Chapter Three
Moira froze as the creature charged toward her. Duke barked, shaking her out of a daze. She leaped to the right, slamming into the ground, and narrowly avoiding the lizard as it flew past, barreling into the forest and hitting a tree. The trunk trembled, and its leaves shook from the impact. Several delicate white leaves floated to the ground.
Ding!
New Skill: Dodging lvl 1
Moira stumbled back, trying to distance herself from the monster. It turned, slinking down to its haunches, and crept toward her. Its tail swung back and forth, confident, mocking her. As it drew closer, it took a deep breath and spit. A ball of green liquid flew through the air, narrowly missing her face. It splashed on the ground next to her, a chunk of her hair caught in the crossfire. It melted in seconds, disintegrating into dust. The grass didn’t hold up much better, as a deep hole formed where the spit landed.
Moira gulped, eyes wide as she turned back towards the monster. Her hands shook as she angled the spear upward, aiming at its chest. Fighting monsters felt a whole lot easier behind a computer screen.
Meanwhile, Duke had been inching towards its tail. He watched it swing back and forth, waiting for his moment. The lizard crouched down, preparing to leap. Duke struck, his jaws clamping down on its tail and digging his claws into the ground. It whirled around, snarling.
The sound of pounding feet and the snapping of branches interrupted its attack. A tall man with cropped black curly hair and golden-brown skin ran into the clearing, swinging a greatsword.
“Die, you stupid lizard!” he yelled.
The monster turned from Duke, realizing the man was the bigger threat. Moira stood there, mouth open, as he swung at the creature. The sword reverberated back, bouncing off the lizard’s pebbled skin. The creature took another deep breath.
“Watch Out!”
The lizard spit, spewing acid, as the man tried to dodge. It landed on his chest, hitting his leather armor. The acid ate through it in seconds, reaching his skin, and turning it red and puffy. The acid continued to eat through his skin, and a small hole appeared just below his heart, growing with each passing moment.
Moira stared at the man, eyes wide, mouth still hanging open. Duke gave a quiet warning bark. She glanced back up to see the creature charging toward the fallen stranger.
Moira looked down at her newly made spear and then back at the dark, handsome stranger lying injured on the ground. Knowing she’d regret it, she gripped her spear tightly and ran toward the injured man. Sliding in front of him, she raised her spear and aimed it directly at the open mouth of the lizard; she braced against the stranger as the creature sprang towards them. She closed her eyes and waited for what was surely death. Her hands jerked slightly to the right, and then-
Crunch! Sloop!
The spear made impact, going straight into the mouth of the lizard and continuing up into its brain. The lizard creature slumped down, its head sliding further down the spear until it fell to the ground, partially propped up.
Ding!
New Skill: Spear Basics lvl 1
Ding!
Experience gained from killing a creature 20 levels higher while level 1.
Title Earned: Beast Slayer
5% increase to all core traits.
Ding!
Congratulations! You’ve reached level 2
Congratulations! You’ve reached level 3
Congratulations! You’ve reached level 4
Congratulations! You’ve reached level 5
You have 25 free attribute points available.
Stunned that she was still alive, she looked down at her hands and then up at the creature. She gagged as black blood and other mysterious liquids poured down from its gaping maw. The smell of sulfur and decay flooded the glen.
Coughing, she covered her nose, trying to stem the smell.
The notifications were still flashing on the screen in front of her. Moira took a second to read through them and grinned. The man groaned beneath her. She blinked, closing the screen, and turned her attention back to the injured man.
“Are you okay?”
He moaned. She leaned forward to get a better look at the hole in his chest. Moira choked back vomit, she could see muscle dissolving and his ribcage became visible. The acid had stopped eating its way through his skin, but he still had a hole the size of a baseball.
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Her hands wavered over the injury, unsure what to do. Her mind raced; this was a world of magic-
“There has to be health potions, right?”
Duke tilted his head in response. Moira searched through his pockets until she found a case of small tubes with different colored liquids. She focused intently on the tubes.
Ding!
New Skill: Analyze lvl 1
Health potion (2): restores 50 health
Mana potion (2): restores 50 mana
Stamina potion (2): restores 60 stamina
“That answers that question.” Moira grabbed the health potion and poured it down the man’s throat.
He coughed, sputtering as he swallowed the potion. She looked down at his chest and watched in amazement as the hole slowly started closing.
The remains of his shirt fluttered to the ground, revealing his tan torso. It gleamed in the sunlight, sweat glistening off him. She reached down and almost touched his chest, her hand hesitating above the dark, curly hair scattered across his pecs. A mark caught her eye, right below his collarbone, a black symbol in the shape of a spear.
“Ahem,”
She jumped back, realizing how close she had been leaning against the stranger.
“Oh—uh, sorry,” she said, her cheeks turning pink.
The man pursed his lips; his angled jawline looked harsh in the evening light. The man stared at her and then at the potion in her hand. His eyebrows furrowed as he glanced up and spotted the dead lizard drooped against the makeshift spear. His deep hazelnut eyes widened, and he looked back at her.
“Did you kill that thing with a stick?”
His voice was a graveling tone that drew her towards him. Moira’s face burned red, suddenly very aware of the black blood dripping off her.
“Yeah, I guess I did,” she said, straightening her shoulders.
The man’s gaze hardened as he pushed to his feet and surveyed the dead creature. Moira took a moment to examine him without the chaos of the monster. He towered over her, with his shoulders pressed back, his posture impeccable, like a character pulled straight out of a movie. Exactly what you would imagine a knight in shining armor would look like.
The stranger turned back toward her, glaring. “Let me get this straight. You just jumped in out of nowhere and killed it with a stick? How? You can’t possibly be any higher than level 10. And not only that, but you stole my experience. What do you have to say for yourself?” He said, crossing his arms and glowering back at her.
“Excuse me?” Moira stumbled backward, stunned by his response.
She looked at the man in shock. Only minutes ago, he had been lying on the ground with a hole in his chest. She expected him to thank her for saving his life.
“You heard me,” he said, using his towering form to intimidate her.
She narrowed her eyes, glaring up at the stranger, and pushed him. He stumbled back a step in surprise.
“I stole your experience? You mean I saved your life? If I hadn’t stepped in, you’d be a lump of meat in that lizard’s throat. If anything, you owe me.”
He scoffed at her, dragging his hands through his hair as he examined the dead monster.
“Well, I get the monster core, then. It’s only fair since you took the experience.”
Moira glowered back, she had absolutely no idea what a monster core was, but she wasn’t about to let him take it, whatever it was. She had met men like him before. They were all the same, cocky and entitled. She wouldn’t let him win, even if she didn’t understand the game.
“I killed the beast. It’s mine, fair and square,” Moira said, crossing her arms, stiffly.
“Yours? It’s definitely not yours. We’ve been tracking this monster for the last couple of hours. You can’t just swoop in and kill it at the last second.”
At the mention of ‘We,’ Moira looked around. There was no one else there. It was just the two of them. Well, three of them, including Duke. Whoever else had been with the stranger was long gone.
“Is there someone else with you?” she asked, gesturing around. “From where I’m standing, it looks like it’s just you.”
“Well, yeah—”
The man spun around, realizing for the first time that he was alone. He slumped as if the weight of the world had just dropped on his shoulders. He stared off into the depths of the forest for several moments, lost in thought.
When he turned back around, the stranger was like a different person. The confidence he had exuded was gone, stripped away. The light that had flickered brightly in his eyes had vanished.
“Are you okay?” she asked, her voice softening. She’d seen that look before in the mirror.
“I didn’t realize they weren’t behind me. The forest must have separated us.” He rubbed his hands through his hair again, a nervous habit.
“I’m sure they’ll find you soon.”
“I don’t have a locator. I won’t be able to find them until I’m out of the forest.” He packed down the edge of the glen. “We shouldn’t have gotten distracted hunting the lizard for its core. Now we’ll never find it. We’ll have to start over. It was all for nothing,” he muttered, talking to himself more than her.
“What do you mean? Why can’t they find you? What were you trying to find?”
He looked up at her in confusion, as if he’d forgotten she’d been standing there.
He sat, holding his face in frustration. “The forest. It must have moved.”
“How could it move? It’s a forest.”
His head shot up. He furtively examined her. “Don’t you know where you are?”
Moira glanced down at Duke, avoiding eye contact with the man. She walked back to the lizard and stared up at it in deep thought. She had no idea where they were. The only thing she knew was that they weren’t on Earth, and this wasn’t a dream. It couldn’t be a dream. The pain from the blue space between the portal had been too thorough, reaching down to every atom of her existence. She fiddled with her fingers.
Duke grumbled up at her and tilted his head, as if telling her to tell the man. She looked back at Duke and made her decision.
“I don’t know where we are. I’ve never been here before.”
“How’d you get here then?”
“We fell through a portal.”
He jumped to his feet, striding towards her with fresh interest. Moira stepped back as he approached, leaning away from him. The look in his eyes was intense and startling, almost crazed.
“A portal from where?”
“Earth,” she breathed.