continued - 6/8

Kilniara nodded, moaning as she stood and staggered back to the corner. Joe kept his chuckles in as he watched her go before he picked up the stick he'd been using to draw in goblins. He opened his status, then smacked himself firmly over his open arms. His hit points dropped pretty fast, but he had more than enough to take a dozen strikes before he zeroed out. As the strike hit, he felt a twinge, but nothing really more. He increased his strikes until he was losing dozens of HP each hit, both across his bare stomach, legs, and arms. Each hit was soon at full power, but didn't really hurt him that much. He grimaced and ground his teeth, then finally struck himself between the legs. Despite his intentions, he pulled back at the last instant, fear of striking his tender family jewels causing his strike to slow.

Even with the fear holding him back, the stick hit with a hard thwack and the expected pain did not come. It was a phantom, like the stab he felt with the knife, and he realized that just as much as the other three were unable to really function with their stamina zeroed out, they would likely be floored by the pain of actual physical damage if their HP were to be zeroed out. He frowned, tapping his arm with the stick a bit, seeing his HP already at half. As much as he wanted to keep experimenting, the buffer would be very useful for any lucky strike a goblin might get on him, so he stopped and tossed the stick at a goblin, grabbing its attention. He killed the first goblin, got his first level, then popped open his status to see how his new job helped him.