Chapter 5

Bravos legs came up over his head as he hit the ground. There was a sickening crunch sound like he'd just popped every bone in his body. He rolled back onto his feet, though, and readied himself for the scorpions' attack. I prepared a healing spell for him and reached out with my magic. I felt it connect with him and checked my combat log.

"You heal target for 30 life points!" The message was there, and Bravo gave me a quick thumbs-up as he bounced back into action. The scorpion was repeatedly striking at my friend with its tail. In response, he was dodging over and over again, trying to stay out of the way of the deadly stinger. SPC Roberts decided that he needed to do something and broke formation. Running directly up to the monstrous scorpion with his shield raised, he bashed the thing in the side. This seemed to stun it, but not for long.

The monster was back up, and now his focus was primarily on Roberts. He was doing his best to defend against the vicious strikes with his shield raised. SGT Turner ran out to the side and fired off an arrow at the beast. But yet again, the hairs on the scorpion stood up, and he raised a claw defensively. The arrow bounced harmlessly off of the pincer and fell to the ground. Bravo was also bouncing around the creature, trying to get in close enough to get a strike in. Nevertheless, whenever he tried, the scorpion would hiss and strike out with one of its limbs or tail. I didn't think that my damage spell would do much against a creature like this, so I maintained a healing spell at the ready.

Any time Bravo or Roberts got hit, I would immediately heal them. My mana bar was now at a quarter empty. Luckily at this moment, SGT Savant finished building one of his damage spells. From the corner of my eye, I saw a flurry of blue and white escape his staff, the man himself was covered in a thin frosty layer, but the spell hit its mark. The creature's health bar finally showed itself along with a description.

"Level 3 Scorpion." A whole two levels stronger than the coyote from last night and us. I looked the scorpion up and down. It was covered in a thin layer of frost and appeared to be moving slower. This was our chance to do some damage, and we all knew it. Roberts blocked one last strike and went in for a strike with his sword. I called upon my magic to hit it with a stone shot, and SGT Turner loosed another arrow. Our strikes all hit roughly simultaneously, and the monster's health bar was shot down by what looked like 30 percent. SSG Underwood was close enough now that she could use her skill Rage Strike.

Her longsword glowed red, and she swiped at the beast. One of its legs came clean off, and the monster staggered slightly at the hit. The frost was wearing off from the monster's body, and it was beginning to speed up again, but SGT Savant was already casting the frost spell again. Just like earlier, a flurry of white and blue left his staff, and the strange snowlike particles hit the scorpion. We let loose our combo again, but this time SSG Underwood activated her skill, stepped into the spot where the scorpion once had a leg and cleaved the beast in half.

The scorpions' health bar sank to zero with a final disembodied hiss, and the notifications started coming in.

"You assist in killing Level 3 Scorpion receive 150 EXP."

"CONGRATULATIONS, You've leveled up! Rewards one stat point and one skill point!"

"You are now Level 2!"

My body began to glow just as it had the night before when I'd first chosen my class. This time though, there was no pain. It was just the opposite. As the warm golden light flooded every nerve in my body, I was overwhelmed with a sense of ecstasy. Just as I was undertaking this second transformation into a more powerful version of myself, the others were as well. Our bodies went frigid for a matter of seconds as the light flowed through us. Then just as abruptly as it had started, the light and the pleasant feelings stopped.

"I could definitely get used to that!" Bravo was the first to speak, and we all just nodded our agreement. It had definitely not been a negative experience this time. I decided to check my stats Just in case they had gone up, and I was happy that I did.

STR:1.5

DEX:1.5

INT:4

CHA:1.5

All of my stats aside from intelligence had gone up half a point. My intelligence had gone up a full point. I checked my status bars next.

HEALTH:150

MANA:400

STAMINA:150

I now had 50 more health and stamina than I did before and a hundred more mana! I told the others to check all of their stats, and they did. They found they had all gotten similar power-ups and were awarded a stat point to spend and a skill point.

"We need to get back to town faster, and we can't keep waiting for you two as much as we have been. Put your points into DEX." SSG Underwood ordered us. I really felt like this was the wrong way to spend my points, but I was a soldier at the end of the day, and I had received an order. Besides, if I did disobey and SGT Savant didn't, I would be found out, so I did as I was asked.

STR:1.5

DEX:2.5

INT:4

CHA:1.5

After spending my stat point, my bar display for stamina changed again, showing 250 stamina. At least I knew I'd be able to go a lot longer now than I had been able to before. We decided to take another break at the end of the trailer before moving on. There were more scorpions, and who knows what else up ahead further into the forest. It was decided that we would look for survivors throughout the convoy as we continued through the newly formed flora.

After opening up an MRE (Meatballs and Marinara) and eating the meal, we decided to press on. Bravo, who was the most dexterous of the close-ranged fighters, was sent to climb up the truck and check for survivors or supplies that we could take with us. What we found was disappointing, to say the least. The windows of the first truck had been busted open, and there was nothing but blood-stained seats to greet him. Before we made it to the second truck, we saw another scorpion. This time we had a better idea of how to handle him.

Roberts would run up and bash the creature to grab its attention. Then SGT Savant would chill it to slow it down. The rest of us finished up the kill as quickly as we could. It was a slightly faster fight this time, but that was to be expected since we'd all gained a level. We would achieve another one at the end of this fight and bring us to level three, the same level as the monsters that we had just dispatched. Again my stats went up.

STR:2

DEX:3

INT:5

CHA:2

I checked my experience bar, and it read.

EXP:0/400

It looked like every time I leveled, the experience necessary to level again would double. I knew that this could spell trouble later down the line whenever we ran into extremely dangerous monsters. Still, I was glad to see that there were only the scorpions up ahead so far. It went on like this for a while. Every truck we stopped at had a scorpion to fight, and we were gaining levels fairly quickly. I was level 8 by the time we decided to stop. The sun was going down, and there was nothing we could do but stop for the day.

Even our redlights had stopped working. Anything having to do with electricity was officially dead. We had secured our cots to the top of our rucks before we'd left so that we would have something to sleep on in case we wound up unable to make it back to town. It had been unlikely because usually, we could have made that ruck in four hours or less, but now we were glad that we'd brought them. The same roving guard shifts were set as they were last night. We knew that any one of us could take on the level 3 scorpions on this road now, but it was still best if we remained alert.

"Complacency Kills." We'd been warned by SSG Underwood. It was something that most of us had heard at least a few times being in the military, but under these circumstances, the message really set in. Sleep took me as I was looking at my skill sheet, I'd gained a few levels and saved up seven skill points, but I was too tired mentally from the days' events to think about spending them right now. The night faded away, and my dreams appeared.

I was garbed in glowing white robes. The staff that I wielded was white with glowing green butterflies floating around it. I wore thigh-high leather boots that cuffed at the top, and I stood behind a group of people just as impressively dressed. I couldn't tell who they are, but I could see that we were all in trouble. A giant fire-breathing winged lizard was bearing down on us from the top of a mountainous pile of rubble. Just as the dragon reared its head back to cover us in fire.

I was woken up. It was time for my guard shift.