Chapter 27: Déjà vu

Nadran walked into the dining hall and looked at the menu. He had just grabbed a 10-point meal the previous time, but there was a large range of prices for the food. There was food that was free, and also food that costed thousands of contribution points for a single meal. He wanted the nourishing effects of the more expensive foods, but also didn't want to waste all his points on a single meal. After hesitating for a moment, he decided to spend 50 points on his meal.

He found an empty table to sit at with his azure hawk stew and began eating. The taste was even better than the meal he had last time, and he was thoroughly enjoying his meal. After a few minutes, though, a pair of figures approached, and Nadran experienced a sudden bout of déjà vu.

"Hey Nadran, mind if we join you?" Firen asked happily. Nadran, suppressing a sigh, shrugged, indicating his ambivalence on the matter. Firen, of course, took this as a yes, and sat down across the table from him. Icina followed suit, sitting down next to her brother.

"So, what's your favorite animal today?" Firen asked, puzzling Nadran and drawing a glare from Icina. "What?" he asked innocently as he noticed her angry gaze.

Icina turned toward Nadran and began speaking in a solemn tone. "We came here to apologize for what happened a few days ago. We didn't mean to upset you with what we said, and we wanted to let you know that it wasn't on purpose. RIGHT?" She turned to Firen as she emphasized the last word, glaring daggers at him.

"Oh yeah, sorry about that," Firen said sheepishly. "I didn't realize that it wasn't good to talk to you about-OW!" He turned to look at his sister with an aggrieved expression.

"You have no idea how close I am to punching you in the face right now," Icina growled through gritted teeth.

"Well, you already stomped on my… uh, my bad," Firen said, changing track as Icina began raising her fist threateningly.

Icina took a deep breath, then turned back to Nadran and continued talking. "I also wish to apologize for how insensitive my brother is."

Nadran gave an awkward smile at the siblings' antics, then responded. "It's fine, I knew you didn't mean anything by it. It just… reminded me of a memory I would rather forget." [And I person I wish I'd never met.]

Firen trembled and looked down at the table. "A memory I would rather forget…" he mumbled to himself, seemingly downcast. Icina quickly reached out and shook his shoulder, snapping him out of his daze. Despite this, he did not speak up again, and the table descended into an awkward silence.

The meal continued this way for another twenty minutes, and the only notable sound they produced was the scraping of their utensils against their plates and bowls. As Nadran finished eating, he picked up his bowl and stood up. "Well, I appreciate that you were worried about upsetting me. I suppose I should apologize as well for accidentally making you upset," Nadran said seriously.

"Nah, don't worry about it, I'm fine," Firen responded with a large smile. Despite this, however, Nadran got the feeling that Firen's smile didn't portray his true feelings.

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By the time Nadran was heading back to his room, darkness was already beginning to cover the land, shadows morphing into a dark blanket that would cover the land until the sun rose once more. Nadran walked absentmindedly down the now-empty road, thinking about all of the events that had transpired that day. [I'm still not sure what to think about Rethara, but she seems to have good intentions. At the very least, her gifting me the wyvern wings sigil was very helpful, even if she expects me to help her out later. Oh yeah, and Firen and Icina seem to be pretty nice people. I mean, Firen can get pretty annoying at times, but they went out of their way to apologize for something that wasn't really even their fault. It's rare to see people who will do that.]

Suddenly, Nadran heard a whistling sound approaching from behind, and instinctively dove into a roll, turning around once he had gotten back onto his feet. What he saw was Selek standing where Nadran had just been, his sword sweeping through the air. Nadran was caught off guard by this surprise attack, but thankfully he had managed to dodge at the last second, or he might have already been dead.

[Despite the fact that he used a surprise attack, I'm still surprised he managed to make such a threatening attack. In our arena match, he didn't show nearly that much speed and ability.]

Nadran began casting his wyvern claws sigil, but had to quickly dodge out of the way as another attack came flying in. Nadran tried to continue the sigil, but Selek released a flurry of attacks, preventing Nadran from concentrating. Selek's attacks weren't precise or efficient, but rather resembled a wild animal continuously leaping toward its prey.

[This is bad, I can't summon my weapon like this. I need to find something I can use as a substitute,] Nadran thought grimly. Thankfully, they were near the edge of the arena, and Nadran quickly ran over and picked up a training weapon to defend himself with. Holding a light metal staff in his hands, Nadran faced the oncoming attack, waiting for an opportunity to counter.

Unfortunately, Nadran misjudged the strength with which the attacks were coming. With a single strike, Selek launched Nadran into the air, causing him to land heavily on the ground next to the training weapons. Wincing in pain, Nadran staggered to his feet and grabbed a throwing knife out of the weapon stand. Clenching his teeth, Nadran threw it with all of his might.

Miraculously, the knife struck Selek in the shoulder despite Nadran's lack in proficiency in using throwing knives. Selek did not even flinch in response, however. Instead, he continued running toward Nadran with a blank expression on his face. His movement worsened the injury, causing blood to seep out around the edges of the blade, but Selek continued to move as though he felt no pain.

Nadran hurriedly began casting the wyvern wings sigil before Selek reached him. [Fighting him up close seems to be a recipe for disaster. My best shot should be to get some distance between us.]

Nadran just barely managed to cast the sigil in time, and immediately jumped into the air, beating his wings to increase the height of his jump. He then outstretched his wings fully, dramatically slowing his descent and allowing him to stay out of Selek's reach for a short period of time. Nadran quickly tried to think of a long range attacking sigil, then began casting the Icy Spear sigil. A lance of ice condensed from the water in the air, and Nadran immediately launched it toward Selek the second it was done.

The spear flew straight toward Selek, who made no motion to block or dodge it. It struck him directly in the chest, piercing through his heart. Nadran let out a sigh of relief at this sight. [What happened to Selek, though? He was a complete novice at fighting a couple days ago, and now he suddenly tried to kill me with far more speed and strength than he had before. At least-]

Halfway through his thought, Nadran's eyes widened as he saw Selek leap toward him, spear still protruding from his chest. Nadran had almost reached the ground at this point, and he wasn't able to do anything to defend other than wrap his translucent wings around himself in a protective cocoon.

Selek smashed into Nadran, sending him flying through the air once more. He crashed into the weapon stand, causing halberds, swords, shields, and other weapons to get flung in every direction. He hit the ground hard, and his damaged wings dissipated into nothing.

His vision blurred and his body screamed out in pain, but he gritted his teeth and forced himself back to his feet. If it hadn't been for Nadran's experiences repeatedly getting beaten up while manning his family's herb stall, he might not have been able to recover quickly enough. Although those experiences were horrible at the time, now they helped him stay alive, causing Nadran to feel a strange sense of gratefulness for having to endure those beatings. As he stood up, he picked up the nearest weapon, a scythe, and tried to get back into a fighting stance.

His battered muscles screamed in protest at the movement, but Nadran stood firm. He didn't have time to consider how Selek didn't die when his heart was pierced or how Selek had grown so powerful. All he could do was wait for Selek to dash in and strike.

Selek swung down at Nadran in an overhead attack, and Nadran inclined the snath (staff part) of the scythe to redirect the attack to the side. Selek struck the scythe, jarring Nadran's arms and almost causing them to give out. Nevertheless, Nadran managed to absorb the blow, redirecting it down the snath and away from his body. This action caused the scythe to rotate as it took the hit, resulting in the blade coming to rest behind Selek's head.

With a grim expression, Nadran pulled backward with all of his might, separating Selek's head from his body. Selek's weapon fell out of his hands, and he fell down onto the ground, unmoving.

Nadran stood still, breathing heavily, then dropped the bloody scythe to the ground. Exhaustion and pain swept over his body, and he collapsed to the ground, unable to move.

"NADRAN!" a distraught voice called out, and Nadran managed to turn his head just enough to see a panicked Rethara running toward him. Then, everything went black.

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For the second time in as many days, Nadran woke up to find Rethara in his room as he awoke. The scenes of the night before flashed through his mind, and he quickly sat up in his bed, only to find that he seemed totally uninjured. There was no pain at all when he moved, even the muscles in his back that took the brunt of the damage.

As he moved around in confusion, Rethara began speaking. "How are you feeling?" she asked with a trace of concern in her voice.

"I'm… fine," Nadran replied in a voice tinged with uncertainty.

"That's a relief," Rethara responded. "You were pretty beat up when I got to you."

"Yeah, about that…" Nadran replied. "How am I already healed? How long was I out?"

"It's just been one night since it happened," Rethara replied. "I gave you a healing pill to help you recover."

[Wait, in order for a healing pill to have effects this drastic, it would likely need to be a tier 2 healing pill. That's pretty far outside my current alchemy abilities, and they are pretty expensive to buy. How did she get one, and why did she give it to me?]

Seeing the question in Nadran's eyes, Rethara preempted his inquiry. "I won it in a bet with someone who had too much faith in their fighting abilities. I've gotten a bunch of similar stuff in that manner, so giving you one isn't that big a deal for me."

Nadran looked at her skeptically, but didn't press the issue. "Well, uh, thanks for the healing pill."

"No problem," Rethara calmly replied. "Oh yeah, what was going on with your opponent? That clearly wasn't a normal fight."

Nadran explained the events that transpired, causing Rethara's face to darken into a solemn and uncertain expression. "It can't be…" Rethara murmured in a troubled voice that Nadran could barely hear. "Why would she be here?"

"Huh?" Nadran asked inquisitively.

Rethara's thoughts returned to the present upon hearing Nadran. "Oh, it's nothing. You should be careful though. He might not be the only one like that, and enemies that don't die or feel pain are very problematic to fight."

"Don't die?" Nadran asked, concerned.

"Yeah, because, at least if my thoughts are correct, he was already dead before he attacked you. That's why impaling his heart didn't do anything. He was probably being controlled by something on his head, which caused him to stop moving when you separated it from his body."

Nadran's eyes slightly widened at this revelation. He'd read fantastic stories about the so-called 'undead,' but he didn't think they were real. He had never even heard of a real sigil that could return the dead to life, but it seemed that, if Rethara was telling the truth, there was indeed some way to accomplish it.

"That seems… problematic," Nadran commented dryly.

They talked for a bit longer before Rethara left to attend to some other matters. Nadran got ready for the day ahead, then left to grab some food from the dining hall.

On his way, however, Nadran heard a conversation that stopped him dead in his tracks.

"Hey, did you hear about Kalio getting injured a few days ago?" a young man in noble's clothing spoke to his friend.

"Yeah, didn't he get beat up in his own house or something? Haha, I've never liked that guy. He was so arrogant despite the fact that he's super weak. Without his family's backing, he would have never been able to pose like that without getting killed by some random cultivator he offended. Kudos to whoever did that."

"I know, right? But I just heard that he's finally recovered and is out of his house. He looks so mad, you should see the look on his face. He's been walking around the city the entire day."

"Wait, can he not even find the guy who beat him up? That's hilarious! Actually, on second thought, if he really is going after that guy, that'd be insane. That would just be asking to get beat up again."

Nadran suddenly felt a sinking feeling in his stomach as a thought crossed his mind. He immediately broke out into a sprint, rushing out of the academy as fast as his legs could carry him.