11.

Black pebbled lips were drawn back in a snarl, long teeth bared as the monster's front arms pulled my shield down as it tried to get at my neck. My blood was humming, heat suffused me from the kill energy of the fallen. Staring into the monster's eyes, I felt alive. Plans and schemes fell to the wayside as I fought for my life in the long grass with the speedy monsters.

I pushed back with my shield, creating space between its teeth and my neck. It stumbled backward, and that was all the edge that Miguel needed. He darted in, his short sword swiping across a back leg. Blood blossomed against fur and the monsters hissed in pain as it stumbled. Bobby’s hammer came down with a rush of displaced air, bone crunching as the opposite leg was turned to pulp. It collapsed, its savage eyes filled with pain as it looked at me, still snarling in defiance. I twisted my hips as I lunged, the spear in my hand a blur as I lanced the monster through the chest. Rage faded from its eyes as it grew still.

We were falling into a rhythm, working together as a team to quickly kill the murderous rabbits. Standing in a wedge with myself at the center, Bobby to my right, Miguel to my left, and Agatha behind us. As the monsters raced forward out of the tall grass, it was my job to intercept them, to try tying them down as Bobby and Miguel worked to hobble them and then kill them. Agatha fired bolts with surprising accuracy at any that got too close as we killed the current one we were fighting. Two fallen monsters lay in the brush with long bolts stuck in them, victims of Agatha's crossbow.

“Status!” Bobby yelled next to me. Over the last few minutes she had taken control of the fighting, coordinating us as we fought. Part of me wanted to protest, to keep control, but standing at the front I couldn’t take my attention away from the snarling maw of the current monster to coordinate us.

“Good!” Miguel replied near instantly. The boy was flush and breathing hard, his dark eyes alight with excitement at the fight. He was a revelation, his regular speed nearly matching the monsters. When he activated his skill though, it was a guaranteed wound. He didn’t have the strength to kill with one blow, yet every time his blade found flesh, his opponent died moments later, a hammer or spear finishing it.

“Twelve bolts left.” Agatha responded. So far, not a single one of the creatures had made it past me, leaving Agatha free to fire.

“Solid.” I gasped out. My endurance was shit, and I was beginning to question why I hadn’t used my unspent points. I knew why, but seeing everyone else fighting at a pace that I couldn’t maintain was a blow to my pride.

“How many more, Billy?” Bobby, asked.

“Didn’t say. There should be a boss though if it sticks to game logic,” I tell her. It makes sense, this is a designed testing field. There should be a boss monster in charge of this horde of mobs.

“Keep an eye out for that then. Incoming!” Bobby barked. I looked up just to see another blur of fur. It was racing toward the gap between Miguel and I. Taking a quick shuffling step, I interposed myself, my shield tucked tight to my body with my spear pointed forward. The beast wove around the spear and shoulder checked me, my arm compressing down into my ribs and driving all the air out of my lungs. I held though, and it rebounded, stunned on the ground, easy prey as Miguel and Bobby descended on it. Death took only seconds, blood pooling and drenching the frozen ground.

Then I was flying. I didn’t have time to register the blow, my view of the dying rabbit was replaced with the cloudy sky. I couldn’t breath, my chest refused to raise, to fill my lungs with lifesaving oxygen. A calm piece of my mind was rationalizing, whispering how I had the air knocked out of me and I’d be fine in a minute. The rest of my brain was screaming that I couldn’t breathe.

I staggered up, getting to my knees as I continued in vain to breathe. Miguel was using his skill, flashing back and forth, trying to escape. As my body finally untensed and air rushed into me, I realized that Miguel was slower than the monster. Even while using his skill. It was a blur, grass parting in a wave behind it as it dashed after Miguel, Bobby trying to get Miguel to get closer so Agatha and her could help him. The beast cut him off everytime Miguel tried to get back though, forcing him in a circle, further and further from our group. I couldn’t have that. I had invested too many resource hours into him to have him die to some rabbit with an overbite.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

A burning furnace of rage, constantly boiling just beneath the surface. A personal tribulation that was a continuous struggle to keep contained. I let it consume me as I roared as I charged at the clashind duo. Lowering my shield I sprinted forward, aiming at where I thought Miguel was going to lead the monster. Maybe yelling as I tried to ambush a speed monster wasn’t a good idea, but I wasn’t thinking. It worked though.

Miguel darted toward me and the boss followed. It materialized only a few feet in front of me, eyes locked on Miguel as strings of saliva dripped from its maw. Roughly the same size as the rest, its pure white coat was the only thing that differentiated its appearance from the rest of them. I crashed into its side in a collision of wood and steel against bone, ribs breaking. Its scream was hauntingly human as I flung it into the grass. A thunk came from behind, the meaty sound of a bolt sinking home and the boss screamed again as it surged to its feet.

One side of its body was misshapen, ribs caved in. A long black bolt was sticking out of its front shoulder, red blood staining its snow white fur. It looked pissed, small black nose twitching furiously as its eyes rolled, teeth bared as it hobbled toward us. A monster that relied on its speed, now hobbled. We fell on it like a wolf pack.

While its eyes had been focused on me, Miguel had snuck to the side. He lunged, blade slicing fur. The boss was still quick, moving before the wound could become crippling, flinging itself to the side as I moved forward to box it in. The dodge led it straight into Bobby’s hammer. She swung the hammer like a bat, twisting her hips and putting her all into it. Bones broke, the back leg gave out, its scream echoed out as we closed in. Another bolt flashed by me, the whistle of its passing uncomfortably close. It sank deep in the monster's chest, while Miguel drove his blade into its unwounded side.

It ended as fast as it began. Miguel was soaked in sweat, his face shining in the sun as he swayed on his feet. Bobby looked unruffled as she looked around the swaying grass and at the corpses of the creatures we had killed. Agatha was walking closer to us, crossbow in the crook of her arm, ashen faced as she took in the carnage. The actual fighting hadn’t taken long, maybe fifteen minutes, but there were plenty of carcasses around.

“The mana heart is in the center of its chest cavity. The books said to gut them and reach up.” I told them as I gingerly lowered myself in front of the boss monster. Its glassy eyes were open and unseeing as I used the ax to split it open. The work was dirty, the stench of butchery filling the grasslands as we took our prizes. None of them were the size of the crabs, but then again, the crabs were much tougher. The boss’s mana heart was the largest and it only weighed around ten pounds, a third of the size of the crabs.

“Who wants the first crack at butchering?” I asked hopefully. I wasn’t squeamish, but I lacked the knowledge to properly dress the monsters.

“I’m willing.” Miguel said. So we found the least damaged of the monsters, one that Agatha had managed to shoot in the eye, and he started his work while Agatha gave him guidance, as we continued our harvest. The crabs' mana hearts had an earthy color, while each of the mana hearts coming out of the rabbits had a golden hue to them. Eleven hearts and the boss’s, which was twice the size of the next biggest.

“Three each?” Agatha, asked.

“Who gets the big one?” Miguel asked. I had to hide a smile at his obvious greed. He was practically drooling as he stared at the golden orbs.

“Give Miguel the big one and my three small ones, and you each take four.” I told them. They all looked at each other and then shrugged. Agatha didn’t really care and Bobby was cautious of us still. It was a decent deal I thought, though if we stayed together we would have to figure out an even way to split loot.

Bobby used her hammer carefully, to crack the hearts. The liquid inside was less than a mouthful, with even the boss’s only a single swallow. It took longer to open them and for everyone to get their drinks than the actual fighting had taken. At the end Agatha reported she had gained two points to her dexterity, while both Miguel and Bobby gained one. Everyone had also leveled, I had leveled twice, being lower than the rest of them since I hadn’t taken any shifts on the wall. More points stored up for later.

All of us were sticky with drying blood and the walk back to our temporary camp was quiet. We gathered out gear, stashed the meat in a pack and started back on our hike to the keep. Everything had taken less than two hours. I was tired, my body ached and I wanted nothing more than a shower and a bed. We still had a few hours of walking until the keep though.

“When are we going to hunt them again?” Miguel asked from behind me. The first words anyone had spoken in thirty minutes. Part of me wanted to complain about youthful exuberance, another part wanted to lay our packs down and march back out into the grasslands.

I worried about that part. That part of me, that part that had reveled in the bloodshed, in the violence of it, that part could get me killed.