Your expendables give you an edge against the many monsters and people you will fight. Use them wisely, and even a difficult fight my sway in your favor. Even the weakest player can more than double their health when using zeal and willpower combined, and you can control the enemy using social graces. Fight with wisdom, and you might just live. – DIO pamphlet recruiting pamphlet

The man who held a blade to Jonar’s throat was dressed in all black, like a thief or an assassin, and had a mask that had a slit where the eyes were and fully covered the hair, like a bandana which was tied in the back. He was tall, maybe 193 cm. He was lithe and slender. He was made for agility- I could tell that right away.

Time seemed to slow down, and I seemed to move faster. It was the Against All Odds tactic. It boosted my speed considerably. I willed it to boost Jonar’s stats as well and he reacted right away. It was the motivation boost that caused him to act, I could tell.

Jonar raised his hands, his left arm high up and his right arm up towards the knife. It looked like he was capitulating, and the attacker didn’t react. But with lightening speed, he raised his left shoulder, forcing the knife to move a little bit away from the throat and used his right to grab the hand holding the knife, forcing the hand away even more. He then bit down on the assassin’s wrist in a strong bite that instantly drew some blood. The attacker cursed and let the knife drop. It was successful because it happened so quickly, there was no time to react.

I drew my sword and shield in that moment and did it in such a quick move that my mind almost didn’t catch up. I had to get used to that speed. As scared as I was, I felt (perhaps stupidly) that we could win this now that Jonar was free. Jonar moved away from the attacker while drawing his skinning knife out. It was a wicked little knife, but short and small. He needed a better weapon than that. I supposed he could fight unarmed- he seemed to have that fighting style down pat considering how quickly he got out from a seemingly impossible situation.

I eyed his weapon which was at his side still. It looked like a khopesh, of all things. It was a wicked looking sword with a curve. Instantly I knew that the curve in the sword was good at taking out shields by using the inside curve to pull the shield away from the arm. That was not innate knowledge, as I never was one for military weapon history. I tended to study the cultures and not the wars. Perhaps it was my skill in swords that told me this.

Before he could draw it, I went on the offensive. I darted forward and tried to attack him by slicing at his side. He moved away, and I discovered that as fast as I could move, he could match it. As he jumped away, he moved towards Jonar, who used this move to get a close swipe at the back of the attacker. He was successful, though it looked like it was only a nick and not a serious wound. At least the man could bleed.

The man grunted and twirled around to look at Jonar, assuming I was the weaker of the two. He was right. I only had a skill of two in swords- that was average skill. 0 was unknown, 1 was a novice, 2 was a regular practitioner, 3 was better than average, 4 was a skilled swordsman, and 5 was a master swordsman.

He used the move to withdraw his khopesh and was now fully armed as he moved towards Jonar. Jonar didn’t seem fazed as he just backed up, nearly tripping over a corpse of a female. I moved forward and tried to attack the man from behind. The assassin merely moved around in a circle, using his leg as a sweep kick that knocked me off balance. Instead of being graceful and avoiding the attack I fell on my ass. It would take me a second to stand back up and get the sword back in my hand, ready to attack again.

The man reached out with the khopesh and wounded Jonar with the outward curve of the sharp sword. It was a light wound, but it was on his dominant arm. Jonar let out a cry of pain but did not seem to waver. He was either brave, pissed off, or very stupid. Or maybe all three. He counter attacked with a kick of his own, right into the groin of the man. Th assassin grunted in surprise pain and I almost winced in commiseration as I stood up and got back into a fighting stance.

As the man bowed in pain, I leapt towards him, using a downward thrust with my sword. It hit him as he was still distracted.

You hit an assassin. You did .2 damage to him!

Finally, I had damaged him! Jonar followed up with a round house kick to the face. This seemed to hit the man hard, and he wheeled backwards. Instead of falling, the man straightened up and seemed to shake of the pain. He then went into attack mode.

Up until now, we had been acting on the offense, now we saw what the man could really do. He flashed his khopesh around in an intimidating move, but it was more flash than danger. He then focused back on Jonar. He moved forward, and Jonar flung his knife at the man, who swatted it away with the sword.

This whole time, Jonar had been backing himself into a corner, which was seemingly not a good move. I looked at the corner and realized that a few weapons were there- a bow and quiver and a longsword. Maybe he was going there to grab the longsword. I had to distract the man for a few seconds so I could give Jonar room.

“This is all you got? I barely know how to swing a sword and I have already injured you!” I said this mockingly towards the man, while at the same time spending a social graces point.

The assassin is angry at you and will focus on attacking you solely for 5 seconds.

He stepped forward and did a circular motion with his khopesh. It struck behind my shields and forced the shield off my arm. The attack didn’t do any damage, it just disarmed my shield and made me embarrassed. I was way out of my league. The thing is, unless this man was a player, he did not have access to powers or using his expendables. Yes, he could unconsciously use them, but it was inefficient and he did not necessarily know how to gain them back. Most NPCs were low on expendables and used them frivolously.

I had to have some hope. And Jonar looked like he knew how to fight as well- though he was more at my level than the assassin’s. I knew I had to use these next 4 seconds wisely, so I spent a willpower to improve my Brawn attributes. I felt quicker, healthier, and stronger. I moved forward and used the new pound strength to lash out in a side swipe of my sword. I hit him, and I used the momentum I had built in the attack to swoop down and get my shield back.

You hit an assassin. You did .3 damage to him!

I looked and saw Jonar was armed. I still had my extra brawns for one more attack, but as I focused again on the assassin, he had drawn a dagger in his left hand, while keeping the khopesh in his right. He flung the dagger at me.

You have been hit by a poison dagger! You received 1 damage (soaked by the health gained by the extra Brawn from spending 1 willpower). Take .5 damage every 30 seconds for the next 5 minutes if you do not pass a stamina check each time.

I knew we were in trouble then. I couldn’t live with the 10 damage yhe poison would inflict. Yes, I could use zeal to heal, but I only had 5 zeal. That did not include the other damage that was sure to come my way.

“Jonar- run! Meet up at the place we met! I can take this guy, I have a few tricks up my sleeve!” It was a lie, but I couldn’t tell him that I would come back after I died while Jonar wouldn’t. Jonar looked at me and at the assassin and decided to run. Whether he believed me, saw that I was going to die from my wounds, or that we were both outclassed I did not know. The assassin started to run after Jonar- it was apparent I was not the target.

“What, are you going to run from this fight, coward? Think you can’t handle me?” I was trying to provoke him, and social graces would help.

The assassin is angry at you and will focus on attacking you solely for 10 seconds.

I noticed the seconds had doubled since last time I used social graces. Maybe using expendables multiple times in a battle increased their potency? The man started swinging his khopesh in my direction and I tried to block and dodge as much as I could. I knew I could not beat the guy, so I wanted to distract him as long as I could.

I had taken a full hit pint after a couple of swings from the Khopesh. I only had 5 seconds left. I spent my willpower.

You have gained +1 to Brawn attributes for 6 seconds.

It did seem like the more I used my expendables, the more bang I got for the buck. I then spent a zeal to heal the damage I took. I was going to make this fight last as long as humanly possible.

My wounds knitted and healed with the expenditure of zeal. I was back at full health. I decided to avoid using zeal until I was down to 3 health- maybe zeal got better to as I spent it too.

The assassin seemed surprised as my wounds disappeared, but that only made him want to attack me more. The 10 seconds had passed and he was still focused on me. A couple of dodges and hits from the assassin later and I took a .5 damage from the poison and another full point damage from the assassin.

For the next minute, I spent my zeal, willpower and social graces to keep him busy, help me heal and avoid damage. The willpower was useful as it let me soak the damage I got while it was active. Sadly, Zeal did not increase its healing capabilities. This made zeal less important in my book, but it was still useful.

Finally, after using all my zeal and most of my willpower (I remembered the warning that using all willpower would cause you to fade into unconsciousness), I knew my luck had run out. I kept him off of Jonar for a good 2 or 3 minutes, and I hoped that was enough. The pain was getting unbearable, and I whimpered as I moved, slowing down from the pain.

I knew I was a dead man walking.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Jonar and his associates are infidels. They are evil in the eyes of God. They have been spreading lies about the faith and for that they must be killed. The queen demands it. I don’t mind telling you this as I will kill you soon. But tell me, how is it that you are healing these wounds so quickly?”

I shrugged. The fighting had stopped. I was on my knees, awaiting the coup de grace. “I guess I am just lucky that way.”

“I shall take your corpse to be studied, but I will grant you a quick death. You fought well, even though you clearly were out of your depth.”

And with that, he brought the khopesh down, cutting my head off.

I was aware of life for a few more seconds as my head was cut off.

You have been killed! You soul is being transported to the deadlands.

The pain was fading away fast, and I found myself embracing death. My vision faded, as I was looking up at the man who killed me. He was wiping his blade dry of the blood. It was the last thing I saw before I died.