This is no battlefield for slow combatants!

You leap onto the pistol, grabbing hold of its grip and clutching it with both hands. You roll onto your back, feet pointing towards the monster's side, and hold out your pepperbox pistol pointed in the same direction. It's still got that one last explosive shot, so you have a real chance here!

At that moment, as you start to aim the chamber-barrels, the monster starts to make its first bounding leaps towards Jace. A gravel dust cloud is kicked up towards your eyes and nose, which might make you sneeze if you let it, and you know that you can't take that risk.

Argh! If you wait for a clearer shot, the monster might get away, and you're still not fully confident shooting from long distances -- especially with just one bullet loaded! What if it turns around and comes back for you? You're pretty fast, {if Armour == 2}{else}even in all of this gear{endif}, so you'll just have to rely on that and hope that the small amount of aiming time you got after grabbing the pistol was enough. Making your decision in just a split second after the one-armed monster's first leg pushes of the ground, you shut your eyes and squeeze your pepperbox pistol's trigger.

BANG!

The shot rings out loudly along the battlefield, and shortly after the initial explosion of propulsion there's a second one of greater intensity. You open your eyes to check your degree of success -- the simulated monster is still moving, now roughly two and a half monster-bounds of distance away, but a small crater has appeared in the back of its head out of which orange liquid pours. It lands from its final bound, and its feet go out from underneath it, skidding a short distance through the grass from the momentum before coming to a halt and not getting up. You breathe heavily, then scramble up to your feet in case it changes its mind.

You keep your eyes on it, cautiously, but the monster is completely still. Does that mean.... it does!

A wide grin takes over your face and you forget all about your sore tushie. You leap up high and punch at the air with your hand still clutching your pepperbox pistol. You just beat your first ever monster, in your first ever try! A rush of validation and feeling of belonging washes over you as you land and look towards where your simulated enemy lies, staining the grass around it orange. Surely this must mean you're the best, right? At least a contender!

To the side, there's a CLANG as Cameron connects with a heavy shield backhand to the side of his monster's head. It's sent sprawling down to the ground as the strike completely stuns it, but it quickly recovers and starts scrambling up to its feet. Before it's able to get up, Jace fires off another crossbow bolt, this one hitting the monster's flank and pinning its leg in place. With the monster stuck on the ground and unable to get up, Cameron's quickly able to mount and finish it off with a short series of bladed-shield punches.

You turn to shoot Jace a big thumbs up and a wide grin of appreciation, which he flashes back towards you, as Cameron rises up from the still monster breathing deeply. He looks towards you with a smile as well, and all around it's a great moment of classmates coming together and succeeding alongside each other. But you were the biggest team player for sure.

Oh! Speaking of which! The fight might not be over yet!

You look over to the bridge, where Delilah's still fighting the monster she's been up against the whole time. It looks like neither side's landed a serious hit yet, on account of sickles being useless against monster chitin and Delilah being all dodgey and jumpy everywhere. Backflips and stuff. Showing off. Delilah and the monster also deflect a lot of each others strikes as you watch, sickle meeting scythe, to overall create the scene of a battle where whoever ends up landing the first real hit will probably come out on top.

You dig your hand into your jingling pocket of loose impact bullets, and load five into your pepperbox pistol. Everything's done and calm over here now, but if you wanted, you could maybe give Delilah a bit of a hand too? After all, your class can't be the winners until the monsters are all defeated.