Gerard and his bug-hunting partner Alisa fast-traveled to the bug. It was an uncommon bug, a mosquito. Alisa had calculated out the risk of them dying before the bug, less than one in a hundred.
The fight started out normal, trading blows. Gerard and Alisa supporting each others skills, with hundreds of bugs of practice in working together.
When the mosquito was down under a hundred health, one or two rounds away from the end, the mosquito landed its bloodsucking move on Alisa, a critical hit. 4.78 damage. Alisa was down to 4.6 health.
Gerard and Alisa attacked the mosquito, bringing it down under ten health, one hit away from the death.
[Critical Hit!]
[Mosquito Bit alisa for 4.65 Health]
[alisa Died]
Gerard watched as Alisa’s body crumpled to the ground. She died.
Gerard froze. He didn’t break out of until the mosquito attacked him. He attacked back killing the bug, regenerating his own health. If Alisa had held out one more round…
The police showed up at some point, and asked Gerard to describe what had happened. He managed a summary.
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“Alright, you can go home. We’ll take care of everything here,” a police officer told Gerard.
Gerard left the scene, and wandered through the city. He passed by a BBQ restaurant that Alisa had shown him. She ate or got takeout there all the time, it was close to her house.
Gerard walked up to the front door of Alisa’s house. He rang the doorbell. Gerard looked at the roots of the oak in Alisa’s yard. The dirt around the roots were bare, without grass.
The door opened.
Alisa’s husband looked at Gerard, “Gerard! Can I help you with something?”
Gerard opened his mouth, he needs to say something.
“Why don’t you come in and sit down?” Alisa’s husband said.
Gerard sat in a chair at the dining room table. Alisa’s two kids were playing with legos in the adjacent room.
“You don’t seem too good, what’s going on?”
“Alisa died.”
The kids stopped playing and froze.
“We were fighting a mosquito. Over a ninety-nine percent chance of success. It got two critical hits in a row on Alisa.”
One of the children started crying, her father went over to comfort her.
Gerard left. He walked the hour to his parents house. To his house. When he arrived, he pushed open the door.
“Dad! You’re finally back!” Elly called from the kitchen.
Gerard started crying. If he died, his children couldn’t turn to Jessica, she was still missing. He needed a safer job.
Gerard closed the door, and collapsed in the entryway.