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Thankfully, the Warg I stabbed with the burning knife was too concerned with thrashing around trying to dislodge the knife to worry about where I was or what I was doing. So even if it didn't work, I figured it was a good opportunity.
I rushed to check Jamal's injury and found it was much better than I'd thought, but worse than I could treat on my own with just a spell that could maybe be used to cauterize a wound. So I focused on wrapping.
Marisol had run as I'd told her to and the Warg had followed, so we only had one to worry about for the moment.
Jamal's Warg seemed to gather itself and managed to dislodge the knife by rubbing its side against a car. the knife caught on something and essentially cut itself worse than I had, just to get it free
Carlo was stalking toward it slowly, taking stock. He didn't look at us once, which was the smart thing to do. Momentary distractions often got people killed in these situations. People felt like they were terrible if they didn't look and let their emotions overcome them because they couldn't stand to be 'terrible'.
Thankfully, Carlo did not appear to have that issue. As he went after that one, I heard the one that had been chasing Marisol coming back our way. Or maybe it was another one altogether.
I was able to use the hastily bought bandages in my pockets to wrap up Jamal's injury, though I knew it wouldn't hold for long. I'd only been able to pour alcohol over the wound and slap antiseptic bandages over it. I'd readied them last night, but hadn't thought we'd be dealing with an injury of this magnitude.
The shop refused to open, with a message stating that I should be focused on battle. Which meant it was idiot-proofed, but also completely fucking useless!
“One moment,” I told Jamal and gently patted him on the shoulder.
The other Warg burst onto the scene just as Carlo summoned one of his bloody, blunted axes from yesterday. He threw it, hard, directly into the side of the head. Which appeared to disorient Jamal's Warg, But did not kill it.
Still, it gave him the opportunity to summon the other blunted axe and throw it at the Warg that had just come from down the alley.
He was drawing aggro, though I wasn't certain he could handle it.
It did give me the opportunity to make a call, though.
“Lila?”
“Mr. Grand, we will require medical assistance when we return, Jamal has been badly bitten on his leg. I disinfected and applied bandages, I am now going to use my belt as a tourniquet.” I had the phone on speaker, and set it beside us on the ground.
I'd been hoping to use a proper tourniquet when I tried to open the shop, but it seems it wasn't to be.
“Shit, hang on, I'll call paramedical and the security guards to help you carry him over,” he said and then the call ended.
The tourniquet was basically just my belt wrapped around his thigh and tied as tightly as I could manage, but it was all I knew how to do. Double loop, buckle outward, ratchet it tight. He screamed a bit loud when I had to fit the double-loop over his leg and move it up to his thigh, but he grit his teeth and then shoved his fist in his mouth, so he didn't appear to be losing control. He wasn't yet in shock, perhaps. I couldn't judge without asking if he was cold and asking that might make him imagine the symptom.
Marisol made another appearance just as I managed to get my overcoat off and bundled it under Jamal's head, skittering to a stop next to Jamal on his other side. “I can help you carry him, into the bank.”
“I called Grand,” I replied. “He's sending assistance, we shouldn't move him. We'll help Carlo.”
For his part, Carlo was doing quite well.
The Wargs knew how to lunge, bite and claw… but they had no idea how to strategize.
Carlo was able to keep them at bay, simply by running between cars and throwing things at them to throw them off. But even with his stamina, even with the fact that his class was not dependent on mana, he was going to run out of energy soon. He hadn't been using skills up until now, as he said last night right before we all went to sleep. His skills pack more punch, which meant they also took more energy.
I can tell he's using Throw now and not just throwing, because the items he’s throwing have a slight glow to them, every time he does.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
It's working but it also can't last.
“All I’ve got are spike traps and caltrops,” Marisol confessed. “I don't know what to do to help.”
“Use this,” I showed her my Vara card. It was in my quick slot and I'd taken it out in case one of those things charged me while I was protecting Jamal. “Use your barrier and mine on yourself and slam into one of those things. The one that isn't badly injured, preferably.”
She took a deep breath and then yanked the card from my hand ripping it and smacking herself in the chest with both hands. She then pulled out the card I’d given her earlier and did the same before running, screaming toward the Wargs. Glowing a subtle, but bright shade of red.
Why is all my magic red?
They almost seemed frightened of her for a moment, Carlo certainly seemed to think she'd gone insane with the way he looked at her. But when she slammed into the Warg, the barrier was strong enough to make it stumble, which was enough for Carlo to take advantage and jump off the top of a car, and sliced downward with one of his axes.
I could tell it was his Slice skill. Not only did the axe glow, it went through the head of the Warg like a hot knife through butter.
The effort left Carlo gasping on the ground and the injured Warg stalked up on him as Marisol tried to help him to his feet.
I had only one skill that would be useful here, but as soon as I used it, I might pass out. I was already experiencing dizziness and fatigue, which is why I didn't take Marisol’s Vara card and do all the slamming myself. I’m bigger and meatier than she is, but I’m also not confident I could walk a straight line, right now.
So I looked at Jamal and asked, “do you need to be the one to throw those?”
His eyes went wide and he pointed at one of his pouches. I reached down into it and got a handful of the seeds. They were very subtly glowing a deep blue.
They only had seconds, really, but I couldn't stumble that fast.
“Phobos!” I called for my familiar and threw the seeds.
He seemed to shoot straight from my palm, and his jaw opened wide, just as I thought it would. He swallowed the seeds and ran.
The Beast attempted to Lunge and bite, but something miraculous happened. Phobos got bigger.
In theory, I'd known he could get bigger, as the Codex said they could whisk you away from the battlefield in an emergency. What I did not know was that he would get about half as big as a Warg. Which was about the size of the average car.
Phobos slammed into the Beast and then vomited vines all over it.
It's not like he was retching or something, that's just what it looked like.
He was able to grab Marisol and drag her away from the Beast- but also away from Carlo. I assumed that he did so because Marisol had no weapons. She was likely perceived as the weaker of the two.
The Beast was struggling, but so was Carlo. He didn't seem capable of getting up on his feet and finishing it off.
If I were to use a spell, I'd pass out, leaving Marisol all by herself. But if I didn't, we would almost certainly die.
I hadn't thought about the brambles as a danger to us before, but when the Beast shoved itself over to slam into Carlo, I could hear him yelling and making pained noises as he attempted to get out from under it.
Standing, I readied myself to use Hrekja.
In just a moment, that became utterly unnecessary.
CRACK!
A gunshot rang out, loud and final.
One of the guards who had been in the lobby yesterday, came sauntering over. “Clear!”
Then, many things all happened at once.
I realized that the final Beast was dead, with a gunshot straight to the eye socket. Paramedical rushed over to scoop up Jamal and one of them asked me if I was injured, flicking a pen light across my eyes.
“I'm just tired,” I told them. “Help Carlo, he's exhausted and badly bruised.”
Then, there was this huge flurry of activity. The Paramedicals took Jamal away first, but the other security guard from the lobby also walked over and helped Carlo to his feet. I checked their information and it said the woman was Ranged Combat and the man was a Pure Combat class.
The woman walked over to me and said, “I'm Patrice, nice to meet you. We woulda come out last night, but Grand said you didn't want us to.”
That was true, I preferred not to make the building anymore defenseless than it already was.
“We were doing fine,” I said. “Until we ran into four at once. We killed fourteen just yesterday, one and two at a time.”
“Whew,” Patrice said. “That's a lot of dead beasts. You guys are definitely gonna get some new skills.”
They were in the lobby when we talked about it, so it's not surprising they would know. “We should have left Derek behind and brought one of you, but we didn't know everyone's classes at the time.”
“Yeah, I figured considerin’ your lineup, that maybe you didn't even know I’m a Gunslinger or that Jonathan is a Guardian,” she said. “We really do need to get that vote over with, thank God they put a time limit on it, finally.”
She then reached down to me. Holding out her hand with great patience until I finally realized what she wanted and used her to leverage myself onto my feet.
“You look dead on your feet,” she said. “You need to get home, get a meal and get some sleep.”
I have to pick up Sophia and help Grand figure out the vote, though it sounds like he may have found a solution on his own.
If he was actually taking the initiative, that would make me feel much more reassured. I only wanted him to be the public face because I was the only one coming up with plans at the time and noone would’ve wanted to listen to me. I didn't want him to be so uncertain about what to do that he couldn't function without me.
Maybe if I were more power hungry, I'd love his confused and whiny energy and use it to my advantage. But power is only useful if you have something to use it on. The only thing I need power for, is to protect Sophia and myself. And importance was dangerous.
"I'll do that as soon as I can," I replied. I was good at taking care of myself. It was one of those things I never got to do until I left home that I luxuriated in, now.
I likely wouldn't be able to do much of that for the time being. No bubble-baths with glitter bath bombs that would make my skin shimmer for days. No lying on the sofa and vegging out on my days off. No working a normal, average every-day job anymore...
The Eldritch Assholes owe me a job.