Prince of The Abyss

Rot, it isn’t something the human body has to fight against, but at the same time, that’s what made this dangerous.

’Shit.’ Aether said, clenching his chest, as he fell to his knees, looking at where the Raven’s attack had hit him. There was a huge hole in his mantle, with the skin under it starting to turn pale, greyish, with some unusually dark patches. Even after just being affected, his skin looked dry, and he felt weak...

...’ Quite bad that I got hit near my stomach, huh.’ Since the wound was still new, it hadn’t managed to spread quite yet, it was, but it was still on the outer part of his skin.

It was still not night yet, and he had yet to test whether his healing ability even took care of it... Waiting was going to be a giant mistake.

Quickly turning to Sena, he screamed at her. ”Use your people to drag its attention from me; I need some time”

Looking at his wound from a distance, Sena nodded, as the men she had taken with them started running towards the Raven.

Was he going to have a lot of time? No... and if he wasted too much of it, all of their men would be dead. And even if they didn’t do that much damage to the actual beast, in a situation like this, they were really valuable.

Seeing the Raven turn to the other men, Aether gripped Voidpiercer, grabbing the collar of his mantle to his mouth, and biting down on it, as he lifted the blade... this time directed to himself.

The only bad part about this is that he wasn’t going to be able to cut the part of the skin off, since Voidpiercer could never cut the skin of a Seeker Beast, at least not enough to do what he needed it to do... He was going to have to stab himself until he created an outline and then rip it out himself.

He was nervous, really nervous, to the point his hands were trembling. After all, as much as he had gotten hurt and allowed himself to get hurt, doing it yourself is a lot harder, and being on a timer makes it even worse.

Aether closed his eyes for a second, biting hard on the collar and stabbing himself. He had punctured a bit away from the actual rotting spot; that way, if it spread, he wouldn’t miss anything. It’s also the reason he had gone a bit deeper.

He felt it, the parts of him that were weaker, so he knew where the rot was currently. Taking the blade out, he saw blood come out... reminding him of what he was doing, but he continued, moving the blade just where the last stab had landed, and then he thrust again. A groan escaped through his mouth.

...

He was moving too slowly; if he took this long for each one, he would hardly make any progress... Taking a deep breath through his nose, he started stabbing himself, faster and faster, slowly carving the outline, as the rot started to spread.

When he was finally done creating an outline, he gripped the rotting skin... one of the reasons he had done this outline was so he wouldn’t rip out any more skin, also so the rot wouldn’t be able to spread anywhere else but down, until it went beyond the depth of his thrusts.

Letting the air from before out, he prepared himself... before violently ripping off the piece of his skin that had been rotten with his hand. He screamed in pain through the collar, falling to the ground on his forehead.

[Mental Fortitude:72] Just after he had worked so hard to get it back up.

He took deep breaths, as his eyes were shot open completely. After a few seconds, he used Voidpiercer to get himself back on his feet.

Looking at his hand, he had ripped the rotten part, but also a bit of healthy skin underneath, which had been why it had hurt him so much... It was also a terrifying sight; the blood on the rotten side looked to be darker, brownish, while the lower part was pure red... it was also just scary seeing your own skin.

Looking down, he saw the hole he had created; blood spilled out... he needed to take care of this thing, and fast... he was once again on a timer.

Summoning his bow, Aether fired one of his Abyssal arrows into the Raven’s wing, which was using it to fire its feathers at the three remaining men... they had started with twenty-five. That was just how much time he had taken, and how close he was to just losing them all. And once that happened, it was either going to go after him again, or Sena. Neither was a good option.

Raising his bow once more, he stared at the Raven as it turned to him and started to fly to the sky and plunge down at him.

It was moving like crazy... but at the same time, he noticed a pattern in its movements, a pretty long one. But a pattern. So he waited, and waited, until the Raven’s beak was close to his face, before firing the arrow right into its eye, and making it go out of its desired path, barely missing him... which had probably been because of Fate.

Turning to Sena for a quick second, he nodded in gratitude.

Before looking at the Raven with the corner of his eye, whose head had landed right near him, already trying to lift.

Aether clenched Voidpiercer, thrusting into its neck as he turned towards it. This made the bird stagger for a second before trying to get away again, but Aether used some of his remaining essence to make his chains wrap around its neck, binding it to the ground, as he delivered another stab to its neck, but the chains grew weaker as more and more force was put on them, only giving him another jab before it broke them them, and asscended in the air...

When it came to Essence... he only had one arrow, and if he used it, he was out completely...

But he was going to take his chances, moving completely below the bird. Aether fired another arrow, one that pierced through the bottom part of its head.

....

[You have killed a Seeker Monster, Raven of the Hollow Graveyard]

[Your knowledge grows stronger.]

[You have gained a relic]