Chapter 5
Virginia desperately rolled to the side, bringing up Blood Drinker’s Bane as she did. Her desperate maneuver was half successful, the Stich Beast slamming into the tree with a sickening crack as wood and bone both snapped. Her clumsy swipe with the knife only grazing one of the things many legs, which now that it was closer, Virginia could see looked like it had been pulled off some kind of deer, then stitched onto the thing’s torso with thick and crude looking black thread. It turned toward her unsteadily, revealing a mouth stretched wide over a mismatched set of teeth, some of which looked too big to come from anything but a dinosaur, or some monstrous creature she’d never even heard of. Bulging yellow eyes regarded her over that dental nightmare, and the Stitch Beast lurched towards her again. Despite the snapping of bone she’d heard, it moved with the same ungainly and lurching speed as before and showed no sign of feeling any pain.
That changed when it shifted its weight onto the leg she’d managed to scratch with Blood Drinker’s Bane, and it hesitated. Twisting its head around, it regarded the small cut along it’s leg, bulging eyes tracking a thin trickle of surprisingly normal looking crimson blood running over it’s bulging skin. The Stich Beast turned back to her, it’s blank expression almost seeming accusatory. Virginia took a deep breath, bringing Blood Drinker’s Bane up and pointing it at the monster.
I guess that’s what being a ‘Bane’ does. It definitely didn’t seem to like getting cut with that. That thought was supported by the Stitch Beast’s letting out a piercing and disturbingly human sounding scream, shrill and piercing. It crouched, and then launched itself through the air at her, jagged teeth stretching towards her face. Caught off guard, Virginia swiped at it again, Blood Drinker’s Bane slamming into one massive tooth with a crack, before sliding up along the fang and digging into the gums lined with black stitchwork.
The Stitch Beast screamed again, making her ears ring, as the weight of it forced her to the ground, her back slamming into the rocky dirt and knocking the air out of her lungs. She gasped, sucking in air desperately, as she grabbed the bone handle of Blood Drinker’s Bane with both hands, desperately trying to push the crooked fangs away from her face and neck. As she did, blood began to pour out of it’s mouth as she mangled it’s gums, silver blade digging into the mess of flesh and black stitching.
The Stitch Beast screamed again, and Virginia screamed back at it, it’s blood dripping down onto her face. She tossed her head to keep it out of her eyes, and shoved harder, hearing something crack inside its jaw as her knife was forced even deeper into its gums.
The Stich Beast’s twisted and threw its head, trying to get around her knife. When that failed, it leaned its full weight onto her, forcing its fangs closer to her face even as it drove the knife deeper into its mouth. Virginia’s elbows were forced to the ground, and she felt a deep twinge of pain in her forearms, her bones straining under the Stitch Beast’s full weight. It strained, until she felt like her arms were going to break, before the pressure eased. She took in a shuddering breath as the Stitch Beast leaned back, staring up at it warily.
The muscles in the Stitch Beast’s neck bulged, working like it was swallowing something. Its head shuddered, and then its mouth split open, it’s vaguely canine skull cracking, splitting and unfolding like a grotesque flower, chunks of gore and a thick black fluid pouring out. As it did, Blood Drinker’s bane was shoved to the side with the chunk of the Stitch Beast’s face that it was still embedded in, wrenching her arms, Virginia barely managing to keep from losing her grip on her only weapon, barely managing to keep one hand on it. From what had been the beast’s neck, a wide crooked split in the flesh appeared, and Virginia only had a second to take in the sight of thin jagged points of teeth pushing out of the flesh around the new crude mouth, before the Stitch Beast slammed its new mouth down on her. She felt the sensation of her shoulder being shoved into its mouth, and then she felt it’s fangs start tearing into her, and she screamed again, defiance overshadowed by pain.
Virginia desperately stabbed at its head and shoulder; her arm that was not currently being eaten luckily the one that had kept hold of Blood Drinker’s Bane. She felt the knife burying itself in the beasts bulging flesh, smelled the coppery scent of blood mixing with the disgusting sickly-sweet smell of its black ichor.
Still the Beast didn’t relent, and she felt its teeth scraping against the bone of her shoulder as it tore her arm apart. She was hurting it, but it wasn’t enough. She’d have to get incredibly lucky to hit anything vital enough in its twisted mess of a body to kill it. The thought sparked something in her mind, and she sucked in as breath, her voice reedy and unsteady with pain.
“L-Lucky Strike!” She gasped and half screamed, slamming Blood Drinker’s Bane home in the Stitch Beast’s side again. There was that same feeling of pressure as when she used Analyze earlier, pulling at the muscle in her arm, redirecting her stab, and she felt Blood Drinker’s Bane embed itself in flesh all the way to the hilt, she felt the tip slam into something hard. On top of her, the Stitch Beast shuddered and froze, Virginia letting out another gasp of pain as she felt its fangs twitch while still dug into the muscle of her shoulder. She stared up at it panting, as it shuddered again. With a quiet series of pops, the stitches all along the beast’s body burst, parts of it dropping to the ground as the Stitch Beast literally fell apart, a tide of that same black ichor pouring out and drenching Virginia, who let out a groan of disgust, trying to wriggle out from the pile of dismembered Stitch Beast pieces and not gag.
She succeeded at the first, even as her mangled arm lit up with pain, and failed at the second, only managing to crawl a few feet away before she twisted onto her side, violently throwing up. In between heaves she took in shuddering breaths, wincing as her shoulder screamed in agony with even the slightest movement. As she lay there on her side, Blood Drinker’s Bane still clenched in a death grip in one hand, a series of blue screens flickered into existence in front of her.
Worse Than It Looks has leveled up! Now level 2!
Short Blades has leveled up! Now level 2!
Worse Than It Looks has leveled up! Now level 3!
Short Blades has leveled up! Now level 3!
Lucky Strike has leveled up! Now level 2!
The familiar parade of skill increase notifications were followed by a larger screen, the blue glow brighter than the others.
You have leveled up! You are now level 2! Luck increased by 3! You receive 2 unallocated stat points!
Virginia took in another shuddering breath. The relatively minor pain of her flayed back resting against the rough dirt path was drowned out by the agony from her shoulder. Twisting her head, she tried to inspect it, and it looked… not good. It was hard to tell under the mess of blood and ichor covering her, but she was pretty sure she saw glimpses of off-white bone amid the gore. She felt her stomach twisting again, and she closed her eyes and grit her teeth, refusing to allow herself to throw up again. Once the wave of nausea passed, replaced by an alarming lightheaded feeling, she opened her eyes again, and called up her character sheet. She thought there had been something important there for her current situation.
Name: Virginia Christianson
Race: Human (Story)
Age: 18 (0)(34)
Template: Final Girl
Path: Survivor
Level: 2
Health: 63/220
Mana: 155/170
UNALLOCATED: 4
STRENGTH: 7
REFLEXES: 10
SPEED: 12
VITALITY: 11
ATUNEMENT: 9
IMAGINATION: 11
WILLPOWER: 13
FAITH: 5
CHARISMA: 11
AWARENESS: 13
LUCK: 20
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Conditions: Bruised, Filthy, Bleeding, Blood Drenched, Lightheaded, Limb Disabled (Left arm), Grace Period
Abilities:
Passive:
Worse Than It Looks (Lvl 3)
Horror Survivor (Lvl 2)
Final Girl (Lvl MAX)
Survivor’s Will (Lvl 6)
Lucky Charm for the Damned (Lvl 1)
Unkillable (Lvl 1)
Active:
Lucky Strike (Lvl 2)
Flee (Lvl 1)
Run it Off (Lvl 1)
Analyze: (Lvl 1)
Skills:
First Aid (Lvl 1)
Improvised Weapons (Lvl 1)
Running (Lvl 1)
Short Blades (Lvl 3)
Swimming (Lvl 1)
There were a couple new additions to her sheet, and her health was unsurprisingly alarmingly low, but Virginia ignored all of that for the moment. Scanning over her character sheet, she considered her First Aid skill, before focusing on the ability she’d gained for choosing Survivor as her path. Time for my path to live up to it’s name because I think… I’m going to bleed out otherwise. She called up the description of her new ability.
Run it Off: (Costs 40 Mana). By activating this ability, you will regenerate a portion of your health over the next minute. The amount restored scales with your WILLPOWER.
Licking her dry lips, then regretting it immediately as she got a mouthful of blood and black ichor, Virginia activated the ability and hoped for the best. “Run it Off!” She wasn’t sure how much this ability would heal her, but hopefully it would be enough to keep her from bleeding out in the next couple of minutes. Unfortunately, nothing happened when she tried to activate the ability, no weird sense of pressure like she’d gotten when using her other abilities, and no effect on her wounds.
A thread of fear ran through her, even through the ongoing effect of Survivor’s Will. She’d assumed all her abilities were just activated by her wanting them to activate. If there was something else she needed to do to activate Run it Off, she didn’t have a lot of time to figure out what that was. As she stared at the brief and unhelpful description of the ability, something occurred to her, and the trickle of fear was overtaken by annoyance.
You have got to be kidding me.
Virginia stared at the name of the ability. Run it Off. Slowly, she staggered to her feet, breathing out in hisses of pain as her mangled shoulder flared up. Carefully orienting herself along the path, and praying she didn’t run into another tree root, Virginia forced herself to break into something that was more of a lurching powerwalk then a run, but…
“Run it Off.” She hissed out between clenched teeth. This time, she was rewarded by that familiar feeling of pressure, starting in her legs, then spreading up her body, the agony in her shoulder easing slightly as the pressure of her ability being used built under it. Virginia scowled as she continued jogging along the darkened trail, stumbling occasionally over rocks and tree roots in the dark.
“I think I hate this.”
***
Run it Off has leveled up! Now level 2!
Virginia ran for a full three minutes, recasting Run it Off each time it ran out, until she didn’t have enough mana to cast it again. The pain in her shoulder had lessened to a dull throb, and according to her character sheet, her health was maxed out again. It was hard to notice a difference at a glance, the gore from both her and the Stitch Beast still covering her shoulder, but she was pretty sure she didn’t see any bone poking through anymore. More importantly, she could use her arm again, feeling only a slight twinge of pain when she rotated her shoulder experimentally, the Limb Disabled condition fading off her character sheet after the third cast of Run It Off. The Lightheaded and Bleeding conditions had disappeared right when the first cast ran out. Now longer worried about dying from blood loss, Virginia turned her mind to other problems.
Specifically, trying to find her harpoon. She’d dropped it on the road when the Stitch Beast ambushed her, and after running in a panic for a few minutes to trigger her ability, she’d lost track of where she’d nearly gotten eaten. She clutched Blood Drinker’s Bane in one hand, peering into the shadows of trees suspiciously, wary about more Stitch Beasts, or something worse, leaping out at her.
Honestly, she wasn’t sure if the harpoon would have even worked on the Stitch Beast. She was pretty sure it was Blood Drinker’s Bane’s special ability that had let it kill the Stitch Beast. Still, she doubted the beast was the only monster she’d run into, and having a weapon that could keep something at more of a distance than a few inches from her face… the image of the Stitch Beasts mismatched teeth stretching towards her face ran through her mind.
Yeah, let’s try and avoid that happening ever again.
She literally stumbled over the harpoon a few minutes later, the toe of her worn sneaker sending it sliding across the rough dirt of the path. With a sigh, she bent down and retrieved the harpoon, and then she studied it with a frown. Curious, she tried using her Analyze ability on the harpoon, and a Depths screen obligingly popped up in front of her.
Out of Place Harpoon: A large harpoon with a composite steel head and reinforced fiberglass body. Aside from being found in an unlikely location, there is seemingly nothing notable about this weapon.
Note: This weapon was created as part of a Story. Being formed by the Depths System directly, its level of Corruption is already maxed out.
Virginia rolled her eyes. While it was good to know that her Analyze ability could be used on items, she was growing increasingly frustrated with the information presented to her by the Depths Screens. Her Analyze ability also mentioned things about levels of corruption by the Depths System, but she still had no idea what that meant. Corruption sounded like a bad thing, and she eyed the harpoon warily.
Is this the kind of thing that Tryn was offering to answer questions about right before he left? She carefully leaned the harpoon against a large tree next to her, before sitting down at the base and leaning back against it. But it said the Depths System had just arrived, so how would anyone even know what to ask? I didn’t even know about this ‘corruption’ was a thing until after he’d vanished. It’s like the System wants to appear to be helpful but doesn’t actually want to be helpful. Virginia scowled out into the darkness. It’s like… no, that’s definitely what it is. She leaned her head back to stare at the sky. Or if not the System, then at least the one speaking for it. Shaking her head again, Virginia tried to shift her focus. Honestly, there was just too much about this she didn’t know. Trying to figure out why the System worked the way it did was probably a lost cause, when she honestly still wasn’t sure what exactly it was.
Of course, it could just be to mess with us because it’s run by jerks like Tryn. She snorted and called up her character sheet. There had been a few things that seemed important earlier, just not as important as keeping herself from bleeding out. With that accomplished, she focused on the additions to her sheet.
So Worse Than It Looks, Short Blades, Lucky Strike, and Run it Off all leveled up. Leveling up seemed to just happen naturally as she used a skill or ability, and she assumed that it they were improving somehow, even if none of the descriptions on them had changed when she checked.
Short Blades must be from using Blood Drinker’s Bane. Lucky Strike was what killed the Stitch Beast at the end. Run it Off was from my impromptu jogging session earlier. She frowned and called up the description for Worse Than It Looks.
Worse Than It Looks: Your story involved you being subjected to a degree of violence and physical punishment that should have been fatal. Your ability to absorb punishment and keep struggling on with what would be life threatening injuries for most people is greatly enhanced as a result. For every level of this ability, you receive a small amount of bonus resistance to effects that reduce your health, although the physical manifestation of these effects will be unchanged.
Virginia made a face. So, I won’t be actually dying, I’ll just look like it. She glanced down and looked at the caked-on mess of gore that was her now healed shoulder. How much worse would that have been if I didn’t have that ability? A thin trickle of anxiety ran through her stomach. Would it have just torn my arm off? Or killed me? Taking another deep breath, she forcibly shoved the anxiety down before it triggered Survivor’s Will.
I do have it though. I’m going to survive, and these abilities are what will let me do it. With that in mind, Virginia took a moment to take a more in-depth look at a couple of her other abilities.
Lucky Strike: (Costs 15 Mana) You would never have described yourself as a fighter, but you have a knack for managing to pull off a debilitating or lethal blow just when you need it. Activating this ability allows you to add a damage bonus to your next attack based on your LUCK stat.
Flee: (Costs 10 Mana) You know that against some monsters, all you can do is run for your life. By activating this ability, you can move much more quickly as long as you maintain this ability. Maintaining this ability costs additional mana per second.
Horror Survivor: Your story involved you surviving a nightmarish scenario specifically designed to cause fear. You have a bonus to resist fear effects that increases with every level of this ability.
Final Girl: Your story involved you alone surviving when everyone around you perished. The ultimate unlikely survivor in the face of near certain death or worse. You receive experience whenever you survive a situation that was likely to result in your death. The amount received depends on your odds of survival. A bonus is applied for every other individual in the same situation near you who you outlive.
Taking a moment to digest that, Virginia shrugged. Horror Survivor seemed like it did the same thing as Survivor’s Will, but it hadn’t leveled up when the Stitch Beast attacked, so maybe they were more different than they looked. Lucky Strike did pretty much what she expected and had used it for earlier, although knowing it apparently got stronger the higher her Luck was good to know, since it meant that it should keep getting better as her Luck kept going up. Flee seemed like something she could have used to escape the Stitch Beast instead of fighting it, so she’d have to try and keep that in mind from now on.
From listening to Wallace play Crypts and Creatures with the kids, she remembered experience was something players received for killing monsters that let them level up. Apparently, she only needed to survive to gain experience, which seemed like a plus for her. That’s probably why I leveled up after the Stitch Beast.
On that note, she turned her attention to the unallocated stat points she’d received for leveling up. And apparently for choosing her Template, since she had four of them now. She guessed that “unallocated” meant that she could put those points into any of her stats. Virginia briefly thought about assigning all four of them to Luck, since that seemed to be important to her Template, and was one of the few stats that she had an ability that directly drew on it.
However, the memory of the Stitch Beast pinning her to the ground, and forcing her arms back to tear into her, was still fresh in her mind, and she allocated three of the stat points into Strength instead. It was one of her lowest stats apparently, and she was worried about that coming back to haunt her. Her last point she dropped into Willpower, since it was what made Run it Off stronger, apparently. She wasn’t sure how much stronger, but if that point could make the difference between closing a future wound versus leaving her bleeding out, it was definitely worth it.
With that done, Virginia pushed herself to her feet, retrieving the harpoon from next to her. Her shoulder was still sore, but there was no telling when another Sitch Beast or other monster would come around. Returning to the dirt path, she resumed following it, hoping that wherever the path led, she’d get there soon.
And that they have a shower. If not, I might need to head back to the lake and take my chances with whatever the Blood Drinker Queen’s body is doing to the water there.