“I think we should do some tests,” Claire said to the others. They sat in their folding chairs, each holding a sandwich made from convenience store bread and monster meat.

“I had a thought this morning about how we could try to level up faster, without necessarily needing to go and hunt higher-level monsters.”

Seeing interested gazes, she continued. “I don’t know if this will be true for you guys, because I’m a magic user and you guys are more martial classes. But I noticed that there was a pool of energy in my body that spells would come out of.”

“Right.” Rich nodded. “Your mana pool. But because I’m not a wizard like you are, I don’t think I would— or Lindy, for that matter— have a mana pool like you do.”

Claire shook her head. “You can use magic, I think. Just thought of differently. I have spells, and you two have skills. I think they use the same energy but create different effects. Your skill that lets you keep the shield in place is magical, I’m sure, and so is the one that makes the bigger shield wall. And Lindy’s arrows are not normal arrows, either, we’ve seen them. They’re probably imbued with her energy before they shoot out.”

“It’s my skill that does that.”

Claire nodded frantically. “I don’t think that matters. It’s… if I’m right… the same energy that powers your arrows and my spells. Maybe even our tougher bodies, too.”\

“How does this have to do with leveling?”

“I think a level measures the amount of that energy that we have in our body. And! Every time we kill a monster, the energy in them spills out into the world for us to take.”

They spoke for the next hour or so, settling on a few points to go for to try and level faster. First, standing closer to freshly-dead monsters to see if they would level up faster that way, while Claire would try and work on some kind of contraption to contain kill energy so they could compress it and mimic the effects of killing a high-level enemy.

“I completely forgot to ask.” Claire stood up, stretching. “What level are you guys now?”

“Four,” Rich replied.

“Four, too. Leveled twice today, and I’m feeling a lot better!” Lindy dusted her hands, picking James off of her lap.

“Is daddy going to stay here again?” James asked.

“Mommy and daddy are going to go out with Miss Claire over here for a little bit, honey.”

“Daddy’s more fun— oh.”

Rich sighed. “We’re going to be just outside.” He pointed in the direction of the forest. “There’s lots of scary monsters out there and we don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Here, James.” Claire reached into her spatial pouch, pulling out a piece of talisman paper and her brush. “Gimme a minute, I’ll meet you two outside after I make these.”

She wrote out the rune for an energy bolt on the paper, quickly repeating the process with a blade ward. Handing both pieces of paper to James, she demonstrated how to use them.

“Don’t shoot your eye out!” Called Rich to his son as he shifted the barricade to the side with a grunt.

“I won’t, dad!” He looked at Claire with wide eyes. “Thank you, Miss Claire!”

She stood and tousled his hair. “We’ll be back.”

Rich pulled the barricade back in place after Claire walked through the door.

“Alright, boss,” he said playfully. “What’s the plan now?”

“I think we go to the wolf area first. You can stand in the middle to take attacks while Lindy and I pick them off.”

“Trying to use me as a meat shield?”

Lindy chuckled. “Mhmm.”

Rich laughed to. “Shieldbearer Paladin is my class, after all. Here to serve—” he gave a mock bow to Claire “—and protect.”

Lindy let him take her hand and kiss it, laughing as he did. Claire sighed, looking away.

Claire blasted a few monsters that tried to interrupt their walk, but actually turned to stop them when they stepped into the clearing before riverbank that the wolves called home.

“Guys.”

They jumped up, breaking apart like teenagers getting caught together after curfew.

“Business, business, right.”

“I gotchu, Claire! No killing the doggies, sit there and let you two pick them off.”

“Doggies?” said Lindy, shocked. “Oh my god, they’re like big doggies!”

Claire, stealing a page from Lindy’s book, began to climb a tree. Tried to, rather, because by the time she was up there Lindy and Rich had somehow managed to get weapons on and appear ready for combat. The ranger joined Claire in another tree, nocking an arrow to her bow, while Rich let out an shrieking roar that drew the attention of every wolf in the vicinity.

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They came in groups. Twin foggy eyes glinted red, and dark legs covered space with long bounding steps. Their yellowish-gray fur covered rippling muscles underneath, and their mouths were slightly open revealing rows of pointy white teeth.

Rich’s taunt had the wolves charging him, but he quickly activated two more of his abilities. His shield extended in a full circle around him, but the first three crashed into it and knocked him back.

“[Hold the Line]!”

His shield flashed, and it suddenly was held in place. He braced himself on the weapon, pushing it forward to smash a wolf prone on the ground in front of him.

The first of the barrage arrived then, two of Lindy’s [Power Shot]s and an energy blast crashing into the pack. An arrow went stray, but the other embedded itself in the fallen wolf’s ribcage. It, bloodied, stood up successfuly just as two bolts of energy changed target to end the wolf for good.

Rich moved so he was on top of the fallen wolf’s corpse then swung his shield again at a pair of wolves that charged him from behind. One, battered by the shield was flung back, crimson blood flowing from its snout, while the other took advantage of the gap in Rich’s defenses to leap up and take a rip at his shoulder.

Two arrows flew towards the wolf that was still stuck on Rich’s shoulder, and streaks of spellfire poured out of the trees to stop more circling wolves from entering the fray. Combined with a strong and heavy shake on Rich’s part, an arrow lodged firmly into the attacking wolf’s skull and its jaws let loose. The other arrow, by some twist of fate, missed Rich’s neck by a tiny margin.

A burst of telekinesis on Claire’s part had a tree branch crack and fall on the heads of three wolves, even as the other four rushed Rich as one.

The shieldbearer refreshed his ability, an illusory shield curling around him once more and took on a defensive stance. A wolf was smacked aside, but two more slashed and bit his defense. Their claws, obviously enhanced by some form of energy tore through the newly-activated ability. And though they themselves stopped, the gray dome parted for a moment— a moment long enough for the last wolf to land a bite on Rich’s calf.

He stumbled to the ground, thrashing his leg to get the wolf off in vain. Two arrows thunked into the ground, missing their targets, and Claire’s energy blast only managed to cripple one of the three wolves attacking him.

Three more injured wolves managed to free themselves from the tree-branch and charged Rich as well.

The ones already surrounding him tore chunks out of his side and leg, their claws and bite going straight through his modest armor like a hot knife through butter. The wolf that clung to his calf stood, revealing the injury.

It wasn’t as deep as it appeared to be. Rich’s enhanced body seemed enough to take the blow, but as he stood, he favored his other foot. He kicked at the one who had just bit him, and the wolf recoiled. The other ones tried to take advantage of his extended leg, but his shield slammed onto the neck of one, making an audible crack that Claire could hear from the treetops.

Arrows and energy blasts rained from the trees then, ending all but one of the wolves.

Rich planted his shield in the ground, raising one arm at Lindy to tell her to kill the last one. An empowered arrow shot towards the wolf, but before it could hit, it let out a low, moaning howl.

Claire shot an energy bolt as soon as she had heard the noise, and though the magic was fast, the call for reinforcements was already out.

Six wolves emerged from the direction of the riverbank. And while four of them were normal, two of them certainly were not.

“Those look like bosses. We have to get down to help him!”

Lindy nodded wordlessly and descended from her tree gracefully.

Claire was about to begin shimmying down too when Rich cried out— “Heal me, Claire!”

She looked at his leg and made a split-second decision to jump the fifteen or so feet from her perch to the ground.

Midair she sent a wisp of energy into her Necklace of Flowing Wind, and her movement stopped as, for an ephemeral moment, the girl floated in the air, gently riding the air like a dandelion seed floating in the wind.

She fell the rest of the way, her attempts to recall proper falling technique lost in a panic-filled scream of “AAAAAH!”

Rich, still bleeding but ever the gentleman, turned to her on the ground and offered her his hand. She took it, and he pulled her up as she send a burst of healing through their contact.

He sighed in relief, the major wounds now turned to shallow scratches before summoning his illusory shield projection between him and the approaching wolves.

Four of them charged him. But Rich held strong on defense, the bodies and claws of the monsters slamming uselessly into his shield projection. He pushed the ability forward then, grunting with exertion as the two in the center fell backwards on the ground.

The one-way barrier was nifty, stopping the monsters where they stood but allowing friendly attacks to pass through from behind. A concentrated energy blast and two streaking arrows took care of the wolves on either side of the paladin’s shield.

That left two wolves… and the larger ones still hovering fifteen feet away.

All at once, the two bosses dashed away so quick that Claire couldn’t keep track— and as they found their new positions on either end of the three-person-group, they let out a mournful howl accompanied by waves of thick white mist.

In just a few seconds, the clearing was covered by a blanket of cloud. And then, howls sounded.

From nowhere, a wolf jumped out. It bypassed the paladin’s shield, sharp claws flashing in front of her. Rich’s arm swung out, his meaty fist slamming into the wolf’s flank. Flying still, two claws landed to either side of Claire’s neck, as a dark mouth filled with dripping white teeth consumed every bit of her vision.

Panic. The shield talismans in her pouch weren’t a concern, then, nor was the magic that would have came oh-so-easily at another time. Her arms beat against the wolf’s side— flimsy as a hummingbird’s wing, and just as useless— as the mouth closed.

She turned her head sideways and backwards, hoping to get away from the bite. And it still came down, but on the side of the skull, instead of the front.

The wolf’s head tore away, but the body still followed, knocking Claire to the ground.

Stars.

She could hear the growl of the wolf above her, rearing its head back to take another bite. Monster on either side of her neck, the too-sharp claws just inches away from mortal skin.

Spellbook too far: still floating above the ground in the air. Energy roiled inside of Claire, clouding her mind.

And as the wolf prepared to deliver another critical bite to the caster, a deafening roar was all that Claire coule hear. Her own blood rushing? Something else? But for one critical moment, a pattern formed on Claire’s skin.

Shimmering, mystical blue. And the two minds touched.

The wolf was savage. Animalistic in the simplest and worst of terms. Claire’s fury— and her fear, and her pain, concentrated in a spike of intent, right where that pattern was forming on her forehead.

And as the emotions came to the forefront of Claire’s mind, it leapt to her command, bridging the physical gap between her and the approaching maw of the beast. A metaphysical projection of what could only be described as Claire, emanated from the caster. For a moment, she felt everything in and around her body.

Mind now cleared of pain, perhaps due to the pure sensory overload of the experience, Claire willed the beast to die. The energy… her chi… in the space around responded, drilling a beam of power into the mind of the monster.

And it burst.