Zoe lay there like a slug. Or a corpse. In any case, she was on the ground, and she wasn’t moving. It was her only defense — at least, other than making sure she survived long enough to start healing.

To their credit — or perhaps blame, she wasn’t quite sure — Lily and Andric both took the turn of events quite professionally. Lily had hunkered down behind a hastily conjured barrier of ice, and Andric had leapt behind a fallen-down table.

Well, at least that’s what Zoe assumed. She could see Andric in front of her, but Lily was both behind her and on the wrong side for Zoe to see her. She had just see a flash of ice as she was falling.

In any case, she was still losing blood and the hole straight through her chest hurt really fucking badly. It was quite difficult for her to control her breathing enough to fake being dead.

Honestly, how was she not dead? Her heart was still pounding, so the shot must have missed and hit her lung or something instead. But that was still normally fatal, right? Whatever. I’m alive and I have six hundred mana, so that’s what counts.

Zoe activated {Heal Wound} and {Medicinal Diagnosis}.

Apparently, she was critically injured, with a significant amount of blood loss and one lung out of commission. How lovely.

{Medicinal Diagnosis has leveled up! Medicinal Diagnosis is now level 2.}

“Four shots left,” Andric called out.

As Zoe continued to pump an excessive amount of mana into healing herself, she realized that she was actually able to feel where the mana was circulating in her chest. It was following the web of her core space. The channels were woven through her body, and they were actually knitting themselves back together at the same time as her flesh melded and healed.

{Medicinal Diagnosis has leveled up! Medicinal Diagnosis is now level 3.}

Feeling out the worst parts of it with her mana channels, Zoe pumped more mana to those areas. The effect was immediate, and the wound was closing even faster. It made the pain worse, however, and she had to clench her teeth and breathe through her nose to keep up her act.

{Mana Manipulation has leveled up! Mana Manipulation is now level 8.}

{Heal Wound has gained multiple levels! Heal Wound is now level 7.}

{Introspection has leveled up! Introspection is now level 15.}

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{Pain Resistance has leveled up! Pain resistance is now level 8.}

{You have learned Breath Control!}

{You have learned Stealth!}

Holy cats, that’s a lot of new levels and abilities. The healing instantly got much easier, and her breathing came easier as well — likely in part due to her lung healing and due to the new {Breath Control} ability.

“Alright, come on now, I don’t have all day.” The gunslinger took a step forward, stopped, and aimed at the table. “Come on, just put your hands up and no one else has to get hurt. We’re already one for one, right? Fair and square.”

No response. Rolling his eyes, the pirate fired right into the table. His shot punched clear through the wood, kicking up slinters. Zoe had to fight not to flinch back. Damn! Is that a powerful gun? Or is that normal?

She legitimately had no idea. She had never been around firearms before, and movies were known to be unrealistic.

A knife sailed through the air straight towards the gunslingers throat. He dodged, and whirled around to fire at Andric as the alchemist vaulted over the bar. Zoe hadn’t seen him leave the table, but she had seen that it was empty even before the pirate fired.

Andric was in midair as the shot rang out. Zoe grimaced, expecting him to be hit — but he was suddenly closer to the gunslinger and apparently unharmed. Did he just mid-air dash through a bullet? It was the explanation that came to her mind first, and Zoe was once again amazed.

I definitely don’t want to try to fight him.

A spear of ice sailed overhead. Another shot, and Andric stabbed the pirate as he aimed behind Zoe.

The spear burst into a cloud of mana just before it could strike the gunslinger, and Zoe more felt than heard a body hitting the floor beside her.

As the two men grappled with each other, Zoe finally moved. Crawling over to Lily, she activated {Medicinal Diagnosis}.

A hand pushed her away firmly.

“I’ll live for now,” Lily croaked out. “Get the fucker before he hurts Andric too.”

Zoe didn’t bother arguing. She wasn’t going to debate whether she should help Lily — and she was also going to trust her judgement on her own life. As she ran, another shot rang out, and Andric stumbled backwards.

Fuck!

She was too late. Well, she hoped he would live, but it was still annoying that he got shot. *Oh well, at least the asshole is out of bullets. Andric did say four, didn’t he? Only one way to find out.

Zoe tackled the gunslinger.

The scrawny man yelped in surprise as they tumbled to the floor. Zoe tried to bite him, but he elbowed her away with surprising force. So Zoe punched him as hard as she could — with the help of {Kinetic Strike}, of course.

She was pretty sure she had dislocating his arm and also shattered it. A quick use of {Medicinal Diagnosis} confirmed it, but then he was kicking her off. Gritting her teeth, Zoe unleashed {Cleansing Hellfire}.

All of her remaining pain faded away as the room lit up in crimson light. The pirate screamed, trying to back away, and Zoe dove on top of him.

The smell of burning flesh made her gag. Weird, considering that it doesn’t taste bad. But her opponent didn’t give up, and they were once more rolling and grappling on the floor. They hit the edge of the bar, and then Zoe was on top of him.

She pressed down on his arms, and he cried out in pain — likely due to the shattered one. “Hope you enjoy hell, asshole,” she spat as she went for his throat.

“See you there,” he choked out.

Something pressed against her chest, right over her heart.

Zoe bit down.

The gun fired.

{+105 Mana}

As the world faded to black and crimson, Zoe managed one final though. Andric, you fucker, you said it was four.