a glance at his wound he reminded her, “Mia my eyes! Just my eyes, okay?” Slowly nodding her head, his warm smile returned. “Try to slowly stand up. Just ignore everything else.”
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Tenderly and with shaking legs, she stood up. Seeing this, the gloating dire wolf from behind suddenly realized something was wrong, as it tried to rip its arm free from Clay’s body, only to realize that it didn’t even budge. Clay kept it firm in his body with both his muscles and arm.
Trying to get its arm free with more and more force, the dire wolf slowly began to panic as it latched with his other arm out on his back, as each crack caused Mia to flinch. “You are doing…” concentrating to keep a steady voice as another slash ripped along his back, he continued, “good, now turn around.”
With slow steps and lowered head, she turned around. “Great Mia. So, you see Churchville, right? Our nice and cozy hometown?” Sheepishly nodding, she was tilting her head a little to the side, “C-Clay–?”
“Keep your head straight!” Startled, she corrected her posture, “I’m fine. You know, I’m not that easy to bring down. You will now go back to your house and wait by the nice tree in your garden. It was where I found you, you remember that?”
“O-Of course I-I do,” replied Mia with teary eyes and broken voice.
“It sure feels like an eternity since we met there, right? I… haha,” suddenly falling into a laughing fit he said, “Do you remember your hair when I found you? You looked like a crow!”
Remembering their first encounter, Mia smiled, “Yeah, I was asleep for so long. But then you awoke me… rescued me.”
There was another crack, as flesh was torn, causing Mia’s smile to stiffen. “Mia, I know how strong and brave you are. Just focus on my voice, and walk towards the city. You will wait for the night by the tree and in the morning I will get you, how does that sound?”
Taking a deep breath, she sniffled one final time and wiped her tears and asked, “You promise?”
There was a moment of silence, “Of course I promise. You remember our blood oath, right?” Seeing her nod, he reaffirmed her, “I promised to life, so I will, it’s as simple as that. So now go on.” It was a kind lie.
Taking a tenderly first step, he cheered her on, “Yes, that’s good! Just one step after the other!”
Soon the small steps turned into a walk before ending in a sprint. Seeing her small figure leave behind the horizon, a sigh of relief escaped his lips. During their conversation, he had crushed the arm of the dire wolf to keep himself from crying out loud from the pain, which in turn agitated the wolf to attack with more ferocity.
Erupting the essence inside his arm, he crushed the joint of its elbow into pieces, before ripping the arm with one fell swoop out. Finally losing the iron grip, the wolf got his arm free and jumped back in fear, as Clay’s regeneration finally got to work in closing the hole in his stomach. Healing all the wounds on his back took a heavy toll on his heart blood and by his blurry vision and unsteady stand, he knew his reserves had fallen dangerously low.
He was feeling light-headed and with a dangerous smile he threw the arm in front of the dire wolves feet, causing it to take a small step back. He used that moment of hesitation to reach behind his belt, retrieving a vial of red. Downing it in one go, he threw the vial to the ground before reaching for another. After the fourth he was barely able to think straight, as a newfound rush of essence filled his body, as his body immediately burned the pure essence the moment it reached his heart.
The never ceasing river around his heart was rotating at an unprecedented speed and force, it was more akin to a torrent that took everything in its way with it. In one moment, he went from being on death’s door to vibrating with energy. Never in his life, felt he so… alive!
But he also knew that this state would only last for a short duration, the heart blood he just drank was impure and a mix from various beasts, the worst possible combination, but it was his last resort anyway. It didn’t matter what came after, what mattered was killing that beast, by becoming one himself.
Bending down, he grabbed his sword and with a fully erupted dash was from one moment to the next in front of the wolf as it rose his mutilated arm to defend, only for it to be severed completely off as Clay’s blade moved further to cut into its chest. The wound clotted right away, but didn’t heal.
Laughing at this, he ignored the whipping that met his body, as they healed seconds after he received them. Scared, the dire wolf retreated further and further, his body being littered with slash wounds all over.
Suddenly one claw strike got his hand, causing him to lose his blade, which gave the wolf some hope until it realized that Clay moved closer instead of away as he threw his body to the right, punching with his maimed left arm an erupted punch into the chest of the wolf, causing it to cave in as the sound of bones cracking echoed through the forest, as it was sent flying.
Suddenly feeling the enormous strength leave his body, Clay fell over during the punch – he never registered the fall. His body was feeling numb all over. He was about to lose consciousness when he remembered the blood oath he had made with Mia. His eyes snapped open, and he dragged his body along the ground to force it to stand.
With unsteady steps, he stumbled towards the wolf, and slumped in front of it to the ground. It was heaving, its lungs were probably crushed. Concentrating, he placed with blurry vision his fingers on top of where its heart was supposed to be. With effort, he slowly pushed his fingers into the body of the wolf as its eyes widened, and it began to wail.
Smiling smugly, Clay whispered, “Doesn’t feel nice, right?” Eventually he felt the squishy heart around his fingers and with a last push of essence ripped it out. He was feeling numb all over, there was no smell, or sound, as his body slowly broke down and his senses shut down one after the other.
Kneeling, he looked upon the two moons who were closing in on each other, as he rose the heart above his head, the act feeling like lifting a boulder. Slowly opening his mouth, his vision finally turned black, as he squeezed.
*THUMP*
In this all encompassing darkness there was no pain, no suffering, no feelings, just him and his thoughts.
*THUMP*
He didn’t know how much time passed, if time passed at all. Who he was, what he was doing. It was a state which seemed distant yet familiar.
*THUMP*
Yes, he knew this place. This wasn’t the first time he was here, he just had forgotten about it. It was a serene place that invented him to rest. To finally let go, to put all of this hardship aside. He wanted to relax, he wanted to let it all go, but he somehow couldn’t.
*THUMP*
Something was preventing him… No, not something but rather someone. He had made a promise, a promise he had to keep. The thought of leaving this person with all this hardship alone felt even more frightening than taking it on for himself.
*THUMP*
It wasn’t time yet. He couldn’t relax just yet! There was still so much to see, so much to do!
*THUMP* *THUMP* *THUMP*
At once, Clay rose to his feet, as his thumping heart echoed in his ears, his head, throughout his full body. Gradually his senses returned to him, first his blurry vision which stabilized over time, then his ears cleared, and he heard the sound of wind, before his feeling returned, and he felt the breeze glide along his skin.
He could taste the note of iron lingering in his mouth and feeling inwards he saw his inner flame burning brightly, and yet steadily. The river surrounding his heart calmed as it widened in length, and felt fuller and steadier than ever.
He couldn’t believe it, but he… survived. Taking in his surroundings he finally realized that he was surrounded by dire wolves, or to be more specific they surrounded their dead leader and were growling at him, and howling against the sky.
They all circled him, but never took a step closer, too scared to attack. Narrowing his eyes, he concentrated, guiding the refined essence from his flame outwards to thicken his aura. After it reached a substantial amount he concentrated on conveying his will to fight, to kill if needed, and pushed it outwards against the dire wolves. The moment they felt his aura, they yelped, grabbed the corpse of their leader and scrambled away in defeat. Fear was indeed powerful.
Grabbing his sword, he sheathed it and made his way towards Churchville, looking at the beautiful moons circling the sky, feeling delighted. He didn’t want to think, to fear, for at this moment he felt invincible. Comfortable enough to hum a little tune as he went.