That few seconds passed as if we were trapped for eternity. I felt like I was observing the situation from the outside, detached and uninvolved. But my body moved on its own. Without even formulating a thought in my head, and before I knew it, I was already reaching out for Jessica to pull her away.

  Sixth Sense electrified my entire body from head to toe, even more so than when I approached Jessica. Before I could even grab her arm I already knew what was coming, and yet I didn’t stop. The demon worm was sending his shot directly at her, even if it meant tearing through some of his own demon army on the way to reach her.

  Anna and Maria frantically tried to attack the boss, but before they could land their spells the javelin had been already been hurled. The tanks could do nothing but block the wall of demons rushing to invade our abode. The disgusting arm of the boss recoiled like a whip, even causing the air to snap from the sonic boom.

  The fight continued as if nothing of importance was happening, yet the most important person to me was on the precipice of death. My helplessness, the reality of the situation, it raced through me as boiling anger. No one could help us.

  As I turned to cover Jessica, I could see the javelin tear through a demon in the second row of their wall like wet paper. His upper body vanishing as if it never existed. King Spikey was there too, and without even my own instruction I watched him attempt to intercept the spear with his body to no avail.

  His own frame didn’t hold up despite its sturdiness, he shattered like a heated rock. Hundreds of thousands of bone fragments flew in every which way like shrapnel, and yet the javelin continued towards us without its energy having been diminished.

  I had managed to pull Jessica into my embrace in that short second, and I no longer watched the javelin coming. My shield rested on my back, Bone Armor was fully activated. All I could do was pray it was enough. The boiling anger receded as soon as the gravity of the situation hit me. There was nothing else to do, no reason to be upset.

  The system notification came a split second before the pain. As if a dull railroad spike had been hammered directly into the flesh of my back, my shield did nothing to deter the attack. Bone Armor was next, and the resistance it provided lasted less than a fraction of a second before failing. My body flew like a rag doll along the ground from the impact.

  I couldn’t move my body when I stopped rolling. I was on my side with Jessica still in my embrace. The sounds of fighting echoed around us, and the screaming of Anna and Maria rushing in our direction constantly assaulted my ears.

  My back and chest burned hot like fire as did my throat. The oxygen I wanted wasn’t coming and the pain was enough to curtain my vision. Despite Pain Resistance it was a struggle to not pass out. I could feel Jessica’s grip around my neck through the shock. “Are you okay?” I managed to fumble out.

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  Her eyes fluttered with tears as she looked at me, “I’m okay… but Mike—Mike.” Her voice grew frantic, her grip tighter. I looked down to see blood dripping down her leather chest.

  “You’re bleeding.” I coughed hard, and almost couldn’t stop coughing. I looked up again from her wound to her face and realized it was covered in blood too. The confusion lasted a moment—a realization crushed me… it was my blood, the taste of metal filled my throat and mouth as I coughed for air.

  The dizziness came stronger as I looked down at my own chest and then to Jessica. The wound she had was the tip of the javelin just barely penetrating a few inches of her flesh. For me… the javelin had pierced directly through my body.

  Not just anywhere on my body though, my upper chest. The lack of air, the coughing blood, It all made sense—there was now a hole where one of my lungs used to be. “THOMAS!” Jessica yelled it first as my vision started to blur.

  Watching my HP bar didn’t illicit any panic even though it was already under 10% and dropping quickly. I felt cold despite laying in a pool of wet warm blood. “THOMAS!” It was Anna and Maria who arrived next.

  My felt that my eyes were open but I couldn’t see anything at all. My lips parted for what felt like a potion, the warmth of a heal touched my flesh for just a moment, and yet it grew cold again. Chaos raged around me.

  I felt so calm though… so calm. It was so peaceful that I almost preferred it to struggling back into the world. A part of me wanted to beg them to stop healing me, not for the pain relief, or even the relief from the cold. It was… over. I wanted it to be over.

  A cold droplet hit my cheek, and then another. I used to love playing in the rain. My thoughts grew jumbled and confused. I opened my eyes as much as I could to see Jessica above me. The constant heals keeping me just this side of death.

  Her face red, the area around her eyes already swelling with tears. “Mike… please.” I could barely hear it, “Please don’t die.” I so badly wanted to reach up and caress her cheek. Tell her that everything was fine, even if it was a lie. She would be alright without me.

  That sentence lingered on the front of my thoughts. A life without me? How would I feel about a life without Jessica if the situation was reversed? Impossible. The anger rushed over me again and the cold disappeared as a torrential heat rushed through my body.

  But wasn’t it too late? I could see Thomas out of the corner of my eye shake his head. I had lost count of the amount of heals, the amount of potions that had touched my lips. A moment later it was Marcus.

  My body lifted and a pain like no other rushed through my chest. With all his strength he had snapped the tip of the javelin and pulled it out of my wound. The bleeding grew worse, and the HP they had managed to get to barely twenty percent ticked down faster now.

  The world came through erratically as my vision flashed like a slide show. My world swirled and rocked as if waves battered my feeble frame. The words came in randomly and I couldn’t piece together their sentences. Pleading? Brainstorming? And then it was silence. The next sentence came through like thunder.

  “You should say your goodbyes.” It was Thomas.

  Jessica let out the most heart-wrenching “Nooooooo…” I’d ever heard. I guessed I really was dying. Marcus set me back down and I felt Jessica wrap her arms around me. “Mike… please,” was whispered into my ear.

  The shock had almost left me feeling numb, but tears started to form in my eyes. The realization that it was actually over gave me a moment of intense agony and self-guilt. “I’m sorry.” I mumbled out. “I tried my best for you.” It was something I never could do. Giving my best for anyone, even myself. I was lazy, unmotivated, useless.

  My vision grew more dark, more blurry. The sounds around me disappeared as my thoughts grew muddled. I didn’t want to die.

  Taste of flesh, feast, devour. Taste of flesh, feast, devour Taste of flesh, feast, devour Taste of flesh, feast, devour Taste of flesh, feast, devour. I mumbled rapidly under my breath.

  The system menus, the status updates, I ignored all of it. A growing darkness enveloped my thoughts as I sank deeper into that abyss. Cold, detached, nothingness. Eventually there was nothing to let me know I had ever existed.