The monster was mostly identical to a leopard, except for the legs. They were still covered in spotted fur, like the rest of the creature, but there were eight of them, multi-jointed and emerging from the monster’s side like the legs of a spider. The legs were not as good for running but it was an excellent and rapid climber. That didn’t much matter when Sophie’s wind blade cut half of those legs off and it tumbled to the ground where she finished it with a brutal stomp to the head.

You have defeated [Spotted Tree Cat].

“Spotted tree cat,” Jason said. “It lacks imagination but at least it’s what it says on the tin. I was worried it would be called a spidard or something. Some of these monster names are just daft. Some of them have got people killed, I’m certain of it.”

“How does a monster name get someone killed?” Sophie asked.

“Well, take sloth demons and demon sloths. Demon sloths are iron rank, strong and relatively tough, but slow. Not that hard to take down, as long as you’re careful. A sloth demon is a gold-rank monster with a soporific power that cripples your speed, making you easy meat.”

“I see your point,” Sophie said. “You wouldn’t want to get them confused.”

“No, you would not. Did Humphrey get you reading the Magic Society monster records? He said he was going to.”

“He did,” Sophie said. “It’s actually pretty interesting, learning about all the crazy stuff that’s out there.”

“It might seem odd to say this,” Jason said, “but you don’t want to be too efficient with your kills. You’ll do better if you use as many of your abilities as you can.”

“It’s not like I won’t get another chance,” Sophie said. “I don’t think it’s even been an hour. Besides, these easy fights won’t do me much good. I need something tougher, or that comes in numbers.”

“That’s true enough,” Jason acknowledged.

He wandered over and touched the creature.

Would you like to loot [Spotted Tree Cat]?

“Hold on for a second,” Sophie said, pulling off her boot and sitting it on a low, broken wall before backing off as Jason did the same. Jason mentally accepted and the creature went up in rainbow smoke, along with the muck on Sophie’s boot. There was some minor spattering on her pants and trouser legs that dissolved as well, causing Sophie to wince at the smell as Jason moved aside.

“Do you ever get used to that?” she asked.

“A little but not really,” Jason said. “On the bright side, after that you can handle pretty much anything. I fought a monster called a belch bug that has this stink that’s meant to make you vomit. Barely a stomach twitch.”

They were making their way down a wide boulevard that went in exactly the direction they wanted. There were eighteen days in which to make the most of the excellent training environment but they decided to start by making their way to the middle of the city. It gave them the best chance of finding their errant party members and they could just roam around fighting monsters from there.

The boulevard was uneven ground, the once neatly-fitted flagstones cracked, pushed up by root growth or displaced entirely by trees. It was still the most open path, though, and offered an easy passage toward the centre of the city. On either side, what had once been impressive buildings rose up, half-collapsed and covered in creepers and other growth.

“We should have a rummage through some of these buildings,” Jason said.

“What happened to going straight to the centre of the city?” Sophie asked.

“We at least have to have a bit of a look around,” Jason said. “Let’s just pick the next awesome-looking building and take a gander. Maybe we’ll find an essence or something.”

“You think?”

“Maybe,” Jason said. “In fairness, we could just as easily find one sitting in the middle of the boulevard. With the increased manifestations and this place having gone untouched for centuries, there could be a veritable hoard just waiting for us to find it.”

“Maybe we could check out one building,” she said. “What about that one?”

Most of the buildings they passed by were two or three storeys tall. The one Sophie pointed out was six, and more intact than most.

“It looks a bit fortressy,” Jason said. “Some kind of military barracks?”

The front entrance once must have been a pair of towering metal doors, but centuries of humid air had left little but rusted scraps behind. The looming doorway was large enough to wheel a siege engine through, as evidenced by the remains of just such a siege engine. It was in some kind of a marshalling courtyard beyond the huge doors, abandoned to a state of disrepair. Now it was a pile of wooden beams, rusty metal bars and leather straps.

“That’s awesome,” Jason said, looking at it. “Also, suspicious.”

“Suspicious?”

“It may look like a dilapidated pile of junk,” he said, “but its not really dilapidated enough. That wood should have been long rotted away, and that metal might be rusty but compare it to what’s left of the doors. I’ve been on farms and seen what fifty years of abandonment does to a place. This has been here what? Ten times that, at least? In this wet climate, there shouldn’t be any of that thing left.”

“What are you thinking?” Sophie asked.

“I’m thinking you move closer, carefully. See if you can sense an aura off of it.”

Sophie did just that, approaching the large doorway. Before she could sense anything, the fallen pile of metal and wood started moving. What was little more than a pile of rotted wood, rusty metal and leather scraps started re-assembling itself into a vaguely humanoid form. It towered almost four meters high, enough that as it stood upright it became obscured as it was taller even than the huge doorway.

The construct creature was asymmetrical and looked very uncoordinated, with two arms on one side and one on the other. Of the two arms that shared the same side, one was stubby and ended in a crude, rusty claw. The other was longer but less agile, looking like a long box terminating in a rusty ball. The single arm on the other side was actually a platform for a ballista. As it stood up, they both sensed its bronze rank aura.

“Is this one of the Builder cult creations?” Sophie asked as the construct creature assembled itself.

“Unlikely,” Jason said. “It looks like it fits right in here. Probably a monster or something left behind from long ago.”

“Do we run?” Sophie asked.

“Fight,” Jason said, drawing his sword. “Something tells me that some practice fighting construct monsters will pay off, down the line.”

Knowing his core abilities would be useless against the construct creature, Jason silently thanked Gary for making his sword.

“I’ve never fought a bronze-rank monster before,” Sophie said.

“That’s why it will help us get stronger,” Jason said. “If you think you can’t handle it, just run. It doesn’t look like much of a chaser.”

The creature was ducking slowly under the doorway with jerky movements, the monster’s height too much even for the oversized gap. Jason took advantage of its awkwardness to dash forward. It lashed out crudely with its ball arm but Jason easily dodged, raking his sword against one leg, then the other as he ducked under and passed the creature. His sword did nothing more than scratch the wood but that was all he needed.

Special attack [Punish] has inflicted [Sin] on [Siege Golem].[Siege Golem] is immune to curses.[Sin] does not take effect.Affliction immunity has triggered an effect on weapon [Dread Salvation].Weapon [Dread Salvation] has gained an instance of [Stone Cutter].

The golem was caught halfway under the door, almost through only to start turning back after Jason. As it did, Sophie moved in to the attack, lashing out with rapid strikes.

Special ability [Immortal Fist] has dealt resonating-force damage to [Siege Golem].[Siege Golem] has an extremely rigid body and suffers additional damage from resonating force.

The fight started out strongly in Jason and Sophie’s favour, catching the golem in a bad position. Neither Jason nor Sophie had any big attack powers to capitalise, however, and their iron-rank attacks had limited effect of the bronze-rank enemy. Sophie started off stronger with her resonating-force damage, while Jason’s attacks did next to nothing as his sword accumulated power. With each attack it dealt increasing amounts of the same resonating-force energy but he would need some time to have a real impact.

The golem focused on Sophie as the greater threat, working its way toward the outside. Just as it was about to get free of the door, she nimbly dodged past it to join Jason on the inside, followed by Jason making his way back out. The mindless construct creature could do no more than react, the same lack of internal spirit that made it immune to Jason’s curses making it too stupid to understand it was being played back and forth.

Finally it worked its way loose, courtesy of Jason’s sword. It was accumulating enough power to affect even the hardy, bronze-rank construct body and when Jason carved of a protrusion from its body it staggered free of the doorway and back into the courtyard.

Jason had reached the point where he could do some real damage, but free of the door, the golem had its own tricks to use. The stubby claw yanked back the ballista arm, and from within the arm a ballista bolt jerked out, ready to be fired. The golem launched it at Jason but the crude, massive weapon was easy to dodge. He moved aside, the creature’s aim obvious and the bolt missed him, the huge metal head digging into the stone floor.

Just as Jason was about to renew his attack, the shaft of the ballista bolt explodes, firing out finger-length shards of piercing wood, sharp as needles and hard as iron. Sophie, on the other side of the golem, was far enough away that she could duck out of the doorway before the shards reached her. Jason, on the other hand, took the full brunt. The attacks carried the inherent power of bronze-rank attacks, shredding his cloak and piercing his armour. He shielded his face with his arms as he turned his body to present a smaller profile and protect certain delicate areas. His arms, legs and sides were riddled with the wooden shards, which were left sticking out of him like echidna spines. He snatched a potion from his belt and chugged it, the healing power doing little more than pushing out all the spines.

The golem, in the meantime, had brought it’s ungainly box-arm with the rusty ball-hand up in the air. It brought it down in Jason’s direction as he was still staggered and inattentive, the ball coming loose on the end of a cable, extending out as it swung down hard. Jason realised the danger too late, only for Sophie to appear in front of him using her mirage step power. Her feet braced, she threw a punch out at the descending ball.

Ability: [Immortal Fist] (Mystic)

Special ability.Cost: None.Cooldown: None.Current rank: Iron 2 (14%).Effect (iron): Unarmed attacks deal additional resonating-force damage, which is highly effective against physical defences. Suffer no damage from making unarmed strikes against objects and negate all damage from actively intercepted attacks. Not all damage from very powerful or higher-ranked attacks will be negated.

The huge metal sphere was deflected but the power of it was too much for Sophie’s ability to negate. She was hammered into the stone, bouncing off herself as her arm was brutally mangled. Jason, protected and recovered, looked down at her. Under the hood of his cloak, his face contorting with malevolence as he saw what was left of her arm. He turned that gaze onto the golem, the sword in his hand practically humming with power, even as blood from Jason’s punctured arm ran down it.

He ran at the golem, having fought it enough to know that its ungainly size and sluggish speed were the weaknesses he needed. His sword flashed as his body danced, slicing into the creature again and again. With each strike the damage grew greater while the golem flailed at the cloaked figure flittering around its feet. Soon, even bronze-rank damage resistance was not enough. Jason had burned most of his mana on special attacks it was immune to, trigger the sword until every strike was blasting away chunks of wood and shearing apart strips of metal. He went for the joints, the legs first, then the arms as it toppled, finally going to work on every part of it still large enough to hit.

You have defeated [Siege Golem].

Jason dropped his sword on the destroyed golem, rushing over to Sophie. She was struggling, one-armed, to get to her knees and he carefully helped and she grimaced silently through the pain. Her right arm dangled limply, the hand coming out of her sleeve. Jason pulled the lesser miracle potion from his belt but she waved him off.

“I’d be a pancake if it wasn’t for you,” he said, still pushing it on her.

“That’s for the middle of a fight,” she snarled through the pain and clenched teeth. “Don’t be an idiot and waste it now. I can use this to practice my recovery power.”

Jason looked at her as she fought through the pain to take a kneeling meditation pose as best she could.

Ability: [Equilibrium] (Balance)

Special ability.Cost: None.Cooldown: None.Current rank: Iron 1 (76%)Effect (iron): Meditate to slowly accrue instances of [Integrity], up to an instance threshold based on the [Recovery] attribute. Instances quickly drop off when meditation ends.[Integrity] (heal-over-time, mana-over-time, stamina-over-time, holy): Periodically recover a small amount of health, stamina and mana. Additional instances have a cumulative effect.

“At least take some kind of potion,” Jason said.

“This is kind of hard, so how about you shut your damn mouth for once.”

“Lady,” Jason said, putting back the lesser miracle potion and pulling out a regular healing potion for himself. “You are seriously hardcore.”

“What did I just say?”