Aoife continued to fend off the beast, though Rowan could only tell through the metallic scraping and clangs that resounded. Waves of nausea and dizziness overcame him as he lay prone on the floor.
'I… can't…'
He couldn't have made it all the way to the end, just for him to die like this, could he? Yet the dying light of his sword said otherwise. Rowan distantly felt the sensation of someone touching his body, but the feeling was already dissipating at a rapid rate, disappearing as his mind loosened its grip on consciousness.
He distantly heard a voice and the squeal of a creature, but it didn't matter much to his fading mind. As he closed his eyes, the sword of his light dying, the last thing he saw was of a grey screen, faintly shimmering in the air.
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A cold breeze awoke Rowan, and he groaned as he adjusted to the pain coursing through his body. The wind felt wrong on his skin, foreign after the time spent in the stale Hell. His eyes opened slowly, and he winced as he adjusted to the bright light.
Confused, his eyes darted around, and he took in his surroundings.He was in the opening mouth of a cave, the rising sun looking into the cave over a destroyed city, a few kilometres away. The ground was softer than usual beneath him, a large relief from the usual rocks in the Hell. His back was against a wall, propped up despite having been unconscious for an unknown amount of time.
Aoife and Nadia were also there, though each of them was lying on the ground, passed out. Aoife, in particular, was covered in a net of scars, including a particularly nasty-looking one on her face. The memories of the previous fight faintly resurfaced in his mind, and Rowan felt the urge to investigate his arm and leg.
Not wanting to look, he instead tried to use his left arm to feel the ground beneath him. Warm dirt met his fingers, and he felt his already tired body sag with relief.
'Escaping a Hell must have healed me, or Nadia got that healing ability she wanted. Either way, Damn, I'm glad to have you back.'
But then his gaze returned to the others, more specifically, Aoife's injuries. It seemed as though Rowan was the only one to recover, for whatever reason.
Moving onto his injured leg, Rowan noticed that the crystal which had been embedded in it now lay on the ground next to him, the cracked tip of the stalactite appearing now like quartz in the dawn's light.
Rowan sighed with relief, having fully accepted they had escape the Hell, finally. Which reminded him of the supposed benefits one could gain from clearing one.
'Apparently I should want to see it and…'
His thoughts trailed off as his desires matched his thoughts, the system responding to his want to see it. The foggy screen appeared in front of him, neither blocking light nor emitting it, yet still readable in the mouth of the cave.
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Name: Rowan Torrent
Tier: 1Fears:
(Fears of the Flesh – Fear of Injury)
(Fears of the Unknown – ???)
(???)
Skills:
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Rowan was briefly taken aback by what he read on the screen, and took the words in slowly, trying to understand what each word meant.
'It says I'm Tier 1, which corresponds to a Knight. Makes sense, considering I just cleared my first Hell. The fear… makes sense.'
Rowan felt it in his heart that he was afraid of injuries, so he wasn't at all surprised by the fact that the system seemed to know it about him. What he really wondered was why it had shown his own fear to him, and what the other fears may be.
As he thought harder about the oddity of being told his own fear, he watched as the screen changed to display a more detailed view of his 'fear of the flesh'.
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(Fear of the Flesh – Fear of Injury) (mastery: 0%)
Your body consumes Aether to recover at an abnormal rate, healing serious injuries in minutes.
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'That explains why I was healed when I woke up! So the fears are our abilities… I see…'
However, he had no clue what the mastery indicated. It likely represented his proficiency with the ability, but he had no idea how it would benefit him, or if it was just for show.
Rowan stood up and stretched, immensely relieved to know that he would always be able to bounce back and be ready to fight. He even felt like a brand new person, feeling light on his feet and energetic as well.
Rowan strode to the entrance of the cave, of which the group was only ten metres away. The ruined city seemed massive and sprawling, but to his guess was about half the size of the walled city of Cork.
Rowan saw shapes flitting in and amongst the destroyed buildings, and the occasional blotting out of the sun by large, airborne creatures. His heart dropped as he realised what it was truly like to be outside the walls. In Cork, the awakeners kept any dangerous beast away from the city, but out here, there was no one to cull the beasts emerging from the Hells.
Not wanting to be spotted by any beast, Rowan crept back deeper into the cave, and decided to check on the other two.
Nadia seemed fine, with no visible injuries, and her breathing was steady despite the tense stress her sleeping face still held. Leaving her to rest in peace, he moved to Aoife, who looked to him as though she had fought to the death.
'…'
Ignoring the stupid thought, he checked her over for any potentially dangerous injuries, but the only one that seemed particularly serious was the gash on her face, which showed no signs of bleeding or otherwise. Her breathing wasn't as steady, but was still strong enough for Rowan to feel confident that the three of them had survived the Hell.