Jeff stood up to meet the new threats with a grunt. It was still early, the sunlight just barely glowing behind the tall mountains. The light behind the prowling monsters cast long shadows onto the rocky ground.

Before him were 3 massive beetle looking abominations. Any bug larger than his hand was massive, but these were truly massive. Their hard armored backs came up his chin. They had spots and round bodies like lady bugs, but the colors were a putrid green with purple spots. Their heads had nasty looking horns that he did not want anywhere near him.

The meditative trance Jeff had been in helped his spirit feel whole again. Whole, but not fully healed. He gingerly reached out his yearning for a disc. There was a sore throbbing pain that shot through him, but the familiar weight fell into his waiting hand.

He didn't want to lose his long range advantage so he attacked quickly. He threw the super sharp disc aiming for the one on the right. It struck the monster beetle hard, but the angle was just slightly off. His projectile dented in the beetle's smooth round armored carapace and bounced off, disappearing at the peak of its ricochet.

He made another disc and felt the strain hit him again. He wasn't in shape to draw this fight out. The one he struck stalled for a moment, but the other two kept scurrying toward him. The one on the far left was slightly smaller than the others. He made it the next target.

The monster's mandibles looked ready and able to tear into his soft flesh. He took a step back and threw the disc overhand like a tomahawk. The vertical disc hit the air and flipped over on its back for a moment before continuing its near 180 flip. The disc flew steeply down in a right to left descent just as Jeff desired.

Moments before the disc struck the smaller beetle it jumped to the side. The disc slammed into the rocks with a loud bang and showered the beetle in gritty shrapnel. Unfortunately, the rocks didn't affect the beetle and it continued its chase toward him.

Scrambling, he reached out for another disc and hurled it horizontally at the leader. He was aiming for the head to see if the armor was weaker there. The beetle ducked its head at the last second, but the disc still struck the top of the head. The disc sliced through the horny protrusions at the top of its head and slammed into the base of the shell where it met the head. The disc had enough force to crumple the area and sink into the flesh beneath the shell. The monster fell and skidded forward on its belly.

"Is it dead?!"

"Not yet. Keep fighting!" Kazi replied.

He was flabbergasted. How was it still alive? It didn't matter. He at least took it out of the fight and he had the others approaching fast. They were only 20 meters away now and he probably only had time for one more throw before he needed to dodge away.

He created a disc and went for a throw that would hopefully take the larger bug on the right out of the fight. He threw a low sidearm toss that skipped off the ground near the monster and came up beneath its left side in a hard upward curve. The disc sliced through two legs before hitting hard into the underbelly. The beetle stumbled over itself and ended up on its back rocking and struggling to right itself.

Jeff wanted to cheer, but the smaller abomination had arrived. He jumped to the left as the beetle trampled up to him. Mid flight he noticed the beetle stop on a dime and readjust to his movements.

Well, crap.

The beetle reached out as he rolled and he felt a mandible just barely miss his shoulder. Then he was thrown off kilter in his roll as his shirt was completely ripped off. The tearing material had just enough pull that it swung him around and plopped him on his back with his head closest to the beetle.

He looked up as the beetle extricated itself from his shirt and went in for another attack. Feeling defenseless he created a disc and placed his palms at its base and braced for impact.

The spiky mandible slammed into the completely flat surface and skittered off. There were cracking sounds and a large chuck of mandible broke off. The force of the blow made Jeff skid along the rocks with his bare skin. Pain erupted from his back, but adrenaline took over.

He rolled to his knees and popped up quickly, still holding his disc as a shield. The beetle was reeling back in pain. It reset, addressing him with a bit more wariness.

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His mind went to the play fights he would have with Ammon. His son would always use his old frisbees as shields. The 4 year old would make him use one as well while Ammon wailed on him with his pirate foam swords. It was funny how useful that little practice was now.

Kazi startled him as it spoke up. "I just got you a new ability. Try making a new disc specifically for shielding."

It took a moment for the directions to process and the beetle took advantage of his momentary lapse of awareness. It charged and Jeff reached out for whatever his new ability was just hoping and yearning for something that could protect him.

Suddenly a golden circle appeared in front of him just a bit past his arms reach. The shield was much larger than the throwing discs. It was about half his height in diameter and floated in the air in front of him. The glowing golden energy was mostly transparent and he could see the charging beetle through the shield.

The beetle slammed into it and Jeff felt the force push him back on his heels despite the beetle never touching him. He had just enough wherewithal to use disc manipulation to angle the disc to the side. The beetle skittered off the glowing energy. It's fierce charge made it rush past him leaving its back exposed.

Jeff stumbled a bit before regaining balance then threw the disc he still had in his hands. He went for a backhand airbounce that would take the disc low and then pop back up hopefully into the creature's belly. He curved it a bit to the right to also potentially hit the back leg.

The creature seemed to have eyes on the back of its head. It dropped itself low to the ground leaving almost no gap between its shell and the ground. The disc sliced through its back right leg and then hit off the right side of the shell with little impact. Unfortunately, the angle was all wrong to do much damage to the hard carapace.

The beetle skipped away, missing half of one leg, and quickly turned again to face Jeff.

The shield stayed oriented in the direction it was first created. Jeff had to manipulate it to bring it back between him and the beetle. He took a step away from the monster and the shield moved back with him. The glowing circular shield seemed to stayed at the same distance, about a meter away from him.

When the beetle hit it he felt the same force on his body. It spread the force so it didn't do damage, but it still pushed him back.

Kind of like a real shield, he figured, except I don't have to hold it and can move it around with my mind. It's so freaking cool!

"Stop geeking out and stay in the fight!" Kazi said, pulling him out of his musings.

Then out loud Jeff said, "Lets see how sharp the edge is."

He raised the shield with disc manipulation. He felt the strain on his spirit, but ignored it as adrenaline continued to course through him.

The beetle took the bait and rushed forward. He brought the disc down pushing the speed as much as he could with his strained spirit and disc manipulation. His shield slammed into the monster, severing its head from its body.

You have defeated:

Horn Crowned Beetle - Level 5

Abilities:

Battle Awareness

Quick Dodge

Hard Shell

Accept Myst Rewards Yes/No

The screen popped up small and on the side of his vision this time. It reminded him that the other two beetles weren't taken care of yet.

He moved over to the beetle on its back and used the same trick with his shield to slay the monster. Now that the battle was basically over he began to flag. His strained spirit was pushed up against its limits again. Luckily, not to the point of being damaged this time, but he definitely felt the Myst exhaustion.

The last beetle still had a leg twitching and Jeff quickly put it out of its misery.

You have defeated:

(2) Horn Crowned Beetles - Level 3

Abilities:

Hard Shell

Accept Rewards Yes/No

"You can go ahead and auto accept monster rewards again," Jeff said to his Spore. "Just hold off on any quest rewards."

Kazi didn't respond, but the screen showed 'Reward Accepted'.

The beetles soon dissolved to Myst and Jeff felt the rush as he broke through the threshold to the next level.

You have leveled up to Level 4!

He quickly grabbed the two heads of the Level 3 beetles and brought them to the Pillar for 9 merit points each. It seemed that the System purposefully left pieces that were severed from the main body behind. He wondered if there was a way to exploit that. Remembering that he severed a large leg from the Level 5 monster, he rushed over to see what it left behind.

To his surprise, neither the head nor leg were there. Instead, where the head should have been there was an interesting looking object.

He picked it up and smiled. He just got his first piece of loot.