As Jed cautiously watches the approaching warrior, he sees an arrow flying toward him out of the corner of his eye. Too slow to dodge it, the projectile hits him in the ribs and bounces off without doing any noticeable damage. Though he's amused by the pitiful attack, there's no time to laugh with the warrior now charging toward him, axe raised over his shoulder.
'Heh'.
A great idea pops into Jed's head and with a small nudge of his magic the gravel slides out from underneath the man's foot, sending him headfirst into the dirt with a satisfying grunt of pain. The axe cut up part of the man's arm as he fell on top of it and seeing this, Jed finally understands why you aren't supposed to run with scissors.
Tendrils of golden light stream from the hand of the cleric at the back of the group, enveloping the warrior and slowly knitting his skin back together. Before Jed can do anything to interrupt the healing, the mage shoots a poor excuse for a fireball into his chest, which leaves him feeling warm and toasty but otherwise unharmed.
In the middle of mentally face-palming, Jed's gaze is drawn toward the archer. The woman's bow has a faint glow to it and the arrow comes spinning toward him with a great deal more force than her previous attack. He can only assume that it is some sort of skill and decides that it's probably a good idea to dodge this one.
Trying to move out of the way before it's too late, Jed notices something is off and after looking down at his foot that feels stuck, he understands the issue. It is fused to the ground in a coat of ice, probably courtesy of the annoying mage off to his left. Unable to avoid it, the arrow slams into his right arm, this time digging into his rocky skin and leaving small cracks branching outward from the wound. Annoyed and beginning to get angry, Jed jerks his leg around until it bursts free of the ice, leaving shards strewn across the floor.
While the archer reloads and the mage begins another chant, the warrior rises to his feet, finally healed and ready to regain his dignity. Charging forward, the man is met with a burst of rock splinters aimed at the opening in the face of his helmet. Hastily blocking his face with an arm, he can only swing the axe blindly in the general direction of the short elemental in the hopes of hitting something.
Already pretty short, Jed easily manages to duck under the frenzied attacks and sends a forceful punch right into the warrior's knee. The poor quality of the armor leaves much to be desired in the way of protection and does little to save the large man's kneecap. A few snapping sounds are followed by a howl of agony and the warrior goes toppling over, once more onto the ground.
The large slab of stone, that Jed had been using as a chair earlier, comes floating over to him and he makes it hover between him and the archer as a shield. It blocks another one of the charged arrows, allowing him to focus on firing earth spikes in the direction of the cleric. Twisting his body to the side and jumping backward, the guy does a pretty good job of dodging the first couple spikes, but it isn't long before he's speared through the gut and falls over with a pale face.
The chanting coming from the mage grows louder as he points at Jed and a long spear of ice forms in the air, then goes flying toward him, only to be shattered by the rock shield that quickly moves to intercept it. With the shield out of the way, the archer fires another powered up shot and the arrow drills its way deep into Jed's leg, far enough to actually get stuck in him this time.
Grumbling broken profanities under his breath, Jed turns Assimilation on and tears the arrow out of his leg to allow the wound to repair itself. Letting go of his control over the hovering rock shield, it crashes to the ground and he moves his concentration to both the archer and mage. Dirt goes shooting up into the air in front of them and swirls around into clouds of dust, obscuring their vision to hopefully give him some respite from the constant ranged barrage.
Something sweeps into the back of Jed's legs, flipping him backwards into the dirt, where he sees the prone warrior grinning at him through clenched teeth. Before the axe comes around for a second blow, Jed slides the rock shield across the ground and into the side of the man's head with great force. Looking at the now limp body that's leaking blood from its head, Jed decides that the warrior is either dead or unconscious and pushes himself up to his feet, just in time to see the now fully healed cleric, archer, and mage all glaring daggers at him.
"..you...staur..ted... et." accuses Jed with arms crossed.
He hears them angrily muttering to each other about revenge and then a few seconds later something about being low on mana. Not wanting to give them time to come up with a plan, Jed starts repeatedly firing his trusty pebble shotgun in their direction, leaving painful looking bruises and scrapes all over them.
"Aaahgh!"
"Dammit... gah!"
"Ow. Fuck!"
The three of them all raise their arms and cover their faces, then quickly turn to run. The cleric is the furthest back and the archer is fast, both of them easily outrun the mage who's still being pelted. Jed keeps flinging rocks of all shapes and sizes at them, knocking the mage to the ground, but missing the others as they make it out of his range.
While keeping an eye on the mage, who is now laying still, Jed walks over to the warrior and confirms that the man is definitely dead.
'Well the armor is way too big for me... I could probably make the axe work somehow, though.'
Searching the corpse, Jed finds something that looks strangely like a loot bag, upon opening it a notification pops up, telling him that his current gold balance is now 14 and then the bag disperses into tiny pieces of light.
'Aww yeah! Cash money.'
About to reach for the axe, Jed notices something strange. The warrior's armor is falling apart and slowly trickling into Jed's body. He checks, and it looks like he'd forgotten to turn Assimilation off. Switching the skill off now that he was at full health anyway, Jed sees the stream of liquid iron stop moving and return to the armor.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Unsure about what is happening, he decides to go with it and reactivates the skill. Right away the armor starts draining once more and after a few minutes it stops, leaving the armor almost completely gone.
*Bloop!*
Congratulations!You have acquired a new skill.Iron Blood (Passive)Absorb ore and metals to increase Strength.
'So that's what was happening, good to know. Time to check on mister mage over there.'
After grabbing the axe and snapping the wooden handle in half to make it more his size, he heads over to the mage who is still taking a dirt nap. Jed kicks at the mage's side, flipping him over and onto his back. Looking closely, he can see faint signs of breathing and is able to tell that the guy is still alive but knocked out cold.
'I'm in a good mood after getting a new skill and in my infinite benevolence I shall spare your life. I'm still going to steal all your shit though. I'm not a saint.'
A few minutes later, Jed's gold balance is up to 27, and after most of that time is spent shortening the mage's robe with the warrior's axe, he now has a shiny new miniature robe to wear. Covering himself in the robe, flipping the hood up, and wielding the shortened axe, Jed now looks like he could be a very short dwarf who hates sunlight.
'With my masterfully crafted disguise, I'm basically invisible. Time to hit the road!'
*Bloop!*
Battle ReportYou have slain the following:1x William the Warrior Lvl 4
1x Melvin the Mage Lvl 6 (Spared: Half xp, +10 fame)The following enemies escaped:1x Ariana the Archer Lvl 51x George Lvl 4You looted:27 Gold1x Iron Axe1x Beginner's Hooded Robe
'WHAT!? Half xp, that's bullshit! See what I get for trying to do something nice for somebody? Last time I let someone live, that's for sure. Next ti-...'
*Bloop!*
Congratulations!Your level in Earth Magic has increased to level 9!Intelligence +2
Wisdom +1
Congratulations!Your level in Assimilation has increased to level 8!Vitality +2
Strength +1
Congratulations!Your level in Masonry has increased to level 5!Dexterity +4
Wisdom +2
'Shut up, nobody asked you, blue scre-..'
*Bloop!*
Congratulations!You have reached level 7!+10 Unused stat points.
'...just show me my status.'
Quickly and angrily poking his finger at the status menu, Jed spends his 10 points and then looks it over.
Status InformationNameJedAge23 RaceLesser Earth ElementalGenderN/ALevel7
ClassN/AHealth360/360Mana346/430 Strength41(46)Agility20Vitality36Dexterity23Intelligence37Wisdom43
'Looks like absorbing that armor gave me an extra 5 Strength, not too shabby. Now then, off I go to enjoy this lovely day!'
Happily twirling his axe, his stolen robes fluttering in the breeze, Jed marches his way down the trail leading through the cliffs.