Chapter 12. Cat and Mouse throughout the House

Now that there were two monsters, it would be difficult for him to repeat the circling maneuver on the street unless both monsters had the same speed and were dumb enough to continue following his trail together. He was praying for that as he continued to kite them.

Reality proved cruel, as the Skeleton Captain was much faster than the Thug. Jack had to respond to the Captain's speed, but the Thug didn't just follow along.  Instead , it angled across the street cutting and arc from the circling pattern Jack was maintaining. With the Thug at his flank, Jack had much more difficulty maintaining his range attack on the Captain.

As the Thug arrived by his side and cut his advance, Jack had to make a sideways alteration to his movement. This created an opportunity for the Captain to catch up. He saw the Captain slash with his saber but he had no time to dodge this time.

He managed another Parry. Jack suffered 61 damage this time. His HP was less than one-third now.

'It can't go on like this!' He screamed in his mind. He needed to heal, He needed to eat bread to recover his health. But how would he find a safe window to do it? He forced himself to maintain calm. Panic would not help. He had played many VR games before and had gotten out of more dangerous situations than this. He just needed to think!

He scanned the surroundings. The two big holes on the front wall of Bill's house, one on top of the other, caught his interest. He needed a linear path to kite these monsters; he should be able to use the structure of that house.

With this thought, Jack dashed at full speed to the house and through the hole that had been the front door with the two monsters in tow. When he reached the bottom of the staircase, he could see the cracked walls and some broken steps, but Jack figured he should still be able to make the climb. He clambered up the stairs as quickly as he could. He knew the monsters were following closely from their heavy footsteps and the crashing as they hit the walls and furniture.

Jack turned around once he reached the top of the stairs. He saw the Captain was starting to climb up the stairs, but it did it clumsily, which significantly reduced its speed. This was a golden opportunity! Jack stored his sword and took out a piece of bread and started munching on it, while his staff hand immediately cast Mana Bullet. He then followed that up with a few standard range attacks and, when the cooldown expired, finished the sequence with another Mana Bullet while the HP regeneration effect of the food kicked in.  When the Captain was about to enter melee range and the Thug was approaching the bottom of the stairs, Jack sprinted off towards Bill's room.

Bill's room had no door or windows anymore, just big holes where they had been. Jack quickly crossed the room and jumped out of the hole to the front lawn. He landed in almost the exact spot where he had earlier. Looking at the gaping hole where the Captain had pulled its saber out of the ground, another idea blossomed in his mind.

He looked up and saw the Captain approaching the edge of the second floor's front wall. Jack stood his ground as it looked down on him. When it brandished its saber and jumped out, Jack immediately rolled away. The Captain landed with a loud boom and a violent shaking of the ground.

'This must be another of the monster's skills,' Jack thought, 'its power was completely different from its normal attack.' He had little doubt that if this skill hit him, it would most probably one-shot him.

The saber was hilt-deep in the ground again. The Captain was tugging hard to get it out, but the weapon stuck tightly. This was the other golden opportunity Jack was expecting. As the Captain was busy trying to pull out its weapon, Jack ran to its back and immediately used his sword and performed Power Strike to the back of its head. Another Critical! He then frantically made as many slashes as he could while the monster was still preoccupied.

When the saber finally began to loosen, Jack hastily retreated. The saber tore out of the ground violently as its wielder made a raging swing towards its back. It missed Jack by half a second. He didn't waste any more time: he spun around and ran back into the house. As he was coming near the stairs, he saw the Skeleton Thug coming towards him. It had given up on the stairs and turned around in order to catch him.

Jack didn't fear this Skeleton Thug very much. Although it was one level higher than the Thug he had fought before, its movements weren't much different. Jack kept on running toward the stairs and ducked when the Thug swung its club at him, a move he had practiced several times on lower-level Thugs. He then spun around and unleashed a Power Strike to its back.

He didn't continue the attack as he could see the Captain was approaching. He ran to the stairs and made another mad ascent. Once he was at the top, he ate another piece of bread. The bread provided only a total of 30 HP recovery.  It was a pitiful amount, but every small recovery would help to preserve his life. He then repeated his previous tactics, blasting away using his spell and staff as the Captain slowly climbed the stairs.

Thank goodness the Monster had low intelligence; it didn't seem to be aware that its health was being chipped away by such a repetitive method. It just kept coming at him as he led it circling around the house. He dealt with the Skeleton Thug whenever he went past it. It managed to damage him on two different occasions, but the Thug's attack was not as destructive as its mammoth counterpart.

He brushed off those two attacks and ate another piece of bread to gain back some lost HP. He also used one Medicine to recover even more health and used one Energy Drink to recover his low MP. After five cycles, the Thug disintegrated into dust as Jack dealt another critical Power Strike to its back.

Jack felt relief when he saw the leftover dust on the floor. With the Thug taken care of, the fight would become much easier. He stood before the hole in the wall, watching as the Captain had just managed to arrive on the second floor.

'Now it's your turn. I'm gonna take care of you as well!' Jack proclaimed in his mind as he wielded his sword with confidence.

Just before he was about to turn and jump out of the hole to repeat his kiting cycle, the Captain swung his arm throwing the saber.

'Oh, crap! It's the throwing move.' Jack was alarmed and hastily lifted his sword. He narrowly parried the impact, which promptly threw him out of the hole in the wall.

*163 damage*

He landed heavily on his back and received yet another 12 damage. He felt pain all over his body.

'Damn it! That's what you get for being careless,' he scolded himself as he gritted his teeth trying to ignore the pain and quickly got himself up. His health was now back to a dangerous level; it was less than 20%. If he had not been healing himself with consumables before this, that one throw would have finished him. He looked up and saw the Skeleton Captain jumping down. He immediately jumped back to avoid getting stomped to death by the monster. He ran away as the Captain chased him.

'Wait, he's slower now. He lost his weapon again.' Jack looked around and saw the saber lying on the ground not far away. He led the chasing monster away then he quickly doubled back towards the saber. When he arrived, he kicked it far away. Jack thought it best not to let the Captain wield that weapon again. He thought about picking it up at first, but he was not sure the game would let him pick up a monster's weapon while the owner was still alive. Jack decided that it was best not to risk it. He only had a tiny bit of health left, so he opted to just send the weapon away to a safe distance.

Afterwards, he was back to his first kiting method; leading the monster in a circle while grinding away its remaining health with his range attacks. When it was down to 15% of its health, it made a motion that summoned another helper.

This time it was a level 4 Skeleton Thug.