Drayek and his Hunters–which still included Krato and Korin and then a few others to replace the recently fallen–had found a low-leveled monster on their last excursion. Drayek thought it the perfect monster to fight for a solo mission.

“Solo mission?” I whispered as we snuck out of our hovel in the dead of night. “Just two people on a hunt is already frowned upon. Are you actually going to let me fight this thing on my own?”

Drayek held up a fist to silence me and crouched within the cover of night.

In Edrona, hunts were scheduled and assigned in shifts. Going out on your own would not grant us the approval from the town Elders and Priests. However, I followed Drayek’s direction and kept my mouth shut, but not without an exasperated roll of my eyes.

We slunk our way down the road and out of Edrona. The outskirts of the city started not far from our hovel. Drayek didn’t like living in the chaos of town, so he had built himself a dwelling away from the masses years ago–before he’d even taken me in.

Once we made it far enough away from the city lines, I decided I could speak again.

“Can you answer my question now?”

“A Rockcrawler, a really small one, has burrowed itself about a mile east and into the mountain.” Drayek pointed in the direction of the Rockcrawler. “My Hunters and I found it yesterday, but we were due to return home before we could kill it.”

He looked at me with a small smile. Even in the dark, with nothing to light our way but the distant moons and stars, I thought I could see an excited glint in his eye.

“The Rockcrawler isn’t fully grown, and I think it is injured. Perfect for your first solo fight.”

I gulped. He was probably right, but the trepidation that arose within me felt crushing. True, I had killed a Nagari before I had even advanced to Tier 1, but I had also crushed my mind and both of my arms in the process. But I forced a smile and straightened my shoulders. After all, I was a Tier 1 now.

“Lead the way,” I said.

Drayek steered us through the deserted land of cracks and rocks and directly to the closest mountain to Edrona in the east. As we marched, I caught sight of more stray essence and gathered every stream.

I noticed, just as I had when using the Tier 1 armor on my first hunt, that I could direct some of the streams into my new armor. And it was much easier this time. The metal warmed as essence coursed through it, and in turn, my strides grew faster, and my body grew more energized.

Drayek noticed the increase in my speed and sped up, as well. Of course, he didn’t move as fast as he was capable. Despite my new abilities, I still wasn’t an experienced Tier 3 like Drayek.

At the foot of the mountain, Drayek gestured to a steep path leading toward the top of the looming mass of rock. I directed more essence into my armor and followed Drayek up the mountain. I scaled the rock with more ease than I would without the armor and continued a steady flow of essence to keep my body from feeling too exhausted.

After about twenty minutes of climbing the steep trail, we stopped at a high shelf of the mountain, about twenty or so feet below the top. The shelf was wide, allowing plenty of space for us to stand side by side.

Drayek pointed to the left at a long crevice splitting the rock wall from the bottom of the shelf and all the way to the top of the mountain.

“The Rockcrawler is in there,” he whispered, returning to a crouched position. “Approach carefully and draw it out. I have your back.”

I released a long breath of air and grunted in acknowledgment. Then, crouching myself, I snuck over to the crevice. With the increase of essence into my armor, I willed the set to remain silent as I stepped.

But I wasn’t perfect at that.

My right foot slipped over a loose stone, causing me to lose my balance for a mere second, but that was long enough. My other foot caught two or three more loose stones and kicked them over the shelf. The stones bounced against the mountain as they fell, the sound echoing in the vast emptiness.

I inhaled sharply through my teeth and caught myself, but the damage had already been done. A loud rustling from inside the crevice met my ears, and it wasn’t long before I saw the slimy scales of a Rockcrawler slip its way through the crevice and out into the open.

The Rockcrawler caught sight of me immediately and bared its foot-long fangs. Its lidless eyes widened in anticipation as the giant snake slithered its entire body from out of the crevice. Drayek had been right–the Rockcrawler was much smaller than its relations–a baby even, but that didn’t stop it from being fifty times bigger than the regular, non-monstrous snakes that found their way into our hovel at times.

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“Scan of your opponent complete,” Codex said in my mind. “You are facing a Rockcrawler. It is approximately eleven months old. This Rockcrawler is a Tier 2 monster.”

I raised my eyebrows. Could the AI in my head scan every monster I’d ever fight?

“Wow. Thank you, Codex. Is there anything else I should know?”

“Yes. Don’t let its fangs puncture your skin. The venom–”

“Is lethal. Yeah, I know.”

Even though I knew a good deal about Rockcrawlers, it didn’t take away from the fact that Codex’s knowledge and “database,” as he called it, could prove extremely useful in the future.

“Master, this Rockcrawler is also injured. On its midsection. It is not a fatal injury, but the creature is weakened.”

“Good to know.”

My hands gripped the hilt of my sword, and I drew the weapon out of its sheath, pointing its menacing blade at the Rockcrawler. The creature hissed in annoyance and flicked its tongue toward the sword as if mocking me.

I lunged first, heart pounding painfully in my chest. The Rockcrawler evaded my blow, its scales scraping against the stone below us. The creature flung its tail end in my direction. I didn’t have much room on the shelf to dodge the strike, but with the push of more essence into my armor, I rolled expertly underneath the giant snake tail and threw myself back onto my feet before the Rockcrawler could strike again.

Both Drayek and Codex had said it’s injured, I thought. Codex had said the wound is on its midsection….

While evading another strike from the snake’s tail, I scanned my eyes over the creature’s body for the injury. I allowed myself a smile once I found it–a gaping gash had been slashed into the middle of its underbelly. As the snake moved, the dark and leathery scab split open more and more, sputtering new streams of black blood to replace the old, dried bits.

I remembered Drayek teaching Sarina and me that the Rockcrawlers’ weak spots were typically its eyes and the soft part at the back of their mouths. But the problem with that was their speed–getting a hit in the front was difficult, especially for a Tier 1. But if I could get a few hits on its wound….

The snake attacked again, this time with its fangs. I narrowly dodged the bite and felt a drip of nervous sweat fall from my forehead to my lip. I dared a glance at Drayek, but he remained on the far edge of the rock shelf, only moving to stay out of the fight. His lack of aid gave me the boost of faith I needed in myself. If he believed in my capabilities, I could believe in them, too.

I pulled the sword to my side, quickly thinking through the different maneuvers I could accomplish with the weapon. Because it was short, I had to get close, and I had to put a lot of strength into my blows–both reasons why I had preferred a spear in my training. But I didn’t have a spear now. Drayek had been right in all my years of training to force me to improve my skills with all weapons because I’d never know if a spear would be unavailable. And in this moment, I had no spear.

But I could thank Drayek for that valuable lesson later.

After yet another roll away from the snake’s long tail, I positioned myself right at the underbelly and swung at the gash with all of the strength I could muster. The snake roared a high-pitched squeal that hurt my ears, then it recoiled away from me. But it was quick to act. I hadn’t yet recovered from my swing before I saw a flash of large teeth directly in front of my eyes.

I tried dropping to the ground as the snake struck at me, but I was too slow. One of its fangs pierced through the armor on my right arm and punctured the tip of my skin underneath. I howled in pain as the Rockcrawler’s venom worked its way through my blood. It didn’t take much venom to become immobilized by a Rockcrawler. Though just one of his fangs barely hit a piece of my skin, the searing hot pain burned through my arm and met with every vein of blood coursing through my body. As the pain increased, so did my inability to move.

I could barely catch the snake’s disorientation as the Echoing Defense from my armor had hurled 10% of the creature’s force back onto it. But even though disoriented, it didn’t last for long.

“Master, you have exactly three minutes and twenty-five seconds before the Rockcrawler venom stops your heart.”

“Very helpful, Codex. Thank you!”

“You say many of words that you don’t mean, Master. Through more study through my database, I found that you are using ‘sarcasm’–most likely as a way to cope with the difficulties that life as a human brings to you.”

“I’m kind of dying here, Codex!”

“Rayden!” Drayek hollered as my limbs continued to freeze up, and I struggled to lift myself from the ground.

Drayek entered the fight and threw himself at the Rockcrawler. Drayek’s sword hit the side of the snake’s grotesque face, but the creature paid him no heed, even as Drayek’s blade sliced through its scales and revealed some dark blood. Drayek was much stronger than the giant snake, but its desire for its immobile prey seemed to offer the Rockcrawler a burst of strength.

Drayek continued hacking at the creature as it slithered its way toward me, pieces of its flesh and scales dangling horrifically from its body as Drayek sliced off piece after piece of the snake. Though significantly slowed, nothing would yet stop the Rockcrawler’s approach.

I blinked through the pain and forced my breath to grow steady. My body wasn’t completely frozen yet. I gathered more essence dangling above my head and forced every stream into the armor, directing it to just the pieces covering my legs and arms. I forced myself up and held my sword out in front of me.

The Rockcrawler was mere centimeters away before I pushed my body into a roll and again found myself at its underbelly. I pushed all of the essence I could find into the arms of my armor and thrust forward. With a loud cry, I sliced my weapon into the wound and through the snake’s entire body. The audible rip of the creature’s scales and guts echoed through the night as I tore through it. I had done something similar with the Nagari on my first hunt, but now I could handle the sudden increase in strength. My arms shook from exhaustion, but I felt no snapping of bones. And my head pounded from the effort, but I felt no collapse or need to pass out.

The look of surprise looked strange on the snake’s face, but it quickly disappeared as my sword completed its clean cut and each half of the Rockcrawler fell limply to the ground. I fell soon after, the venom finally taking hold of my body and nearing my heart.

Drayek stood in shock for a moment, staring at the halved Rockcrawler. “How…” he trailed off. “How did you do that?”

“Drayek!” I croaked. “Do you have the antidote for the ven–” my words cut off as my mouth went numb.