My ‘morning’ had gone pretty standard. Got up, took a quick splash bath, ate a fruit cake bar and strapped on my leather smock and boots. There wasn't anything else in the cave, so I made my way down to the cavern I'd been in the day before.

Still no signs of any of the giant rats or giant bits I'd been fighting yesterday. The only thing I could think of, was that whatever was controlling the dungeon, had removed anything but this Tyraticous Rex. Convenient for me, so not going to complain.

It didn't take me long, relatively, to find the entrance to a passage I'd hadn't seen before. I had to take a few minutes to try and calm down. The giant rats I'd been fighting were the size of some larger small dogs. I could still feel, in a couple of places, twinges and spikes of pain from bites, and I was about to go fight something with ‘Rex’ in its name. A king rat, that with a starter name of ‘Tyraticous’, didn't promise to be small and cuddly.

Taking a deep breath, I slowly moved into the passage. The lighting lowered a bit as I got through a good way. I was breathing deep and clenching my jaw. If I had any other options, I would not be doing this. Lucky me.

A bit of extra light started coming into view, and I pressed up against a wall before inching forward. A quick thought, and I muttered the incantation for Minor Arcane Shielding, blinking a bit at the blink of mana that formed around me. Protection spell, good, eight mana left to fight with and keep myself alive.

Finally, I got to the edge of the passage. Looking in, it was an oblong cave, with a small hole in the wall at an end to my left. Small, that hole looked like I could go in without having to bend too much. I think I'm around five foot ten inches tall. Bending down for that, I'd scrape my head around five and half.

This was going to be a huge rat. Which was apparently looking out at the larger cavern, since I could see glowing red eyes in the darkness there. How did that even work??

Swallowing hard, I raised my left hand and triggered Arcane Shot into the cave, readying to do it again soon as I could. My feet slapped against the rock floor as I ran into the cave. My eyes darted around, looking for anywhere to hide or anything I could use in this fight to give me any kind of advantage. The only thing I could see was a strewn out pile of bones, looking like bat and rat.

The Tyraticous Rex hadn't been idle. Arcane Shot had hit, and the rat launched itself out of the cave with a screech. As it landed, I launched another Arcane Shot, still keeping on the move. That had been a hard lesson yesterday, don't stop moving if you have the option.

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Rex had me targeted and was racing to me as the next magic ball slammed into him. It roared, closing the distance between us almost faster than I could see. Jaws opened and it tried to attach to one of my legs. I scrambled back away from it, getting scratched deep in the calf instead of bitten.

I'd been able to teach myself to keep an eye on my health and mana from all the fighting so far. It still caused me to lag a bit in my actions, but it helped keep me alive. That one scratch had shaved off three points from my health. Also a hard lesson learned, if I wasn't under half health, suck it up. I was just one point above half.

Rex screeched again, turning to lunge at me while I tried to get some range. Another Arcane Shot, I was down to five mana, hit the rat square in its chest. Which didn't seem to slow it down.

The rats claws ticked on the rock as it chased after me. A nip at my heels dropped me to under half my health, and I burned a mana point to cast Word of Healing. Not full, but not dead either.

My hand dug into my pack, trying to pull out my stalactite club as I ran in circles. I was at least keeping just ahead of the rat, though it did get a few more shots at my legs. Enough I had to cast Word of Healing two more times.

Mana was getting low, I had to do the thing I wasn't good at, fight with the club. An sttempt of faking to one side had me turning to face the King of Rats. I swung the stone club as hard as I could at the same time.

I did hit, honestly. A meaty sound of stone slamming into rat. Unfortunately, its forward momentum was enough that we collided into a heap. The rat scratched, trying to get its teeth into me and I tried wailing on it with my club while also trying to push it off me.

My health dipped low again, I didn't have the time to try and cast while fending the beast off. Then, a lucky strike with the club landed on its head, stunning it for a moment. Enough time for me to push it away, and quickly get off a heal.

One more point of mana, and this fight had barely gone a couple of minutes. I turned, and swung. Again, and again. I tried to back away as I did, a slow process in itself. The rat took hits, slowing a bit as the damage racked up.

Finally, it seems to flag enough that I took a risk. Using my last point of mana, I cast Arcane Shot again and followed up with a two handed grip swing of my club. Both hit, the magic attack with its usually whoop sound and the club with a crunch.

I swung a couple more times just to be sure. And then promptly feel to my knees trying to breath. Two health points as left, and no mana. The rat lay in a heap before me, jaws open on a weird angle, one eye kind of bulging out and a dent in the side of its head.

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“What?” I gasped, coming Down from the rush of adrenaline. "Recalibrate? What does that mean?”

As a pain I hope I never experience again ripped through me, I figured it out. Luckily, I passed out before too much longer.