~~~Lee~~~
Shit! Lee didn't scream. Not because he didn't want to, but because terror had frozen his muscles. It was a good thing too, because the liquid he'd landed in immediately started stinging the flesh that it touched... which was everywhere.
His eyes and mouth reflexively closed upon splashdown, and Lee kept them that way as he lashed out with the only weapon he had left; the butter knife in his left hand.
The runed blade sank hilt deep into something spongy, and Lee dragged down, trying to cut his way out... right before the world shook violently and sent him tumbling.
He was pressed sharply against the flesh below, then briefly weightless, before bouncing off the ceiling, and finally crashing back into the floor. He stabbed the floor... and it all happened again, and again.
It's jumping, Lee thought, even as his lungs begged for air and every inch of his skin burned.
He stabbed and swung, connecting occasionally, but far from enough. I'm going to die... He wasn't even sure if his knife was long enough to actually cut through the stomach lining of what had to be a ridiculously massive frog.
Up and down, back and forth, Lee struggled against pain and panic as his mind screamed useless, incoherent nonsense.
He was a moron, and now he would die like one. Couldn't even last the first night... just had to run out and start hunting... Only it wasn't over just yet.
He had one last option.
His mana was lower now, below half. That was way more than enough for a test of his mana-blasting technique from what seemed like ages ago. He was terrified of what might happen, of the pain, but it couldn't be worse than this. Death by digestion, or if he was lucky, drowning.
Lee didn't open his eyes for the attempt, not with the flesh-melting acid he was splashing around in, but that same acid opened them for him... by melting his eyelids off.
So he saw the spear of blue light pierce into his fleshy tomb from one direction and then go straight out the other side in a flash. A shockwave accompanied the light, and Lee felt it thrum against his screaming flesh right before another beam followed the first.
He couldn't tell which direction was up anymore, but the next violent change of momentum by the frog sent him headfirst into one of the new holes those spears were creating, whereupon Lee slammed headfirst into the ground.
He saw stars for a moment, and then the frog jumped as another spear of light blasted into the ground only feet away.
The frog's leap was enough to drag him the rest of the way out, and Lee saw stars again, only this time it was the stars of the night sky when he landed flat on his back in the mud.
I... I'm not dead? He wanted to close his eyes, curl up in a ball and cry in relief, or scream in pain, but he still had holes in his eyelids... It'll grow back! It’ll grow back!
His whole body felt raw, and he didn't want to move, but a vibration through the ground reminded him he really should get out of there...
Lee rolled over with clenched teeth and climbed to his knees. His fork still glowed, though at a distance and no longer in his belt. In fact, he didn't have a belt anymore... or any clothes for that matter... his skin was patchy... huge swaths missing...
The panicked scream bubbling up in his throat was interrupted by a massive shape crashing down mere feet from his face, smothering his light and mercifully not moving again.
Lee also didn't move from his own frozen position. Not until a new light appeared. A glowing core larger than any he'd seen before, falling out of the presumably dead frog right in front of him.
He reached for it... and a thud next to him caused him to freeze in place.
"That one's mine," a man's voice said from the darkness. It wasn't loud or particularly angry but spoke with certainty and conviction and just a hint of a threat...
Lee turned toward the voice and found two faintly glowing eyes regarding him from the shadowy outline of a human. "My kill, my core," the man said.
"N..." Lee choked on the taste of blood and bile in his throat and coughed violently as he crawled backward away from the tantalizing core, each impact on his hands and knees burning like he was rubbing dirt into an open wound... which he was.
"No worries. It's all yours," he finally got out once his throat stopped burning.
Whoever this man was, he'd saved his life, and Lee wasn't about to fight him over a core after that, not that he thought he had a chance either. Though... those beams of light could just have easily killed him as saved him. The guy hadn't saved him on purpose, had he? It was just luck.
The figure picked up the core almost casually, in no particular hurry, and its light shone dimly against a nondescript face as he stared at it. Then it faded, and darkness swallowed them as he absorbed it.
Lee couldn't resist his curiosity. "What did it give?"
The man turned to look at him with those glowing eyes. Eyes that looked almost... bestial. He said nothing, though, and turned to leave after a mere glance at Lee.
Lee didn't like that, but who was he to complain? "Do you want the rest of them?" He really didn't want to give up his now extremely hard-earned cores but was in no position to fight this man for them. Better to be upfront on the issue now. He'd gotten out of certain death once already, and that was enough for tonight.
"Your kills, your cores," the man said, surprising Lee.
"I... thanks... for the assist, I mean." Lee didn't hesitate after hearing that and scrambled after the cores. This guy had clearly adapted to the new world, and Lee doubted he'd left anything alive out here.
The task of collecting the cores helped distract him from the intense itching taking over his entire body. Also, the growing hunger pains in his belly...
Debuff Upgraded: [Famished It wasn't enough of a distraction. Especially once his skin stopped itching, and Lee was finally free to close his eyes again. +1 Vitality Debuff Upgraded: [Starving Lee was reaching for the last core and didn't realize what he was doing until he'd taken a bite of raw frog... It tasted terrible... but also delicious. Soo delicious! Lee dove in, carving off pieces and shoving them down his throat as fast as he could until... Debuff Downgraded: [Ravenous>Starving] Lee was abruptly very aware of the taste in his mouth, and he gagged on the last bite, almost choking as it finally went down. "Hardcore." The voice dragged Lee's attention back to those two glowing eyes again, watching him from a dozen feet away. "That had to taste terrible..." the man said. Lee gagged but didn't throw up. He didn't want to waste what he'd already eaten... and he wanted more. "It did," Lee said, while refusing to look at the remains of his meal. He was still starving... but not that crazed hunger from moments ago. It was disgusting, but he was whole again, and after having most of his skin melted off... Definitely not something to complain about, but maybe better if he ate some real food before it got so bad. Just don't think about it! The glowing eyes stared at him for a few more seconds, then they blinked, and the man stood from his crouch. "Good hunting." He turned and vanished into the dark. Lee didn't need to search out the building in the dark; he could feel the large rune inside it, and he didn't waste time before he took off running in that direction. On the way, he pulled his runes back from everything out here other than the butter knife still clenched in his fist. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Burrs pricked his bare feet, and bushes scratched at his legs, but Lee didn't slow. Not until he'd climbed back through the fence and was only a few yards from the building. Then he only stopped because there was a surprising amount of people rushing past and going into the building. A familiar sensation drew Lee's gaze to a man near the rear of the crowd funneling through the door. Alejandro didn't have his pot lid anymore, and Lee realized he couldn't feel the runes from it either. Had he blocked too many times and depleted the shield? He was still carrying the enchanted machete, but his other hand held a golf club that was glowing with the same yellow light as the pot lid had before. That light was the primary source out here since Lee had abandoned his fork beneath the gargantuan frog. Someone finally noticed Lee when the light fell over him and then they screamed. Alejandro zipped through the crowd, clearly using some magic skill. Nearly instantaneously appearing next to the screaming man before orienting on Lee and immediately charging with the machete raised to strike. "Wait!" Lee held both hands up to intercept the descending blade, staggering back even as he drained the runes empowering it. Without those, he thought he might have a chance, but he really didn't want to try regenerating his hands if Alejandro cut them off... much less his head. Luckily, the man halted his strike the moment he heard Lee's voice and held up his glowing golf club instead, letting the light shine on him more directly. "You! What are you..." "It's a long story," Lee said quickly, stepping aside from the man and his light. "Do you have any... clothes I can borrow?" "Of course!" Alejandro turned to the now frozen mob. "Get inside! This is the magic building. Hurry!" As he spoke, he pulled off his button-up long sleeve, his eyes constantly moving and his weapons never leaving his hands for more than the instant it took to get out of the shirt. Apparently, he had indeed gone out to be the hero tonight... Lee considered telling him about all the dead frogs but didn't bother. For all he knew, there were thousands more out here, maybe even other magically enlarged animals as well. Of course, there was also that man with glowing eyes who was most likely killing everything... The shirt made a semi-decent kilt, and Lee joined the crowds to get inside, taking care as he went to avoid stabbing anyone in the rush with his knife. He didn't stand out as much as expected in his nearly naked state. Many of the others were similarly disheveled, with torn clothes and dark stains that may or may not have been blood. Most of them spilled out into the courtyard on the first floor, and Lee left them behind as he rushed upstairs. Alejandro followed. "It is still enchanted, right? The building?" "Yeah, it is." Lee could feel that much and found that he could add mana to the rune covering the building by touching it literally anywhere. Handy that, and he topped off the rune on the way up the stairs. Not that the charge had gone down more than a drop. He didn't bother mentioning that the building enchantment diminished the further you went from his apartment. What Lee hadn't remembered was that the spring-loaded doors in this building were all locked automatically from the outside, and his keys were... well, probably dissolving in a pool of stomach acid right about now. However, the door opened almost immediately following his crashing into it, and Maria stood in the gap. Lee saw the confusion in her expression upon seeing his attire, followed by relief when Alejandro came up behind him. Lee squeezed past their emotional reunion and then frowned at all the staring faces filling his home. He could have sworn there was even more than before... Lee tried to ignore them as he went looking for boxes, particularly the ones with his clothing in them. He found what he wanted, along with a lot of open boxes he didn't remember opening... Were they going through his stuff while he was gone? He left that alone for now and retreated into his room to get dressed. There was a dismal attempt at cleaning up, but the mud alone was more than he could remove, never mind the... other stuff. The lack of running water didn't help. Then he came back out and went looking for food. He was still starving, and there was a nasty taste in his mouth... He found the box with his stash of canned beans, the only canned food worth eating, and they were all missing... "Where the fuck are my beans?!" He found them a moment later, all opened and empty on the counter. Who steals beans!? It’s not like they were starving in here for days. It was literally the first fucking night! Hours at most! Lee was feeling a lot braver when he met all the stares coming his way, mostly because he was really fucking hungry! "Where's my goddamned food, you fucking thieves!?" "Lee, it's okay!" Alejandro broke away from his wife to approach him, far too relaxed around the brandished butter knife. "The fuck it is!" Lee yelled, glaring at the surrounding people. "I let you fucks in here, and you thank me by stealing my food!?" They were glaring and muttering now, but Lee didn't care. He was starving... and none of these fuckers had fought for shit! None of them had been eaten by a giant frog... "Lee, I have food! It is okay. Trust me, I won’t let you go hungry!" Lee glared back and forth between the crowd and Alejandro before his hunger won out against the anger. "Fine, but I want all of you out! Go back to your own apartments. I already enchanted the whole building already." Not the windows or the doors, probably? His bathroom door had gotten enchanted… whatever. They could use their own magic. He didn't know why he'd let them inside in the first place... "Okay, we'll go. We'll all go," Alejandro said, hands up placatingly while Maria glared at Lee. "Not you," Lee said, and not because she was threatening him with her eyes. "You can stay if you bring food... for now." He didn't want new tenants... The sight of his keys on one of the kitchen counters also helped to cool his anger, but mostly it was the promise of food. Alejandro said something in Spanish to Maria right before she left, and Lee was pretty sure one word in there was about food. More people followed, joining the exodus while Alejandro held his two small children tight in his arms. No one else volunteered to trade food for shelter, and it was just as well. Lee didn't need any more people crowding his home. Maria came back before they finished trickling out, and she brought food! Lee could smell the tortillas before she even set down the bag! He had his cast-iron skillet out of the box a moment later... and, of course, the stove didn't work... Maria said something he didn't understand and started opening her own can of beans and lathering them onto a cold tortilla while eyeing him warily. "Wait!" Lee said and flipped the skillet over. On the bottom, he drew two runes. One to strengthen it and the other to make it hot. The strengthening was mostly because he wasn't sure just how hot it would get... He was right to worry because it got way too hot almost immediately. Luckily, both runes fought each other since the heating one was technically trying to destroy the skillet, and it didn't melt before he pulled them back out. Lee had to dive into his class knowledge to find a solution while he waited for it to cool, and he found one. It was a small modification to the heating rune that gave it a set temperature instead of the 'get exponentially hotter' that he'd first used. It worked, and he did the same thing for the pan she'd brought with her. After that, the smell of frying food drowned out everything else while Lee watched Maria cook. She even had meat! He might have also drooled a little… Only after he got his first taco and devoured it, did Lee notice everyone else had finally left. Debuff Downgraded: [Starving>Famished] "I think I love you, Maria!" Lee said, reaching for another, then hesitating when she slapped his fingers with the spatula and gave a pointed glance behind him. He reluctantly carried the plate to the small dining room table Alejandro had moved into proper position, and which now sat two small children. The older one took a taco and started eating, while the younger had to be fed by her father. Both looked wide-eyed and afraid in Lee's blue lights. Their traumatized faces helped Lee endure his own hunger while watching them eat. Until the next plate arrived, at which point he went right back to devouring everything. "I do love you!" Alejandro laughed. "Lee, how did you end up outside with no clothes? If you don't mind..." Debuff Downgraded: [Famished>Hungry] "I..." Lee swallowed the last bite and stared at Maria's back. "I went hunting for the cores." If she could just cook faster... "Is that the glowing rocks?" "It was stupid, and I'm a moron..." Lee said before the man could pile on, but then trailed off. "Wait, did you not pick any of them up?" "I was trying to protect the people from the frogs!" Lee couldn't believe it. He'd been an idiot for going out there, but this guy had gone out to fight monstrous, man-eating frogs, and it wasn't even to gather cores... "I got eaten by one," Lee finally admitted, a little embarrassed sure, but feeling better about his own mistakes after hearing what a moron his neighbor was. No wonder Maria looked pissed! Alejandro laughed, but it trailed off as he stared at Lee. "You really got eaten by the frogs?" "It was huge..." Lee said, somewhat defensively. "You didn't... Never mind. Just give me your machete. I need to re-enchant it." He didn't mention that he'd pulled the runes off intentionally as he reapplied them onto the blade. "I don't suppose you have another one of these... and what's with the golf club?" Lee didn't really know these people, and he didn't trust them... much. But after the events of the night and the food! Mostly the food. Oh god, the food! He was feeling more inclined to trust. Besides, he could always take the runes back if he had to. "My shield broke," Alejandro said, "but my skill lets anything be a shield! Also, I do not have another machete... sorry." "Mmm, mm," Lee said around another mouthful before swallowing. "It's fine... I think I can make something good enough..." Now he knew he could probably use runes to heat metal, then pound it more or less into a bladed shape. The golf club might work… but only the head, the shaft was too round, and he wanted a long cutting implement, not an ax. An actual sword would be better, but that might have to wait... or did it? There had to be tons of people with magic now. Who knew what skills or abilities they might have? Debuff Removed: [Hungry] "Thanks..." He meant it too. The meal had been infinitely better than his planned can of beans. Lee stood up, stomach full and nerves not quite settled as he paced around the room a few times. He stopped at the windows and re-powered them fully along the way. Then he slumped onto the couch. It smelled. Or maybe that was him... Lee closed his eyes, leaning back on the couch. I really fucked up today... but... I still need so much more. He didn't notice when his momentary rest turned into sleep.