Chapter 20: Chapter 20 Bumps and Bruises

Nathan sighed. He had been hoping that the anti-magic demonstration had allayed their worries, and they wouldn’t test him anymore. Maybe this spar was Khachi trying to get a fully-rounded grasp of Nathan’s capabilities. And not just beat his face in to demonstrate his superiority.

If only I had confidence in that.

And as much as Nathan wasn’t looking forward to getting smacked around by the enormous Wolfolk, it wasn’t a big surprise. So, he turned to fully face him. “Sure, but I have to warn you that the first time I seriously fought anybody was less than a week ago. I’ve had luck catching mages by surprise, but I’m not going to stand up well to somebody like you.”

Khachi and Aarl looked happier at Nathan’s earnest assessment. He noticed that they’d both been tense, likely feeling apprehensive because of his anti-magic demonstration. This was probably a good time to clear that up. “I don’t think I’m ever going to be as good a frontline fighter as you guys. I definitely need to work on it, but I’ve got skills for fast movement and dealing with magic. I’m a mage-hunter, and against non-mages a lot of what I have is useless.”

Sarah pursed her lips. “Not all adventuring parties fight people, many focus on dungeons and monsters. What else can you do, where the anti-magic is not as useful?”

Nathan’s response was easy. “I’m not familiar with many monsters in this area, but my guess is the scary ones use magic in some way. The Grave Tangle knocked everybody over with just its magical aura, which I ignored. I was also able to see through the magical stealth of a pack of Earth Stalkers yesterday.” He shrugged. “But maybe those were outliers. How many magical traps or dangers are present in dungeons?”

Sarah shared a look with Aarl, who shrugged and wiggled his eyebrows at her. She nodded as if acknowledging a point and spoke again. “Fair enough. Now are you two going to hit each other or what? Unless you want a weapon, Nathan.”

I have no idea how to use any weapons but my fists, and I’d prefer not to look like an absolute rookie.

Nathan shook his head and squared off against Khachi. He considered putting his shirt back on, but decided against potentially damaging his new clothes. He took a deep breath as they both set their feet, judging distance. He didn’t expect to be able to take the big guy down, or even get in any significant shots. Khachi was dressed in immaculate plate and bore a large hammer and an even bigger shield. His hope here was to be slippery, maybe get behind the wolfolk or trip him up.

He's in full plate. That's gotta be heavy as hell.

Nathan noticed Khachi crouch slightly as if to lunge, and Nathan took a cautious step backward. They were more than ten feet apart. There was no way somebody covered in that much metal could cover that distance. Nathan’s next thought was interrupted by the steel wall of Khachi’s shield impacting his chin with a crunch. Darkness fuzzed his vision and he was airborne briefly before slamming into the ground, wind partially knocked out of him.

You are reading story Ends of Magic: Antimage LitRPG at novel35.com

It hurt like a bitch, but thanks to [Brawler’s Indifference] he wasn’t completely stunned. His jaw felt wobbly, and he rolled to his feet and spat out a mouthful of blood, before staggering to the side and falling over again as the world tilted.

Oh that’s a nasty concussion.

“I think you got me. I’m gonna need a minute.” Nathan was not a fan of how much his voice slurred, and speaking sent intense pain through his jaw, even through the recognizable numbness of broken bones. His hands came up, and Nathan tentatively poked at his face. Yeah, that was a badly broken jaw. And a concussion. Would [Regeneration] work on head wounds? Did he want to use it for head wounds? Well, it was probably better to try it now, under controlled circumstances. Heh, controlled head wounds. No such thing.

Nathan pictured a textbook picture of a brain, unbruised and surrounded by healthy meninges. Then he shoved that image at his own head, along with stamina. Stamina drained at an alarming rate, but over the course of a few heartbeats a mental fog he hadn’t even noticed cleared away. His jaw was also killing him, and he was aware that Khachi was leaning over him, hand glowing as he finished a prayer.

“... grace be granted, healing be sure.” Khachi pressed his hand onto Nathan’s shoulder, and Nathan felt the magic try to take hold before sliding off, accomplishing nothing. It had the same feel as the magic he’d felt from Kia, a warm prickling feeling that Nathan was powerless to accept. In that moment, he almost reconsidered his decision to improve his Magic Resistance to be more potent. Maybe being able to get healing was more important. And [Regeneration] was taking a while.

Then Nathan started coughing up blood as Khachi grew more anxious and chagrined. “What do I do? Can you heal it?”

Nathan sat up, spitting to the side and feeling very pressured. Why was he having to reassure people when he was the one who’d been injured? “Yeah, give me a minute.” He felt delicately at his jaw. There was sharp bone protruding into his mouth, and aahhh the feeling of his tongue caressing a shard of his own bone did not feel great. But he could make the problem go away, so Nathan closed his eyes and crossed his legs, sharpening his mind. His jaw was definitely misaligned, and he didn’t want it healing that way.

Motherfucker that feels wrong.

But he also wanted the problem gone so Nathan focused on the correct jaw structure, told the bones not just to heal but also to shift to be in the right position, and only to heal after they’d finished moving. It was unpleasant, and Nathan’s attention was barraged by the discomfort and blood that continued to fill his mouth. But he was patient, breathing through his nose and dedicating his entire attention to re-aligning jawbones before healing the skin and fusing the bones together. After a minute that felt much longer Nathan opened his eyes to more blue boxes.

---