Noelle tossed her broken whip to the ground and pulled out a pair of short daggers. “I’m going to gut you like a fish.” She exclaimed.

Zach looked visibly disturbed. “You really have some issues. Don’t you?”

Noelle snarled as electricity surrounded her blades.

“Ya… Some serious issues.” Zach flicked the ice off his sword and readied himself.

Hunching down, Noelle charged at Zach like a feral beast. When she was only a few feet from him, she leapt and spun. She was performing a corkscrew with her daggers out at her sides. Zach watched her movements closely, waiting for the right moment. When he spotted it, he took action.

He grabbed his sword in both hands and braced it at a diagonal angle. The clanking of steel on steel rang out as Noelle’s daggers contacted Zach’s blade. His calculation of the angle was slightly off, causing him to lose a bit of his footing. He fell backward with a heavy thud. Pain shot through his body, but the hold on his weapon stayed firm. Luckily for him, the sudden collision with Zach caused Noelle to fall as well.

Zach rolled to his stomach and got to his feet. Noelle tried following suit, but Zach advanced. An overhead swing forced Noelle to go on the defensive. She crossed her daggers in an ‘X’ formation and caught Zach’s sword. A powerful kick from her to his leg dropped him to a knee. He swung his sword as quickly as he could before she could capitalize on the situation with another blow. Zach was determined to keep her on the defensive as long as he could.

Keep your opponent scared. A scared opponent makes mistakes. Find an opening and attack. Droknal’s lessons echoed in his head.

Noelle performed an impressively nimble backward roll that landed her on her feet. Zach just simply stood back up and the two stared each other down again.

“You know. Under different circumstances, I could consider you kinda cute.”

Noelle went bug eyed and the grip on her daggers loosened. Confusion present on her face.

Get your opponent off-guard. If you can’t find an opportunity to attack, create one. Zach swung his sword in a massive uppercut motion, but Noelle was clearly well trained, the confusion being nothing more than an act.

With one dagger she deflected the blow just enough for it to harmlessly breeze past her. Her other dagger made a clean cut on Zach’s forearm. As the blade cut through flesh, a tingle of electricity shot through his arm. It was enough to tense the muscles in his arm and he almost dropped his blade involuntarily.

Warm blood flowed from the wound, but he didn’t have time to pay it any attention because Noelle was pressing her attack. A flurry of strikes quickly followed her initial blow. Zach did his best to deflect and dodge, but a few weeks of training and ranking up couldn’t match Noelle’s years of live combat experience.

Dozens of fresh cuts marked his body as Noelle got into a battle rhythm. The cuts started out shallow, but each one caused him to get slower and slower as the pain intensified. He might have been able to the pain and formulate a plan to counter-attack but the addition of her electrical element was too much for him to handle.

Every cut was sending miniature spasms out from the point of impact. All he could do while being shocked was try to hold on to his weapon. The only thought going through his mind was deflecting or blocking any blow aimed at a vital spot which she was continuously trying for.

Doing his best to not create his own opening, he dared spare a glance at Droknal. He prayed that his traveling companion could be of assistance but with one look, his hopes were shattered. Droknal wasn’t losing his fight, but he certainly wasn’t winning it either. He was holding his ground and slowly gaining the advantage, but he wasn’t going to be able to help anytime soon.

Think! Think! I won’t die like this. An icy chill was stirring inside him. At first he thought it was the dread of his upcoming death, but it wasn’t that. It was his essence. His essence was reacting to the life and death situation. It was preparing itself for use, making itself available to be commanded. A part of Zach, a primitive life or death trigger, had been switched.

Frosty air rolled out of his pores and lowered the ambient temperature around him. The drop in temperature was negligible at first but continued to drop steadily. It went unnoticed by Noelle at first, but she soon found more and more of her attacks being blocked. When she saw her breath coming out of her mouth, it clicked in her head.

Zach finally saw an opportunity to counter-attack and after blocking a strike meant for his shoulder, he flicked his sword downward at her. She jumped backward to avoid the counter-attack and in-between panting, she spoke.

“Neat trick. It won’t do you any good though. Even slowed to half-speed, I’m still faster than you.”

Zach wanted to respond, but he was just happy for the temporary relief from being cut. He embraced the chill washing over him. The sweat that coated his body was freezing over and cracked off of him. The blood also froze, and so did his wounds. Ice covered them and stopped the blood flow.

That’s convenient. It actually feels kinda nice. Noelle was getting impatient, so Zach responded to her. If anything, it would delay her attacks and allow him more time to heal. “Yeah. I get it, your great, and I suck.”

“Tssk” She sucked air in through gritted teeth. “You're in bad shape and it's time to finish the job!” She ran in a wide circle around Zach, looking for the best method of attack.

He raised his blade and readied himself. Ohh great. We’re starting again.

Instead of charging back in to close quarters, Noelle changed her approach. She was grabbing throwing knives, charging them with electrical essence and tossing them at a variety of angles toward Zach as she ran around him.

The massive chill surrounding him did a fantastic job at slowing the projectiles. Zach easily swatted them away. The closer the knives got to him, the more they appeared to be moving through molasses. That was until they started speeding up.

The frozen sweat and blood on Zach was flowing again. His breath was becoming more and more labored and his vision was becoming tunneled. He had overexerted himself and was drained of essence.

“I thought you were slow before but now you're just embarrassing yourself.” Noelle jested as a throwing knife cut Zach on his leg.

The electrical shock caused his leg to lock up, and he fell on his back. He tried getting up to defend himself, but he was too exhausted. It was taking all of his will to just stay conscious. Noelle walked over and lorded over him.

“You did better than I thought, but this outcome was inevitable.” She bent down and raised her daggers up high. “Goodbye Zach.”

Before she could plunge her daggers into flesh, a black fireball sent her flying.

“Drok…” Zach tried to call out to his friend but his vision went black.

Whistling and general muttering stirred Zach awake. He opened his eyes and saw the top of a large green tent. Turning his head revealed a woman laying out a variety of items on top of several crates. He tried to sit up, but the pain was too much for him and he fell backwards moaning in pain. The woman stopped whistling when she noticed he was awake.

“Zach?” Thao called out. “Are you finally awake? DROKNAL! HE’S AWAKE!”

The tent flap was pulled back a moment later, and Droknal walked in. He removed his robe and placed it on one of the crates. His body was riddled with bruises and cuts, his stomach was wrapped in tight bandages and he grabbed his side in pain when he turned to quickly. The previous fight had clearly taken a toll on him.

“I’m glad to see your awake >>click<<. I was beginning to worry.”

Zach tried to respond, but his mouth was too dry to form words. The only thing that left his mouth was a wheezing sound. Droknal walked over and poured a glass of water before helping Zach drink.

“Droknal.” He gulped. “What happened?”

“You don’t remember? We got into a fight with >>click<< Noelle and her thugs. I was able to subdue the thugs but… at great cost >>click<< to my physical wellbeing. I then aided you against Noelle. You used too much of your essence and passed out.”

Thao joined them. “Droknal brought you here, and I patched you both up.”

“Where’s here? And what happened to Noelle?”

“You’re outside the dungeon >>click<<. We patched you up, but you’ll need time to rest and heal. Noelle… She got away >>click<<. My focus was getting you and I to safety. After you passed out, I fled.”

“How… how long was I out for?”

In her normal peppy voice, Thao answered, “A couple of days. I got everything you asked for. I even hired a nice older woman I know to run the booth for you. She’s been keeping track of everyone coming and going into the dungeon and everything they’ve got or lost. I have the reports for you when you're well enough to review them. Theres been a lot of activity, actually.”

Droknal placed a hand on Thao’s shoulder. “Thats enough Thao. Let him rest >>click<<. We will come check on you in a bit. Sleep now.”

Zach shut his eyes again and let his exhaustion take him. When he awoke again, it was dark with only a single bullseye lantern lit and provided minimal light. Attempting to sit up again, he found the pain manageable but his body was stiff.

This was the first time he could review himself. He was covered in more bandages than Droknal. Most of his chest, parts of his legs and his entire arms were wrapped up. He was coated in dry blood and in desperate need of a wash. Looking around, he found Droknal and Thao both sleeping in cots similar to his own.

He left the bed and stood on uneasy legs. Wanting to get rid of some of his stiffness but not wanting to wake his party members, he went for a walk. When he left the tent, it was the first time he saw the shantytown that had formed.

It had expanded into several districts with dozens of families moving in. Most of the people lived near the dungeon entrance, but there was a large market not too far from there. Even though it was night, there were still several people bustling about. Most of them were in a large open canopy that was acting as a tavern.

The all too familiar aroma of drunken patrons and stew filled the air as he approached. Taking a seat at one of the makeshift and hastily placed tables, he called over a server.

“Hello there. Would you like stew and mead or just one or the other?” The young woman asked.

“Do you have anything else? I would love some bread.”

She gave Zach a sarcastic look. “Honey. We’re in the middle of nowhere. Those are your choices. Mead and or beetle stew.”

“I guess I’ll take a helping of both.”

“Ok. That will be one silver.” She extended a hand for payment.

“A silver!? That only cost me a couple copper in the village.”

The woman’s face dropped into a look of defeat. It was as if she was sick of explaining this to everyone who came in. “Supply and demand. We supply stuff that taste better than travel rations and you have the money we demand.”

Zach began patting his cloths down, looking for his coin purse but unable to find it. He looked up with an uneasy smile on his face, but the woman wasn’t having any of it. Before she could kick him out, three silver coins were placed in her open palm. He turned to see Droknal and Thao taking seats beside him.

“Make that three, please.” Thao said with a smile.

The three of them quickly settled into their seats, shared a meal together and had a nice evening getting to know one another as a group. Their plan was to explore the town and possibly delve into the dungeon come morning. It was just the relaxing evening Zach needed to get his mind off of what happened and move past it.

What started as a fight for his life, ended with having dinner with his friends. All in all, it was a good couple of days.