I stood five feet in front of the pitfall trap for another 2 minutes. Eventually, my adrenaline lost its pace, and I began to feel what my body was going through. I could barely stand, as I still had a dagger lodged in my leg, and a sprained ankle on my other, while my arm was bleeding deadly amounts too. Blood couldn’t reach my leg, even if it wasn’t bleeding that hard, and I had resorted to holding my arm with my other hand to stop the bleeding as best as I could. Maladrain had bandages, but...to say the least, I didn’t have the ability to bandage myself at the moment.

Eventually, I felt my leg begin to give out. My sword arm began to tremble, and my eyes became wet with tears of pain. Just as I felt my strength leave me, I realized that the Cobold was waiting for me to succumb to blood loss. Then, for some reason, I grew restless. I still felt lethargic, but I could bear through the pain. My body was giving its last effort to keep itself alive, and I made sure I kept my eyes locked with the [cobold], hopefully scaring it from getting impatient.

I tried to sling rocks past the [ivy corpse], but it batted them away and stood its ground. I threw sticks and stones, but it never moved. My suspicions about it were proved right when it refused to attack me, even when my guard was seemingly down. It seemed to be only able to travel around ten feet from its caster, or perhaps where it was cast.

Remembering how futile it was, I withdrew into my mind, hoping to ignore the pain.

I imagined that when Maladrain woke up and looked behind him, he saw me with my sword raised(I was actually holding a slingshot, but swords look cooler), facing against a puppet of incredible strength, valiantly defending his life, despite being young and inexperienced. Bodies lay before me of those I had slain(although one was in a ditch, so he couldn’t see it anyway), and behind the [ivy corpse] a lone [cobold] meditated. Battered and bloodied, I awaited a saving grace. He then stood and-

Leaping out of the forest, Maladrain dashed towards the [cobold], having snuck behind its field of view, and was already ten feet from it, with a shortsword in his hand. Its [ivy corpse] dashed towards him with blinding speed, but I shot the rock in my slingshot at it, hitting the [cobold] in the chest(I was aiming for the neck, but whatever). The slight distraction caused the [ivy corpse] to pause for just a moment, buying Maladrain enough time to stab the meditating [cobold] in the chest.

The [ivy corpse] fell to the ground, and all was still.

You won!

You gained 30 Exp! You leveled up!

New bonus: [overleveler]- +5% con growth rate(this is for leveling up two times in one encounter)

New skill: [dead as nightfall]

[dead as nightfall]: You gain 50% more strength for 1 minute during dusk.

You may attribute your new Exp!

While menu was waiting for my command, I looked up to see Maladrain limping from the woods, near the corpse. He’d dispatched it so easily, it made my own death-defying efforts seem pitiful. He looked to me silently, then back to the [cobold]s.

“Wow.” He said. He simply limped on his left leg towards me and glanced at the dead body in the ditch. “Damn...kid? You look like shit...Shouldn’t be saying that to a child...wait, no, you just killed two [cobold]s I think...I guess...I guess profanity is fine...” He sounded tired and stumbled, looking off-balance and nauseous as he stumbled on his left leg. Was his right one broken?

Finally, I let myself all to the comfy dirt below. Then, I held up three fingers, representing the number of [cobold]s I killed, though he likely didn’t notice.

He fell to the ground as well. “I’m bushed...”

I agree this was a journey...wait...your leg is broken?! Suck it up! I’ve got a freaking dagger in mine, a sprained ankle, and an arm that’s bleeding out...I need more rest...

There’s no way on Maophas’s chariot that I’m letting a time skip happen because I fell asleep! If I did that, that would be as good as letting myself be executed to their reinforcements! I tried to get on my feet but fell down. Blood was falling from my leg and arm. Well, it was gushing from the latter. Am I dying?! No, no, no, no, no, I couldn’t lose here! Maladrain, fix this, you lazy piece of crud, or I’m going to be the one thrown out the window! I propelled myself up with my [life wing], but it only made me jolt in place a little...

Oh wait, I still had two level-ups. That could probably save me!

I raised my not-wreathed-in-pain arm and wrote in midair, {138 exp to [swordsman]}(I needed to conserve the next 300 Exp to be able to change class immediately upon reaching level 10)

Contributed 138 Exp into the [swordsman] general class! You have access to new classes!

You may become a: [sword gamer] [assistant guard] [bodyguard] [war bounder] [sweeper] [nightstalker] [scout] or [striker]

You may increase a growth rate by 5%!

{con}

Done!

Now, your second level!!

New skill: [ruthless striker tier 1]

[ruthless striker]: When striking with no remorse, you deal 5% more multiplicative damage per tier

Stats increaced: Str: +0 Dex: +0 Con: +0 Wiz: +0 Int: +1 Cha: +0

Stat screwed...menu, you are a cruel, cruel thing sometimes...

You may increase a growth rate by 5%!

{Str}

Done!

Do you have any complaints or concerns?

{could I get a con point?}

Would you like to contact your patron for aid?

I slowly nodded yes.

Contacting Seraph

.

.

.

Sorry, Seraph appears unsettled by your ‘recent violent tendencies’.

For mediating the heavens, you sure managed to make me go from praising you to damning you quite quickly, Seraph!

However, she applauds ‘Your selflessness, despite your aspirations.’

You have been granted one temporary constitution point for three minutes. Use it wizely

Menu and Seraph were in cohorts to fake me out?! You’ve got to be kidding me! Damn you two heavenly liars!

I wrote a curse in the air as I felt some energy return to my limbs.

How rude.

Menu faded away without my command. Did menu just give me sass’?! Didn’t someone say that to me earlier as well?! Whatever. Get up. Using all the strength I could muster, I pushed myself into a sitting position. Maladrain was facefirst on the ground, like a dunce, so I crawled over to him and smacked him over the face.

“Ow...what’s going on again..?”

I made a motion with two of my fingers like they were walking, then pointed to the river.

“I don’t get it...err, what’s your name again...Sayer..? Sayer, why’d you smack me like that...?” He sat up, letting his leg be extended and comfortable. He tilted his head, confused, then put his hand to his head. “This headache is killn’ me...Hey, kid, where are we again...?”

Oh, by Seraph’s grace and menu’s sass’, he had a concussion. I repeated the motion.

“Need me to take you that way? Why ain’t you talking...Oh, aren’t you [mute} or somthin’?”

I nodded.

“Err, yeah...I’ll take you over there, you look...oh shit, you’re dying, aren’t you!” He suddenly snapped out of his stupor. “No wonder you’re pleadin’ with me! Here, let me do some first aid.” He pulled a bandage out of his sack. He first moved it to my arm. “Ok, Sayer, let’s get you patched up. Hold still, will ya?” I, of course, sat still, and he applied the bandage with surprising precision. Maybe he had a skill for it? Either way, after all the pain I had been through, I hardly flinched as he wrapped it over the gash in my arm tightly.

He stopped the bleeding, but there was still a knife in my leg. “Ok, kid. Wait, what do I do here again-oh, right. Ok, we are gonna pull this out slowly...it’s not serrated, good. You got this, champ...One two...” With a cautionary motion, he slipped the knife out of my leg.

Pain ensued.

I would explain just how painful having a dagger be taken out of your leg feels, but no words can properly make someone understand how freaking bad it feels to watch and feel as a chunk of steel is wiggled out of your flesh. And if anyone asks, I did not cry out of pain during the process. He finally pulled the heaven-forsaken dagger out after an hour-long second.

“Three...ok... let’s quickly do this...” Maladrain bandaged my leg up as well while I hugged myself with my good arm, clenching my abdomen in pain. I still couldn’t move, though. Even with a bit more constitution, that much blood loss had worn on my body, and I probably wouldn’t stay conscious for another minute or two...one way or another, I couldn’t afford to fall...

Menu popped up again. Prerequisites for activating [hope] achieved. Would you like to activate [hope]?

The living legend. The machine god, Deus ex machina! Menu -no- my savior!

I nodded vigorously-

The pain lessened, my body went numb, and peace and warmth spread across my body. It was like walking to a lit hearth after a horrible blizzard -a warm, spring breeze. My limbs and aches and sores and injuries felt like nothing more than irregularities on my warm, warm body.

So that’s what anesthetics feel like, huh?

With that, I could keep myself conscious. I wasn’t sure how long [hope] would last, but I could only...well, hope it was long enough for me to handle the inevitable arrival of reinforcements.

Maladrain looped my arms over his shoulders, then stood up and began carrying me on his back towards the river.

We reached the now nearly drained-out stream a half-minute later, so Maladrain asked, “This where you wanted to go?”

I nodded, my head perched on his shoulder, then I slowly pointed to the other side.

He walked across it, skipping atop a few large stones gracefully to avoid the shallow rapids, then leaped back onto the opposite slope of the path and moved into the treeline ahead.

It was time to end the horrible fight that dusk had beckoned. I was determined to win, both for my life and my pride. Even if It meant pain came rolling my way, I was going to end my chapters the way I wanted to.