The Missile 1
Copyright© 2025 by Zen Master
Chapter 6: Our First Casualty
After we stopped Eric said “Matt, can you set fire to that bush right next to the trail on the right?”
“I think so.”
“Battle-line first! Get in position and drop your packs! Still Sam on the left, George on the right.”
When we were set, Eric nodded at Matt. “You may fire when ready, Gridley!”
Huh. Dad was in the Navy and I knew what he meant, but did anyone else here? That was one of the battles in the Spanish-American War over a hundred years ago now. When the American fleet had the Spanish fleet where they wanted it, that was what the admiral commanding the American fleet had said to his flag-captain.
Matt did something with his staff, and a blob of fire took off towards the bushes. It landed short, but it splashed some onto the bush. More squealing, and a bunch of raccoon-things came out and raced towards us.
“Stay in place! Let them come to you!”
Shit! This time, I had two of them running straight at me. I stood there as long as I could take it, then took a step back and to the right so I could smash the one on the right’s head. The one on the left jumped up and tried to climb over my shield, but my step had given me time to get his buddy first.
I couldn’t hit the second one’s head without hitting my own left arm, but I could smash his neck just fine. He fell to the ground, limp.
I looked around. Margie was trying to fend one off with her staff. There were none in front of me, so I stepped in and smashed it while it tried to get around her staff. I got the vague idea that it may have had a broken leg.
I looked around again. Nobody was fighting, but Matt was kneeling on the ground and Cindy was doing something to him. What do I do? “All clear on the left. I’m okay.”
Eric immediately responded with “All clear all around. Matt got hurt. Cindy is trying to fix him.”
“Should I make sure they’re all dead?”
“Check yours, then guard while George checks the rest.”
All three of the ones I’d hit were dead. My first one had a smashed head and the other two had smashed necks. My mace was awesome!
I got to talk some with Eric while Cindy worked. I’d gotten two, then helped Margie with hers. Eric had gotten two. George had gotten one, and then he’d gotten the one that got past Matt’s staff. That was seven, all full-grown. And, our first group was three adults and two ‘kits’. If there were supposed to be 24 plus a ‘Boss’, was that 10 down, or 12?
He grinned at me and told me that it was one or the other. With 10 or 12 down, there were probably either 12 or 14 left, plus the Boss. We would probably not run into 11, or 13, or 15 more. If the ‘kits’ counted, it would be 12 more. If they didn’t count, we’d find 14 more adults and who knew how many more ‘kits’. One way or the other, we were going to get to add some useful info to the ‘Tips and RIPs’ board when we got out.
While we were waiting, Margie burnt the whole group of bushes, then walked back to the group with another pouch. “14 more Silver.”
Eric said “So, the System is counting those two ‘kits’ as the same as the others. That’s good news.”
I could do the math in my head. 5+7=12 monsters, times 2=24 Silver, divided by 6=4 each, times $800=$3200 for my share so far. I could rent a lot of hotel rooms for Cindy and me with that much money!
I was waiting for her when she got up and turned away from Matt. I hugged her and asked “Could you help him?” It wasn’t the first time I’d held her like that, but with all the pads and armor and stuff it didn’t work as well as the other times. At least my shield got out of the way.
She quietly said into my ear “We have a problem. His arm got clawed or bit badly, I can’t tell which. I can stop the bleeding, but I can’t fix his arm. And, I suspect that when this ‘Bless’ wears off we’ll find out from him screaming in pain. I’m going to have to keep the ‘Bless’ on all the time just so he can keep up with us. And it has a five-minute cooldown before I can cast it again. I get five Mana back during that time, so I can do it over and over again, but that five minutes is going to be a problem for him.”
“Lemme look at my stats.”
Sam McGowan, Heavy Footman: Level 1 (0/1000)
Title: N/A
Points: 2
Status: Blessed (*)
Strength: 8 (+1=9*)
... Force Multiplier: 1
Agility:7
Endurance: 8 (+1=9*)
... Pain Resistance: 1 (+1=2*)
Speed: 6
Intelligence: 6
Health: 21
Mana: 0
Skills:
... Mace: Level 2 (+1=3*)
... Shield: Level 1 (+1=2*)
Equipment:
... Bonded Heavy War Mace
... Large Adamantite Shield
Money: 0
Inventory: 1/100
... 1 brass machete
“Yeah, while I am “Blessed” my Strength, my Endurance, my Pain Resistance, and my weapon skills are all ‘plus one’. And, I hadn’t noticed it before, but my skill with my mace is Level 2, so when I’m “Blessed” I fight with it as if I had Level 3 skills. That’s awesome, honey.”
“I should put his arm in a sling, but Matt can’t use his staff with only one hand.”
“Can he use a machete?”
“Oh! Of course!”
“You are a genius, but I’ve been thinking about the problem for almost four months. I evens it out some.”
Cindy called out from over my shoulder “Matt! You don’t have to use your staff to fight with! Store your staff in inventory, then pull one of your machetes out! Or, use something else that’s better if Eric or Margie has something.”
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