Baconator huffs, not attacking. I wonder if maybe Sadie’s kicks to its face and ribs have wounded it enough that it can’t charge anymore.

  “Come on,” Sadie challenges the boar, panting. Her little tail is twitching wildly. In other news, Sadie has a tail. “I said come on, you overgrown ham steak.”

  The boar huffs and moves sideways, back and forth in the passage, not charging, pacing under the glowing crystal moss-covered ceiling. What is it waiting for? Is it trying to have me bleed out? Are reinforcements on the way? We have to get this fight ended, one way or the other. Well, hopefully the one way, not the other.

  “Ceiling,” I call.

  Sadie glances up at the crystal moss. She punches the air, sending a spark from her fist to the ceiling, above the boar’s butt. A burning ember of moss dislodges and lands right in front of the boar’s tail.

  Incoming.

  Those goat legs shoot Sadie off to the side of the passage. The purple powered boar can’t turn in time. Physics still apply here. My spear is braced, butt to the floor against the wall, magic flaming point forward. I don’t even have to move as the boar charges and flinches, hooves skidding as it tries to stop, spear tip pushing up under its chin and out the back of its fat sweaty neck. Dark blood rushes down the haft of my weapon and covers my hands. The war boar quivers, huffs, and collapses sideways to the floor, yanking my spear from my grip. I tug the spear. While it’s not the sword in the stone, I’m surprised how much effort it takes for me to retrieve the spear and give a quick poke to eliminate the chance of zombie Baconator.

  “Can you smell what I’m cooking?” I shout, pumping my fist in the air. Then I fall over.

  “Yes,” Sadie says, standing unevenly and brushing herself off. “Let’s all yell a little bit louder, so every monster in the labyrinth can come find us.”

  Ding.

  Your Impale is now (Emerging, Level 2).

  Your Summon Satyr is now (Emerging, Level 2).

  Your Sadie: Burning Fists is now (Emerging, Level 2).

  Your Sadie: Bestow Flame is now (Emerging, Level 1).

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  She stops and stares up in the air. Apparently, she gets notification readouts in her vision as well.

  “Okay,” Sadie says. “Maybe a little bragging is in order.”

  “Hold on,” I say as the words fade. Two large boxes float in the air before me. One reads “Forward Charge” and shows a little figure zipping along under it. The other says “Summon Boar” with a picture of curved tusks.

  “Skill choices?” she asks. “See how easy that is when you have me at your side? No way you could have done that alone.”

  “Easy? I can’t stand up, I’m gushing blood, and we’re both beaten to a pulp. But I wouldn’t have survived without you. Thanks for that. But now I have to choose.”

  How much damage do I take summoning a boar? It hurt like hell to get Sadie. But that boar was pretty powerful and much better as a first strike, massive damage thing. Was forward charge that purple eye spell? Do I get to go way further on a charge? I couldn’t reach the satyr when we first approached. Maybe with a forward charge, I could. They both seem to be ways to enter a fight with a bit more power than me failing to sneak up on a guy. Weaken myself for a new pet, or put myself in the line of danger, charging headlong into battle? If I summon the boar, does Sadie vanish? If I resummon a satyr, is it always her?

  My vision blurs. “Sadie, I’m hurt. How do I dismiss this so we can we figure how to stop this bleeding?”

  “Swipe sideways. You can call the skill tree back later.”

  I swipe my hand and the boxes slide away. Sadie bends and tears my jeans leg open to see the wound. I turn away.

  “Looks like I levelled you up, too,” I say, gritting my teeth. “Summon Satyr Level 2. That’s making you stronger, right?”

  “I think I may have been involved in levelling me up,” Sadie nods. “When I’m healed, you can reinforce the summon. Can’t do it when I’m hurt and it takes a minute. I’ll gain some vitality levels, gain some new skills, my fire will get a bit hotter. You know. The usual. Kind of… yeah… you know…”

  “Sadie. You okay?”

  She nods with a half-smile. “It’s going to take more than a few bruises from some stupid pig to stop me. But we need to heal up before continuing. Both of us.”

  I peek down at my own leg. It’s a gross gash longer than my hand. Now that I’m out of the heat of battle and more aware of it, it’s throbbing in pain.

  “You saved my life when you took him away from me,” I say.

  “Don’t let it go to your head,” she says, searching in the folds of her toga. “I was saving my own life, remember?”

  “You looking for medicine? You have a healing salve?”

  She pops a handful of something into her mouth. “Nope. Oats. We need to wait this one out.”

  “I’m going to bleed out.”

  She shakes her head. “We’re not in an active fight. Healing will be accelerated as we rest, as long as we’re undisturbed. Look.”

  She lifts her hair over her eyebrow, licks her finger, and rubs the blood away. There was a cut there. It’s gone.

  “Now, that was a little boo-boo,” she says, chewing her oats. “Yours is a bigger boo-boo. That’s going to take longer.”

  “So besides sitting around, what do we do? I’m guessing you don’t have any handy-dandy healing spells.”

  She shakes her head. “Neither of us are primary healers. Easiest way I know is you can speed the heal timer with food and staying still.”

  While staying still might help our healing, it also brings to mind an adage about sitting ducks. We need safer haven.

  “You happen to have some more oats?”

  She wipes her lips on the back of her hand. “Nope, not anymore. That doesn’t work for humans anyway. Rest a bit longer. We get a fire going, that also speeds up healing. You know what else fire is good for?”

  She nods to the dead boar.

  Yep, it still smells like bacon.