My legs hurt, the exhaustion of the fight with that man was killing me, it hurt to admit but at the time it felt as if that was the end.
I felt like death itself, my breathing hard and heavy. My lungs heaving and trying to throw up anything yet nothing came from it.
I didn't even have any water to wash down the feeling with. It hurt… it hurt so much.
Yet I knew that I could not fall there, I glared around me. The empty field showed nothing but the corpses of both my ally's and of my sole enemy.
Unlike I had expected there was no one, not a single soul had echoed a word let alone a sound since the defeat of that man.
Those creatures had scattered, I knew that because I knew how many of them there were.
Even when I had arrived here I could see more of those creatures in the side of my vision.
Yet now… there was nothing. It was like they were ordered to let me go.
As if an order had been given to allow for me to escape.
I glared around my surrounding d again, all the while my hand holding my sword like a walking stick. I stuck it into the ground.
The sword pierced the dirt below me to create stable footing. I struggled to look up, my eyes roaming around the exit of this damnable place.
I could feel the exhaustion setting in, it was not of a physical sense but one of a more spiritual sense. It was like a hunger unfulfilled, as if I had not eaten for days apart yet that was not what it was.
Mana… it was the only answer, it was the only thing that would make sense. I had never felt this sort of exhaustion before, in all of my years of both physical and mental exercise I never had felt this way.
It was why I thought that it was mana exhaustion, not only because of that but because of the subsequent events.
The way that I had expelled all of my mana in a desperate attempt to reach him. The emptiness that filled the core of my being.
A sigh echoed from my mouth silently, my eyes once again roaming the area around me, the lack of beings that observed me.
The lack of hostiles. I narrowed my eyes at that, a glare piercing my surroundings.
"Hah" I let out a sigh of exhaustion, the hands holding my sword barely able to pick it up and move forwards.
I watched from the corner of my eye as I crawled further and further away. The various huts disappearing into the background as it was replaced by tall grass.
It was severely weird. Their were no more of those creatures to bother and harass me.
Though I shouldn't be complaining. After all, if they had decided to appear then that would have been the end.
I could barely even walk forward let alone pull my sword up to engage in battle.
I truly was tired, tired in both mana and energy.
If it was only energy that I was lacking in then maybe I could have fought off another one of them but now… as I was. It would be impossible.
With no mana to my being and none seeming to regenerate I would be slaughtered in a manner of seconds.
It was why I was so thankful that they had chosen not to pursue me for whatever reason.
I stabbed the sword in front of me, an arms length away.
Once again using my strength to pull me a couple of feet forward before I rest in the sword again.
My head was filled with sweat. I didn't know for how much longer I could last through this.
I couldn't even just focus purely on walking, the various traps that littered the floor around me taking my mental focus to spot.
Again I thanked the Kobolds and their teachings.
Without them I would have long been caught in one of them without escape.
I had seen what they could do and they were deadly.
One wrong step and I was dead.
I felt so powerless, it felt so awful. Not only in my previous fight but now, afterwards.
The way that my stomach churned, my body heated up and failed me.
It disgusted me. I had no idea where that came from but I could not help but believe in the idea.
Of how weak I was.
My teeth grit together, a silent fury falling upon myself.
However it could not last for long, my energy spent and my wounds untreated.
I needed to find a place to rest, preferably one hidden. Though I would settle for anything that would allow me to lie down and sleep.
It was good fortune that I happened to come across a place that fit those exact specifications.
A burrow, or something of the nature, stood right in front of my eyes. Seemingly abandoned by the disuse of the place.
Or maybe that was just what it naturally looked like but I was willing to take the risk. I wouldn't be able to continue forward any further. Not with how sounded I was at the moment.
So with a resolution of my fate I jumped in and found a nice wall to lay against.
My head burrowed into the dirt and my body turned to the side feeling the cold dirt.
It was uncomfortable but I endured it and closed my eyes. Darkness took me as I fell asleep.
…
The ringing of a forge, the hammer hitting metal. The blazing fury of an inferno raging.
It took up my vision, my very mind revealed only to be consumed by the creation of a $@"$&/ it was amazing, it was horrifying, it was haunting.
It was everything yet nothing at the same time.
My head burned, my body felt as if it would crush under the immense pressure that it had to withstand.
A hand reached out, the very same one that held the hammer.
It was beautiful, perfect. There were no words for how utterly beautiful the hand was.
My vision swam and my eyes fell as a powerful force placed its metaphorical hand atop my head.
A whisper of words that I could not understand echoed in the air. Eldritch meanings pass by my very soul.
The next thing I know l am falling, a void awaiting me.
A laugh echoed again but it was comprehensible. My mind could understand it.
My back hit the ground, taking the breath from my mouth and disorienting me for a second.
'Apologies… thee must have been disoriented by the travel but with the strength of thy soul you may now see me'
I opened my eyes at the words. For a moment I just stood still. Shell Shocked by the sight in front of me.
It was the same woman, the very one that all my dreams had featured. Though instead of a featureless body that I had remembered of her she was whole.
Or at least as whole as my mind could comprehend.
With beautiful dirty blonde hair, an outfit that looks vaguely like a witch that was washed out of the dark. Her slight smile, those beautiful eyes.
It was all perfect. I was stunned at the beauty of it all. Of both her and the journey before.
I couldn't say anything, couldn't move. It was a testament to my will that I was even able to take in the dig hit in front of me.
'Ah… stunned are you? How cute…" a giggle, a hand hiding her mouth.
I melted in her arms, the hands holding into me bringing me into her embrace.
A kiss placed upon my forehead and I felt all the fire, the pain disappear.
Circuits of light lit the room up. Of a brilliant gold, the same color as both her hair and eyes.
'Go forth… in conquest and seek your path. Remember thy always has a home in my embrace.'
With that I was let go of, my hands grasping for anything for any grip that could allow me to touch her. To say something.
But nothing appeared nor any power helped me.
A final sight, of a melancholic smile that seemed to be so painful yet so happy.
…
"Wait!" I yelled out, my lungs yelling as hard as they could.
Yet all it found was empty air. A cave of nothing but dust.
My hand grasped the air, searching for anything but reality hit me and I no longer could feel the hope that she brought me.
I sat up from where I sat, the sword at my side chipped and broken. I brought it into my lap. Inspecting it, trying to find anything that I could fix.
Anything that would take my mind off of that woman. Anything to take my mind someplace else.
Yet even as my hand worked, using the rocks around me to strike and create anew the broken sword I could feel nothing but the gentle embrace of the woman who I did not even know the name of.
Slowly I sat up, the moments passing by as I sheathed the sword into my side. It wasn't anything fancy, just a small string I had created from some of the grass outside.
I was finally ready, the sword was as sharp as it could have been, the durability as repaired as the tools would allow me.