Chapter 2: Shocker

“Fuck.”

For the third time today my face met the ground. This is getting old.

The hiss of superheated metal and the pop of plants bursting from the heat fade in from over the ring in my ears. Everything still sounds distorted and echo-y. I hope I didn’t knock anything loose when that damned spacecraft decided to use my head to break its fall from orbit.

On the other hand, its not like it really matters, I’ve always been a little screw-loose and unhinged anyhow so not much would change. Still, better leave nothing to chance.

[Resonate] [Level: 8,112]

A pulse of cool mana ripples outward from my core through my broken body like a drop in a lake. My wounds and injuries act like rocks protruding out from the “surface” of the calm water and bounce back to my core like an echo. [Resonate] is another one of my favorite spells, for one it’s Soul Magic, so I can use it with ease even with my lack of affinity, and second because it is so versatile.

I often use [Resonate] on myself to get a clearer picture on how hurt I am. Don’t get me wrong, I still feel pain, I don’t have some kind of mystical resistance to agony, I’ve simply learned to not care about it. I may be sturdier than must Ageless but even mundane injuries incapacitate me. I am human after all, I’m not special.

Pain rakes through my body, the sharp, crackling kind that sends your blood pounding loudly in your ears and you go all cross-eyed. Needless to say, I’m having a hard time keeping my gaze from going all wonky as I try my best to keep my focus inward and my senses open to feel the ripples of mana reverberate around my body.

Finally, after several agonizing seconds I feel like I have a good grasp on what’s wrong.

In short, everything.

.A shattered hip, collapsed ribs on one side, a fractured shoulder, a dislocated right arm (also broken in three different places), a warped leg with a shattered knee, multiple skull fractures, several fractures along my spine, ruptured disks in my neck, and a busted ear.

Not my best day.

Life can’t seem to resist sticking a wrench in the works, or in this case, dropping a random spacecraft on my head, for shits and giggles.

Whelp, enough feeling sorry for myself, I may as well try to get back in some semblance of working order. If the universe decides to drop a ship on my lap (literally) than there is no way in hell I’m not going to strip it to the melted frame of anything not bolted down.

Ya know, when life gives you lemons and all that.

I focus another [Resonance] pulse out to reconfirm what I already learned before beginning the arduous and very unpleasant process of putting myself back together. A warm, gritty wetness gurgles from my wounds, caking my skin. Bleeding out is not fun, I’ll have to fix that as soon as I tighten whatever I knocked loose in my head, I’m starting to feel sick and pretty dizzy.

[Silent Casting] and channeling a high level healing spell is difficult for me, even without my life ebbing out of my body with every beat of my heart. The task is difficult, but not impossible.

[Eldritch Regeneration] [Level: 120]

I feel the last runes and symbols of the spell snap into place and ignite my damaged flesh. If I could speak around the bile and blood invading my throat I would not be surprised if I had screamed.

Though it is technically a healing spell [Eldritch Regeneration] is by no means gentle or soothing. It comes in two parts; the activation portion of the spell destroys the damaged flesh and forces the body to recycle it, and the final portion of the spell drains the host of their vitality to regenerate what was lost. Its not a perfect spell though, if I am interrupted while I channel the spell I can potentially cause irreversible damage to myself or whoever I use it on and depending on the skill employed it would still leave scars.

not that a few more scars really matter to me, my flesh is little more than a patchwork canvas at this point.

I feel the blood caked on my broken body heat to a boil and slurp back through the dirt and into my body. I hope not too much of the muck found its way into my bloodstream, else I’ll end up spending the next few days coughing up mud-balls.

As I feel the last of my damaged flesh shrivel into nothing and reabsorbe back into my body I shift [Eldritch Regeneration] into the second Phase and the burn of extremely accelerated regrowth ignites and irritates my exposed nerve endings. Every part of my being is begging for me to stop and rest, but I push through, if I stop now I would only slow my recovery time and risk further injury.

Barely a minute has passed since I started the healing process, even though its not recommended I grab my dislocated shoulder at the joint and jerk the limb back into place with a wet *click* and a nauseous rolling wave of agony rides the pain I was already feeling from [Eldritch Regeneration].

Then I heard a sound.

I roll my head around towards the low metallic groan.

Turns out when the crash-landing spacecraft hit me I made another trough of sorts in the ground. I was curled in the shallow indent in the dusty earth, though I can still see over the lip of my would-be grave.

the burning husk of a boxy spacecraft was partly visible over the small mound of dirt around me. The vessel’s hull crackles and whines in the red tinted night glow. More than half of the planet hopping vehicle had plowed itself under ground. Now only what appears to be the upper deck was visible above the dusty flatlands I find myself in. The wide cockpit’s viewports were intact, though the dark tinting prevented me from seeing inside, so I was unaware if the pilots were still alive.

Judging from the rectangular tube-like design this spacecraft was a cargo vessel of sorts, though now the fuselage had crumpled and twisted into useless oblivion on impact. If this was a cargo vessel than I doubt there were many crew members. Too many bodies aboard would take up too much space that would otherwise be used for valuable cargo.

The vessel looked to be somewhere between the corvette and light frigate class of ships, though its hard to judge when most of the ship is spread out in little pieces over a good 2 square miles of night-time wasteland. I estimate maybe 8 to 20 crewmembers of a vessel this size tops, though its perfectly possible I could be wrong.

After the sharp pangs of agony from my relocated shoulder subside to manageable levels I close off the images of the burning spacecraft and redouble my efforts in channeling [Eldritch Regeneration]. Its taking longer than normal, after my dramatic escape from the Dark and the fight with that fucking planet sized monstrosity my mana reserves are running on empty and my vitality is practically null.

If I was not so grievously injured and focused on repairing the damage I’m sure I would have caught that low metallic groan of a blast door being pried open a second time. And If I was not intentionally blocking out the rest of my senses to carefully channel my healing spell I’m sure I would have found a way to fend off the attackers that poured from the burning hull.

Instead the only indication I had company was a nervous kick to my shin and a nice view down the barrel of a Mage-pistol.

Before I could open my mouth to speak the elf holding the pistol fired and my vision went white as arcs of lightening lanced across my body.