As the fire was burning, he placed the blade of his knife in the fire, waiting for it to heat up enough for what he needed to do.
With a bit of time to spare, he focused his attention on the knife itself.
Sure enough, on second glance, it really was made of an unknown material.
He felt that it was sharper than his black SOG salute mini that he carried around on Earth, and it looked to be durable as well, which was all he needed to know about it.
For now, at least.
Whether or not the knife had other properties he didn't know, and frankly, he didn't hold out hope that he was lucky enough to be in possession of some magical knife.
The material was unknown, however it didn't look like it was anything special.
After a while, when he felt that he could barely hold the handle of the knife due to the heat, he took the blade out of the fire and prepared himself.
He was going to cauterize the wound on his arm, which would take a while since the wound was a lot bigger than his blade.
The pain was going to be unbearable, even for someone like him, but he had no choice. He needed to close the wound and this was the only option available to him.
While for whatever reason, his body had significantly improved and he wasn't in danger of bleeding to death at any second, that didn't mean that he wouldn't bleed out eventually should he leave it alone.
How long it would take for this to happen he didn't know, but what he did know, was that he definitely wouldn't survive the trip to the location of the smoke if he didn't close the wound first.
Aside from the loss of blood, there was also still the risk of infection, which only further reinforced the idea that he was going to have to go through with this.
Not one to hesitate in moments like this, he cut the short sleeves of his t-shirt off... 'Huh?'
It was only now, after trying to cut something that didn't exist, that he realized that he wasn't wearing a t-shirt from back home.
He had spent 30 years in this new planet of his, so he should have realized that of course his clothing wouldn't remain the same.
Even though he couldn't remember these 30 years yet, he should still have realized something so obvious.
'Maybe my head is in worse condition than I gave it credit for...'
Sighing, the man added another worry to his growing list.
Looking down once more, he realized that he was wearing a luxurious looking snow white coat, that seemed to be made from a bear.
In truth, he wouldn't be able to recognize the material if it were not for the fact that the skinned head of the bear was still connected to the coat and could be pulled over one's head to act as a hood.
From a purely aesthetical point of view, the coat was beautiful, which was not a word that the man would often use to describe clothing, or anything for that matter.
What really got his attention, was the fact that it didn't grab his attention.
Meaning that despite the fact that it was supposed to be heavy, when he wore it, it felt light as a feather.
Whether that was some magical property of the clothing itself or whether he was just that strong now, he didn't know.
He did know however, that the snow white bear coat did have some special affects, such as remaining completely dry despite the fact that it had been underwater not too long ago.
In fact, aside from the red blood stains left by his right arm, it was completely intact.
Even in the place where he had sustained his injuries to his right arm, it wasn't damaged in the slightest.
But this didn't mean that he was invulnerable, as was proven by the fact that while the tree branches couldn't penetrate through the coat, they could still tear apart his arm even whilst it was cushioned by the coat.
He slowly took his right arm out of the coat, making sure that his wound didn't touch the coat again.
When his arm was free, he used his left arm to bring the sleeve of the coat to his mouth, so that he could bite down on something and minimize the noise he was making while cauterizing his wound.
After all, who knew what else lurked in this forest.
He bit down as hard as he could on the arm sleeve, before he grabbed the knife and began.
He knew that If he dropped the knife as soon as he made contact it would only prolong his suffering, so he held onto the knife as tightly as he could, wanting to get this over with as soon as possible.
Whilst the man was certainly no stranger to pain, that didn't mean that it still didn't hurt like hell every single time.
Resolving himself, he began from the very top of the wound, pressing the flat surface of the blade against his bicep.
"MMMmph!"
Sure enough, all the veins in his neck were made visible the moment the blade touched him, as he bit into the coat in extreme anguish, trying his best not to let his screams be heard.
It was unlike anything he had ever experienced before. No bullet, blade or explosion could even serve as reference for him.
His left hand that was holding onto the knife began shaking furiously, forcing him to put all his strength into it in order to hold onto the knife.
Barely managing to keep the blade steady, he was finding it harder and harder to keep his mouth shut.
The pain was excruciating to begin with and it only got worse the longer it went on.
Before he had even reached the forearm, his teeth were grit so hard that it felt like they would break at any second.
Back on Earth, he had seen people burn alive before and had always found it hard to comprehend and relate to the desperation in their screams.
Now however, he somewhat understood.
The burning of the flesh was a unique pain and while unlike those people that had their entire bodies ablaze he was only burning one of his arms, it wasn't so different.
Perhaps it was even worse, as he was the source of his own pain.
He had to remain calm and continue inflicting even more pain onto himself though, since he had no other option.