She’d have to get back from the respawn as quickly as she could, she thought. Before either parent died. Or the NPCs. She’d have to do so while dealing with the death debuff. Hopefully, they’d taken out enough of the camp that they’d be able to get away without additional casualties. She wondered how Nyx was doing. She wondered why her body still hurt so badly. Usually, the pain of death ended almost immediately, replaced with a warmth that was followed by the drained sensation of the debuff. She wondered why it was so noisy.

Reeve opened her eyes and looked sideways through grass and mud at the muddy and blood-stained undercarriages of a honey badger and an American Cheetah, beyond which she saw the bare feet of her dwarven mother.

“Uhhh.” She rolled partially to the side and drew one arm beneath her so that she could push herself to an elbow. She was lying on the flattened corpse of the kobold that had slowed her fall. From underneath one wing extended a small, hairy foot.

“Oh. Ohhh…” She glanced at her Combat Log.

You tackle a Level 6 Kobold Warrior for 17 points of bludgeoning damage. The Level 6 Kobold Warrior is now unconscious.

You drive a Level 6 Kobold Warrior into Reavyr(II) for 82 points of bludgeoning damage.

You kill a Level 6 Kobold Warrior.

She reluctantly moved her gaze to the Party Log.

You and a Level 6 Kobold Warrior land on Reavyr(II) for 191 points of bludgeoning damage. Reavyr (II) has died. Respawn in 30 seconds.

“Reeve? Where did your father go?”

“Uh.” Reeve noted that she was at less than a quarter health and then pushed the UI away. “Um. He’ll be coming out of the woods over there in a few minutes. She rolled onto her knees and groaned. Broken ribs. She stood slowly, cradling her side.

“He was just here a second ago, Chica.”

“Yeah, I, uh, accidentally sent him over there.” Reeve pointed in the direction of the spawn. “He’ll be right back. I need to go help those…,” she looked up toward the ledges high above, “…double fudge.”

Wanda followed her daughter’s gaze. She squinted up at the activity above them. “Is that giraffe attacking those girls?”

“It’s a Stollwurm, Mom. I gotta go.” Reeve ignored the remaining kobolds still circling her mother—Nyx and the honey badger had held them this long, they’d have to hang on a few more minutes—and ran a dozen strides along the base of the cliff to improve her angle.

The Stollwurm wasn’t the largest she’d seen, but it was still double the height of the half-elves. And she couldn’t blame her mother entirely for the giraffe comment—the Stollwurm’s serpentine body rose high on two relatively short hindlimbs, and its long neck extended far past its forelimbs. But that was about it for giraffey qualities. Its skin was black gray, not far removed from that of the kobolds, and its face reminded Reeve of a jaguar.

The Stollwurm’s head struck out at the unarmed half-elf, and her twin only just parried with the butt of the naginata before the Stollwurm’s teeth would have found flesh. The Stollwurm followed the strike with a bellowing roar visible from the greenish mist spewed simultaneously.

“It’s a poisonous one. Fabulous,” Reeve said, and she swung her bow free and pulled an arrow from her quiver. It didn’t look like the half-elves had landed any hits yet, so she probably couldn’t pull off a kill shot, not without a lucky crit, but she could distract the beast and do some damage while the half-elves retreated down the ledges.

Sensing rapid motion to her left, Reeve released her right hand’s grip of the bow, letting it swing onto the string held in her left, grabbed the arrow mid-shaft, and turned it in time to spear a diving kobold through the forehead. The limp creature plowed into her side, sending her back a step, and then crumpled at her feet.

Reeve wiped the arrow on her thigh and nocked it, taking several deep breaths as she did. Sighting on the Stollwurm, she found that it had pushed the twins back to the edge of the ledge. They’d have to manage a quick descent to the next-lower ledge without opening their defense to the creature. Now would be a good time for a distraction. Choosing a higher probability shot, Reeve dropped her aim from the creature’s head to its chest. She took one more deep breath and then partially exhaled before holding, ready for the shot. She released the tension in her fingers and felt the string slip to the point of release.

“Evie!” Walter’s hand came down on her bow arm as the arrow was loosed. Reeve watched it leave the bow too low, too far to the left.

“Ohmagod.”

The unarmed half-elf reeled as the arrow sank into her leather-clad right buttock, her off-balance spin transitioning into a tumble to the adjacent ledge in a graceless fall that demonstrated all the clumsiness one might expect of her human half with none of the nimbleness she might have hoped her elfin half would provide.

Reeve turned to her father, who still held her arm and was staring into her face, his own pinched and sallow, no sign that he was aware of the friendly fire he’d just caused.

“The deathy buff is really intense this time,” he said. “I don’t even know how I died. I was trying to…wait, I could check my UI, couldn’t I?”

“Nope, don’t do that. At least not right now. I’m sorry, but I’ve gotta go help the half-elves. You just go back over by Mom and the—“

A glancing impact from behind launched Reeve forward, sweeping Walter with her until they both tripped over their scrambling legs and collapsed, Reeve lying across her father’s head.

“Wait a second…” Walter’s voice was muffled from under his daughter. “…now I remember how I died.”

Reeve rolled to her back, then quickly rose first to one knee, then her feet, defensively backing away from the beast with every motion. Having landed on all fours behind them, the Stollwurm was rising onto its hindlimbs, the presence of those limbs and the feline face doing little to diminish the serpentine appearance as it towered above her.

Reeve’s eyes darted to the ledge far above. The naginata-bearing half-elf had joined her twin on the lower ledge and knelt over her. Reeve couldn’t judge the extent of the downed twin’s injuries in her rushed moment of observation, and she brought her attention back to the Stollwurm as it opened its jaw.

Reaching down next to her foot and grabbing her father without looking, Reeve spun and ran toward Nyx’s position, the bellow and poison gas of the Stollwurm shaking and searing the back of Reeve’s neck as she ran.

“That is no knobble!” Walter yelled.

“Kobold!”

“What is it?”

“Trouble. Stay behind Nyx.” Reeve swung the halfling to loft him over Nyx, who was already facing the onrushing Stollwurm, crouched in preparation for joining Reeve in defense of her parents. Too late, Reeve realized she’d been grasping her father just above the knee, and that he’d been hanging upside down, backward, as she ran.

Walter arced, still upside down, over Nyx, and then descended with a sickly suddenness, the back of his head the first part of his body to greet the earth with a sound akin to a single, low bongo hit.

Reeve spun and nocked an arrow, raising it to aim at the Stollwurm, which was less than five yards away.

Seeing the arrow, the creature ducked its head with the speed of a striking serpent, its aim shifting as it did toward Nyx. Before Reeve could adjust her aim, amber fire landed on the back of the Stollwurm’s neck and splashed in a wide radius. Wherever the fire touched the creature’s skin, it immediately glowed white as though brilliantly hot.

With the impact of the fire on its neck, the Stollwurm staggered to all fours and then rolled onto its back in a mindless attempt to extinguish the searing fire. Seeing her enemy exposed, Nyx leaped forward and grasped the creature’s throat just below its head, which was emitting an unholy howl of rage and pain. As Nyx began wrenching with her fangs, Reeve sighted past her companion and loosed an arrow into the Stollwurm’s writhing chest.

Nyx wrenched a mighty portion of the creature’s throat free, Reeve’s arrow buried itself to its fletching, and the Stollwurm’s entire body fell still.

“Son of a witch,” Reeve said and let out an explosive breath of relief.

One Crude Iron Dagger and one Roughly Hewn Wooden Knife flew through the air, the dagger landing on the Stollwurm’s inanimate scaled chest and immediately sliding off, the knife skittering down the length of its chest before coming to rest around its smoking midsection.

Reeve turned around and looked at her father.

Walter frowned. “I’ll be quicker next time.”

Reeve nodded. “And please pull up your pants.”