Two out. Three to go. The one who’d actually managed to land a kick on me was now above me and he pounded my gut. I felt my breath escape me, but the hit wasn’t half as bad as I expected it to be. At last, those early mornings lifting weights at the gym were paying off. I lunged at him, bringing his head down to meet my knee. Another crack and he was on his back holding his bleeding nose as well.
Two left.
Before I was able to properly examine the two remaining assholes, a swift flow of cold wind almost swept me off my feet. It was only when I steadied myself and turned back to the two men that I saw the wind create a small swirling ball in front of them.
What the fuck is this now? Rasengan?
The moment I wasted pondering whether I was dreaming was enough for the man to bring his hands forward and launch the spinning ball of compressed air at me. The force with which I was hit sent me flying several feet back, claiming half of the air in my lungs at the moment of impact and the other half when I hit the asphalt.
“What the hells, man?” shouted the second corporate thug, who was still standing. “Why would you attack him like that?”
“Yeah, we could’ve taken him,” another voice said. “Why would you bring him to this side?”
“He took three of you out,” my aggressor snapped back at them as I managed to pick myself up. “The bastard had it coming.”
My body didn’t hurt and there was no blood on the back of my head when I checked it, but I must have suffered a concussion. Amid the sun’s last rays reflecting on the restaurant’s windows, Louie’s barks, and the screams of bystanders, I was seeing things that made no sense. The periphery of my vision was somehow clouded. No, not clouded. It was cluttered with… words. Words and numbers.
I tried to focus my eyes on the person who was responsible for my injury, as he seemed to be preparing another of his wind spheres, but I was distracted by more words hovering above his head.
Name : ???
Race : Human
Class : Mage
Level : 11
What the actual fuck?
I was able to jump to the side just in time to avoid his attack, but before I could shout at them, I saw the shadow of someone holding a long object in his hands. I felt a sudden pressure on the back of my head and dropped to the ground, face-first. My vision flashed white as my brain registered the pain and for a second all I could see was what looked like a red and blue bar on the periphery of my vision. The red one was half-empty while the blue was still full.
I could now hear laughs around me, while Louie’s barking felt distant. I tried to pick myself up but only managed to stumble and fall on my back. Once my vision returned, there were several completely opaque windows of text obscuring my view.
Name : Alexander MacFie
Race : Human
Class : ???
Level : 1
HP : 72/126
MP : 38/38
XP : 0.00%
STR : 40
DEX : 30
CON : 43
INT : 21
WIS : 11
MEN : 25
Battle Stats
Max HP : 126
Max MP : 38
Physical Attack : 4
Physical Defense : 72
Accuracy : 33
Critical : 44
Attack Speed : 330
Magic Attack : 3
Magic Defense : 47
Evasion : 33
Speed : 126
Casting Speed : 213
HP Regen. : 3.4/minute
MP Regen. : 1.1/minute
Without even running my eyes over everything, I realized I had somehow absorbed all the information. It was as if the moment my eyes glanced at each of the floating windows, I remembered what was written on them. I tried swiping across them with my hands to force them to go away. It was no surprise when my fingers didn’t seem to touch them at all, but the windows quickly disappeared as I blinked hard in frustration. They cleared my views just in time for me to see the sole of a squeaky-clean brown leather shoe land on my face.
Once again, I fell to the ground, yet this time I felt more kicks immediately after. On my shoulders. My stomach. My face. It felt as if a herd of cattle was stampeding over me. The taste of blood on my lips made my anger resurface, and I grabbed a leg and bit down hard on it.
“The motherfucker bit me!” he said as I spat out a piece of his trousers with some flesh and blood attached.
“You think this is enough, you bastards?” I shouted as I attempted to push myself up, legs and arms shaking.
Another strike on my back with the long object brought me down to the hot pavement again. My vision became dark red and all I could think of was myself jumping on them and locking my hands around their necks.
“I’ll fuckin’ rip you…” was all I managed to say before another kick on my forehead turned me on my back.
“I’ll…” The blood in my mouth forced me to swallow the rest of my sentence as the kicks kept landing…
2
Smokers outside the hospital doors
I woke up in a strange bed. I could barely lift the eyelid of my left eye and the right wouldn’t move at all. My vision was still blurry and my arms hurt when I moved them to my face. At least I thought it was my face. It was swollen and covered in scabs.
“The fight,” I whispered as I remembered. This threw me into a fit of coughing.
Once I had cleared the dried tears on my one working eye, I noticed I was in a hospital ward. If I was here, then where was…
“Louie,” I croaked and looked around me.
He was sitting in his little pillow-bed
