Our three-person team stood proud at the entrance to the Tall School. The towering opening led into the deep, winding corridors of an ancient construction. Inside resided a beast of incredible endurance and strength. Today was the day that its legend came to an end. I was here to kill it off once and for all.

It had bested me the first time, but now we were as ready as we’d ever be. Cali had amassed her entire stock of catalyst powder for a quick first strike. I had configured Stigma to deliver the maximum amount of damage. Tahar would be our eyes and ears, using her advanced tracking skills to locate the monster so we could get the drop on it.

It was a rare occasion. I was scared.

But I wasn’t going to let that get in the way of my mission. The injury I had suffered was healed thanks to a lot of healing potions. I had new techniques and affixes, and a plan to kill the thing before it could heal. As for the backup – there wasn’t one. If we didn’t kill it this time it was unlikely that we’d be able to escape.

Tahar led the way. Without a word shared between us we departed into the tunnels once more. Each moment ratcheted up the tension, even though I knew that we were nowhere near the hiding place of the beast in question. The plan had been drilled into each of their heads again and again. Now it was all down to us executing it.

Tahar used her [track] technique to follow the path of the beast. The disturbed sand and dirt was evidence that it moved around these tunnels constantly. Searching for prey? A stray animal or a human like me, lost in the darkness. Tahar’s shoulders raised, and I knew that we were close. We slowed down so as to not make any more noise and alert it to our presence.

We creeped to the edge of a doorway and lined up behind it. Tahar peeked around the corner, giving us a hand signal that told us that it was here and in sight. It wasn’t moving at the moment but we didn’t have the good fortune to catch it napping like I had hoped. This area of the network was so deep underground that no natural light could reach, we had been walking non-stop for twenty minutes, with Cali writing down our steps on a piece of parchment as we went.

It was every bit as ugly as I remembered it being.

It was facing away, which meant we could close in without being seen and start our attack. We drew our weapons and steeled our nerves. Cali stood at the front and aimed her shot.

I pushed on her back, “Alright. Go!”

“[Bolt!]” She pulled the trigger. Cali was blown back by the force of the magic attack. A thunderous bolt of energy escaped from the barrel of her catalyst halberd and struck the beast in the very same instant. The results were immediately evident. A huge burn mark on it’s pale hide. The smooth undulating movements of its large muscles ceased. The beast froze up as the electrical signals being sent from the brain were drawn into a crossfire with Cali’s magic. It couldn’t move properly. It hobbled to one side and crashed against the wall with an agonized roar.

Cali had done her bit, now it was my turn. “Stigma. Do it.”

My entire body seized up as an extreme amount of pain shot through my nervous system. Stigma was playing hell on my body from the inside, pushing me to my limits and bringing my HP down to the specific level that we needed it to be to activate my berserker affix. It didn’t matter – one or two hits from this thing would turn me into paste anyway.

When my vision finally cleared, I could feel the fatigue running through my body. This fight needed to end quickly or my strategy would not work. The flailing monster attempted to keep me away with a flurry of wild swings from its arms, legs and tail, but I backed away and came face to face with it.

I waited and waited and waited – even as my mind screamed at me to take the first strike right then and there. I waited until the perfect moment presented itself, just as the monster let its guard down and ceased moving so violently.

“[Ryon Nagamu!]”

I felt the energy running through my hands and into Stigma, the cutting-edge technique that could break even the strongest opponents into two. Tahar explained that it increased my armour penetration value significantly, meaning that a critical strike to somewhere like the head was even deadlier than usual. The perfect attack to use on a beast that could regenerate almost immediately.

I charged and leapt, using the minimum of my strength to deliver a short, sharp slice to its brow. A gush of blood escaped the open wound, as the beast roared in pain, I brought Stigma down again upon its skull. I could feel the sharp edge moving through the tender flesh like water until it hit the bone, and then it kept going.

I nearly lost my grip on the sword as my legs fell from under me. I brought it all the way through, slicing the monster’s skull and face in twain with one blow, the blood covered sword hitting the dirt beneath. Surely this would be the end?

“Guh!”

In that moment of cocksure hesitance – I had failed to realize that the monster wasn’t dead just yet. Even as half of its face hung freely and bled profusely onto me, its arms and legs were still moving with fresh malice. I grunted as a powerful blow hit my armour and sent me flying backwards like a ragdoll.

Tahar and Cali were already moving out of the way. They couldn’t do anything about this now. They needed to get the hell out of dodge while they had the chance so we could try again later. As they disappeared around the corner, the monster circled me and blocked my exit. The wound was so severe that it could not regenerate the tissue and glue it back together again. Yet still it stood and gasped for air with blood filled lungs.

It could bleed, at least. I picked myself back up and turned to flee myself. I couldn’t get in close without Cali’s help, and that last spell would have knocked the wind out of her. She needed time to recover and I needed to lead it away so it couldn’t attack them. “Come on you ugly bastard, your food’s getting away!”

I ran as fast as my legs could carry me with no consideration for the direction I was going. The nearest tunnel on my left seemed as good a place as any. Our plan had failed completely, “Defensive, defensive!” I repeated – feeling the gears inside Stigma turning to another set of runes that I had prepared. Nowhere near as effective as my offensive repertoire.

I could hear it following me. The corridors were long and seemingly endless, the only light reaching this deep coming from the lantern tied to my waist. The thing could see perfectly clear in this pervading darkness, this was its home turf and it had every advantage over me. I dared not look back to see how close the slobbering monster had gotten to consuming me.

But then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something move.

As I passed by the wall on the left, various stone panels lit up with a foreign script, and moved aside to reveal small channels inside. Taking my chance, I skidded to a halt and dived into one of them, finding that it was more than big enough to contain my entire body and small enough to prevent the creature from following me.

It charged past with a head of steam and I retreated frantically inside to try and hide my location. The thumping of its feet slowly dampened as it ran into the distance. I felt ill. I could feel the acid rising in my throat after pushing my body to its limits. I coughed and spat to try and liberate my throat and mouth of the taste.

At least Tahar and Cali were safe, for now.

I didn’t know why these tunnels had opened up to me. I hadn’t seen anything of the sort during our first visit. I noticed that I was being bathed by two different coloured lights. I reached back and retrieved my lantern, burning that welcoming yellow like I expected, but there was another cyan light coming from my back. As I reached back and retrieved the culprit, a few of the pieces fell into place.

It was one of the swords! The one I had kept on my person when I left the camp… I didn’t expect it to save my ass like this. Another set of characters had appeared down the back side of the blade. They glowed with magical energy. Perhaps these served as more than simple weapons. By bringing this weapon into a place that they had built, I had uncovered a long-lost secret.

These tunnels were my ticket to taking out the monster. With that said, it was not a comfortable place to be. They were only just wide enough to contain me and Stigma; I could forget about turning around - and a terrible cold draft ran through from somewhere, chilling me to the bone. This was every claustrophobe’s nightmare. The darkness was suffocating.

“Fuck me.”

I sighed and shuffled deeper into the small hideaway. I wasn’t about to go back out there when the Terror was running amok. My best option was to venture onwards and try to find my way back out again, or to find a secret superweapon hidden down here by the people who built it. Wouldn’t that be nice for a change…

I shuffled through the cramped arteries of the School for five minutes before seeing another exit open up on my left. This was no corridor. The room was much shorter and squat in comparison to the rest. A stone table rested in the middle of the room, much too high for me to use. There must have been a matching set of chairs once.

A dining space. There were lantern mounts on the walls but nothing much else. It was curious, because there was no doorway into the room. How did the original owners enter and exit? The tunnel that I had used was clearly too small when I considered the size of their graves and weapons.

The weapon, I realized, it had opened a doorway. I held it up in front of me and walked the perimeter of the room. My suspicions were soon confirmed as a great slab of white marble rose into the ceiling in front of me, pulled by an unseen mechanism. A new flare of anxiety welled up in my chest as I walked underneath it – fearful that it could fall and… crush me. What else could it give me access to? Benadora would be delighted to learn of this particular discovery.

Stigma spoke, scaring the crap out of me after a moment of silence. “A cornered animal is the most dangerous. You have blinded it and scarred it, but repeating your feat will be no simple task.”

I did leave its eyes looking in two different directions. What kind of monster was this to survive an attack like that?

“I have an idea or two, as rare as those are,” I said.

“Ah, then you must grasp them with haste!”

“First I need to find the damn thing again. I have no idea where we are.”

“Just follow the noise.”

Easier said than done when everything echoes. The rumbling of the soil above was a constant background noise – occasionally interspersed with a loud boom. That must be the sound of the monster hitting one of the walls. I placed the sword back into my pack and marched onwards. I needed to find Cali and Tahar.