The true duration of the Wasted War is speculative, but we can say with confidence that it was over incomprehensibly fast by our understanding of war today. No records remain chronicling the time elapsed between the decision to use nuclear weapons and the resulting devastation. Limited records of eyewitness accounts of the event show that those present believed they were seeing atomic explosions – described as great flashes of light and heat, followed by immense shock waves.

  These records are singularly consistent with regards to one point: the astonishment of the witnesses at their own survival.

  - Rufus Veres, Level 37 Verbose Historian, A Brief History of the System

  I had moved three steps onto the grass when I saw an opening appear in the far wall. It slid up from the floor, like my elevator but moving in reverse. As the metal chamber was revealed, I could see that inside it was a hulking figure, both taller than me and considerably wider. Before the elevator had even stopped, the monster leaped out, snarling viciously. It’s a hobgoblin, I realized with dismay.

  Bigger, uglier, and much stronger than a regular goblin. Also much better equipped. This one was wearing some kind of dull metallic armor, with a helm covering most of its head. I could see the red eyes glaring through the eye-slits, and its fanged mouth snarled at me from below the cheek guards. It carried an axe in one hand and a shield in the other. The monster's ugly green-grey skin bulged with muscles – its biceps had to be bigger than my thighs. Maybe than my waist. At least it's not wearing full plate!

  The monster let out a howl full of rage and hunger, then leapt forward, its muscular legs propelling it much faster than I’d expected. I flicked the new switch on my gun to the ‘full choke’ setting and aimed at the neck where there was a gap between the helmet and the breastplate.

  BOOM! click-click BOOM! click-click

  Unfortunately the hobgoblin was also a lot smarter than its little cousins, and it yanked its shield up to protect its face as I fired. I saw its barrier flare and shatter with my second shot, so at least I’d accomplished something. The monster had already covered almost half the distance between us and I started circling to my left.

  I quickly pulled a fresh shell from my bandolier and loaded it as I tried to figure out how to get past the thing’s defenses. The shield covered it from just below the eyes down to the upper thighs. I smiled viciously as I lowered my aim, finding a point just in front of its feet as I switched back to the open choke.

  Let’s see how fast you can run with holes in your feet!

  Just as I pulled the trigger, light flared out in front of the creature, forming a barrier in front of it, and the defensive Skill absorbed my attack as I cursed. The hob darted forward, closing in fast as I pumped the action. It screamed as its axe flashed down at me in a brutal overhand chop.

  Its speed surprised me again and all I could do was jerk my gun up like a short staff into a desperate block, trying to knock the axe off course as I dodged. The heavy blade of the axe smashed into my angled gun, screeching down its side. My barrier deflected the blade just enough to save the fingers of my right hand, but it shattered in the process.

  I stepped hard past the hob as it was left momentarily off-balance by my deflection, pushing mana into my gun to repair it as my heart raced. This was much closer to what I’d trained for than any of my other fights so far! Sparring with other people hadn’t helped prepare me for the charge of an armored scorp or being swarmed by little spiders.

  This monster moved like a person, with the right number of arms and legs and joints. And unlike the three goblins, it was one-on-one. For the first time in the Tutorial, I felt like maybe I belonged here – in this fight, in this moment.

  I yanked the barrel of my gun down as I spun towards the hob, turning faster thanks to my lighter build and armor. I pulled the trigger the moment I had a target, my shot smashing into the back of its right shoulder and shredding it. Before I could rack another shell into the chamber, the hob whipped away, spinning to its left. The monster dropped its axe as its wounded arm failed, but it lashed out lighting fast with its shield, smashing it into me.

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  With my barrier already down, there was nothing to cushion the powerful blow. It ripped my gun out of my hands and sent it flying far out of reach. I jumped back, cursing at the pain in my hands. The hob snarled and thrust the shield directly at my face. I caught the brunt of the blow painfully on my forearms and tumbled back into an awkward roll. I came to my feet in a fighting stance, looking to see where my gun had landed. The too-smart monster read my intent and quickly took two steps to the side, cutting off my path to my gun.

  I faked a move to my right, watching the hob adjust to stay between me and my weapon, then darted in the opposite direction, past the hob’s left shoulder. I felt a hard impact on my back as it managed to clip me with a swipe of its shield, but my armor absorbed the blow. As I stumbled forward I reached down and snatched up the hob’s discarded axe. It was a heavy, ugly thing. While the monster had easily handled it with a single muscular arm, it was definitely a two-handed weapon for me.

  I hefted it, getting a feel for the weight, and screamed my defiance back at the wounded monster. I’d never trained much with an axe, they were usually too heavy for me, but I knew which end was which. A couple experimental swipes kept the hob off of me for a minute. I realized that I was handling the axe better than expected, my improved Strength and Dexterity showing up in a way that hadn’t been so obvious with my gun.

  Losing patience and leaking blood, the hob suddenly dashed at me, driving forward behind its shield. I danced back just out of reach, then darted in with a sideways slash that was easily deflected. The hob knocked the axe aside with its shield, then drove a punch into my side. Its wounded shoulder robbed the blow of most of its power, and the padded midsection of my armor handled the remaining impact.

  Recovering quickly, I brought the axe down in a fast diagonal cut that skipped off the hob’s shield and seemingly left me wide open. As the monster took the bait, I stepped back, driving the axe around and up overhead before bringing it down just as the hob thrust its shield out. The head of the axe hooked the top of the shield and I used my strength and the momentum of the blow to yank down hard, leaving the hob’s face exposed.

  I thrust the head of the axe up, catching it under the chin. If the axe had had a spike on the end, the blow would have ended the fight, but instead I just stunned the monster momentarily. I ripped the axe back and whipped it around in a finishing cut to the neck. The hob, with its defenses out of position, desperately brought its wounded hand up to protect itself. The axe cleaved through its vambrace and bit deep into the arm, crunching through one of the bones in the forearm before I ripped it out with a spray of blood.

  After that, it was just a matter of time. I kept up a steady, measured pace of attacks, never letting it catch its breath or giving it a chance to stop the bleeding. Despite the monster’s strength and size, it was still around my Level. It wasn’t long before it could barely keep its shield between us. I waited just long enough to make sure it wasn’t faking before I swatted the shield out of position with a full-strength blow and ended the fight with an overhand chop that drove down through its collarbone.

  I took a deep breath and yelled out in triumph, my voice echoing off the walls of the room. I barely had a moment to savor my victory before my celebration was cut short.

  [WELL DONE, GUNNER! PROCEED TO THE EXIT IMMEDIATELY, FOR THE NEXT CHALLENGE AWAITS!]

  What?! I just finished the most exciting fight of my life!

  I looked around in panic for a moment before locating my fallen gun. Leaving the axe embedded in the corpse, I dashed over and snatched up my gun. The only opening I could see in the walls was where the hob had entered, so I started moving in that direction. I hoped that if I looked like I was following directions I would get at least a bit of time to recover.

  [YOU HAVE THIRTY SECONDS TO REACH THE EXIT!]

  I cursed and picked up the pace as I heard a rumbling sound. Looking over my shoulder I could see several doors opening in the walls around the room. I bolted for the metal elevator and spun around, seeing multiple armored hobs stepping into the room as the elevator started to descend. They made no move to chase me, but I shivered as I knew I would be hard pressed to fight even two of them.

  I quickly checked my resources as I reloaded my gun and refilled my bandolier.

  I wasn’t expecting to burn more stamina than mana, but as long as I could hold onto my gun for the next fight I felt like I’d be OK. I tried to keep my breathing slow and deep as the elevator descended. It felt like the ride was even longer than the first one. Finally the elevator slowed and a gap appeared at the floor.

  I started to peek out carefully when I realized that the sound of the elevator moving hadn’t stopped. The bottom of the metal box had stopped when it reached the level of the ground outside, but the roof was still coming down slowly! Wasted hells, I cursed as I jumped out before I could be squashed. I do NOT like elevators!