Tyler laid on the ground, unable to move at all. His body was pinned to the ground, and the Health UI assigned the pain assigned to him from the brutal attack. Turns out the system was able to assign pain straight to your teeth, which he experienced when he tried to turn his head.

Not knowing what to do, he tried to see details around him without moving his head. The grass in his face was green, and beyond that was a blur, impossible for him to pick up on any details. He noticed in the corner, his character panel was blinking green. Something was trying to get his attention, and in Tyler's rattled state, he opened the page unable to think about how strange it was. With the page appearing in Tyler's view crystal clear, he saw that his Ledger was blinking the same color.

** Mercenaries Available for hire. Maybe you'll get lucky and you can buy yourself out of trouble. **

Grasping at a potential solution, he dove into his Ledger, opening the Create page. He filled out tabs

Create new contract:

Insert contract details: Maintain the employers health for the duration of the Dragon Threat to the employer.

Insert Contract Value (credits): 1,000 Credits

Duration: Variable

After hitting accept, the prompt was quick to reply.

** Contract value rejected, job does not align to Credits. Contracts start at 10,000 Credits. **

He groaned, just wanting the pain to end. Obviously just dealing with dragons brought the price up, and as much as he wanted to complain about the price, he updated the contract. Updating the price, the system told him that the contract was posted.

After what felt like hours of pain and agony, a message popped into his vision.

** Contract accepted **

He closed his eyes, and waited. He wasn't sure what he was waiting for, but there wasn't much more he could do. He looked out the corner of his eye, and it looked like the sky had mostly cleared of dragons, but occasionally a dragon would fly by his field of view.

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He used his Summon Mercenary spell, and hoped that something would happen. About two feet in front of him, and outline of a character appeared. It was massive, from what he could see, seven to eight feet tall, three to four feet across at the shoulders. Only one race had that mass, a Titan, a true sadist. Nobody wanted to team up with a Titan, as the history of the race did not allow them to group up with any other race.

The outline began to develop more detail, over the next half minute, until the character had fully came into view. The stone face turned toward Tyler, blue eyes widening for a moment, and then a sense of disappointment. Without saying a word, the Titan turned it's face to the sky.

"Well, when I agreed to the contract, I thought I would be posted at the gates. There must be a glitch, because it gave me a job to heal someone that I can't group with." From an obvious look of wonder, the Titans face turn to absolute horror.

The Titan took a deep breath, and began to sing. A strong baritone, it was a song of force, a strong front, and before Tyler's eyes, the air shimmered once again. Just as the air shimmered, the air just on the other side of the newly formed barrier, turned to fire. A dragon bringing down a new attack from above, and the Titan fell to it's knees.

Tyler was in awe, even with his broken body, and muddled thoughts due to the pain. A player was able to stand up to such an attack, even though it looked like his health was tied to the shield. As the attack came to an end, the Titan regained his feet, and his voice changed. The force dropped, and the song turned to a loving melody, and the air within the shield warmed up.

Tyler watched his health bar fill, slowly increasing from the 1 point of health. His wounds began to close, and he could feel his ribs move, and set into place. Instead of more pain, the Health AI assigned a new feeling of relief. A new buff appeared under his status bars, and when he inquired, a window appeared.

** Song of the Harmed Titan - A song created during the persecution, the orchestra created this hymn to heal the defenders in the Battle of Sorrow. 5% healing receiving per second while listening to performance. **

The Titan turned to face Tyler while singing, and it's blue eyes widened as he saw Tyler recovering from his wounds. He continued to sing, as he walked towards Tyler, the Titan began to shed tears.

The Titan stopped singing when Tyler got to 30% health. "I just can't believe it, I never though I would find someone that I would be able to heal ever again." The Titan was sobbing, wiping the back of it's huge hands against it's eyes. Tyler propped his back up against the tree he had smashed into, and gazed up at the Titan.

His face grimaced, his health low enough to cause pain in his chest as he took in a breath to speak. "Thank you for taking the contract, sorry for dragging you into this mess." He coughed, feeling a glob in his mouth, he spat blood onto the ground. "Any chance of getting some more healing?"

The Titan frowned. "That shield and healing used all my song cool downs. Nothing for the next 30 seconds. I have to ask, how were you able to create a contract? I mean, the mercenary job has been available for a few months now, but nobody has been able to create a contract."

Tyler shifted against the tree, hoping his wounds would account for his discomfort of the question. "I'm not allowed to discuss the details, strict NDA conditions are one of the conditions." He hoped this would sway any conversation about anything he was involved in.

"Fair enough, I had to agree to a system enforced NDA to accept this contract." The Titan looked in the sky, in awe of the few dragons still circling above. "Unfortunately, most people who received the mercenary job ate the debuffs and abandoned it, not liking the loss of status of many factions."

Tyler looked up, taking in the sight of the dragons flying above. Most of the dragons were gone, and judging from the flight path of the dragons leaving the scene, following Four and the two flying horses.

"Well, we may be lucky, and the dragons will move on, and I'll have time to heal you once my cool down is finished."

Just as the Titan finished his sentence, a dragon slammed into the ground, just outside of the fading shield. The Titan swore, Tyler dove into his Ledger.