Lightforge stuck out his hammer just in time to block the incoming sword. As soon as he made contact he leaped away and rolled along the ground, narrowly dodging a silvery white beam of energy. He wanted to keep an eye on the villain doing the shooting, but there wasn’t time. He was only up on one knee when the swordswoman arrived again, flickering strikes coming from all angles.
This time he placed his shield in front of him, deflecting the blows and earning him the extra moment that he needed to rise to his feet. The swordswoman ducked aside as another beam struck his shield head-on, locking him in place. The woman's sword flashed as she struck at his legs, pain flaring from the cuts as his HP began to drop.
He glanced over his shoulder, checking on Sunbird. She was fighting the man with the bat, flying around just outside his reach and firing quick blasts through the gaps in the man's defense. At first she had tried to create distance between them, but he'd just turned to join his friends fighting Lightforge. Now she was staying close enough to keep him engaged, which left her at a disadvantage.
All in all, the situation wasn't great. The villains clearly had some practice fighting together, which was not an advantage that the heroes shared. For his part, Lightforge doubted that he could win his fight. They were too good at keeping him off balance, and he didn't have enough practice fighting hand to hand.
The beam against his shield faded, and he took off at a sprint. There was a delay between shots, and that might be his only chance to turn things around. He ran right at the Blaster, fully aware that he was turning his back on the woman and her sword. He only needed a few moments.
He hurled his hammer at the woman as he dismissed it. It dissolved into light all around her, hopefully giving him the slightest head start. He called out his daggers, which flew from his hands as soon as they formed, shooting towards the surprised blaster. The man dove aside, just as Lightforge had hoped he would.
The hero pumped his legs, moving as quickly as his low dexterity would allow. He ran right past the prone blaster and towards the man with the bat. Allowing his shield to dissolve, he instead focused on reforming his hammer as quickly as possible. He could already hear the pounding footsteps behind him as his opponent gained ground on him.
Energy flowed into him at the sound as he pushed his body forward. In order to have a chance, he couldn’t afford to lose ground. And at that moment, he was just fast enough to get the job done.
Sunbird saw him coming and grinned. She took to the sky just as the batter took a wild swing at her. He was thrown off-balance by the swing, but took advantage to spin around to head for the other fight. Only as he turned to face Lightforge did the other man realize that the fight had come to him.
Lightforge was still moving at a full sprint as he swung his hammer, catching the man on the chin as he finished his turn. With the hero’s full momentum behind it, the blow lifted the shorter man off the ground and sent him flying across the empty parking lot. Energy successfully transferred to another target, Lightforge was able to pivot in place and meet the woman as she caught up to him.
He successfully caught her sword with the handle of his hammer, and he caught the surprise in her eyes. This was not what she’d been expecting. But the hesitation only lasted a moment; in a burst of speed she spun away from his hammer and dragged the tip of her blade across his midsection. It partially caught on his armor, but his health still dropped.
She was simply too fast for him to handle. At the very least he didn’t have to worry about the blaster, who was now trading shots with Sunbird as each tried to maneuver closer to where their allies were fighting. It didn’t look like it would end anytime soon, which was a shame. Lightforge could use the help.
Since it seemed he would be on his own a little longer, he chose to grit his teeth and bear it. He twirled the hammer through the air, using the heavy weapon to ward away his enemy’s sword. While she was quick, she was almost certainly frail. She’d been very careful to avoid as many of his attacks as possible. With the hammer swinging wildly, she was keeping her distance and picking her moments to strike.
To her, his tactics probably looked like someone who’d been cornered and was becoming desperate. While that was true to an extent, he did have a plan. It just wasn’t very good, and it would hurt. A lot. He just needed a moment to brace himself for the pain.
On his next swing of the hammer, he let it get away from him just a bit more than usual. It pulled him off balance, creating a perfect opening in the middle of his defenses. His foe saw it and lunged forward with perfect form. The sword caught him in the side, piercing straight through his stomach and coming out the other side. His health bar flashed and dropped dangerously low. For a moment it looked like he might legitimately die from the attack. With less than ten percent remaining, the bar flashed white and stopped.
The swordswoman’s face lit up with victory as the blow struck home. And while the thrust was certainly dangerous, he wasn’t quite dead yet. And now she had leapt right up to him. Before she could draw back and remove the sword, he wrapped his arms around her in a powerful bear hug. She had him beaten when it came to speed, but he had the upper hand when it came to strength. She struggled against his grip, but he’d managed to get both of her arms pinned against her sides.
He didn’t dare try to free his hands to get a weapon for fear that she would escape. Instead he used the first weapon available to him. He headbutted her once, twice, three times. Finally she began to droop in his grip, and he tried to finish the fight. He threw both of them to the ground, hoping that landing on her with his full weight would be enough to knock her unconscious.
They crashed to the ground together and the villainess hit her head on the way down, instantly going limp in his grasp. The impact broke his grip and he found himself flopping to the ground beside his defeated foe. The motion twisted the sword that was sticking through him, sending a new wave of pain through his body. But he had won. He began to crack a smile until he saw the man with the bat advancing on him. He’d finally recovered from being thrown and looked fully prepared to turn Lightforge to paste.
The worst part was that there was very little that the hero could do about it. His HP was dangerously low, and his AP wasn’t much better considering how many times he’d had to summon and resummon his weapons. With a focused effort he forced a new pair of daggers into his hands as he began trying to rise.
A golden energy beam tore through the air and hit the man in the chest. He was forced to the ground and struggled briefly before collapsing and falling still.
Everything was suddenly very quiet. All Lightforge could hear was the faint rush of air as Sunbird flew to his side and looked him over.
“Holy [BLEEP]. You got your [BLEEP] beat pretty good, didn’t you?”
He tried to brush the comment off, but the words didn’t want to come. The sword still sticking out of his gut would have undercut the sentiment anyway. Everything was looking a little fuzzy around the edges and he struggled to lift himself. Not only did it not work, but his tunnel vision got worse instead.
Stolen novel; please report.
His health bar had been dangerously low since getting stabbed, but now it seemed he was teetering on the edge. What remained of his vision spun as everything started to turn dark.
----------------------------------------
There was no death notification, which Lightforge took as an excellent sign. When he opened his eyes he was still in the empty parking lot, and night had fully fallen. Another good sign; it was likely the same day as the fight.
God, he really needed to have a fight that didn't almost kill him. He was starting to set a bad precedent for himself.
Sunbird was standing over him, alongside a figure that he didn't recognize. All their clothes were in shades of gray, and their features were hidden by a cloak with the hood pulled low over their face. They had a hand extended towards him that was surrounded with a soft white glow that was already fading.
His health was still low, maybe one quarter of his maximum. Normally that would be concerning, but it was also significantly higher than what it had been before blacking out. The sword had been removed from his side, so he wasn't in danger of losing any more health.
With a groan of effort, Lightforge pulled himself to his feet and smiled at the newcomer. With better lighting, he could see that, in addition to the hood, they were wearing a full face mask that even included blacked out eyes. There were literally no distinguishing characteristics to give hints to their identity. It was probably the most believable costume he'd ever seen for actually hiding who you were.
"Thank you," he said, "I should definitely be dead right now."
The cloaked figure shrugged and said, "It's possible, but we can't know for sure. Your life would have started to regenerate on its own now that you're out of combat."
"Oh yeah. I guess I forgot about that."
"Actually, I suspect that you wouldn't have been in danger if you'd taken the sword out of yourself."
"Yeah, you dumb [BLEEP]. Who gets stabbed on purpose to win a fight?"
"Well," he said, "it seemed like a good idea at the time. And I did win."
"You barely beat one of them. I had to take the other two."
"Yeah. This is why I decided to open a shop instead of fighting."
"Good call. You suck at fighting."
"Woah, don't go that far. I beat two killer robots the other day, and they were twice my level. I managed that all on my own."
Sunbird took a step back and inspected him, disbelief plain on her face. They both knew that there was no point in lying about something like that; he had the XP to show what he'd done. She looked ready to concede the point, but the newcomer cleared their throat and caught both their attention.
While their face was completely hidden, their body language was clear. They were fidgeting nervously and trying to shrink away despite having just called the attention to themselves. They took a deep breath before they spoke.
"Actually," they began, "you had a little help with the robots."
"What?" It wasn't the most witty response, but it was the only thing that came to mind. Lightforge was going back through his memory of the fight, looking for signs of intervention. None were coming to mind.
"Here's the thing," the newcomer said, "I was passing by the other night and saw you fighting those spider things. It seemed like a tough fight, so I decided to help you out. I can't really fight, so I did other things."
"Like what?"
"Well, I held one of them in a force field for a few extra seconds so they couldn't surround you. And I gave you a minor regen effect, which I think made the difference between you living and dying."
He thought back to the white glow around the cloaked figure. There had been a moment during the robot fight where he'd seen a similar glow outlining his HP bar. He hadn't had the time to process it at the time, but it had been there. And with that additional context, he realized that the same thing had happened mid-fight against the swordswoman.
He groaned and said, "You had to do the same thing just now, didn't you? Giving me regen mid-combat?"
More fidgeting, and then they just nodded silently. Sunbird, who'd been watching the exchange in silence, broke down into peals of laughter, doubling herself over and quickly falling to the ground as she descended into a fit. After a few moments the sound died out as she continued trying to laugh while completely out of air. Instead she was just curled up on the ground, shuddering in her now-silent mirth.
Lightforge took in the sight with a mix of embarrassment and light confusion. While it was unfortunate that he'd be dead twice over without the intervention of the cloaked healer, it wasn't all that funny. He just stared at her for a moment before rolling his eyes and turning back to the newcomer.
"Sorry about her," he said, "Thank you. My name's Lightforge, and I guess I really owe you a lot."
"Don't worry about it. Supporting others is what I do. I'm Gray Guardian. It's nice to officially meet you."
"You too. Why didn't you introduce yourself last time?"
"So far it’s been in my best interest to stay hidden. I have Empower and Energy Barrier as power sets, and they don't have the tools to win in a direct conflict. I just help from the sidelines and hope I don't get noticed. I don't want to look like an easy target."
Lightforge just nodded at the explanation. He'd been here less than a week and he'd been jumped by villains three times and attacked by killer robots. Even with the ability to fight back, one of those incidents had killed him. In fact, all of them would have killed him if not for outside intervention. With a purely support based set of powers like Gray Guardian he wouldn't have had a chance.
A mighty wheeze signalled the end of Sunbird's laughing fit. She leaped to her feet, eyes wet with tears and a grin still on her face. She wiped away the tears and said, "Oh, wow. You should have seen your face. You were just so, so proud of beating those robots."
"It's really not that funny."
"Not to you, but you couldn't see how your face fell when Gray here dropped the bomb. Classic stuff right there."
"Uh huh, sure."
She was starting to giggle to herself again. His mind scrambled for anything else to talk about. They'd be stuck here all night if she just kept cracking herself up. He checked for system notifications, but there was nothing there. How could that be right? They'd won the fight.
"Wait," he said, "What happened to the villains?"
Sunbird's laughter cut off. It was her turn to start fidgeting and conspicuously looking away. Gray Guardian took advantage of the moment to speak up.
"They had some kind of teleporter on standby. As soon as we started working on you, they slipped away."
Of course. Player versus player combat only rewarded XP if someone ended up dead or in jail. Stopping or succeeding in a crime still paid out as normal, just not the combat. Fights to the death were meant to be discouraged, and it had worked. Knowing that escape can deprive your enemy of any reward had done wonders to incentivize running away at any opportunity.
Lightforge's shoulders slumped and he nodded. There was nothing to do about it. Instead of dwelling on the lost XP, he opened his menu and sent a friend request to Gray Guardian. The cloaked hero stared at the air in front of them without giving a reaction.
"Why?" was all they said.
"Well, you've saved my life twice now. I wouldn't mind the chance to repay the favor at some point."
"Alright. Thank you."
"That's my line. Thanks."
With that, the little group broke up and headed off to their own destinations. For his part, Lightforge had had more than enough excitement for his taste. His current plan was to go home and rest for at least a day. Then he would tackle the next problem on his list.
While a shop for upgrades and repairs was good, it was pretty limited. To really take off he would need to create items from scratch. That would almost certainly come at level five. That was when the real fun would begin.