Rabbit's Foot

We headed to the Guild’s staging area. There were a lot of adventurers present; they must have pulled people from the capital, too. Even from a glance I could tell most of them could kick my ass. It was a bit deflating after a week of dedicated training, but I chose to focus on them being good allies.

Assuming none of them stab me this time.

I looked over to a human guy who was off by himself. The other C ranks wouldn’t even go near him because of the pressure he was giving off. Plus, he looked so edgy and brooding with his leather jacket over his armor and spiky hair.

How does it stay like that? Magic?

It seemed we had a few moments before things got underway, so I walked up to him.

“Hi!”

He grunted at me.

“So are you one of the local A Ranks?”

“I’m known as the Ravenous Blade because I hunger for the blood of my enemies.” His voice was so gravelly it was like he was half-muttering.

“But what’s your name?”

“Fred.” His eyes went wide.

“Huh. Nice to meet you, Fred. I’m Nymia, a C rank passing through.”

He tried to compose himself. “Impressive that a mere C rank could be in my presence.”

“Oh thanks, but you aren’t that intimidating. Corby went through a phase like that, too, where he gave himself all kinds of weird names and started yelling out attack names during fights. He still gets embarrassed about it.”

“It’s not embarrassing! It’s super cool and badass to yell out attack names.” his gravelly voice was cracking a little.

“But doesn’t it give your foes more information about your fighting and skills and warn them in advance?”

“Yes—how are you doing this?!” He looked at me, his face flustered and upset.

“Doing what?” I said, confused.

“Ugggh, forget it!” He jumped to a higher spot to perch.

Weird guy. Seemed nice, though.

I went back to Bea and Corby, who were arguing which character could beat whom in a fight. Before long, Davie appeared.

“Thank you to everyone who showed up, especially those who made the trek from the capital.” He gestured to a group in the corner. “The horde is currently being lured to an artificial valley we’ve magicked up a couple kilometers away from here. Estimates out the headcount at around 3000 ghouls, 500 gigaghouls, 300 pukers, and 1 commander.” There were quite a few murmurs at the mention of the last one.

Must be the big guy.

“There’s been no sighting of any necromancer on the scene, but we can’t let our guard down. Due to the scale of the threat, we are working with the city guard. I petitioned for the Fernian army to come as well, but apparently they’re short staffed or some other crap excuse.”

That got a few amused grunts out of the crowd.

“C Ranks will be divided into groups and assigned a leader with an aura to alleviate the effects of pressure. Ranged will take positions above the valley. Melee and tanks will hold the choke point. Support will be positioned with the troops you will benefit the most. One group of healers will be stationed behind the melee to heal troops that have been removed from the field. Another will be in the thick of things and try to keep people from needing to be removed. Don’t count on them being able to save your ass and get reckless. This will be a battle of attrition, not a blitz. Everyone will be working in shifts. We will send signals into the sky to announce them. Blue lights mean shift change, red means reinforcements needed, and black means everyone needs to pull the fuck back.”

Seems simple enough even for me to remember. I guess that’s probably the point.

I stayed with Corby and Bea until we were at the rally point next to the artificial valley. I nuzzled into both of them. “Stay safe, you goobers.”

They nodded, and we got split into our different groups. I was part of the mobile healing group. Which was me and two other people. One was a human city guard. He had a cool curly mustache and seemed pretty old. Old people were always a little spooky. The sheer number of years they had to level up and improve themselves was hard to match. The other was another city guard close to my age. Looked part human, but a mix of something else, too. She looked incredibly nervous, looking to what I imagined was her commanding officer for guidance.

Mustache ignored his student and addressed me. “Good afternoon, madam. I am–” He introduced himself, but I didn’t pay attention to his name.

“I understand you will be joining us as roaming medics during this unfortunate battle? We are most grateful for your assistance.”

He sounds so snobby, but also so nice. Weird. But cool, I guess!

“Yup! My healing is over range, sound-activated. I’m also a great runner with high regen. What would you like me doing? I don’t know much about big battles and stuff.”

“Excellent. I admire a youth that acknowledges their ignorance and asks for help. Far too many foolhardy young throw their lives away.” It looked like he was smiling, but it was hard to tell because of how thick the mustache was. “I will take a shift with each of you and teach you how to best help. Then you two will do your shifts together and I will work solo. Don’t push yourselves too hard. You shall be the lifeline for many brave soldiers, and you can ill afford to burn yourselves out too quickly. Also, I must stress that you cannot and will not be able to save everyone. We are but three people in a battle between veritable armies. Do what you can to stabilize anyone you can and move on. Trust that our comrades in the healing backline will do their best to save those we can keep alive.”

I gulped. I had killed before, but I had never left someone I wasn’t fighting to die. It felt unnatural. I understood the logic, but my gut turned at the mere thought of it. I also knew that no matter what I would do my best to keep Corby and Bea alive. I didn’t like being far away from either of them in this fight.

Mustache gestured to the greenie. “Our third member is–.”

I’m beginning to think I may be bad with names.

Greenie got up and nervously introduced herself. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

I nodded. I waited for her to continue, but that was apparently it.

“Do forgive the young lady; she is unused to social interaction. However, I can assure you of her competence in the field. She uses contact-based healing and is dedicated to stamina-intensive running.”

Ooh, a fellow running healer? I like her already.

We made small talk—apparently Greenie was part deerfolk, but before long news came that the scouts luring the horde were close to the destination. Bea and the ranged attackers were already on the wall. Once the horde was deep enough into the trap, leaders would mobilize the army, Corby and I included. I had to admit I was looking forward to seeing what a speed-boosting aura could do.

It wasn’t too long before I got my answer. I was taking two steps for every one I’d normally take. It felt amazing. But for all the speed, coordination was terrible. Lines of soldiers got jumbled up; they even managed to tangle up the adventurers a little.

No wonder everyone goes crazy over aura skills, but clearly aura skills don’t mean competent commanders.

Unfortunately, even with all of this speed, we still didn’t make it in time to block the undead in. I could hear some of the guards arguing over whose fault it was, but we had much bigger fish to fry. Davie ignored the squabble and ordered the adventurers to start pushing the undead back before going to the frontline himself. Davie was a force of nature, swinging his giant hammer through a line of undead at a time. Fred also seemed to be working an entire section all by himself, his massive sword cleaving threw swaths of undead like butter.

Fortunately, the big undead seemed to be still, not moving even when being hit by the ranged team. It couldn’t move anywhere without crushing whole chunks of the horde with every step. I didn’t like the look in its eye that suggested it was thinking.

With the front line in disarray, my services were needed quickly. Mustache and I made our way through, healing who we could. Unfortunately, there were already fatalities. It sucked watching them die, but with every death a part of me had the same response: relief that it wasn’t my people. I was able to spot Corby as we made our way through. Sure enough, he was at the front.

Big dummy.

He seemed to be in good health, so I reluctantly focused my attention elsewhere. Mustache pointed out to me which people and injuries to prioritize.

“Head injuries are most serious, but the hardest to treat. Your efforts are better spent on things you know you can fix.”

I gulped as we moved on to the next case. This wasn’t going to get any easier.

The next person had lost an arm.

“If you can get someone to hold the limb in place safely, reattach them. If you can’t, stop the bleeding and move on.”

We were able to reattach that guy’s arm, thankfully. I hated that my magic wasn’t strong enough to be able to reattach limbs by myself. People were going to lose limbs today because I couldn’t hold the damn thing in place.

He also tried to teach what he could about anatomy so that I could heal more efficiently. A bad heal could make someone wish they were dead. Fortunately, the run to the next patient was usually enough for my mana to regenerate a good chunk.

We also had to fend for ourselves often. My knives were jammed into a lot of undead skulls. Mustache was very good with a cool-looking rapier.

After a while, my body settled into a rhythm. Run. Diagnose. Heal. Run. Stab. Diagnose. Heal. Repeat.

Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder and I instinctively went to kick back, but it was Mustache.

“Your shift is over, young lady. Rest up. You will be needed again before long.” I looked around and noticed it was dark. I could feel the pangs of exhaustion and the headache of low mana.

Huh. How long was I running for? Maybe I should rest and eat a little.

Bea was hopefully safe on the wall. I had lost track of Corby. With neither of them around or confirmed safe, I wasn't able to sleep.

How long has it been since I last slept on my own?

But I dutifully ate and then rested my legs.

A couple hours later my legs groaned at me as I got up. Mustache and Greenie were back, and Mustache was looking exhausted. His glorious mustache was practically drooping from fatigue.

Double shifts are no joke.

I started walking toward the front, and Greenie reluctantly followed me.

I didn’t like to admit it, but Greenie was a far better healer than me. But I made up for that in running endurance and the ability to not get killed.

That became apparent as an undead stepped into Greenie’s path on our run. She screamed, fell down, and just sat there petrified.

Dumbass. You’re not even frozen by pressure from something this weak.

I sprang back and killed the undead. I offered her a foot to help her up, which she accepted. As she got up, I heard a lot of shouting.

I looked toward the horde, and saw the big guy was glowing and moving. The pukers were all aiming at one section of the valley, and the big guy leapt straight through it, knocking a few adventurers into the horde. The glow diminished, but the damage was done. The undead were loose.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuck. Where are Bea and Corby?

Name: Nymia

Age: 18

Species: Rabbitfolk Lv. 50 (max)

Class 1: Bard Lv. 25 (max)

Class 2: Locked

Stats:

Bonk: 88+7

Zoom: 201

Sturdy: 76+7

Senses: 198

Brain: 85

Mana: 110

Willpower: 177+89

Free points remaining: 0

Class Skills

Sound magic Lv. 25

Soundproof Lv. 25

Story Time Lv. 16

Good at Word Stuff Lv. 25

Find stuff Lv. 20

General Skills

Blades Lv 50

Dodge! Lv 50

Barefoot Lv 50

Sneaky Lv 50

Stubbornness Lv 50

Species Skills

Rabbit’s Foot

Enhanced Senses

Forage

Burrow

Cuddles