Chapter 14

My abdominal muscles tightened. My left foot was ahead of the right. Mid-motion, I twisted my torso in order to provide the torsion needed to take my punch from a simple strike to an unstoppable haymaker. I expelled my air in a huff.

My muscles froze, and the arm stopped, mid-punch.

I made a sound deep in my throat. One of deep-seeded frustration, of rage, wanting to get out.

Elio perked up, and Ciara blinked, focusing on me rather than the stream of instructions from her boss.

I could’ve backed down. It would have left me there, comically straining for him, muscles clenched like a lunatic hit by paralysis. Instead, I jolted forward into motion again, and slid in right next to Elio, on the opposite side of Ciara. I flung my left arm around the neck of the smaller Italian man.

She spoke up. “That is enough-“

Elio erupted in complaint as well.

I ignored both of them. Meanwhile, my arm slid closer, locking his neck under my arm and I enfolded my right hand around his throat. My words emerged as a barely constrained growl. “Listen here, friend. The only reason I’m not crushing your windpipe right this moment is that the system’s actively keeping me from doing so. Apparently, that would constitute an attack, even if I would call it justice. But if you ever pull another trick like you just did, I will find a way around it. I will-“

“Step away!” Ciara’s voice was shaking, but cold.

The words had less effect on me than the arrow pointed straight at my chest. It did not waver in the least.

I looked from the arrow and up to the flinty eyes meeting mine through her messy hair. I growled. “Your boss attacked me.”

“I know. He’s still my boss, and I’m losing more than money if he dies.”

With a snarl, I stepped back and pushed Elio, hard enough that he stumbled and fell on his ass. “I don’t care who you are, and how powerful you believe you’ll become. I am done with your crap. You don’t attack your team mates.” A wave of guilt hit me. Wow! I’d tripped a blind man. I was just all sorts of classy today. I pushed it all the way down to my other regrets.

Ciara kept her bow trained on me. Meanwhile, Elio slowly climbed to his feet. “I did not attack you.” His words were rife with scorn. “I made a judgment call. From what Ciara was explaining, you were losing the fight. I decided that the odds of your survival were better if I cast Missile Storm as opposed to letting you and Ciara handle the fight on your own. As it turns out, I was right. You may now apologize.”

I scoffed. “Fat chance of that. I would be fucking dead if Haddock hadn’t saved my ass. Now, I need you to swear that you will never pull a stunt like that again!”

“I cannot in good conscience do that.” His voice had regained its regular control. “I will always think of the odds of success first, and the fragile emotions of my team members second.”

“Fragile emotions. Yeah. That’s it. I’m out. Fuck you and fuck your gargantuan ego trip. I hope you die a grisly death.” I turned to Nix and Haddock. “I like you guys. I’m taking my part of the loot, then I’m off to find somebody who’ll be part of an actual team. Are you in?”

Nix nodded emphatically. “Yeah. We’re not sticking around to be the next expendables. Ciara?”

The sombre brunette shook her head with a grimace. Her voice was emotionless as she responded. “The terms of my employment were very clear.”

Elio, by now, looked like he was about to blow up. “If you leave, we are keeping all the loot.”

“Fat chance, wannabe Jafar. We’re dividing it. Equal shares. And that’s only because we’re nice.” I said. “By rights, we should take it all. But I wish you all the best of luck conquering the universe. As for you, Ciara? When he gets himself killed, should you survive, you’re more than welcome to join us. You’ve proved yourself in battle, even if your taste in bosses sucks.”

‘Loot’ in this case, came down to seven beaten, broken and pierced monster bodies. There should have been eight, but one of them was simply missing. We searched for a while, finding nothing at all. Eventually, we decided that Nix’s Flash Flood had likely blasted the corpse straight down into the small lake, where it had sunk to the bottom. Since nobody volunteered to wade around in the murky waters with those threatening tendrils on all sides, we agreed to stick to the seven.

You’d have thought that a world with magic and instances of gaming logic overtrumping science would have some really nice looting mechanics. Touch a dead, ugly monster, and it would burst into sparkling smoke, revealing seven wrapped-up wagyu steaks and a magic sword. Unfortunately, Ademia was not a kind place.

“I still don’t get why we are supposed to push this crap back home.” I groused, applying my weight to keep the wooden cart rolling.

From behind the cart, Nix’s voice emerged. She was pushing the cart, overflowing with monster corpses, alongside Haddock, while I pulled. Her voice was surprisingly bubbly. “Oh, come on, Liam. I know you wanted to deck that arrogant asshole. But we got a good deal out of this. They forfeited the two lower-leveled bodies for us taking them all back home for processing. Also, let’s be honest. Are you up for more combat today?”

I grunted, conceding the point. “No. My ankle hurts like hell. That stupid thing got me good. I even have a debuff running.”

“Oh. How does that work? What’s it say?” she asked.

Damaged Muscles (minor)

Your leg muscles have suffered minor damage and will require a brief period of rest to recover. Exacerbating the damage can cause this debuff to worsen.

-3 to Agility

22 hours, 34 minutes remaining

“Yeah, that settles it. Continuing would just be stupid. Nah. We’re returning, then we’ll see what those monster bodies can actually afford us, and get some better items for tomorrow.”

I stalled for a second, before putting my weight into it again. “You’re actually up for continuing with me? Even after this mess?” I looked back over my shoulder and fought down a laughter. I could only barely see the top of Nix’s blue hair bobbing along above the pile of corpses.

“Of course. This wasn’t your fault. Mister di Fiore,” She spoke the words in a condescending drawl. “was a time bomb just waiting to go off. He couldn’t care less for keeping any of us alive. Haddock and I, meanwhile, think that the three of us could go the distance. Erm. Probably with some changes.”

I laughed and checked out my health. An hour and a half after the battle, and it had only ticked up by around five points. At this rate, it’d be nearly three full days before I was fully healed. We’d eaten some of our rations on the way, but the dried meat and water was just that. Dull, tasteless, but filling. I’d still crammed it down like it was the best thing I’d ever had. The fight had made me ravenous. “Yeah.” I said drily. “I’m up for a few changes, so I don’t look like Swiss cheese after the next fight.”

Thankfully, the corpses weren’t the only thing we had to show from the fight. Beyond the experience, we’d all received a few skills from the fight.

You have earned a new general skill:

Stamina Regeneration

Passive skill

You have learned how to utilize stamina-dependant skills or talents. The more practice you get, the longer you will be able to stay in the fight. Every level in Stamina Regeneration will marginally improve the rate at which your stamina regenerates.

That one would likely be useful in the long run. It wasn’t going to be a gamechanger in a fight, but anything that’d allow me to stay in the game for longer and recuperate faster was more than welcome. The next three skills, meanwhile, were even better.

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You have earned a new defensive skill:

Shield

Passive skill

You have used your shield to save your life. Practice and continued usage will improve your odds of repeating the feat. Every level in Shield will marginally improve the defensive capabilities of your shield and decrease the stamina drain of its use.

You have earned a new defensive skill:

Armor

Passive skill

Your armor has saved you from a life-threatening injury. The better your armor, the better your odds of surviving to fight another day. Every level in Armor will marginally improve the defensive capabilities of your armor and decrease the stamina drain of its use.

You have earned a new defensive skill:

Parry

Passive skill

They say the best defense is a good offence. Just remember that your weapons can be used for other things than slaying enemies. Parry helps you divert incoming attacks, missiles and others away from your precious flesh. Every level in Parry will marginally improve the efficiency of your parrying capabilities and decrease the associated stamina drain.

Yeah. I was going to take any chance I’d get to raise those higher. They would also allow me to become tougher, shrug off more damage and fight for longer. On top of that, due to them being passives, they would all be fifty percent more effective due to my quirk. Right now, the effect was negligible. Ten skill levels from now? Twenty? I might outpace everybody else!

The final skill I’d gotten made me snort, in equal parts disdain and dark humour. I hoped I’d never get to see the blind asshole again – but even if that were the case, he’d left me with an eternal reminder of his lovely personality.

You have earned a new defensive skill: