Chapter 2: Combat

The unknown creature knocked him onto the ground and began clawing at his face. He flailed blindly, almost hitting himself with his sword. In his flailing he struck the creature, and its shriek of pain cut through the haze of panic and agony in his head. He awkwardly slashed over his shoulder with all the force he could muster. Jax felt the sword cutting into the creature and wrenched it off him, scrambling up and just hacking at it until it stopped moving.

He stood over his first Improving realm kill, panting as the adrenaline faded and he started to feel his wounds. Being in a trial dulled the pain, the body somehow knowing that this was temporary. He could still feel how one of eyes was torn out, and attempting to move his facial muscles sent waves of agony through his skull. “Fuck.” He breathed. “Just… fuck.” It was just his luck to get the one trial out of sixty that didn’t give a training fight at the start.

He glanced over at the place that the rats had fled to. They cowered together in the corner of the room, unlike how actual rodents would react, which would be… scattering and running, probably. “I probably have to clean out you guys too, huh.” He walked towards the rats. When he got close, they all charged at him like rabid beasts- quite the disconnect from their previous behavior.

But he was ready, and swept his sword in a flat arc close to the ground. Utterly impractical in most battles, but he had time to prepare the maneuver. Most of the rats survived, but it stopped their charge and injured them. Stabbing down, he killed three of them before two recovered jumped at him. The first leaping onto his face, and the other clawing painfully at his leg. He quickly snatched the first one and threw it away as hard as he could. Turning to the rat clawing up his shin, he wrenched it off and threw it to the ground, going to stab it. A third rat tried to stop him from killing it brethren, but he kicked it away and finished the job. Looking around, Jax quickly noted that the rats he threw and kicked were still coming at him and the final rat didn’t seem to be moving.

Jax tried to stab the closer of the two remaining, but his lack of depth perception and the dark made him miss. Refusing to panic, he danced away from the rat and tried again, clipping its side and severely injuring it. Finishing the little shit off, he turned to the final one. It seemed to be not fully functioning due to the kick it took. He gleefully took his frustration out on it, thanking the Champions that starter weapons couldn’t dull.

It turned out that the still rat was actually still alive, just heavily injured from his first attack. He finished it of before turning back to the corpse of the creature that ambushed him. It was vaguely in the shape of a giant demonic bat, with a small head and bird like talons. It’s leathery skin was completely hairless, and seemed almost like scales. Jax recognized it as a juvenile night lurker, which while common, almost never showed up in someone’s first trial. Combined with the dark and the ambush? Highly unusual. However,he couldn’t deny that it served as an excellent wake up call.

A single small night lurker was a difficult opening opponent, but not very likely to instantly defeat him. He supposed he should be thankful, even if his eye—don’t think about it—made it quite hard. The room only had one exit besides the door he came through. A cramped hallway stretched out before him, the pervasive odor of mildew and earth invading his nostrils. Jax mustered his nerves and forged on.

The hallway was long, dark, claustrophobic, and suffocatingly silent. He had been following it for at least ten minutes and nothing had yet broke the monotony. It all came together to create a longing for any sort of change, even another ambush. ‘No.’ He caught himself. ‘It wouldn’t give me the same ambush again. That would defeat the point.’

Scanning the drab walls and ceiling again, Jax strained to maintain vigilance against the temptation to slack his guard. He still started moving faster, unwilling to put up with the boredom for a slight chance of noticing an ambush.

Twenty-five minutes after he entered the tunnel, he came to another open room. “How is this fair?” He whispered angrily. But he knew that the challenge that boredom presented was just as ‘fair’ as straightforward challenges. Like fights. Just less common.

The next room was a mixture of hard earth walls and rotting planks. It was a bit bigger than the previous room, and the pervasive light that allowed him to just barely see cut of just above his head. Now that he was looking for it, the effect was obviously to conceal ambushes lying in wait.

At the other end of the room, guarding a pristine but plain door, was a giant rat. Observing it closely, its breathing was regular. While not a certain thing, the monster was probably asleep. Observing the room closely, Jax noticed a hidden passage in the corner right from the entrance. He decided that this was probably the better route to take. It could be a trick, but even if the rat attacked, it was too big to fit through the tunnel. The only problem would be if something chased him back out and into the jaws of the rat. But really, this was still his first trial! It wouldn’t have two mini-bosses corner him like that.

After creeping quietly along the wall he entered the even more cramped tunnel continued forward. Shortly afterward—to his relief—he noticed light up ahead. Pausing, he heard noises that seemed somewhere between a person and a monster. Rhythmic footsteps, with snorting and snuffling accompanying them.

Remembering what the bartender said about goblins, Jax assumed that it would be one of them. He quickly decided that the best course of action would be to simply rush it, the cramped hallway not allowing for more complicated maneuvers. As the goblin came into view he charged at it full throttle, intending to kill it before it had a chance to react.

Jax thought he might have noticed another goblin behind the one with the torch, and then he was upon them, skewering it with his sword. He gazed upon the pest monster as the light left its eyes. The goblin was a dirty olive green, its skin smooth except for a few large warts on its face. Its ears and nose were pointed and comically large, a permanent scowl etched on its hairless visage. It didn’t have a weapon, holding a torch instead.

Jax quickly pulled out his sword, dropping the goblin’s body to the ground. The other- no, the other two goblins stared stupidly for an instant before exploding into a frenzy. He quickly backed away from them as the one from behind tried to clamber over the one in front.

After making some distance, he charged forward again and impaled the second much like the first. With the last goblin still entangled with its brethren’s corpse, he quickly finished it off as well before taking a breath. Fighting in the cramped quarters of the tunnel was a nightmarish experience. Clambering over the corpses while holding his nose—goblins stink—Jax pressed on.

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He had considered taking the torch, but it was too dim to do much more than hurt his night vision. And the dark wasn’t bothering him as much as it should. “Huh, maybe it’s like the pain.” He mused, wincing as he was reminded of his eye. “we didn’t learn much about that in class.” He certainly wasn’t immune to the psychological effects of the dark normally, but maybe the adrenaline and surety that there was danger danger numbed the instinctive reaction.

Forging on through the claustrophobic deathtrap, he almost tripped on something—

A chill ran down his spine. He had been scanning the passage ahead of him, and the floor had been flat dirt for the entirety of his venture. He spun around, and looked for what tripped him. There was nothing obvious, but the way the dirt was disturbed looked a bit odd for a trip mark…

Bending down to get a closer look, he noticed that looked a bit like something had dug down… or pushed up. He immediately took off, trying to watch for roots coming through around him while also being cautious about tripping again. Plant monsters were rare creatures that only occurred in the True realm as a result of Improvements and some peculiar Rots. In trial realms, they often fell into a few categories. Arboreal beasts and humanoids were the main ones. They were basically normal monsters with plant aspects, like dryads or barklings. The second most common—although still very uncommon— were the carnivorous plants. Although few were actually carnivorous, they were giant, dumb, and generally stationary plants that attacked via roots and vines. One of them attacking him in an inclosed tunnel was just about what he could expect from this stupid trial. And some people called it the tutorial!

Suddenly, another root popped up and tried to trip him. His foot snagged on it, but he slammed his hands against the wall, recovered, and went right back to sprinting for his life. Or rather, his not-having-to-wait-an-entire-year-before-getting-to-Improve-things. Focusing back on running, he had to start evading more roots that started to pop up, cursing his hampered depth perception. As he did, he noticed that the tunnel was getting bigger, a small but infinitely important improvement.

The roots got more aggressive as he ran, exploding out from the walls to lash at him. He had to dodge and duck around constantly, a high-stress acrobatic obstacle course were the slightest mistake meant a slow and painful end from being bludgeoned and strangled by roots. ‘Why is it still in range!?’ He internally cursed. ‘Are there multiple of them?’ The adrenaline flowing through his veins allowed him to keep going, but faltering once would all it took.

After what seemed like an eternity, the roots started to slow down and get sparser. But he didn’t stop to catch his breath until long after the last roots attacked him. It was only then that he realized that he would have to go back through that to get back to the rat miniboss. Even if the tunnel he was in was an alternate path, he was fairly sure that leaving anything—let alone a miniboss—alive would not fulfill the barkeeper’s request. Going by how such pest monsters worked in the True realm, that rat could asexually reproduce to create dozens of smaller ones. In fact, it was possible that he might have do deal with such a litter, just going by how the trial had played things so far.

In the end, he didn’t have much of a choice. He could only hope that the end of the tunnel held a piece of gear or even a temporary Improvement. Relatively rare in trial realms, such boons provided a temporary increase to your combat strength while in that specific trial. Hopefully, his stupid deep-end Tutorial wasn’t just abnormal in difficulty.

Continuing on through the lovely—now slightly less claustrophobic!—deathtrap of a tunnel, Jax came upon a further change in the surroundings. The dirt of the tunnel had hardened into some sort of stony clay. Deducing that meant a safe zone from the roots, he finally relaxed a little. Of course, a safe zone implied that there were more of the roots up ahead, but hopefully he would get to kill the actual plant this time.

The tunnel had started to curve around a bit. He became hopeful that he would get a chance to kill the creature that had been tormenting him. But before the he went far enough to get back to where he had faced his ordeal, the tunnel—and the stony material it was made of—ended. The room it opened up into was huge, almost a cavern of brown earth, the beautiful scene lit up by light shining from within the leaves. What leaves? Oh, just the leaves of the towering titan of a tree in the center the cavern, with the big glowing weak spot near the base of them trunk. Yup, the tree that definitely wouldn’t come alive and attack him with the roots blanketing the floor and walls the moment he stepped into the room!

Jax huffed a sigh. “Fine, fine. I’ll do it. But this is ridiculously unfair!” He complained to no one in particular. “Everyone gets the Improvement from the first trial, so I’m suffering for no reason! Hey, if you make my next ten trials a piece of cake, I’ll forgive you. Literally, I want a piece of cake just sitting there, and eating it completes the trial. Is that understood, Mr. Restriction? It better be.” He laughed at himself a bit, trying to psyche himself up for the thirty-meter sprint of hell awaiting him.

Banishing thoughts that maybe the plants wouldn’t be considered part of the infestation, Jax surveyed the room one last time. He took a deep breath before dashing forward towards the glowing purple sore that stuck out of the tree’s base. Hopefully, if he had any luck, destroying it would kill the arboreal titan. As expected, the moment his feet hit the dirt floor the roots started shifting, the ones closest to him lashing out. He dodged and weaved a path through the flailing plant matter.

He had barely made it a few meters before a deep bellowing echoed through the enclosed space, making him stumble. The roots started to get more violent, giving up on restraining him. Closer to the huge tree, he saw roots start to weave together into a wall.

Seeing this, Jax redoubled his efforts to get closer. There were no second chances. Even if he managed to retreat, the tree would be ready the next time, and it might not even drop the wall. He had to make it in time.

As he got further into the room, he started to despair. The wall was already nearly solid, and he had barely made it halfway. What was the point? Even if he made it through this, the trial didn’t seem to be getting any easier, and there was still a whole other tree! Maybe next year the trial would be easier. Did it really hurt him to fail?

Well fuck that! Jax twisted around two roots and grabbed one to swing off. ‘If it doesn’t hurt me to fail, then why shouldn’t I try as hard as I can?’ He drew his sword and cut off three roots in one fluid motion. He used his sword to relieve some of the pressure, improvising the footwork he learned in school to move forward as fast as possible.

Looking at the wall, he could see a few spaces for him to get through. But there was no reason that the roots couldn’t just squash him as he squeezed through them. He remembered grabbing roots to maneuver and came up with a vague semblance of a plan. As he approached the wall, he pretended to flag a bit more than he already was. The roots, sensing weakness, started clumping around his position.

Abandoning hesitation, Jax leaped up, stomping on one airborne root, then another. Conserving and even gaining height, he was almost to the wall by the time the roots realized what he was doing and moved away. He was just barely short. His missing eye almost threw him off, but he managed to stab his sword into the top of the wall.

Colliding with the top of the wall, he had to quickly scramble up and over it as the roots that made up the wall writhed to get to him. Falling seven meters to the ground holding a sword isn’t an ideal situation even when you’ve had time to prepare, so it was pure luck that allowed him to execute a perfect fall-break and roll to his feet. With no time to thank his lucky stars, he oriented himself before stumbling to the purple sore and hacking at it till it popped.

For a moment, he feared that such a small thing wouldn’t kill the titanic tree above him. Then the screaming started.