The two lizards appeared to be some sort of soldiers or warriors. Each was equipped with what seemed to be a long spear and from what he could [Sense] they were both wearing light leather armor. They were walking down a tunnel that lead away from him.

Alan silently stalked them. As he moved closer, he expanded [Sense] to make sure there were no other lizardmen nearby. All clear.

Closer and closer Alan crept. The lizards were in no rush apparently and were strolling almost lazily. He was beginning to feel nauseous, his mouth felt dry, and his hands were cold and sweaty. He tried to gulp down his terror, and with his heart in his throat, he attempted to keep quiet as he closed the distance. Closer and closer.

Pressing his body against the wall and hiding behind any rocks he encountered, he moved silently. Without warning the lizardmen suddenly stopped in the empty tunnels and began to reach for their weapons. Something must've triggered them, and in that split second Alan made his decision. He allocated 25 Points to Dexterity, knowing full well he could not turn back from this.

He was familiar with the feeling from the last time, but the extra Points made a big difference. Time itself seemed to slow as his body and mind sped up. The lizards, which had seemed fast and deadly before now appeared more clumsy and predictable to Alan's senses. He felt the potential for motion inside of him. He felt like he could be the wind.

He moved.

When the lizardmen had stopped, they had been five to ten meters away from him. Alan closed that distance in an instant and used [Vital Strike] to stab down at the first warrior's neck, wasting no time.

All of this took place in a split second. The lizardmen had not even had a chance to turn around. Alan felt [Vital Strike] connect. Combined with his sudden Dexterity allocation, the sharpened rock punctured a deep wound in the lizard's unprotected neck severing its arteries. Feeling the effectiveness of the attack, Alan did not pause and immediately moved out of reach from his first target and towards the remaining lizard warrior. He was a blur of speed and motion.

But still, he was not quite fast enough. The other lizard warrior was ready for him and when Alan went to attack, it was able to block his crude knife somehow while bringing his spear swinging towards Alan's face. Alan stepped back instantly, barely managing to dodge the thrust. The warrior promptly followed up on the first attack and Alan moved to avoid it feeling the weapon scrape against his head in the process. Alan focused on avoiding the lizard's spear, and quickly realized that stepping back further had been the wrong move. Given their respective weapons, distance was not his friend.

The lizard's eyes narrowed and muscles bludged under the leather armor. It suddenly let out a shrill screeching noise that carried throughout the cave as it continued to jab its weapon at Alan. Alan's whole existence was focused on dodging the spear, barely avoiding the attacks through sheer speed. Heart pounding, ribs radiating pain with every movement, he avoided death with each second. He clenched his teeth as his opponent continued to shout in alarm. His inexperience with fighting was becoming more of a problem the longer this went on.

Still screeching, the warrior jabbed at Alan's torso, and suddenly three spears were coming at him. The lizard warrior must have some spear Skill Alan realized belatedly. He would have been dead right there except for the fact that thanks to his Dexterity allocation he was able to notice this change immediately and without thinking activated [Vital Strike] slashing down at the spears coming towards him while simultaneously moving to the side. Miraculously the Skill activated. It looked like even weapons could have vital parts. Even with that, he had not been able to avoid the attack entirely. The spear was cut in two, but one half was now lodged into his upper arm. The warrior wasted no time abandoning the broken weapon and leaped at him as Alan struggled to maintain his balance.

Alan ducked low just as the creature's claws raked over his head. A sharp and sudden pain flashed through his shoulder with the movement as the broken spear unlodged itself from his arm and blood began to flow freely. He couldn't let it distract him. He tightened his grip and used [Vital Strike], slashing upwards as he bent, in an attempt to gut his opponent. [Vital Strike] had not yet cooled down and did not activate, which resulted in his knife scraping harmlessly again the warrior's thin armor. The lizard landed behind him. Thinking quickly Alan decided against turning and facing it head-on. Instead, with the path now open in front of him, he took off at a run almost tripping in the process even with his new allocation in Dexterity.

He ran without thought. Fueled by fear for his life, he flew through the cave tunnels. He heard something clatter against the cave wall close to his head, but he couldn't give it any attention and kept moving. The element of surprise and his Dexterity allocation had been his two primary weapons, and the surprise was now gone. He also worried about other lizards coming to help out as even now the warrior continued to let out a loud hissing siren which echoed throughout the tunnels. He was not ashamed of running. He had never wanted to face one of these things in a fair fight. [Sense] did not show anything directly ahead and given his speed the warrior was soon out of his range of perception.

He noticed a side passage and moved towards it. Stopping quickly and silently, he took account of his time. He panted catching his breath. That whole exchange had probably taken less than a minute, meaning he had roughly six more to get to a safe place before the allocation recoil hit him. His left arm was bleeding heavily from where he had been pierced, but it was still usable and he barely felt it with the adrenaline coursing through him.

He focused on hiding. He didn't quite know what these creatures used to sense their surroundings, but he hoped that being still and quiet would be enough combined with [Hide]. Too soon he [Sensed] his opponent running in his direction. The lizards were fast, and Alan was sure without the power of his recent allocation coursing through him, he would be dead already. As the lizard approached, it didn't seem to notice Alan hiding on the side of the cave wall.

The lizard warrior was just about to run past his hiding place. Coming to a decision, Alan sprang up, putting all of his speed and dexterity into the attack. He activated [Vital Strike] and stabbed towards the creature's neck as he flew across the passage. The Skill activated successfully, but somehow the lizard had been able to react in time and everything seemed to slow down as Alan's attack passed through thin air. The lizard had twisted its neck out of the way, and Alan could see its muscles tightening ready to pierce the spear upwards into Alan's torso. Just as his [Vital Strike] finished however, he felt something different. He was somehow able to attack again instantly and instinctually.

Blood sprayed in his wake. The lizard's neck was punctured brutally. Alan fell onto the ground on top of the creature managing to avoid skewering himself on its upraised spear at the last second. And just like that, he was down and his opponent was dead. That must have been the secondary critical [Vital Strike].

He breathed heavily in the sudden stillness, for once thankful for his Luck allocation. He felt dirty, covered in grim and copper scented blood, but he could not rest just yet. He picked himself up off of the ground and crouched by his kill. He flashed [Sense] outwards and confirmed no less than eight more of the creatures were heading his way. He had to hurry.

He had roughly five minutes now before the allocation drawback and maybe twenty seconds before the other lizards were on him. But he had come here for a reason. He [Sensed] quickly, the dead lizard had a knife on his belt that Alan took for himself. Aiming carefully he used the knife to cut down at the lizard's exposed arm. Giving up soon after being unable to saw through the bone, he still managed to skin off a hunk of muscle and scales. He picked up the meat, pocketed the knife, and grabbed the two pouches that were attached to the warrior's belt. One pouch sloshed pleasantly, and Alan hoped it was a water bag.

He took off. He had never run so fast in his life. His flashes of [Sense] had a hard time keeping up with his speed, and his MP began to lower significantly. Yet he moved his body surely, adrenaline pumping he was able to react instantly to any objects that appeared within his perception. And so he ran for several minutes before he stopped. He could no longer [Sense] the lizards behind him, but that didn't mean they were not following.

He had a few minutes to find one of his hiding places. He had scoped out several such places on his walk for just this situation and now headed towards the closest one. It was a small hole in the cave floor behind a large boulder. Lowering himself down into it, he had to squeeze through the tight passage for roughly twenty meters before it opened up into a wider area where he could rest and hide. Without [Sense] he would never have attempted such a thing, but with the Skill he was able to verify that he would not be leading himself into an area where he would become trapped or stuck.

His Dexterity attribution had let him make his way through the tight spaces and tunnels with surprising ease, twisting his body to pass through the darkness with solid earth packed around him threatening to bury him. Briefly, he worried about his supply of oxygen, but it was too late for that.

Safely in his hiding spot, he put his prizes down. He had maybe a minute, maybe two. He sat down in the most comfortable position he could manage and waited for the allocation drawback to hit him.

He used the last of his MP to [Sense] out through the earth in the direction of the lizards but still did not find anything. Breathing deeply he focused on slowing his heart. It had been a very intense several minutes and he figured his allocation drawback should be coming any time now.

He put the cloth of his shirt between his teeth and tensed his body, preparing for the pain. His breath came in ragged huffs. When would it come? He shut his eye tight to prepa... PAIN.

Torrential PAIN.

It was horrible. The drawback from the 7 Points previously was nothing compared to this. Luck had been worse, but a piercing onslaught of unrelenting agony shot through him. Fast and sharp and unending. The sensation of millions of needles stabbing into his body was multitudes worse than before. He even noticed blood begin to spray around him as if it was actually happening. His spine twisted and every nerve in his body felt like it was being pierced. But he gritted his teeth and ENDURED. He was Alan Trevin. He would not be beaten. He had survived the destruction of his town, imprisonment, torture, and starvation. He had just killed two creatures that in any other circumstances he should stand no chance against. And he was still here. He would not let mere PAIN break him. HE WOULD NOT GIVE UP.

Alan sat there. Eyes open. Teeth gritted. Blood spraying from his body as if from thousands of stabbing knives. In the silence and darkness beneath the earth, he embraced the pain. Because he chose this route. Because he had won his battle with the lizardmen. Because he was alive and no longer a prisoner to his circumstances.

He rested deeply after the drawback finished. Too exhausted to do anything else or worry about pursuit. He had done what he could.

Now propping himself up in the darkness of his hideout, he turned towards his rewards. He actually felt surprisingly good all things considered. Still hungry, still bruised and broken, but he was alive. Allowing himself a small smile he picked up the knife he had taken from the lizard warrior.

It was not metal but seemed to be made of a strange type of stone. It was sharpened to a fine point and would certainly be useful. He set it aside carefully. He opened one of the pouches the lizard had been carrying and dumped the contents on the ground. A pile of dirty coins fell out, along with a small dried foot of some creature tied to a string which Alan assumed might be a charm of some sort. Whatever it was it didn't seem to have worked for the lizard. He moved the contents of the pouch over and tied the pouch itself to his belt. The small bag was going to be more useful than what he had found inside of it.

The other pouch was filled with liquid Alan assumed and hoped desperately was water. He tested it out on his tongue. It tasted stale and warm, but he was overjoyed to be right. He gulped much of the contents not realizing just how thirsty he had been, but he made sure to save at least half for later on.

Finally, he turned to the meat from the lizard's arm. He focused [Sense] on it. In his haste, he hadn't managed to get as much meat as he had wanted, and much of it consisted of skin which was oily and scale-covered. It didn't smell great. He frowned at it.

Taking his new knife he began to skin it carefully. The task was harder than he had imagined and messy. The knife was not quite sharp enough for the task and he ended up having to pry away the scales from the skin with his hands making an even worse mess in the process. The scales on the arm were hard to peel away and adhered stickily to the hide underneath. The lizard's muscle felt both soft and firm as he peeled away the scales. It was still warm.

Finally down with his gruesome task, he [Sensed] the result. His frown deepened.

At least it now seemed more like the raw meat he was accustomed to. Ideally, he would want to cook it, but he had no way to make a fire. Even if he could, it would just suffocate him down here.

He sighed deeply into the nothingness.

He hoped [Endure] would keep him from getting sick. He knew he was relying on that Skill more and more to do things that he couldn't know for sure it actually helped with, but he needed food. The few bowls of soup he had eaten had done less to satisfy his hunger than to make it more apparent just how poorly off he had been. After his Dexterity allocation and fight with the lizards, he felt the gnawing weakness of hunger even more.

Nothing for it. He took a bite of the raw lizard meat.

He paused, steeling himself before starting to chew. The texture was more gritty and rubbery than he had hoped. He forced himself not to gag as the rancid smell of the meat overpowered his senses. Each bite was a struggle as his teeth chewed up the rough sinew. It had a sickly sweet taste to it and he held his nostrils closed hoping that would help the process. He chewed the sour meat until his jaw ached, but it was incredibly gamey and resisted his attempts. Eventually, he closed his eyes in the darkness and forced himself to swallow.

As the sickly meat slid down his throat, a window popped up.

Skill "Endure" can now become "Sustain" Level 1. Do you wish to accept?

He almost choked in his surprise.

Coughing in the darkness, Alan caught his breath and for a moment focused on not throwing up what had taken him so much effort to get down in the first place.

After calming down, he refocused his attention. [Sustain]?

He knew Skills could change or in rare cases combine. Everyone knew that. It was what study of Skill Paths was all about, but even so, he hadn't been expecting it. With the random and frankly disappointing smattering of Stats and Skills that he had been choosing out of necessity, Alan had not even thought about such things when making his decisions.

He was naturally a bit wary of losing [Endure]. Who is to say how he would be doing without resistance to mental distress, a higher pain tolerance, and resistance to physical injury and exhaustion. Probably not very well given what he has been through.

Still, it was somewhat exciting.

He moved the remaining lizard meat over and checked out his new upgrade option.