I roll out of the way as a wave of flame billows from its mouth, roasting the spot I just stood in. The lizard continues charging along the same trajectory—coming to a slow stop just a second later. It turns its body before approaching me slowly, a reptilian predator stalking its much squishier human prey. I spin the monk’s spade into the first attacking form, and the beast begins its charge anew. I plant my left foot and spin my body out of its path at the last second. The spade spins along an arc aimed at a powerful blow against the monster’s neck. Clang! The blade leaves only a faint scuff on the lizard’s scales. I dive quickly out of the way as another jet of flames singes the fringe of my robes—I left myself too open for a counterattack.

  My mind races as I look for any weaknesses that I can exploit against the creature’s impressive defense. There are small gaps in its scales that I can try to get the blade between. I also know that some reptiles don’t have scales as thick on their bellies, so if I can flip the beast, that might be an opportunity. What else??? Um… I can try blunt force against its skull; there are a few forms of Stem and Petal Strike that utilize the flat side of the blade to deal that kind of damage.

  I dodge out of the way of another charge as I try to strategize my way through the combat. Okay, let’s try these in the order they’re likely to work. First, I’ll switch to blunt attacks against its head. Then I will try to strike between the scales and if nothing else works, I’ll try to flip the few-hundred-pound beast on its back and strike its hopefully soft belly for the killing blow.

  Yay… I’m doing great in this fight.

  The lizard rears back around for another charge, and I switch into a more defensive combat form. It gets close, and I narrowly dodge a scalding jet of fire, flashing the spade in a wide arc and I smash the flat of the blade against its head. The force resonates through the wooden handle and slightly numbs my hands. The lizard’s chin bashs against the ground, and it loses its footing as it slides across the platform. For a brief moment I hope that was enough for the win, but the beast gets back up and shakes its head. I feel its anger explode as the heat radiating off it doubles. The beast stands up on two feet, showing me what I hoped to see—softer scales—before it landed back on the platform heavily. Cracks spiderweb through the platform from the impact. The lizard charged directly at me. I weave between multiple burning shots, unable to get solid footing for another powerful attack, my next attempt glancing ineffectively off the scales. The battle continues for a few minutes, my strategy is rendered useless as I am constantly having to dodge fiery attacks that I cannot get a decent plant.

  I barely dodge a quick charge from the beast and I see the perfect opportunity to swing my blade at a gap of scales on the beast’s side. The blade threads through the scales and I feel soft resistance as hot blood flicks across the platform. The damage is too minor to end the battle, but it does prove that my second option for winning has some merit. The dance continues, with minor cuts accruing on the beast—though this plan will eventually work, I don’t know who will give out first.

  I’m struggling to find a way to balance strength and stamina. It’s still unknown if my attacks will be effective against the monsters in my next two fights either. I need to end this fight as soon as possible—I need to take a gamble. On the monster’s next charge, I flick the monk’s spade around—the crescent moon hooking the beast’s front foot. I pull with all the leverage provided by the long weapon and the speed of the lizards charge. For a second, I fear that I will be dragged to the ground with its momentum, but my luck wins out. The monster loses its footing and slides along its side. I know my window of opportunity is short, I rotate the monk’s spade, using my neck as the staff’s pivot point, to whip it around quickly. The bladed end catches it at the base of its abdomen flowing all the way through the body ending at the neck. As the blood flicks off the spade, the monster disintegrates into motes of mana.

  I release a deep sigh, taking in gulps of air—I hope I have a few minutes to catch my breath before the next monster appears. There’s no way they’re expecting me, a brand-new awakened, to beat multiple monsters with no training and no applicable skills. Right? I guess that’s too much to ask for though, because three seconds later the mana starts to coalesce in the same spot as before.

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  I stand taking deep breaths waiting for the monster to materialize. At the last moment I notice a projectile flying for my face. I move my head just in time to avoid being skewered, but I feel a cutting sensation across my cheek. I feel my hot blood running down my face and neck. A monster finished materializing in my moment of distraction and sitting in the array is a small one foot in diameter ball, with black beady eyes barely visible through long white and black quills extending from its body. It must have shot one of those quills as soon as it started materializing. Mallorc just talked to me about always being on guard until a battle is completely finished, and here I a, standing defenseless in the middle of a prolonged fight.

  I pull myself from my self-admonishing stupor as three more small quills are rapidly shot at me. I dodge two of the quills spinning the monk’s spade to block the third. I prepare to dash at the beast, but notice another wave of quills flying at me. Every time I successfully manage one wave I find more quills waiting for me. The battle has already been going on for thirty seconds and I’ve only gotten further from the hedgehog-like creature. I focus on the evasive properties of the Stem and Petal Strike each dodge and deflection I use to get closer to the small beast. Once I am halfway across the platform, I realize that the creature is also slowly rolling around the platform keeping the distance between us equal.

  As things are it’s going to score a lucky blow before I do. I mentally flip through the combat section of my Inheritance, I can’t think of any solutions to this kind of enemy—the Inheritance has a few ranged arts, particularly working with throwing daggers and other hidden weapons. That doesn’t really help because I have nothing to throw and I haven’t really practiced in those arts yet. As far as ranged defense, the Inheritance recommends mobility and blocking as I’ve been doing but that’s not helping me. The only thing that I can think of is really a last-ditch option.

  I do a helicopter spin with the staff, hoping to block or deflect any projectiles as I dash after the beast. I continue bobbing and weaving through the quills spinning the spade as quickly as I can. I gauge the level of blocking success this method has, it’s not blocking all of the quills as I hoped, it did block enough that there was viability in the plan. I prepare for the guaranteed pain in my mad dash, and take off toward the beast. About halfway across the platform I feel the first needle catch me in my left shoulder. I shrug off the pain and continue forward another two needles catching me in the leg and grazing my ribs. Thankfully adrenaline numbs the pain and I am able to push forward. Finally within striking distance I bring the spade down, cleaving the monster in two—it evaporates into motes of mana. The quills still lodged painfully in my body also disappear, much to my surprise. The wounds are left open and blood trickles out as I get in a ready stance waiting for the last monster to appear.

  I level the bladed edge at the array condensing mana as a bright light explodes temporarily blinding me. I stay tuned in to my mana senses, ready to catch an attack taking advantage of the momentary blindness. My sight slowly returns to me, a giant shape standing at attention across the platform, almost seeming to wait for me to acknowledge it. The fuzziness in my vision fades and my heart sinks—before me stands an eight foot minotaur, its battle axe drawn and held at the ready as it lowers itself in a dueling bow. Minotaurs are high tier two monsters, well known for two things. Their dueling honor in one on one battles like this—and their brutal efficiencies with weapons leaving them comparable to tier two weapon warrior classes.

  I’m screwed. I have one month of weapon training and no skills that can help me here. Time seems to be moving in slow motion as I try to process everything going on and come up with a plan of action.

  I hear Mallorc shouting off the side of the platform. “Ryn, you seriously can’t expect a low tier one to beat a minotaur.”

  I hear a mumbled reply from Sagaryn, but I can’t discern what he said—whatever it was seemed to appease the Old Man’s yelling. The minotaur stands from bowing, anger in my lack of dueling etiquette apparent in its eyes. It doesn’t look like anyone is coming to my rescue. I assume a total defense form as the minotaur charges forward its axe looking to split me in two. I bring the spade around in a deflecting blow; my block barely pushes the powerful attack off course, and I dive way to avoid losing my left arm.

  Shit.