INTEGER UNLIMITED

While he walked through the desert, Leo realized how peaceful it was when his life wasn’t in imminent danger. Peaceful was nice, no terrifying monsters, no powerful rumbling, nothing exciting or fun whatsoever.

Leo very quickly grew bored with his current situation, with the poison having mostly cleared out of his system, he felt tempted to trigger another horde of monsters. Even a few would be fun, so he could test out his new gentle strike and find a way to make it hit even softer. But despite how mind numbingly boring it was to walk in a terrain with nothing to look at, he knew it was the best choice in his situation.

The heat from the sun was miserable, but Leo persevered as he ran through whatever thoughts would keep him distracted. Hours passed and soon it had become sunset, the moon rising to take its place. Leo was happy to have a reason to sit down and enjoy a good meal.

He took out a small wooden container holding a premade meal, the sauces and spices enticed him greatly as he began to eat. While he ate, he greedily lapped up more water. Though he tried his best to conserve his water supply, uncertain just how long he would wind up in the desert, he went through another canteen of water in moments.

When he finished, he swapped into a new set of clothing that he hoped would keep him safer from the sand. Though once he finished his nightly routine, he realized he still wasn’t tired. Leo laid down his bedroll and tried his best to fall asleep, but his mind just wasn’t tired.

He tried to fall asleep as best as he could, but his mind was still full of energy as if he had a full night’s rest. After an hour of failed attempts, he gave up on trying to fall asleep, hoping he would be able to rest later. While not sleeping had plenty of benefits, Leo did still like the relaxing aspect of sleep.

Once he had packed up his bed roll and sloppily patched up some of the more grievous damage to the backpack, he looked around for the next activity to do. This was when he realized he would just be doing more walking, as he felt the bored bore into his skull.

Once he continued on, Leo felt conflicted over his current situation. While these changes would help him on his journey, he couldn’t help but feel sad over losing the option to sleep or enjoy the darkness.

While Leo’s body continued to walk, his mind retreated into his imagination. Somehow walking in the desert at night was more boring than walking in it during the day. He figured that most of the dangerous monsters would be asleep during the night, as he risked using less subtle means of travel.

Less subtle obviously meant running and long jumping, as he left giant clouds of sand wherever he landed. This proved to be somewhat entertaining, as Leo made it a game of just how far he could go in a single jump.

This game would’ve been much better if Leo had any sense of distance, a skill he still sorely lacked. The best jump he could measure was a solid 150 Chevrolet Impalas in length, and while this method wasn’t subtle, it was certainly faster.

Leo landed once more, as the sand settled around him, he was able to see something in the distance. This was big news for him, as he hadn’t seen something in far too long for his tastes. Whatever this something was, he hoped it would either help him get through the desert or good training.

Each jump sent him further than the last, as his form improved over the course of his buffoonery. His last landing left him a short distance from his target, as he waited for the dust to settle before he walked the rest of the way.

As the dust settled, he finally got a good look at the sight before him. It appeared to be a small caravan, most of the carts were destroyed alongside dead bodies littered alongside it. This was accompanied by the large body of an Armurion collapsed by the side of the wreckage.

Leo rushed forward, concerned about what happened and any possible survivors. He grabbed the closest person to him and tried to see if he was still alive. The man was slightly older than Leo, his youthful appearance offsetting the rot of death. His black hair sparkled in the moonlight in contrast to his bright red blood.

Leo placed the man back down, not having seen any signs of life. The blood was still wet, still fresh, even if he couldn’t have known Leo still cursed himself for not being here in time. Leo looked around at the bodies strewn about, hoping to see even the smallest sign of life.

He couldn’t find any movement from a visual glance, but Leo couldn’t just give up hope that maybe a survivor was still around.

“IS ANYONE STILL ALIVE?” he choked out through light tears and heavy concern.

He hoped that just one of the bodies would stir, that there was someone he could save, but he couldn’t see anything that would ease his panic. That was until he saw movement from one of the carts, the canvas fluttered as he saw someone step out.

She managed to take two shaky steps out of the cart, her face covered in blood as she managed to squeak out a few words.

“Please, help.”

Leo walked forward, even if he didn’t know anything about treating injuries, he had to do something, as he saw her barely holding onto a jutting piece of wood for support. Though his stride was broken, as he felt the ground move and watched as a look of fear set into her face.

The Armurion had awoken. Leo assumed in haste that the group managed to defeat it at the cost of their lives, not considering that the beast could have simply taken a break. His second pause gave the Armurion ample opportunity to take a survey of the situation and make its attack.

Armurions enjoyed playing with their victims, whether it was playing catch or squishing them. Leo was about to get a firsthand example, as he saw it drop down towards the girl, planning to flatten her with its open palm. He didn’t have time to think of a safe plan that would work, knocking her away with wind pressure could kill her and he couldn’t possibly close the gap in time.

Leo decided to gamble everything on a punch, as he focused everything he had on softening the blow and condensing the damage it had.

[Combat Ability: Gentle Strike]

He angled his punch upwards, hoping that he could cause as little damage to her as possible. Though in his fear he closed his eyes, opening them to find half of a dead Armurion and a girl knocked on her back.

He ran forward, praying to whatever Gods exist in this world that she would be okay. When he got to her, he found she was still breathing, though it seemed as if she was barely holding on.

“Do you have medicine or something I can use?” he begged with frantic desperation, hoping she would reply.

She took a moment to mutter out, “Green cart.”

He looked around until he saw one of the smashed carts had a green colored canvas as its topping. He burst towards it, as he threw aside anything that wasn’t obviously medical. It took him a few moments until he found a box with a red cross on it, the closest he had to medical knowledge was that such a box had healing items.

He rushed back to her, thankful to find her still breathing. He opened the box to find bandages and gauze, extremely useful in most situations, sadly he had no idea how they worked. Underneath the medical supplies he found three vials, two containing bright red liquid and one containing a bright blue liquid.

He knew this was technically stupid, but as he saw the light leaving her eyes, he decided to risk stupid. Leo opened one of the red vials and poured it into her mouth, hoping this was a drinkable health potion and not something extremely deadly to ingest. He looked on as the last drop left the bottle, hoping for a miracle, for any sign of continued life.