Nick was already in motion. He retrieved his second spear and took his stance behind a trio of wooden spikes, drawing the lizards to where his makeshift barrier was the strongest.
The inky blobs took on definition this close to his eyes, revealing a profile of scale and claw against the dark walls of the cavern. Putting everything that he had into tracking his opponents’ positions, Nick waited until the first lizard darted past the end of his weapon, then lowered his spearhead into the path of the second and braced for impact.
At this point, two events took place at nearly the same moment. The first was that the closer reptile, which Nick was calling Komo One for reference, gathered its strength, getting ready to leap straight for his throat. Apparently, it could see a bit better than he thought and knew that he was standing behind something solid.
The second, equally exciting event was Komo Two’s head-on collision with Nick’s spear. Although his stance was solid and his angle was perfect, the carved wooden tip was a far cry from being a proper weapon. Thus, instead of perforating Komo Two’s skull and shish kabobbing its brain, the spearpoint cut into the lizard’s flesh before deflecting off bone and following the contour of its head, drawing a ragged red gouge. Before it slid past entirely, the spear caught the joint where neck met shoulder.
Nick pressed forward as the beast’s momentum impacted the wooden weapon with the full force of its charge behind it. This time, the spear bit, driving the tip deep into the muscles around the joint before shattering with a resounding crack, leaving a foot and a half of the shaft protruding from its flesh. This was a significant injury, and Komo Two pulled back to free itself. It started working the spear out of the wound with its jaws, taking it out of the fight.
Unfortunately, this still left Komo One soaring for his tender flesh. The lizard’s jaws spread wide as they streaked toward his unprotected throat, intending to tear out his jugular and complete a one-shot kill. The beast’s plan would have ended in Nick’s untimely demise if it weren’t for the presence of one small variable.
While he had been wrong about the reptiles being able to see the barrier, he had been right about them not being able to make out the spikes amidst the midnight gloom. Three of which were lined up along the trajectory of Komo One’s approach. Now only three feet in front of his face, Nick could make out the lizard’s features clearly. Thus, he recognized the alarm it exhibited when it caught sight of the sharpened stakes jutting below its neck.
Komo One opened its jaws and, incredibly, managed to bite one of the stakes in half. A remarkable display of airborne agility. Fortunately for Nick, the aggressive reptile was unable to chomp away the remaining stakes pointed at its chest.
Half a heartbeat later, the lizard’s body caught the spikes, slamming into the planks hard enough to crack the wood. The beast’s mass drove it down onto the stakes, impaling the komo through the stomach and heart. It spasmed in the throes of death, bringing down one side of the barrier in the process. Nice job, Nick. Komo One is now Komo Zero.
The other one is still alive, he reminded himself. He grabbed a fresh spear and spun to face the beast, only to realize that it was no longer inside the cavern. This was the first time that Nick had seen a komo take enough damage to make it retreat, proving that they weren’t recklessly suicidal despite their tenacious aggression. He would have been happy to let the creature go, if there wasn’t a good chance that it would come for him again as soon as it recovered, bringing the rest of the pride along to join in the hunt.
Over his weeks on the Searing Isle, Nick had come to realize that there was a calculus to risk management. In essence, every fight was a risk. The more that he fought, the sooner he would make a critical mistake and die. It was as simple as that. Thus, he had no desire whatsoever to risk it all for mere scraps of experience.
But right now, his chances of winning this fight were good, and accepting a modest risk today to avoid a greater risk tomorrow was another equation entirely—a gamble that Nick knew he had to take whenever he could if he was going to survive his new reality.
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Without hesitation, he swapped his spear for his sword and then walked out into the night, tracking Komo Two by following the faint shimmer of moonlight reflecting off the trail of blood it left in its wake. Nick was careful to follow the tracks without trying to anticipate their direction, which could cause him to miss critical details. Each time he lost the trail, he waited until he saw a fresh splatter of blood before moving on, guarding himself against the possibility of ambush as best he could.
As he moved, Nick recalled the lessons that he had learned while observing the beasts on the isle. He knew better than to let the pursuit of a quarry blind him to other dangers. As he advanced, his ears scanned for fresh threats as he followed the wounded komo across open ground. If it makes it into the forest, I’ll have to let it go, he decided. Entering the verdant growth would obscure the starlight, and the rest of the pride was lurking somewhere in the nearby woods.
Well before he reached the tree line, Nick’s ears picked up the familiar hiss of an agitated komo. Turning his head to track the sound, he caught a flash of movement, which resolved itself into the form of the wounded lizard limping its way across the clearing. The spearpoint must still be embedded in its shoulder joint. It’s lost a lot of speed and mobility.
Knowing that the scent of blood on the wind would draw trouble to his location and that he had no chance of sneaking up on the beast despite the darkness, Nick raised his sword in a two-handed grip and started running toward the injured lizard.
The creature spun to face him, realizing that it would not be able to make a clean escape with Nick nipping at its heels. For once, instead of charging, the reptile stood waiting, yielding him the opening move of the melee. Mindful of the creature’s reach and offensive capabilities, he advanced with his weapon poised, visualizing the exact placement of his sword and the orientation of both of their bodies.
It can’t leap or charge, and it won’t retreat. He prepared to engage. That means it will try to land a crippling blow the moment I enter its range. Angling the blade over his right shoulder, Nick stepped in front of his scaled foe. Rather than swinging, the second that his sword was in reach, he feinted, throwing a kick at where the lizard stood waiting.
The creature almost struck out but decided to hold its ground, waiting for a better angle before committing to the attack that would determine its fate. Resisting the impulse to charge or flee, Nick forced himself to take another step forward, where the komo would be able to reach his thighs and stomach. If it wants to land a decisive blow, it will have to lunge… now!
Both combatants struck in the same heartbeat. His sword came down, while the lizard’s jaws came up. Its neck strained to reach inside his guard, intending to shear his left leg off at the knee. A bare second before its teeth closed around Nick’s flesh, his sword tore into the komo’s neck, severing scale and then muscle, vertebrae then spine, leaving the beast’s neck attached to its body by a thin thread of sinew before pulling apart completely.
The moment that his blade emerged from the far side of the lizard’s neck, he released the hilt and leapt back. He dodged a steaming spew of gore when the komo’s head fell to the earth, landing beside its body with a wet thump. The battle won, Nick retreated to the edge of the clearing, waiting for the tsunami of adrenaline surging in his veins to run its course.
Once he had recovered, he made his way back to his cave. With a bit of effort, he extricated the lizard’s remains from his barrier and then dragged the body outside. He chopped the corpse of Komo One into pieces before tossing them into his bag. Too amped up to sleep, he drained his canteen and sat down behind his barrier while he waited for the sun to rise.
When there was enough light to see, Nick scooped up handfuls of raw earth and then buried the blood in the cave as best he could. Thankfully, Komo One had died with the stakes still inside it, so there wasn’t too much gore to clean. He left the other corpse to whatever scavengers cared to claim it, as it was far enough away not to draw trouble to his location.
At least I have enough meat to last a few days now. He wiped the sweat from his brow, deciding to head over to the great tree and whip up a big batch of lizard jerky. Even if it is nasty as shit.
Fortunately, the nearby komo pride was spooked off by the loss of two of their members and soon moved out of the area—far enough away that they no longer posed a constant threat.
Now that Nick had a decent stockpile of food and water, as well as a defensible shelter that should see him through to the next phase of the tutorial, he was ready to begin his training in earnest, preparing himself for the ordeal to come.