Jas returned to the small room and set up his wards. Even with just three stakes, he managed to cover over half the room. Once he was sure the wards were in place, he removed his armor again. Annoying as it was to put it all on just to take it off, Jas wasn't going to take any chances when a mole monster could show up at any ti. He took a pick-axe out of the magic bag and set to work on the vein of Green Iron Ore he had spotted the day before.
Pick
Pick
Pick
In what felt like re minutes, Jas was finished. He finished storing the ore away and his hearing readjusted to the quiet enough to hear it.
Rustle rustle
Rustle rustle
Rustle squeak rustle
More bats. He squinted in the dim light and saw two, no, three of the bats flying irregularly in the half of the room that wasn't warded. Jas decided to take his ti and observe the bats, as best he could, from within the wards, to see if they would ever just go away.
After two hours of waiting, and a snack of dried at, the monsters continued flying about near the edge of the ward. They didn't even stop to land, just flying incessantly. Bored of waiting, for the Smith was still a young man barely out of childhood at this point, Jas donned his armor and readied his Green Iron War Hamr in his right hand and his Green Iron Tower Shield in his left. The tal stakes that ford the ward were as close to the walls as possible, so he didn't expect to step on them during the fight. He tapped the nearest one with his right foot, withdrawing the magic that empowered the ward back into himself, and shuffled a few yards away from the stake, once again setting himself with his back to the wall and hamr raised, ready to strike.
In the space of two breaths, which was how long it took for Jas to set himself, the bats were upon him.
Thud
Thud
Thud thud thud
Thud thud
The bats were even more aggressive today than yesterday's had been, with nary a mont between their attacks. But they were all futile. Only one hit his helt and that must have been on accident, because the rest seed focused on his shield.
Jas took a deep breath, readied his hamr, and struck.
[Technique: Hamr Strike]
[Rapid Blow]
Whiff
Going all out from the outset, Jas used the enchantnt from the start of his swing, swinging as fast as he could to try to knock one of the bats out of the air. He was so close! But the bat had dodged out of the path of the strike at the last possible mont, contorting around the path of his swing.
Unlike the previous day, missing his strike didn't pull Jas off balance. The [Rapid Blow] enchantnt only increased the speed of his swings, not their total montum. It was similar to how the [Heavy Blow] didn't increase the montum of the hamr swings themselves, just the force of their impacts. So in this case, despite swinging faster, Jas was able to maintain the sa form and control over his weapon, which was also significantly lighter than his Earth War Hamr.
Jas swung again.
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Whiff
Again.
Whiff
Each ti, the bat he was targeting dodged the strike at the last mont.
Jas stopped. This wasn't working. Sure, he could probably keep this up and get lucky like he had with the shovel, and he could always pull out the shovel if necessary, but he really wanted to knock the annoying bats out of the air with his hamr. He hunkered down behind his shield and thought, channeling mana into the [Reflect] enchantnt all the while, though it did nothing to the bats.
Thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud…
He tried to rember any of his wise mother's advice about fighting multiple enemies, but nothing he rembered applied to a slow, armored fighter like himself.
Then he rembered his discussion with ridox, the only other Enchanter he had ever t.
"...in general it's better for the particulars of an Enchantnt to remain a secret. They act as more of a trump card that way. An unexpected application of Haste in a swordfight, even if it's only a fifty percent Haste, is more valuable than a one hundred percent Haste that the opponent knows about."
Lacking any better ideas, Jas decided to try it. He stood again, catching a bat strike to the helt for his trouble, and readied his hamr. For his first swing, he didn't use the enchantnt at all, just swung as fast as he could naturally.
The bat dodged with ease.
Again and again he swung, and then he saw it.
The bats were still dodging, but they had started waiting until the last mont to do so.
The bats were getting complacent.
Jas readied himself, and swung, intending to activate [Rapid Blow] in the middle of the swing to catch the bat off guard-
Whiff
His enchantnt activation was too slow. Although the mana inside him felt ward up and moving, it was still too slow to activate the enchantnt in the fraction of a second between starting his swing and when he would hit the bat if successful.
Jas stopped channeling his mana into his shield. [Reflect] wasn't doing anything, and his mana was already ward up. It was just still heavy and slow.
Jas settled into a rhythm. He would take a swing and try to activate [Rapid Blow] at the last possible mont, trying to get the timing right.
At first, every whiff was an insult to Jas' pride. He hated each miss, each error, each weakness it demonstrated to the world. He felt sorry for himself, and angry at himself, thinking if only he had chosen a combat class like his parents said, if only… if only… if only…
But after a ti, still in the rhythm of his attempts, with ti for his mind to wander, he realized that all those negative emotions weren't helping him do what he needed to do.
Those emotions were still there.
He was still feeling them.
But he decided they didn't matter.
So he let them go.
And once he had let go of that resentnt towards his situation and his past decisions, he went ahead and let go of the his wounded pride from each miss.
He decided that missing didn't matter either.
All that mattered was lining up his next hamr swing and activating [Rapid Blow] even an instant faster.
Over and over.
Crunch
Jas almost didn't register the sensation of his hamr actually striking sothing, the subtle vibrations in the hamr as delicate bat bones were pulverized as his strike smashed into a bat wing. An instant later Jas heard the crunch, and he saw the bat fall to the ground and writhe in pain, squeaking. It wasn't dead, but it wasn't going anywhere.
Thud thud… Thud thud… Thud thud…
The other bats paid their fallen comrade no mind and continued attacking Jas' Tower Shield.
At first Jas chalked it up to luck that he'd hit that bat, and tried to settle into the rhythm again.
Whiff whiff whiff crunch
Whiff crunch
But it was over. He'd gotten the hang of it.
[Technique: Hamr Strike] has reached level 3.
[Enchanter] Class Skill [Mana Manipulation] has reached level 3.
[Enchanter] Class Skill [Enchantnt Activation] has been acquired.
Jas half-collapsed back against the wall, panting. All the fatigue, physical and ntal, washed over him all at once.
The sounds of heavy breathing and squeaking continued for so ti until, abruptly, silence returned to the caves.
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