Standing in the center of the hallway, watching the patrol shuffle slowly away from him, James froze. He had built himself up, but in the moment, was choking.

He waited. Hoping they would just walk away past the door and keep going. But they halted. Just one more meter or two could had made all the difference. But their round ended, and they all stood there for a moment before slowly shuffling in a circle, preparing to return the way they had come.

This was it for James. In his head, he had two options. Do, or die. If he didn't act now, he never would and it would be too late. And he would die. But his body wouldn't respond.

Apparently the fastest of the five, the Komodo Lizard was the first to turn far enough to see him, a petrified standing corpse.

It sprung into action, literally scrabbling over the others in its patrol to turn to James. Not seeing any notable threat, the lizard charged down the hall, pumping its large scaly legs.

Despite the impending doom, James still stood there, desperately thinking of another plan. He had barely a handful of seconds to do anything before the monster would be upon him, and he was wasting it.

"JAMES!"

He heard an agonized cry, and his eyes tore away from the charging reptile to see Dana, anguish painted across her face.

From her perspective, it must have seemed like James had simply given up for no reason and was accepting a likely gory death. And in all rights, he was. He had to admit it to himself.

As his gaze stayed on her face, time seeming to slow, he admitted to himself that he didn't want to fight. Whatever it was that had fuelled him before, a mix of bravado and repressed anger or sheer stupidity, he was all out of it.

But her face was still there.

Dana was still there.

He had to live. Not for himself, he never needed to. He would live for her. She needed him. And maybe, just maybe

Oh shit.

The lizard leapt at him, tearing him away from his epiphany.

A wide jaw, larger than his head grew larger in his vision and he did the only thing he could.

He used his goddamn spear.

James still had his two-handed grip on the spear, but lacking the time to put any effort behind a stab, he just moved the bar to block the gaping maw that was almost upon him. And braced for it.

The impact hit him harder than he thought it would, and was accompanied by the screech of serrated teeth on metal. His greatest concern was to keep that mouth away from himself, and had succeeded at the cost of his balance.

James lurched backwards, barely managing to keep his footing. The lizards sharp claws scraped across his armour, tearing gouges out of the soft wood. He was glad it held until he felt a stab of pain and a ripping sensation on his right shin.

While maintaining the struggle with a surprisingly strong mouth full of teeth, he glanced down and saw a hooked claw stuck in the bottom of a long but shallow cut. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as it looked, and another quick glance told him he had only lost four health. That was nothing. He could handle this thing. What he couldn't handle was the rest of the patrol that was walking back up the hallway towards the struggling couple.

But as they neared the base of the stairs, Dana jumped down with her spear in one hand and an already flaming digit in the other. As she landed, a thin but bright string of fire whipped across the ground, stopping the advancing lizards in their tracks. Another few layers of fire in their path bought them both some valuable seconds.

"Leave them! Get this asshole off me!" James shouted through gritted teeth, the continued pressing onslaught of the lizard almost as tall as him, taking its toll.

Dana wasted no time and ran towards him with her spear tucked close to her, like a lance.

She jammed it as hard as she could in the fleshiest part of the monster, just above its tail.

-17hp

Her decent damage pulled the focus away from James, and the solid bite on his spear loosened a bit. This was enough though to let him shake it off, and he practically threw it into the row of lockers.

-2hp

This move shook Danas spear loose, triggering a low bleeding, but it also pulled the spear from her hands. This left her armed only with a weak fire spell and her own fists.

But Dana had no experience fighting without a spear, and her mana was likely low after the fire she had used earlier.

James knew this was up to him again, but out of the Lizards initial 70 health, it had already lost 19, and would lose another 15 or so from blood loss. All he had to do was do another 35 damage and it would be over.

He could do this. He could do it.

But faced with a rapidly steadying for again, he tried and failed to bring any of his combat skills to light. None of his crafter skills would help. Or would they.

Pound. Pierce.

James swung the sharp end of his spear over his head in one hand and bought it down on the lizard before it could stand again.

-31hp

Yes!

The spear burrowed several inches into the base of the lizard's skull, apparently just missing anything important as there was no notification of a critical hit.

But it wasn't stunned or dazed or anything either. Despite the spear lodged in its head, and still being held by James, it managed to still make an effort.

The lizard hissed, weakening by the second, but still furious. It shot towards the already damaged leg that was just inches away from it, but the movement moved the spear in its head.

The abrupt jolt of movement and the angle that James held the spear resulted in it cutting and cracking into the brain of the lizard, causing it to spasm once then collapse.

-18hp (critical hit)

Despite the pathetically low damage for brain trauma, it killed the lizard and James may yet keep his leg.

Monster Killed

Damage dealt: 51

Exp earnt: 437

Despite not gaining any level notifications, James was proud of what he had achieved. Killing an enemy that was 9 levels above him with only a little assistance was a big deal. And it only cost him four measly health points, and... half of his stamina. Shit.

No wonder the both of them were breathing so heavily after less than 20 seconds of combat.

"Uhhh James?" Dana asked from just outside his field of vision. Sounding not nearly as out of breath as he was.

"Yeah?"

He asked back though he felt he already knew the answer.

"Lizards."

James sighed a little. Then he straightened up again and looked over his shoulder to the hallway.

Just as he expected, the four trapped monsters were trapped no more, and advanced over the lines of still melted linoleum flooring. They seemed cautious, almost as if they were wary of the two tall people who had quickly killed what James could only assume was the leader of the patrol.

The odds were better for James and Dana without the big one. Still not great, but better.

James stepped in front of Dana brandishing his spear. He tried his hardest not to let his fear through, and give off a threatening aura. In the few second he really believed he could alter his aura like that, he was rewarded.

Skill learnt: Threatening ©

Assuming it worked like comforting, he mentally tried to switch it on. The change wasn't noticeable at first, but as the lizards neared him, they began to falter.

"I can hold them back like this for maybe a minute. How much mana will you have by Then."

Dana pushed he spear into his free hand, resulting in him dual wielding.

"Enough. Hopefully."

James nodded and armed with his new setup, brandished both spears at the slowly advancing line.

He heard a whisper of "mana vortex" then muffled moans of discomfort. He trusted her, but he didn't want her to hurt herself needlessly just to save him.

Not 20 seconds later, as James was beginning to falter and the lizards more reckless, Dana acted.

In those 20 seconds, she had sacrificed a quarter of her health and refilled her mana.

She wasted no time in targeting the lizards again, especially the corrosive ones. And in true spellslinger fashion, she drew both her index fingers, pretending they were guns, and unleashed streams of flame on the unguarded lizards.

Three of the four were set a alight immediately and active and passive damage tore through them. Handfuls of damage notifications floated above them, obscuring them from view.

The last lizard not writhing on the floor in pain was a dark lizard, and it leapt through the cloud of white boxes straight at Dana. She didn't have time to raise her hands and push it away. That likely wouldn't work anyway. She was the one staring death in the face now as a burned and pissed off monster flew for her exposed neck.

James reacted faster than he ever had before though, and threw the spear in his right hand as hard as he could. Anything to save her. He would save her.

[ALL OUT]

Faith action: projectile velocity +10%

The spear flew out of his hand, skewering the lizard through its torso, and pinning it to the opposite wall.

-41hp

Though it was impaled and suspended, the lizard didn't die, nor did it even make any impression it was hurt. It likely had such low stats that it was only acting off instinct and little more.

Looking at the three burning Lizards, James saw no threat. They were all almost dead already and were making no progress attempting to prevent it. In another 10 or so seconds, it would be over for them. And also for the struggling dark lizard on the wall. It's thrashing around had torn the wound and it was bleeding heavily, it's lifeblood flowing down the wall.

The three flaming lizards all died at once. Though he had dealt no damage to them, still gained some xp. Likely due to using threatening on them.

Monster Killed

Damage dealt: 0

Exp earnt: 17

Monster Killed

Damage dealt: 0

Exp earnt: 16

Monster Killed

Damage dealt: 0

Exp earnt: 11

James fell to his knees then fell flat as a sudden bout of weakness by him. The efforts of an all-out action had completely depleted his dwindling stamina, and he needed to rest a little.

Dana rushed to him, and fell to her knees, cradling his head in her lap. He barely registered this, his vision blurring a little. What he did feel was tears landing on his face. He looked up at Dana's beautiful face, creased as if in pain and silent tears running down her cheeks.

"Why?" James asked softly, the single word nearly exhausting him.

"I was so scared. I didn't move. Thank you. Thank you so much." Her words were unobstructed by her crying and only spurred fresh tears.

James smiled and slowly lifted his hand to touch her cheek.

"My... pleasure."

The last thing he saw was her smiling through the tears, then his world went dark. The death notification of the last of the patrol going unnoticed.

Monster Killed

Damage dealt: 50

Exp earnt: 300