Lone Sword in the Rain.

"This is not the place for you to be." - said white haired man while glancing at the merchant.

"I just need to fix the axis. Maybe you, traveler, can help me? I will pay you, but please, I need someone to deliver a message for me." - said a slightly fat man, seeing a tinge of denial on the strangers face. It was already getting dark, so he can't properly see facial features of a man under the hood, but he can tell that the one was undoubtedly a warrior and wielded two swords behind his back.

"Merchant, if you want to live, you should run now. Who even told you to use this path at night?" - insisted the stranger, glancing at the bridge pensively and sighing.

"My partners thought it is a good chance to cut the long road."

"Cut the road to death it seems." - grumbled the man. - "Get inside your cart. Now."

"But it can't move. What's the use? Just help me a bit, I believe if we get help it can be fixed." - pleaded he not quite understanding why warrior is reluctant to help pull it. After all he can even pay.

"Get inside or die." - simply said a man and unsheathed one of his swords, that glowed with silver luster under the setting sun.

"You... you want to kill me?" - that simple soundless motion as fast as a specter shift, gave a normal in all aspects person a fright.

"Not me. The ones under the bridge." - said the man without any anger or sadness, simply stating a fact.

"Who?" - asked merchant with trembling voice.

"Monsters." - came simple reply.

"Please, save me... I..." - the man trembled. - "Are you a witcher?"

"Just get under the cart and don't leave no matter what you hear." - said witcher and threw the man inside like some dirty rag.

"I will give you anything you want if you help me." - the man said.

"Anything?" - witcher froze for a second. - "No need."

"Just ask anything!"

"Fine." - said the witcher and continued with a sigh. - "Then you will give me something you never thought you will see the first moment you arrive home."

Than he took out some bottle and gulped it down, waiting for several breaths for it to take effect. Surprisingly that particular witcher was able to feel the effect of potions and elixirs nearly at the same moment he drank them.

"Don't come out." - his voice sounded deeper this time, like a thunderclap. And than merchant heard it. A cacophony of roars, singing a death song for any living around. They were hungry and desperate to devour human flesh.

He heard sound of battle and how sharp edge cut through bones with slight characteristic scraping and loud crackling echo of breaking bones. He saw shadows moving on the bridge through a slight gap between uneven wooden boards of his cart. But in the middle of it he suddenly shifted his gaze in completely different direction, because the darkness of the night was momentarily illuminated by a turquoise flash of light on which another man, no, a youth descended like some kind of creepy ghost.

It gave him another level of fright altogether and he really prayed to all gods alive and not so much for his stupidity that drove him here to be cured with this unearthing experience.

A new figure slid down the slope on a roll and further because of the slippery road full of dirt under the pouring late summer rain. Still, with great dexterity he, and that was undoubtedly a boy of about fifteen to sixteen if judged solely by countenance, stood up and waved his hand.

"Magic!" - breathed out the merchant, seeing how two swords appeared behind the back. It was oddly similar to the witcher.

"That's just my fate. From one crypt full of ghouls and draugars to another pile of the same shit." - suddenly cursed the boy and unsheathed the sword that looked absolutely magnificent. Merchant was mesmerized by the play of runes and slight glow they gave of.

Alan hissed a bit – he received couple of wounds in previous battle, spent all mana on damn djinny creep and was exhausted both physically and mentally, but he can see that man on the bridge isn't faring that well too. He was fast, no, that is and understatement. He was like a specter, Alan saw his moves, but knew that his body is not even close to the level where he could have reacted to that.

'Wolf school swordsmanship?'

It was hard not to notice what Lambert taught him. But it was on totally another level of mastery. Absolutely flawless, where each move seethed with experience and tremendous deadly sharpness. And that coupled with knowledge of books gave him understanding of where he was and who the man is.

"Are you Yurga?" - Alan turned to the merchant, who was peeking at him from the cart that was turned over either to protect him, or because of exceeding speed limit on the road. If the later can be done with a horse cart.

"Y-Yes, young lord." - he said in agitation. The man was surprisingly fine with witcher, but clearly trembled in front of a mage. But it was not fear, something else.

"I'm just your average youth, mister Yurga." - he shook his head.

"Won't you help him?" - asked merchant after some silence.

"My involvement will only make things worse." - the youth sighed and sat near the cart in meditation pose. - "I'm not in great condition myself and will hardly even create a small light, let alone battle spell. The best I can do is guard you and tend to his wounds after all is over."

"But if he dies?"

"He won't. He is Geralt of Rivia. White Wolf. The best swordsman in the world. Many things can be said about that old man, but one is for sure – he is a tough nut to crack. And it is not for some ghouls to end him." - said Alan with reassurance.

"Then what about you, sir? Who are you?" - Yurga seemed to calm down a bit.

"Who you say?" - Alan actually never tried to come up with proper introduction of himself. Thinking of it was a unique experience. - "Alan Violergos Salvatore Skymorne. I'm a wandering mage, warrior and a cook." - he said finally, closing his eyes in meditation. He ran a method of mana circulation to regenerate himself faster and even slaved Eye of Eternium to no end to help him.

Geralt will be in need of his healing magic soon enough and during all his travel he spent all the time only on learning healing magic and Isu spell forms of it.

Through long process of learning and experimenting on animals he came up with several crucial spells.

Regeneration is just one of them. Its only use is to overly hasten natural abilities of the body to heal itself. The drawbacks of the spell are quite huge. First – it can't heal wounds that can't be healed naturally. Second – it uses resources of the body to do the deed. All in all this spell was great as first aid and coagulant to stop bleeding during battle.

Another spell is a derivative to attempt the removal of one of the shortcomings regeneration spell has and it is a special magic that can give body complex nutrient supply, blood and oxygen included. He checked, it can be used to thoroughly replace any intake of matter, be it eating, drinking or even breathing. But it took a substantial toll on mana, so completely inefficient outside medical expertise.

Third spell is a way to help inner organs to function properly and bring them back to life after, for example, poisoning. It's called Rejuvenation and is a spell of deep healing that can even bring back youth to inner workings of the body, brain included.

Another two were mainly made for first aid – they were Anesthesia and Painkiller, generally used to make person sleep deeply and dull the pain significantly.

And the last one is the strongest of all healing spells in his arsenal, but with that requires the most mana and even sometimes supply like raw materials – meat and bones of any kind of living creature. It was named by Alan as Regrowth. It can literally regrew anything, even eyes, limbs and teeth and is very good with connecting and mending bones. Of course it also requires a lot of 'materials' for doing deep healing, like the one Alan is ready to perform on Geralt soon.

"Yurga, where are your people?"

"R-Ran away, your excellency. Fear did it's part." - said merchant obviously nervous. And it is hard to say due to what. Alan caught how he was addressed, but prefer not pry into it for now.

"And you stayed here due to what, greed?" - asked Alan.

"No, your excellency, desperation. If I don't see it through my family will starve." - he said making the youth feel bad for the spite. Somehow he seems to become more... critical to all around him.

'Is it the world full of not really bright people, or am I becoming cynical? Better watch myself, sometimes an encouraging word in proper moment can do wonders, instead of some rude shit that can as well be a final straw.'

"Sorry about that old man. Not my best day." - he said with remorse making Yurga first take a closer look, than sigh and keep silent. He seemed to get something out of the short exchange of words and relaxed. Merchant again look at the battle that nearly ended. The dying of all sounds made Alan turn to look there too.

Out of pile of bodies and from the darkness of the night came a man of battle and blood. He walked unsteady, but with clear determined rhythm, the one telling that he is not ready to die, he has much left to do. He walked limping on one leg, as second got nearly ripped off.

'Witchers are really something else. Normal human would have being dead already.'