Chapter 11- Vulnerable? No, indestructible

Soft snow fell on the white ground. There was no storm, just a whispering wind. However, no matter the scenery, it was freaking cold.

“I caught another one.”

Kida entered the small cave, while holding a snow rabbit in hand.

“Good, can we eat now? I’m starving.”

San waved happily at her as he saw her enter the temporary shelter.

“Yeah, yeah. Luckily, we were able to start a fire somehow.”

Behind them stood the corpse of a girl…oh wait it was still breathing.

“How is she?”

Kida asked while looking at the girl.

“Uhm… the same as before.”

“I see.”

After that, the both of them stood in silence as they carefully tried to cook the rabbits. None talked, not because they didn’t have anything to talk about, but because they both wanted to drown in the silence; they wanted to clear their thoughts and their hearts.

…

Before anyone knew the scenery outside had changed. The soft snowfall had become a furious blizzard.

“Oh great!”

The two youths were in no way prepared for the striking cold of this place, let alone the freezing blizzard that followed

“We’re gonna freeze to death, aren’t we?”

The two people hurried around trying to secure the scarce bits of firewood. Then, together, they went as close as possible to the fire and stood there unwilling to move away.

A few hours passed with the snowstorm nowhere near ending. It was like one of those disastrous days, when many perished. If anyone happened to be outside during this day, then living to see the next day would be a miracle amidst miracles… or so they thought.

…

“I’m sorry, could I stay with you until the storm passes?”

A man appeared at the entrance of the small cave. He had a soft looking face and light-colored hair and eyes. He spoke to the two while wearing an amiable smile on his lips.

Startled by the sudden visitor the first to react was Kida, as she, with a swift response, grabbed a make-believe sword (meaning a nearby stick) and stood on guard.

San was a bit slower, but still quite fast.

Yet these reactions didn’t seem to bother the man in the slightest. He still showed a warm smile. He looked harmless and almost vulnerable with his lean stature, but that belief was broken when one looked at the long sword in his back, or the fact that in the middle of this snowbound land, the man was wearing only a sleeveless top and he somehow wasn’t covered in snow.

And yet, even with those suspicions, that amiable smile almost made both San and Kida lower their guards for a moment and stare in a daze, but just the next moment a voice from behind startled them to their senses.

“Ugh…”

The whole three of them turned to look at the girl still sleeping in the back. The man seemed to be a bit surprised at first, as he hadn’t noticed the sleeping girl at all. Kida and San looked at her then at each other and then sighed while turning back to the man.

The man noticed their eyes and smiled a bit helplessly this time as he asked again, “So can I stay?”

--Reveka---

Ah my life, it’s only been 19 short years, but it was fun meeting you… well it was mostly fun, right?

That’s what I was thinking. I mean, I remember fighting with that black thing, but I’m not quite sure how things ended. Some parts of the fight I can’t seem to recall. Tough they are there, it’s like they are blurred. I remember only pieces and bits. I remember Bride was there, but I don’t know how she got there. I’m pretty sure my SS changed but except the part ‘heartless’, the other words are also blurred.

So not knowing how things ended, I just deducted that I had died. Well, my deduction was proved wrong only moments later as I vaguely heard Kida’s voice and just vaguely felt my heartbeat.

I even opened my eyes a bit just to make sure, but I couldn’t keep them open and somehow lost it soon after.

Right now, I feel like I’m inside a lucid dream. I don’t really know how it is like to be in one but I guess it’s kind of close to what I’m feeling now. It feels like I am asleep but I can vaguely feel myself and my awareness, and even though I want to wake up and move my body I can’t seem to be able to. I am even aware of my surroundings, vaguely. Yes, it seems to me too that ‘vague’ has been popular these past sentences.

My current state isn’t that bad; it actually feels relaxing. If I had to complain about one thing is that the place I’m currently sleeping on is not very comfortable.

As I tried to make out my surroundings better, I felt Kida and another boy, whom I hadn’t talked much to, called San moving around and making noise which I didn’t like. After that they quieted down for some hours and then another presence showed.

It was a presence I didn’t recognize but it was making me uncomfortable. It was actually a very warm presence, but at the moment I just didn’t like it. Not knowing how tell him to stop when I couldn’t move, I heard my mouth grumble something loudly enough to attract everyone’s attention. I felt the warm energy retract seeming somewhat surprised.

Satisfied, I went back to my dream or inner world or whatever it was and stayed like that pondering until the moment I felt my body was finally able again to move at my will.

…

I opened my eyes slowly to see my very long hair obstructing my view. A bit annoyed I turned my head to the side, only to see a fire and three people standing around it. Two of them were the people I knew, Kida and San; on the other side we had mysterious person x which I had never seen before.

I felt a bit sleepy and numb and lazy to move, but I looked at the man curiously and not so intentionally used [Appraisal] on him.

…

…

…

Oh my mother! I was so shocked I almost choked on air. My eyes wide, I was boring a hole onto his status window and onto him for that matter because the window wasn’t visible to anyone else.

You want me to explain what I read in there? Hell no! Without even looking at the numbers which had too many zeroes, I froze the moment I read ‘Race: God’.

Isn’t the story moving too fast? I’ve already met god after only a week here? Wait, what does god do in this world anyway?

As I was still boring holes at the man, he obviously noticed my stare… and, unfortunately for me, returned it.

When our eyes met, my already frozen brain, which was still trying to get itself around those numbers, froze even further.

With and ice age inside my mind, I chose the easiest route out, the escaping reality route. I turned my head robotically to the other side and forcefully closed my eyes and slept… Yes, I truly slept, with no lucid dreaming this time.

…

I woke up the next day… uh well, the next time. I sat up while in a daze and looked around only to be greeted by a smiling face.

Ugh! I remembered what happened yesterday.

“Hello,” he said with a friendly face.

“Who-?”

I didn’t finish my sentence, just left it at that. It was enough for him to get what I was talking about, no?

“You can call me Jin.”

Oh, look at what we have here, A BIG FAT LIAR! Of course, I knew his name. I read it yesterday. His real name was Ahcel O’ Elze. There was no J, no I, no N, in his name. Where the hell did he get that from?

Unintentionally, I said my thoughts aloud, well, only one part of it since I wasn’t good with talking… actually it was only two words, followed by my suspicious gaze.

“Real name…?”

As I realized my mistake, I looked at him expecting some kind of reaction; and true to my expectations, he did seem a bit startled.

Well, I did try to cover up.

“A-ah… Reveka… name.”

“Nice to meet you.”

I guess I was able to deceive him, since his smile returned ever so brightly to his face.

Our introducing moment stopped when we heard a shout.

“RUN!”

I heard San’s voice as it approached this place, which, now that I noticed it, was inside a cave. Why the hell was I in a cave?

“COME ON, HURRY!”

The voice brought me back from my ‘heading towards the ridiculousness I lately call my brain’ line of thought, and I stood up and walked to the entrance of the place.

The mysterious man, ugh, god, whose name wasn’t Jin, didn’t try to stop or follow me to the entrance, as he just stood there, seemingly thinking about something.

I got outside and saw San and Kida running towards my direction with full speed.

I shook my head, and looked again.

Yep, it was Kida and a one-armed San heading my way. My mind flew to a certain arm being chewed, as I walked slowly ahead… But I stopped dead in my tracks when I noticed a whole pack of wolves just behind those two people.

Just a few moments later, both Kida and San appeared before me.

“What are you doing here? Run!”

She bellowed at me with an angry look.

Ah, captain, why are you angry? You can see that I hadn’t reacted to her words at all.

Soon enough they passed me by. San entered the cave first, but Kida stopped and turned around, only to see that I wasn’t following behind.

“YOU-!” She paled in an instant and wanted to reach for me… But she was too late.

The wolves had stopped only after surrounding us completely in a split second. One of them had moved out of the group and had come for me while baring its teeth. It jumped on me, and I fell with my back on the ground. Without giving me even a chance to recover myself, it just bared its teeth one last time before biting.

…

…

…

I was still too slow to properly react. I hadn’t the time to at least close my eyes before death- or so I was thinking. Because nor pain, nor death came my way.

I looked at the wolf a little strangely. The poor guy was trying with all its might to bite me, but its teeth stopped an inch before piercing my flesh.

At first I was a bit surprised, but I soon knew the reason it had happened.

…

While I was in my inner world, I could still see my status window; and so I had seen the change to my SS.

One thing that I realized about this SS of mine after this change is that: It wasn’t the special status that changed because of me (I think); I was the one who changed because of it.

>

-or so it said.

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