Sarah lunged at Jack, with the butt of her spear pointing forward instead of the tip. Jack evaded her thrust a few seconds before it would make impact, before slamming it aside harshly with the flat of his sword. The spear violently jerked to the left, while Sarah still managed to maintain a grip, her tempo was disturrbed. Jack took that moment to press forward, running parallel to the spear with very little distance separating him from it– knowing that the moment he’d walked past her weapon’s effective range, victory was his. Jack stood in front of a panting Sarah, raising his left hand and delivering a harmless, mock chop on her neck to mimic a sword’s strike.

“Damn it,” Sarah hissed under her breath, retracting the spear with a frustrated expression on her face.

“A spear is a simple enough weapon to use, but you have to remember— don’t overextend yourself, because once I get past it you have no way to parry,” Jack explained, finding himself surprised at how quickly Sarah’s mental state had improved after he gave her a purpose and some training. Sarah had volunteered to pulse fifteen minutes ago, so Jack felt no immediate compulsion to change locations.

“How?” She asked curiously, previous frustration melting away— she hadn’t been frustrated at Jack, but her own lack of experience.

“If your opponent is stronger than you, you can send out light and fast probing thrusts instead of investing all your momentum in one attack,” Jack explained patiently, finding it almost cathartic when he realized how valuable his training with medieval weapons had become in a world without the internet. “Remember, your goal is to survive. That doesn’t always involve incapacitating the enemy, and a spear can be very efficient at keeping hostiles away. Though conversely, if someone comes at you with intention to kill and you see an opening…. you can’t be merciful, Sarah,” Jack added with a sigh, knowing that she would offer protest against his statement.

Sarah just remained silent, her face tensing up- no doubt recalling the memory of Andrew being struck down with one solitary blow, dead before he hit the ground.

“I’m… I’m not sure if I can,” she replied, her eyes unable to make contact with Jack’s own— perhaps out of shame, or embarrassment.

“Look, Sarah,” Jack exhaled, taking a pause as he searched for the right words within. Sarah firmed her resolve as she looked him in the eyes, at least willing to hear his words before making a decision.

“If someone charges at you with an intention to kill, it doesn’t matter why they’re doing it. All that you need to remember is that they want to take everything you have away from you, everything that matters- every hope, every dream, every ambition you’ve ever had, all ruthlessly severed, permanently. Except one thing— leaving behind your father, alone and broken, to grieve over the death of his daughter. Are you going to let them?” Jack whispered the last words with a scathing intensity, and for a moment Sarah could imagine it— the luminescent glowing blue arrow arcing through the air, blazing forth gloriously— impaling her right in the throat without even giving her time to react. Her hollow, wide eyes watched on with shock as she toppled over her own weight, blood pooling out from her neck and falling onto the ground. Jack gazed with a haunted expression on his face from the side as she lost all feeling in her body, before she hit the ground with a wet thump, before everything went dark.

Her grip over her spear tightened, gripping it so hard that her knuckles went while. Visualizing the scene of her death didn’t bring her fear, as she imagined, but instead she felt a red-hot anger bubbling up in her gut. Righteous indignation coursing through her body, she asked herself if she would, no rather, if she could allow herself to sympathize for someone who was trying to take her very existence, if she could allow herself to be merciful in that situation.

“No,” she replied, her voice echoing forth with iron-hot determination, a steely look in her eyes as she stared back at Jack with new-found resolve.

Jack nodded, but his expression changed immediately after. Raising his index finger to his lips in a gesture that indicated silence, he silently cast [Qi Pulse] with a gentle tap of his foot. He mouthed the word ‘follow’, only for Sarah to nod in affirmative. He dropped down to a crouching position, slowly moving forward while keeping his head down and sword at the ready.

Jack avoided stepping on any dead branches, and took special care to avoid patches of shrubbery– moving from tree to tree as much as possible, minimizing his sound footprint. Sarah thankfully seemed to catch on, emulating Jack’s actions as much as she found possible while ensuring her spear didn’t drag on the ground and give away their position. Holding it sideways while crouching was a bit uncomfortable, but her increased stats meant that she couldn’t be considered as an average human any longer.

Ten minutes had passed as they slowly inched forward behind cover, when Jack raised his left hand up and made a 'halt' gesture.

Jack craned his neck, peering from behind a fairly dense bush, before dropping his head back down. He waved his hand at Sarah, gesturing for her to look for herself. She moved gingerly, positioning herself adjacent to Jack before taking a quick peek. Her eyes widened and she took a sharp breath, before Jack tugged at her hand she let him pull her back into cover.

Roughly seven or eight meters away from them, two green-skinned humanoid creatures that were perhaps four and a half feet tall when standing, with a long pointy nose, ovular shaped skull, murky brown eyes and the only accessory on their person two identical necklaces made out of small animal bones, likely squirrels or birds. They wore what Jack could only describe as brown rags- dirty, ragged and even torn at places, both of them seated around a campfire. A slab of meat lay affixed to their makeshift wooden spit, slowly cooking under heat.

The one on the left had a small dagger resting on the floor next to it, while the other one that was situated in front of Jack had a short spear that it loosely kept under its grip.

“Aliens,” Sarah lightly whispered under her breath, her gaze transfixed by what she had seen. It was one thing to be told they were coming, but actually seeing them was a different experience— even though they resembled human physiology, it was an existence that had never been on this planet before. She felt her stomach squirm at the thought of fighting those humanoid creatures, but she hadn’t forgotten about the [Elixir of Life]. It was they that had invaded her home, not the other way around— and it was time she acted like it.

Jack observed the goblins for signs of movements, but fortunately their ears didn’t seem to be that sensitive— if they were, they would never have gotten this far trying to sneak up on them to begin with.

Lv. 3 Goblin [Spearwielder] detected.

Lv. 3 Goblin [Assassin] detected.

“Can you spear charge the right one?” Jack whispered in Sarah’s ear, so faintly that there was no way for the aliens to overhear.

“The one with the spear?” Sarah whispered back in Jack’s ear, and Jack could feel the determination in her voice.

“Yes. I don’t have enough reach to charge it, if it manages to put up a defense in time I’ll have to fall back.” He explained, intending to finish the two in one, clean attack.

“Do we… Are you sure attacking is the right move?” Sarah questioned, because up until now all their actions were taken in self-defense. Now, they were actively seeking out trouble, and she wasn’t sure if it was the right move.

“Sarah…,” Jack whispered, looking into her eyes as if he were trying to take a peek into her soul. “If we want to survive, we need to take the initiative. The way this trial is structured, those who take the initiative will be rewarded with power, but those who run from challenges… will eventually end up dying. Deep down, you know it's true.”

That seemed to be enough for Sarah, who tightened her grip on the spear and nodded. Jack gestured, and they exchanged positions, their targets clear enough— Jack would take the assassin, and Sarah the spear wielder.

“Three…,” Jack whispered under his breath, muscles taut and ready to explode in a burst of momentum.

“Two…, One….Go!” Jack felt Sarah move forth, and intentionally timed himself to move half a second later to account for time lag between him giving out the order and Sarah acting on it.

Both of them charged in unison, each having eyes for their own target. The Goblin Assassin was the first to detect their presence, shouting out a warning in a language that sounded like gibberish to Jack when only four meters separated them.

The goblin snapped back up onto its feet with surprising ease, its light build giving it far more flexibility than a human– but Jack had used that time to advance by a meter. Jack felt a pulse pass through him and he let out a small smile— Sarah was many things, but she was not one to lose composure in combat. He himself didn’t use a pulse, opting to conserve his Qi. As soon as only a single meter separated them, Jack cast [Qi Blade] and slashed out, aiming to take the [Goblin’s] head off in a single blow.

Jack almost froze from shock when he saw the trademark blue glow of his [Qi Blade] appear on the [Goblin’s] long dagger, a screeching sound echoing out when the two Qi empowered blades collided, sparks flying everywhere. Jack slightly retracted his blade and slashed from a different angle, feeling his Qi deplete every second he extended the battle, but the [Goblin] managed to parry this slash too, albeit with struggle.

Jack decided to change his tempo, taking a step back and using his 6’3 reach advantage to slash at its exposed right leg instead— this time, his [Qi Blade] struck true, lacerating the [Goblin’s] leg in one clean strike, causing the creature to let out a soul-piercing shriek that almost disoriented Jack as it fell to the ground, dagger falling out of its hands.

Jack moved forward and slammed his sword down into its exposed abdomen, feeling a wave of nausea flow through him as the creature’s green, viscous blood sprayed all over his leather armor.

Panting, he swiveled his head to the right only to see Sarah’s spear embedded in the [Goblin’s] abdomen, Qi dissipating from its own short spear as it fell to the ground— the creature’s brown eyes looked at Sarah helplessly, and from her trembling arms it was obvious that she felt discomfort at that sight. Soon those eyes went limp, and Jack knew the creature had perished.