Hey there, to get myself back into writing, have a chapter for this project. Today's menu is some Noct whump because why not. Yeah basically Aramusha fucked me up good during my playthrough so I thought, why not write it.
The Balouve Mines were a complete pain in the ass, and Noct was more than done.
The goblins weren't hard to defeat, but they were really, really annoying. Surprisingly clever, too, locking doors right in their faces and tearing through the mine in their carts. At this point, Noct was using attacks way stronger than necessary to defeat these little bastards, he hated them and he wanted them in pain.
The downside of the goblins being easy to defeat was that they generated a false sense of security. Sure, they were a nuisance, but not much more than that. There weren't any other daemons either which was unusual, normally these places would be crawling with creatures sometimes not even Specs had heard of before. Unusual, maybe, but Noct wasn't complaining. His ancestors had made it a habit to have their tombs located in the most inaccessible places they could possibly find, maybe the royal arm that was supposedly hidden in these mines was easy to retrieve for a change.
Oh, he couldn't have been further from the truth.
Right at the bottom of this damn mine, there was another of these samurai daemons, fuck knew what it was called. Maybe Specs knew, but Noct couldn't ask him. Partly because he was too busy warping out of the way every time that thing attacked, but mainly because Specs, along with Gladio and Prompto, had been knocked right out with some ridiculously strong strike from the samurai daemon.
Basically, Noct was on his own now. He couldn't stay still for long enough to heal his friends without getting hit himself, and if he got hit too, it was over for all of them. He had no choice but to battle this daemon all by himself.
Just great.
Lamenting the fact that Ignis was down and therefore couldn't come up with a strategy to fight the daemon, Noct resorted to his favourite but unfortunately riskiest technique of warp-striking at an enemy as many times as he could handle it.
The managed to do some damage to it before he had to take a moment to catch his breath and use an elixir to heal his minor wounds and give himself an energy burst to keep warping. He didn't have too many left, though, and even though his warp-strikes did some damage, he'd probably run out of elixirs and ethers before the daemon was dead.
"Shit," he muttered to himself, quickly searching the Armiger for something to use. There were a few flasks of elemental magic left. He didn't know for sure what this particular daemon was weak to, but all the other samurai daemons they had battled in the past had reacted especially negative to lightning. It was worth a shot if nothing else.
He summoned a flask and flung it at the daemon as hard as he could and released a breath of relief when the daemon momentarily went down, spasming with the effects of lightning magic. It was starting to look a little worse for wear in general if Noct wasn't mistaken. He really hoped he wasn't.
Too fast, way more quickly than expected, the daemon was back on its feet and then, faster than Noct could blink, it rushed forward and stabbed him.
Right through the chest.
As if that wasn't enough, it was lifting him up. On the sword that was currently sticking through his chest.
Noct screamed. The pain blinded him, his lungs suddenly felt as if they couldn't fit any oxygen in them, and he thought he was going to die right then and there.
He didn't die, regretfully. It would've been better than the pain that followed as it drew the sword back and threw him onto the floor.
As he hit the ground, he screamed a second time, much weaker than the first time but just as anguished. It felt as if the pain was going to drive him insane, but he gathered himself long enough to pull a phoenix down from the Armiger.
A faint sigh of relief escaped him as the magic washed over him and reduced the blinding, all-consuming pain to a more tolerable level. It still hurt like hell, but it was nothing compared to the feeling of literally being skewered alive. That combined with the energy the phoenix down gave him enough strength to reach for another flask and throw it at the daemon.
Whilst it was incapacitated, Noct gathered all his remaining energy and aimed another warp-strike at the thing. It was all or nothing, honestly. Noct knew he wouldn't be able to keep fighting after that, but the daemon was looking kind of wobbly and slowed down. If he was lucky, that last strike would be enough to take it down for good.
His sword connected, he warped, and they both came crashing down onto the ground. The impact made his chest scream with pain and he was left gasping desperately.
Next to him, the daemon let out a horrible screech before it disintegrated into nothing.
Thank the gods, Noct thought, because he didn't have the energy to say it out loud. Black spots were eating at his vision, but he couldn't pass out just yet.
Thankfully, Gladio was lying only a few steps away from him. Noct half-crawled towards him, completely undignified, but he really couldn't be bothered to give a shit right now. It took him a few seconds to summon a curative, and once he held it in his hand barely able not to drop it, he gave it to Gladio who regained consciousness with a gasp.
"What- Noct, fuck, what happened to you!?"
"It's fine. I defeated it, not dying anymore. You gotta check on the others, I'm… 'm gonna pass out now, 'kay?" Towards the end, he was starting to slur his words, but he managed to say what he wanted to say before his eyes closed and he was giving in to the exhaustion. Only through a thick fog, he heard Gladio cuss at him, but he really couldn't bring himself to care.
Being stabbed through the chest, besides horrible pain, a general feeling of disorientation from the blood loss, near heart attacks for your friends once they found out what happened and a near death experience for yourself, unfortunately came with torn clothes.
Noct held out his shirt in front of him, mournfully studying the gaping hole. Damnit. His chest was all fixed up thanks to the phoenix down and whatever else his worried friends had forced upon him post-battle when he'd been unconscious, but sadly, the magic didn't extend to clothes.
"Ugh," he said. He'd liked this shirt! Yes, it was just a regular black shirt, but it had fit just right and the fabric had been nice and soft. Somehow, the torn shirt pissed him off even worse than the fact that he'd nearly died.
To his right, the door opened. In came Ignis, carrying two large bags full of groceries. They were staying at Galdin Quay until Noct was well enough to travel again and Ignis was taking full advantage of it by exchanging all sorts of recipes with the local chef and the well equipped kitchen in the hotel room allowed him to try a few of them. Noct was glad he did that, at least that way he wasn't constantly on his case about, well, having almost died.
"I see you're up and about, Highness," Ignis said as he set the bags down and came closer to give Noct a scrutinizing look. "How do you feel?"
"Fine," Noct said. It wasn't really a lie. He only felt a little worn out after three days of resting, but he figured he could just let Specs drive (as if Specs let him behind the wheel right now anyway, ha) and squeeze in another nap until they reached their next destination. "We can leave today."
For a moment, Ignis didn't look like he believed him, searching his face for any trace of a lie. When he apparently found none, his gaze fell on Noct's ruined shirt and his eyes softened.
"Come here. Let me fix it." He held out a hand and took the shirt when Noct passed it to him and gave it a once-over. "Hmm. This'll need some work, but I believe I can sew it right up, you won't even notice a difference."
Noct smiled, small but genuine. "Thanks, Iggy."
Hope you liked! I've never actually written Noct whump (or whump for any character who wasn't my #1 chara which, in FFXV, would be Iggy), so yeah, this is the result.
I'm also on Twitter ( Butterfly_OnIce) and Tumblr (thisfairytalegonebad), and even on Discord too (thisfairytalegonebad#2939) and I'm always happy to chat, about my fics or these boys or literally anything!
