Stretching and moving her arms, Lulu made her way back to the rest of the team.

“How are you holding up?” Al, the other healer asked, startling her at the same time.

“Fine,” Lulu squeaked. She’d never been very good at talking to others. Put knives in her hands and tell her to fight them, no problem. Tell her to have a conversation and she could barely complete a sentence. And this was Al talking to her. The super confident dogboy. The one that was constantly at odds with Burion.

“How's your Mana holding up?” Al continued, not noticing how uncomfortable he was making her.

“Good,” she stuttered her reply, curing herself mentally for stuttering. She’d been trying so hard to get rid of that.

“Listen, Lulu, I’ve been watching you fight for a while now,” Al continued, ignoring her discomfort.

It made her curious that he’d been watching her. Why? Did he maybe have some pointers? In spite of her discomfort she asked, “W-w-w-what about it?”

“You need to stop,” Al said bluntly.

Lulu felt such anger welling up inside her. It was enough that she was about to yell at someone for the first time.

“If you keep fighting the way you do, you’re going to die. You’re a healer, not a front line fighter. It’s good you're confident with your weapons, they’ll keep you safe if anything gets past Robin or Liam, but as a healer you need to stay alive. Everyone is depending on you living to keep the rest of us alive.”

“What’s your excuse,” Lulu snapped angrily, startling Al.

“My weapon gives me range. I don’t need to get close to my opponent to kill them. Can you say the same?”

Lulu had never felt such anger in her life. Did this stupid dogboy have any idea how hard she worked to get here? Did he know how much her family sacrificed? She could have easily taken the path of just being a healer, working in a healing ward. An option that would have given her a stable and safe life. But she wanted . . . needed more than that. She owed it to her family.

“How dare you,” Lulu hissed. “You know nothing about me. You know nothing of what my family sacrificed for me to be here. Do you know what it’s like to grow up in a huge family where everyone is counting on you to succeed? I am the oldest of fourteen children and the fifteenth was on the way when I left. Do you know what that’s like? Hand me downs from cousins all your life because you can’t afford more. Fear that we wouldn’t eat if the harvest was poor. And to be able to go to an Academy like Mancer, do you have any idea how much it costs to attend for just one year? My family had to scrimp and scrounge just to save enough to send me to Mancer. I need to use this time to grow as much as I can so I can make a better life for everyone that brought me here.”

“And that means putting your life at risk when it’s unnecessary and puts other’s lives at risk?”

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Lulu gave him a bitter look, “You should know, you never grow as much as when your life's on the line. I will survive this place and I’ll do it my way.”

He growled, “How will you help your family if you’re dead? But ignore me, see if I care when you die. No one can say I didn’t try to talk to you.”

Thank goodness Robin chose that moment to ask for some First Aid. That was something she could do, and it didn’t require talking.

Robin had a few deep gashes on her legs and arms, but only two of them required stitches. She would have preferred to use magic, it was just faster and usually didn’t leave any scars.

“Boss is coming,” Robin said softly as they worked. “I want you two to be careful. We need you both alive.”

Al laughed, “We’ll be fine. If she’d listen to reason, we’d have a better chance at surviving all this. And me, well, have you met me? I’m amazing!”

Robin glared at Al. “No, you’re overconfident.” She shifted her gaze to Lulu, “and you’re reckless.”

Lulu glowered at her then at Al. Why was everyone ganging up on her? She was a darned good fighter. She would just have to show them. She would prove it. She hissed, “I’ll show you who’s reckless.”

Coach Liv cleared his throat loudly, “That’s enough chit chat. Take up your positions and get ready for a fight. I can see the mini-bosses coming and thankfully they are all the same and familiar to me. Assuming they are the same as what I’ve fought in the past, you need to watch out for their tail tail whip. Other than that, they fight fairly straightforwardly. They will try to bite and claw at anything in front of them. No real special attacks to watch out for and no magic.”

Lulu nodded along and started following Robin to their area of coverage. She saw the beast coming. It was huge compared to the other rodents they’d fought, double or triple even the larger ones from the last wave. Its beady red eyes promised violence and pain and Lulu felt a shiver of fear run down her spine. Fear she quickly suppressed with her anger and the feeling of outrage she felt.

Burion was nearby, giving Robin instructions but Lulu was focused on the beast stomping toward them. She glanced down at her knives and for a moment, doubt niggled its way in. Would her knives be long enough or strong enough to pierce its flesh? She heard Al’s voice, telling her to stay back and for a moment she considered it. After all, Burion could handle the up close fighting. He didn’t need her getting in the way, right? Lulu quickly squashed those feelings. Tossed away her self-doubt. “I’ll show them all . . . for my family.”

Fire lit up the sky as Sam got them started. She saw Burion running forward, intending to strike from the flank. She hesitated for just a moment as fear began to eat at her. She frowned and mentally berated herself for being a coward. She had knives in her hands. She was a deadly mousegirl and it was time to show it. So, she moved to strike from the opposite flank.

Lulu ran wide then sharply veered toward the beast. She stabbed into the monster’s side, once, twice, three times before she had to drop to the ground to avoid the tail cutting through the air. As soon as it passed, she skipped back up to her feet. At that moment she knew she’d made a mistake. She shouldn’t have been there. Al was right.

The beast suddenly shifted and body checked her, making her stumble a step and almost lose her balance. She turned, intending to run back to the safety of Robin and just focus on keeping her alive. It was as she turned, she remembered the tail would be swinging back. It was too late. She tried to turn to the side to take the hit on the shoulder but didn’t matter, not with the size of it. It hit her shoulder, chest and the right side of her head, lifting her bodily from the ground. She panicked as all the air rushed from her lungs and pain blossomed throughout her body. She skipped across the loamy ground, her limbs turning numb and all sight gone from one eye. Eventually, she crashed into a small rise where she could see the battle unfolding. She wanted so badly to heal herself and get back in there, to prove that she belonged there, with them. Nothing was responding. No new air was entering her lungs. Everything was turning cold and it was getting darker by the moment. She wished so dearly she’d not let her pride get her killed. As darkness set in, her last thought was an apology to her family for letting them down.