I haven't forgotten I have three Skill Points to spend. I would really prefer more, but three is still good. I also have Shadow Manipulation, which should open up more options. Before, I had been looking at fighting techniques and healing skills. I think it is too late to learn a new fighting technique when I have made my own, and it has bonuses against Infernal monsters.

What I need is something light or shadow based that can give me an edge or keep me alive.

Shadow Strike is only two points. It is for moving through shadows and striking unexpectedly. There is no unexpected or surprise here.

Shadow Faint, no, I can already do that with my images. Shadow Step is cheaper than Light Speed, but limited to shadows.

Nights Embrace is a suppression of your opponent, not just vision.

Nocturne’s Fury is a series of attacks that increase the damage the longer you keep it up. No, that is five points, not three.

Holy Shield is a light shield to protect me. But I have never really used a Shield.

SunStrike… no. it costs too much.

Oh, here is one. Purifying Smite. Channel Light into a powerful Strike that also purifies Death magic or Undead. That has potential. It is an Infernal, not an Undead, but if it has Death magic like the Devils this will be good. It may be like the Griffon, and not have Death Magic. How do I confirm?

Shit, this is a life-or-death decision here.

If this thing stays in the vault, does that mean it is a creature of darkness, and light attacks will have bonus damage? The Ghouls stayed away from any light.

Luminous Blade will be ideal for Lightreaver and Shadowbane, as it coats the blades in light, slicing through darkness, dispelling illusions, and bonus against Death magic users. It is only two points.

Is there a shadow skill that lets me become incorporeal, so strikes flow through me? I will be fighting in the dark, so the presence of shadows should not be a problem, even if it turns out to be a fire user. That sounds like it would fit my fighting style.

Wraith Form is exactly what I want, but it is way too expensive. Is there a cheaper version? Etherial Shadow is five points, and that is getting closer.

The Shadow Phase is only three points, but it only causes a partial incorporeal state, so some damage is still taken. Parts of my body could become more fully Incorporeal to pass through objects or take less damage. It is weak to light attacks and magic that targets the Incorporeal. It works on non-metallic armour and weapons. So my swords will stay solid, although it doesn't say if soul-bound weapons are exempt. That will have to be tested.

So it comes down to three main options. Purifying Smite or Lumious Blades will cause good damage if it is a death magic user.

Shadow Phase has better general use but only reduces damage to me. A reduction in damage means I will stay alive longer, and if I am alive, I can work out other problems or run. Dead people can’t.

For better or worse, Shadow Phase it is. With Shadow Phase, I don’t really need Shadow Cloak. However, I can cloak others with Shadow Cloak, and Shadow Phase only applies to me. Shadow Cloak is also a spell, so it takes longer to cast.

Yes! Shadow Phase applies to me and my Soul-bound Weapons. But only the soul-bound weapons, not other weapons or any metal larger than the size of a belt buckle. My two spatial bags are non-metallic. The Skill gets better as it levels. When it maxes out, I might get a second of full incorporeality.

That is OK. I am happy with the points I spent.

OK, What else can I do to tip the fight in my favour?

I have a lot of things in my storage. One of the consequences of Shadow Phase is that I can no longer wear the chainmail shirt. I also need to remove the steel helmet I have had since the first Skeletal Knight. That helmet has saved my life a number of times. I have a number of leather armour pieces I have collected, so I swap them out. I am going to keep that dented helmet as a reminder.

What else do I have?

It is time to get a better look at Ugly.

I sneak up to the open vault door and look in. I get a Quest notice.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Well, shit.

Armour Fight (Optional Quest. Part of the Monarch’s Raiment Quest)

Kill the Cerberus guarding the Armour.

Reward: 2x Armour Piece, Monarch’s Armour, ???

It says this is an optional quest. Therefore, this is not the final fight for the trial. I wanted to yell and swear so badly at the Trial. I couldn’t do that because Cerberus was looking at me. Well, one of his heads was looking at me. How do I get out of here?

Cerberus was the toughest, angriest dog you ever laid eyes on. It had three heads and three slobbering jaws, and when it got to its feet, its shoulder was above my head. It was stocky and had tough bulging muscles and absolutely no fur.

Yes, there was only one of them, but there were also three of them.

Then it growled, and the low rumble went right through me.

Do I run or fight?

The Trial has been herding me here. I don’t think it will let me run, even though the quest says it is optional. Oh, I wanted to swear so badly at the Trial.

I look in the vault. It is double-storied; otherwise, Ugly would not be able to stand up. Two levels of chambers line the central area, most of which had been broken into and looted. The walkway on the upper level was completely missing in several places. There was debris littered all over the place, some of which looked expensive.

There was no light at all, but my Spectral Vision (See-thru) handled it for me. Cerberus didn’t look like any other beast in my Spectral Vision. In most beasts, I can see the skin layer, muscle layers, and then the bones. It is really useful for targeting the organs. Cerberus’s skin was so dense the skill stopped there.

How? How do I fight this?

I might run anyway. The Trial must have bigger and badder beasts out there, but I can run.

I cast out the Manaweb to see if there were any epic weapons lying on the floor I could use, and that set off Ugly. I had to dive out of the way as one of the heads spat something at me. This meant I dived further into the room, whereas I should have gone out. A second head snapped at me, and then I saw the tail, which definitely had a stinger on it.

I rolled near one of its legs, and Lightreaver struck with a Slash, and Shadowbane hit with a Holy Strike. They cut into the bone/skin, but not by much. It didn’t get through to the actual bone. I Eclipsed the head that was looking at me and ducked under the tail.

A massive howl rocked through the enclosed space, hurting my ears and causing a squeeze on my brain.

Ugly tried to turn its body to face me, but the space wasn’t large. I guess it probably considered this it's kennel.

I had to Shadow Phase as a rear foot swiped at me and caught my side. The sensation was weird. It was like I was being clawed, and the armour negates it some, but it is also like the claws went deeper as they passed through me. The damage was a lot less to the armour as well as to me, but I felt it all the way through my body. I had practised Shadow Phasing, but not while being damaged. It felt really weird. I don’t know what I expected, but it was not this.

Minor Regeneration kicks in. That is not as bad as usual. Maybe it is the Shadow Phase negating the worst of it.

Ten seconds into this fight, I had my brain squeezed, and I’ve been clawed in a way that would have ended the fight if I hadn’t had Shadow Phase. In return, I gave Ugly a couple of scratches.

I do know one of the heads spits a poison or possibly an acid. It's probably a poisonous acid. One head makes a sound attack, and the tail has a stinger of some type, probably the same poison. On the positive side, I can actually wound it, and it is not healing fast.

The initial plan was to move fast, bounce around the enclosed space, and confuse it with Flashes, Eclipses, and images. Admittedly, when I came up with this plan, I only expected to have one pair of eyes to confuse, not three.

Ugly’s heavy body crashes the side of the vault, denting the metal of the lockers lined up there. He was trying to crush me, but I was leaping off a broken locker onto its back. I have added some scratches, but this is only going to end one way unless I can cause some real damage.

One of the heads is turning around to snap at me. I Dive forward to where I don’t think it can reach me, and I stab down at the spine of one of the heads using Thrust, but this time, I activate Shadow Phase before Shadowbane touches the skin, and the half-incorporeal blade sinks in much further than before, and it became corporeal when I took my hand off it. I am so glad Shadow Phase works on the soul-bound weapons.

Oh, that hurt it. I was thrown off the back of the monster as it bucked wildly, and my Cat Reflexes and Acrobatics righted me but didn’t save me from crashing down painfully. Shadowbane was still up there, embedded in the back of Ugly. It was bothering the brute, so I decided to leave it there for now. One of the heads was trying to reach around and remove it, but it couldn’t quite reach.

I moved again and Flashed the middle head. I tried to get my darts into the eyes of the third head. It would blink, and the darts would just bounce off the eyelid.

I forgot the tail. The stinger on the tail slammed into my torso, and I Shadowed Phased, but that did not stop the poison from being injected. Only being half incorporeal meant only half the poison, but it burned and ate at my insides. The tail withdrew and poised to strike again, and I rolled out of the way.

There was no way Minor Regeneration could deal with this. I fumbled with my Storage as I kept staggering around. If I stayed still, I was dead. I Flash things at Random. I skulled a Health Potion, and the two anti-venom potions before one seemed to work. I had collected them all from various caches, so it was worth a try. The one that worked seemed to speed up Minor Regeneration, and the toxicity was reduced at a good speed. I noted which potion it was, and then I Dodged and went to Light Speed.

In the back of my mind, I recognised that Cerberus had venom, but it was not death magic. If I had gone with the two light options in the skill selection, I would be dead. How many of these potions did I have? I don’t know.

I can't whittle the ugly beast down and kill it until it is immobilised like the Griffon. I can’t see any way to do that.