Sitting there with my coffee and breakfast, I think over the lessons my last fight has taught me. There are quite a few of them, but some are a lot more important than others.
First of all, Improvising is good, but don't act on impulse. If I have the time to make a plan, I should do so, and then double- and triple-check it.
Second, while it doesn't hurt as much as one might think, slowly bleeding out after getting stabbed in the stomach is not cool.
And third, know your limits. This is definitely the most important one. While I don't really know what exactly happened at the end after I rolled down the structure, I still remember the distinctive splat sound and the cry of pain. After that, I quickly lost consciousness.
The messages telling me that I won only came after I awoke from sleep, letting me to guess what happened at the end.
My best guess? He overestimated himself and jumped to higher heights than he could safely land from.
I quickly bring up my Stat points and think about how I should proceed from here.
Status:
Memory: 20 / 100
Processing speed: 20 / 100
Concentration: 20 / 100
Strength: 16 / 100
Speed: 18 / 100
Stamina: 20 / 100
After splitting up my Overskill points into Stat points, I once again have a total of twenty-seven of them. Of course, the first six go into Strength and Speed, bringing them to twenty. But the real question is how to proceed from there.
One thing I know for sure is that my physical abilities were not exactly on the same level as the boy's, they had been high enough, just barely. They are simply still in the human realm even after bringing them all to twenty, but being human just wouldn't cut it for much longer.
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The boy was a perfect proof of concept. Despite having clearly very little experience fighting, he almost won by combining his Stats and abilities to turn himself into a missile.
But just looking at my last fight, while I won the fight of the body, I lost the fight of the mind.
First of all, I lacked information. Not on the enemy, but on tactics. The fights will get longer, and the terrain more complicated, and I already had no idea what to do as soon as I was in the arena.
Then, of course, there was my "plan"...
And last but not least, I lost concentration far too quickly. I lost concentration and showed my enemy an opening. Something, I can't let myself repeat.
After thinking about it a bit longer, I finally distribute the rest of my Stats and take another look.
Status:
Memory: 24 / 100
Processing speed: 25 / 100
Concentration: 26 / 100
Strength: 22 / 100
Speed: 22 / 100
Stamina: 22 / 100
While not ideal, it's the best for the moment. I would have preferred to put more points into Memory, but that is sadly the Stat that gives me the most during the preparation phase. That means it's capped at twenty during the time it helps me the most.
I take a look at the clock. I still have a few hours before I have to leave to visit my parents.
I take out my laptop and open the Am*zon website. There is one thing that would have changed the way my last fight went completely, and it's so obvious that I should have done this as the very first thing to prepare myself.
Bodyarmor. It doesn't take long to find everything from ten to several hundred dollars. Sadly, or luckily, I quickly notice that while the motorcycle armors definitely look the most stylish, they are definitely not what I want, since they are designed for single-use protection from impacts, but not for stab and slash attacks.
Taking a last look at my new equipment, I choose the express delivery option and finalize my order.
Once that is done, I start searching for the second point on my to-do list. Battlefield tactics. But even after about an hour of searching, I still come up with almost nothing. The best results being a warning to always take cover, an experiment on the best way to survive hand grenades, and an explanation on the OODA-loop.
Only when I, absolutely accidentally of course, start watching Overwatch videos on YouTube do I realize that I have been going about this the wrong way. Realistic battlefield tactics were never what I had to look at. After all, realistic battlefields also have realistic weapons.
I, on the other hand, have to deal with what basically amounts to magic. While the counterstrategies to certain abilities within videogames might be specific to their respective game mechanics, at least they give me ideas as to what could happen and allow me to think of counters myself. While might not be the most optimal situation, it was still better than nothing.
Several hours pass that way until finally, my alarm goes off. It's time that I visit my parents.