Hell's Glitch (initial draft)

2:35 At All Costs

"I could tell you were good with the spear," Banihr said to Sam, "but you're even better than I thought." Both men were breathing heavily after an intense sparring session.

"Thanks," Sam said, doubled over.

"You're fast, though not as fast as me."

"I can see that," Sam said thinking of their fight. Banihr's speed was insane. Sam could now understand how he had evaded the Brothers of Stone so well. "You hit like shit though."

"It's true that I'm not the pinnacle of physical strength, so I rely on my speed and skill."

"Same here," Sam said, but he did notice a disparity in damage between the two of them, even still. Whenever he did hit Banihr, his blows did nearly twice as much damage. Banihr was able to hit him more consistently though.

"My power comes from my techniques which neither of us used in our match. With lightning infused blows, I can make even the knights tremble."

"Can you teach me some of those?"

"I can, but it won't be cheap. I'm not much of a teacher, don't have the patience for it."

"Of course not," Sam said, disappointed that he didn't considered the cost. He then remembered that he still had some scrolls from Banihr that he'd hardly even touched. "I'll be back."

"Where are you going?" Banihr asked as Sam turned and walked away.

"I'm going to practice a few things on my own for a bit. It shouldn't take long."

Sam trekked to the dungeons once more, to the safety of his Soul Beacon where he could read in peace. He retrieved his scroll from Melbern and began to read over descriptions and illustrations of Banihr's various techniques. Most of the techniques in the scroll were Linkers, different from those he'd learned previously.

The barring factor in all this was the fact that each of Banihr's techniques and many of the strikes required an affinity for lightning which Sam didn't have. The lightning was used to add a temporary stun affect to each of his Linkers along with extra damage. Sam took some time to practice the techniques anyway before remembering that he had bought even more scrolls from Banihr earlier. He retrieved the other two scrolls from Melbern at once. There was a whole scroll dedicated to learning the lightning strike, which was needed for all the Linkers he'd learned from the last scroll. As Sam practiced it, he found out that he did have a touch of lightning affinity, though it was weak compared to Banihr's.

On the last scroll, he found a new Ender, the Bolt Lunge.

Would you like the Bolt Lunge equipped to a Technique slot?

Yes.

Bolt Lunge slotted.

He was excited to see what the Bolt Lunge could do, but he held off on it. He continued reading the final scroll and saw even more that piqued his interest. Namely, there was Stamina Charge attack that utilized lightning called a Fulminating Strike along with a few extra tricky Linkers.

Sam practiced on the easier enemies in the dungeon, finding particularly good use in the Fulminating Strike and Bolt Lunge. He still had trouble with the Stone Stance and found it rather useless anyway. Sure, he was able to withstand some attacks without even flinching, but he still took sizeable damage and though the damage was reduced, it was still troublesome since he didn't have the most HP.