Chapter 14: Royal Yectin Fledgling

  Jake had seen Teresa get ragdolled across the room after crashing into the miniboss, and he was certain he had just watched her die. He had used his , multiple times even. The damn Clubbers seemed to have a natural resistance to it, probably due to their own tank-like nature.

  It was all Jake’s fault. He blamed himself, he was the tank in the party. Now, two of his party members were dead, and there was no way they could keep going like this. They could certainly finish off this wave, Jake wasn’t going to let any of these Yectin Clubbers live. However, there was no way the three of them could take on the 5th wave alone.

  Had Jake just been more aggressive from the start, used his axe and did more damage then maybe that Clubber wouldn’t have gone after Sarah. Three Clubbers had been focused on him until a shot from Sarah managed to hit one between its scales on the side of its body. The Clubber had then decided Jake wasn’t a worthy target anymore, and turned its focus to her.

  He had used immediately, but it didn’t work. He had spammed that skill multiple times by now, to the point where it was almost level 1. Still, the monster had just ignored it and went for Sarah.

  There were lots of ways it could have gone differently. If he had been less worried about taking hits and blocking strikes, then he could have dealt some damage himself. They had a damn healer in the group after all, so long as it wasn’t a single lethal hit he would live. Teresa had already saved his ass in the wave against the Shaman, so why was he being so damn careful. It was his job to get hit.

  Then, later in the fight, Teresa had been put in a bad place by the miniboss. He didn’t see the first impact, but he saw Teresa slide along the ground leaving a red trail behind her. He finished cutting through a Clubber’s leg, the one he was going to leave alive between waves, and used his on the miniboss to try and buy her some time.

  The monster had just ignored it like the Clubber earlier and charged at Teresa. He used his again, but all that did was make the monster hesitate for a brief moment.

  The two collided into each other in a jousting match from hell, and Teresa had been hit with the force of a truck from the impact. She had managed to hold on to a spear in the thing’s fucking eye, but got sent flying before anyone could reach her.

  Her body had bounced against the concrete as she skipped across the room, completely limp. He could hear her bones break, and his Perception stat was a fucking 4. Jake had been healed by Teresa’s before, it had saved his life even. He knew that healing was what her class was all about, but he still felt indebted to her.

  Regardless, there was no way her would be able to help her in time for what just happened. She had been struck multiple times by the miniboss, and trails of her blood stained the floor in multiple locations.

  Teresa was dead, that much was certain. She didn’t even make a sound after she finally became stationary, and if she was breathing he didn’t see it. He had only met most of these people yesterday, but he had already fought in life or death battles with them multiple times. He would consider them all friends, and even ignoring the circumstances they all seemed like people he could gladly get along with normally.

  Now two were dead, and he could have done something to stop that.

  The miniboss screamed as it bled from the spear in its eye. It reached its tail around to its face and managed to pull it out, though the process of doing so had made it bleed more. One eye was down, one more and the thing would be blind.

  Sparks flew over his head towards the miniboss, and Jake took the opportunity to charge forward. Preston also made his way towards the thing, sword at the ready.

  The miniboss swung its head into the ground, launching chunks of concrete at Jake and Preston. Preston dodge to the side, while Jake simply held his shield out in front of him and kept charging.

  He had already reached level 2 in this wave, and had put the extra point into Endurance. Using his shield and armor drained Stamina constantly, and he wasn’t sure what would happen if he ran out of Stamina in the middle of a fight while wearing full metal armor. He didn’t particularly want to find out, either.

  He easily kept his momentum as his shield was peppered by debris. Before he even reached the miniboss, Madeline managed to land some sparks on its other eye. The monster screeched, almost completely blind now. It flailed its head wildly as Jake approached, and it only took a moment for it to slam its head against Jake’s shield.

  He felt the vibrations from the impact in his arms, and he struggled to keep his balance. Jake had blocked strikes from the clubbed heads of these monsters before, but the miniboss was clearly a step above the others. Its strength and speed were all around higher, and it even seemed to behave a little smarter.

  The Clubber whipped its tail at Jake, wrapping it around him. It started to squeeze, but Jake still had the tip of a mosquito leg to use as a knife. He plunged the leg into the tail and it quickly retracted, sending him tumbling.

  Preston took advantage of the moment and left a gnarly cut across the creature's face, leaving a diagonal slice behind. It yelled once again, and swung its head in Preston’s direction. He was able to easily dodge, as the monster was blind, but he still had to be careful getting close.

  The fight was going to be easy enough, but they still had to be cautious. Teresa had blinded and distressed the creature in her last moments, giving Madeline only one eye to target for her . This had been accomplished quickly due to the creature’s panicked state, and now it was time to kill it with a million cuts.

  Jake and Preston continued hacking away at the miniboss, one piece at a time. Anytime the boss tried to open its remaining eye, it was blasted by sparks. There was barely any risk left in the fight, it was just the monster was hard to hit and had a lot of health.

  Eventually, they managed to bring it down. It was a boring and arduous final fight, where the monster gradually grew more exhausted as it received wound after wound. Jake barely felt satisfied seeing the kill notification, and even though he was close to level 3 he felt no joy from this.

  He took a step back and surveyed the room. He knew Sarah’s body wasn’t going to be anywhere, she had left the Tutorial in her final moments. Teresa, on the other hand, he saw her body across the room, still painted dark red with blood.

  Jake started walking towards her, though he wasn’t sure what he was going to do. They hadn’t considered this, what do they do with the body of a party companion? They could bury her, but that felt wrong to do in the Tutorial. Could they really just leave her corpse here? It felt immoral, but what else were they going to do? It's not like they could bring her out of the Tutorial and give her family a body to bury.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  He stopped before he made it to her, unable to take another step. He needed to take a moment, prepare himself mentally for what he was about to see. His eyes started watering, and he couldn’t help but fall to his knees. He cried quietly, the loss of both Sarah and Teresa overwhelming him. It had just been so sudden.

  Preston went ahead, taking the initiative. Madeline was making her way over too, but everyone seemed hesitant to see their dead companion.

  Everyone froze as they saw movement, and Teresa had shifted over to look at them. Jake dry heaved, his eyes wide as he tried to process what he just saw.

  The only one to speak was Preston.

  “Holy fuck, you’re alive?”

  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Teresa was still having a hard time seeing, or speaking for that matter. Regardless, she made an effort.

  “Yup.” Teresa responded in a whisper. She cringed inwardly at the sound of her voice, it made her sound more hurt than she really was. It’s not like she was about to die or anything, her Mana would recover before then. Speaking of her Mana, there was something that could help with that. “Staff.”

  She saw rustling in front of her, and Madeline gently placed the staff in one of her palms. Teresa focused on the staff, using it to recover Mana quicker. The staff absorbed Mana all along its surface area, and channeled all through Teresa’s palm at once. It was also quicker at absorbing Mana from the surroundings than Teresa, making the improvement noticeable.

  “Here, I’ll go get you some water sweetie.” Madeline said softly, her voice sounding like she was both relieved and on the verge of tears. Teresa couldn’t blame her, they all probably thought Sarah was dead after all. She would tell them about the plan to save her as soon as she could.

  “I hate to ruin the moment but I got bad news, I think the crawler is going to bleed to death.” Preston said, looking back at the last Clubber that had been maimed and left alive. Teresa could barely see if it was squirming or not, but there was a big puddle of red around the creature. It was missing two legs and the other two were broken, making it completely unable to move. It also seemed to have passed out from blood loss, as its clubbed head was even laying flat against the floor.

  “Me, there, now.” Teresa whispered in bursts, each word making her realize just how dry her throat was. Madeline had good thinking with going to get water, she could really use some.

  “What? No.” Preston said incredulously. “Are you even going to survive? Look at yourself dude, I think you should take the priority here.”

  “I agree.” She heard Jake say. “I don’t think we could make it another wave anyways, we should leave the Tutorial now while we can.”

  “I was going to suggest the same thing.” Madeline said as she returned with a few bottles of water. “We barely made it through the fourth wave with five of us, there’s no way we’ll make it through with wave 5 with only four. Sarah’s already given her life in this stupid Tutorial, should we stick around and wait until someone else does the same?”

  “No.” Teresa whispered. She channeled Mana to her free hand and used her new skill to create a glowing green ball of flames in her hand. She pointed her palm at herself and fired the skill, giving herself increased restoration. She wasn’t sure how long it would last, but she wanted to try it out. Besides, it would help her be more efficient on herself as well. “I can save Sarah.”

  “How?” Jake asked, his voice empty. “I’m sorry Teresa, but she’s probably already gone by now. The state she was in when she left wasn’t survivable, even by your standards.”

  “Well, technically she’s still alive if she left.” Madeline interjected. “Even if we all leave at different times, we arrive outside the Tutorial at the same time, remember?”

  “Okay yeah, you’re right. I forgot about that tidbit, but still. She’ll die within seconds after we get back, what are you going to do? Heal her?” Jake asked, then realization dawned on him. “Oh fuck, you’re going to try and heal her when you leave the Tutorial.”

  “I didn’t even think of that.” Preston said, eyes wide. “I don’t know how realistic that is, truthfully. Madeline was right, we barely made it through the fourth wave with five of us. How are we going to beat the fifth with four of us? Could you really get that strong before you’re forced to leave the Tutorial?”

  “Yes.” Teresa answered. She wasn’t actually sure if she could, but she was willing to die trying. “Crawler, now.”

  The party all exchanged looks, and after a moment’s hesitation Preston and Madeline both began to carry Teresa. Jake would have helped, but his metal armor would hurt like a bitch holding her up right now.

  They approached the crawler carefully, watching it for any sudden movements. One kick, and Teresa’s condition would certainly become even more dire than it already was. She continued to absorb Mana from the staff, and it seemed her improved along with her higher Intelligence stat each enhanced her ability to absorb Mana using the staff.

  The Clubber was a lot larger than a human was, so its wounds would take a lot more to heal. However, Teresa wasn’t going to heal it completely, just enough to stay alive like her. She placed her palm near a bloody stump and began using , focusing on just coagulating the blood rather than repairing the flesh.

  Teresa had gotten pretty good at making scabs to cover wounds, and she managed to stop the bleeding from one limb in around 25 seconds. It was only that slow because of the size of the creature, and it drained all of her Mana again.

  They had to wait a few minutes for her to restock her Mana pool, and then she was back to healing the Clubber. While coagulating the blood, she realized something neat about her .

  She couldn’t properly sense how the skill was working in her current state, but she sensed that some of the Mana her body absorbed from her surroundings was restoration Mana. The extra Mana did not inhibit her absorption of regular Mana at all, but seemed to just be an extra bit of Mana entering her body already attuned to restoration. It flowed into various parts of her body, gradually making her heal everywhere at an equally slow pace. It was nowhere near the scale of , but was still a nice, passive way to heal.

  The thing she had noticed, however, was she could vaguely control the restoration Mana in her body before it was used to heal her. As a matter of fact, she was pretty sure she could use the restoration Mana from in her own body to help heal someone being healed with her .

  In other words, she could pause her own healing to heal something else faster. Of course, she wasn’t going to do that for this Clubber, it would live with just her . Teresa herself needed all the health she could get, and she even felt like the passive buff provided by was going to run out soon.

  She was still going to have to explain how class level ups worked to the party, as Teresa was sure they were wondering how she had just clearly used a brand new skill earlier. It would also just have to wait until she was in better con-

  “I have a confession to make.” Madeline said solemnly. Everyone turned their attention to her, and she took a shaky breath before speaking again. “It’s my fault what happened to Sarah. Earlier during the wave, I leveled up my class. It didn’t give me any stats, or the level itself didn’t at least. I got a title for being the first to do that in the party, but the level let me learn a new skill. I could have gotten something that would have helped us in the fight, but I chose this one instead.”

  A screen appeared in front of Madeline, showing her newly learned skill.