Chapter 17: The Night Attack

Jackson was sitting by the fire. It was the middle of the night and it was his turn to take watch. Currently the instructor was also up and awake with him. Jackson was obviously the weakest in the group and they already had more than enough people to keep watch during the night anyway. So the instructor was decided to take watch with him and everyone else would go in pairs of two. 

It was so quiet it was unsettling. It made Jackson a bit weary. He wasn't tired at all, his thoughts kept him up anyway even if he didn't want them to. Even though he tried to pay attention his mind began to wander. Jackson had resolved himself to pick up some abilities if he could anyway. He was a bit distracted after he came back from hunting. Now he had the time but...

I really should be paying attention to what's going on around me.

Anyway.

Besides a slight jump in Tracking and Survivalism there wasn't anything of note recently. He wanted to see oh had gotten any abilities from any of his magic schools but they were rare so he'd leave them for last as he wasn't expecting anything from them.

After confirming he had no new abilities In Learning he quickly sifted through the rest of his skills to see if he had any waiting for him.

Jackson singled out two skills with abilities that he could take. Running and Archery. He was a bit disappointed it was only two but he decided to just be grateful he had any.

These abilities are simple, but definitely useful.

Double Step was an ability that would speed up the user's next step, costing them 1 SP. Simple, but useful if you knew when to use it.

Archer's Vision could simply zoom in your vision for 1 SP/sec. Useful, but Jackson didn't see himself sniping people with his current strength.

Basic Archery was just like Basic Swordsmanship. It would help with correcting your stance and getting a feel of where your arrow would fly. Not always effective, but helpful. 

Jackson thankfully had the points to get all of them, so he didn't hesitate in getting them. Now onto his magical schools, he was surprised to find an ability in- 

"Wait, did you hear that?"

Jackson's thoughts were cut short when the instructor seemed to notice something. After trying to strain his ears to hear what was going on, Jackson spoke up in a quiet voice.

"I can't hear anything."

The instructor put a finger over his mouth and stood up, looking in between the tents to find the noise he heard.

Well... What am I supposed to do?

Jackson couldn't hear anything, but this would be a prime time to test out Archer's Vision. Looking for any strange movement he would use Archer's Vision to get better detail on certain shrubbery. He still couldn't seem to notice anything until he noticed something skitter by. Something big.

The instructor came back around just as Jackson noticed it. And as he was walking toward Jackson something went for him.

"Watch out!"

Spinning on his heel, the Instructor barely managed to jump out of the way of a dire wolf. 

"Shit."

The instructor had began to hold off what appeared to be a whole pack coming from the woods.

"Go and wake the others!" 

The instructor weaved between gnashing jaws and sharp claws. He was slowly but surely accumulating more and more scratches. Grabbing a huge battle-axe from who knows where, he charged.

Jackson got off his butt, he needed to wake everybody up. The instructor could definitely hold them off or run away on his own, but no way could he take down all those wolves. More levels doesn't mean you can take down an army.

It was the biggest fight Jackson had been in. And he was horrified. His legs were heavy like lead and his mind was in a frenzy. He had a hard time convincing himself to move and everyone up. Finding his courage, he forced himself to start yelling. Running between the tents he started yelling for everyone to get up. There was many confused "what?"'s but eventually everyone got in gear. Swords were swung, wolves were fried by lightning, it was chaos. Formations and strategies were abandoned. All Jackson could do was put one foot in front of the other. 

Everyone was up and fighting, while Jackson was panicking in the background.

I need to do something! I can't stand here in the back and let other people risk their lives without at least helping them!

Jackson grabbed his bow and pulled back an arrow on unsteady hands. He had to be careful not to hit anyone. He took a few breaths, and aimed at a wolf trying to snag Sarah from behind. In the span of a second he loosed an arrow and hit the dire wolf in it's torso. Yelping, it skittered away. 

Jackson was slow. His hands were shaking and threw off his aim. It was a wonder hit any shot at all. 

Using a bow right now I next to useless when I'm like this. My Swordsmanship... I don't trust it. But maybe I can at least watch someone's back? I'll need to heal everyone after this as well so I need some Mana too... I can't heal someone if they're dead.

Jackson ran towards the fight and drew his sword. He resolved himself to stop any sneak attacks. With great worry and hesitation he slit his left wrist and threw his blood on the ground where the wolves were coming from. Spikes were formed with the goal to at least slow down the wolves. 

My left arm is useless, and I'm feeling really... Drowsy. Shit that's a lot of blood. I don't think I can focus on stopping it with blood magic.

Jackson stopped the bleeding with a Mana construct holding the wound closed. He had no to me to rest though, the wolves began to try and surround them. Their abnormally high numbers were dwindling, but they still had the strange and unwavering vigor they had at the start of the attack. Everybody was slowly forming into a circle, minus the instructor who was ravaging the wolves and doing most of the work.

Jackson could hardly hold up his right arm but his spikes were helping plenty. There was now some form of coordination between everybody. Sarah had gone to the center of their circle and zapped all the wolves that approached. not every shock killed, but it moved them on the way.  Jackson had to slash his fair share of wolves along with everyone else, but due to his blood loss he almost got injured heavily many times. There were bites here and there before he was helped. Saved. But they added up. When it finally ended all Jackson could do was lay down and try his best not to sleep.

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But no. He had to get up. Falling asleep would probably be an eternal sleep and besides. He wasn't the only one in bad condition. As much as he wanted to heal himself right now, he could hold on. Someone else may not be so lucky. As he slowly, very slowly, combed across everybody, he saw many wounds. Samson was clutching his stomach. He was pale and sweating, before anyone could react, he collapsed. He was bleeding bad and needed help now. 

Moving as fast as he could he dashed towards Samson. His head was hurting and he was low on mana but he had to try. Pushing away Samson's shaking arms he looked at the injury.

Two bite marks and a slash. This needs cleaning NOW. He's low on blood too. He'll feel anemic but I need to force him to make more blood. If only... Fuck it. Do or die. 

Slamming open his Status he bought the ability from the magic school he expected to have an ability in the least but it was the godsend he currently needed. Along the way he threw every point he had into magic capacity and magic regeneration. More into capacity then Regen.

First he began using his new ability, Replication, to create blood. It was amazing and a breakthrough for him but there was no point in being happy about it now. Samson's face seemed less pale and tepid now. He needed to clean the wound as fast as possible now. Bites are insanely infectious. Jackson tried reaching for his pack off his back but his arms hurt. He didn't notice but his right arm was almost in as bad a state as his left. Using his weak voice he shouted for help.

"Please... My bag. Give me my bag... Please..." 

His words were caught in his throat. 

I've gotten this far and my hands are stopping me?

"I've got you I got you! What do you need?"

"First aid kit... Alcohol."

Barry, god bless him, rab up to Jackson and helped get his pack off. Fishing out a first aid kit and ripping it open in his haste. He shoved the alcohol into Jackson's hands and pulled out some bandages along with it. Delicately, Jackson cleaned Samson's wounds. Now was the hardest part. Using Replication to recreate all the broken parts and heal him. His simple healing spell just wouldn't cut it. Pushing his mana through Jackson he tried to use the spell that he always had trouble with. Diagnosis was always difficult. Jackson never actually learned it, all he could do was tell simple things. Never skilled enough to properly attain the spell.

It always embarrassed him. All he could ever tell was "Oh your vitamin C is low!" or "Oh you should give him some Collagen." he would tell people all those things so that they would think he was just sooo talented. He never acknowledged how insecure it made him feel and now here he was, clinging to hope that it would work.

It didn't.

He tried again and again. Trying to interpret the info his mana gave him, but it was malformed.

I just need to know about his stomach. Please let this work. Please.

Pulsing mana through his stomach and trying to restrain it to just the wounded are began to show results. In his mind he began to get a feel for what his body looked like on multiple layers. It wasn't a good cast of Diagnosis but it was enough. His lower intestine was injured, but most everything else was fine to the point that his healing spell could fix the problem. Visualizing his wounds, and using information from his malformed Diagnosis, Jackson tried to create Samson's missing pieces. Jackson slowly repaired what he could. First his intestine, then the muscles that held him together. Finally, the skin. The skin. The skin which he couldn't fix because he was now out of Mana. Completely.

Jackson's head pounded. He hadn't had a Mana headache worth mentioning since he was 12. This wasn't just a headache no, this was now on the level of "Oh my god I can't see more than blobs." 

Thankfully, Jackson didn't need to worry too much. Samson was now stable and breathing rapidly. Rapidly breathing was better than faintly breathing. Over the span of 5 minutes Jackson sat next to Samson while rubbing his head and slowly bandaging him up.

Jackson was so out of it, he barely noticed that people were talking to him.

"Jackson. Jack. Jack!"

"Hmm? What? I need a minute. Or five."

"Dude, have you realized that you're also bleeding?" 

"Huh?"

Looking down at all the blood on himself, he recognized that some of it was his. He was so focused on Samson he barely paid mind to his own injuries after a while. Thankfully they were bleeding very slowly.

"Here let me patch you up. I bet you're all out of Mana and you aren't in the state to do it yourself. God's, how do I do this... Um..."

"Move aside, I've got him."

A familiar person came up to Jackson and patched him up. For the life of him he couldn't remember who it was. Once she finished up. She held out a hand to Jackson and pulled him up. 

"You all good? I'm afraid we haven't had the chance to talk before now. I'm Sandra."

Ah, she was on the other team. This is nice and all but I need to let her know that I need to eat and sleep right now or else I'll collapse.

"I'm J-Jackson. Can you help me to my tent? I need to l-lay down."

He was so low on blood his skin looked like snow, he genuinely didn't know if he could stand without support.

"Of course. Barry! Grab his bag and follow me."

Slowly, Sandra helped Jackson walk to his tent and sat him down before leaving. Barry mouthed a "we'll talk later" to him before he left.

As soon as the tent flap closed, Jackson devoured every edible thing in his pack before he kinked out. He was dead tired in the most literal sense.

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