A loss

I feel my skin being burned. I let go of my knife which remains planted in the creature. I look at my right hand and see that it is almost burned to the bone despite my gauntlets !

([Superior Heal] ! Raaaah that hurt like hell !!!)

Despite the immediate effect of my heal, my hand is shaking and it still feel like it's burning. The skin is reconstituted and the charred tissues fall to the ground. The skin of my hand is back and pink in less than a minute. Meanwhile, I note with horror that my cry has attracted other salamanders and that the one with my knife is still alive and mad. I seize my machete with my valid hand, the other is still sore. I plant my weapon in the top of the head of the beast this time and kill it with a critical (who likes to have his brain tickled by a blade?) But I hesitate to try a [Blood Absorption] after having your hand almost entirely burn in less than two seconds of contact. I check, however, if [Blood Manipulation] works after dripping some of my blood into the creature's blood:

([Bloody Manipulation] !)

I "feel" my blood burn in contact with that of the creature but it resist a little. It looks like he's fighting the creature's. Finally I feel it manage to "submit" that of the salamander, I do not really understand the mechanism but between this "fight" and the heal from before, my mana pool is very low. The other salamanders are slowly approaching. I then "contaminate" all the creature's blood and mummify it. I get my weapon and the carcass, all surrounded by some dangerously glowing blood. I grabbed my ax and with it stats boost I quickly run away with the corpse and the blood floating around me. Suddenly I feel intense heat in my back. I take a look and see a stream of flame coming at me. I throw myself on the ground to avoid it, and the blood is automatically put between me and the flames. I feel the heat but no pain, I get up and run to the car where Marie and Inuyasha wait for me. They see me running towards them, pursued by fiery salamanders. Fortunately for me they are slow. Marie jumps into the car and starts it, Inuyasha growls but I shout to him to go inside too. The redhead does not wait for it to close the door and press the accelerator. She joins me and drift with the handbrake.

(My car for crying out loud !!)

I jump in with my corpse and by reflex I activate [Blood Absorption] ... Mistake, big big mistake. Immediately I feel as if my whole body is on fire. I yell in pain, but strangely I do not faint. It's not like I don't want to at that moment though. I never felt that way. My veins are burning and my cry quickly become silent as I suffer. I do not even know what's going on around me, in my mind I see only fire and pain. How long, what happens around me, what happens to me, I do not know anything. Finally everything stop and I faint.

________________

Congratulations !

The particular blood absorbed and your title Blóðvölva allowed you to unlock a new skill!

Passive Skill: [monstrous absorption]

________________

Skill Name: Monstrous Absorption

Skill Rank: Sub, passive

Skill Level: x

Skill Experience: x

Effects :

- Allows the absorption of special blood to make it his own and to recover Hp, endurance and mana.

Absorbing enough of them will unlock effects related to the blood of the absorbed creature

________________

In my mind, when my consciousness began to disappear, these two panels suddenly appear, but I do not realize it and drift into inconsciousness.

"- ... kas ... ukas ... lukas ... come back lukas please ...

I hear a voice calling me. It is first far away and I feel that I get closer little by little. Finally I open my eyes and my conscience finaly comes back.

"- Mmmrrh ... Mom ?" I growl, completely groggy again.

"- Lukas !"

She holds me in her arms, but in spite of her lack of strength it is enough to snatch a grunt of pain from me.

"- Gently ... I'm begging you, I'm in pain everywhere ... I feel like I was under a bus ..."

She lets me go, apologizing.

"- I thought you were dead when Marie came back with you who did not move anymore. She and Inuyasha were totally panicked, they said that suddenly you screamed like hell and after a long time you stopped moving ...

- how long has it been ...

- Only ten minutes. The worst ten minutes of my life ... unconscious son ..."

The tears begin to fall again. Seeing her son in this state with all the shits that are happening right now ... if I'm not careful she may have white hair very fast.

(she who has aged so little before, I feel that there she took ten years during these ten minutes ...)

I hold her against me and reassures her the best I can. We get up and I see that I'm on my bed in my room on the second floor. As soon as I put my feet on the ground, I hear some noise at the bottom and suddenly I hear that someone climb the stairs. Then enter the three kobolds

"- Blóðvölva !" They say at the same time.

They throw themselves at my feet, on their knees.

"- We did not protect you properly !

- When I saw you in Inuyasha's arms without moving I ... I ...

- Blóðvölva! It's my fault ! I failed my task ..."

Inukami, Inuyama, Inuyasha, these three are begging me at once, cursing themself, saying that they are responsible for what happened. Of course I try to undeceive them, after all it is me who decided to act and thus to risk my skin alone. But they are so taken in their excuses and supplications that they do not hear me. They are on their knees, their foreheads are thrown to the ground without looking at me. It continues a moment when suddenly I see Marie, Alyssa and my grandfather appearing at my door. Their worried faces suddenly have some colors back when they see me standing up.

"- Lukas ... you scared us you know ..."

Marie scolds me gently and Alyssa throws herself on me, tearing me again a painful grunt but I do my best to remain stoic. I do not want to worry them anymore than that. I release my little sister and decide to stop my supplicating kobolds. I drop and caress their heads. Surprised they raise it and they see me smiling nicely:

"- I'm the only one responsible for what happened. Do not blame yourself especially, I usually do everything alone and so I still can not really let others help me. I am not a really qualified chef. But I would like to become one, so help me, okay ?"

They look at me with tears in the eyes and put their heads back on the floor :

"- At your command Blóðvölva ! Thank you for your trust and kindness !"

(They say exactly the same thing at the same time, how are they doing that ?)

"- Go, hurry up. If only ten minutes have passed then the night is still young, we have things to do !"

Suddenly I feel hands rest all over me, my shoulders, my arms, my legs etc ... I look and see that my whole group is holding me back. My mother grabbed my shoulders from behind, my sister holds me one arm and Marie the other while my kobolds hold my legs. My grandfather advances then:

"- You do not do anything at all, you did enough for this night. And you worried us enough too. We stay there and we see tomorrow morning, no discussion possible. We will take the guards as yesterday, you excluded. You ! You stay put and recover."

The imperious tone he uses makes me reluctantly give way.

"- ok ok i'm resting ... by the way, the salamander body, can I see it? As well as my weapons, to sharpen them at least."

Inukami runs but everyone seems embarrassed.

"- What ? What's the matter ?"

My mother is coming forward.

"- In fact ... how to say this ... we know that you really love your weapons ...

- You created them and handled carefully ..." continued my grandfather.

- They suffered Lukas, why you have so much trouble to tell him, they are only weapons !"

Marie spits out the piece that everyone seems to have so much trouble saying. And for good reason: my relationship to objects that I created is ... particular. Inukami appears at that moment with the body of the salamander as well as ... what's left of my dagger and my machete. I get my weapons from the hands of the kobold and Marie finally sees why my family had such difficulties. I sit down on the bed and look with pain at what remains of my weapons. The fighting knife is the most affected: the blade has melted almost completely and even the guard is reached. It is absolutely unusable now. My machete has suffered less but it is also unusable unless I remade it completely. Two of my three main weapons are good to throw after a fight of a few seconds against a single salamander ....

"- Shit ... those were two of my favorite weapons ..."

Their destruction greatly hurts me, I spend a lot of time on each of my creations to make them resistant and sharp and there ...

"- I'll go to the forge", I say monotonous.

"- No you have to res... " start my grandfather but I interpellate him:

"- I am the fighter of our group and I lost two of my main weapons to fight. I need new ones.

- You have plenty of others in your closet !

- Too weak, too impractical, too unmanageable, too fragile ... they are not adapted !"

They all remain silent. I screamed after all. I force my group to step aside and I go down. I leave the house from behind and head to a barn where I built my workshop and forge. I go in, close the door and start lighting my ovens and power tools. Then begins a night of forging with the aim of remaking my dagger and machete, anger in my stomach ... anger at not being able to achieve my goals, the anger of having almost die, the anger to have lost two precious weapons in my eyes ....