Chapter 118 - Pain and Castles
Pain.
Pain was a constant in life. It crept up anywhere it wasn't wanted. Joint pain, back pain, any kind of pain. It followed people around chronically in some instances.
For me, my life wasn't full of pain. There was the occasional scrape and bump here and there, but generally, my life was pain free.
The worst was the rare sprains or bruises from when I did something particularly stupid. Sometimes while alcohol was involved. Alright, mainly when alcohol was involved. It was hard to justify some of the injuries I received otherwise.
There were a few times that stuck out in my memory that were particularly painful. Breaking my arm when I was a kid, a car accident when I was a teenager, a migraine flu combo that lasted a week in college.
After the tutorial arrived, pain was a dull constant while fighting. Wounds built here and there that now crisscrossed my body in white lines. Scars that healed from one injury or another.
A claw swipe here and a bite mark there. One of the biggest that marred my form was the mandibles that took chunks out of my side, leaving a patch of discolored skin from where it healed over.
What I couldn't see was the 3-inch vertical line that ran parallel to my spine. The thin line told a tale of a grievous wound. One that I didn't like thinking about. It reminded me of who was lost that day.
Electrical burns that covered some of my arms were difficult to think about for the same reason.
Each had their own story and by this point, I couldn't remember them all.
Learning to deal with the pain was still something I worked on. Every warrior had to learn that pain was inevitable but that was easier said than done. I had long rid myself of my urge to flinch in the face of it though. Coming a long way from the man who first entered the tutorial who flinched at the horn of a level 1 Rabbit.
Looking back on that moment made me want to laugh, if not for the mind numbing scrapping pain from ice and wind ripping into me. The me of the past had been so afraid of pain he hid behind a shield for the whole wave and did it again for the wave after.