Tom watched and prepared for the monsters that April had decided to throw at him this time. There were three of them, and they could be best described as unihorn raptors. They were slightly built and only came up to his chest, and, despite being only five years old he probably out-massed each of them individually. The issue was the massive horn that jutted out of their foreheads. Each were a metre wide, but the problem was the thick but sinuous neck that allowed them to use the horn with a dexterity that was equivalent to that of humans fighting with swords and spears.
They were crazily skilled, and Tom couldn’t just focus on their horns. Their legs were also deadly, if he let them get too close.
He launched another flurry of thrusts, and the necks twisted, and the horns intercepted his strikes, and, to his frustration, they worked together to protect each other. Lots of options presented themselves, opportunities to take injuries to land his own strikes, but he resisted the destructive impulses and fought a strictly defensive battle. His spear spun in mesmerizing patterns, mimicking the moves shown to him by the figurine. He darted forward, acting defensively by being threatening. His footwork let him move smoothly over the ground, and the moment they pulled back from their combined attacks, he retreated as well, buying himself time to catch his breath and prepare mentally for the next engagement. Magic pumped through him to keep his muscles in perfect shape and to increase the volume of red blood cells to improve his endurance. It was already clear that this was going to be a drawn-out fight.
He knew his blood pressure was rising to unsustainable levels, but he was in a trial, and now, while under the GOD’s shield, was the best time to stress his limits.
His head felt like it was in a vice, and the world swayed.
Too much pressure, he thought in annoyance. Extra stamina was great, but he had pushed the concept way too far. His healing magic eased the symptoms, but he still felt slightly woozy. The three horns were continually testing him, and, when he factored in their necks, he didn’t even have a ranged advantage over them.
There was a tree behind him, and he ducked around it, briefly using it as a shield. He wished he had Kang’s quick step, because, if he did, he could have isolated one creature easily and blown through it before the other two could have responded. Instead, he was forced to continue his strategy of fighting carefully. They had split because of the tree, and he went at the pair of monsters. His aggression caught them by surprise, and, instinctively they backed off, which allowed him to backtrack and keep the protection of the tree for a few seconds longer.
In short order, the trio coordinated against him and they drove him away from the defensive bulwark. Unfortunately, he lacked the attributes to hold his position, and freedom of movement was the only thing keeping him alive. He couldn’t relax for even a moment. The entire time, his eyes were watching the environment. This was not a sterile combat ring; it was an infested ecosystem. Other monsters could appear at any time. In fact, the noise of the fighting was likely to attract them. His continuously moving eyes spotted the swooping hawk. With his brain firing on all cylinders, he pretended to ignore it. In the even tempo of the fight, a desperate block of his spear by a horn sent his spear flashing upwards, and Tom used all of his skill to control the wild movement. The hawk, only metres away, didn’t have time to adjust. The blade of his weapon ripped its throat out, much to its surprise. It would have been watching, and would have noticed any attempt to counter it. The consequences of the supposably chaotic block were not something it had been able to predict.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Potentially, Tom realised he might have taken out the backbone at the same time because it lost control of its flight and fell toward the leftmost raptor, which instinctively impaled it. The situation was perfect. For a moment, its vision was blocked, and its body was between Tom and the others. He made a huge sidestep and then lunged at it. His weapon punched through its ribs and, as it did, Tom was already reversing its momentum. The thrust penetrated deep enough to go through its heart, but not so far that his weapon would get trapped when it moved. Then, having completed a perfect thrust, he yanked it out of the dying monster.
There was a ding.
The wounded unihorn raptor collapsed.
Then it was just him versus the remaining two.
Easy, he thought. Even with the way the world was swaying because of how he had overdone the blood management, two versus one would be a simple fight. Even so, he remembered that the effects of blood pressure could get worse, so he pushed himself more than usual. A horn stabbed him, and he deliberately accepted the injury to finish the fight sooner.
It left a gash in his arm, but not one large enough to affect his spear work, and the opportunity the wound granted let him kill the second monster, and then it was one horn against his spear. There was nothing the weaker monster could do against him in a one versus one. In a flurry of blows, it was overwhelmed and killed.
“I’m done.” He yelled, and a moment later he was sitting in the café. The growing discomfort that had plagued him was gone.
“Congratulations on your advancement. I only need another one hundred and seventy sales, and I can get you the training course for Power Strike.”
Tom grinned in relief. She hadn’t said it outright, but with that statement she had confirmed what he had suspected. “So, it was Spear Mastery.”
She nodded
“Were there any extras?”
“Unfortunately not, it was just the standard skill. But given that you got it from a training course, you shouldn’t have expected anything extra.”
“True. And, seriously, are you sure I have to make to make a hundred and seventy more of these?” He knew he could only do about six bracelets an hour. That meant he had to craft for over thirty hours to get access to the next skill. “That seems a bit excessive.”
She shrugged. “It’s not like you have to do it full time. You’re developing proficiency in a second weapon, aren’t you? A hammer, wasn’t it?” Her smile was predatory.
“Yes!” he answered with false confidence, because how else could he have responded? Lying was clearly a bad idea, and wouldn’t help anyway.
She waved her hand; half the café vanished and was replaced with the vision of a shadowy figure going through a kata and using a heavy hammer. “No time like the present.”
He groaned. An hour later, he was back to fighting lizard dogs, but this time with a hammer that he really didn’t know how to use. It was much harder, despite knowing how they fought.
When the wounds piled up to the point, he couldn’t continue. He was returned to the café, and he immediately picked up the latest plain wooden bracelet to transform.
April as had become her habitat started lecturing immediately. “So we’ve covered the core structure of the ritual.” Her hand was on the massive metal wire frame she had created. “Now we need to discuss the individual nodes. This bit,” her finger touched a section that was particularly complicated. “Represents spatial direction. The Danger Sense feeling that is created has to warn the user of where the threat is coming from.”
He paused what he was doing and met her gaze evenly. “April, is this really necessary?”
“Is what necessary?” she asked innocently.
“You lecturing me. Do I really need to know how this works? I’m only doing it to earn credits, to buy skills. It’s not like I’m ever going to make it my profession. I’m a warrior, not a crafter.”
“Is it distracting you.”
Tom considered her question. She had waited until the construction of the bracelets had become routine for him. Since she had introduced the routine, neither his accuracy nor speed had suffered. “Not really.” He admitted.
“Then there shouldn’t be a problem.”
“But why am I doing it?”
She rolled her eyes. “Learning about the world doesn’t need a why. We have the time, so we might as well use it. As I was saying, this is effectively the sensory apparatus for the direction of the threat.”