The instant that mana went surging out of Edge’s core and into his arm, the beast’s eyes snapped open.

He wasn’t sure if he’d given himself away after all or was just plain unlucky. Either way, the result was the same. The weasel screamed in outrage while pulling its body back. His knife went lashing out, so quick that the blade was reduced to a metallic blur before his eyes.

The beast was fast, but slash was faster. The weasel’s hasty maneuver saved its life, but it didn’t escape unscathed. Edge’s weapon drew a ragged red line across its flank as it leapt out of the way. The cut wasn’t too deep, but it was long and looked painful.

He hoped that the wound would drive it away. That he could steal the mana-seed, refill his reservoir, then finish the fight with his full arsenal of skills at his disposal. But he’d misjudged the situation. It seemed that both combatants held the same belief. The mana-seed was a treasure worth putting your life on the line.

Instead of fleeing, the weasel darted back in with liquid grace. It opened its jaws as it slipped past his guard, then bit down as hard as it could. There was a flash of intense pain, as finger-long fangs penetrated the meat of his thigh with ease.

Edge screamed, but he didn’t lose focus. He took aim and jabbed with his knife, sinking the blade into the beast’s shoulder, matching it blow for blow. The weasel hissed and pulled back, but it didn’t go far, keeping him from claiming the seed.

The first round of the fight was a draw, and the second was underway.

The fact that the beast was tethered to the spot gave Edge an advantage. It wanted to nurture the seed, not eat it, forcing it to play defense instead of being able to move freely.

Over the next few minutes, they jockeyed for position, circling each other while probing for weakness. They avoided the mushroom by an unspoken agreement, so that they didn’t destroy what they were fighting for. They both took a few light wounds in the process, but nothing that would do more than slow them down.

Edge was still bleeding, but not too badly, so he pushed through the pain and fought on. Although the bite hurt like hell, he kept regeneration off, so that the skill wouldn’t sap his mana.

He had trained long and hard for this moment before coming to Ord, and he didn’t let the discomfort distract him. Whoever made the next mistake would likely lose the fight as well as their life. He didn’t let the creature’s feints or posturing faze him. He kept a level head and waited for an opening to appear.

By now, he was starting to get tired. Sweat poured down his body and his breath came fast and shallow. In that moment, he understood that the beast was deliberately drawing this out. It had realized that it had more endurance than he did, and that Edge was low on mana.

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The weasel was planning to claim victory in a battle of attrition, and its strategy was sound. He couldn’t afford to let the beast have its way. He needed to find a way to end the fight, and he needed to do it now.

The next time they came together and then broke apart, he stepped on a rock and his foot shot out from under him. In a flash of brown fur, the beast was upon him, biting and clawing at his belly. Its natural weapons tore into his flesh, scoring what should have been a lethal wound, or at least taken him out of the fight.

While this outcome was blindingly painful, it was exactly what Edge had been counting on when he had deliberately decided to fall. The weasel was so close that he couldn’t possibly miss, completely focused on ending his life.

The beast had lowered its guard when it thought that it had him, failing to notice the blade of ice extending from the palm of his hand. To maintain the deception, he turned as if trying to get away, then jabbed the tip of his iceblade straight into the creature’s furry throat.

His elemental blade was a powerful weapon. It slid effortlessly into the weasel’s neck. Subzero ice penetrated artery and vein, chilling tissue and restricting the flow of blood to its brain.

It began spasming, but it wasn’t dead yet. Edge pulled his hand back and brought his iceblade down hard. He carved into the beast’s chest, slicing and freezing layers of skin, muscle, and organ in turn until its heart was encased in a block of ice.

This was a blow that it couldn’t endure. The weasel convulsed a final time and then went still. The moment that it stopped struggling, his Guide appeared with a message from the System.

You have slain an enemy and gained experience.

You have accumulated sufficient experience to cycle-up your core. Your new cycle is [4].

You have two attribute points awaiting allocation.

He dismissed the notice with a thought. He had more pressing matters to attend to first. Edge looked down at his savaged flesh and shrugged, turning regeneration back on. At least it’s not as bad as last time. He still had a bit of mana left to keep him upright, and the bleeding was already starting to slow.

He held his hands tight against his wounds for a few more minutes, minimizing the blood loss until the vessels finished reattaching themselves. The big man had inadvertently warned him that losing blood would take more time and mana to restore. Neither of which Edge could afford.

While he waited until he could move without reopening the wound, he let what he’d experienced wash over him. This was his first true battle. His first time facing off against another creature with claiming its life as the goal.

It had been painful and frightening, which Edge had been expecting.

What he hadn’t anticipated was how thrilling it would be. The stark clarity that came over him when fighting with his life on the line. The electric cocktail of cortisol and adrenaline singing in his veins. The pulsating heat of his core burning in his chest like molten flame.

Soon his reserves ran dry. It still hurt to move, but it wasn’t too bad anymore. His reactor flickered and then died down, waiting for his reservoir to refill.

Edge needed more mana if he wanted to heal, let alone be in shape for another fight. Fortunately, there was a convenient source of magicytes growing beside his boots. The mana-seed mushroom that the weasel was guarding. He’d forced himself to ignore the temptation while he was healing, but the wait was over at last.

Although it had been a bit too close for comfort, he’d won his first fight. Now it was time to claim his prize.