ABH - CH 31 - Hit Rate

A/N: REMINDER!!!!! I updated CH 30's ending!! Please re-read!!! It's only the last 150 words or so. This puts us at 9 ahead of RR

Chapter Thirty-One

Hit Rate

Rise of Winter, Week 5, Day 4

Stretching her stiff limbs, Freddie leaned forward. There was no time to dwell. When Tiltham and her grandfather came for her, Freddie would lose access to the dungeon.

That was how she decided to think of it—as taking Scylla up on a fortuitous opportunity. Freddie would still empty her mana into the hottest ball of magma she could summon on sight of said Goddess, but for now, she was willing to pretend. 

Straightening her back, Freddie shook out her arms. The aches of the earlier fights were still there, and she could feel the remnants of bruises that [Regeneration] couldn’t passively heal. The feeling was familiar. It was a feeling of elsewhere. Of a body pushed to the brink in the hope of winning the gladiatorial games and escaping her indentured servitude. 

As Kalina, she hadn’t been much older than her current body when her parents had sold her. Had cast her away into the Games. Now, Freddie was part of a different Game. A Game of the Gods. Frill had brought her here, had given her a life worth fighting for. Scylla had taken it away.  

The very thought lit a fire in Freddie’s belly—disgust and anger raging within her. 

Grabbing her bag, Freddie made her way out of the hall. 

When she was feeling this way, there was only one thing that made her feel better, only one thing that took the edge off the wrath that so often consumed her. 

Landing a solid punch. 

So, Freddie headed down the third hallway in the main room—the one with the glint of metal at the end and dim lighting. 

The thing about it, though, was as she made her way down the hallway, more of it could be seen. It wasn’t short, as she’d previously thought. No, the hall stretched on for quite a distance. But between where she stood and the end were several sources of light. 

Closing her eyes, Freddie took a steadying breath. Upon opening them, she shifted, dropping her bag off to the side and bringing her fists in front of her face. She tightened her core and bounced on the balls of her feet.

All that was left was to find an opponent. 

Making her way forward, Freddie saw the glint of metal she’d previously seen in the dark—it was two lances crossing each other, both attached to a grey stone statue of a goblin. They were ugly things, just as the living beings were, but Freddie wasn’t about to get bested by two stone statues. She’d come across enough elementals in elsewhere to know their stench. She couldn’t see or sense mana, not like a mage could, but there was something to be said for instinct. 

So, Freddie used [Imbue Flame], [Fire Conjuration], and [Fire Manipulation] to coat her fists and ramp up the heat of her flames. 

Before she went for the attack, Freddie fired off an [Inspect]. 

[Stone Goblin, Tier 1, Level 3]

[A common goblin found in caves. Capable of using simple weapons.]

“Weak,” Freddie hissed, then sent a fiery fist out to the chest of the closest goblin. As her knuckles made contact, the stone skin of the creature shattered from the force of impact, and the remaining stone sloughed off to reveal black blood underneath. 

Freddie had never been so grateful to be back in a short body as she was in that moment. It was absolutely satisfying to hit something your size. Were she back to her previous height, it’d be like punting a football. 

Snapping her fist back, she hit the same spot with her other fist before leaning back and turning her foot and letting it lead her backward toward the other Stone Goblin. 

[Quick Fight] 

[Inspect]

[Stone Goblin, Tier 1, Level 3]

[A common goblin found in caves. Capable of using simple weapons.]

A feral grin broke out across Freddie’s face, and she sent a kick out. Landing with the side of her foot, she used her Strength to shove the goblin into the wall. Pulling her leg back, Freddie ducked down and threw out a hook right into the goblin’s abdomen. 

As more cracks formed, they were melded together. 

If Freddie were listening past the blood rushing to her ears, she would have heard the guttural screams the goblins gave, would have heard the sheer pain and rage in their shouts. Instead, she continued her onslaught. 

She hit the right goblin several more times before ducking down and pivoting to go back to the first Stone Goblin. With every strike, the goblins were pushed back and unable to maneuver the lances in their palms. Freddie was too close. She wasn’t facing their guard—she was in their guard. 

Every time one went to move the polearm, Freddie simply pushed the stone base out and away. 

It was a quick affair, all together. And it was exactly what Freddie needed. 

The punches she landed were solid, and the occasional hits she took were barely enough to bruise. Well, they would have bruised if she hadn’t activated [Regeneration]. It was moving slower than earlier, the pain taking longer to disappear. 

Freddie may have overdone the Skill. 

With a frown, Freddie finally ended the fight. Two heated crosses, one to each goblin’s head, sent them collapsing to the ground—where Freddie crushed their throats under her boots. Both goblins faded away into nothingness, the miasma of a mana construct taking their forms away from this plane of existence. 

All that was left behind were the two lances and two Mana Pearls. Before Freddie could swipe the mana pearls or acknowledge the [Combat Report], she heard the tinkling of bells. 

Behind her, the sound rang softly, as if calling to Freddie and only Freddie. She turned slowly, curiously, to find a translucent purple curtain had manifested before her, causing the hallway behind it to blur. 

Gently, the sound of bells faded, and the curtain fell—to reveal the widening of the hall into a full room. 

A room with several goblins. 

Five, Freddie thought to herself. Five goblins. 

All of them were red, with weapons she’d only seen in drawings of barbarians. The five goblins all held spiked clubs. And all five were looking right at Freddie with their beady little eyes and grotesque faces. The red hue of their skin made them look as if they’d been flayed alive. 

The only reason Freddie could have that thought, though, was because the goblins may have been looking at her, but they were not approaching her. 

Shaking out her palms, Freddie let her flames fall away into nothingness. Releasing her Skills, she took a centering breath. 

Then, she laughed. A loud, obnoxious thing—yet still the goblins were unfazed. They simply stared at the spot Freddie occupied. 

“All right,” she bit out. “Let’s go.”

[Running] [Quick Fight]

Feeling the magma of her mana infuse itself into her legs, Freddie ran. As she charged the center goblin, they began to move. All five howled and charged Freddie as she passed the threshold of the chamber. 

It was almost boring, what followed.

Actually, Freddie was bored. 

The goblins hit her, yes, and they cut her clothes and pierced her skin, but they weren’t able to do much else. 

They simply fell as she landed hit after hit, flames or no, as she crushed their internal organs with the weight of her punches. Freddie had known the goblins were weak. Had known they stood no chance against her. But she hadn’t realized just how quickly that could get routine. How quickly the thrill of the fight could be drained from her. 

It was just like in elsewhere, after fighting that cursed Ifreet over and over. Every fight was different, yes, but they all ended the same. With the smoldering remains of the elemental beast having to be revived with rune-carved bellows. 

It took greater and greater danger to keep the excitement—the drive. Otherwise, she grew irritated, frustrated with the slow progress. The lack of stimulation. 

Her coach had called her his house cat. Kalina had needed something to keep her constantly busy, or she would destroy the furniture.

Freddie’s mouth quirked at the memory, even as she ducked under the final goblin’s club—the beast was too sluggish to swing effectively and thus, was unable to hit Freddie. Landing a hard kick to its shin, Freddie heard a crack, and the goblin fell forward with a muted growl. 

A swift kick to crush its neck, and the fight was over. 

Freddie heard the chime of bells again, but this time she collected the Mana Pearls from the five goblins, as well as the two from the Stone Goblins. Then, she jogged back to where she’d put her bag. There was a light sheen of sweat on her skin, but she paid it no mind. 

“A couple more fights, then, food.” Freddie nodded to herself. “Yeah, that sounds good.” 

Taking out a waterskin, she sipped on the refreshing liquid while she reviewed her [Combat Report]

It wasn’t anything special, just showing the two Stone Goblins and five Red Goblins. Only two of her Skills leveled. [Quick Fight] and [Running] both hit Level 6. It was a modest increase, and it made sense. She’d hardly needed her fire at all against these losers. 

As she took a small break, she pulled out her bestiary—doodling pictures of the Stone Goblins and the Yellow Goblins. 

The Yellow Goblins had clearly had some kind of shielding Skill, so Freddie wrote down how many times she hit each shield before it burst and at which levels they were. Then, she drew the two Stone Goblins in their alcoves, their lances crossed like the barrier she’d come across. 

Freddie wasn’t sure if it mattered, but she wrote down how the curtain had appeared, how the bells had chimed, how it seemed to separate the two spaces until one crossed the threshold. She wrote everything about the rooms, from the color of the stone to the smell in the air. It was musty, and though there were no bugs or standing water, Freddie felt it was almost humid. The air tasted fetid on her tongue, as if the smell of death—in this case, sewage—had congealed in the air. 

Freddie wondered how she could make the first floor more interesting.

What about a game? She mused to herself. How many hits to the abdomen can I land before a goblin collapses? Yeah, we’ll keep track. 

It was, technically, what she’d been doing—hitting the goblins until they collapsed. But she had also been using her flames to augment her attacks, and her other Skills to enhance her movement. What if she limited herself to her attributes and her technique? 

Would she gain a Skill for hand-to-hand combat?

There was only one way to know, to find out the limits of the System and its requirement for intent. 

I’ll get a Skill for combat. If it’s about aptitude, there is no doubt I’ve got it. Skill or skill, it’s mine. Dedication? Desire? That’s me. 

Freddie took a final sip of her water before packing it back into her bag and heading to the threshold of the next room. 

Setting down her satchel in the corner, she peered down the hallway. It looked like the next room opened outward on one side. She could hear the grunts of what she presumed to be goblins, but could not see them. Whether they were red, purple, yellow, or stone mattered not, though. 

Freddie listened for several long moments, focusing her Perception on the sounds around the corner. It was almost as if the creatures were having a conversation. A dark smile spread across Freddie’s face.

She was more than happy to interrupt.