The Chronicles of a Scalebound Sage

[16] Why Does It Still Hurt?

The druid was not what Freja imagined but at the same time he is an enemy that has been attacking people. His familiar was hunting them and had hurt Bjorn. It didn’t work out for him so tough shit his wolves died. He looked like he had one foot in the grave already. So, Freja wondered what she was going to do. She never killed anyone. Was she going to attack him? Her life had been relatively peaceful, of course her family was the worst but she didn’t live with them, she lived at the academy. She never even got in a fight before now and the top of her worries were about grades and fitting in.

Up until the troll and the shadow wolves attack she had never even considered learning combat magic or getting into a fight. For all intent and purpose she was a normal girl placed in a shitty situation. The druid was already on death’s door. In a few more days his magic would no longer be able to hold himself together. She hated him because his people killed her sister, because he attacked but she was not sure she actually had the resolve to kill another person.

She looked at the unconscious Bjorn curled up on the ground. He looked peaceful, it was hard to believe that just a few minutes ago he was grievously wounded. He fought to protect her tooth and nail and was unafraid even in the face of that steel wolf. He had the resolve to kill to survive, shouldn’t she? What if the druid doesn’t die and he goes off to kill more people and attacks indiscriminately just because she didn’t want to take him out.

“No.” She pet Bjorn’s two heads and stood up. “He dies.”

She steps out from her hiding spot behind the tree locking eyes with the druid whose attention snapped to her. Well he had one eye, the other was missing and covered by the living wood prosthetics. For a moment he was in disbelief as an array of emotion washed over him before once again landing on determination and rage.

“You did this to him? You fucking killed my familiar.” The druid said.

“Well he tried to kill me first and he hurt my familiar.” Freja said with equal resolve.

“You don’t matter, you and your cursed fucking people deserve nothing more than to be fertilizer for the forest.” The man stated with spital escaping his lips. “If it wasn’t for those trolls wiping out my squad you would be hung from the branches of a hundred trees. Your entrails splayed for all to see… It wasn’t supposed to be this way.” He looked down at the steel wolf as it gave up the ghost and finally went still. 

“You got what you deserved tree fucker.” Freja said with just as much rage.

“And you will get what you deserve, trust me, savage.” he said as he stood up.

The druid rushed toward Freja with surprising speed. He was no athlete anymore but the fact he could run at all with his injuries was shocking. He reached her in a few heartbeats and swung at her with his staff. The wind hand holding her alchemy case intercepted the blow. The force carried through anyway, dispelling the wind hand and knocking her back and the alchemy case into the brush. Everything was ringing for a moment as Freja tried to recover her balance only for the druid's staff to sweep her legs out from under her.

The air was knocked out of her as her back hit the ground. She only had moments to regain her bearings and see that the druid was swinging his staff towards her head. She rolled to her side and she heard the clunk of the staff hitting the ground where her head was a moment earlier. She continued to roll as again and again the staff hit the ground. She directed the second wind hand to strike with the stone and it crashed into him with a hardy thunk.

She was so flustered she forgot to have the hand to release the stone leading it to be dispelled on impact. The druid was on the ground. His staff having been dropped when he was hit. Freja realized that he couldn’t use any of his magic while he was holding himself together. Every ounce of his strength was being used to keep himself alive. Freja wasted no time in standing up; she needed to capitalize on his injuries.

She found his staff a fusion of wood and metal which twisted together in artistic but military elegance. The staff was heavy and obviously used by a war mage who needed practicality over form. The druid wormed in pain on the ground as blood rushed from his side, her blow having reopened several wounds. Freja didn’t care, she needed to end it and fast.

She lifted the staff above her head and brought it down using every bit of her strength. She hit him in the head and felt as well as heard the sickening crunch. He wasn’t dead though and he kept squirming. Wood started to grow over the new injury and protect his head. He lashed out with his arms and legs, one lucky kick with his wooden leg catching Freja in the stomach. She stumbled backwards using the staff as support.

“Forest Father help me. Deliver me from this savage.” The druid called out as he attempted to crawl away realizing this was a losing battle. “Curse her, strike her dead. Father.”

Freja regained her composure and runs over to the crawling man; she lifted the staff again aiming for his head and neck. She struck him again and again until he finally stopped moving. Then she continued letting all of her rage, sadness, grief go as she screamed herself hoarse. She then looked at what she had done. He was dead, his mind spilled across the ground. Blood and gore caked her hands, the staff and sprayed her clothing.

She backed up, her mind spinning and the forest seemed to become darker and more constricting. She turned around from the body and dry heaved until she threw up bile as there wasn’t much in her stomach. Tears came to her eyes but she didn’t understand why. He deserved it. He had to die. It was her or him or some other innocents would probably be killed. Why would she cry for an evil druid soldier that wanted to kill her?

She continued to try and rationalize it but it came back around to the fact she just killed someone. A real person. Justified or not she killed him. A cold wind caused her to shiver as she attempted to wipe some of the blood and tears from her face. She tugged on the connection to Bjorn with her magic and found him shortly after, still unconscious where she had left him. 

Freja dropped the war mage staff and sat down beside the sleeping familiar, picking him up and placing him in her lap. They survived, they won, and they killed an evil-evil man. The world went wobbly as tears again formed. She petted the sleeping lizard with a bitter smile across her face. 

“He was going to kill us. His people are the enemy, right? So, why does it still hurt?” Freja asked, her voice trembling. “All of the veterans always talked about it like it was a good thing to kill a druid. Honorable. But that? Honorable?” She balled her fist and hit the ground beside her. “I should feel vindicated. I killed one of those… I mean they killed my sister.”

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She couldn’t think about it anymore so she turned her attention back to her magic. More so an escape than actual curiosity. It only took a moment for the mental projection of her status to reappear.

Status Menu

Name: Freja Thundersky Salstar
Species: Wendigo
Level: 9
Vitality: 9 
Restoration: 2 
Constitution: 2 
Willpower: 8
Strength: 2 
Dexterity: 4
Stamina: 2 
Magic: 16 
Magic Regeneration: 25 (+100 from bond)

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She had risen another level although she didn’t really know what that meant. Until the second pop-up appeared.

Unassigned Cultivation Points Distribution

You have leveled up again before assigning your UCP. 
You have 20 UCP
Please assign all UCP within 5 days or it will be automatically assigned.
Assign [yes/no]

“So, level has something to do with how powerful I am or at least how many points I can use. I get points by killing things? The number of days I have dropped in half too.” Freja wondered out loud. “I don’t know much about cultivators but I am pretty sure my great-great grandfather was one.” She thought about it for a little while. “Yes.”

The status menu reopened this time there were little plus icons next to each of her stats. She thought about the possibilities. Right now her main goal is to leave the country. She doesn’t want to entertain the possibility of running into her family again. As long as she is in Yuhia there is always the risk. She just wants to start over and actually learn magic now that she can. She wanted to increase her knowledge and travel the world. Hope filled her for the first time in a long while. She had options.

She placed her stat points with a focus on magic but with an understanding she was going to be walking a lot. So some strength and stamina was a given. She looked at her new stats and confirmed the changes.

Status Menu

Name: Freja Thundersky Salstar
Species: Wendigo
Level: 9
Vitality: 10
Restoration: 4
Constitution: 2 
Willpower: 8
Strength: 5
Dexterity: 4 
Stamina: 8
Magic: 24
Magic Regeneration: 25 (+100 from bond)

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