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[Tsinikki Tsunami]

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Tsinikki, Nikki to his friends, had been advised by some more experienced than he that the secret to learning to minimize the detrimental affects of magic was to simply fight reapers and gargoyles and maybe air and water elementals. Taking his positive attitude, armor, and weapon in hand, he set out from a friends house somewhat east from Yew. He crossed the bridge, as he had been instructed, and continued a short ways before seeking the preferred monsters within a small canyon.

He did run into a reaper that did seem to strengthen him against the power of magic and with little damage to him or his armor. The fight seemed quite a bit easier than he had imagined. Emboldened, he continued further. On his way back to the road he was accosted by a troll, a monster Nikki had already mastered getting the better. He was then met at the road by a gargoyle, a fierce looking creature with a formidable wingspan. Once again Nikki found his victory with ease. He was starting to figure this would be a whole lot easier than he had planned, even if he had gained no measurable resistance to magic in that last encounter.

He continued his traversing of the lands finding more minor inconveniences than the monster he sought. But why complain, headless ones and harpies have treasure too. He finally came upon his second reaper, and again his swift actions and nimbleness felled the frozen in place reaper in quick order. A gargoyle and then another gargoyle soon followed this. Nikki’s confidence grew.

Finding yet another reaper, Nikki prepared to attack. He readied such that his first blow would be lightning fast allowing him to swing twice as fast as he normally could. Well, the second swing failed to find its target and the reaper had released a mighty spell that exploded fire seemingly from within his body. Before he could even mount another attack a blue ball crackling with energy sped his way. He swung ignoring the blue orb making contact, but the spell also did fair damage to Nikki. He was feeling a little weakened and his strength felt sapped as a purple haze surrounded him briefly. He swung again missing his mark. He wondered, how do you miss hitting a tree? He got another swing off while parrying the flailing branches of the reaper, but still he felt like only part of the man he knew he could be. His bandaging had finally taken hold and relieved some of the bleeding and restoring some of his health. It was then that flames swelled up from the ground at his feet and engulfed him searing his entire body. Rearing back, Nikki once again put all his strength and speed into another attack designed to double hit. The second strike felled what was left of this hideous monster just as Nikki felt the writhing pain that he knew came from strong poisons. Nikki staggered to a log and using an incantation of a noble fighter, he burned the poison from his body. This act came very close to killing him. As it was, Nikki felt faint and had to concentrate to keep from falling unconscious, something he knew to be very ill advised in this dangerous area of the forests.

Gathering what little strength remained, Nikki bandaged his other wounds using cloths and salves and rested until all his strength was restored.
Somewhat shaken by this close call with death, Nikki proceeded with more caution and much trepidation. He soon found an ogre, an ettin, numerous headless ones and a harpy. His ease of dispatching these minor beasts served to restore some of Nikki’s shaken confidence. It was then he came upon another reaper. As he prepared to rush in for his first attack, he caught himself breathing hard and fast while gulping as his mouth poured with saliva. His heart was racing and his pulse so strong he felt it in his temples. Trying his best to put his fears aside, Nikki rushed in and started hacking with his scimitar and to his amazement the reaper fell before him almost immediately. Invigorated by his great success Nikki pushed forward.

This feeling of invincibility was soon squelched as he almost died once again fighting a reaper. He knew, as he dragged himself to a large rock to sit and tend his wounds, that his victory was won simply by his swinging and striking the reaper before the reaper either struck him with one of its limbs or released a spell upon him. He was convinced that he would not have been able to survive even the slightest of hits. The only comfort he could take, other than the fact he still drew breath, was that he felt that he had once again increased his ability to lessen the damage from magical attacks. He even went as far as to credit this with his survival.

After easily killing another gargoyle, Nikki still had a brush with death as in his confused state he was unable to easily speak the words that would burn the poison from his body. Once he had finally managed to successfully call out the words and burn the poison from his body, he collapsed momentarily from weakness. He trembled while feeling death breathing at his neck once again. Slowly, he bandaged himself and regained the ability to stand, even to walk even if a bit unsteady.

Figuring he had tempted fate sufficiently for one day, he mumbled the words for a sacred journey returning him to his house. He carefully placed the different types of treasure, each in its proper chest or pouch. He then heated a bath and soaked his body for close to an hour before the water was no longer warm and soothing. He then prayed silently to keep himself on the path of Virtue and to be enabled by fate to act as a Lightbringer for anyone who was lost and needed to be returned to Virtue. He then folded himself into his sleeping skins in his small room on the top floor of the keep hoping that rest would bring for him healing through the night.