Blix lunged with the knife, but the rat swerved to avoid it and darted towards her extended arm.

Alf’s cane swept in and sent it flying through the air.

“Don’t kill it!” She scooted towards the rat, but the second it hit the ground, it circled around and charged her unprotected left flank.

Alf stepped in again and booted the rat away.

“Alf!” Blix protested. “How am I supposed to level up if you won’t let me fight?”

“Sorry.” He moved back to stand behind her. “Didn’t think you were ready for it.”

“Even if I wasn’t, you’ve got to let me try. Getting hurt is part of fighting.”

“But…”

The rat charged again, cutting a serpentine path through the redwood feathered weeds.

Blix slashed with the knife. A stab would have done more damage, but a slash was harder to dodge. At least it should have been. Somehow the rat managed to arrest its forward motion long enough for the blade to sweep past it, and then, as if its body was a spring, it leaped for her arm, shredding its way towards her exposed neck.

Dropping the knife, she dropped her chin to protect her throat, but the monster ripped into the side of her face.

Alf ripped it from her tunic and flung the flailing creature all the way across the clearing. “Sorry.” Wide, frantic eyes filled her vision as he knelt in front of her and eased her bloody hand away from the side of her face. “I tried to…” his voice choked off. “Sorry.” He cupped her cheek in a trembling hand, and warmth poured into her body, filling her to overflowing with sweet tingling relief.

Blix sighed as the tension bottled in her chest and began to dissipate. “You didn’t do anything wrong,” she said. “I’m just frustrated. I thought being a player would help, but I’m so weak and pathetic and incompetent… I can’t even kill a rat. I can’t even damage it.”

“I thought you wanted to be a mage.” Once he was finished with her face, he turned his attention to her arm.

Blix pressed her lips together as a wave of pleasure radiated up her arm. She would have preferred to be a super acrobatic assassin, but her stats couldn’t be any less assassin-like. Her strength was an embarrassing nine points, and her dexterity was an even more embarrassing six. If she were a GM and someone had created her character for a tabletop campaign, she would have deemed the character unplayable and made them roll up a new one.

Her intelligence, however, was even more ridiculous than Alf’s, a whopping thirty points. As much as she hated playing squishy characters, she had been dealt the perfect mage hand. It would be irresponsible for her to choose any other class.

“My stats don’t really give me a choice,” she said when she could finally speak without embarrassing herself, “And based on your experience with healing and Marie’s experience with trying to acquire magic, I’m guessing I won’t be able to do any spells until I reach level five. Which means I need to figure out another way to gain experience.”

“Danielle is teaching Marie…”

Blix held up her stump and shot him a warning glare. She hadn’t completely given up on archery, but she didn’t have time for William to create a mechanism to help her hold a bow. And they were running out of time. If the king didn’t launch an all-out attack within the next forty-eight hours, he was a fool.

“Sorry…” He stood up dejectedly and moved behind her.

Blix sucked in a breath, but held her tongue. Watching Alf get mauled by the rats wolves at the beginning of the game had been torture. If she’d had the ability to help him, there’s no way he could have prevented her from jumping in.

Keeping an eye on her mini-map, she waited for another rat to attack, but none appeared. They’d probably decided that Alf was too high-level. She considered asking Alf to go back to camp, but decided it wouldn’t be worth the risk. “We might as well find another spot. They’re not stupid enough to attack us both.”

Alf helped her into the harness and headed deeper into the forest. Mist covered branches swept past her, painting her fevered skin with streaks of refreshing coolness. Ever since the explosion, she’d struggled with overheating. Two and a half fewer limbs meant she had one-third less surface area available for radiant cooling. Last night had been unbearable. Twenty heat-generating bodies crammed into a geothermally heated cave had been a recipe for heatstroke, and melee combat would be even worse. She was going to be a mage. She didn’t have a choice.

“Shhh…” Alf ducked behind the underbrush and slowly drew his sword.

Had he heard something? Blix searched her mini-map but didn’t see anything. A few seconds later, however, a line of dots appeared at the east edge of the map. “Think it’s the king’s army?” she whispered.

He shook his head. “We’re too far to the east.”

“Maybe they’re trying for a surprise attack. Trying to flank our scouts.”

He let out a low hiss and turned to search the trees behind them. Blix searched her map, but it didn’t have the range that Alf’s had. Yet another way she was useless.

“Wolves.” He sprang up and started running. A few seconds later, two dots glided onto her map. Then two more. They were keeping pace with Alf, slowly fanning out to surround them.

Pounding through the trees at an all-out run, Alf veered away from the line of dots as the wolves closed on their position.

Blix twisted in her harness, searching for their pursuers. A flash of gray appeared through the trees. Two more wolves, closing from the left and right. She drew her knife and waited. “How close are we to the dungeon?” she called out.

“Not close enough.”

“Head there anyway. Just in case.”

Alf cut suddenly to the right. A wolf yelped as he cut back to the left. Another yelp. Blix could feel jolts passing through Alf’s frame as he swung his sword back and forth. The wolves behind them were catching up fast. Blix leaned over the harness, swinging back and forth, jouncing with each step. It wouldn’t work. She was out of control.

The lead wolf lunged for Alf’s legs, and Blix slashed a glancing blow across the top of the head. It didn’t seem to do any damage, but it had surprised the wolf into breaking off the attack.

Congratulations! You have learned the skill:

Dagger 1: (Effective Level: 0.6, Basis: DX). You may now use daggers and knives to 1.8% greater advantage.

“I got a dagger skill!” she called out. The dialog faded as she focused on the wolves.

“Nice.” Alf jolted to a stop as a wolf’s yelp was suddenly cut short.

Congratulations! You have defeated the Dyre Wolf.

Reward: 30 EXP

“And thirty EXP!” Blix barely had a chance to process the dialog before it faded to reveal another charging wolf. It bounded towards her and leaped. She brought her knife up as the wolf crashed into her, clamping its teeth around her left arm.

The wolf ripped Blix from the harness. The ground slammed into her, knocking the breath from her lungs. All she could do was stab blindly with her knife. Over and over again. If she gave it a chance to go for her throat, it was game over.

Congratulations! You have defeated the Dyre Wolf.

Reward: 30 EXP

Obviously Alf’s wolf. She kept stabbing, but the blade refused to penetrate.

Congratulations! You have defeated the Dyre Wolf.

Reward: 30 EXP

Her knife gritted across bone and then suddenly slid deeper, coming to a satisfying stop as her fist hit fur.

Congratulations! You have defeated the Dyre Wolf.

Reward: 275 EXP

Finally…

“Are you okay?” Alf crouched beside her and took her gently in his arms. Relief tingled through her body as her health bar went from 26 to 68 in a single jump.

“Fine.” She brought up her mini-map. Two dots had broken away from the long line of dots to the east. They were moving their way. “We need to get going. Two bogies are coming in fast.” She kept her eyes on the map as Alf broke into a run. So far, so good. The dots were still headed towards the site of their fight with the wolves.

Another jolt of pleasure tingled up her arm.

“That feels really good,” she murmured. “Maybe I should be a melee fighter after all.”

“Something’s… wrong.” Alf’s words hitched to the beat of his pounding feet. “Coming too fast.”

She pulled herself higher to see over his shoulders. A dot appeared at the southeastern-most corner of her map. It was moving a lot faster than the other dots. Too fast. Alf hadn’t gone thirty yards before it was almost on top of them.

A high-pitched shriek cut through the trees. A shadow streaked overhead. Pointed ears, stubby neck, no tail… It looked more like a bat than a dragon.

Powerful wings beat against the air as great gouts of wind blasted through the trees, engulfing them in a cloud of choking dust.

Blix squinted against the storm as branches whipped her in the face. The bat was turning around. She caught a glimpse of it through a break in the trees. Something was riding on its back. It looked like a half-sized orc. “Keep going!” She called out. “This isn’t something we can fight.” She checked the mini-map. The dots had broken rank and were heading their way. There seemed to be hundreds of them. “I think it’s the high orcs.”

The bat fluttered above them as they zigzagged their way through the rapidly thinning forest. If the trees ran out, would it be able to attack them directly? Probably. But it didn’t really matter. The dungeon was their only chance. And even then, it wasn’t much of a chance. A seventh level paladin and a first level noob had almost zero chances of clearing a dungeon on the first try. But fighting an army of high orcs would be infinitely worse.

Alf curved around a tree and suddenly there was nothing but blue sky between them and the bat. It let out a piercing shriek and dove.

“Dodge to the right!” She shouted as the bat came ever closer. “Now!”

Alf planted a foot and cut to the right, but a wing tip sent them crashing to the ground.

“Get up!” She rolled away from Alf as the bat fluttered around for another pass. “Get to the dungeon. I’ll distract it.”

Panting like a bellows, Alf wrapped his arms around her and hoisted her off the ground.

“Alf, no!”

Shaking his head, he plodded toward the distant stone formation. It were less than fifty yards away, but it might have been fifty miles. The poor guy was exhausted.

Circling his neck with her arms, she clamped her legs around his torso. The dots from the army were less than three hundred yard away, and they seemed to be accelerating.

A shadow blotted out the sun as the bat creature fluttered down on top of them.

“Get down!”

Alf dove to the side, twisting in the air to keep from crushing her against the ground. Sand and grit blasted her in the face. She squinted against the tear-distorted haze as Alf hauled her up and started running.

“More to the right,” she called out. “Just a little more. Run!”

The dust storm diminished and then grew ominously quiet. The creature had landed right behind them. Blix peeked over Alf’s shoulder as the rider pulled out bow from is saddle and nocked an arrow.

“When I say go, start zigzagging like crazy. Okay?” Blix waited for the rider’s bow to steady. “Ready…”

An arrow whizzed past Alf’s shoulder.

“Never mind. Just run!” Blix checked the mini-map. The dots hadn’t reached the clearing yet. They were going to make it.

Another arrow hit the ground ten feet to their right, and then they were around the rock formation and plunging in to the cave. Blix kept an eye on the pursuing dots while Alf ran deeper and deeper into the tunnel. A torch lit the wall ahead of them, but she didn’t see any sign of the guard. They passed two more torches. Still no guards.

“What’s your stamina at?” Blix asked.

“Low,” he said. “Really low.”

“You should stop and rest now. The army still hasn’t entered the cave.”

Alf slowed to walk. “Shouldn’t we have reached the—” He plodded to a stop.

Ahead of them, the corridor was blocked by a set of massive, metal-reinforced doors.

And guarding those doors were six armored orcs.

* * *

Name: Blix

Level: 1

Class: —

Health: 100/100

Stamina: 78/90

Mana: 900/900

Exp: 365/400

ST: 9

DX: 6

CN: 10

IQ: 30

CH: 14

Combat Skills:

Dagger 1: (Effective Skill: 0.6, Basis: DX, Enhancement: 1.8%)

Non-Combat Skills:

Swimming 1: (Effective Skill: 0.6, Basis: DX, Enhancement: 1.8%)