With some difficulty, he managed to use his free hand to jam the end of the spear between the creature’s jaws and lever them open.  It growled and resisted, shaking its head again and breaking several of its teeth against the rebar.   But the fight was quickly going out of the little beast as its lifeblood poured from the neck wounds.

His arm free, Allistor managed to get to his feet.  He swung the butt end of the spear down atop the creatures head, intending to crush its skull.  The tough little bastard took the hit but didn’t die.  Its thick skull protected it from the blow.

Allistor reversed his weapon and thrust the spear point down into the wolvite’s neck.  He pushed until the spear burst from its body somewhere underneath and scraped against the stone of the bridge.  The monster struggled briefly, its tiny brain inside the thick skull refusing to acknowledge its death.  When it went still, several alerts popped up on Allistor’s interface.

The first was a green experience notification showing +1400

The next two made him pause for a moment, still breathing hard from the exertion.

You have learned the skill: Blunt Weapon.

Using the butt end of your weapon to crush vermin and crack a wolvite skull has taught you the value of a heavy weapon with room to swing.

Continue to use blunt weapons to increase your skill level.

Level Up!  You are now Level 4.  You have earned two attribute points.

Allistor felt lightheaded, his legs giving way beneath him.  He sat on the ground, releasing the rebar spear to fall to the stone with a clang.  He could feel the wet blood soaking his shirt along his left side.

Nancy was there, her own hands covered in blood from the wounds she inflicted on the wolvite.  She quickly wiped her hands on a relatively clean section of his shirt, then clamped them down around his arm, trying to stop the bleeding.  A moment later, she looked at him, confused.  She pulled her hands away and stared at his arm.  Then she looked at his back.

“Your… wounds have closed.” She eyed him with suspicion.  “How?”

He was barely conscious.  Though the wounds had closed when he leveled up, and his health meter on his interface showed him at 100%, the healing did not instantly replace the blood that he’d lost over the last hour.

He and his father had learned this lesson early, fighting the octopoid that had killed Leah.  His father was badly injured, the thing having managed to wrap three tentacles around him in the tight confines of the basement.  George had been nearly dead when Allistor finally took a hatchet to the thing’s face and killed it.   They had both leveled up, and George’s ragged wounds had closed.  But he hadn’t really recovered from the blood loss and Stamina drain until he ate and drank, and rested for about ten minutes.