by J. J. Thorn
It pounced away from the plunging dagger. But even then, John managed to injure its back leg. I could see blood on the blade.
The Serwolf’s body barely reached his knees, but most of its height was from its legs. It was very skinny, with brown skin that had no fur on it. It stumbled slightly as John’s hit took effect, but straightened up almost immediately.
At F-Rank, a small cut like that wasn’t going to do much.
Instead of charging the monster again, John crouched lower and put his hand on the ground.
Seeing its opponent in a more vulnerable position, the Serwolf charged.
John stayed crouched until the Serwolf was practically leaping directly at him.
As it leapt in the air, he used his Skill.
“Ice Block”
As he said it, a sheet of ice appeared in front of him. It barely reached his waist, but it was high enough for the Serwolf to plunge directly into it.
The head of the Serwolf slammed into the ice, before shattering and coming out the other side. Because of its momentum, it then slammed into the ice spikes of the ring as well.
Dazed and hurt, John jumped on top of the monster and plunged his dagger into its neck.
Within a few seconds, the Serwolf was dead.
John stood up and walked back towards the group. He had blood on his equipment, but otherwise, he had not been hurt in the fight at all.
For it all, he looked a little tired, if that.
“Wonderful, John. One note though, it would have been better if you had used the wall to block the monster’s escape when you first charged. It would have been confused and you might have caught it off guard much sooner.”
“Yes, master. I had alternative plans as well if my plan didn’t work.”
“Haha, I wouldn’t expect anything else from the student who won last year’s tournament. Now, who’s next? And will it be the G-Rank monster or the F-Rank? You can choose who you would like to send. If one of you can defeat the F-Rank monster alone, like John just did, someone might not even need to fight.”
Gavin once again went to retrieve the monster as we considered our next fight.
“I’ll go next,” Zane said. “I think we should stick to the original plan. Three against the F-Rank, one against the G-Rank. No offense, but I think I’ll be able to take on the Monkin alone better than you will. Also, my fight will help each of you when you have to fight the F-Rank.”
John had beaten the monster so easily. My mind was quick to think our fights might also be easy, but I knew better than that.
John had known what monster he was facing and had plans set out before the fight even started. He had tried to injure it early on to limit its movement, and he had always taken the initiative so it couldn’t use its greater speed. By removing the difference in speed altogether, John had taken out the Serwolf’s main advantage. If there had been even one more Serwolf, neither of his plans would have worked as well.
Or maybe they would have.
Zane stepped forward as Gavin dropped the G-Rank Monkin into the ring. Instead of saying anything, Zane simply walked into the ring. Within seconds, the Monkin was released and started to look around.
Taking a note from John, Zane took out his daggers and ran towards the Monkin.
In our spars, we had never gotten to see him use them often, but we knew his father’s tutors had helped him learn some techniques.
Unlike the Serwolf, the Monkin was much smaller and reacted quicker to Zane’s approach.
It got down on all fours and prepared to meet the charge.
As Zane got closer, it used its small body to jump into the air and tumble down with its tail, like a hammer.
Zane noticed the attack and darted to the side.
The Monkin hit the ground hard and looked around, confused. Its tail had taken the brunt of the hit, so it seemed fine. The dust from the ground shook up slightly, but the indentation in the ground was very slight as it slowly stood up.
Zane tried the same thing a couple times, before realizing he wasn’t fast enough to get it before it jumped into the air.
I thought that he might be able to take the hit head-on, but didn’t know how much force the Monkin could produce. It wasn’t worth the risk.
Zane also thought the same as he started to try something new.
Over the next couple of minutes, he lured the Monkin closer and closer to the ice ring. When he eventually had his back to the wall, he startled the Monkin, causing it to jump into the air and start descending towards him.
At the last second, Zane jumped out of the way. Instead of hitting the ground, the Monkin hit the ice, causing it to shatter and collapse on top of the monster.
Because the ice hadn’t been overly large, the Monkin could still be seen, but its small body made it hard for it to quickly get out from underneath the ice.
While it tried to dig itself out of the rubble, Zane took his daggers and cut into it.
He wasn’t as practiced as John, so he didn't hit anything vital, but when the Monkin got free from his reach, we could see that it was still severely hurt.
Over the next five minutes, the Monkin continued to bleed out while Zane would occasionally hit it as it reached the ground. By the end, his ability to time the Monkin’s descent had gotten much better and he scored more hits.
At the end, when the Monkin finally fell, Zane was exhausted, but triumphant.
I wouldn’t feel bad for Zane, but I knew his lack of a combat-focused Affinity had made the fight harder than both John and Jen’s. His training as a kid and the spars we did at Prep had helped him through it though.
Either way, I was happy to see him unhurt.
With that, I knew we only had one fight left.
Mine.
Chapter 13 – A Rank Above
Zane headed back to us as we once again cheered for our friend. The fight had been more difficult than the others, but we were all glad to see him back.
This time, Gavin said nothing as he took the corpse and deposited it into his Inventory.
I knew it was my turn and based on the looks on both Britta and Cassie’s faces, they knew as well.
I wasn’t worried about Britta too much. She had sparred with us hundreds of times over the last four months and was really good with her shield.
Cassie, on the other hand, had not.
Zane saw the three of our faces. The first thing he did was give one of his daggers to Cassie.
“Take this. You need some way to protect yourself.” He wiped off the dagger and handed it to Cassie.
Cassie was a bit startled, but took it without any objections.
Then, Zane came and stood in front of me.
“Terrence.” He grabbed my shoulders and made sure I was looking at him directly. “You may not believe in yourself, but the rest of us couldn’t have done any of this without you. Don’t let yourself get distracted in there. You can do this.”
“What about us, no pep talk?” Britta joked.
“You’ll be fine. Just stick the big thing in front of these two and keep them safe.” Zane grinned at her, and then stepped aside to stand by Jen.
We exchanged some final hugs and walked towards the ring.
I knew Zane was trying to be nice, but I appreciated his words of encouragement. Despite everything going on, I knew I would at least have my friends to back me up.
“Okay, Britta and I will be up front. You act as Utility, Cassie. Try to help us out if it does something weird, but only attack if things look bad. Britta, let us know how hard it hits so we know if we can handle it or not. I’m expecting it to hit much harder and much faster than the G-Rank, so try not to take it head-on.”
Once inside, Britta took a position at the front. I stood slightly behind her and Cassie stood at the back.
I looked at the Monkin as we prepared for the vines to come off. In another situation, I might have considered running in and trying to overwhelm the Monkin with numbers, but I worried that this might be too risk
y.
My plan, instead, was to have Britta draw the attention of the monster as I tried to attack from the side. Cassie would be our backup.
We had worked on our formations in Dungeoneering enough times that we all had a good idea of what we should be doing.
First and foremost, we needed to keep track of the Monkin at all times. This would be Cassie’s primary role, as the person with the best vantage point. Secondary to that, we needed to gauge the Monkin’s strength. We needed to know if we could take a hit or two without being taken out of the fight altogether.
I took a deep breath and forced myself to calm down. Zane had been right. I couldn’t let my mind wander.
Britta stood ahead of me, shield firmly in her left hand. Her right hand didn’t currently hold a weapon, as she relied on me to do the damage. She would instead use that hand to help brace for hits from the Monkin.
The vines released.
The Monkin stood on its short back legs and used its larger arms at the front to hold itself upright.
As it stood, it began to grunt and groan in our direction. It started to bang on the ground in front of it, as though challenging us to make the first move. Instead, we stayed firmly in position.
After thirty seconds, it realized we wouldn’t come to it. So, as we stood there waiting, it ran towards us. Due to its abnormal arms and tail, it didn’t move very fast, but as it came towards us, it continued to slam its hands down on the ground, bringing up dirt and rock.
Within seconds, the F-Rank Monkin was on Britta as she moved to intercept its slow-moving charge.
As it reached Britta, it didn’t jump up to attack like the smaller Monkin had done. Instead, it slammed its hands into her shield.
Britta was taller than the beast, so she needed to crouch slightly, but she held firm as it attacked her from the front.
“Can you hold?!” I yelled from behind Britta.
“I’m at seventy-five percent Energy already, so not for long! He’s got a strong punch!” Britta hissed through gritted teeth as the Monkin rhythmically banged at her shield.
I knew I had to do something. I edged towards its left side, trying to find a spot I could charge it with my sword.
When I thought I’d found a good position, I took my sword and put it into a thrusting position. I grasped my sword tightly and charged towards the Monkin’s back left side.
It noticed my charge and stopped hitting Britta, who finally got some rest for her arms. Luckily, it was slow and didn’t look capable of moving its body by the time my sword was close.
I thrust my sword forward and was shocked when the Monkin’s tail came out of nowhere to swipe me away.
The Monkin had barely moved, but I lost grip of my sword and tumbled to the ground.
From behind us, I heard Cassie yell, “Britta, block for Ren!”
I noticed the Monkin try to reach me. Luckily, Cassie had been paying attention, so Britta ran over as fast as she could to put herself in front of me.
I felt my body to see if anything had broken and didn’t feel anything amiss. The swipe of the Monkin’s tail had hurt, but it wasn’t any worse than getting kicked by Jen or Zane in a spar.
“You okay?” Britta yelled.
I got up and gave her some more room to move.
“He’s fine! You focus!” Cassie yelled again, probably having used her Skill.
I used my Skill as well on the Monkin, recognizing that my first plan had been a failure.
‘View Weight’.
210 pounds!
Heh. So, it’s around what I used to weigh. I thought back to the rabbit and knew I would have a much more difficult time holding it down. And even then, if I held it down, I didn’t know if I could overpower both its arms and its tail.
That would have to be the last resort plan.
I picked up my sword again and got back into position.
I decided that my biggest shortcoming was not having noticed the Monkin’s tail.
This time, I augmented my eyesight and started to watch the Monkin’s hits against Britta. Throughout it all, it continued to attack in the same way. While simple-minded, it was obvious that Britta’s Energy was dwindling as she tried to hold off the strong-armed beast.
I went to the right this time, trying to get behind it again.
Its focus was purely on Britta again as I once again charged. This time with my sword at the side.
It was weird, my eyesight wasn’t slowing things down, per se, but I was able to keep track of the Monkin’s movements better than on my previous charge. I noticed more, like how its tail stood at attention. How it would wind up slightly as it went to hit Britta’s shield.
This time, I paid close attention to its tail as I swung my sword. I also made sure to not overextend myself and the sword.
As I reached the Monkin, its eyes darted in my direction and its tail swept towards my sword.
I knew I wouldn’t win in brute strength, so I drew back the sword, dodged the majority of the blow, and tried to swipe at the Monkin from a different direction.
This change in direction caught it off guard as it finally took me seriously, pointing its entire body at me.
It dodged most of my strike, but I nicked its shoulder in the exchange.
Britta did not stop paying attention as she took the chance to bash her shield into the Monkin’s head.
As it looked up from the hit, I rushed in with my sword-point directly at its abdomen.
Seeing the sword, it panicked and jumped into the air.
Similar to the smaller Monkin, its tail launched it above my head, and it started to descend with its tail pointed towards the ground.
Unlike the G-Rank Monkin, it dropped much faster towards the ground, which caught me off guard as I tried to brace my sword for the attack.
Luckily, Britta was there again as she pushed me out of the way and raised her shield to take the hit head-on.
The Monkin’s tail struck her shield dead center, creating a resounding boom throughout the area. Her shield held firm, but Britta’s body collapsed as the kinetic energy of the blow caused her whole body to reverberate.
Whether from the hit or expending all of her Energy, she collapsed.
“Terrence, the Monkin!” Cassie yelled, but I also saw what it was doing. The Monkin scuttled up to Britta, pounding the ground.
I forgot about any caution and tried to swing directly at the Monkin. Once again, it barely looked at me as it swiped its tail at my sword, disarming me. This time, I avoided the hit to my torso and instead tackled the Monkin directly.
From there, I held it on the ground as it started to use its considerable strength to hit my back and sides as best as it could. Luckily, its position was awkward and its tail was underneath both of us, which made it difficult to move at first.
“Cassie, Quick!” I gritted my teeth as I put every ounce of strength into keeping as much pressure as possible on the Monkin.
The pain it inflicted as it wailed on my back and sides hurt, but no more than the pain I would feel if I knew I had caused Britta any additional pain.
She had already saved me multiple times, so I knew I needed to help her.
Cassie got the hint and finally joined the fight with the dagger in hand.
From there, and with care to avoid me, she started to stab the Monkin in any exposed area she could find.
The Monkin obviously didn’t like this as it stopped hitting me and tried to swipe at her. This slowed her down considerably, so I tried to grab its arms as I wrestled with it on the ground.
While grappling, its tail got a bit loose and the Monkin tried to lift itself using both its tail and its arms.
I willed myself to get stronger. To weigh more. To do anything to keep the Monkin down so Cassie could finish it off.
What was probably only a minute felt like thirty as we fought on the ground. Each of us injured, but adrenaline took over as I held it down.
Cassie dodged back and forth, trying to find a good place t
o hit the monster. At some point, she probably hit a major organ because the Monkin’s body seized and it used every last ounce of its strength to lift me up.
I thought back to all of the years I had been the largest kid around. All of the training I had done to get both stronger and leaner. I willed every ounce of my being into NOT letting it get up. If it got up now, I knew we wouldn’t be able to stop it.
I was hurt and exhausted and Cassie had no way to defend herself.
I hoped that Gavin or his team might have been able to intervene, but based on how he was acting, I had no way of knowing this to be true.
So instead, I pushed as best as I could as I tried to will my Energy into weighing more. Into being stronger.
Something finally gave as I felt the Monkin struggle to make headways under my body. Something was happening, because I noticed my mind started to grow foggy as I felt the familiar signs of Energy Burnout. But still, I waited and did nothing.
Before passing out, I noticed that the Monkin was no longer moving as my body laid on top of it. But still, I thought of nothing else, other than helping my team stay safe.
As soon as I saw the Monkin dead beneath me, I passed out, but not before I noticed something I hadn’t seen in months.
In my vision were the familiar blue boxes that I saw so often whenever I looked at my progress or used my Skill. But instead of the familiar look, new text came with it.
Affinity Rank Up!
Rank 2 Unlocked!
Rank 2 Skill Earned!
Rank 2 Skill Gained: Weight Increase
Chapter 14 – Interlude - Bargain
“What was that about? Why would he give you an Inventory Satchel?” Holly asked, as Tom reached his team. They had taken out their overnight gear, ready to make camp soon.
So far, they hadn’t noticed a sun or moon in the Dungeon, but they knew that wasn’t uncommon. Dungeons often stayed the same weather and temperature for months on end. Dungeon Resets would sometimes bring changes, but without a Reset, they were unlikely to see any changes.
“He said we showed promise because we took down that mammoth.” Tom stopped, showing them the new Satchel. “He offered this to me after I said we didn’t have one.”