My heart raced as I kicked and kicked, but I couldn’t get my ankle free.  By brother Kez struggled just a few feet away from me, he had jumped in just seconds after me and gotten caught in the same treeroots that had ensnared me in the water.  I could hear Jersey and Trial screaming for help from the shore, but they sounded so far away as the current rushed past me.  

The stream had bloated into a small river with the recent rains.  We didn’t worry about monsters or going hungry with our titans taking care of us.  The water was still warm with the last touches of summer as it drifted into autumn, it had felt nice.  It still did feel nice.  My eyes grew heavy, I could just—

FIGHT.

 The word shook through me like a commandment.  The warm haze didn’t lift, but the invitation was lacking now.  I was going to die.  My twin brother was going to die with me.  I could feel the tremors through the water as Our Titan came running.  He would save—

CHOOSE.

My heart skipped.  He would save me.  Kez had been struggling too much.  He would drown before Our Titan got to him.  I could feel the air inside me growing weaker.  I didn’t want to die, but I didn’t want to live without my brother.

CHOOSE.

I wanted my brother to live.

CHOOSE.

A want wasn’t a choice.  Choices were actions and inactions.  That was what my mother had taught me.  If I want if Kez to live I had to choose it.  As he struggled I tapped him on the shoulder.  He turned to me with fear-full eyes.  I smiled and pulled him close.

Our lips met in a kiss.

And I breathed the last air from my lungs into his.

The warmth slipped back into me as my world fades into darkness.  My soul untethered from by body and I floated above it, unburdened by the roots of the tree that had caught me and Kez in the water.  Kez clutched my body tighter and if he cried the water took his tears away with it.  It was another long thirty seconds before Our Titan arrived and fished Kez and my body out of the water.

He coughed and sputtered.  I was still.  Our Titan carried me away, placed his lips over my mouth and nose and tried to force air into my waterlogged lungs. He pressed on my chest until the bones nearly cracked again and again and tried to breathe life back into me.  I watched as he tried so, so hard to save me.

My mom went crazy; she drew her blade and attacked him over and over, but he ignored her and just kept trying.  I could almost feel it.  Warmth. Love. Hope.  He was praying and focusing all he was trying to will me to—

LIVE.

I paused.  I didn’t know I could pause without a body.  I thought… and realized I was thinking again too.  I could see my body growing stiff in Our Titan’s hands as he tried to save me. Finally he set me down.  He reached down to pick up my mother who was doing her absolute best to kill him, despite it being like a rabbit attacking a mountain, and he held her.

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And cried.

LIVE.

My body was dead, but I wasn’t.  I wanted to—

LIVE.

But how would I—

[[REINCARNATION SUMMON CANDIDATE CONFIRMED.]]

[[OUTSIDE SYSTEM SKILL USE DETECTED]]

[[UNUSUAL LEVELS OF LIFE ENERGY DETECTED]]

[[SUMMONING CIRCLE UNAVAILABLE]]

[[RANDOM SPAWN POINT SELECTED, RESPAWNING IN]]

What?

[[5]]

Okay that was—

[[4]]

a countdown? What—

[[3]]

the Dark was—

[[2]]

going on.  I just wanted to—

The world shifted.  Clouds vanished as trees blotted out the dim sky.  I bolted upright in a shallow pool.  I was… Alive?

I went to take a breath and coughed out nearly two buckets of water that had taken up residence in my lungs.  That was…

A bush moved and I scrambled to hide before whatever it was came out.  

“Is someone there?”

A young boy peeled out from the bushes.

”Oh, thank the SYSTEM! Please! It’s my sister. She’s not breathing—“

The world slowed.

LIVE.

The boy looked like Kez.  I knew it wasn’t him, but I couldn’t—

I was moving before he told me where to go.  I felt something cold nearby and my heart ached.  I knew that coldness too well.  I had died today already. I had saved my brother but I hadn’t spared him the pain of my death. If I could save this boy that pain I—

I stepped past the bushes and in a bend just around the corner, by the foot of a tree, a girl gasped for breath.  Something purple pulsed against her chest and what looked like a stinger stuck out of it.

DEBUFF.

There was something about the energy that was stopping her from breathing properly.  Her life was draining.  A buzzing drone filled the air as a wasp larger than me came around the tree. It had a wicked stinger that looked like—

[PARALYTIC STING]

I moved as the wasp shot its stinger at me like an arrow?!  If it hasn’t been for—

[ENVENOMED BITE]

I jumped back as it chomped down where my face had been second ago. 

[CONCUSSIVE DRONE]

The thing beat its wings faster and I felt my bones rattling inside of me.  The girl nearby moaned and I felt the coldness creeping closer.  I had to do something but.

WEAPON.

A weapon, where had—

[ENVENOMED BITE]

I dropped to the ground as it pounced.  Something dug into my stomach uncomfortably.  My fingers closed around something hard, tapered, and smooth.

[PARALYTIC—]

The wasp’s wings stopped beating and it froze briefly in the air.  My fingers clutched its discarded stinger as it dripped ichor from its thorax over my hand.  I turned my attention to the girl as her breathing grew shallower and shallower.

Okay, I didn’t know what a DEBUFF was, but it seemed like it was making it harder for her to breathe, so maybe…

I leaned down and put my mouth on her mouth and blew into it.  Air pushed out of her nose against my face.

Oh, that was why Our Titan had done it like that.

I pinched her nose and tried again. Her chest rose and fell as she exhaled the breath.

His fingers would have been too big to try that with me.

I kept breathing with her, for her.  After a few minutes the purple glow faded. She took her first deep breath since I got there.  I didn’t see her brother anywhere. I wondered if—

A buzz sputtered.

I turned as the wasp moved to stand.

I screamed. The girl screamed.

My hand was covered in ichor up to my elbow by the time I stopped stabbing it, its thorax caved in.  Its head rolled on the ground nearby.

DING! a loud ringing reverberated in my ears. I blinked at a blue flashing screen in front of my eyes.

[INITIATING INTEGRATION INTO THE SYSTEM…]

[PROCESSING FEATS…]

[You have defeated a Paralytic Wasp with its own Stinger! For this feat you have earned the title “Comedian”]

[You have saved the life of the dying from a lethal DEBUFF without the use of magic or skills! For this feat you have earned the title “Denier of Death”]

[You have died and returned to life! For this feat you have earned the title “Unkillable”]

More boxes piled on top of them.  Nothing unmanageable, but it spelled out my short life before whatever had happened. A handful of [Level up] messages, whatever that meant. Then something new, something glowing red.

[SYSTEM ERROR:

LEVEL UPS AND TITLES REJECTED!

INTEGRATION INTO THE SYSTEM FAILED!

Reason: You do not have a Class.]

”What?”