“Let’s try something different!” Youngho shouted. “Follow my lead.”

He was loath to do so, but Jinyoung nodded. The armored figure was repelling every single attack they could throw at it with absolutely ease. Youngho rushed in with a [charged strike] aimed perfectly at center mass. Until now, Jinyoung would’ve lined up behind their opponent and attacked from the opposite direction hoping to split its attention. But each attempt at a pincer attack had failed, so instead Jinyoung lined up directly behind the monk and readied his own attack.

For a brief moment, Jinyoung saw two options open to him: he could continue forward and launch a direct thrust or [dash] past the monster to launch an attack from behind.

Launching a back attack felt like the best option, as the first option wasn’t any different from what they had been trying until now. But any momentum he had now would be lost when he [dashed] behind the monster guaranteeing that he would lose milliseconds changing directions in order to attack.

It’s like the old man said, he thought. We should try something different.

Youngho’s [charged strike] was deftly pushed aside and Jinyoung came up directly behind the monk. But instead of attacking the monster directly, he aimed for the spear. And just before he made contact, he [charged].

The impact was explosive. Jinyoung barely kept his grip on his own sword, but the force knocked him backwards. When he was finally back on his feet, the spear was nowhere to be seen. The armored creature was still on its feet, but just barely. It staggered a bit before righting itself.

“What the hell was that, boy? And why didn’t you do it sooner?”

Jinyoung’s lungs were burning. It wasn’t just the sensation of having the wind knocked out of them, it was as if they were filled to bursting with ice. Each breath felt like his body was burning from the inside out, but the feeling lessened with each one.

“The spear,” he finally said. “We have to attack the spear.”

Again, the figure raised an armored hand and summoned the weapon back.

***

“Willow! Behind you!”

The shadow walker moved swiftly and threw another dagger. Willow was barely able to move out of the way in time. She fired off an [arcane shot], but Henry simply stepped backwards into the shadows. When the spell hit the same spot a split second later, it fizzled and left a scorched mark on the wall.

“Nice try,” a disembodied voice said, echoing in the corridor. “But the three of you are out of your league here.”

Hana laughed. “Say that to my face.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Seunghyo’s eyes darted around the environment, looking for any sign of something that looked out of place. Contrary to popular belief, shadow walkers didn’t “disappear” into the shadows. Their skills allowed them to camouflage their appearance, but no camouflage was perfect.

“Keep your eyes open,” he said.

“Yes,” the Frenchman’s voice said. “Keep those pretty eyes open. It’s such a pleasure to finally meet you Hana. Seunghyo’s said so much about you to the company. It’s a shame we had to meet under such circumstances.”

Seunghyo bristled. The fact that the murderer was so casually taunting Hana enraged him. But he had to keep his composure. The angrier he was, the more likely he was to overlook something.

Then, he saw it. A shadow with a strange angle that bent the wrong way ever so slightly. There was no way to tell what he was striking at, but Seunghyo had to take the chance.

Clang!

The edge of his short sword was caught against the blade and hilt of a dark, but intricate and ornate dagger.

Henry’s face slowly came into view, and with it a hateful scowl. “Lucky guess.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw Hana move to press the advantage and reacted quickly. With the wave of his hand, a black dagger jetted out towards Willow. Hana moved sideways and lifted her shield to quickly block for the novice spellcaster.

Seunghyo pushed on the sword and created an opening for himself, kicking hard and catching his opponent just below the ribs. Henry rolled back and slid into a shadow, disappearing once more.

“What? No more quips, Henry?” Seunghyo taunted.

***

After pushing in and destroying its spear once more, Youngho was able to avoid the resulting knockback and land a [charged strike]. The blow was perfect, striking the space between armor plates where it would (theoretically) do the most damage.

In fact, the old man was moving faster and striking harder than Jinyoug had seen until now. It was almost as if he had gotten his second wind.

But, as a direct result, the creature took notice of their increased threat and responded in kind.

Whatever this thing was, it wielded the spear as if it weighed nothing. But blocking one or two strikes reassured Jinyoung that it had mass enough to hit like a hammer.

Youngho was still able to parry and avoid a significant number of attacks, but the spear moved too quickly. More than once, the strikes had come from unexpected angles and caught the monk unawares resulting in cuts to his arms and sides.

“Watch out!”

Jinyoung [dashed] in and tackled Youngho just in time to avoid seeing his former guardian’s arm being lopped off.

[Attack incoming.]

The spear came so close that it blinded Jinyoung’s vision temporarily. He kicked out hard and felt his foot strike armor. The creature didn’t budge, but Jinyoung used it as an anchor and pushed off as hard as he could.

He was blindly aware of himself spinning through the air, but he couldn’t see anything. Instead, he tucked his arms in and felt the air leave his lungs when fell flat on his back and slid a few feet.

Jinyoung blinked rapidly until a field of white slowly settled into bright spots in his vision. He did his best to rub his eyes and could vaguely feel a layer of frost had settled on his skin.

The spear, he thought. It’s ice.

He’d assumed, not incorrectly, that the spear was made out of energy. But according to the system, all energy had a bias. All players learned about it, either in classes or in the field. The four main biases were related to naturally occurring elements: electricity, fire, ice and earth. Outside of that, there were additional biases like the arcane and dark, but they were only useful for magic-users or elementalists.

If the spear was made out of energy biased towards the ice element, then it stood to reason that the one wielding that power had the same bias. And it also followed, that the creature fighting them wasn’t just imbued with its bias’ power, but also its weaknesses.

Willow! We could use your help here!