Ch. 2

Here's another fact: 'Martin Flint has a horrible sense of direction.'

I ran until my legs burned, and then I ran a little more, and then I pushed it even further until it seemed as if my feet, calves, and thighs would abandon my body in protest, and when I could run no more I walked as far as I could, all to put distance between me and my father's apartment building.

Eventually, I crossed a bridge and stopped on a street corner, collapsing on a metal bench exhausted.

I tried to get my bearings. Keyword being tried. Once, when Mom had been…less hazy than usual, she'd told me I had my grandma's sense of direction, that was to say, her lack of a sense of direction.

You would think that having lived in this city for nearly seventeen years, I would know my way around like it was my backyard. That wasn't the case at all, as I was a serial shut-in and the most exposure I got to the city was walking a quarter-mile to the convenience store for snacks and another in the opposite direction to the bus stop, and I still got turned around doing that occasionally.

It didn't help at all that the sun had set about twenty minutes ago and the streetlights had yet to turn on in this part of the city, so I was cast in almost complete darkness. Luckily, it was mid-summer in Gotham and though usually windy it was not too cold. I did my best to ignore the question of what I'd do when the weather worsened.

The part of the city I'd found myself in was completely caked in graffiti, which was typical for Gotham, but even the street signs were covered here so I wasn't sure what district I was even in.

Looking around while I caught my breath, I spied a building different from the others, it was covered in graffiti and filth just like every other construct in the area but almost all the windows were broken and it looked noticeably abandoned.

Now, logic dictated that going in was a horrible idea, I mean a seedy building at night in Gotham was bound to be a drug den, or a gang hideout, or any of a number of places that I would not want to be found. But frankly, I didn't care at this point, reality had set in, and it was depressing.

Dad was…maybe dead, and involved in something to do with a mystery Stagg Industries drug that had brought some sort of shadowy black ops team to our home packing heat that didn't at all inspire friendly cooperation.

At some point in the recent past I had been injected with said mystery drug—most likely by my own father—which evidently granted superpowers. Which was cool, I would 100% have signed up for that had Steven been like, "Marty, you're a good kid, I'd like to give you superpowers." I mean what kind of weird pessimist would I have to be to not want special powers?

But he hadn't done that, instead he'd personally injected me without my knowledge, or at the very least facilitated it.

I…wasn't sure how I felt about it. Had this been three years ago when the state had dumped me on him, I'd probably hate him. But the man had grown from 'that stranger I sometimes asked Mom about' to simply 'Dad.' He wasn't a particularly loving person, hell I don't think he'd ever outright said the words "I love you" in all my time with him, but he showed he cared in other ways.

Despite his consistent nagging on my lack of motivation in life, he got me anything I asked for without a second thought. He kept me fed and tried to get me involved in a number of sports. Hell, he even took me to visit Mom in hospice the couple times I'd asked.

But, he was also now the reason I was possibly on the run from the shady black ops, and for all I knew maybe they were justified in chasing me down, the MES-182 I'd been injected with had hardly seemed stable in every single subject before me, 218 people had not survived the injection, some of them dying in horrific ways, why should I be any different?

I mean, I certainly didn't feel like I was dying, aside from the aching in my legs.

Anyway, all these things compounded together meant I really really just wanted to walk into that building and find somewhere quiet to rest for a while and hide from the people possibly looking for me. In the best case scenario they didn't pick up on the very blatant clues that I had generated in my escape, but I didn't hold too much hope there.

I forced myself up with a groan and started trudging towards the abandoned property.

After several minutes of exploring in what seemed to be an abandoned warehouse, I found a broken set of stairs that lead to an office on the second floor that had a viewing window one could watch the bottom floor of the warehouse from.

The stairs were mostly broken to the point where I was up to my chest in rubble and debris and the first solid step was the 6th or 7th—it was hard to tell with the amount of trash littering the place. Still, that office was my best shot for decent shelter tonight, so I needed to find a way up.

Taking a glance around the cavernous warehouse I quickly determined the only way up would be to climb up there somehow.

I looked at the stairs and took a running start barely even cognizant of the fact I'd done so for a second, such was the reflexive nature of the move.

At the last second I turned my momentum towards the brick wall, turning speed into traction on the vertical surface until I had gone nearly level with the office's landing and quickly hopped off landing on my feet at the top of the stairs.

I stared down at my grey running shoes in amazement. It seemed like I really was just a parkour expert now if I could pull things like that off at the drop of a hat. I had thought maybe I'd have the knowledge without the skill to pull it off, but that wasn't the case at all.

That was so weird. It was such an abrupt change in my capability. I can't even think of a proper comparison or a name to give to describe what that felt like, but I'll give it a shot. Imagine you're a basketball player who broke their leg and are stuck in a cast for several months, and when you finally get it off you suddenly found yourself capable of jumping high enough to dunk when you couldn't before, all without any remedial training or physical therapy. That was what it was like for me, except instead of a broken leg it was just an utter lack of athleticism in any way until suddenly I had it.

Turning my attention to the office I scanned my lodgings for the night. There was a large leather couch on one wall of the office that would serve well as somewhere to sleep after I got all the dust off it, the small window was thankfully intact, and there weren't cigarette butts, discarded plastic bags, and bottles of alcohol strewn all over like there were downstairs. It was likely no one had been up here in years considering the dust that had accumulated as a thick film over everything.

I did my best to clean it all without any cleaning supplies, doing my best to whack the dust off the couch cushions and office chair onto the carpet, and then rolling up the filthy carpet and propping it outside the door, which opened a large rectangle of considerably less dirty space where I'd removed it from.

I shuddered at the still grungy appearance of the space, Mom's sickness had left me as the one who cleaned most of the time when I was younger, and that didn't change much with my—with Steven. It had left me with a deep appreciation of a clean space.

Now, it was time to figure out how the hell this new ability of mine worked.

I reached into my bag and pulled out my laptop and it's charging cable, if I was lucky there'd still be power in this office.

Please, let at least one thing tonight go right.

I plugged it into the wall and waited with bated breath for the charging indicator to blink on my laptop.

The small LED blinked green and I suppressed the urge to shout with relief.

I scrolled through my Steam library for a game that I was close to being finished with.

Eventually I settled on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for a number of reasons: I had a couple of saves that were close to finishing the last achievement I needed for the game, funny enough the achievement was for beating Alduin—the final boss of the main game—which I had never actually done on an unmodded save.

Also there was a plethora of play-styles the game permitted and I wanted to see if my player character influenced the abilities or skills I got when I finished the game.

My character on this save was a level 79 Argonian which I had elected to make as skilled as possible in all casting magics. Focusing on Destruction and Illusion spells in particular to control the battlefield, while I used Alteration to buff my armor.

I loaded in to the save which featured the boss fight already active and in its last stage.

Oh, I remembered this! This was when I'd saved right before I was about to die. This was confirmed when the massive black dragon breathed a stream of fire and my death animation played. Unfortunate.

I reloaded the save again, only to get flambéd again. Another reload. Another death to the World-Eater's inferno. It seemed I had less than three seconds to react upon loading in.

This time upon loading in I turned to the side and rolled instantly, the fire breath missed me by an inch and continued missing as I kept momentum—keeping just ahead of the stream of flame.

Instantly after it ended, I swapped my spells in both hands to the Ebonyflesh spell and then cast it dual-handed. It would negate most of the damage I could take here when stacked with my enchanted armor. Then I swapped again to Icy Spear in one hand and Frost Rune in the other to abuse the slight weakness to frost all dragons possessed. I cast the runes in his path, while pelting him with the spears as I continued moving sideways forcing him to turn into the runes I had placed, each one detonating in an icy explosion.

He tried to take off from the ground to recuperate but as his animation began, I used the Dragonrend shout to force him down again.

The fight continued on like this for a few minutes, with me pausing occasionally to drink mana potions or heal a stray hit. Until finally his head fell to the floor defeated and my Argonian began to absorb his soul.

When that animation completed, a banner flashed in the corner of the screen, informing me I had completed 100% of the achievements in this game.

Just like last time the screen went completely black until words began appearing in a blocky white font, a green background fading in as the words wrote themselves across the screen.

But this time it seemed to be taking a while. The word: "COLLATING," was repeated on the screen over and over until it finally spewed out the results.

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" AND EARNED A BOON!

CHOOSE TWO ABILITIES TOTAL FROM THE OFFERED ARCANE SCHOOLS BELOW!

-ALTERATION:

Detect Life-When channeled, you become able to see living things through walls as mist silhouettes. Does not function on beings of non-organic origin. Coloration of mist indicates hostility towards you.

Ebonyflesh-When cast, your skin darkens and hardens substantially for a period of 60 seconds, allowing you to weather attacks you would not otherwise be able to. Especially strong blunt attacks are capable of breaking this effect.

Water Breathing-When cast, water near your mouth is converted to breathable air for a period of 120 seconds. If water is especially polluted air quality may suffer.

Paralyze-When cast at a target, their body is paralyzed for a period of 30 seconds. Targets with strong bodies are capable of resisting and breaking the effect early.

-DESTRUCTION:

Icy Spear-When cast, a spear of hardened ice forms and launches at your indication. Multiple spears may be formed and launched one at a time or as a volley.

Wall of Storms-When channeled at the ground, a lingering puddle of lightning forms and extends upwards for four feet. Walls last 30 seconds. Walls may extend to a total of 200 feet in length.

Fire Cloak-When cast, cloaks you in a protective shroud of flames, inflicting burns to any attackers while providing a limited impermeability to other flames. Flame cloak burns at a steady 600°F, hotter flames may overpower and dissipate the cloak.

Fireball-When cast, a ball of condensed flame will be launched at your target and expand into a fiery explosion. The explosion is spherical in shape and 6 feet in diameter. Multiple fireballs may be formed and launched one at a time or as a volley.

-ILLUSION:

Invisibility-When cast, you are invisible to all sight for 60 seconds or until you attack or interact with an object.

Clairvoyance-When channeled, a translucent trail of mist will lead you to your current goal. Requires clear visualization of goal or target.

Hysteria-When cast, anyone in a radius of 30 yards is subject to terror and flee from the area for a period of 60 seconds. Targets with strong minds are capable of resisting.

Rally-When cast, anyone in a radius of 30 yards is emboldened and gain stamina to fight anew for a period of 60 seconds. May fail on targets with weak bodies or especially cowardly personalities.

I gaped at the plethora of options before me. How would any of this even work? In-game I had a pool of magicka to fuel my character's spells, but how would it translate to real life? Would it even work?

I shelved my disbelief for a moment to review the abilities. There were Alteration, Destruction, and Illusion spells; so my power almost definitely took into account how I played the game then, or at least how I ended it. Good thing I hadn't loaded up my stealth archery save. Magic was a bit more desirable of an ability then a skill I could pick up with enough practice.

Also, how come I got to pick two options? Was it because of how much time I had spent playing Skyrim? Or maybe it was just because the game had so much content in comparison to Dying Light?

Either way I'd have to pick carefully here there were some powerful options here if used correctly.

So to start off the list: Detect Life. In the game it functioned pretty much as described here and was useful when paired with a stealth build or to preplan where to place runic traps if the enemies patrolled the area. Though the main benefit to it that I could see was that, like in-game, it colored targets in its radius by hostile intent. Considering I was possibly being hunted, an ability like that would be pretty handy.

Next was Ebonyflesh. Not much to say on this one other than it would be useful if I intended to tank hits but the warning that enough blunt damage may break it worried me a bit. How much was too much?

Water Breathing was useless to me. I didn't intend to be going deep water diving any time soon.

Paralyze was useful situationally, but suffered from the fact that I actually needed to land the attack on a target, and that it was only a single target at a time. Not to mention the duration was lower than I'd like and if it based the 'stronger body' metric off my own physique, it would hardly ever work.

Onto the first of the Destruction spells: Icy Spear. This one was probably one of my favorite spells in the game, and I was tempted to pick it based on that alone, before the modifiers that it had now. But being able to conjure multiple of them and hold them until I needed to launch them—setting aside how that mechanic could possibly function in real life—sold me on it.

Wall of Storms seemed more like an ability to corral a target or cover an escape when used outside of the game environment, unlike the dumb NPCs in the game who would march through the lightning field, real people would be more cognizant and move to avoid it. I'd probably avoid this one.

Not much to say about Fire Cloak other than I was uncomfortable with the idea of being on fire even taking into account that it didn't harm the caster, no matter what benefits it gave me.

Fireball was tempting. It was the signature mage spell in multiple games and universes and it was just so damn cool to throw fireballs around. Unfortunately I didn't live in a medieval world but a modern one, where things called gas-lines existed and might set whole neighborhoods ablaze should I mess up.

Now for the Illusion spells.

Invisibility was useful, and I considered it pretty heavily but ultimately decided against it, due to a couple reasons. It only blocked me from sight and didn't specify that it muffled sound at all. Also, interacting with an object breaking the effect was very vague. Would it break if I tied my shoes, or opened a door, or took a picture on my phone? It was too risky.

I almost skipped over Clairvoyance out of habit. In the game it had functioned off of quest objectives, acting as a magical GPS, which wasn't really that useful after so many play-throughs for me. But in real life it seemed incredibly powerful. If I needed to find something I only needed to visualize it well, cast the spell, and follow the trail. I could find things that I'd lost. I could find my Dad! That revelation alone had me tapping the spell without a second thought.

Words flashed at the top of my screen

YOU HAVE CHOSEN YOUR FIRST SPELL! CHOOSE ANOTHER!

I would use it to find my Dad, and figure out what the hell was going on with everything in my life going sideways all of a sudden.

The last two illusion spells were useless to me. I didn't want to terrify whole crowds of people with Hysteria, and I wasn't taking Rally either because I wasn't some sort of noble General character who commanded and inspired the troops.

So then that left my second choice to be from the pool I had decided on. I decided against Detect Life as though it was useful, if I was going to go looking for trouble with Clairvoyance, I should really have a spell with more offensive applications.

Ebonyflesh I ultimately decided against again in favor of an offensive spell.

So that left me with either Icy Spear or Wall of Storms. Well, Wall of Storms was visually enticing, the animations for it in game were flashy and I imagined it'd only be more so in real life which was a detriment, plus I just didn't like the ability very much. So I locked in Icy Spear.

YOU HAVE CHOSEN YOUR SECOND SPELL!

CONFIRM YOUR SELECTION?

YES/NO

I tapped on yes and the screen surged with blue light that built up until it was too bright to look at, then I felt something weird in my chest.

I held out my right hand and concentrated, a small light blue orb flickered into being above my palm. Squeezing it gave a very weird sensation it was as cold as an ice cube but had a good amount of give like it was a stale marshmallow.

I felt a drain on…something and suddenly became aware of the fact that I had…magic—magicka—mana, whatever you wanna call it!

It was so weird! It felt like a really warm pool of water somewhere deep within me and I'd taken a chunk out of it and the rest of the reservoir lowered as it balanced the difference.

It was an odd feeling, and I liked it, but I had a feeling that if I didn't let that reservoir of mana inside me fill between uses of magic, or if I depleted it completely I wouldn't enjoy the consequences at all.

Opening my eyes from my introspection, I found that there was a floating two-foot long spear of blue ice floating in front of me. How did I laun—

As the question occurred the blue spear launched itself across the room like an arrow. Thankfully, it didn't go through the window but instead into the desk. It penetrated up to roughly half a foot before stopping. I watched it for a few more moments,as it lost its color, and rapidly melted into a small puddle.

That was…amazing! I was tempted to fire more, to play with my newfound abilities but it had gotten pretty late between running from home, cleaning this office, and finishing Skyrim. If I had any intention of finding my Dad tomorrow, I needed to sleep.

So that's what I did, placing my laptop on the desk and closing it, then reclining on the couch and using one of my larger hoodies as a blanket.

My mind raced with more questions and possibilities, and a general excitement about having superpowers, no matter how I'd received them. I had fucking superpowers! But eventually exhaustion caught up to me.

I woke up to the sound of yelling and nearly rolled off of the couch. Had I been found?!

I heard people in the warehouse. I rubbed my eyes blearily and got on my hands and knees to make sure I wasn't spotted, I crawled towards the bay window in the office to peek out.

There were five thuggish looking men, dressed in baggy clothes, they definitely weren't the black ops I'd seen earlier.

They were gathered around the back of a blue van that had reversed its way into the loading bay.

Was this like a drug deal or something?

A moment later the vans rear doors were opened and revealed that this was in fact, a gun deal not a drug deal.

A crate was pried open with a crowbar to reveal grey foam lining inside, housing several dozen rifles.

To my unknowledgeable eyes the only thing I saw was "gun," but the man who stepped out of the van helpfully expanded on that.

He reached into the crate and removed one of the rifles. "Boys, I give you the HK416 Assault Rifle, chambered in 5.56 and fully capable of 850 rounds per minute. This will solve your boss' bat problem like a wet tissue in a woodchipper!"

A few of the men whooped at that. One yelled "screw the Bat."

Well that explained what was going on. Some gang boss was buying rifles to try and kill Batman. What even is my life?

I wondered idly if I should step in only to immediately discard the thought. They would fill me up with bullets before I even launched an Icy Spear at them.

The situation did spur me into thinking though.

I did have superpowers now, did I want to be some sort of hero? And if I did commit myself to that, should I not act here and now as the only person witnessing this?

That choice was delayed when I watched as a small blur streaked through the air and punched into one of the thugs shoulders, knocking him down, and making him scream in pain. I could barely make out a silhouette in the rafters by the wall from my vantage point. Another followed a moment later hitting a guy in the back of his knee as he tried to make a run to the care of rifles.

"Fucking fuck, Tony you said this place was safe!" Yelled another of the thugs as he dragged one of his fallen friends behind the van.

"The Bat is on Justice League business tonight, and out of the city, my boys confirmed it, 'sides Batman don't use fuckin' bows 'n arrows." The gun salesman, presumably Tony, answered back as he pulled out a pistol and aimed at the rafters.

"What the fuck is this then?! Some Green Arrow wannabe?" An arrow came whistling for the man who said that, only to impact the van instead, plunging the sharp triangular arrowhead into the chassis with the sound of scraped metal. "There!" He shouted and opened fire in that direction, his men swiftly following up.

Hearing gunfire in real life was a lot louder than I'd expected.

Thankfully, judging by the way the silhouette was running across the rafters, they had avoided being hit.

The figure, which I was now fairly sure was a girl, fired two arrows in rapid succession, catching one guy in the thigh, and another in the shin, they fell to the floor screaming in anger and pain. "You fucking b-bitch, I'll kill you!"

One of the remaining two men seemed terrified at the situation, he dropped his gun at his feet and raised his hands in surrender.

"What the fuck Pete?! Pick up your gun!"

"You told me this was low risk you asshole, and I'm not trying to go to the hospital with an arrow up my ass!"

The archer dropped from the rafters onto a large crate before rolling off to land on the warehouse floor with an arrow trained on Tony's back.

"Drop the gun and turn around slowly," she ordered, her voice sounding young.

Tony stiffened and complied, his firearm clattering to the floor as he turned to face her with raised hands. "Oh for fucks sake, it's a fucking kid!" The man seethed before paling as an arrow was drawn on him. "Woah! Woah! Take it easy! Who the hell are you supposed to be kid? The new Robin or something?"

"No. You can call me…"

Sudden movement drew my eye as the man who'd surrendered, Pete, reached down to grab his loaded gun and took aim, stuck behind a glass pane in the moment I could do nothing to help but yell. "Watch out!"

The green-clad heroine dove to the side at the last second, but the bullet still hit her, digging into her unarmored midriff and forcing her to stumble.

She groaned in pain as she crouched with one hand on her bow and the other on her wound as she retreated behind a crate.

"Who warned her?!"

"There's someone else here!"

Tony the Gun Salesman turned to look my way just as I ducked out of sight lying on the floor and holding my breath.

I could still hear their voices arguing.

"Pete you absolute dumbass! What if you killed her?"

Seemingly shocked at the admonishment, Pete retorted. "The hell you want from me Sean? I took her out of the fight didn't I?"

"You shot one of Batman's partners you goddamned idiot! If she dies ,the Dark Knight's gonna break every bone in your body, then come for the rest of us!"

"You don't know that! She might not even work with the Bat."

"This is fucking Gotham numbnuts! Any and every hero on these fucking streets works with the Bat! Carmine's gonna fucking blow a fuse when he finds out whatcha done!" The man screamed, spittle flying from his mouth as he raged at his friend.

"Quiet! The two of you," Tony ordered, "help me load the van back up, we were never here."

With that they loaded the guns back in the van, helped the wounded gang members limp into the back and peeled out of the warehouse.

Leaving me alone again save for the wounded would-be hero who was slumped against a crate somewhere probably trying to stem her wound's bleeding.

I opened the office door and hopped over the walkway railing onto one of the large crates, my footsteps sounding as echoing thumps in the abruptly silent warehouse.

"Hey," I called out in as loud a whisper asI dared. There was no answer. "Archer Girl, are you there? I'm trying to help you."

It was a large warehouse and after she'd retreated from my line of sight I'd lost track of her.

Guess it was time for a Clairvoyance test run. An orb of hazy blue mist coalesced in my left palm. Squeezing it, I focused on the face I'd seen, clad in a green half-mask. A path of mist lead me to the edge of the crate and arced towards the next one, clearly intending me to jump towards it so I followed, and then jumped again when lead, before coming to a stop at the edge of this crate as the mist took a sharp 90° angle pointing straight down.

Guess she was here.

This crate wasn't too high up maybe 4 feet or so, I could just drop down.

So that's what I did, right in front of her.

"Hey, Archer Girl, I—"

Maybe dropping in front of her wasn't the best move because next thing I knew my face was being ground painfully against a rough wooden surface.

Both my hands were held behind me in an armlock as her knee ground painfully into my back.

"Who are you?" She demanded, voice hoarse with pain but still hard as steel.

I struggled to make my mouth work as it was pressed against a crate currently, she seemed to realize this through my frantic gibberish and pulled me back.

"Marty, my name's Marty, I was just trying to help," I proclaimed breathlessly.

"And what was that blue light chasing me?"

Clairvoyance? Oh crap, I didn't think other people would see it when I used it. I didn't wanna tell her anything, especially as I was now skeptical about her hero status, given the treatment I was getting.

"What blue light?" I feigned ignorance.

This was evidently the wrong choice as my arm was twisted further shooting pain up my side.

"Do you think I'm an idiot, Marty? The blue mist that was chasing me up until you dropped in."

"Dunno what yer talking about." My words slurred with pain as I tried to blink away the spots in my eyes.

She twisted my other arm. Definitely not a hero.

I howled in pain and learned something new about myself, I would one hundred percent give in to torture. "Ok, ok, ok. Just stop! I'll tell you! Please just stop!"

The pain let up as she let me go, making me fall forward against the crate again in an undignified face plant.

When I caught my breath she was leaning across from me against another container, pointing an arrow at me.

"Talk, Marty." She ordered.

From this distance that arrow looked remarkably sharp, and persuasive.

"It was one of my abilities, I just got superpowers," I hurriedly admitted.

"Superpowers huh? What else can you do?"

"J-Just that, and I can also make these spears of ice." It was then that I made my second big blunder of the night, conjuring a threateningly sharp Icy Spear right across from someone pointing a drawn-back arrow at me.

Reacting on instinct, I sent my Icy Spear sideways intercepting the launched arrow with the bulkier projectile right before it would have hit me. The two clattered to the floor a ways away, before the spear dissipated leaving the arrow in a shallow puddle of water.

"What the hell was that you f—hey are you okay? Archer Girl?" She had slumped against the crate with her eyes closed.

I drew closer and grimaced at the puddle of blood beneath her. She'd probably passed out from blood loss. I needed to put pressure on the wound or she'd die from bleeding out. I leaned in to inspect the wound in her stomach, turning on my phone's flashlight to do so, it looked like a clean through and through as far as I could tell, at the very least there was a matching hole in the back of her abdomen as there was in the front. I shucked off my hoodie and wrapped the sleeve around the entry and exit wounds, tying it as tight as I could to staunch the bleeding.

God what kind of idiot went out to fight people with guns and didn't even wear a bulletproof vest. Hell, even worse, she was in some fucking crop-top-costume knock-off of Green Arrow's. Now she might die unless she got medical treatment. Crap, I should call an ambulance.

Her head lolled to the side and she groaned in pain.

I grabbed her shoulder trying to shake her awake. "Hey! Hey! Wake up! Stay awake! I'm calling an ambulance for you," I assured her as I dialed emergency services.

"Noooo, no ambulance, no hospital, 'm fine," she moaned out, very clearly not fine, and possibly delirious with blood loss. She then mumbled something about someone named Crusher and how he'd kick her ass.

I hit call anyway only for my phone to promptly inform me that I had no service. Crap.

She was going to die at this rate unless I did something. I climbed back up to the office and retrieved my laptop, tucking it under my arm as I jumped back over to the wounded heroine.

No easy games with healing abilities came to mind in the moment and the few that did where not anywhere near completed and doing so would take too long, so I had to hope that finishing Skyrim again with a different character offered me more, or at least the opportunity to swap my choice.

I loaded into my chosen save, a Level 62 Breton which I had designed to be a Paladin, utilizing one handed weapons and the restoration school of magic.

I tried to blitz the boss as fast as I could, but kept on dying as I tried to keep an eye on the vigilante bleeding out across from me. Eventually, I killed the bastard dragon and waited for my screen to shift.

And waited.

Finally, my screen went black and I sighed in relief as familiar blocky text appeared.

INTENT DETECTED!

YOU ARE ALLOWED ONE REROLL PER GAME, MAKE YOUR CHOICE WISELY THIS TIME.

I tapped my foot impatiently as the words faded until finally my options appeared, and I ignored the other sections as I zeroed in on the Restoration options.

RESTORATION:

Healing Hands-When channeled, whatever is beneath your hands is rapidly healed. Capable of dealing with major wounds through repeated treatment, cannot regenerate lost limbs or organs.

Fast Healing-When cast you are healed of all minor physical ailments and wounds. Cannot fix major wounds without repeated casts. Cannot regenerate lost limbs or organs.

Sun Fire-When cast, launch a ball of sunlight at your target, burning them. Deals increased damage against undead targets.

Repel Undead-When cast, all undead in a 100yd radius flee from you. Powerful undead may resist this effect.

I tapped Healing Hands.

WHICH SPELL WOULD YOU LIKE TO REPLACE?

CLAIRVOYANCE/ICY SPEAR

I hesitated before making my choice. It had saved me once already but had also almost gotten me killed as well. Ugh. I withheld my disappointment and tapped Icy Spear. I could pick up some offensive abilities off another game I guess.

ARE YOU SURE?

Y/N

I confirmed and waited for the screen to brighten and then dim and fade back to the normal screen, bestowing me with my new spell.

I tried to conjure the orb for Icy Spear but it was as if the knowledge I'd had of the spell was just gone.

I focused on my replacement ability instead and a softly glowing orange orb appeared in my palms. I squished the orb in both hands and orange light suffused my hands like I was shining a powerful flashlight through my palm. I moved over to kneel by the fallen archer and removed the hoodie I'd tied around her stomach, now soaked in blood. As soon as the bullet wound was visible I pressed my hands to it, one at the entry and one at the exit.

I felt my mana pouring out of me, as if the reservoir within me suddenly had an open manhole swirling all the mana into it like a draining bathtub.

Then finally it was over and I removed my hands to see no injury under the bloodstained skin, it hadn't even left a scar.

My reservoir felt pitifully low, and I felt sick. My skin felt clammy, my arms were heavy, and I had a sudden migraine. So that's what happens when I run low on mana, good to know. I leaned against the crate and closed my eyes, I'd just…rest here for a moment.

Current Abilities:

Freerunning Proficiency- A [Passive Movement Augment] that grants Martin the ability to parkour pretty well.

Clairvoyance- An [Active Use Magic] that generates a trail to follow to any target the caster visualizes. Requires unbroken visualization of target.

Healing Hands- An [Active Use Magic] that infuses the caster's hands with a healing touch.

AN: Figured I'd put up the 2nd chapter already to help get the story going.