Chapter 15 - Stay Classy

  In a way, not being stealthy had probably been something of a benefit to Roxy and Howie. Part of the reason they were here was to kill monsters and level up, after all. So, attracting them had the effect of funneling LF experience right to them. But following Cole’s lead, if not quite as quietly, they were able to avoid any encounters for the remainder of the night. He hadn’t made as much headway as he would have alone, having to stop and slow down often for the other two to not lose him in the woods.

  After another two hours, Cole called a halt at an elevated, dry-ish hill that gave them a view over a clearing and a decent part of the valley beyond. It had thickets to the rear that would prevent any creature from getting close. Still, he had perimeter alarms in the form of light chains on paracord that would rattle when disturbed, and they’d all be taking watch shifts.

  Cole came back from setting up the perimeter alarms along the natural routes up the rise to find Roxy and Howie already huddled over a chemical stove catalyzed by water from Roxy’s canteen. Howie was warming his fingers while Roxy poked at an MRE packet and coffee cup warming up on the heat element, clearly ready for something other than a protein bar.

  Cole eased himself down onto a rock and flipped his NODs up. He hissed as he rolled up his leg to check his bandages. The painkillers had already worn off and they’d rucked over rugged terrain, so the bite was throbbing again. He unwrapped the soiled pressure bandage, balled it up, and tossed it over the edge of the rise into the clearing. If anything was going to track them by the smell of blood, let it track them to a position where they had plunging fire.

  “Let me take a look at that,” said Roxy. She took off her helmet and set it aside, pulling out a pen light from her rig with a red film filter. “Doesn’t look like it’s showing signs of infection, fungal or otherwise. How’s it feel?”

  “Like I got bit by a scaled Rottweiler,” said Cole. “But I’m managing.”

  “Not well enough. We’ve got two more days of hard marching.” Roxy put both of her hands over the wound and closed her eyes, breathing in and out steadily. A slight pressure built in his ears and then popped, similar to the sensation before his tinnitus kicked in—but no ringing, this time. A cool feeling, like anti-burn gel, spread over his shin. He almost jerked his leg away, but Roxy held him in place until she was done. When she pulled her hand away, the bite mark had faded, as though it had happened weeks ago instead of hours. Not completely healed, but not in danger of the punctures reopening.

  “Damn,” said Cole. “Guess you got your healing class.”

  “Subclass,” said Roxy. She couldn’t completely keep the smirk off her face. “I hit level five on that last pack we fought and got Malleable Mender. Lets me supercharge my resilience for a few seconds. The at-will transfers the excess to anyone I’m touching, so they can either heal fast or I can take a huge hit. I can do it twice every hour, right now.”

  Cole rolled his trouser leg back down. “What’s your prime class?”

  Her nose wrinkled. “Ballistic Shield Maiden,” she said, nodding her head to the round shield sitting next to her M1014 shotgun. “It’s a kinetic energy manipulation class. The passive is pretty good. Every time an enemy hits my shield it builds up a charge, and when it has enough it converts that energy into a spirit shell that goes straight in my gun, so I can keep using my 12 gauge in melee without reloading. The active increases the kinetic energy of an attack against my shield and then reflects it at the attacker. And it scales with resilience, which is my highest enhancement modifier. Works well with Malleable Mender, too, if I time it right.”

  “So why the face?” asked Cole.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Roxy shrugged. “Shield maiden? Kinda sexist, don’t you think? I mean, whatever, I’ll roll with it. But I feel like Termlink ought to know better.”

  Cole unclipped his own helmet and set it down, shaking the sweat out of his hair. “If it helps, it assigned me Meteoric Valkyrie. Pretty sure Valkyries are all supposed to be women.”

  Roxy grinned. “Actually, it does help. What’s that do?”

  “It’s a kinetic manipulation class, too. Let’s me jump really high and makes a shockwave when I land once every couple hours. And I can see friends and enemies for a few seconds after I use it. At first I thought it was dumb, but I’ve been thinking of other ways to use it than just a super jump. Like as a battering ram, or a way to bail off crazy high cliffs without risk. But how come it’s so different from yours if they’re both kinetic manipulation classes?”

  Roxy hefted her shield. “Most physical combat classes are going to rely on kinetic energy manipulation in some way. The Termlink AI just does its best to give it a distinct name based on the specifics of its abilities. So, you’re a meteor, and I’m a shield. You’ve got the unstoppable force, and I’ve got the immovable object.”

  Howie scoffed. “You guys are over here getting techno-Viking classes and complaining.”

  “What about you?” asked Cole. “What did you get?”

  “Elemental Mage Bombard. Ethereal energy manipulation,” he said. He held his hand palm-up. A small swirl of blue-white particles began to spin together. Again, Cole got the feeling of a buildup and a release, and the shape coalesced into a form factor instantly recognizable to Cole.

  “Is that a forty-mike-mike?” asked Cole.

  And can I feel people using their class abilities? Can everyone?

  Howie nodded. “I can cast elemental spells at short range, or I can turn them into bullets and grenades and fire them like they were conventional ammunition. Decent cooldown and lots of charges, too, since it’s a spellcaster class keyed to intelligence.” The round faded in his hand. Enough charges that he apparently wasn’t worried about wasting one on a demonstration.

  “Is that why my ability cooldown is so high?” asked Cole, “Because I’m so fucking stupid?”

  Roxy stifled a laugh next to him, which got Howie going, too. Even Cole couldn’t manage to keep a smile off his face as the others fought to suppress their giggling. Roxy retrieved her food from the chem stove and wolfed it down, along with the instant coffee.

  “You’re not eating?” asked Cole, looking at Howie.

  “Ah, therein lies the magic of my secondary class.” Howie twisted around and twisted one of the orange ear fungus discs off the tree behind him, taking a large bite out of it. “Field Forager. Lets me eat almost anything, and I can cook things to make them safe for other people.”

  “You can cook the shit out of that mushroom,” said Cole. “I’m still not eating it.”

  “Fair enough,” Howie grinned around a mouthful of spores. He stood up and put his rifle sling back on before strapping on his helmet. “I’ll take first watch. Doubt I can sleep anyway. You two get some downtime. Rox, I’ll wake you in two hours.”

  “Sure,” she said, kicking some dirt onto the stove pack.

  It wasn’t cold enough to need the tent, so Cole just pulled out his rain fly and woobie, making a rough lean-to between a pair of trees and padding it with his sleep mat. He doffed his MSV armor vest and angled it to rest his head on, then laid down and pulled his woobie over. A few minutes later, he heard Roxy setting up her own sleep system under the rain fly as well, laying down closer than was strictly professional in her sleeping bag.

  “Do you mind?” she whispered. “It’s just, after hearing what happened, I feel like I need someone close, you know? And I feel like I can trust you.”

  “Just cause I’m a Valkyrie doesn’t mean I’m actually a woman, you know,” Cole whispered back, rolling the other direction. “I know how you Navy girls are.”

  A small fist struck him in the back from inside Roxy’s sleeping bag. “That’s only masters-at-arms!”

  “Just giving you shit, Roxy. Go ahead. I’ll take it as a compliment.”

  “You shouldn’t,” she whispered. “I’ve got notoriously shit taste in men. Ask my mother.”

  “I will next time I see her.”

  Another punch. But a few moments later, Cole could feel her twitching, and heard the slow, stuttered breathing of barely suppressed sobs. Corpsman though she might have been, patching up holes in Marines for a living, she hadn’t become desensitized to the reality of losing people close to her. That made for a rough combo when combined with the stress of being in a hostile, alien world filled with monsters and none of the creature comforts of home. Cole could see how Curahee was a crucible that could wreck almost anyone, no matter how tough they were. Not everyone could compartmentalize horror like this.

  Less than a minute later, Cole was fast asleep.