Chapter 5

I was really hoping I wouldn't have to come across a morally grey situation only a few weeks into my arrival to the Witcherverse. I mean, I know life back home nearly everything was shades of grey but at least there were people who recognized that and worked hard to try to fix it. Here though, here grey situations usually always ended with one side happy and the other majorly dead.

Which brought me to my current situation.

"Damnation! If only I could get closer I'd be sure to see it!" Ivar exclaimed quietly to me as we both sat on a small hill overlooking what was an old and crumbling graveyard. There was a half collapsed stone church, lots of gravestones in various states of wear and tear, and of course several crypt entrances to likely underground parts of graveyard.

"Remember the rules of our partnership, you only get as close as I allow you to get or else this ends with me leaving you passed on in a ditch." I said sternly. If I was going to be stuck with this guy for the sake of both of our lives I was setting up clear boundaries. It seemed the danger the actual monsters' posed didn't scare him none, on accounting of what appeared to be a mix of several near-death experiences and his love of studying them, so instead I based rules how it could affect my work. Ivar, despite his quirks, did respect that I had a job to do and did what he could not to negatively affect them.

Not that he didn't push limit whenever he could or when his desire for research overcame his common sense, which was pretty often.

"I know! Bah, the merchant told me this spyglass would let me see leagues in front of me perfectly clear as if they were only a few feet from me!" Ivar complained and kept trying to adjust said spyglass while he sat in grass surrounded by notebooks and writing tools.

"While wights are not particularly weakened by sunlight they still prefer to avoid it so it has likely gone into the underground crypts for the day, and the last thing I want is to fight it close quarters if I can help it. We'll wait and watch over graveyard till sundown and it comes out on its own. You are the one who volunteered to be the lookout." I reminded him.

"I'm aware, but there is only so much I can record about a wight's preferred environment before I want to see the beast itself. They are quite rare compared to undead such as ghouls so this will be a wonderful learning opportunity! It was quite the lucky find." Ivar said.

I just sighed deeply.

"... Yeah lucky. Lucky that after over a week and a half of traveling down the road and doing odd jobs at passing hamlets and villages relatively peacefully with no notable dangerous monsters or magic at play we find one yesterday. Lucky that the target is a wight who killed three young idiots entering its territory after generations of humans happily ignoring it and now placing a price on it's head. Lucky that if we don't do something more idiots will die and pile of bodies will attract less quiet necrophages to area to put people at risk. All real lucky." I growled.

There was a few moments pause at that as Ivar put down his spyglass, turned to me, and gave me an odd look.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but you don't sound like you find it lucky."

I sighed heavily.

"Look, that wight has lived in that old graveyard for over a century ever since the village it used to neighbor died out due to plague. Wights may be necrophages, but at worst they highly value their privacy and are totally happy to ignore humans as long as they don't enter their territory. Something which other locals in the area were quite happy to do for generations since it wasn't hurting them none. All Wights do is spend their days mixing stuff in their cauldron and likely other things that no one knows about since like said while intelligent beings they aren't super social. Heck, for the winter months they basically sleep the whole time and are even less of a threat. Now though, three idiots, barely men who from what I could gather around the village were total slackers looking for an easy life, get themselves killed entering an area their elders have told everyone to avoid since long before they were born. No one said it outright, but many thought they went there with grave robbing in mind." I sneered at that last bit.

Personally, I agreed that the dead didn't need things buried with them and I would likely loot some old graves at some point in future, heck maybe even tonight, but those idiots knew a wight made it's home there so were just asking to be removed from the gene pool.

"So, the wight kills them for invading it's home and now village puts a price on it's head for the deaths. That will attract would-be monster hunters who will most likely die as well, make a pile of dead bodies that attract ghouls and other less friendly monsters, which then spread out to make more death for locals. Which means I have to kill what for all rights was a being defending it's home from invaders in order to save more lives that are too ignorant to let things lie. Maybe that is naive thinking, but I believe as a Witcher it is important to know the difference between hunting a monster doing harm and another just living it's life, especially when they are rare beings. There is a reason that some Witcher Schools avoid killing dragons for example." I finished my rant.

"... If it is all the same to you I agree it is a shame to kill such a rare and interesting creature, but you should take pride that your actions will save others and at least by dying at the hands of a Witcher it is not being killed out of hate." Ivar said with a surprisingly amount of tact.

"Doesn't mean I won't feel like an ass doing it. I'm gonna meditate, you don't move from that spot." I said and turned to walk over to where the horses were grazing.

"Will do, and I will inform you of any developments!"

I simply sat on my knees within our temporary camp and closed me eyes. Letting my implanted Witcher knowledge guide me on doing meditation correctly.

My breath started to slow and become much deeper, my mind clearing up and become relaxed at the same time, by body ready to move at a moment's notice but still in a resting state. Time would feel to pass more quickly but my senses remained open to the world.

I just wanted to get this over with.

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Night had fallen, I had literally tied Ivar to Griffin and told the horse not to move until I gave the signal, and I was slowly sneaking my way deeper through the old abandoned graveyard towards my unfortunate target. Witcher training thankfully came with how to sneak up on potential prey and an augmented body was much easier to control to avoid poor movement.

I didn't want to give the wight any advanced warning and prefer ending fights as fast as possible with as many advantages on my side as possible.

When the sun finally set Ivar had spotted a human shape come out of the crypts and head towards broken down temple. It was safe to assume that was the Wight.

He practically had begged to come along saying how he wouldn't get in the way at all, hence the rope. He would have to settle with studying everything after the wight was dead.

I made sure not to rush and moved in and out of cover, be it tombstones, crypts, old trees, whatever was large enough to keep me out of passive sight. I stopped right next to the doorway and with my back to the wall I peeked in, not even needing to notice acknowledge my shaking griffin medallion to know monsters and magic were near.

Parked right in front of the broken statue of one of the many gods of the north at the far end of small temple was the wight working at it's cauldron, the church becoming it's very own crude alchemy lab. I could see small piles of herbs and plants I knew had no real alchemical value, a large iron cauldron the wight somehow got its hands on at some point in past over a large fire pit, and… pieces of human flesh that were so fresh I assume they were what remained of the grave robbers. They were cut, not torn, apart with what I could see from here being rusty blades even jagged cuts. Not chewed on at all from what I could see, since apparently the wight was more than happy to throw pieces randomly into cauldron.

Speaking of which, I watched as very mummified human body picked up a dead hand and toss it into the soup. The wight looked a lot like an unwrapped pharaoh to be honest, albeit much more animated. Dired and leathery skin clinging to bone, wispy hair clinging to head, jagged teeth poking out of its mouth, and here and there around the body skin was gone or hanging on showing yellowed bone. Its' movements were stiff but still coordinated, so not like your average zombie, but not crazed or animalistic like ghouls and other types of necrophages. The best comparison I would make as an elderly person whose mind was still bright, though I had no doubt when it came to fighting it would gladly give a gymnast a run for its money. The claw-like fingers and toenails were honestly the most disturbing part to me personally, overly long nails just grossed me out.

I watched as it stirred it's concoction, which from the smell alone I knew would knock me on my ass if I even tried to taste it, before bringing out the large metal mixing spoon and taking a sip. I watched it's weirdly still meat tongue lick its' dried lips as it seemed to consider something before bending down to add… a rock.

Whelp, I guess taste depends on what the cook wants.

I had to do this right, unlike with drowners wights were hard hitters and could summon barghests to help it if I gave it the chance. I could approach this a number of ways, but in the need decided hitting hard and fast would be best.

I quickly brought out some Necrophage oil to rub onto my drawn silver sword along with taking a dose of Thunderbolt and Tawny Owl. What I wouldn't give for enhanced stuff, but sadly I needed ingredients small settlements couldn't provide. I was lucky one village 'witch' had some arachas venom on her. It was on to do list to buy as many ingredients as I could carry when we reached Pont Vanis.

With the brief feeling of poison being neutralized by my own body I leaned out of cover and waited till the wight faced the opposite direction… now!

With it's back turn I quickly signed out another of the more unique Griffin school Signs, Gal. A Sign that through testing allowed me to teleport anywhere within line of sight, but the drawback was that further I teleported the most exhausted I felt and the longer it took to cast any Sign. Thankfully my target was only a few meters away and that was manageable.

From what Ivar described from watching testing what would follow is my body seeming to collapse in on itself before reappearing elsewhere, usually with a large snapping sound. Kinda like Apparition from Harry Potter, but without me throwing up in process or taking anyone with me.

Of course, me suddenly appearing with a loud snap in front of the cauldron immediately caused the wight to spin around in surprise. Before it could even think about doing anything I quickly put all my power in an Aard pointed right at the cauldron, which just so happened to be in front of the wight. As predicted, it launched the heavy iron pot right at wight, knocking it off its feet, and slamming both right through half crumpled wall before landing on the ground outside.

With the moonlight now shining into temple from a brand new hole I quickly signed Gal once more and popped into existence right on top of the wight even as it nearly picked itself all the way up from it's surprise flight. Unfortunately for it I had teleported a couple feet in the air above it and while it was still recovering I plunged my sword down hard.

My Thunderbolt enhanced swing combined with gravity pulling down my full weight onto the sword caused me to impale the silver blade right through it's shoulder blade and out it's lower abdomen. It wasn't dead yet, of course, but it certainly felt it.

While I was keeping it in place with sword my right hand I used my left to sign Igni, quickly placed my palm on the back of it's head, and just let loose a constant stream of fire. I had practiced on the road how to focus Igni a bit more on a more centered point, turning what was an unfocused yet still deadly stream of fire into basically a knockoff cutting torch. I saw the results as a thin stream of white hot burst out through the other side of it's head and for a second there I thought that did it.

Oh boy was a wrong.

With an unholy scream that was equal parts rage and pain a very still alive, well undead, hand grabbed mine and with a strength that did not match it's frame it judo flipped me forward. I was sent flying and it was only implanted training that turned a potentially injuring faceplant into merely a very painful controlled tumble onto the ground. I quickly let my body instinctively roll me back to a standing position, draw my steel sword, and turn into a guard position against the wight.

And did it look pissed.

Broken bones and skin from being launched from it's abode, a silver sword still impaled through its body, and a fresh hole there it's right eye would have been that showed through to the other side. Despite all that it was still moving and looked ready to kick my ass… if it wasn't for the fact that the second it stepped forward it's movements become seriously slowed as it stepped into the prepared Yrden Sign I had written into the ground beforehand.

I had placed a few around outside the exit point I had made as a contingency plan and chance that if it landed in one it would be easier to hit. That hadn't happened, but we did land close enough to one that it was but a few steps away from it and was so enraged it didn't even notice. It also activated the secondary shock trap within it to further damage it.

Wasting no time, I rushed forward and for all intents and purposes started wailing on the thing. I was seriously hurt and I had really tired myself out from all the Sign use, even with Tawny Owl helping I needed to end this quickly. While not as impaired as drowners from Yrden the wight still could not really defend itself well from my blows as I kept beating down on it with the less effective but still useful steel sword.

Things finally came to an end when I brought it down to one knee after literally cutting it off at the joint and jamming my blade straight through the hole a made through it's eyehole and basically breaking open it's skull, right when my Yrden finally ran its course.

As its body fell to the ground all I could do was pant as I tried to get my breath back.

Holy shit, I actually won. It wasn't a perfect victory by any means, but with proper planning and aggressive attacking while playing to my strengths in Sign usage, I had turned a daunting fight into something much more manageable, if still super dangerous.

Point was, I was alive and the wight was done. I won… and just like I thought it didn't feel like a good victory at all.

I could only sigh as I stared upon the being I had so ruthlessly killed just because some people were paying me to get it done despite living several lifetimes with it's living neighbors in steady peace. It was dangerous, no doubt about it, but it had its own thoughts and feelings the same as any person. And I killed it.

This wasn't like with drowners who were basically mindless beasts who one couldn't reason with at all, this was a person for all that it was different and unable to live alongside others… and I ended it.