My whole body was so hot, my insides felt like they were cooking. As the crashing sounds tore through the bushes and drew closer, I squinted through the double vision just to see it.

A five foot tall gigaroach burst out of the bushes, loping unevenly and covered in battle wounds. The six-armed humanoid bug screeched loudly, the sound causing goosebumps to spread across my fevered skin and stabbed at my aching head. It spotted the nymph carcasses and screeched again. It wasn't hard to figure out the culprit — me and Levi were the only ones here. Furious, it launched at us.

Even if I was in top form, I'd never beat this C ranked monster — even when it was injured. Helpless, I threw my hands up and spread my water in front like a shield. Levi added his water to mine, strengthening it with all he had.

The gigaroach slashed at the water shield, its long claws digging right through. The attack caught me on the shoulder and tossed my back ten feet, opening up a gash across my chest. The water shield worked a little — the attack didn't kill me like it should have, but was that really a bonus at this point?

I smashed into the downed log behind with enough force to rock it back and forth, breaking the water seal I placed there earlier. The rotten wood groaned, then crumbled under my weight. In the corner of my blurry vision, a System message popped up, letting me know I only had seven percent HP left.

With an explosion of light, the pyreflies shot out from under the log, looking like blue fireballs with long, thin wings as they fled in a zig-zagged line. In seconds, they dodged around the trees in the opposite direction of the battle and disappeared from view. And there was nothing I could do about it.

I sagged against the rough texture, my body as heavy as my head and barely able to breathe through the pain.

Levi appeared and put himself between me and the advancing gigaroach, arching and flaring his neck in a threat. Try as he might, his little body trembled under the oppressive aura the gigaroach exuded. It infuriated Levi that another monster suppressed him, a leviathan, but I was also affected too much to do anything. I grabbed my pained chest and gulped in air, trying to cool my body enough to focus. My left hand trembled as I summoned a Bubble and got ready to smack on the gigaroach's face when it pounced. If I was going to die, at least, I was going to make a bit of its HP with me.

The gigaroach bent its legs, its buggy eyes black with murder.

God, that was going to be the last thing I saw in my life? I wish it were my family instead.

Suddenly, a battered and bloody nexu jumped out of the bushes from the side like a black and white bullet. It pounced on the gigaroach with enough force to flatten it against a tree three feet away. Without pausing, the nexu opened its extra wide mouth and started biting the gigaroach.

The gigaroach immediately counter attacked and a fierce battle broke out.

Levi turned and hissed loud, breaking through the fog filling my brain, urging me to go.

"Right," I mouthed because I didn't have the energy to actually speak. I scrambled up, fell over the broken rotten log, crawled to my feet again and staggered away as fast as my heavy feet could in the opposite direction the pyreflies went.

I left the unconverted nymph carcasses behind. What was the use of collecting drop item orbs if I died in the process? Now that all the adrenaline from the battle had run its course, the burnout was kicking my trash and I felt worse than before. Blood continued to leak from my chest, and my head was so heavy, I could barely keep it up. But I didn't stop moving. I'd die if I did. No matter which won the fight — the gigaroach or the nexu — both would kill me in one hit.

Levi slithered along my side as I blindly hurried in the direction the GPS arrow pointed while tripping over shrubs, bouncing off trees, and wobbling under low hanging branches. There was nothing graceful or quiet about my fight, but all I cared about was putting as much distance between me and territory war as possible. My blood pounded in my ears so badly, it distorted my already disabled hearing. Was the sound of the fighting getting weaker? Was something chasing me? A gigaroach? A nexu? A nymph? Or was it my imagination? I couldn't tell.

The ground rose in an incline, getting steeper and steeper until I was practically scrambling on my hands and knees to climb up. Every time I moved, it tweaked my chest wound, making it bleed more. I looked up and focused on a large boulder ahead, perched on the top of the rocky hill. There, I promised myself, as soon as I got there, I'd be safe. I didn't have any indications that it was true, but my body was so worn out, I needed a physical goal to keep pushing myself.

As soon as I dodged around the boulder, my body gave out. I collapsed on the rocky dirt, gasping and limp.

Levi licked my burning forehead with his cold tongue. A second later, he dropped a large ball of water right on my head and neck.

I gasped at the sudden cold shock and jerked in a full body spasm, wet hair falling in my face. "Wha ... Levi?" I shoved my hair away and peaked at him. Well, in his general direction. The double vision was so bad, I could barely make the little snake a foot away.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

He blinked his eyes and another ball of water appeared over my head like an axe ready to drop.

"Stop, stop," I gasped and waved a tired hand. "Please, stop. It won't help, and all it will do is waste your water reserve."

His head tilted to the side, showing me his memory of when I put water on my forehead. Since that water was gone — it happened during the nymph fight — he thought I needed more water on my head to feel better. He was just doing what I did, so why did I reject it?

I rolled over so I wasn’t pressing on my wound anymore, ignoring the way the dirt clung to my wet head. God, I needed a shower. "It's not like that," I rubbed my hand over my forehead, leaving a thin strip of wet there. "It's like this. Small and only here. See?" I pointed at it.

He rolled his eyes, accusing me of being picky.

I was so tired, my lips only twitched in a smile. I couldn't feel any monsters close by, so I took that as a good sign. I knew I shouldn't, but I couldn't prevent my eyes from closing. I was so dizzy and tired, now that I was flat, my consciousness failed.

Ten minutes, I promised myself. I'll get up in ten minutes. Ah, I should set a timer for that, was the last thought I had before blacking out.

*****

I awoke to Levi tapping my cheek with his tail. My heavy eyes cracked open. At first, everything seemed blurry. I could tell that the sky was overhead because of the color, and the afternoon sun hid behind a tree. There was also a huge gray and red thing to my side, but I couldn't fully make it out. Then I realized that it wasn't my vision — I could see Levi just fine — but a water bubble, like a giant egg, covered us as I laid in a fetal position with Levi curled up on my shoulder.

I pressed a hand to my heavy head. The sleep helped, but the effects of the poison were still there. At least I didn't feel like passing out any more. I think the fever had cooled off a bit, enough to have a coherent thought, and my chest wasn't bleeding anymore, just a little sticky from the dry blood. Even though Regen didn't help with the poison, it took care of my wounds just fine.

After a couple of recharging breaths, I forced myself to focus on the task at hand — following the GPS arrow. Currently, it was pointing up — straight up. For one majorly obvious reason, I was at the bottom of a mountain cliff. It wasn't like yesterday's twenty foot cliff, oh no. If only it was. The cool gray and red rocks stabbed into the sky, and loomed over me like a god. Everything I'd climbed so far was just the base of the mountain, the beginning hill that slowly increased in altitude.

But now, I was at the slope and there was nothing gradual about it. Laying here, staring up at the behemoth, I understood how the first adventures must have felt when they crossed the flat plains, and encountered the Rocky Mountain Range. It was terrifying, knowing that I was going to climb it with nothing to help – unless you counted a little snake.

"The System thinks I have wings," I concluded. Why else would it give me all these ridiculously high tasks? It was the one that decided I was a water mage. Why did it keep giving me air-type tasks?

Levi looked up through the water shell, missing his size and ability to fly. A couple days ago, this cliff was nothing to him. Hell, he was as long as it was tall. But now, he was a puny little noodle, stuck on the bottom.

I sighed and slid my finger down his smooth back to soothe him. He immediately turned around and painlessly chomped on my finger like a jerk.

I shook him off and sat up. "Do you still want your water?" I asked and motioned to the water shield.

Levi plopped to the ground and then curled into a more dignified position. A second later, the water egg disappeared, drawn back into his little body, giving me a better view of our next obstacle.

A GPS marker shifted in my vision, pointing to the dark cave sixty feet up on the steep cliff face. As nice as it was to know where I needed to go, how do I get up there? Also, could I even make it that far, before the poison reacted to my quickly pumping blood and flared up again, like in the battle? There was a small ledge at the halfway point, but 'small' was the key word. It didn't look like a safe long term resting place.

I stood up, wobbling a little, and walked to the cliff. "I don't know that I could maintain a ladder that long," I muttered, tapping the cold stone with my fingers. "Even without being poisoned, I don't think I can free hand climb this." I sighed and tilted my head back, moaning in frustration. "Why is everything so damn tall? And where are the damn stairs?" At least I wasn't afraid of heights. I'd be screwed if I was.

I resigned, went back to figuring out what to do now.

Levi climbed up the rocky cliff, his slender body seemingly defying gravity while bending and clinging to the stone. He stopped at eye level and stuck his tongue out at me.

I glared at him. "Haha, very funny." Frustrated, I reached out and grabbed him off the wall. Then recoiled when I felt his wet underside. Yelping, I dropped him like I was electrocuted. "Why did you pee on me?" I took a wet wipe out of my Items Bag and scrubbed my hand furiously.

I mean, I get that accidents happen with pets — it was a part of owning one. But Levi isn't a pet, he's too intelligent. And I'd seen his hygiene habits, they were better than most humans I'd interacted with. As a fellow clean freak, we were pretty well matched. So why did he have pee on him?

Levi righted himself and hissed at me, hurling insults because of my dirty mind. Then he rose up and pointed to his underbelly with his tail, motioning to the water that clung to his stomach.

I blinked, understanding. He used the water as an adhesive to climb the cliff. He could do that? "Ooh," I said slowly, and put the wipe away.

When I didn't say anything else, he hissed in dissatisfaction.

I blinked out of my whirling thoughts and focused. It took a second for my thoughts to clear up enough to understand what he wanted. "Oh, right. I'm sorry for misunderstanding and throwing you."

He nodded his head smartly and turned his nose in the air. The lordly little snake climbed back up the sheer rock, then paused and looked at me, as if asking why I was taking so long.

Could I really do that too? I guess I could make a water rope and climb with that. Debating, I put my hand back on the cold stone. Water pooled around my hand. Experimenting, I tried to move my hand, while ordering the water to stay there. My hand stuck like it was glued to the wall, but as soon as I willed it to let go, the water released the rock while staying with my hand.

Humming with curiosity, I looked up. "I think I can do this," I muttered and grabbed a handhold over my head. The water around my hand clung to the rock, anchoring me as I pulled myself up.

*****