Rabbit's Foot

I took off in the direction of the destroyed section of the wall. People needed healing over there, and I needed to find Bea. I had to believe she wasn’t on the chunk of wall that had been shattered or I would stop functioning. I was helped out by a speed aura as the fighters who had been resting were called to contain the sudden outpour of undead. No more breaks for anyone.

With the sheer side of the wall destroyed, all the ranged attackers were at risk as the undead poured out and started climbing up the back.

I jumped up and started scaling the wall. It was filling rapidly with undead, so I began to dodge, weave, and stab my way through. By the time I found I climbed high enough to see the first ranged attacker, it felt like I was practically gliding through the battlefield, using the heads of undead I killed as stepping stones. The more I did it, the easier it was.

The gigaghouls were still toward the bottom, so I was free to wail on the fodder as I made my way to help. I did have to dodge a few globs of acid, though. Those pukers could really get some distance in those things, and after what they had done to the wall, I didn’t want to see what it would do to flesh.

I got to the first ranged girl and checked them over. Minor leg injury.

“Don’t let your life end with a fluke,

So please try to avoid all the puke.”

I never got tired of the confused look when I healed someone by singing at them. I gave them a grin and made my way to my next patient, who was under attack. I cleared a path as the guy was on the floor in agony. I thought it was a reasonable response; his leg was a meter away from him, after all. But that didn’t mean I had time to coddle him. I hadn’t bought us that much space.

I kicked his leg towards him. “Hold that in place while I reattach it. Quickly.”

While he fumbled with it, I killed a few more undead and blocked some puke with their bodies. I turned back to the guy.

“I really don’t mean to be a dick,

But I don’t have arms to make it stick.

In order to keep being safely healed,

Be on lookout; keep your eyes peeled.

I’m running low on things to rhyme,

But hopefully this was enough time.”

My mana took a serious hit on that one. I panted a little, and an undead managed to get a jump on me. Fortunately, the again-two-legged adventurer covered me and killed the undead with a burst of some kind of magic.

“Thanks. You’re too weak to get down on your own. Climb on my back.” I bent over and he grumbled as he climbed on.

My ability to dodge and weave was limited by the giant glorified backpack I have on now, but at least my new backpack kept firing off magic into the crowd to help clear me a path.

The battlefield was an absolute mess, but I managed to spot a cluster of injured people being treated. I managed to maneuver us through the clashing forces and unload my passenger, nodding at the healer.

I opted to take a breath and tried to chart my next course instead of just running in blindly. There were some injuries among the soldiers in the line, but any healer could get to them, and I didn’t see Corby in there. I looked higher and saw someone I could help. If I made it in time.

I broke into a sprint as the horde got closer to the tiny mage.

What a cute hat!

The cute hat didn’t protect them from puke landing and burning most of the skin off their arm before I could get there.

Ouch.

I cleared out the area around us, and the army behind us helped give us some room to work. I look her over, and there’s no major problems apart from the skeleton of an arm.

“Wow, that looks like it really sucks.

Hope we kill all these stupid fucks.

Hopefully when you arm has skin,

That will allow you to grin.”

I heave as I finish. I’m running on fumes. But my partners were out here somewhere, and I couldn’t rest until I found them. Nor could I just abandon someone who I could actually help. Triage logic was one thing, but I couldn’t just turn a blind eye. I lost my hands, not my heart.

I couldn’t get any further on the wall without getting too close to a bunch of gigaghouls and the big guy himself. I saw A Rank Fred and Davie going after the colossal undead, and the fight boggled my mind, moving with speed and strength I couldn’t fathom. So I focused my attention elsewhere.

I decided to get bold and leapt into the still massive horde of undead still in the valley. I hopped and stabbed my way to the other side and then used my knives to effectively run up the wall.

I looked around and I finally found her. Bea was exploding a wave of undead in front of her, protecting a young, injured archer guard. With a renewed vigor, I bolted towards her, slaughtering all the ghouls in my way.

I made it to her as she let loose yet another cascade of tiny explosions, literally taking the legs out from under her foes. Her explosions also hit the legless ones crawling towards her.

I gotta love going for the legs. Truly the pinnacle of all strategy.

I wanted to nuzzle her so badly, but I forced myself to stay in work mode.

“Situation report.”

She started to make gestures with her hands to signal safe.

“Low on mana, not injured?” I asked to confirm.

She nodded her head.

“And you? I’m a healer, so be detailed on injuries.”

The kid, no older than me, nodded. “Broken leg and hand.”

I took a deep break and double checked our surroundings. Undead were still approaching, but there were much fewer on this side of the valley.

“Pick him up and carry him closer to the edge of the wall. It should give us some breathing room.”

She nodded and picked up the kid, who tried to act tough and not scream when her broken foot moved and bounced with every step. She put him down and I got to work.

“The person who saved you is so cute.

I’d love to give her butt a little toot.

But I won’t without genuine consent.

My lack of tooting hands isn’t important.”

Bea blushed. I dropped to one knee, and her expression changed rapidly.

“I…I’m just…winded.” I tried to reassure her. I did not succeed.

I could see her visibly struggling with the urge to start casting to talk to me.

“Seriously, don’t worry. I just needed to catch my breath. Why don’t you take this youngin’ to safety, and I’ll keep checking for survivors.” I could see her already starting to protest. “If you recover enough mana to do something before I get back, I won’t be angry if you try to follow me. But I will find some kind of cruel and unusual punishment if you put yourself in unnecessary danger for no benefit.”

I got up and she started cursing me out with some combination of crude gestures. The girl sure could be creative. I might have left out that I was also out of mana, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t help pull people out of the fray; plus, Best Stat was putting in some work recovering my mana. Even so, I had to admit that the whiplash of filling and emptying my mana reserves was making me nauseous.

I tried to get a grasp on the state of the battlefield. Davie and Fred were still locked in an insane battle with the undead commander. The undead wave was thinning significantly, but there were many casualties on our side, too.

Please please please be safe, Corby.

I continued my survey. I spotted another couple ranged hitters on the wall, but the rank and file had come to get them and they didn’t look that injured. I turned my attention back to the rank and file. I couldn’t heal anymore, but I could pull people out who were too injured to fall back. I might even find Corby somewhere in there.

A bunny can dream.

I made my way over and stayed high up on the wall to get a better vantage point on who needed help. I saw someone fall and I ran over and gently kicked them out of harm’s way. I did this over and over until my legs felt like jelly.

I’d kill for some jelly right now……

I collapsed on the ground where I had kicked so many people to relative safety. We had brought an army of 300 against a horde of thousands. I was scared to know how many of us were left.

I tap one of the people I moved out over here. “Wake me up if someone’s bleeding out or something.”

I didn’t even wait for a response before I let sleep take me.

I was woken up several times to save someone’s ass, one time literally. I despised being woken up, but I did my job and went back to sleep. Fortunately, everyone knew not to bother me unless it was an emergency. Even the ones who hated nonhumans never gave me crap. Everyone who took a combat class knew the golden rule: don’t piss off the healer. I was also apparently getting some fans with my rhyming heals.

When I had enough sleep in me to not totally hate existing, I went back to my rounds of going around the walls and healing who I could. Everything was in disarray, so the distance I needed to cover was longer. During my rounds, I found Greenie, split in half.

Poor kid. Now I kinda feel bad for not remembering her name.

I still had no clue where Mustache was, but I had high hopes for him being alive. Dude was a class act and clearly knew how to handle himself.

Bea eventually joined me as I did my rounds. It was a relief both because she was a beast of a mage and because I just liked having an eye on her. It was stressing me out not knowing where Corby was. Bea looked concerned as well, but she also managed to be worried about me and how I was doing with him missing. It was impressive how much concern and worry the girl could express without words.

Eventually, the horde was thinned out on this side of the valley. There were still a lot of them packed in the middle. And on the opposite side, I don’t think anything else was alive–or undead– besides Fred, Davie, and the big guy. Any ghouls that tried to exit through the hole the big guy had blown through the valley got obliterated pretty much instantly.

We made our way to the main entrance of the valley, and I finally found my otter. The damn lovable idiot was trying to cover the retreat of two soldiers against a gigaghoul by himself, and he looked like he had been beaten to hell and back doing it.

“Bea, take care of the ghoul. I’ll fetch the dumbass and his new friends.” Bea nodded, and I jumped off the wall toward the goof.

As Bea bombarded the undead with explosions, I landed and shoulder-charged Corby, scooping him up on my shoulder as I booked it. I dropped him a good distance from the fight, gave him a dirty glare, then went back for the other two. For them, I just leaned over and let them climb on. Wasn’t their fault my friend was a self-sacrificing dummy.

Bea finished off the gigaghoul, and it baffled me how much easier she could handle one solo than Corbin and I combined. Proper magic was almost unfair, at least compared to someone with tiny daggers wrapped onto their legs.

Most things are probably unfair in comparison to that. Oh, well. Sucks to suck, I guess. Oh, wait, shoot. Don’t take the mana just yet, Crayon. I’ll pay it back double when I have mana to spare.

I suppose.

Thanks, buddy.

I focused my attention on the people in front of me and did a quick assessment of injuries. Corby somehow wasn’t the worst off. I’d be tempted to heal my guy first, but I knew he would’ve thrown all kinds of fits if I tried. So I focused on the guy that was slowly bleeding out.

I’m feeling impatient and kind of cranky

My friend risked himself without being that tanky.

I want to give him a long snuggle and a nuzzle,

But I may have to reign him in with a damn muzzle.

I stared at Corby the entire time, who was doing his best not to look at me or Bea. He sure seemed to find the ground interesting right now. I walked over and started healing him next.

Oh, look, I found someone covered in blood.

But you wouldn’t put yourself in danger, right, bud?

You keep nagging me to not run into harm,

So you can’t get out of this with just your charm.

“I was covering a retreat…” Corby muttered.

“Do I look like I care why?”

“...”

“I thought so.” I dropped to the ground and leaned against him. “I told you not to die on me, dummy. Don’t worry me like that.” I used my leg to gesture to Bea, who quietly joined in the cuddle puddle.

We rested for a bit before I healed the third guy. He seemed annoyed to wait in line, but he still followed the golden rule. I was still leaning against Corby and Bea when I heard a horrendous sound.

I looked up and saw an arm flying through the air. Right next to where the big guy was still thrashing around.

Even I knew that what I was about to do was monumentally stupid, but I had to do it anyway.

“Love you both. Hope this doesn’t get us killed.” I hurried off before they had a chance to argue. At max speed, they couldn’t touch me, and even Corby wasn’t stubborn enough to run head-first at an enemy who had overpowered him with pressure alone while not even close to us.

The arm was beginning its descent, but I managed to intercept it mid-flight and grab it with my mouth.

Damn, humans taste terrible. The fuck is that texture? Ugh, I’m gonna have these tiny hairs stuck in my mouth.

I saw that the owner of the arm was Fred, who had blood spewing out of where his arm used to be.

“Hnnnnnng!!” I grunted out. It was the best I could manage to catch his attention. Fred looked back and seemed to register what I was doing, but he couldn’t believe I’d be doing something so insane..

The pressure was getting more intense as I got closer, even with Davie’s natural leadership aura helping me, but thankfully Fred met me halfway and grabbed his arm, holding it in place.

“I know was a stupid ass plan,

But you really needed a lending hand.

You can’t fight well if you’re harmed;

To win, you need to be properly armed.”

Fred looked at me as if my puns had hurt worse than the dismemberment, but went back to relieve Davie, who had been fending off the big guy by himself.

Wait, is Davie getting closer? Oh fuuuuu—

A burly man slammed into me, snapping more of my bones than I could count; it sounded like crinkling paper. I coughed blood as I slammed into a tree, Davie sandwiching me against it.

That’s not good. I probably need that blood. And those bones.

Davie got up, dusted himself and checked me over to see I was somehow not dead. He yelled for a medic, then went back to the fight. I didn’t blame him; I was worried about Fred, too.

Time got fuzzy for me for a while, and I couldn’t really feel anything. Bea and Corby came over and started fussing. I tried to reassure them, but ended up coughing more blood.

That probably didn’t help.

I felt like I was moving in and out of being awake. At some point, Mustache had arrived and started healing me.

But it doesn’t even come with a song. Boooooring.

I noticed I didn’t hear explosion sounds anymore. Hopefully that meant they got the damn thing.

Mustache’s healing made something click into place.

Oh, I can feel again. Ow.

That was my last thought before some screaming and then nothing.