Hellwalker

*Thunk* *Thunk* *Thunk*

The spear-like bones pierced into the flesh of all those near the explosion. The demons and Marick alike were not spared from this explosion of jagged shrapnel. It tore through their flesh like a wood saw, the edges of the bones serrated to cause extreme damage. Marick himself narrowly dodged a fatal blow from a spear at his heart, piercing into his lungs and out his back, while two more managed to pierce into his left leg and right foot, nailing him to the white cave floor.

*Sink*

He began to fall forward but caught himself by using his sword as support, stabbing it into the cave rock underneath.

*Splatter*

He reached his right arm behind his back and yanked the bone through his back, pulling it through him. His blood pooled out of the wound like a leaking faucet to the floor below.

*Weaze* *Weaze* *Weaze*

*Gurgle*

*Cough* *Cough*

His breathing became ragged and blood filled his left lung from the puncture wound. He had only a single working lung and this would be fatal within the next few minutes for an ordinary man. The human body could not support itself with only a single lung and with the rate of blood loss he was experiencing now. 

He pulled out two small rocks, from the cave floor of the first layer of hell, and pressed them into the wound on his back and his chest. It was pressed enough into the wound that it could barely press against the torn lung tissue inside. Then, he let go of his blade for a single second.

*Hiss* *Sizzle* *Sizzle*

The heat resistance he normally had while holding his weapon receded, allowing the natural properties of the hell rock to sear his flesh inside his body, cauterizing the wound on his lung from the outside of it, sealing it and allowing it to function. 

*Cough* *Cough* *Cough* *Blegh*

He leaned back against his sword shakily again, while forcing himself to cough up the blood inside his lung. 

He flexed his left leg muscles and with his teeth gritting fiercely, he pulled his leg forward, ripping his leg the rest of the way through the spear nailing it to the ground. He quickly cauterized it through similar actions and tended to his other foot wound quickly.

Sweat beaded on his forehead as his concentration shook from extreme pain. His muscles ached and his body felt sick, perhaps poisoned, but he still didn't allow himself to rest. No, not yet.

He glanced around at the previously howling and cheering demons and imps, now nailed to the ground like he was through all sorts of bone spurs and spears, impaling them. They trashed around in angry pain, unable to die but slowly recovering like he had.

*Step*

*Step*

*Step*

He moved forward slowly towards the nearest demon, nailed to the floor through its waist. Its weapon hand was also impaled and pinned to the floor, leaving its defense completely down.

*Menacing*

He stood over it and slowly moved his sword at x0.25 speed, at a relaxed speed. The demon just smiled as its death approached slowly.

"You can't do this forever, Hellwalker. You can't resist fate!" It yelled madly, not looking afraid at all.

Perhaps, it was looking for an emotion of some kind. To invoke one final despair and enjoy its sadistic impulses before it died, but it was destined to be disappointed.

*Slash*

*Chewing sounds*

Marick felt the familiar cool sensation come from his blade, refreshing his mind and filling his body with nutrients. Perhaps the poison he felt earlier was slow-acting and he would die regardless of his blade's help. But right now, these demons took up all his focus. He was in a kind of 'the zone' that humans experience during a particular high, except his focus was much denser and harder to disturb than a normal man. He would keep moving forward as long as his task was not complete and his body could still move.

"Hellwalker! Your-"

*Slash*

"HAHAHA, human do you think-"

*Slash*

"Hellwal-"

*Slash*

*Slash*

*Slash*

*Slash*

*Slash*

From one demon to the next he hobbled over to them and killed them. His blade devoured their astral bodies completely, nullifying their natural immortality and turning it into energy to sustain his body further. He slaughtered them all, every single demon and imp that had once been jeering from the side. Hundreds of shriveled bodies of the demons lay in this field of bone spears.

He limped away, leaving the bodies behind him like waste paper. Heading towards a place he could hide away again.

...

36 hours later.

*Rumble*

*Thud*

Marick rolled a large rock in front of a small cave outlet he found, before lying down to 'rest'. He felt as if he was fully awake mentally, but his body needed rest from its wounds. His sword didn't give him regeneration, just a perfect set of nutrition his body would need. It was strange, the sword refreshed his mind like he had slept, but it didn't do the same to his body.

Marick put his deductive perk [Keen Eye] to work and came up with some theories for this. The Astral realm, specifically the Deep Astral, was a spiritual world that tended to focus on abstract or ethereal concepts. It was easy to accept that Sustainance Blade could refresh his mind but not regenerate his body because this deep into the Astral Realm was all spiritual in the first place. 

His physical strengthening came from his effort, dedication, and inhuman will to break the human limits and not the blade in his arms. The Sustainance Blade's only role was to provide his body with the means to recover. This meant he couldn't fight on forever and his muscles would still build up lactic acid from overwork. But with every life-threatening battle he survived, his body's endurance was growing further and further.

Marick held his lifesaving blade close to him, curling up in a fetal position. His body started to shake, seemingly going into some kind of shock. His theory that poison was coating those bone spears was further confirmed at this moment. 

He could only pray at this point his body was strong enough to overcome it.