A glimpse of steam sauna revealed a roughly 20x20 cm pte of… metallic bone. It was maybe a couple of millimeters thick, hard to tell. It wasn’t coarse but not exactly smooth either and almost felt like rough pstic. My sword couldn’t casually scratch it in clear contrast with the beasty itself. Admittedly my attempts weren’t particurly determined due to an unwillingness to ruin the piece. My rune pen trailed it just fine however. Any willingness to experiment ended there, so it joined the rest of my worldly possessions in the backpack and my journey continued onwards. Unlike before, I was prepared for sudden and violent escation.

  For one, an energy ball worth fifty kept in the palm of my good arm served as an emergency refill. I also had to make sure future kills cost less energy. My reserves were high but they’d deplete quickly at this rate. My thoughts circled back to the fight in hopes of figuring out a workable strategy.

  The armored daggercw seemed to ck any obvious weaknesses, but there had been a very distinctive sizzle while it was impaled by my sword. Some error inherent to human consciousness misattributed the sound to the wafting smoke, but in retrospect it might’ve had more to do with the sword itself. Keep an eye out for that.

  The new source of my nightmares also had a strong preference for bracing and pouncing. Every area it had jumped from was damaged and stone chips littered all about. It hadn’t taken a single normal step, except right at the start. Shitty footing, maybe? I can work with that. It preferred diagonal leaps as well. The roughly 180 centimeter wide hallway didn’t leave it much space to begin with and while the jumps made for some intimidating acrobatics, the beasty probably didn’t care about showmanship.

  On my own front I’d have to be more proactive. Fighting passively was always a mistake. In retrospect, my whole post-Godstrike experience was adequately described by reactivity. The realization only fueled my determination to go forwards on my own terms. My defensive technique had been on point and far more effective when backed up by telekinesis, but it would still be preferable to avoid relying on it overly much. Things were better on the offensive front and a triple-unch almost certainly veered into overkill. My first goal settled on trying to reduce energy expenditures and only using two shots while keeping the third in reserve.

  Another reflection graced my mind. The System had essentially said it gave us a path to power and it clearly did not fuck around. Now wasn’t the right time, but at some point in the far future it might be worth seeing what result dumping a full bar of mana into unches gave. A good two-thirds of the triple-unched bde had been embedded in the stone ceiling and that was after it blew a hole clean through the armored daggercw. My imagination ran wild for a while. There were a million things to try. Fighting fueled creativity. Yeah, keep day dreaming in the murder hallways, why not?

  Echoing footsteps followed me on the path forward, just as the ever present equidistant shadows did. Two of my swords were out and about and both floated a meter in front of me with the point forward - one at bellybutton height and the other chest high. The arrangement disallowed any clear paths towards me. Hopefully that dissuaded a full-on assault.

  Unfortunately, no pn survived contact with the enemy.

  Bullshit. The shadows might obscure my vision but the same didn’t hold true for my nemeses. One spotted or sensed me somehow despite my sneaking, as evidenced by the telltale panicked scramble of a cat trying to run on a hard floor. A long, rough scratch followed it, and then silence.

  I braced myself against the right side wall, ready to push off with my good arm in case the Errant rushed in but nothing happened. Slowly creeping along the wall revealed the problem. A plus shaped four-way intersection faded out of the shadows and the armored assault cat had cleverly taken cover behind a corner. For once in my life, a good idea surfaced. One careful step followed the other at a steady pace while I mouthed off to the bastard.

  “Here kitty kitty, come out, come out.”

  My taunt echoed repeatedly, until the corner neared. A sword floated ahead at chest height. The Errant dispyed at least some commonality with a regur housecat, being easily baited into reckless stupidity. A ser pointer would’ve been nice right about now. It performed the same violent kickoff as it had in the previous encounter. Time slowed. The feline came into view amidst the sound of smashed stone and scattered chips. One daggerpaw pushed away my bait, the other trailed aside and swiped for a wielder. This would have sucked, were I a fighter rather than a mage. The momentum of its leap carried it into the opposite hallway but not before a unch speared the bastard. Finally, in control.

  I didn’t have time to admire the spray of smoky bck blood while running forward and jumping past with a floating sword in tow, although it gged behind and forced me to fire blindly. My run continued towards the first sword and ended in a sliding turn after stepping on and retrieving it.

  Holy shit. I’d gone from a dead stop to a full sprint almost instantaneously. A sword appeared, lined up a few centimeters off my eye for maximally accurate aiming. The fucker neglected to chase me however. Caution overpowered confidence and urged me to slowly walk up to the corner and bait again. Nothing happened.

  A few backsteps gave me a runway. A sprint culminated into a soccer slide. The maneuver ripped the knee off my jeans, but it also kept my crossing low to the ground. A gnce proved it all unnecessary. The cat had kicked the bucket.

  Its right forearm had been ripped into two shredded halves and a sizzling sword was embedded up to the hilt in its spine. Condensing beled it five out of five. After collecting another piece of future armor, my stalking continued - with my full focus diverted towards actually paying fucking attention for once.

  The next one was another hallway battle, with a fair start no less. It braced and I crouched against a wall. The initiative was mine, my first movement diagonally forward. The monster leaped and twisted predictably towards the opposite side. It was immediately impaled by my unched projectile upon nding. The fucker hadn’t expected that and fell down from the ceiling corner, which earned it another session of aggravated acupuncture.

  It was still alive but clearly struggling. Morbid fascination consumed me while watching the sizzling of the swords kill it dead. They definitely damaged it from the inside. Approaching close enough allowed me to twist the bde a little with my control skill. The sughter continued unabated from thereon, getting easier with practice.

  My kill count had fallen by the wayside upon reaching the next stairway, another T-split, but the backpack was getting rather heavy. Even so, my energy stash dwindled, 90 crystal fueled refills and my internal reserve had gone down to 22 regardless. It promptly became 12 after another cantrip completed my junk food and jerky dinner upon reaching safety, midway up the stairs.

  The only thoughts disturbing my surprisingly successful attempt at apex predation were ones wondering if I’d make it out before running empty. While another fifty remained as backup, it was also my st safety net.

  A cigarette tempted me, but I’d survived this so a little longer without couldn’t hurt. Some kind of switch flipped in my head, causing my mind to reel. Fuck. That had been madness. My nerves were shot. The long, tense, silent walks combined with quick battles were not kind on the human mind. My System progression did some catching up here thanks to fifteen new kills under my belt, going by the ptes. My level shot all the way up to 16 and my stats reached respectable totals of PP 10+1, PS 42+9, PE 26+1, MP 42, MS 10 and ME 26+37. My jerky would st for another three days or so.

  Despite my resolution not to be a little bitch, the whole stoic determination thing wasn’t for me. The experience had been harrowing despite only taking a single blocked hit. My left arm was swollen bck and blue from the worst bruise of my life. The whole thing hurt like hell and my fingers were stiff and hard to move. A few more blocks were likely to leave me crippled.

  Some miracle had pushed me well beyond my limits but the metaphorical cracks were spreading now. The experience threatened to flood in and overwhelm me, but something kept it barely at bay. Enhanced combat was nothing like old world fighting, time passed differently and while it worked fine in the moment, the aftermath intensified equally. Escating soreness didn’t help either and contributed to the stress. A System-ordained desk job sounded pretty good right about now but it would have to wait.

  So would sleep, because even after reluctantly settling down for three hours of one-handed drawing practice, any shut-eye remained elusive. The good ol’ biological clock was on the fritz. A painful walk up the stairs revealed the deadest of night. The starry sky above sent me straight back down the stairwell. It took another six boring hours of practice before catching my first yawn. Sleep came easily after.

  I woke up 10 mana ter, still sore as fuck and incredibly hungry. As a consequence, my breakfast included more added jerky than it probably should have. My arm wasn’t doing much better although the swelling might’ve gone down a bit. Comfort didn’t matter anymore and the constant aching supported my decision to snooze awkwardly on the winding steps.

  At least the bad thoughts weren’t circling my mind as acutely anymore. Apparently the appropriate coping period for witnessing the end of all was about two weeks. People did always go into nature to find themselves and so far this had been the mother of all hikes. A few nightmares broke through my slumber though. At least the moon one had been more funny than scary. By now I leaned heavily towards mad over sad anyway.

  To my dismay, the list of pointless shit to consider ran dry quickly. This brought an end to my procrastinating. I gathered my sore and sorry self, went up the stairs and wondered what fresh fucking hell I’d wander into this time.