I clumsily leaned back to avoid the slash. Not far enough, though, as it carved a deep furrow into my chest plate, only fractions of an inch from my body. The force sent me spinning sideways as my foot slipped on the sand. Such that I was essentially falling sideways, with a bit of rotational momentum. I dropped my weapon and attempted to maybe catch myself with my hands, only for my right arm to cross my torso as it failed to find grip on the loose sand. I landed painfully on the twisted limb with a popping sound emanating from my shoulder. The breath was expelled from my lungs, due to both the impact and the pain.

GODS that hurts! Fff... uh! No words escaped me but for a hiss of air through gritted teeth. It was definitely a unique sensation. Not quite like any I'd experienced previously. A sort of tearing, ripping sensation in my upper arm and shoulder, followed by a deep throbbing ache. I used my other arm to roughly push myself over, so I was laying on my back. The one I'd landed on laid limp in a way that it very much shouldn't have. At least it wasn't broken, hah. Seemed more a dislocation? Dang it, that was my dominant hand! I flicked another dart of magic at my opponent, then immediately pulled on the curse, hoping to get some restoration from it.

Spell failed. Target does not possess life-force.

Of course it doesn't. I don't know what I expected. It's a statue. I suggest fixing that, System. Would up the realism. The construct shook off its hesitation as its fear was helpfully removed. Just wonderful. I rolled to the side as the sword thudded into the ground beside me. My right arm screamed as my weight was briefly on it, emanating waves of pain from the shoulder all down the arm and into my chest and back. The sword stuck for just a second as its length was buried partially in the sand. I took the moment to kick crudely at the adversary's legs, knocking its feet out from under it. It tipped over and the blade slipped from its hand, remaining stuck.

I scrambled with my left arm to grab the shortsword at my own hip. The scepter was just a bit out of reach. I pointed my blade at the enemy as I struggled and rose to my knees, pointedly ignoring -ow- the pain. I shuffled over and frantically whacked it in the head with the flat of the blade, knocking it back down as it tried to rise. I raised the sword as well and straight as I could and pushed it down, point first into its stone chest.

It didn't penetrate, of course, but the construct dropped limp, becoming an inert lump of inflexible rock. I collapsed on top, splayed out awkwardly and clutching my arm. The discarded blade poked rather annoyingly into my sternum, but I couldn't bring myself to move it at the moment. I don't know how long I laid there, breathing heavily. Now that I wasnt actively fighting, the pain seemed to rush in with fervor. A general burning, sore feeling, but also a sharp pinching right at the base of the arm, too. Likely from the bone being misaligned or something? I should look up on that, see how it works. I kept rambling to distract myself. Eventually though, I cracked my eyes open.

Would you like to continue evaluation? You will be restored to previous bodily condition, unless you object to so. Should you end the evaluation, you will also be restored.

Well, if I'm back to previous condition, I see no reason why not. I'll just be more careful. Also, who would object to being healed? Actually, I can imagine just the crazy, challenge obsessed people who'd do it. Or those wanting 'realism.' Not me though. I'm not crazy. Though that is liable, even likely probable, to change.

I sent my mental affirmation and braced myself. However it went about it, I couldnt see it being pleasant. I breathed deeply, steeled m u nerves and... waited. And waited some more. Where is this healing? I'm starting to get nerv- OH HOLY MOTHER OF MORTALS THAT HURTS. I groaned and spasmed and may have shouted aloud as the bones or joint or whatever roughly aligned themselves and snapped back together. Some sense of timing you have you pretentious wall of text. Warn someone before you go rearranging their bones.The pain -physically at least- faded fast, but I'll be damned if it wasn't intense. I flexed the muscles. A bit sore, fading quickly. See, I'm fine. No reason not to keep going. That was nothing. What, like, fifteen seconds from my first attack? And then I won. I'll do better this time. Surely.

The stone upon which I laid began to shift. I pushed off it, rising to my feet. I gave it a moment to stand as I retrieved my weapons. Well, I wasn't at peak condition, seeing as my mana was sitting at thirteen. Enough for two Feast's or one Whisper, if their costs were consistent. Or a few seconds of Evocation. Maybe I should try out the other one, Walk in the Shadows? Is this 'shadowed' enough? Probably not.

The construct finally retrieved its own sword, slightly shorter than mine, from the sand. And again it began to approach me. Slightly faster this time. When it reached about four strides I lunged forward, swinging my rod at its side. It stepped sideways and inward towards me, the arc of my attack ending just short of the construct. Which now stood roughly diagonal to my orientation. It stabbed forward straight at my midriff.

In an oh-so-graceful pivot, I managed to smack the point of the sword away, diverting it to only graze my side, leaving but a deep line in a piece of leather plating. With its arm extended, I went to slam the head of my mace -is that what it's called? I think that's what it's called- into its unprotected hand. Unfortunately, the inertia of my previous defense gave time for this attack to be avoided.

Thankfully though, my weapon was now positioned just infront of its chest, while its own was far out of useful distance. I flicked mine up, the head bashing into the statue's chin. It's head rocked up and it stumbled back a few strides.

I backed up quickly to put a bit of distance between us. Perhaps ten, no, twelve steps. Just then, it lowered its sword, pointed the tip in my direction and charged. The maneuver looked... crude, in a way. Its run was slow and clumsy, its stone feet sinking heavily into the sand before it pulled them out in a spray of tiny particulates. I tried simply shifting to the side, but it merely altered the angle of its sword. Troublesome. I waited tensely as it quickly approached. When finally it drew within striking distance, I batted its sword to the side, taking only a glancing blow as I held the blunt weapon straight out before me, grasping tight with both hands. The thing barelled into it chest first, canceling its momentum and driving my heels into the sand. My arms buckled under the force and it drew near me as they bent. The stone beast hacked at my side as it struggled, its blade carving deep into my armor. Deep enough to just barely scratch my flesh, drawing out a stinging well of blood.

I fired my last two spells, so as not to let my mana go to waste, at least. The statue froze briefly, then shook its head. I took the short moment to again drive my mace up into its head, scraping along its flat stone chest. Only, apparently it had learned, as it leaned its head back and to the side. Just barely being clipped on the chin.

Spell failed. Target Level exceeds own.

I'm sorry, what now? Since when? It worked before! Unbelievable. Well, except for the evidence being right there. Inspect.

Trial Construct

Level 5* Artifact

*Adaptable

Rare

Well that just isn't very nice, is it now? It seems I'm utterly and completely screwed. Sure, at higher Levels, such a small difference may not mean much. But here, now? A five Level gap may as well be uncrossable. Well, with a person at least, I knew that. They taught things like that to children, you see. How I'd fare against an item though, which surely has a different System? I think I can be hopeful. The failure isn't encouraging though.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Turning back to my desperate struggle to not embarass myself. My consciousness slowed down from its rapid barrage of vague ideas and feeling to actual words as I returned to the real world. My opponent stood in close distance, easily enough to reach out and touch with a bit of a stretch. With its sword lodged in my side armor.

With my offhand, I grabbed the blade of its sword. Holding in such as way as to keep my fingers from the sharp edge, my grip was quite weak. But just strong enough to force the weapon away. My scepter raised to just above my head, and slightly to the right, I brought it down in a slow, telegraphed strike. The statue paried the blow, nearly slicing my fingers in the process. I darted in and grabbed its wrist with my off hand, dropping my weapon with the other. And dodging the falling heavy object. Oops. Didn't think of that. Pulling its sword arm away and out of striking distance, I ran straight into it, driving my shoulder to its chest and shoving it to the ground. It was heavy, but not near as much as the material should be. Which I'd been betting on. My torso complained at the hard impact, but I ignored it with only a deep wheeze. With a stumble, I managed to stop myself from falling on top, and began, quite simply, kicking it in the head repeatedly.

I stood with one leg on its sword arm so it couldn't cut my ankles. My foot started hurting rather quickly, but the thick boots made it manageable. It might have had little effect, but this was supposed to be realistic combat, supposedly, and man, did it feel good. I added some grinding of my heel into where it's face would be if it had one. I also tried such things as stomping on its shoulder or chest region. Let nobody tell you I'm not a flawed person. I went for a kick between the legs, which was disappointingly lacking in reaction.

Eventually its struggles slowed and ceased. It's flailing grew weaker till its limbs grew rigid and inflexible once more. All in all, a much easier victory than the first brawl. Took a bit longer, but significantly less pain involved. Should I go again? The Level of my enemy would presumably increase in the next round, by five if it was consistent. My Skills already don't effect it at the current Level. Also, if I set a higher baseline, I'll have higher expectations in the course. Which I could probably still meet, but... Ah, whatever. One more go. But no more.

I affirmed my intent with the System, which had once again invaded my vision with the same text as before. A warm, fuzzy feeling spread from the cut at my side, radiating in waves. Being covered, I couldnt see it, but I could feel as the flesh regrew in a matter of moments. The damage to my armor visibly repaired, strands of fabric reweaving themselves and leather melting and flowing into place.

The ground rumbled. Instead of rising, the prone statue sank, sand blowing over it in an unfelt wind. Curiously, I kicked some of the sand away. But no, the stone had vanished. Why wasn't the sand disturbed by its disappearance? Did it become sand? That makes the most sense, actually. The ground is still rumbling at this point. The sand began to shift again, bulging upward in a mound till something broke through the top. The grains cascaded down, dispersing and flattening. I really do want to know how this works. The System can't do that, I know. It handles Skills, Classes and organizations, but I was taught at least that it can't do anything physical. Well, ignoring physical stats like strength and... well, you know what I mean.

Anyway. The thing that came from below was not like the previous two. It was massive, for one. A towering collosus of stone at least double my height. It held a large broadsword in both hands, long as a man with a gleaming razor edge. Its arms as thick around as my torso.

I may have miscalculated the risk.

I switched out my weapon for the shortsword. I get the strangest feeling blunt force won't be very effective here. This probably won't be either, but oh well. What is this emotion flooding me? My legs wobbled and my arm shook as I held the blade in front of me. Ah yes. Fear.

Logically, I knew that I wouldn't die here. Probably. I'd be healed, graded and sent on my merry way. Should you say that though, I'd be unlikely to hear you over the pounding in my chest and the rushing in my ears. Rationality takes a backseat when faced with a horrible monster, it seems.

The beast didn’t waste time. It lunged forward with terrible speed, swinging its sword in a wide arc aimed directly at my torso. Of course, i tried to parry, but my arms folded like paper before it. I was only saved from being bisected when the blade rotated at the last moment, slamming me with the flat instead. I was smacked to the ground, tumbling from the force. Ah, there goes my arm again. The left this time. Wonderful. My ankle too, twisted violently as my foot caught on the surprisingly hard sand while my body kept moving. I hope this doesn't become a common occurrence.

As the sword arced down towards me, and the shadow of the collosus blocked out the sunlight, I triggered the last Skill I'd been granted from my Patron, charging it with what little mana I'd regenerated. Walk in the Shadow was odd. A chill, not cold, more the absence of feeling, spread across my skin like an oil slick. To my sight, the borders of objects blurred and mingled with each other. Yet, I could still distinguish them despite. I moved, as much as I could, out of the path of the blade. From what little I saw, wisps of purple wafted off my grey tinted flesh. The massive sword hit the ground and I simply wasn't there, like smoke moved by the disturbed air. Sand exploded from the point of impact, pelting me with tiny projectiles.

Unfortunately, my brief movement both exhausted my mana and carried me out of the shadow. My vision snapped back to clarity and my movement suddenly lost momentum. The pain of my injured limbs savaged my mind. I think the arm might be broken, actually, based on the stabbing feeling coming from the middle of it.

Sudden déjà vu struck me and I kicked at the legs of the thing. It accomplished nothing but a burst of pain in my foot. Not much compared to everything else, but annoying. It's head swiveled toward me, and a cold dread built in my gut as its leg drew back.

"Oh f-"

Pain. All consuming, stabbing pain. The air burst from my lungs as my chest crumpled inward and blood sprayed from my mouth. My ribs fractured, no, shattered on impact as they were driven into my lungs and heart. My mind was clouded, all thought absent against the pain. It was only an instant, before my bones snapped back together, my flesh knit itself whole and my limbs straightened. Breath once more filled my lungs, only to be expelled as I violently sobbed on the ground. Sand stuck to my face from the tears that rolled from my eyes. I laid there till my tear ducts were dry and my chest ceased to heave, shuddering on the ground.

When, eventually, I rose, I snorted, and began to laugh quietly. A half-laugh, half-cry sound that emanated hollow and without humor.

"How pathetic," I chided myself. A hint of hissing sybillance crept into my tone. Just the barest whisper. "To be reduced to such a state. What did I hope to accomplish, hmm? Against something ten times my power, against such a behemoth? What right have I to challenge that?" My words were scathing, though they were directed at nobody. "I should've fled. Just like I do from every challenge. Like I did before, and again and again and again. I'll never be him. Should have never even tried."

A face in my mind, long forgotten, mostly intentionally. More a silhouette than a man. But his eyes were clear and distinct. Orbs of burnished red-brown with flecks of reflective gold. Long, dark hair and clad in armored robes, anointed by a flickering shape of a crown. I banished him with all my willpower. No point thinking about that. The past is the past.

Well. That was embarrassing. I sure do hope nobody was looking at me. I took a look around as I wiped the sand from my face. Nothing really different from the last time I did. Wide, open sands. Walls in the distance. A few fights still going on, the majority ended. Of those still in progress, roughly a third were up against the monster I'd fallen too. None were bigger. I couldn't see much from the distance, but it appeared they were, mostly, being similarly trounced. Only one or two appeared to be holding their own, much less winning. Which made me feel slightly better. Oh look, a notice.

Evaluation ended. Assessment:

High potential.

Low starting point.

Strengths include good assessment of environment and enemy, as well as reaction times. Lacking in base skill or talent, or ability to act on observations. Lack of integration of Skills with combat, consistent with others of similar circumstance.

In totality: Above Average for group.

Wow. Only minorly demoralizing. High potential was surely a good thing, but the rest wasn't exactly glowing praise. Still, praise it was.

------

From there, I was told that I was free to leave if I wanted too, or I could sta for the remaing time to train. The remaining time being most of the hour. Turns out fighting is actually a relatively quick affair.

Having nothing better to do, I stayed. The 'training' consisted of me repeatedly brawling with a low-Level construct while the System chimed in helpfully with criticisms of my actions. Such as 'adjust your stance in x way,' or 'raise your weapon, your guard is lacking.' Occasionally accompanied with a small force that pushed me to move better.

By the end of the period, when I was forced to leave, I did do something I'd never done before. I picked up a Skill from a source other than my Class.

Basic Scepter Proficiency, Level 1, acquired.

It didn't overtly change my fighting much. Or at all, really. Seemed more a marker of progress, at least until it increased in Level. Which didn't happen here. I wasn't able to pick up something for the sword though. Both because I spent less time on it and I'm pretty sure because it's a more complicated weapon.

And so ended the class. The first to have any fruitfulness. Which isn't saying much considering I'd only been to two others. Which hadn't even begun to do anything yet. Though, it is still the first day. I'm sure they'll prove their worth soon.

Now, onto a very important dillema. What to do with the free period? I honestly have no idea.