Time to take action

Thinking about his options, John quickly came to the realization that everything he thought for the last minutes about not participating in this fight was going down the drain. His whole conscience screamed for him to help this young woman, even if he didn't know how. First stop would probably have to be to see how critical her status was.

Well, Fuck... going by basic game logic, the bleed status probably meant that she'd lose a bunch of HP per second. So she would pretty surely die if he were not to help her... Then a thought hit him: He was operating by video game logic, he had video game powers, he was in a Barrier that was working a lot like a video game encounter... how did he even know that she was real? Then again, how did he know that she wasn't? Could he settle with the thought, that someone died while he was just looking at that person because he wasn't sure if they are real or not?

No. Definitely not.

So John did the only thing he could do in this situation he could think of. He Meditated with the thought of channeling his mana through his thought and closing a bleeding wound... the seconds ticked by, until:

YES! Not quite what he was expecting, but still helpful! Slowly, he crawled along the floor to keep outside of any view, crawled closer to the girl as fast as he could. Hopefully, he wasn't too late yet. He couldn't cast another Observe or he would not have enough MP to Neutralize. Slowly he was reaching her, and the second she was in reach of his hand, he reached out and tried his new skill. Outwards, the skill had little effect, her wounds were still there, she was still **** and quite battered. But John could feel it somehow, she was stable, she wouldn't die from her wounds, now he just had to make sure that she would not get attacked again.

Speaking of which... It seemed like his spell drew the attention of the combatants, or at least of one of the jackal-men. That one was looking at him with barely contained rage, probably because John just saved his prey. With a low growl, he swatted away another Valkyrie trying to attack him and took one of the weapons lying on the floor, dropped by one of the mummies. The weapon looked a lot like a bident. The giant held the weapon in a way that really did not speak to John's liking. With the distance between them, it wasn't really visible who the dog-man targeted, but it was bad enough that he aimed in their general direction. And it was even worse when he threw that spear with inhuman power... The javelin-like spear was flying directly through the corner store and in their direction. Mere seconds before impact, John recognized that the spear didn't go for him, but for Brunhild.

Time seemed to slow down to a crawl... What would he do? If the spear hit the Valkyrie, she would most certainly die, even if he did not know how much damage that would deal. He, on the other hand, was at full life, which was a meager 65 HP, but it was more than her probably... This was the time to decide, would he die being a hero, saving someone else while risking his life, or would he be a coward and save his own hide? His mind said coward, but his heart said something entirely different! Then his hands moved on their own. Without much thought, his hands used Move on that flying spear, without the assurance that it would even help against a thing like that. However, it seemed to work, if only slightly... the spear slightly changed it's trajectory, flying higher than targeted. That, however, meant that it would graze John, cutting into his arm. The moment it hit him, he knew something was wrong... His vision became blurry, his body heavy. Was that what it felt like to be poisoned?

-10 HP
New Status: Poison of the Anointed
Victim slowly loses control over his senses and his motor functions, while his mind still works normally. HP loss 10/minute. Once victim falls below 0, it can be reanimated as a Mummy

His body went number and number until it couldn't support him anymore and he fell to the ground. He could barely make it out, but he could see how his skin slowly turned ashen and lifeless.

Oh god, oh god, oh god, this was not how he imagined himself to go out... His mind was filled with panic about the knowledge that he would become an undead zombie... Was this really how it was supposed to end? Dying while saving a pretty girl... there was so much he wanted to do, now that he seemingly had amazing powers. He just had gotten an invitation from his favorite teacher to basically lose his virginity, and now here he was, lying in some street gutter, slowly losing control of his body.

You are now in critical condition. If nothing changes about your status, you will die in the next 5 minutes, you absolute idiot! Are you seriously that controlled by your dick so much that you're on the verge of dying within HOURS of getting these powers?

Wow... His interface seemed to have strong opinions about his current state... Was someone writing those? That message seemed highly suited for the exact situation he was in...

He did not know how long he was lying there, how much time he had left when he heard a melodic voice dripping with sorrow and pride. "Young warrior, we do not know you, yet you aided us in our battle, saved my granddaughter from certain **** and laid down your own life. Through your actions, our numbers did not dwindle and we were victorious. For someone so young it is a truly tragic fate to die like this. This poison is beyond any of our abilities to heal, the only thing we can do is to make your last remaining moments on this earth as good as possible. My granddaughter shall take your last wish and shall carry you to Valhalla afterward, it is the least we can do to repay her debt to you. We shall wait nearby so you can have some quiet...", said the voice. If John was a betting man, he'd bet that that was the voice of the matriarch.

Another voice, softer, with a lot more worry contained in it, practically whispered into his ear: "Please, tell me your last wish. I shall grant you anything you wish for that is within my power." So he had a last wish, anything he wanted, that was nice. Maybe, maybe he could use that to save himself?

Think, think...

What was his situation and how could he manipulate it, so he would lose that Poisoned status? Did his stats give him any possibility, did his skills give him anything, did he even have enough MP for that... Move had taken every single point that he had- There it was! The only thing that could maybe help him.

His Experience bar was at 531 out of 600... If his ability really worked like a video game, would he go back to full health when reaching a new level? It was the only possibility he could see right now... But how could he get those missing 69 EXP? Right now his best guess was probably some achievement that would give him some EXP... But what could he do or wish for to give himself achievements? So far he got something for learning a new skill and for kissing June...

WAIT!

Kissing June might just be what could be his saving grace here. Maybe it would give him another achievement if he got to next base... Sex was out of the question right now. No matter how long he would last, it was too long for his fleeting life. French kissing was not a surefire thing to get him an achievement. So he had to aim for something in the middle, that would not take too much time but was a significant increase from kissing a girl/woman. And he might just have the idea that could do the trick. While he was thinking about how he could get out of this pickle, he felt how his head was lifted onto something softer than the concrete below him, probably a lap.

Okay, so he had a plan, he had a way to do it, now he just had to hope that it worked like he imagined... or else his game was over already...