"Fall back!" Rick yelled as he lunged to get past the creatures. The mobs had them surrounded. They needed to get out of the ring. The system marked them as [Spine Feather Raptors] and they looked like the unholy mashup of a velociraptor, an angry bird, and those lizards he’d fought earlier. Their bodies bent up in the middle, making them look like bird centaurs. Both of the front sets of limbs had wings sprouting from the armpits. In place of feathers, their wings were covered in quills, in long spines like a porcupine's. And of course, to top it all off, the mouth was full of razor-sharp teeth.

One snapped at Rick as it passed. He knocked it back with a point-blank Force Wave. The Spine Feather Raptor took around a quarter of its health pool in damage.

Rick didn't focus on the floating numbers that drifted away, announcing just how much he had done. He was more concerned with his mana pool. It had regenerated completely from the earlier fight. In all the excitement, he hadn't paid attention to how fast it had gone up. Which stat would make that faster? Magic Affinity? Or was it only a fixed percentage affected by nothing but gear? He needed to spend more time learning this system’s mechanics, and it wasn't letting him.

When he reached the hedge of shrubs at the edge of the copse of trees, he spun to face the raptors. The closest one was already lunging for him. Force Wave was almost off cooldown but not quite, so he kicked at the Raptor. The mob hissed and dodged, snapping at his leg with razor-sharp teeth and tearing his space flight jumpsuit just below the knee. The blow only grazed him; he took no damage.

Force Wave came off cooldown. He lifted his hand to fire, and the creature's gaping maw opened wide. The spell went off just in time before the jaws crashed closed. His hit did critical damage and threw the monster back. It scrambled up with a third of its health remaining.

"Hits in the mouth are crits," he called, then wondered if that was universally true or not, but Gambit wasn't paying attention anyway. One of the creatures had latched onto his leg and another on his arm, and he was punching with his free hand while yelling something Rick couldn't understand.

Rick rushed forward and kicked the one he had knocked over before it could get to its feet. Even as his kick connected, another Spine Feather came rushing in. It hit him with slashing claws and chomping jaws.

The pain was excruciating. It tore a chunk out of his arm and cut deep into his ribs. He thrust out his hand to Force Wave the mob away from him. Its slashing claw knocked his hand to one side as he fired. The blast went directly into the first Spine Feather just as it stood. The blast knocked it tumbling and killed it.

[Level two!] The announcement exploded in front of Rick's vision, and he felt a rush of euphoria that washed the pain away. His arm was whole, and so were his ribs. Saved by the level up! Thank the System it worked that way.

There was no time for celebration. The Spine Feather was still there, lunging for his throat. Levelling up had reset his Force Wave cooldown, and he fired. The bird went tumbling back, farther this time. The damage it took brought it down almost to half. Gambit's cries sounded desperate, and Rick risked a glance. His teammate's health bar was dangerously low and flashing red.

A heal. I need a heal. He toggled open his interface and selected the ability tree. With a rush of relief, he saw he had received another ability point. Yes, one every level. The magic healing tree was right next to the magic force path he had already selected. It was available, and he clicked it.

[New ability! Soothing Mist. Target self or ally within 15 yards. Heals for value equal to you Magic Affinity times half your points in this ability, rounded up, plus the same value spread over the next ten seconds]

Rick quickly skimmed the description; he didn’t have time to work the math right now. He blinked away the announcement and targeted his new spell on Gambit. The feel as the spell rushed from the palm of his hand was different than Force Wave. It was cool, like plunging his hand into a pool of water, or sticking it out of the window of a moving car.

The effect was instantaneous. As the initial heal hit Gambit for five points, his health bar jumped up. Still yellow but nearly half full. His cry of pain turned into a roar of anger mixed with delight. He pummeled the Spine Feather Raptor latched onto his arm one more time, and the beast expired. A flare of light washed over Gambit. He cried in triumph as his health bar filled up instantly.

The raptor Rick had been fighting was back on its feet and charging his way. His next Force Wave knocked it back but didn't kill it. Now the creature was cautious. It circled, hissing, and then threw back its head to let out a long scream.

"It's summoning more! We have to go!" Rick called. He checked his menus. He had two stat points available to assign, and another had been auto-assigned to his Stamina, which brought his HP up to 18. He tried putting both into Magic Affinity — where he’d put his level one stat point — to no avail. [Must put stat points into two different stats]. He tossed the other one into Dexterity, hoping it would help him dodge attacks.

Gambit was yelling in Mongolian again, throttling the raptor that had been latched onto his leg. His wounded calf gushed blood from where he had ripped the creature free, but he didn't seem to notice. He threw the creature away from him and then snatched up a branch from the ground and charged after it.

"No! We have to go!" Rick knew better than getting away from his party. He ran after Gambit.

Soothing Mist was still ticking his health even higher. His leg wound had already stopped bleeding. He stabbed the fallen Spine Feather, using the end of the stick like it was a spear. [-2] sprang out of the creature's hide and floated up to the sky as its health bar ticked down by that much. Gambit cursed in dismay. Rick recognized the tone if not the words. More shouting in Mongolian. The wounded raptor screamed again, then five more raptors dropped from the trees all around it. Three landed around the raptor, and two more gliding down to land lightly on their feet.

"Oh shit. Oh shit, we need to get out of here," Rick called. He Force Waved into the crowd, trying to hit the wounded one. His shot grazed two that had full health, doing one point of damage to one and two to another. He couldn't tell if it was a multi-target effect or an area of effect. It was a subtle but critical difference in game mechanics, and he would have to figure out which way Force Wave behaved as soon as he could.

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Gambit's Spine Feather was dead. He stepped up beside Rick. Now he had a fist-sized rock in one hand and a stick in the other. "Let them come!” he challenged.

"I wouldn't be so eager--" Rick broke off as three of the monsters lunged out of the bushes. One sank its needle-sharp teeth deep into the side of his hand. Another sank its claws into his left upper thigh.

[Debilitated! Use of one of your limbs is restricted!] the system announcement told Rick to his dismay.

"Restricted use, hell!" He swung his hand down onto his thigh, smashing one raptor into the other.

[Limb restriction removed. New weapon! You have equipped a Spine Feather raptor. Melee weapon. Bludgeoning damage. Ten percent chance to inflict bleed. Damage 3-6]

"Ha!" Rick growled through gritted teeth and swung the lizard again. The one on his thigh was crushed by the impact, and its mangled body tumbled away. More Spine Feathers were coming in, and he rushed to meet them with Gambit beside him.

He Force Waved one away and swung the lizard on his hand at another. It was an awkward blow with the lizard hanging off the side of his palm, but he connected across its neck and sent the level three mob tumbling back with two-thirds of its health gone. Rick was surprised at the damage but then saw the Spine Feather had received a bleed debuff.

That was more like it. He took a half step back to survey the fight. Gambit was struggling with three of the creatures, his health dipping rapidly as they tore into him. He swung about with rock and stick, knocking their health pools down in healthy chunks but not fast enough.

Rick hit him with Soothing Mist again and restored a chunk of Gambit's health bar. The secondary heal over time effect was not enough to counter the lizard damage, though, so Rick stepped in and swung the one still attached to his hand. He knocked the raptor off Gambit's back. It tore most of his flight suit away as it fell.

Another bird-lizard monster was coming in from Rick's left, so he shot a Force Wave into it to knock it back. The one he had knocked off Gambit scrambled to its feet. Rick lifted his lizard hand, but he wasn't as fast as Gambit. The Mongolian man spun and smacked the Spine Feather away with a stick. He threw the rock at it and finished the creature off.

The other two creatures he'd been fighting were already dead. There was one final injured raptor circling them warily and hissing. Gambit waved his stick, yelling, and the Spine Feather turned and fled.

"We should probably loot quick," Rick said. His Soothing Mist wasn't off of cooldown, but it would be soon. Gambit's health was deep in the yellow but stable. Rick's own health was slightly above half. Gambit stepped forward and brought his foot down on one of the still-twitching bodies. Rick just had time to notice there had been a sliver of health left before the creature's bones crunched under Gambit's ship-booted foot. The Mongolian flared with light from another level up.

"Maybe we should get out of here before we get another respawn," Rick said.

Gambit shrugged again and then knelt to loot the last of the Spine Feathers.

"Hey, does that headband do anything? Can you make me one?"

"No," Gambit said. "It just looks cool."

They retreated through the wall of shrubs, heading back toward where Rick had spawned in. Halfway up the slope, the ground started writhing under Rick's feet. A rat appeared. It was shorter than the lizards and only had four feet, but still had scaly skin. Instead of lizard legs, they were kangaroo-like. It had a sinuous tail, which completed the rat-like appearance. They were level two, and dozens of them started popping up all around. Rick stomped on one, damaging it but not killing it, and then Force Waved another.

He was opening his mouth to yell, "Run!" when a bolt of energy came whizzing in and struck a rat nearby. Rick wanted to look up to see where it had come from, but four of the creatures struck him at once. His health plummeted, and he desperately triggered Soothing Mist.

And then the soldier team was there, stomping and punching rats in every direction. One of them fired a stream of blue energy and blasted a rat off of Rick's leg.

The colonel snatched two of them clawing at his back and yanked them off. As the big man smashed the two rats together, crushing their skulls and killing them, a wash of energy swallowed Rick.

[Level 3!]

He had one fleeting glimpse of his health bar in the red before it was instantly refilled thanks to his level-up. Rick stood there, panting from the adrenaline.

The colonel clapped him on the shoulder. "You okay, kid?"

"Yeah," Rick tried to steady his voice. "Thanks for the assist." He managed a weak grin, and the colonel returned it.

"Sure." He squinted over Rick's head. "It says you're in a party. Mind showing us how you did that?"

Rick jerked a thumb at Gambit. "He can tell you."

The Mongolian grinned. "Yeah, it was easy, but it only holds five."

The soldier team, who had been inspecting the bodies, all exchanged looks. The meaningful glances singled out one man until it was clear to Rick just who was going to be their odd man out.

He was younger and shorter than the rest and had worn glasses on the ship, though he wasn't wearing them now. Rick couldn’t remember his name. Jackson? No, that wasn’t right. He had frequently spoken up in briefings offering counterpoints. Rick had gotten the impression that the others didn't respect him. No surprise he was getting the boot. Rick cleared his throat, looking for a diplomatic solution. Even if he wouldn’t be partying with the colonel and his men, no need to make them enemies. "We could really use another in our party."

The colonel nodded. "Very good. I'd offer you two and make it parties of four, but I think it's best we have a maximally effective group."

The colonel's firm gaze made it clear this wasn't up for debate, but Rick didn't mind. He would rather have a group of gamers and outcasts at his side, people who might listen and take his advice, rather than some Special Forces jock who thought he knew better how combat should go. This was a world for flexible minds.

Maybe the soldiers had what it took, and maybe they didn't. Only time would tell.

CURRENT STATS, LEVEL 2 (Rick hasn’t assigned his Level 3 points yet)

Rick

Gambit

Stamina

6

6

Strength

5

7

Dexterity

6

6

Magic Affinity

7

5

HP

15

18

Abilities (Rick):

Force Wave (Damage and Knockback)

Soothing Mist (Heal, then Heal over Time)