Book 2, Chapter 17

“Susie,” he called out, rushing over to her with two shadow steps. Her entire demeanor was one of defeat. Neck bowed with her head resting on her left hand like she was mourning a significant loss.

She looked up. Her eyes were not teared streaked. He slowed slightly. Things were not as bad as he had first feared.

“What has happened?”

“Bad day in the office,” she chuckled bitterly, “I miss my computer.”

“Jules, Kozzie?”

“They are fine,” she waved her hand towards the other side of the room where the two kids were raiding the bar.

“So why are you looking so?”

“One of the team died, and,” she pulled her right hand up from under the table. There was an ugly scar with two fingers missing.

“We can fix it.”

She looked at him like he's an idiot. “not even Lucas can help with this I asked.”

“Eventually…”

“I know when someone reaches level fifty. Until then,” she waved the deformed hand, “But Tony died. Right in front of me.” A tear ran down her face.

Sitting down next to her. It was his normal seat, and the kids had left it free. Carefully, he extended his arm gently around her shoulders to offer comfort. She melted against him. “It is so unfair. He was nineteen and like Jules, full of life and so confidence in his new powers. The thing just dropped from the ceiling and bit his,” she burst into sobs, “head, and then he was dead. Vitality, inherent healing, regeneration when it happens like that. Nothing helps. Dead before he hit the ground.”

Decapitation was a mortal blow for most things. Eggercough slugs could probably survive it. Jules and Kozzie came back with Jules sitting on her mother's other side and started rubbing her back. Kozzie was carrying two wines, one of which was clearly intended for Susie.

“I will get another,” Kozzie said, assessing the situation and handing him the second glass.

“We have to fight,” Adrian whispered into the back of her head.

“I know,” she said angrily into his shoulder, which was getting wet with her tears. “But,” she waved her hand. It had shorn the little finger and ring finger straight off. The blow had even taken some hand. The skin left behind had the ugly red of scarring. Whenever she flexed her hand from now on, it was going to hurt.

Words would not make things better. Years of living with Emily had taught him that. Instead of talking, he just held her gently while she sobbed. Minutes passed

“At least they found the Lucu.”

Susie nodded against the shoulder. Her sobs had stopped almost a minute ago. “Yes, that is good.”

Waving to catch the eye of one waiter. The man came over quickly, and they ordered their meals. Susie got a burger, Kozzie a steak, Jules a salad and he ordered the ribs for himself.

“Is every town going to be like this?” Jules mused into the silence.

“Probably worse,” Kozzie answered. “I think Wagga is mostly under control now.”

“We just do our best each day,” he told them. “Once I have my flame sprout spell, we will travel to Melbourne. If there are monsters we can safely fight, we will kill them. Otherwise avoid them when we meet groups we will help where we can.”

“I wonder how much we will be able to help?”

“A lot,” Adrian told them. “At least that is my guess. From an upgrade perspective I am level one, but from attributes I am closer to level twenty. Level thirty,” he corrected after checking his statistics page and doing the mathematics. “from a skill and gear perspective, I might even be higher level than that. Plus, there is all the knowledge that I have gained, alchemy and regional. If you are a small town that has been beset by monsters since this started, you might have no one as strong or anyone who has time to buy trader knowledge. To them we are going to be like, not necessarily gods, but definitely Heroes.”

“Maybe,” Kozzie said, not sounding convinced. He gestured to include Susie, Jules, and himself. “We are the weakest in this room. If towns have been besieged then maybe they will already have their own level thirties or at least a group above level twenty to protect them.”

“I'm betting they don't,” Adrian told him. “Albury maybe, but the small towns are a tenth of the size of Wagga. More people fighting in Wagga means more people having time to excel. The towns like here will lose people, but in a small town every loss is more significant.”

“We will see,” Kozzie repeated. “I hope we get to the next town and everything is perfect and then the town after that is the same. All the way to Melbourne and Wagga is just an aberration.”

“I can drink to that,” he said, raising his drink and toasting.

Food arrived, and they ate quickly

Craig turned up with Sally by his side, standing at the front of the dining room. They gave a quick rundown on the Lucu situation. There was no extra information. Fred had told him what to expect. The only thing pertinent in the entire speech was that anyone with wind abilities needed to me down having breakfast at 6 a.m. to help kill the Lucu.

Interface set an alarm for 5:50 a.m.

An image of a man. He was old with a crooked back. The little kid was laughing at the old man and had not noticed the bamboo stick clutched behind the man’s back. If you looked closely, you could see the evidence of a partly burned paper bag filled with poop. The bamboo stick raised up.

No! He wrenched himself from the memory, exiting just before the bamboo stick swung down towards him.

If the interface was a dog, it would have been running around him, jumping as high as it could while barking and wagging its tail furiously.

The Interface flashed

Alarm set for 5:50 a.m.

The interface was literally chortling to itself. At least it had set the alarm.

“I need to be up before six,” Adrian told them to excuse himself. “I will see you all tomorrow.” Heading straight up to his room and was relieved to see that none of his roommates had got back to dinner. With a small amount of free time he flicked open the Art book.