“This System is messing with our minds. One minute Viv’s saying not a chance is she going out to fight the Jackal-Dogs, the next, we’re all outside flinging Magic around like we’ve done it our entire lives”
“Not very good if we’ve been doing it our entire lives”, chuckled Mark, “But it was a good first showing, none of us are permanently injured”
“But we would have been if I couldn’t heal or we didn’t get back inside quite as quickly as we did”, I growled, “a second behind and we’d have had nearly a dozen of those things ripping us to bits. We’re Level 1, we’ve got to be smart about this, not go running blindly into every fight”, my words seem to have got through to Mark as he stayed quiet and sat down.
“So what do you suggest?”, asked Viv.
“Well when I was healing Mark and slapped the Jackal-Dog in its face, it showed me further effects of my Healing Touch. I think that if we grab some ranged weapons of my dad’s, we’ll be able to apply our powers to the ranged weapons as well. We go upstairs and snipe at them from a distance”
“Sounds like a plan”, Mark laughed, already standing and walking back towards the garage.
Quickly getting up and following him, he already had the tool rack half rotated, two dozen weapons from older periods hung up behind it.
As soon as Mark had snapped the rack back into place, he grabbed a large crossbow from the rack and started walking back, “Which room?”, he asked, a smile on his face as he already knew my answer.
Quickly grabbing my bow and both quivers, I marched back through the dining room, through the kitchen and up the stairs, Viv and Lisa a step ahead of me as they followed Mark.
Turning right at the top of the stairs, we all headed straight down the hallway and into the utility room at the end. Grabbing the door handle, Mark pushed the external door open and we single-file stepped out onto the flat roof that lay across this section of my house.
Fanning out, we all leaned as close to the energy as we could, looking around the house until I saw one of the Jackal-Dogs coming back around the corner of the house.
“One’s here”, I shouted, pointing straight at it, the beast heard us, looking straight up and at us, “Gather your power fist skill Mark and try and will it into your crossbow as you fire it. Hopefully, that will trigger some sort of extra effect”
Mark stepped up to the very edge of the roof, sighting down the crossbow and locking it onto the beast. His hands briefly shone before it seemed to slide off of his hands and onto the crossbow. From one breath to the next, he fired his crossbow and the bolt sailed through the air, a faint glow around it as it embedded itself straight in the creature’s midsection.
“I’ve unlocked a Secondary Skill Effect called Imbue Weapons. Lets me add half of my physical damage onto any weapon I’m currently using. This is sweet Raz”
“Stop dawdling about then and shoot the thing. Viv, Lisa, go clockwise around the house and fire at one in turns. That way, we’ll be able to practise with these Skills until we’re confident in using them”
As the girls walked around the other side of the house, I stepped over and stood next to Mark. In a singular, smooth motion, I pulled an arrow from my quiver and knocked it into the groove on the bow, pulling back and letting the cams do as much of the work as possible.
Enhanced Mind (Battle) Active
Sighting down the fletching of the arrow, I held steady for several heartbeats until I was sure I wouldn’t miss and fired. The arrow shot through the air and buried itself straight into the eye of the Jackal.
Almost whooping in glee, Mark slapped me on the back as it toppled over.
“Critical Hits are a thing too! As they should be! I’ve just got a notification saying I’m 10% of the way to Level 2. You get the same?”
“No, nothing for me”, I grumbled, “Let’s walk around until we’ve cleared the house”.
*************
We spent the next fifteen minutes walking around the house and firing at the Jackals, but after the first one, they all seemed just a little bit faster and smarter, so rather than easy victories, we had to repeatedly work together and trick the Jackals so we could get clean shots on them. Firing slightly off-target, we would get them to move into the shot of the other, slowly whittling down their number.
As we reached the quarter-way mark of our walk, the girls rounded the last corner, obviously having already finished their section and more.
“We both unlocked a Secondary Effect called Curved Shot. It increases the Mana Cost but lets us alter the motion of the bolts as they fly”
“Well, I’ll do better once we go out and fight them with our hands again. I’m 90% of the way to Level 2 now”
“We’ve both hit Level 2”, said Lisa, grinning at Mark as she said it.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
“I’ve not even got a notification for anything. Looks like Skills need to be directly used to Level Up. My Ability was active each time we started firing at the creatures but I’ve got no experience”
“Well, looks like you’re definitely going to be the Healer of the group Raz”
“Probably, I’m okay with that. One of us needs to patch you up”, I laughed.
“Shall we do another round of the roof? See if there are any more Jackals?”
“Yes”, Mark beamed, “I want to Level Up. These two aren’t going to tell us what happened”
“No, we are not. You’d do the same to us if you’d Levelled Up first. Not our fault that you’re slower than us”, Lisa chuckled, walking past Mark and pulling his arm as she went.
Mark faked her dragging him, kicking and whisper-shouting at me and Viv to help him.
I chuckled and just watched as we walked around the roof twice more, only seeing a Jackal come out from near the garage hatch just as we were about to go back inside.
“I’ve got one”, I shouted.
In a single moment, Mark shot the Jackals’ leg, momentarily pinning it to the ground, perfectly timed for all three of our shots to slam into the Jackal. Lifting it off the ground and launching it across the garden.
Outstanding teamwork - Level 2 Jackal-Dog defeated - 20% to Level 2
“I’ve finally Levelled Up”, screamed Mark, jumping into the air and fist-pumping, dancing around us all as he yelled and whooped, “I’ve got a Title called Top 10 to Level and some of my stats have increased. That’s it though, no Skill points or anything like that”
“Well, I’m finally 20% to Level 2, the notification started with outstanding teamwork so maybe it needs to be our entire party for me to get the experience”, I grimaced, realising exactly how difficult this was going to be if I was only able to combat-level from a full party.
“Don’t worry Raz, you’ll probably get some experience from healing us during more intensive fights. None of us got experience from those first two Jackals so obviously changes are still happening”
“Maybe Viv, but I’m going to severely lag behind if that’s not the case. I think we need to wander out of the house, drive into town and see what else is happening. The news is obviously going to focus on the big cities”
“Let’s go now then”, she smiled, understanding clear in her eyes.
We lingered for a moment, looking down at the dozen dead Jackals, all of us stuck inside our own heads for that moment.
Snapping out of my malaise, I slipped past Mark and headed back into the house, taking the stairs two at a time as I rushed back into the garage, tapping the key-code in to allow the garage door to be opened.
The moment there was a gap in the door, I shot through it and started pulling my arrows and Mark’s bolts out of the Jackals, moving around our section of the house as quickly as I could.
Just as I pulled the last out, I heard the growl of Mark’s family car as he pulled it out of the garage.
Opening the door as I jogged toward it, I jumped in the passenger seat and Mark quickly pulled off, the garage door closing and slab moving back into place as we drove down my driveway.
Pulling onto the road, Mark accelerated as quickly as the car could go.
Quickly getting up to speed, I felt the silence in the air between us all and allowed my mind to catch up with itself again.
This System was definitely messing with our minds. I could feel a thought budding at the edge of my consciousness but just as quickly as the feeling came, it went again.
*************
As we finally crested the last hill, we saw our town below us, half of it completely ablaze. We could see crowds of people rushing from the burning side to the clear, even more of them rushing out of the town completely, heading as quickly as they could towards the lake.
“We need to help. There’ll be monsters down there, there’ll be people who keep trying to ignore the notifications, or just not have figured out how to use the Skills”
“You’re right”, Lisa whispered, “But once we’ve done what we can, we need to find our parents. This is going to be happening everywhere”
“Let’s go then”, Mark said, a subdued demeanour coming from him instead of his usual mindset.
He gunned the car down the hill as quickly as he could.
Right up until the moment that it crossed some haze of energy a half-mile away from the edge of town.
The engine cut off. The brakes slammed on.
I watched in slow motion as the car bounced, landed, bounced again and then shot into the air, turning side over side as it sailed for what felt like several minutes.
Just before we hit the ground, I wrapped my hands with Healing Touch and grabbed hold of Lisa and Viv over my chair, holding onto them as tightly as I could as we slammed into the ground.
The car half-crumpled around us, metal pressing in to us from every side.
All I could feel was a line of fire down my side and the warmth of Healing Touch pushing power into Viv and Lisa. I couldn’t focus my mind enough to actually process the System notice for how much Mana it was costing me but I could see in my Mind Sight as Mark kicked and kicked at his door, now pointing up at the sky.
On his tenth or eleventh kick, the door was finally straight and he kicked it clean off the car, making it sail through the air. He slouched backwards and I immediately saw the wounds he’d received to his front.
Looking at Lisa, I could see that she was free from any shards of metal and didn’t look to be injured so I pulled my hand from her, touching Mark’s shoulder as a lance of pain spiked through my head, making me feel as though my mind was being torn in two.
My Mind Sight snapped back to my body and I felt Healing Touch splutter out as it got halfway to healing Mark.
A shadow crossed my vision and I felt myself slipping into unconsciousness. Before I fully went under, I twisted my head and could see a shard of metal from something we had hit sticking through the windshield and straight into my ribs.
My last thoughts as I drifted off were to wonder how on earth I was going to heal myself when I was unconscious.