Marco did his best to stick to the plan that was already falling to pieces while the kobold rushed him. Ignoring the raging torrent of, ‘Fuck! Shit! FUCK!’ that was looping through his buzzing mind Marco took several steps back before preparing his staff to strike the creature when it pounced on him.

Then, to Marco’s relief, the skeleton actually did launch itself towards him. ‘Yes!’ Marco thought as he brought his staff down to knock his opponent out of the air. A crack resounded as Marco watched the undead fall to the ground. While it tried to recover Marco used his opportunity to backup a few more steps and re assume his striking position.

-3 HP

‘This is easy!’ Marco cheered himself when he saw the skeleton began to rush him again. However when the skeleton neared him and Marco brought the staff down towards the skull of the kobold Marco’s control of the situation faltered. The kobold took a step to the right and, unprepared, Marco’s staff swung through empty air until it hit the ground.

The impact travelled through Marco’s grip, causing the staff slip out his hands to be replaced by a painful prickling sensation that lingered up to Marco’s shoulders. Without time to consider what had just happened Marco realized that there was a skeleton coming at him.

-3 HP

Marco instinctively jumped back from the danger, narrowly avoiding being impaled by the skeleton; instead one of the kobold’s clawed fingers pierced through the side of his left thigh, causing sharp pain to fill Marco’s mind as he placed his weight on it. ‘That was close.’ Marco thought as he became overly aware of the sweat falling off his forehead.

Breathing heavily Marco quickly made a decision upon seeing the skeleton began to run at him again. “Shadow Shuriken!” Marco yelled as the magic pooled into his hand. When the kobold made to launch itself in the air Marco placed his hand in front of him, using his other arm to steady it. Watching the kobold fly through the air Marco’s mind spun, ‘Wait, wait, wait, now!’

At the apex of its jump the creature found itself hit with a blast of shadow magic in its face, interrupting its momentum and momentarily blinding it.

-2 HP

Ignoring the magic it extended its clawed fingers and toes in preparation to dig into its lively prey. But as the kobold’s eyes recovered from the shadows it realized, too late, that its prey had disappeared. Without a host to latch onto, and without time to adjust its position in the air, the kobold hit the ground with a loud snapping noise.

-2 HP

Marco wiped the sweat from his face with his left hand, holding tightly onto the staff in his right. His gamble had worked, and now he was armed again- albeit low on mana. As the kobold struggled to its feet Marco did something that he would’ve never considered minutes ago- he pushed himself to run at the kobold as fast as he could.

The kobold recovered by shaking its head a few times, a strange gesture on a skeleton, before examining the exit of the gateway. Its primitive mind worked overtime as it tried to figure out where its prey had gone to. Had it run away? Before the kobold could think to turn around Marco was already on it.

This time Marco didn’t swing for the skull, instead the staff came down on the kobold’s left shoulder; and with a sickening snap the skeleton’s entire left arm then fell to the ground, broken from the kobold’s frame.

-5 HP

Marco smiled while swinging again before the kobold could realize what was going on. However the kobold didn’t need to figure out what had happened to know that there was danger behind it, so as Marco attempted to disarm the skeleton again, literally, it turned to face him.

Having changed positions Marco’s strike landed not on the kobold’s other shoulder but on its defensively raised arm without dealing as much damage.

-2 HP

Marco silently cursed before trying to once again distance himself from the skeleton which, without pausing from the blow, began to close the short distance between itself and Marco. Rushing, Marco backed up before tripping, sending him to the ground as the kobold reached him.

From experience Marco knew what was about to happen and raised his staff in front of him before the kobold could straddle him. Yet unlike the previous encounter this kobold seemed to have a different idea as, instead of trying to tear Marco apart with its claws, it was aiming to tear his neck out. With its teeth.

Reacting as fast as he could Marco shoved his staff into the kobolds mouth, fighting against its inhuman strength with panic fueled desperation. Feeling the skeleton’s lopsided weight Marco then twisted his staff to the left while simultaneously pushing off the ground with his right leg, causing the skeleton to topple off of him.

Now on top of the kobold Marco released his staff before grabbing the skeleton by its eye sockets and repeatedly pounding it against the ground, all the while fighting against the pain in his abdomen that he knew came from the skeleton’s usable hand tearing into him.

-2 HP -2 HP

After taking two separate damage notifications Marco finally received the message he’d been waiting for as the skeleton went still.

-1 HP

Rising off the unmoving pile of bones Marco smiled, letting out a triumphant laugh as he performed a victory dance… before bracing himself against the frame of the gate as he vomited what little was in his stomach. But to Marco it didn’t matter. He’d almost died again, true, but it was different than last time, it was… exhilarating.

With deep breaths Marco smiled at the notification of his reward:

You have defeated level: 0 [Kobold Skeleton]

Reward:

* Bone Fragment

* 1 copper

Sighing in relief Marco turned and walked back up the stairs stiffly with a wide grin across his face. Once he climbed his way up to the shop he noticed, with amusement, that SteelBreaker was taking a nap in a dwarf-sized chair. His grin spreading Marco hobbled over to the counter with his injured thigh before raising his hand. And then bringing it down.

Slamming the counter he yelled, “One health potion shopkeep!” which only served to further alarm the dwarf who jumped at least two meters off the ground as his special chair toppled to the ground behind him. “By my father’s beard!” SteelBreaker yelled as he hit his head against the short ceiling of the shop.

On the other side of the counter Marco’s expression became caught between shock, disbelief, and heavier amusement as he forced himself to ask, “How fucking high can you jump?!” through his crippling laughter. Rubbing his head SteelBreaker, finally having realized what was happening, shot Marco an irritated look before joining in on the laughter.

After they calmed down Marco asked again, “Seriously, how can you jump that high?” to which SteelBreaker smiled and responded, “High enough to give ye a good blow to the face for scarin’ me like that!” Marco chuckled before apologizing, “Sorry, I’m just hyped up on adrenaline.”

SteelBreaker gave a knowing smile before saying, “Maybe I was right about ye lad- I’m starting to think ye are a bit funny.” As the laughter died down SteelBreaker opened the trade for the health potion which Marco then got down in one gulp.

Marco smiled, having finishing his drink he exclaimed, “Watch this!” after which he thought, ‘Clean robe!’ while sending mana into the robe. Marco then watched in delight as the dirt covered robe seemed to push off all the dirt covering it in a spectacular display of magic.

Yet when Marco looked towards SteelBreaker to see the amazement in his eyes he was instead greeted by barely concealed laughter that then exploded, “Oh yea! Never seen that one before!” SteelBreaker bellowed as he held his belly that looked as if it was about to explode trying to contain his roaring laughter.

Marco’s face flushed as he realized his mistake. Without waiting for SteelBreaker to finish laughing Marco rushed down the stairs, causing SteelBreaker laughter to be interrupted by a serious tone questioning, “Where do ye think yer going?” before Marco could disappear.

Still embarrassed Marco whispered, “I’m going back to the dungeon.” as he dashed down the stairs before SteelBreaker could try and stop him. ‘If I’ve got the whole night,’ Marco thought to himself in an attempt to overcome his embarrassment, ‘I’d better use all of it. From what SteelBreaker said it’s in my best interest to learn as much as I can from this tutorial.’