The Shell King ran forward, brandishing its halberd as it took long, ponderous strides. Zalan and Rep reacted immediately, throwing out a flame and blast of lighting that merged to explode upon impacting the Shell King. It was the first time they initiated a battle together, confident in their combined ability. It charged right through the explosion unperturbed.
“It tanked our Elemental hits?” Zalan balked.
“Brace yourself!” Rep held out his sword.
The weapons felt awkward in their hands. It had been so long since they last held their blades that they didn’t feel like an extension of their arms like they used to. The Shell King’s halberd swung quickly, cutting through the air and crashing into both Rep and Zalan’s swords. The collision of weapons made the two men slide back a foot in the earth. The Shell King had considerable strength. Rep threw a fireball out of his foot and redirected it to strike the Shell King’s face. It breathed out, sounding unharmed under its helmet.
“What do we do?” Rep asked, his arms trembling under the Shell King's increasing force behind the halberd.
“Split up!” Zalan called, leaning back under the strain of the weapon.
“That didn’t work last time!” Rep said, his voice strained.
The Shell King grunted, taking another step forward and applying more force.
“I can’t think of anything else! Just run before it pins us! Imbue your sword!”
Zalan and Rep imbued both of their blades, injecting their weapons with enough energy to cause the Shell King to pause and take a step back. Zalan and Rep split up, running on opposite sides of the large monster. They both took the opportunity to slice at the Shell King’s legs, cutting deep into the creature’s armor, dealing their first bit of damage. The Shell King flinched and grunted in reaction to the attack. Then it turned to chase Zalan, stomping menacingly and raising its halberd.
“Why is it always me?” Zalan muttered as the monster chased him down.
This time Rep made sure not to run as far in case the plan went the same way it did last time. He had enough balance to spin in place and double back. He did exactly that, running to catch back up to the monster before it could take on Zalan. He could send out his Elemental Power a lot faster than he could move his feet. He began to throw quick fireballs and curve them to stand in front of its face and obscure the creature’s vision. The Shell King swatted the fireballs away like nothing, but began to growl in frustration at the nuisance. It spun on its heels and turned toward Rep, enraged.
Zalan brought himself to a stop, gasping for air. The Shell King was much faster than the Shellbacks. He breathed in and charged back toward the Shell King. He tried to throw lightning and curve it the same way that Rep did, but couldn’t turn his lightning nearly enough to cause it to cross the monster’s eyeline. He could feel the lightning slightly adjusting midair, but his grip on the power wasn’t good enough for more than slight adjustments. Though, his slight redirection did give him an idea on a way to slow down the Shell King. He tried to increase his speed. It was too far for him to slash its legs, and it was only making a greater distance as it caught up to Rep.
Rep ran as fast as he could, throwing tiny shots of flame behind him, but nothing as sight-blinding as he was able to produce when he wasn’t being targeted. The Shell King was upon him now. It slammed its halberd down, and Rep had to jump and spin to block it with his weapon. The halberd locked with Rep’s sword and Rep was off balance. He retreated so as to not be run over as well as keep the halberd at bay. The monster wretched the sword away from Rep, throwing it far away.
Zalan was too far to swing his sword at the creature, but many things became clear to him the instant he saw the blade thrown away. The creature was not as weak to Elemental Power as it was to swords and weapons. That’s why it flinched when they slashed at it earlier and why it spent time disarming Rep. The fact it was only vulnerable to blades also should have been clear when Nold gave them their weapons unprompted. It also wasn’t paying attention to him.
In the same moment Rep’s sword was torn from his grasp, Zalan imbued his sword and threw it like a javelin. The sword would have definitely hit the floor was it not imbued. Zalan redirected the lightning in the sword in order to keep it both airborne and aimed precisely at the back of the Shell King’s knee. While he couldn’t curve lighting in whatever direction he wanted, he had enough of a grasp over the power to slightly adjust it. It was only a theory until he threw it, but the lightning in the blade was enough for him to change its direction in midair, like adding air to a paper airplane. He curved the lighting in the blade with enough control to make sure the point was always directed to the back of the Shell King’s leg.
The Shell King, unaware of the incoming sword, brought the halberd down toward Rep. Zalan moved faster, and his sword stabbed clean into the Shell King’s leg, causing it to scream and kneel down to one leg. The halberd missed Rep’s vital points, but the tip went deep into Rep’s shoulder. Rep acted quickly despite the new injury, pulling on the halberd by the staff to further throw the Shell King off balance. The Shell King pulled back and Rep used the momentum of that pull to remove the halberd out of his shoulder and free himself. Rolling to the side, he moved out of reach while the Shell King still reeled from the pain in its leg.
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Rep jumped up and kicked the Shell King directly in its torso with the full force of his body, but bounded off harmlessly, the creature’s shell protecting it. Rep would be unable to overcome the monster without a weapon. Zalan caught on to this quickly and ran to Rep’s discarded sword. The Shell King tried to stand, but stumbled back down and decided to swing its halberd horizontally at Rep. Rep fell to his back, the halberd barely swishing by above him.
“Rep! Catch!” Zalan threw him his blade.
“Do not throw a sword!” Rep called back, panicked.
But Rep saw how it glowed a light blue, imbued with Zalan’s power and remained upright as it sailed through the air. It descended toward Rep smoothly, as though granted to him as a boon from the sky. Rep reached out, amazed at how his weapon looked. Zalan even had the consideration to stop imbuing it just before Rep grabbed it, leaving Rep unharmed as he grasped the hilt.
Rep read between the lines immediately. Rep quickly imbued his sword in flames and prepared for another swipe of the halberd. The combined might of his Strength and Wisdom were put into his imbued sword as he pushed against the halberd, knocking it away. He then thrust his blade toward the Shell King’s unharmed leg. The Shell King deflected it quickly, throwing the sword from Rep’s grasp. Rep had allowed himself to be disarmed, now that the blade was imbued. The Shell King was stunned to see the sword come floating back around for a second swipe at its leg.
The Shell King smacked the floating blade into the floor and stabbed at it a series of times, as though to make sure the weapon was dead and wouldn’t come back for a third attack. Rep used this moment of distraction to slide out of the Shell King’s vision and grab the sword lodged into its leg.
Rep pulled Zalan’s sword out from the Shell King, imbued it in flame, and stabbed it straight into the creature’s head from below. Its pained roar was cut off mid-cry.
“Did you get it?” Zalan asked, his vision obscured on the other end of the Shell King.
Zalan exploded in brilliant white light, gaining a Level from the encounter. That was enough of an answer for Zalan. The Shell King was dead. The Shell King’s corpse toppled forward, landing heavily on Rep.
“You did it!” Zalan called, charging forward to congratulate Rep.
“Help me get it off,” Rep said, his voice strained under the creature.
Before Zalan could put a hand on the Shell King, a mound of sand materialized below Rep and pushed the Shell King off of him. Nold had reappeared from within his protective sand and began burying the Shellbacks and the Shell King. He looked Zalan up and down with an impressed expression.
“What an impressive display of power. Imbuing your blade to redirect it midair. I must admit, I have never done that myself before. What a powerful strategy,” Nold praised Zalan.
“Did you see how Rep was able to fend off the Shell King when it was in his face? He did the same thing I did with the imbuing! He saw it done once and already knew how to copy it! Then he used my sword like an expert!” Zalan said, gesticulating excitedly to recreate Rep’s performance.
Rep nodded modestly to the compliments as he brought himself to his feet.
“Mmm,” Nold agreed with mild interest.
“What did your increase in Level gain you?” Rep asked Zalan.
Zalan tapped his fingers together, calling upon his stats.
LEVEL: 05
STRENGTH: 05
WISDOM: 07
EXPERIENCE: 04
ELEMENT: LIGHTNING
“Your Wisdom continues to show promise,” Nold nodded approvingly. Zalan looked up, about to ask Rep about the fight when he saw the damage he took in battle. His eyebrows descended with concern.
“You’re hurt,” Zalan looked at the wound on Rep’s shoulder. “And you didn’t gain a Level to heal.”
“I will be fine,” Rep tilted his head to the side as if to say the blood in his shoulder was nothing.
“You won’t be fine. We don’t have a place to heal between here and the tournament,” Zalan reminded him.
This gave Rep pause. He didn’t shrug off Zalan’s concerns as easily as usual.
“How far are you from gaining your next Level?” Zalan asked.
“I am at 75 Experience,” Rep said, mildly disappointed.
“Maybe we can look for more Shellbacks and try and heal you by taking them out,” Zalan offered.
“No. I am at Level 5. If I reach Level 6, then I will have to enter the next bracket in the tournament. I wish to have the advantage of entering at 5 and Under,” Rep said, though he didn’t sound so convinced, himself.
“Come on Rep. You would already be at a huge disadvantage to not have full use of your arms. Plus, Nold already told us that we can take on people that are higher Levels than us, right?” Zalan looked to Nold for support, but Nold just shrugged indifferently. He looked like he couldn’t care less for the conversation and just wanted to get a move on.
“I will be fine,” Rep declared, sounding like he was trying to convince himself more than his companions. He tied a bandage to the wound.
“But Rep, at least think about it. What’s a Level 6 to a Level 10? You’ll do great,” Zalan said.
In the second that Rep tried to think about it, Nold went back on the move, continuing his way to the tournament. Rep shrugged his uninjured shoulder and followed Nold without replying to Zalan. Zalan sighed and joined them, hoping his friend would fare well in the tournament in his state.