Chapter 20

My head pounded. My limbs weren’t working properly. I waved one hand in front of my face, trying to figure out what was wrong. My vision was blurry again, like I was getting a backlash from that Perception buff, but with a vengeance.

I noticed the notification first.

Concussion (minor)

Your head has been badly rattled, reducing your coordination, vision and balance. Exacerbating the damage can cause this debuff to worsen.

-3 to Mental Control, Perception and Agility.

22 hours, 34 minutes remaining

Oh. Yeah, that would do it. Groaning, I got to my feet, or, at least I tried to. Then I noticed the other debuff.

Damaged Muscles (medium)

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

-5 to Agility

47 hours, 58 minutes remaining

Great. So, my other debuff got even worse. I wasn’t even going to think about where that left my Agility. Well. In the fucking gutter, that’s where.

Head swimming and leg hurting abominably, I decided to eschew standing for now, instead taking in my nearest surroundings.

I was… not dead, or surrounded by Skreelings about to chow down on me. That was better than expected. The screams and roars all around didn’t exactly bode well for the long-term precision of that statement, but beggars and choosers…

My roaming eyes swam toward my shield, now even more battered, and took a time-out to focus on the big-ass tooth marks representing where the damn monster had taken a frigging bite out of my shield in passing. Those were big teeth.

Then I saw it.

The Higher Skreeling was dead. Excessively so. It lay on the ground, unmoving, with the finality of something that was never getting up again.

Huh. Somebody actually killed it? That was impressive.

My rattled mind finally took in the other details and notifications waiting for me.

My health was… well, that was an indicator of what had happened. I was sitting steadily at eighteen health out of four hundred. That in itself was lucky. Only, that was before taking in the existence of my Life Steal talent, which healed me for currently nine percent of all damage I dealt. Meaning, I actually died, or at least dipped below zero before the effect took place. Any sort of higher math was out of the window right now. But the fact that I would have died if it weren’t for my Life Steal talent did not get past me.

Also… I needed to heal more. Belatedly, that part crystallized inside my mind. I was sitting in what was still a goddamn battlefield, just thinking about life, a single swipe away from death. At least I was hurt badly enough that Elizabeth wasn’t likely to begrudge me some more healing jerky.

My swimming gaze moved on, trying to find her and her items. I was having a hard time trying to reconcile what I was seeing with what the place was supposed to look like. That damn Skreeling had torn up the place something bad. I-

At long last, I spotted a few of Elizabeth’s items, strewn across the ground. Her organizational system, swiftly but accurately invented, had been scattered to all winds. And where my mind was insisting that I should see the healing jerky, I saw only the ruined corpse of the Higher Skreeling. Yet, right there, underneath, something wafted from underneath the bulk of its body. A wash of orange hair, blowing in the light breeze.

The fact of Elizabeth’s demise was what cemented it for me. I wasn’t thinking straight. I was in mortal danger, and my mind couldn’t seem to fucking concentrate for long enough for me to make sure I wasn’t going to get myself killed.

Choking down a snarl somewhere between fury, rage and distress, I grasped a handful of the healing items on the ground and started forcing them down. Ignoring the million thoughts that threatened to derail me, I forced myself to focus on nothing but my surroundings and imminent survival and took in the state of Ever Steady.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The scene was absolute chaos.

With the duration of the debuff, I’d guess that I hadn’t been out of it for more than a minute or two. Yet, in that scant time, everything had changed. Any attempt at organized defense was over and done with. Resistance was down to smaller groups trying to take on the attackers and, ultimately, failing due to the imbalance in numbers. That, and the two remaining monster leaders. They were running amok, with nobody able to keep up or stand up to them. Wherever they went, resistance buckled and failed, whether it was due to the speed of the otter-like creature or the unceasing magical onslaught surrounding the lizard.

I… it might be the concussion speaking. But for a second, I actually thought that I saw the goddamn Lord o’ Freedom there, at the centre of the fray, waving an American flag of all things.

I shook my head and instantly regretted the motion. When my vision stopped swimming, he was gone. Something else had changed, too. Where, earlier, the monsters were going for the kills, now, it looked like they were trying for subjugation, for overwhelming or knocking out humans.

Only one spot still held a modicum of resistance, and that was our side of the camp. That wasn’t due to any attempts to fight back either. No, the humans on our side, mostly a mix of the U-Nerds and Asians from the coalition, were fighting for all they had to slaughter their way through the fallen wall and away into the questionable security of the Killing Fields in a dirty free-for-all.

I completely agreed. Judging from what was happening, it was a question of possibly surviving in the wilderness, set against the certainty of becoming monster food in the Ever Steady. I needed to get out of here, and I needed to do it yesterday.

Still chewing, I grabbed onto every single healing item I could see in range, and stuffed them into my Personal Universe without even looking what they were. Then, I forced myself to stand up and nearly fell. Damn. Those debuffs really were doing a number on me.

I spat, glaring at the bloody saliva on the ground before me for way too long, before realizing this wouldn’t do. Regardless of my defensive talents and these healing items, I wasn’t getting out of here in this state.

Fortunately, there were two notifications waiting for me.

Congratulations. You have slain a Higher Skreeling (Level 32.)

You have gained experience

Followed right on the heels by.

Congratulation. You have earned enough experience to increase in level. Level increased from 3 to 9.