I tried to look around to find my aggressor, but I did not find anything. As I twisted to look around, a wail escaped me, and I spat blood.


    I tried to move on all four to get under cover, but there was not much cover I could find between the too-small boulders. Lucky me, the light ceased, and I found myself again in the dark.


    I was practically incapacitated, but nobody tried to capitalize on it. Maybe they are afraid I would pull another vampire-killing blow? What should I do: should I try another lightfire spell or heal? I needed to heal; I felt horrible. Somebody had shot me in my belly... but I heard no bang!? With a lightfire, I would be gone from here and could heal in a relatively safe place.


    OK, so I will heal and have to fight whoever is here and shot me before.


    I was dizzy, and in addition, the pain made it hard to focus. The spell went through; that makes sense with it being in cooldown, but then why am I still here?


    When she made light, I looked around, trying again to find the shooter. I could not find anything. She healed me.


    I''ve spat a lot of blood. To make things worse, the vampire-made incisions did not heal; blood still trickled down along my thigh. That was a nasty surprise.


    “Hm, strange. There is no blood on my belly where the bullet wound should be.”


    I sacrificed some clothes to make a bandage over the thigh to limit the blood loss. Does healing replace the lost blood? Not sure how this works.


    The other wound was only internal. There was no blood outside. How can that be?


    She laughed out loud.


    “Maybe less, maybe more. The last time when we accumulated magic, we were in the zone around Silver Town when that magic storm happened. We would have perished in the magic storm, but I was able to keep us both alive with my healing. After the storm, we were stronger; a lot of magic accumulated during the storm in our bodies.”


    OK. That explains how a low-level raid target got high level. They are both evolved freaks that survived that magic storm like that fucking wolshi. Did she say maybe more?


    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    So she was above seventy before she evolved? What monster do I accommodate? But I did not follow up on that line of thought.


    And with this, it dawned on me:


    “Oh, fucking fuck, you may be right!”


    I had to chuckle hearing Flo using my repertoire and speaking it out loud. She did not use to swear before. My good influence, eh?


    “I may be right!? I am right. Good that the spell sent something from my center of gravity and not a piece of my brain. So how much does Andy need to level to get the needed amount of mana, as much as you would need to cast the spell?”


    “Ahm. About what you call level sixty or above? Just a rough estimation...”


    Here goes my dream of helping the Lynx through Andy. We need a new strategy. Either we log out and try to bring the real Cala with White Flower inside the game, or we find a different solution.


    But the message discussion gave me another idea.


    OK, there is a chance. It is not much, but I could try it. And to do that, I now need to get to a town as fast as possible.


    She shrugged. She really shrugged as she was in the lead, and now she grinned:


    “And there is, the bifurcation!”


    Yes, indeed, there was a bifurcation. Bubble was sitting on my shoulder as I stopped to look at the bandage. It was now full of blood. I healed myself, but the little holes remained. The blood did not flow in streams but continued to trickle.


    The question was for Bubble, who came down from my shoulder and then wrapped itself around my thigh. Hmm, not stupid, the little slime; it was a better quality bandage as it blocked the blood loss and could adjust itself as I walked.


    It gave me two pulses. OK, I think two means yes. I sighed, relieved, and started walking again.