Alex channeled fire magic into his sword. He also summoned five more fireballs and spread them out in the air above them both. Before jumping back into melee, he swung his blade, sending out two fire arcs towards the commander, then immediately ran behind them towards the goblin.

  He fixed his gaze on the opponent before him. All other noise and distractions were pushed from his mind. His feet carried him forward at a blistering pace, boots thudding into the soil with each step. Fire trailed from his blade and wind from his body.

  When the commander raised its shield to block the arcs of fire hurtling towards him, Alex propelled the fireballs down, aiming them at the goblin's chest plate. He condensed and cranked the heat on them as much as he could. He needed them to be his hottest ones yet. The hottest he could create.

  When the slashes crashed into its shield, and the fireballs hit against its breastplate, not much happened. At least not to everyone else. But Alex could see and feel exactly what he needed. Using his [Celestial Control], he took all the heat and fire from those attacks and kept them there, focused, against the commander's breastplate. Right over where its heart should be.

  I need more, he thought, summoning more fireballs and sending another fire arc.

  He released the fire from his sword, letting it dissipate. Then focused his mana on two things now, summoning more fireballs and keeping up his wind enhancement for speed. The commander wasn’t going to let Alex attack him freely without retaliating, though.

  Standing before each other, the goblin swung at him a few times with its mace, which Alex just kept dodging. The first strike came straight down again, slamming into the ground. The next came from the side. He was playing defensively and needed to keep buying time. His sword wouldn’t help him much, not yet, at least.

  While dodging, Alex had sent more fireballs crashing into the goblin’s breastplate and kept the heat there. In between each swipe of the creature's weapon, a fireball or two slammed into its breast. Using [Celestial Control], he manipulated the heat from the fire mana and concentrated it where he needed. It was taking a lot of his concentration, along with dodging its attacks and the wind magic enhancement. But most of all, it was taking time. Time his friends might not have.

  The commander was quickly becoming irritated and fed up with Alex dodging his blow. He changed the flow of combat. Next strike that was avoided, the goblin immediately followed with a shield bash, catching him off guard.

  The blow hit Alex hard in the side, knocking the wind from him and putting him on the ground. He kept control of his fire magic's heat and wind enhancement, but he was now on his back, staring up at a seven-foot-tall goblin commander. One who was angry. It tried to end the fight right there. Alex saw its mace glow from a skill, and it brought it down in an overhead strike, right to where Alex was lying.

  Before the devastating attack could land on him, he rolled to the side. And rolled again. And again. He tried to put some distance between them quickly before one of the strikes killed him.

  He heard the ground shudder from each blow when the goblin tried to hit Alex again, and again. But each time, he was slightly out of range.

  Continuing his efforts, he conjured more fireballs and hurled them at the commander's chestplate again, as before. Focusing and condensing the heat into a single point.

  Jumping up to his feet, Alex was caught in surprise again. The commander used his [Charge] skill, closed the distance, and brought his weapon around in a backhanded swing. The blow hit Alex squarely in the chest. His arm absorbed most of it, breaking it like a twig, but it had cushioned the strike enough to keep his chest from being obliterated.

  Immense pain radiated through his arm. As he lay back on the ground, he did the only thing he could… kept his [Celestial Control] active and focused on the heat on the goblin's breastplate. He had no backup plan.

  Using earth magic to push himself back off the ground, a piece of earth rose up and lifted him. He channeled some of the earth onto his arm, creating a stone cast around his arm, and bound it to his chest. It was awkward, but it would keep the broken arm from jostling around while he fought

  His mana was getting low now, but he had no choice. He boosted his wind enhancement, increasing the speed it granted him. Then he spawned five more fireballs, increased their heat, and sent them again to the commander.

  I feel like a one-trick pony. Doing the same thing over and over. But I don’t know what else to do right now. It's either this or I die.

  Alex followed behind the fireballs, closing in on the goblin.

  Not fast enough. I need more.

  His speed rose again while his mana went down. The distance ate away quickly. Almost instantly, he was back in melee range. One-handed, luckily, still his sword arm, he started to attack the creature. Mostly just to keep it distracted for now.

  More fireballs, more heat.

  More were fired at the commander, while Alex danced around him, striking out with his sword. His strikes weren’t really doing anything. He struck its armor, occasionally giving it a small paper cut if he got between the joints.

  Mace strikes rained down from the commander in the meantime, but their speed wasn’t much compared to Alex's now. It also tried a few shield bashes again, but Alex anticipated them and was ready.

  During this, he continued his fireball assault. The time was coming close. It was almost ready; he could feel it and see it. Sweat dripped down Alex’s face. He was tiring, his arm hurt, and his mana was low. He wouldn’t last much longer.

  I need to hurry, though. While I can’t see much of what they’re doing, I can tell my team is struggling. They’re not winning the fight against all the goblins. There are simply too many for the five of them to fight. They need help.

  In preparation, he added wind mana to his sword. But instead of the normal cutting edges added, he converged all of it towards the tip of the sword. He needed penetration, not cutting.

  More speed! he shouted internally.

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  Speed-boosted again, he channeled mana into earth magic to conjure a large amount of earth and had it wrap around the goblin's shield arm, pulling it down, away from its body. The shield moved slightly away from the commander's chest, giving him the target he needed. An opening.

  A target.

  Alex shot forward, a blur to all, and jumped high into the air. Sword out in front of him, he thrust forward into the spot on its breastplate he had been heating to extremely high temperatures. Alex wasn’t a blacksmith. But he knew if metal became heated high enough, it would lose its integrity and become much softer. That is what Alex counted on when he stabbed the tip of his wind-covered sword into the breastplate. Enhanced for penetration, and the breastplate weakened, the sword sank in like a hot knife through butter.

  A loud screech of metal rang out as the blade penetrated, scraping along the plate.

  Changing the sword's element from wind to fire. He pushed the last dregs of his mana into the fire-wrapped blade, boosting its heat and destructive ability. The fire seared the commander's inside. It burned the interior of its chest. It screamed in agony, while Alex yelled in rage, frustration, and triumph, with a bit of joy mixed in. In its final moments, it bashed Alex with its weapon a few times. None were extremely powerful strikes, but they still hurt. Head bleeding from a strike, cracked ribs, and bruises all over, he would survive, though. Alex wore a bloody smile regardless.

  Seconds later, the goblin crashed to the ground, still staring at Alex in pain, anger, and surprise that it had lost.

  Instantly, Alex felt strange… and even more pain came from inside him. In confusion, he quickly pulled up his notifications to see what was going on.

  You have slain a Goblin Commander (Level 10)

  Experience and SP gained

  Congratulations, you have earned an achievement by killing a monster one tier above you. Killing a Bronze rank monster while unranked is an impressive feat, and as such, you’ll be rewarded with an achievement!

  Fighting Up I (Solo)

  You have done something rare in the universe. Fighting and winning against something a tier higher than you, solo, is almost impossible for most. This achievement is upgradeable and does not stack with group variants of it.

  +5% to all stats and SP earned

  Holy hell, a stat percent boost!! That's amazing! And a bronze rank, what is that? Is that why it was so hard?. It must be the next step up after unranked. Is that what happens at level 10?

  Class upgrade milestone reached!

  Since denizen is a Progenitor, you have already made your choice. Prepare for an automatic class upgrade.

  Huh? No new options? Why no– Before Alex could finish his thought, pain surged through every cell of him, and everything went dark.

  ***

  Derek had engaged the goblins that had ambushed them, but things weren’t looking good. There were simply too many goblins, and they had been caught unaware. They had two shamans and several skirmishers harassing them, making it difficult for their melee to move into the fight. They needed Alex.

  But he had been tied up with that commander, and then, as soon as he killed it, he collapsed. Sarah couldn’t even go check on him because she was so busy keeping them going. They were taking wounds way too quickly, and they’d only been able to kill a few of the goblins; they wouldn’t last much longer. Over half of the creatures remained.

  Come on, Alex, get up.

  ***

  Rykos wasn’t doing too well. After the goblins had ambushed them, he had taken an arrow in his leg, severely reducing his speed. The speed at which he relied on. His movement hindered, he couldn’t run into the goblins' backline to harass their ranged, so now his group was pinned down. The only thing keeping them going was Sarah’s healing and Derek's shield.

  He was a predator. He couldn’t stand being trapped or unable to fight back. And he especially hated relying on other people… He couldn't help but look at Alex’s unconscious body, hoping he would wake up. He had only been down for a few seconds, but that was a lifetime during a fight.

  He growled and snarled at the goblins. Unsure what to do.

  ***

  Sarah was tired and running low on mana. She had been healing her friends nonstop since the fight began. When one was healed, another took an arrow or was hit by a shaman’s spell. Derek was constantly being hit by the raiders and warriors, but he was keeping them at bay for the most part. There were just too many, though, and only so much she could do.

  She wanted nothing more than to run over to Alex and heal him; they desperately needed his help. Whether that was for his power, which was stronger than all theirs, or for his wind enhancement, or just having an extra fighter on their side.

  ***

  Korgrith could barely stand. During the early part of the battle, a shaman had hit him with that curse, reducing all of his stats and causing him great pain. The first time it happened, Sarah had been able to use her [Minor Cleanse] skill to remove it, but the mana cost had been extraordinarily high. So when he was afflicted by it again, she couldn’t spare the mana to remove it, not while she was trying to keep everyone healed.

  He felt weak, more than just physically, but weak in a way that he couldn’t save them all. And he felt even weaker for his thoughts, betraying his pride and strength, and telling him that Alex could save them. Korgrith was a kind and intelligent beastkin, but he was also prideful and accustomed to leadership. It hurt him to let someone else lead, but he would do whatever it took. He did feel a burgeoning respect for Alex and the leadership he had shown, but it was taking him some getting used to.

  I gave you leadership of my people. So earn it. Get up and kill our enemies.

  Korgrith let out a roar, a mighty roar from a minotaur that shook the air around them and echoed through the trees.

  ***

  Compared to his friends around him, Sam was kind of having fun, though he wouldn’t say that to them right now. He was using fire magic skills to fight goblins, in a magical tutorial, not on planet Earth. Sam loved it. But what he didn’t love was the constant arrows and spells being slung at them all. His Mage Barrier could only absorb so much.

  He had been able to use his [Fire Nova] quite a few times to push back the enemy melee goblins when they tried to circle around them, but eventually, he was going to run out of mana. He had already slowed down his fireballs and waited for better opportunities to hit with them, instead of just sending out a bombardment.

  Sam wasn’t dumb, though. Sure, he was younger than everyone else and inexperienced in the world. But he had always been really observant. The rest of his team had been stealing glances at Alex’s body. He knew they needed him. So he glanced over at it too and did something different.

  “Hey, asshole! Quit napping and get your lazy ass over here and help us!” Sam yelled at Alex. Then he tossed a low-powered fireball at his unconscious body.

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