—— ? ——

  Simon’s boots pounded across the crusted snow as the distorted howl echoed behind him again.

  Closer.

  His lungs burned. His vision tunneled. He couldn’t afford to look back anymore.

  “Shit, shit shit. Okay, okay. Right! Stats!!”

  He yanked his status open mid-run, nearly tripping over something buried in the snow.

  —- STATUS —-

  > Free Points: 10

  ———————

  Adrenaline poured through his body. His breathing was ragged and rapid fire.

  He barely thought before dumping two points into endurance, then instantly regretted it.

  “Idiot! Breathing isn’t going to stop you from getting caught!”

  Despite his chastisement of himself, his breathing had gotten better. Barely.

  He blinked at the status, but couldn’t read the wall of text as he leapt over an embankment and slid. Simon scrambled to his feet and continued to race across the snow.

  “Hey! Shitty System! I need SPEED!” He shouted, not expecting an answer as he quickly dodged a mound of snow.

  A prompt flickered in front of him.

  —- STATUS —-

  

  
• Dexterity: 12


  

  ———————

  “Oh. you want to help?” Simon spat, breath misting out like a furnace. “Sure, let’s do it!”

  —- STATUS —-

  > Dexterity: 12 → 20

  > Free Points: 0

  ———————

  The change hit him like a whisper, so much different than when he put points in strength.

  His steps became lighter. His knees corrected before the terrain could trip him.

  His body stopped fighting itself and started gliding.

  Simon was gasping and aching, but his mad dash now felt like he was running downhill.

  Each step devoured distance.

  The glow of Varnholt flickered in the distance.

  Wind howled past his ears, accompanied by a guttural snarl. The crunching and crashing steps behind kicked into a faster rhythm.

  It was speeding up.

  SHIT. IT WASN'T GOING ALL OUT.

  Simon ripped off a glove and shoved the hand into a pocket. Fingers closed around vials.

  Blue.

  “NO!” He chucked it back over his shoulder.

  Back in the pocket. Blue. Curse, dig again. Red. Curse more, dig more.

  Green. Gulp.

  Icey disgusting liquid poured down his throat.

  The creature was almost on him. It had to be steps. He could barely hear the wind over the sound of its chase.

  A cool pulse snapped down his spine. The world seemed to slow. His body buzzed with energy as the potion took its effect.

  A shadow covered Simon at that moment. His instincts screamed and his body moved, muscles firing before he could think.

  Something massive crashed where he had just been, snow exploding, shards of ice flying out cutting his face. A twisted limb, clawed, too long and covered in pitch black fur smashed into the ground. He could feel it shake as he tumbled through the snow and sprung to his feet.

  Simon didn’t pause to look, he just ran.

  The crashing sound returned as the creature resumed the chase.

  It was still gaining; the sound growing in his ears.

  Still not fast enough.

  Hands dug into his pocket as he searched for a bad idea.

  Whistling wind from his left.

  Simon dropped, but a claw still grazed his forehead. Pain shot from his head as he stumbled forward out of the slide and kept sprinting. Warm liquid dripped onto his face.

  Too close.

  The town was closer, but felt further than it had ever been.

  Simon fumbled in his pocket and pulled another vial. Green.

  He hesitated for a millisecond, but the pounding and crashing behind him filled his mind with resolve.

  GULP.

  Instantly, his vision sharpened.

  Every detail etched itself into hyper-focus: the fractured gleam of moonlight on snow, the individual beats of his heartbeat, the ripple of muscle just before he moved.

  Simon’s legs blurred beneath him, the terrain melting past him. The verticality of the open areas like waves beneath his feet. They melted past uneven ground. The world flashed by and the lights grew like a train coming towards him.

  But a deep wrongness filled his body, and it felt like something squirmed inside him. His stomach had been emptied and the energy for this was coming from somewhere else. Simon could feel it strip slices off his bones, muscles deflating.

  It was horrifying, but Simon didn’t care.

  Better I consume myself than that asshole.

  The creature behind him sounded out, no longer a howl or a snarl.

  A scream of frustration and fury.

  The sounds of its chase hadn’t grown, but they hadn’t lessened. It was keeping pace.

  Simon’s heart thrashed in his chest like it was going to rattle free.. His body wasn’t running anymore; it was burning. The second green-cap potion had removed the limits of his body and replaced them with a countdown.

  His muscles stopped aching and instead felt hollow. Joints felt brittle and his bones began to scrape on each other with every step. Simon’s skin felt taunt, dry and on fire.

  The edges of his vision pulsed, black and red twitching at the corners.

  He was faster than ever before.

  And still…

  The sound behind him didn’t change.

  With a mental command, he pulled his status up to see if it would help.

  It condensed into one thing.

  —- STATUS —-

  > Health: 65%... 63% … 61%

  ———————

  The potion was eating him alive.

  The creature behind him screamed again. Closer this time. Frustrated. Hungry.

  It didn’t lunge. Didn’t risk the rhythm of its chase. The thing was just keeping pace in steps that were eerily in perfect sync.

  Could it sense him weakening?

  Simon snarled.

  Fuck. You.

  His eyes locked on the blurry lights ahead.

  He could make it.

  He had to.

  If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  —— ? ——

  Brian adjusted his goggles for the fourth time in the last five minutes.

  They didn’t need adjusting. He knew that.

  So he stopped adjusting his goggles and started tapping his boots against the stone.

  “I swear to every divine, if you don't stop that I am going to knock you out and drag your ass back to your lab,” Jorik snapped at him.

  Brian didn’t look away from the darkened snowy horizon.

  “You were the one that made me sit here!”

  “Because you were standing in the damned cold and leaning so far over the wall, you should have toppled over multiple times. "

  “I was finding an optimal point of view!”

  “You were finding an optimal way to crack your skull open, Brian!” Jorik sighed. “Look, I get that you’re worried, but this new world isn’t kind. He went back out there and he fully knew what he was getting into.”

  Brian's foot stilled.

  “I know,” he said softly. “That’s the part that makes me nervous.”

  Jorik turned, one thick brow raising. “Why?”

  Brian scanned the snowy landscape again before responding.

  “Honestly, I was excited to have someone go out there. Him taking me up on the offer was a complete surprise. It felt good to help someone from my world.”

  It was Brian's turn to sigh.

  “But, at the same time… I wondered if he was just going along with everything. If he had…”

  He paused.

  “Other reasons for running back out there.”

  Jorik didn’t reply right away. He just shifted his weight, his eyes still fixed on the horizon.

  “…You think he’s not planning to come back,” he said, voice lower now.

  Brian didn’t answer.

  He didn’t have to.

  Jorik scratched at his beard, muttering. “Damn fool.”

  “Which one of us?” Brian asked, tone attempting a weak smile and failing.

  “Both,” Jorik said bluntly. “Everything’s changed. Worlds crashing together, people walking around with power pulled from fairy tales… I figured some wouldn’t handle it well. But this’d be the first…”

  Brian exhaled, long and slow.

  “Yeah,” he muttered. “Being in my lab and having all these problems to solve has been a blessing. I haven’t had time to stop and think.”

  He gave a crooked smile.

  “Also, if I got moody, a certain Frost-Kin would slap me, then drag me into a three-hour project just to keep me too busy to sulk.”

  Jorik huffed, the faintest hint of amusement in his voice.

  “Kaelalin’s got no patience for people wasting time. Especially when they’re useful for working on magic.”

  Brian gave a small nod. “No kidding. But I also think she’s scared of falling behind.”

  He paused, adjusting the focus on his goggles to look deeper into the night.

  “From what she’s told me… magic worked differently in the Frost-Kin’s world. Everything was built around runes and infused stone. Like the stone it was drawn from, it was locked into place. Stable. Slow. Predictable.”

  He rubbed his head, deep in thought.

  “But here? This place feels wild. Loose. But also infinitely complex. I think it freaks her out more than she lets on.”

  Jorik grunted. “Hard to imagine. Although—yeah—I’ve seen fear on her face once or twice.”

  Brian raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

  Jorik’s mouth curled into a grin. “Like the day before that blast door became a requirement.”

  Brian winced. “Ah. Right. That.”

  He looked over at Jorik. “In my defense, deciphering a town-wide barrier is not an easy project.”

  “And the town of Varnholt appreciates your efforts,” Jorik replied dryly. “The town would also appreciate being present when said barrier goes up.”

  Brian muttered, “One time…” under his breath and went back to scanning the horizon.

  “What do you mean by one?! Don’t you rem—”

  Jorik’s words were cut short as Brian stood.

  “SIMON!”

  His fingers flew over the adjustments on his goggles, twisting dials with practiced urgency.

  “Uh… what the hell is that?”

  —— ? ——

  Simon had passed the point of exhaustion. His legs barely registered as his own. Each one moved after the other. Left. Right. Left. Right. They had to.

  Stopping meant death.

  He blinked, trying to clear the blur from his vision.

  Didn’t help.

  The world had turned into a glow of darkness, white and gold. It bent in strange ways as he kept moving forward.

  He could feel his life dripping away with every step.

  Fingers numb, bitter taste in his mouth.

  The rhythm of the hunter behind him had become white noise. The lights of Varnholt never seemed to move. Were they closer? He couldn’t tell anymore. He just ran.

  Twenty-one.

  The number seemed to bounce through his mind.

  He didn’t know why.

  Didn’t remember counting.

  Nineteen.

  That hadn’t been a great year in his life. Nineteen was when he had asked–What was her name again?

  Shit.

  Seventeen.

  Simon’s breath hitched. His throat felt like it had been lined with broken glass.

  Something inside him screamed to stop thinking. To just focus on running.

  Wait… Something had just changed.

  The shadow behind him had faltered. Just a step. The rhythm had broken its cadence for a step.

  Blurry eyes, pumping legs, He squinted at the lights.

  Were they moving?

  No… someone was… shouting?

  “D%%##@!!”

  What?

  “DOD@$! YO@ FOO!”

  It was in front of him, he couldn’t understand it..

  A shadow crossed him from above.

  His body pulled everything he had left and pumped it into a single moment.

  “DODGE, YOU FOOL!”

  Simon let his knee buckle, and he used the last of his strength to roll with the momentum.

  SWISH. CRACKLE.

  Two bolts screamed past. One metal, one magic.

  They struck a descending claw mid-swing. The creature howled as it was thrown back, momentum broken.

  Simon tried to scramble to his feet, but his energy was spent.

  Eleven.

  BOOM.

  A thunderclap of force and light ripped across the field. Simon slammed his eyes shut, but it felt like they had been seared.

  Screeching sounds came from just a few feet away. High, jagged, and furious.

  The ground shook beneath him…then.

  Silence.

  No, not complete.

  A retreat.

  The creature was running.

  Seven.

  More shaking, light this time. Garbled words. Something being shoved in his mouth. It rolled down his throat, burning, bitter, and vile.

  Simon gagged, coughed, and groaned.

  “Holy shit... that tastes awful.”

  His eyes fluttered open.

  Afterimages of the blast still danced behind his vision, painting everything in ghostly flashes.

  Above him, he saw a concerned, familiar face.

  “... Brian?”

  Brian let out a shaky laugh, tension unwinding from his shoulders.

  “Oh, thank god it worked.”

  Simon blinked slowly, trying to focus. “What worked?”

  Brian held up an empty flask, jiggling it in front of Simon’s eyes.

  “We hadn’t… tested it yet,” Brian admitted, his voice cracking halfway through. “It’s a… well, a kind of emergency prototype. Sort of.”

  He started gesturing with his hands.

  “See, after you left, Kaelalin and I started talking about the green potions—and we realized something. They burn through everything. Normally you’d just eat afterward and be fine, but what if you’re unconscious? Or you have to stop it immediately?”

  He pointed at Simon, a little too enthusiastically,

  “Like right now! It was a completely valid point. So, we thought, how could you cram everything you need into one big ole dose?”

  He shook the flask again like it deserved applause.

  “Tada! KB’s Anti-Life Consumption Mixture! Grind up dense rations, aethra crystals, high-potency healing herbs… and, uh, some monster bits. Blend until smooth, then bottle it and you are done!”

  He paused.

  “Well. Flask it, in this case. Technically.”

  He looked at Simon, brow furrowing.

  “Wait… is ‘flasking’ a thing? Can you say that? Flasking?”

  Simon just stared at him.

  Then…

  He let out a rasping, broken laugh.

  “Brian… You can call it whatever you want. Thank you.”

  He gave him a weak thumbs up.

  The countdown in his mind had stopped.

  Three.

  A voice cut through the air.

  “Hey fools. Let's continue this conversation inside the walls. I want nothing to do with that abomination of a beast.” Jorik was backing toward them, boots crunching across the snow. His gaze, and a massive crossbow, were fixed on the treeline. The weapon was almost comically oversized, fitted with a rotating contraption stuffed with thick, metallic bolts.

  “Oh, hey…Jorik right?” Simon moaned from his spot on the ground.

  The man glanced over at him.

  “Would you look at that? The fool remembers me.” He looked at Brian, voice shifting to business. “Brian, pull him to the gate. Quickly, now.”

  Brian ducked under Simon’s arm and gently hauled him upright. Jorik trailed a few paces behind, eyes never leaving the shadows.

  He paused only once–scooping up the pack Brian had pulled off Simon.

  “You know,” he called out, “You really should’ve dropped this.”

  “Yeah? And how was I supposed to pay for being rescued?” Simon wheezed.

  “Oh, you’re paying now? Good to know. I’ll be sure to take guard duty when you’re out exploring.”

  “That’s just hurtful.”

  “Quit showing up half dead and I’ll stop taking the shifts.”

  As they reached the side door, it creaked open from the inside. A familiar figure stood in the doorway, framed by warm light.

  “I’m with Jorik. Bonus pay every shift? Sounds good to me,” Rellin quipped, swinging the door wide.

  “You want me to pay the guy holding the door too? Harsh.”

  They all slipped inside, and the heavy metal clanged shut behind them, sealing out the night and its horrors.

  DING.

  —- System Notice —-

  > ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED

  > Name: Out of Your Depth - (2)

  > Description: You survived an encounter with an enemy over twenty times your level. You should be dead! You aren't! Congratulations!

  > Reward: +4 LUCK, + Passive Skill

  > New Passive Skill: Reckless Retreat - Epic

  > Effect: Increases evasion and speed when fleeing enemies that are significantly stronger than you. The effect increases based on the disparity between your enemy and you.

  —-—-—-—-

  Simon blinked at the translucent window as Jorik and Brian moved him into a room.

  He groaned as they helped him into a chair. The room was plain—stone walls, modest fire, a simple bed, couple chairs and a table—but it was warm. That alone made it one of the nicest places Simon had been in today.

  Rellin spoke quietly with Jorik, then left with a nod.

  Silence settled in after his departure, broken only by the soft crackle of the fire and Brian rummaging through the pack.

  After a moment, Simon asked, “Do you guys ever feel like this is all just... kind of bullshit?”

  Brian looked up, Jorik tilted his head.

  “Seriously,” Simon continued. "The hardest part of my day used to be a feisty computer or an unhelpful boss. Now I’m running for my life from something that looked like it crawled out of a nightmare.”

  He let out a sigh and gestured vaguely to where the prompts usually hovered. “But I survived, and what does that mean? I get a skill. Apparently, that’s just how this universe works now.”

  Brian raised an eyebrow. “Is it any good?”

  Simon gave him a deadpan stare.

  “It increases my speed… based on what's chasing me… and how horrifying it is.”

  Everyone stared for a moment.

  Jorik snorted.

  Then chuckled.

  Then burst into laughter.

  After a moment, Brian joined in, the tension cracking at the absurdity.

  “Yeah.” Jorik managed between laughs. “That’s some bullshit.”

  —— ? ——

  — AUTHOR NOTICE —

  rate the story if you are enjoying it. A simple button push can really make the difference for my work.

  ~TheBusyBard

  ——————————