I’ve always been terrible with names.
Haven’t I?
“Wake UP!” screamed starts-with-an-S. “Mike fainted and Bruce is dead and I don’t know what to DO!”
Dead? Who’s dead?
It was hard to concentrate, but I managed to lever myself into sitting up. It hurt. I forgot all about that, though, when I saw the still form lying a few feet away. Wavy red hair filled with dirt and blood was spread around its head like some demonic halo. A memory came crashing back.
“DANIELLE!”
I crawled over to her. She was alive and breathing. Her limbs were… bent… in ways arms and legs shouldn’t bend. But as I watched, she shuddered, and one arm got a little straighter.
“Psychic Healing,’” I rasped through a throat so dry it hurt to breathe.
SYSTEM MESSAGE: You are in Mana Shock. You may not use Mana until you regenerate at least as much Mana as you used in excess of your total Mana. Effectiveness of all skills that use Mana decreased by 50% for ten minutes per negative Mana point. Time remaining 126 minutes.
It almost made sense but I couldn’t quite process it all the way. The blonde woman was still yelling but I was just moving from point to point on a very simple path in my head.
“‘Status,” I croaked. My reconfigured Status Screen popped into view.
Name:
James Erickson
Class:
Mesmerist (Hidden) / Mage
Level:
5
EXP:
2001
HP:
140/140 (5/Min)
MP:
11/260 (8/Min)
STA:
120/120 (5/Min)
REM EXP :
1099
Attributes
STR: 10
INT: 26
WIS: 11
DEX: 10
CON: 14
CHA: 20
Class Skills (Two Free Slots)
Instant Induction
Psychic Healing
Mana Bolt
General Skills
Hypnosis (Master)
Meditation (Int.)
Titles
Mesmer’s Heir (Unique, Hidden), Adamant
Status Effects
Red Team Rally/Time Remaining 3:27, Mana Shock/Time Remaining 0:45, Mana Depletion/Time Remaining 2:04:45
Something didn’t seem right. Well, lots of things didn’t seem right. But there was something new.
‘Adamant?’
SYSTEM MESSAGE: Congratulations, you have been awarded the title “Adamant.” You will not give up on someone you have chosen to save, even unto death. The System recognizes you as ‘Adamant.’ Resistance to Shock status increased 100%. Duration of HP/MP/SP depletion debuffs reduced 50%. If HP, MP, or SP go below 10% of base maximum during combat, regeneration rate doubles until fully regenerated.
A shiver ran through me as the Title’s benefits kicked in. The counter for Mana Shock went to zero and then the Status Effect vanished from my screen, while the counter for Mana Depletion was immediately reduced to just over an hour. I felt a little less blurry with the Mana Shock status removed.
Meanwhile, the woman - Samantha? Samantha! - started shaking my arm again.
“James, help me. I used my Skill to heal Kaa and I think he’s going to be okay but everybody’s hurt so bad. Please talk to me.”
Clarity started to return. Memories. Awareness. It felt good. Until I looked around and saw bodies lying here and there. Then it felt awful.
“Samantha?” I said. It still came out as a question. “Samantha. Is anyone still bleeding? I’m out of Mana but we could still use bandages.”
“I don’t know,” she said. “Mike won’t wake up.”
I was about to yell at her to look around when I remembered the status bars. I focused on them and saw that Joe’s was flashing very slowly, but was still ticking up. He was still bleeding but his high stats meant he was regenerating faster than the bleeding could hurt him.
“Mike’s probably in Mana Shock,” I said. My voice was getting firmer. That seemed like a good sign. “He went negative when he healed Danielle, I think. It hits you hard.”
Her eyes widened, but she kept clinging to my arm. “Is he going to be okay?”
“Yes,” I said. “He should come to when his Mana goes positive.” I looked more closely at his bars. His Mana bar was grey, with a small black portion. As I watched the black portion ticked down. That must mean negative. “It looks like he’ll probably wake up in three or four minutes.”
She let out a long, shuddering breath. Her eyes were still locked onto her unconscious husband, but the grip on my arm relaxed a little.
“Are you hurt?” I asked her. She was dirty and looked like she was halfway to shock herself, but I didn’t see any injuries.
“No, just a few scrapes from when I went into the trees to heal Kaa. The bear’s claws didn’t cut him open but he was still hurt bad.” She looked at the treeline for a second, then back to her husband.
“Go find something to bandage Joe with. He’s healing, but he’ll heal faster if you stop the bleeding.” She didn’t move. “I’ll stay here with Mike and Danielle. Go!” I snapped out the last word and she staggered to her feet reflexively. She headed for the bag she’d dropped when the fight started.
I looked around for Anthony and saw him sitting up several yards away. He looked like he’d been hit by a truck, but a quick check of his HP bar showed he was over a third full and climbing.
Mandy was not far from him. She was lying quite still and only the fact that her HP bar was over half full kept me from thinking she was dead. Mike must have burned most of his Mana keeping her alive. She still clutched her whip in one outstretched hand.
Dumbass noob. The thought was involuntary, spawned from years of gaming. Pulled aggro from the tank and nearly got us all killed.
With my friends accounted for and on the road to surviving, I turned to see the worst thing of all.
Sheila.
At some point, she had left the little ones in the wagon. She was hunched over the mangled body of her husband. The father of her children. Sobs like great wracking coughs were shaking her whole body, and her son and daughter clung to her side, staring at what remained of their dad.
He’s dead. I got him killed. It’s all my fault.
The bear rushed me after I zapped it. It attacked him when it couldn’t get me. He couldn’t run away because he was Mana sick. Because I made him use his Special Skill.
All my fault.
Somewhere deep inside I knew that none of that was fair. I had to keep shooting. Everyone else was down. The bear would have kept attacking for another minute, maybe longer. In that time it could have killed the kids or me or who knows how many of us. Without Red Team Rally active, we wouldn’t have done enough damage to kill the bear before all the fighters were out of the battle, and the badly injured people might not have survived. They were all terrible choices that had to be made and I made them.
But that didn’t matter. Not with those sobs echoing in my ears.