The barrels rattled feebly. The wood was dry and warped, leaving many gaps, and the iron bands were rusty and decaying. Some of them were loose and held only in place by gravity. However, all the containers held. The skeleton's limbs simply did not have enough leverage to break free. They inevitably would, and then the monster would begin to reassemble itself. But that would not be for a while, hopefully.
Ha- nuel tentatively watched the pile of crates and barrels, admiring his handy work. He had beat his attacker, but what now? The only thing that had kept him moving was rage and hate. The monster had tried to kill him, but now he wondered if it was fair to hate it. Was it just in its nature to attack him? Or was it defending its home from an intruder? It didn't seem vicious, at the very least. Neither of them had gone into the fight as killers, he thought.
'I'm glad to have trapped it, rather than killed it'
It was an odd thought, just moments ago he was trying to destroy it fully. And wasn't it already dead, isn't that a requirement to be Undead? It felt somehow alive though. But didn't know if it was truly conscious, or merely refracting fragments of itself from when it was alive. He was pretty sure that no one knew that for sure. Still, it wasn't a fighter. It was a floor sweeper.
Ha-neul smiled. He… was glad…to not die… a killer. He watched his hand slide off the crate limply. He didn't remember falling. But he must have because he was staring up and ceiling. It was made of ancient wooden beams with floorboards stacked on top. There must have been a floor above him. He wondered about that. He had never been in a castle before. When he was a kid, he had been obsessed with European knights and castles. Was there a damsel somewhere that needed to be saved? He hoped that someone would help them.
Consciousness was a fleeting thing. He wasn't trying to fight it, he simply couldn't fall asleep. He and death had been walking side by side for a long time now. He had seen its cold hands extend for all his friends and heroes. How long had it been held out for Ha-neul, waiting for him to take it? Death was- ah, screw poetry! It didn't matter. He was dying on the floor far from anywhere he'd ever known. He was going to die, right here, right now. What he wasn't, was afraid. He was too tired to be. Too far beyond exhausted. But he couldn't sleep.
****
Tamotsu had thought the unending silence had been the most unnerving thing ever. He stood corrected. A shriek like a banshee's echoed across the whole castle. Like its thousands of stone walls were paper thin. What he dreaded much more than the echoes, though, was that Death's Warcry originated from the other side of the door he was leaning against. He silently cursed the Alliance King. It was that bastard who had sent him to this ruin to die. All the hardships he had suffered were that man's fault. And now, just feet away was another thing he had to kill. All the undead in this place were, as a rule, silent. So, whatever freak lay beyond this door was going to be the most terrible of them all. And he had to kill it. He had just wanted a peaceful life. Was that too much to ask for?
At that moment, the girls came around the corner, out of breath. They must have heard the scream and ran to find him. They simultaneously tried to talk, but he held his finger to his lip for silence.
He whispered, "behind this door. Stay back, I'll call if I need you."
He swallowed his fear, and went up to the door with swagger. He needed to look confident. Would anyone follow him if he looked weak? No. He pressed his ear up to the door to see what he heard, and jumped back to the sound of something heavy crashing into the floor.
He looked back but the girls were already out of sight. That was good.
Now he needed to focus. He gritted his teeth and began to channel magic power from his core. The last fight had drained him greatly, and so it took a while. By the time he was done, the fight seemed over. One of the opponents was bested. Now, Tamotsu would clean up the victor.
He gently opened the door. It was a darkly lit, and small, kitchen.
'This is, lowkey, a boss room.'
Laying on the floor, was an Undead. It was laying on its back with its arms crossed on its chest. Its skin was pale and its nose and fingers were black, and it was dressed in tattered black rags. All around him was covered in blood.. He sighed. Yeah, that's a boss. You expect me to believe that after a long fight, it posed up like that, and it ain't a boss? No shot.
Something irked him though. All of the Undead he had seen so far were just bones. The Freeze had started like two hundred years ago, why did this one have skin? And while the factions of undead fought with each other quite often, it had never been just one. And where was the enemy it defeated? He pushed all these thoughts away, they were not important. He was just going to fight! All he had to do was strike it down with his magic.
He stepped forwards and shouted, "rise, accursed wretch, so I may send you to the afterlife. I am going to kill you. And then I'll pee on your grave!"
****
Ha-neul, at the end of a long tunnel, saw a boy. There was a guy looking at him. His failing mind stumbled around inside his head. There was just some guy? How long had he- who was- huh? The boy stepped forwards and shouted something Ha-neul couldn't understand. But, he was pretty sure it was Japanese.
Ha-neul, through his mental fog, strung together a sentence. "Do you understand me?"
They both stared at each other, uncomprehendingly. Ha-neul tried the only other language he knew, English, "Do you speak English?"
The boy said back, "yes. What's going on? Why do you speak English? Are you from Earth?"
Ha-neul nodded. It was a much more difficult motion than usual, like his neck was made of wood.
The boy paused and then tentatively asked, "how did you die?"
"I'm not dead, just dying." After a couple seconds of focusing, he was able to speak normally, despite the fatigue.
"Oh." The boy scowled, then shouted "did the King send you here? Have you come to assassinate me?" He stepped forwards with wild eyes.
"No, I fell through a Gate. I was on Earth, walking to work, and then I fell suddenly. It was very hidden, there was no way for me to hear or see it."
"You weren't sent here. I find that pretty hard to believe. You can't have come from Earth unless you were summoned here, and all your denial does is prove that you were not banished. Does the King know I'm alive? Does he know I mean to destroy him? Then pee on his grave?"
Ha-neul didn't answer. He closed his eyes and tried to focus on what was going on. He whispered, "You're from Japan, right?"
"What are you doing, trying to make sure you have the right target? Of course I'm from Japan."
"I am deeply sorry about your homeland." He knew it was a cliche response for refugee's, but he was too tired to get creative.
The boy stopped scowling, and dropped his guard. "What are you talking about? Don't screw with me, you mongrel!"
"Oh. I'm so sorry, I didn't think of that. How long have you been in this world?"
"I was summoned two months ago. I've spent three weeks in this ruin."
Ha-neul wasn't really listening anymore. "There was a tier five gate in Tokyo. Apparently it had only one monster. None of the Noticed even dared to face it. There wasn't even an evacuation."
The boy laughed, "what are you talking about? Are you describing a movie or something. What is a gate and why did no one Notice it?"
Ha-neul blinked, "what- what year do you think it is?"
"2025."
"It's 2029. You have not been here for two months, it's been four years."
"That's cute that you think I'd believe that."
Ha-neul growned. Then he slowly uncrossed his arms and bent down to take his phone out of the loose tourniquet on his leg. He showed him the date, and then opened it up to his camera roll and handed it to him.
The boy slowly went paper white and then sat down on the floor next to him. "All this time, I've been fighting so I could go back home. Is there nothing left?"
Ha-neul did not respond, he was too tired to. He couldn't even open his mouth anymore. The boy looked despondently at him before noticing how wounded he was. He jumped up and shouted behind him, "Zalgoe get in here, now!"
Two girls rushed into the room. The first one was tall, with straight purple hair and horns dressed in bronze scale mail. The boy yelled at her, "heal him!"
The second girl was shorter, with a round face and strawberry blond hair that flowed down her back in curls. She wore a dress, and was notably cleaner than her companions. When she entered the room she stood still, until she saw the first girl casting healing magic. Then she rushed over to help.
Ha-neul had even seen a Noticed with healing magic in person before. They'd actually worked on the same wounded at some point. He understood the wonders it could bring more than most. He was able to speak, only by habit. "I applied a tourniquet about two hours ago on the left leg. I recommend an immediate left BKA. I need an O positive blood transfusion, painkillers, and antibiotics, in that order." Ha-neul wasn't sure if he said that out loud, or if he was even fully conscious anymore.
(A/N: I was told to advise that improvised tourniquets are incredibly unreliable, with as little as a 25% success rate. While better than nothing, commercially available tourniquets are highly preferable. Also, BKA stands for Below Knee Amputation)
The purple-haired girl, who he was pretty sure was Zalgoe, said, "First let's deal with this leg."
The pink haired girl smirked. Her voice was high and regal, "this time, let's make sure the bones are lined up straight before you fuse them."
Zalgoe rolled her eyes and nodded. "Go ahead, Mebb."
Mebb stared at her blankly, "can you nod if you want me to straighten the leg?"
She did, and then Mebb bent his leg into place. Zalgoe took out a long needle and pulled a string of magic through it, before stitching runes into Ha-neul's half frozen flesh.
Zalgoe said, "The bones reattached and the skin closed, but the leg was still dead. Lucky the cold means I might be able to save it." As she stitched, the thread grew dimmer until finally flickering out. Zalgoe put away the needle and took out some gauze and suturing supplies. It was around that time that Ha-nuel finally fell asleep.