Witcher: Spirit Hunt
Enjoy this story, and I hope you guys are doing fine out there. This is for the soon to be released game Witcher 3 and with the story of Ciri and her ability to go into other worlds, I decided to have an OC of mine from a fictional school to be involved in another massive series made by Nickelodeon entertainment. This is the result of that inspiration, and again read, like it? Then just comment about it, this story isn't going into the crossover though, I was thinking of leaving it here for Korra fans to see. Pairings are not a topic I will touch now though so yea…here we go!
Disclaimer: I do not own both Legend of Korra and the Witcher universe they belong to their own respective company and author, and if I did…well I won't say anyway.
Witcher, it is a term of branding. It is not a compliment nor does it hold any honor behind the name and title in the world I came from…it holds contempt of a mage who spoke for the rest of the world, a label, a stigma. But my school was far from the troubles of the North and South, the East unspoiled from their squabbles and we continued to train in peace learning and mastering the way of the witcher's blade, all sorts of signs including the most important potions to utilize in battle and sense.
Then came news of Kaer Morhen, the fort in the North had fallen to petty criminals demanding a quick buck and a chance to leap at the throats of monsters they crafted in their own vivid imaginative minds. Funny, when I was still training I heard stories of such tales circulate even among the trainees who were planning to pick up the witcher's blade whispering and pointing accusing fingers at various senior members of the school, picking every little detail of their actions and what they did apart like some mystery to solve but I mostly tried to ignore it. Some of them even quit when they knew they were to be labeled as such, while others completed their training only to die on their hunts in other areas of the country…soon I remained among those who were one of the last to be fully recognized. Ceremonies were held without any blood being shed or ritualistic dances, instead we were given a small feast to dine on and enjoy to our stomach's content knowing full well we could die against the outside world's dangers whether from men or beast.
By the time I had left the keep of the school of the Falcon, there were rumors of regicide and a single name that kept appearing in all the tales, and hearing it or speaking of it now sends shivers down my back from thinking about it.
Geralt of Rivia, the White Wolf. Gwnbliedd, the Butcher, the Whirlwind as the natives took to calling him in the East due to tales of his incredible speed gifted by the witchers' mutations, all those names held a certain depth that demanded respect and humbleness before a more experienced hunter than us. After the attack by Nilfgaard there was much chaos with the Northern Kings, or what was left of them decided to charge on ahead and meet them at the borders only to be repelled by the overwhelming forces that strove for dominance over the land now called No man's land. It was then that Geralt was no heard from by any ears including mine, and I soon had to hunt for a beast in the local forest south west of the coast.
I once thought I would not have an adventure so unique from Geralt's, that my line of work would be the same hunt over and over, until we were either banished from the world's history and recollection or die silently like the whispers that spoke of Geralt never to be told again.
But now I have a new tale, and it changed my life.
Southern Pole, outside of the Spirit Portal's forest
I awoke to the silence, a familiar unforgettable feeling that chilled my cheek and fingers freezing them to the very bone of my being as my eyes began to flutter springing to life as I caught the sight of nothing but a blur before me of blue and light piercing the shelter of the same strange structure which was encasing where my body lay, detached and groggy with an aching throb in my head. My nails scraped against the frozen surface that laid outstretched around me, noting how easily and numbing my fingers were slipping back onto the cold icy floor as my fingerless gloves took the splat of melted water staining the palm while my vision focused back in on itself, my enhanced senses beginning to twitch ever so slightly.
"…ugh, damn."
Damn indeed, I thought as I closed my blurry eyes again shutting out the echoes of my growl of a voice in the sphere of white and blue fighting the urge to get up as I decided to slow my heartbeat down, careful to not breathe too deeply much less appear to be still alive to potential predators as I let my mind wander for the moment letting my guard down but not enough to react quickly to threats shifting my own body slightly into a slight curl with my hands obscuring part of my lips and face to make it more convincing, for who or what it would seem ridiculous. I knew that, but my muscles were hardly responding to me when I tried to move my body only sparks of pain were being set off in various tendons of my limbs screaming for rest, there was no middle ground in this situation but to take the risk.
"I should probably get some sleep." I mutter to myself, ignoring the unknown around me glittering dimly in the face of the moonlight as I tried to feel my muscles respond to the tiniest commands I could give without so much of a thought, my fingers drumming repetitively onto the ice sheet. Now that I could recall if my mind wasn't so groggy and out of it, my thoughts changed its focus from handling its priorities to sorting out the most important jutting thought in my head.
Why and how did I get here?
My eyes twitched and narrowed, the quiet almost unnerving but seemed welcoming as I squinted counting the hours, or days possibly that I was here since the incident that swallowed me events in a broken melody played inside of my memory desperate to reclaim what it had lost if only temporary. Another numbing headache, most likely it was a side effect of the combination of potions I took beforehand when I went out to hunt that creature…a spirit, I think it was haunting the village near the woodlands and I had agreed to meet it and find out its responsibility for the disappearances of its inhabitants nearby. I recall the town leader, his face bright red with both depression from drink and a hidden fury revealed in the dim candlelight shading his pupils of brown that laid simmering and ready to pounce on the first indication of a monster he sees in the community while he slammed each glass in succession when he first talked to him about the job. The man was rude of course, the stigma of a 'mutant' and capability of monster slaying somehow gave you a horrid nickname and lynch mobs ready to pick you apart for just being that…'non-human' just like the dwarves and elves who had to take the abuse and killings as a sign of domination, but too bad for both I was caught in the crossfire between either side and the drunken ramblings and hurling swears of a balding, obese man wearing rags was the least of my personal worries. I recalled then 'gathering' information, if you can say glaring daggers of fear and defense mechanisms of the human emotions towards my passing or leaving a method of intimidating the populace in their minds and excluding me further from their presence and so I had little to go on, the only prominent feature I heard was that unlike wraiths or restless spirits of the dead this one was more monster than man towering and skulking around in the treelines scaring the passerby and caravans who would go directly past the town despite the dangers of the night. It was then I figured if I couldn't get anything from the populace there was only one more place to check and analyze the creature.
I took some bait, the smell of human flesh and a slaughtered chicken served as my purpose alongside the pork was the stench that was accompanying me for the journey then while more whispers of me doing shady rituals were in the air upon my departure. The forest was quiet, deathly quiet and it was then my eyes began to narrow as I held on to the silver medium length halberd I kept on me twirling it in the air between my knuckles to the rhythm of my drumming fingertips before a growl, insane and inhuman began to sound from my right. I didn't turn, instead I threw the bait and hit the dirt as fast as I could as the crunching of leaves and the impatient panting alerted me to the presence of the creature, hearing the sound of claws ripping into flesh and me holding on to dear life as I went into the fight of my life, scars and lines of scratches lining my face and arms to prove it before a portal opened up to a pitch black void and the creature jumped right in though I felt I wasn't going to sit on by and just let the monster escape and jumped in with it. Then it all went black, and I was here.
Crack
"…"
I heard it, the distinct sound of ice being broken in as my eyes tried to refocus on the wall that blocked my vision of the outside world noting the sound of shards falling to the ground as I blinked finding some strength in my legs and hands to push myself up slowly from the freezing cold, rising to my knees as my hand picked up the dull silverite hilt wrapped in leather strips my numb fingers slipping on the surface much to my frustration. Growling, I used my left hand to try and grip the hilt finding I was sorely drained from the fight with the spirit to even curse the odds of my numb hands being unable to grab a simple object to defend myself with.
Crack
I could hear it now, my mind already racing with many possibilities about the implications of the source of the noise the creature's unsightly appearance making my heart race with each passing beat. The weariness was still having its toll, the potions I had concocted have been lying dormant for a while now with an unknown amount of time that has passed its effects were slightly hindering. Grabbing the hilt in my hands, I kept kneeling as the sharp pain transferred from my arms to my thighs getting a painful reaction as I could only watch with caution at the new entry into this prison of ice leaning against the air as I readied my sword in my grip facing the direction of the sound, but I didn't need to wait that long.
3rd person switch over
The witcher glared forward at the small hole that had just been formed his slit eyes scanning the surface just as a burst of ice was flung to the ground, the dark milky void gave way to a figure that had burst in by force before stepping past the shards of broken ice turning around as another sound inhuman in nature followed suit focusing on the intruder, the effect of the potions still taking its toll on the mutant as he steadied his hands stepping on one leg to support himself in case of a sudden attack a stray lock of black fell in front of his left eye the young man leaning forward as he refocused his concentration onto the figure he recognized as female before his eyes caught sight of her back, her bare arms moving in a strange circular motion the moveset striking him with interest as he noticed the trained muscles flexing in the air, noting the clothing that stood out to him like a sore thumb with the environment.
"Get away!" The young woman growled with annoyance as she lifted her hands and with a sweeping motion forced the ice around the hole to seal itself up much to the utter shock of the witcher who was witnessing the strange craft for the first time, his jaw almost threatening to drop in amazement right then and there as his mind drew a blank. Was that girl doing magic? In all of the witcher's own travels and limited experience with magic he had not seen any of the mages manipulating water to their own advantage in combat or any other actions, they had a tendency to shoot the occasional fireball and use lightning but water was a certainly new and alien concept he had witnessed.
If she is a mage, I will have trouble…
"Good, time to find this portal and open it up-" The young woman's voice trailed off immediately when she turned around, her high ponytail spinning in the air to face her new surroundings when she came upon the center of the room where a new person stood in the center of the room, his appearance surprising her as well as light cerulean orbs widened before she immediately shifted her legs to a slightly more aggressive stance in the light of this new discovery her arms at her sides while staring down the black-haired man her eyes staring at a strange armor of leather and what appeared to be sectioned pads covering his shoulder to his hands covering anything but his fingers and wrapped cozily around his neck, his legs were in a cautious stance though a glint in his eye told her he was very alert to her actions. Who was that? Unalaq had told her that no one had been to the Southern Spirit Portal for a long time, the forest of overgrown trees and evil spirits creeping around the estimated location of the portal told her that it had been spiritually drained. So by that logic there should be no one here alive to survive much less deal with the spirits.
"…who are you?"
"I would ask the same of you, sorcerer…I did not know your kind could manipulate water as efficiently as the fire you spew from your hands and lightning to cloak your body." Now the words of the man stunned her, the young woman staring in wonder and confusion at his words unsure of what to even make out of the meaning behind his statement. He wasn't making any sense to her neither was her knowledge capable of telling her what this…'mage' was supposed to be? Some sort of new bender subtype she never knew of? Sure, she could catch the firebending part but lightning to cloak a bender's body? What age was he from? Or more so, what was he? Her cerulean eyes caught the attention of the slits that were his eyes the amphibious-like nature intimidating her as much as she found it freaky. Like he wasn't completely human at all, but something in between that and an animal ready to kill his prey as she shifted her hands.
"What are you talking about, who are you? And what is this mage you're talking about?"
"What do you mean yourself, are you not a mage? Do you not wield fire and lightning at your command?" The man asked now, his own eyes betraying a massive confusion between his knowledge and hers that the woman picked up right then and there, her mouth was about to open up in a snarky comment about the fire part before the thudding of ice cut off all chances of communicating further as she looked back to see the small mirrored images of dark tendrils trying to force their way in before they slithered away, the brown-haired woman ignoring the man for the moment as she looked down at her feet the action irritating the man slightly but not completely as he readied the strange blade in his hands looking upwards in caution as he noted a small gap in the domed roof of the ice chamber a worried look in his eyes.
"Shit, it's those things again." Now that held some particular interest to the young woman as she glanced at the armored stranger who was lifting his sword to his cheek while glaring upwards at the roof her eyes catching sight of a growing mass of tendrils.
"You met these spirits before?"
"Yea, these creatures were prowling around an altar to magic as if guarding it in a forest. I chased them down and fought them but they were strong, very strong. Cut down several of them before the last few made their escapade through a portal and I pursued them trying to avoid being dragged into the damn thing. Well as you can see, here I am in a place I don't even recognize." The man's words now gave her more reason to drop her jaw, unable to register what he had just spoken. Did he just say that he personally managed to kill some of these things with just a sword? The man seemed to not notice her pause before a thud from above brought her back to reality, her mind racing again with ideas as she looked back down onto the floor remembering her objective.
"Wow…this is the Spirit Portal?"
"Lass I appreciate your fascination with that magic site but we have to get out of here now! These spirits are breaking through!" The man warned loudly as a piece of ice fell near his position prompting him to roll out of the way, the young woman immediately looking downwards as she glanced at the ice, a plan formulating in her mind.
"Hey, stand aside strange man I'm going to open the portal!" She yelled as she wasted no time, her hands stretching out to form an ice spear and drilled into the floor only to have the weapon shatter much to her own dismay as the tendrils broke through the roof, threatening to grab at her before a blur of black appeared in front of her cutting the tendrils which were getting too close to the young woman in the blink of an eye, the owner of the slit orbs turning to regard her with hurry.
"You better think of something, sorceress or we're finished!"
"I'm trying!" The woman shot back as she changed tactics instead changing her stance to shoot fire from her fists hoping to at least scar the surface but to no avail. Meanwhile next to her the man was rolling and ducking away from the desperate tendrils reaching wantonly towards the two, the black-haired man growling in utter frustration as he dug into his pocket bringing out a small ball with a fuse his eyes furrowing as he made the sign of the Igni, sparking the fuse with the small flame.
"Get low!" He warned the woman as she moved back still firing blasts of fire in rapid succession before she switched to a long drawn breath of it, the flame licking away at the large circle of ice while the lit ball flew towards the spirits exploding in a small douse of flame and metal causing the small crowd to shriek out in terror while the tendrils retreated into the roof attempting to recover from the blast. The brown-haired woman on the other hand was holding her hands feeling the fire singe her skin as her eyes glowed white, sending a torrent of power towards the stream of fire while she sweated the man slicing through more tendrils as he rolled and sliced with precision in a circle of wind and flurried strikes, one could almost call it a deathly dance as he jumped and dove out of their reach.
"Come on, open!"
"I don't think whatever you're doing is working, lass you have to try another solution than just casting your magic recklessly!" He retorted back, ducking and slicing many more tendrils of the spirits only to have them slowly regenerate the limbs and resume their attacks this time the hole was widened by the blast of the bomb allowing more to seep in, forcing the man to leap backwards as a forest of black riddled the ground scratching it and raise his sword forwards again thankful in secret for the enhanced mutations he had undergone during his training to keep up with these relentless foes. However a pant told him that he was halfway to the end of his limits, and such an act only delayed the inevitable for the both of them…whatever this portal was, the woman was determined and such determination spurred him to think of some form of solution.
"But nothing is working!"
"Then try to focus, focus on what is important to the spirits then! Life is not always about swinging your fists in the air until you try other things!" The man grunted as he spun in a circle cutting the spirits that were coming down in small trickles as he forced back his frustration and irritation making sure that he was not going to aggravate them further, the woman thumping her fists on the floor before her eyes suddenly broke off from their blank gaze as if inspiration had struck her the woman immediately stopping her frustrated pounding and settled into one of calm.
"I know what to do now." The woman said in revelation as her eyes turned white with power, the swirling energy returning to her revitalized state her hand reaching out and instead of forcefully attempting to destroy the barrier she instead slapped her palm onto the center, her mind concentrating on letting the portal open as the sounds of combat around her turned to mere white noise. Quickly as she placed her palm, a small jolt of warmth and something else like a pulse began to strike a hammer in her very spirit…like she was tapping into home.
The next she knew, was a white light that engulfed both parties and sending the dark spirits away in a blaze.
From outside the portal's chamber
The night sky soon flashed with the most unmistakable color of mixed shades spreading across the vast open field of clouds and streaking it with the most vibrant colors that were not seen for a very long time since. Outside the large forest, a group of people stood watching each with their own look of awe and amazement at the spread of light that formed in the vibrant streaks, one of them speaking up with a glint of happiness.
"It is beautiful, just like the Northern Lights."
"Indeed it is...this is what I intend to bring to the South. Progress through tradition."
Back in the chamber
"…" The witcher couldn't say a word at what he saw, the sight that beheld him was one of utter beauty that no words or poets could even write or speak of as the roof of the dome gave way to a sky of beauty the portal spiraling nearby as he lowered his eyes casting it upon the very person who was responsible for such an incredible phenomena heightening his own personal curiosity to the identity of such an individual, though what he didn't know was that the object of his own inquisitiveness was looking too at him with an expression that spoke of awe at the sky which was spreading into the stream of color screaming of vitality and a promise of new beginnings for the entire world, as fate would soon show to her. But then and now, this moment was hers to enjoy…this was what her father had been preventing for so long after all these secrets and also what her uncle was promising to give to the Southern Water Tribe in return for offering her his teachings.
Now she saw what she could be capable of. A unifier of two realms who were once apart, now put back together for balance.
"So…what happens to us now lass?" The voice from behind her spoke softly, almost as if tamed as she turned around to gaze upon the stranger seeing him in detail for the first time since the situation dragged most of her attention away from seeing how he looked. To say the least, she was still surprised at what she saw: a man who was little older than her with ebony black with long locks barely reaching past his ears and the back of his neck, his eyes were golden with slits but it didn't hold the fury of a monster within instead a relaxed gaze greeted her vision as she noticed a combination of scars lining both sides of his face scarring him permanently with scratches. She felt her own heart skip a beat when she saw his features, the sword in his hand and a grimace amongst the night sky made him look as though he was a person out of this world…he looked very worn, like he was a veteran returning from a hard fight for his life.
"Lass…what happens now? I'm trying to figure you out and all you do is throw more questions out of the window but from what I can see you're no ordinary woman. So who are you and what happens next?" The woman raised a brow, her eyes not tearing from the man's own question before she stretched out her hand towards the witcher with a light-hearted smile of her own in return to his grimace soothing his worry as he cautiously took her hand and shook it lightly, ignoring the tiredness he was beginning to feel.
"Well for starters…you can call me Korra."
End