Serilla had four Skillslots and a bunch of skills that weren’t selected. Many of which were the standard ones like Basic Identify or Basic Dodge that unlocked naturally through everyday aspects of life.

Her four selected Skills were: Basic Illusion, Basic Gaze, Summon Chompi, and Crimson Claw.

I had witnessed her using Basic Illusion when she tricked the Boss into targeting a shadow instead of us. Basic Gaze apparently allowed her to compel a target to stay still, or hold their attention. Serilla said it was useful when bargaining for prices, so long as they didn’t realise she was using a skill. However, she didn’t think it would be very useful in this fight.

I felt that the power to compel someone to stay perfectly still could be incredibly useful in a fight, but I didn’t have time to argue.

“Tell me about the summon?” I asked as we ran crouched between the dirt ridges that piled between the quicksilver pools.

“Summon Chompi,” said Serilla. “Chompi is my unique familiar. We met a long time ago. You saw some of his kin earlier.”

“I did?”

“Yeah, the Pygmy Griffons. They’re cute little guys. Chompi is the cutest of them all.”

“Those fat little chicken cats?” I asked. That’s what she chose as her summon?

“Chompi is level three, man. He is an absolute beast.”

“I doubt that,” I said. “But summon him anyway. What can he do?”

“He can breathe fire and he has a cool turtle shell ability.”

“Summon him,” I said. “Summon him.”

“I need to wait for my magic to recoup,” said Serilla.

“Your Mana?” I asked. “How much do you need?”

“Mana? I didn’t know it was called that,” said Serilla. “Pretty much all of it for the summon, but I’m close to full already.”

“Right,” I said. “Summon as soon as you can. What was that last Crimson Skill?”

“Crimson Claw,” said Serilla. “It’s like my Vampire Bite, but it works at range once I make my opponent bleed.”

“You have Vampire Bite too?”

“Not selected,” she said.

“Why don’t you have it selected?” I whispered hurriedly as the humongous metal coated eel thrashed up from a nearby pool and reared its giant head to locate us before ducking below surface again to prepare its pounce.

“It’s not as good as Crimson Claw!” Serilla’s cheeks blushed pink.

“Fine,” I said. “After you summon the fucking chicken keep working on hitting it with your Crimson Claw whenever you can get away with it, but stay at a safe distance. We need to take this slow and just hope this guy doesn’t have a heal.”

“I don’t know how easy it will be to make that thing bleed,” Serilla said doubtfully.

“Everything has a weak spot,” I said. “We just have to find it.”

The eel burst up from a pool just to our right and slammed down between us. Serilla pushed me away from her before jumping to safety. If she hadn’t I would have been squashed. My Dexterity sucks, I need to find a skill to help me move.

“Lets split up and divide his attention,” I yelled to Serilla as I put my head down and charged away from the screeching eel.

The lightning twanged in a streak around the arena, blasting louder than Serilla’s response. I kept running and just hoped she understood the plan.

Now that I had a little space from Serilla the dread set in. The truth was I had been acting more confident than I really felt. I wasn’t ready for a fight like this. I hadn’t unlocked some important basic skills and I didn’t have the slots to use all the ones I did have. My biggest problem was that I didn’t have any kind of heal. I had been planning on spending time to learn some things about Bloom, the stat that helped with healing others and growing plants, but somehow that had fallen by the wayside.

During my first reincarnation, I had discovered Basic Restoration when I swallowed Necrosis infused spider gunk. That had been a seriously lucky kill. I had not only unlocked a self heal that scaled with Constitution, but I had also discovered Devour, a pretty bad ass perk that I could have put to good use given time. Those traitorous fuckers in Pentamorel need to pay.

Right now, without Basic Restoration, I simply couldn’t afford to get hit. That meant I couldn’t take risks. Except the Skill I need to try has an inbuilt risk… Surge would ‘overload’ my elemental output at the cost of Stamina. I had a rough idea what that would feel like, running out of Stamina was no joke. Still, if it lets me form this Quicksilver stuff into more than a pencil, it might be worth it.

I felt the ground shake as the eel swum beneath me.

“Here we go,” I said.

I focused on the crisscrossing black tattoo of branching vines that had appeared on my forearm when I selected the Surge skill. The tattoo glowed silver and I felt a metallic taste spread across my tongue as quicksilver pulsed through my veins. I shivered and resisted the urge to vomit as the acrid taste became overwhelming. My body was producing quicksilver at an insane rate. If I don’t find a use for this stuff, I’m going to drown in it.

The eel burst up from the water and I struck forward, hurling a quicksilver shard that was just a way bigger version of the pencil I had managed to create earlier. The streak of quicksilver erupted from my palm and snapped harmlessly off the eels sleek, muscular, serpentine body. Like ice in a furnace, the quicksilver melted back into a liquid and dropped out of my grasp. But even as it dissipated, I could feel more pumping throughout my body.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The eel swept its massive head at me and I threw both my arms up as I leapt backwards and blasted quicksilver at it. I didn’t bother to try hardening the point or sharpening it in anyway. I just hurriedly expelled as much quicksilver as I could and used it to push myself backwards out of harms way.

Stat increase: Dexterity +1.

You dodged an attack.

Skill unlocked: Basic Dodge.

“Haha, yes! Welcome back my old friend.”

With one eye on the eel as it coiled its neck, ready to lunge at me, I swapped out Smokescreen for Basic Dodge. Honestly, Basic Dodge is my absolute bread and butter Skill. If I could pick one Skill that is a must for any combat situation, Basic Dodge is right up there at the top.

The eel’s muscles were bulging with tension as it coiled its neck to the point of bursting and then just before it unleashed its lunging attack, Serilla soared past it.

Her hair streaked behind her in a mad whirl as she spun with claws extending from her fingers and raked long streaks down the monster's side.

She landed in a crouch and then darted back behind the rim of a nearby pool.

It was an incredible, beautiful, dynamic, courageous attack, and I pretty much missed the entire thing because on the other side of the eel some dumpy little chicken-cat with a mess of plucky white feathers and tabby fur came flapping into my vision. It opened its fat-faced beak and squirted the smallest jet of flame I had ever imagined. It missed entirely. Landed with a plop and then stood perfectly still with its wings outstretched in some dramatic martial pose.

You've got to be kidding me.

No attack followed. Chompi just held that ridiculous pose for a few moments then glowed as his skill activated and a turtle shell blossomed around him. He ducked his limbs and head inside the shell and just stayed there, safe and sound inside his shell.

“What the fuck,” I said. "That's it?"

Then the eel struck me.

I’m not some braindead idiot who completely loses focus just because my teammate's summon is the dumbest creature I’ve ever heard of.

I maintained my concentration and was prepared with the dodge as the eel lashed out. However... what I wasn’t prepared for what just how fast the eel could move when it prepared that coiled neck attack. I also wasn’t prepared for how shit my Basic Dodge was compared to what it was like when I had improved it in my past life.

I dodged elegantly to the side and made the motion to slice at the boss’s eye with my Rust Blade —fuck, I miss those daggers.

Instead of rust, a splurge of quicksilver poured out and splashed harmlessly off the monster’s armour and —thanks to my low Dexterity— I collided heavily with his massive head.

I flew up into the air and then splashed down into one of the bubbling pools. The quicksilver I was forming at an impossible rate for my tiny body, now supercharged up to an even higher rate of production and I felt it start to trickle out my eyes and nostrils. I’m not crying, I’m just leaking quicksilver. There's a big difference.

I glanced at my health… it was actually fine. What the hell? Come to think of it, that didn’t hurt at all…

I noticed the purple oval spinning around my shoulders. There was only one remaining. Of course! My Dancing Orb protected me.

I splashed and kicked towards the edge of the pool and clambered back onto dry ground. Then something sharp clamped down on my leg.

I was wrenched into the air, upside down, and my last Dancing Orb shattered. A moment later, pain erupted in my shin… at least, what was left of it.

Dangling in the air, I was shaken back and forth by the leg from the mouth of the huge eel. It was rolling me like a crocodile preparing its food. The bone in my leg severed as it clamped down mid swing and I felt the muscle and sinew tear free. I was flung to the ground, my vision blacked out and returned, unfocused, a moment later.

The pain was incredible. I hadn’t felt anything like it since Brother Lecter… fucker!

At least the pain when Brother-fucker Lecter killed me had only lasted a single moment. This excruciating torment was only getting worse by the second.

I clutched at my torn stump of a leg and screamed.

The Quicksilver was still oozing out of every part of me, including my now severed leg. In between racing gasps of agony, I formed the quicksilver into a sort of bowl around my stump. It dripped like a melting candle, but somehow I held it there. The pain seemed to guide my body in how to find some relief. I blocked up the bleeding stump with quicksilver and breathed a screaming sigh as my health stopped falling.

Not far from me, the pointless turtle shell lay uselessly on the ground. Serilla was no doubt, preparing for another attack on the boss, and the boss was… swallowing the bottom half of my leg. Fucking gross.

It licked its lips and then those cold, piss-yellow eyes locked onto me.

The eel reared back and then lunged at me for another attack. Ah, fuck.

There was a tremendous crash and a spray of dust and quicksilver coated me. Serilla was standing with her back to me, she held Chompi’s turtle shell up like a shield in front of her, braced against the attacking eel.

She gasped as the quicksilver spray tore at her flesh like acid. Damn, she really is weak to this shit.

“Serilla,” I grunted. “Don’t.”

“It’s all good, baby,” she had clearly meant to sound reassuring, but her voice cracked as the eel struck again and sent her staggering back a few paces.

“Crimson claw, did you get it off?” I asked as I dragged myself back.

“I can’t break through his armoured coat.”

“Fuck!” I pulled myself up onto one leg. “Alright, get back. I can dodge again.”

She glanced at me and I could see the terror in her eyes. Terror and something else, something protective.

“This is my fault,” she said. “I shouldn’t have brought you here.”

She’s not wrong.

“Don’t say that,” I said. “Get ready to move on my signal.”

I raised my arms and channelled all the quicksilver in my system to bunch up inside my hands. I packed it as tight as I could and felt it like great weights ripping off my arms, sapping them to fall to the ground.

My Stamina ticked down to almost nothing, and I felt the beginnings of depletion searing at my lungs.

The eel reared up above Serilla preparing to slam down on her.

“Now!”

Serilla turned and ran past me as I unleashed a torrent of quicksilver into the eel’s midsection. I knew I couldn’t inflict damage with the liquid metal itself, but the saying goes ‘the bigger they are, the harder the fall’.

I don’t usually abide by such cliches. But if a cliche’ will save me right now, then I’ll take it. Screw it. If it saves me right now, I’ll wear the T-shirt.

Caught off-balance, the great mass of eel slammed down into the side of one of the pools and then slipped below surface.

I turned and started running. I used a blast of quicksilver every time I stepped with my left leg, since I didn’t have a foot there anymore. It felt kind of like hammering a nail into my bone every second. I wouldn’t recommend it.

Behind me, I heard a great splash of water. Serilla and I turned in time to see a tidal wave of quicksilver pouring over us.

I threw up my hand to protect my eyes and shivered at the ear-blistering scream that came from Serilla beside me.

When I opened my eyes, I found her collapsed on the ground in a heap of silver-stained armour and a messy wave of black hair. Her skin was blistered red. Her tendons were visible in places with small specks of quicksilver sticking up like shrapnel.

She wasn’t breathing.

“No, Serilla.” I dropped down next to her, ignoring the spasm of pain in my leg.

She didn’t respond to my touch.

I brushed her hair back to reveal her face and gasped.

Parts of her skull were visible beneath the silver-flayed skin. It felt wrong to look at it, so I brushed her hair back again. My chest tightened and my vision became blurry. I leaned protectively over her, what little I could for my size, and pressed my wet cheeks and forehead into the side of her upper arm. “Oh, please don’t die. Not now. Not you.”

Serilla was gone.

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