Chapter Twenty Nine – Scramble

“Hiya there, Adventurer! You appear to have killed another advent–!”

“Not now, Miss Tutorial!” I exclaimed, and Tutorial’s voice and dialogue box disappeared.

The archer crumpled to the ground, a headstone and an angel appearing out of nowhere. I grinned though as I snatched her beautiful bow just before the body disappeared, but frowned when the bow also disappeared after I touched it.

A notification appeared in the corner of my vision with a “2” beside it. The notification box looked a lot like Tutorial’s boxes, only in miniature, so I assumed she was just letting me know she had something to tell me without interrupting me when I might die at any moment.

That was nice of her!

“Haha! I knew it was you!” Half Bold exclaimed. “No one else has that shock of yours.”

“You did, Half Bold,” I said, grinning with my own maliciousness as I stood free of the net and free of the archer. “I am Gell, the Jellyfae. And I won’t be imprisoned ever again. By you, or anyone.”

As if unable to hold in his confusion and panic any longer the healer suddenly shouted, “The fuck was that atta–!”

I reared back with my hand before he could gather his wits and smashed the flat end into the healer’s face. I proceeded to scream as my fingers bent back in agony. Dammit, how did they hit with these things!? Trying to hit him hurt me more than the imp’s attack had!

[email protected], stunned by a slap! Duration 2 seconds!

“Agghhh!” I roared, and curled my fingers around each other, forming a makeshift mace with the end of my hand. A fist. Right. That was how these things worked!

I reared back and punched the healer in his stunned face, then yowled as once again something went wrong with my punch. I screamed as tears came to my eyes and my thumb burned, practically dislocated from its place nestled within my other four fingers.

-4 hp!

‘Okay! Thumb goes on the outside!’

“Stay away from Dungeon Home!” I screamed, partially as a bellow of rage against the pain in my hand and partially to be as frightening as I could. I reached down, letting loose another shocker as the recharge reset, but missed as the healer rolled away before I could touch him.

“Boldy! Party up, dammit!” the healer said once he had managed to get a safe distance away.

“Fine,” Half Bold said, clicking away at screens and watching me from his perch a little ways up the slope on some fallen logs. He picked up a net and twirled it idly in his hands. “Keep her distracted. I got this.”

‘A healer? Keep me distracted? Please, do you know how many healers I’ve killed?’ I thought, incredulous.

I was about to pounce for him, but yelped as Avwren fluttered in front of my eyes, blocking my view.

Dammit! He wasn’t talking to the healer; he was talking to his captives!

I grabbed for the bat, and was almost as shocked as Avwren was when I actually caught it around the throat. I panicked again and hurled it into a nearby tree. It screeched and I winced in sympathy, feeling immediately guilty. I swore not to hurt them, but here I was doing it again!

I had to be better.

Half Bold was gone, hidden behind a tree or shrub or something, while the Healer was almost ten paces away already. Long practice had taught me to eliminate the healer first, and unfortunately, the healer was already beginning to cast. What though? Half Bold had only been hit by the fireball earlier, but it didn’t seem to be slowing him down.

What could the healer be casting–!?

‘Oh jellycrap,’ I thought.

I darted for the healer as I realized exactly what he was doing. He was reviving the archer! It had been so long since I’d let a healer live long enough to try reviving one of his teammates I’d almost forgotten they could do that! I didn’t know how effective she might be without her bow, but I didn’t want to find out!

I closed in on Bellcandy, who was frantically chanting in that ‘other’ language while the usual patterns of light formed beneath him.

I reached out, preparing to shock him, but was intercepted by the half-dead imp. I shocked it and it died, opening a smaller hole into an abyss like it had come from and falling into it, but the healer finished his spell before I could get to him.

“Son of a bitch, how many times can you use that thing!? It’s amazing!” The healer laughed. Laughed. Like… like this was all fun?

“As many as I need!” I screamed as I finally caught him. The recharge wasn’t quite done yet though so I punched him in the face and sent him sprawling. This time it finally didn’t hurt all that bad!

The recharge finished and I shocked his crumpled body, watching the gravestone and angel appear anticlimactically alongside the PK and Infamy notifications.

“One to go,” I said before turning and finding a knife poised against my throat.

“It was fun before. Now, I’m pissed. Give me back my bow,” said the archer menacingly. This time she was careful not to touch me.

‘Dammit!’ I breathed. ‘How the heck did she get behind me so fast!?’

“I… I don’t know where it is! It disappeared when I touched it!” I exclaimed. I was willing to die, but if I could talk my way out of this or trick her into letting me touch her again… she couldn’t possibly be in good health, having just returned. The healers usually had to cast multiple spells to get the freshly revived back in fighting shape.

I just needed to touch her again…

“It’s in your inventory, fool. Open it up and get it out,” she exclaimed, stepping around me so she could look me in the eyes again, this time from safely at the end of the knife.

Gods how I hated knives.

“I-Inventory…?” I asked. Hadn’t Miss Tutorial been trying to tell me about–?

I blinked as a screen appeared with hundreds of empty boxes and a few filled ones. I’d seen this briefly before. The inventory screen. I’d been mad at Miss Tutorial for scaring me and banished her explanation, but it seemed pretty self explanatory to me. I slowly reached for and touched the small box that had an image of the beautiful bow and it appeared in my hand as if by magic.

I gasped in awe, almost forgetting the knife to my throat.

“Good. Now. Time for you to learn a lesson. Stealing is blugghh–!” She cut off mid sentence as an arrow bloomed from her throat with a fresh spray of blood.

I turned and saw Iron standing there, holding a bow and looking absolutely livid.

“Gell! Gell, oh my god Sweetie! Are you okay!” Amy’s voice echoed as if from another world. I turned to see her at the bottom of the hill, now decked out in white healer’s robes and holding a staff. Iron, by contrast, held a very boring bow compared to the one in my hand, but it had apparently been good enough to get the job done. He too, had changed clothing and now wore a set of leather armor.

He looked like an invader. His eyes looked menacing and fierce… but they softened as he glanced towards me. They became kind again.

“Gell? What happened?” he asked.

Amy reached me as Dull Beauty’s body disappeared again and wrapped her arms around me in another one of those wonderful hug things.

“I.. they were… I…” I didn’t know what to say.

They’d saved me. I’d… I’d never been saved before. My eyes were wet again.

“I… I’ve… I missed you,” were the words I finally found.