"I knew this felt like a trap, dammit!" Morgan growled, adjusting his stance and holding his spear in a way that he just "knew" was a ready stance. Issa readied her rapier and looked around warily.

"Well, that was obvious, though," she said, inadvertently showing her teeth. Seconds later, she pointed toward the rock field through which the road they'd traversed cut. Morgan saw it immediately - dark figures were pouring toward the road, coming, seemingly from nowhere. Morgan could see that they moved in a bipedal gait that was forward-leaning. They carried clubs and sharpened sticks, and some just hoisted large rocks. They appeared to be bereft of clothing and armor, though it wasn't clear that they needed any, because as they got closer, Morgan could see that they were some kind of lizard men. No, they looked more like salamanders. They had smooth-looking black skin with rough ridges and irregular orange and yellow spots, but they had lizard-like heads and long tongues. Their collective hiss drowned out the sound of the lava flow.

Morgan looked around and realized they were coming from the other side of the bridge as well. "Holy shit, there's gotta be more than a hundred! They don't look interested in talking, either!"

"Put your back to mine, Morgan, we have to fight - the System is challenging us, as always." Issa whipped her rapier back and forth and faced one direction while Morgan leveled his spear and faced the other. As the salamander creatures reached the bridge and started swarming up toward them, Morgan could see that they were smaller than he thought at first, maybe four feet tall, but what they lacked in size, they seemed to make up in intensity and numbers.

"Here they come! Get ready!" Morgan felt adrenaline start to pump through him, and as the hissing, slithering mob crossed the halfway point up the bridge toward him and Issa, he realized he was yelling, stabbing, and swinging the big, razor-sharp spear in a complicated dance. Some of the creatures leading the group coming toward him hesitated and were careened into by the ones behind. It messed up their charge, and Morgan roared again. Just as the battle was nearly upon them, he felt Issa's hand on his back, and warmth spread through him. His pulse quickened even more, and thoughts narrowed in on the topic at hand - killing. With the Haste spell making him look like a blur, Morgan stabbed into the crowd of salamander men or women; he had no way of telling. He whipped the spear around in slashing arcs and thrusts and brought the haft around to knock the little creatures away. The long, slicing blade of the spear left sprays of blood in its wake, and when Morgan stabbed, he'd often have to kick the corpses off the spear as he hurriedly whipped the haft around to crunch into a skull or ribs.

Issa was like liquid death with her rapier, unleashing days of pent-up fear and aggression on the creatures. She moved with deadly grace, keeping her back to Morgan's general direction while slashing out and opening wounds on the salamanders with each strike. She may not kill with every strike, but she could move the rapier so quickly that she wasn't having much trouble keeping the creatures at bay as she slowly piled the wounds on them.

Morgan reveled in the euphoria of battle and victory and was confident that they'd pull through, and that's when the Haste spell wore off. It felt like he slowed to a crawl, even though he was only crashing back to normal speed. Morgan was suddenly aware of the burning in his lungs and the leaden weight of his limbs. He swung his spear in a wide arc and backed into Issa. He urged her to the edge of the bridge near the railing to reduce the angles from which they could be attacked. With a few seconds of breathing room, he took stock of the situation: his back to the railing, he could see about 15 salamander corpses to his right, sprawled around the bridge and down the slope, he could see another five or so to his left where Issa had been fighting. There had to be at least 30 or 40 more of the creatures closing in a semi-circle around them, glancing warily at their weapons and the corpses of their erstwhile comrades. Panting for breath, he asked, "Haste. Gone. Can you do it again?"

"Not so soon; I'd pass out," Issa wheezed.

"Alright, watch my flank. I have an idea," Morgan grunted, then gripped his spear, looking for his next target. The salamanders could only approach them about five at a time without tripping over themselves, and Morgan and Issa seemed to be able to feint with enough of a credible threat to keep them at bay. Morgan waited for one of the braver ones to lunge with its pointed wooden spear. He used his spear to push down on the other's spear, twirling and flicking it up and to the side, then he stepped inside its reach to grab the tacky skin of its shoulder with his left hand. As soon as Morgan had a grip, he concentrated on his Energy Drain skill and pulled. He could sense Issa behind him and to the left, fighting to keep the salamanders at bay. As soon as he felt the energy coming out of the salamander, he redoubled his efforts, willing his Vortex Core to spin faster and pull harder. He felt a torrent of Energy flood into him, and he immediately felt his exhaustion ebb. As soon as the Energy stopped coming, he dropped the lifeless, gray salamander to the ground. With wide eyes, he realized he was about to be gored by another spear-wielding salamander, and another one was pounding on his back with a club.

His vigor renewed, Morgan dodged aside from the stab and swung the haft of his spear around to crack the skull of the little club-wielding salamander. He launched into another deadly dance with his spear, killing several more salamanders and wounding just as many. When Morgan thought about his Energy Drain skill, he could feel a sense of whether it was ready or not, and when it felt like he could use it again, he did so, grabbing a salamander by the arm and pulling the Energy out of it. After he'd repeated this three times, he could see that he was having a demoralizing effect on the salamanders. They were more reluctant to launch attacks, and he found that he could more easily single them out and dominate them with his longer, more deadly spear and his repeatedly refreshed endurance. Issa had to work less hard to keep his flank clear as well; he'd frequently dart in front of her to swing his long spear in a blinding arc, driving the salamanders back.

The salamander bodies were stacking up, and the pale stonework of the bridge was painted with blood and bits of gore. Morgan and Issa fought, and what had seemed a hopeless battle began to turn in their favor. Once the salamanders' morale began to break, and Morgan had to hunt them out for a conflict, he knew they had won. No longer worried about his flank, he began to rampage after the creatures, chasing them around the top of the bridge, spinning and catching them as they tried to slink around him to make a move at Issa. Eventually, he found himself standing atop the arch of the bridge, leaning on his spear, breathing heavily, and looking fruitlessly for the next opponent. Issa walked over to him, cleaning the blade of her rapier with a piece of leather she'd taken from her dimensional pouch. Morgan could see she had some bruises and a few gashes here and there, but her smile belied her mood; they'd won, and it felt glorious. Suddenly the bridge grew bright, and it took Morgan a minute to realize all of the corpses were gathering a mist of tiny golden motes. The motes coalesced into two churning streams as they flew into him and Issa.

***Congratulations! You've achieved level 10 base human. You have 20 attribute points to allocate. Your first Class selection is available to you.***

"We did it, Issa! It was a bit hairy, but we fucking did it." Morgan laughed and gripped Issa's shoulder, giving her a little shake. She returned his smile, looking into his eyes. They stayed that way for a minute, and Morgan was about to say something when, BAAAAAAROOOOOO - the horn blew again. "Oh, godammit!"

***Quest: You've slain the children; now put the mother to rest. Reward: Improved Treasure Box, Penalty for failure: Death***

"I want to know who's blowing that horn!" Issa growled.

"Yeah, no shit!" Morgan looked around, wondering just what the 'mother' was. He looked over the side of the bridge and saw a large, dark shape pushing out of the lava river about a hundred yards from the bridge. Awestruck, he watched as an actual, four-legged salamander crawled out of the lava and began to scale the broken slope. It was at least twenty feet from nose to tail and had to weigh thousands of pounds. "Oh, man. Look at that, Issa."

"Gods, it's huge," Issa whispered.

"Do you have a spear or some kind of ranged weapon? You don't wanna get close enough to that thing to hit it with your rapier." Issa nodded and reached into her pouch, stashing her rapier and pulling out a spear. It didn't have the reach of Morgan's, but it wasn't bad, and it had a shiny metal tip. Morgan looked up to see where the salamander was and couldn't spot it. Where the hell? Then he heard a screech and scrabbling claws and realized it was already at the bridge and charging their way. He leveled his spear and moved to the center of the arch.

Morgan knew he couldn't brute force this fight - this creature was aware of him and had a great deal more weight and strength. He'd have to wear it down. The beast seemed enraged, charging headlong toward him, and as it approached, Morgan was dismayed to see that it had left smoldering black footprints in its wake. Once again, just before the giant salamander got in range, he felt Issa's hand on his back, pushing Energy and her Haste spell into him. He gained focus and speed and saw an opening. He lunged forward and to the left, feinting to the creature's face with his spear while sidestepping, then brought the spear down and around in a loop, jamming it into the salamander's massive torso, right behind its left front leg. The spear bit deeply, and the salamander shrieked, rolling away from him and spinning, bringing its tail around in a vicious sweep. If Morgan hadn't been affected by the Haste spell, he was sure it would have hit him and sent him flying off the bridge into the lava. Luckily he was able to react and hopped over the tail, putting him in a perfect position to activate Backstab and drive the spear twice into the soft flesh to either side of the salamander's lower spine.

Once again, the salamander matron shrieked in rage and pain, spinning to snap at Morgan, but he danced back, avoiding the vast maw. He feinted at the salamander's face with his spear, backpedaling to keep its attention. Just as he'd hoped, Issa used that moment to dart forward and spear the salamander in the soft, fleshy side of its belly. She'd see what its tail could do and was ready, dancing back before the whip-like appendage could slap into her. When the salamander swiped its tail at Issa, its head had turned away from Morgan. He stepped forward and drove the entire length of his spearhead into its neck, just behind its jawline. He immediately ripped the spear free and rolled backward, avoiding a retaliatory claw swipe. By now, the salamander was pouring blood out of several very severe wounds. Its movements were growing more sluggish, and Morgan thought it was over for a moment.

Then, the salamander stopped moving altogether and started to heave. Morgan thought it was about to throw up and die or something, but then he saw that its black skin was beginning to glow brightly in certain areas, and he could see smoke rising from it. It continued to heave and convulse, and the bright glowing spots grew larger. "Run!" he shouted, grabbing Issa's hand and running over the crest of the bridge. They'd made it about halfway down the far slope of the bridge when a tremendous roar tore through the air, and a gust of hot air knocked them to the ground. Morgan and Issa scrambled to their feet and kept running; when they'd cleared the bridge and made it another 50 yards, Morgan looked over his shoulder. He could see a geyser of lava shooting into the air on the far side of the bridge, and droplets of magma were starting to splatter down all over the stonework. He and Issa had narrowly escaped being immolated by the salamander's death throes.

***Congratulations! You've completed a Quest: You've slain the children; now put the mother to rest. Reward: Improved Treasure Box***

Morgan and Issa collapsed to the cobbled street, breathing heavily with fatigue and relief. Just like before, a glowing, blue mist started to gather nearby, swirling together into the form of a blue box. This one was smaller, about eight inches square. After a moment, Morgan looked up with a puzzled expression. "Huh, no Energy from that big salamander?"

"Maybe because it blew itself up?" Issa pondered, rubbing at a red welt on her blue-tinted forehead.

Morgan grunted, struggling to his feet, and helped Issa stand, and, together, they walked over to the box. "You open this one," Issa said.

"Alright." Morgan shrugged and bent over, flipping open the lid of the box. The inside was lined with the familiar silky blue cloth, but this time there weren't any bright orbs floating inside, just what looked like two sticks with paper wrapped around them. It took Morgan a minute to realize he was looking at two scrolls. They looked identical. "Any idea what these are?"

"They're scrolls, but I don't know what might be on them. A skill? A title? I've heard the System conveys rewards through scrolls sometimes." Issa shrugged, and Morgan nodded, reaching into the box and picking up one of the scrolls. Issa grabbed the other.

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained," Morgan said, unrolling the scroll. The page was about a foot long and covered with symbols that didn't mean anything to him. He was staring at them, trying to figure them out when they started to move around on the page. Then they were flowing off the page and streaming into his eyes. It felt similar to when Energy entered his body, a sensation of warmth and a feeling like he understood something, and then he had a notification screen in his vision:

***Congratulations! You've gained an upgrade to your level 10 class selection.***