Doomed to Die in 3 Minutes

Malicious Gift

I wake up in a bed, covered in bandages, smelling of blood, medicinal herbs, and oddly a faint floral scent. I can’t help but feel this will become a more and more common thing for me. Waking up like this, ruined by my own suicidal heroism. I look up to the roof above and see it’s transparent windows that poke out into the night sky and quickly recognise that this is the observatory I worked in before. The portraits and sculpture of the dead had been removed. Whether Vis revives them or not… I think they may finally be able to live or rest in peace.

From the way my body feels I must have been out for quite a while, I probably missed the whole day. I think I can hear some merriment underway. It was without a doubt on a short notice yet from the laughter and raw emotions I can hear spilling all around me, you won’t think so. As if some people had been patiently waiting for this day and now it had been rewarded. Breaking out the things they were able to keep hidden, freedom had quickly spread like a wildfire across the city. The fight I conducted today wasn’t personal but I want to share in their joy.

Having the power to actually influence the world around you… in exchange for modern peace and convenience. For the first time, I think I’m truly thankful for coming over to this world.  I look at my status screen quickly to confirm I was in fact healed. Almost topped off, that was pretty rare to happen in just one day for me, with my health point being so massive. I guess if I was given regeneration buffs instead of straight healing it’d be feasible since the former gives me a percentage based healing over time and the latter flatly heals an amount equal to the magical power of the caster.

I get up and remove my bandages. Good thing the stalker elf isn’t here. I hope she had the good sense to leave those in recovery alone. The first thing I see when standing back to full height was a long black box on a table with a note on it. I walk over curious and read it. 

“Dear Corai, good job. Request complete. Thankfully it seems Vis didn’t need to go completely all out this time and that’s thanks to you. As promised, here’s something that can help turn the tide for you. It won’t completely replace your current fighting style but should help supplement it greatly. Right now you lack frontal firepower, with a well-placed strike to a limb or joint using this I have no doubt you’ll be able to defeat lesser enemies and injury those you couldn’t before. If it buys you even a few extra seconds… well, just a word of warning. You’ll probably realise how to use it the moment you place your grip on the handle but make sure to not hold it for too long or use the gloves included within. Thank you for your hard work. If you wish to return to me in hopes of more requests fitting your circumstances you simply need to ring the bell under the desk of the orphanage owner’s office and then clap your hands. I hope we see each other again soon, but if not then the fairest of fortunes to you. Oh, there’s so money too, of course. Regards, Albion. P.S, make sure the i***t is okay.”

I open the black box and am immediately hit with a surge of malice. A venomous violet glow fills the room. The contents were a pair of white biker gloves to the left, a pile of silver coins on the right, and in the centre is a hatchet shimmering with dark energies. The handle is black iron and the part where the metal and head meet is a small dragon-like skull. I know what this is. I understand what he meant now. It’s a weapon of course that is rather small and evil looking.

It’s an axe made for a dark knight. Dark knight weapons are extremely powerful and gain strength by draining hp and mp from those holding them. With my massive health pool, it’ll have plenty of vitality to chomp on and empower a single incredible strike. When you swing one of these weapons they lose all the energy they built. The use is primarily to subjugate massive monsters where you cannot possibly miss. A tool that drains the life of the user in exchange for power. Well, you still need a certain amount of strength to wield it to its full potential but if I make contact with it using my bare skin even I can do some real damage with it. 

It’s just as Albion wrote. It can buy me time. I cut into their arm or leg with this and even a powerful foe will have pause and pain against me. A few extra seconds against enemies that matter and death to ones that don’t. At worst it’ll take them a second or two to heal the wound I inflict and even one moment can change the tide of battle. The more powerful I get, the more I can help people. The more I can hear the roaring crowd. I wrap my right hand around the cold soot coloured handle.

It’s immediate. My vitality is being drained and fed into the hatchet. I guess I could use it as a throwing weapon as well if things get particularly desperate. I take a few swings, which of course eat up the energy it builds. I can feel changes in the currents in the air. I put it back down and put on the white gloves before picking it up again. I swing it a few more times without draining myself to get a good feel of the weight behind it. If this is to be my weapon I need to know it in and out. What it can do and how quickly. I am not a warrior by life or trade. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do to those who are good at weapon combat. I need to know the dirtiest tricks and every feint possible to make sure my attack lands somewhere that matters.

Every second counts.