At the very last moment, the looming scaled head of the beast jerked to the side as it rushed past me and it bit deeply into my left shoulder blade.

Pain blossomed in my head from its excruciating bite, so much so that I nearly lost consciousness right on the spot.

“Gaaaagh!” I cried in sheer utter agony, while the horrific monster wrenched me off my feet with a firm twist of its neck muscles and the continued momentum of its charge.

Mercifully, it then released its bite. Less mercifully, it only did so to toss my now limp form like a rag doll across the clearing away from it.

I sailed through the air, struggling from the pain to stay conscious. Eventually, I landed once again after what felt like an eternity of feeling weightless, wrapped in a cocoon of agony and confusion.

Strangely, the impact with the ground, while rough, did little in the way to compete with the now fiery throbbing sensation coming from my shoulder area. My head was left spinning, as I briefly struggled to recollect where I was and what was happening to me.

A distant sound.

Someone’s voice.

It was calling out to me from somewhere.

“Get yourself up, and get moving new girl. If you don’t, I’m just gonna have to cut in and finish things up myself.” Screamed the somewhat familiar voice of a young woman.

I knew that voice. Her name was… Bobbie, right?

“Ugh.” I groaned pitifully, as I struggled back to my feet.

The fog and disorientation in my head, were slowly clearing, replaced by lucidity and a large spike of adrenaline.

“Fricking monster…” I groaned, still unsteady on my feet, as my cloudy vision began to clear, and I could focus my vision back on the beast as it oriented itself in my direction once more.

It's now clearly visible and menacing eyes were watching me as I stood back up, almost as if it was waiting for me to ready myself again.

Was that some natural instinct for the beast, or a sign of how intelligent it might be?

In any case, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that it intended to kill me, therefore I’d have to do the same.

If I wanted to survive.

“Nice.” Cried out Bobbie from somewhere up in the trees. I did a quick glance in her direction to see where she was exactly, only to see her now standing on her feet and her spear braced for action in her hands. “I almost thought you were going to pass out completely there. Now brush it off, and get back in there.”

Instead of replying with a complaint or request for more details on how exactly I should go about ‘getting back in there’. I just tuned out Bobbie’s voice once more and focused entirely on the threat in front of me.

The monster deciding it no longer wanted to wait, or seemingly having decided I was more than ready enough now, began another thunderous charge toward me.

Not having the time or mental clarity to develop some elaborate plan, I’ll simply do what I did last time. Only this time I would do it better.

As the beast drew nearer I chanted the words for my barrier spell as my hands formed intricate gestures and patterns to amplify and strengthen its effects.

Finally, at the conclusion of my spell, and just moments away from impact, it sprung to life.

Our barrier revealed

“Chromatic Shield!”

*Ka-Kraang* *Screeeech*

It all happened almost exactly the same as last time. The large drake impacted against my shield at an angle, destroying it, but also redirecting its momentum just enough away form me to avoid being it.

Also like last time the monster turned its head and opened its long toothy maw and angled itself to take another bite out of me.

This time though, I was prepared.

A second shield, cast without any other skills buffing it, sprung to life just in front of the reptile's salivating and eager mouth.

Casting the spell this way meant the shield was only at a fraction of its normal strength, but it was enough.

Not anticipating its presence, the beast bite down on the hastily made shield, ending its existence. By then though, I had already backed far enough away from it to try and have another go at taking a bite out of me.

“Nice spell combo!” Bobbie shouted at me excitedly. “I mean, it was just the same spell twice, but still. It worked amazing, keep it up!”

Intending to do just that, I launched another salvo of shadow bolts at the still very much alive and hostile Lesser Forest Drake.

Again they each impacted with a satisfying pop and sizzle against the monster’s scaly hide, but the only result was another irritated hiss and glare promising bloody murder from the drake aimed in my direction.

“You’re gonna need to hit it with something harder than that new girl. Use another spell or something.” Bobbie called out to me.

“The only other spell I haven’t used is just a gust of wind, but this thing is way too big for it to have any real impact on it.” I yelled back.

“That’s perfect!” She shouted happily. “A gust of wind you said? Use that to help you dodge its attacks.”

“Wait. What?” I shouted back at her, not listening for an answer as my mind processor her suggestion.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

I was only really thinking of my Dark Wind spell in terms of its offensive capabilities, but why should it be limited to just that? The were no restrictions on how spells could be used. There no spell police saying ‘Don’t use your spell this way little girl!’ or whatever.

Actually, the spell police are probably the IDPA, but that’s beside the point.

“Fine then.” I shouted over at Bobbie, not having heard a word of whatever she had said after my blurted-out and rhetorical question. Instead, I prepared myself for another of the beast’s charges, and set myself to try out an old spell in a new way.

As predicted, they began a mighty sprint in my direction again, its large feet digging up dirt and grass from each impact with the ground.

As it got closer and closer to me, I decided to go with an unmodified version of the spell. I needed to react quickly to use this right, and long chants and hand gestures were both time-consuming and very telling for any enemy with half a brain watching me do it.

Once the large green lizard had gotten within striking distance again, I activated the spell, not in its direction but angled downward to my left side. The result was it launched me a short distance off the ground and to the side, well away from the angry drake’s charge and also its bite range.

“Yes! That’s what I’m talking about. While I may be a little bit biased, wind magic is still best magic.” Bobbie announced with her ample excitement on display.

It was pretty effective, I had to admit. My landing was a bit rough and awkward, but not something that can’t be improved and fixed with a little practice.

The drake, clearly irritated at my casual avoidance of its charge, began another much quicker turn and sprint in my direction. Again, I simply performed another casting of Dark Wind to launch myself safely away from its attack.

The monster and I repeated this dance a few more times after this. It was clearly not willing to change up its tactics, or maybe it was simply unable to.

I, however, was getting more and more comfortable at using this spell for an entirely different purpose than I’d originally thought of. Another feeling creeping up inside was the sudden worry at how long this back and forth with the monster could last. Each spell cost me mana, and that was a limited resource.

Feeling a bit apprehensive about what to do, I called out. “I’m not sure how much longer I can keep this up.”

“You’re a freaking mage, new girl. You’ve got so much mana it's comin’ out your asshole. Stop you’re complaining, and just focus on getting the job done.” She shouted at me like an angry drill sergeant.

“R-right.” I said with a nervous wince, my still very injured shoulder reminding me of its presence and what the cost of failure looked like, or at least felt like. In fact, the throbbing and pain from it only seemed to be getting worse and worse.

Maybe Bobbie was right about my mana being able to last, but now, I was not so sure my body would be able to keep going much longer in this fight.

Dismissing my worries and focusing on the lizard as it made another charge, I almost casually dodged out of the way with my Dark Wind spell.

Now that I was so effortlessly avoiding its attack, it began to seem less and less terrifying. The feeling and emotion were strange. I almost began to feel bad for monster now. It was trying so hard to hit or bite me, over and over again, but it just kept failing, over and over again. It was kind of sad really.

That said, I still wasn’t too sure of how I was supposed to win either, my shadow bolt spell only seemed to annoy and irritate the beast, not do much in the way of injuring it.

Reflecting back on my earlier success with the shield spell, I decided to see if the idea of, more being better, held true in this case as well.

Nights Swift Arrow

Shadows Sharp Bite

Darkness strikes down all that I see.

“Shadow Bolts!” I cried out, after having incanted and cast the spell with all the available skill buffs I had.

However, instead of launching them at the monsters right away, I held them suspended in place in the air above where they had been conjured by the spell.

In addition, I was able to pull the little black motes of energy along with me as I moved, with a deliberate use of my mana manipulation skill. Diligently they followed me as I moved about the clearing, avoiding the beast's frenzied attacks.

When it gave me another short reprieve I cast the spell again.

Nights Swift Arrow

…

“Shadow Bolts!”

And again.

Nights Swift Arrow

…

“Shadow Bolts!”

Over and over I cast it, until I must have repeated the process at least a dozen times.

After a while, the monster and I both took a moment to look up at the now cluttered sky of the clearing we were in. It was now filled with several dozen little black orbs of energy, each of them waiting to do my bidding.

“Woah, so cool.” Bobbie muttered out loud, mostly to herself.

The monster's reaction was less positive though, in fact, its eyes seemed to grow wider ever so slightly in alarm at the potential danger it suddenly now found itself in.

While Bobbie may have thought that the spectacle looked ‘cool, and the monster might have fit slightly intimidated by it, I was desperately struggling to hold all the magic suspended and in place at once.

I was casting this spell way more times than I’d ever attempted at once, and used it in a completely new way by holding them back without being fired.

Uncertain how much longer I could hold the magic in place, I released the eager orbs of darkness at their intended target.

However, emboldened as I was by the control I had just demonstrated, I continued to guide the tiny bolts all the way to their final destination.

Despite the wary and cunning lizard’s best attempts, it was not nearly nimble enough to avoid even one the speedy little black bolts as they all raced toward it at the same time. Each one homing in on and impacting in the exact same place. It’s eyes.

Over and over, in an excruciating but futile display the drake continued to thrash about and try to avoid the tiny little balls of death that I had conjured as they continued to seek out and drive themselves into its large vulnerable eyes.

It wasn’t even a dozen bolts in before its cries became more pained, and less irritated.

Another dozen and the sounds it was making grew more desperate, and the gore erupting from where its eyes had been was making me feel slightly queasy from just looking at it.

After the final dozen bolts sacrificed themselves in their destructive impacts, the large scaly monster was lying motionlessly on the ground, bluish ichor pouring freely from the ruin of its face.

It was dead.

“Holy Shit! You did it!” Bobbie was shouting, her hands and spear held high up in the air as she was jumping up and down in excitement from on top of her tree branch.

I could see her there with a huge beaming smile on her face as she was looking down at me with pride.

She was right.

I really had done it…

Maybe I wouldn’t die an early and grisly death after all.

Just as that thought crossed my mind the world began to spin around me, and everything went black.

Congratulations! - Quest Complete

Side Quest: Monster Hunt!

Success: 500 Exp.

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