An Unbound Soul

"Wuh... What?" Noah stammered. "You can't be serious!"

This was getting scary, but this was the path I chose and I wasn't going to back down now. I ignored Noah and started walking towards the arena. Xander hadn't asked about strategy, so my usual one would suffice. [Far Step] to take out their ranged support, then a melee. Once again I charged and activated my buffs, but having learnt from last time I didn't immediately [Far Step]. As I stepped into the arena, I waited for the fighters to start their charge and the archers to nock and draw arrows, and then I activated [Far Step]. Now the melee opponents had separated themselves from their support by moving towards my old location, and the archers in their drawn bow position couldn't immediately react to my movement. With a swing of my staff, I blew one into the other, arrows firing harmlessly into the air, before chasing and finishing them off where they lay tangled together on the floor. So far, so easy.

I didn't want to face the other three at once, but they wouldn't separate on their own. I used [Far Reach] to trip the whip user, expecting the other two to continue their charge and let me [Far Step] to deal with their abandoned colleague. That didn't happen. As soon as he fell, they stopped their charge and took up guard positions as he climbed to his feet. So that was what Xander meant by teamwork... In that case, I wanted to engage in melee immediately, as my buffs had limited time to run and I'd already used half my mana. Three against one was going to be rough, but Robin could probably snipe all three of them in one go if things went wrong.

I used [Far Step] to position myself behind the whip user as he was halfway to standing, and swept him back to the floor. The other two made coordinated swings from each side, leaving me unable to parry both. I stepped backwards—normally, this time—avoiding the short sword while parrying the long sword with its greater reach. Surprisingly, it scratched my staff but didn't cut into it, presumably thanks to the durability enchantment. With the two-handed sword user knocked off balance, I swung upwards and caught him under the chin. I heard a snap, and he went down with my single lucky shot. Despite their teamwork, this was going well. Now there were only two left, one of which was already on the floor.

I felt something on my ankle, and before I could react, I found myself falling backwards, staring up at the ceiling. Damn, I'd assumed the whip user was out of action until he had stood back up, but instead he had used the opportunity to wrap his whip around my leg and yank it. [Mana Sense] told me the short sword wielder had stepped towards me, but I couldn't sense the mundane iron of his sword. No doubt he would be swinging at me. Still in mid-air, I rammed my staff into the floor and pushed back, away from the goblins. As I sent myself flying, I felt a searing heat along my side. I went crashing to the floor some distance away, and as I pushed myself up, I felt my hand slip on something wet.

I climbed back up and took a few more steps backwards, away from the goblins. There was blood on the floor. My blood. The goblin had sliced between my armour plates, cutting through the bodysuit and my flesh beneath, and leaving me bleeding profusely. My status showed me down by ten health. [Endurance] had expired at some point previously, so I renewed it. The bleeding slowed, but didn't stop. One moment of carelessness and the tide of battle had been completely reversed. Had I not dodged quickly, how much deeper would that slice have been?

I used [Far Step] to re-engage, this time putting myself right next to the whip user, who had now climbed back to his feet. He couldn't attack effectively at short range, and I'd put him right in between me and the sword user. I struck his arm, and he dropped his whip. I dodged back from a retaliatory kick, then speared him in the stomach, pushing him into his teammate. With them both off balance and the whip disarmed, I was able to finish them off in a half dozen more swings.

Only when the glows started up and the corpses started being absorbed did I finally relax, and then the pain hit. My side felt like it was on fire, and I was still bleeding. Alarmingly, my status showed me down a couple more points of health than when I'd last checked; if this kept up, I'd bleed out. I used [Far Step] to return to the party, but rather than immediately healing me, Jared was just staring at the floor, looking unhappy. Noah was looking like he was going to explode, and Xander was holding out... bandages?

"Wrap up that wound and stop the bleeding. Jared will show you how."

What? I was in too much pain to even think properly. I beat the goblins, so how could he leave me like this? That wasn't training, it was torture. Jared took the bandages from Xander and turned to me.

"Pull your armour down below the wound. Hurry up, you're bleeding badly."

In something of a daze, I followed his instructions, peeling off my armour until it hung around my waist, then wrapping the bandages tightly around my stomach. Jared confirmed that I'd staunched the bleeding, before allowing me to once again equip my armour. There was now a long slice above the waist, where the goblin had managed to strike me between the reinforcing plates. In my daze, I idly wondered how I'd get it repaired. Would I need to walk around with a gash in the side until I replaced it?

"Peter, go and loot the chest, then we'll head to the fifth floor boss."

"What? You're just going to leave him like that? He can barely walk!"

Couldn't I? I wasn't that bad, was I? I took a step towards the chest and stumbled. I felt light-headed, and every step I took caused the room to spin. Okay, maybe I was that bad. Oh, [Endurance] wore off again a while back, didn't it? I was probably feeling the effects of blood loss. Despite my unsteadiness, I made it to the chest, which contained one large copper and five small. I added them to my pack and staggered after Xander, who was walking alone towards the far doors. I really felt like I should complain, but it was taking all my concentration just to keep moving.

I followed Xander down to the fifth floor, the rest of the party trailing behind us. This floor looked largely the same as the others, except for the way the whole corridor was swaying back and forth. That was certainly a weird addition. I wonder how it worked? Noah overtook us, pointing at various bits of floor where I was supposed to tread, and bits where I wasn't. I giggled at the interesting game, bouncing from stone to stone and trying not to fall over each time the floor lurched.

Freya seemed to find the game as fun as me, laughing out loud. "Can't say I completely agree with your reasoning, but it's the first time I've seen anyone make him act his age."

Noah was being a big, boring pouty-face. "This is dangerous. He's going to get himself hurt. Or hurt more."

We stopped in front of a big pair of open doors, covered in scribbles so bad I was sure that I could do better. I had a knife on me, didn't I? Maybe I could do a bit of carving. But now it was Xander's turn to be boring. He wanted me to sit down and meditate until I had all my mana back. I tried to look at my status to see how much that was, but it was dancing all over the place and I couldn't focus on the numbers. Stupid System. It was bad enough that it kept dropping things on me, but now it wouldn't even let me read my own status? I pouted and tried to meditate, but concentrating was too hard and my side was hurting. I wanted to stand back up and try carving, but when I tried to get back to my feet, the floor flipped sideways and tipped me over.

I woke up with a headache. What had I been doing? I looked around and found myself outside a boss room of the dungeon. How was I here? Didn't I only just beat the boss?

"Feeling better?"

I looked over in my confusion at Xander, where he and the rest of the party were watching me.

"How did I get here? Didn't I... Oh, I remember. You wouldn't let Jared heal me. Yes, lesson learnt, but that's not enough to change my mind."

"I wasn't expecting it to, nor did I want it to. It was a lesson on how to operate while wounded, not because I'm trying to convince you your decision is wrong. When you're here on your own, you won't have a healer. If you can't keep a clear enough head to bind your wounds or drink a potion, you could end up dying pointlessly from a relatively minor wound. If you let pain distract you in the middle of a fight, same thing. You need to get used to it while there is a healer around to save you."

Pieces of memory came back to me, and they were not pleasant. I leant against a wall and tried to drag myself to my feet, but only succeeded in throwing up. My status showed that I was still down seven health. Xander must have had Jared heal me just enough to bring me back to consciousness, but hadn't let him finish the job. A conclusion borne out by the stinging pain in my side, a pain that seemed to radiate out across half my torso.

"With that much blood loss, there's no point trying to stand. Sit down and meditate."

I didn't have much choice. I dragged myself away from the pool of vomit before sitting back down. I still had half my mana missing, so I sunk into [Meditation]. I hoped he wasn't going to make me fight the next boss in this condition, because that truly would be dangerous. In happier news, among the various scraps of memory, didn't I hear a ding at some point?

Endurance increased by 1

Skill [Dexterity] advanced to level 3

Skill [Endurance] advanced to level 2

Skill [Far Step] advanced to level 12

Skill [Weapon Proficiency: Staff] advanced to level 11

Skill [Greater Mana Finesse] advanced to level 4

As ever, a tough fight came with its rewards. I managed to continue my [Meditation] despite the distraction of pain and my clouded head, resting until I had recovered my mana. In that time, I did regain a point of health, so there was some regeneration there, even if it was horrifically slow. With full mana and stamina, I felt a little better and was able to stand without too much trouble.

"Okay, now that Peter's ready, let's deal with this boss and then we're done for the day. Peter, you'll be fighting alone again, in that condition."

"No."

"Sorry?"

I opened my mouth to explain that I might not be entirely sensible, but at least I wasn't suicidal, but then I saw Noah's face. "Really? If you're going to try that sort of bluff, you need to teach Noah how to act. He should be apoplectic at the suggestion."

Wait... Xander had just outright lied to me. He shouldn't have been able to do that. Did it matter that he had justification? He never actually intended me to fight, had warned his party beforehand, and would have yelled at me if I'd said okay? But if lying without intent to deceive was universally okay, what about my green sky test? Did they need more justification than 'because someone asked me to'? I'd already kinda decided it wasn't a hundred percent reliable, but maybe I should take it down a few more and start looking for a better test. Or, of course, there was the possibility Xander was free, especially given the way he'd been treating me this floor. But I'd seen in several cases how the brainwashing didn't stop people being... irritating. I had no idea where the actual cut-off point was.

Xander, oblivious to my confusion, nodded in satisfaction. "Even if you're prepared to take risks, still keep in mind your limits. I wish all my students took their lessons to heart this quickly. Jared, finish healing him."

Using my staff as a walking stick, I stepped into the room while Jared continued his healing, happy to find that despite my prior opinion, the ground was actually just as stable on this floor as any other.

As soon as the boss came into view, I stopped dead. On this floor there was only one opponent, but it was a big one. Why was I even surprised? Warren had already told me about this, hadn't he? Despite myself, I felt the corners of my lips raise. This was going to be one hell of a grudge match.

Orc, level 10