The Gift of Loot Chapter 34: Chapter 34: Grin and Bear It

Read chapter 34 of The Gift of Loot by Jack_Golightly on NovelPedia.

"Hey," Grimm called. "That's a nice backpack you got there." Oh shit , Thomas thought. What he said was, "Thanks. Your mama told me the same thing last night." Did it make sense? No. Was this the time for a yo' mama joke? Well, yo' mama said it was hilarious. Grimm's face darkened, and Thomas got a ghostly Combat Foresight image of a blade of steel heading straight for his face. He stepped aside from that, obviously , and a heartbeat later, the blade of steel passed through where he'd been. Thomas whipped his head in the opposite direction of where his teammate was standing. No reason to let the crazy torturer know where she was. "Jo, run!" But he may as well not have bothered. When he glanced back to where she really was out of the corner of his eye, she was already gone, presumably for the exit door. Smart woman. Thomas's thoughts were cut off by another warning from his Combat Foresight, and he yelped as he was forced to sidestep another projectile. Seriously, how was Grimm generating these? Was he pulling them out of his ass or what? The answer came to him in a flash, partly thanks to his health sight, and partly because his brain was soaked in adrenaline and he was thinking faster. Those blades were made of metal. This dungeon was dropping level 2 Earth mana crystals. That couldn't be good for Grimm's health or possibly sanity, but Thomas didn't care about— Oh shit, duck! He did, and the next blade missed the top of his head by a hair. Literally. He got a little bit of a haircut. Enough of this craziness. Thomas jumped to his feet only to dive again, but this time behind the huge body of the dead three-headed bear boss... or, really, the dying body of the three-headed bear boss. It was down, but this close, Thomas could hear it take ragged breaths. I could kill it and get the loot ... No, not the time! Seriously, though, Grimm was such an asshole. He could have speared it through the brains in about three seconds, grabbed the loot, and been out of the dungeon. Though, if that was his usual M.O., he probably wouldn't be the "Grim Reaper" of Twitch's gang. Whatever. Thomas used the boss's bulk as a shield, and he saw through his health sight as Grimm ran around the other side of the monster. He probably meant to come around and surprise Thomas from the back. So Thomas climbed straight up. The thing was the size of a semi-truck, and bear fur made great handholds. Unfortunately, from this vantage point, he had a clear view of the meadow beyond. He saw three things at the same time. Against all sense, Jo had not gone for the exit. She had dropped her Gift of Hiding because... She was busy freeing Twitch from where he was pinned by big metal blades. The man was writhing around, not making it easy, though one of the blades was already free. She was working hard on the second pinning blade just as Grimm made it all the way around the back of the boss. "Jo! Behind you!" Thomas yelled. Jo turned and, in a move so smooth it looked Hollywood, cut the incoming blade out of the air. Then, with her free hand, she wrapped her hand around the second blade that was still pinning Twitch and yanked it free. Tossing the bloodied blade contemptuously to the side, she ran right at Grimm with her sword held high. Grimm snarled something extremely unflattering about women and shot another quick blade at Jo. This one was small, about the size of a dagger, and unfortunately, it was followed immediately by another one. Again, Jo cut the first out of the air, but was just an instant slow on the second and cut it at an angle. The short blade had a ton of momentum and spiked upward as it was knocked away, striking her right forearm just under the elbow. Jo dropped her sword in shock and cried out as the Still Waters left her mind. Twitch, however, was free and charged at Grimm on all fours. People aren't meant to move like that, and seeing it tripped every uncanny alarm in Thomas's mind. Note to self , he thought, do not take random dungeon po