The pain didn’t actually begin to recede until right before the next battle. Even the Ebb and Flow skill didn’t do anything to make the pain lessen, and I had to enter the next battle feeling like fire had just exploded in my chest.

  I’m not sure if it was because this was an Unbound Trait or perhaps because this Trait had to do with my heart, but that was disgustingly painful.

  Unfortunately for me, there was no time to feel better or think about what happened because it was time to battle once more. The journey from Battle One to my current spot had become easier with every new skill, weapon, and now Trait that I had gained. But battle 41 still posed some danger to me, and I had to take it seriously.

  I assumed I would have to do the same for every ensuing battle, especially since I had to do this particular run with a chest full of heartburn.

  Even with that, I managed to make it to Battle 42 and see my latest opponent.

  Battle 42 - Vaelith Stagborn

  A deer.

  A giant, chromatic looking deer. It quite literally looked like it was covered in mirrors and chrome plating. It didn’t even look organic anymore. It looked like something you’d see in front of an art museum.

  Then, just as I was getting ready for it to charge and lower those antlers at me, the thing disappeared. I should have seen it coming. Something that looked like it would stand out in any crowd, of course its best ability was invisibility. Yeah, that makes all the sense in the world. Goddamnit.

  Ignoring the irony of the situation for a moment, I stood still and did my best to sense the deer and where it would be coming from. Of course, the most likely place it would attack from was directly in front of me since that’s where it went invisible, but more than a few seconds had passed, and I had yet to be impaled by its massive antlers.

  Where are you...

  A couple more seconds passed in silence, and I was starting to wonder if the deer had even moved from its spot. Then, just as I was getting ready to walk over there and find out, I heard a billowing roar from my left flank. I turned and saw the deer with its head lowered, ready to whip it upward and ram me with its horns.

  I quickly held my spear horizontally across my body to block its sudden advance, only to be picked up in one motion and flung hard across the arena. I’m sure if this had been pre level 10 Freddy, my shoulder would have been shattered from the impact alone.

  Thankfully that wasn’t the case, but it still hurt like hell.

  I scrambled to my feet only to find that the deer was no longer there, or maybe it was, but the damn thing had gone invisible again. Shit.

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

  A few more exchanges like the first one took place after that, with me doing my best to find it before it approached me, and it was only then that I finally began to realize something important. The reason I was never immediately targeted by the deer was because it was walking. It went invisible and then started to walk to whatever location it wanted to attack from. But the reason why it was doing that was the kicker.

  The glorified art piece couldn’t stay invisible if it moved above a certain speed, and that was why it only appeared right before it tried to ram me with its antlers. Of course, I could be completely wrong, but I really didn’t think I was.

  So, with that thinking in place, I changed my focus from trying to find it and simply stood my ground and waited. It would come to attack me again eventually, and this time I would be ready. Not to deliver a strike using Ocean’s Maw, but instead...

  “HOOOO!”

  Whack!

  To use my spear to slap the hell out of it.

  The thing stumbled back for a second as I think I cracked one of its antlers, but I immediately followed up with a Surging Step to get close to it because I wouldn’t give it the chance to turn invisible again.

  I was relentless with my attacks, and with every strike of my spear, the places I made contact with began to crack. It quite literally sounded like I was breaking glass every time I managed to damage it. Yet blood flowed out of these cracks as if I were actually cutting into flesh and blood.

  The deer continued to try to get up and fight back, swinging its antlers this way and that, but it simply couldn’t keep up. It only got weaker and weaker as the fight dragged on.

  I was thankful for this fight, though, since it was important for my own understanding of my skill. There wasn’t a normal ebb and flow to this battle, and if I wanted to attack relentlessly, then how would it work?

  This was a good chance to find out and that’s precisely what I did. It turns out as long as I didn’t use a large amount of mana then there would be no problem.

  The flow wouldn’t restrict me from attacking as much or as fast as I wanted. The only time it kind of became a problem is if I wanted to unleash a powerful skill during that stage of things. I haven’t tried it yet, but I could feel that there is resistance there, resistance that I suppose makes sense in the grand scheme of things.

  That part of the skill is where my mana and stamina recover rapidly. I suppose it would be kind of bad to pull from that amount of mana when it is surging up.

  I guess it’s like blue balls. No one likes getting blue balls, so I still have to experiment with it fully one day, just not in the midst of battle like I am now or at least not in such an important battle. Losing means losing a life, my life.

  Anyway, I quite literally beat the deer into submission as the sound of breaking glass continuously resounded throughout the arena, and it wasn’t long after that before I was able to take its life.

  Next.

  Battle 43 – Korveth Spinefeeder

  The creature that appeared before didn’t really look like any one thing that I recognized. Instead, it looked more like a blend between a crab, a lizard, and the ribcage of a skeleton. Even as I had that thought, and I was actively looking at it, nothing about it made sense.

  Needless to say, it looked freaky. With green reptilian scales covering a body that resembled a rib cage of sorts and had four crablike legs coming out of it. It literally looked like a drawing gone terribly wrong.

  And it wasn’t even that big, maybe the size of a relatively medium to large sized dog. Though…since it appeared, all it did was skitter around the area haphazardly. It wasn’t approaching me, nor did it look like it was trying to prepare some crazy attack.

  What the hell was it doing?