Chapter 3

I switched into battle mode. All I had on me was my backpack, but I couldn't move my arms. In it I had the knife Milo gave me, but the muscular feet of the bird fixed me in place. We were flying at least a hundred meters high, and no matter how much I augmented my body, if I fell from this height, I wouldn't survive. But first, I needed to free myself from the vise-like fingers. Two of its claws were in my side pretty deep, and every small movement hurt, even breathing was a challenge. Using the techniques Milo taught me, I strengthened my arms, and pried away a single finger.

It wouldn't budge, so I pumped more xin into my muscles and bones until the fibers in my arm started burning from the overload. Eventually I poured so much into them, that I managed to move a claw, and freed a claw that was embedded in my side. When I pulled it out however, The pain was so immense that my concentration faltered and my xin output lessened for a fraction of a second, and the powerful claw pushed back into my side. I screamed, and let out a wave of xin so massive, the heat from my arms burned my face.

I managed to grab the claws with such force that I broke them, and pulled them out my side. I climbed on top of the beast, which it didn't like at all, but I sent a few powerful punches into the back of its neck until it lost consciousness. The three meter wide wings went limp and we started losing altitude. I grabbed both wings and pushed them down with my strengthened body. We slowed down a bit, but still way too fast to land like this.

I was looking for a softer landing spot, but there was only rocky mountainous area nearby. I saw a few trees nearby, so I steered the eagle plane to the best of my abilities toward them. I needed to time my jump perfectly if I wanted to survive. The trees rushed toward us at a scary speed, and I started counting down internally. 3… 2… 1… Now!

I poured my remaining xin into my legs, and jumped away with such force that I broke the back of the bird. I pushed away the most likely dead bird away from me and slowed down considerably. I collided with the bushy patch of forest, missed the trees, but that was fine probably. I managed to land in a few lush bushes, which was an achievement in itself, rolled a few times, hit my head and sprained my ankle, but I was alive.

"Ahh." I groaned. After lying on the rocky floor for a while, I got up. Where the hell am I?

My brain switched to survival mode. I ran a check on my body. I had a few cuts, two deep ones from the claws, a sprained ankle, maybe even a concussion. I took off my already tattered shirt and tore off a few pieces. I pushed them into my deepest cuts and tied them so I wouldn't bled out. I needed to put a piece in my mouth so I wouldn't scream. After the pain subsided and I could see straight again, I addressed the less immediate problems.

I still had the backpack Milo gave me, containing the knife, a bit of jerky, a water pouch and the xin core. Not much, but better than nothing. I'm good on food and water for a day at most, so I need shelter. Using the knife I cut down a small branch and tied it to my sprained ankle with the remainder of my shirt. Not ideal, but it would have to do.

I looked around in search of some shelter, so I could gather some xin, and tend to my wounds. A small dent in the rocks near the mountain foothills caught my eye. It was an indentation a few meters across, hidden from the elements. Perfect for a temporary camp. I gathered a bit of wood from a dead tree at the edge of the forest and carried it inside my new home. My leg hurt like hell, so it was slow work. It was around five by five meters across, three meters tall, all sides surrounded by stone, except for the front. It was quite cozy actually.

Seeing as even before I got frozen, I hadn't slept in a normal bed for months, this wasn't a big issue. My water supply was dwindling however, and sooner or later I had to gather some food. At the moment I was exhausted from my injuries and the sudden fight, so I decided to gather some grass for a makeshift bed, and some branches and leaves to cover the entrance hole.

Satisfied with the progress, I finally settled into my makeshift bed. My arm was throbbing still but healed considerably thanks to Patrik. I was contemplating setting up a campfire but decided against it. I don't want to draw more attention to myself than necessary. Speaking of which, I should meditate a bit. Of course, my body was tired, but my mind was ready for another brain melting session. I sat down and started the exercises I learnt from Tara and Milo.

The white particles shimmered into my vision as I entered the meditative state. Concentrating on the sensation I felt when moving xin to my arm, I willed the particles leaving my crystal to stop, and for the first time since the hours of meditation, it seemed to have an effect. They slowed down, then stopped. Cold sweat rolled down my face as I concentrated, and finally the small beads of magic started marching back into my body.

I felt a slight tingle, and for the first time since I awakened from the ice, this sensation wasn't painful, in fact, it was pleasantly warm. After hours of collecting xin from the atmosphere, as I was suspecting, my crystal wasn't noticeably fuller. However, looking outwards a bit through my closed eyes, I saw a bright glow from where my backpack was lying. I stopped meditating, the warm feeling vanished at once. I grabbed the white stone, held it in my hands and started up the exercise again.

This time it only took about five minutes to enter the heightened state of mind, and I could feel the strength emanating from the crystal in my hand. I reached out mentally, pulling the xin from the bright blob. Immediately, a stream of particles poured into my crystal, and I finally felt some effect on my body. As I sucked the power from the stone, I felt it filling up my own. It wasn't long however until it ran dry completely, and it vanished along with the xin it contained.

I opened my eyes to find a handful of grey powder in my hands, slowly evaporating into the atmosphere. I felt a tinge of sadness for the fact that it did not contain any abilities. After that realization came another, I still could pull in xin from around me, even though I wasn't meditating anymore. It was much slower, but I completely reversed the leakage. I concentrated a bit more and started pulling in the now invisible particles. I felt it, slowly entering my system and filling up my xin crystal.

I had to stop because my head felt like solid tungsten and every thought like glowing hot bullets in my brain. Lying down on my makeshift bed, I started thinking about the little camp I'd left. They must be worried about me, but I don't have any means to send them a message.

Two days after settling down, I found a small creek not far from the cave. I took a bath, washed my clothes in the freezing water and collected as much of it as I could. The weather changed a bit for warmer temperatures, and I dried up quickly. My clothes were still the same as I wore in the city, only a simple long black pants and a space themed nerdy T-shirt that I had to sacrifice.

Still, I needed to wash them as they were bloody and dirty, and the dried mud chafed my legs. I saved all the remainders of my shirt and found that all my wounds had healed in the matter of two days. Only a small scar was left, and that was disappearing slowly as well. I washed my hair, which was way too long. I decided it would be better if I cut it so it wouldn't get in my way. I grabbed it and using the knife I slashed it at my shoulders. Using a strip of torn shirt and tied it into a bun. My reflection looked a bit more civilized, but without a shirt I still looked like a weirdo.

During these two days I wasn't slacking off, however. Using some dried grass and the knowledge from old survival videos I watched when there was still internet and electricity, I made some rope and a few basic traps scattered near the edge of the forest. I caught an animal that was somewhere between a squirrel and a hedgehog. Instead of fur, it had spikes, but other than that it looked like a normal squirrel. I skinned it and cut the meat, struggling with the delicate process. I wasn't very efficient with it, and after hours of fiddling, I salvaged around half the meat on the animal.

I was grateful though, having not eaten in a day. I made a quick fire and roasted it up. The meat was chewy and stringy, but it was food so I couldn't complain. After the meal, I took a look at the squirrel-hedgehog's xin crystal which I gouged out carefully. It was a bit smaller than the wolf's, around the size of a marble. It didn't have much xin stored in it, but I collected it anyway.

A week went by like this, catching small critters, collecting water and wood, making basic tools, meditating and training my body. Absorbing the xin from the animals' crystals and from the atmosphere, I collected enough that I could physically feel it filling up. If I had to ballpoint it, around ten percent would be full. Filling up this bad boy would be quite a hassle. Nevertheless, I practiced, and got better and better at collecting xin.

A few monsters came to attack me, but they weren't in large groups like the wolves and usually weak, so they weren't that much of a hassle. With the techniques I learned I could easily take care of them with body augmentation. I even started getting back to shape, at least to passable levels. I gained some muscle and a healthy complexion, so I didn't look like a skeleton anymore.

However, I got no closer to actually using xin, or figuring out if I had any abilities. Aside from strengthening my body, what could be called and ability, I had no idea what to do with the now massive amount of xin in my body. I developed instead this skill, getting the xin to flow throughout my body with more efficiency and speed. I also trained a lot like this, I wanted to know my limits. Survival was now the top priority, and I had to master this aspect of the world if I wanted to achieve anything.

Another week went by fairly uneventfully, but I wondered every day if Tara and the others were looking for me. I hunted, laid traps, and filled my core. I slept around 4-5 hours each night, trying to minimize the amount of xin getting leaked when I'm asleep. I still haven't figured out how to keep it in when I'm unconscious, but I lost much less than I could absorb, so I was happy. I started practicing physical augmentation as well and could strengthen my body much more efficiently and quickly now.

I was in the middle of cooking one day when I heard loud flaps coming from outside, like wing strokes. I quickly peeked out of my cave to take a look. The source was a massive eagle, with the body of a black bear. Its face was an eagle's, and it had talons on its feet, which it had four of, and a massive black furry body. It reminded me of the griffons from old mythologies, however it wasn't a lion's body in this case. Still, it looked absolutely terrifying.

When it noticed me looking, it shot in my direction at dizzying speed. I strengthened my whole body, sending xin to my muscles and to my bones. I jumped sideways, trying to dodge and its claws still got my left foot, leaving three deep gashes that sent a wave of pain through my body. I grabbed a stick I sharpened and threw it at the monster with all the power I could muster. It caught my improvised weapon in its beak and broke it with a single chomp.

I froze for a bit, but its screech penetrated my skull, snapping me out of my daze. I started booking it. I had no way of fighting this monstrosity right now. It shot up behind me with the speed of a bullet and came straight towards me. I tried to jump away again, but it sensed my movements and turned its head to the side, opened its massive beak and with a loud snap, tore out a chunk of flesh from my side.

Blood spilled everywhere, my head started spinning from the pain, and I tumbled to the ground. The grass below me already turned brown, stained from my blood. It was too much blood. Fighting the vertigo, I looked at the creature. It wasn't as hasty as before, knowing I didn't have much time on this planet left. I dug around in my mind, of what the weakness of a griffon was, which was a long shot since this wasn't actually a griffon, but whatever info I could get I'd use.

It popped in my head after a while: they are very weak against fire, which would've been great if I had Tara here with me, but I was alone. In a last ditch effort, I recalled the feeling of manipulating xin in the atmosphere. While I concentrated, the beast finally reached me with its slow walk, and put its claws on my leg. I had no choice but to strengthen it more, as it would have torn it clean off if it wasn't. Another set of deep gashes where my blood leaked out from.

At the edge of unconsciousness, I focused every bit of remaining willpower I had into my plan. It was a long shot, but my only way to survive. I started feeling for the xin in the atmosphere near the griffon rip-off, and the magic responded to my call nicely. I pulled on it, then pushed it away, and it moved the air particles with it was well, faster and faster. As the xin particles vibrated wildly in the air, there was some kind of reaction and the friction heated up the small orb I was aiming for below the monster.

The bloody beak came centimeters from my face when the xin particles in the air vibrated so rapidly that the image around the griffon distorted from the heat. Suddenly a wave of knowledge poured into my skull from nowhere in particular. It told me the mechanism behind what I was already doing, but in a more efficient and effective way: converting xin into heat. Not fire like Tara, I didn't produce flames, instead, I could pour my xin into an object, or in the air and it heated up as much as I wanted.

This all happened in the blink of an eye, and as I felt the massive heat emanating from the griffon, I felt a grin creep up on my face despite the incredible pain I felt. Its eyes widened in shock and using this momentary confusion I poured all the xin I could use into my scarred right hand and thrust my fist into the bottom of its beak. I could hear a crack as a piece of it broke off, and the monster staggered back a step before its entire body ignited.

It screeched so loudly it almost popped my eardrums, but it could do nothing. Bright flames engulfed its helpless body, thrashing around, flinging its claws, trying anything to put out the fire. My concentration wavered, and the flames died down a bit, but it was too late for the beast. As the last sparks and flickers went out, there was only a massive charred body left, unmoving and silent.

A sudden wave of exhaustion hit me, and I started losing consciousness again. I knew however that I lost too much blood, and if I blacked out now while I was still leaking an alarming amount of it, I would certainly die. I guess all I needed was a near death experience to trigger my skills, because I felt another one blinking into my mind. It was much more complex and difficult to comprehend, and it was some kind of preservation ability. My best guess was, I used this unconsciously in the ice to keep me alive.

I still had massive amounts of xin inside my crystal, having consumed hardly any as I couldn't draw as fast from it yet. I pulled on it with my remaining willpower and directed it into my biggest wound, on my side. The xin scattered in me quickly gathered at the gaping hole in my body and miraculously, it started sewing my flesh together, forging new cells purely from the xin particles.

I almost passed out again from the intense pain of this process, but I had to hold on a bit longer. According to the ground beneath me I lost almost two liters of blood at this point, so I had to hurry. I screamed in agony as millions of hot needles pierced my skin and flesh, pulling them together to close the hole. My vision got blurred as the process was nearing an end. The last sign of the deep wound disappeared, and the pain subsided.

After quickly catching my breath, I moved on to my legs. both of them were pretty messed up as the griffon tried to tear them both off. I started the healing process, and the horrible agonizing pain filled the damaged limb. It was like filling the wound with superheated salt or sand. Small particles, stings stabbed it continuously, and it was more painful than the wound itself, or when I got it originally.

Tears ran down my face as I gritted my teeth and stifled another scream as I went on to my other leg. This wasn't as bad, but my crude and unsophisticated method of healing left much to be desired. Despite my best efforts, I passed out for a split second, and the pain stopped, which woke me up at once, and I started again. I had to stop the bleeding. I was in so much pain, my brain started shutting itself off. I pulled through somehow however and stopped the bleeding.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I lay there for a few seconds, or minutes, gathering my strength for the next step. After maybe half an hour of resting, I sat up, and looked at the corpse. I couldn't bring this massive corpse home even in my best state, which I was not in currently. I pulled my knife out of my pocket, which I couldn't do before because everything happened so fast and crawled closer to the body. I stabbed it and carved out its core. It took a while and I had to search for it for a bit, which was absolutely disgusting, but I obtained it in the end.

Wiping the blood off with the remains of my shirt and holding the contents of my stomach in desperately, I slowly stood up leaning on the corpse. I was wobbly and unstable, but I wobbled back toward my cave-home. When I arrived, I immediately fell onto my bed. My head didn't even touch the makeshift pillow and I was out cold.