Richard tried to believe his ability to find the best escape told him going behind the crab was a good idea. He failed to consider that he had the basic level of this ability, giving him only a ten percent chance it would work. There was no other option, though. He certainly wouldn’t go around the front of the creature, because he didn’t want to get too close to the mouth to see how close he had been to getting swallowed. He still didn’t know how he had survived that, other than someone had shoved him aside. No doubt a stronger-level survivor.

  “Richard,” Amber hissed as he moved toward the creature. He again heard the shouts of Marcus and Shrub as they organized a strike.

  He kept an eye on the creature. “Come on. While it’s distracted.”

  Richard and Amber made a generous space around the crab’s legs. He didn’t know what the stronger survivors were doing, but Richard heard a weird squelching sound. Amber gripped his arm, digging her fingernails into his skin. Richard suppressed a gasp. Despite being a few levels above her, she could really dig her fingernails into him.

  “Richard?”

  Amber was staring, horrified, at the crab. Richard followed her gaze at the shell. There was movement in the cracked corners, and he braced himself for something.

  Two thin, snake-like sludges moved up through the crack until he realized that was the crab’s eyes. He stared, horrified. With a crack and another sucking sound, bits of the shell broke away to reveal a constantly swirling jaw of jagged teeth.

  Amber screamed, her nails digging into Richard’s arm again. He instinctively held out a hand as the crab’s eyes shot toward Amber, who made the loudest noise.

  A dull ringing started, and Richard didn’t dare hope. If ever he needed a time jump, it would be now. He still doubted he could control this strange anomaly, but as the ringing grew, he felt confident that it would bring him back in time. If he got a choice of when, the ideal time would be when he first noticed the island. Then he could somehow convince everyone that they had enough seaweed to leave the beach early.

  “Who’s over there!” Shrub asked.

  Richard grabbed Amber’s hand. “We’ve got to run.”

  In case the ringing in his ears was instead from an injury, he didn’t dare remain and be brave. Marcus was running on the glass plates, staring in horror at Richard and Amber before focusing on shooting the crab.

  Richard started running when, out of nowhere, an enormous crab leg slammed into them. He and Amber flew back. Something in his body broke, and he had a bad feeling it was his spine. He collapsed on the ground, unable to feel his legs. Amber crumpled into a heap, her eyes open and sightless. Richard didn’t have time to react. One of the huge legs lifted over Richard’s body, aimed at his chest. In terror, he gasped.

  And his lungs filled with water as his body spun in the merciless current. He choked, his nose and mouth filling with water. He covered his face, trying to hold his breath while his body desperately needed to cough the water out.

  Damn, he wanted to jump back in time to a better place than this. Considering the somewhat random aspect of when the time travel happened, he should be grateful it mostly happened when he was about to die. When Amber did die. He still didn’t have time to process that.

  He needed to vomit, but water surrounded him. A strange sucking noise echoed through the water, and the crab creature pulled Richard and the others toward it. He closed his eyes, waiting for the feel of someone grabbing him and shoving him to the side. Once that happened, he’d reach air and he could finally vomit. Because that would happen this time, right?

  His lungs screamed, his throat clogged with water and bile. Rough hands grabbed his shoulder and stomach before shoving him to the side. Richard could have cried with relief. He swam with the current until his arms and legs scraped the dead earth. Richard shot up, water draining from him. He tried to cough, but he had no air. Instead, his body reacted, expelling the water in a violent shake. He barely sucked in precious air before his body used it to vomit out more water.

  Richard didn’t even realize how close he was to the legs that almost killed him in the last time jump until he was done vomiting and gasping for air. Even then, he did little else but scuttle away.

  “Richard!”

  Hands grabbed him, helping him to his feet. Richard brushed wet hair from his forehead, knowing that if he didn’t have the system, he’d already be dead. Again.

  The briny air helped him come to his senses. Whoever had grabbed him in the water had pushed him a different way, and he almost dropped in relief. He wasn’t between the forest and the creature now, and could run back to base camp. He even had his healing abilities back at full.

  “Newbies!” Once again it was Marcus’s magically enhanced voice near his head. “Get back to base camp at any cost! Everyone else, we cannot let this creature live. It’s seen our camp, and it can’t break through!”

  Richard finally noticed Amber and Leylah were both holding him up. He placed his hand over Amber’s, tears leaping to his eyes as all the feelings he couldn’t process before came back. Amber was alive. Despite seeing her dead next to him, he had another chance to get them all out of this.

  Except….

  “Fang.” Richard’s eyes were wide. “Where’s Fang?”

  Amber and Leylah both shrugged, but Richard didn’t need them to answer. He knew where Fang was.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Fang!” Richard’s voice was husky from vomiting.

  “Shhh! It’ll hear you,” Amber said.

  Perhaps it would, but all he knew was this random time jump made it so the three of them were on one side, and Fang was now alone between the forest and the creature. Amber and Richard didn’t survive that predicament.

  Amber whimpered. “We’ve got to go.”

  “We’ve got to save Fang.” Leylah started to make a circle around the back of the crab when Richard grabbed her arm.

  “Follow me.”

  Leylah crinkled her nose, but did as commanded. Shrub, Marcus, Savannah, and Elias were completely focused on killing the monster. Marcus was running around in the air, the bolts coming in slower. Shrub tried to chop off the main claw arm at the base. Savannah had her copy next to her, and both of them were stabbing and punching the creature with huge brass knuckles, bits of shell chipping away. Elias wasn’t doing much better, trying to throw his net on a leg and shocking it.

  Richard started running. He was afraid Fang would make the same mistake that he and Amber had made, and he refused to lose his friend. He still needed to make sure the guy wouldn’t share personal secrets with others.

  Amber seemed more than happy to keep running, but once they were a distance away, Richard saw Fang next to the creature and the forest, frozen in fear. Richard gestured to him, trying to get his attention, but Fang was noticeably concerned about the legs twitching and the forest way too close to him.

  “Fang.” Richard tried not to be too loud. “Fang!”

  His friend’s ears twitched, then he turned toward Richard. He waved again, and Fang saw him. Relieved, he started motioning for him to follow, and his friend seemed more than willing to listen.

  Amber let out a scream, then Richard saw the enormous claw block the sun before it dropped toward the three newbies. Amber, Richard and Leylah leapt out of the way.

  “Run!” Marcus shouted. Amber and Richard ran, but Leylah pulled out a dagger, watching the claw with a hunter’s eye. Marcus’s voice entered everyone’s heads. “Damn it, Leylah, RUN!”

  She screamed as she plunged the dagger into the claw. It gave the most pitiful plink he had ever heard, then he watched with a sinking stomach as Leylah was thrown into the air and landed with a far more serious thud.

  “No, no, no.” Richard’s throat closed up.

  “Leylah!” Fang sprinted past the monster and toward her.

  “Get some health potion on her!” Richard said, also running toward her.

  A sharp pain squeezed his insides, and Richard was lifted into the air. It took him a moment of disorientation before he realized he was firmly squeezed in the creature’s claws. Richard reached into his inventory and pulled out his dagger, but the whip came out instead. He stifled a groan as he realized he had given his dagger to Leylah. The one she used so uselessly on the crab.

  He had little time to think about that as the crab brought Richard toward its circular, churning mouth of teeth. Richard tried to back away, but that was useless in the grip of his enemy.

  Marcus appeared, standing on his glass plates as he placed his back against the claw to keep it from moving toward the mouth. Richard was in awe that it actually worked. Marcus kept shooting at the creature, the bolts coming in slower and slower with every shot. Shrub swung his axe, trying to chop the claw off at the base as it tightened around Richard. He gasped as blood filled his shirt. If this crab couldn’t eat him, it would cut him in half instead. Out of desperation, Richard did the only thing he could think of. He lifted his whip and snapped it. The resounding crack made the crab flinch as it scuttled back.

  “Again, Richard!” Marcus said.

  He didn’t need that prompt. Until this crab let him go, Richard was more than happy to crack his whip. He did it again, trying to aim at the crab, but he didn’t get close. The noise, though, elicited a reaction. The beast scuttled back; the claw loosening around his middle. This time, Richard took careful aim at an eye, then flicked his whip right in the center. The eye disappeared into goop as the creature screamed. It scrambled around, and Richard realized he had caused serious damage to the creature.

  “Hit the goop wherever you can!” Marcus said.

  Richard wasn’t sure if Marcus was talking to him or everyone. Either way, Richard was still suspended in the air and wanted to get down to safety, so he did what Marcus asked. He raised his whip to hit the crab again when the claw almost vibrated, and the crab shrieked. Richard barely made out Shrub’s cry of strength before the entire claw fell over. Shrub, it seemed, got successful in his mission of cutting off the claw. What it also meant was that Richard was now in free fall, hurling toward the ground.

  He barely braced himself for the impact and told himself it would hurt when he landed on the ground, his body exploding with pain. It was almost instinctual to slam his heal wound ability. His neck must have broken, and he was glad that was one of the first injuries to be healed. Despite all that, his body still groaned with the throbbing pain of so many injuries as his cooldown began counting.

  The crab screeched far too close to him, but Richard wasn’t sure what worked in his body. Someone was shouting, and he recognized Evan. Their backup was here. Back up of… one person. Richard turned his head to see Elias holding an unconscious Leylah as he sprinted back, the other newbies following him. Richard hoped she was only unconscious. Something triggered inside Richard, and a flood of anger filled his system as he thought about how Elias had abandoned them. He tried to calm his thinking. Elias had only abandoned Richard before in a different time iteration. What Elias was doing now was leading the newbies back to base two so Lucy could work her magic on Leylah.

  Evan slammed his two great swords deep into the crab’s already cracked shell. The creature shrieked in pain as Evan did it again and again. Between Evan and Shrub, they did far more damage to the crab than the scavengers.

  Savannah’s face filled Richard’s view. “Did you use your healing ability?”

  “Yes,” Richard croaked out.

  Savannah lifted his blood-soaked shirt, trying too hard to keep her face neutral. “It’ll be fine once it upgrades to the advanced ability. Healing two wounds may not seem like a lot, but it certainly helps.”

  “It upgraded to advanced days ago.”

  Savannah stared at him. “Oh. Right. Um… good.” She fumbled only a little as she pulled out her healing potion and dumped it on his entire torso. Richard’s back arched as he felt a burning sensation.

  The crab let out a final shriek before collapsing.

  “Loot this thing fast, then we have to go,” Marcus said.

  The enormous crab disappeared as a pile of loot took its place. Marcus, Shrub, and Evan shoved loot into their inventories.

  “I’ll be back,” Savannah said as she went to join them.

  Richard was certain he couldn’t even feel his fingers, so it wasn’t like he would get up and walk away. He simply stared ahead, trying not to feel pain. Somehow he knew he wouldn’t survive long in an apocalypse. A few of these time jumps happened because he had died, giving proof to his theories. He was surviving on pure luck alone, and whatever randomness these time jumps needed.

  But they couldn’t be random, right? Some of them, as he thought of before, happened because he was about to die. What if these time jumps were all because some higher being didn’t want him to die yet? Someone pulling the strings on reality itself to keep him alive.

  His skin crawled as he acknowledged he could feel parts of his body coming back to work. He didn’t want anyone playing with the strings of time to keep him alive. The very thought made him sick. Of course he appreciated being alive, but he had a bad feeling this meant he’d be owing favors to a being he didn’t want to worship. He had no interest in being a pawn. Whatever was going on with these time jumps, he wanted it to end.