A Soldier's Life

Chapter 119: Broken

Chapter 119: Broken

I was cold. My body felt like I was left out in the snow naked. I was in the barn that I had arrived in this world. I was naked, and the air was freezing. My skin was goosebumped, and I felt like I was frozen solid, unable to move. I tried to force myself to move, and pain erupted through my whole body.

The barn door rattled, and my eyes focused on the light bleeding through the corners. The door suddenly burst into a thousand pieces, and a massive wyvern was perched at the entrance. My eyes shot open, and I stared at the sky. My body felt hot and cold at the same time, and I felt weaker than a mouse. I tried to move, but that was not going to work.

The pain was real but hidden behind a curtain of shock. I checked on my aether. I had been unconscious for about an hour based on my aether core recovery. I used my self-healing spell form to explore my injuries.

My heart was still pumping, and I was not bleeding anywhere on the outside. My chest cavity had blood from a lacerated spleen and liver—the most serious injuries. At least, I assumed that organ was my spleen. I healed that first. I then used as little aether as I could to work over my other damaged organs. I left the broken bones alone for now, as living through this was more important. I had essentially been hit by a bus—not a speeding bus. If I had not woken up, I would have died.

A massive breeze of foul air washed over me. I craned my neck up a little. The wyvern was twenty feet away and still breathing, its chest rising shallowly and falling. Panic and fear welled up, but as my vision focused, its eyes were wide, bloody orbs, and a steady pool of blood was coming out its nostrils. The wyvern’s brain had forgotten to tell the body it was dead. Well, that part of that brain must be in my dimensional space.

I relaxed on the ground. This was actually good news. Maybe if it was still breathing, I could harvest its essence later. I still had the essence given to me by Zyna from the hill giant. I reached into my space, brought it into my hand, and immediately dropped it. That wrist was broken and was a swollen mass of blood. I focused on aligning the bones and repairing the damage. While I was at it, I healed some cracked ribs that had been making breathing difficult. Not that I noticed.

I did not finish before I ran out of aether, but I could fish in the grass and collect the essence sphere. I had been planning to save this major essence of constitution for Ginger, but I needed it more right now. I placed it in my mouth and savored the tingly feeling spreading throughout my body. It was not going to heal me, but it should minimally help increase my body’s ability to heal.

I relaxed into the grass, no longer worried I was going to die. Where was Konstantin? How much did he see? He had shot those arrows from quite a distance. It made me feel good that he had not abandoned me until the last possible moment. Once he saw the wyvern lunge at me, he probably assumed I was dead.

I waited for my aether to recover with my eyes closed, trying not to fall asleep. The breaths of the wyvern got further and further apart. When I did not hear an exhalation, followed by the foul air of its breath, I moved to get up.

Sitting up was not pleasant as I had a lot of healing yet to complete. Standing was not in the cards at the moment as I crawled to the creature’s head. I had enough aether to remove the collector and use it. The head of the wyvern was larger than a horse, and memories of Sebastian being consumed and chewed like a piece of gum had me hesitate in approaching. Air exhaled from the lungs again, very slowly, but the blood dripping from the nostrils had coagulated and was no longer flowing.

Leaning against the head, I placed the collector on top like a memorial death crown. I channeled aether into it and stepped back as the azure mist swirled from the body. The massive creature shivered like it was resisting its life force being taken from it. I watched as the collected wobbled slightly, the beast shuddering in its fight against the collector. More essence was drawn than normal—maybe because it was still alive.

An apex essence formed and rolled onto the ground. The beast’s abdominal cavity slowly collapsed as it loosed its final breath. It had been holding onto life like any creature would. Now, it was dead. I picked up the unfamiliar sphere—azure blue with white swirls. A two-tone meant it was most likely an essence for a magic affinity. I used the head to help me stand and leaned against the creature while I rested.

If Konstantin or the company found me right now, I would look pretty badass. Of course, walking was going to be a chore. As aether became available, I started working on my hip joint. The socket where my femur sat in my pelvis was a mess. Thankfully, I did not need to be a doctor to figure things out. I just needed to know where the issue was and direct the healing spell form at it.

I took a tentative step. Then another. I healed some ligaments in my knee to eliminate a limp. I collected my helm nearly a hundred feet away. Then went to the dead summoner’s apprentice. It had been almost two hours since I had killed him. I tried the collector anyway, and it did not trigger. Extracting my blade from the body took a little work, and I cleaned it in the grass.

“Why are you here then?” I asked.

Maveith’s brow furrowed, “I was going to see if there was anything left of you and return it to the earth.”

“You came to bury my body parts?” I laughed at the absurdity of it.

Maveith did not see the humor. “Mateo said you were too lucky to get killed by a dragon look-alike. He said bringing you down would have taken a real dragon. Benito even started a betting pool that you would walk out of the woods smelling like you had just taken a bath.” He looked me over, “I guess he was right.” I just laughed again.

“How far behind the company are we?” I asked as I finished dressing and feeling much better without dirt in every crevice of my body.

Maveith stood as well, “They left this morning, so they are maybe half a day ahead now, but Zyna had them moving at a fast pace. I marched with them until they took a break and wandered off into the woods after telling Flavius where I was going. He said he would give an excuse for my absence. I hoped to bury your remains and reach them during the night.”

“Well, thank you, I guess. We should get moving then,” I stood and started walking, and Maveith fell in beside me.

There was a silence for a long time before his curiosity overwhelmed him. “What happened?”

I had been waiting for the question. “You remember the female manticore?”

“You poisoned the wyvern?” Maveith said in disbelief.

“Yes, I did the same thing to the wyvern that I did to the manticore,” I said truthfully. Maveith was surprised but seemed to believe me.

After a time, I asked, “Maveith, when you left Stone Mountain Island, you must have been to a lot of places in your travels. Tell me about them. Why did you finally choose to live in the woods north of Sobral.”

Maveith did not want to be reminded of the reason he fled his people, but he eventually answered. “The truth was this was as far away as I could get, and living alone in the woods seemed like a suitable punishment. I spent most of my time on ships getting here but did explore some of the more interesting port cities.”

I listened to Maveith talk enthusiastically about the cities he visited as we walked to sunset. We camped together in a small shallow cave. I felt relatively well rested, so I took the first watch. Neptune’s Tear blue light illuminated the woods below. Tomorrow, we would catch up with the company if we push. How was I going to explain my miraculous survival to them?