James 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, James wasn't going to take any chances when a mole monster could show up at any time. 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 mere minutes, James 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. James decided to take his time 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 meat, 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, James donned his armor and readied his Green Iron War Hammer in his right hand and his Green Iron Tower Shield in his left. The metal stakes that formed 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 hammer raised, ready to strike.

In the space of two breaths, which was how long it took for James 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 moment between their attacks. But they were all futile. Only one hit his helmet and that must have been on accident, because the rest seemed focused on his shield.

James took a deep breath, readied his hammer, and struck.

[Technique: Hammer Strike]

[Rapid Blow]

Whiff

Going all out from the outset, James used the enchantment 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 moment, contorting around the path of his swing.

Unlike the previous day, missing his strike didn't pull James off balance. The [Rapid Blow] enchantment only increased the speed of his swings, not their total momentum. It was similar to how the [Heavy Blow] didn't increase the momentum of the hammer swings themselves, just the force of their impacts. So in this case, despite swinging faster, James was able to maintain the same form and control over his weapon, which was also significantly lighter than his Earth War Hammer.

James swung again.

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Whiff

Again.

Whiff

Each time, the bat he was targeting dodged the strike at the last moment.

James 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 hammer. He hunkered down behind his shield and thought, channeling mana into the [Reflect] enchantment 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 remember any of his wise mother's advice about fighting multiple enemies, but nothing he remembered applied to a slow, armored fighter like himself.

Then he remembered his discussion with Meridox, the only other Enchanter he had ever met.

"...in general it's better for the particulars of an Enchantment 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, James decided to try it. He stood again, catching a bat strike to the helmet for his trouble, and readied his hammer. For his first swing, he didn't use the enchantment 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 moment to do so.

The bats were getting complacent.

James readied himself, and swung, intending to activate [Rapid Blow] in the middle of the swing to catch the bat off guard-

Whiff

His enchantment activation was too slow. Although the mana inside him felt warmed up and moving, it was still too slow to activate the enchantment in the fraction of a second between starting his swing and when he would hit the bat if successful.

James stopped channeling his mana into his shield. [Reflect] wasn't doing anything, and his mana was already warmed up. It was just still heavy and slow.

James settled into a rhythm. He would take a swing and try to activate [Rapid Blow] at the last possible moment, trying to get the timing right.

At first, every whiff was an insult to James' 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 time, still in the rhythm of his attempts, with time 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 resentment 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 hammer swing and activating [Rapid Blow] even an instant faster.

Over and over.

Crunch

James almost didn't register the sensation of his hammer actually striking something, the subtle vibrations in the hammer as delicate bat bones were pulverized as his strike smashed into a bat wing. An instant later James 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 James' Tower Shield.

At first James 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: Hammer Strike] has reached level 3.

[Enchanter] Class Skill [Mana Manipulation] has reached level 3.

[Enchanter] Class Skill [Enchantment Activation] has been acquired.

James half-collapsed back against the wall, panting. All the fatigue, physical and mental, washed over him all at once.

The sounds of heavy breathing and squeaking continued for some time until, abruptly, silence returned to the caves.

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