FOR VALOUR!

"KA-POW!" You shout, bringing your {if@ Weapon == 2}Sledgeaxe's bladed side{elseif Weapon == 1}{if BatonVolt == True}crackling-tipped staff{else}sparking batons{endif}{endif} down towards the monster's back. Unfortunately, it noticed your presence just a split second too early -- before the attack is able to land, it turns around and evades your hit.

As your strike swings through air, with the monster now facing away from Jace, he tries to kick out its legs from underneath it. The monster just absorbs the hit and stays standing though, growling menacingly at the both of you. This is.... less valorous than you were expecting. Argh, who cares, just go crazy!

{if@ Weapon == 2}You hold out your Sledgeaxe straight and just start spinning in place and shouting, trying to hit the monster on at least some part of its body every rotation{elseif Weapon == 1}You start bopping at the monster wildly, smacking its head with your {if BatonVolt == True}staff{else}batons{endif} as quickly as you can{endif}. At the same time, Jace pulls out some of his loose crossbow bolts and starts haphazardly stabbing at the simulated monster.

You're screaming, Jace's bolts are snapping in his hands and he has to keep getting new ones, the monster is confused but entirely overwhelmed, and over all it's just a big awkward mess. It takes about twenty long seconds of this, but working together the two of you are eventually able to get the monster down to the ground and then finish it off with more screaming and frenzied attacking. Well, the screaming is just you, because it feels good to just let it all out sometimes.

With the monster grounded and still, you swing down one final heavy hit onto it and then straighten up. You and Jace are both panting heavily, stood either side of the motionless body, and you look up at each other.

"If anybody asks...." Jace says in between panting. "One hit."

You nod.

With that, and a heavy inhale of breath, Jace knocks one of his few remaining undamaged bolts into his crossbow and heads over to the window. Cameron and Delilah are both pretty far from the hut, and you're too puffed to run over and be much help anyway, so you join him at the window to observe the situation. Hey, and also, let's not gloss over this -- you just beat your first ever monster, in your first ever battle! It doesn't matter if it was a bit messy, you still did it! You've got a Warrior's spirit for sure, man. This is golden. You're the best.

Anyway, classmate observation! On the left side, Cameron's finished his monster off and is slowly jogging his way over toward Delilah's bridge, clearly a bit tired but with enough energy left to be of help. Wait, no, Delilah isn't actually on the bridge right now -- the monster she was fighting still is, but she's managed to jump over to the body of land on the opposite side of the stream quicker than it could catch up to her.

The monster rushes towards her from the bridge, each step a bounding leap, but before it's even able to get off of the bridge....

KKRA-CKOOOM!

The ground shakes, and the bridge is engulfed in a fiery ball of heat. Smoke blocks the area from view, but you can see pieces of charred wood from the bridge flying outside of the cloud and landing the the narrow stream to be taken off by the current.

"Woah!" You call out in surprise. Jace has a big smile on his face as he watches, and he unknocks his loaded bolt.

The smoke slowly clears, and when it does, you can see that nothing of the bridge remains. Delilah's still standing right where she was, unharmed and looking smug, and the stream is full of pieces of blackened wood. Amidst the wreckage is the charred body of the simulated monster she'd been fighting, still and motionless.

"Alright, everybody!" Professor Phoebe calls out, jumping from the hut's thatched roof and landing just in front of the window you and Jace are looking through. Ah! "Come in! It's evaluation time."

You're still a bit in awe, but you and Jace leave the hut to join her in the grass out the front. Cameron's reached where the bridge once was at this point, and offers Delilah a hand to cross the flowing water of the stream, which she takes and so gets to remain mostly dry. The two of them then make their way over to join the rest of you, and hear Professor Phoebe lay it down.