Endor's Game.

A small, furry creature not much larger than a human child fell out of the trees with a shriek and landed heavily on John's right shoulder. He got a glance at it before it slapped him with a clawed paw. The thing was completely covered in dark grey fur and had two beady little black eyes set above a feline snout. Both of its pointed ears were perked up and turned slightly outwards. John thought the little beast was kind of cute, if you ignored the mouthful of over-sized fangs that it brandished inches from his face.

It's claws hit John surprisingly hard, inflicting -8 hp and staggering him. He reached up to fend off another blow and tried to dislodge the creature, without much success, although he did Observe it in the process.

Drop Bear
Level 3 Beast
A legendary myth of Australia. Wants to eat your face, literally.
32/32 hp
0/0 mp

"Yri! Klaa!" the drop bear vocalized.

Two more of its kind came plunging out of the trees, this time heading straight for Erica. She was better prepared than John, but her leg hadn't fully healed, and the sudden weight of the two drop bears overwhelmed it, sending them crashing to the ground in a pile. One of the beasts clung to her arm through her fall, immediately starting to claw at her the moment she hit the ground. John felt an urge to run over, but first he had to confront his own foe.

-6 hp.

Another heavy paw smacked him, and John managed to grab the thing with his left hand. When he tried to pull it off, the drop bear dug its claws into his shoulder, dealing another 1 hp and staying firmly attached to him. John responded by squeezing the furry thing as hard as he could. It hissed in pain and anger, then lunged to bite.

Critical Hit! -17 hp

Fuck that!

John conjured a knife and stabbed it into the furry bastard as hard as he could. It screeched in pain and released him. The moment it did, he dismissed the weapon and pulled the thing off. It struggled and clawed at his fingers, so John threw it as hard as he could at the nearest tree.

Combo Strike! 18 damage.
-1 hp.
-1 hp.
-1 hp.

In a matter of seconds, the drop bear had clawed away over half of his health! Sure, he'd managed the same in return, but if he'd acted a bit slower... He traced a finger over his cheek just to make sure that the little monster hadn't left permanent marks. Gamer's Body had spared him what otherwise would likely have been a grotesque disfigurement.

Across the clearing, Erica shouted in rage as one of her aggressors bit into her shoulder. She rolled over and tried to slam it into the ground but was impaired by the second drop bear that was attempting to claw her chest. John looked between her and his ambusher, which had stood up and shaken off the impact of his throw.

He estimated the distance, then started running towards Erica. The drop bear behind him hissed, fell to all fours and loped after him at a disturbingly fast pace for such a small animal. When it was ten or so feet away, it jumped towards him. John threw a dagger towards his attacker and missed, the weapon flying off into the jungle. Moving targets were a lot harder to hit than stationary trees.

The drop bear latched onto his outstretched arm and reared back to bite, but John had closed the distance he needed. Erica was closer. He could only pray that she was close enough. John winced as a new damage popup appeared and cast Starfall.

A glowing white ring spread from his feet in every direction, and the curtain of leaves above shifted into a night sky full of stars. Pale-white light sparkled, as three of the stars glowed brighter. They fell, in streaks of white light that pierced through the canopy and arced to impact each of the drop bears. The energy left circular burns in their fur and knocked the one on Erica's arm off and to the ground. John blinked, and the night sky was gone, a momentary illusion lasting a few seconds at most.

The spell, though it'd burned through John's mana like crazy, had done serious damage. His dogged opponent was on the verge of ****. It only had 3 hp left, and both of Erica's aggressors were almost at half health. More importantly, her arm was now free, and the berserker took advantage.

Shadows coalesced into a miniature version of her axe, and she hacked at the drop bear that was still clinging to her before slamming it into the ground. The beast stopped moving, but Erica wasn't done yet. She pushed herself up as the other one screeched and lunged at her. Halfway there, her fist met its face with a dull crunch. The body was thrown back a few feet.

Both John and the abomination that was still clinging to his arm were impressed, so much so that the last surviving beast dropped to the ground and started to run back into the jungle. John immediately snapped out an arm to throw a dagger, hitting it dead in the back and bringing the drop bear to a complete halt.

Drop Bear Ambush survived!
Encounter Complete: All enemies defeated.
+342 Experience

Achievement Unlocked! - "Stranger Than Fiction"
Encountered an Abyssal manifestation of a modern concept.
+1 Intellect
+$3.50

Ding!
You have leveled up!
Level 5 -> Level 6
+5 Unallocated Stat Points
+10 HP (Base)
+5 MP (Base)

He panted heavily as the adrenaline faded and the fight's toll began to wear on him. So much for not running into anything else...

Erica poked the fallen drop bears with a tense expression. When it didn't move she turned and asked, "What the hell were those?"

"Drop bears," John replied.

"You mean... the Australian joke?"

John knelt by the beast he'd felled and teleported his knife back to the holster. He looked up at Erica as she approached, turning the little monster over, "Apparently, not a joke."

After John inspected Erica's shoulder and administered a quick bandage, they continued their trek through the jungle. Like the hydra, the bears hadn't left behind any loot orbs, and he already was carrying around enough bones and scales that he didn't feel the need to pile in more. Hopefully there weren't any magical properties to drop-bear hides or anything.

With his mana burned to near-zero thanks to the fight, John was extra conservative with how he used Astral Observe, so their progress was slowed to avoid getting lost without their guide. No further drop bears attacked, though they both made sure to look up every time either thought they heard leaves rustle. Eventually, despite his attempts, Astral Observe burned away the last point of John's mana. He told Erica, and they took a break.

John inspected her bandages; the wounds were healing, so he held off on using up the last clean ones he had for a bit longer. Once he was satisfied, he found a large moss-covered rock to sit on and tried to get comfortable. Erica leaned against a tree, something clearly on her mind. He didn't want to pry, so he took the opportunity to contemplate the stat points he'd gained from the drop bear encounter.

As powerful as magic was, he couldn't rely on it all the time... not unless he found a way to double or triple his mana pool. Dumping all his points into intellect or wisdom wouldn't result in that, just another minor increase. No, right now, he needed more hit points and better damage with his weapons. That meant endurance, strength or agility. He put a point into each, tossing another two into endurance... and hesitated. It wouldn't hurt to put one point into a magic attribute...

He settled on two in endurance to boost his health and pad out his survivability, plus one point in the other physical attributes and the last in wisdom. Each of his regeneration rates ticked up, and his health jumped by ten points. It wasn't as impressive as if he'd spent them all in a single stat, but John felt better being more well-rounded. He closed his Character Sheet, scanning the trees for more furry abominations. Minutes passed, and he nearly missed it when his companion spoke.

"I'm sorry."

He looked up; Erica was sitting at the foot of a tree with her arms wrapped around her knees, one hand slightly pressing against the bandage on her thigh.

"I shouldn't have brought you into this; it was impulsive and reckless," she said, still looking down at the ground. "It was just supposed to be a casual adventure, to..." her voice faded as she trailed off.

John resisted the urge to interrupt and let her speak. Erica had been largely quiet since the encounter with the drop bears, and now he could guess why. Technically, she wasn't wrong, but that didn't make her right either. He'd chosen to come along; the responsibility for his actions lay solely with himself. She looked up from her knees, and John saw the guilt in her eyes; it was a dangerous thing.

"Relax, I decided to tag along. It's not your fault that everything got weird," he paused, realizing the irrationality of his statement, and amended it to, "weirder than... weird." John walked over to her and put out a hand. "We'll get through this together, I know it."

She smiled. It was a bit weak, but John could see the berserker's strength and attitude returning. "Saw that in your vision?" Erica asked, taking his hand.

"Of course," he lied.