AN: Aside from one really early fight which is considered 'hard', all challenges are based on level and challenge rating, so no fight that they will ever be up against... I believe, unless I do something on purpose... is an average - or near average - difficulty.

Chapter 10: Bitten

Conan watched Hakuba-kun struggle for a good position to hold Hattori at. Able or not, that didn't take away pain, not when game concepts were made real. He knew they could stay conscious, but wasn't sure if that was better or not in the long run. Games, unlike reality, only took account of numbers, not mental whiplash and who knew what else, where the concepts warred with what he mentally thought should happen.

Of course, it was hard to think on this watching Kuroba twitch now and then, eying the door and scaring him as if someone were on the other side.

"What's wrong with you?"

"I don't know." Kuroba stuffed his hands in his pockets, his clothes falling off of him. It made him look he was wearing a kimono or something, showing off the bandages as well as the scales that Conan could just barely see near his throat. He was still getting used to their appearances, forgetting that his own was different as well unless it was brought up. "It's really hard for me to sit still. I just want to go out there and grab whatever I can." The guy flashed him a grin. "It's the thief in me."

"Just go do it then. You're a lot more quiet then us and can see in the dark. I doubt, in or out of game, anyone is going to catch you."

Kuroba shifted from foot too foot, a whisper of pain in his movements, before he went to the door. "I'll meet you back a the campsite. I don't splitting whatever I can find here."

"I don't care about that. Just go."

And then he was gone. Conan looked over at Hakuba who was half carrying Hattori, half struggling to get him back into position.

"I suppose that means you'll have to carry his armor then, Conan-kun."

Conan didn't mind, looking around the room. He wished that the bandits had his old armor, or at least something near his size, but walking around in even the elf's wouldn't be pleasant. "It's fine. I'm not hurt and it's not that heavy. Let's go."

They both had to go slowly and quietly but Conan figured they could see better than most of the humans they ran into, so he didn't bother with stealth unless he could only see a short distance ahead of him.

It didn't take long to get out, Hakuba apparently not as hindered by Hattori's weight as he thought he would be. Once free of the confines of the cave, it was like a weight was lifted off of his shoulders. Dark or not, as he couldn't tell much of a difference besides in what color his vision faded into, that place would be giving him enough bad dreams.

Conan let Hakuba lead them back, both to make sure he could look around and survey the area, and because Hakuba seemed to have some weird instinct when it came to the forest and could tell where they had been and not.

Laying Hattori down on a bedroll where he could rest, Conan stared at the dead fire. "I can get some wood and light that if you want."

"It's fine. It's not that cold out and I would rather it didn't mess up my vision. You can rest now, Conan-kun. I'll wake you in a few hours."

Conan looked Hakuba-kun over. Most of his wounds had been long and deep, his clothes in just as bad a shape as Kuroba's were in. If not for his armor, Conan had a feeling that Hattori's wouldn't be looking so nice either. "I need the rest but-"

"But Kuroba-kun and I need less, not to mention that fact that I will not be a good lookout once the sun rises."

Conan let out a breath and laid down on his own bedroll, feeling badly about this. He didn't need much sleep and Hattori would be waking up before he even got all of his. "I'll wait until he's up and Kuorba-niisan's back. You can't take on any danger on your own anyway."

"True enough." Hakuba went over and, instead of lying down with them, climbed up a tree and sat comfortably on one of the lower limbs. He didn't think he'd ever seen the detective so… comfortable. It was a strange situation as it was and whatever Hakuba had chosen as background or race or whatever defined his personality, was clearly at odds with his true one.

"It kind of makes it hard to talk to you when you're way up there."

"I can hear you just fine." Hakuba smiled down at him, almost blending in with the trees. Even with his one color of vision, it was hard to make him out in contrast to the foliage. It was probably what Hakuba was going for. "On a less positive note, that fight hardly went as I was expecting it to."

Conan shook his head, staring up at the leaves far above him, raising his hand to them and starting a small fire on his palm. "Kuroba-niisan and I were taken down so easily before. I had thought that with more of us, it would be harder to do. I don't want to think what would have happened had I missed him even once."

"I doubt it will always be this difficult. Hunting had improved greatly since Hattori-kun and I leveled. We'll simply have to try and do that before taking on a group of marauding kidnappers."

Conan nodded. That had been the plan before they were all separated and they had run into the bandits. It was still a good plan but… it wasn't a good story, which probably meant the game wouldn't give them much down time. Then again, he hadn't played many video games, so maybe this one allowed leveling outside of the story.

Kuroba came back a little after, scaring both him and Hakuba-kun. Conan swore to himself and sat up when the guy touched his shoulder, seeming to appear out of nowhere behind him. "Don't do that."

Kuroba smirked and put his bag down. "But I need practice. What safer way is there to do it then this." He opened it, making Conan wonder where he had picked it up. It looked like something that feed was hauled in. There was a small bag that Kuroba dropped a black silk pouch his hand, not weighting as much as he thought it would when it jingled so much.

"What's this?"

"Money. You need new armor. That bag is magical too. Don't lose it and don't put anything sharp in it. Anything in your pack that's not sharp can go inside of it and it'll weight less." Kuroba went back into the larger bag, pulling out clothes and a robe. "Hakuba-kun, these are for you. They should fit. I found some I can wear too. They're bandit clothes but hey, you can't really tell."

Hakuba got out of the tree for that, going over and grabbing the rather plain, brown clothes. "Thank you."

"I took your other set anyway." Kuroba flung a black robe around himself, hiding most of the damage from his current set of clothing. "While armor does still seem overrated, it does help when losing clothes. Next time, maybe I'll go in naked."

Hakuba-kun coughed and Conan had to raise his eyebrows, a slight smile there. "Then they'll know right where to hit you to win."

Kuroba laughed in return. "I guess you're right. Either way, buying a needle and some thread the next time we're in town is probably a better investment." The thief yawned, going back inside the bag. "Besides that I found some food we probably don't need, but it will save you the trip in the morning, Hakuba-kun. I also found a second dagger for myself and picked one up for you."

Conan nearly missed catching the small dagger when it was thrown at him with so little warning. He glowered but the thief went back to his spoils.

"I picked up some money for myself but I figured to just split it with you, since you need to buy some supplies and so do I. Hakuba-kun, if you need anything, just ask."

"As of right now, I believe I am fine." Hakuba-kun went off and changes his clothes, apparently not liking them watching or the half naked look the two of them were sporting. After returning, he went and climbed back into the tree. "Conan-kun, you should get some rest now. You'll have to be watching by yourself in a little while. Are you okay with that?"

He had to be, didn't he? Hattori needed his rest and the other two were barely standing. "Don't worry, I'll be fine." Mentally he needed the rest and hopefully he could get it now. It seemed the game worked in weird ways when it came to sleeping, allowing him to simply by wanting to. "Night."

"Goodnight," he received from Hakuba-kun, Kuroba-kun looking over a few coins and flipping one repeatedly in the air. Right, he would need to help him with magic casting in the morning. Conan couldn't understand why it was so hard. All he had to do was reach in his pouch now and then, wave his hands the way his body wanted him to move, and say the words. Sure it was slightly harder than swinging a sword around but he hadn't expected someone like Kuroba to need help with magic.

At least that was something to look forward to. He'd find a few really big rocks for the training.

…

'Training' wasn't as fun as Conan thought it might be. All of Kuroba's spells that he needed training in, he had a set cast of two. There was an ice attack that he could use but it was easy to just make a flame target that the thief could practice on instead of hurtling it at him.

"That's one cool thing. The game gives us everything we need to cast." Kuroba, new to the pouch at his side, at least knew where to get the ammo for his spells now.

"You really haven't played a spell caster before, have you?" Conan raised an eyebrow. "That's kind of surprising."

Kuroba chuckled. "I prefer a more hands on approach. As you noticed, magic makes that hard. You're the first player I've known that doesn't care at all that they're not equipped for battle and just goes charging in. Doesn't work so well, does it?"

"As long as I can get some distance it's not so bad. I'm sure Hakuba-kun and I can snipe pretty far in the dark." Speaking of which. "Where did those two go?"

"Hunting, or so they said. It's a nice way to level up without dying, but I need a fighter with me. Up close and personal doesn't work too well with you." There was a cocked head and a grin to go with that statement. "Unless you want to try. We're better now and it's just hunting. If we get in trouble, we run. We should also go back at some point and get that deer Hakuba-kun grabbed for you – or ask him to get you another one. It will help."

"Yeah." He hadn't even tried combat while riding. It didn't seem all that different to him and he knew how to ride a horse already. "Maybe when we're not hunting deer or whatever we run into though. I'd like to see what I can do."

Flexing his hand, Conan looked around. The sun was setting so he'd have advantage seeing, sure that any nocturnal animals they ran into would as well. Kuroba had used up all his good spells but since he was likely going to be relying on his blades, that didn't really seem important.

"Hey, you're just going to walk off like that?" Kuroba skipped over to him, catching up easily. "What if they go looking for us?"

"There's no blood and Hattori knows I'd put up a fight."

Kuroba sighed, falling in step beside him. "You know, I can see why he gets annoyed with you."

Conan frowned. "Huh?" The thief's eyes spoke of only understand that Conan couldn't quite grasp. "Who, Hattori?"

"Yeah."

He shrugged, letting the thief think what he would. "I'm sure he doesn't find me half as annoying as I find you. Why do I keep ending up with you anyway?"

"Fate? Destiny? The fact that Hakuba-kun and Hattori-kun can't stand each other and yet they work perfectly and we don't, so we should practice?"

That was point enough and Conan felt his shoulders slump a little. He should be practicing with Hakuba, the other long range fighter. How Hattori and the other detective worked so well together in this strange setting with all these strange rules when they not only didn't like each other much, but directly contrasted one another when it came to their abilities, only showed that both didn't want to be disadvantaged. They were able to function well, well enough to have rescued them and who knows how many other people that they had freed days ago. He could work with Kid. Maybe.

"Maybe we should be sneaking up on these animals and not just scaring them all away while you wear a hole into the ground with that glare."

Conan threw an angry glance at Kuroba before, not admitting he was right, slowing down and trying to use the shadows and soft grass to mask his movement.

His own footsteps sounded so loud, leaving deeper marks than the thief's, even though he weighed less. Or at least, he hoped he weighed less. He had been able to lift Hakuba-kun fairly easily.

Conan froze.

Echoing around the woods was a deep growling noise, somewhere behind him. He thought it might be a wolf, more than one since he was sure there was a slightly lower, off rumbling to go with the first, but there was something inherently wrong about the noise that he couldn't explain.

Turning slowly, Conan searched the trees, Kuroba crouching beside him a second longer than he had to before ducking behind one of his own. Conan had to figure he had the right idea there and hide himself behind a neighboring tree, trying to find the source of the noise.

His muscles tensed when he saw something large and black making a bee-line for them, paws almost as silent as the wind brushing across the grass as it moved, teeth glinting in the remaining light of the sun.

It was a monster. That was all he could call it. While it looked like a dark wolf, it had a second head on the shoulders of one body, both dripping salvia as it growled and bit at the air.

Going straight for them.

It was fast, fast as lightning, drawing fangs towards skin faster than Kuroba could draw his dagger from his side. If not for the thief having taken a place slightly ahead of him, he wasn't sure the… mutation? wouldn't have set its teeth on him instead.

Kuroba was able to block the first one with the new thin rapier he carried, similar to Hattori's- but the second head dug teeth into the soft flesh of his arm, making the thief yelp as it pulled him, digging fangs in as deeply as it could. The dog's head tore away, leaving long, angry gashes down Kuroba's arm, blood flowing enough that Conan wondered if this game took into account anatomy and a major vein had been hit.

Kuroba ignored the injury though, dripping blood onto his clothes as he drew out his dagger, stabbing both his weapons at the dog creature and drawing its blood – something black and fowl smelling, from it in a cry of pain, the creature turning the whine into a snarl.

Conan took a step forward, knowing Kuroba couldn't do any major damage without a teammate, frozen in place for the third time when the thief yelled to him in a loud, commanding voice.

"Stay back!"

"But-"

"I said stay back!" Greenish gold eyes he was sure Kuroba didn't really have, as he had seen him up close before – though could never be sure if the guy simply wore contacts – turned towards him with something closer to anger than worry. It was enough to stop him, one hand reaching into the pouch at his side while he spoke the words before drawing out what he needed.

Fine, he wasn't going to just ignore this fight though. "Magic Missile." The three small bolts of energy went for the dog, striking it and leaving pinpricks of blood in their wake, staining the ground further with the sickening black goo.

Hurt and angry, one of the dog's heads missed Kuroba, the nimble thief not nimble enough as the other head of the beast dug into the thief's side, fangs gouging out lines through even the scales on his body. Standing on pure stubbornness, Kuroba struck at the dog again, hitting it but not getting as good of hits in now that he was either out of it or the dog was crazed enough that it was simply too hard to hit it.

"You have to kill it," Kuroba urged, spending a second to eye him. "Use that same spell. We'll worry about your magic later."

Conan had been going to use a spell that didn't take quite so much of out of him. Kuroba had been unconscious before, they all had been. He didn't think it was all that important that he killed the thing with one hit.

Then again, he'd never faced something that looked like this either, not since the goblins in any case – and those were at least sane enough to have a language. This dog seemed… reckless, murderous for the sake of simply being so. Conan drew back into his bag, waving his hand once more in the practiced gesture. "Magic Missile."

The dog fell with a whine, one of the heads closing its eyes while the other stared hungrily, even as death took it, at the both of them. It made Conan shiver as he went over to Kuroba, seeing the thief kneel down where he was, covering part of his wounds.

Kuroba was panting, his blood staining the grass. It wasn't the first Conan had seen one of them so badly hurt and he was getting used to it. There was something wrong with Kuroba's eyes though. They had just won and the thief looked… scared.

"What's wrong?"

Green, worried eyes turned to him as the thief gave him a weak smile. "A lot of bad news. We need to get back to that town, fast, and hope I can find someone to help. If not…"

Conan frowned, looking Kuroba up and down. He was bleeding but there didn't seem to be much else wrong with him. "What are you talking about?"

Kuroba swallowed slowly enough that Conan could see the bulge in his throat move slightly, standing, and started walking back the way they had come. "There are some concepts about this game I suppose level ones never encountered. That, right there, was one of the worst things you can run into when you're not near a healer or a town where you can find one. I'll explain when we get back. Walking and talking kind of hurt."

Conan kept quiet, trying not to draw the attention of anything else in the area. They hadn't gone far from their little campsite, and hopefully Hattori and Hakuba would be back soon. He didn't know what was going on but he had a bad feeling about this. Kuroba, unless he had to be, was never serious.

While they had time to kill, Conan went to his pack once they returned, wrapping up the bleeding injuries. It seemed to help some and Kuroba leaned against a nearby tree, his eyes closing now and then though they would open as if he were afraid to fall asleep. It was likely that small amount of adrenline that was keeping him awake.

Hakuba and Hattori returned with a few snow rabbits, the former placing the animals down after some small chatter on the better way to catch a rabbit ended. Both noticed Kuorba's new injuries and Hattori checked Conan over, not taking his word that he was alright.

"What happened to you?" Hakuba asked after Hattori had done his little look-over and they both settled around more comfortably.

"We ran into something I didn't think we'd see here. That's not really the issue. I almost wish the little guy had been the one to get bitten now. He would have had an easier time of it than me." Kuroba sighed. "How much besides basic attacks and basic magic spells do you know about this game?"

"Not much," Hakuba admitted. "Though I figured you knew that."

Kuroba nodded. "There are, obviously, slightly more in dept spells and such. Conan-kun here can put people to sleep, and that's not really an attack. There are charms as well, curses. I didn't get to see it but you have one of those too, don't you?"

Conan nodded. He had hexed the bandit leader with a curse when they had faught him. "I figured the game had stuff like that. That dog didn't look like it used magic though."

"No, not magic." Kuroba unwrapped his arm, letting the wet bandage hang off where it still remained half tied. "Something a bit more simple. What do you notice?"

Hakuba stayed where he was, shaking his head. "I just see puncture marks and gashes. You really should keep it wrapped. There may be some bleeding rule. Then again, if there was, I'm sure you'd be aware of it."

"There's not, not unless you lose a limb or something along those lines." Kuroba's eyes settled on him, Conan standing to see if he could get a better look at the injury. He had wrapped it, but he'd been mostly focused on simply covering it up than the opposite.

He put a hand to his nose when he was beside him. It was small but he could catch a faint odor, stale and bitter at the same time. "What is that?"

"Something akin to acid, I suppose." Kuroba wrapped it back up. "That creature carried a disease with it. I felt when it entered my blood with the first bite. That's why I didn't want you getting near it."

They were all quiet, no one really knowing what to say to that, as Kuroba setted himself against the tree again, his arm gingerly at his side.

"And can't ya jus' get Hakuba-kun here ta find ya some plants an' get rid of it?"

"Disease. I don't have a rash. Only a healer can do it and we're short that." Kuroba looked up. "Worse case scenario, I'll be dead in two days. Best case scenario, I can last maybe a week."

They were all silent for a while, trying to take that in. Hakuba was the first to his feet, suprising all of them.

"Isn't there something we can do it to slow it? I know my medical history on the plants here is wanting, but I'm sure I can find something that will at least slow it down-"

"Without any of that medical knowledge you need? Not likely. These plants are different than our own. I'm sure you noticed." Kuroba smiled, something happy warring with the fear still in his eyes. "I'm sure there's a healer in town. The only problem is town isn't down the street and we don't know how much of it was damaged by whatever had attacked it when we were separated, or if a healer would have stayed somewhere like that, where they could get attacked."

"Damn it! Why'd ya guys go off on yer own?!"

"It wouldn't have mattered. All those things like to do is attack people. It was near here. It was better we fought it standing and ready than letting it get the jump on us." There was a light laugh following his words. "I'd for sure be dead then."

Conan was thinking. He doubted that the medicine skill he picked up would help with this, though he didn't see why it wouldn't. Maybe there were just different levels of what he was capable of. Right now, there was one thing he could do. "We leave now," he spoke quietly. "Deer. Hakuba-niisan, can you find some for all of us? They're faster than us and we won't get tired then, not to mention Kuroba-niisan won't have to worry about traveling and being hurt. We'd only need two." Hakuba was light and he knew he didn't weigh much.

Hakuba let out a breath. "I already- Yes, I can find some. It just might take me some time. Give me an hour and come with me." Hakuba tipped his head, white hair the only color that set him apart for the crimson night around him. "I have animal handling as well but it's easier if we're both there. Hattori-kun, watch Kuroba-kun."

Hattori nodded, eyeing Conan. He had to roll his eyes. "I'll be fine."

"Yer lucky that thing didn't bite ya too. Where there's one, 'ere's more than one."

"I'll be fine."

Hattori let out a breath. "Ya better be."