There was no time for hesitation, no moment to process the impossible weight of the sword that had just materialized in my hand. There was only the descending shadow of the lizard’s maw, the stench of rot, and the desperate, primal command to act. I swung without thinking, a wild, upward arc of pure survival instinct.

  Please work.

  A flash of light glinted off the metallic blade as it sliced through the air. A roar of pure, shocked agony erupted from the lizard as the tip of the sword pierced its side. There was no resistance. The blade sank in a full foot with the sickening ease of a hot knife cutting through butter.

  The beast recoiled, its massive body jerking away from the impossible pain. A torrent of hot, green ichor, thick as oil and smelling of sulfur, poured from the wound.

  Two translucent blue screens flickered to life in my vision, their clean text an obscene interruption.

  New Skill Unlocked: Grim Resolve

  New Skill Unlocked: Puncturing Strike

  Not now! I blinked the screens away with a thought, my mind refusing to process the System’s bookkeeping. I seized the opportunity, the precious half second the monster’s pain had bought me. I rolled out from beneath the lizard, dragging the weapon free as green blood dripped like sickly ink from the blade, sizzling on the hot asphalt.

  The lizard locked its reptilian eyes onto me, a hateful, furious intelligence igniting within them. I could almost hear the muscles tensing beneath its scaly skin as it prepared to leap again, to finish the job.

  Drawing strength from a reservoir deep within, I gripped the sword with both hands, my knuckles white. My side was a screaming sheet of fire where its claws had torn me open.

  The thunderous blast of a shotgun rang out to my right, the concussion so close it made my head ring, causing the dizziness to worsen. Kira. The shot, a spread of buckshot, ricocheted harmlessly off the lizard’s armored back in a shower of sparks. It was not enough to wound, but it was enough to catch its attention.

  As the beast turned its head toward the new threat, I seized my chance.

  I leaped forward, launching myself from a crouch with all the augmented power in my legs. I raised the sword high above my head. With a raw cry that tore from my own throat, I swung down with everything I had left.

  The blade cleaved effortlessly through the lizard’s thick scales, then neck tissue, muscles, and trachea, before continuing out the other side. It buried itself deep into the asphalt beneath with a sharp, grinding shriek of steel on stone.

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  The creature staggered. It took a few uncertain, stumbling steps, its body still trying to obey commands from a brain it no longer had. Then it toppled over. Its head, completely severed, rolled a couple of feet away before coming to a stop, its hateful yellow eye staring blankly at the sky.

  I can’t believe that fucking worked.

  As the severed neck spurted green blood in rhythmic, arterial bursts, another blue screen obscured my view.

  New Skill Unlocked: Cleaving Arc Lesser Lizard Killed - 25 XP. Congratulations on leveling up! Accept the rewards YES/NO.

  I collapsed, my knees hitting the asphalt with a thud that I barely registered. The adrenaline, the only thing that had been holding me together, evaporated in an instant. Exhaustion, absolute and crushing, crashed over me like a tidal wave.

  The pain in my side, which had been a distant, muted signal, now screamed for attention, a jagged, white hot fire. My vision swirled with stars. I could feel the warmth of my own blood oozing from the deep wounds, soaking through my uniform.

  I clamped a hand on my side in a futile effort to stop the bleeding. I could feel the hot, sticky liquid continue to flow freely from the giant gashes between my fingers. A wave of nausea hit me, and my throat was suddenly, desperately dry.

  Fuck. I’m thirsty. My first aid training, a memory from a different lifetime, supplied the grim diagnosis. That’s not a good sign. I’m bleeding out.

  Through the hazy, insistent blue of the System’s pop up, I saw her. Kira came sliding into my tilted view at a sprint, her face a pale mask of terror. Her presence was a comforting anchor as she dropped to her knees beside me. She gently pressed her hand over my own, applying her weight to stem the flow of blood.

  A groan of pain escaped my lips as the agony worsened. I saw her digging into a med pack with her teeth, her movements a frantic blur.

  I remember the first time I met Kira, in her ironed uniform, polished boots. Just another dumb rookie, I had thought at the time. The burnout already taking hold of me at the time. But she kept surprising me. Not blinking as she applied a tourniquet on a suicidal's opened wrist, or giving narcan to the fourth overdose of the night. Or when she cried after I had to shoot a deer that was hit by a car and was unable to walk.

  The memories slammed into me as I felt myself swaying, the edges of my world blurring like a watercolor painting in the rain, I braced for impact. The ground rose to greet me in a merciful embrace.

  This is it. The thought echoed solemnly in my mind, a quiet, resigned truth. This is how I die, bleeding out on the asphalt next to a dead dinosaur. It's funny how all the memories that are flooding back to me involve her. Kira. There is probably meaning in that. Too bad I am dying and won't be able to figure it out.

  I felt spiteful at that thought. As my strength rallied once more in desperate urge to live. To make more memories. To do more good. But it quickly slipped away with the blood pouring from my side.

  My vision clouded further until I could just discern the glowing words YES/NO on the screen in front of me.

  A final, defiant surge of pure, stubborn anger hit me. Fuck. Fine. Yes! I thought, the command a last act of will. I was not sure of what I was agreeing to, but if it meant closing this goddamn window before I died, I was all in.

  The screen flashed a brilliant, clean white. Congrats on your level up.

  In that shimmering, final moment, the darkness finally took over, stealing away my consciousness.