Chapter 16: New Tools

**Ding! General Skill Available! Would you like to learn: Block (Common)?**

“Yes!” Kaius thought, accepting the notification instantly. With a grunt of fury he dug his feet into the ground, regaining his collapsing defence. He flicked his sword, catching the incoming blow of the undeads blade and turning it away in a textbook parry.

The footman brought its arming sword once more, mouth hanging open to reveal blackened nubs and sore ridden gums as it swung at him in mindless fury. Kaius was ready, his blade moving smoothly to arrest the undead’s swing. A twist of his wrist sent the arming sword skitting down the spine of his sword, safely sailing past him.

Getting frustrated at its impotent offence, the undead footman flew into a harried flurry of blows. As uncoordinated as it was, its bodily power lent a furious speed to its swings. It took all of Kaius’s skill to maintain his defensive stance, giving ground as the assault forced him back.

His parries lost all ornamentation, all unnecessary flourishes falling beneath the simplicity of a simple economy of movement. The moment came when the undead tried to go for a decisive stab to his chest. Kaius transitioned from a mid-guard to a high one, the body of his blade catching the incoming assault and drawing it towards the canopy above.

The clang of clashing swords was matched with an unmistakable ring that echoed through his mind.

**Ding! General Skill Available! Would you like to learn: Parry (Common)?**

Kaius accepted the offered skill without hesitation, pushing the undead back with a boot to its chest. He stepped back, creating distance from his opponent even as the undead tripped over the burnt logs of the fire that dominated the centre of the cleared camp.

His sword drifted down into the fool’s guard, its point almost touching the ground.

“This is where it starts to get a little dicey.” He thought to himself in grim determination.

The undead scrambled to its feet, hasty in its desire to see him dead. Turning back towards him, the footsoldier tightened its grip on its sword before racing at him with a charge.

It stabbed toward him.

Kaius left his sword unmoving, watching the point of his opponent’s blade with razor sharp focus. At the last moment, his leading foot twisted into the leaf litter with a slight crunch. He twisted at the hips allowing the attack to sail past him with less than a hand span to spear. The undead still came barreling towards him, unable to get its momentum under control.

He stepped back, allowing the creature to trip over his outstretched leg. It went careening past, impacting a trunk with a glorious clatter. A guffaw escaped Kaius’s lips, unable to suppress his mirth as the sight.

Backing towards the centre to ensure ample space to move, Kaius watched the undead right itself before it rushed once more towards him. It chopped, an easy side step all he needed to bring himself out of harm’s way.

The footman’s failed blow transitioned into a wild unbalanced cut, one that Kaius avoided with a back step. He began to walk around their arena, focusing on minimising the movement required to avoid a blow. Despite the incensed savagery with which the withered undead pursued him, it still failed to make a sound. Its lack of expression irritated Kaius. Battle was supposed to be a hot-blooded thing. At this point he was basically fighting a doll.

A light slide brought him out of the way of a stab. He retaliated with one of his own, stepping forward out of his fools guard to impale the undead through the chest. Nothing that would really injure the thing. He doubted it would even slow it down, but it was a necessary step.

He pulled his sword free before the undead could run up its length, pivoting on his front foot to allow the footman to race past him as it prepared for another blow. A stutter step forward brought him back into range and the point of his sword cleanly pierced between the undead’s ribs.

It whirled on him, widening the wound, black blood beginning to seep into the loamy floor. It lashed out with a savage chop.

Kaius stepped into its guard, raising his fist to slam his pommel into its jaw. Bone shattered, and its expression grew even more feckless as its mouth hung free.

Arms raised to wrap him into a fatal hug. Kaius danced back, escaping the attempted grapple.

The footman quickly abandoned that tactic, lunging towards him with another thrust. Calm movements avoided the blow, carrying him forwards to deliver another heavy pommel strike to the creature’s skull.

A chime resounded through his mind as he danced back out of reach

**Ding! General Skill Available! Would you like to learn: Footwork (Uncommon)?**

A wild grin split Kaius’s focused expression, and he took a moment to mop at the sweat that had been beading at his brow with his off hand.

“Just one more now. Though probably the most dangerous.” He was not looking forward to the wash he would need after this. Things were about to get messy.

He let the undead charge towards him once more, watching the savage cut that scythed towards his midsection. Kaius turned with the blow, allowing the undead’s sword to part his flesh, cutting a line of leaking fire across his ribs. He hissed at the pain, an uncomfortable itch already spreading across the wound.

His turn had saved him from true injury. Yet even minor flesh wounds still hurt.

A stab was deflected with a warding forearm, the flat off the blade leaving a stinging welt as it smacked it with his exposed flesh. The undead brought its sword back around, swinging it over its head into a heavy chop.

Kaius danced backwards, another shallow cut on his chest welling up with blood. Painting him red and revealing where he had allowed the undead blade to strike him. Individually each wound was a minor thing, but slowly they stacked up. A dozen shallow flesh wounds staining his pale skin a bright carmine. His Health leaked free, surging into the wounds to seal flesh. Sweat mixed with congealed blood, pale pink rivulets cutting tracks through the gorey veneer.

The undead seemed to notice the change in the battle, its swings coming faster and more wild with every stroke. Second by second Kaius’s miniscule Health pool dipped lower.

His body moved with every strike that the undead made. Twisting and pulling, only ever allowing its sword the slightest purchase on his flesh. Minimising wounds so that they left him unhampered, the only danger a slow creeping risk of blood loss.

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Even without his Health he would be able to fight unhampered. Which was a lucky thing, as he had to keep this up beyond what his pool could sustain.

Finally the dreadful full body itch of his regeneration abated, its store of power fully spent. Kaius continued his macabre dance with the undead.

A quick cut nicked his shoulder, followed closely by another to his palm as he slapped away a stab. His chest was riddled with the evidence of a dozen close calls. He could feel the exhaustion creeping up on him, more than the physical exertion his stamina could fuel. Each slow drip of red from his body felt like another hour he had gone without sleep. Another hour spent running at a full clip.

Finally, it happened.

Finally, he got the notification he had been waiting for.

**Ding! General Skill Available! Would you like to learn: Toughened Physique (Rare)?**

“Yes!”

His breath came in great heaving gasps, but it did not stop him from drawing in a breath and screaming at the undead full in the face. He was so goddamn tired of letting the monster whale on him like he was a training doll, regardless if it was of his own volition.

He had been watching the undead for what felt like hours, dissecting the way it moved. The mindless swordplay it leveraged against him. Everything.

It may as well have been as undefended as a free standing stick.

**Ding! Explorers Toolkit has reached level 2!**

For the first time in a long time his sword flew from the fool’s guard, circling up before he sliced towards the undead’s undefended knee with his full body weight behind the blow. Enchanted steel cut through desiccated skin and brittle cartilage, separating the extremity from its body. The undead pitched forwards, unresponsive to the grievous wound it had just endured.

Even as it fell it tried to get one last clumsy slash in. Kaius batted the blade out of the undead’s weakened grip, sending it spinning off into the undergrowth. The footman hit the ground with a dull thump.

Without standing on ceremony he drove his sword point clean through the back of its skull.

**Ding! level 17 Undead Armsman slain**

Kaius stood over the corpse, chest rising and falling rhythmically with his heavy breaths. Absent-mindedly he wiped as his chest, smearing clotted blood with the fresh rivulets that spilled from his open wounds.