The Skeleton King cast a spell and a barrier surrounded us. The barrier was about 30 feet wide and was dome shaped with a slight glow. “This is Blade Rest’s barrier. It will not dissipate until one of us is defeated. Before we begin, can you confirm that you are Trevor of House Tierra?” I heard in my mind. It had to be telepathy.

  “Yes, I am Trevor of Tierra” I said.

  “Good, then I will receive the bounty for killing you. You put up a good fight with the Ghoul Lord, but you weren’t by yourself then. If you were expecting help from your friends, you can forget it. The barrier around us is called Blade Rest. It prevents anyone from entering or leaving until only one person is left. Neither your friends, nor my minions can enter. This fight is between you and me.”

  We both moved into the en garde position and slowly advanced toward each other. Once again, he moved his sword around in a display of skill and dexterity. A move to intimidate me. I disregarded his attempt and focused on the movement itself. Trying to find some opening I could exploit. The Skeleton King made the first move. Using his reach advantage, he made a thrust at my gut. Because of Slow Time, I was able to parry the move, but did not riposte. I didn’t want to give up too much information in the beginning of this fight. Next, he came at me with a flurry of aggressive strikes. Left, right, high, low. He came from everywhere. I went into defensive mode rather than be aggressive. The more I knew of his style, the better to pick my moment. Maybe I could tire him out.

  He stepped back. “You can’t tire me out. I am an unstoppable juggernaut. My stamina is based on magic, and I am a magical creature. Trying to tire me out is a fool’s strategy.”

  “I never planned on it.” I lied. My other plan was to do to him what I did to Jaster. Defend until he gets frustrated and starts making mistakes. However, I didn’t have a lot of faith in that plan.

  “Then fight back. You stand there and don’t make any attacks. Are you afraid?”

  Okay, he can play the frustration game also, but his taunt had no effect on me. I knew what my plan was and he didn’t. I would continue fighting as I thought best. Anger had no place in a fight like this.

  The Skeleton King, apparently done with talking, attacked with a swipe of his sword. He planned it out. He swiped at my right side, then an upper swipe to my head, which I parried to my left. His third swing used his momentum from my parry to slide his sword down my arm and cut my arm badly.

  “First blood is mine, as last blood will be. You doom is assured.”

  It hurt like hell, but I had to keep my guard up and stepped back out of range, preventing his next attack. I let my wound bleed for a few seconds, then cast Heaven’s Heal. I also cast Cure All, just in case there was poison or something. Hopefully, the blood would convince him I was more injured than I was.

  Sensing an advantage, the Skeleton King became more aggressive and started using more combo attacks. He came at me like a bulldozer, trying to overwhelm me with his strength and size. That was his mistake. Since my strength was maxed out as a human, I was able stand my ground and even pushed him back causing him to slightly lose his balance. This was all the opening I needed. I used Balmung to cast Wind Blade at him and then rushed at him. Wind Blade hit him and he staggered even more. I had been using Balmung as with one hand for this entire battle, but now changed to a two-handed grip. I started using all my strength on my swings. The Skeleton King was surprised by the strength of my hits. I was able to penetrate his defense and scored a hit on his knee. I heard a crunch and knew that the knee was ruined. How to turn that into an advantage was my next thought.

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  I continued an all-out assault on the Skeleton King aiming at crippling his other knee. Then using his immobility against him. The Skeleton King assumed a defensive posture, buying time for his knee to heal itself. For a few minutes I continued pressing him hard, but I could gain no advantage, then suddenly the Skeleton King stumbled slightly on the uneven ground causing him to flail his arms to maintain his balance. I immediately took advantage and swung Balmung like a bat, but instead of going for his head of chest, I aim at his injured knee. Balmung hit the knee and blew completely through it. The Skeleton King’s lower left leg fell to the ground and the Skeleton King followed a second later. Even though the Skeleton King was in a dire position, he wasn’t done yet. He cast a spell at me. It was poison gas. Fortunately for me, my Choker of Breathing filtered out the poison and my mask kept it out of my eyes.

  The Skeleton King, thinking I would be delayed because of the poison, released his sword and reached for his leg. I was sure he had some magic to reattach it. If he did, then I would have to start all over again, and I didn’t think I had the stamina to do that. I didn’t stop because of the poison, and got there first. I stepped on the sword and kicked the skeletal leg as far as I could. He was not getting that leg back. Before the Skeleton King could get his sword back, I reached down to touch it, and then put it in my storage ring.

  While I was doing that, the Skeleton King drew a knife out. It was about a foot long, curved with a sickly green glow. I could feel the necromantic magic emanating from the blade. I didn’t know what it could do, so I stayed back for a moment.

  For the first time, I felt someone cast Identification on me. It was the Skeleton King.

  “What are you? You are no level one Trevor of House Tierra.”

  “I am Trevor of House Tierra. Magical Healer to the citizens of Forest Glen and I am your doom.”

  “You think you have me beat, but you don’t. With the smallest nick from this knife, your life is forfeit. It will drain your life and your soul, making you my willing minion. So come, come and serve me for eternity.”

  I stepped back. I completely believed that the knife was that dangerous. However, I had a simple solution. Magic.

  I took another five or six steps back with the Skeleton King watching me. When I was far enough back, I started casting Mana Dart and Fireball spells. One after the other. The Fireballs exploded with force and heat, bouncing the Skeleton King up against the barrier every time they hit. The Mana Darts kept him from being able react or come after me. I kept slinging spells until I the barrier around us disappeared. Like he said, one of us had to die (or die again in his case) before the barrier came down. Turns out, he was the one that died. It was a good thing the barrier came down when it did, because I was low on mana.

  I received a notification about defeating a level 40 Skeleton King and asking me if I wanted to loot it. Of course I did. It all went straight into my inventory with me looking at it.

  As the barrier came down, two of my teammates came rushing in. Apparently, they could not see inside the barrier so they were ready to confront the Skeleton King. Seeing as it was just me, they relaxed a bit. They hurriedly told me Captain Willop had been injured in his fight and needed my immediate assistance. From one crisis to another, I go. I ran to his side. He had a gut wound. It would have been a very painful way to die. I drank a mana potion to make sure I had enough mana. Then I cast Heaven’s Heal on him. His wounds closed and his organs repaired themselves. I then cast Diagnose. Turns out not only was he injured, but he was also under a curse. This curse caused him to stop growing. He should be over six feet tall, but the curse prevented that. I cast Cure All to remove it and then another Heal, just in case.

  Captain Willop sat up, checked out his wound and said “Thank you.”

  “You are quite welcome. Also, did you know you were under a curse?”

  “What? Under a curse? Are you sure?”

  “Yes. I had to cast Cure All in case you were poisoned, and it remove the curse. The curse prevented your full growth. I expect you will have to buy new clothes shortly. Also, there may be some discomfort with a growth spurt.”

  Captain Willop was very stoic on our trip back to the gate. I don’t know if he was happy, sad or what. He didn’t say a single word.