Mercury stared down a lone pheasant. “You have made a fatal mistake, my opponent. A lone enemy is no match for my skills.” The pheasant gave him an annoyed look, but so far he hadn’t done anything to attract the creature’s agro. Mercury’s radiant blue eyes narrowed. “Do you mock me, puny monster? I will strike you down!” 

The moment his hand touched the hilt of his sword, the pheasant attacked. “Ow ow ow!” The amount of damage the beginner enemy was doing was ridiculous. A terrible thought popped into his head: had he accidentally wandered into a more difficult zone!? Mercury ran back towards the village, his level 1 enemy close on his heels.

He was nearly at the village before he thought to try using a skill. “Puny pheasant, you’ve activated my trap card!” He quickly scrolled through the very short list of skills that he could use. He spun and held up his sheathed sword between himself and the pheasant. “Time’s Backhand!” A circle of red light appeared, and with it a CAST command. Mercury cast the spell, the magic circle shattered, and the pheasant was sent flying backwards.

“Hell yeah! That’s what you get for daring to attack a superior opponent!” And then he noticed two things nearly simultaneously. First, that the pheasant was already back on its feet and ready to attack, and second, that his attack had done all of 1 damage. “Shit. Let’s try that again.” Bringing up his skill list again, Mercury saw that the skill he had just used was almost ready to use again. Time’s Backhand had a really short cooldown time, too bad the skill was completely useless. He selected the other skill that was available. “Please be a fireball, please be a fireball, please be a fireball. Time’s Arena!” Another red circle appeared, this time on the ground instead of in the air, along with another CAST command. This time he waited to see what would happen if he waited a second before casting, and sure enough, the red circle started expanding outwards away from him.

The angry pheasant charged, entering the magic circle, and Mercury cast the spell. Nothing happened. No fireball, no lighting, no anyth- wait. His vision appeared to be blurred. Everything beyond ten feet was fuzzy. No time to figure it out now. Mercury turned and ran. A sensation like passing through a waterfall passed over him, and then the pheasant slammed into him. How had that happened? The pheasant had still been five feet behind him, and he was faster! What the hell was going on?

“Time’s Backhand!” The pheasant was sent flying off of him, and Mercury scrambled to his feet and drew his sword. “Fine then, if my skills are useless, then I’ll just cut you to pieces.” The pheasant charged again. Mercury’s sword cut in an arc through the air, completely missing the pheasant and spinning him around. You know, he was starting to get the feeling that this game had something against him.

Mercury went back to running for his artificial life, screaming,”Somebody help me! This monster’s going to kill me!”