Ezra’s vision slowly came back. He glanced at his health bar at the corner of his vision. In one blow, he’d been dropped down to half health. Oh. That wasn’t good. That life-saving elixir would’ve been very useful right now. Instead, Ezra forced himself up, his knees shaking. After a moment, he was able to steady himself.
“Damn, that thing hits like a brick,” Ezra said.
He looked ahead, back to where his classmates were. Charles caught the Large Wraith’s fists and stopped them using raw strength. He then grabbed the monster’s fingers, splayed them out, then sliced them off.
Damn, kinda hardcore.
Unfortunately, it was clearly doing very little, if anything. The health bar of the monster wasn’t going down. Not significantly, anyway. Besides that, Pete’s wounds weren’t getting any better. That was a shame. Pete was kind of okay. Useless, but… hmm, did Pete actually have any good qualities?
No, not really.
Still, Pete owed Ezra, and Ezra would be damned if he let Pete die before Ezra collected on his debt. Cannon fodder is always welcome. Ezra focused his attention on the opponent. There was something they were missing: some trick or ability. Surely the thing wasn’t invincible. Ezra watched the way its arms moved, the way its face curled up with disgust as it fought against Charles.
“[Cut]!”
There was a bright blue flash and the monster was severed in half. Dust and ashes exploded out. Was it over? Charles’s attack seemed to have killed it, but earlier Ezra thought the same thing. The monster rose from the ground as ashes and reformed itself in an instant. It seemed as if it had been completely unaffected. Dorian joined in, her rapier gleaming in the sunlight. Her blade sang as it cut the air, slicing the monster in half. Once again, the monster fell to the ground and exploded into ashes. Once again, it reformed itself as if nothing had happened.
At this rate, all of them would exhaust themselves.
A half-cocked plan began to form in Ezra’s head. A plan that would hopefully help them figure out what on earth was going on.
But first…
Ezra dashed forward and stabbed into the monster, dissipating it. He turned to the rest of the group.
“Yuki, party with me!” he said.
Yuki pushed down on Pete’s wound, then looked up at Ezra with furrowed eyebrows.
“Why the hell would she do that?” Charles said.
“Because she needs the EXP to heal Pete,” Ezra said.
“You can kill it?”
In the background, the monster began to reform.
“I have a few ideas—” Ezra dodged a strike, then stabbed the monster. “—I figure it’s worth a shot.”
Yuki glanced between Charles and Ezra before nodding.
[Select your party name!]
[Party1 created!]
[Your naming sense still sucks.]
Yeah, well, Ezra didn’t particularly care about that. He looked toward Charles.
“Do stay out of the way.”
Charles’s face turned an increasingly bright shade of red, the size of his eyes seemed to increase and he was reaching his hands out toward Ezra’s throat.
Ezra turned around. The first idea of the day. If this worked, great! If not, then he would at least get info about the way it was reforming.
The monster stitched itself back together and then roared. Ezra, did a quick pierce to the head, smashing it apart.
“[Web Trap].”
The pieces of the monster fell onto an intricate web of string. They stuck to it and then started to wiggle around. The speed of the wiggling increased, faster and faster, and then [Web Trap]’s timer ran out. The strings disappeared and the pieces rushed toward each other.
Ezra took a few steps back, his eyes narrowed on the creature.
It was desperate, so he needed to keep the clumps apart. But how? Should he just pray and dump all his points into [Web Trap]? Ezra didn’t think that was a wise strategy. Besides, there had to be something else he was missing.
A headache slammed into him and his attention focused back on the creature. It had managed to obtain its body but hadn’t bothered fixing its head. Its fist was already swinging toward his stomach.
He leaped backward. “[Restrain]!”
A handful of threads burst out of the ground and wrapped around the monster, halting its advance.
Yuki looked at him intently.
He tried to ignore her gaze. He wasn’t invested in her opinion of him, not like Charles.
But it would’ve been embarrassing if he failed now.
As he watched the extra grains of the monster return to the main body, a sudden thought hit his mind.
Wait, wasn’t this…
Wasn’t this guy just like that sandy Marvel villain!? Shit. That guy had a special weakness… what was it?
The threads snapped, it opened its gaping mouth, faced toward him, and then tried to bite Ezra. Ezra ducked out of the way, stabbing the creature in the stomach.
Unlike before, it didn’t break apart into little pieces. Instead, its hand reached out and smashed against Ezra’s head. Ezra’s body flew to the ground with a crash and his HP dropped down to a seventh of what it was.
21/150
Ezra breathed in a few rapid breaths. Had it gotten faster? How had it survived?
It reached out a hand in his direction. An ability was on the tip of Ezra’s tongue—
But it was too fast.
Ezra shut his eyes for his impending death.
Then, there was the sound of steel impacting flesh.
Ezra tensed up but released the tension after a few moments. He hadn’t been hurt. He opened his eyes.
Dorian’s rapier had slashed through the thing’s arm. She pulled back and thrust her blade toward its head, exploding it into a hundred pieces. She leaned her head back and looked at Ezra.
“What,” she said. “Did you think I was just gonna stand on the sidelines the whole time?”
Ezra pushed himself off the ground. “I didn’t need your help.”
“How grateful of you,” she said.
What was it that he was missing? How did he kill this thing? Ezra scanned his eyes over the surrounding area. Stone. More stone. A random puddle—
Oh.
Oh yeah, water.
It was worth a shot, right?
The creature reformed in front of him. It had already formed itself in such a way as to allow itself to swing its arm down and crush Ezra.
This time Ezra wasn’t caught by surprise.
“[Entangle]!”
Thick threads shot out of the puddle, toward the Large Wraith, wrapped around it, and pulled it into the puddle. The creature screamed and thrashed and a sizzling sound assaulted Ezra’s ears. In moments, everyone was just looking at a pile of wet dirt.
You have leveled up!
You have leveled up!
Yuki’s eyes widened. “I-I leveled up! four times too!”
“Use your ability points and get those healing powers,” Ezra said.
“R-right!”
She muttered out the word for opening the menu and started clicking through it.
“I got it!” she said. “It says it stops medium-strength bleeding!”
She held out her staff. There was a flash of light and the wounds knit themselves up before everyone’s eyes.
Ezra let out a sigh.
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
“He’ll owe me for that,” he said
The sound of something cracking entered Ezra’s ear. He looked up and Charles was glaring at him.
“You didn’t even save him. Yuki saved him,” Charles said.
Ezra waved him off. “I honestly don’t give a damn about your opinion.”
Charles flipped his straight razor open, then shut.
“Say,” he said. “If Pete were the kind of guy not to repay his debts, would you care? Would you have bothered? I bet you only did this to get him under your thumb.”
“That’s the main reason,” Ezra said. “It’s useful to keep people in your debt.”
“Oh, that’s it. I’ve had enough.”
Charles marched up to Ezra, their noses almost touching.
“I want a duel.”
Ezra laughed out loud. “Yeah, absolutely not.”
“Why not? Are you scared?”
“Are you kidding me? You’re resorting to schoolyard taunts? What’s next, gonna call me a poopy-pants?”
Charles growled and he tightened his fist around his razor grip.
“Fine. Then I’ll add an incentive. One favor.”
“Try better.”
“One favor. Whatever you want, I’ll grant. Period. No limits, nothing.”
Ezra’s eyes flickered.
“And if I lose?”
Charles grinned.
“You’ll have to acknowledge me as your leader. No more ignoring me, doing whatever you want. Understood?”
Ezra chuckled and slowly raised his eyes toward the sky. He stopped abruptly, then looked Charles in the eye.
“Prepare to have your ass crushed,” Ezra said.
A voice suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
“A duel?” the voice said.
Ezra jumped into the air. “Who the hell—!?”
Synica looked at him.
“So, it’s a duel you two want, huh?”
----------------------------------------
Ezra felt a droplet of sweat roll down the back of his neck. She’s gone the entire time they’re fighting for their lives, and then comes out of nowhere?
“Yeah? What’s it to you?”
Synica crossed her arms, causing her chest plate to rattle about.
“Well,” she said. “I think that the safety of my students and their unit cohesion is very much my concern. Give me a good reason to let you duel.”
“Calling it a duel is a bit overkill. It’s just a friendly spar between… friends.”
Charles spat out the words, “Yeah. Friends.”
Synica stared down at them.
“Don’t lie to me. Better people than you have tried and have received far worse consequences.”
Blood spiked up Ezra’s veins and a cold shiver washed over him. He felt as if he was looking at a ravenous beast in the form of a blond woman.
“Commanding General,” Dorian said. “I believe that this duel would be an excellent idea.”
Synica raised an eyebrow and looked at Dorian. “Explain.”
“Well, Commanding General, someone needs to lead us in combat. Charles was elected as our leader, but Ezra doesn’t acknowledge him. They need to get this settled at some point, otherwise these problems will continue cropping up.”
Synica crossed her arms and tapped her fingers against her armor.
“There’s a very ugly look in your eyes, Dorian,” Synica said. “I wonder what your real reason is.”
Dorian stiffened and her eyes widened before she smiled.
“Commanding General,” she said. “I’m sure that I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Synica rolled her eyes, then turned toward Charles and Ezra. “Very well. You’ll both have an hour to prepare. I’ll supervise to make sure this doesn’t get out of hand. Is that understood?”
Ezra smirked and nodded. “Got it.”
Dorian smiled. “Thank you, Commanding General.”
Charles shot a glance at Ezra, then looked back at Synica. “Understood.”
With that, Ezra and Charles separated, going off in separate directions.
Ezra sat down. He was about to pop open his menu when he felt a tap on his shoulder.
“Um, Ezra?” Yuki said. “I can grant stat buffs. I was just wondering if you wanted help…?”
Ezra popped open his status.
“Not interested,” he said.”
“But Ezra, I could help!”
Ezra looked over his stats.
Name: Ezra Hawthorne
Age: 16
Race: Human
C̴l̷a̸s̵s̵: S̸t̵u̸d̵e̸n̵t̸
Sub-class: N/A
Bonded Spirit: Filamenta, Spirit of Binding
Health Points: 150/150
Mana Points: 210/210
Stamina: 120/120
Level: 15
Strength: 5
Dexterity: 22
Constitution: 10
Intelligence: 7
Wisdom: 15
Personal Skills:
[Calm] - Lv. 14
[Inspect] - Lv. MAX
[Canefighting] - Lv. 3
[Needle Mastery] - Lv. 17
[Stealth] - Lv. 1
Abilities:
[Bind] - Lv. 1
[Spirit Weapon Storage] - Lv. MAX
[Spirit Weapon Recall] - Lv. MAX
[Restrain] - Lv. 7
[Web Trap] - Lv. 5
[Entangle] - Lv. 7
[Polymorphism] - Lv. 5
Skill points: 16
Stat points: 20
Ability points: 22
Titles:
[Otherworlder] - Special
[Perfect Resonance]
[Monster Slayer I]
[Spirit Weapon Wielder]
He needed to invest in strength, that earlier fight had proven that.
“Ezra, please, can’t you talk to me?” Yuki said.
“Stat buffs are cheap and uninteresting. Besides, I want to defeat Charles with my power, not with your help. Now go screw off.”
Yuki bit her lip and nodded up and down.
“Okay…”
Her footsteps sagged against the ground and crunched the gravel as she slunk off.
Finally. Ezra didn’t understand what on earth she was thinking.
He glanced up to see Stip Idia approaching Charles. Idia passed him an item, some kind of… drink.
Even from several feet away, Ezra could smell the fumes, it was like dry wine.
“I guess performance-enhancing drugs aren’t a thing here,” Ezra said.
“Performance-enhancing drugs?” a voice said.
Ezra looked to his right. Synica was off to his side, looking over at Idia and Charles.
“Forget it.” Ezra turned back to his menu. “What do you want?”
“The girl. The one who courts you? She asked me to help you.”
Ezra groaned.
“Not you too! Charles gives me enough crap about that, she’s not courting me, I have no interest in her.”
Synica shrugged.
“I would not know. I’ve committed myself to my kingdom. No time for frivolities.”
Ezra wasn’t particularly interested in Synica’s love life. He shrugged and went back to his stats.
“I presume you wish to know what Idia granted to Charles?” Synica said.
Ezra raised his eyes skyward.
Once again, God seemed hellbent on screwing with him. Fine. He’d play along.
“Not really, but I presume you’ll tell me anyway?” Ezra said.
“He’s handing Charles a potion to increase each of his stats by 10. It will most likely grant him a decisive victory over you.”
“You overestimate him and underestimate me.”
Synica smirked. “Perhaps I do. Either way, this will be interesting—“
“Why did you let that student and Pete get injured?” Ezra said.
Synica sucked in a breath. She was quiet for a moment.
“Ah, you’ve been putting your stats in Wisdom, haven’t you?”
Ezra threw his needle into the air and then caught it with ease.
“A bit. Honestly, I was just guessing. You seemed too competent to let the same mistake happen twice. The only alternative was that you were letting it happen.”
Synica looked off to the side. “And I just confirmed all your suspicions.”
Ezra twirled his needle in his hands.
“Yup.”
Synica looked at him, and Ezra felt a chill go down his spine.
“This is the second time you’ve made a fool out of me, Ezra,” she said. “I’m not much of a fan of these sorts of games. Don’t do this again.”
He gulped. “Yeah, I understand.”
Synica sighed.
“With that in mind, I suppose that can reveal something of the truth to you,” she said. “As you know, yes, I was there. I was ready to step in and act if anyone was going to die. That was the only concession I was able to get.”
“Concession from who?” Ezra said.
Synica was quiet.
Ezra frowned and narrowed his eyes.
This was more complex than he’d been expecting.
“Well then,” Ezra said. “This is one hell of a way to get us to be loyal to your country. Rather odd.”
Synica once again didn’t say anything.
Ezra popped open his stat sheet.
Name: Ezra Hawthorne
Age: 16
Race: Human
C̴l̷a̸s̵s̵: S̸t̵u̸d̵e̸n̵t̸
Sub-class: N/A
Bonded Spirit: Filamenta, Spirit of Binding
Health Points: 150/150
Mana Points: 210/210
Stamina: 120/120
Level: 15
Strength: 5
Dexterity: 22
Constitution: 10
Intelligence: 7
Wisdom: 15
Personal Skills:
[Calm] - Lv. 14
[Inspect] - Lv. MAX
[Canefighting] - Lv. 3
[Needle Mastery] - Lv. 17
[Stealth] - Lv. 1
Abilities:
[Bind] - Lv. 1
[Spirit Weapon Storage] - Lv. MAX
[Spirit Weapon Recall] - Lv. MAX
[Restrain] - Lv. 7
[Web Trap] - Lv. 5
[Entangle] - Lv. 7
[Polymorphism] - Lv. 5
Skill points: 16
Stat points: 18
Ability points: 22
Titles:
[Otherworlder] - Special
[Perfect Resonance]
[Monster Slayer I]
[Spirit Weapon Wielder]
The false class continued to taunt him. He needed to figure out what was up with that. He decided to put 5 points into his strength. What else? Speed would be helpful… as would any of his stats. He didn’t feel the need to pump up his constitution… perhaps he should just save his points for an emergency? He nodded to himself. That makes sense. Keep it ready to go. If he needs a burst of extra Dexterity or Wisdom, then he has that option—
“Ezra,” Synica said. “The Kingdom of Cortia will move mountains for your sake if you choose to cooperate.”
Ezra paused.
“And what if I don’t want to play nice?” he said.
“Then you will be crushed under its feet.”
“Was that a threat?”
“It was a warning. This kingdom is cruel to people like you, Ezra.”
Ezra exited his system menu and brushed off his ratty t-shirt. Goodness, he needed to get some proper armor.
“Thanks for the tip,” he said. “I’ll keep it in mind.”
Oddly enough, he didn’t feel as if she was genuinely out to get him. He thought that she was honestly attempting to warn him. But what could he do?
He stood up, leaving Synica behind.
“Charles, are you ready!?” he said.
Charles grunted. The sun was at its apex, making the air uncomfortably warm and humid.
“Has it already been an hour?” he said.
“Do you care about that?”
Charles stood up. “Yeah, let’s just get this over with.”
He popped open his switchblade.