“What… what do I do?” Zalan screamed, raising his sword at the creature.

The new Narg was taking in the scene. The injured Narg with Fran, Gorb, and Rep on one end of the field outside the gate, and Zalan in front of it. The Narg grunted in a deep croak and began raising its club. It didn’t raise the weapon to full height before an arrow sprouted from within its nose and it squealed in surprise, looking out to get a view of Yelsa. In the moment that the frog-like monster was still distracted, Zalan threw a blast of lightning into its left eye and began running.

“You are running toward me! It has not spotted me yet!” Yelsa screamed urgently.

“I’m running away from the thing that’s going to kill me! I don’t care which direction!” Zalan replied equally urgently.

He heard a rumble from the fight with the first Narg happening on his right, but he couldn’t risk taking a look while making distance. Then, the second Narg seemingly teleported in front of him, landing from a giant leap in between himself and Yelsa. The landing was earth shaking and Zalan landed face first into the ground, sliding a foot and ending up between the Narg’s feet. The Narg raised a foot to stomp, when suddenly an arrow appeared at the base of its heel and it reeled back in pain. Zalan took the moment to raise his head and roll toward the planted foot. The Narg stomped down, which lodged the arrow deeper into its foot, causing it to screech with more pain.

Zalan was in front of the other foot, a grotesquely shaped piece of flesh, bumpy from various warts. Zalan’s first instinct was to start running again, but he was terrified that the Narg would land on top of him the next time it jumped. He decided in that instant that perhaps Fran was right and injuring its feet would be enough to stop it from jumping. He got up to his knees, raised his sword and stabbed downward toward the center of the massive foot.

Only for his blade to glance off, leaving only a tiny mark instead of breaching the rough flesh.

Zalan stared in horror and realized that this was what Gorb had asked about earlier. What would happen if their attacks were useless? His Strength was too low and he couldn’t do any damage with a simple sword stab. The plan was supposed to be to run, but they couldn’t escape two Nargs at the same time, especially not if Gorb was too preoccupied to supply supporting speed.

The Narg above him regained its senses, and turned itself around to take on the archer that was causing him the most pain. In its about-face, the Narg unintentionally kicked Zalan aside with great force. Zalan coughed as he was tossed a foot midair and landed painfully on his side. He felt a stinging in the left side of his abdomen and wondered if he landed on some sort of sharp object, but didn’t have time to check before Yelsa began screaming in fear. The Narg had closed the gap between them. Zalan threw a jolt of lightning at its arm, stupefying it for a second. He had prevented it from raising its club which should have given Yelsa just enough time to nock another arrow.

Instead, she continued screaming. She was frozen in fear.

Zalan threw another bolt of lightning at the Narg raising its club as he stumbled to his feet with his sword drawn. He ran forward as the Narg raised its club to pancake Yelsa. He saw that his lightning power had an effect on the creature, but only a little bit. If only he could use the monster’s weapon against it the same way he used the Boznok’s mace to stop the Boznok from attacking Rep. But the club was made of wood! He couldn’t do anything about it.

His adrenaline-laden mind raced towards a solution. In his ensuing steps, he was suddenly struck with an idea. There was a chance to put his practice into action. He could do it!

Zalan screamed as he charged forward. The Narg croaked as it prepared to lower its club. Yelsa screamed and covered her face tightly.

Zalan couldn’t sustain lightning running through the entire weapon, but he’d perfected holding the lightning on the tip of the sword for a few seconds. The second before he stabbed toward the Narg’s calf, he imbued the tip of his blade with all the power he could, then put all his weight behind it.

The sword and all its lighting went deep into the tree trunk-like calf and the Narg grunted in pain and frustration.

Zalan abandoned his sword in the creature, keeping his momentum going and continued running forward between the Narg’s legs. The Narg hadn’t let up its swing. Zalan grabbed Yelsa from the back of her tunic and dragged her forward a few feet as the earth shook violently from the club’s impact. Yelsa screamed out in pain, and Zalan felt her body resist his pulling. She’d been struck by the immense weapon. But at least she was alive.

Zalan grit his teeth and looked backward to see what had happened. One of the bones protruding from the Narg’s club had gone through the side of Yelsa’s leg. Thankfully, her leg was largely okay, other than the gash. She wouldn’t lose her foot. The Narg looked ferociously in pain and stumbled down to one knee, the sword in its leg too much for it to continue standing.

“Yelsa! Shoot its eyes! Its eyes!” Zalan screamed as he shot a bolt of lightning at the creature’s face. It closed its eyes in rage and roared its deep croak in anger. Zalan pulled an arrow from her quiver and began slapping her hand with it for her to pick it up.“Yelsa!!!”

“Ahhh!” Yelsa screamed and fitted the arrow, then loosed it into the Narg’s right eye, immediately blinding it. Zalan pulled another arrow for her, but Yelsa screamed in unimaginable pain as the Narg raised its club once more, pulling the sharp debris from Yelsa’s leg.

“Quick! Before it attacks again!” Zalan screamed as the Narg stumbled as it tried to hold the club upward.

“I can’t see!” Yelsa screamed.

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Zalan looked down at her and noticed tears streaming over her eyes from the pain. She had been blinded by her agony. She was in no shape to take aim at another moving target. He grit his teeth and acted quickly.

“Sorry,” he said as he gripped the back of her tunic.

Yelsa screamed as Zalan began pulling her further away and used his free hand to let loose a series of lightning bolts towards the Narg’s good eye, keeping it too blind to see them. Nevertheless, it slammed its club down at them again uninhibitedly, only to miss by a few feet. Zalan stumbled by the force of the impact next to him. Yelsa was too loud. It would get them killed if the Narg listened closely enough.

“Bite onto this,” Zalan placed an arrow into her mouth to stop the screaming and more effectively hide them. He continued his onslaught of lightning in the eye and dragged Yelsa away as she continued a muffled groan in torment at her injury being pulled over the ground.

The Narg was still moving too fast. Carrying Yelsa’s weight was too much and Zalan couldn’t outrun it. Breathing heavily, he scanned the monster in search of a weak point. The only thing that stood out to him was his own sword. He grit his teeth, deciding it was the best chance he had.

Zalan stopped to take proper aim at their stumbling opponent. Taking inspiration from his encounter with the Boznoks, Zalan fired what felt like his remaining energy into the blade. As he’d hoped, the blade hungrily absorbed the electricity and sent the shocking blast straight into the Narg’s body from the inside. Involuntarily twisting its body, the monster halted its approach, temporarily immobilized.

Finally, Zalan felt like they were far enough from the beast to stop pulling her. Yelsa spat out the arrow from her mouth and used her hands to block any sounds from escaping her mouth. Zalan let out one last bolt of lightning, then fell on his rear in exhaustion. Even with all the adrenaline, he couldn't keep up the usage of so much lightning. Despite his inability to keep up the assault, the Narg kept its arrow-free eye shut for a few more seconds. Zalan wondered if it was trying to protect itself from more lightning. After another few seconds of its eye staying close, he realized that it couldn’t open its eye. He had hit it so much that it was entirely blind. The Narg tried to stand at full height, then stumbled back down to its kneeling position. The arrow in one foot and the sword in the other calf were taking their toll.

“I think we’re safe from it for now,” Zalan whispered to her.

Yelsa didn’t have anything to say from under her hands but she nodded vigorously, grateful to be done for the moment. She was blinking away the tears in her eyes to get a better view. The Narg they sat across swung its club ahead of it like a blind stick, trying to locate its enemies, but they were a good ways out of reach.

Zalan finally looked over at Rep, Gorb, and Fran to see how they fared. The three of them were running over, the first Narg defeated and lying face-first in a pool of mud mixed with blood, a large cut on its throat and a fire on its back. Rep had a cut on his cheek, a line of blood washing over his jaw. Gorb had a fresh welt in his eye and Fran was hobbling over, her foot either injured or broken.

“We are coming!” Rep screamed, he threw a fireball which dwindled to the size of a quarter by the time it landed against the Narg’s neck.

Zalan waved for them to be quiet and tried his best to mime that the Narg ahead of them had been blinded.

“What?” Rep called.

But Gorb and Fran understood the message and signaled for Rep to be silent. Fran imbued her sword with flames and jumped high in the air, assisted by wind from Gorb and landed with her feet on the Narg’s shoulders. She buckled, hesitating because of her bad leg, but quickly regained her balance. Before the Narg could raise its hands to pull her off, Fran stabbed her flaming sword into its head, grinning from ear to ear as the Narg bellowed in pain for a moment before its soul escaped its body. Its large body began stumbling forward in dead silence.

Fran, Rep, and Yelsa both began glowing a dim white color. Zalan stared in fascination, about to ask what was happening before the light grew to a hot white. They each exploded in a blinding burst of energy. Each one had Leveled Up as a result of their encounters.

“That might have been useful during the fight,” Yelsa said sullenly, wiping the tears from her face quickly.

Zalan was shocked to hear her voice so clearly after the wound she took, then realized that it was mostly healed after gaining the Level. There was a dark red cut on her leg, but nothing as critical as the open hole in her leg moments ago. There was no longer anything to be seriously concerned over.

“Are you two okay?” Fran asked, looking them over.

“I am now that I have healed,” Yelsa said, slowly trying to stand.

“I’m okay, I think,” Zalan said. He lifted his tunic to see the damage done by being kicked aside by the Narg. It was a red bruise across his ribs. It stung to touch as well as to raise his hands too far above his head. He decided he would simply not raise his arms.

“What a fight!” Fran laughed as soon as it was confirmed her friends were safe. “Two Nargs!? And we killed them both! I thought we were finished when the second one appeared! Imagine if there were more!”

The question sent a pit of dread through the travelers and the five of them took a glance at the castle gates for another Narg. The gate remained squished and silent. The group breathed a joint sigh of relief. Gorb looked over the nearby Narg, then turned to Zalan and Yelsa curiously. He didn’t seem to be bothered by the black bruise on his eye after having been swatted aside by the first Narg.

“How did you…” Gorb tried to ask the question appropriately, then decided that he had no better way to ask. “How did you survive?”

“Indeed, how?” Rep said excitedly. “I could not get my sword to sever its skin!”

“Yelsa helped out a lot by keeping it distracted. When it wanted to stomp on me, she shot an arrow in its foot,” Zalan said.

“And then when the beast tried to separate my brain from my skull, Zalan imbued his sword and stabbed into its calf. Then pulled me away from it without a thought of his own safety. But I lost about half of my leg to one of the bones on its club,” Yelsa explained.

“And then we just kept shooting its eyes until it was blind,” Zalan said.

Gorb looked back at the creature then to Zalan and Yelsa. He pointed to the sword sticking out of the dead creature’s calf.

“You are still Level Two and you were able to imbue your blade?” Gorb asked. There was something interesting in his voice. Pride? Was Gorb impressed by something Zalan had done?

“Just the end of it, I still can’t imbue the whole thing,” Zalan gave a measured response.

“And even with that, you were able to take advantage of the situation. And if I heard correctly, you were able to fire arrows even when you had lost your leg?” Gorb asked, a tiny smile threatening to break on his face.

“Only part of my leg,” Yelsa corrected. She and Zalan exchanged a glance as Gorb began to smile wide.

“My friends,” he said with a grand smile on his face, even the squinted black eye looked elated. “Please, call me Gorb.”