It was kind of weird seeing his War Machine class level up to 10 and not get any special bonus. The number system for Kalibutan’s magic system clearly had a base six, so he would have to wait to level 12 to get those sweet sweet new skill choices.

  The last level up he had put his points into Acuity, so this level up he put a point each into Dexterity and Perception. There was a small difference, slightly smoother movement and sharper vision. It wasn't a big change like hitting 12 in Acuity had been. Luke had decided to trust Specialist White’s recommendations, he would have to be patient to see if it panned out.

  Once everyone had their points assigned, Luke led Vanessa and Sandwich deeper into the wilderness. While he was at it, he recalled his magic drone. The flying machine had been hunting in the slime territory, but it wasn’t doing a very good job. The Machine Soul kept asking him if he wanted it to kill slimes. He had to say no each time because it learned very slowly. He had only given it permission to kill three undesirable monsters.

  It was disappointing that he didn’t have an autonomous monster killer robot yet. Maybe one day. Luke wondered if it would get smarter if he replaced the processor on the drone.

  With the magic drone scouting out the way, they quickly found the next batch of monsters. A pack of eight feet tall velociraptors. Or at least what looked like feathered dinosaurs to him. He had learned his lesson about making assumptions when it came to Kalibutan monsters.

  Luke led them to the top of a small hill and pointed out the monsters slinking through the thorny bushes in the distance. “Sandwich. Please tell me those aren’t Spore Raptors.”

  After the last several surprises, Luke had finally taken some time to study all the common monsters that might spawn around here. He had read books and talked to everyone who knew the area. He was fairly sure he knew what he was looking at but he still needed confirmation from Sandwich because he didn’t have personal experience.

  “Those are Spore Raptors. If you look closely, they are dropping hallucinogenic spores from their feathers. If you breathe it in, you’ll start to think they are cuddly cute. It lowers your defenses so they can strike as one and eat you.”

  Vanessa’s eyes went wide. “Wait. What if I already think they look cute?”

  “Uhhh. That’s a good question. These ones do look cuter than normal. Softer too. These must be a different kind of monster. Maybe teddy bear dinos?” Sandwich asked and tilted his head.

  Vanessa laughed and said, “No, they are snuggle chickens.”

  Luke ignored them and spun around in a circle. There must be a Spore Raptor around here. They were clearly already affected by the monster’s hallucinogens. Which was very concerning because Sandwich was wearing his old armor. He had built an airtight filter into that helmet, but the spores were getting to him somehow. Magic bullshit.

  The nine raptors he had seen before were still slowly sneaking south at the bottom of the hill, angling closer as time went on. But none of their little sparkly spores had made it up this high and there wasn’t any wind. There must be a raptor up here somewhere, but Luke couldn’t see them.

  He checked behind the largest tree atop the hill and found some tiny sparkles, like someone had been sprinkling glitter as they walked. Luke shuttered and stepped back. This was worse than crafting herpes.

  The magic drone interrupted him with another request to kill a monster. Luke looked at the image from the drone’s camera and saw himself from above. He almost refused the request again, but then he realized he wasn’t the only thing on camera. There was a velociraptor sitting on the branch directly above him. Its long feathered tail was sprinkling spores onto his head.

  Luke activated Frictionless Slide and shot out from underneath the tree. He trained his shoulder mounted spell rifles on the monster and fired, while also giving his magic drone permission to attack.

  Ice and lightning shot up from Luke, while fire and lightning shot down from the drone. The eight feet tall monster leapt from the tree, aiming towards where Luke had escaped to. It almost avoided the four spells, but was clipped by one of the lightning bolts. It twitched in the air, clenching its knife claws and curling up. It saved Luke from the slashing attack, but the monster still hit him. The impact knocked him off his feet and the pair tumbled to the ground.

  Luke rolled to the side just in time for the drone to shoot a fire bolt and lightning bolt down at the ambush raptor. The monster cried out in pain, a deep keening roar that cut off with a gurgle.

  The sound alerted the pack below and they burst into action, racing up the hill swift as a barrage of arrows.

  “Kill the Spore Raptors!” Luke shouted and fired his right spell cannon.

  His forearm spat out a large magnet, surrounded by a huge fire ball, one that kept growing as it sped towards the monsters. It impacted the lead monster with a thwump and an explosion. The fireball was straight from a Michael Bay movie and took out half of the pack in one go.

  Vanessa and Sandwich both yelled, “Nooo!” and jumped in front of Luke with their hands up.

  The remaining five monsters roared in anger and raced around their fallen fellows. They spread out and aimed at the humans from all sides. They chirped at each other to communicate, and Luke had to laugh.

  Their chirps were so adorable! And these ones were furrier than the others, he was sure they would be so soft if he held them.

  He suddenly wanted nothing more than to grab one and hold it tight. It would be so fluffy!

  The cute little bundles of joy arrived then, giving the humans playful little bites. They laughed and wrestled with them. Luke got his snuggles in and they were just as wonderful as he had hoped. The cute raptor playing with Vanessa was having fun taking her armor apart. It was hilarious seeing the parts go flying. She laughed with every bite.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Something was wrong. The fuzzy babies were having trouble getting into Sandwich and Luke’s armor. It was that damn Stone Beetle wing casings. Luke had used too much of the durable armor.

  “I’m sorry babies. I can climb out of my armor so you can get at the soft insides,” Luke said.

  The sweet cuddle bugs were agitated though. Someone above them was being mean and hurting them. One of the raptors had even died! Poor thing. Vanessa started crying when the one tearing into her armor stopped playing with her.

  A row of long cuts appeared on the throat of the raptor Luke was playing with. It gurgled and tried to take a breath. The poor thing couldn’t breathe. He tried to help, but it was no use. Another raptor died.

  Luke saw a flash of movement and heard a hiss. He realized what had happened. Jinx had accidentally killed one of the fluffy dinos.

  “Jinx, you bad girl. These are our friends. You can't hurt them. I am very cross with you right now,” Luke said.

  Surprisingly, she didn’t listen to him. He had thought she understood him better now that she was leveling up. But she was continuing to attack the snuggle chickens.

  Maybe Jinx didn’t understand her own strength? She was bigger now, about as big as a panther, and had claws that could cut through solid matter with a gentle swipe. Luke guessed that she thought she was playing with the raptors and only accidentally hurting them.

  He had the impulse to grab her, squeeze her tight until she stopped attacking. Something held him back. Jinx was his baby. He couldn’t hurt his baby.

  While he wrestled with indecision the choice was taken away from him. The fire bolts from above and Jinx quickly tore through the last two raptors. The final body hit the ground, blood pooling.

  The hallucinations wore off suddenly, like a bucket of ice water had been splashed down his back. He tried to get up, but enough components had been broken that he couldn’t. He lay back and swore. He had been completely taken in by the Spore Raptor’s mind altering hallucinogens. The only reason he was still alive was that the magic drone and Jinx had kept fighting.

  His armor was trashed. Even though the stone beetle panels had held up, all of the joints and connectors were heavily damaged. Long scratches covered every surface. The raptor claws had made it through his armor and cut him on his left knee and right elbow. Luke pushed his mana into Repair Craft and point after point disappeared before his red mech was pristine again.

  Now able to move, Luke sat up and checked on the other two. Sandwich had come out of it in better shape than Luke, both his arms and one leg were still working. His pink summoned Stalker Jackal had protected him at first. Vanessa wasn’t as lucky.

  Her armor had been shredded, armored limbs shattered, half of the armor panels ripped off as the monsters tried to get at the squishy human inside. They had succeeded. Vanessa was laying in the wreckage bloodied and broken.

  Luke cried out, a guttural sound of pure shock and fear. He pulled the broken parts of the mech off her. She was bleeding heavily from her chest and hip. Her legs seemed fine, but her right arm was broken and her left was shredded, skin hanging off in strips. She was crying softly, having lost the energy to make a louder complaint.

  Knowing that every second counted, Luke hopped out of his mech and pulled out his first aid kit. He swapped his Machine Bond to his prosthetic leg so he would keep the class buff.

  The rush of mental stats all hitting him at once gave him clarity. The collection of bandages and wraps in his first aid kit wasn’t going to save her life. He needed to use the healing potion he had gotten from his deal with Lord Edobar. Since Vanessa had been the unofficial medic, the potion was in her kit.

  He leapt over the wreckage and grabbed the cover for her hip compartment. It was damaged and warped, stuck closed. Luke roared in frustration and put his back into it. The compartment groaned and opened up, cutting his hand in the process.

  Ignoring the pain, Luke pulled out her battered and cut up medic bag. It was bigger than his own so he had to root around to find the healing potion. Every second that passed without finding it felt like eternity. It wasn’t in the main compartment or the front pouch. It had to be here, he knew she wouldn’t forget to bring it along.

  He stuck his hand into the end compartment and felt shards of glass and damp cloth. His heart dropped. He carefully unzipped the compartment further and saw the broken healing potion. The neck was snapped off and less than half of the potion was left in the remains of the bottle.

  With utmost care, Luke scooped the bottle up and carried it over to Vanessa without spilling. She was struggling to breathe now, her eyes wide in panic. There was a sucking hole in her left lung. Her skin was ashen white from blood loss.

  “Don’t worry. It’s gonna be ok. This is why we have healing potions,” Luke said, his voice wavering. “Here we go, open your mouth and take a little drink.”

  She kept gasping, unable to stop herself. She did nod though, so she was still aware of what was going on. Luke poured a dribble down her throat, just enough for a single swallow. She kept it down and he was able to give her two more swallows. The fourth one caused her to cough and waste it.

  At this point there wasn’t much healing potion left. Luke poured a bit onto her chest wound and the gashes on her hip. Then he grabbed the medic bag and got to work. First he slapped a patch onto her chest wound, then he put a compress on her hip. He arranged her skin back onto her forearm and quickly wrapped it up.

  Her eyes drooped closed and her breathing slowed. Luke wanted to panic and cry, but his training wouldn’t let him. Triage was done, he needed to get her back to the village to buy another healing potion. Then on to the hospital on Earth.

  “Is she going to be ok? Do healing potions work when you don’t use the whole thing?” Sandwich asked. He had climbed out of his mech to help, but ended up watching Luke instead.

  It was a good question. The potions worked by magic, it wasn’t like medicine where even a little bit helped. Maybe because she hadn’t had the full bottle, the magic wouldn’t take hold. Or maybe he was panicking and the potion was already working.

  “I don’t know. Either way we have to get her more help,” Luke said. “Can you walk, your mech I mean?”

  “No, the right leg’s completely busted. You go ahead with her. Don’t worry about me, I’ve got my summons to protect me. I’ll collect the cores and make myself a crutch out of a tree or something.”

  Luke thought about it for a second while he climbed into his own mech. “Ok, fine. Summon your max number of pink monsters and head directly back to the village. I’ll find you there. I’m going to leave my magic drone with you to protect you as well.”

  “Yes, fine. Go, go!”

  Jinx looked between the two of them and hopped up onto Luke’s mech.

  Luke nodded at Sandwich and picked up Vanessa. He made sure she was as secure as he could make her, and then started sprinting towards Bona Urbo. He did his best to keep her steady, using Frictionless Slide whenever the ground looked rough. Her groans of pain grew fainter and fainter until she passed out.

  He grit his teeth and ran faster. She was still alive. He had a chance to save her if he made it to the estate village in time.

  Today’s chapter title comes from Despicable Me (2010)

  Also, what do you think, is she going to die?

  Those that have read my other books know that I am not afraid of killing off main characters, but I don’t needlessly murder everyone the MC likes. I was going for vibe that her life was teetering on the edge of a knife, it could go either way. Let me know how I did.