“…you hear me?” came the voice of Doc Redmond as he cradled CJ’s head within the armory.

  He’d taken shelter in their makeshift armory. CJ was disoriented and didn’t understand what was happening. Checking his slate through the pain, he noticed his health was down to ten points. That single attack had wrecked him. His vision was strange now, it was hard to focus, and the smell of sizzling meat didn’t help.

  “You need to calm down. You’ve got second degree burns on the left side of your face and there’s no other way to tell you this,” started Doc before clenching his teeth and fighting through his despair. “Your left eye is gone. I can do something about the burns with my new powers, but I can’t regrow an eye.”

  New Temporary Condition: Monocular Vision- Depth perception is reduced by 10% until your injuries can be repaired. Fine motor skills have been reduced by 10% until your injuries can be repaired.

  “Yea, my slate is telling me I have a condition called Monocular Vision. Seems like a debuff.”

  “A what?”

  “Not a big gamer I take it.” CJ sighed since he could still hear the sounds of fighting going on in the background. “It essentially means my ability to do things has a handicap. I’ll have to be more careful.”

  “Give me a minute and I can fix your health pool and repair the damage to your skin. What was that thing?”

  “I think it was the reason they now call themselves the flaming pitchforks. Is it still there?” asked CJ before sucking air in through his teeth. Redmond’s white light appeared from the left hand side of Deacon’s face. He immediately started to feel better as his health points ticked back up over fifty.

  “Long gone. After you passed out it just dissipated into black smoke and ash. I’ve never seen anything like it. I thought… I thought you were bullet proof. Didn’t I just see you take a ton of shots on our way over here without breaking stride?”

  “It’s sort of a kinetic barrier ability.” He groaned sitting up. His health was now at 100 points and those last 10 points could be handled by his regeneration in short order. “The pitchfork must be magic of some kind. I’m good for now save your mana.”

  “Most of my power is being used repairing your skin. I don’t recommend getting hit with that again.”

  “Say less. Where did Marty go?” CJ’s eyes went wide as he realized they’d lost a tactical advantage. “Oh shit, the party chat is down cause I went unconscious.”

  Elena shot another guard dropping him to the ground while Jenn sprayed the hallway they were running out of with a noxious chemical mixture. It made anyone that breathed it in begin to cough uncontrollably until they left the affected area. The enormous water tank was on their left hand side and the walkway before them was littered with gagging and hacking bodies. They didn’t have all the magic that CJ could wield but they were deadly in their own wrights.

  “Chat’s down. You think something happened to CJ?” asked Jenn as she spun behind Elena to find cover.

  “I’m sure he’s fine. Probably taking a nap.” She tried to joke but internally she was worried about the little magician. “He’s with the others and I’m sure they’ll be alright. Besides Monty’s on that side, the angry bunny wouldn’t let anything bad happen to him.”

  “Yea, Monty’s great.”

  Elena shot a glance back at her girlfriend as she squatted down changing out the chemical mixture in her old-timey pump sprayer. Her affection clear on her face as she watched the brilliant blonde biochemist. That distraction cost them both as the clinking sound of a small metal object bounced off the guard wall for the water tank and careened toward them both. There was a loud bang followed by a bright flash that blinded Elena temporarily. That was enough for five men wearing gas masks to bum rush them.

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  The first one shoulder tackled Elena but was surprised as she didn’t even budge. She didn’t need to see to know where that one was. He felt her solid boot connect with his chest as she drove the wind out of him. Then two more were at either side of grabbing her arms in an attempt to bring her down. The fourth dove for Jenn who squeezed a water bottle full of a mysterious fluid in the mans face with her left hand. He was already mid-air with no way to dodge or deflect the incoming fluids. It splashed in his face as he belly flopped to the ground. Soon after he started wiping his face with the sleeve of his uniform, Jenn all but forgotten in the frantic rush to get stinging fluid off of his face.

  “Jenn, get back!” yelled Elena still struggling with the men grabbing her arms while the one she originally kicked grabbed at her legs.

  Finally, the fifth man had a one handed club, and he was swinging it at Jenn's head. Her back was against the tank wall and her choices were to tumble onto the man she just sprayed with oxygen reactive acid or duck into the swing of the man with the club. It came down in a parabolic arc and she may have taken too long to decide.

  “I challenge you!”

  A bullet ripped through the head of the man with the club dropping him like a sack of apples. Two feet touched down in front of Jenn. As she looked up to see Theo of all people. He’d grown about a foot taller, and his arms were more lean muscle than the scrawny teen noodles he had before. As the club wielder died a blood red light swelled under Theo’s skin.

  “Release the woman, now!” Theo called out.

  The three men in gas masks struggling to hold Elena all looked at each other and chucked her over the tank wall down into the water. Then they turned toward Theo, but he wasn’t there. They all spun around looking for him, but he was nowhere to be found. Then they heard a clang as three hands grabbed the lip of the tank wall. Elena was tossed up and over as she pulled the ripcord on her chainsaw. She came down on the first of the men sawing straight through his head down out of his waist.

  Theo had jumped into the tank after her grabbing the edge of the tank with his right hand and Elena with his left. The clang sound was all of Elena’s gear smacking into the tank wall before she hoisted herself over. Now Theo pulled himself up and over the wall with a cat’s grace. Outwardly it would appear he put a considerable amount of points in Agility.

  “I challenge both of you!” he said before whipping out two nine millimeter handguns.

  Bullets ripped through their bodies center mass as the remaining two men went down. Once again a dim red light rippled through Theo’s body before he relaxed. Then he twisted back toward the walkway ahead of them.

  “Shall we?” Theo asked.

  “Absolutely not. What the hell happened to you kid?!” Jenn’s shock was laid bare on her face.

  “Looks to me like he got a few levels under him. It seems impossible to improve from nothing so fast. What’s with all the challenging?” asked Elena as she kicked one of the bodies on the ground. The body flipped up and smacked into the wall on her right, clearing a path for Jenn to walk by.

  “It’s my class ability. If I challenge someone before defeating them I get to take something from them. First guy I offed had Gunslingers ability.” Now that he was being questioned his face more resembled the teenager they’d found skulking behind them in the forest. “The rest were all various points like attributes or health and stamina.”

  “Your sister is going to kill CJ.” Said Jenn flatly.

  “We need to get out of here first. Hey, where did the party chat go?” he asked.

  “It dropped a few minutes ago.” Elena cooled off her chainsaw and picked up the gun she’d dropped when she got grabbed earlier. She wordlessly motioned for Jenn to scavenge the bodies before continuing. “Usually only happens when CJ is unconscious. Thanks, by the way. Only boots got wet because of your quick thinking.”

  “Yea don’t get us wrong. We’re happy you showed up when you did but wasn’t Marty supposed to be watching you?” added Jenn.

  “He… didn’t take it well when I shot those first guys execution style after CJ left them choking on the ground. Marty needed something to take the edge off. I guess he forgot what happens to him when he does that due to all the stress. Oh, there he is now.” He replied as he scanned the opposite side of the cistern.

  Marty in full smoke beast form was brawling with another large human. He kept smashing the man’s head through the barrier wall and then flinging him into opposite wall. Their brawl was interrupted by a man wearing dark clothes with a singed beard as he belched fire at Marty’s smoke form. He was holding a glowing orange and red pitchfork. The smoke body kept putting its arms up and in the way of the flames in a defensive pattern around its pillowy head. He was being pushed back past a door that was labeled, Classroom.