The light dripping of blood on the road was the only noise that filled the silence. The mutant dog had started growling and put everyone on edge. Glen’s yell had got his team moving again. Douglas turned and began running for the tower; Miles followed right behind him just able to keep up with the extra weight Douglas was carrying.
The indecision written on Liz’s face made it abundantly clear how she felt about leaving Glen, mainly that she wasn’t willing to do it. She planted herself firmly beside Glen, drew her hammer from where it had been clipped to her side, and took a defensive stance.
Seeing this Glen realized, he had not used his spear. He didn’t know why, but it just hadn’t called to him in the same way it had before. It didn’t synergize with the class he had taken, and the idea of using it to fight now felt off somehow. He unclipped it from his back and offered it to Liz, it made sense for one of them to use it so that such a rare weapon didn’t go to waste.
“Here, take my spear. We’ve already seen it was effective before when nothing else we had could hurt that man. The extra reach could really help you too.”
Liz wasn’t sure about it, she was alright with a spear, but the hammer was really her weapon of choice. Try and she might, she couldn’t deny that Glen had a point though. With tight lips expressing her unease about the change, she nodded.
The dog had been looking between them, seemingly trying to decide if this was a fight it could win now that it no longer had the advantage of surprise. As Glen finished talking, the hound charged at them. It was quickly closing the roughly thirty feet between them.
Not wanting to waste time holstering her hammer, Liz whipped it at the dog letting go right at the end of her swing. While the hammer was flying through the air, Glen tossed his spear lightly up in to the air towards Liz so that she had time to catch it and reset her stance.
The hammer throw only bought them a couple seconds, the dog lowered its head and turned to the side, taking the weight of the hit to its undamaged shoulder. Even with it’s tougher hide and matted fur some of the attack got through. The head of the hammer bit shallowly where the two met and ripped out a pound of flesh before deflecting away.
Staggering the dog bought them another two seconds, which was more than enough time. Liz caught the spear and readied herself into a crouch that would allow her to either fall back to defend, or spring forward to attack. Glen used this time to reposition, running to the dogs side they would now be much harder to defend against.
When the first hit had landed from Glen, his body had not been able to handle the force. His knuckles had torn, and his shoulder had been forced out of the socket. The adrenaline had allowed him to not feel the pain, but as he began moving it was as if a siren was going off in his mind.
That’s actually exactly what has happening, “Minor injury sustained. Right arm, losing blood. Repair attempt initialized. Right shoulder, out of socket. Attempting to reset now.” The voice of the AI in his head was still not something he was used to, and it almost caused him to miss a step.
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Only a moment after the voice spoke to him a searing stinging pain set in to his hand, and a pressure began to pull inside of his shoulder as if it was being forced back together. Like the sensation of popping a joint, but on a much larger scale, his shoulder slid back in to place. Glen took a second to look down at his hand as well.
Black lines could be seen under the skin where his knuckles had been busted before. He was no longer bleeding, though it still hurt like hell. There was a smell in the air like bacon cooking over a fire. Glen knew it was his flesh that had been burnt.
“Bleeding has been stopped. Nanites have been burned to cauterize the wound. This will prevent infection and blood loss until more can be done. Right shoulder has been reattached. This is a temporary fix as the number of nanites available was insufficient for a long term solution.”
Through clenched teeth Glen let out a forced, “Thank you.” It hurt like hell, but this would allow him to at least briefly fight as if he were unhurt. In reality Glen had been putting his body further and further in to debt the last couple days, he was looking at possibly weeks of recovery time.
Glen didn’t have time to think about all the long term repercussions, he needed to survive today in order to worry about tomorrow. Focusing back in the present he centered his attention on [Momentum], he could see that he had built a single stack so far. How many had he used with that punch? He hadn’t been keeping track, even activating the skill had been more instinct than anything else.
Since the dog had begun running only maybe four seconds had passed. It was over two thirds of the way towards Liz, she had been its target from the start. Glen tried something different than the first attack, he focused on his feet and spent a single stack of [Momentum]. It did not have the same explosive force that his punch held, but it did allow him to leap at the dog tackling it from the side.
Interestingly, expending that single stack had helped him move far enough and quickly enough that another two had been generated. Glen’s legs also handled the force much better this time around. Rather than visible damage he just felt a bit sore, as if he had just walked up the full fifty stairs to their tower home of Skytop.
When Glen and the dog collided in the air it didn’t have the same impact as his first punch, but still, he couldn’t discount the effectiveness of a high speed tackle from a two hundred pound man. The two of them rolled for a couple of feet across concrete, before Glen sprung back in to a defensive posture waiting on the dog to stand.
Getting pounded on repeatedly was starting to take its toll on the dog, with both shoulders injured it was struggling to stand. Glen yelled at the hound, “Come at me you piece of shit!”
The bleeding hound snarled at Glen exposing rows of teeth dripping with drool, it was so angry it had begun frothing at the mouth. It did not lunge for Glen, having learned caution after being side swiped twice. The dog snapped in his direction with a display of hatred that he had not expected from the beast.
However, while the dogs full attention was on Glen, Liz took her chance to strike. With none of its attention on her, she managed to score a critical hit right behind the shoulder, the spear easily sliding in between the dogs ribs. Something vital must have been hit, the creature before them let out a high pitched whine that ended with a whimper, before falling over.
Liz had unknowingly pierced its heart. It no longer mattered how tough it was, or how quickly it could heal. The dog had died in an instant, the cries it let out were the last act of an unnatural animal unwilling to let go of life.
Glen got a system notification. “Level 0 Feral Mutant Hound killed. Partial experience awarded for helping without landing the looking blow. +3XP”
There was a slight shimmer in the air visible only to Glen as the dog died, a part of the world energy left the monster and slides in to Glen’s soul strengthening it. He felt revitalized by a small amount, as if a burden he had been carrying all along had slightly lightened. Checking his screen, he saw that his experience to next level was sitting at 3/100.
“(User Glen), there is something we must discuss. However, based on what I have learned about you in our short time together, I do not believe you’re going to be happy about it...”