“In adventuring, you have three main types of jobs.” Introvice began. “You have your healers, your tanks, and your DPS.”

“What’s DPS mean?” Hope asked.

“It means damage per second,” Skye answered. He was familiar with the term from some games he played on his communication box.

“Right,” Introvice said. “DPS means damage per second. Party members in charge of DPS are responsible for lowering the HP of the monsters they fight.”

Fred held up two fingers.

“Why does he have two fingers up?” Hope looked back and forth between Introvice and Fred.

“He means to say there are two types of DPS party members. There are those that do physical damage with a weapon, and there are spellcasters.”

“I do spells,” Tornado said. “Skye hits stuff. We’re DPS.”

“Skye hits stuff?” Flowerbeard asked.

In a shy effort to avoid eye contacted, Skye looked down and nodded.

“He hits with orbchakus,” Tornado said. “And pizza-cutter-chakus.”

Fred offered an inquisitive cock of the head.

Skye held out his open hands and allowed a pair of pizza-cutter-chakus to form. In essence, it was a pair of straight-handled, wooden pizza cutters. A thick nylon chord connected the handles. Once the weapons had materialized, Skye went into a kata. It began by swinging the weapons in a figure-eight pattern. Then he zipped left and zagged to the right. All the while, he would switch from a figure eight to an inverted figure eight pattern. Then he’d flip the weapons behind his back and between his legs. At times, he’d let go of the weapon and let the rope roll around the back of his hand only to catch the weapon again. His weapon was a blur, and so was he.

Eyes wide, Flowerbeard spoke in a monotone voice. “That’s impressive, but I bet I could do that too If I wanted, but I don’t. It takes too much time. Like whatever.”

“You say weird stuff,” Tornado told Flowerbeard.

Before Flowerbeard could respond, Introvice interrupted. “We’re getting off track. As I was saying, we have DPS like Tornado and Skye. And we have healers.” He scanned his eyes between Zoey and Hope. “Are either of you a healer?”

“I have healing magic,” Hope said.

“What spells?” Introvice asked.

“Fix an Owie,” Hope answered.

“You have a spell called Fix an Owie?” Introvice asked. “I’ve never heard of that spell before.”

“Yup,” Hope nodded, then cast the spell on Introvice. “See…Fix an Owie.”

“I also have Fix an Owie,” Zoey said.

“But you are a vampire, right?” Introvice asked.

“Yes,” Zoey nodded.

“And you have healing?”

She nodded again.

“A vampire healer?”

She shook her head no. “I’m a tank.”

“A healing tank?” He scratched his head, trying to understand.

“I’m a paladin.” She grinned.

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“A vampire paladin?” He rubbed his eyes. “Is that allowed?”

“I guess so,” She shrugged. “But we’re getting off-topic. You were about to explain how we fight monsters as a team. You were going to say it’s my job to get hit by the monster while Skye and Tornado damage it as fast as possible. Then you were going to explain how Hope’s job is to stay back and restore HP to the party as we take damage from the monster.”

“You’ve fought in a party before?” Introvice asked.

“You could say that,” Zoey said. “I am still getting used to balancing enmity management abilities, but I have a few. I should be able to keep hate.”

“That’ll help,” Introvice said. “So—in the end—all that remains is to practice with a few lower-level mobs. Set up as a party against that wall,” Introvice pointed to a corner space. “Keep Hope in the corner for heals. That way, nothing can sneak behind her. I’ll send Fred to go aggro a monster and bring it back to you. Zoey, as he runs by, pull hate.”

“Got it.” Zoey agreed, and she and the triplets moved to the corner, and Fred ran off to aggro a monster. While he did, Zoey materialized her fork and shield. Within thirty seconds, Fred was on his way back with a crab. When he ran past the group, the crab chased behind him. When it was near Zoey, she activated her skill Draw Hate.

The crab redirected from chasing Fred and scuttled toward Zoey. As it drew closer, Zoey noticed it moved sideways rather than forward. When it was close enough, it spun to face Zoey, and its claws snapped.

She raised her shield and deflected the first snapping claw to the left. Then she swung the shield down and to the right, blocking the second claw. Then she activated Strong Draw Hate as Skye maneuvered behind the crab and went to work. He whipped his cutter-chakus back and forth. With each swing, the blades dug into the carapace, and the creature’s HP dropped.

Hope and Tornado remained in the back corner. Tornado appeared to experiment with different spells. He fluctuated between lightning-based magic and fire-based attacks. Zoey admired the ingenuity of Tornado in choosing those spells. In traditional RPGs, water-based monsters are weak to fire or lightning magic. She wondered if Tornado had some knowledge about monster weaknesses from before. Or had he reasoned it out for himself? She’d have to ask him later.

Hope cast a spell on each party member called Don’t Get Hurt. It raised their physical defense by ten percent. She followed up with a spell called Little by Little, which increased HP by a percentage based on the max HP. Since no one had taken damage, Zoey wasn’t sure how much HP it regenerated.

The crab’s attacks rotated in a predictable pattern. Left claw. Right claw. Left claw. Right claw. Between blocks, Zoey tried to stab with her fork but realized it didn’t cause much damage against the hard shell. If the attacks didn’t help keep the crab focused on her, she wouldn’t have wasted the energy on them.

As Zoey lulled into a complacent sequence of left, right blocking with her shield, she almost missed the crab’s flashing blue eyes. “It’s going to use an AoE spell,” She warned Skye, who hovered back and away from the monster. “Get some distance.”

Foamy bubbles emerged from beneath the crab, forming a ring around it. The ring grew in height and diameter until the individual bubbles shot like bullets in every direction. From the time the crab’s eyes flashed to the time the bubbles shot was a matter of seconds, but they were important seconds.

During them, Skye had given himself enough space to evade the projectile bubbles. And Zoey positioned herself between the spell caster pixies—Tornado and Hope—and the crab. Using her shield, Zoey intercepted the bubbles. They struck against the flat surface of her shield with a force she hadn’t expected. It made her feel like she was trying to stop a car.

The unexpected blow sent her through the air. She landed with a thud that would have knocked the wind from her lungs. Fortunate for her, vampires didn’t have to breathe. She slid across the ground, stopping beneath Hope and Tornado. Her HP had dipped to 160. She’d almost lost half her HP in one blow. Another bubble attack or two would drop her HP to zero.

She couldn’t let that happen. She had to protect the triplets. As she went to stand, she realized she had a problem aside from her HP. Her body wasn’t moving how she wanted. When she tried to move her left leg, her right arm moved. When she tried to move her left arm, her right leg moved. Her body control had reversed. She noticed an icon that looked like birds flying around someone’s head. Was it an icon for confusion?

“The bubble attack,” Introvice shouted to her. “It leaves a film over your body. Until it evaporates, you’re body controls will be opposite.”

As Zoey struggled to control her body, the crab scuttled toward her. Zoey was about to ask for Introvice’s help when she heard Tornado shout, “firenado!”

In the periphery of her vision, Zoey saw a light flash from Tornado’s body. A fiery tornado erupted around the crab. Wind cut into the hard blue shell. Heat rendered the carapace all but useless as the spinning fire burned away the remainder of the crab’s HP. When the monster’s HP reached zero, it fell in a slump.

You defeated the crab. You gained 600 experience.

Congratulations! You reached level 12!

With the level-up, Zoey’s HP returned to full. And as the crab’s body became light, the substance on her body did too. This allowed her to regain control of herself. While she pushed herself to her feet, she pulled up her character sheet. She wondered if Pete’s slapping her shield had impacted her attributes like he thought it would.