Facing Fear | ✓ ONC 2023 Honorable Mention

6 | Healing Rain

Ronin dropped the pine cone to draw his sword. "Sounds like someone got between momma cat and her cub." His armor shimmered into existence to cover the cross-collared shirt he wore.

"What?" Mori asked, rifle appearing in her hands.

"Cat trail is safer than bear or snake because they don't engage unless you touch their cub." Ronin took off sprinting through the wild growth and fallen tree trunks, but his voice registered in her ear on their party comm. "But much meaner when they do. We'd better go help."

Mori tripped again trying to keep up. She smashed her knee against the jagged edge of a stump on the way down, causing her to suck in a pained breath. Limping, she tapped her earring until the brown bar of agility rose, then did her best to leap over the downed trees and pine needle-covered rocks without twisting an ankle.

Yesterday me is going to eat my dust.

Gritting her teeth, Mori ran until she neared the battlefield, a part of the forest where the pine trees thinned out. Blood-curdling screams assaulted her ears. She knocked shoulders with a player trying to escape the fight. Thick gashes scored his armor and blood leaked from his mouth. His grey eyes looked dazed.

"How many of you are there?" Mori asked. She extended her hand in a vague gesture of support, but worried about pressing against a wound underneath his clothing.

"Just one besides me," he groaned, slumping against a tree. "I—I tried to get Ire out but the cat..."

Mori shouldered her rifle and continued onward. To the side of her vision, Ronin's health dropped a notch. Not much, but it drove the danger home. This monster could kill us.

She found them. Ronin fended off a giant mountain lion, larger than any animal Mori had ever seen or imagined. Its head topped Ronin's by a foot, claws like ivory blades and teeth bared as it hissed and spat. The monster's erratic movement kept Ronin on defense—tail lashing as it leaped at him. Even though his sword connected with the beast's body, the glowing lines where he struck faded away without leaving a mark.

Remembering Ronin's words, Mori tapped her earring to grey and sighted in on the cat. The lines of its forehead wrinkled in angry creases and she realized it was trying to get to an unconscious body lying on the ground. Mori put a bullet in the chamber, flicked off the safety, aimed, and fired.

The cougar screamed as a bright dot burned at the center of its forehead. At its side, a red bar emptied partway but then the monster cat shook its head and the bar refilled. A chill swept through Mori. Is it unkillable?

She glanced at the knocked out player. Maybe if the mountain lion lost sight of its prey, it would leave them alone.

"Mori!" Ronin shouted over the monster's cries. "You have to find the cub and kill it!" His sword shattered, prompting him to pull out another. "She won't go down otherwise!"

Mori stumbled back. "Where do I even find the cub?" she asked. Ronin didn't answer and his health dropped to half-bar when the cat's teeth clamped down on his arm and snapped it. He screamed. Pain twisted his face, but he stabbed the mountain lion in the chest until it released him.

Ripping her gaze away, Mori hurried to circle the fight and head in the opposite direction she and Ronin had come from. If that other player had been trying to get away, that should mean he would be running from where this all started. A rustle in the foliage ahead proved her guess correct.

She put away her rifle and drew a pistol from her inventory. The cub jumped in the air, batting at a blue butterfly with its paws. Its fuzzy ears wiggled as it pounced and played, unconcerned with the deadly fight it had started. It's not natural, Mori thought, it should be hiding. This is a trick.

Her hands shook. She bit her lip to keep back tears. But it's just a baby.

The cub looked straight at her, dark eyes soft and delicate whiskers quivering as it sniffed the air between them.

A seed of doubt budded in her. What if killing the cub did nothing? What if it angered the mother more?

As if he'd read her mind, Ronin's voice drifted to her. "Mori, please hurry. I'm betting on you."

There was more than her life at stake. Ronin and the other two players depended on her. "I'm sorry," Mori choked out in a whisper.

The cub mewed like it knew how to answer and didn't move except for a flicking of its fluffy tail.

She had to take this shot before the tears obscured her vision. "Goodnight, little one," Mori said.

The pop of her pistol carried through the forest.

Mori knelt next to the cub as its fur shimmered with red light. Then it was gone, as if a puff of air blew it away. A window materialized in its place.

Fear Faced - Signature Skill Unlocked: Healing Rain

Bowing her head, Mori bit her lip but couldn't stop crying. In the distance, a child-like scream signaled the cat's death. She didn't know how long it took, but Ronin found her and sat down at her side.

"Sorry you got the hard job," he said, the solemn tone of his voice suited for a funeral.

Mori scrubbed at her tears with the back of her hand, but it was too late, he'd already seen. "Because getting your arm broken isn't the worse of the two evils?" She tried to laugh.

Ronin winced when he moved his arm and Mori's gut twisted upon seeing the shard of bone sticking out of the flesh. "Any chance you could use that new sig of yours on it?"

After Ronin coached her through the menus to set her power to quick access, a gentle rain pattered over his arm, restoring it.

"Now you're crying too," Mori observed with a weak smile.

Ronin swiped at his eyes and muttered, "Must be a side effect."

They headed back to the clearing and Mori healed the girl, Ire, and her teammate. His username appeared as blasterdude followed by a string of numbers she didn't take the time to read.

"You should take her back to Cyber City," Ronin advised the player. "She'll need time to rest and recover."

The guy chuckled. Even though he'd said they could call him "Dude", Mori didn't feel inclined to and neither did Ronin it seemed. "No one needs sleep in Valor and she's healed now."

Ronin put his hand on the male player's shoulder. "Rest and recover emotionally. You don't have a brush with death and walk it off without consequences." He guided him away while Mori checked to make sure she hadn't missed any of Ire's injuries. The girl had woken up but been unresponsive. Mori wasn't entirely sure whether the tears leaking down Ire's cheeks were a result of her signature skill or not.

A few minutes later, she and Ronin stood side-by-side, watching the other duo leave to return to the second ring.

"What did you say to him?" Mori asked softly.

"I told him that in the future, it's better to die next to your teammate. Doesn't matter who triggered the monster, you leave them behind and you'll regret it forever." A shadow passed over Ronin's face—there and gone so quickly that Mori wondered if she'd seen it at all.

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Chapter Word Count: 1878
Total Word Count: 12264