Lilly groaned as a piercing stab of pain went through her head. Her whole body ached as she struggled to get up from the floor.
“What…” she muttered quietly.
Suddenly, everything came back in a flash, the fight, the skeletons, and the reason why she felt like she got hit by a truck. Lilly sat up and looked around, and found herself back in the safe room that they had found prior to the fight. She saw John asleep in one corner of the room and Amy was looking over their supplies in another. Amy noticed Lilly was awake and hurried over.
“Lilly! You’re awake! How are you feeling? You got knocked out pretty badly back there,” Amy asked, fussing over her.
“Yeah, I’m fine besides the fact that I got my ass handed to me. What happened? Did you guys take care of the undead?”
After she checked to make sure that Lilly was fine, she told her about how they had finished off the skeletons.
“So like, you got thrown way down the hallway by that big one, but luckily it sacrificed one of the small skeletons to do that, and John took down one of his, so we only had two left to deal with. After that, all we needed was one of John’s skills and Eli’s [Piercing Shot] to seal the deal,” Amy said. “Although between you and me, if we were outside, just one of my spells would’ve been enough,” she winked conspiratorially.
Lilly sighed tiredly and sat back against the wall. Taking a second look around, she noticed that someone was missing.
“Hey, where’s Eli?”
“He’s keeping watch outside right now. I’ve got next.”
“Ah.”
She fell silent, and Amy checked her health before returning to her corner of the room. Laying back, Lilly thought about her performance the past few days, which it had to be said, was plain terrible. She didn’t have the firepower of Amy, nor the sturdiness and raw combat prowess of John. She couldn’t scout as well as Eli and she didn’t have the range he did. Quite frankly, she felt fairly useless against intelligent fighters and monsters that she could not cut. Even Amy, who specialized in explosive spells that were unwieldy in dungeons, had enough variety in her arsenal to contribute to combat. Stumped on what to do, Lilly got up and started pacing quietly around the room.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Noticing the anxiety practically wafting off of her, Amy looked up and watched her pace for a moment before calling out softly.
“Hey, Lils. What’s up? Why are you pacing like a mage in a library?”
Lilly looked up, mildly surprised, and embarrassed that she forgot she was in a room with other people. She strolled over to where Amy sat and dropped down to sit with her legs crossed. She got an expectant look from the whimsical mage, and stumbling with her words, explained her predicament. After a few minutes of garbled talking, as Lilly tried to explain without whining, Amy got it.
“Ah. Gotcha. You feel like you don’t have a specialty, right? After all, assassins aren’t exactly strong in head-on confrontations and you aren’t flexible enough to fill another role in our formation. Hm. That is a problem.”
Amy sat there, looking pensive for a few moments.
“Hey, do you use any weapons besides swords?”
“Well, I can use daggers, but I can learn any weapon I pick up, really.”
“Oh! Then why not pick up an axe or warhammer? Perhaps a flail or mace? That’ll add some oomf into your blows and certainly allow you to be a frontliner. Maybe you can do a greatsword or a claymore if you’re a stickler on swords. What’s the harm? You can be a weapon specialist, and you won’t have a problem carrying any of it with your inventory skill.”
Lilly blinked at her, slowly. Why didn’t she think of that?
“That’s actually a really good idea. Now I feel kind of dumb for not figuring that out myself.”
“Well, you’re new to this whole fighting thing and this world in general, I don’t blame you. That’s what we’re here for, to remind you it isn’t your world anymore. As if the skeletons weren't enough.”
Amy laughed quietly. After a long discussion on what weapons she could try, Lilly went back to her corner to think.
***
After John woke up and Amy went to relieve Eli, Lilly told the others about her decision to learn new weapons.
“Excellent! It’s a good step towards learning your fighting style! You’ll certainly have a lot more flexibility when it comes to picking your fights. Your blades are certainly useful against flesh and blood, but bone and metal are difficult to pierce. Perhaps we can get you a flail or two once we head out.”
Eli nodded pensively.
“An iron flail shouldn’t cost much since we should be going for an unenchanted weapon to start.”
“What about now, though? Unless we leave the dungeon immediately, I can’t get a heavy weapon to use.”
John shrugged.
“Just loot one of those big fellas. Some of them carry good weapons. Too bad the last one was too battered to use. Anyways, it’s about time for us to get moving again. How are you feeling, Miss Rogue? All hale?”
She smiled weakly.
“Yeah, I’m fine now. A little shaken up, but what can you do after being thrown about like a baseball?”
“Baseball?”
As if on cue, Amy popped her head through the door behind them, indicating to them that it was time to get going. Time to challenge the dungeon again.