Overcoming

Training in the woods was a tough thing. Noises popped up every now and then, and the Scarecrow jerked its head fully expecting a beast charging at it, but each time it found a bush that was shaking slightly. Every, single, time.

The training drained a lot of stamina, loads of it. Each five minutes or so it would crumble, turning back into a lifeless scarecrow on the ground. And it would stay that way until its stamina came back up and it would lean up against a tree, because that was safer than staying on the ground, and wait for its stamina to charge back up to full.

The forest seemed to be a pretty empty place when not searching out different enemies. Monsters and animals had a lot in mind, but killing and eating a scarecrow wasn't really on the top of that list, at all.

Somehow, through simply repeating the kick and getting into stance, Sen-jutsu had levelled up to 3. The entire act felt more fluent, and somehow, somewhere, the scarecrow knew how to improve just slightly.

For the scarecrow, improvement was like a path in the night. The scarecrow didn't know where the path would end, but it didn't need to know that, all it needed to know was where its next step should be. And if it ended up walking off a cliff, or into a wall, then it would just have to climb up or break through. Simple.

Orwell was completely silent, acting pretty sad. In Orwell's eyes, it had seen two innocent creatures, no, two potential friends slaughtered, tricked, and then eaten. And it felt guilty, because it had been in on it.

Orwell vowed to never let that happen again.

A bush shook, like before, the scarecrow had grown quite desentized to it, and almost didn't check to see if there was something there, but it did, and of course, the one type it almost didn't check was also the time a monster was there. The monster had black skin, and a heavily bent back, as if it was running on four.

It rushed at the scarecrow, taking discomfitingly quick steps, making the ground shake, thump thump thump. Any regular creature would have shrieked or panicked at this creature, but the scarecrow took position and kicked the creature in the jaw.

A scarecrow doesn't look strong or powerful for that matter. What it does look is weak, and a stick to the face, no matter how hard, is going to feel more like a lash than a real attack. So when the kick forced the creature's head to fly back and upwards that certainly shook things up.

The scarecrow evaluated the monster in front of it. Now that it had trained a bit more, it was more used to its limits, and it knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that it was completely outclassed.

Health 2/2

Stamina 3/15

Mana 2/2

It wanted to run away, but its stamina was too low. It would crumble down lifeless, and the creature would eat it up. It needed another strategy, because without one it would almost certainly die.

The creature quickly stood up and cracked its neck. It looked at the scarecrow with a certain rage in its eyes, but also more respect. This was the type of monster that only hunted weaker prey, goblins, kobolds, children, humans. So this was the first time in a long time, it had taken a proper strike.

The scarecrow tried to take a step, but it realized that something was off about the step. It was able to detect such small changes due to the training it had gone through. It looked down, and saw that one of its legs was broken. Fuck.

It was balancing on one leg this whole time. A thought crossed into the scarecrow's mind, a thought that felt completely world shaking. Perhaps that was the whole idea behind the kick. Maybe that's why they did it in the way they did, so that if the leg is immobilized, the balance still isn't lost. Somehow, that made the scarecrow feel joy.

The creature charging at it again brought it back to the world. It stood still, not at all knowing what to do. It was too slow to properly dodge, but it had an idea. It slowly bent its hips, and sprung up into the air full force.

The monster sprinted under the scarecrow, and then stopped when it realized that it hadn't touched anything. It fell down on its one leg, managing to keep the balance. It looked back at the creature that had turned around. Then it glanced at the window in the bottom right, and saw that its stamina had dropped one point. It needs to end now.

Health 2/2

Stamina 2/15

Mana 2/2

But it didn't know how to do it. The kick was its most powerful attack, but it couldn't do it anymore. The scarecrow refused to give up, this was a thick wall, and it knew it had to smash through it.

Skill has levelled up! Sen-jutsu, tier beginner, level 4/5

The notification came with a new thought. It had a breakthrough, that wasn't really a breakthrough, but more like something that should have been obvious all along. It had been seeing it all along.

It didn't have two legs, it had three legs!

It slowly bent its back. mimicking the creature in front of it. And the monster knew exactly what it was doing, and it didn't like it one bit. The rage inside of it quadrupled, and it rushed forward, ready to crush the scarecrow..