Battle 3 – Light Rabbit

  Battle 4 – Lesser Imp

  Battle 5 – Echo Beetle

  ….

  Battle 9 – Brownling Swarm

  Battle 10 – Lesser Mud Golem

  With nothing but my dagger and my physical attributes, I managed to make my way through the first 10 battles without much issue.

  Not to say it was entirely easy, but I definitely never felt like my life was truly in danger. Though just because I didn’t think I was ever really close to going to the upper room, that didn’t mean there wasn’t wounds.

  My ears are still slightly bleeding from that damn beetle. Echo my ass it was literally just screaming for no good reason. Piece of shit.

  And there was that swarm, a bunch of little midget goblin looking things. They were about a foot tall, brown, and had short stubby limbs. And the damn things were angry! It was like 30 of them and all they did was try to bite and scratch at my feet.

  Little bastards.

  Honestly they gave me more of a problem than the Golem.

  Yeah it was big but also really slow and its core was literally in the center of its chest like in every book you ever read that has Golems in it.

  I could’ve been wrong, but my stereotypical guess was thankfully right.

  Now I’m faced with a bit of a choice. The same one I’ve had after every battle thus far. The million dollar question, do I stop while I’m ahead or do I continue my push for one more.

  It’s already been established that going as far as I could in each run was important since I wouldn’t earn rewards for battles completed. But that doesn’t mean dying for one extra battle when I’ve already secured some success.

  Which brings me to the questions and statements I’ve been asking and saying since the last couple of battles.

  I am tired, but I am not exhausted. I am wounded but I am not dying. I can still fight close to my peak.

  Could I fight my previous opponent again right now if needed? Yes. Could I fight whatever it was if it was little stronger? Probably.

  Did I almost die trying to kill it? No.

  Alright, I have my answer. We continue.

  The second those answers change is when I’ll stop. Though I think it’s important to keep asking them after every battle, no matter how good I feel.

  I accepted the prompt and as always my next opponent simply appeared.

  Ah shit.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  It wasn’t the sight of my opponent that caused my alarm no, it was the note that came with it.

  Battle 11 – Stonehide Wolf

  Note: Increased Difficulty

  Increased difficulty huh.

  Well, my questions couldn’t really account for that now could it.

  No matter. It doesn’t change what I have to do. Kill it or die.

  The wolf before me definitely wasn’t small in the slightest. It was probably around 3 maybe 4 feet at the shoulders alone and had the mass to match that large frame. It’s fur was a dark grey, but it was deeply matted to the point it looked like…well stone. Hence the name I’m sure.

  Even now as I watched and analyzed it as best as possible, it was doing the same thing to me.

  It was growling deeply from the second it appeared with its teeth bared in a snarl. My little dagger was held at the ready as we both continued to stare each other down.

  The tension was thick enough to cut with a knife.

  Two predators, neither wanting to give in. Simply waiting for the other to make the first move.

  And then…

  It let out a loud growl then took off towards me. Clearly not wanting to wait a second longer.

  And unlike practically everything I’ve fought prior to this battle, I could in no way claim I was faster than it with just regular speed.

  Surging Step!

  I activated my favored skill and dodged to the left, and by the time I gathered myself again, the wolf landed and was already hot on my tail.

  Alright c’mon then little bastard.

  Ther wolf neared me quickly and left its feet with a wide open maw aimed clearly at my neck.

  Surging Step!

  Instead of running this time, I took a risk and charged straight at it instead! Right about now I probably looked like a linebacker meeting a running back diving over the offensive line towards the goal line in midair.

  Only I was probably a bit too undersized to play linebacker and the wolf was damn sure too big to play running back. Instead of killing its momentum right then and there and slamming it into the ground like I intended, I was the one who felt the brunt of that collision and was slammed back into the ground.

  Shit!

  The wolf now had me pinned and it didn’t waste any time in reaching down in rush to take a chunk out of my body, but moving instinctively, I reached up with my dagger to stab it’s snout or some shit and activated Ripple Guard as I did so.

  Two things happened.

  My dagger actually collided with the chin of the wolf and fucking rebounded off! But thankfully the Ripple Guard worked like a charm and caused the wolf to slip just enough for me to push it off with a roaring shout.

  I scrambled to my feet after that and quickly activated the Surging Step to my left. Then I turned around to see that Wolf was still a little dazed as if it was confused about what had just happened to it.

  But I didn’t care about that…my dagger…it rebounded off the bastard’s chin.

  So it’s like that big ass snake all over again huh.

  Except, I don’t have any help, and there is no fire or anything else for that matter in the room to assist me.

  This would be all me.

  …What ensued after that was nothing short of a brawl.

  I didn’t throw away my dagger because It would probably still work if I could stab one of its eyes or something, but it was going to be hard to do that with how fast it was running.

  Which meant I needed to get it to stop moving.

  From there I allowed the wolf to get near me time and time again and I repeatedly activated Rippel Guard in an attempt to potentially stun it long enough to get a clean enough stab in so I could drive my dagger through its eye.

  But by now the wolf was adapting to the effect and it was causing less and less of a problem to it.

  Alright fine then!

  “Come on fucker!”

  The wolf took my invitation and charged at me once more, and I once again activated Surging Step, except I tried something I hadn’t before.

  I have used the skill in succession before, but only after the first one was completed. Never have I tried to activate it while in the few moments the skill was still active.

  But I needed all the force I could possibly generate for this.

  Surging Step!

  Surging Step!

  Surging Step!

  Thank everything that is good and holy cause the shit worked and I rammed into the body of the charging wolf like a sledgehammer to drywall.

  This time I pinned the wolf down and repeatedly drove my dagger into the eyes of the wolf and after about three stabs, I did one final stab with all my strength and then placed all my power behind it as I pushed the dagger as far into its skull as I could.

  …

  Then the wolf stopped moving.

  “THAT’S WHAT THE FUCK I’M TALKING ‘BOUT!!!!”