[The second wave will begin in 3 seconds.]
[2]
[1]
[Initiate]
Dylan watched the air in the center of the room fluctuate, ready to play a card at any time. The pulsating was more violent than it had been with the spiders. Before, it was as if someone had dropped a rock into a pond; now, it was like that same person had thrown a handful of gravel. Ripples impacted each other, making the space chaotic.
Why does teleporting monsters here cause such a big scene? Dylan wondered, watching as the vibrating waves of air coalesced into three distinct points of light. It’s nothing like when it takes people to the Tutorial or the Boon Wars.
He remembered the scenes of his brother and his uncle being teleported by the System before. There’d been no disturbances, they’d simply vanished. One moment there, and the next gone.
Dylan didn’t have any more time to think of the matter. The points of light suddenly brightened. A brief flash followed with a final wave of air, revealing three figures standing in the summoning circle.
Dylan played the Phantom Soldier while observing them.
Medium height, muscular build. Bordering on humanoid, they looked like bipedal blue-grey lizards with frog heads and shortened tails. Wide, clawed feet supported a slightly hunched-forward gait. A long pair of arms held their weapons while a small, vestigial pair hung from just below their chests.
One carried a longsword, another a pair of daggers, and the last a bow. They each wore only a crude loincloth, although the archer had also strapped a pair of small waist quivers on either side of its hips.
Dylan felt his mind split as a new turn began, choosing to generate. He pulled one of his Mana Bolts into his hand while staring at the creature with a bow. Can’t let that one stay.
The lizards, as Dylan had decided to refer to them, began to act. The two equipped for melee combat charged together and the archer drew an arrow from one of its quivers.
He ordered the soldier to move forward and guard in front of him while he activated his card. Swiping his arm in front of him, a bolt of energy shot across the room. He guided it to curve just slightly to miss the advancing lizards, continuing to the one in the back line. Noticing the threat, it dropped its arrow and tried to dodge. It was only partially successful, the bolt hitting it in the shoulder.
Blood splattered as a large piece of flesh was vaporized.
The creature fell backward, howling in pain and anger, but was quicker than Dylan expected to regain its feet.
Wanting to even the numbers in the fight as quickly as possible, Dylan decided to hit it again. He pulled two more cards into his hand, activating them both in turn. A second Mana Bolt streaked across the room, this time hitting the monster square in the chest.
It fell to the ground, still twitching, but it didn’t get up. Dead or not, it was no longer a problem.
A clash of steel pulled Dylan’s attention from the downed archer. The other two lizards had reached his soldier, and the one with the longsword had been engaged. The one with the daggers, however, charged straight past. Sprinting toward Dylan.
Shit. He turned to run, having nothing left in his hand other than an Intermediate Energy.
Sword strikes echoed as clawed feet scraped at the tile behind him. A quick glance showed that it was gaining. He focused all he could on his legs, his arms, his breath. Trying to pull up whatever potential he could find and put it into action.
The wall was approaching, so he chose to veer to the left, taking the opportunity to glance behind him once again. Closer. Its speed at narrowing the gap was slower, but it was still getting closer.
A new turn began. He drew a card, begging the System for something useful.
Another Intermediate Energy.
Do you want me getting stabbed? Dylan cursed his deck.
He shoved his anger into his legs, doing everything he could to keep running. Hugging the wall on his right, he kept sprinting around the room.
Fifteen seconds, Dylan thought, trying to keep his breathing steady. I just need to make it another fifteen seconds.
He forced himself to believe that next time he would draw something actionable.
The echoes of claws on tile grew steadily closer. Dylan imagined he could feel the creature’s breath across his neck. He fought the urge to look back again, knowing it would only slow him down.
Halfway there.
Breathing harder, he kept pushing. A burning sensation began to build in his lungs. He forced himself to ignore it.
His mind split, and just as he chose to draw a new card, pain sliced across his neck.
He stumbled and fell, rolling across the ground as he saw a dagger clatter against the tile in front of him. The lizard had thrown it.
Dylan clutched his neck and scrambled to gain his feet just before the lizard was on top of him. He turned to see its remaining dagger swinging toward his face and moved his left arm to block.
At the same time, Dylan subconsciously shifted the illusory cards in his hand forward, as if they could help stop the blow. And surprisingly, they did. Seeing the incoming cards, the lizard treated them like an attack and flinched backward to avoid them. The momentum of its strike was reduced just enough for it to be caught harmlessly on Dylan’s leather armor.
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Taking advantage of the momentary respite, Dylan kicked at the creature’s stomach before turning to sprint away. He ran toward the Phantom Soldier and its opponent but didn’t take the time to look at them fight.
Instead, he looked at the new card he drawn, and breathed a sigh of relief. Phantom Archer.
Playing an Intermediate Energy, he heard the dagger-wielding lizard begin its chase once more. Tired and slightly inconvenienced by the weight of the energy, Dylan worried the monster would catch him faster this time. He hurriedly played the archer, and as it materialized, he and the lizard sprinted past.
Dylan immediately gave the order to kill his pursuer before dredging all his reserve strength to run faster. It would take five seconds for his archer to shoot. As long as he lasted five seconds, it would be over. Even if the lizard survived the first shot, he doubted it would be in a position to continue chasing him like this.
Seconds passed like minutes.
When there was a roar of pain behind him, Dylan didn’t look back. He kept running.
It wasn’t until he drew a Mana Spike at the beginning of his next turn that he chose to stop. Barely preventing himself from collapsing, he turn around just in time to see the archer fire another shot, hitting the lizard in the head. Its skull exploded in a mess of scales, blood, and bone fragments.
He turned his attention to the other fight in the room, ordering the archer to help end it.
Dylan’s whole body shook, and he hunched over, wheezing.
After a moment of rest, he finally had the presence of mind to check the wound on his neck. Luckily, it was just a shallow cut. Painful and distracting, but not a danger. He turned his attention back to the battle.
The sword-wielding lizard was quickly resolved by Dylan’s pair of phantoms. He ordered them to finish off the monster he’d crippled at the beginning of the fight, and then he drew a Mana Shield.
Turning to stare at the summoning circle, Dylan was wary of another group being called down, but he was pleasantly surprised by a notice from the System instead.
[Congratulations on successfully clearing the second wave.]
[You can have up to 5 minutes of rest.]
[Alternatively, say “Begin” to start the third wave at any time.]
This time, Dylan let himself go completely and collapsed to the ground.
He’d thought he was in decent shape before. Even if he was never great at the combat part of the training he’d undergone, he thought he’d handled the rest of it well enough.
He thought he knew what to expect, but the idea he’d held in his mind was nothing like a real fight. Even with adrenaline to carry him, and even with his new physical power stat to boost him, he was exhausted.
Maybe it was the stress of it all, but everything here just felt like so much…more.
I have to work harder when I get back to Fairbasin.
Turns came and went, the phantoms disappeared, and by the time Dylan stood up again, most of the rest period was gone.
He checked his hand.
Intermediate Energy, Phantom Archer, Mana Shield, Mana Spike, Immobilize.
He’d had to discard a few cards to make sure he had the Immobilize.
Based on his knowledge of combat trials during the Tutorial, the third wave would have only one monster. It couldn’t exactly be called a boss, but it would be bigger and stronger than the monsters summoned in the first two waves. If he killed it, the trial was over.
He didn’t want to take chances and was planning on holding whatever it was with Immobilize, giving the archer free reign to snipe at it.
He checked his remaining mana.
[Mana: 22.65/100]
He’d only be able to hold it for about twenty seconds. If he couldn’t kill it in that time, he’d be in trouble.
A new turn started, and he generated before playing the Mana Shield. It would last for ten turns, more than long enough to cover the rest of the break and a hopefully short fight.
Dylan stretched and walked to stand close to the curved wall. Passing the lizard and spider corpses, he briefly wondered why they were still there. Normally, the System would clean up between waves.
Maybe it was waiting for the combat trial to finish completely?
Shaking his head and pushing all distractions from his mind, Dylan stared at the summoning circle.
Not long now.
At the last new turn before the monster appeared, Dylan once again chose to generate. Then he played the Intermediate Energy and summoned the Phantom Archer. Finally, he pulled Immobilize into his hand and waited.
[The third wave will begin in 3 seconds.]
[2]
[1]
[Initiate]
The ripples made by the pulsating air were larger than they’d ever been before, but had lost the chaotic nature shown when summoning the lizards. They continued for a few seconds longer than Dylan had expected and a new turn began.
He drew a Phantom Sword and debated moving forward. If the monster wasn’t dead in fifteen seconds, he could use the next turn to generate and get a few more attacks in before he had to let go of Immobilize. Then again, if it wasn’t dead after he let go of it, he’d have just put himself right next to what was shaping up to be a rather large creature with nothing to defend himself other than the sword.
Dylan chose to wait where he was.
Finally, a flash of light filled most of the summoning circle, and the monster appeared with a thud.
It was another spider.
This one stood over six feet tall, and its legs stretched more than ten feet wide. Its light brown body was covered in overlapping rocky grey patches. Like armor.
Doing his best to suppress his dislike of spiders and his panic at seeing one stand taller than he was, he immediately ordered the archer to attack.
As the phantom charged its shot, Dylan watched the spider turn toward him and begin skittering across the tile.
It looked heavy. If they weren’t in a System created room, Dylan felt like the ground would be shaking as it moved.
Please don’t have any mental attacks. He prayed as he activated Immobilize.
The mountain of a spider stopped, and after a second, mana began to rapidly leave Dylan’s body.
An arrow flew across the room, causing a burst of small chunks of rocky armor to erupt from the creature’s head.
Shit. Tougher than I thought.
He directed the archer to aim for the monster’s eyes. At least those should be a soft target.
The second arrow blasted into the eyes on the right side of the spider’s head, causing them to rupture.
As the archer charged its third shot, a new turn began and Dylan began to worry he wouldn’t be able to kill the monster in time. He drew a card. Intermediate Energy.
I need to end this fast. Dylan played the new card and then focused on the Mana Spike he carried.
He couldn’t just let it activate automatically. If it struck down on the spider in the way it normally would, it would hit the thickest part of its armor. Instead, he guided the card to materialize just over his own head, wanting it to fly down at an angle. Hopefully impacting the area of the spider’s face that had just received another arrow.
Dylan took a deep breath and released the energy.
Pale blue light roared down at the spider.
Please be enough.
Dylan glanced at his remaining mana.
[Mana: 4.8/100]
He held his breath.
There was a messy explosion, and spider bits flew everywhere as the Mana Spike ended the combat trial in the same way as it’d begun. The spider’s head was gone.
[Congratulations on successfully clearing the third wave.]
[Individual Combat Trial complete.]
[You will be given 1 hour to rest before the final phase of the Individual Tutorial.]
Dylan let out a tired smile. It was over. He’d succeeded.
He wanted to celebrate but didn’t know how. He looked over at the archer and just as he was about to reach out and pat it on the shoulder, he slumped to the ground. Exhausted beyond measure.
Panic raced across the back of his mind, not knowing what was happening until he heard a loud thud. The spider’s body crashing to the ground. It had just been released from Immobilize.
Like an idiot, he’d continued to channel the spell card after the fight. He’d bottomed out and entered a state of mana exhaustion.
When he regained the ability to function, what happened helped him to once again notice something odd.
The corpses.
The combat trial was over, and the corpses were still there.