A brief lull falls over the ring after the initial exchange between Bufo and me. No one says anything, but it’s clear everyone is now excited to see how this fight will play out.

I take this chance to grab two health potions and a mana potion pill out of my pouch and quickly toss both of them in my mouth. Uggh! They may have been good separate but the flavor they make when combined is nasty. Not like I have a choice though, so I choke it down.

Bufo gives me a smirk and motions with his hand in the universal ‘come-get-some’ gesture.

I let myself hop lightly on the balls of my feet. Yeah, he's easily fighting at the same level Riyu was. But this guy hasn’t seen all of my tricks yet.

I can feel the breeze just under my skin.

A quick Wind Burst launches me within close combat distance of the attack instructor. Bufo flinches, it’s clear he wasn't fully prepared for how quickly that technique lets me dash in. I put all my weight behind a large roundhouse kick. Bufo dodges under it, and then immediately pushes forward. The kick I just threw was so big that it leaves my back wide open for a counterattack, and Bufo won’t let that kind of opportunity pass by without punishing it.

Good.

I launch a wind burst out of my shin and it forcibly throws back the foot I had kicked out with more force and speed then would ever be possible naturally. Bufo was rushing in with the assumption that I was wide open, so the heel of my foot connects square in the side of his head .

The force of the Wind Burst, from that angle, nearly forces me into a split but I catch myself with a hand and rush to continue the attack.

I immediately go in with a left straight, aimed right at the face. Bufo is still reeling from that last surprise kick, so he is only barely able to get his arm to block. I can tell he wants to move back to mid range — back to his distance — but I won't let him.

My fist is still pressed into his guard, so I launch a Wind Burst from the knuckles of that fist to throw my arm back and then immediately launch another one from my elbow to throw a second powerful straight immediately. This one has more speed, on top of being unexpected, so it breaks through his guard and lands hard into his cheek. While my body is still in the middle of that punch I feel for the wind mana at the back of my right knee and launch another Wind Burst. It forces me to throw out a right knee that hits him square in the gut seconds after the punch.

Throwing out unnatural hits like this leaves me as twisted as a pretzel, but I'm actually starting to do real damage.

Bufo reels back while I struggle to regain my footing.

There's now a small gap between us. Not good, I can’t afford to lose this opportunity. I hop on one foot and launch a voiceless Wind Blade at Bufo’s head while spinning around; presenting my back to him. I’m not sure if he dodged it or not but just before I turned around it looked like he ducked under the spell. I launch a Wind Burst out of my chest and out of my right fist at the same time to throw me into him and launch an elbow back into his chest.

I can feel my strike make contact, pushing him away, and I spin back around with my guard up. But Bufo’s taken enough damage that he can’t immediately counter-attack. He’s standing, half leaning on his staff, taking deep breaths.

I’d love to continue my rush, but using that many consecutive Wind Bursts left multiple gaps in my Wind Cloak. I need a second to let my mana fill back. Unfortunately, even with all of the damage he just took, Bufo recovers first. He grips his staff tighter and yells the words, “Attack Frenzy!”

His staff glows orange and leaves faint after-images as it moves; those are the usual signs of a multi-hit skill. In my flurry of attacks I had ended up with my back to one of the buildings lining the ring. With the speed of an Attack skill and the range from his staff I won't have much luck escaping to the left or right. The building behind me takes away the option of pulling back. So, relying on instinct, I choose up.

I launch a Wind Burst out of both feet while jumping to fly into the sky. There's enough force in it that I clear every house and tree in the village. In fact, I go up so high that I actually end up just under the top of the cloud dome. I flip my body upside down, looking down on the whole of the ring.

There is a flurry of orange after-image attacks striking right where I last was. When the skill runs its course, Bufo looks up into the sky, right at me.

All right, let's try this then…

I hold both of my arms straight down, with my palms flat and the heels of my hands pressed together.

“The air is your domain, you who are freer than all else. Sprites of the air show us your joy, Dance of Gales!”

As the mana rushes through my arms to obey the words of the magic incantation, I imagine taking that wind and expanding it out more than normal. From the palm of my hands, gusts of wind gather in a twisting spiral and shoot out in a barrage of small Wind Blades.

This spell is the next stage of the Wind Blade spell; it normally flies along a straight lane for multi-hit damage. But from this distance I have no doubt Bufo could dodge it. Which is why I forced the mana to spread out before the spell formed. Instead of a singular barrage, what flies out is a scattershot.

Small Wind Blades rain down across the entirety of the stone ring. There’s nowhere for Bufo to dodge.

From up in the sky, I can see his staff start to glow orange. He raises the staff above his head and spins it. The energy coursing through the metal creates a solid shield above him that blocks my spell.

Well damn. This was actually about as far as I’d gotten for a plan. Now what?

I start to fall back down to earth and manage to push just a little bit of wind out from under me to slow my fall, letting me gently land on the roof of the Fabric Crafting building. I stare down at the attack instructor, who looks up at me in kind. I can feel myself wearing the same ecstatic grin he is. I’m breathing far too deeply at this point though. That tactic of using Wind Bursts to fight with unpredictable movements might be mentally and physically exhausting, but it was working beautifully. There's just one problem with it.

I look at my health and mana bar. My health is fine, but my mana is nearly at zero. Using consecutive Wind Bursts like that may give me incredible maneuverability, but it burns mana like crazy.

“Please get off the roof and return to the ring to continue your fight.” Says the man from management, Mr. Lopez.

Everyone else in the village is stunned, staring in shock at the fight they’ve been witnessing. I shake my head, realizing that I'm technically outside the ring right now. But I do take enough time to pull out four more mana pills and shove them in my mouth while I jump down. Thankfully my mana fills back up quickly; but my health bar is a solid purple now. It's the game telling me that if I take anymore mana potions, I will be hit by mana poisoning. I learned about that the hard way the first time, while testing the efficiency of different potion recipes. If you take too much too quickly, you essentially poison yourself — getting dealt a steady tic of damage until the effect wears off.

The duration of the mana poisoning is determined by how how many mana potions you've had in a set amount of time. Worse yet, the only thing that can heal mana poisoning immediately is higher level purification spells. Health potions or basic healing spells might slow or delay the degeneration rate, but if the mana poisoning is strong enough it'll eat through whatever healing another potion would give you in the first place.

Okay, so strong spells are off the table now. And consecutive Wind Bursts are out. They both take too much mana. What does that leave me with?

I stare at Bufo, who is also using this lull in the fight to get his breathing back under control. It’s honestly hard to tell if he really needs this chance to recover from the damage, or if he's just trying to be a good sport. Either way, we’re back at his distance. With his attack speed and range I don't have enough time to switch between earth and metal mana when it comes down to a straight up brawl.

Hmm… what if… alright, maybe I can just use both!

I let my arms hang down and imagine filling both of my hands with metal mana, so that it’s just a little past my wrist. I take the connection to that mana, and cut it. It’s still there — activated and leaking out slowly, no longer able to be moved by me. Instead of worrying about that I fill in the space above that metal mana, all throughout my forearms and just below my elbow, with earth mana. Then I cut off the connection to that mana as well. I fill my elbows with metal mana, cutting of the connection again, and finish off by filling my biceps with cut off, activated earth mana.

My mana bar drops down sharply. Even though that mana is still technically in my body, it’s no longer a part of me. I lift up both of my arms and clench my fists, settling into a fighting stance. Looks like this experiment was worth the mana loss though. Since I left all of the mana activated, and kept metal mana in my joints, I can use my forearms and biceps to defend, and my elbows and fists to attack. Both elements at the same time. Best part is: I don’t have to manually control the mana in my arms, so I’m free to perform spells with the rest of my body.

As Bufo sees me raise my hands to continue he shoots me a grin and rushes forward. I can't afford to waste any more mana then I already have, so I let him come at me with my guard up. I block his opening thrust with my right forearm and immediately reach down to grab at the staff. He pulls it away in surprise while I dash forward. I’m able to get in two quick jabs at his shoulder before he backs away again. He retaliates with another thrust of his staff and I strike it away from my body with my hand. I can feel the sting of that hit coursing through me, my health bar shrinking slightly in response, but thanks to the damage buff from the metal mana there's enough force behind it to completely deflect his attack.

We start to exchange blows like this. My new flexibility of movement allows me to react to his strikes without just passively defending. Whenever he begins to pull back, trying to get enough distance to perform the startup for a skill, I launch a voiceless Wind Blade kick at him. If I give him the space to start hitting me with skills this fight will be over far too quickly.

But even with the combination of earth and metal mana, allowing me to defend and attack on a dime, I don't have a reliable way of getting close for some real damage. I’m only able to hope for a lucky hit or two. And even with the defense buff from the earth mana it’s not like it can nullify all damage. My health bar starts to slowly get chipped away, and it’s becoming clear that Bufo has the upper hand in this war of attrition.

I have to find a way to shift the balance somehow. I pull my focus inward, trying to move my wind mana towards my back. A quick Wind Burst might give me enough speed to get up close.

That was my mistake; this isn’t the kind of fight you can afford to let your concentration drift.

While I’m moving my wind mana, Bufo sends a sweeping horizontal strike at my head. I bring my right forearm up to block the attack but I fail to notice him shifting his swing down at the last second. My forearm was in the path of his original strike, but the trajectory change causes his metal staff to crack cleanly against my elbow.

For that one second the pain is blindingly white.

“Aaaaaaaaah —“ My arm flops uselessly at my side, the elbow clearly broken.

No amount of basic potions is going to heal a broken joint. My teeth are clenched shut, with waves of pain pulsing through my elbow. Getting hit on a spot with activated metal mana means you take extra damage. It also makes the pain even sharper. I can’t even afford to dwell on it though, I’ve got to think fast. This is the kind of hit that loses you a fight. What hurts my pride the most though is the look of shock on Bufo’s face; it’s clear he wasn't even aiming to break my elbow. It was just me being careless.

Dammit! I hold my limp arm and decide that I can’t think about losing right now. I shove the wind mana meant for my back up against my right shoulder. I activate the wind and then forcibly shove it through the mana locked in my right arm.

“Aaagh!” The scream is half from pain, and half from frustration. I had found out that you could use activated mana to forcibly remove detached mana from a limb. But all it does is waste your reserves with no real benefit.

I’d barely found any elements that react to each other to begin with. And wind doesn’t really do anything outside of the body when it comes into contact with metal or earth. All that happens now is a gust of wind blowing from my limp arm as the rest of the earth and metal mana in my right arm is drained away through it.

With the wasted mana cleared out I take majority of my remaining mana, pull it through my light point, push it towards my broken elbow and activate it. A gentle light starts to glow from under my skin. This kind of internal healing can fix it but it’s gonna take time.

The unintentional injury and my pained screaming must have kept Bufo distracted from the fact that we’re still in the middle of a fight. But the sight of me healing my elbow clearly reminded him. He’s not gonna give me the time I need.

I struggle to reach my potion pouch with my left arm, but the pouch is on my right hip. I have to lean all the way across my body just to open the flap.

“Dammit, dammit!” I start to yank the pouch along my belt, towards my front. But Bufo is already closing in before I can take anything out.

I don’t have a lot of mana left. Without thinking I lift my left hand up and shout, “Water Ball!”

Great~ I’ve come this far in the fight and all I have to show for it is a spell he's already deflected once before.

In my panic, I had completely forgotten about the earth and metal mana I already had packed into my left arm. But the spell I just cast was a shortened incantation, not a voiceless incantation. And so the water mana in my body moves to obey the magic words. Distracted and barely aware of what’s happening, I can feel mana come out of my water point and spiral in a counter clockwise motion from my shoulder, through my arm, and to my palm; it scrapes at the earth and metal mana in my arm, as those elements absorb into the water mana, and it’s all carried into the formation of the spell.

What comes out of my hand is a water ball many times larger than the standard spell and much darker in color. It shoots off at Bufo. He is close enough that he chooses to flick it aside with his staff, just as he did the first time. But when the metal makes contact with the Waterball, the spell erupts on contact and flings the end of his staff back.

Bufo looks at me in confusion, shocked that a basic spell managed to stop him in his tracks. I’m looking in his directions but my eyes aren’t focused on anything. I’m frozen in place as my mind spins. Forgetting the potion pills. Forgetting the fight.

I whisper, “Of course… outside the body, mana reacts… inside the body, mana blends!”

Honestly it’s a miracle that I snap out of my daze before Bufo. With newfound motivation — mana poisoning be damned — I grab multiple mana pills and health pills out of the pouch and shove them all into my mouth. Not even the disgusting taste that results can distract me. Barely swallowing, I point my left hand at Bufo and cast a Waterball.

The same large ball of darker water flies out. Bufo manages to focus in time and dodge back. The spell tears forward and destroys a chunk of the Metal Crafting building’s wall behind him. He stares at the damage and then looks at me. I give him a feral grin in return.

Mana will always move in accordance to the words of a spell. And that’s a property I underestimated. The mana won’t just stop if there is other mana in front of it; instead they blend together, granting that spell some of the properties of another element. It looks like earth and metal mana will make a Waterball denser and more explosive.

The mana pills take affect immediately as I can feel my core filling back up. My health bar has shifted to a full red color, meaning mana poisoning has set in. But for now the health potions are enough to hold it at bay.

I keep launching Waterball spells, enhanced with earth and metal, at Bufo. Anytime he attempts to deflect the spell it ends up pushing his staff back. Every one he dodges goes on to tear up the ring; it’s now pockmarked with small craters. This barrage is keeping him at bay while my elbow continues to slowly heal thanks to the light mana I had trapped there.

With this kind of mana enhancement, I have the potential to win the fight. Bufo is having to try his hardest to not get hit by the Waterballs I’m shooting. But it’s eating up the mana packed in my arm fast. It’s already nearly empty.

Dammit, if his weapon was a normal wood staff it probably would've broken by now. If only it wasn’t… made of… metal…

“… I’m such an idiot!”

I immediately shift from a palm twist to a hand thrust and chant, “Lightning Arrow!”

This time Bufo doesn't even try to deflect the spell. He desperately tries to dodge it. A little bit of lightning still pulls away from the spell and strikes his metal staff. His body shudders from the minor electrocution.

He looks at me and says, “I was starting to think you weren’t gonna realize you could do that.”

I give an embarrassed smile. “Well, no one’s more disappointed in me than I am.”

As I launch a barrage of Lightning Arrows at Bufo his staff acts as a lightning rod, pulling in damage even from the ones he's able to dodge. Unfortunately I’ve ran out of metal mana in my arm, so the spells are noticeably weaker for it.

Bufo suddenly rushes in, deciding to tank a Lightning Arrow square in the chest. He grits his teeth, plants his feet in front of me, and growls out, “Mighty Hit.”

His staff glows orange in his hands as he moves into the swing. No matter what fancy name or flavor-text the skill has, it’s basically Bufo using the full length of his staff in a baseball swing, right into my stomach.

The force of the hit — backed by the skills damage bonus — launches me clear off of the ring. I slam into the ground and roll along the cobblestone until my back collides with the village well.

…

…

…

I'm breathing deeply, crumpled on the ground, as water sloshes out of the well and splashes over me. Without moving I glance at the bottom right corner of my vision; there’s a fraction of my health bar left. It’s back to being purple in color. Barely a third of my mana remains.

… I struggle to my hands and knees.

Gasping at the ground, sweat dripping down my face, I dimly realize that I can use my right arm again. Looks like the light magic managed to heal my elbow, otherwise putting weight on it like this would have really sucked. That’s nice. I can feel some dampness on the back of my head. I’m not sure if it’s water or blood.

“D0n!” I hear Bufo’s voice. It sounds muffled and far away. “You’ve fought well so far. Now you have to choose. Either forfeit, or come up here and let me finish this match.”

I stay there, not moving for a moment. Then I sit back on my heels. With shaking hands I open the potion pouch, which is still turned to my front like a fanny pack. All that's left inside are three healing pills and four mana pills.

Guess this is gonna be my last chance then.

I grab the three healing potions and eat them immediately. My health regenerates accordingly, just below full. I only grab one mana pill. Any more than this is going to send me into a mana poisoning strong enough that no amount of light mana or healing potions could stop it. I pop the pill into my mouth, and stand up.

I lock eyes with Bufo. Neither of us say anything, but he nods and backs up, giving me space to return to the ring. Healing and mana potions might've restored my resources, but this fight has still been exhausting. My feet feel heavy as I climb back onto the stone ring. Everyone is silent, waiting for the end of our fight to unfold. Even the Mr. Lopez is giving us space.

Meanwhile, Bufo is standing in the center of the ring in a deep squat, with his staff arm pulled back tight against him and his arm up in a position I've seen before. The distance might be different with a staff but that's clearly the set up for the intermediate fighting skill, Tri-hit. Ha… you know I never did manage to survive one of those when Riyu would use it on me.

I nod my head, and feel just a little bit of energy return. That’s right. There’s no point in doing this if I don’t try everything possible. Until the very end.

Rolling my shoulders, I feel for the well of mana inside of me. I pull it down and right, through my dark mana point, and gather enough so that it covers the entirety of my stomach, chest, and face. I force myself to take a deep breath; there's no leeway for me to miss this timing.

“Yaaaaaah!”

With a yell I charge straight at Bufo. There's no Wind Burst to launch me and no spell flying from my fingertips before me.

“Try-hit!”

There’s no wasted movements by Bufo and his skill hits cleanly. Split in three, the end of his metal staff crashes into my stomach, chest, and forehead.

During that small moment, where the damage feedback is about to be sent through my body, I think back to the journal of Skinrat the thief. To a story from his days as an adventurer. When he talked about the space just between life and death, and that if you were real tenacious, there was still something that could be done while there.

In my mind I yell the words, Delay Damage!

I am sent flying back, landing limp on the stone floor, unmoving. Bufo calmly walks forward, secure in his victory. Even if I had been at full health, the Tri-hit skill has enough power to knock me out in one shot. He looks down at my body. “You have nothing to be ashamed of D0n. That was a marvelous performance.”

Bufo turns his head to look at Mr. Lopez, to call for the end of the fight so that someone can come heal me. The man from management raises his hand in the air…

At that same time I lunge up and jam my fist into Bufo’s stomach — forcing part of the dark mana that was at my stomach into his. He staggers back in shock, staring at me. I scramble from the ground, clumsy and desperate, to rush forward and plant a punch into his chest as well. On contact, I imagine taking the dark mana that was in my chest and pushing it through my fist, into his chest.

Unfortunately my surprise attack was only enough to land two hits. Bufo fights through his shock and swings his staff at me. There's no finesse as I dodge, I just throw myself to the ground and scamper away. Damn, just two isn’t good enough!

“How?! How are you still moving?” Says Bufo. “That was an intermediate technique, there's no way you should still be moving!”

“Maybe you just don’t know as much about this game as you thought.”

I don't know why I'm trying to piss him off even more. My mouth just moves faster than my brain sometimes. None of what he said was wrong though. Because right now I'm basically dead.

I glance at my health bar. It's neither green, nor red. It’s black.

An obscure reference, in a tiny journal tucked away in the Tutorial Village library. Delay Damage is a rogues skill; it allows you to experience the damage of an attack as DPS over time. Of course that's not how Skinrat described it. But when I finally unlocked the skill from researching it, that was what the game told me. Even now my black health bar is slowly ticking down and I can feel the sluggishness in my body increasing. There's barely any time remaining, so either I set up for stage two of the skill or I lose.

“What on earth are you —“

I don't give Bufo time to finish his sentence. I just silently charge at him. This Attack instructor is more experienced than me in every way, but just like everyone, he has habits. And one of them is that he always likes to lead off with a thrust.

As soon as I get in range, just like I thought, Bufo grabs his staff with both hands and jabs it directly at my chest. I don't try to go left or right or duck; I go up. Jumping into the air, I twist and throw my left hand down to grab his staff and lead my body into a cartwheel motion, my legs pointed straight up in the air.

It doesn't have to be a good hit. I just need to touch him. I reach my right arm out — filled with the last of my dark mana — and barely, barely rap my knuckles against his forehead; pushing the mana into his body.

Going all in like this means that I didn’t really spare any thought to how I might land. My body crumples to the ground at his feet.

Confused, frustrated, and angry, Bufo turns to me and raises his staff high in the air to finish me off. I don't have enough time or concentration to cast a spell. At this point all I could manage is to push out pure activated mana. Luckily there's one element that can still do something even if I don't give it form. I roll on my back in a half sitting position, stretch up both arms, and pump lightning mana out of my hands. It arcs out randomly, but most of them bend towards Bufo’s metal staff. His entire body locks up in convulsions as electricity courses through him, his staff still up above his head, still ready to swing down.

This time I take full advantage of the fact that as long as you know the magic words, the game will take care of a spell for you. Keeping Bufo locked in place with lightening, I chant the incantation for the second half of this skill.

“You imps who scurry in the Darkness, masters of cheating and mischief, come and bend karma to your will. Unfairly return my burden to the righteous judge, and enjoy your fill of misery. Damage Transfer!”

Bufo grits his teeth, still trying to finish his strike through the pain. But the mana between us is ready to fulfill the will of the incantation. I push the heels of my hands together, with only two fingers pointing out, and twist my hands in a circle.

Three lines of darkness flow from my stomach, chest, and forehead towards Bufo; right into the markers I placed. Those spots on his body are suddenly indented, and he is sent flying through the air as though he was just hit with a point blank Tri-hit.

The only requirements for Damage Transfer are that you have to use it to ward off death, and you have to be able to place dark markers in the exact same point on your opponent where you yourself were hit. It’s an intermediate rogue skill, and it’s only available to me because this is the Tutorial Village. You have until your black health bar runs out to perform the skill. Now that the curse is gone, less than a fifth of my health is remaining.

Bufo collapses to the floor. He's not getting up, but his body is convulsing slightly. Taking an attack of that level, even replicated, without expecting it causes him to enter a shocked state. For at least a few moments, he won’t be able to move at all.

This is it. Either he goes down or I do.

I struggle to my feet through a haze of exhaustion and rush to Bufo. I reach into my potion pouch and pull out the last three mana pills, swallowing them without hesitation. The green of my health bar immediately turns red and the little health I have left starts to tic away. But all that matters right now is that I have mana for one last attack. I scramble over and get in a mounted position over Bufo’s chest. I hold him in place by his throat. He tries to pry my hand away but his grip is still weak and clumsy.

I pull on a Metal Cloak. Instead of keeping it spread throughout my whole body, I forcibly take the expanded mana and shove all of it into my right arm. The more I put in, the more it compresses, to the point that it starts to physically hurt.

My arm feels heavy and painful from all of the metal mana, but I raise my right hand up and make a fist. I throw my punch down into Bufo’s face. On contact, I imagine the front of my knuckles as the escape route for all of that built-up pressure.

The punch lands clean and all of the forcibly compressed mana rushes out of my fist, pouring out as pure attack damage. There was no technique here, no skill, just a punch that ate all of my mana. The force from the blow slams the back of his head into the ring, cracking the stone underneath it. Bufo's hands gripped around my own slacken and flop lifelessly down as his health reaches zero.

I collapse to the side, shuddering. The punch felt like setting off an explosion in my arm. Combined with the leftover mana poisoning, my health is falling into the single digits.

“D0n!” I hear Van say, sounding like it came from everywhere and nowhere at once. “I got you.”

He must have rushed over, because he’s suddenly right next to me. He supports my upper body and places his hand on my chest and chants the incantation for a healing spell. His hand starts to glow with a soft light. The healing rate is just enough to stop my health from degrading any further. I must be at three, maybe four percent left.

“Don't worry bud,” Van says, “that was a hell of a fight. We’ll get Bufo back up in one piece and then have the priestess heal you the rest of the way.”

“No. She won’t.” It's Mr. Lopez, walking forward while fiddling with invisible screens. “I already let you and the others give him ample help. This is his challenge, he’s the one who wanted to test himself against the instructors. So yes, this is his win. If he wants to continue, then he will get up and immediately begin the next round.”

I can hear my friends and the other people in the Tutorial Village start shouting in anger at the man from management. He ignores them all, continuing to write log notes to himself.

“You can't be serious!” Says Van. “The only thing stopping him from Passing Out this instant is my healing spell. If you have him fight now, he’ll lose before it even has the chance to begin.”

“Hmm,” Mr. Lopez still does not look up. “I suppose you can have two minutes then. It'll be enough time for the Mana Poisoning to wear off. If he needs further healing after that, he can do it himself.”

“Now listen here you piece of shit —” says Van, but I cut him off. I start to struggle to my feet.

“It's okay Van. I just need you to help me get past the mana poisoning. Then… then I can use a Light Cloak to maybe do something and —“

“I’ll wait.”

“Wha…” I slowly raise my head. Across the ring I see the paladin, Zhaz Morrowolf, standing. He's not moved from his spot the entire time. Simply resting his sword on the ground in front of him with his hands steepled over the hilt. Finally Mr. Lopez looks away from his screens and start walking towards the paladin.

“Excuse me, what do you think you’re doing?“

“Go have the priestess heal you D0n.” Zhaz does not even look at the man from management. “Have Vandar repair your armor. Have the cook make you more potions. You can even take a moment to rest your mind. Whatever you need.” He locks eyes with me, a smile on his face. “Just be absolutely certain you are prepared to fight me. I’ll wait.”

Everyone, even Mr. Lopez, goes silent. Subconsciously their eyes turn to me.

I just finished a fight; got smacked around with a metal staff more times than I'd like; and skirted death by a hairs breadth. But none of that compares to the shiver that goes down my back from the look in his eyes. So I grit my teeth and grin.

“How generous of you.”