Goblins screamed as arrows were streaming from the sky. The goblins were falling one after another as they were running away while were embedded in them. One of them stopped to blow on a piece of bone that was hanging around his neck, a loud screech went through the woods. An arrow found its way to the goblins head, it dropped the whistle and fell to its knees. There was a loud thump coming from the trees. Thump, thump, thump. The trees split apart as an ogre made its way through the now bent trees. Arrows flew at it and bounced off the tough skin, the ogre swung its giant club and bellowed a deep roar. The ogre was about 13 feet tall with light green skin, scars riddled its body as its tusks gnashes at the air. I did a quick scan.

Name: Common Ogre

Rank: Common

Alignment: Wicked

Strength: 20

Dexterity: 10

Mental: 5

Health: 400

Mana: 100

A loud thunderous boom came from behind the ogre, the ogres back arched forward and the sound of lightning cracked from behind it. The ogre turn and swung its club. It leveled the trees behind him. 2 arrows were sticking out of his back. He turned back around to face me. He roared again and charged, he swung his club in an overhand strike. I activated my flash step that I learned from Griz, I took a couple quick steps and reached the ogres left shin as the club stuck the floor where I stood before, I activated my Electric Impact skill, it was level 27 now. I threw a series of punches at the ogres shin as electricity cracked with each hit. His left leg lost it strength and he fell to one knee. I flashed stepped to the right leg and hit him again with a series of Electric Impacts. I quickly followed up with a high side kick aimed for the back of his calf, channel my stamina and electricity to my shin as it came down with a boom. The ogre fell to his knees as arrows came from the trees again. 3 arrows embedded itself into the same spot as the previous arrows. The ogre fell to his stomach and roared. I flash stepped to his right arm, he was trying to push himself up. I threw a right stamina empowered front kick to his arm as he was putting weight on it, the arm was pushed under its chest and he rolled over to his back, I was almost out of mana as the flash steps drained me. I moved out of the way before the ogre was able to crush me as it rolled over. He laid on his back for a second trying to catch his breath. I moved to his head put my fists up, hopped back a couple steps, activated my stamina along with my Flash Step and launched myself at the ogres head, the ground cracked under the pressure of me pushing off of it. I hit the ogres temple with a loud crackling as it’s head caved in a bit, the ogres eyes opened wide as the life faded from them. I heard movement in the trees and I quickly turned and got in my fighting stance. Griz jumped out from the trees.

“Geez Hiro you’ve grown a lot in the last 3 years, you were a wimpy little kid when we met” she said with a smile and she nudged me with her elbow.

“Ya I have grown a lot” I closed my fists to look at them. Has it really been three years since I got here. I can’t believe I’m 22 years old in this world. Seems like it was yesterday when I got here from earth, or should I say the other program. I found out that Griz is 23 years old. She left her town of LightRidge when she was 15 years old to become a traveler. She came to BarrelCreek when she was 18. A year before I arrived. There has been multiple goblin raids since then. I myself helped fight off 5 of them. Remmy and Red left a year ago to continue traveling and hunting. Griz and I decided to travel together when she seen how my gloves worked. She was impressed by how I used them. Of course I sort of copied her electric skill but I haven’t told her. Life has been pretty good since then. I kept working with Jay at the armory, hunting in my free time and selling the materiel I got from them. The loot for this world doesn’t work like a typical RPG, it’s more like, kill the monster, carve up the valuable stuff and leave the rest for the goblins and wolfs. I mean hey, everyone has to eat. I now have cool armor, or at least what I think is cool, I wear a sort of martial arts GI with ripped sleeves, I got the idea from an old game I used to play the fighters name was GYU or FYU I don’t really remember his name. And of course Grizelda is still as beautiful as ever. I haven’t made a move on her though. Although I should change that soon....real soon.

“Hey Hiro” Griz yelled as she was standing on top of the ogre.

“You gonna stand there all day looking at your nails or you gonna help get this material?. Remember we are leaving this week we need to find the goblins base”

“Ya ya ya. I’m comming Griz” I replied. I jumped up on top of the ogre, pulled out my carving knife and took his heart, tusks and ribs. “These will sell for some good money” I said to Griz.

“Ya it will, remember we need as much money as we can get before leaving” Griz said.

“I know I know” I said. We are going to be leaving the Town of Barrel Creek soon. We don’t have a destination yet. All I know is that Griz loves to fight and after training my fighting skills the goblins and small wildlife here isn’t really a challenge and the town is pretty limited on resources for training, Darl has taught me everything he knows about hand to hand combat and Connie at the Mana school hasn’t really helped at all since I don’t want to learn big spells. We packed up the items and went back to Town, once we got there Griz took the items to the local trader shop to sell the them. I went back into the small house that Griz and I were living in. There was a couple who lived here but they died a year ago during one of the goblin raids. So we decided to live here. There was a little hiccup with the taxes but we were able to settle it thanks to Grizs uhh....negotiating. When I reached the house I reviewed my stats screen, I’ve been doing a lot of training over the last three years.

Stats:

Name: Hiro Wolfe

Class: common

Rank: none

Alignment: neutral

Strength: 27

Dexterity: 32

Mental: 17

Health: 485

Mana: 406

Stamina: 288

Skill: smithing level 12: can make common armor and weapons.

lightning shock Level 5: deals 10 damage

Cost: 5 mana

Hand to hand Level 27: increases damage of hand to hand combat by 0.75% per level.

Current damage increase: 20.25%

Electric impact Level 25: increases damage by 1 point per level.

Current damage increase: 25

Cost: 25 mana per second.

Flash step level 15: instantly move within a 3 meter radius.

Cost: 75 mana per cast, 1 second cool down.

I haven’t trained my lightning shock since I gain the skill, I didn’t really need it after I was able to get Lightning impact. My main bread and butter was Lightning Impact, Hand to Hand and Flash step. Flash step saved my ass a bunch of times when I was first started fighting monster. I remember when I though Griz teleported during that fight with Darl. Now that I’ve learned it, I see that it’s let’s you take a step within 3 meters and move In what seems like a blink of an eye. My stamina regen is 5 per second, and my Mana regen is 14 per second. Health regen is 12 per second and 24 per second if I’m resting. Hmmm, I might need to train my strength more, my punches and kicks aren’t as strong as I’ve been hoping, my dexterity is decent it allows me to hit faster so I definitely need to increase that, my stamina drains at 10 per second when it’s active and I get get off 1, 4 hit combo during that time, if I can get it to 5 hits per second or even 6 that would be amazingly though it’ll take a lot of training. Health will go up with strength and dexterity. Mana should increase as my mental stat does. Although at a much slower rate. Well I guess we will be leaving soon, I need to get some sleep. Tomorrow I spar with Darl.

I woke to a loud banging. “Hiro let’s go!” Griz yelled while still banging on the door. Man this is a horrible way to wake up. I thought to myself. I changed and ran downstairs, Griz threw me some smoked meat and bread as we walked out the house.

“Ready for the final sparing match with the old man?” Griz said with a smirk.

“Ya today I get to finally go all out with him, last time we sparred was a year ago and I’ve gotten much stronger since then.” I replied.

“Good, kick his ass” she said

We made it to the training center, where Darl was already waiting for us with his arms crossed.

“Bout time you got here, let’s get this started, If I kick your ass again you need to wait 2 years to spar again.” Darl said.

“Don’t worry old man, I’m not losing this time.” I said with confidence as I tightened my gloves.

We walked to over to the fighting pit, it wasn’t really a pit but that’s just what Darl liked to call it. We stood about 5 feet from each other. Griz was announcing the start of the match.

“Hurry up and start!” Griz yelled.

Darl dashed at me and swung a huge right fist at me, I stepped to the right and threw a quick right uppercut to his jaw, his head lurched up as I connected with a straight left. I jumped back a couple steps and smiled “getting slow” I said. Darl smiled, spit a little blood out and said “I was just feeling you out, the fight hasn’t started yet”. I lunged forward with a right punch, Darl stood there and took it on the chin. “That’s all you got boy” he said. Darl kicked me in the stomach and sent me rolling back, I caught my footing and slid. Time to step it up I thought to myself. I put my fist up and started to jump a bit, I rolled my head around, threw a couple of punches in the air. I flash step to Darl and hit him with a front kick, he took a couple steps back and held his stomach. “Ok kid let’s start the real fight” he took out his swords and charged at me, he swung one of his sword horizontally as I ducked under hit him with a right cross. Quickly followed up with a blaze of punches to the body and face. It didn’t seem to effect him, he spun and started swinging his swords, I back stepped as the tip of a sword grazed my chests and drew blood. I threw 3 fast kicks to the shin stomach and head. He blocked the head kick with his left arm. Swung with his right sword I flash stepped behind him and activated lightning impact with a kick at the middle of his back. Right before it connected he roared and activated his berserk mode, the force of the skill threw me off balance. I hit my fists together and channeled my stamina, I have 29 seconds to end this fight before I lose. I flash stepped and hit him with a blaze of punches, a mix of head and body hits, when he’d raise a hand to block his face I quickly moved to the body. I threw a couple side kicks to the stomach for added damage. He groaned in pain as each hit connected fully. His aura intensified. “Shit” I thought, it’s the same move he used when he over powered Grizs arrow. He swung his left sword at me, my body reacted almost on instinct. I aimed towards the blade of his sword and activated Lightning Impact the moment his word and my fist connected. His sword imbedded into the metal of my studded gloves. “Shit My gloves won’t take another hit like that” I thought to myself. My right side was open and he swung his right sword towards my ribs. I didn’t have time to react, all I could do was try to harden my muscles I tensed the muscles around my ribs. The sword made contact with me. I was imagining the sword stuck in my side as blood ran out. To my surprise that wasn’t the case.

Skill gained: Muscle Hardening Level 1

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Description- Due to your Pugilist class you have a disadvantage in weapon fights. As a result of your training you have learned to tense your body and infuse electricity into your muscles to further harden them. Has the same hardness of iron.

Mana cost 15 per second.

Holy crap I thought I was a done for. Darl looked at me curiously, I smiled at him and quickly hit him with 2 Lightning Impacts the the chest, Crack...Crack. The sound of of the lightning echoed in the air. He slid back a bit as I flash stepped behind him. I channeled Lightning Impact as threw a a massive front kick to his back. Boom!..Crack!. The sound the kick hitting his back and then the Lighting Impact sent shock waves through the air. “I win” I said. Smoke was dissipating as I brought my foot down.

“Hahahah. Not yet youngster”. He turned and brown eyes flared red.

“I haven’t had this much fun in years” Darl said as he grinned with rage in his eyes. I backed up and felt fear creeping through my body. There’s no way he could be this strong. He raised his swords and then.....

There was a loud explosion in the distance. We could see fire and ice being thrown in the sky. The sound of fire cracking and ice breaking traveled to us. Darl stopped mid swing as I stared at his swords inches from my face. Sweat was dripping from my forehead.

“What in the hell is Connie doing?” Darl said with irritation.

“Awwww what the heck guys, I want to see who wins!” Griz yelled.

A lady came running towards us with with soot all over her dress.

“They are here, we are being raided. Borrik was was trying to hold them off but they over powered and killed him, Jay is getting ready to help, he told me to come get you guys. Please help us.” She pleaded with tears in her eyes.

“These dam bandits again, what the hell! This time I’m killing all of them Darl said”

Griz took off running ahead of us. “C’mon Hiro......now is your chance to be a hero. We can’t let Griz have all the fun.” Darl took off running towards the town gates, I followed.

We reached the gates and seen people laying on the floor, some were people from the town and a couple of the bandits were there as well. What’s with the clothing, they look like soldiers or something. They had metal armor, swords and shields. Some of them had spears as well.

“These aren’t bandits” Darl said.

“These are soldiers from the Nokrin Army. We aren’t being raided, they are trying to conquer our town. Griz jumped down from a tree.

“Theres a group of Nokrin soldiers ahead, they have 3 of Borriks men circled. There are 3 mages in the back 1 Fire, 1 ice and 1 healer. Further behind on the hill is a camp setup. We need to take them out.” Griz said with anger in her eyes. We ran towards the circled men, one of them was on the floor unconscious as six soldiers fitted in typical sword and shield equipment were surrounding them. Griz stopped, crouched and knock 3 arrows. She fired and killed one. The fire mage noticed and hurled a fireball at us. Darl jumped in front and blocked the fire ball with his swords. The fire started to shrink as the fire was sucked into his swords, they burst into flames. “I need to ask him about that after” I thought to myself.

“Get in there Hiro!” He yelled at me as his eyes flared red.

I channeled my stamina and ran in. I was running towards one of the five soldiers that was left. I hit him with consecutive Lightning impacts to the chest and he fell, I flash stepped the the next closest. I launched him into a tree with a massive front kick. I wasn’t fast enough, one of the soldiers was swinging his word at me and hit my left arm. Blood ran from my arm. I flash stepped away, I was too slow, I couldn’t activate my muscle hardening. Darl and Griz were behind me.

“I’ll get the mages”. Griz said “you guys protect the men.” Darl nodded and charged in with a roar, his body started radiating as he fought off 3 of them. He block the hits of 2 men. The swords engulfed in flames melted the swords. Hey quickly chopped off one soldiers arm and swung at another. The soldier blocked with his shield. Darl’s swords tore through the shield and struck the soldier across his chest. The swords were stuck and he kicked him to dislodge his swords. The last guy was backing up in fear, the fell back and was using his hands to scoot back. Darl had no mercy, swung his sword and decapitated him. Griz shot an arrow at the the fire mage, the ice mage put up a wall of ice as Grizs arrows embedded itself in it. She shot off arrow after arrow checking to see if there was any weak points. When she realized there wasn’t any, she knocked three arrows and shot them, immediately she knocked another and shot it up in the air. “Can’t block them all Mr. ice mage. The ice mage put up a wall of ice between them and the arrows. All 3 struck the ice. The fire mage threw another fireball at her. She flash stepped out of the way. Crouched knock another arrow and shot a lightning infused arrow. The sound of electricity winding up sounded in the air. Snaps and craps were coming from the arrow tip it glowed a bright blue. The arrow that Griz shot in the air struck the ice mage in the shoulder as it fell from the sky. He screamed in pain and grabbed at it. Boom! The sound of the arrow breaking the sound barrier sent waves through the forest. The ice mage heard it and immediately put up an Ice barrier. He was too slow, the arrow struck him in the chest and blew a hole through him. The arrow blew through one of the trees and landed in another. The healing mage frantically tried to heal him as the fire mage conjured a fire tornado, he directed it towards Griz. The width of the tornado was too great for Griz to clear it with flash step. She heard a roar from behind her, Darl jumped in front and tried to block it with his swords. He was using every ounce of strength and stamina to stop it from hitting Griz. The tornado started to shrink, it seemed that he was able to fight it off, then it overcame Darl. He was enveloped in the flame as it continued to died down. Griz didn’t waste any time she shot another lightning infused arrow at the fire mage, Boom! The familiar sound of her arrow rattle the trees. With no defense and no where to run the fire mage conjured another fireball in desperation. The arrow struck and blew through the mage. The vacuum of wind created by the arrow ripping through the mages spell caused the fireball to be dragged with the arrow. The fireball struck the mage and he ignited. He fell to the floor lifeless with his body in flames. The healer ran for his life as Griz yelled “Stop him Hiro but don’t kill him”.

I ran towards him, channeled my stamina and gained speed. When I was within the 3 meter range of flash step, I flashed in front of him with a powerful right punch ready. I struck him and he rolled back. He begged and pleaded for me not to kill him. “I’m just following orders” he said while begging. “I’m not gonna kill you” I said. Griz was walking behind him she pull an arrow out of her quiver, spun it around in her hand and planted the arrow in his skull. “But I am” she said, she channeled electricity through the arrow shaft and the healing mage started to convulse. Blood ran from his nose, ears and mouth. She let go and his lifeless body laid on the floor.

“Darl!” Griz said. I turned back to look at Darl. He was on the floor with boils and blisters all over his body. Connie was already making her way towards him. When we reached himhe was gasping for air.

“Connie save him, now!” I said in a panic,

“I know kid, shut up!” She barked back at me. She began to cast a healing light on him. Darls body began to heal, blister started to shrink to nothing, burned and charred skin began to mend itself.

“He’s going to live, but he won’t be able to fight for a couple days.” Connie said with relief in her voice.

“Thank you Connie” Griz said. Her eyes were red and glossy as if she was about to cry.

“We have to take care of the camp Griz” I said with pain and anger. “We need to pay them back for doing this to Darl” Griz nodded and we ran towards the enemy camp.

“We should get some cover and scout it out” I said as we were running towards it. Griz didn’t hear me she was intent on destroying the camp. We were about 6 meters away from the camp, I seen 3 tents, a weapon rack outside of each one and one giant tent.There was 3 men outside keeping watch. Griz was angry, her eyes were still red and glossy. She clenched her bow knocked three arrows lined them up and sent the lighting empowered arrows at the 3 smaller tents. “I have enough mana for one more shot” Griz said. “After this the rest is up to you.” Screams were heard coming from the tents, Grizs arrows tore through them with sounds of cracks and booms as they each made contacts. Griz aimed an arrow to the sky. It was charged with electricity but nothing like the previous arrows she shot, this one left a faint trail of electric imbued mana behind. “Finish them off Hiro” Griz growled at me. I made a dash towards the camp. Soldiers were coming out of the tents. Some with missing limbs and some dragging out dead bodies. One of the scouts seen me and was about to yell, I flashed towards him and hit him with high side kick to the throat. He grabbed his throat and fell to the floor. His trachea was broken. I continued running, a soldier came out of one of the tents, turned to me and pulled out his sword another came out right after. He swung his sword at me. I used muscle harden to block the blow with my right arm. I hit him with 4 lightning impacts to the chest one kick to his right ribs. I felt bones break with each hit and ribs break with the final kick. The soldier coughed up blood and fell in pain. I quickly turned to the second soldier before he was able to stand up right. Hit him with a lighting impact punch to the top of the head. He stopped stunned and I quickly hit with and axe kick to the base of the neck. A loud crack came from where I kicked him, he fell with a thud and made a gurgling sound. I made my way through immobilized the second scoutcleared the tent. I was finishing up the third tent with I noticed Grizs arrow go through the top of the giant tent. Soon after, the sound of thunder bellowed. A giant lighting strike followed the the trail of mana the arrow left. There was a sound of winding electricity and then a loud sonic boom, all the tents were blown away and whatever was left of them was in flames. One soldier made it out of the tent that Grizs arrow struck. He was injured, I took advantage and flash stepped and hit him with 3 lighting impact punches and finished with a spinning back kick to the chest. The soldier stepped back, grabbed his chest and fell to his knees. Griz caught up to me and we started walking towards the final soldier in the Nokrin camp. “Why did you attack us?!” Griz yelled. The soldier lifted his head. “I don’t take orders from you!” He spit on Grizs boot. “I will gladly give my life for the Nokrin army. Kill my enemies, I offer you my life.” He pulled out a dagger from his waist and stabbed his chest.

“Crap! Griz this is usually when the boss comes out.” I yelled without thinking.

“What are you talking about Hiro?” Griz said with a puzzled look.

I have to tell her at some point. But that will have to wait, right now a boss is coming. The soldiers body started to convulse. Black liquid was seeping from his eyes, ears and mouth. He fell face first into the floor. “Hmm well I guess there’s no boss” I said. The soldiers body started to disappear in a black mist. The mist formed a straight vertical line that was about 5 feet long. Griz drew an arrow and charged it, I readied myself as well. Electricity surged through my body. The line opened up like a tear in space. A red armored knight was inside of it with fire and lava behind him. He grabbed the edges of the black mist and pulled himself into our area. When he was about half way through I yelled “get him!” I seen too many anime’s to know not to let the boss make a full entrance. Screw that I’m trying to live. Griz shot and the cracking of electricity sounded. The arrow struck the knight in the chest, the knight grunted as the arrow hit, the arrow pushed him back and he grabbed the edges of the tear in space harder. I scanned him

Name: Chaos Knight

Class: Commander Knight

Rank: 5

Alignment: wicked Level 40

Strength: 45

Dexterity: 50

Mental: 51

Health: 821

Mana: 890

Stamina:750

There no way we can take him. I thought to myself. “A hero never gives up” I said. As he was still being pushed back by Grizs arrow. I channeled everything I had, time slowed as my stamina was in full effect. I needed more, I pushed myself to go beyond what my stamina was giving me. Suddenly my stamina started draining at 25 per second instead of the normal 10 per second. Time slowed even more and I felt every single muscle in my body activate, it was like nitrous being shot into a race car, everything screamed my muscle harden skill activated on it own, electricity surged through my body the tense muscles that were already at 120% were pushed even more with the electricity. The pain started to become unbearable. I flash stepped the ground beneath me crack. I appeared before the knight. Lighting impact was already active. I hit him with a burst of hits, resembling a fight from anime back home. Each hit dented his armor. Electricity surged through him with each hit. I raised my right knee to my chest, pain and electricity ran through my body, my veins were bulging around my body each one looking like it was ready to burst. I kicked with my raised leg in a flash, Boom! Crack! I dumped all my mana into that kick, I aimed for the back of Grizs arrow the knight was still fighting off. The arrow pierced the knights armor and went through him. I seen the arrow exit his back and strike the floor. The knight grunted in pain I scanned his health.

740/900 health.

I turned to Griz and there was genuine fear in her eyes. Her legs trembled and her lips quivered. Her eyes were full of despair. My stamina was down to 50 and my mana was gone, my health was at about a quarter. I guess going beyond my limits has its recoil. My body was wrecked, blood vessels in my eyes popped as my eyes turned red. My head was pounding and my knees gave out. A I heard a ringing in my ears and everything went quiet. The Chaos knight recovered from the shock and began pulling hiself through the mist. No, I can’t! I can’t give up I’m gonna be the hero. My stamina was at 70 now, I channeled it. 10 per second, this gives me 7 seconds. The ringing stopped and sound came back. I ran to Griz. “I’ll finish this Griz” she never turned away. Her eyes were locked on him and she was frozen with fear. I turned to him launched myself. I ran as fast as I could. Building momentum, When I was 5 feet from him, 30 stamina left. I drained my stamina more. I had one second. I spun, I transferred my momentum from running into a spinning back kick. The knight roared lifted his head and yelled “I will remember your face.” Right before my foot made contact a shockwave of energy blasted me away. I was throw back and rolled on the floor. I was drained. Stamina, mana and health. The shock wave did damage but not enough to kill me. I couldn’t move. I gave everything I had. I tried to look at the knight to see what kind of magic he used. There was another explosion. Dust filled the air, then another and another, the explosions were getting faster. I looked to see where they were coming from. It was Connie. She was launching spells, one after another each one impacting with an explosion. The explosions stopped. She looked like she was charging up a spell. The knight was pushing through each explosion. Connie conjured a black sphere that started sucking everything into it. Is that a black hole? I thought to myself. But I though there is no gravity here, the orb began to grow inside as it absorbed more air. “Get back!” Connie yelled. I started to crawl away as my pain intensified. Each pull hurt like needles piercing my muscles. The orb reached the knight. It stopped sucking in the ambient air, it shrank to the size of a penny, then exploded. The knight braced himself. He let go and put his arms in front of him to block the impact. He flew back into the lava and fire behind him. The energy from Connie’s black orb spell shredded the black mist. I rolled into the fetal position and covered my head to try and protect myself. Griz was thrown back as she was still in a daze. When it died down I finally picked my head up, I looked around and seen Connie grabbing griz and trying to snap her out of her daze. My vision began to blur and my head got heavy. Soon all I seen was black.