“My leg!” Elk cried to the skies. “My fucking leg!”
I immediately turned to look at him, leaving Tress to monitor the sounds around us. The demon was crouched on the ground, clutching his leg with both hands. His face twisted with pain, eyes clenched shut, teeth gritted.
I rushed toward him, realizing he had stepped into a rudimentary bear trap—or at least the closest approximation I could think of. The fangs of the metal and wood contraption had sunk deep into Elk’s thin leg.
“Calm down. We can fix this,” I told him, but he didn’t seem to hear me. He was too consumed by shock and pain to focus.
“Guys, I think something’s in the woods,” Mary muttered, her back straight as she slowly moved toward us.
No shit, I thought, crouching closer to the trap and searching for some kind of release mechanism. No matter the angle I tried, I couldn’t find a way to open it through all the blood.
“To your left, Zach,” Tress’ voice alerted me, low but laced with urgency.
I turned just in time to hear something cutting through the air. I tackled Elk immediately, bringing him to the ground. An arrow shot past us, missing Mary by inches.
“Protect him,” I said to Mary, who seemed frozen in place. “Mary!” I shouted, snapping her out of her trance. She summoned her giant shield and rushed to block the direction the arrow had come from.
She positioned the shield between me, Elk, and the unknown enemy. I peeked around the edge of the shield and heard the sound again. Another arrow flew, embedding itself in the wooden surface of the shield.
I knew where the fucker was, so I wasted no time and rushed toward it. As I got a few steps away from the shield, I activated [Lightning Momentum] on my feet and was hurled in the general direction of the enemy.
As I closed in, I heard the sound of someone rummaging through something, followed by a desperate grunt. A few branches smacked against my head and shoulders before I crashed into something.
For a second, I panicked, thinking it might be a tree trunk, but the fear faded quickly as I began rolling down the slope, tangled with someone—or something. It was hard to make out details with the world spinning beneath me.
We eventually slowed, and I caught a glimpse of the figure’s silhouette. It was small, about the size of a Lord of the Rings dwarf, with an enormous nose, bushy eyebrows, leathery red skin, and pure terror etched on its face.
During the tumble, I managed to free my right hand. I clenched it into a fist, pressed it against the creature’s chest, and summoned my blade. The dagger materialized inside it, and just as I’d learned—too late—that two objects cannot occupy the same space, the blade tore through the creature’s insides, killing it instantly.
Life drained from its eyes as we collided with a tree trunk. Pain flared through my back as I shoved the creature away.
Congratulations!
You have slain Kobold - Rank F5.
You earned two credits.
You now have access to the shop and the trading menu.
I ignored the message, focusing on the sounds of battle up the slope. We’d rolled down several yards, but I could still make out Tress’s silhouette in the distance. She was loosing arrows toward a hidden kobold.
I got up as fast as I could and dashed toward them, gripping the dagger and wand firmly in both hands. When I got close enough, Tress already had her sword drawn. Her quiver was empty, and two kobolds were advancing on her.
She held her short sword steady, glaring at the creatures with cold, calculating eyes.
I’d handle it for her.
I unleashed a lightning strike at the first kobold and threw my dagger at the second before she could act.
Both attacks hit their marks instantly. The lightning strike struck the first kobold square in the head, and a message appeared in my vision:
Stunning Strike - Activated
As the dagger pierced the light leather armor of the second kobold, another message popped up:
Poisoning effect - Ineffective
The first kobold collapsed to the ground, while the second pulled the dagger from its shoulder with a pained grimace. In that brief moment of distraction, Tress moved with grace and speed, thrusting her sword into the monster’s heart.
When I got close enough, I resummoned my dagger and threw it at the fallen kobold stirring on the ground. The blade struck the side of its head, killing it instantly.
Congratulations!
You have slain Kobold - Rank F5.
You earned one credit.
You have slain Kobold - Rank F5.
You earned one credit.
I exhaled and looked toward Tress. She was calmly sheathing her sword and dismissing her bow and empty quiver into her inventory.
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“Anyone hurt?” I asked as I approached her.
“No more than before,” she replied, though I noticed she was catching her breath.
“Let’s check on him.” I patted her shoulder and made my way toward Elk and Mary.
Mary had already dropped her shield on the ground and was gently tending to Elk’s wounded leg, murmuring reassuring words.
If the situation weren’t so dire, I’d have found the scene surprising and maybe even a little touching, but Elk’s grimace of pain and the pool of blood forming beneath him made it impossible.
“Found any way to remove it?” I asked.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to pull it.” Mary gave me a helpless shrug, then turned her attention back to the agonized demon.
I didn’t argue about being the one chosen to handle it. I already considered it my responsibility. I hadn’t asked to be their leader, but they clearly expected me to take that role, so I did.
I took another look at the trap, then glanced at Tress. When my gaze lingered, she raised an eyebrow.
“What?” she asked.
“Can’t you do something? Any elven magic?” I tried.
“What is elven, Zach?” she asked sincerely, crouching beside me.
“Forget about it,” I said, waving it off. Of course it couldn’t be that easy. “Hold him down, please. You too, Mary. And give him something to bite.”
The small woman grabbed a thick enough branch and placed it in Elk’s mouth.
“I’ll open it on the count of three, all right, Elk?” I met his eyes to ensure he understood. “When I open it, Tress, you pull his leg free.”
“One.” I took a deep breath, preparing to act as quickly as possible. The longer I took, the worse the pain would be.
“Two!” I forced the trap open with all the strength I could muster. The jaws snapped wide in an instant. Elk screamed into the branch, the sound muffled but raw.
Tress acted quickly, pulling his leg out, and I released the trap. It snapped shut again with a metallic crash as the jagged teeth clanged together.
Elk’s ankle was a mess. Blood poured from it in torrents. The sight reminded me of a woman bleeding in the snow. I shook my head, shoving the thought behind a mental curtain. Beneath the blood, the stark whiteness of his bone was visible. I’d bet it was at least cracked.
The demon’s breath was labored as Mary removed the branch.
“You said three,” he protested, his face completely soaked in sweat.
“Sorry, man. It works better this way.” I apologized earnestly, summoning my dagger and cutting the sleeves off my shirt. I handed them to Tress, who immediately understood what to do.
Mary’s gaze lingered on the scars crawling over my shoulders, disappearing beneath the rest of my shirt and armor. When she noticed me looking back, she quickly averted her eyes.
Tress fashioned a tourniquet with one sleeve and wrapped the wound tightly with the other. Elk grunted in pain but endured it, determination burning in his eyes. Meanwhile, I tried to figure out what we were going to do.
No one had potions left, and Elk couldn’t walk with a wound like that. We needed a healer—desperately. I racked my brain for alternatives.
Then I remembered the message.
Shop, I pictured the word in my mind, and a message appeared before my eyes:
Ascension Games Shop
The shop is personalized to your class and affinities. Here, you can spend the credits you’ve earned in the way you see fit. Monsters grant credits based on their ranks. Bosses give large amounts, defeating dungeons awards even more, and finishing a tower victoriously will make you rich.
I skimmed through the items. There was a little bit of everything: survival gear like matches, tents, and fishing rods, along with simple weapons. The most intriguing items were wands, staves, daggers, and crossbows—likely what the system considered best suited to my class.
Near the bottom of the list, I saw:
Elder’s Bleeding Dagger - Legendary
A weapon capable of inflicting magical bleeding on enemies. The effect stacks up to ten times on minor wounds.
Endurance needed to tank the hit: A3.
Cost: 1,000,000 credits.
Damn, I involuntarily thought, scrolling back through the list to find what I was really looking for. I didn’t see a small healing potion anywhere, but I found something close enough:
Medium Healing Potion
Cost: 50 credits.
“Fuck,” I muttered, turning to Tress, Mary, and Elk. “How many credits do you have, Tress?”
“Six. Two from the first kobolds I killed with the bow and one for each of the second wave we took down together,” she replied, crossing her arms. “Why?”
“With the ones I’ve got, we have ten credits. We need fifty to buy a potion capable of healing Elk.”
Mary looked confused, so I explained the system to her and Elk, though Elk seemed barely aware of his surroundings anymore. He was on the verge of passing out, which wasn’t ideal, but at least the bleeding seemed to be under control.
“So we just need to kill another twenty of those creatures to get enough credits to heal him,” Mary grimmaced at the math, her eyes lost in thought.
“Or we find a healer—or maybe something bigger that gives more credits,” I added.
“Let’s keep moving up the hill. I feel like we’ll find something important there,” Tress said, glancing at Elk and clearly considering how to carry him without causing him too much pain.
Noticing the elf’s thoughtful gaze, Mary stood taller, smiling. “I’ve got an idea. Can you help me test it?”
----------------------------------------
A few minutes later, Elk laid atop Mary’s giant shield. We’d moved him as carefully as possible, but even so, he’d winced and twisted in pain a few times. Once he was in position, Mary tested dragging the shield by slightly tilting it.
She managed effortlessly. It was a surprisingly effective solution and could prove useful in more ways than one. For now, I was just relieved it allowed us to travel with Elk.
Still worried but somewhat reassured, we started up the hill. We moved in a line, making sure to step in the same spots and carefully checking the ground ahead before planting our feet.
We moved slowly, but after half an hour, we reached the top of the slope. The elevation wasn’t very high, but it still gave us a clear view of a large portion of the valley.
Below us, similar trees stretched for miles before thinning out to reveal a blue ocean and a wide beach to the north. In every other direction, the woods dominated the landscape.
“There,” Tress said, pointing to an open field near our position—about two miles away if we were at the base of the slope. “We’ll find resolution there.”
“The wind told you that?” I asked, only half-joking.
“No, it was the half-dozen kobolds entering the cave.”
I squinted, narrowing my eyes, and caught sight of them—pairs and pairs of kobolds filing into the small cave.