“How’s Anthony?” I said as Danielle and I, still holding hands, walked up to the group clustered around the pair on the ground.
“He’s… fine,” Mike said in a breathless voice. “He was dying. He had multiple arteries open. But I… I used my powers. And now he’s fine. There’s not a scratch left on him. I think it even replaced the blood! How is this possible?” The doctor was starting to sound hysterical.
“Mike!” I said firmly, and his head swiveled toward me. “You did it. He’s fine. It’s the System. It’s like you said, it’s magic. It doesn’t have to make sense. Just breathe.”
Samantha knelt down next to him and drew him into a hug. He started to weep into her shoulder.
Well, let’s let them be a minute, I thought to myself. On to the rest.
“Anthony, how you doing?” I asked. “You good?”
He looked up at me with a pissed-off expression.
“Armor,” he said emphatically. “I want armor. That fucking hurt.” He glared at the corpse of the bobcat. “Fucking thing. I’ll make a goddamn rug out of it.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. After a second, Anthony’s expression changed and he started to laugh too. A few of the others joined in and even Mike let out a sniffle that sounded like he was holding a laugh back himself.
After I got hold of myself again, I said, “Okay, I’ll take that as a yes.” I offered him my hand and pulled him to his feet. His shirt basically fell off him but he seemed in good spirits after the cathartic laughter.
“I leveled,” he said. “Hot damn. And that point is going right into Strength. Next time I’m gonna throw that thing fifty feet by the tail.”
“No next time for that cat,” I said. “Nice job holding it off.” I gave him a smartass smile. “Way to not die, meatshield.”
“I’ll meatshield you,” he said with a growl. “Where was our actual tank?”
“Watching for the other one,” said Joe in a level voice.
“What other one?” said Danielle, looking around with worry.
“The other one that always jumps you if you don’t pay attention,” said Joe. “I paid attention, so it didn’t jump us.”
“To be fair,” I said, “That happens a lot in games. And the System seems to like messing with us like that. Did you all get the damage messages?”
There were nods all around.
“Then you could see that there were enough of us, and we were strong enough, that Joe and Mandy didn’t have to jump in. They did the right thing,” I said.
Mike let out a great sigh and stood up, half-supported by Samantha. “Are you sure you’re all right, Anthony?” he asked. He sounded better, but his voice was still a little uncertain.
“You fixed me right up, Mike,” he said. The growl was gone. “Thank you. I was bleeding out faster than I could regenerate health. You saved my life.” He walked over and said “Thank you,” again while drawing the startled Mana Healer into a bear hug.
“Good job, Mike. And good job Samantha. That was a great shot. You took down a third of its heath in one go. But I thought that gun was supposed to be a cheat?” If I was going to be the unofficial party leader, I was going to spread the compliments around. We’d won, against a very dangerous opponent. We needed the confidence that should bring us.
“It was set on the lowest power level,” she said, shamefaced. “I forgot to turn it up.”
“It was on the lowest level and it did that?” said Joe. “God damn.” Then he blushed. “Sorry, Mistress.”
Mandy laughed. “I’ll let that one go. Don’t let it happen again.” She gave him a little swat on the butt. “He asked me to help him act more properly,” she said to the rest of us. “He swears too much.” The grin was a little bit evil.
There was more laughter.
I said, “I have no idea how that level thing works, but next time, turn it all the way up, Samantha. If you’re going to fight, cheat.” I gave her a smile to take the sting out of my words.
“I’m sorry!” she said. “I’m so…”
“It’s okay, Samantha,” I said. “By the time you had a shot Anthony was already down. It’s not your fault. That cat was fast. You did great. So did Kaa, in fact.” I looked at the snake, which had coiled itself up in the sun, apparently oblivious to the rest of us. “That poison would have almost finished the cat by itself, and it was higher level than Kaa. Plus, he got the cat off Anthony. Maybe I killed it, but you were the star of the show.”
“Really?” She looked at me, eyes wide. “I didn’t…”
“You did,” I said firmly. “You and Kaa, between you, did almost half the damage and you saved Anthony.” I looked around to the group. “I am frankly amazed at how well that went. We’ve never fought together. None of us are soldiers or cops or anything. There’s no way that should have worked. But we have to trust in each other, because together, we won.”
As everyone’s expressions brightened, I pointed at the bobcat.
“That’s what waits for us. There could be more. We have to move. We can’t be in the open when night comes. Ten minutes, drink some water. If you leveled, drop your point. Then we go.”
Mandy and Joe started talking about where to put their points. After a brief chat, Danielle put hers in Strength, quietly telling me that her Stamina, HP regen, and Stamina regen all went up.
I put mine in Constitution, and my Hit Points went up… as did my Stamina, my HP regen and my Stamina regen.
Formulas, I thought. We have to figure out the formulas. When there’s time.
After that, I looked over and saw the corpse of the bobcat lying on the ground.
“Hey, Anthony,” I said, eyeing the corpse speculatively. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”
He turned to see what I was looking at. When he realized that it was the corpse, his eyes lit up.
“Loot?”
“What the Hell?” I said. “It can’t hurt to try. You did damage. See what happens.”
Anthony walked over to the corpse and gave it a solid kick in the head. Then he leaned down, put his hand on its side and said, “Loot.”
He blinked, then stood up again and said, “It didn’t work.” My face fell, but before I could say anything he grinned at me like an idiot and said, “It says only the person who killed it can loot it until an hour has passed.”
“Yes!” I shouted. I let go of Danielle’s hand with a final squeeze and practically ran to the bobcat’s corpse. Reaching down to touch it, I said, “Loot!”
SYSTEM MESSAGE: You loot Level 4 Adult Bobcat. You receive: 2 Adult Bobcat Fangs. 4 Adult Bobcat Claws. 1 Bobcat Hide. 2 pieces Bobcat Meat.
The corpse disappeared and the items in the message were left lying on the ground where the corpse had been.
I pumped my fist and let out another “Yes!” of victory. Then I thought of something else. Looking up at Anthony and Joe, I said, “You don’t suppose…”
Anthony looked mystified, but Joe’s jaw dropped. After a second he said, “Well, f… Hell.” He gave Mandy a glance, and she smiled at him. “If looting works, why not? Try it.”