Rare Skill Card: Refresh

Skill: The user of this card can push someone far beyond their limit. People can run farther and longer. Animals feel rejuvenated. Effect lasts for four hours. There is a corresponding time period after where subjects of the ability will be at reduced endurance.

Cool down: Thirty Minutes

"Now that is something," Anthony said, after getting the explanation of the skill. "Right?"

"It should be helpful. My horses have been at it all morning, so they're going to need a break eventually, but..."

Behind them the small group of zombies hadn't slowed down. If anything they had picked up more on the way.

"We're probably going to have to deal with that. If we ever want to rest that is," Finley said, patting the human on the shoulder. "You humans are good at killing things right?"

Anthony shrugged.

"I guess that is something we are good at. If the humans in this world are the same as the ones in mine."

Without a basis for comparison, Finley didn't know whether to agree or not. Either way, he was stuck out here with one of the humans while the dwarvish zombies behind them continued to mass. They were about twelve zombies behind them, and they were two span away. The bay mares had continued to increase the gap between them the longer they had gone on but neither group had stopped. Finley had estimated that it would be ten more span before they arrived at the next town.

"Got any bright ideas?"

"Are there any guns here? Not that I know how to shoot any but..."

"I'm not carrying any. You're talking about muskets right?"

"Well that answers that question. Thank you. Do you have any arrows? A bow?"

"I have a ceremonial spear from on top of the caravan, it's only used to pick fruit from high branches though. We're going to have to rely on Magic. Especially if you have a class that lets you cast a spell like that. Do you know how far your range is?"

"How would I know that?"

"In some skills its listed. And others you have to kind of play around with it. It sounds like this is the kind of skill you had to play around with. And good thing we have so many targets for you to do so with."

"My dear caravan driver, what exactly are you suggesting?"

Finley turned on his customer service voice and smiled before he decided to answer the human.

"Have you ever speared fish in a barrel?"

---

Ten minutes later, and all of Anthony's youth playing at the arcade down the street finally paid off. Finley had slowed the caravan down enough to allow their pursuers to close the distance. He was giving the horses a chance to rest all at the same time giving Anthony some target practice.

As a young lad, the games that had interested Anthony had involved using a plastic gun to shoot at fake zombies. With a careful application of his finger to be where his magic came from his holy bolt spell, he was doing much the same.

He took shot after shot as they closed in trying to get a handle on how accurate he could be. As they got to within half a league, he was hitting at target every five shots.

When the horses started noticing that the zombies were closing in, that was when he was hitting one every other shot. Then he made the unfortunate discovery that they kept getting up unless he hit them in the head.

That was when he got tired.

"Finley, it's getting harder to hit them now," the human said.

"You're probably getting tired. If you overdo it with magic, you're going to get a headache. I think the goddess gave you that card on purpose. If you need me to use it on you, I can. I have a side deck that I can stow it in. If you put it in your soul deck then you'll be in withdrawal if you ever take it out, in fact, just give me that card so I can use it on you."

Anthony debated for a second if he could trust the single elvenoid being that he had met since arriving in this strange forsaken world before taking it out of his pocket and giving it over.

A glow covered Finley as he used an ability on Anthony.

Suddenly, it felt like he had taken pre-workout and viagra. His neck itched and he felt erect.

"These side effects are... Have you tried this card out before because-"

Anthony trailed off as he focused on on the lead one. One of the zombies had broken from the pack and he fired off a holy bolt right at the mans head, finally bringing his second down.

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

Two of the ones behind it stumbled, much to his amusement. That short amount of time almost immediately went away as he realized that he had to head shot ten more to stop them. At least, his headache had gone away.

"Finley! They're dropping cards when they die!"

"Shit."

Some of the magic here had seemed odd, like having class powers tied to a card that had bonded to his soul, but he was rolling with the punches so far.

He remembered what Yil had offered him. His soul card felt like so much of a part of him that it had always been there. It had a picture of a man holding up a hand against a horde of zombies and truly felt a lot better than he did about this whole situation. He checked it quickly to see if anything had changed.

Rare Class Card: Cleric Level 1

Skills:

Divine Spellcasting Level 2

Divine Rituals Level 1

Heal Level 1

Survival Level 1

Medicine Level 1

This card grants mana.

As a cleric you must have a patron deity.

This is a soul card cannot be removed.

"Ah yes! I leveled up one of my skills!"

To celebrate he hit a zombie in the knee, making it stumble and slow half of the horde. Then with the acuity and hardness he had gotten from the refresh skill, he hit two more in the head.

Then he felt a little tug, a gentle pull towards the zombies. He jumped out the back of the caravan to go grab the gorgeous shiny cards.

"Finley! I think the goddess wants us to gather up these cards!"

"Shit. Well my deity is telling me nothing of the sort so, just let me know when you're done with target practice so we can turn around," Finley said from the front.

It took four more minutes but Anthony finally got the last of the zombies down and all of sudden they weren't getting chased anymore. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"We gotta go back for all those... Look it's a short jog, do you mind it if I?"

Finley looked around, then closed his eyes.

"The trees and the grasses here tell me that we are relatively safe so, go. Be quick. I'm going to give the horses some rest."

Anthony started running back down the road, the closest one was just fifty meters behind them. He kept jogging until he was able to scoop up the card and the card pieces that the zombies had dropped. The furthest downed zombie was almost half a mile away and he realized that he would have to carry the pieces in something and he hadn't brought a backpack or a sack to carry anything.

The first bloated corpse gave him an idea as its former owner had worn what he assumed passed for as a backpack. Anthony rolled the dwarf's arms out of it and then tested its integrity. It held up well and he thought it could hold the pieces he would need.

He looked up, checking around him, quickly ascertaining that the caravan hadn't moved. If anything, Finley was doing some magic in the back that gave off a golden glow.

Rather than leave the cards there and return, Anthony scooped it up and put it into the bag and then added the pieces.

Then he jogged to the furthest one, making it in record time. The bad parts of the refresh skill had worn off by that time and he was able to jog normally.

He grabbed the card without checking it, stuffing it in, then grabbing the pieces as well. Then he went down the line, gathering up twelve cards and enough pieces to make his pack feel heavy.

----------------------------------------

Finley finished pushing his mana into the six pieces, making another uncommon card. He put it on the pile. The horses were getting a bit restless. It was well into the afternoon, despite seeing the last couple of hills before the next tavern, a little voice in the back of his head was telling him that he should probably stay.

That was when Anthony woke up from his nap. The ache from using mana to make two cards in one day felt a bit much. If the new reality they lived in was going to continue like this then he would need to do something to increase his mana pool. There were enough options now that both of them could choose something to augment their current decks. Finley had sorted them into piles and was prepared to give a little lecture on what the cards all were and meant when Anthony woke up.

Of course the first thing the human did was to go relieve himself on the side of the road. Then he scanned the horizon. Then and only then did he sit down next to the elf.

"No immediate threat?"

"No. I wanted to talk to you about adding some of these to your deck. Especially if you're going to try to pull a move like that again. That was reckless. And since we're close to town, I wanted to give you the best shot I could. I don't know what's ahead of us but I don't- I don't have a good feeling about this."

"I don't have a good feeling about anything. This whole experience has made me rethink a lot of how I just don't want to kill things. So I would greatly appreciate it if we could fix that little issue."

"Well," Finley's customer service voice said, " you came to the right Tinker. Because I have a vested interest in fixing this issue. I would like to level my merchant class skill. And if I don't have the customers, that's going to prove to be difficult."

"That's rather pragmatic."

"I got a message that I had been elevated to Tinker King because I was last remaining Tinker. At the very least, I would like to to continue the traditions of the Tinker family and pass on our customs and courtesies to the next generation no matter what. They are yet to be found."

"Tinker King?"

"It's the title for the head of the tinkers. He who sets down the law and administer the justice. Tinkers roam the continent Noverra; or they did. I have never known a card power to lie."

He knew people that lied about their powers , but never powers that lied.

"Alright. So you're like merchant royalty, then?"

"Yes. I guess I can now add people to the family? It's something that a caravan chief can do. I was never a caravan chief."

Anthony got up, standing on the back of the caravan. There was a space where he could step up to get more height. He looked around.

"Sun's going down. Or getting lower. I presume that means we only have a few hours to get someplace safe?"

"If the town is safe. Honestly it might be safer to just hole up here. If I had an earth moving power, I would feel a lot safer. As none of the cards we got have an earth skill, I don't know."

"Do we have anything useful at least?"

"Of the twelve you got, none are class cards, but three skill cards- tracking, survival, and hunting all could be combined with two other skill cards to make the ranger class card. That would be useful if we got a good bow. I might be able to get one at the next town."

"On to the town? As your duly appointed security detail, at least we'll be able to hole up if there are any walls."

"If."

Anthony brought up a shaking forearm.

"I wasn't ready for that. If there's more zombies in the next town, I don't know what the goddess is doing to us. This situation is so fucked."

"Ah... Speaking of which."

The elvenoid held up two arms and a row of yellow flowers popped up around each of the zombies behind them.

"It's the least I can do."

"That's out of control. That far out. That's like what half a span?"

"It's not a combat spell unfortunately. More like a death ritual. Which reminds me-" Finley bleated twice, "Gotta let the goat lord know he is going to have visitors."