~LoneJones POV~

I fell backwards as Derjar arrived. He came out of his roll in perfect stance and absorbed the impact of the panthers body with his knees and perfect force distribution. I stared at my brother who stood in the fading light, sweat glistened off his scales, his muscles were straining, and sweat poured off his naked body. I can't say how often this has happened, i've been in the same situation countless times. I looked over JST's shoulder and caught the crimson eye of the panther. Without the sandstone disc JST was holding id've been dead right now. My older brother couldn't save me alone this time around but I have two brothers after all.

Though Cobaj's throw was off but it was excusable since he specialized in magical precision and not the physical kind. In reality this kind of feat was split second, extremely fast, 40 meters from target, and only 1 meter off. It only took 2 seconds too. Still I could've had it aimed and ready by the time the first rotation ended, but i'll cut him some slack the guy was my brother after all. I felt the sand move underneath as Cobb moved behind JST to offer support, his eyes never left the panther. As he was moving me I saw him relax himself, something uncharacteristic in his normal boxing stance. With a lightning quick one, two the panther died.

All this time I was still being gently moved by the sand. I layed back on the undulating sand as I reversed direction and headed back to my brothers. With a start I suddenly realized how the sand had been hugging my body, I was being massaged? It actually helped my muscles but still.

He was massaging me while controlling the pillars that took out the panther? Now you're just showing off Cobaj.

I checked the recent gains.

Class: - Name: LoneJones

Title: The Fast One

HP: 27/173 Lvl: 22

Effects:

Race Sperid: +30 AGI, +10 PER

The Fast One: +50 AGI

MP: 51/51

SP: 2/209 STR: 10 CHR: 10 END: 40 AGI: 130 INT: 10 PER:70 WIS: 10 LUK: 10 Stat Points: 0

Sensitive Hairs (Race Skill) (Passive) - Advanced 1 (6%)

Hyperfocus - Advanced 1 (4%)

Unarmed Combat - Advanced 1 (1%)

Evasion - Advanced 3 (2%)

I noticed my new title and quickly scanned through my prompts.

New Title: The Fast One

Unbeknownst to you the Shade Panthur dubbed Jennifur had named you and your companions. You were recognized as the first of his prey to present a challenge and force him to try. He in return dubbed you The Fast one.

Permanent Effects:

+50 AGI

Fifty agility? Isn't that equal to 10 levels? 10 levels is months in this game!

According to my friend, a talkative beta tester, it took him months to reach level 10. Apparently stats could be granted through titles which was a new relevation. I'm not sure when this title came to effect but im glad for it anyhow. With that in mind I quickly used up my 20 remaining stat points. I used the other 85 earlier.

I dumped points into perception, agility and endurance again. It was slight at first but as I added more points into perception I began to develop a kind of kinisthesis of bodies around me. If I stopped and took my time I could just faintly feel the location of things. Though it was a very vague like feeling and very innacurate. In addition all my other senses became more intense and vivid and I had to close my eyes. Immediately I used a quick method to center myself and opened my eyes. The world was sharper, louder, the sand was more rough and less fine, in short Twoen became more.

Agility sped me up past what im normally capable of in real life, my reactions got quicker but improving past my natural reaction speed was proving to be difficult since it was already up there, my speed increased as well. Endurance was a given since I wanted to be able to last and increasing it let me gain more stamina faster. I ignored strength for now since i'm looking for a more unconventional means to deal damage and health wasn't really needed since I didn't plan on getting hit anyways. I looked for Unarmed Mastery to see the new effect that I surmised came from each tier, I had recently reached advanced and my gains slowed immensely. I can only assume that Advanced was a completely new level, my leveling in each of my advanced skills almost completely stopped.

Unarmed Combat - Advanced 1 (1%)

Fighting with nothing on you but your own body is an art. The body is a weapon and with you can kill.

Effects:

+63% increase in damage when no weapons equipped

+22% speed when attacking barehanded

+.5% to chance of severe crippling effects

With this skill any strength I might need becomes less important. I'm hoping that my natural muscles will allow me to handle anything small that might be able to catch up with me while my speed would allow me to escape anything stronger. If I wasn't strong enough to take something down then statistically every 200 hits would let me cripple it at the very least. Generally though I planned to evade.

Evasion - Advanced 3 (3%)

If fighting is a dance then you and your opponent are dancers. But every now and then your partner is fucking ugly. You are smart enough to avoid who you do not want to dance with.

Effects:

+69% of air resistance ignored

+39% less stamina consumed

+6% more likely to slip into opponent blindspots

I smiled and chuckled lightly. Honestly, thinking of my adventures over the years and replacing every enemy I knew with an ugly dancer cracked me up. I actually rolled on the floor laughing. This surprised the sand around me as it tried to grip me again. I wiped tears out of my eyes as Cobb glared backwards to me, he was speaking with JST.

I actually loved the description for this skill. I'm not sure who's in charge but this is actually hilarious. Apparently this is the skill that allowed me to survive as long as I did at that intense speed. Without some points into my perception stat I don't think I wouldve been able to keep track of my own body. The speed I was achieving just barely matched the Shade Panther, I remember feeling the power and speed of every swipe I nearly dodged. My hair was perpetually forced down and the hairs on my body were pushed down from the air displacement. I felt that I was cutting through the air but I thought that was an effect of the speed I was achieving, though thinking on it, it made more sense that I was utilizing the effect of a skill. I'm not really sure if I ever slipped into Jennifurs blind spot but maybe hiding behind JST counts? That'd be funny if that 6% actually contributed since technically he can't see me when im behind my brother.

Next I checked my racial skill since it was ultimately my saving grace.

Sensitive Hairs (Race Skill) - Advanced 1 (6%)

The sensitive hairs found on the Sperid allow a heightened perception of ones surroundings. Reacting to changes in air pressure they are able to detect even slight movements. Because of this the Sperid are thought to have a 6th sense.

Effects:

+Sense changed in air pressure

+Develop a sense of moving objects around you

+Sense of specific shapes based on movement sharpens.

Interesting. This is the first skill that didn't give me any numbers. Although I guess that makes sense in this case since I don't have a base perception on air displacement. If I did then the system could probably just use that as a baseline and give me increasing perecentages. However I guess perception doesn't affect my sense of bodily movements, instead my race skill did. I quickly looked up perception and found it only sharpened my senses but I still found it to be one of my favorites stats.

Round 2/5 of the Geckan Battle Arena

Qrabiles are fast descendants of the Qrab. They are weak and extremely hard to kill, but what they lack in strength they make up for in sheer numbers. Lacking intellect Qrabiles opt for a predictable yet effective bull rush.

As I arrived my older brothers looked at me. One was a perfect emerald green, virtually unharmed, his eye's were sparkling more than they already seemed to. The older of the two looked worse. His sword arm had claw marks running up of it. Scratches on his scales signified the attacks his natural armor had turned, while red lines that were absent of tan scales adorned his left side. Blood ran down his left side, highlighting the pattern of his scales. In contrast his right side only suffered superficial scratches and seemed an unbroken tan.

"How'd you like the massage?" Cobb asked with a smug smile. Raising me up using his sand.

So he WAS showing off....

"You trying to impress your dear little brother? When you didn't even know who I was an hour ago?" I quipped. A frown dominated his face.

Gotcha.

"Focus on the next round bros. What the fuck is a Qrabile?" JST cut into our conversation, breathless. He was still panting hard as his stamina fought to regenerate.

"Weeeeelllll" I said raising a finger. "they are fast descendants of the Qrab and are weak and extremely hard to kill BUT what they lack in strength they make up for in sheer numbers." I recited matter of factly, pushing up my imaginary glasses. "Lacking intellect they often opt for the predictable yet effective bull rush." I snorted.

"I can fucking read bro." He said, peeved. A loud skittering could be heard from one of the portcullis tunnels.

"They're also really loud." I finished.

"Why do you both do this same shit?" Cobb said rubbing his forehead. "JONES WATCH OUT" He yelled suddenly, pointing behind me. His eyes were large and body tensed, and I sensed his sand moving.

Though I felt nothing there I trusted in my brother on instinct. I spun on my heels lightning quick and lowered my center of gravity wide-eyed and ready for whatever could scare my brother like that.

A sand hand slapped me.

"Stop being a fucking idiot." He said as his sand hand pointed at me sternly.

~Cobb POV~

Honestly, sometimes my brothers can be complete fucking idiots. The prime idiot was rubbing his face right over there. JST had the right idea, focus on the next round. I took a deep breath and sensed the earth outwards and as I exhaled I brought my earth sense inwards. I always found ways to sharpen my mind and focus using magic. I've come up with a variety of magical calming exercises and one of the ones that is the most easy is using magic in conjunction with a simple breathing exercise. Using magic to express emotion was also a good one. Magical cartharsis was surprisingly relaxing, of course you wanna do that kind of thing when there's nothing around that could get destroyed or die.

I zoned in on the portcullis that was making the rumbling noise and focused on it. It seemed more echoey? Which led me to believe the entities were still a ways from arriving. Suprisingly the portcullis didn't raise. Hmmmm. It probably meant that the monster was small. There was no need to open the portcullis if they could just walk through. Well the smallest opening in the bottom is half a meter high. So the tallest these things can be is half a meter, unless of course they bend down under the bars or are extremely flexible. But then again, earlier the prompt said they were really hard to kill. That probably means they have some type of shell or defensive adaptation, therefore it's likely that they aren't flexible and simply fit through the hole in the bars. With that in mind I devised a sort of sand fort.

I raised sandstone walls around us in a U shape with the curved pointed towards the portcullis in order to absorb the initial impact that I expected from a bull rush. I closed off our back end and began to run sand over the sandstone to fill in the cracks and hardened that into sandstone.

"What are you up to?" The brother with a red hand mark on his face asked.

Normally my brothers just trust me to plan for us, only giving them the details when necessary so as not to waste time. Despite that, he questioned me. I thought over the fact for a moment before attributing his lack of trust to the mark on his face.

"If they have superior numbers we need a way to funnel them, none of us can handle a mob yet." I explained.

He nodded, as he lowered himself. I formed him a perfect replica of his favorite chair from the house as he sat. His butt landed in the chair, it was a subtle apology on my part for slapping him earlier. He still deserved it though.

"Take a seat, you're beat up, bleeding and exhausted. Me and JST can handle this round im pretty sure." I reasoned.

"Alright then, I think I will." He smiled recognizing the apology.

That's fucking annoying. Whatever.

I continued on the contruction of my sand fort. The whole thing was really small compared to the size of the whole arena. It was 10 meters wide and 10 long. I reinforced the walls some more and closed off the ceiling. I thought about what next to do and on further contemplation I reopened the ceiling and decided to move Jones and the sand chair to the roof. He looked over his shoulder at me as he glided past. I positioned his chair on the side of the wall before lifting him up akin to an elevator. I opened up the ceiling a bit more and moved Jones' chair to rest on the edge of the U's curve.

"Hey actually keep a lookout! I'm not sure how many of them there are and they might be able to pile up to there!" I shouted up to him. I made the structure about 10 meters high as well

"Alright I'll tell you if something happens!" He called back down.

I formed a one handed war hammer that was about the length of JST's arm out of sandstone. It had a 3 foot handle that ended in a cube that was longer than it was wide. I also used some sand to make a big tower shield for him. It was just a giant rectangle that's sides curved around you.

Sandstone One-Handed Warhammer

A temporary construct made of sandstone. The weapon is plain and hard, not much else is needed when it comes to hammers.

Effects:

Damage: 42-77

Time Remaining: 1:00:00

Sandstone Tower Shield

A temporary construct made of sandstone. The shield is big and hard. When it comes stopping hordes of enemies nothing competes with a good Tower Shield.

Effects:

Defense: 13

Time Remaining: 59:57

Woah that's new. Defense? I wonder if that just represents how well the shield blocks or is that a stat that gets added to character and buffs them up? I had no time to think as I heard Jones call down.

"They're here! They look like dogs but with no features, it looks like they have some type of plates on their bodies!" He yelled down.

How could he see them? They're still at least a hundered and twenty meters out!

I shook it off and handed JST both the shield and hammer. He took them questioningly, releasing his left hand's grip on the sandstone gladius, he dropped it behind him as he walked up to me.

"A sword won't work here. If they have armor it's better to go for blunt damage since a blade won't be piercing that armor of theirs." I clarified.

He took the weapon in his right hand and the shield in his left.

Oh yeah that's right. He switches his shield and weapon hands to keep his technique sharp.

I reflected on the amount of skill it requires to handle different weapons and shields. Normally you're gonna use one hand for weapons while the other was used for shielding or another weapon. I attempted to incorporate weapon skills with magic but it didn't work out. Of course I was better than almost everyone when I did learn but never better than him, I studied my brother. When it came to pure skill in weaponry I could never surpass him, only using magic or devising outlandish strategems and cunning plans could I beat him soundly. But often there is no time to think in a battle that lasts a few seconds.

Leave it to Derjar to practice both weapons and shields in both hands. It doesn't even end there since the guy has mastered like every single weapon and defensive equipment! AND to top it off he can switch hands and still be just as deadly!

"Alright bro where do you want me?" He asked quickly hefting the tower shield on his left arm. He swung the hammer a in slow, but powerful windmill motion.

"Stand at the curve of the U." I pointed to the front of the structure. "I'll open it once their initial momentum dies out." I told him.

JST took a classic stance that gave him a strong base as he planted the tower shield and gripped his hammer. I looked up to Jones glancing at the back of his head. The kid was just as crazy as my older brother, his reflexes were sharper than all of ours and what he lacked in skill when he faced Derjar he shored up with pure instinct. Whenever they fought with weapons it was a spectacle even after watching it hundreds of times. Derjar would cut the air, feign a left diagonal slash, pierce forward and a whole number of moves I could never completely keep up with. His sword followed perfect techniques and Nojas would dart in randomly, when it seemed he would be led into a trap he would twist away on pure reaction speed or intuition. Their spars could last an hour long if they don't get bored but eventually Derjar wins out because of his superior stamina. Keep in mind that Nojas is a good amount of years younger than Derjar and the fact that he could keep up was astonishing even to us.

My brothers and I are always in competition yet they always beat me in the physical aspect of things, not by much but still. I however excelled at magic, they couldn't grasp the essence of magic not by lack of effort or anything. When it comes to magic, creativity, efficiency and a quick mind are your most useful resources. I have all of these in spades. My brothers were not dumb instead they just lacked the creative capacity and perspective to see unfolding situations in a different light. Magic was used as paint to alter the canvas that was a battle. The right color and a light hand can change the whole meaning of the piece.

But the scariest part of my brothers was something i've realized a long time ago. Their skills were transferrable to the real world. Derjar would be just as skilled with weapons as JST. Nojas would have close to the same speed and reflexes of LoneJones. But me? You can't bring magic outside.

There was no magic in the real world.