The sand dragon entered the sand with a splash, though not before Dallion could see its status rectangle. Seventy-nine percent of health remained—not bad for a single attack, although after all the damage bonuses he had hoped for more. Without a doubt this opponent was beyond anything he had faced before.

“Careful.” Gloria landed a few steps away. “It’s bound to come for another run.”

“Right.” He gathered as much. “How did you do so much damage?”

“My attack skills are at ten.”

No doubt impressive, and yet quite low considering the time she’d had to practice. Just by improving small items she should have been well into double digits so far, if not triple. There had to be some other reason.

“I don’t see him anywhere.” Dallion looked around. For the moment there were no green markings in sight. “Think he ran away?”

“Guardians don’t run away,” Gloria said in an indignant tone, though she too looked about. “They shouldn’t run away,” she added moments later.

Just before Dallion could complain that the battle felt anticlimactic, a green zone appeared beneath his feet. Step markers soon followed.

“Damn it!” He started running. “It’s under us!”

There was no way to avoid the attack. All visible escape footprints rose into the air, telling Dallion unequivocally that even with his reflexes, he couldn’t get out of range. What he could do, hopefully, was to end up in a safe enough position to minimize the potential damage.

“Grab onto me!” The boy reached Gloria. “When he emerges, jump!”

“What do you mean?”

There was fear in Gloria’s eyes—a feeling she had rarely felt outside of home. As every common person, hearing an explanation would have gone a long way, sadly any explanation required time and that was something neither of them had right now.

Two sets of teeth, the size of locks, began to emerge from the sand on both sides of Dallion and Gloria. Apparently, the dragon was smart enough not to try the same attack twice. After losing an eye in its first surprise attack, the creature had decided to swallow his prey outright, saving itself attritional wounds. However, every plan had its weakness.

“Jump!” Dallion grabbed the girl through the waist.

There was a moment’s hesitation, but she did as she was told, propelling both upwards faster than the dragon.

So far so good, the boy told himself. The first step had gone according to plan. Now, the tricky part began.

It was all a gamble—Dallion’s reflexes level allowed him to start an action faster than the shrine guardian. He only hoped that Gloria’s perception would allow her to notice what he was about to attempt and react accordingly. A moment’s delay or hesitation and the whole thing was over.

Time froze again, only this time only in the boy’s mind. Gritting his teeth, he twisted in the air, then let go of Gloria, placing his buckler between them.

Please figure it out.

The second stretched for eternity as he watched the girl remain still, doing nothing. Was he wrong about her? Had she frozen up with fear? Or did he overestimate her out of the box thinking. It wasn’t like any other action would have saved him, but he had hoped they could achieve a miracle and pull this off.

Just as he was about to lose hope, Gloria twisted in the air as well. Lifting both legs against her until the knees reached her chest, the girl then extended like a spring. The soles of her shoes hit Dallion’s buckler right in the center, repelling both of them from each other like same pole magnets. It was a reckless idea, absurd even, and it had worked.

OUT OF THE BOX!

Unorthodox thinking at a moment’s notice!

A rectangle appeared, only to be punched away by Dallion. As much as he liked praise, right now he wanted to be able to actually see what was going on.

The dragon flew up, just as Dallion evaded its giant maw. Somehow, he had managed to survive this one. Hopefully, Gloria had done so as well. Given that she was lighter than him—or at least he assumed that to be the case—physics suggested that she must have travelled a greater distance, putting her safely out of danger. The red rectangle that appeared moments later confirmed his theory.

COMBINATION ATTACK

Dealt damage was increased by 200%

CRITICAL STRIKE

Dealt damage was increased by 150%

Sweet! Dallion grinned.

That had to be another large chunk of life gone. The first thing he was going to do upon landing was to check the dragon’s status rectangle. Before that, though, he had to worry about getting as little damage as possible. Alas for him, gravity—or the ground for that matter—proved not to be an enemy, rendering the boy’s guard skills useless.

SERIOUS FALL!

Health has been decreased by 20%

“Twenty for a bump?” Dallion groaned.

The pain had been less than he had imagined, almost as if he’d fallen on a pile of hay after a three-story jump. His pride, on the other hand, had suffered far more. The gamer in him grumbled that he should have managed a flawless execution and not botch the landing especially.

Wasting no time, the boy got back to his feet and looked up. The dragon had already reached the peak of its ascent, starting the fall back down towards the sand. Normally that would be a cause for concern. The lack of green markers, though, made it clear that no attack was imminent.

“Dallion!” Gloria’s voice came from above.

The girl hit the sand about ten steps away, landing far more elegantly than Dallion. The entire front of her clothes had been splashed with rusty blood.

I hope that comes out, the boy thought as he waved.

“Are you crazy?” She rushed towards him. “Why in the world did you try something like that?!”

“It worked.” Dallion shrugged. “It’s not like you came up with anything. Besides, you got another hit. Now all we have to do is repeat this a few more times and—”

The SHRINE Guardian has admitted defeat.

Do you accept his surrender?

Two additional rectangles appeared underneath: one had the image of a hand giving a thumbs up, the other had the thumb pointing down. Gloria’s hand moved towards the thumb down rectangle.

“Hey!” Dallion caught her hand. “Why continue? We won, didn’t we?”

“You came here for more skills, right? Defeating the guardian is the only way to guarantee that.”

“We defeated it. Look, he surrendered.”

“Fine.” Gloria pulled her hand back. “I’m sure to boost my level. If you want to gamble with your future, go ahead.”

Was killing the dragon the only way to gain a skill? Dallion couldn’t be sure, but he definitely didn’t want to keep on fighting the creature unless he had to. Continuing the battle would only become more difficult. Already he felt low on stamina; combining that with the fact that his adrenalin boost was wearing off, it made much more sense to accept a quick victory.

After a few more moments of hesitation, the boy tapped on the thumbs up rectangle. A new series of rectangles appeared.

“Damn it…” Dallion whimpered.