Raising his hand and forming a finger gun, Billy called out [Fire Shot] and cast several times before shouting [Ice Shot] and repeating it. He cycled through each of his spells, firing a couple of times to get a feel for their range, accuracy, and effects. After firing a couple of [Thunder Shots], he noticed he started to feel a bit lightheaded, attributing it to the effects of having recently 'died', he continued with his practice.
Calling out [Force Shot], he raised his hand to shoot, only to be hit by a sudden headache and severe vertigo that caused him to fall over. Words flashed in front of him, but he couldn't concentrate long enough to read them. After a minute of lying on the ground and focusing on his breathing, the vertigo subsided, and he could finally make out the words:
“Warning: low magic”
“Spell [Regeneration] is inactive”
“Well shoot,” said Billy, “guess I gotta watch out for that. If I collapse like this in a fight, I'll be dead. Wish I could see how much magic I had left.”
“Ding, status display enabled.”
Three bars suddenly appeared in the corner of Billy's vision. The top bar was completely red and labeled “Health” above it, showing “75/75” within the bar itself. The next bar down was labeled “Magic,” colored blue but only about a quarter full, displaying “11/47”. As Billy watched, the number ticked over to 12/47. The last bar was labeled “Experience,” with the numbers “4/200” in it.
“That's ah… that's pretty handy. Although I don’t really know how health is being figured out 'cause I feel like crap.”
Billy sat there for a while longer, watching his magic bar refill while his headache and vertigo slowly receded. Climbing to his feet, he rolled his neck, then his shoulders, flexed his hands, and gave his legs a shake to loosen up and get blood flowing. Taking a deep breath, he readied himself to practice some more. He raised his hand and released the breath before having to hit the ground to dodge an incoming fireball.
He felt the heat of the attack on the back of his neck as it passed before it slammed into a wall and exploded. Rolling to his feet, he ran for cover behind an outcropping of crystal, while trying to locate the incoming threat.
Peeking out, he saw two fire golems had found their way into the cavern. Evidently, his hiding place wasn’t that great as a fireball was heading straight for him. Ducking back behind the crystal, he turned his face away and covered his head with his hands as the attack slammed into his meager cover, causing an explosion that burned the skin on his back and sent shards of crystal flying, some of which struck him and became embedded in his burnt flesh.
Letting out a few choice swear words, Billy began to move and called out [Ice Shot], then raised his hand and fired at the closest of the two fire golems. As he expected, his aim wasn’t as sharp as with a real gun, but it was close enough, with his spell slamming into the fire golem's left arm. The ice began to spread up over its shoulder before coming to a stop and then slowly melting away. Billy watched as the fire golem let out a roar that sounded like the whistle of a steam engine.
Realizing he was exposed, he dove for a rock and tucked himself behind it as another round of fireballs was hurled at him. “Dang it,” he thought, “Guess this magic ain’t as strong as ice bullets. Well, if you can't hit 'em hard, hit 'em lots.”
Pushing up, Billy steadied himself then rolled to his left, coming up into a shooter's kneeling position, arm extended, right hand pointed with his left hand supporting it. Billy fired, then again, and again, and again. All four shots struck the first golem at various points over its body. This time the ice encroaching from the multiple points was enough to consume the fire monster and extinguish it.
Incoming fireballs from the second golem forced Billy to go prone and belly crawl back behind cover. He continued to slowly crawl to the other side of the rock, trying to gain an angle on the second golem. Inch by inch, the monster came into view, the lack of fireballs indicating that it wasn’t able to track where Billy had gone.
Staying in a prone position, Billy extended his arms out in front of him, lining the fingers of his right hand up with the golem, and fired four ice shots. This time with tighter clustering, the ice extinguished the flames and the rocky parts of the monster's body fell to the ground.
Coming up into a crouching position, Billy scanned the cavern for any additional threats before being startled by a ding and a glowing message:
“Ding, level up! You are now level 3.”
“The spell [Ice Shot] has leveled up.”
“Would you like to see your characteristics?”
“Uhh, not right now, thank you,” replied Billy.
With that, the message dissipated. Billy waited a second to make sure there were no more surprises. As he waited, he felt the skin on his shoulder go cold, followed by a sensation reminiscent of the relief you feel after removing a splinter. He realized that it was his skin healing from the burn and crystal shards that had injured him. He looked up to his magic bar to see it dropping. Remembering the disorientation he felt last time it got low, he decided to wait for it to refill before moving toward the slope up to the exit.
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Navigating the loose gravel and dirt while staying aware of potential threats, Billy found the slope slow going. After a while of stumbling and scuttling, he could see a light at the top, which gave him hope that he had somehow managed to make it out in time for the sun to still be up.
Habit overcame hope, and he pinned himself against the cavern wall, slowly moving towards the entrance while trying to scout what was outside. His hope of daylight was replaced with the horror of realizing that the illumination came from dozens of fire golems who had appeared in the clearing outside the cave. From his narrow field of view through the entry, he could make out at least 40 of the monsters, and there were no doubt more that he couldn’t see.
Pulling back deeper into the cave to avoid detection, he slowed his breathing to control the panic building up inside of him. “If two of those things have found their way in already, then it’s likely that more will as well. I’m a sitting duck if I stay here,” thought Billy.
Creeping slowly back to the entrance, he managed to pick out the spot where the area narrowed towards the rest of the canyon. Unfortunately, that was about 200 yards away through very densely packed fire golems. Quickly running to the other side of the entrance, he peered out in the other direction, which was similarly densely packed with monsters. However, he managed to pick out what he was looking for; An area that wasn’t as crowded as the rest, about 30 yards from where he was.
As he was trying to make a plan, a fire golem walked into the cave, passing 2 feet in front of him. It somehow managed not to notice him as it walked forward towards the slope, stepping slightly too far, the golem’s foot began to slip and it turned to try and prevent a fall.
If amorphous, flaming rocks could have expressions, then Billy reckoned that this one was showing a lot of surprise at seeing him. As the golem raised its hand to cast a fireball, Billy fired four ice shots from the hip. Only two were accurate enough to hit, and before Billy could fire again, he had to dodge an incoming fireball that completely missed him and passed through the cave entrance.
As he went to attack again, he noticed that the two ice shots had managed to extinguish the fire golem, causing the rocky parts of its body to tumble down the slope. “Guess ice shot upgrading means it packs more of a punch. Nifty,” he mused.
Before he could dwell on the implications, another fire golem entered the cave, having been struck by the errant fireball. Billy reflexively fired twice, freezing it right in front of the cave entrance where all of the other fire golems could see.
The resulting cacophony of enraged whistle-like howls was deafening, but Billy knew if he didn’t act now, things would get much worse. Bursting from the cave, he made for the slight opening in the crowd of fire monsters. He sprinted forward, then dodged left to avoid slamming into one, which took him into the path of another. He dived forward, rolling and coming up to his feet which took him face to face with another golem. He spun to his left to avoid the fireball being launched and to take him past its caster. He managed to get another five paces, where he ducked behind a large rock, giving him cover from behind. It also meant that he was an obvious target for the golems now in front of him. Before the closest one could react, he fired two ice shots at it and charged through its freezing corpse, smashing directly into another one right behind it causing both Billy and the monster to tumble over and roll.
“Ding, unable to learn spell [Fire Mantel].” Billy dismissed the message and scrambled to his feet, pushing himself forward as several fireballs slammed into the ground where he just was. He now found himself surrounded on all sides by a tight circle of fire golems with no obvious path to escape. He froze, his brain and instincts working overtime to try and find a solution. While he was thinking, all of the surrounding golems simultaneously launched their fireballs and Billy did the only thing he could. He fell to the ground and hoped for a miracle. In falling to the ground the fireballs managed to miss him, several collided above him, causing him to get burned. But others traveled right through the circle, slamming into other fire golems. Although the fireballs would do no damage to the golems, they did get knocked back enough for Billy to spot what he was looking for.
Behind one of the monsters, he could see the river. Ignoring the pain shooting through his body, he pushed himself up, fired two shots at the golem, and tried to run through its freezing body. Having come up from a prone position, Billy didn’t have stable enough footing to run right through the freezing golem and instead glanced off it and spun to the side. As he turned, he saw countless incoming fireballs, but before he could react, his foot hit a small rock, tripping him backward directly into the river. The cool water felt fantastic against his burnt skin, but that relief only lasted a moment as the rushing current began to drag him downstream, seemingly hitting every rock along the way.
Billy flailed his arms trying to stabilize himself, he briefly managed to get his head above the water to breathe before being pulled back under and ricocheting off more submerged rocks. He fought again to the surface and managed to keep his head above the water this time. Just long enough for the fire golems to spot him and begin launching fireballs. Taking a deep breath and diving back under, Billy began to swim with the current as fast as he could, the rocks of the river cutting, scraping, and gouging him. He kept going under the water until his lungs started to burn. Pushing his way back above the surface, he gasped for air and readied himself to dive again but paused when he realized that he had made it around the bend out of sight of the monsters.