Chapter 11


    Hell Cat (demonic beast)


    Level 50


    Threat level: imminent death


    If the description wasn’t proof enough to Xane about how screwed he was, the flashing red of the prompt only emphasized his situation. Closing out the screen brought up another flashing notification.


    New Quest


    Bloody Delivery


    Deliver the three Night’s Blood Blossoms to either Sergeant Delores Cartwright or the Apothecary of Stonevale, while evading the deadly Hell Cat.


    Rewards: exp and unknown


    Failure: Fail to reach Sergeant Delores Cartwright or the Apothecary of Stonevale before dawn. Failure will result in the potential deaths of you and the child of Sarah Conner.


    Mandatory Quest: Can not be refused.


    Time remaining 01hr 59min


    If this was one of Alex’s stories, he would have said something witty before diving right into the fight, but this was real life. More importantly he was a six-year-old boy named Xane, who thanks to the Goddess was level eight. So, he did the sensible thing…. He ran.


    Activating body reinforcement, Xane darted through the tree’s as the giant cat chased after him. Summoning his bow, Xane slid to a stop already drawing back the string as an arrow manifested in position. He watched his mana dip further down as he activated multi-shot. Loosing his arrow towards the beast, he was already tuning back and running before the arrow split into three. A split second later, he heard a thunk as one hit a tree and a yowl of pain as another found its target. Xane didn’t stop to celebrate though as he was busy running as he waited for his chance at another shot.


    Xane wanted to praise whoever had designed his mini map. Not only was his position indicated by a small green dot, but so was the Hell Cat that was tagged when he had cast identify. In his mind flashed the image of a small clearing, perfect for what he needed. Reaching into his bag, Xane pulled a vial filled with a pale blue liquid with his free hand.


    Tearing the stopper out with his teeth, he was already downing the potion as he turned to fire again. This time, two thunks rang out, along with a hiss of pain as he continued running. Passing through the tree line, Xane already had his first spell primed as his foot hit the ground.


    Setting his trap, he slid to a stop as he drew back on his bow. The Hell cast burst out of the trees and stumbled when its paws hit the softened earth. Lifting his bow, Xane activated arrow rain, and was already running before he could see the results. Behind him, he heard the shafts of arrows cutting through the air before thudding into the ground mixed with more yowls of pain from the beast. Not looking back, Xane kept running.


    Checking his map as he made a course correction, as he ran towards Stonevale. The red dot of the hell cat had disappeared off his map, leaving him with a sense of foreboding. Minimizing the map, his eyes slid over to his flashing mana bar that was nearly a quarter full. Slowing slightly, he fished out another potion to refill his mana pool. Xane could feel the potion leaking down the corner of his mouth as he dropped the empty vial. His mana bar rising to seventy-five percent then started falling.


    He was in the middle of fishing out a second when notification filled his vision. Unable to see, his foot caught on an upturned root, causing him to spill forward. At the same time, the dark and bloody form of the hell cat passed harmlessly through where he would have been had he not tripped.


    The hell cat, surprised it had missed its target, hesitated momentarily as it turned back to him and pounced. Pumping mana into his spell, Xane managed to raise a wall of stone just in time. Hopping to his feet as he began moving once again. Turning back, he loosed another multi-shot as the beast came over the wall, followed by another arrow storm as it had come off cooldown. Behind him, more sounds of arrows slicing through the air with plinks, thunks, and the occasional yowl of pain were barely heard over the rush of the wind past his ears.


    Knowing that staying on the ground was a losing battle, Xane ran until he found a low-hanging branch. Leveraging his heightened stats against his small body, he easily hefted himself up on top. Taking a moment to re-summon his bow, Xane nocked another arrow and waited.


    Slowly the hell cat prowled toward him as it searched for his trail. All over its body, he could see broken arrow shafts and open wounds from the fight. If Xane was an idiot, he would have assumed he had seriously hurt the beast. Thankfully, he knew so far what he had done amounted to nothing more than scratches on the level fifty monster. The red circle of his precise shot shrunk down to a red dot centered on the creature’s eye as he loosed his arrow. When the arrow left his bow, more mana was ripped from his body as the arrow shimmered and split into three.


    Simultaneously, one arrow pierced its shoulder, as another pinned a paw to the ground. The third punched through the large glowing eye. The monster let out an ear-splitting screech of pain as it thrashed about. Turning away, Xane could only hope after this it would take time to retreat and lick its wounds.


    Checking his hud, his eyes moved to his half-filled mana bar before they dropped to the ticking timer below. Time remaining: 00hr 57min.


    Checking his map and estimating the distance, he figured he could make it with probably fifteen minutes to spare. Minimizing his map, he glanced over to his health, amazed he had managed to get away without taking damage. Chugging another mana potion when he saw it dip below fifty percent caused him to slow as he tried not to puke.


    Next to his health and mana bars, a small icon of a bottle with a line through it popped up with its own sixty-minute timer. He had read about it in the old hermit’s journal. Potion sickness was debuff from drinking too many potions too quickly. On top of the gut-wrenching nausea that came with it. All potions had a seventy-five percent chance of not working as well as adding more time to the debuff.


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    Even through the twisting stomach and the ever-growing pain in his legs, Xane kept running. Keeping his mind clear as he concentrated on breathing. He was stumbling as his mana flagged when the town wall came into view. While he concentrated on his breathing to stave off the nausea helped, he fell into the familiar tunnel vison that came from the long runs of his military days.


    As he cleared the tree line, it was a loud gronk from Wraith that warned him something was wrong. A split-second later, pain ripped through his side as he was bowled off his feet and sent tumbling.


    Coming to his feet, Xane saw what had hit him. The hell cat was picking itself up off the ground from where Xane had barely dodged the worst of its attack. The beast was clearly hurt as blood leaked out its ruined eye socket. More than one of its legs moved with a pronounced limp from being hit with one of his many arrows.


    Searching around, he found his bow lying over fifty feet away near the tree line. Calling Wraith to him, Xane pulled off his satchel while tucking the flap into the bag. Diving away from the wounded beast as it attempted to pounce, Xane came up, wincing, and tossed the bag into the air. As the bag hit the apex of its flight, Wraith snatched the strap in his claws and flew away.


    Unable to reach his bow and mana barely above zero, Xane reached under his cloak and drew his short swords. Dropping into a stance with one sword held in a reverse grip, Xane hoped his few lessons with Mel would pay off. Slowly he backed away from the hell cat as he tried to circle around to get to the town wall and the rope he could see dangling off its side.


    Taking a few steps closer to the wall, Xane kept his eyes on the wounded cat. Just as he was shifting his weight to take another step, the hell cat pounced towards him with its claws outstretched. Not fully committed, Xane threw his weight on his back foot and pivoted. Weakly parrying an outstretched paw with his left, Xane struck out with his right. Blade sinking into the dark fur as a scream of pain ripped out of his lungs. His weak parry resulted in the hell cat’s claws tearing through his armor and ripping into his side.


    Weakened by pain, Xane’s grip on his sword was lost as the monster continued past him. Choosing to flee, Xane gripped his remaining sword tightly as he attempted to run for the dangling rope. From the top of the wall, he could hear the encouraging shouts of those waiting above. Clutching his side as he poured as much healing into his side as he dared. Xane barely turned in time to dodge another attack. Spinning around, he launched his sword with all his strength as he continued to rotate around.


    The rope was only a hundred feet as his vision started to blur. Stumbling towards the dangling lifeline, he fumbled along his belt as he searched for another weapon. Just as the darkness threatened to take him, his vision cleared as a notification dinged and he felt his mana refill. Reactivating body reinforcement, Xane flew the last remaining feet as he ripped the blade free of its sheath. The hair on the back of his neck prickled as his sense of danger spiked. Leaping up, one foot hit the wall, followed by the other. With another step, Xane leaped off the wall, twisting in the air.


    With a wordless scream, he brought down the blade of his skinning knife down into the skull of the wide eye beast. Twisting the blade, snapped it off in the monster’s brain. His body hit the ground and knocking the wind from his lungs. Just feet away, the hell cat flopped to the ground and spasmed briefly before going limp.


    Sucking in wheezing gasps, Xane pushed himself up onto his knees as cheers rang out from the top of the wall. Once his lungs could suck in air normally, he went about patching his wounds. Stumbling to his feet, Xane turned back and walked to the wall before coming to a stop. Furrowing his brows, Xane’s eyes roamed the wall, finding it missing the rope that was there just minutes ago.


    Xane was about to unleash a stream of obscenities when the noise of the gates opening caused him to pause. Wearily he turned towards where the road met the town wall as a group of guards came rushing out towards him. As they neared, the guards fanned out into a semicircular formation.


    He counted fifteen guards dressed in full armor with spears and shields held at the ready. Standing in the formation of five columns wide by three rows deep, each of the men watched him silently. A moment later, the formation split, with the familiar face of the captain approaching him.


    Stopping just feet away, Captain Alder stood with his hands behind his back as he looked down at Xane with an unreadable expression. In response, Xane tilted his head back to stare up at the man. The captain was the first to break their silent standoff.


    “Xane, you look like a mess.” Captain Alder said with a grin and a chuckle that turned into boisterous laughter at Xane’s deadpan expression. The captain lowered himself till he could look Xane square in the eye. Placing a hand on his shoulder, the man gave him a wide smile as he nodded to the dead monster behind him.


    “Let’s get you inside. I’ll have someone bring your trophy.” The captain said. Xane leaned over to look past the captain to confirm I he saw somebody. Looking back at the captain, a smirk grew on Xane’s small mouth.


    “Gibson?” he asked


    “You want Gibson to escort you?” the captain asked with a concerned look. Shaking his head, Xane pointed at the dead hell cat, causing the man to grin.


    “Oi Gibson, you''re on corpse retrieval.” Another guard chortled as the rest broke out into laughter. Gibson looked between the dead monster and him, looking genuinely hurt.


    “What I do to you?” he asked.


    “Xane, not Zo Za Zein.” Xane replied, feeling like giving the man some shit for screwing up his name so badly the last time. Gibson’s shoulders slumped as his jaw fell in response, before Xane joined the other guards and the captain in a round of laughter. Gibson, realizing he was the butt of the joke, took it in stride, joining in a moment later.


    “Come on, hero. There’s someone waiting for you.” The captain said, patting his shoulder. Xane looked at the man with a raised eyebrow. The captain just gave him a knowing smirk before standing and motioning for him to follow.


    Walking beside the man, Xane noticed the debuff icon disappear. Reaching for his bag before he stopped, realizing he currently didn’t have, he let out a sigh. Feeling the captain nudge his shoulder, Xane looked up to see the man holding something out to him. Taking the proffered item, a small smile crossed his weary face as the red of a healing potion could be seen. Tearing the stopper free, he eagerly drank the potion. Letting a sigh of relief as he could feel the rest of his wounds close, and the pain begin to fade.


    Passing through the gate and entering the light of the town, Xane looked down to see the sorry state his gear was in. His cloak was in tatters from the many close calls with the hell cat’s claws and the branches and bushes of the forest. The armor he wore had large tears and gaping holes from his fight. About the only thing that made it through the battle was his boots, and they were soaked with his blood. “What I wouldn’t give for a hot bath.” He thought, feeling the caked blood and dirt flaking off his skin.


    Xane was pulled from his dreams of hot water and soap by the murmuring of the gathered crowd. Coming to a stop, he unconsciously clutched the empty potion bottle in his hand as he felt everyone’s eyes on him. Beside him, Captain Aler raised his hand to silence the town’s folk. The feeling of their gazes intensified as the voices quieted down.


    “Good people of Stonevale…” He heard the captain say as he began his speech. Xane’s eyes started feeling heavy while the captain’s words became drowned out by the heavy beating of his heart. The people standing around started to blur and shift as lightheadedness set in. Xane’s body grew weak as he stumbled forward, barely catching himself by the man’s armor. His head swam and his vison grew dark. The last thing he remembered was the clinking of the bottle as it slipped from his grasp and hit the ground before sleep overtook him.