Chương 29: A Fox and An Arm

The moment Hel shouted in his head, Anadis froze and scanned the chasm in every direction with haste. The creek ran swollen beside him, rain falling in heavy sheets. The chasm walls rose dark as they dripped cascades of water on either side. Foolish. That was what he was. How could he have forgotten about the literal Luminous who had sworn to wait for him to come out? He spun back toward the chasm wall, pressing his palms desperately against the stone in search of the hidden entrance.

Upon grazing the runes, a faint buzz ran through his fingers. He could make out their shimmer beneath his hands. Soul Sight confirmed their outline. They pulsed in reaction to his essence, as if recognizing the essence of who etched them. But he wasn't who etched these runes, and he had no idea how to read them, much less activate them. The crevice wouldn't open. He pushed. Nothing.

"Hel! Quick, how do I open it?" he asked, panic evident as he didn't want to give the Luminous the chance to kill him. But why hadn't she attacked yet? Wait, he had just set one of the Twin Anchors as a base. He could use its effect to teleport right back inside. But just as he reached for the Boon, Hel's voice cut in.

"Relax, you don't need to open it," she declared flatly.

"What!? Why!?" He thrashed his head side to side, waiting for the strike, the splash of heels on water, anything at all. But nothing moved. Nothing sounded except the rough flow of the creek.

"She's… not here," he realized slowly.

"It seems our little Luminous friend left for some odd reason."

"But why? Perhaps she didn't want to get her clothes wet?" he joked.

"Or something else," Hel said in an ominous tone.

"Something dangerous coaxed her to leave." That didn't make much sense. In the forests around Aura Cay, Anadis knew there were only Abominant and Unhallowed Grulls. Fighting Unhallowed Grulls would result in him being ripped to pieces, but a Luminous like Ring? Ranks were supposed to go hand in hand, a Luminous could and would demolish many Unhallowed Grulls with ease. So what had made her leave? Not knowing was somehow worse than her absence.

He could see the remnants of a battle: rocks and debris had fallen from the chasm, and the chasm wall showed deep cracks in places.

"For now, count yourself lucky she got bored and left." A pause from Hel.

"And I need… to—""Rest. I know," he finished for her. Then she went quiet, and he exhaled sharply, pressing his back against the wall and sliding down until he was crouching in the mud. Rain ran down his neck. It was up to him alone to get out of this Grull-infested forest. After staying squatted for another minute, listening to the sound of water and the air traveling through the chasm, he stood, wiped the mud from his hands, and pointed himself south, running. He had only the vaguest idea of how to get back.

He might have just navigated this forest hours ago, but in his defense, he had just relived several decades of another version of himself in another life. He felt that earned him some geographic confusion. After a while, he stopped trying to actively navigate and just let his boots carry him straight south. His best chance was to use Soul Sight sparingly, scanning the vicinity for danger and heading as far away from it as possible.

Doing this, he managed to cover about half the distance in roughly half the time, successfully avoiding any major threats. Soul Sight started stinging his eyes every twenty minutes or so, and he only needed two or three minutes before he could use it again. His resistance had increased tremendously after bonding with the Divine Boon and unlocking his memories. There had been only two close encounters with Unhallowed Grulls, but he simply waited them out in silence.

Making even the slightest sound could mean certain death, and he knew it. He kept moving this way and, with no major issues, managed to get out of the Unhallowed area. It was when he stopped by the river to catch his breath and quench his thirst that a pack of wolf-like Grulls erupted from behind a cluster of rocks about thirty or so meters away. There were four of them, clearly ravenous. Grulls… they haven't spotted me yet because of the loud rain. But then again, he'd barely spotted them in time.

Two seconds later and he would've had to face so many at the same time. Their eerie clicking noise made him stiffen for the briefest of seconds before he dove for cover, scrambling into a bush. He kept low and silent. The four wolves kept pace just meters ahead of him, but it was already too late when Anadis heard and felt the heavy stomps vibrating through the ground behind him.

He glanced over his shoulder and realized there was a fifth wolf, nearly as big as a horse, with writhing fleshy tendrils hanging from its maw, each one tipped with sharply curved needles. The wolf growled, the sound so thunderous that Anadis felt his legs betray him for a moment. But he couldn't afford to waver, so he forced himself to move. However, the beast had already lunged, its tendrils shooting forward and latching onto his left arm, biting and pulling with terrifying strength." Ahhh —it hurts!"

he screamed as hot, white pain lanced through his arm.

"Let go of my arm, you wretched beast!" He summoned the Curved Sword and hacked desperately at the Abominant Grull's hindquarters. The blade barely dug into the wolf's thick coat. The beast shrieked but refused to let him go. No matter how many times he struck, its tendrils pulled tighter; its fangs kept finding new flesh. Then it lifted Anadis off the ground and slammed him into the earth with brutal force. The impact punched the air from his lungs. It did it again, thrashing him like a cat would a mouse.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. In a desperate move, he reached out with his trapped left hand, touched the creature's face, and activated Soul Drain. That finally did it. The wolf released him with a guttural cry. Anadis staggered to his feet, gasping. His arm bled from a barrage of tiny puncture wounds. The thing looked hideous—bones were visible, flesh looking like minced meat in some places. His arm was barely hanging on.

The remaining four wolves heard their alpha's yelp and came rushing in for its aid, hungry for a taste of Anadis's flesh. He understood this was not a fight he could win, not with one arm compromised, but what could he do? Could he outrun them? Then, from the top of a tree, a powerful gust of coiling wind shot through the four wolves, shattering their charge. A small, high-pitched bark followed from the same direction. It was a fox—difficult to make out clearly from so far away, but it definitely looked like one.

"What the—?" Anadis stuttered, brows arched. Another gust of wind, this time aimed at the larger wolf that had maimed his arm. It struck, but it didn't faze the beast. The little orange fox barked again, staring straight at him. Is it telling me to run? Anadis didn't overthink it. He nodded his thanks to the tiny savior and bolted. Two of the wolves gave chase, but another powerful gust slammed into the ground between them.

"That little fox isn't normal," he muttered, clutching his injured arm as he ran. He veered deeper into the forest, staying low and weaving through thickets and past jagged rocks. Gasping for breath, his fingers brushed against a huge, wet mountain wall covered in moss. He followed it sideways, leaving a trail of crimson in his wake, until his hand suddenly met empty air. It was a hole, just big enough for an adult to squeeze through with some effort.

With no time to hesitate, Anadis took a deep breath, tightened his grip on his arm, and slid inside. Exhausted and in pain, he collapsed onto the ground. The interior was pitch-black, swallowing every glimmer of sunlight. Stomps resounded from outside the crevice. The pack of Abominant Grulls was on his trail, stalking around and sniffing intently. His heart almost stopped. There was little doubt they would eventually find him by the potent scent of his blood.

The thought of using the Twin Anchors and teleporting himself straight back to Eljudnir was tempting. Although traversing the entire forest again burrowed into him, revolting him to his core. But suddenly, it seemed something else had caught the pack's attention, as in the next second the wolves burst into movement, bolting with their hind legs digging furiously into the muddy ground as they ran off. Muttering a thanks to Amatheris under his breath, Anadis opened his satchel.

The soft rustle echoed inside the narrow crevice as he pulled out his last roll of bandages.

"Ah… hell," he hissed through clenched teeth, pressing his palm to the arm.

"This isn't good." His arm was mutilated beyond saving. Bone gleamed through ragged skin, the ligaments barely holding the mangled flesh together. So much blood. He couldn't even move his fingers. The remaining potion he carried was useless. Only the most expensive of shard elixirs could fix something so severe.

"Godsdamn it!" he laughed ruefully, the sound closer to a sob.

"Now people will know me as Anadis One-arm… not the greatest title for a Blessen. What should he do? He had no fire to cauterize the wound, not that he could have managed it in the condition it was in.

"Fuck, it hurts so much," he rasped, the pain crowding out everything else.

"Sever it," Hel chimed in, her tone merciless.

"You have to let go of what drags you down. That arm is useless now. Your own lack of attention got you to this point, so now you must pay the price."

"Not helping at all," he muttered, his voice growing hoarse, but he was losing too much blood. If he didn't do something to stop it soon, he might bleed out completely.

"It'll grow back," Hel pressed.

"What? No, it won't!"

"When you ascend to an Emanant, your flesh will be remade—stronger and whole. Every flaw, every wound, burned away in the transformation." Her voice echoed with ancient certainty. Was that how it worked? he wondered. Still, he would have to wait until he ascended. How long would that take? Years? Maybe a decade? Most Blessens never ascended at all.

"I don't want to do it…"

"Drink the remaining potion," Hel said.

"Once you make a clean cut, your Blessen regeneration combined with the potion should be enough to stop the bleeding and close the wound. But with how mangled it is, you'll need a shard elixir beyond your means." Anadis pulled out the small potion vial and downed it in one gulp. The liquid was just as disgusting as he remembered, but it cleared his mind somewhat. The pain eased slightly. For a fleeting moment, he wondered if he could avoid going through with it. Looking again at his mangled arm, he winced.

That was just wishful thinking. He lay back on the cave floor, his ruined arm falling limp beside him. Biting down hard on his tunic and gripping the Curved Sword tightly, he hesitated. He couldn't do it—"Just do it!" The sound of rain outside was the only thing marking the time. Thirty minutes, maybe more, before his heartbeat calmed and the pain subsided. His left arm, what was left of it, was now tightly bandaged, red already seeping through the cloth. It felt weird and lighter, as if a part of it were missing…

because it was. His whole forearm was gone. He curled into himself, back pressed tightly against the moss-covered wall. What was he going to tell his family? Mother—he couldn't even imagine the sickly pallor that would wash over her face when she saw her son missing half an arm, especially when he was supposed to be studying safely in the library. Leander had lost his parents too young to know what it felt like to disappoint them. No… that wasn't entirely true.

In that life, he knew he had disappointed his first set of parents. Now, as Anadis, he didn't want to go through that again. They were sacred to him. He couldn't be the reason they suffered.

"How are you feeling, vessel?" Hel asked, her tone oddly comforting.

"Are you holding up?"

"Well, I just chopped my own arm off," he replied, staring at the severed limb on the ground, unable to look away.

"So no, I'm not holding up and won't be for a while." Anadis took a deep breath and then exhaled.

"What about you? You've been talking for some time. Are you rested?"

"I am well enough to talk, but I cannot materialize myself yet."

"I see." His eyes fluttered, and his head bobbed. A sharp lance of pain shot up his arm, snapping him awake with a grunt. He was getting tired, and the twin suns were nearing the horizon, their light softening to a warm amber.

"I figure it's about time I head home," he muttered.

"Those wolves must be far from here by now, and I'm still losing a lot of blood. Better get this properly checked soon." That little fox still nagged at him, though… what had it been? It hadn't looked like a Grull, and regular animals didn't shoot gusts of air out of their snouts. He was about to ask Hel about it when a glint caught the corner of his eye. The light was dim and easy to miss, especially given how frantic he was when he entered through the crevice.

He staggered up with a groan and moved closer to the light, not really knowing what it was. The glow remained a mystery even as he got closer. He wanted to take his time and examine the light, but it was as if something beckoned him to stretch out a hand.

"Wait! Don't touch that light!" He heard Hel's warning, but his fingers brushed above it anyway. It was as if the light had hijacked his brain, as if he would feel an unimaginable amount of pleasure just from grazing it. Then, when he made contact, his whole body tensed as the light jumped and reached him, shrouding him completely. His eyes flared unnaturally, then his mind drifted into a trance, and at that moment, Anadis left his body.