"Shush...""How bad is it?" you ask Flax.
"No idea." he replies, looking back. "Can't see, but feels pretty bad."
"Should be fine... Sas, come! We need to get him out."
You three start digging around.
When a suitable amount of space is created, Flax leaves his ruined cloak behind, and you start to pull.
But it doesn't seem to work, you feel you moved him but a half inch away. Flax then tries to use his own strength to push himself, to similar results. The results are more apparent now, so you just keep trying, shifting between you two and Flax.
After a considerable effort, together you manage to free the man. Resting in the hole you've dug, he can now crawl away. Apparently only crawl, because his legs don't really look like legs anymore.
They're crooked and mangled, he doesn't seem to be able to control them at all.
"Yeah this is pretty bad. But fear not, I can do something about it."
You kneel.
"You see, now that we've defeated this thing, I can do miracles for a while."
"Eh?"
"Stand still."
You chip off a portion of the seed, and transfer it to the body.
Under your hands, cracked bones are regrowing and connecting, torn and deformed flesh is returning back to shape, the flow of lifeforce mends what has been damaged.
After the power is depleted, the legs are in their former form.
Holding such power did fatigue you, and you nearly fall down tumbling, Sas catches you in time, but even he starts trembling as soon as he touches you.
"Try to stand up..."
Flax tries. His legs are waggling like the clapper inside a bell, they look alright, but he doesn't seen to have strength in them.
Sas goes to help him, and with his support, he manages to stand upright, though he still has trouble maintaining balance.
"Might need a stick..." he says.
"It's set, so it should heal in time. And I can still help treat it with my magic... I could try to reshape it once more, but..."
"No." the warrior exhales. "Thanks, I can take this. I'll tell you..."
"You're not only proper warriors, but you're true friends."
"Glancing upon face of death, in a battle you never had to fight..."
"I don't understand all this matter of spirits, but... What I felt today was divine. Such awe I have never before encountered, and it was because of you. I..."
"I am forever in debt to you, and not just I. Whatever you shall need, I will fight for you to get it, blood brothers."
"That's nice, I suppose. Well this little quest will be soon over, I just need to perform a spell back at the ruins."
"What kind of spell?" Sas asks.
"The beast was keeper of a powerful source of life, but something went wrong. Now that its dead, it's up to me to restore order, and calm all the spirits."
"Why did it attack us?"
You shrug.
"I don't quite understand as well. I tried to reason with it, to no avail. A fight was sadly unavoidable... We might find answers in the ruins."
"Well that's peculiar..."
"Black knows his stuff, Sas, let's go!" says Flax, takes a step forward and almost falls again.
"Halt, we might be not done here yet. We could get the knife back."
"Huh?"
"Well, sure, I thought this thing is like, sacred or something, I dunno..."
"There is little known about these creatures, but as far I know, we can harvest the parts that would otherwise rot, not flesh and blood though, we don't operate with that. But we can do that later, our priorities are now the knife and then ruins. We have time for that..."
"The knife is stuck in the heart, I mean we can reach it for sure but the wound is on the stomach... We can't reach it from below, we would have to turn it over..."
"Then we will."
All of you push, side by side, Flax leans on it by all of his body, so he won't fall. But the mass is too heavy, even your spells don't help much. Your collective effort didn't achieve anything here.
"Maybe if you widened the little moat we dug up...?"
"The snow can't support the beast, it would just fall right in." says Sas. "Digging won't help here, no way."
"Maybe I could shove another load of ice to the side and it would tip... But I'm not sure whether I am able to do it..."
"If we want the knife, might as well try it." said Flax.
You nod, and walk around, looking for a spot you could attempt this on.
"Once we got in that town..." you say. "We need to get some more resources, okay?"
"We will, we will!" replies Flax. "That's a proper town, Usodestis. Don't worry, I'll buy everything we'll need."
He checks his burned pockets.
"Money survived, it's all alright!" he laughs.
"Great..."
"Hey, there's something coming the way!" cries Sas.
You look where he points, and truly, a small blur is coming from the ruins, it's getting bigger and more visible... It's a person!
"Oh for crying out loud, more spirits?" grumbles Flax.
"I don't think so..." you speak. "Ready yourselves."
The figure is approaching at high speed, while it doesn't seem to move at all, it creeps you out a little. When it gets even closer, you can see they keep their arms stretched forward, and they're leaving a trail behind.
A couple steps from you, they stop, rest their arms and hop aside. You can see they were standing on some kind of a rock.
It's a man, a rather old one. The top of his head is clean shaven, and rest of his gray hear isn't very dense. His beard is also shaven, apart from well groomed sideburns, seamlessly connected to the hair. His wrinkles are deep, and highlight his confident, oddly sinister look. There is an ornate earring lodged into his left ear rather crudely, and it sticks out quite a bit.
"Well, gentlemen, I see you have put an end to the beast..." he says with a wicked smile. "I suppose that warrants a certain level of respect! I must thank you profusely."
"And who do you happen to be?" asks Flax.
"Ah, you are right, a proper introduction is also warranted! I, gentlemen, am Rathegaru, and now..."
He flings his arms upwards, his hands clenched in fists, only pinky fingers raised.
With a swift gesture, he points at Flax with one hand and at Sas with the other. Both men collapse to the ground, motionless.
You can hear their breath, but they are completely still.
You see this man is up to no good, and assume a battle stance.
You gaze into eyes of each other, your hands prepared to gesture.
Then, the man's expression suddenly changes.
"Wait... Are you..."
"Wraithcaller?"What do you want to do?