The instant Dallion squeezed the trigger, the guardian shifted to the side. The creature was fast, not the clunky motion that Dallion had expected. The bolt flew wide by half a foot, but that didn’t matter. While it would have been nice if the golem had taken another hit, Dallion’s main goal was to get closer.

Three green shield markers appeared. Instinct made Dallion choose to place his buckler in the one to the back. This time he was lucky. The Guardian’s fist smashed against the small shield, pushing him to the side.

Follow through, Dallion thought.

Forcing his body to remain standing, he followed the set of green steps to completion. A second series of steps appeared. Apparently, the guardian wasn’t planning on a single attack either. Dallion could see lines emerge from the golem’s body, spreading in all directions like a pincushion. Each of those was a jet of water, and each would take considerable effort to avoid. At this point it would be much safer to take advantage of the time slow and shoot off the golem’s arm. Dallion, though, continued with the next set of green markers.

“Just a little more,” he spun and stretched as if following an obscure nineties break-dance. Jets of water flew past him like spears, none of them making contact.

Another time slow occurred, bring with it a new set of green footprints. Two more and Dallion would be able to use his escape attack cheat. It had worked against a level five guardian, certainly it would against a level three. Dallion, however, had already decided not to use it. Not only wasn’t it fair but also it wouldn’t do more damage in the long term. The village chief had already shown that there were ways to negate it. As Dallion’s father back on Earth had said: if you can rely on something, don’t.

The third set complete, Dallion took advantage of the guard skills bonus to leap closer to the guardian, then he fired two bolts at its arm. This time there was contact.

CRITICAL WOUND!

Dealt Damage increased by 200%!

ARM SEVERED

Enemy will no longer be able to make use of its RIGHT ARM

Yes! That took care of the strongest attack the golem had. It was all water jets from here on… or maybe not.

Barely had time returned to normal, when the guardian rushed at Dallion. The sudden role reversal caught the boy unprepared. Without its massive ranged attacks, the golem had no choice to engage in close combat.

Dallion could see three instances of his enemy rushing towards him. In each, both watery arms of the golem transformed into blades striking at him. In one instance, they went for his head, in two more they slashed through his torso.

Three choices, Dallion thought as defense markers appeared once more. Three choices. There was no time to defend against all. His chances of success were one in three—not terrible odds, considering this world. However, there was one option that guaranteed a hundred percent victory. Dallion lowered his buckler arm, raising the dartbow straight in front of him.

“Stop!” he shouted.

The golem did, freezing in place less than two steps from the boy. Even so, an exchange of blows continued in Dallion’s mind. He could see the golem try to attack him in a multitude of ways: direct pierce, evade and strike, point blank range water jet attack, even a rock attack with its last remaining rock limb. In some cases wound rectangles emerged, in others not, but in all Dallion ended being the winner.

“Draw?” Dallion offered.

The guardian shook his head.

The WELL guardian has admitted defeat.

Do you accept his surrender?

“I’m fine with a draw,” Dallion said. “You won the previous battle, after all. Now we’re even.” Not to mention Dallion had a new weapon and some new prediction ability. That certainly hadn’t been there before. Maybe it had something to do with his full awakening?

The WELL guardian has admitted defeat.

Do you accept his surrender?

“You’re stubborn, aren’t you?” Dallion smiled. “You’re sure about this?”

The guardian nodded. As during their last meeting, Dallion accepted the offer.

The rectangle burst into dust. Along with it, the golem did the same. There was a bright flash of light, blinding Dallion for a while. When he regained his senses, the guardian was in front of him again, only now it was a new guardian.

WELL level increased

The WELL has been improved to FOUNTAIN WELL

A whole fountain? Beat that, Gloria and Veil.

There was no indication of a skill increase, sadly. Seemed like the level ten cap held even now.

OATH KEEPER

Keeping a promise brings its own reward. Sometimes it might be from your future, sometimes from your past.

That was an unexpected achievement. Dallion had gotten the gist of them, but in the past all achievements had increased some of his stats. In this case the description was vaguer than usual, or rather the promised reward was.

Good thing I came back. To be honest, when Dallion had returned he hadn’t expected a reward. A few seconds later he saw that wasn’t the only thing he didn’t expect.

“Mreow?” A black puma cub poofed into existence before him. Slightly larger than a cat, it was the same creature he had petted out of existence when he had mended the well. Of all the well cracks, that had been the only creature that hadn’t attacked him.

COMPANION – CRACKLING CUB

You have gained a Level 1 companion!

While still young, the crackling is loyal and will always follow you both in the real and in any awakened world. The crackling will guard your awakening room, or attack any enemy you command in an awakening realm.

In addition, it can create cracks on objects in the real world. The size of the crack depends on the crackling’s level.

“You gotta be kidding.” Dallion laughed. “I just got a kitten?”

The creature’s appearance was the same as he had remembered it: a black silhouette of a feline with eyes, teeth, and claws. There was no denying that it looked cute, though. Recognizing Dallion as its master, the creature leapt up, landing on his shoulder.

“Hey, there.” Dallion reacted. While he could feel the cracklin’s paws, it didn’t have any weight, as if a shadow was sitting on him.

Oh, boy. This will take a bit of getting used to…