Solo A Repeated Day Part III

[Moritz Craven]

10 Fall 522 - 3rd

From blackness, Moritz eyes surged open, feeling a weight falling onto his chest. A bit surprised, and yet at the same time seeming to understand what was going on, he once more saw Axle laying across him. The young child had flopped down to get his attention, apparently as he had not been waking up until he had flopped on him.

A great grin on his face the boy looked over at Moritz, cheerily explaining he had not woken up, soon after uttering that familiar enough phrase... "Moritz, wanna go hunting! My father said we can hunt, you wanna come!"

Moritz for his part heard this, but his mind was chaotic. Trying to even his breathing and pulled in and held some breaths, not answering the boy right away. Then he did his best to tackle things one part at a time, rather than all at once.

First thing, he seemed to be experiencing the day multiple times. Second part, each time he had done so the day had been different. Of course, a caveat to this was that his own actions had been different... But each had started more or less the same, so perhaps his actions were the changing thing not the day?

Once was possibly a fluke, or a vision as he first thought. But now that it had happened again and he was living the day for the third time... Well it seemed much less likely to just be some vision. Instead it seemed more like he was truly repeating the same day over and over, from start to wherever it finished. But always rounding back to that same starting point. Feeling around on his body he examined where he had felt the arrow hit him, as well as his neck where... Where, he believed, he had been beheaded. Or at least had his neck hacked open before passing out... But more likely than not he had died. And then afterwards, woken up in the same place as that morning.

A repeat. That was the best Moritz could describe it as. Though how or why he did not know. How many times would it continue? Would he keep repeating? What would stop it? Why today? Was it on purpose, or some odd magical or divine accident? He was unsure which if any of those it was, nor how he could tell them apart. All he knew was what he could observe, which was that he seemed to be repeating the same day, and when dying or otherwise he seemed to return back to the beginning of the day. Anything else just seemed supposition for now.

Letting out a breath Moritz felt a bit calmer, having thought things through. Still as he recalled the day before he remembered the rage he had felt at the bandits or slaver or whatever they were... That people would act like such to other people... And also, something he had forgotten. He had killed someone. He felt oddly numb to it, considering it was the first time he had ever killed a person. And yet at the same time, did it even count since the day was back at its start, and likely the person was alive again? But then, he remembered, so it probably did count... At least to him, since he had felt it and done it and remembered it. Deciding on a course of action Moritz smiled at the oddity of his situation, looking at Axle.

"Ah, I think actually today I will stay with the caravan. But maybe tomorrow, alright? Maybe we could go hunting then. I think today, I just need to rest a bit. For a day or so. But maybe we can talk more later, alright?"

WC: 622

[Moritz Craven]

Getting up from his bedding, Moritz set out after Axle. Having repeated the same day a few times now, an idea had occurred to him. Something he had put off doing until now due to the danger. But, if the day was going to restart from scratch again, then that was lessened if not eliminated. Iraso initiation.

He vaguely knew how a Pathfinding initiation worked, having been told it before and experienced it when he became an Iraso, but he had never tried it. Now though, when there was no long term damage should he fail, it seemed a good time to try. Who with though? Not a person, that still seemed wrong... An animal then seemed the most likely candidate. Not any of the horses though, those would be needed to pull the wagons and carriages and things. Then... And as he thought Axle's father Anders came into view, along with their hound Run.

"Axle, hey! There is something I want to try. If it works, it will make Run an even better hunter. If it does not work... Well I think at worst he will be no worse off by tomorrow. Could I try it?"

Axle, perhaps not fully understanding things, smiled and nodded before running off. With that Moritz watched as Axle spoke to his father. He was unsure what the boy said to his father, but before long he let him run back accompanied by Run. "He said we can try. What do we need?"

Thinking for a moment Moritz motioned off to the side, to the edges of the forest were they would be out of the way, and waited for Axle to follow. Once he did he sat down on a clear patch of grass, and motioned for Run to come over by him. With that Axle pulled Run along, bringing him right up to Moritz sitting upon the ground.

"Okay, now for this Run needs to keep eye contact with me. So make sure they keep looking at me."

With that Moritz focused for a moment on his eyes, wiling his djed to activate and seeing his vision overlayed by his Iraso sight. Once it was he moved a bit closer to Run, and maintained eye contact. Glaring at the dog eye to eye he then focused on the edge of his eyes, on the djed there, willing it to accumulate and increase from his normal usage of being on or off. Picturing his djed in his eyes touched by his Iraso abilities, he imagined it moving outward. over. Across. Moving and channeling like a road between his eyes and Runs.

Pushing a surge of djed across the dog tried to move, but Axle held it in place. Keeping it on Moritz waited for that feeling, pushing that djed across and trying to achieve that moment of success...

Before long he heard Axle making a sound, indicating he could see something. Just before Axle had made that sound he had felt a... Feeling... He could not quite describe it, but the closest he could feel to it was the djed equivalent of the sound of a glass of water nearly filled. The changing sound as the water filled up, and then you knew it was nearing its peak and if you did not stop it would run over. He had not realized what that feeling was when he felt it, but upon hearing Axle's words he then did realize.

Having already kept going for a bit longer, and believing he was done, Moritz cut off the djed flowing across between them. Once he did he looked at Runs eyes, seeing the dog looking around oddly. It was then that he noticed... Runs eyes had changed. Where before they had been red, now they were a whitish grey hue. Moritz was not certain, but he believed he knew what had happened... he had failed, and blinded the dog in doing so.

WC: 657

[Moritz Craven]

Having failed at his first try, Moritz dd his best to work out where he had gone wrong. He had clearly made the connection with the djed from eye to eye... But something else then. Thinking it over he recalled that feeling he had gotten, which he know felt was one of being done. And he had gone on past that. So he had expressed too much djed or for too long? Something like that. The next time he tried then he would clearly need to stop when he got that feeling.

As best he could tell the djed had overpowered the hounds eyes, thus blinding it. He tried to explain this away to Axle, that it was just temporary and the dog would be back to normal by tomorrow. Oddly enough this was both true and false at the same time, seeing as this was a permanent injury... And yet since the day would start anew from the beginning when it ended... Or, as on the prior time, when he died, it would effectively end when "tomorrow" came. Having said this to the boy and then his father Anders when he asked, he saw the look of concern and uncertainty on the mans face. But he could also see the man was giving him the benefit of the doubt... At least till tomorrow. He did not doubt that if tomorrow came and the effect was not gone, he would be having a very uncomfortable conversation... Of course Moritz knew that time would not come. At least, he realized then, assuming the day kept on repeating as it had.

Thinking it over he was struck by the idea that he had no idea what was causing it, and so no idea how long it would last... But still, there was no sign it was ending, and if he was going to practice such a dangerous thing now seemed the ideal time to do so.

Once all of that was settled and the caravan began moving again Moritz joined in, this time focusing on being vigilant. He was fairly certain that they would not be stopped by the bandits or slavers or whatever for awhile, based on the timeline of the previous instances of the day. They had gone hunting, found a deer, looped around back, and then followed the path back. Having done all that over bells they had come just after things cleared the first time, and then near the end before all of them left the next time... So it would certainly be a bell or a few bells before anything happened.

With that in his mind Moritz quietly sat in the back of a wagon, listening and sensing as best he could. The sound of a twig snapping. Mostly just the sound of people and horses and wagon wheels turning... Positioning himself near the front of the wagon he tried to keep an eye out as well, looking at the treeline, hoping to see some sign of the impending attack...

Finally a few bells later his vigilance paid off, as he noticed some motion off in the treeline a bit away... Moments later though, well before he could act, a flurry of arrows came darting in, aimed at a pair of guards near the front of the caravan. The tactic made sense, taking out the defenders first, targeting them specifically. The two armed men out front fell to the ground, each peppered with multiple arrows, barely hitting the ground before sounds of alarm and "attack" rang out. Once more Moritz armed himself, focusing on forming the gauntlet and waiting to extend the blades as he jumped from the wagon, trying to find the source of the attack. But in that short span of time several more had fallen, peppered with arrows. And then before anyone could do more multiple men came crashing in on foot, piercing into the heart of the caravan.

WC: 655

[Moritz Craven]

While Moritz had fought before, he realized in that moment he had never really been in a battle. And fighting in a spar or even a real fight with a few people, versus fighting numerous enemies from numerous directions... Well those were totally different things.

Still, perhaps urged on by a sense of invulnerability seeing as he expected the day to start over, Moritz oddly enough did not find himself afraid at that. Perhaps, he thought, repeating the day was making things oddly feel unreal. Was it killing if the person would be fine later, and not even remember? Was it dying if he would be fine later? Sure there was momentary pain, but that was it. And perhaps most odd of all, the thought of the pain was not really a deterrent. Instead he just felt a desire to win. To survive. To find a solution to this day. Perhaps, he reasoned without any really direct logic at arriving there, if he found the solution for the day he would be allowed past it...

Seeing the men charging in Moritz ran towards them. He had yet to get a number, but based on the number of arrows there had to be at lest four or five archers... And before him he could see at least five men in melee range... Something he did observe though, was that the archers were not aiming at anyone fighting the men in melee range, which he realized was a tactic to avoid hitting their comrades. Sensible enough. Willing the blade on his gauntlet to extend he ran forward, crashing into the side of one of the invaders who was crossing swords with one of the caravan members.

Not really trusting his ability to fight someone who was not distracted, he instead aimed for this person. Just before he arrived at them he lowered his arm and prepared a punching motion, trying to aim himself so that his body would crash into the man, while the blade would stab into his vulnerable sides.

There was a moment before the impact, where Moritz saw the man notice him, it was then Moritz realized he was yelling as he charged. He had not even been doing it on purpose, but had done it all the same perhaps by some odd instinct. The invader, seeing him coming, tensed and prepared to react to his charge. But his foe in turn saw this opening and pressed their attack, which meant he could not react to Moritz. And then he felt the weight of his body crash into the man, the blades on his gauntlet sliding into their side through a thin layer of leather... And then they both fell, with Moritz landing atop him.

With a yanking motion he sat upright, trying to pull the blades out, watching as the man below him tried to swing his sword holding arm around with difficult due to the angles involved. However before he could do that the mans combat partner from before arrived above Moritz and the invader on the ground, and with a single thrust of his blade dispatched the man by stabbing him right through the neck.

The blade removed, a spurt of blood flooded outward at pressure to wash across Moritz, coating him in the substance. The scent of iron on the air was foul, but with his strong stomach he felt no more distate let alone any stomach churn. Still it affected him, making him pause as another pressured shot covered him and the invader below him went limp. The other man for his part did not pause, rushing off to the next fight.

Moritz, unable to help it, paused in that moment, looking down at the face of the man as he grew still and his open eyes changed... To that of a set of dead eyes in a dead body... Unable to look away Moritz looked at the man, but felt... Nothing. He was certain though that he should feel something. But oddly he only felt a hollow in his gut. And the longer time passed, the more it was once more filled with anger at these invaders attacking the caravan.

Trying to focus his mind Moritz tried to recall details for the next try of the day. Pulling out his weapon and rising back to his feet... The arrows had hit this way... And then on those people this way... So then tracking back... It meant they had fired from... This way, off to the side in a small patch of land with some heavy shrubs which were hard to see in.

Doing his best to recall this he turned from the second man he had killed, or helped kill, only to finally notice something.... It was the man from the day before. The same man he had killed before he had died...

WC: 810

[Moritz Craven]

Doing his best to focus, Moritz mentally pictured shoving his concerns aside, focusing instead only on the important details. If he wanted to make a plan, if he wanted his next attempt to go better, he needed to work out things.

So far he had a basic idea of the attack. They had a group of archers, maybe five or so... And they were standing in an area off this way... Which provided concealment until they attacked. Starting off by attacking a set of guards grouped together, they then began firing at other random groups... Which softened them up for the attack to come, a charge of melee fighters rushing in.

Already having trouble coping with the ranged attack, the caravan was unable to react to the melee attackers. The simplest response he could think of then was to find a way to preempt the ranged attackers... But that was something he would need to work out on the next day.

Back on his feet, Moritz tried to find the next battle, only for it to find him. One of the invaders finally landed a blow, ripping a blade through a guards neck, and freed up came rushing in at Moritz. Without thinking Moritz brought his gauntlet-ed hand up in a warding gesture, stumbling back several steps as the mans heavy blow swung and struck his own blades. Managing only to avoid falling over or being hit by his own blades, Moritz did his best to recover only to have to ward of another blow as the man charged and swung again.

Seeing this though Moritz saw this man was working more by power than actual skill. Trusting his unarmed skills more than his bladed gauntlet he waited till the man came in to swing again, only to do two things. One, he willed the blades on his gauntlet to retract in. At his mental command they did, sliding back into the gauntlet to vanish like a odd reversal of someone unsheathing a blade. Two, he took a large step backward out of range. Once the mans blow missed he took a step back forward before he could ready his blade again.

Now on the offensive, Moritz Used his gauntlet-ted hand to grab at the sword swinging the other way, holding it in place. Then using his free hand he swung in a blow, punching the man by twisting his body and aiming for his side. Luckily his blow fell true, and the man let out a grunt of air as he hit.

Not wanting to give him a chance to recover, both from the blow and his surprise by Moritz suddenly grabbing the blade with his hand covered in a magic gauntlet, Moritz struck again. Using his leg he came in, hitting the man in the back and side of his knee, which sent him crumpling.

However he did not let go of the blade in the mans hand, wrenching it the other one, therefore loosing it from his grip as he fell. Getting rid of it Moritz chucked the blade aside to the ground, and then willed the gauntlet blades to extend again. A moment later back out, he swiped downward at the foe trying to regain his footing. He had aimed for the mans throat, but had hit high and slashed right across his face. Opening up a cheek and one of his eyes with a bloody wound the man let out a yelp of pain, instinctively bringing up his hand to cover the wound.

Aiming now for a second try he stabbed instead of slashed, and this time managed to hit the man right in the throat. However as he was finishing inserting the blade, he felt something hit him from behind. One hit him on his gauntlet and knocked his arm a bit but did no further damage. The other hit him in the back just past his shoulder on the same arm, sending Moritz back arching in sudden pain.

The sensation lancing through his body, Moritz turned and tried to grab at the arrow to pull it out, but could not reach due to where it hit. Just as he looked up to try and see where the arrow had come from another pair of arrows came at him, one missing entirely and the other hitting him in the leg on the opposite side from his gauntlet.

Struggling to stay upright through the pain Moritz tried to figure out where the attacks were coming from, only to find a man appear rushing at him in melee range. He tried to move his gauntlet-ed arm, but as he did the arrow in his back screamed and shifted, not allowing him to. Unable to do anything else he brought up his other arm to ward off the coming blow, watching blankly unable to do anything as the man swung his sword downward.

It took Moritz a few moments to feel the pain, and to realize what had happened. Looking down he saw the confirmation, the bloody stump that once was his hand... The wounds and pain overcoming him Moritz finally fell, sinking to his knees... Only to look up and see the man swinging the blade downwards again... He felt a bit of steel, felt pain, felt himself having trouble breathing... And then shortly after, everything went dark.

WC: 892

[Moritz Craven]

Grade Award!

Name: Moritz Craven
XP Award:
Detection 1
Investigation 1
Logic 3
Pathfinding 1
Persuasion 2
Philosophy 1
Planning 2
Rhetoric 1
Subterfuge 2
Tactics 1
Unarmed Combat 3
Weapon(Tiger Hook Gauntlet) 3

Lores:
Coming to terms with repeating a day
Taking advantage of a repeating day
Subterfuge: Obfuscating by telling the partial truth
Pathfinding: Attempting and failing an initiation
Pathfinding: Feeling for that sense of completion in an initiation
The difference between a fight and a battle
The numbness of killing in battle
Taking the same mans life twice
How to keep a focused mind amid battle
Experiencing the pain of losing a hand

Penalties & Awards: N/A

Notes: N/A