Chapter 11 - 10 A Real Fight

Marcus began making some basic wooden stone tipped spears as it was the best weapon he could make currently. Luckily for Marcus there were many good pieces of wood around for him to turn into spears. Searching around the stones to use as the spear tips took Marcus quite a while but once he found five useable rocks, he activated his iron skin spell and used his own hand to sharpen the stone.

'I finally have some weapons to use, they are pretty basic but hopefully they can get the job done. I think I should also use a long stick as a polearm, and I should be able to make sling as well.'

Examining all of the logs and sticks that Marcus had he eventually found the one he thought would work best as a polearm. He then got to work on making a sling which took him the rest of the day as he had to test and try out many things until he made a decent sling.

'Now I should be able to fight a lot better than before and level up faster.'

Now that he had completed his goal Marcus noticed how late it had gotten and how hungry he was. He proceeded to make a fire and cook some of the meat from the fire cat he had killed earlier.

'Ah that hit the spot I was so focused on my work I forgot to eat, now that I have eaten, I am really tired. I made a good amount of progress today and starting tomorrow I am really going to have to work hard. I only have about three weeks before the time I decided to leave. If I wait too long it will become much harder to find Irene's little sister and save her.'

Marcus headed to his makeshift bed and went to sleep to rest for the coming day. Once morning came around Marcus quickly ate and went back to reset his pitfall trap. He hurriedly reset the trap and baited it with some cooked meat from the fire cat and went to hid nearby. After around two hours Marcus heard a loud crash followed by a yelp. After judging that from the sound the creature was not very big Marcus headed towards the trap to check on his prey. When he arrived, he was in for a very unwanted surprise.

'Crap, it had to be a pack of animals and there are over ten of them. They look a bit like coyotes, but they are pitch black, I really screwed myself this time.'

The coyotes noticing Marcus' arrival rear up and charge at him. Marcus takes out one of the spears he recently made and casts iron skin covering his hands and forearms. When the two lead coyotes got within five feet of Marcus one of them suddenly jumped at the other and disappeared into its shadow. In the next instance it appeared behind Marcus and bit into his left calf.

'Ow fuck they can jump in and out of shadows.'

The other lead coyote then jump at Marcus's throat hoping for a quick and easy kill. Fortunately, with the help of his fighting skill Marcus kept his calm and knew what to do. He swiftly took out another spear with his left hand and stabbed it into the coyote biting his calf and brought his right arm in front of his neck. The coyote that lunged at his throat bit into his right arm only to have its teeth shatter on the iron skin currently covering Marcus. The two injured coyotes then retreated and regrouped with the other members of their pack.

'Okay I managed to fend off their initial assault and now they are circling around me to prepare for their next attack. I should cast iron skin on my legs instead of my arms so they can't get any more sneak attacks on me.'

While the coyotes were getting into a formation to attack Marcus, he recast iron skin and covered his legs and feet this time to prevent any more attacks on his legs. The coyotes began their attack three coming from the front and two coming from both sides. One from each side jumped into a shadow and reappeared behind Marcus and took bites into his legs only to find they were now covered by a layer of iron. The three in front timed their attacks perfectly for when Marcus would be reeling from the bites on his legs. Unfortunately for the coyotes Marcus had prepared for this and the two coyotes that had taken a bite out of his leg currently had shattered teeth. He then took his two spears and stabbed them into two of the ones lunging at him from the front and preformed a high kick on the remaining one. However, even though Marcus had successfully repelled five of the attacking coyotes the other two coming from the side clawed and bite into his upper thighs. He dropped the two spears in his hands and pulled out his polearm and knocked of the two coyotes biting him.

'Shit this hurts I feel like I can barely stand, I have injured half of them pretty badly, but the remaining half are still in good condition. I am also running out of MP and will not be able to use iron skin much longer, need a plan or I am going to die.'

While the coyotes were regrouping and getting ready for another round of attack Marcus was looking around trying to formulate a plan to survive. He searched around for a couple of seconds and then saw what would help him win this fight. Marcus quickly began running towards his pitfall with the uninjured coyotes giving quick chase after their fleeing prey. Once at the edge of the hole Marcus jumped in seeing an injured and surprised coyote at the bottom. The polearm connected with the ground bent and then shattered but took some of the impact for Marcus as his legs slammed down. With the help of his polearm and iron skin enchanted legs Marcus was able to remain standing from the fall. He immediately took out the latter he made and placed it on the wall of the pit. The coyotes that were chasing him then began to fall into the hole unable to stop their momentum. By the time they had regained their senses Marcus was already halfway up the ladder. Marcus soon reached the top and put the ladder back in his item box. He stood up and saw the injured coyotes fleeing except for the two with spears stuck in them laying on the ground dying.

'Hah I won, seven trapped in a pit, two bleeding out, and the rest injured and retreating. I think I need to sit down and let my legs heal awhile, those coyotes are not going anywhere anyway.'

Marcus took a few dozen minutes to rest and heal his injured legs while looking down into the pit seeing the coyotes frantically trying to get out by merging with the shadow. Alas the range on their ability seemed to be only around five feet so none of them were able to get out of the hole. After healing up Marcus went over and finished of the two dying coyotes and then went over and dropped rocks on the seven in the pitfall trap until they stopped moving.

'You have leveled up to level 3.'

'You have leveled up to level 4.'

'Wait did I just level up twice.'