Disclaimer: The Witcher and every character aswell as location, that is not created by myself belongs to CD Projekt Red aswell as Andrzej Sapkowski, the original author of the books.
Reviews and ConCrits are always welcome!
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Chapter 5: A Witcher's Job Is...
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There are multiple kinds of fights. Show fights, demonstration fights and actual fights. A show fight, which is what you'd see in a theatre, when the actors would over exagerate their strikes and make everything look as dramatic as possible, like clashing of swords and precisely aiming for the sword to receive a nice clashing noise or the oftenly seen powerful over head undercuts, where the striker would take months to charge his attack, building up the power or something.
A demonstration fight is just to show the possibilities, for example, where you can strike when you're in a specific position and how and when, you get it. Sometimes instructors tend to get a bit too full of themselves and show their students how awesome they were in form of choreographed fights with twirls, wild swings, generally a display of their skills, a demonstration.
Then there were the actual fights. A fight can be over in mere seconds, using only one blow. It's about striking fast, striking precise and striking hard, don't let your opponent hit you, but hit them first as hard as possible. A real fight is not beautiful, it's not a work of art, it's about killing or be killed. A real fight is bloody, it stinks and it's not nice to look at.
A Witcher fights in a combination of all those three. They are fast, powerful, know exactly when and where to strike. Their kind of fighting, especially Kaleb's as Elron would later learn, resembles dancing, in a way. They do spins, pirouettes, spin their swords in their hands and all that without the loss of efficiency. Any normal attempting to fight like that would immediatly die, as they weren't trained in that specific style from the beginning of their training. Additionally to that come the Witcher's mutations which allow them to use this exotic style of fighting, because it delivers the most important part – the speed. And quick they are, those Witchers.
However, it seemed that they wouldn't always resort to fighting like this, as Elron learned to day as he had his first time seeing a Witcher fight. The fight against a monster, almost thrice the size of himself.
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It was the late noon and Elron and Kaleb were waiting in front of the portal, both with their weapons in their hands. Kaleb was more than happy that he could use his silver sword, which wasn't stolen. There was a big tension in the air, yet the Witcher remained calm, not showing any emotion on his face, however his companion was nervous enough for the both of them. He was afraid of what was going to come out of there, afraid of the unknown.
"Elron, I can hear your knees shaking from over hear." Kaleb grunted annoyed, "If you don't want to fight, then go back to the village."
"No, I-I'm alright, I'll just think about something else." Elron sheepishly replied.
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"Doesn't work, huh?" the Witcher asked mockingly.
Instead of proving the Witcher's point, Elron asked another question, "Then how do you calm yourself?"
"I don't have to, because I know what's going to happen and what's going to come out of this thing." The Witcher replied coldly, "That's a normal human fear, the fear of what you don't know. But, if it helps, close your eyes, breathe in through the nose, count to three in your head and then breathe out through the mouth."
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"I don't think it worked..." Elron complained. Just then something strange happened, there was a distant scream, something like he's never heard before. It was similar to the roaring of an elk, yet it sounded more... monstrous. Everything went black all of a sudden, causing the young man to slightly panic – this must be the hypnosis!
"Stay calm!" he heard Kaleb call, "Just don't move until you see something red, then try to roll to the side."
His orders might have been vague, yet Elron knew that this was exactly what he had to stick to. Now he was looking for the smallest sign of red, as he heard rumbling and screaming accompanied by occasional hacking and grunting.
There it was!
He didn't know what it was, nor where he was right now, but that must be the sign. But all of a sudden he could see everything again, like before. But what he saw in front of him didn't resemble a fiend at all, no. It had long, red hair, freckles and tears in it's eyes – or her's. It was Sarah.
"What are you doing here?!" Elron shouted louder and probably angrier than intended.
"It's Samuel, he's gone insane! I just managed to-"
"Elron, get away from her!" Kaleb bellowed as he dodged the large arms of the beast.
"Why, she obviously needs our help!" the young man protested, pointing out the girl's despair.
As he turned around, back to face her, he caught her looking at the fiend, she didn't flinch at all, "We have to get you somewhere save." he said. Just then he saw a black flash and as he realized what happened, Kaleb had already snatched the red haired woman and dragged her to the fiend. She was protesting, fighting, desperately trying everything in her force to free herself, "HELP!" she screamed, "Please don't kill me, Witcher! Please, leave me be!"
"What the hell are you doing?!" Elron barked. But it seemed as Kaleb was ignoring him, his look cold as the White Frost. Finally he let go of her, throwing her forward, in front of the fiend. The Witcher however, wouldn't let the fiend hit her, before he quickly swung his sword sideways at her. The blood was spirting all across as her head flew to the side. An orange vortex apeared in the center, signalising that it would close.
Now only the fiend was left.
As the dreadful monster swung it's claw towards the Witcher, he simply dodged the incoming blow, swining his sword in a spinning movement above his head, cutting of the hand, while running towards the beast, which screamed in agony, awaking the entire village, which soon would gather in a safe distance.
In the meantime Elron couldn't believe what has just happened... It was Sarah after all, it was her who conjured the portal and brought all this harm to this village!
Kaleb had climbed up the fiend's back, thrusting his silver sword into it's right shoulder, before jumping forward, dragging his sword with him, causing a massive cut in the beast's torso. The fiend was on it's knees, screaming loudly – it was time for the finish...
With a furious scream, the Witcher charged forward, powerfully thrusting his blade right through the third eye in the middle of the fiend's forehead before pulling it out and making a vertical cut across it's face.
The fiend was dead.
As was Sarah.
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Elron expected cheering as the job was done and the portal was sealed, but instead there was silence, shock, fear. They saw the woman's body lying beheaded on the floor as the blood-covered Witcher walked away from the fiend's corpse, still sword in hand. It was truly a dreadful sight.
For Kaleb it was different. He didn't see the two corpses behind him, he didn't see a bloody Witcher, he saw a scared village, with hate in their eyes. It was one of those contracts, was the only thought he had.
It was another story without happy ending, without a saved damsel, in fact it was the entire opposite. The damsel was dead and turned out to be responsible for all that in the first place, but who would believe him. The only thing that counts for them is that he beheaded a beloved member of their community and everyone saw it.
As he got closer to the crowd, he heard the people's shouting grew louder and angrier as they chanted 'murderer', 'mutant' and other insulsts, which he had heard millions of times before. Elron was simply speechless.
"Sarah conjured the portal." Kaleb began, "It was the only way to stop it. I'm sorry."
"Your apology is worth nothing, mutant," the Alderman mumbled heart broken, "You won't receive payment, and you can count yourself lucky if we don't report you."
Kaleb didn't say anything, "Never return to this village again. Do you hear me?! NEVER!" the old man finally shouted.
For a moment everyone stood still and eventually the Witcher turned his back to the village, "Come on, Elron, let's go." he mumbled.
Elron complained as the two men, still horseless walked on the lonely road towards their next destination, "How can they be so ignorant towards you?!" he questioned angrily, "You saved all of their sorry asses and yet they won't pay you, nor will they thank you for your services?!"
"At least you've got a proper weapon out of the situation." Kaleb replied sadly smiling.
"Does this happen often?" the young man finally asked.
"It's part of the job."
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A Witcher's job is to kill monsters. It doesn't matter from whom they receive the contract, they just do it and receive their reward...
A Witcher doesn't debate, what they think is right or wrong doesn't matter as long as the coin is right... Once the job is done, they leave again, to be forgotten as quickly as they left.
Witchers don't consider the outcome of their actions, for it's not part of the contract. And sometimes the wrong choice ends bloody.
Folk don't expect Witchers to save them from themselves...
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