“I never have enough stats in what I need. I mean I always need more durability but the other stuff is nice too,” Alex said to himself, slightly out of breath, as he sprinted away from the group of hostile aliens.

He looked at his system prompt. He had received it a while ago but hadn’t looked at it yet as he had been tracking that final Zotari and didn’t want any distractions. It had been hard enough without it.

Alex Sullivan

Race- Human

Rank- Private

Grade- F

Class- Shift

Level- 10

Strength-43 (60)

Agility- 30 (46)

Intelligence- 15 (28)

Durability- 67 (94)

Endurance- 38 (55)

Health- 658/940

Stamina- 320/550

P.E.- 477/940

He noticed a couple things while he ran for his life. First off, he was now F-Grade. That was a nice boon, even though he still had no clue what it even meant. The next thing he noticed was that he had gained double the stat points he had previously. That, he did understand. He put his free points in agility. Right now, that was what he needed.

He ran. Did he know where he was running to? Of course he did. He was running away. Where else would he run while being chased by so many of the much more agile aliens?

The Zotari horde were hot on his trails. He could almost feel the knobby end of their staves tickling the back of his neck. Then, he actually felt one of the gnarled rods tickle the back of his neck. He immediately swung a closed fist back reflexively and made contact with the perpetrator. He wasn’t sure of the aftermath of the backhanded shot, but he couldn’t spare the time to look back.

He took a winding path through the desert valley hoping to gain the attention of one of the Saxan camps.

I have the worst luck. Alex thought as he stumbled on to a camp. A Zotari camp.

His group of pursuers grew. He kept running.

He needed to find his way back to a Saxan camp. His plight was getting more and more desperate the longer this chase lasted. More than once, a Zotari would graze or make full contact with his backside causing him to lose ground. At one point a Zotari had climbed up the cliffside and landed directly in front of him. Completely on purpose and not because he had just freaked out, Alex socked the Zotari directly in the throat. His fist exited the other side, dripping with dark blue. He quickly pulled it back, throwing the body backwards to hopefully slow down the death squad behind him.

The swarm behind him had apparently decided that they had enough numbers that they would stop chasing and start firing on Alex. Blasts of light scorched through the black tapestry of the night. Alex was the flame, the projectiles the moths. He couldn’t even hide as his suit gave away his position. He ducked behind a rock, hoping to at least evade the onslaught for a moment. His breaths were ragged, adrenaline pumping furiously through his veins. The Zotari had him cornered and they knew it. They moved to surround him, removing any hope he had to retreat. He started to see dark forms move in his surroundings and he knew his short reprieve was coming to an end.

A shot ignited to his right and he struck. He had one in the chamber and he used it. He was unable to block the blast but neither was the unfortunate Zotari. A scream could be heard in the distance. Alex didn’t know if he had killed or seriously injured the Zotari and it didn’t matter much to him. There were still an innumerable host of enemies surrounding him, one less in the fight was welcome.

He was struck by two more blasts of energy, which had netted him another two shots. A Zotari had climbed the rock he had been hiding behind. It swung its staff straight for Alex’s head. He grabbed it, yanking the alien straight toward him. Alex raised a fist to welcome his new friend, sending it flying back into the darkness. He raised the staff and threw it at an approaching Zotari that had been trying to catch Alex unaware. The staff went straight through its head and into one of its allies that had the misfortune of running straight into the makeshift javelins path. Both fell to the ground, at least one of them dead.

He was continually pelted by their shield rifles, even though each one went on a cooldown after firing. There were just so many of them focusing on Alex.

Wait why are they focused on me? I mean I get it now. I’ve killed a few of them and they probably don’t like it when their friends and families are murdered, so now they want vengeance. But why before?

He didn’t have an answer to that. It probably was a mob mentality type thing. He had attracted a crowd of Zotari and then had stumbled onto a camp of them. The new pursuers had just followed suit he supposed. He knew his intelligence stat was low but he guessed that if there were a luck stat, it would be even lower.

Stupid and unlucky. Alex shook his head.

Lost in his thoughts, he hadn’t seen the three Zotari come up behind him.

Not again.

He was held back by all of them as two more ran up in front of him. This was looking all too familiar and he didn’t have a camp of friendlies to aid him this time. He had a few shots that he had gained throughout the skirmish and he tried to get one off, but couldn’t get his hand raised towards any of his attackers.

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He hadn’t used this type of attack very much so far. His experience with it was extremely limited. What he had done in the past was channel a large portion of his thermal energy into his hands and condense it. Once it reached its apex, he fired it out. The thermal energy hurt coming in and it almost hurt as much coming out. He didn’t like to use this skill as much for that reason. It was like Mexican food. Spicy in, spicy out.

I should call that move the double headed dragon.

Alex chuckled a little as he was being attacked by a flurry of punches. Then he had an idea. Why did he need to shoot the lasers out of his hands? He looked over the skill to see if there was anything that said it wouldn’t work.

Concentrated Thermal Blast (Common)- Thermal energy accumulated can be concentrated and fired in a focused blast.

All it told him was he needed to concentrate the energy and then fire it. It should work, but it was going to be painful. The three Zotari holding him were not a good target for his current plan of attack, but the two directly in front of him were. He funneled the energy and prepared to strike. He had originally thought that he could try laser vision. That would definitely be super epic. He didn’t want to lose his vision, however. It was too risky to try something like that right now, not that he wouldn’t do it in the future. He had every intention of adding that to his repertoire. Right now he needed to do something that wouldn’t cripple him too much if something went wrong.

The power condensed. The shots were charged. Yes, Alex was being a little ambitious. Not only was he trying to fire from a different point of origin, but he was also trying to multiple projectiles simultaneously. What’s the worst that could happen? Who knows? Alex hadn’t ever done something like this. He was in uncharted territory. He willed the condensed energy to leave his body while screaming.

“LASER NIPPLES!”

Two powerful, blistering bolts fired from his tatas. Each of them found purchase in their very own alien. Both flopped backward without so much as a scream. The remaining three Zotari must have been in shock. Alex felt their grips loosen and he capitalized. Wrenching his arms free, he made some space between them. As soon as his arms were free, they tried to grab ahold of him again with no luck.

With them attempting to close the gap again, they had also inadvertently created an opening for Alex. He swung a right hook. It went in an arc, hitting each of his three assailants. The head of each of them snapping to the side with such ferocity, it would have killed a normal person. As it was they had been severely injured. Alex was not above taking advantage of a distracted, wounded enemy. Especially when he was severely outnumbered. He stomped down on each of their heads as if he were stepping on a bug, a funny thought as his allies were the bugs in this scenario. It felt like he was a hired enforcer brought on to correct the injustice that bugs faced. The squashed become the squashers. It was poetic. Maybe. Alex hadn’t ever read poetry before, it was too boring. He did know that was something that people said sometimes and it seemed to fit.

Poetic.

With that group down, he turned to attempt to see the remaining aliens. There weren’t many left. He wasn’t sure if some had retreated, if they were getting reinforcements, or if this was truly all that was left. He counted ten. There could be more lurking around outside of his vision, but he couldn’t focus on that right now. He just needed to concentrate on his immediate surroundings.

The group was a lot more wary of him now that he had eliminated so many of them. They had stopped firing on him a while ago when they realized that he was using it against them. This made Alex slightly annoyed. He wanted to continue to practice with his newfound ability. Maybe not from his nipples anymore, but something. Instead, it looked like he would have to stick with his oldest friends in this new reality, his fists.

“Let’s go. I don’t have all night. My shift should be almost over. I need to get some of that good stuff. It’s the best thing in my life right now,” Alex yelled to the now confused Zotari group.

They had no doubt understood him as he had his translation skill. He wasn’t exactly speaking for them, so his taunt wasn’t very intelligible. Of course, he knew exactly what he was talking about. That slop he had eaten earlier. He had already dreamt about having more. It was his favorite and he was going to eat so much when he got back to camp.

They all looked at each other and gave a shrug before charging all at once. Alex always thought it was funny in movies when the larger party fought the hero one on one. They had numbers, why wouldn’t they utilize them. Of course in this situation Alex would have preferred that. Unfortunately, his enemies hadn’t grown up watching Earth films and they all attacked in unison.

Multiple blows landed simultaneously and Alex did his best to defend himself. Three more hits landed with another coming straight for his head. He dodged the final strike and leaned in closer to the culprit. An open handed slap removed its head from its body.

“That’s what I call a pimp slap!” Alex screamed in delight.

Another incoming attack, another sidestep. Alex felt like he was starting to get the rhythm of the battle. He felt like his movements were being guided by something more. When he followed the music of the fight, everything was smooth. One step out of line and he felt like he was pushing against a strong current of water. He wasn’t flawless, but he was in flow more often than not. It felt liberating. Against David, he had always been on his back foot. Now, he felt like he was the one dictating the battlefield.

I’m the captain now.

He dispatched one after another until only one remained. It must have seen the writing on the wall because it ran away.

Alex started to follow, but swiftly decided against it. Last time he chased after the last Zotari he had gotten himself into quite the pickle. He opted to instead find his way back. He had been running for so long and in so many directions, that he truly had no idea where he was. He had no confidence in finding the camp. He thought back to the beginning of this final stand. He wondered why the Zotari had suddenly decided to fire on him. They been cautious until right at the very end. He had originally thought they had just grown tired of chasing him, but what if it was something else. Was he leaving their territory and entering Saxan domain? Or was it something else?

With no way to determine for sure, he just followed his gut. He continued walking in the same direction he had been going. The sun was beginning to peak out over the edge of the basin. The sky was a vibrant mix of blues and greens as day began to overtake night. It was a welcome sight for Alex. He had been fighting all night long and he was exhausted. Again. Why was he always exhausted?

An hour later he stumbled onto something and he wished he hadn’t listened to his gut. Why would he listen to his gut?

Stupid and unlucky.