Remnants of pain were clawing at her body, frigid and unyielding. Gritting her teeth, Rhiannon was crying without tears. Her only choice was to wait for these phantoms to release her. The third death in this place wasn't any easier than the first two. The pain wasn't less and the fear filled her awakening with spasms and shadows all the same.
"I now know more," as if trying to convince herself, Rhi whispered. "They leave ashes when killed, that's the answer."
She felt no warm in her chest. It stung even if wasn't that surprising. Rhia had to repeat her mantra again and again until,
"This mace, this shield, I want them," she set the goal. "I will do better this time. I will."
An hour, maybe less nearly stripped her from the will of resistance. Rhiannon could feel her own fragility, courtesy of years of therapy and self-analysis. She now had to push herself beyond the limit, not stopping to ask questions or have doubts.
So Rhia pushed the lid, sat in her death chest, and gloomily twisted away the tree branches trying to prick her eyes again. Quietly she stood up and then her right leg stumbled over her left leg. The woman fell like a log, having barely moved her hands under. She suppressed a scream.
Why..? Rhiannon couldn't understand. Her legs were alien appendages she could barely control. A dreadful thought struck her, the woman sat, grabbed the closest stone, and lifted her arm for a fake toss. There was no smoothness or familiarity. She wobbled like a drunk and suddenly understood.
Death stripped her of everything.
Her body didn't keep any memories. She – Rhiannon – remembered how to walk, how well she had thrown that rock, the way to snap a skeleton neck, but her body didn't. Without muscle memories, her purely mental knowledge was as good as watching someone else doing those things. That was also the reason her every death had been first awful and then awful!
"Fuck you."
This place was truly ruthless.
I could more or less walk after killing that first skeleton. There is a connection. I will grasp it again. I will.
Rhiannon repeated her mantra and gave 90% of her attention to basic leg exercises for a time being.
Change of plans. I kill that lone guy if it's still there. Speaking of which... With trepidation, she tilted her head to see behind the coffin. It was gone. She had left there a 'T' out of pebbles after her second revival and it was gone now!
"It's reset and consciousness transfer," she murmured shaken. "Virtual reality? Some sort of game? No, if it's a full reset I have like ten minutes till my fuel runs out again." Next time she might not be as lucky, Rhi didn't say or even think something this obvious.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Metal plate struck a statue. Not too loud, not too quiet, just enough to lure a skeleton. Hearing bony feet clicking the ancient slabs, Rhiannon made herself smirk. She was standing on a pedestal with five metal plates for offerings of various sizes in her hands. Behind her was Anubis observing the upcoming battle, on her left Buddha closed his eyes disapprovingly, on her right was a pair of broken stone legs of unknown origins.
The skeleton appeared from a direction she knew too well. It wasn't fast, only steady. While deadly, Rhia already figured it was much less of an opponent than a full-pledged human soldier. For once, it was stupid. She waited until it came close and started to fling the plates at him.
The Skeleton Swordfighter struck down each improvised disc with confidence. It reached the pedestal... and started to climb it since Rhia was too far. The woman inhaled sharply and using Anubis for the support she propelled herself forward.
Clang! The sword strike hit the last and the biggest plate that she simply pushed down on the said sword using the moment of awkwardness and the two figures fell down in a struggle. Ignoring everything else, Rhiannon grabbed the skeleton's skull and started to bash it wherever a hard place she could see.
Several cuts shortly covered her shoulders and back, all shallow for a lack of space for a proper swing. Rhia with red in her eyes, she ignored the pain, everything.
Bam! Bam! Crack! Its spine and then skull were finally shattered and the skeleton stiffened. The woman bashed it a few more times before noticing. She whimpered unintelligibly and rolled away.
"Ha. Ha. Ha." Heavily, Rhiannon breathed. Her heart was fluttering like crazy and the cuts were hurting like hell.
In a corner of her eyes, the skeleton started to glow. Flakes of ashes started to separate from it and float in a truly magical spectacle. When a handful gathered, this process stopped, the glow vanished. The ashes then danced straight into the woman. A warm, fuzzy feeling spread over her body with a whisper of wind and concentrated into a dot in her heart.
"I thought it would heal my wounds... No, they are hurting less. Is it just how this body works?"
Rhiannon kicked the skeleton and watched it disintegrating. The show almost made her giggle and the woman immediately felt herself a battle-crazed maniac. She shook her head and focused on the dot of warmth in her chest.
It was small like an atom and also big like a planet. Countless possibilities crumbled into a spot, a seed to grow a forest, fire to burn it all to cinders. Not good or evil, but neutral, like a tsunami, or rainbow. Such was a feeling she got, together with a fuzzy understanding of how to use this seed.
Unhurriedly Rhiannon stepped forward. The seed beat, sending nearly imperceptible waves throughout her body. She made another step, then another. The long-forgotten skill seemed to be coming alive again... with the seed directly shrinking by half.
"Wait-wait-wait..." alarmed, Rhia halted. A frown could be almost seen on her manikin forehead together with non-existing drops of sweat. Carefully she returned back to walking, but this time she was successfully suppressing the fire seed from acting out.
Good, now what. Should I train shadow boxing? I doubt it would help against a spear... Sighing, Rhiannon gazed at the sunless sky. Her head gears started to rocking.
