Julius did not look happy as Cillian took up a fighting stance, hatchet held ready as the three cats circled them.

“Are you serious?” he asked flatly, and Cillian ignored him. “You wouldn’t fight them until some stray you fed got involved?”

A cat swiped at his newfound ally, and the emaciated thing roared and sprang, all vicious teeth and claws powered by hunger and loyalty. Cillian struck as the two of them rolled, burying the hatchet right in the thing’s head. The stray bounded to its feet and lashed out with its whip-like tail to score a gouge into another cat’s rib cage. The cat yowled and pounced, and Cillian turned to help, but the third leapt on him.

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

He almost couldn’t see around the notifications. The hatchet went flying with the force of the pounce, and Cillian choked as big claws buried into his shoulder right under the cloak. He yelled and landed a flat-handed punch on the base of its jaw, but the creature was completely unperturbed. Its massive maw opened, descending on his face, and he caught it with both hands. Pain erupted in his shoulder and something concerning ripped, but adrenaline alone allowed him to ignore it as he struggled to keep the head back away from his face.

“AAAGGGHHH!!” he screamed and followed the first “born female, raised female” instinct he had.

He kicked it in what felt like a dick.

The cat yowled in pain and the claws ripped out of his shoulder, and Cillian scrambled for his hatchet, but it was just out of reach. Blood was everywhere, and he kicked wildly at the cat again, once, twice, three times as it tried to get away, and then Cillian followed pure instinct to pounce on it and get it around the throat in a lock. The vambraces gleamed in the light peeking through the leaves as he pulled back harshly.

CRACK!

The neck snapped, and the cat went limp. Cillian rolled off of it, breathing hard, and turned to take in the damage.

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

The emaciated cat was limping. Its front right paw was completely mangled, and Cillian fell to his knees.

“Oh, come here, sweet boy,” he said and held out his arms. The cat stared at him warily, and Cillian waited as the three bodies shimmered and disappeared, leaving three stacks of meat wrapped in butcher paper and twine. “Come on.”

Slowly, the cat slunk towards him, and Cillian extended his hand for it to sniff.

“You’re not going to get far with that injury,” Julius said, sounding entirely unimpressed.

“Then, I’ll just kill the other two,” Cillian said as the cat carefully nudged his palm with his nose.

“You know you’ll have to kill that thing, too, right?”

“No, I won’t,” Cillian said confidently, even though he didn’t feel it, and the cat went on its belly to slink closer to him. Cillian looked around and caught sight of the familiar weeds he used for the poultice. “Ah. There.”

“Are you going to try and heal it?” Julius asked in disbelief, but Cillian was already ripping it out with his good arm and popping it in his mouth, dirt and all.

“It saved my life,” he said around the root. “Yes, I’m gonna fuckin’ heal it. Bastard.”

“Do you realize none of this is real?” Julius demanded, and Cillian paused in his chewing.

None of this was real, huh?

He spat out the poultice into his hand and held it out for the cat to sniff.

“My blood is real,” he said softly, because that was the only thing he could say.

His blood was real. So, the world was real enough.

The cat was sniffing it delicately, but didn’t seem to have any objections, so Cillian just carefully let it drip off his hand onto the injured paw. He remembered it felt warm after it went sticky, so hopefully the thing wouldn’t hate it.

“I cannot believe you’re giving first aid to a monster before yourself,” Julius said, his voice full of derision. Cillian ignored him as he ripped off a chunk of root with his teeth. Really, the guy was completely useless, and mean, and didn’t appropriately appreciate life. Ugh, why did Cillian agree to let him accompany him? This guy was just going to get him killed, turning him into some kind of bloodthirsty monster.

“He’s just a big ole kitty cat,” Cillian replied as he chewed loudly on the root, making sure to smack his lips, mostly because he knew it would piss him off enough to shut him up.

It did, in fact, shut Julius up, and Cillian peeled back his shirt to reveal his bra strap half sliced down the middle, with the hem still intact.

“Oh,” Cillian muttered. “That’s annoying.”

He wasn’t big, but he was a solid C, and couldn’t be running around without any support. That was for ladies in actual video games, not be-titted people in real life running away from fucking sabertooth panthers or something. If only he had a needle and thread…

“Is there a way to get a patch kit?” he mumbled as he snapped at the broken strap and then winced in pain as it smacked wetly against the claw marks on his shoulder. “Ow.”

“Not at this level, no,” Julius replied, his voice so exhausted it dealt actual psychic damage to Cillian, and the thought of damage made him wonder if he should check his vitality… It might be better to not know. “Wait to go after the other cats for fifteen minutes.”

“Why?” Cillian asked as he started slathering on the poultice. The stray slunk back away from Cillian to sit at a respectful distance where he could keep an eye on him.

“Because that’s when you stop bleeding and taking bleeding damage. Though it’d be better if you waited a day, but…” Julius trailed off as he watched Cillian smear on the poultice.

“My eyes are up here,” Cillian snapped, and Julius looked up at him.

“You know you heal one point every thirty minutes, right?” Julius asked, and Cillian paused.

“I do?” He had been wondering about that, actually. The previous injuries had healed suspiciously fast. His throat was pink now, and his mangled finger was basically healed, minus the hole in his nail that was driving him nuts. He wanted to pick at it.

“At your level? Yes. Higher levels, you stop bleeding after five minutes, and heal one point every fifteen minutes, but that’s eighty and above.”

“So, if I wait…” Cillian trailed off, because math wasn’t his strong suit. “Wait, what health am I at right now? Status window.”

CILLIAN JAMES

LEVEL 11

STR 21 (18+3)

DEX 21

INT 15

WIS 18 (15+3)

MANA 24

VIT 10/43

LUCK 159

SKILLS: TIMELORD, REWIND

STAT POINTS TO ALLOT: 20

ITEM BOX: 0 ITEMS

Oh.

Oh, that was why he had leveled up so much when he killed them.

They did a ton of damage, holy shit.

That was… that was… 33 points he had to recover… and 33 divided by two was… What was 32 divided by two? He needed something like… He couldn’t… Three divided by two was one, and then two divided by two was also one, and then… How did it work…

“Sixteen and a half hours,” Julius said, and Cillian looked up with a blank face. “You looked like you were about to hurt yourself.”

“I haven’t done that in five years, thank you,” Cillian retorted primly before the actual meaning dawned on him. “Oh, you mean… You’re a dick, you know that, right? Also, can you see my status window?”

“Yes, and I work in Vegas. Of course I know I’m a dick,” Julius deadpanned, and Cillian frowned at him. Well. That explained the suit. He was probably a mobster or something. Of course Cillian would be stuck with a mobster.

“Well, so long as we’re on the same page,” Cillian muttered and finished plastering the wound. “I guess I’ll just hide out in the cabin.”

Going against two of them with no backup was a bad idea with just ten health.

“I should up my vitality,” he mumbled and stared at the status window before he started tapping away.

CILLIAN JAMES

LEVEL 11

STR 21 (18+3)

DEX 25

INT 15

WIS 18 (15+3)

MANA 30

VIT 10/48

LUCK 164

SKILLS: TIMELORD, REWIND

STAT POINTS TO ALLOT: 0

ITEM BOX: 0 ITEMS

“Are you sure you don’t want to up your strength? You have to kill two cats with your bare hands,” Julius pointed out, and Cillian lifted his good shoulder in a shrug.

“It’s fine,” he said and stood up before glancing at the cat, who was now staring at him. “... Would it be ethically unsound to feed him his own kind?”

“Chickens would eat each other if given the chance,” Julius pointed out, and Cillian stared at him.

“He’s not a chicken…?”

The two of them stared at each other, and the look on Julius’s face was an absolute delight. Cillian rarely went outside to study people’s faces for the sake of studying them, even though he knew he should. So, he wasn’t sure of what to make of Julius’s. It was… it was something, he was sure, but he wasn’t sure what. His brows were furrowed and his eyes were somewhere between confused and concerned and maybe angry? Cillian wasn’t sure, but it was definitely fun to look at.

“That’s not… Okay, let’s just go. Get your fucking meat,” Julius snapped, and Cillian lifted his hands in surrender, only to wince at the pull in his shoulder.

“Jeez,” he muttered and retreated to pick up the meat. Seriously, why was Julius so intense?

The cat came to its feet and Cillian stared at him, one hand on the packet of meat, and then he slowly looked down at it and back up at the cat.

“You want it?” he asked, suddenly very aware that this was, in fact, a wild animal that could rip his face off, and the cat licked its lips.

“Oh, my God, don’t feed it again,” Julius groused, but Cillian just unfolded the butcher paper and tossed the hunk of meat at the cat. “Cillian, that’s cannibalism!”

“It’s an animal!” Cillian protested. “Don’t put human values on animals!”

“Cillian.”

“He’s fine! Look!” Cillian protested as the cat laid back down, trapped the chunk of meat in its claws, and ripped a huge piece off. “It won’t kill him!”

“No, you’re supposed to kill it!”

“It’s a good cat! I’m not going to kill a perfectly good cat!”

“It is a giant killing machine!”

“It’s a baby, and I’m not arguing with you!” Cillian snapped and picked up the rest of the meat to toss into the item box. “Let’s just go back to the cabin. Ugh.”

Honestly, why was Julius so… so… Why was he just like that? Cillian wanted a new companion.