Temporary Partnership

“Doing well so far. Lets keep this up.” I say, trying to be encouraging. She gives me a small grin, then we run down the corridor. This one is longer than the last, and we are privy to the dull thudding noises of the gang members pounding against Skylar’s barrier. True to her word, it doesn’t hold for long, and we only just manage to duck behind another corner.

By this point I’m sure that they’ve caught on to what we’re trying to do. They’ll approach this corner more carefully. The same process as before repeats, and footsteps jog down the corridor heavily. I can pick up the slight cracking of icing joints moving. It’s a slightly disturbing sound, but it also gives testament to the fact that my frost magic is doing it’s job. It seems like we might actually have a chance.

I get a tingling feeling, but my conscious mind realises half a second too late what my instincts sensed. A small fireball comes flying around the corner, striking me in the chest and singing my clothes. 30HP goes up in flames as I pull Skylar back against the wall to avoid the subsequent hail of fireballs and mana based spells.

I pat my shirt a couple of times to make sure that my shirt and jacket haven’t caught fire. Luckily they haven’t, but the smell of burnt fabric is unpleasant nonetheless. I spare a glance downwards and notice that there’s now a series of small holes in my shirt. My jacket doesn’t seem to have taken any damage, which is good. It irks me to see a band shirt burnt like that though.

I look back up in time for the hail of spells to stop for a second. Acting on a mixture of instinct and slightly paranoid compulsion, I launch a wave of frost at the corner. One of the gang members steps out into the path of the spell just in time for it to strike him. A couple of cracks ring out as more ice forms on him, then he freezes completely. I take the opportunity and fling some mana arrows at him, while Skylar winds up and lets loose another fist of solid shadow. The freezing effect wears off and the man crumples.

200xp

I don’t have time to stop and ponder the implications of that popup, which signifies that we killed him. Skylar and I turn and run in the other direction. “Chris? Chris! What the fuck, YOU FUCKING BITCHES!” A voice screams from around the corner. Hurriedly, Skylar forms another wall of shadow to cover our escape. A thump, two more and the wall shatters within a few seconds of its creation.

The roar of a seriously enraged man reaches my ears. Thudding footsteps of increasing volume let us know that whoever this is, is gaining on us. I steal a glance behind me and see a man who’s physique is giant, compared to my own skin and bone physique. He stands at least a head taller than me. The anger and upset in his face is evident.

I launch two more freezing blasts at him, aware of my dwindling mana bar, now only half full. They slow him slightly but he’s still catching up to us. I notice that the other four men chasing us are a fair way behind him. An idea forms in my head.

“Skylar, put a wall behind him!” I yell, the situation too tense for me to bother trying to conceal my words from the approaching beserker. “What! Why?” She yells back, over another angry roar from the bulky man behind us. “Just do it!” I shout in response.

She obliges me and the other four gang members are cut off from their comrade. I fire off one, two, three icicles in rapid succession. They all hit their mark, leaving bloody cuts along his body. I can see the beginnings of ice form along his form but given how little effect the twin blasts of frost had, it would be a waste of mana to try to freeze him.

Skylar jumps ahead, punching him with more shadows. She strikes him once, before he bats away the second hit and backhands her into the wall.

I have no time to be worried about her as the angry gang member is upon me. I unsheathe my knife, hoping that the weapon will help me. I swipe at him and he dodges, before a fist sends me crashing to the floor. 21HP gone, and I’m now down to a mere 34 health points. A scrambled roll to my left saves me from the stomp that comes after.

It lands where my head was a split second ago.

I lunge forward and stab him in the side, and the man yells in pain. I manage to leap backwards quick enough to dodge the reflexive swipe at me, firing two more mana arrows at his head in quick succession, hoping to hit a weak spot. One misses, the other grazes his cheek.

Suddenly, an impact on the man’s back sends him staggering forwards, towards me. I leap back a few steps, thankful that Skylar is okay. Another fist of shadows crashes into him, and as he turns back to deal with her, I lunge forward once again and stab him in the back. He howls in pain and I press my advantage as I notice him getting slower.

I withdraw the knife, lunge upwards and plunge it into his skull. A choked noise halfway between another angry yell and a sob is what reaches my ears, before he falls forwards and slumps to the ground.

300xp

I look at Skylar, wide eyed. She stares back, before a dull thudding reminds us that we aren’t done yet. I fight down my shock and sudden urge to be sick, retrieving the knife from the now deceased man’s head. Skylar and I get ready as the barrier breaks and the remaining gang members stream through. They stop dead in their tracks when they see their fallen comrade.

“You killed Mario?” One of them asks, in genuine shock and confusion. “Leave us alone, unless you want your fate to be the same as his.” I threaten with much more confidence than I feel, hoping to avoid any further bloodshed, and a fight we’d have trouble winning. My resources are dwindling, but they don’t need to know that.

Another advantage of Gamer’s Body is that I appear completely unharmed. They take a second to inspect the corpse from a distance, blood still flowing out of the wound in Mario’s head. “You’ll be sorry for this.” One of them promises, before they walk away.

I sigh in relief, turning to Skylar. “Are you okay?” I ask her. She nods. “A little bruised but I’ll survive. You?” I turn and look at Mario’s body. I breathe in deeply. The metallic smell of blood isn’t pleasant, but I breathe in anyway to try to relax myself a little. “Yeah. Shaken and my HP is low, but I think I’m good.”

Achievement unlocked: punching above your weight!

You managed to defeat somebody twice your level! Good job!

Reward:

+1 End

+50xp

Achievement: survive a gang on your own!

Yes I know it wasn’t exactly on your own, Skylar helped you a lot. The point is that you didn’t just sit back and let everybody else save your scrawny ass!

Reward:

+50xp

I relax and sink to the floor, my back sliding down against the corridor wall. Skylar sits down next to me. We sit there in silence for a few moments, catching our breath and processing what just happened. I just killed a man. Two actually. I’ve killed enemies in illusion barriers before, but they’re not exactly real; they serve no purpose beyond challenging me to help me get stronger.

These were actual people I fought and killed.

They had lives, dreams, aspirations. Given the fact that they were part of a gang, it’s likely they didn’t lead particularly good lives. Still, whether or not they deserved **** is questionable. Certainly not a decision I could make, especially not when I know so little about what they actually did.

Reality is harsh though, and the abyss is an even harsher reality than the world I grew up in. If they made their living through selling slaves, the world won’t miss them. It would likely be better off without them, in the long term. But I can’t stop the feeling that somebody will miss them, the guilt I feel for snuffing out the lives of two men I barely knew.

Ultimately in this situation, it was either their lives or Skylar and I both getting sold as slaves. Out of those two outcomes, this is definitely the one I prefer, although I wish there had have been a third way to solve this. We couldn’t have held back, we were outnumbered and the stakes too high.

I swallow once again, to fight down the rising nausea I feel. I look at Skylar. “What-” “Thank-” We both speak at the same time, then stop. “”You-”” We both stop again. I blow air out of my nose in amusement, grinning, while a small smile touches the corners of Skylar’s lips. I gesture for her to go first. “I was going to say thank you.” She says. “I couldn’t have survived that on my own.” “Neither could I. Thank you.” I return. She gives me a smile. A small one, but a genuine one.

“What are you doing for lunch?” I ask her. She shrugs. “Not really sure, eating probably.” Skylar replies, a hint of sarcasm in her voice. “Want to eat together then?” I ask. She thinks for a moment before replying. “Why not? It’ll be interesting to talk to you a little more, Gamer.” She stands up and raises her hand. “See you round.” She says, disappearing and leaving me alone in the barrier.

I sit there, staring at the spot where she was for a few minutes longer, processing the events of the past twenty or so minutes. My eyes fall on the corpse of Mario, still laying there just as dead as ever. I remember the achievement I got for killing him. He was twice my level, according to it. I didn’t check with observe, I was too busy running and fighting for my life.

The aspect of **** aside, I’m slightly proud that I managed to hold my own against this man, even though I did get help. If he had been more cautious in his approach, we wouldn’t have been able to beat him.

I take out my water bottle and gulp down three big mouthfuls of water. I stand up and walk over to the body, picking my knife up from the ground. I wipe it clean as best I can on Mario’s jacket.