The shield worked well enough last time!

You're confident enough in your ability now -- this thing might be strong, but you're pretty darn good yourself! You raise the shield again as the strike lands, much stronger than the first, but you're also more ready for it this time. Instead of just deflecting the strike, you let out a grunt and push the scythe back with enough **** that the monster's whole body turns a few degrees, and completely throws it off its groove.

Before it can get back in the zone, you lift your pepperbox pistol and close your eyes as you squeeze the trigger. There's a flash of light outside your eyelids and a snappy BANG as you fire the last shot you've got loaded into the monster's head (you hope).

After about a second and a half of waiting, with no repercussions, you feel safe enough to open your eyes again. What you see is the simulated monster slumped down on the ground in front of you, not moving. There's a narrow hole in its head, and coming out from there is a pooling of orange liquid that you guess is probably supposed to be red and look like blood.

......

You did it! You got one! On your very first try against a monster!

There's a loud CLANG to your left, as Cameron connects a strike to the side of the monster he was fighting's head with the blunt of his shield. The hit rocks the monster and sees it fall to the ground. It desperately scrambles to get to its feet again, looking like most of the fight's been taken out of it and like it's just about ready to scarper. Before it can get anywhere there's a gentle twang and woosh as a crossbow bolt flies out from your right side and hits right in the simulated monster's unprotected haunch.

It whines and slumps back to the ground, a similar orange trail coming out from the grey-skinned impact area. You turn to the right and see a grinning Jace waving over at you from the window inside the hut, and you give him a wave back. There's a second loud clanging to your right, as Cameron connects another punch against the downed monster to make sure it stays down. He turns to you, puffing and panting.

"That went pretty well." He says.

"Yep!" You beam back, feeling absolutely chuffed with yourself as you dig your hand into your pocket full of loose bullets to quickly reload your pepperbox pistol to maximum capacity.

Once all the chambers are full, you give the chamber-barrel thingy a spin and look over to Delilah on the bridge a short distance from you. It seems like she's in a bit of a stalemate with the monster she's occupied with, as the sounds of grunting and clinking weapons reach you.

Most of her sickle strikes are either being blocked by the monster's scythes or simply bounce harmlessly off of the light grey chitin, the blades unable to find their way past the armour. To her credit, she's having just as much success deflecting and hooking the monster's attacks with her sickles, and jumping over or ducking under the rest in motions which she works into her next strikes. But on both sides, no real progress has been made yet, and given that her armour is just leather, it seems like a race to whoever can land a clean hit first. Maybe you should try to help her out, since you're all done over here now?