It was no taller than his waist, but it moved like it hadn’t been designed well. Twitching, skittering, with limbs too long and bent at angles like a twisted marionette. Tight, translucent skin stretched over dark, sharp bones as its nails scraped against the dirt road.

  It was coming.

  There was no time to analyze or plan, only the knife in his hand and the thing lurching towards him. Everything in the world became dark as the monster approached.

  Cass wasn’t fully unprepared. You couldn’t be raised in a Company household and not know some basic self-defense. But that was all he knew, and this wouldn’t be basic.

  It moved toward him in a jagged, shuffling fashion that was wholly unpredictable. Slow, shuffling steps, followed by sudden bursts of motion bringing it closer before he could blink.

  Another screech ripped the air behind it, then the creature surged forward, and it was upon him.

  Amidst the sounds of the terrified animals, Cass fought for his life. Four long, sharp nails clawed at his face in a flash. In a quick reflex, he brought his head back. Trying to attack on the return, Cass slashed out, but the creature janked itself away. He heard the sounds of its bones cracking as its head tilted at an unnatural angle before righting itself.

  One of the goats went into hysterics, pounding away at the side of the cart. The creature’s eyes shifted toward it, and that was his chance. In a mad dash of courage, Cass threw himself at it, ramming his shoulder into the creature and pinning it against the side of the cart. With one hand pinning a claw down, he pumped the dagger into the creature's stomach twice before pulling away and regaining his distance.

  White blood leaked from the creature's side as it screeched, two answering screeches rebounding in the distance. The cries scraped across his brain like knives, damaging his focus on the moment.

  Thrusting itself off the cart, it skittered towards him, moving slowly left, then leaping forward. Cass pushed himself out of the way, tripping on a small, uneven rock behind him. As he fell, his eyes opened wide as he saw the creature preparing to dive on him. Just as its feet left the ground, he rolled to the left, plunging the knife up to the hilt into his former location.

  Something splashed across his screen.

  [SYSTEM NOTICE]

  You have slain a Skreel

  XP gained: +24.0

  Forcibly unlocked combat ability:

  Monster Sense (Tier 1): Passive

  You can detect the ambient presence of low-threat hostile entities within a fifty-foot radius.

  Bonus experience granted for slaying your first monster:

  5xp

  Combat-adjacent Achievement progress: 1/10

  Catching his breath as the shrieking increased in vigor, Cass quickly activated his new ability. Immediately, he sensed a monster to his right, with another coming straight at Bella, the horse. So he did what any person terrified out of their mind would do.

  He slipped under the cart.

  The dry dirt pressed against his chest as Cass pulled the rest of his body under the cart. He didn’t consider himself a coward; he just needed a moment to see the monster coming. Activating it quickly, his new ability helped him learn the general area where something was, but it was vague, only giving a slight sense of things.

  All too soon, he got a front row seat as another Skreel came into view. It turned its head, looking left and right, which was when he realized the creatures had three eyes. Two on the front, and one big one on the back. Coming closer, it bent down and began to sniff the area, screeching again as it noticed the body of its fellow monster.

  The moment its thin foot came close, Cass slashed out across its heel with his blade. The screech this one made was twice as loud as the one from before. It stumbled, falling onto its back, where Cass already had his knife waiting. With a quick plunge into one of its gray, pupil-less eyes, the sounds ceased.

  More flashing prompts streamed in, but he waved them away.. He needed focus right now, and Bella was screaming. The second Skreel stopped twitching beneath his hand, and Cass staggered out of the cart, his breathing heavy and his arms shaking. Slowly inching up, he checked on the Goats, finding all three of them huddled down and shaking, though blessedly quiet.

  It was the horse that needed him right now.

  He wiped the blade against the dirt without thinking, just needing something to do with his hands. His thoughts were empty, as something else had taken over. Some primal instinct to survive. But more than that. Pure survival instincts told him to run, but Cass had wanted a Combat Calling. He’d wanted to fight, and now was his chance. Perhaps it was foolhardy, but that didn’t register with him as he made it to the front of the cart.

  The horse, trembling and streaked with shallow red cuts, was trying to fend off a Skreel half again as large as the other two. Cass inched around, trying to be as quiet as possible, but the eye on the back of the creature’s head blinked, then it turned with great speed.

  A screech erupted from it point-blank, causing him to fall to his knees and grab his ears as it seemed to scramble his brain's internal wiring. The whole world became a ripple as his vision became skewed.

  It moved fast. Far too fast for something so ungainly, and lunged for him with both limbs. Instinct again saved him, as he threw himself sideways, his forgotten knife left behind on the ground.

  The Skreel charged again, and Cass barely dodged, but not without taking a hit on his robe. The sound of tearing fabric and the immediate line of fire across his arm warned him he’d taken damage, even as his vision slowly recuperated. Another dodge, and another scratch, and he’d done what he’d set out to.

  Get the creature away from Bella.

  A stray thought filtered through him: where the hell is the knife? Then he was diving and dodging again. But now, he had no weapon, and it was just him and the too-big Skreel. There was nothing between them now, just his fear and the creature’s violence.

  He couldn’t track the monster back to Bella, so he did the next best thing.

  He ran.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  In a tripping, terrified manner, Cassio Vale sprinted across the uneven ground. The moment the Skreel understood what was happening, it screeched and gave chase.

  A dozen feet. He leaped over rocks, skipping from one to the next as the awkward gait of the monster barely kept up.

  Two dozen. Losing his footing, Cass rolled, putting the basic training his mother had put him through to use. His shoulder hurt, but it kept him going. His feet continued to move, as he leaped, stumbled, rolled when necessary, and paid every inch gained in bruises and pain.

  Three dozen. Cass turned a corner, then tripped on something that didn’t feel like a rock. Looking back at what it was, he came face-to-face with a large man’s body.

  Or the pieces that were left of it.

  Barely recognizable, Cass identified Johnny Figure from this morning and tried to choke back the vomit threatening to rise. He was the man he’d sent on the message quest to the Red Tower. Now, he’d never get there.

  The emotional side of his mind tried to take over. It was my quest…Then, it was overridden by logic as another screech rolled out. No, the guilt will have to come later.

  Searching the poor man’s body, he rolled him over, holding back the sickness trying to rise in his throat, and discovered a large sword that was far too big for him. Something within him hardened as his mind went to work. The weight’s wrong; balance will be difficult. I don’t know if I can even lift it. With the second left that he’d allotted to his inspection, he gave it a shot. Just barely, he was able to get it up.

  It’ll have to do.

  Cass turned as the graceless creature started to turn the corner. It screeched, causing him to drop to his knees again, but that was all a part of the plan.

  Angling the giant sword up as he fell, Cass barely had the wherewithal to brace the round hilt against the rocky ground, twisting his body at the last moment. Rather than being stabbed by both of the creature’s hands, he instead felt four knives dive into his chest as the Skreel impaled itself.

  He gasped, vision wavering, and met the Skreel’s unblinking eyes through a rippling world. Its mouth opened, far wider than should’ve been possible, and began to use the nails driven into Cass’s body to pull them closer to one another.

  No.

  Cass gripped both hands around the hilt and shook the sword inside the creature, tearing apart anything he could find. Another screech, though weaker, almost forced him to give up, but he didn’t stop. He couldn’t.

  This thing killed Johnny, his Questor. It had tried to kill Bella. It didn’t belong. This wasn’t its world; it was his.

  He heard the clicking of bone as the Skreel's other arm came forward, and Cass was in no position to defend himself. So instead, he let the sword go, and fell backward.

  The feeling of its knife-like nails pulling themselves out of him was almost unbearable. Landing hard on the rocky ground, he gasped, tasting blood in his mouth, wavering eyes staring up at a blue sky that seemed far too peaceful for this moment.

  So this is how I die. Not with a history of excellence, or a world-changing Calling, but with a gasp, beside the broken body of a man I sent to his doom.

  He wasn’t sure if the creature would follow or fall, but he’d done his best to bring justice to the world, and that would have to be enough.

  If this is it, at least I made it count.

  An extremely weak screech let him know it was still around, until a gurgle immediately followed.

  [SYSTEM NOTICE]

  —

  You have slain an Alpha Skreel

  XP gained: +45.0

  —

  Bonus experience granted for defeating a leader-class monster solo:

  10xp

  Bonus experience granted for defeating a small monster pack:

  20xp

  Bonus experience granted for successfully executing an ambush:

  5xp

  Combat-adjacent Achievement progress: 3/10

  Tactician Achievement progress: 1/10

  Your System Reputation has increased by 15:

  New quest options are available:

  View your System Ledger for unlockable options…

  Your reputation with the draft-horse, Bella, has increased by 100

  As soon as a pain-filled, bleary Cass waved that away, his progression screen forced itself into his vision as text wrote itself below his name.

  [QUESTWRIGHT CALLING UPGRADE UNLOCKED]

  QuestWright Cassio Vale of Liora.

  You have survived a brutal battle against a pack of Skreels led by an Alpha.

  Without direct support and under great physical duress versus a superior opponent, your adaptive abilities and will to survive are commendable.

  Where others fall, you endure. The System watches…and rewards.

  —

  QuestWright Path: Survivor

  An unusual path designed for QuestWrights placed in dangerous and precarious positions.

  Unlocks abilities that will allow the QuestWright to survive where others might perish.

  Cost to unlock: 200xp

  QuestWright Path: Tactician

  Unlock three paths to view…

  Cost to unlock: 2000xp

  Level to unlock: 10

  —

  Calling: QuestWright: Cassio Vale

  Level: 2 -> 3

  Experience Accrued: 294.5

  Experience required for the next level: 155.5

  Cass focused, feeling the System respond to his needs.

  Unspent experience: 194.5

  Through a bloody cough, he choked out, “Of course, no Survivor p-path for me. A little-little over five short.”

  Lying there for several minutes as the warm trickle of his blood seeped from his chest and damaged arm, he closed his eyes.

  Maybe this is who I was meant to be. Not a QuestWright, a warrior. And I got to see what that’s like. He coughed, the warm, itchy feeling on his wounds becoming bothersome. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Cass began to accept his death. It was a noble way to go, especially for a non-combat Calling. He’d fought and killed a pack of monsters, all by himself. There wouldn’t be any statues of him, but there would be a memory of the man who avenged his Questor.

  As he settled down for the forthcoming end of his life, yells began to erupt around him. First one voice, then many.

  I’m still here.

  With a tremblingly weak voice, he called out, “He-here! I-” His lungs spasmed, and he gained the feeling that his throat wouldn’t work anymore. Lifting a limp wrist, he tried to wave, but it turned into a floppy, erratic movement instead.

  Then, he heard steps.

  “He’s over here! Come quickly, he’s badly wounded!” A hand gripped his shoulder, though he was barely aware of it. “Cass? Cass, you okay?”

  He recognized that voice and tried to speak. But all that came out of his mouth was the blood dripping from the corners, and a garbled version of his sister's name.

  “Janine.”

  “I need a healing draught! Now!” The hand lifted itself as heavy, booted thuds echoed away. Then, Cass allowed himself to black out.