As I put the last of my clothes and extra gear in my inventory I can’t help but be slightly annoyed. Rita is still on my bed snoring. You’d think I would be happy about a snoring woman in my bed, and I probably would if things had gone my way last night.

After dinner things were going well, Rita and I had had a few brews, and talked mostly about nonsense. After while she asked if I were interested in heading back up to my room. Fuck yes, I was interested. We get back to my place and things are going well. Right up until I put a hand under her shirt, and she knees me in the balls. She apologized, obviously, but the damage had been done. What followed that is fuzzy. All I’m really getting are snatches of screaming with her throwing my shit out of the room and me sleeping on my couch. My bed looked so godamned comfortable. Lesson learned though: never forget the hot/crazy scale.

I throw my empty bag in my inventory, and pin a note to the front door that she can apologize to me and explain exactly what her fucking problem was when I got back. Maybe not verbatim, I used a few more words, and less expletives but you get the idea. Instead of staying here and putting up with any immediate aftermath I decide it’s time to do some work. I figure I’ll take another mission and see where it leads me. Once I get to level five I might start my own permanent world and see how things go. You know, blood for the blood god, that sort of thing.

Before I even realize it, I’ve managed to get to the great hall and am scanning my hand into a rift room.

Going to the table I look through some missions, I figure I’ll take something a little more aggressive than your average ‘collect ten rabbits’ missions. Checking some of the boxes on the list I quickly bring up a mission that looks good. A nice little ‘clear this area’ mission I’ll take that, there are even a couple of points of interest on the map.

-MISSION-

-There are a group of bandits who have been attacking and robbing local settlements, the local groups have determined the general location of the stronghold and have prayed to Odin for help.

-OBJECTIVES-

-Discover the exact location the bandits are working from

-Remove the bandit threat.

-If the situation can be solved without violence extra EXP will be earned.

-If the bandits are all exterminated extra coinage will be earned.

-BONUS-

-There is a point of interest marked between the survivor outpost and the bandit location.

-There is a point of interest marked on the largest building in the town.

-If mission is completed within four hours extra mission rewards will be earned.

(It is not required to contact the survivors, or investigate the points of interest.)

(After the situation has been resolved mission will be considered complete.)

(Time of day: Afternoon.)

Accepting the mission I synchronize the points of interest with my map. Bringing up the map to look at my optins, I choose to bypass the survivors. I’ll hit one point of interest then make my way to the other before pushing on to the bandit area. If I run I should be able to hit them all in the time frame, barring a major incident. I select the tallest building as my first, no point in walking up when I can jump to the top.

As the portal spins up I pull out my Jumper and seal it to my face. Leaning over the threshold of the portal I look down and make sure my points are synchronized. I didn’t used to be a religious man, but I’ve met these gods and I’m going to take every edge I can get, closing my eyes I say the first prayer I’ve spoken in probably about 8 years; “All-Father, let my arm be stronger than my enemies, and let my aim be truer than theirs. If it cannot, then let my death be swift, and violent with my enemy’s blood on my teeth.” I get how corny it is, I'm out of practice.

Taking a deep breath, I jump out; it’s the same as the practice jumps. It’s hard to describe the feeling of falling, oddly enough, its comfortable. The only pressure is the wind resistance. Angling myself into a hard dive I push vertically towards the top of the building, it’s the middle of the day so I’m going to have to do this quick to limit exposure. I’m falling so fast that the wind is pushng the jumper hard into my face, the pressure shoving the skin of my face tight. From the outside you wouldn’t be able to see it, but under the mask are the smile and sparkling eyes of a maniac.

I’ve always been an adrenaline junkie; fast cars, fist fights, anything to get that high. If I'd had the money jumping out of planes would have made me plenty happy. Unfortunately multiple demotions, and counseling’s in my file jacket kept me from ascending to a rank where I could afford to do it. I was never a 'tow the line' kind of soldier. Command seats are boring anyways, why would I want to sit behind a desk when I could sit behind a trigger?

Fuck, I got distracted. Jumping out of that high up takes a while, and I'd let my mind wander. I’ve drifted a LOT. Trying to flatten out and move myself on a more horizontal plane. Even with the help of the gravity magic I’m not moving forward as fast as I need to be. Damn you sir newton, you and your stupid godamned rules. The jumper is flashing a red light on the left side, underneath it is a blinking orange light, why the fuck didn't I read the instruction manual? This isn’t going to go as well as I’d have liked. Activating the fall safe, I'm still about four-hundred meters to the south, and a thousand meters above the landing spot I wanted to hit.

The red light on the left side goes from blinking red to a solid red blinking green, I guess that’s good, well better, this is what happens when you don’t read your instruction manual kids. The gravity well starts to take effect but it’s not doing enough, panicking I will myself into a forward motion so I can hit at an angle and hopefully roll out of it. Like last night with Rita, things do not go my way. I’m heading towards the building much faster than is safe, and I’m not going to land on the roof, I’ll end up two floors under.

I’m still flying at a high speed, not wanting to chance that the windows are reinforced I pull out the .40 and start dumping rounds into it. I manage to slow myself down to somewhere around twenty miles per hour, but was still cruising pretty fast. On my 'glide' in I saw four guys on the roof who were decked out in tactical gear, ready for war. They looked like a nasty bunch, but maybe their townies? Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

I tuck my shoulder and hit the window smashing the whole thing in as a solid sheet. Tumbling through and over a desk slamming then slamming into and through a sheetrock wall. My left shoulder snags on a stud on the way through and I can feel a burn and a pop. Fuck. Me. Its been awhile since I have pushed something out of place. I cant believe I'd forgotten that exquisite burn. The feeling of something in your body being pushed out of place is painful, and vividly uncomfortable. Like somebody stuck a small potato up under the muscles in my shoulder.

Coming to rest against the wall in the hallway I can hear voices from outside the window. Staying as quiet and still as I can I pull off my jumper and put it into my inventory.

“What the hell was that, was that a person? I’m pretty sure I saw a gun. Bernie take Wells go down and check the ninth floor.” The leader, I presume.

“Aww c’mon Shawn, why don’t we all go? Safety in numbers.” Obviously not the brown-noser of the group.

I hear a slapping noise and a grunt “Who’s going to stay and make sure it’s not a distraction by the townies? How do we know they aren’t trying to sneak up here? Besides, I’m the fucking boss here Bernie, go do your godamned job or I will bend you over the A.C. unit then throw your bleeding ass off the side of the roof.” Shawn sounds like an asshole. Glad I dont work for him.

Guess that answers that, while they were talking I’d managed to scoot myself over and picked up my pistol. My left shoulder is jacked up, I can feel my new natural healing taking slow effect though. No using that side until the HP regen fixes it though. Maybe five minutes,I don’t have the time for that. Dropping the mag out of the .40 I put it in the holster, put it in my inventory and pull a spare, waste not want not, those little shits are expensive. I load the fresh mag, pull the .40 and start moving down the hallway. It’s gotten quite on the roof, if I hadn’t had such a hard time reloading I could already have an ambush set at the stairs.

I can see the stairs at the end of the hall, pushing my body to a jog I try to get there before the bandits come out. I'm still about thirty feet away from the door when it starts to swing open, not my day. There's nowhere to hide, I’m in the middle of a hallway, it’s the textbook definition of a fatal funnel. There's only one reasonable thing you can do in this situation. I raise my pistol and wait for a soft target.

The first one coming through the door is a talker “I’m telling you Bern, this is no- “

I squeeze off a round interrupting him. The first round hits the wall to his right, fuck, I squeeze again and hit him in the leg. Screaming he falls to the ground. Bernie, showing the leadership that most criminals are known for, squeals and heads back inside the door. Closing it with his friend on the outside. No honor among thieves I guess.

The first one is laying on the ground whimpering. I kick him over and drop a knee into his kidneys “how many of your friends are on the roof?” He makes a whining noise, I slam the barrel of my pistol to the back of his head “How. Many.” I dont have time for this bullshit. These guys were clearly here to hurt someone, probably some dead townies around here or on the roof somewhere.

“Three, please let me go.” His voice is high and tight. Tarnished with his fear of dying. Maybe next time he'll choose a safer occupation, or not be such an asshole.

“No.” Squeezing the trigger I put a round into the back of his skull passing through his throat and splashing blood onto the ground. Raising my gun to point at the door I keep my knee in his back and kneel on him while he gurgles and bleeds out. Ignoring his noises and trying to not get his blood on me is all I have for him right now. It's not that I dont feel bad for taking a life, just that I know when its time to turn it off. Survivul might be instinct, but it's one you can train into a skill and hone to an edge. There are no good excuses for dying.

I’m not taking any chances, with my fucked-up arm he might have attacked me. In a standup, he would have taken me. After I’m sure he’s dead I move to the right side of the door and wait. I don’t want to, but I can feel my arm moving back into socket and I really don’t want to be moving or shooting when it pops back in.

After a few minutes the shoulder is back in the socket. Still swollen and in too much pain to use fully, but it’s not just dangling around like a limp noodle. I use the damaged arm to pull the door open . Peeking around the corner I see the whole stairwell. Across from me to the left there is a stair leading down, and next to it is one going up. Unsure that good ole Bern didn’t head down, but options being what they are I decide I need to move up. Snaking right and following the wall I keep my pistol pointed at the apex of the stairs. As I follow the wall I keep the gun trained up the stairs and strain my ears for all their worth. I don’t think anyone is on the stairs, so that’s good. I guess.

I clear the next couple of flights the same way, going as fast as I feel I can comfortably shoot with accuracy. Reaching the top of the stairs faster than I thought I would, the top landing is empty except for a single-person size door directly across from the stair. I’m not surprised, why fight on the stairs when they can draw me into a prearranged ambush? Unfortunately for them, I came prepared.

Holstering the pistol, I grab a flashbang off my vest I finagle the pin loose with my bad hand. I let the spoon fly, hit the door handle and kick the door open just far enough to reach my arm through and toss it out. Before it is even in the air there are bullets hitting the door, slamming it into my shoulder and pushing me a few feet back. It sounds like they have a couple of rifles and a pistol. Nothing too heavy, I’d have been fucked if they had an LMG.

Unholstering my pistol again I start to count, after I hear the pop of the flash I burst through the door and move low along the wall. There isn’t much cover on the roof, the bandits have all of it. Luckily two of them are standing up with that stupid look on your face you get from the decompression and blinding light from a close proximity flashbang. I pull a bead on the first and put two rounds into his chest. Before he’s even started to fall I readjust to his friend and let a couple of rounds fly. I manage to put one in his thigh and one into his midriff. Dropping his gun he falls to the ground with a pained scream and curls over his wounds.

Another guy pops up, going to assume Shawn, on account of the better quality armor and rifle. He seems a bit dazed like he can see but not too well, firing rounds randomly in my direction he manages hits me in my already damaged shoulder spinning me to the ground behind a small piece of heating duct. My shoulder is on fire, it’s at least as bad as the last 3 times I was shot before Valhalla. I can’t give in to the pain now. I might only lose a small amount of EXP for dying, but I’d still have to die, and I’m really not into that. Rolling over to my chest I can see Shane’s legs just below the knee.

Taking my time, I line up a shot to his calf and pull the trigger. He falls to the ground, laying there for a second holding his leg before he realizes he should be paying more attention . I give him a little wink and dump the rest of my magazine into his chest. I’ve got enough ammo to waste for now. And I’d rather not take chances, plus, fuck these guys.

That could have gone better, but at the end of it all I’ve got a bullet wound and a prisoner so I guess it’s even? Probably not. Whatever. It’s my shit now, the townies can come claim whatever I don’t want, or can’t take. Interrogating the prisoner is the first thing on my list.

He’s holding his stomach and mewling like some kind of animal. “Where are the rest of the bandits.” I pull out my map and show him the area that’s marked as hostile “the more information you give me, the less pain you have to endure.” He starts talking immediately, it’s nice to be taken serious for once. I learn there are eight bandits inside the building and they have a townie kid as prisoner. After I have all the information I slide the knife into his heart and let him slip away, back into the cycle.

-MISSION UPDATE-

-The bandits have taken a local boy hostage to keep the townies from moving against them.

-BONUS OBJECTIVE-

-Retrieve the local boy alive.

Seeing the update I look at my mission and see that it list’s seven mission targets and a bandit named Kurt. Ok that’s doable, so long as I can catch a heal. I loot the first bandit and all he has is some garbage gear and a silver. I loot all the bandits and the only one that has anything worth having is Shawn. His tac vest is better than mine, but its broken. I’ll throw it in the inventory and keep looking. He’s got something a couple of System linked items called [Bandages] and a semi-auto granger like mine, only a lower level. I’d love to bitch, but free ammo is free ammo. He’s carrying six 20 round magazines, I pull them and put them some in my vest, and the rest in inventory.

-ITEM-

-Bandages are a medical item that can speed up healing recovery by x4 base regen rate.

-Can heal small cuts, and wounds.

-Stops effects of Bleeding, and Laceration status.

(Wounds classified as larger than Small will staunch bleeding/lacerated status, but healing boost will be negated.)

(Manual usage of Bandage will intensify effects for a short amount of time.)

(To apply bandage hold to open wound and will it to heal.)

I’ll take that. I open the package and press it to my shoulder the best part is the numbing effect. It takes a while before I feel my shoulder close. The bullet is still in there, maybe it desolved? If not I really hope that comes out at some point or there’s going to be some mechanical problems. Marveling at how quick my shoulder is healing I move to a box sitting near the corner of the roof, behind the A.C. unit Shane had been using as cover. It's mostly full of food, rope, and some ammo.

I end up sitting on the roof for about an hour for my health to get back to baseline normal, I'm lucky its a small wound, anything time my health bar goes below half of full 1/6'th is grayed out until I can get either a system heal from valhalla, or a magical heal to full. I’d been thinking about it and there’s no way I’m making the other Point of interest and the bandit outpost. I’m going to head straight to the stronghold. It’s only a block away, so I should be able to make it quickly.

I do opt to take the rope from the case, its your run of the mill climbing rope, about 100ft of it. I also filled my carrying bag full of food, a few thrown into my inventory in case I have to ditch it.

My arm is back in working condition, it hurts but I can bend and pull it in most directions. I’ve reloaded all my mags with ammo from the box and am ready to go. Pulling out my pistol I head down the stairs, I move a little faster than is safe but I’ve only got a couple of hours left to get there and I’m already behind where I wanted to be. I cannot stand being behind schedule, it's not a crippling OCD thing, I just prefer to do things a certain way.

Getting out of the building goes smoothly, no extra baddies, no zombies. Just plain walls and cubicles all the boring stuff office buildings are known for. Once I’m at the exit to the building I swap the pistol for the long rifle, it’s a good close engagement weapon, but this is mid-range combat territory. Deciding to take my time I move as careful as possible to avoid confrontation with any zombies. I had seen a few from the roof, shambling around, only recognizable because they were covered in blood. I’d rather not run into a horde-style situation, It'd fuck up my entire day. Sneaking between buildings and making sure my corners are clear I move to my recon location quickly.

Set up in a building a few shop-fronts down and across I set up and watch for a bit to see what is happening. From my vantage point, I can see the townies posted up down the street behind a barricade. Waiting a little longer nothing is going to happen. I decide to move up to the townies and fill them in on my plan. If they aren't going to do anything, I sure as shit am. Maybe I can talk them into helping.

I manage to get within shouting distance of the townies before they put their guns one me “FRIENDLY, I’M FRIENDLY!!!” I’ve got my hands up, it’s a bit of a gamble, but I figure if I’m unarmed good people won’t kill me. Probably.

“My name is Daniels, I was told you guys needed help. I’m something of an expert on these situations. I can try and get your boy back and maybe move the bandits along.” They look a frightened and suspicious. Not getting any help from these people. I give them the short explenation that I’m one of Odin’s chosen and they seem too accept it. This isn’t a new occurrence to them. Explaining to the leader, a guy named Brian, that I’m going to initiate negotiations with the bandits and get them out of there. He argues a little about how it’s risky. I tell him that the boy is definitely going to die if we sit around and argue, at least this way I can probably get him back. He seems hesitant to let me do my thing. After agreeing, I tell them they need to be ready for whatever the bandits have planned. If I die it’s going to get nasty fast. So they need to be prepared to attack, or retreat.

Moving forward I dash between one cover to the next, I’m fifteen feet from the door before a bullet impacts the ground as I go to move closer and I hear a voice “That’s far enough, drop the tribute there.” Tribute? They think this is some kind of novel where I'm here to pay them for being shitbags? Amatuers.

“I’ve come to negotiate your surrender!” I yelled at the side of the building. Trying to control my voice. The adrenaline has started to set in, I can feel my body temperature is up, and time feels like it's moving slower than it should.

“You’ll never take us alive!!” screamed one of the bandits peeking his hand around the window and popping a few shots at me. A little bit more range time would have done most of these guys a world of difference.

“well, If I’m being honest, I really hadn’t planned on it.” I hadn't. The mission gave me the option, but I'm more of an immediete gratification kind of guy. Plus, in the deep places of my heart, I really am an asshole.

There was a slight pause before I receive a response, the same voice as before squeeks out “You just said you wanted to negotiate.” It seems my comment had caused some confusion.

“Yeah, I see where you’re coming from. No. It’s more EXP to bring you in alive, but it’s more money if you’re all dead. And daddy needs money. For like, dead hookers, or something? Fuck if I know.” Technically their dead, I mean they’re in Valhalla.

“That’s not how this works man, you offer us a trade: put down our weapons and come out peacefully, or- “ I've got them flustered, a little bit of psychological warfare is always good.

“Yada, yada, yada. I told you bro, it aint happening. The hookers part might have been a joke but you are all horrible human beings and the reaper has come calling. I’m willing to negotiate a quick death for anyone who comes out with their hands up, offering me information on where the kid is. Otherwise we play a game of ‘last man alive gets tortured’.”

One of them pops his head out pointing his rifle in my direction “we don’t have the kid assho-" -BOOM -

His head flies backwards snapping his neck with enough force to break his neck as his body slowly crumples to the floor. On the wall behind him blood mixed with skull fragments and brains is sliding down the wall.

“That’s a lie.” I tried, I really did. I wasn’t going to let them live but they could have at least made my day a little easier. It’s been a shitty couple of hours and these fuck-wits are the cause of it. I arm a couple of flashbang grenades and lob them into the windows. Giving it a count to five I begin to sprint towards the entrance. One of them gets a couple of shots off before the flashbangs go off. I crash my shoulder into the door knocking the guy behind it down. Bringing my rifle up to the left I snap off two shot into the guy sitting under the window, his friend behind him raises a gun in my direction. I put three rounds into him, center mass, spurting blood out the holes in his chest and slamming him down hard enough that his head bounces off the concrete.

Knowing that there are behind me I knee slide next to the door I'd came through and put a round into the head of the guy I bulled through to get in here. Rounds are flying around the corner at my position, I’ve wasted most of my flashbangs. A little sleight of hand is in order. Sticking the barrel end around the corner and snap off a couple of shots, then I get low and move back outside of the building and crawl along the wall. I hear what sounds like two guns shooting at my previous position as I crawl along.

The shooting stops and one asks “Did we get him?”

Nope, I stand up and fire through the window the glass shatters in and cuts the front one up bad, not that it matters, he’s dead before he knew what was going on. Pulling the trigger until they are both down for the count. It’s a little disconcerting how brutal I’ve gotten in such a short time. I was never one of those bleeding heart liberal hippies, but I’ve always had a healthy respect for life. I should be more, I don’t know, perturbed? Something, killing shouldn’t be this easy. I guess that’s a problem for another future-me.

Everything tallied up I’ve killed five in the front room, that leaves three more and the Kev guy. Onwards and upwards, I suppose. The building is a single-story office type building, so I guess upwards might not fit here, whatevs, I do what I want.

Enough ridiculousness. Loading a fresh mag I bring the rifle up to a high ready position. Going through the left side door I am in a hallway with two doors on the left and one on the right. Since the right door is closer I try to open it, only to find that it has been jammed from the other side. I move across to the next left door. Bracing my right foot and slam the left into the door crashing it in and open, the motion drops my foot right back down in a stable firing position. It’s not perfect, but it’s workable move for being alone.

The room is empty, I snug my right shoulder into the door jamb, and slide the barrel of my rifle from the left corner and around pieing the door. Clearing the whole room in the matter of a second its a motion that has been practiced for years before this. There is a table in the center of the room and looks like the other door here is the one further down the hallway. I decide to cross the room and move out of the other door.

Coming out of the door back in a high ready, I move down the hallway coming to a stop at the right-hand corner. Getting down to a knee and peek around. Most of the left-hand side of the new hallway has torn up walls, around corner and across from me the sheetrock walls that cover the rooms is shattered and broken. The room over there are empty from here. There are some overturned desk’s and a couple of smoldering tables, but I don’t see any contacts there. On the right side about half way down there are two guys nonchalantly standing guard to either side of a door. You’d think they would be more on point, with all the shooting and explosions a few minutes ago.

Taking a half step back and bracing myself against the wall I take aim. I need to kill the first one with a shot, if they rush I would get decimated. Breathing in and squeezing the trigger, my aim is good, his head explodes. The jaw is sent down with such force that it swings back up around on a piece of skin and hits his friend in the hip. lining up my next shot I can still see the individual pieces of brain flying through the air. Taking a second to reset the other guard is so shocked about his friend’s head exploding next to him he doesn’t react fast enough. By the time he decides to act I’m squeezing the trigger. I aim for the stomach, taking three shots they stitch him almost directly up his middle. Little craters erupt, covering his stomach, midsection and chest in blood splotches like a gory raggedy Andy.

I can hear a voice scream in fury “GO KILL HIM!” and the other plebe points his gun around the corner. I put rounds in the door around him, but fail to connect with flesh. Deciding I don’t like the idea of sitting static for so long I step up into a targeted ready stance and move down the hallway with my knees bent for stability. The next time his head comes out I send more rounds out. Fucker won’t go down, I can’t have too many rounds left in this rifle. He peeks out again and manages to hit me in the chest with one round, and another grazes my temple pushing my head to the side. The shots hits my chest like a baseball pushing me back a step, he pops out further thinking he scored an easy kill.

It had hurt, but I’m not dead yet. With my left hand off of the rifle I rip off three rounds in quick succession, two manage to hit him one in the chest the other his inner thigh. I keep my gun trained on him as blood flows out of his femoral artery, I put two more rounds into his unarmored areas and move towards the door reloading as I move. Sliding around the door I see a smaller guy wearing fatigues and a wife beater holding a knife to the neck of a kid.

The guy with the knife is probably around chin height for me, it’s too dark to see his eyes, he’s wearing camo colored bandana, he’s frowning, I don’t think he's enjoys what I did “Move any closer and the boy dies.” The voice is smoother than I expected.

“I don’t really need the boy to live, as long as you are dead I win.” It’s a callous thing to say, I’m hoping he doesn’t call my bluff. I’m not sure I can back it up.

He stares me down for a moment, trying to figure out the best option before responding “how about you let me walk the boy to the back door, I’ll release him and then we go our separate ways?” it's semi-reasonable.

“counter offer: You find a giant bag of dicks and see how long it takes to suck your way to bottom.” There are better, more creative insults somewhere, but the knife to the kid’s neck is frazzling my nerves more than I want to admit.

“you’re a funny guy. How about instead you put your guns down, I’ll put my guns down and we’ll settle this with knives?” I like this idea more than the knife to the kid’s throat.

“I can live with that, but you drop your guns first. There’s nothing to stop you from slitting his throat and then killing me.” He smiles a little, I think that’s exactly what he planned to do. Reaching behind his back he tosses a pistol towards a pile of rubble across the room, and then kicks the rifle leaned against the chair in the same direction. I pull off my sling and toss my rifle down in the hallway, after that I pull the pistol set it down and kick it in the same direction. My backpack and vest are the next to come off, landing next to the pistol.

Kurt nods his head and walks towards the center of the room. Pulling Hels gift from its sheath and moving towards him. Once were both about 5 feet from one another we stop and start assessing the other. His stance is the same as most of the people who I’ve trained against, maybe a bit more arrogant. I can use that to my advantage, overconfidence has lead to more deaths than anything. While I’m paying attention to his legs he surprises me by quickly sliding in slashing my side. “ssssss” I suck in some air that stings. I react without thinking pushing my right hand across my body, I miss his arm. The move sets me up to do a thrust though, he manages to dodge that also. He’s too quick, and he has more experience. I’m starting to regret this decision. Overconfidence might kill me.

“what’s a matter? Not as good as you thought you were?” he’s taunting me, trying to get a rise out of me. Might've worked if I weren’t in so much pain. There’s only one way to end this in a favorable way, the trick is going to be getting it just right. I step in and start taking wild swings, making sure I keep my arm bent so my swings all look shorter than they are. His smile only gets bigger, letting me take a few swings before dancing a couple feet out of reach. With my last swing, I slash from left to right sending my right hand too far out to recover if he attacks.

He steps in with a stab and tries to put the knife into my chest. Screaming I uncoil my right foot and jump up and into the knife pushing it in just below my ribcage. I wrap my left arm around him and fall on top of him dropping us both to the ground, the knife under my ribs is an inferno burning away everything but pain and anger. I start slamming Hels gift into him, stabbing indiscriminately. At some point I come back to myself and realize he’s dead, probably been dead for awhile at that point.

Kurt is disgusting. I can see his skull, deep scoring from my wild stabbing has left most of his head with lacerated skin dangling off, one of his jaws is hanging by a tendon. His spine is visible through all the cuts I made at his throat, the muscle and other soft tissues glistening as I breathe heavily atop his body. I can hear the boy crying off to the side, but realize I should probably do something about the knife in me. I’ve lost a lot of blood and I’m not sure how I’m still alive.

I pull some bandages out of my inventory and take in as big a breath as I can. Pulling the knife out I put the bandages on and will them to work, the first batch just disappear without any real effect. No numbing effect this time either, the wound must be too bad. I can see the blood slowing so I decide to go with real world medicine. I take the next set of bandages and fold it, and use one more to wrap it and hold the first in place. I can feel them working, but not sure they are good enough.

Before I untie the kid, I check Kev’s gear. None of it is worth anything, looking around the room I try to find a loot box. Nothing here, guess my reward today is a job well done. I untie the kid, and tell him to stick with me until we make it outside. As we go through the building I take gear off the bandits I killed, by the end I’m carrying way too much for my abused body. Banking on being able to sell it once I get back though so I will bear it.

Me and the boy get outside and he runs to his people. On the verge of deliriousness from the pain and blood-loss I hear a portal open behind me. Nodding at Brian causes me to lose my balance and I basically fall into the open portal behind me.