In the woods not far from the lab. Three goblins surround Nifily and Veyne. Nifily injured by an arrow in the arm, kneels on the ground. The goblins chuckling as they're amused by her whelps of pain. Veyne stood still, his head lowered with a furious expression.
The wind in the trees shifts and Veyne raises his head.
"How dare you touch her."
A few strands of Veyne's pale green hair turn pitch black and one of his eyes glows red. A dark aura emitting from his body as they see the runes on his skeleton arm glow red through the bandages.
In an instant, like a flash of lightning, Veyne bolts in front of the laughing goblins. With his arm he grabs one by the throat and squeezes. While choking, it drops the knife it was holding and Veyne catches it. By now the other two are shocked and take several steps back, readying their weapons as they do so.
Veyne raises the goblin into the air while staring down the other two. It kicks its feet and grabs onto his arm out of desperation. Veyne snaps its neck and the goblin goes still.
Both the goblins and Nifily look at him with fear in their eyes. Veyne drops the goblin to the ground and gets into a ready stance, holding the knife backwards. The archer goblin hits the other and yells while pointing at Veyne.
"Xheath muraca!"
Against their better judgment, they both spring into action. The spearman charges head on while the other loads an arrow. Thrust after thrust Veyne effortlessly dodges its spear, his eye only fixed on the archer.
Quaking with the arrow head aimed at Veyne, trying to keep up with his movements, the goblin is unable to get a clear shot. Meanwhile the goblin attacking Veyne head on, screams out in a last ditch effort to hit him. Managing to graze Veyne's cheek, he grabs the tip of the spear holding it in place.
"Tiexeth jubgo rexix!"
Listening to its partner, the archer fires. But within that fraction of a second the arrow is in the air, Veyne knees the spearman in the stomach, causing it to throw up. Immediately grabbing its face and moving it in front of the arrow.
Veyne stands holding yet another dead goblin in his hand. He lets it drop and hit the ground, causing the arrow in the back of its head to push in further and out the other side.
He slowly walks towards the last goblin. It panics after seeing the rest of its scouting party decimated, and drops the bow and arrows to make a run for it.
"You dare turn your back to me when I'm not through with you yet!"
Nifily continues to watch on while nursing her arm, as the man she knew acts differently than she's ever seen. She feels scared and guilty. Blaming herself for this situation. If only she was stronger, none of this would have happened.
Veyne throws the knife in his hand at the goblin, striking it in the leg. Desperately trying to crawl away, Veyne picks up the bone axe on the floor.
Easily catching up, he raises it high above his head.
"You'll think twice about trespassing on my territory and hurting my things!"
A few more strands of Veyne hair turns black as he swings the axe down, splitting the goblin in half. He doesn't stop there. He continues swinging and chopping at the goblin. The sounds of blood splatter and bones cracking echo throughout the forest.
"Mister Veyne that's enough!"
He turns to look at Nifily with an almost joyful grin on his face. However when he looks into her scarred eyes he stops. Dropping the axe and walking back to her.
He stands over Nifily and her breathing quickens. Veyne kneels down to get face to face with her.
"Hey are you alright Nif?"
Confused, she meets his eye line. His eyes and hair are back to the way they were before.
"Oh Veyne I was so scared! What happened to you, are you okay?!"
"Arrow in the arm and you're worried about me. You really are a kind soul. Let's get you back to the lab and see if we can't patch you up."
…
Back at the laboratory, Nifily sits on the bench with her arm wrapped up in the same bandage she once gave to Veyne.
"So are you going to explain what happened to you back there? Does it have anything to do with why you know so much about magic and the world?"
…
Veyne with a somber expression looks at Nifily.
"It's not so simple, I'm not sure if I even understand what just happened."
Of course he did know. Too afraid of scaring or hurting her, he withholds the gritty details, only telling her that he used to be a different kind of person.
Still sceptical, she chooses not to press him further.
After the stressful day, Veyne suggests that they turn in early for the night and rest up for tomorrow. Just as rain starts to fall they fall asleep.
…
In the middle of the night Veyne, who has only pretended to sleep, gets up and walks outside in the rain.
Pouring down, he collects all three bodies of the goblins and puts them in a pile. Expressionless, he raises his hand and says.
"Raise undead."
…
Nothing happens. Veyne lets out a sigh of relief. Not being able to raise such weak undead means he's not turning into his old self. Well at least not right now. He walks back to camp and rests easy for the night.
Days pass as they both slowly recover and return to their training. During this time Veyne has brought the goblin body's back to the lab and Nifily was instructed to fill as many of the glass vials as she can with the elder tree sap.
"Now that I've repaired the cauldron, we can move onto making potions."
"Potions?! Man, we're moving so fast. Is this what it's like to be a Realmforger?!"
Veyne chuckles to himself at her innocent question.
"More or less. Most don't make their own potions from scratch. If they need one, they buy one. But we don't have that luxury nor the money to do so."
"Right. I suppose they don't fear things like goblins either."
The memory of the day's prior event still in the back of Veyne's mind, he tries to comfort her by saying.
"Not to worry young Nifily. You will be as strong as the rest of them when I'm through with you!"
She gives him a supportive smile and they then lean over the cauldron as he begins the lesson.