Must Be Lucky

That ten seconds was going to be brutal.

Teri moved upwards, following the path and slipping into the corner that led towards the sub-boss room. There were no monsters there. His back was safe. Both his hands were shaking at the thought of squaring off against those dolls again, but he somehow found himself grinning. He pressed his back against the wall, hiding himself from Taku’s view. The man was willing to gamble his life on him. He had to show him who was boss.

“Ready?” Teri asked, forcing himself to sound more confident. Though he could never be too sure. He was becoming more and more aware of his breathing now, especially at times when it wavered. “Hey… Taku…”

Teri set his shield and spiked wooden club on the floor. The club was for him, so that he could immediately switch his weapon in case the dagger in his hand wasn’t enough. Fighting in tight spaces such as corridors meant that the dolls could only use their speed to fight Teri head on. At the same time, it greatly limited his chances of making a full swing. That being said, he was confident in his ability to stab someone to death.

“Something on your mind?” Taku replied, his voice trembling.

Teri gritted his teeth. “This is fun, yeah?” He couldn’t find the right words to cheer him up.

“Hella…” Taku forced a chuckle. “Let’s do this.”

Teri couldn’t bring himself to say more, and there was no going back. Teri crouched, breathing low and plunging himself into the deep waters of his mind. He was silent and ready. Now it was just him, Taku, the dolls about to come and get their asses, and the ikemen graffiti that seemed to mock them for choosing to struggle. His vision sharpened. The smell of blood drowned him no longer.

Taku kicked open the door.

“THERE’S FOUR OF THEM! Teri—” Taku screamed, doubt casting a shadow over his tone. But in the same breath, he laughed. “I’ll get the two in the middle. THE BET IS STILL ON!”

The door hit the wall. Taku cast his spell. Bind. Bind. Then, Taku neighed as he ran like the wind toward him. Teri heard two sets of moans in the distance, and it pained him to realize that he had learned to pay attention to this kind of shit because of Taku. Teri grinned. Taku made the right turn, smiled at him, picked up his shield, and kept running toward the sub-boss door. It was now Teri’s turn.

Ten.

The doll was faster than what Teri thought, but it was within his expectations. With perfect timing, he shot his body forward at the mere sight of the doll’s shadow and drove the incoming monster into the wall with his weight alone. The other one avoided the attack and made a break for Taku.

Nine.

Eight.

Seven.

Teri kept the doll’s body pinned against the wall. Before it could retaliate, he jabbed the dagger into its side, breaking its porcelain skin on the first strike and making sure that the next four would punch holes into its lungs. The doll vomited a moan as it bled into Teri’s hand.

Six.

Five.

Teri backed away to catch his breath. His legs buckled. He was still afraid. Fuck. The doll attacked, marking Teri’s chest, arm, and face—just below his left eye.

Everything went black. He lost his breath. But the image of Taku dying a bloody death brought him back, gasping. The attack was still too fast to follow, but it was weak enough for Teri to block with his armor alone.

Four.

Three.

Teri sank his dagger into the doll’s left forearm and pinned it to its chest. He grabbed its wrist next and pressed it against the wall. Easy. Teri grinned. He clenched his right fist until it was white with pressure and punched the doll three times; the first cracked its skin and the third made it fall to its knees. Then, he pulled his dagger out and buried it deep into the doll’s neck.

He didn’t even watch the bitch go down.

Two.

Taku was in front of the sub-boss door with his shield on one hand and his staff on the other. The other doll was fast approaching, but Taku should still have a window to cast his spell. And as he should, he screamed the spell’s name as he theatrically extended his staff like a full-fledged wizard—but the strings of light didn’t come out.

Taku’s nose started bleeding.

Teri picked up his spiked wooden club and ran.

One.

The doll picked up its pace.

Taku smiled in disbelief. It would’ve been nice if the doll gathered all of its fingers to make a single, large spike. But Taku wasn’t that fortunate. It attacked. Two of its fingers were stopped by the shield. One pierced through his right shoulder. One speared his chest, barely missing his heart. One punched a hole in his stomach.

Teri kept running.

Zero.

Taku coughed out some blood and fell to one knee.

The doll moaned in delight. As far as it was concerned, there was another target just behind it. And to add some icing on the cake, his new target was running towards him dead-tired and with reckless abandon. It moaned. It turned—tried to. For some reason, its fingers refused to leave the fat man’s body.

Taku coughed again, raising his head to give the doll a wide red grin. “You don’t assassinate a fucking tank.”

His friend was still alive.

The doll was immobilized.

And now, Teri was here.

“POOOOOOOWWWEEEEEERRRRRR—” Teri roared, his voice grating his throat. He planted his feet and with his strength rising from the ground, he twisted his body and slammed his spiked wooden club into the doll’s head just when it was about to face him. Feeling the nails breaking through its skin and digging into its meat, Teri firmed his grip with both hands and ripped the monster’s flesh out to let it paint the floor.

Everything went silent, and the doll was finally allowed to pull its claw from Taku’s body and fall. Failing to catch his breath and with the air biting his throat, Teri had no choice but to rest his back against the wall. The fight wasn’t over.

“Yooooooo…” Taku screamed and slapped his shoulder for a job well done. His entire body glowed with a golden light. “That’s so sick! I didn’t get to watch you fight, but you were like—” Taku pushed an imaginary doll against the wall and shanked it a couple of times. Then, he did some shadow boxing, screaming like a Chinese martial artist every time he threw a punch.

Teri let out a tired chuckle. He wiped the sweat off his face and sat on the floor. He tried, but he couldn’t really look his friend in the eyes. He won. He killed that doll in under ten seconds. But the problem was that if things went wrong, Taku would’ve died right before his eyes.

He pressed his trembling hands against his face.

Fuck. He should’ve killed the doll in five. Could he even do that?

Should Teri even be this affected? He never encountered this problem before, especially with his people. His chest tightened. This shit was supposed to be easy. He fought with his friends before. In some cases, the fight was so bloody some of them got sent to the hospital. Sure, no one close to him died. But even the mere thought of his friends getting hurt never crossed his mind. Taku was different.

“I’m telling you…” Taku clapped Teri’s shoulder and used his healing spell before he could say no. And before Teri could throw him another violent reaction, he pointed him to the enemies they defeated. “Just take the win. We struggled, but no one is gonna stop us from owning this shit. If someone asks, I’ll tell them that we beat the shit out of ten dolls today.”

Teri nudged his best friend’s side, making him giggle. “That’s too little.”

“Fine.” Taku laughed and pushed back. “We’ll make it twenty.” Taku cupped his chin. “Yeah, that sounds good. I’m thinking… We got caught by a pack of twenty dolls while we were exploring and we had to desperately fight our way through. We ended up beating ten dolls each—no, you took down thirteen and I took down seven. Yeah, that makes more sense. But speaking of dolls…”

“Yep.” Teri groaned and picked himself up with his spiked wooden club in hand. “There’s supposed to be two more; it doesn’t add up.”

Taku gave Teri back his shield. “Maybe we were lucky?”

“Can that even happen?”

“If it’s a computer game, yeah.” Taku stretched his back. “It has something to do with what we call ‘aggro.’ It generally refers to our enemy’s attention, specifically in fights. So when I say I’m pulling our enemy’s aggro, then that means I’m making them wanna go after my ass—or that they’re already after my ass.”

“That… doesn’t sound too complicated.” Teri raised his shield and led Taku forward. “I’m surprised, actually.”

“It’s meant to simulate real fights in-game, after all. And I’m assuming that you have plenty of experience,” Taku replied. He seemed proud of Teri. “Pulling someone’s aggro just requires you to step within a certain range or do something flashy. If you walk into an enemy’s turf, of course you’re gonna get attacked. If you punch someone, they’re more likely to punch you back. If you punched a group’s leader, then everyone would want to punch you.”

“Huh—”

“I just didn’t bring this up earlier since, y’know… It’s kinda dangerous for us to purely rely on that. It’s a game element, after all. When you attacked the first doll earlier and forced the second doll to dodge, you should have pulled both their aggro. But instead, the second doll still went after me. If I believed that pulling aggro was real and stayed close to you… I’d be dead.”

“I see.” Teri smiled to know that his brain wasn’t melting.

“So… going back… either we got extremely lucky that these monsters function like they’re in a computer game—which meant that their aggro reset when I basically walked out of their range while they were bound to the floor—or something happened to them. I’m not too sure, but that doesn’t change that we gotta do what we gotta do.”

The trip back to the room was filled with silence.

Taku originally thought that there were three dolls in that room. And apparently, there were four. And there could be five, even six. There could even be ten. Teri took a sharp breath. There was no need to panic now. He could at least trust Taku’s words.

The coast was clear. The door was open. No one was moaning.

Something was definitely wrong.

Teri glanced at Taku over his shoulder. “Can you cast that spell again?”

Taku replied with a thumbs up. “I think it’s only a problem if I cast it one after another after… another.”

“So, we’ll kick ass?” Teri smiled and offered Taku a fist bump.

“Hell yeah.” Taku met Teri’s fist with his.

Teri entered the room first with his shield raised. Taku followed closely, both hands on his staff and ready to sling some magic. It was quiet. The scent of dust and iron mixed with the smell of blood that lingered in the still air.

What greeted them was a room full of school trophies and broken cases. In the center stood a woman of average height; she wore a bloodied long-sleeved white shirt, a pair of black fingerless gloves, a flowy skirt of the same color, and tight knee-high boots. Blood streaked her face, but it did little to stain her fierce eyes framed by a fluffy bob.

Beneath her were two butchered dolls.

She glared at them.

“Taku,” Teri whispered, dropping his weapon and putting both hands in the air. “Remember the twenty dolls thing?”

“Yeah?” Taku raised his staff, refusing to drop it on the floor.

Teri chuckled. “Don’t you ever bring that up to her.”