[Pleasure District]
Bulat's eyes flickered open suddenly, the dull, suffocating fog of unconsciousness receding.
"..What?" he tried to speak, but the world around him sharpened in blurs and waves, his vision struggling to adjust.
"Argh!!" He tried to move his hand, but his body felt like it had been crushed under a mountain. It felt stiff, numb, and radiating a deep, bone-aching pain that pulsed with each heartbeat.
"Fuck!" Every time he attempted to move and was met with silence from his limbs, they lay heavy, pinned by the damage that had left him broken.
After an unknown amount of time, he stopped his futile actions and moved his eyes, taking in his surroundings.
He was currently inside a dimly lit room as the light cast a warm, sepia glow that played across the space.
The room was furnished with yellowed wallpaper peeling at the corners and an old wooden cabinet filled with vials and glass jars.
Positioned on a nearby table was a metal tray holding bloody surgical tools, accompanied by a wooden nightstand beside a cracked porcelain lamp.
The unmistakable scent of antiseptic mingled with the faint, musky odour of sweat and iron.
"..." His gaze shifted, caught by a sound of heavy chewing and the rough, animalistic tearing of meat.
"Nom..Nom," Across the room sat a figure that made Bulat's eyes widen a little, even in his weakened state.
"...Bane?" he uttered softly. However, Bane, or whoever he may be, persisted in eating while seated shirtless on a wooden table, his torso marked with severe, bruised injuries and his skin displaying a mosaic of dark blues and blacks.
Blood trickled from the fresh gashes, painting thin lines down his sides.
But what was weird was that bandages were wrapped tightly only around his face, leaving only his fierce aquamarine eyes and a sliver of his mouth exposed. He looked like a mummy brought to life, ravaged by battle.
But what caught Bulat's attention most, though, was the way Bane ate.
A stack of food, thick slabs of meat, loaves of crusty bread, and jars of preserved vegetables lay within his reach.
"Nom…Nom.." He devoured them with intensity, each bite mouthful and quick.
'Despite looking so timid he has quite the appetite,' Bulat thought as he shifted his gaze to his own battered body, studying the rough first aid that Bane had managed with whatever supplies were at hand.
Bandages were wrapped tightly around his torso and arms, their makeshiftness clear in their uneven, hastily tied sections.
The dark stains of blood and sweat seeped through, stark reminders of how close he had come to death.
'In the end, even with a chance to escape, I couldn't safely get away from that monster of a general,' Bulat reflected, the memory of that final, brutal attack playing in his mind like a vivid nightmare.
The intense energy, the dark, almost black beam. It had been unlike anything he'd faced before. If not for Incursio's unexpected adaptation to lightning, he would have been obliterated within seconds.
The force had torn through the armour in three or four relentless seconds, searing through his body and pushing him to the brink.
Only the last-minute effect of Bane's poison on General Budo had spared him from certain death. That fleeting moment of weakness in Budo's attack had been the thin thread that kept Bulat alive.
'What the hell am I even thinking? I should be thankful to have lived after facing a man like him,' Bulat confessed, his mind stable despite the pain.
Where the burns from Budo's lightning had seared deepest, the bandages pressed into the raw, blistered skin, drawing sharp stings with each movement.
His ribs were a patchwork of dark bruises and swelling, a telltale sign of fractures beneath the surface.
The intense throbbing in his limbs and the rigidity of his muscles indicated severe tissue injury, injuries that would require weeks to heal even with adequate medical care.
"Thank God he knows how to do first aid. If it was Sheele..." Bulat trembled, recalling being mummified alive by sheele.
Bulat's focus shifted back to Bane, who was consuming a large quantity of food. As Bane ate, the wounds on his body started to heal, closing before Bulat's slightly surprised eyes.
His eyes narrowed as he watched, the surrealness of it all sparking a mix of awe and bitterness in him.
He had witnessed Bane's regenerative ability before, but every time, it felt unreal.
The man could bounce back from injuries that would leave anyone else a lifeless shell. In moments like these, when his own body screamed in pain, muscles torn, skin bruised, and bones aching from the brutal fight, Bulat couldn't deny the quiet envy that crept in.
'I wouldn't mind healing like that,' Bulat thought, a bitter smile flickering across his lips. The thought was fleeting but sharp, and he let himself indulge it for just a moment, imagining how it would feel to have wounds vanish instead of enduring weeks of agonising recovery.
Then he let it fade, smothered beneath a surge of grim amusement. 'Hell, I'd settle for being able to stand up without wincing.'
But the thought quickly faded, replaced by a memory of Najenda's words about Bane's past. She'd spoken of the Empire's twisted experiments, the years Bane had spent as their prisoner, subjected to inhuman trials.
The empire had done things to Bane that went beyond torture. They had carved into him, twisted him, reshaped him, and left him a living experiment, forced to endure unimaginable pain for the sake of ultimately stealing his life by sucking his blood dry.
He glanced back at Bane. 'On second thought…' Bulat's expression shifted, a subtle hardness settling over his features. 'I'll bear my pain. Hell, I'll live with it.'
A/N: Yup, I know what you're going to say, and I'm sorry for taking a few days off! I have my reasons, but I'll spare you the details. (One thing I will let you know is that I am buying a new laptop within this week, so I think quality and wordcount of future chapters may increase a little)
I'm actually thinking of making a Discord channel for announcements, but I have no idea how to set one up or run it (yeah some people like me still don't know about it). So, If anyone here has experience with Discord, could you give me some advice in the comments or in other social apps.