But for a Slime

Gotta be smart about this… can’t… He looked up in surprise to find the beasts cautiously looking at him while also backing to the sides, opening a path for something else. Joe quickly looked to the right to make sure the hallway was empty before stepping out to look down the path formed by the monsters. Well… this sucks. Joe grimaced again to see a rather overly large hobgoblin stalking towards him. Big… It was almost the size of a human… or actually… it really is the size of a human… for this plane… bit short by Earth’s standards… but…

The hobgoblin came upon him with an arrogant smirk on his face. Joe kept his face passive and stepped back into the restrained corridor and prepared himself. Rest as much I can right now… get my stamina back asap. Joe took the time to lean against the wall to rest as much as possible, hoping that resting worked a bit like in the real world. Probably need to test that… what effect sitting, standing, … throw in meditation, too? What else… sleep? Whatever… can’t do this now.

Joe remained there resting until the hobgoblin came close enough to see him. The hobgoblin’s arrogant smirk faded when he saw Joe’s relaxed posture against the wall. It turned sour, then angry, and the hobgoblin leapt at him, charging forward. Joe sighed and immediately set himself to meet the hobgoblin’s charge. It came at him and swung a massive two handed sword at Joe. Joe’s eyebrows flickered, knitting a bit to see such a poor strike. He pulled his shield in to rest against his upper arm but slid his arm out slightly so he had some cushion for the inevitable strike. He kept an eye on the strike and when he saw it was committed, stepped into the swing deeply, placing himself well down the length of the blade almost to the hobgoblin’s grip. His spear flashed forward even as the sword clanged against his shield, the spear burying itself with an abruptness directly into its heart. It froze, then collapsed, dead. Its death two fold, the heart immediately destroyed and whatever his mana in his mana point did to the enemy’s core.

Joe stepped back and rested against the wall once again, seeking to regain as much mana as he could. The rest lasted a bit longer now, even long enough to bend down to pick up a small plastic card and slip it into his pocket. And the monsters waited, seeming to show an actual intelligence that disturbed Joe. They fidgeted for a bit before the intelligence disappeared and the monsters began charging him once again. Joe frowned at seeing it but it was time to fight and his thoughts bent to the task.

Joe took the first strike on his shield once again before immediately destroying the beast with a follow up spear thrust and soon fell into the rhythm of battle, cautious to maintain his defense while ruthlessly taking advantage of any mistakes. Joe struck with shield and spear while his mind lost itself in keeping track of attacks and positions, his conscious fading, replaced by pure calculation. Time lost meaning and only the movement of defense and attack remained.

Joe didn’t know how long time went on nor how many monsters he destroyed. Sometime in the fight, his shirt had become ragged, then shredded, then finally fallen off, ripped away in a flurry to free his arms for the fight as its decrepit state soon had it binding around his torso and arms. Shortly after that, he noticed his hair flying everywhere and realized his hair tie had either slipped off or been ripped off. He wasn’t sure which nor did he have the time to care at the moment, but his hair sliding across his face and vision proved quite distracting. He soon began to sweat, a comfortable soreness coming to his limbs as he flowed through his movements. He kept the simple and cautious while prioritizing rest, making sure to keep the spear more choked up near the blade to give his wrist less stress while also making sure to give his shield arm moments of rest by turning to a rapid series of strikes then giving his spear arm a rest by taking several hits on his shield.

He made sure to always be random, taking a random number of strikes on his shield before returning with another set of random strikes from his spear. He would also switch between turtling behind his shield and striking from the safety of his shield and this alternating the dominance of his shield and spear arm. It wasn’t enough.

His body grew tired, sweat now pouring down him and his breathing starting to take on a panting effort as his stamina faded. His mind lost focus and he soon fell into a rhythm, but luckily the beasts seemed mindless and failed to take advantage of his repetitive strikes. He still slowed, grew exhausted, and soon was struggling in his fights.

The monsters never stopped. They came on in wave after wave, falling against his shield and dying. His exhaustion piled upon itself, and his panting began to take on a heaving effort. This… I’m not… I need… His mind wandered, struggling to continue on. Rest… need rest… not… don’t give up… rest… fight… don’t quit… but… rest…

He reacted even before he’d realized it and his Presence swept out once again. His head immediately began to pound but he was too exhausted to notice. He targeted a heal for his head, hoping it would help his headache, but oddly it seem to offer a strange dissonance where soothing waves of healing massaged his skull and skin but somehow his headache remained unchanged. Am I… headache… not… in my head? What…

He cast another heal while noticing the monsters frozen under his Presence once again and he stepped forward and struck a half dozen closest monsters before retreating to his defensive line and collapsing against the wall, sitting down, a free hand slipping into his pocket to caress a card. He then focused on pressing his essence down the hallway. Not too far but enough to keep a decent depth of monsters that kept the still active ones in the back at bay, if poorly.

Joe rested against the wall, keeping his eyes open with effort but made sure to relax as much as possible. He also brought his status up and to the side so it was easily in sight while he kept an eye on the frozen monster. As an afterthought, he laid his shield across his chest, resting on his thighs. It was a struggle to keep his eyes open, but things were getting better. His HP and mana had been hit quite hard. His HP had been so low he’d been quite surprised and worried, but his rest allowed his HP to return quite quickly, his mana a bit slower but also rising. His stamina remained stubbornly empty and it took until Joe felt his body finally stop shivering in exhaustion for his stamina to begin refilling ever so slowly. Is it… slower than last time? Huh… so… tap too much into your own stamina… makes it slower to recover system stamina? Is that same for mana and HP? Could see tha…

A growl brought Joe’s eyes up quickly and he noticed that his Presence had shrunk back and frayed around the edges. It took effort to push his Presence out again, but he was able to do so and watched his stamina slowly recover. Then… need to rest as soon as stamina is gone again… it’ll recover faster… then… hmm… less time spent resting, but have to use Presence much more often… better? Or…

Joe groaned as his head throbbed a bit harder than he expected and he grimaced, keeping his eyes open with an effort to make sure his Presence remained where it was. Right… gonna try that then. Shorter bouts more often… see if that saves some pain.

He decided to only wait until about fifty or sixty percent recovery for his stamina. He then stood with a groan. He remembered his loose hair and thought to fumble through his bag for another hair tie before dismissing the idea, his exhaustion and headache too great. Time to go on. He released his Presence. Nothing happened and Joe grimaced, the pain of holding Presence still assaulting him but he found himself unable to release his Presence.

Panic began to set in a bit and he fought against it before tension suddenly released and Joe found himself panting. That… hurt! It almost felt like he’d clenched on something and couldn’t release. It had hurt! Joe rapidly panted and stood, ready to fight. He moved his status to the side once again and soon he was able to truly relax again, his ‘Presence muscle,’ whatever it was, had finally relaxed. So… can’t be too long then… so… maybe shorter time is a good idea…

He soon was able to return to his fight once again with his normal ease. He made sure to keep an eye on his stamina and when it emptied, he initiated his Presence once again with a bit of concern. He didn’t push it out so far but still settled down to rest, but this time kept his knees pulled up to his chest so he could rest his shield in front of his entire body. He looked at his stamina with some trepidation. It remained at five. Joe didn’t want to take the chance that zeroing out would cause the delay, so stopped when he made it to single digits. His eyes flickered back and forth between the enemies and his stamina and he knew he should feel relief when his stamina began to recover. His stamina wasn’t much better than before, but it began almost instantly and... It is … just a bit faster… maybe? Joe wasn’t sure what he was seeing, but it felt like his system stamina was recovering just a bit faster. Joe wasn’t quite sure, but was grateful to see it recover so quickly.

He didn’t want to spend as much time pushing his Presence out, so made sure to keep it shorter. He kept his break about at three quarters his previous break and was gratified to find his stamina had recovered to almost sixty percent, even with less time. Joe stood, ready for another round. A mixed sigh of relief and exhaustion was heavily overshadowed with a numbness, his emotions deadened so he could focus on survival. The monotony of it all had his mind always cycling back to Garnedell and he couldn’t think about him… Too much… just…

Joe’s thoughts grew narrow and muddled. He only saw the next group of monsters, his mind processing his next options but other than that, he thought nothing. He didn’t want to think anything, his thoughts veering away from anything that might be emotion. He threw himself into the combat to distract his thoughts. He didn’t want to think. He didn’t want to explore anything mentally. He shut himself down, shying away from …

The day faded to a haze of never ending destruction and snarling faces as the creatures continued on and on, his break times growing shorter, not because the beasts were pressuring him but because his stamina somehow recovered faster and faster. It did plateau but Joe hardly noticed, his exhaustion now more mental as he retreated further and further from having to face reality. Monsters came. They died. Joe moved. A hand touched a card. Nothing changed. Nothing cared.

And throughout the entire fight, Joe’s presence swelled and waned, but never stopped surrounding Garnedell’s corpse with an almost tender cradling.

* * *