Phillip’s eyes glinted in delight, knowing fully well how I felt upon hearing his revelation. Fighting once them at a time was a challenging task on its own, but two of them at the same time? Impossible.
“You can do it.” Phillip said, “You have your magic now, so I don’t think the fight would end up the same way it did.”
In terms of pure logic, he was right, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t at the least bit uncertain about my odds. I mean, we were talking about the lizardmen here, not some random goblins, their strengths were miles apart.
“I’m not the wisest guy on the planet, hell, I’m sure you’d find better advice from another random guy in here.” He continued, “But if you succeed in this mission, you’ll be a different person when you come back from it.”
I’ll be different, huh? It sounded great, and coincidentally, it aligned with my current goal.
I looked up to the obelisk, letting my thoughts run through my mouth, “I’ve always been average, if not worse, at everything in life. So, believe me when I say I don’t have any confidence in winning against them.”
Phillip stayed silent, listening to my random ramblings with all of his interest.
“I thought I’d turn my life around in here. Do something different for once.” I continued, filling the void in our conversation. “I knew it wasn’t easy; All the time, I kept saying to myself that I needed to just ignore the fears and keep pushing forward, and, for the most part, I’ve done that.”
Then, I clasped the edge of my forehead with my left hand, “But I knew it was all just a facade. It’s just something I say to myself to keep me going.”
“Then think of this as one last thing to complete today.” He replied, gazing at the obelisk, but the emptiness in his stare meant that his head was somewhere else. “I’m scared too, Gray. I feel it all the time.”
His comment nudged my attention. I failed to imagine such a man like him cowering in fear, but I didn’t know his past, nor did I know him that well either. We were just acquaintances in an unfortunate situation who met through some weird circumstances, after all.
Phillip didn’t continue, his empty stare showed that he was reminiscing about his past. I didn’t know what sort of life he was in before, but it was obvious that he didn’t live an easy one.
“Just one more…” He mumbled.
Just one more.
I stood up and stretched. My mind began formulating plans on how to tackle the spearman. Shooting it at a distance would just be a waste of my mana, so I had to reserve my magic until I was close to it. Now, if I chose to engage it at a close distance, that posed a few other problems, but if I wanted a realistic chance of beating it…
What other options do I have?
Block and shoot. Close distance only.
I figured that I’d deal with the recoil of my magic with my own shield. There were no doubts that specks of my magic would hit my skin, but I’d much prefer those than the tip of their spears instead. Besides, with my potion ready, I had a way to heal if push comes to a shove.
Phillip kept an eye on me, only speaking once I stirred awake from my thoughts, “Looks like you’d figure something out. I’ll wait for you here, Don’t die on me.” He added, smiling.
“Thanks, Phillip…” I got up, patting my shoulder, “I’ll think about that.”
[You will now partake in the mission: Hunt Lizardman]
In an instant, I was back in the same field I’d grown used to. The fog was as thick as ever, and the plains were as quiet as they could be. I held both my shield and staff at the ready, prepared to deal with any sudden attack that could come at any second.
It didn’t take long before a lone lizardman emerged from the fog. My pores leaked sweat as my brain took its sweet time to replay the number of deaths I’d received from this monster, and to its credit, my brain did a fantastic job to make this fight a whole lot more difficult than it was.
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As if I’m not scared enough already.
But that was the point of me coming in here. I needed this. The breakthrough. The moment I felt that I conquered this rational, reasonable fear of fighting this thing. Of course, I was hesitant, of course, I was terrified. But choices were not a luxury that we had in the White Trials.
Priming the spell on my staff, I watched its movement with full intent on blasting its head open the moment it attempted to strike. The lizardman was wary of my magic, its fear causing it to keep a distance. Smartass. It made sense that it chose to play it safe but, man, wasn’t it annoying.
My brain begged for its stupidity. To simplify this already complex fight. There was a second lizardman in this vicinity, so I had to kill this thing as quickly as I could.
The lack of time was the most dangerous element in this fight, which prompted me to advance toward its position with my shield raised up high. The lizardman didn’t react; opting to stay with its spear ready to retaliate if I showed any openings.
Our distance shrunk with every step that I took. What used to be about 10 meters of distance was reduced meter by meter, until I was certain that my spell would at least graze its limbs if it avoided it, and I let one rip.
The air shrieked, and the eyes of the lizard popped wide open. It slid to the side, hoping to avoid my attack, but my calculations weren’t far off. Its right arm was grazed by the spell, leaving a nasty black mark on its otherwise clear scales.
Not enough damage.
Sensing an opening, it soared through the skies with a jump and shrank the distance between us. An instant that was so short that I failed to raise my shield high enough to block its jab cleanly. Blood trickled down my forehead as its spear almost poked a hole into my scalp, instead, it scraped the top of my head instead.
I primed another spell during the attack, and at this distance, and even more so when it had just jumped, my bolt was guaranteed to hit. I let the spell go after aiming my staff as close as I could get to its chest, and the resulting explosion was blocked by my shield as its body flew away.
The smoke covered most of my vision. I couldn’t check how much damage I’d done to it, but there was no way that it only received a superficial wound.
As the smoke dissipated bit by bit, I scanned the foggy area for its whereabouts, and there it was, reeling from the pain, but its eyes still sparked with life. It isn’t dead yet. Its greenish scales were charred from the impact of my magic, displaying an ugly tint of purple spreading around its chest.
As I predicted, the spearman was more resistant against the spells I threw, or it was just tougher against anything in general compared to the goblins. It was dumb to assume that they would die from a single bolt unless my ARCANE POWER was high enough.
2 spells are used. 4 more in reserve.
Time was of the essence. I channeled another bolt and waited for it to move.
Seconds ticked as the spearman heaved, struggling to get its stance right. I was glad to see that it was wounded, and for the first time since I saw its scaly skin, I sensed a possibility of victory, which was… rapturous, delightful.
My spell fully primed, paired with a grin plastered on my face, my Death Bolt zipped through the air, colliding with its weakened body once more. With the added distance, I could see everything clearly; The head of the lizardman recoiled back as its body was pushed off the ground, and it landed on its back a few meters behind.
Its body remained still afterward, and a quick check of my status showed that I’ve regained 3 MANA back, meaning…
It’s dead.
However, it was too early to celebrate. The noises generated by my magic had attracted another of its kind, and between my extreme elation and sense of accomplishment, I failed to detect its presence before it was too late.
Stab.
A spear ripped through my abdomen from my back, paralyzing my waist down in an instant. I gagged from the rush of blood that flowed through my throat, before it kicked my body off its spear and I tumbled on the ground, grimacing in pain.
During the fall, my staff was released from my grasp, falling a few meters away from where I was. I cursed at the sudden hopelessness of my situation, berating my carelessness which led me to lose my focus for just a fucking second.
Just one instance of carelessness and I am dead.
Luckily, my arms were still moving. The pain and blood loss was excruciating, but I am breathing. Hope was present in my glare as I witnessed the lizard chasing after me, with its primary and only goal to take my life away.
Another stab came from above. I turned around and blocked its next attack with the shield that remained on my arm. A loud, thunderous clank resounded in the empty field from the collision of our weapons, and I felt every inch of my muscles straining from my awkward angle and its overpowering strength. Each thrust felt more desperate than the last.
I choked on my blood, my breathing interrupted by the rush of red liquid leaving my stomach through my mouth.
THINK, GRAY!
Magic… and the potion, I had ways to get myself off this situation. First, I didn’t need the staff to cast magic; I could retaliate from this position. Next, I had a potion from the quest reward still in my inventory. Taking it out and healing would take some time, so I couldn’t use it until I had some space.
Priming the spell on my non-shield arm, I waited until it drew its spear back to perform another jab. That moment came almost immediately, and I released my arm and blasted the bolt on its face as I screamed.
The resulting impact caused both of us to be thrown away in an opposing direction. I didn’t know what kind of damage I’d taken so far, but death was more than imminent. My eyes went wide in horror when I saw what happened to my dark, trembling hands. The residue of my bolt had melted off the outer skin, exposing the muscles and bones underneath.
My teeth rattled, cold sweat dribbling down my cheeks. I didn’t know what I was feeling at this moment, the emotions inside my soul were too much and too complex for me to understand. Was it fear? Or was it something else?
There were no second chances after dying here, unlike all the other deaths I’ve experienced before.
The potion.
I took it out from my inventory, grabbing the red vial firmly with my shielded arm, which proved difficult due to the core of my body shaking, then gulping down against the flow of my own vomit of blood. No amount of refreshments could ease the ailment from my paralyzed emotions, not even the magical properties of the potion would fix the paralyzing tension in my heart.
At the same time, the figure of the lizard was visible in the corner of my eyes. It was kneeling, in the process of standing up, and I had less than maybe two seconds before it would kill me.
This is it. The moment. Time to show that you've stepped outside your shell, Gray.