I slowly clench and unclench my right hand; testing the joints on the new gauntlet Van whipped up for me. My last all out attack against the Attack instructor, Bufo, had so much metal mana behind it that the original gauntlet broke from the force of the hit. I hadn’t noticed at the time. Granted I was two steps away from Passing Out then.

I barely remember getting carried to the Metal Crafting building. Using the break Zhaz gave me, Van had immediately went to work repairing all of my armor. My other friends gathered again to remake and refit the supplies I had used up. The whole time, the NPC priestess, Laurel, had sat down and finished healing me back up to full.

They were all working fast. Even with the authority behind Zhaz’s declaration, Mr. Lopez was clearly upset about the added preparation time, and there was no telling how long his patience would last. They were all aware of the time ticking away. I was aware of the time ticking away. But I needed every second of it.

All the damage to my equipment aside, I was exhausted. The consecutive healing spells from Laurel might have healed my physical fatigue but my mental reserves felt drained. Three fights in a row, all of which required me to push my mana control to the limit. The concentration necessary to pull off my fighting style, combined with the constant rush of adrenaline, took everything I had just to get this far. And yet after all that I was still left with the challenge of finding some way to beat the paladin, Zhaz Morrowolf.

Zhaz has been this Tutorial Village’s Defense instructor for the past week. In all that time, I never had the chance to spar with him. He takes the responsibilities of his job even more seriously then Arinn, so he refused to do anything that would take time away from him helping as many new players as he could. And most new players flocked to him. Apparently he’s a pretty famous player in Golden Age; everyone who manages to load in here is anxious to meet him. All the attention Zhaz gets — on top of the difference in our time zones — meant there was never really an opportunity for us to fight.

Even then, I can’t but help but find myself having a deep respect for Zhaz. Not just for his technical skill either, though he looks like an absolute monster whenever I’ve watched him practice. Maybe it has to do with the respect Van gives him; I really respect Van’s opinion, ergo, I respect Zhaz in turn. But honestly it might just be because of who Zhaz is as a person. I’ve never seen anyone who really fits the ideals of a knight quite like him before. The way he’s always willing to help others; his diligence with the sword; in fact if we still lived in the middle ages then he would have most definitely become some famous knight.

Maybe it’s childish of me but right now, more then winning, I just want to impress this guy. People like him and Van, with the chances they’ve given me, I really don’t want to let them down.

Maybe that’s the reason I actually feel nervous.

Right now I can see Zhaz waiting for me in the center of the newly repaired ring. The acting Material Crafting instructor, AngryTurtle, must have repaired all of the damages from the last couple of fights — filling in the craters left in the ring and repairing the hole in the stands. The man from management, Mr. Daniel Lopez, is standing next to Zhaz, impatiently tapping his foot. Everyone else is sitting in the stands, with Jazz913 and Emily already having found their seats. Van is standing behind me as he fixes one of the joints holding the protective metal rings around my chest in place.

“All right, you're all set.” Van says, slapping me hard on the back. “How are you doing?”

“Honestly,” I say, clenching both of my hands, “just trying not to lose it. But when I have I ever let that stop me from trying something new, right?”

Van throws his head back and laughs. His beard and hair braid bounces while he chuckles.

“I don’t think you realize how rare of an opportunity this really is. A lot of players would kill for the chance to fight him.” Van gestures with his head towards the ring. He suddenly gives me a gentle smile.”D0n… what you've already done is amazing. I can honestly say you're one of the most impressive players I've ever seen; I doubt you're going to have much trouble in the games starting kingdom cities. But what I respect about you is that you’ve recognized the value in always trying, no matter how small or impossible the odds may seem.”

He then looks towards the ring. Zhaz is looking at Van as well, and gives him a nod when the two make eye contact. “… Just go out there and give it everything you've got until you've had your fill. I'm sure you'll get something worthwhile out of it.”

Van gives me a final pat on the arm, much softer this time, and then makes his own way to the stands with the other instructors.

I’m touched by how high of an opinion Van has for me, but… the fact that, throughout his whole encouragement, there was no mention of me being able to win… well that last bit of anxiety settles into my stomach as Van walks away.

I make my way onto the stone ring set in the Tutorial Village square — sandwiched between two buildings. As I approach the center, Zhaz picks up his sword and secures it to his belt.

“You certainly took your time.” Says Mr. Lopez. He is still fiddling with his invisible screens while I finish walking up. “Be sure to show your gratitude to Mr. Morrowolf here for entertaining your little break.”

Zhaz rolls his eyes and asks, “How are you feeling?”

“As ready as I'll ever be.”

“Well isn’t that just perfect?” says Mr. Lopez. He backs up and raises his arm into the air. “Let's get this over with already. Round four will be between the paladin, Zhaz Morrowolf, and the challenger, D0n. Ready?”

Zhaz adjusts his grip on his shield — strapped to his left arm — and draws his sword with his right. I take a deep breath and try to calm my nerves. It only does so much. So instead I point with my chin to my opponents bare head. “What? Feeling so confident, you don’t need to wear a helmet?”

“No, that’s not it. The protection it offers is nice in a raid format, but for a one-on-one duel I prefer to have my full field of vision.”

I shrug; it makes sense. That does nothing to help my anxiety though. I raise both of my hands and clench my fists. This is the last fight. I've got three of four wins checked off on the contract with the merchant, Averack. So this is where I have to give everything I have left.

Mr. Lopez looks at both of us in our fighting stances. All of the chatter from the stands has stopped.

“…Begin!”

The muscles in my body twitch and tighten, ready to move or defend at a moments notice. Zhaz does not move. He simply raises his kite shield up so that it blocks the bottom half of his face. All of his attention is zeroed in on me. I readjust my footing slightly, and bunch up my shoulders. Even the mana in my core feels like it’s tensed. My eyes roam over the paladin’s stance. Though his footing looks relaxed and his sword is hanging lightly in front of him, his defense still looks flawless. I keep readjusting my feet. Every kind of approach I can imagine only ends up with it getting blocked.

Everybody seems to be holding their breath as neither of us move. I can feel the tension filling up the space between us. I continue to look at Zhaz, still unable to find any gaps.

“You do remember that I'm a Defense alignment right? It's your job to be the aggressor in this relationship, D0n. So feel free to attack whenever you're ready.”

There's a snicker from somewhere in the stands.

I clench my teeth and throw on a Wind Cloak. I launch a Wind Burst out of my back foot to send me rushing towards Zhaz. It's not that his words actually taunted me into fighting. I'm just pissed off because it made me realize I had given into my fear.

Nothing starts until you move forward.

Closing the distance in a moment, I plant my feet right in front of him. I take a side step to the right, leaning towards his shield arm. I move the stopper on my mana core and switch my Wind Cloak to a Fire Cloak. Fire mana gathers in my hand; I gather and condense it, until it bursts out in the form of the fighter’s skill, Flame Punch. I still can't see any openings for this attack to land, but I throw it out anyway.

He blocks my skill with the center of his shield. On contact, the fire coating my fist compresses and then explodes. There's enough force behind the explosion that the backlash throws my hand back. The shield doesn't even budge.

Ducking down and taking another side step to my left, I reset myself and keep my eye trained on Zhaz’s sword. It's still hanging loosely in his right hand. Coming in from this side means I run the risk of a counterattack, but that one block told me it’ll be difficult to get around his shield, so I have to try anyway. My Fire Cloak shifts into a Water Cloak. I feel for the water mana in my left hand — condense it and push it outward, to coat my hand in water. There's no actual technique for this that I know of. I’m just repeating the same sensation from the Flame Punch skill to mimic it as an Aqua Punch.

I throw out my make-shift skill in a tight left hook, aimed right at his liver. My eyes were so focused on the sword hovering nearby that I’m completely caught off guard when Zhaz swings his shield around. He catches my attack with the edge of his shield and parries it away from his body. It throws me off balance as the water explodes harmlessly into the air.

His surprise block and parry took me by surprise, and worse, it took my eyes off of his sword. Sadly Zhaz isn’t one to waste an opening. The only warning I get it is the moment his shield tightens against his body, before his sword flashes out in a thrust aimed at my face. No clue how I jerked away in time to avoid a fatal hit, but it still cuts a bright red line across my cheek.

Zhaz’s sword is still right next to my face, and I barely saw his last thrust as it is, so I need to move. Quickly, I duck down into a crouch. Pulling on a Wind Cloak, I spin and throw out a kick to try and sweep his legs — I launch a Wind Blade out of my heel at the same time. I was hoping it might trip Zhaz, or at least hurt enough that he’d back away. Instead he tanks the hit without flinching and immediately cuts down at my extended leg. Since my Wind Cloak’s still on, I launch a Wind Burst out of my chest; it blows me away from the attack so that I’m sliding across the ring in a sitting position.

Still on the ground, I let my Element Cloak dissipate and thrust out my left arm while saying the shortened incantation, “Dark Sphere!”

My right arm follows just behind, saying the incantation for another spell, “Light Beam!”

From my left hand a physical ball of darkness forms and flies out as a perfect sphere the entire time. The Light Beam looks just like it sounds, and flies off as a solid, short beam of light.

The paladin slices the Dark Sphere in half with his sword, and blocks the Light Beam flying at his face with his shield, so that it ricochets harmlessly into the sky.

“Tch.”

There’s no way this would be that easy.

Even if my plan right now might be pointless, I don't want to make the same mistake I did against Bufo. I know basic spells are going to be too weak to do much against Zhaz but if I can at least get a hint that one element would be more effective than the others, well at least I’ll finally have something to work with.

I scramble off my butt and run in a low crouch at Zhaz with a fresh Wind Cloak on. He still has his shield up in front of his face from blocking the Light Beam. It didn’t do any damage, but the bright glare from the spell left him squinting.

This time i launch a strong Wind Burst out of my back and then twist in mid-air. It leaves me sliding on my back across the floor incredibly fast. My trajectory lets me slide between the paladin’s legs. He still cuts at the ground beneath him, just barely missing my shins.

Still sliding on my back, I point both arms up at the same time. Just like Bufo, Zhaz seems to have the habit of cutting or parrying physical attacks with his sword and blocking energy attacks with his shield. So I imagine pulling Metal mana out of my core and into my right arm. Imagine it sharpening and dividing so that it courses through each of my fingers. While I'm doing that, I say the full incantation for the basic earth spell.

“Strike out, you steadfast ground spirits, Earth Bullet!”

Without my needing to do anything manually, a separate string of earth mana goes into my left arm to form the spell. At the same time, dust gathers in front of my fist to form an oval of rock. While that’s happening I focus on the metal mana in the fingertips of my right and and voicelessly perform the spell, Metal Needle. Thanks to my concentration not slipping, two separate spells, from two different elements, fly out at the same time.

Zhaz turns around and starts to bring his sword forward like I hoped, but quickly sees the metal needles above the earth bullet. In one fluid motion he crouches into a ball with his shield in front of him and quickly calls out the skill, “Shield Aura.”

From the edges of his shield, a dark green energy expands out to cover his body, easily blocking both of my spells.

Well damn…

I shake my head. No, no. This is not the time for disappointment. I reach into my potion pouch and pull out a mana pill. Luckily since everything I’ve been throwing out are beginner spells they didn’t burn too much mana.

Clapping my hands together I pull mana out through my lightning point and start the prep movement for my next spell.

If I remember reading it right, his skill, Shield Aura, has an effect time of ten seconds and at least a 20 second cooldown time. Which means I should have just enough time to launch a more powerful attack now.

“Jump for Joy, Rise for Chaos; both land and sky are your playground. Spirits of Thunder, cry out in abandon. Lightning Storm!”

Unlike a lot of the other spells I use, this one feels like the lightening mana is activated as soon as it leaves my core — I can feel the tingle of electricity passing through all of my limbs, trying to find a path to escape. And since this one is a Variable Strength spell, the more mana I put in, the stronger and longer lasting it’ll be. As the incantation completes, I slam my hands into the ground, and watch as half of my mana bar drains away.

There’s a following moment of silence. The effects of the Paladin’s Shield Aura fades away and Zhaz stands up at the ready. As the last of the mana for my spell leaves my hands, streaks of lightning begin to erupt from the stage. Lightning Storm is an AOE spell; there’s even the possibility of it damaging me as well. But I’m wearing leather armor, and even though there is some metal in it, it’s nothing compared to the full steel armor Zhaz is wearing.

A lighting strike erupts from the ground directly in front of Zhaz. While it should have passed by him, the streak of lightning arcs into his shield.

Yes!

It looks like the same lightning rod affect will work against him as well. I pull out another two mana pills and swallow them, bringing my mana back up to full. This is good. If I can use lightning to restrict his movements I’ll finally be able to find some openings now.

More lightning strikes flash across the ring. Most of them keep arcing towards Zhaz. Flinching from the lighting strikes, he reverses the grip on his sword and plunges it into the ground in front of him.

“Sanctuary.”

His sword begins to glow a bright green, and that green spreads into a circle around him. The light from it shining across his body. More and more lightning strikes crash into him, but now they have no effect. Calmly, without taking any damage, Zhaz looks up at me as electricity crackles across his iron armor.

“So D0n… are you done experimenting?”

A chill goes down my spine.

It’s clear as day. Nothing I've done has hurt him. A dark thought — that everything I’ve landed is only because he allowed it to — takes root in my head.

As the effects of my spell, Lightning Storm, fade away, so does the glow of his Sanctuary skill. Like he intentionally timed it to happend that way. Pulling his sword from the ground, Zhaz rushes at me.

None of my skills and none of the elements had any effect. For a moment my mind goes blank. But my brain shorting out isn’t going to stop the hulking paladin in full plate armor from bearing down at me. Dammit, I don’t have any time to think!

Zhaz approaches with his shield held tight in front of him and his sword arm out to the right. The second he gets into attacking distance — which is further than I can reach — he does a full power swing towards my head. That threat is enough to snap me out of it; I lift my left arm up and brace my forearm with my other hand. I scrape together an Earth Cloak and pray that the gauntlets can handle a direct attack. It’s only a moment, right before his attack is supposed to contact with my guard, that his sword stroke flows down, underneath, and hits me full on in the ribs. The steel rings Van had installed in my chest piece bites into the edge of his blade, stopping his sword from cutting into me. It keeps the damage from being the worst case scenario. My upper body could have been cut clean through right then and there… but dammit it still really hurts!

Zhaz notices that his attack was stopped short and clicks his tongue in annoyance.

This range is bad… this range is real bad! None of my spells worked from a distance to begin with, so backing away will only guarantee that his sword will always reach me first. Right now the best chance I have is to press in close and bring the fight to a distance where his sword is a hindrance instead of an advantage, and pray my physical strikes can do something.

Even though I understand that intellectually, my instincts are screaming at me to get away from him. I compromise by steering clear of his sword and try to slip in around his shield arm. I lean to the right, feeling the edge of his blade slip out of my armor, and duck forward, dashing in low and fast.

I don’t get more than two steps in before Zhaz puts all of his body weight into slamming his shield into my face; I was rushing forward when it hit, so all of my weight gets added as well. The cold steel knocks my head up, leaving a sharp ringing in my ears. The second Zhaz pushes me away with his shield he immediately slams the pommel of his sword into my temple. There's no thoughts in my head about retreating or attacking anymore. It's all I can do to keep my feet under me as I stagger about, darkness creeping into the edges of my vision.

Through what sounds like a wad of cotton, I hear him say his next skill.

“Shield Bash.”

Slam!

I let out a choked cry as the skill feels like a concussive force slamming into my chest. It launches me clear off my feet and into the air. The hit to my head, combined with the impact against my chest, knocks the wind out of me and the world feels like it's receding to a small point.

From a great distance, I hear something else.

“Final Hit.”

He just doesn't let up, does he. I'm already flying away from Zhaz because of the Shield Bash, but in midair the skill, Final Hit, extends a bit of orange energy out of the tip of his sword, piercing me through the chest before I can even land.

My back crashes into the stone floor of the ring. The impact feels like it’s enough to make cough up blood. Thankfully the sharp spike of pain from his Final Hit snapped me back into focus. But man, the sensation of getting stabbed is just plain eerie! My body is wracked with pain as I struggle to my feet.

What the— you've got to be kidding me! That one combo did so much damage that there’s only a sliver of green left in my health bar.

“Don't look away!”

I snap my head up at the call, and see the paladin already charging at me again. My legs are wobbling, I'm still trying to wrap my head around everything I just got hit with, and even now he’s not letting up in the slightest. All of my senses are filled with a rush of fear and all I can think of is that I need him to just get away from me.

Somewhere in that combo I lost control of my Earth Cloak so I put on a full Fire Cloak. There’s no spell lined up, no plan to surprise him with. I’m driven by the simple knowledge that if Zhaz reaches me, I’m done for. I lift up both hands and push as much fire mana out of them as I can. There's no form given to this. I'm just shooting it out broadly like a flamethrower. I just need him to at least hesitate, I don't care how much mana it takes.

I'm pushing out enough that a billowing cloud of flames erupt in front of me, completely enveloping the paladin.

Good.

Just back up, defend.

Get away.

Get away from me!

From the middle of that cloud of fire I hear the words, “Stone Skin.”

The tip of a sword plunges out from the depths of the fire and slices in a clean line right towards my neck. I cut the flow of mana to my hands and throw my head back. Stumbling back a few steps, my eyes open wide in shock. Zhaz’s skin looks like it's made of rock. His normally steel blue armor is tinted red from the heat. There's no smile on his face, no arrogance. Just absolute focus. He immediately steps in further and reverses the swing of his sword, sending another blindingly fast slash at my head.

Reacting on pure instinct, I switch to a Wind Cloak and launch a Wind Burst from my shoulders and head. The Wind Blast slams me into the ground, leaving me half curled on my side. Shit, I’ve got to get my footing and move—

Zhaz channels the force of his swing into another step forward. Lifting his steel boot up into the air, he moves to stomp down on my head. I launch a Wind Burst out of my chest with as much mana as I can manage. It throws me away, skidding along the ground until my back slams into the building along one of the edges of the ring. The paladins foot crashes into the floor hard enough to crack the stone. Without missing a beat he brings his sword down and swings up into the air, at the same time saying the words, “Holy Blade.”

A vertical slash of green energy cuts across the ground towards my body; I’m still sprawled on the ground.

For a second that green light fills up my whole vision.

There's barely any mana left in my body, but I take whatever wind mana is there and push it to my shoulders. I launch a Wind Burst from them. It’s enough to make me slide away. The launched Holy Blade cut a deep gouge into the building, right where I was; it just barely missed my face.

There wasn’t a lot of speed in my last Wind Burst. But I was close enough to the edge of the ring that I slide clean off and collapse in a heap on the dirt floor.

My hands grab into the soil and grass I find myself laying on. It’s a moment before I realize that I'm shaking, taking shuddering lungfuls of air. In a daze I try to take inventory. Both my health and my mana are practically at zero. I look up, still confused and in shock, and realize that I landed in front of the stands.

Everyone is silent.

Everyone is looking at me.

… As soon as Zhaz started fighting for real, I couldn't get a single hit on him. He was basically toying with me. And this is the end result. Left thrown out of the ring, trembling and afraid.

“Come on, D0n; I'm sure you must have more up your sleeve than just running away.”

The sound of Zhaz’s voice draws my attention. He’s standing in the middle of the ring, without a scratch on him. His armor has cooled back down to a normal steel blue. He’s still smiling at me. Except this time it's a smile that makes my stomach twist.

“I know for a fact that the cook gave you plenty of potions. So go on. Eat up. And then get back up here. After all, It’d be such a waste for our game to be settled by one ring out. You don’t want to let it end like this, do you?”

… He’s a monster. All of this was set up just to throw me in a ring with a monster. This is insane.

But his smile is still there. Still disappointed. And for some reason, that really ticks me off.

A game… that’s right, this is just a game. So for better or worse, that also means there’s no reason to stop playing.

I reach into my potion pouch and pull out three pills of each type. I shove all of them into my mouth, ignoring the taste. As soon as I swallow, my mana starts to rise back up, and so does my health. Thankfully there’s no hint of purple in the green health bar yet.

I must be crazy, because I waste no time stepping back into the ring. Zhaz is right. I refuse to let it end like this. Not until I've tried everything.