Jen eyed the oversized goblin across the pit. It stared back, making no move to attack. She tightened her grip on her sword. For once she didn’t mind waiting. The longer it took the more chance her allies would have to recover and lend a hand.

A goblin head appeared over the lip of the pit. Jen rushed forward and swung. The creature fell back before her sword could connect.

She looked up and found the leader ten feet away and closing fast. She rushed to meet it.

Sword met claw and despite her enhanced strength Jen couldn’t force it back. Though she wanted to conserve energy for the long fight, she couldn’t win like this.

When a clawed hand appeared on the lip of the pit Jen abandoned all caution and tapped her full power. The goblin leader went flying one way and Jen ran the other, severing the claw and sending the goblin tumbling back down.

She spun back in time to see the leader back on its feet. Jen raced toward it at lightning speed.

Even at her maximum speed it managed to leap clear of her slash. It clung to the side of a half-ruined tower.

Jen leapt after it. Her sword cut a gash in the stone, missing the leader by inches.

The goblin fell back to the ground.

Jen followed, always seeming half a step behind no matter how fast she moved. She had to accelerate beyond lightning speed. Surpass her father.

She shifted power from her iron skin to her legs. The world blurred even further as she raced toward her opponent.

It raised a scaled arm.

Her sword struck. Somehow it stopped the blow without losing its arm.

In the instant she was stopped it countered, cutting four shallow groves in her abdomen. Jen winced and wrenched her sword free of its scales.

She’d made a crease, but it didn’t look serious. Blood soaked her shirt, but she didn’t dare use a drop of power on healing. She was barely holding her own as it was.

Movement caught her eye. Jen darted over and beheaded a goblin that had almost cleared the rim of the pit.

The leader screamed. Did it actually care about its minions? That would certainly be unusual.

It charged her again. Jen raced to meet it. In a blinding exchange sword and claw came together. She dodged and slashed, it blocked with armored forearms, clawed and kicked at her.

Neither could land a decisive blow. Jen’s soul force was getting dangerously low and her opponent showed no sign of slowing.

A shimmer in the darkness caught her eye as a lid formed on the pit. Jen risked a glance back. Kat and Amanda were sitting up. Amanda gave her a thumbs up.

Jen grinned. Now that she didn’t have to divide her focus she’d see just how good the monster was.

They came together. Openings appeared before Jen’s eyes that she hadn’t noticed before. She nicked its cheek, sliced off an ear, and gashed its inner thigh where the scales stopped.

It leapt away. Jen thought she saw fear in it for the first time.

She gave it no chance to recover. The tip of her sword darted in and out like a mongoose. Blood appeared everywhere there wasn’t scales.

Narrow yellow eyes now stared at her wide and scared.

That’s right, you son of a bitch, you’d better be scared.

Jen thrust at its throat. It dodged, but she adjusted the tip of her sword at the last second. Her sword went into its eye and burst out the back of its head.

She hurled the corpse aside and fell to her knees, totally drained.

“Are you okay, young lady?” Professor Dorius helped her wobble to her feet.

“Fine. Just need to catch my breath.”

He nodded, clearly not believing a word she said. He was wise not to. Her legs barely held her up and her sword felt like it weighed twenty pounds. Perhaps this was why her father never went beyond lightning speed. The aftereffects were brutal.

The professor guided her to a flat rock where she sat, grateful to be off her feet. Kat came over and healed the wounds on her stomach.

“That was foolish, taking power from your defense,” Kat said.

“Yeah, but it worked. I doubt I’d have beaten that thing otherwise.”

“Master?” Amanda’s voice held a note of concern.

Behind Kat, Jen spotted a goblin trying to force its way through the lid. “I’ll be okay. Deal with those goblins before they escape.”

Dealing with them was a simple if brutal process. While Amanda maintained the barrier around the lip of the pit, Kat used a six-foot chunk of fallen stalactite like a battering ram. The pointed end went up and down over and over. Jen stopped counting after twenty impacts.

When nothing remained moving in the pit the four of them hastened away. No one wanted to remain near the bloody opening.