"Dong, dong, dong~"
Horse hooves knocked against the wooden bridge.
Amid shouting, the sound of wheels, and hoofbeats, he woke up again.
The mixed, chaotic noise, along with the smell of horse dung, fodder, and dust, made the recently awakened Witcher's head feel hazy.
But this state did not last long.
"Clack~"
He should be on some kind of horse-drawn vehicle. The wheel seemed to roll over a piece of hard gravel, and with that jolt, the pain all over his body was like a bucket of cold water poured on his forehead, instantly waking him up.
He tried to open his eyes instinctively, but only a white blur appeared before him.
Bandages.
Bandages were wrapped around his entire face, not leaving even a slit for his eyes.
'At least I'm still alive… 'he thought bitterly.
He carefully activated his Witcher senses, and the faint voices of Visenna and Korin came through the noisy crowd.
They weren't far, maybe just a dozen steps away, but in his current state, he clearly couldn't call out to them.
'A wide wooden bridge… bustling human voices… but not the usual stench of sewers, animal and human waste fermenting… not inside a city. More like the main road between Ellander and the capital Vizima in Temeria…'
Such a road was the lifeline of a kingdom. Unless the king was utterly incompetent and the court in total collapse, there would not be bandits or monsters roaming freely there.
'For now, it's safe.'
The Witcher quietly let out a breath of relief.
What he feared most was waking up in complete silence, in the wilderness with no one around. Even worse would be being awakened by screams and battle cries.
If he truly had to die, dying in the hands of bandits or monsters would be worse than going out in a blaze of glory against the Wild Hunt.
Thankfully reality was not a novel—fate did not twist itself into such tortuous misfortune.
'Though it makes sense. Visenna and Korin… one is the future mistress of the Maynna Circle of Druids, the other is a wandering warrior who has traveled for years, and even seemed to have been a bandit before. They're not fledgling adventurers. Carrying an injured man, of course they would head somewhere safe instead of running around aimlessly.'
'If Visenna and Korin altered their path because of me and avoided their fated deaths, then I have at least repaid a small portion of their saving my life.'
'I wonder where they found me, and in what situation they managed to save me?'
As he idly pondered, the Witcher slowly relaxed.
The scent of juniper and mint drifted into his nose, masking the smell of rotting wounds and blood.
Visenna and Korin must have just changed his bandages.
Although he could faintly smell decay, he felt much better now—at least not as muddled and confused as before, when he could scarcely form a coherent thought.
He carefully tried to move, but the excruciating pain shooting from every limb and bone made him abandon that dangerous idea immediately.
The agony of his struggle before falling unconscious had left a deep shadow in him. He never imagined that after becoming a master Witcher, he would still encounter a kind of pain capable of breaking his mind—so intense he even wished for death.
Instinctively shivering, he forced himself not to recall the horrors before his blackout.
Still, speaking logically, the fact that pain came from all limbs meant he was still intact—no severed limbs, no paralysis, no irreversible injuries.
Even though this world was somewhat more high-magic than the original novels or the games, injuries like severed limbs or paralysis could not simply be cured with a single spell or divine incantation.
What puzzled him was this: what kind of injury had Eredin Bréacc Glas inflicted on him? Or rather, how much damage had the black dragon absorbed for him, that despite being so gravely wounded, he hadn't lost an arm or a leg?
Logically…
He had been thousands of meters up in the air at the time. Without consciousness, the fact that he didn't fall to his death was already a miracle.
Only if the black dragon cushioned the fall could he have landed safely.
'But how does something cushion a fall… for two thousand kilometers straight?'
His thoughts hit a dead end again, and he felt that this question might not be answered for a very long time.
Because Eredin Bréacc Glas—the one directly involved—had "self-destructed," and he himself had been unconscious.
'Not necessarily… there's still the black dragon…'
'The black dragon… does it really possess its own consciousness…?' he wondered.
The black dragon summoned by Beast Roar: Dragon Call had a perfectly intact body. It was unlikely to be something fully constructed by the skill alone; most likely, it was summoned from another world through some means.
A mindless dragon shell, growing naturally, could never grow to such a size.
'Maybe when I'm controlling it, its own consciousness is hidden? But why hide it? Is it being suppressed by the "Way of Beast Roar"?'
'And that dream related to the black dragon…' He frowned, recalling the black dragon in the dark abyss. 'I turned into the black dragon, then separated from it to exist on my own. Does that dream symbolize something?'
'And that final roar of the black dragon, filled with meaning—what did it signify?'
He pondered.
But none of these questions were easy to answer. The only one that might be solved in the near future was the last one—regarding the black dragon's roar.
[Name: Dragon Call]
[Type: Beast Roar]
[Learning Requirements: Introduction to the Way of Beast Roar; mastery of "Beast Roar: Berserk," "Beast Roar: Wild Speech," "Beast Roar: Whisper of Life," and "Beast Roar: Forbidden Sky"]
[Passive Effect: By maintaining the operational structure of "Beast Roar: Dragon Call" daily, you can:
1. Slowly increase all attributes.
2. Increase Dragon Nature.]
[Active Effect: Roar while consuming energy to summon a dragon from another world.]
[Note: Guess what Dragon Nature is?!]
…
'Dragon Nature, huh?' Remembering the panel of "Beast Roar: Dragon Call," he pondered. 'Most likely only by maintaining the Beast Roar and accumulating Dragon Nature will I be able to answer that question.'
'But there's no rushing that. Maintaining Beast Roar places a heavy burden on the body—I still need time to recover.'
Thinking back to the battle after Eredin Bréacc Glas possessed Renakins, the Witcher still felt lingering fear.
'This time I really flirted with death—truly almost died.'
'I should have left right after killing Sunny. Hen Gedymdeith had already been rescued, and those people of Sunny who knew his relationship with Vilgefortz were already silenced', he thought. 'Why did I have to provoke the Wild Hunt again…'
'As for the tracking…'
His thoughts paused briefly, then he shook his head slightly.
'Fine. That inexplicable tracking and sensing ability that could locate me truly couldn't be ignored. The Hunt commanded by Renakins was a problem that had to be solved. Even if I had to risk everything again, I would still do it.'
'Otherwise, if "Beast Roar: Forbidden Sky," "Beast Roar: Dragon Call," and "Conjunction of the Spheres" couldn't solve things this time, then the next time Renakins came with preparation, he'd be far more troublesome than the possessed King of the Wild Hunt.'
'And if Renakins were allowed to escape, and next time he let Eredin possess him while he was in perfect condition, I'd be done for.'
Allen thought over and over again and still felt he had already done his best. Maybe it wasn't perfect, but he hadn't made any wrong decisions.
To be honest—
He had been cautious enough when dealing with the Wild Hunt.
There were many opportunities where he could have commanded the black dragon to dive and breathe again, but he held back each time, wearing down the Hunt little by little until they all died.
And his handling of Renakins was nearly perfect as well. Instead of relying on the black dragon's physical strength to clash with him, he ended the fight quickly.
He took advantage of high altitude and the black dragon's mobility to wear him down, bit by bit.
In the end, it all came down to Eredin Bréacc Glas being far too powerful.
Even though he had already sufficiently overestimated Eredin due to the higher-magic nature of this Witcher world compared to the original novels and the games…
It still wasn't enough.
'Using such a broken body, he could unleash such terrifying power. It's unimaginable what the true King of the Wild Hunt would look like…'
'Eredin Bréacc Glas is absolutely an existence stronger than gods. Leading the Red Horsemen, conquering worlds for the Alder Folk—the "Sparrowhawk" title is well deserved.'
And Geralt fought a monster like that evenly and even won in a 1v1 duel in the end—that's insane.
The Witcher shook his head inwardly, confirming one principle again:
The original timeline and events of the novels and games were unreliable—especially the games.
Both could only be used as reference, not relied upon fully.
'But looking at the bright side, at least in the short run, I don't have to worry about threats from the Wild Hunt.' Allen comforted himself. 'Trading one serious injury for long-term peace is worth it no matter how you calculate it.'
'Besides, with Sunny dead and Hen Gedymdeith rescued, the crushing pressure from the extraordinary world on the Wolf School has instantly reduced by more than half.'
'And those covert attacks from mundane nobles, the possible hostility from Ortolan and Rissberg Group's Civil Cooperative Organization—after the Wolf School united with Hen Gedymdeith and Tissaia de Vries, none of that matters anymore.'
'One could say that unless something unexpected happens, this battle essentially pulled the Wolf School out of the annihilation crisis of the Kaer Morhen defense war.'
'What remains to face now is only the Wild Hunt and the White Frost.'
'Once the Viper School grandmaster Ivar Evil-Eye, whose lifelong wish is to destroy the Wild Hunt, arrives at Kaer Morhen with the Viper Witchers… once Hen Gedymdeith recovers from weakness… once the Temple of Melitele restores its strong divine system…'
'The entire extraordinary world could unite to fight the Wild Hunt…'
'Then the extraordinary world could pressure the secular kingdoms…'
'Tsk, tsk.' The Witcher clicked his tongue. 'Life suddenly looks optimistic. There's hope again!'
'As for the White Frost…'
Thinking of the White Frost, he suddenly recalled something.
[Name: Spiral]
…
[Passive Effect:
Dream Echo – In dreams, you have a chance to commune with the Spiral.
Active Effects:
Eye of Insight: Consumes 40 Experience Orbs (-10). Create a shadowy eye within the Spiral. While the shadow-eye exists, you can observe the Spiral. (The shadow-eye can be detected and destroyed.)
Storage Hole: Consumes 100 Experience Orbs. Carves out a storage hole in the corner of the Spiral. The hole can store non-living items.]
The skill "Spiral" and the passive effect of communing with the Spiral usually happen only when the injuries are extremely severe, yet this time his injuries were more serious than ever before, and he had fallen unconscious three or four times in succession.
But not once had he entered that Spiral which leads to all the worlds.
'Was it coincidence, that he happened to hit the probability of not communing, or did something go wrong within the Spiral?'
He recalled the bottom of the Spiral—that pure, yet utterly lifeless shimmering white light, that lofty yet indifferent coldness which merely by being gazed upon made one feel as if in an instant one had been transported to the perpetually snow-covered peak of the Blue Mountains, that soul-freezing chill. His expression stiffened.
'Most likely the latter' the witcher thought for a while and made his judgment. 'Although "Dream Echo" is described as chance-based, in reality both times I entered the Spiral while dreaming: the first was in Passolon Forest when I was critically wounded during the Wild Hunt's pursuit; the second was after the Evil God descended, when I was extremely injured and weak, and both times I dreamt my way into the Spiral.'
'Judging from that, the probability is practically one hundred percent.'
'Furthermore, when Red Horsemen led by Renakins galloped through the Spiral, they deliberately stayed far away from the empty hollow at the center—that must be because in the past someone did what I did, leaving behind knowledge that accumulated into a taboo.'
'The White Frost within the Spiral is most likely in some dangerous active phase now, which is why the Spiral's passive effect didn't trigger.'
'However…'
The witcher silently pondered for a moment, considering the implications of the White Frost's increased activity.
'But this isn't necessarily a bad thing' he thought. 'For me, it only means I can't easily observe the movements of the Wild Hunt through the Spiral. But for the Wild Hunt, it becomes a huge obstruction. The Spiral may even be their only passageway into the witcher world…'
'If that is truly the case, then… perhaps I can use this to hinder the Hunt's arrival?'
'As long as the Wild Hunt appears within the Spiral, I could trigger the White Frost and interfere with their coming, buying time until we are fully prepared.'
But this "good idea" had barely formed in his mind before he decisively rejected it.
'No' he shook his head inwardly. 'It's still unknown whether the White Frost's activity in the Spiral would cause the White Frost in reality to arrive earlier, but chances are high that White Frost could follow the trail back and affect the real world. And…'
'Provoking the White Frost again and again inside the Spiral is basically suicide…'
As he thought this, the witcher found the situation somewhat amusing.
Right now, triggering "Dream Echo" still required severe injury and extreme exhaustion. He could use "Eye of Insight" to monitor the Wild Hunt within the Spiral, but to activate the White Frost he would need to personally go there.
What, should he beat himself half to death every time?
But although such suicidal actions could be avoided, they could not be excluded completely. If he encountered an emergency, he needed at least one trump card.
'Perhaps only by finding more fragments can the "Dream Echo" ability become constant. And the added "Storage Hole" ability from fragments is extremely useful as well…'
'But where to find the fragments… that's another problem…'
'Fragments of Ard Gaeth's Gate are not easy to find, and Ciri is somewhere in what's suspected to be a parallel witcher world…'
Allen sighed lightly in his heart.
'Solve one problem and another rises. Who knows when I'll ever resolve them all.'
With that sigh, he stopped thinking about problems that had no short-term answers. With a thought, just as he was about to take advantage of his recovered clarity to open the Witcher Journal and check the harvest from killing Renakins and the other Wild Hunt riders—
"Hrrr-hyah~!"
The witcher suddenly heard the coachman's shout.
The draft horse neighed, and the wagon came to a stop.
.....
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