Dokeshi March ~ 6!

Grant and Suki were at a loss regarding what to do with Phil’s body, so they simply moved to the room across the hall to get some rest. It had been a long day, and things looked like they would only get worse. This entire District was more than either of them had been expecting. They took turns getting sleep, with only a few mild complaints from Suki about the accommodations. She was used to living in spartan conditions, after all: she had long ago given up all accoutrements of wealth willingly.

“Wake up!” Not long after Grant had finally fallen asleep, a tap on his shoulder woke him. Sleeping in armor was far from comfortable, and he had yet to fall into a deep slumber. Suki hissed loudly into his ear, jolting him fully awake. “There’s something in the room with Phil.”

They shuffled over to the door, peeking out into the hallway. Grant muttered, “It sounds like slurping?”

He tiptoed over to see for himself, trying his best to keep the rattling of his armor to a minimum. The sounds of grunting and fabric tearing reached his ears, and he poked his head around the doorframe, squinting to see in the dim moonlight. In a shaft of light passing through the broken roof, he could faintly make out the back of a furred creature the size of a large dog hunched over the corpse in the room across the narrow hallway. A hairless tail swirling through the coagulated blood on the splintered floorboards told him it was no dog.

Instantly disgusted, Grant drew his uchigatana; the righteous ring of steel echoed into the dilapidated building. Phil didn’t deserve to have his corpse desecrated by some monster. With a jumping slide, the sword plunged into the back of the giant rat feasting on the innards of the recently dead.

The creature let loose a screech that set his ears ringing, and he whipped his sword free of the dying beast. Before he could turn to speak to Suki, his vision filled with the already reviled combat screen.

Combat initiated

Action: Attack With Weapon

Result: First opponent defeated

Opponents remaining: 22

Actions: Please select one option from the following list

Attack: Lethal, Non-lethal, Spell

Defend: With Weapon, Without Weapon

Run: Attempt Escape

“What?” Grant was confused, clearly not prepared for more than one enemy. The creak of the wooden floor behind him forced him to spin around to confront the approaching mischief. There was a missing floorboard, and a steady stream of the monsters had begun pouring through the gap into the small room.

<Well, I guess it was a good thing we did that training, huh?>

The swarm of rats rushed Grant, who hurriedly selected to defend with his weapon. The next few seconds were a flurry of activity that left him heaving and exhausted. The strain of trying to strike with his sword made his arms ache with the effort. Whatever was enforcing the turns made it impossible for him to make any move that might be interpreted as offense, and his reflexes were fighting it.

Unfortunately for Grant, the rats must have had plenty of practice fighting in the odd style the district enforced. They had timed their attacks so he could only block one or two attackers, leaving him open to the sharp teeth of their putrid brethren. They were abnormally adept at finding the gaps in his armor, and the runnels of blood covering his legs and lower back accompanied a stream of damage notifications that stormed through his vision.

The swarm contained monsters; that much was easy to tell by the sheer fact that they were able to deal damage to his body.

At least he had given as good as he had received. The bodies of six more rats joined the first, and now it was Grant’s turn. He aimed for the larger ones, hoping that they were the monsters.

Action: Defend With Weapon

Result: Seven opponents defeated

Opponents remaining: 39

Actions: Please select one option from the following list

Attack: Lethal, Non-lethal, Spell.

Defend: With Weapon, Without Weapon.

Run: Attempt Escape.

“Hold on, Grant!” Suki finally made her presence known by sweeping into the room in a storm of limbs and metal-coated fists. The whirlwind attack left another eight furry corpses on the ground. Her arrival meant he could no longer use his spell without injuring her as well, and she had disrupted the turn-based system, giving the rats another chance to attack. Suki was unprepared for the swarm of teeth and claws that assaulted her, and her lack of armor was especially noticeable. “My legs! Why can’t I move? Die, pests!”

Grant selected ‘Attack: Lethal,’ and his sword slashed through the beasts still clinging to the ragged flesh of her exposed legs. Suki fell back into him, and Grant selected the ‘Run’ option that appeared in his vision while sheathing his sword so he could lift her off her feet. Meanwhile, the number of remaining rats had increased to fifty and was still climbing. The small room was quickly filling with the bodies of the slain creatures, making footing a problem. It was only a matter of time until they fell, and the swarm would leave them as nothing but a pile of bones.

As he scooped Suki off her feet to run, the attempt was like running into a brick wall. He had used his considerable strength with the intent to hop over the creatures blocking the way, but the woman in his arms had run into something invisible. Grant had been clotheslined off his feet by her body, and she landed on top of him, adding insult to injury.

Both of them were still groaning in pain when the rats pounced, tearing into Grant and Suki with abandon. Getting the breath knocked out of him had made his head feel woozy, and he was convinced he might actually be dying. He glanced at his health, dismayed to find that he was down from over three hundred to just above one hundred. One more attack like that, and they were both dead.

<Tell Suki to select ‘Run,’ so you can both get away!> Sarge’s voice thundered in his mind, clearing up his thoughts. <This system is a corruption of the natural order! Whoever came up with it has no idea what it means to walk the martial way!>

“Suki, select ‘Run,’ or we die here!” By selecting the ‘Run’ option himself, Grant no longer had the chance to fight or defend, leaving him unable to even use his spell. From the condition Suki appeared to be in, it would have killed her instantly anyway.

The pressure holding Suki down on him disappeared, and he clambered back to his feet, rats hanging off of him like a macabre suit of lumpy fur. He sprinted down the hallway, purposefully smashing against the walls as he ran. The momentum demolished both rats and walls, and soon the only thing holding the house up was the layers of dirt encrusted on the outside.

Grant was a little woozy from the blood loss, so he didn’t see how or when Suki managed to grab their packs, but when they stumbled into the alley out the back door, she had both of them flung over her back. They were both covered in bloody wounds and coated in filth and hair from the rats. He shivered at the thought of the infection they would face without the healing potions in the packs.

Luckily, the rats didn’t follow them outside. He guessed the system deemed the house as the battlefield, and escaping its confines counted as an end to the battle. From the sounds of squealing beasts and tearing flesh, they were distracted by the fresh meat their battle had provided.

Condolences! Your new battle count moves from [2 Wins / 0 Losses] to [2 Wins / 1 Losses]. Remember, fate favors the bold!

It was the only good thing Grant had found within the system. At the moment, the loss was secondary to the relief he felt at getting out alive. If he had been free of the system, that would have been an easy fight. He might have won regardless, if Suki hadn’t walked in at the worst possible time, but she hadn’t understood just how awful the controlled manner of fighting in the area could be. Now that she had experienced it first-hand, they would be better at planning any future battles.

<I have some good news, at least.> Sarge brought him out of his thoughts, forcing him back into the present. <Your armor and mental cultivation both saw a minor increase in numbers after the battle. Even in a loss, you gain strength. A true samurai in the making.>

He pulled up a truncated version of his stats, checking the changes for himself.

Name: Grant Monday

Rank: Lord of The Month (January, February)

Class: Foundation Cultivator

Cultivation Achievement Level: 17

Cultivation Stage: Mid Summer

Inherent Abilities: Swirling Seasons Cultivation

Health: 112/352

Mana: 19/19

Characteristics

Physical: 201

Mental: 76

Armor Proficiency: 111

Weapon Proficiency: 149

“An increase in my mental cultivation? I don’t see… right. Cultivation is slow, and you don’t let me see those numbers.” He could understand an increase in armor, but mental cultivation?

<I’d let you see them if you asked nicely, but I feel like that’ll just bog you down. As to why fighting these is increasing your mental cultivation… well, there are benefits to fighting through the pain. It was more survival instinct than focused control, but that’s something we can work on.> Grant shuddered at the grim joy emitting from the sword spirit’s thought. <Now, get to a safe place and use your Live by the Sword ability to heal some. There is too much damage for a simple potion to heal by itself.>

They quickly put actions to words and climbed onto the roof of a flat-topped building a few streets over. As Grant settled in for the meditation necessary for his healing to activate, his thoughts focused on how much he disliked this ‘Dokeshi March’. Grant muttered, “This Lord has to be insane to implement such a terrible system on his people.”

<You think so? Here’s something to chew on then,> Sarge informed Grant grimly, <It seems that every creature you killed back there was a monster. There’s some real fear for you: If I’m right, every single one of those was a true monster. That swarm of rats should have obliterated you, and the combat system allowed you to escape. Dokeshi March indirectly saved you. Who’s to say this ‘terrible’ system hasn’t saved countless others?>