We took our stances on the polished stone floor, the cavern’s blue light glinting off our blades as we began to circle each other.

  The Chief didn’t just strike, he attacked with lethal fluidity. For a man his size, the speed was unnatural, his boots gliding over the polished stone. This wasn’t just stats; this was decades of muscle memory overclocked by the System. He was suddenly in my face. His opening feint was a blur of silver, a high slash I easily positioned to be blocked with my Jian. He turned his blade and a split second later, a low, driving thrust flew at my abdomen.

  Shit. He’s fast.

  I parried, my own gladius deflecting his blade with a sharp ring of steel. The move was pure instinct, but it left me overextended. In the space between heartbeats, the Chief’s kite shield exploded into my vision, a solid wall of steel that slammed into the side of my head.

  A flash of white light erupted behind my eyes, the impact a jarring shock that sent a high-pitched ringing through my ears. I stumbled back, my head swimming, and felt a warm trickle of blood trace a path down my cheek.

  “Oh no, I am so sorry,” the Chief’s voice was suddenly full of paternal concern. He rushed over, his shield and sword vanishing as he examined the small cut. “I thought you would block it with your other sword.”

  “My fault,” I grunted, shaking my head to clear the stars. “I wasn’t treating this as real.” I lifted a hand to my cheek, expecting to feel the slickness of the cut, but my fingers met only smooth skin. The welt was already shrinking, the stinging sensation fading as if it had never been there.

  “Whoa,” I breathed, looking past him. “Kira, did you heal me already?” I hadn't felt the familiar warmth of her magic.

  “No,” she called back from across the spot where she was sitting, her voice laced with frustration. “It was a stupid injury and not worth my mana. You really need to get better at defending yourself.”

  I ignored the remark.

  Curious. I unsummoned my gladius and lifted the razor-sharp Jian to my other forearm, ignoring Kira’s indignant gasp. I dragged the blade gently across my skin. A thin, ruby line of blood trailed the blade as it glided over the intricate lines of my World Tree tattoo.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Kira shouted, surging to her feet, her staff materializing in her hands.

  “Stop,” I called out, my eyes wide with amazement. I watched as the blood flow slowed, then stopped completely. The skin beneath began to knit itself back together, the severed lines of my tattoo reconnecting before my eyes. “My arm… it’s almost healed already.”

  “Wha—” Kira grabbed my arm, her fingers tracing the spot where the cut had been moments before.

  Before she could say another word, Chief Dobson summoned his own sword and, with a grim look of scientific curiosity, drew the blade across his own forearm, right through a tattoo of an eagle.

  “Hey, not you too!” Kira started, lifting her staff, but the Chief gave her a look that rooted her to the spot.

  We all stared as blood dribbled from the wound on his arm. After a few moments, the flow slowed to a trickle before finally stopping, the process taking nearly twice as long as my own healing had.

  “Hmmmm.” The Chief raised one bushy eyebrow in my direction, a thoughtful expression on his face. “What’s your Health stat, Stormson?”

  I quickly pulled up my menu. “Fifty-three, you?”

  “Thirty,” he rumbled. He looked from his arm to mine. “So, we can assume the Health stat also governs a… natural healing rate?”

  “Regeneration is what it’s called in games,” I offered, the words out of my mouth before I could stop them. My cheeks immediately grew hot as every eye in the circle turned to me. “What? I like games, is that weird?”

  The silence was thick and awkward for a long moment, then Kira clapped a hand over her mouth.

  “NERD!” she shouted, her voice echoing in the cavern.

  “For fuck’s sake, Kira,” I muttered, utterly mortified as Logan’s booming laugh joined a chorus of chuckles from the others.

  “Anyway,” the Chief continued, a deep chuckle rumbling in his own chest. “Thanks to our resident nerd, we can assume the Health stat refers to regeneration. It’s safe to assume Stamina is for endurance. Strength, Agility, and Mana are self-explanatory. Huh, look at that, we learned something new.”

  I couldn’t help but be amazed by his deduction ability, how he turned every new piece of chaos into a solvable, tactical problem.

  “Looks like you won’t have to work so hard patching me up in the future,” I said, flashing a grin at Kira.

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  She rolled her eyes, but a genuine smile spread across her face. “Yeah, right. With your expertise in getting nearly killed, I think I’ll be working just as hard as always.”

  “Now, should we get back to work?” the Chief asked, his voice a low rumble as his sword and shield shimmered back into existence. The paternal concern was gone, replaced by the sharp focus of a seasoned warrior.

  “Let’s,” I said, my gladius appearing back in my hands. We began to circle each other again, the memory of his shield slamming into my face a fresh, painful lesson.

  He moved in a flash. It wasn’t just the System’s speed; it was the economy of motion, the decades of Marine Corps training overclocked into something brutally efficient. His sword snaked out in a low thrust. I blocked it with my gladius, keeping my Jian held high and tight to my body, my eyes fixed on his shield. Not again. He’s going to lead with the shield. Don’t fall for it.

  His second attack came, just as I’d predicted. Not with the sword, but with the shield, a battering ram of steel meant to crush my defenses. Instead of meeting it head-on, I angled my gladius, letting the shield’s edge glance off the flat of my blade. I used its own momentum, leaping to the side and letting the force spin me in a tight roll.

  I was already swinging my Jian as I came out of the rotation, the spin adding vicious power to the strike. The blade was a flash of silver, cutting through the air before slamming into the Chief’s sword with a sharp, ringing CRACK that echoed through the cavern. The force of the blow, a perfect redirection of his own attack, sent him staggering back several feet. A translucent blue screen flickered to life in my vision.

  New Skill Unlocked: Parry

  New Skill Unlocked: Counter

  So that’s how it works. You don’t just get skills; you earn them.

  “Focus!” The Chief’s voice cut through my thoughts like a whip. He was already moving, his blade swinging down at me. I lifted my swords clumsily, the twin blades absorbing the impact but sending me stumbling backward. Before I could recover my footing, he switched his grip, hooking the crossguard of his sword over my Jian and wrenching it from my hand with a brutal, practiced twist.

  Fuck! An explosive kick followed instantly, his boot connecting with my other wrist. My gladius went flying, clattering across the stone floor. I fell hard on my ass as the Chief pressed his advance. Unarmed. Out of options. My feet whipped out with a speed that felt alien even to me, hooking behind his ankle. He hadn't expected an attack from the ground. Another blue screen appeared, but I blinked it away as the Chief stumbled, his arms windmilling for balance before he went down.

  I rolled to my feet as he did the same, a low grunt of effort escaping his lips. I swept my blades back up from the floor, their familiar weight a grim comfort as the Chief moved forward, a bulwark of steel, a flicker of grudging respect in his eyes.

  We faced each other across the polished stone, the cavern’s blue light glinting off our blades. The crowd of players that had gathered to watch was silent, their faces a mixture of awe and tension.

  “You have the power, son,” the Chief rumbled, his shield held high, his sword point steady. “You have the speed. But you fight like a cornered animal. All instinct. All aggression. Let’s see if you can think.”

  He came at me again, not with a wild charge, but with a measured, relentless advance. His shield was a moving wall, closing the distance, forcing me back. His blade was a constant threat, a flicker of steel that tested my guard, forcing me to react. It wasn't an assault; it was a lesson.

  “You rely on your Agility to dodge,” he said, his voice a low growl that carried easily in the cavern. His sword darted out, and I sidestepped, the tip hissing past my ear. “What happens when you’re cornered? When you have nowhere to run?”

  He pressed forward, his shield a constant pressure. I was forced to give ground, my dual blades a frantic, defensive web against his probing attacks.

  “You have two swords, but you use them like one,” he coached, his own blade deflecting my gladius with a sharp ring of steel. “One attacks, one defends. You’re leaving yourself open every time you swing.”

  The frustration, hot and sharp, rose in my throat. He was right. I was just a brawler with a pair of magic swords. He was a warrior. The realization settled, cold and clear. I stopped trying to win. I started trying to learn.

  I planted my feet, letting his next blow come. I blocked his blade with my gladius and as he surged forward with his shield to rush me I leapt. My swords unsummoned as I gripped the shield and launched myself over him.

  Landing on my feet behind him with swords back in my hands. He was still turning when I pushed forward and rested my sword tip at his throat.

  A flicker of surprise, of approval, showed in his eyes as I beamed back.

  I lowered my sword for us to reset.

  Chief gave a nod, rushing forward again. I held my position, deflecting his sword and shield as we both tried to out maneuver the other.

  The clang and scrape of steel echoing through the chamber. I wasn’t winning, but I wasn’t losing either. I was holding the line.

  The spar ended as quickly as it began. He saw an opening I didn’t even know I’d left, a fractional shift in my weight. His shield came up, not to bash, but to trap my blades. In the same fluid motion, he stepped in, his own sword a harmless but undeniable pressure against my throat.

  Silence. I stood perfectly still, the cool, flat edge of his blade resting against my skin. It was over.

  He stepped back, his sword and shield vanishing with a thought. He clapped a heavy hand on my shoulder, his expression no longer that of a drill instructor, but of a commander.

  “You learn fast, Elias,” he said, a note of pride in his voice. “That’s good. Because out here, the lessons come faster, and the price for failing them is a hell of a lot higher. You were smart not to try that jumping trick again but there could have been other attack avenues from that position.”

  “I figured you would have known it was coming and had a counter already planned,” I managed to say, my own swords disappearing as I caught my breath.

  “Finally done playing?” Kira’s voice cut in, sharp and laced with sarcasm, though I could see the relief in her eyes. “Some of us were worried you were going to break another bone for me to fix.”

  Before I could shoot back a reply, a flicker of motion from the hallway caught my eye. Flynn materialized from the shadows, his face pale and slick with sweat, his eyes wide with a mixture of awe and terror.

  “Report,” I said, my voice all business again.

  He took a deep, shuddering breath, crushing a mana crystal in his fist as the energy flowed into him. “I made it to the end of the path,” he said, his voice a low, urgent whisper. “It opens into another basin, bigger than the last two combined. The floor… it’s a boneyard. Not lesser lizards. The big ones. Elites, Behemoths… their skeletons are everywhere. No other doors but lots of Mana crystals.”