I tried to look around to find my aggressor, but I did not find anything. As I twisted to look around, a wail escaped me, and I spat blood.

I tried to move on all four to get under cover, but there was not much cover I could find between the too-small boulders. Lucky me, the light ceased, and I found myself again in the dark.

I was practically incapacitated, but nobody tried to capitalize on it. Maybe they are afraid I would pull another vampire-killing blow? What should I do: should I try another lightfire spell or heal? I needed to heal; I felt horrible. Somebody had shot me in my belly... but I heard no bang!? With a lightfire, I would be gone from here and could heal in a relatively safe place.

“I cannot spell another lightfire because of the cooldown.”

OK, so I will heal and have to fight whoever is here and shot me before.

“Tell me why it did not work?”

“I don't know; it should have worked!? The spell went through! Maybe the shot or whatever it was pulled me out of it? It doesn't make sense?”

I was dizzy, and in addition, the pain made it hard to focus. The spell went through; that makes sense with it being in cooldown, but then why am I still here?

“Place some light further away. Whoever shot me fears Andy enough not to attack now; plus, it does not see in the dark, or else, it would have shot again. Make some light and then heal me.”

“I might need to heal again in steps; the wound is serious.”

When she made light, I looked around, trying again to find the shooter. I could not find anything. She healed me.

I've spat a lot of blood. To make things worse, the vampire-made incisions did not heal; blood still trickled down along my thigh. That was a nasty surprise.

“Hm, strange. There is no blood on my belly where the bullet wound should be.”

I sacrificed some clothes to make a bandage over the thigh to limit the blood loss. Does healing replace the lost blood? Not sure how this works.

The other wound was only internal. There was no blood outside. How can that be?

“Did the spell backfire?”

“I don't think so. I did not feel anything wrong with the spell.”

“How easy or complex is this spell?”

“Oh, it is a very complex one. Few grand mages can achieve it.”

“OK? And level four Andy can do it?”

She laughed out loud.

“No. I can do it. I am not level four!?”

“What level are you, Flo?”

“I don't know exactly your units of measure, but I must be about the same level as the Lynx.”

“Fucking fuck! He was level ninety-seven! Do you say you are also level ninety-seven? How did he reach this high level?”

“Maybe less, maybe more. The last time when we accumulated magic, we were in the zone around Silver Town when that magic storm happened. We would have perished in the magic storm, but I was able to keep us both alive with my healing. After the storm, we were stronger; a lot of magic accumulated during the storm in our bodies.”

OK. That explains how a low-level raid target got high level. They are both evolved freaks that survived that magic storm like that fucking wolshi. Did she say maybe more?

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“What level did you have when you learned the lightfire spell?”

“As I said, I do not know your classification.”

“Just estimate”

“Sixty? Seventy? Certainly above fifty.”

So she was above seventy before she evolved? What monster do I accommodate? But I did not follow up on that line of thought.

“And how much mana do you normally need for a spell? As much as Andy has now?”

“Oh, no. Much more. Andy does not have that capability.”

“Then how does it work that she can cast the spell?”

“Because I know the spell! I am possessing Andy, so I can tell the spell. Normally you cannot learn a spell for which you do not have sufficient mana.”

“Then why do you consume from Andy's mana and are limited to her mana?”

“This is not a classical possession. I do have the knowledge, but I cannot use my own mana. I know the spell, so I use my knowledge to say it, but I can use only the mana that Andy has available.”

“This is kind of a cheat.”

“Yes”

“But if you would spell it, you would use a lot more mana.”

“Yes”

“Why that? Is Andy more efficient?”

“No, but the spell worked. The spell takes all the mana needed to transfer my body across the realms.”

And with this, it dawned on me:

“Exactly. But Andy has only that much mana, so the spell used all it had... and transferred part of my stomach across the realms. Good work, Flo! You just gave Andy an ulcer. Besides, with another ninety-nine spells, you might send enough mass to make another Andy there. It remains to rea...”

“Oh, fucking fuck, you may be right!”

I had to chuckle hearing Flo using my repertoire and speaking it out loud. She did not use to swear before. My good influence, eh?

“I may be right!? I am right. Good that the spell sent something from my center of gravity and not a piece of my brain. So how much does Andy need to level to get the needed amount of mana, as much as you would need to cast the spell?”

“Ahm. About what you call level sixty or above? Just a rough estimation...”

Here goes my dream of helping the Lynx through Andy. We need a new strategy. Either we log out and try to bring the real Cala with White Flower inside the game, or we find a different solution.

“We could send them a message?”

“Yeah. Keep cool; we may only need six or seven years to come to you. This crazy fast leveling that we did with Andy until now will not work at higher levels.”

But the message discussion gave me another idea.

“What about sending them a portal? Maybe through a dimensional ring or something?”

“Hm. You plan to put it inside your belly and then send it? Risky, but if the spell does the same thing again, with a little pain, it may work. In this case, we need to buy the ring, the portal, and hope that they will see it.”

“Is the spell visible?”

“Yes, it is shortly visible before I materialize there. They might be able to see it there in the dark, especially as Andy's cast is long due to her low mana capacity. As you saw, it took Andy some fifteen to twenty seconds to spell it. We can try it and hope that they'll see it.”

OK, there is a chance. It is not much, but I could try it. And to do that, I now need to get to a town as fast as possible.

“Let's go to a town. How expensive is a portal?”

“That depends on where the portal should lead to. A portal to a town nearby is usually not expensive. You know a portal scroll has limited power. You want a town further away; you need a stronger spell; that's a more expensive scroll, a higher qualified mage, more expensive ingredients.”

“I got it. Where do you go? That's the wrong direction?”

“Did the vampire not say that the way outside is behind in a bifurcation that we missed?”

“And you believe her?”

She shrugged. She really shrugged as she was in the lead, and now she grinned:

“And there is, the bifurcation!”

Yes, indeed, there was a bifurcation. Bubble was sitting on my shoulder as I stopped to look at the bandage. It was now full of blood. I healed myself, but the little holes remained. The blood did not flow in streams but continued to trickle.

“What are you doing?”

The question was for Bubble, who came down from my shoulder and then wrapped itself around my thigh. Hmm, not stupid, the little slime; it was a better quality bandage as it blocked the blood loss and could adjust itself as I walked.

“OK. Good idea, but can you stay there when I walk?”

It gave me two pulses. OK, I think two means yes. I sighed, relieved, and started walking again.