A common misconception among the populace is that a Totem God is nothing more than a twisted animal made reality.
If that was the case, then every single damn aberration that the Barbarians send us could be considered a Totem God.
-Interview with General Rachbark of the Barbarian Frontline
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Death.
Ren never thought much about it until now.
When he still lived a happy life with healthy and hearty parents and laughing siblings, the thought of death and abandoning all of that was the furthest thought from his mind.
It was only now as death had claimed his mortal body with the destruction of the skull housing his brain did he start to contemplate about death.
Water surrounding his body like millions of tiny little hands they slowly formed chains around his body as he slowly floated up to the surface, the light piercing the waves as they entered his dulled eyes.
Was this what death was like? He thought as he felt his body float closer and closer to the surface of the sea.
It was strangely peaceful.
Blankly staring as a heavenly light slowly filled his vision as he slowly floated up to the surface, Ren blinked as he caught sight of a figure just above the water.
And they weren't alone.
'People?'
Noticing him the same time that he noticed them, they turned to look at Ren as he felt a strange resonance.
It was as if they were... people that he should know.
Wanting to reach up to meet the numerous figures watching from above the waves, it was as if the waves themselves had been provoked as the pressure began to twist and turn around his body.
Millions of tiny hands suddenly forming chains across his body, Ren felt a pressure grip at his chest like a vice.
Freezing a mere fingers length away from the surface, Ren began to slowly sink as the shadows clung stickily to his body.
Sinking down into the deep faster and faster, Ren felt an unknown fear grip his heart in a firm grip as newfound life filled his limbs.
Struggling against the unseen chains binding his body, Ren opened his mouth to scream only for the water to rush into his mouth and unleash a penetrating pain into his head.
Feeling his body sink deeper and deeper as the shadows clung harder and harder to his body, Ren felt his mind slip as the pressure continued to build up in his chest.
Hey. He cried.
Hey! He cried again
Don't just look and watch! Ren cried as his body sunk deeper and deeper underneath the waves as the figures slowly began to disappear from his sight, bubbles leaking out of his mouth.
Help me! Please!
Desperately raising his hand to the numerous blurred figures wavering above the waves, Ren felt his heart beat desperately in his chest as his lungs heaved for air, the light disappearing faster and faster as the figures followed it.
Stop watching and help me!
Figure after figure disappearing as the light serving as their backdrop disappeared, eventually, only one figure framed by the light remained.
Raising his hand to that very figure with an unknown fear gripping at his chest that he would regret it forever if he didn't say something to them, eventually, even they had disappeared as all that was left was darkness.
Slamming against the bottom of the sea as the chains finally released his body, Ren instinctively kicked against the ground and pierced straight to the surface.
Limbs swirling as they pushed against the water, it was as if the waves that had once served as a cage for his limbs now voluntarily parted for him as he rose up from the depths.
Light slowly filling his vision in an almost disappointing manner, Ren nevertheless followed it all the way up as his lungs burned with fire.
Flames kindling in his chest, he burst out of the surface with a loud splash followed up by his desperate gasp for air. Droplets splattering onto the disturbed surface with the song of rain.
Huffing and heaving as he took in massive gulps of air, confusion rang out in Ren's mind as he looked around.
His eye stung with water as they blearily blinked through the slowly flowing waters, his legs heavy as lead as he kicked just enough to keep himself afloat but it was enough for him to make out his surroundings.
It was a cave. That much was visible.
Stone stalactites hanging from the ceiling as stalagmites rose up from the ground like teeth in a jaw, the dark maw of the cave seemingly stared into Ren's soul as the blue pool of water remained disturbed around him.
"What just... happened?" He asked himself, the current of the pool slowly bringing him closer and closer to the shore.
And he wasn't alone in his confusion
How are You alive?
Raising his head as he floated above the water's surface, Ren found himself staring at the face of a half wolf skull half fur skull staring at Ren with one blue eye.
"I'm... Alive?"
---
Crawling onto the shore of the cave lake, Ren vomited out whatever liquid that he had the misfortune of swallowing when he had gasped for air, flopping onto the ground like a near dead fish.
Not that he knew what they looked like, just that when they died they tended to flop onto their side on the ground.
Another one of the weird pieces of knowledge now stuck into his head for whatever reason.
At the least it was less fatal than whatever Kiklo that half wolf had done to make Ren so supernaturally strong.
Recalling the sensation of his flesh rippling with power to the point that he felt like he could crush a rock with nothing more than his grip, he felt goosebumps up on the side of his arm at the recollection of the following pain.
If he could crush a rock with his hand, the pain he felt was as if someone was grating his nerves with the very same rock that he had just crushed.
Shivering slightly as he took in a deep and cold breath, the wolf who was still floating besides Ren as nothing more than a head continued to mutter to themself.
But how have they... that shouldn't be... how are they still alive... Are they a normal human?
It just was that they weren't subtle about what they were muttering to themselves about as they continued to glance his way.
"Kiklo right?"
The skull half turned his way.
"Just so you know... I don't know how I lived either." Ren commented, his body suppressing a shudder as it remembered the sensation of his skull caving in on itself to tear apart the thin barrier surrounding the tiger.
"Besides, I'm not even sure if I'm alive."
Raising his hand which shook with memory of the grating sensation that had once drilled its way through every single fibre of flesh, he shivered with a mixture of cold and fear.
What do you remember?
"I...: Ren hesitated "I remember tearing out the two claws stuck to my leg and pulling out the bone Knife that was previously stuck in my leg, then I used the knife to poke out the tiger's two eyes before it broke apart."
"Then when the Tiger roared at me with anger I..." Ren's mind instantly flashed with memory of his slamming through the thin green film surrounding the tiger, his body shivering as something tried to exit his throat as he dry heaved.
A common response to traumatic memories you dislike to recall.
The wolf said coldly, its eye narrowed as its glowing tongue licked its lip with confusion.
Which shouldn't be possible unless you ressurected from the realm of the dead, but even that is a stretch with how Jenko mutilated your body in rage.
"...Who's Jenko?" Ren asked weakly after he finished dry heaving
That Tiger The floating wolf head said absentmindedly I admit that it was amusing watching him rage ceaselessly against your body, but the state that it left the body in shouldn't have been enough for you to resurrect from
The wolf skull looked at Ren again
Admittedly, you didn't resurrect fully with all your body parts intact so I don't know what is happening, but I assume it has something to do with what you looked like when I first saw you.
"What do you mean by that?" Rubbing his eyes irritated by the cave water, Ren flinched as his hand brushed against his left eye lid, instantly blooming a flower called pain.
"I see now."
Glancing downwards at his leg, he discovered why his legs felt as heavy as lead when he struggled to shore.
'The Bone Knife that Ramzan stuck in me is still here.'
"Ow"
Making a strange expression as the subtle pain made itself known with every shift of his lower body, it seemed as if the blade had fortuitously missed bone.
Ren wouldn't have been able to swim to shore for as long as he did if it had.
Drawing from the strange new knowledge residing in his head, the wolf silently stared at Ren.
Most humans aren't so calm... nay. Most mortals aren't so calm when they have a knife stuck through their Tibia and Fibula. Especially when they just showed panic over their death
'...' Glancing at the wolf, he slowly tested the pressure on his left leg as he slowly got up and remembered.
He remembered the pain of his body ripping through the two legs holding him in place.
He remembered the pain of his flesh ripping themselves apart as they tore apart the tiger's three eyes
He remembered his bones cracking as he tensed his muscles to break through the thin green film surrounding the tiger.
He remembered the sensation of his gaining a splitting headache as he struck onto the green film once more.
In comparison to that pain, this knife in his leg was oddly laughable.
"I think I remember feeling a lot more pain than that. At least what I can remember."
Shivering as the cold finally registered in his brain, Ren hugged his soaking wet body and got up from the ground with a grunt.
"And I'm cold. So unless you have a place where I can warm up, go away."
The Wolf continued to float and stare at Ren with a contemplative silence that was only interrupted by the shuffling of Ren's footsteps hindered by a bone crafted blade stuck into it.
As for why he wasn't removing the blade?
According to the new knowledge in his brain, removing the blade would cause immense bleeding all over the place, something that would result in death.
To stem the bleeding, pressure is needed to be applied to prevent more blood from leaving, something that he couldn't offer as he walked.
If he used bandages to put pressure on the wound, with how wet his clothes had been it would've just served as a faster way to get his wounds infected.
'A death sentence when there aren't any herbalists or healers around. Not sure if it's actually a death sentence if I can come back again though. And that's a big if.'
Hobbling forwards with limping steps as the bone knife grated against his flesh, irritating it with every step that he took Ren's mind darted to the knowledge that had appeared with a terrible headache.
It was rather strange to just know things that he hadn't before, but it helped him once to harm the tiger centipede Jenko at the cost of his motor functions and life force.
And his mental stability, he was pretty sure that seeing handsuponfeetwithfingersuponlegs wasn't healthy for anyone.
'And now that I think about it, wasn't it this piece of knowledge that Jenko the wolf gave me that allowed me to explode?'
If he was facing someone that wasn't a totem god that required the breaking of a single limb to remove a single eye of theirs, Ren was pretty sure that he could tear apart anyone that got in his way quite literally.
'And I feel like I can do that again.'
Clenching and unclenching his fist as the tingle of muscles tightening echoed from within his bones, Ren had complicated thoughts spin around in his head until the wolf spoke up.
Instead of taking the left here, go to the right, on the right there is an earth fire vein. It'll warm you right back to proper conditions, and you'll be able to disinfect the knife.
"...And why are you suddenly so helpful?"
Ren didn't know if he was imagining it, but it seemed as if the wolf had a flash of hate pass across their face.
Wait, scratch that, that was definitely hate in their gaze.
Because you are my best chance for revenge, and because I can't have you dying on me before I have my revenge, I'll do my best to keep you alive.
I swear on the pride of the skull pack. Kiklo the bone wolf will keep you alive for as long as possible if it means killing the Tiger Centipede Jenko.
'And here I thought Tiger centipede was just a nickname that I made up.'
Staring at the bone wolf, Ren nodded his head if not hesitantly.
Even if what Kiklo said was a lie, what was the worse that he could do?
Kill him?
---
As it turns out, there were fates worse than death
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