With and Without You (AetherxAyaka)

Chapter 38: Struggle

He'd be lying if he said there wasn't a single part of adventuring that he wasn't a particular fan of.

If he had to pick his least favorite, it would have to be unforseen events.

Some left hilarious and embarrassing stories. Like Cloud Retainer explaining Ganyu's youth. Or when Qiqi got too touchy with some of the Qilin's rather more sensitive areas. Stories like that made Ganyu blush with embarrassment.

There were plenty of unforseen event that made for fond memories. That mostly was true for Bennet and Ganyu, though the same could be said for everyone else.

Other unforseen events, were not so good. Like his sister become the Abyss Queen. Or the Lawrence clan's plan to retake Mondstadt (which was luckily thwarted by Eula and Aether). Even things such as death and injury could be viewed as unforseen events, though those in particular remained much more extreme in that case.

But, as an adventurer, Aether understood not everything goes as planned. Sometimes there isn't even a plan.

As an adventurer it was up to him to prepare and train for unforeseeable events.

Cauterizing wounds?

That definitely fit the bill for unforseen.

But no matter how much preparing he did, he would never be ready for the real deal. At least until now.

The torrential down pour had let off, forcing him to tackle the painful procedure.

Out of the safety of the vacant cave and onto the beach he had struck a flame from a pile of twigs, sticks, and broken branches.

That exact flame had heated the end of tempered steel, its hue glowed in a fierce yellow-orange.

It took, even for someone like him, a decent amount of mental preparation before he could even place the blade onto his wounds.

It went against instinct, to place a heated blade on one's self. It was only natural to avoid pain as a human.

But in order to survive here in Inazuma he found out quickly; one has to defy instincts.

The very nature of this nation would easily swallow up anyone not capable of adapting.

That didn't change the fact that searing skin closed, hurt like hell. Even with, Inazuma's local numbing beetle recipe and a cloth to damper his raw biting force as he clenched through the pain.

After it was all said in done, he felt drained once more. But he hadn't the ability to call for sleep just yet.

Those same wounds, along with others that still drew small amounts of blood, required attendance. The usual wound dressing process, but with his dwindling resources.

As a man, even with baggage that has been adeptus imbued, he could only carry so much on his person.

Somethings, unfortunately, were destroyed by the arrows that flew at him. Other bits of his resources either had spoiled or had been lost in the conflict.

Mostly it had been food and other necessities.

Of course, medical ointments too, were running low.

Meaning he couldn't afford to be generous to his wounds. He'd have to grit through pain, if he wanted them to heal properly.

Luckily, he wasn't too bad off. It could have definitely been worse. What mostly had brought him to the brink of death was not punctures and lacerated cuts, but in fact it was blood loss.

He had been forced to delay the healing process much longer than he would have liked to.

Of course there were various things to consider with blood loss. Transfusion and replacement was out of the question.