He heals, and strikes.

Strikes again, and heals.

Slashes furiously, without much technique, but with the burning resolve of a man who will not die today. He should have died a thousand times. He won't. He cannot die.

(He feels cold. That well of healing, how deep is it? It's never been tested like this. He's been hurt before, terribly, but not over and over and over and over -)

There's a loud snap sound, and a woman in a monk's gi appears next to him. 

There's another loud snap sound, and now both of them are in the little safe hole behind the rubble.

And the last sight he sees just before that happens is a man in sleeveless leathers with a shawl covering the lower half of his face, bearing two daggers as long as his forearms, stepping out of shadows not dark enough to have plausibly concealed him, pressing a flurry of attacks against the spirit.

zuh?

"Hello," he says inanely.

The monk scowls at him then snap snap gets the rogue in with them.

"Hello!" echoes the rogue. "We are here to rescue you."

"Thanks. Usually I do that. But, um."

Vague hand-flicking gesture which sends blood spattering against a nearby rock.

"Yeah, that looked tough."

"This is a waste of time. That thing's beyond us, the bounty only said to investigate, and if this person really wants to take it down he should've just died and come back with a stronger party next time," she says, as if Arik weren't right there.

"...I couldn't get out. And... dying... would not help???"

She glares at him.

"Sorry, we've been terribly impolite, my name is Taharqi and my friend here is Annika. Why do you think it wouldn't help? Do you not have a resurrection point?" He'd suspected as much, from the way the man had been fighting, but this seems like direct confirmation.

(There's a thud as the spirit hits the rubble particularly hard.)

"Arik. I do not and have never come back from the dead. ...I guess probably my heart's stopped a few times."

"Me neither! But I guess this might be my first time, if we have to actually fight past that thing to leave."

"Seriously."

"Oh? Were you planning to leave this poor misguided soul behind to die without a resurrection point?"

Why does he ask questions he knows the answer for. It's probably to make fun of her. ...it might be to make her have to admit it out loud. Well, she's not giving him the satisfaction.

"Thought so!" To Arik: "So, what can you do, Arik?"

...and Annika will grab some red potions from her pouch to offer Arik. She guesses.

Potions! ...oh that's extremely nice.

"I have this sword," Arik says, holding it up to the light. "It doesn't exist," he says, holding nothing in particular. "Very handy when you need to cut your foe to the quick but something's in the way, like armor; it's real for the flesh, but not the steel. Similarly I have armor that doesn't exist and I can have a shield that doesn't exist, but I'm not as good with them. And I can do a handful of other tricks like that, passing through barriers or existing in such a way that I can stand on the ceiling. And... I'm blessed, I guess, by the Skyfather and Earthmother. She lets me heal myself, He guides my blade against the unclean beasts of shadow."

He blinks. "I don't know why I phrased that like that."

This person is bizarre but since he seems to have spells (which she maybe should've guessed, given how he's equipped, or not equipped), she will also offer him some blue potions.

"Beats me! Do you think these potions would be enough for us to make a run for it, if you can go through walls?"

Blue potions! Oh that's so much better. He shudders all over.

"I can't go through much wall. Maybe a few feet at a time. If you've got a map, I'd be willing to try for an escape route, but I think that thing messed with my head so I lost my way out."

"I know the way out. I'm more wondering if the two of you can outrun it, it was a lot faster than I'd expected just now."