Son of the Night - Volume 2 Chapter 14

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When Akira opened his eyes the first thing he saw was an unfamiliar wooden ceiling. The bed he was laying in was quite comfortable.

Im still alive, but how? Akira asked himself.

He slowly moved his head and looked around the room. It was empty save for the fireplace, a small wooden desk with a chair, and a mirror hanging on the wall.

Dong! Dong! Dong!

The sound of a large bell being struck came through the open window next to his bed. Akira tried to sit up a few times and finally succeeded. Turning his head, he looked out the window for a few seconds.

There was a large group of men in brown robes and partly shaved heads, walking to the building where the sound of the bell was coming from.

He slumped back down onto his bed due to the pain signals his body was sending him.

Akira threw off his blankets, only to see bloody bandages wrapped around most of his body.

The door opened on the opposite side of the room, startling Akira.

A man, dressed similarly to those he had seen outside his window just moments before, entered the room.

He quickly walked over to Akira and began looking at him, inspecting his wounds, poking them here and there, causing Akira to shout in pain.

Would you stop that? What do you think youre doing and who the hell are you? asked Akira, his voice hoarse from being dry.

The robed man ignored Akiras questions and continued checking his wounds. When he finished his inspection he turned to look at Akira before answering.

Its good that youre awake. Youve been sleeping like a log for nearly a week. Your wounds seem to be healing amazingly fast, even without one of the magic guilds potions. Sorry, but we dont have any potions like that here. The best I can do is have Brother Asher come and change your bandages later. My name is Brother Freid, said Freid.

Where is this place and how did I get here? asked Akira.

This place is a monastery I oversee. Brother Asher can explain in more detail on how you got here when you see him later. Right now youre probably hungry as we could only feed you honeyed water while you were unconscious. Ill have something prepared for you. Looking at your wounds, I should make you something light to eat for now. I guess some oatmeal should do just fine, said Freid as he tucked the blanket around Akira a little too tightly.

With that Freid left the room without another word, closing the door behind him.

Its a good thing I am not dead, but I may have gotten myself into something worse. I have no clue whats going on. At least my body seems to have settled down and stopped growing, thought Akira.

The recent events came rushing back and overwhelmed him. He was having a hard time processing everything that had happened.

Rodger who was like a brother to him and all of his friends he met and grown up with were now his enemies. From a young age, all he could remember about the demon race was about all the bad things they were supposed to have done in the past and what type of horrible beings they currently were.

Now that he was saved by them, you could say they were now his allies.

His whole view of the world and how he should live his life was thrown into the air, and he didnt know where it would land.

No use worrying about everything right now. Ill think about it later, thought Akira.

His eyes wandered around the room out of boredom, trying to keep himself from thinking of the past events. While looking of the far right of his vision he could see multiple blinking images.

Akira kept turning his head around to try and get a better view of them, but the images followed his head, always staying on the far right of his vision just enough to not get in the way.

What is this? Ah, that reminds me there was that weird message that popped up before I awakened. Something about a class job change to Son of the Night, Akira muttered to himself, deep in thought, all other troubling thoughts had disappeared.

Akira stopped moving his head and just laid still and stared at one of the blinking images, which looked like a human body.

He let out a yelp of surprise when the blinking image expanded to fill a large portion of his view.

What does this mean? Akira asked himself.

Ding! a ? lit up and began blinking. Akira looked at it, causing two more windows to pop up into his vision.

Stats Info:

Strength: Affects damage of melee attacks, and how much weight you can carry. Some equipment may require a certain amount of strength to equip.

Vitality: Amount of health points. Also helps HP regen

Stamina: Affects how long you can run/ how many physical attack skills you can use before getting tired.

Agility: Affects your movement speed and how good you are at avoiding enemy attacks.

Intelligence: Amount of damage magic attacks do.

Wisdom: Amount of mana and how fast it will regen.

Son of the night: ( Novice Lvl: 1 | 0%):

-This is a special class meant for tanking.

Tanking: The tank is always on the frontlines of a fight, shielding and protecting allies, friends, and family from any major threat.

-Main weapons used are swords, one-handed spears, and a shield that may vary in size.

-Armor used is mainly heavy armor to protect oneself and allow you to take more damage while on the frontlines.

-Can only use Werewolf form at night.

+10% buff at night to stamina and strength when transformed.

Im not sure whats going on. Is it saying that these numbers next to the stats show the strength of my body? I guess this really means I am a werewolf and it wasnt a dream, muttered Akira.

The door opened again for the second time of the day, jerking him out of his thoughts. The information windows closed as he looked over at the door to see a different monk walking in carrying in a bowl of oatmeal. He handed Akira the bowl and a spoon before speaking.

Youre still awake, thats good. My name is Brother Asher. Freid let me know you were awake so I thought I would answer some of your questions he passed on to me. I travel the roads and deliver messages and news to the numerous monasteries, and sometimes use my skill in medicine to help patients. While on my way to this monastery, I noticed your bloody body on the ground. You looked to be dead and not breathing from what looked like multiple fatal stab wounds. When I checked to see if you were truly dead, I could just barely sense your breathing, said Asher.

What about the other people that were near me? asked Akira.

No chance of them being alive. They had missing limbs and horrible wounds from bites and claw marks on their bodies, that looked to have come from some strong monster. How frightening it must have been to do so much damage to them. It was only you that was alive. After I patched you up, I decided to bring you along with me so you could get a chance to properly heal and rest. I know Brother Freid well enough so he agreed to allow you to stay. Whatever you fought sure did a number on your body. Youre lucky I was passing by to be able to save you, said Asher.

Thank you for helping me. Im sorry to say but I have no money to pay you or Freid for your kindness or my stay here, said Akira.

Dont worry about that. Im sure Brother Freid will have work for you to do when you recover. You can pay it off that way later, said Asher.

After Akira finished eating the oatmeal, Asher walked over to the desk where a basin of water sat along with a few rolls of clean bandages and brought the bandages back over to Akiras bed.

Now that we have all that sorted out, If you would allow me, I will get to changing these old bandages and help clean your wounds. It might hurt a bit, but Im sure you can handle it, said Asher, waiting for Akira to give the okay.

Akira nodded his head. With the help of Asher, he was able to sit up. The bandages were swiftly removed. Some of them were caked with dried blood and made Akira grit his teeth due to the pain, as they were pulled off like an old scab.

Before putting on the new bandages, the wounds were lightly washed, with Asher inspected them to see if the stitches were still holding up.

You seem to be healing at an incredible pace, you should be healed sooner then I had expected. You must have some good genes, said Asher while applying the new bandages.

After finishing, he let Akira lay back down and threw the dirty bandages into to the fireplace where they began to quickly burn.

He rinsed his hands in the basin of water and wiped them off with the hand towel next to it.

You can take this herb medicine, it should help you sleep, Asher said and handed over a small vial with murky green liquid inside.

Ill be back to check on you tomorrow, said Asher, leaving the room with the bowl and spoon and the bowl the oatmeal had been in.

Akira watched as he left, then opened the vial and sniffed the liquid, curious at what it was.

Well, I dont think he would go through all the trouble of helping me out to poison me. Bottoms up, said Akira as he dumped the contents into his mouth.

The taste was neither good nor bad, just bland. Slowly, as he laid in the bed, his body began to tingle and wipe away any of the pain he had been feeling. All thoughts slipped away as he drifted off to sleep.

***

What do you mean you cant find his body? asked Brutus, who was holding his stump of a hand.

It was unfortunate and infuriating that he had been unable to reattach the hand that Akira had bitten off before the 24-hour time limit had passed.

Rodger sat on a horse next to Brutus, his face still had the scar left from Akira claw.

Sir, the only bodies we could find at the scene of the fight all belonged to the scouts that had been sent ahead. None of them survived. But for some odd reason, the scouts were all buried in their own graves. He couldnt have gotten far because his horse was killed. A large amount of blood that did not belong to the dead scouts was found so it looks like he was badly wounded in the fight, said Alan.

Hurry up and find him! We cant let him escape, shouted Brutus.

***

Akira woke up the next morning with his body still feeling a little numb from the potion.

The sun was shining outside, lighting up the room.

I feel much better now, thought Akira. I should take a look in the mirror and see whats changed since my body and muscles stopped growing.

He felt his body crying out in pain as he sat up. But due to the effects of the potion still taking effect, the pain was lessened.

As he tried to stand up, he fell back onto his bed, holding his head as the world spun around him in dizziness.

After resting for a minute to let his head clear, he stood up again. He stepped towards the mirror.

Thud! He fell forward onto his face.

Crap, that hurt! Whats wrong with my body? Akira asked out loud.

His legs worked but it was like he had swapped bodies with someone else and he hadnt learned how to use the body yet.

Must be from the effects of the awakening. I hope I can get back into shape and have this not affect me too much.

After the pain lessened, he stood back up, using the bed to keep from falling. After regaining his balance, he began to move towards the mirror with the slow and wobbly steps of a baby that was just starting learning how to walk.

When he finally reached the mirror, he caught his breath and looked at his body.

I look like something from a childs nightmare, muttered Akira as he moved his arms and legs around while twisting and turning to get a full view of himself in the mirror.

His body was all bandaged up, and there was hardly any skin showing.

I look taller than I remember. My arms and the rest of my body seems thicker and heavier. This is troublesome. Its like all my training for the last twenty years has been thrown out the window.

Akira noticed that he could not see the floating icons on his right reflected in the mirror. How odd. He looked at the icons that were not blinking anymore. Above the icons was his name and a red and a blue bar, the red bar was labeled HP, the blue bar MP.

The HP bar was nearly half empty with the numbers showing 63/100. Weird, what is that measuring?

The door opened unexpectedly, almost hitting Akira and startling him.

It was Asher who had come check up on him. Who was staring at Akira in horror.

What the hell do you think youre doing? Get back to bed! Youre only worsening your wounds. Here I am worried about helping you heal and youre causing the wounds to reopen. Just because you can walk doesnt mean you should, scolded Asher.

Akira looked back at his bandages and saw that there were a few places where blood seemed to be fresh.

Umm sorry? said Akira, not sure what to say.

With the help of Asher, he was able to get back to his bed and sat down. Asher quickly took off the dirtied bandages and cleansed the wounds with a salve and then wrapped clean bandages around his entire body.

I will be back later to check on you. Dont get out of bed until your wounds are fully healed, commanded Asher before leaving the room.

Ding!

Quest: Stay in bed.

You are to stay in bed until you are fully recovered.

Difficulty: F
Reward:
Skill: Rest

Will you accept?:

Yes | No

Damn it, what is going on with my life? I have no clue, and these damn messages keep bothering me. Fine! Yes, I accept. Now go away, damn it, shouted Akira.

The window disappeared after he answered. After Akira finally cooled down, he started to think of the past events, along with not knowing what else to do with his life right now.

One thing I do know is, not only do I need to get back my mobility after Im fully healed, but I also need to get stronger. Otherwise, I will end up in someplace like this again or if I am unlucky, dead. If I dont, I wont be able to protect any friends or future family I may have. Should I start a new chapter in my life and come up with a new motto to live by?

For half of the day, he thought long and hard on this one subject.

Ive got it! Hmm, this seems to be a good motto, thought Akira.

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

Those who stab you in the back will pay the price.

Honor those who honor you, said Akira out loud.