Progression of a Magic Fighter Ch. 2

Ch. 2: Spraying Blood and Water

The sun reached its peak in the sky while Jor journeyed cautiously. He searched the ground every couple of steps. Then his gaze flicked up at the branches before scanning his surroundings. He looked back the way he came occasionally.

Nothing jumped at him.

No trap triggered.

He saw no sign of something monstrous lurking in these parts. At least for now. But Jor stayed diligent in his checks for danger.

The trail continued undisturbed, winding around hills and through valleys. It climbed inclines and fell into moist basins with dark leafy plants.

He found more edible forest foods. He discovered babbling creeks. They were crystal clear and bedded with smooth rocks. It was nice to drink clean water and not drain it from his limited magic.

The first sign of something monstrous made itself heard while he rested near a creek. A deep and spine-chilling series of whoops echoed across the forest.

“Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!” whooped the mysterious thing.

Then the whoops broke out into a warped moan no natural animal would make. There was no doubt it was the call of a monster. And worse yet, others in the area ahead responded.

More “Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!” and long and monstrous moans followed suit. It sounded like a whole menagerie of monsters were reveling in their horridness.

In no time at all, the area ahead had an abundance of whoops and bellows and madness. Pure and utter madness hidden behind the shaded forest branches and rolling hills and shallow valleys.

“Tier 2s,” Jor said shakily. “They’re going to be Tier 2s. I bet all that noise is to scare me off.”

I never fought monsters before, but it’s within the reach for a mundane human to beat a Tier 2 with careful planning.

Jor hid behind a boulder and waited for monsters to run in his direction. Nothing jumped out to attack. The whoops and bellows stopped. Everything became still again.

Jor continued his treacherous journey on the trail. At a snail’s pace. Eventually, he saw what he was supposed to warm up on.

Ah ha ha ha ha ha. The Game is a dick.

Jor crouched behind a wall of leafy bushes while off the trail. Ahead of him was a big rocky clearing. In the middle of the clearing was a source of the whoops and bellows.

It was a man-sized ape. Dark fur. Thick shoulders and arms. Long, strong legs.

It was beefed up like a bodybuilder and weighed twice as much as Jor. Its fanged teeth could snap bones. Claws extended from its fingers, which was extra scary.

But the eyes were the most horrible part. They were dark sockets like twin prinpicks of a void.

Tier 4, Jor thought glumly. He researched enough to know the signs.

Game Monsters fell into similar ranks as humans. But they didn’t have levels. They had tiers.

Tier 2, Tier 4, Tier 6, and Tier 8.

For some reason, the tiers were always even for monsters. But it was generally easy to differentiate them that way. In the Mundane Rank, Tier 2s were generally smaller and beast-like. They were deadly if you let them swarm you. But they were generally simple to dispatch one by one with care.

Tier 4s took a huge step away from being simple to dispatch. They were more powerful than a mundane human. Harder to kill. Stronger and faster. And absolutely fearless. Their life and body stats would be over 20 each.

Jor shook his head.  I shouldn’t be fighting a Tier 4 this early! This was supposed to be the warm up phase, too.

A somber realization struck Jor. He might be better off avoiding the Tier 4 apes and going directly to the contest. That was a sound strategy to avoid facing a painful death in his first monster fight.

But here’s the kicker, I need to grind up my levels. He needed more stats to brave the contest at the end of this challenge.

There was no choice. Jor would fight the ape. But with a plan and some extra, extra care. So Jor waited and watched, never letting the ape go out of sight.

The creature ambled around the clearing at random. It clawed at the roots of a tree and ate bugs. Sometimes it would stop and make those horrid noises. The forest came alive with “Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!” and bellows.

At night, the creature climbed up a tree and slept in the branches. Jor thought about attacking the ape at night. But he couldn’t see very well at night and would most likely worsen his chances.

Jor kept observing for another day and night. The monster’s patterns didn’t change. Jor’s nerves turned fraught until he couldn’t wait any more.

A realization dawned on him.

His Gamer build came to mind. He was certain he would progress as a Gamer who stood against all challenges boldly. It was a dangerous and suicidal build. But it could be a powerful and durable one.

After all, this challenge gave him a rare boon. He could mess up and die and retry. The thought of that was scary, though. What was the existence of the common man when death became trivial?

However, that was the wrong thing to consider right now. He was a Gamer. He needed to play and get good at the rules of the Game. And go further beyond.

Jor retraced his steps to the nearest creek. He foraged for food and refreshed himself on creek water. He let himself rest, lounging on a thick branch to watch the sky or sleep. Then near sunset the next day, Jor stepped down the trail and entered the rocky clearing of the Tier 4 ape.

“Ooh?” the ape turned toward the new occurrence in its rocky clearing. “Ooh!” Rage boiled up from inside the ape. The ape’s void-like eyes spiraled with contempt and hunger and madness. “Ooh! Ooh!”

The monster lunged forward, its strong legs striding to crush the distance. Its body released a foul musk that would make most men gag. Its jaws spread wide open, threatening to use bone crushing bites on its prey.

More pressing than any of those features were the claws, of course. They looked especially sharp as the ape slashed down at the little human’s head.

Jor’s response?

Counter overhand right.

The ape ran into a magic punch. The radiant water burst from its condensed spot around Jor’s knuckles and smashed shut the ape’s fanged jaw.

Flesh from the jaw and the front of the neck peeled back from the rapid expulsion of magic. Blood and water sprayed the ground in the wake of the first exchange.

Even then, the monster kept barreling forward. Jor had done enough to bob and weave from under the ape’s swipe and perform the counter. But the right side of his body remained in line with the running monster.

They collided, and Jor flew to his left. He hit the rocky ground hard on his side and wheezed in pain. He rolled like a log before scrambling to his feet, ignoring the ache.

The ape had already redirected by then and was barreling at him again. Its claws swung for a horizontal swipe at Jor’s chest.

He barely dodged back in time. Another horizontal swipe followed after the last. Then another and another with each desperate dodge Jor performed.

The Tier 4 ape was relentless in its pursuit and unwilling to nurse the damage to the shredded flesh of its jaw and neck. It leered with a mad and bloody grin at Jor while it kept attacking.

In its monstrous mind, it knew one mistake from Jor would doom the little human. Then Jor’s first monster fight would end with death.

No. I refuse. Jor clenched his jaw and dove into the frenzy with both fists balled and raised.

Like a nimble peek-a-boo boxer, Jor bobbed under the ape’s swings and weaved off to the side. He pivoted out while swinging a fast and magical uppercut.

The ape’s jaw slammed shut and fell open like a broken trap door. Fangs and molars fell free and clattered on the stone floor. Blood and water dripped down the dirty fur on the ape’s chest.

It stumbled past Jor, shook its head, and whooped in defiance. Then the ape turned to where it last saw Jor.

Empty air and blood soaked stone remained at the spot Jor had been. The ape hesitated, not seeing the little human darting to the side.

Having the ape’s blindside, Jor put his weight on the ball of his lead foot and swung a water crescent kick. He carved the back of the ape’s knee and felled the monster like a tree.

Keeping the assault flowing, Jor stepped forward and swung a low hook at its head. This time, Jor’s strike was harder to shake off as the monster dropped into the magic punch.

Jor cracked open the Tier 4 ape’s cranium. Its skull and brain scattered in pieces, the gore raining with the spraying water. The body hit the ground with a big thump and stayed put.

Jor stumbled backwards, gasping for air. Tremors traveled up and down his sore, adrenaline-filled body. His mind reeled with heavy fatigue. Using sorcery in a death fight against a monster was next level stuff.

The blood. It’s everywhere. And its brain is leaking out. Jor shook his head in disbelief.

“It’s dead, right?” he asked nobody in particular. He realized a second later the Game could confirm for him.

During conflicts, the interface sank into the background. It answered his request once he focused on it.

<You’ve slain a Mundane Darkened Ape, Tier 4.>

“Heh. Ha ha ha. I did it.” Jor said shakily.

There had been so many ways for him to die against that thing. It didn’t even fight like a man, so most of Jor’s fighting experiences were less helpful.

However, the ape left itself open to counters during its relentless assaults. It failed to care about its own life and took deadly blows after deadly blows from Jor.

Any one magic strike could kill a mundane man. The ape was bound to fall after enough hits.

Now Jor could relax before facing the next Tier 4 and–

“Ooh?” whooped a voice from behind Jor.

The exhausted Gamer tensed, his hands balling into shaky fists.

“Ooh?” whooped a second voice.

Jor slowly turned around. There were two of them now.

The apes must’ve heard the whoops and bellows of their slain brethren and came to investigate. That was not surprising, but Jor had completely forgotten to consider the backup arriving.

This is going to get ugly. Jor smiled nervously as both apes became enraged and charged him directly.

Yes, indeed, the fight turned out as ugly one for Jor. To his own surprise, he managed to survive with the simplest trick. He kept one ape between him and the other. Then he wore them down one by one like the first one he’d slain.

<You’ve slain two Mundane Darkened Apes, Tier 4s.>

He ended up victorious. That victory came with a cost, though. Jor had suffered a serious strike to his chest from a glancing swipe.

Before more apes arrived to investigate, Jor limped away from the bloody clearing, leaving behind three dripping wet corpses.

He tripped, picked himself, and tripped some more. With every step, he felt weaker and weaker.

I need to stop the blood loss. I need to use my sorcery.

Blood was mostly water. Jor figured holding his blood in should work somehow. But that ignored Jor not having the know-how. To accomplish such a feat with a mundane attribute would be too difficult without focused practice.

He reached the creek and fell on its bank. The sunset painted the sky above into purples and oranges. The forest shadows deepened all around him.

The apes whooped and bellowed, promising another painful fight. It was as if Jor hadn’t put a dent in their numbers whatsoever.

“Sucks to suck,” Jor muttered in his delirium.

He felt very woozy. There was so much blood. He felt thirsty. His attempts to crawl into the creek ended with him falling into it.

Exerting the little energy he had left, he laid back. Smooth stone supported him from below. Babbling water flowed up to his neck, submerging everything underneath his head.

For some reason, Jor thought of his Watari mom. His memories were hazy in the early years. It took time for a child’s brain to become more reliable, after all.

Still, he clearly remembered how she pressed her hands on his scrapes and bruises from when he got into fights with other boys. He’d hated it when they called his mom a sovereign-betraying whore. He’d told her that. She’d scolded him lightly for getting hurt, her hands glowing with pale light and making his aches feel better.

“Mom, I wish you were still around,” Jor said with a wet wheeze. It was getting harder to breathe. “I got another owie. Just like usual.”

With barely an ounce of consciousness left, Jor reached up at the darkened sky. He clenched his raised hand into a trembling fist. Then he loosened his fingers and settled his palm on his chest.

For some reason, he kept thinking of his mom as he floated between awareness and darkness.

Unbeknownst to Jor, the water glimmered around his chest. The shining light became more noticeable as night settled and the stars shone in the sky.

Jor remained in the strange gap between consciousness and unconsciousness, life and death, existence and nothingness. He kept returning to the memory of his mom tending to him with a pale light.

The gory claw wounds on his chest slowly cleaned themselves. They closed under the nursing affection of water and memories.

Two days later, Jor woke up on the dry bank. He must’ve dragged himself out of the water earlier.

Motivated by hunger, he slowly got to his feet and foraged for food. He fed, had a drink, relieved himself, and then assessed the situation.

On his chest were four ragged lines which might scar him forever. Secondly, he hadn’t died.

I can heal with water sorcery. I can heal!

Jor gaped at the sky, clutching his head in amazement. He was a fighter and a healer! If that wasn’t incredible already, the Game had more in store for him.

<Your Experience progresses, Gamer. You’ve leveled up from 1 to 2.>

<You’ve gained +2 Life, +2 Body, +2 Magic, +2 Focus.>

Jor smiled. He checked his stats.

<Life: 9>

<Body: 12>

<Magic: 13>

<Focus: 20>

I need more danger to raise my life stat up. It’s so freaking low I can die to one solid strike.

Jor knew no fight could go perfectly all the time. Taking hits happened. He wanted to survive long enough to make the other guy hurt more.

The monster apes whooped and bellowed, attracting his attention. This time around, Jor’s reaction was to grin ear-to-ear. Almost like a maniac.

Perhaps there was something wrong with him. No normal human would react like this.

In truth, he was thinking of how much gold he could make as both a fighter and healer. But first things first, he had more apes to kill with magical punches and kicks.

And a challenge to win.