I turned around to check their status. Jye was laying on the ground, their arms wrapped protectively around Wren. They were both covered in the planks of the floor that [Ground Smash] had sent flying. I rushed over, and brushed the debris from their bodies. I couldn’t see any major injuries. In fact, they looked mostly unscathed. I stared at them in disbelief. Wren slipped out of Jye’s arms, and helped them stand.

“How are you okay?” I asked.

Jye grinned. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…”

They bent down and picked up a sizeable piece of plank debris from the floor. It looked like it should’ve weighed close to 50kg. But Jye lifted it like it was lighter than a feather. As understanding dawned on me, my mouth dropped open. I’d heard an ability be used during my attack, but this was not what I had been expecting.

“You can make things lighter too?” I asked, the relief causing me to laugh.

“Panic will make you try some weird shit,” Jye said back.

“Yeah, and, dude, I’m sorry for the friendly fire. I just couldn’t…” The words weren’t coming out. Somehow saying it was harder than doing what I’d just done. I took a deep breath. “My sister loved cats.”

“Chrissie definitely would’ve done the same thing,” Axel admitted.

His face was covered in scratches from the [Ground Smash] and he was standing hunched over, gripping his side. Red had begun to form underneath his hand.

I stared.

No.

No no no no no!

What had I done?

Axel wasn’t meant to get hurt. He had [Swift Footed]! He could’ve gotten away from the attack. There was no way he should’ve taken any damage. Sick roiled in my stomach, sliding up my throat as bile. I was at his side before I knew what I was doing, pulling his free arm over my shoulder. Jye and Wren weren’t far behind me.

“Why didn’t you just dodge?” I yelled at him.

“I’m glad you think I’m that good.”

“You’re not looking too dandy, man. How much damage did you take?” Jye asked.

Together, we helped Axel to the wall, and he leaned against it with a groan. My brain didn’t know how to react. My hands shook. I’d done this. I’d hurt Axel. This was worse than being useless. God, I’d hurt my friend.

“I only took 10 from the [Ground Smash], but it’s this…” he gestured to the bloody spot on his side. “I think something pierced me. I’m losing HP by the second.”

Hands trembling, I lifted the bloodied shirt. Beneath was a stake-like piece of floorboard, poking out of his abdomen. Red, blood, it was blood, trickled down his stomach. I could taste vomit on the back of my tongue, but I swallowed it back down grimly.

“What… what do we do?” I asked.

Jye shook their head slowly. “Don’t look at me. I’m only CPR certified.”

“Axel, what do we do?”

He laughed again and the stake piercing him bounced with the movement. Blood spurted out. “Now you want to listen to me, huh?

The world started becoming blurry. “Stop fucking around! You’re gonna bleed out. Tell us. What do we do?” Oh, I was crying. My nose was running, and I had started to blubber. This was embarrassing. I wiped at the tears, trying to clear my sight.

“...pull the stake out,” Axel said.

In half a panic, I grabbed the edge of it, trying to take a firm hold, and then yanked. Immediately, the blood previously held back began to flow at a quickened rate, oozing out across his body. Axel screamed in pain, and he grabbed at my bloodied hands.

“I said don’t pull the stake out, you idiot!” Axel sunk to the floor. “Oh, shit.”

Party member Axel at critical health.

I could see that! He was bleeding out right in front of me. I tried to recall anything I could remember from movies, or shows about how to treat a stabbing, but nothing came to mind. The only thing was… pressure? Apply pressure? Lunging forward, I slapped one hand over the other and pushed down on Axel’s wound. He didn’t even have enough energy to scream even though I knew it was impossible for what I’d just done to be painless.

“I know you hate me, but actively aiding the speed of my demise seems a little cold-hearted,” he said with a croak.

“Stop talking,” I said, and it was suddenly more than real that my best friend was dying.

I hadn’t called him that since we were just kids. Hell, I hadn’t thought of him as my best friend since then. But that didn’t make it not true. For a second, as I kneeled there with my hands slick with blood, us as twelve-year-olds played in my mind. Just hanging in the local park, taking turns pushing each other on the swing. Chrissie had tagged along, as she always had. Axel pouting because I was paying more attention to her. He’d always been the jealous type, though when puberty hit him with the attractive stick, that focus has shifted to his other friend groups.

We’d been inseparable until we were thirteen. But then Chrissie… And I wasn’t the same after it. Axel had been too young to properly comfort a grieving friend. Anybody would’ve been. It’s never obvious how to act when your best friend loses their sister. He’d made one sincere attempt, but it hadn’t been enough. After that he pulled away entirely. It was not the right thing to do. But I guess he never really left, not fully. If he had, he wouldn’t be here dying.

I couldn’t do this.

I couldn’t be the reason why someone I loved was dead.

Not again.

So, I held down firmly on Axel’s wound and hoped and hoped and hoped. I wasn’t religious, praying would mean nothing, so I begged whatever forces of unpredictability that reigned in the universe to turn the odds in our favour. Maybe that’s all religion was. Putting a face on chance.

“I’m down to 2 HP. The bleeding isn’t stopping.”

I focused on Axel’s face. His eyes were watery. The usually healthy tan he had was pale, ghostly, and his lips had a blue tinge. He attempted a smile. It was wrong. Axel wasn’t meant to look like this.

“You gotta make sure you survive this thing, okay?”

“The Dungeon?” I asked, my voice barely making its way out of my mouth.

“This whole thing. You gotta win. Promise me. No matter what, you’re going to win.”

I scoffed through my tears. “Only you would have the audacity to think you could win against an apocalypse.”

His weak grip found my arm, and he squeezed it. “Promise me.”

“I…”

If I finished that sentence, it would be goodbye, I knew. He was barely holding on. If I promised him, he would let go. But he was stubborn, too stubborn to give in before he heard my words. If I could keep him here for even a moment longer, he would never hear those words from my lips.

“1 HP,” he said, and his hand on my arm slipped off.

“I’ll make you a promise.”

I met his fading gaze.

“I promise you’ll be here with me when we win.”

His eyes shot open for a second, and his laugh turned into a sputter. “That’s new.”

His breathing had weakened, chest rising and falling almost imperceptibly. Axel’s eyes began to close. I could no longer see through my tears.

“God fucking damnit, absolutely fuck this shit, this is the most fucked up thing, after I swore I wouldn’t… Fuck me.”

Both me and Axel’s focus shifted to the sailor’s language coming out of the ten-year-old girl’s mouth. She had approached us both, and was standing by our side. Axel clearly wanted to make some sort of comment, but lacked the bodily control to do so. It might’ve been for the better.

“I didn’t want to do this. I don’t even trust you. But I can’t watch two grown men cry. It’s embarrassing. Goddamnit, and this was meant to be my hidden ace,” Wren continued, muttering under her breath.

I heard the static of an ability being used. What was she doing? As a Scourge, she would only work with debuffs. It didn’t make any sense. Then again, she’d never explained how she’d ended up alone in Woolies. I had assumed she would in time, but maybe this was the reason why.

A soft green glow emanated from her, and then focused on her right hand. What the hell was happening? There was no way an ability called [Imperil] or [Death Mark] looked like this. She glared at me.

“Move your hands.”

I stared at her incredulously. “This is the only thing stopping him from dying right this second.”

“Yeah, but I gotta touch the wound for this to work. He’s gonna die in the next couple of moments anyway. Your choice, buckaroo.”

Axel’s eyes finally closed. He was directly on the brink. Jye, who’d been quiet the entire time, chimed in, “She’s got a point.”

“Why don’t you stick to the whole mute act, man?” I spat back, already feeling bad about it as I said it.

They held their hands up, and stepped further away.

Wren’s eyes were on me. Jesus christ. What should I do? Did Wren have the ability to save Axel? My hands were covered with Axel’s blood. Figuratively and literally. Maybe this was the universe’s answer to my pleadings.

Please let that be the case.

I retracted my hands, and watched as the blood flow immediately increased, no longer impeded. Wren’s glowing right hand went down. A bright warm light encompassed the skin beneath her hand, so sharp that I couldn’t stare directly at it, but I forced myself to not look away. If this was Axel’s last moments alive, I would be there to witness them. He deserved so much more, but this was the least I could do.

Time passed, but I lost all sense of it.

Finally, the light faded.

Wren’s face was drenched in sweat, and a distant look was in her eyes. She had the kind of eye bags that resulted from days without sleep. When Wren spoke, her voice was dry, cracking. “I think the wound’s been closed, but I can’t use [Healing Hand] anymore. I’m completely out of mana. You better take care of this body. Fuckers.”

And then she fell into an unconscious heap next to Axel.