Fuck.

Kara impacts the false hydra like a cannonball, pushing it back and sinking her teeth into its hide.

Another head descends towards us, maw open wide. It’s teeth glisten in the remains of the holy light, barreling towards us.

I shoot a bullet down its throat, grab Merah and roll to the side.

Although the head dies, its momentum still persists, impacting my legs and piercing through them, glancing off my bones. I need to get faster somehow.

"[Greater Heal]," Merah chants, putting her hands on my legs and channelling magic into me.

The wounds close but leave me feeling lethargic as I stand up. "Thanks."

I don't want to shoot at its front. Vikram could survive for a few minutes so we'll have to finish this quickly.

If I hit him, they won't ever forget me. People need him.

Kara starts to flail around, tearing through the false hydras hide and hands. Even though she is dealing a lot of damage, most of it appears superficial, hide and meat but no organs.

She is one hell of a distraction either way.

"[Crescent Slash]," Vikram's voice rings out, a cut appearing along the false hydra's stomach.

It wails in pain, thrashing around and destroying one of the stalagmites. It doesn’t bother to hide itself again and instead screeches.

Funnily enough, Vikram is probably in the safest position of all of us, hidden from the heads and hands. I just hope its not acidic.

The false Hydra manages to get rid of Kara, throwing her into a wall by whipping its tail around. It

tries to flee, slithing towards the only tunnel that’s big enough to fit the entire body.

I am standing in front of it. Merah runs away to heal Fleur, who got hit by one head, leaving me alone.

It stops in front of me, reeling up and staring at me with its countless beady eyes.

I can feel it clearly with my [Deaths Mark], every head and hand that's groping in the air and along the ground. One head is trying to ambush me, bursting from the wall next to me, while two other go for Kara.

I sidestep the head and shoot it before loading the fully charged bullet. Merahs prayer is saving my life here, empowering my body to allow me to dodge otherwise lethal strikes.

I aim at the base of its necks, just where the heads sprout from amd activate [Steady Aim].

Using [Reap Shot], I squeeze the trigger.

The bullet explodes, violently tearing through its flesh and detaching multiple heads from its body.

It reels in pain and almost instantly jerks back even further as another [Crescent Slash] from Vikram opens it up.

He's gasping for air, forcing his way out of the false hydras stomach.

[Congratulations, your party has killed a False Hydra - lvl 61.]

[Oblivion: A percentage of the target's highest stat (Magic Power) has been added to yours. +12 Magic Power.]

[Congratulations, Runecarver has reached level 3. 4 Magic Capacity and 2 Mana Regeneration have been awarded.]

[You’ve gained the Class Skill: Rune Scrying]

[Rune Scrying: Long have the secrets of runes eluded you, having to painstakingly recreate runes and take them apart. Many runes hid from you, taunting you with magical effects that you can not understand. Take this Skill and find every hidden rune and magical item in sight, discerning their meaning. Improved detail per Magic Power. -20MR.]

[Congratulations, Runecarver has reached level 4. 4 Magic Capacity and 2 Mana Regeneration have been awarded.]

[Congratulations, Magitech Tinkerer has reached level 11. 1 Strength, 3 Mana Regeneration, and 2 Magic Power have been awarded.]

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

[Congratulations, Marksman has reached level 14. 3 Dexterity and 2 Vitality have been awarded.]

[Congratulations, Death has reached level 15. 4 Vitality, 3 Magic Control, 2 Magic Power, and 1 Dexterity have been awarded.]

[You’ve gained the Class Skill: Death Sense]

[Death Sense: You are innately aware of Death through your prolonged exposure to it. Death can be the impending doom of others or yourself, the presence of the deceased or undead, and much more. Increased sensibility and range per Magic Power. -10 MR]

The false hydra topples over, almost blocking the tunnel.

Vikram falls out of it and stays on the ground, panting heavily.

Merah rushes over to us as Fleur rushes to Kara to make sure she is alive.

Merak heals us Vikram and I while Fleur and Kara stagger over.

Kara is obviously doing most of the staggering, pulling Fleur from side to side in an attempt to steady herself.

"Fuck this thing," Fleur says, kicking the false hydras corpse the second she lets Kara go. "I can't believe I forgot Darryl. Fuck this."

"I don't like encouraging excessive swearing but I must agree," Merah adds. She is checking over everyone, casting Skills and cleaning us off the gore as best she can.

Kara wordlessly slumps against the false hydra, her manic rage replaced by tiredness. She looks fucking exhausted, completely covered in gore. She is quietly giggling, staring at the ever-widening pool of blood that she's sitting in.

"I never want to do this again," Vikram states blandly. I can only wholeheartedly agree.

Merah wraps him in a hug, burying her face in his shoulder. "Fuck, I'm glad you're alive."

Fleur slaps him. "You won't survive doing that again," she warns him before joining the hug. She murmurs into his back "I'll make sure of that."

I kneel next to Kara, checking for any wounds Merah might have missed. She is covered in just as much of her own blood as that of the false hydra, I wouldn’t want to miss anything.

I don't expect her to miss something but Kara probably saved our asses with her blood rage so I own her that much. "You alright?"

"Yeah," she says. She tries to push herself up but fails miserably. "I don't think I'll be able to walk up, can you carry me?"

"Sure." I grab her by an arm and a leg, and hoist her onto my shoulder. She's warm and sticky, blood instantly coating my cloak. "You'll pay for cleaning my cloak," I remark blandly. She'll have to pick up new clothes as well and clean her spares, her current outfit is shredded.

She chuckles mirthlessly. "Fuck you, I'll wait down here until I can walk again," she deadpans, putting up a token effort of resistance. She could probably wind out of my grasp if she really wants to but that'd leave her laying on the floor.

“You are fucking scary when drunk on blood,” I remark, keeping a tight grip on her. She could probably crack my skull with one hand if she was as drunk as earlier.

Kara ruffles my hair. “Okay, [Death], not like you are any better. I’ve seen how accurate you can be and that last bullet…” she trails off as we join the others.

"Let's go," Vikram says, starting to stagger towards the surface. "There's a chance that everyone got their memories back, so there might be panic spreading throughout Brightgate."

We quickly group up and follow him.

"Levels?" Fleur takes the lead, readying the bow for any surprises. "I got three. "

"I got five, one for my main class, and two for my new Class," I say.

Karas face morphs into a huge grin. "Ten, six in my primary class, the rest spread over my subclasses. "

Holy shit.

I use [Identify] and check her level, something I haven't done in a while.

[??? - lvl 15]

So she does actually level through drinking blood. I can’t think of another way to explain her rapid leveling.

Vikram turns to Fleur, who shakes her head. "Okay, no one's beating it so you're buying the first round."

"What? That's unfair," she whines. I pat her head, wet hair clinging to my hand.

"It's tradition," Merah gently says.

----------------------------------------

We vastly underestimated the response people would have to regaining lost memories.

We emerge from the sheriffs office to a dozen people instantly swarming us and demanding explanations.

Vikram handles the bulk of it as Kara and I hang back, exhausted. This feels like something Kara would be good at but her being covered in blood might disgust some people and she seems like she barely has the energy to stay awake right now.

A few parents are accompanied by their kids, staring at us with huge eyes.

Matter of fact, Kara falls asleep shortly after they start explaining the situation, snoring loudly.

[Siro: To be fair, the false hydra I killed was far smaller. Well done.]

The rest of the day passes in a sluggish pace as Vikram and Fleur explain the situation dozens of times. It's ridiculous how many people have been killed by that thing but I find myself smiling as I drift off to sleep myself, sheer exhaustion overwhelming me.

We did good, we avenged a ton of people.

----------------------------------------

"Hey, you two," Vikram says, gently nudging us awake. He is carrying two sets of clothes with pouches sitting on top. "We managed to get some quiet time but people wanted to thank you two. They left a small mountain of offerings for all of us but you should clean up and change before rummaging through it."

Kara groans as she stands up. "Fuck, this is worse than a hangover. Please remind me to not do that again," she says. Drinking that much blood can't be good for you, even with Skills helping.

I grab a set of clothes and the pouch, finding it full of coins. "Yeah, I might fall asleep in the bath but I really don't want to attract predators while we travel." I've made that mistake before. Having a pack of hyenas wake you up is terrifying and not an experience I wish to repeat.