Zed remained standing, staring blankly forward as Loran dropped to his knees, supporting himself with his hands.

“I win,” he said, breathing heavily. Loran was visibly exhausted despite having spent most of the fight barely moving. Whether from his earlier level of concentration or having used up his entire MP supply so quickly no one could say, but it was clear that magic was very draining.

“On-only because it was a spar,” Zed finally said, breathing rather heavily himself. The sheer volume of spells Loran had sent flying at him barely gave him a moment to breathe until the last few seconds.

Loran shrugged. “If I needed to bring you down to zero then I would’ve used a different strategy.”

“Yeah, sure,” Zed chuckled at Loran’s comment, but looking at his face revealed not a joking expression, but a proud one. “You’re being serious?”

Loran shrugged. “I can’t guarantee that I would have won, but I definitely could have made it close.”

He wasn’t wrong, and thinking back on the fight Zed understood that. The haphazard bursts of Mana Darts at the end burned through much more of his MP than was strictly necessary. If he were more focused on bringing Zed down, he could have fired less in order to guarantee that more would hit. Instead, Loran wanted to try and lure Zed into that close-range sneak attack. If he could do that in the future with a more lethal spell, then Loran would have a trump card that no one would really expect.

Zed opened his mouth to say something but was cut off as several players rushed over to surround Loran. The spellcaster’s eyes widened in panic as he was bombarded with questions from the players practicing magic. Zed watched as Loran tried to speak, but whether it was to answer questions or to kindly ask them to fuck off no one knew, as his exhaustion combined with the shock of being suddenly surrounded left him unable to form words.

Loran turned to Zed with pleading eyes, who chuckled at his friend’s distress.

“Hey!” The crowd turned to see Yang and the others walking up. “Both of them are tired, now fuck off.”

The group quickly dispersed. A few seemed like they wanted to argue, but between a glare from Yang and a cleared throat from Zed they quickly realized that ‘no’ was a very wrong answer.

“Th-thanks,” Loran stuttered out.

Zed shook his head in disbelief, “you can chew out Bates no problem, but freeze up from a bunch of randoms?”

Loran rubbed his head sheepishly, wincing slightly. “I was too pissed off to be anxious. I don’t know man.”

“Are you sure you’re alright Loran?” Yin asked, brow furrowed.

“Yeah, I don’t think I’ve seen you lock up like that kiddo.”

“I think emptying my MP pool is messing with my head.” Loran rubbed his temples. “I’ve got a headache that wasn’t there a few minutes ago.”

“That could be the head trauma,” Alexx said calmly.

Loran paused before reaching up to feel his injury as if having forgotten that he was currently bleeding from a head wound. “Oh… Yeah, that probably isn’t helping.”

“Dude, how hard did you hit him?” Yang asked as Soze got closer to examine the injury.

Zed shrugged. “I wasn’t trying too hard, but that doesn’t mean much with 50 STR.”

“Yup, that’s a concussion.” Soze said.

Loran squinted at him. “How can you tell, don’t you need a flashlight or something for that?”

“You have a debuff.”

Loran blinked. “...Oh.”

“You are really out of it,” Yang said.

“Alexx, carry him back to his shelter,” Soze said as he stood up. “And be careful with his head.”

“Uh, if we need careful Yang should do it,” Alexx said, holding up his hands. “I still need to fix my stats, remember?”

“I can still walk guys,” Loran said as he stood up, but quickly lost his balance and was caught by Soze, smothering the smaller player.

“Yes, clearly,” Soze rolled his eyes. “Yang help me with him.”

“It’s fine I got it.”

Loran seemed like he wanted to protest, but was quickly scooped up by the tank in a bridal carry with one hand supporting his head. As she walked off, the other three turned to Zed.

“Now what about you?” Soze asked. “Those are some… interesting wounds.”

Zed wasn’t sure what he was talking about until he looked down and realized just how much Loran’s magic had messed him up.

The places where he had been struck by the Mana Darts were all inch-wide bruises, each one swelling at an almost visible rate. The worst was his chest, where the impact caused intense bruising over most of his upper body and even tore through a few layers of skin in the center of the injury.

“Damn,” he said after a moment. “Adrenaline is one hell of a drug.”

“Clearly,” Alexx chuckled. “So does this mean that magic is kind of like Bludgeoning damage?”

“I’m not sure,” Soze said as he looked over Zed’s injuries. “The bruises would suggest that but this chest injury almost looks shredded or burned.”

“Loran probably knows more about it, or at least he will sooner or later,” Zed said with a grin.

“You certainly have confidence in his abilities,” Yin noted.

“You saw him just now, he was holding his own without using his physical abilities, and that was with maybe a few hours of practice.”

There was no argument to be made there. Zed was one of the village's best fighters; even with Loran knowing Zed’s behavior from past sparring matches, he did spectacularly well. Either the magic system of New Eden Online was overpowered (a distinct possibility) or Loran was significantly more talented as a mage than he was as a fighter.

“Just give him some time and we’ll know everything we need to about magic,” Zed assured them.

“...So do you think he was right? About being able to defeat you with a different approach?” Yin asked Zed, having overheard their conversation.

“Nah, if we were actually trying to kill each other then I would have won,” Zed says with complete confidence.

“Oh, and why’s that?”

“Yeah, weren’t you just hyping him up?” Alexx asked.

“I’m saying he’ll get better, not what he can do right now. And the reason why he would have lost that last fight is simple, if I was trying to kill him I would have thrown my spear instead of that rock,” he said with a smile. “That would have taken his head clean off.”

“Yeah, that rock punched through his shield no problem,” Soze rubbed his chin. “Do you guys think there was something wrong with it?”

“Loran’s shield spell?”

“Yeah, it seemed way too fragile.”

Zed shrugged. “Maybe it’s too low level? Need I remind you,” he pointed at himself, “50 STR.”

“I guess, but the rock didn’t even slow down,” Alexx noted. “Even if it’s weak, that seems too useless. And the rest of his spells are pretty strong, why is this one so weak?"

“Regardless, unless one of you seeks to study magic as well, I believe this is Loran’s problem to solve,” Yin said as she turned and started walking back toward the village.

“Where are you going?” Alexx asked.

“Just walking, it’s not as though there is much else to be done today.”

Soze shrugged and began to follow.

“What, no concern for the actually injured guy?” Zed jokingly asked.

Yin looked back at him skeptically. “Are you in need of assistance?”

“Not really, but it’s the thought tha-”

Yin said nothing as she turned away again.

Alexx looked at Zed, eyebrow raised. “Did you piss her off or something?”

“I don’t know, wouldn’t surprise me,” Zed chuckled as he stood up. “Come on, I need to grab some moss for this hole in my chest.”

~~~~~

“Seriously, you can put me down,” Loran said monotonously.

“Okay,” Yang finally said, lowering his feet to the ground.

“Wait really?”

“Yeah, we’re here.”

Loran turned his head(too quickly as he felt his head pound and the world spin), and sure enough, they were standing in front of his shelter. “Oh…”

“Your brain really is fried right now.”

Loran sighed. “I’m seriously going to be stuck like this for five days?”

“Look man, the faster you get some rest the faster you can be back on your feet.”

“Alright…” he said as he crawled into his shelter.

“I’ll make sure someone brings you meals so you don’t have to walk to the Kitchen.”

Loran grunted before a thought occurred to him. “Make sure it’s just jerky and water.”

“What? Why willingly eat nothing but the preserved crap?”

“I’m going to turn all my senses off and only come out when I’m hungry. I’ll be nonresponsive so no need to leave something that will just go cold and gross.”

He had already told the others about how the sensory deprivation void made him lose track of time, so she understood that Loran was just trying to make the next few days go by faster.

“Alright, if that’s what you want,” Yang waved as she walked away. “See you in a few days.”

“Yeah, see you later.”

Loran opened his menu once he was situated in his shelter, glancing at the bottom of his status page to see his current source of annoyance.

[CONCUSSION]

Remaining Duration: 4 Days, 23 Hours, 41 Minutes, 3 Seconds

‘God this is going to be boring,’ he thought as he reduced his senses to nothing, the complete darkness and silence settling around him.