The rotating blue ball of energy was about twice the size of my head when Bex released it from her mouth. It glided through the air towards me and I panicked.

I didn’t know what to do, so I did the only thing I could think of. It was more of a reflex action than anything. I fired a barely charged Soul Shot-infused arrow at the ball of blue energy.

The arrow impacted and I was blinded by a dazzling, all-encompassing white light. I felt pain in my chest and stomach. It was a cracking and sharp pain like I’d been stabbed.

It was excruciating and likely made worse by my vision being blinded. They say that if you lose one sense the others become more potent, that’s why some people use blindfolds in not-so-romantic encounters.

Sadly, it also made everything much more painful.

I screamed out as my insides seemed to be on fire. The pain was intense and not being able to see the damage myself was a huge source of anxiety. How bad was it? Who knew?

I heard Bex roar at a higher pitch than before. She sounded scared and in pain. Had my arrow somehow fought through the disintegrating ball of energy and pierced her face?

I fucking hope so. I thought bitterly as my body convulsed with the pain in my stomach. I hope my arrow melts the damn lizard chicken.

“Don’t go into the light!” I heard Bell shout somewhere in the distance. Without proper context, I couldn’t tell if she was serious or not, but knowing her it was a bad joke.

Her sense of humour was seriously weird.

“Kaleb, stay with me.” I heard Reggie’s voice and felt cold hands touching my skin. I still couldn’t see, but I trusted the healer to do his best for me.

My HP was firmly in the 25% radius, but it wasn’t flashing red or anything, so I wasn’t too close to death. At least not yet. That was actually a victory for me, assuming we won the fight. I’d ended more than my fair share of monster fights with barely a single HP left. I was improving.

Still though, whatever had happened to me was seriously painful. Why had my arrow made the energy ball explode?

“Did we win?” I mumbled, though my voice seemed slurred as it came out. It barely sounded like me at all.

“Yeah, the dino is dead. I’ll fix you up though man, don’t worry.” Reggie replied, he sounded distracted as he spoke. The sign of a true healer I guess.

Whilst he did his thing I decided to attempt meditation. I did my best to block out the pain and dove into my soul space.

The red rope representing my health was frayed and snapped, almost all of the damage was located in my core. I guess that made sense considering it was where the pain was coming from.

I breathed in and focused on sending energy towards it. The frayed and broken rope began to mend way quicker than normal. I had to assume that was Reggie’s helping hand healing me from the outside as I fixed myself from the inside.

I noticed that a thinner, more intricate rope of scarlet was located behind my eyes. I decided to focus more energy there and the red rope began to glow brightly. Then I opened my eyes.

It seemed to have done the trick. The world outside was bright and the light stung as it hit my retina, but I could see.

Reggie was crouched next to me pouring green light into my abdomen. I looked down my chest and saw a gaping wound with large purple bruises on either side stretching up towards my chest.

That explained the snapping pain. My ribs were broken. My chest armour had been all but destroyed, but the self-repair function that all adventurer attire has was already hard at work repairing it.

Strands of black material twined together by themselves and slowly but surely began remaking the armour. Thank God for that, I didn’t want to buy another set. This one was expensive enough as it was.

The notification symbol flashed in the corner of my HUD and I decided to open it. It wasn’t like I’d be going anywhere until Reggie was done doing his thing anyway. Though I could have healed it myself through meditation, he’d explained previously that his healing power was a lot faster.

You have defeated (Tyrannosaurus Bex) lvl 48.

Bonus experience awarded due to level disparity.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Congratulations! You have advanced to lvl 35

Congratulations! You have advanced to lvl 36

Holy fuck-nuggets. I thought as I saw Bex’s level. She was a lot stronger than me and it showed. I was thankful to have had the team’s help with her.

She was on the cusp of hitting phase three, whereas I had barely scratched phase two. I got a full two levels from her too which was awesome. It also showed how strong she was, considering how difficult it was to level up in phase two. She was definitely a worthy opponent.

I happily added all ten of my free points into intelligence. The quicker I got that skill up the better considering how it affected my ability to use my new stealth skills.

I had one more notification to open and I braced myself as I realised it was an achievement.

Achievement Unlocked!

Extinction Event

Why can’t a T-Rex clap its hands? Because it’s extinct.

You murdered a unique dinosaur by shooting a soul-infused arrow into a ball of pure, condensed mana. Poor Bex died in agony, reliving flashbacks to the meteor which destroyed her brethren back on Earth.

Of course, she had never met any dinosaurs from Earth, but you get the picture.

Poor Bex won’t be making any more trips to the dino-store, well-fucking-done.

Is that enough bad jokes for you?

Reward: Extinction Loot Box

“I regret teasing you,” I said quietly to the sky. “I regret it so damn much.”

Though the loot box was pretty cool. I wondered if the system would continue the theme and give me an ancient rarity prize. That would be pretty awesome.

The pain had pretty much subsided by the time I’d worked my way through the notifications and I looked at Reggie who had his tongue stuck out slightly to the side as he worked.

“Am I gonna make it doc?” I said facetiously with mock sincerity.

“Yeah, you’ll be just fine.” He replied slowly, as he concentrated on the last bit of healing. “Honestly, sleep would have fixed this. It looked painful but you were unlikely to die.

“I don’t think any of us wanted to stay the night in this clearing though, so my healing was mostly to save time.”

“Jeez, thanks so much,” I replied. “Your bedside manner is truly commendable,” I mumbled.

Reggie smirked as he finished up the last bit of healing he needed to do and then I sat up. I looked down at my stomach and it looked as good as new, I was even starting to get a faint six-pack.

It turns out that if you wanna get a model-like body, all you have to do is get isekai’d, who knew? The bruising around my chest had gone too and honestly, I felt as good as new.

I sat up and looked towards Bex the dinosaur. Her head had almost disintegrated.

“How did that happen?” I asked, pointing at the corpse.

“When you shot that energy blast with your arrow it blew her face up,” Reggie answered. “That’s also how your stomach ended up such a mess, but the dino got the worst of it. We left the loot for you since you delivered the finishing blow.”

I looked towards his sincere eyes. Reggie seemed like a pretty genuine guy. We might have gotten off to a rocky start with my duel with Jake Milicent, but he was starting to grow on me.

I still didn’t think he looked like a healer though. His short and stocky build just didn’t seem to mesh in my opinion. I guess it goes to show that you really can’t judge a book by its cover.

I jumped up to my feet and approached the sizzling, bubbling dino corpse and the familiar message hovering above it.

Would you like to loot Tyrannosaurus Bex?

Y/N

I mentally asserted yes and her body, along with the smell of ozone and burning feathers, burst into confetti. The system didn’t seem to be able to make its mind up on what exactly should happen when a monster got looted.

It was different pretty much every time.

You have received a new item:

Scarlet Dino Feathers

Feathers that can be used in crafting.

X1000 gold coins.

“What did you get?” Bell said, appearing from behind me with her hands behind her back and an excited smile on her face.

“I got her feathers, apparently it’s a crafting item,” I replied nonchalantly.

“That’s boring.” She whined. “I was hoping you’d get her energy ball power.”

“I don’t think that’s how powers work.” I sighed, watching Jamie clamber over the stream to join us.

He crossed very diligently, carefully jumping from rock to rock so he didn’t get wet. That probably wasn’t a bad idea considering all the blood, gore and crap that had gotten in there, courtesy of Bex.

“I’ve done a sweep of the surrounding area, there doesn’t seem to be any more monsters. We should probably report back now.” Jamie said breathlessly.

Apparently crossing a small stream was a bit much for him. The dude obviously needed more cardio in his life.

“No need.” Sally’s voice boomed across the clearing and we all turned towards her.

Tilly trailed behind her, looking rather uninterested, and Panda was at her side, smoking his bamboo pipe.

“That was a good show, kid.” He said, looking at my bare chest and stomach and smirking. “Shame about your armour though.”

“It’ll grow back,” I replied defensively.

“I think it’s a good look for you.” Bell chimed in sweetly. “Very… progressive.”

I shook my head and Sally held up her hand, signalling for us to be quiet.

“That was better than last time.” She began sincerely. “Having a leader and a grasp of what each other can do has made a big difference, and that was a tough opponent, so well done.”

Jamie and Reggie high-fived and I smiled to myself. It was rare to get praise from Sally and it felt good.

“That being said, you could have done better. It’s a few days hike to our objective so you’ll keep fighting and training and honing your prowess as we go. Hopefully, you’ll be up to the task given to us after that.”

Tilly smirked at Sally’s words and shook her head lightly. It was obvious that she didn’t think much of us. I really wanted to learn some new bow techniques from her. Perhaps, there would be a chance over the next few days, though something in her demeanour made me doubt it.

Sally and Tilly headed out of the clearing and we followed them tiredly. Panda walked beside me silently, something was still wrong with him but he didn’t seem willing to tell me what it was.

Sally was a slave driver, but I would be stronger by the end of this quest, of that I had no doubt. Que the training montage.