Mathew

Scrambling back to his feet, his breath caught at the pain in his side. Conflicting demands from his body left him sucking in shallow breaths. Closing his eyes, he forced reason over the panic. Probing his side, he found it to have the correct shape still. Not knowing any better, he guessed that meant bruises and cracked ribs and not broken lung-stabbing-ribs filling his lungs with blood. Leaning on that assessment Mathew further banished the primitive part of his mind that tried taking over.

The moment of comfort ended with a burning pain flaring up where he’d been hit. His ribs creaked as fire burned them inside his body. Tearing open the button-up shirt, he laid a rough hand over the injury. Even to his fingers, it felt as though someone had stuffed hot embers under his skin. Light flashed in his vision and he thought he might pass out. Tears and snot flowed from his face as he tried to cope.

Cooling down with every heartbeat the burning faded steadily. As the cold soothed the pain away, it seemed to Mathew that it took away chunks of the original pain. Part of who he was, a completeness, began to refill. The sensation of sand pouring from his injuries back to where it rested usually was odd but wholesome. A deep breath with minimal pain confirmed it. Whatever that demonic process was, it healed him. The flashing light didn’t stop though. Rather than being a flash in his whole vision, it coalesced into a yellow dot blinking lazily. Focusing on it caused it to expand into a window of text.

[New skill awarded: Bone Regeneration 1

Rapidly converts reserves to heal broken or damaged bones]

The window faded of its own accord leaving Mathew with a seed of gratitude. Because this time, he read it and committed it to memory before it disappeared. With this new information, questions began to flow through his mind one after another. Thoughts cascaded until he decided that no question mattered unless he started finding answers.

Poking around for danger in the ‘clearing’ Mathew found none. Safety, well relative safety, confirmed Mathew decided now it was time to think the small things out. The bigger picture of where he was in the world could wait for a bit. The world itself or some entity was communicating by text boxes and had given a superpower that made him heal himself.

Did everyone get superpowers? Did the wraith?

Experimenting, he tried to will the messages back and was rewarded with the first message he got during the red light wave. Vanquish! That was the word. Was that different than killing? Alright, vanquish the hammer hand wraith and prove a crafting skill.

Scanning his eyes across the damp stone and endless mist, he got the feeling that crafting would be a problem. Maybe I can use the wraith. Crafting a hammer from its arm should be easy enough.

Looking for more answers, Mathew tried to will the world into showing him his skills. There was resistance. It felt like a weight on his heart, a cold skeletal hand giving it a little squeeze. Crushing a noticeable chunk of his motivation. Like muting the color from the world where everything just mattered a bit less than before. But it worked, and more than just skills.

[Mathew Gains Starling

Otherworld Human

Health 254/260

Reserves 47

Magic (unassigned)

Body Total 19

Strength 6

Agility 5

Durability 2

Endurance 6

Mind Total 14

Willpower 4

Cognition 3

Resistance 4

Resilience 3

Combat skills

Bone regeneration 1

Crafting skills

None ]

This wasn’t just a two-dimensional text wall. The status fixture had depth he could feel, and meaning behind the text was at his metaphysical fingertips.

First he sunk his mind into Health. Health resisted against the consequences of injuries and diseases. Having it would prevent death. Although it didn’t prevent injuries or repair the body as if the damage didn’t happen. That might change everything with how to deal with the hammer hand wraith. More knowledge was readily available. For both Health refilling and body healing, each took Reserves. The same resource that was used by bone regeneration. Basically, it was food, compatible fuel and matter.

A pang of fear raced through him. He didn’t have any source of food here. The barren rock didn’t have anything he could use to craft with or to eat.

Haunting sound assaulted his ears and he looked over his shoulder to see the hammer hand wraith again. Neck fully intact now.

It attacked more quickly this time aiming for his skull with both arms together. Mathew managed to move forward enough to catch the attack on his shoulder blade. More cracking of bones and he was driven to the ground.

[48 Health reserved: torso]

This information slotted into his mind seamlessly. This time his mind caught a mostly intact ball, his Health, break apart sending fragments of itself to his shattered scapula.

Adrenaline took the edge off the pain but it didn’t do much for the burning. His Bone Regeneration skill kicked in of its own accord and fire bloomed in his back. Some protective instinct made the burning cut through the numbness of fight and flight. Screaming he began a one-armed crawl and scramble away from the attacker. The healing was done in a few seconds. Raw knowing assaulted his mind as his status changed.

[Bone regeneration converted 19 reserves, refunds 30 Health]

For the wraith’s slim figure it carried an unearthly strength.

No that couldn’t be right, I’d overpowered it easily enough. The strike hit like a sledge though. Some type of technique or superpower?

Mathew looked over his shoulder and saw that wraith was gaining on him. Waiting until the last moment he rolled to the side. Ignoring the pain of rolling across his hurt back, Mathew watched the wraith pinwheeled its arm as it overshot like a runaway train. Not being grounded left it without leverage for sharp maneuvering.

I can work with that. Now I just need a plan.

And so they danced. The endlessly screaming wraith sung to their combat accompanied by his grunts and wordless battle cry. If he could get in close, he could grapple it until it faded away but he didn’t think that tactic did much damage last time. Its ability to fade out to wherever it went meant that he had to hurt it real bad, real quick. Otherwise, it would get away and come back whole.

It wasn’t a problem he had a ready answer for. Swallowing his pride, he had to admit, without a weapon or the ability to pin the enemy down to pound on, he was tapped out of options.

Running away wasn’t really an option either. The wraith would pick up more and more speed as it went in the same direction. The thought of using that to inflict damage was quickly set aside. “Jousting” with his arms vs the wraiths hammers wasn’t a gamble he’d stake his life on.

Think! Think! There has to be something.

He’d run ahead and it again picked up speed to catch him. Mathew’s breathing was labored from repeating these sprints. His whole focus was looking over his shoulder to time the next juke. Another mistake that had a price to be paid. Again he slipped on the damp stone. This time he only lost one leg out from under him and dropped to his other knee.

A new fear grew as he watched her visage contorted from forlorn to hungry as she saw her prey flounder before her. She swung one arm horizontally at his skull and the other vertically down at his splayed-out lower body. Protecting his head became his whole world. Throwing both arms up to catch and block the sprinting hammer attack, he grabbed hold of its arm as his life depended on it.

He held the distance, one hand on its forearm, another on the upper arm, he pushed himself away from certain death. The ignored attack impacted, and his femur broke.

[57 health reserved: left leg]

I need to hurt it now or I’m dead.

Sliding his hand up its forearm, he held right below the hammer and started trying to bash her face with her own hand. He needed a weapon and the wraith had one. Two failed attempts and some flailing later he adjusted his other hand and grabbed the mop of stringy gray hair. Slamming hands together as hard as he could finally caused a satisfying cracking sound.

How do you like your bones being broken! Mathew’s face contorted into a vicious snarl.

The wraith intercepted his assault with its other arm. Much weaker crunching continued to deform its nose but shortly after it faded away into gray smoke.

Breathing hard he looked at his leg, curious that he didn’t feel any burning. It was twisted to the side between hip and knee. Hammer jousting was not an option. The strongest bone in his body had given way under a one-handed attack empowered by the momentum of its speed. Gritting his teeth, he pulled his leg back into a straight line. The pain of moving the free-floating injury was then shadowed by the burning sensation taking over again. Thankfully it was over before he finished screaming a lungful of cold air. This was torture. Tears ran down his face and he let them.

[Bone regeneration converted 23 reserves, refunds 22 health]

If this was the transition, what type of hell am I being prepared for? Do I even want to go there? Can I do this?

The answer was an instant yes. An idea Pa had shared with him came to memory. Mathew had asked how he kept on after his wife had died. Pa had made their love sound so all consuming. A long pause and Pa told him, “Life is suffering because our choices matter. So long as we can choose, living is still worthwhile. Think of it backward, in a world where there is no worse outcome there is no better outcome either. Suffering exists because without it, all we have left is insignificance.” This situation may be a bit more extreme than the rain-soaked graveyard where Mathew accepted this conclusion but the truth still resonated. In the darkest time of his life he held close to the truth.

Why did I question that? Was I really that weak that I’d consider throwing in the towel on life?

Getting off the cold stone before a chill set in any deeper he was impressed by the strength of his leg. Just a moment ago broken into uselessness. Looking at his status fixture he began to see a problem. Reserves had dropped to just five. Two fights in a handful of minutes and he was almost out of healing. On top of that his Health was down to 211. The rest of his Health pool was used to counter the remaining damage in his shoulder and leg. The feeling of his Health pool being reserved against the injuries was as though some wholeness he’d had was ground into sand and spread into damaged areas.

It was uncomfortable having so many extra feelings assaulting his mind.

Mathew dropped the status fixture and breathed with deep relief as the cold bony fingers let go of his heart and the world returned to how he was used to experiencing it.

Moving within a clearing of the fog Mathew stood vigil for what he guessed to be five minutes. His hammer hand wraith hadn’t returned yet. If he was going to fight it again he needed to raise more Reserves to have any chance.

For the next hour he walked through the white fog. The cold damp stone offered little in the way of food or variety. Violent shivering started up to counter the cold and keep him going. After a bit of investigating this new event, he found that his Reserves had drained down to zero. Over the next half hour, Mathew tightened his belt twice as his body ate the spare weight he’d taken for granted in the sheltered world of his city. At this rate, he worried he would waste away.

Wrestling the weakness in his mind away, he looked to the option he had filed away as a last resort. Slipping on the brown scum was the only interaction he wanted to have with the slimy moist material. A shiver wracked his body again. Yeah, he was at last resort.

Dropping to his knees, he registered distantly that he’d landed too hard. Gross motor control was suffering. Lowering his face to the stone to slurp this sedimented stuff Mathew jerked, his spine going ridged.

It may not be much, but I’m not going to eat like an animal!

Using a shaking hand he brought the brown slime to his face instead.

Very earthy, how he’d imagine drinking dirt tasted mixed with unclean swamp water. The slime landed heavily in his stomach. It took a few minutes to tell the effects but a wave of nausea rolled through him. With it came an end to the shivering. His status fixture confirmed that his reserves had returned to one. Plus a notification.

[New skill awarded: Digestion 1

Process more reserves from edible material. Reduce or eliminate the threat of food born diseases, parasites, curses, and poisoning]

With a feral snarl, Mathew stood. This is the fault of that hammer hand wraith. Mathew made a quiet, angry promise that was immediately lost in the cold fog, but he promised anyway. “I’m going to make you pay.”