Many different thoughts crossed William’s mind as he spotted the threat. William had no time to deliberate however. He couldn’t allow the threat to get into or reach Greenwell while the defenses were still being built, but neither could he try and make them run away, ideally, the three of the bandits should not leave the area alive, but could he do it? Sure he had gained significant strength, and fought several foes at once, but never multiple human foes, much less scummy bandits.
Confrontation here was the best approach he determined, and with that, he yelled down the hill toward Greenwell, “Three Bandits! Approaching from the North.”
He saw a couple people look up from the perimeter of the palisade and saw them run to others. Good. The alert was spreading. Now for the oncoming battle. William stood up and noticed that the bandits had descended part of their hill but paused to stare at him. William shrugged to himself at the sight and just started walking down, drawing his sword, while keeping his free hand close to his dagger. He would need a good opener that dropped one of them immediately, two enemies was still a significant threat, but it was less than three. In such battles every advantage would count.
The bandits continued their approach and William, seeing them reach the base of the two hills, he stopped halfway up. He now had the high ground. A certain sci-fi movie he watched once came to mind, but he didn’t anyone would try to leap over him here from down below. The bandits climbed up the hill, unfazed at the disadvantage they had, but William guessed that they were confident in a three versus one scenario. Time would tell.
William took a moment to identify the enemies before him:
{Ascension_Protocol}
Human Level 8 – Scout Level 8
Human Level 7 – Archer Level 7
Human Level 7 – Mage Level 7
{End}
The level eight bandit stepped forward from the accursed trio, and spoke up, “Who the fuck are ya boy?”
William assessed the man, and was a little bit disappointed at the NPC dialogue the guy opened with. Nonetheless, William replied, “Oh, just someone out for a little stroll. Feel free to scurry somewhere else.”
The bandit laughed and raised a hand, and in a moment, the mage had a hand pointed at William as did the Archer their bow, with an arrow knocked. Not good. He would need to try and take out the Mage first, who knew what spells the guy could use on William.
“Are you seriously too afraid for a one on one match? Three on one is a bit cowardly don’t you think?” William said, hoping for the Scout to take the bait.
It worked.
“I ‘spose runts need to be put in their place, even if ya Human level is higher, ya still a weaklin’ fighter.” The Bandit replied.
“So they Identified me eh?” William thought to himself as he nodded to the bandit and the two approached each other, time for the plan he had conjured there and then. The bandit lunged for William, but even though he was outmatched in natural speed, William had enchanted equipment. He dodged the attack with a dash to the right, and in a flash, had drawn and launched one of his daggers at the Mage using Mana investment to buff the blade further. The Mage had no clue what to do in response as the dagger buried itself to the hilt in their chest as they were sent off their feet, down to the foot of the hill with a loud thud and crack.
William had no time to see if it was fatal however, as he caught the Scout turning to face him in his peripheral vision. “Meat shield time,” He thought, moving to the next stage of the plan. William zig-zagged towards the Archer dodging one shot, but taking a second to the shoulder of his shield arm. The drawback of his buckler was that it wasn’t a massive surface. Nonetheless, he pressed forward and with a final spin, feeling the arrow nick his other shoulder slightly, he combined Swift Thrust with Mana Investment and plunged his blade into the face of his prey, the tip sticking out of the rear of their skull. As he heard the footfalls behind him, William turned the archer to be between him and the Scout, using the sword still impaled as a lever of sorts to guide his new meat shield around.
The move prompted the Scout to stop his momentum suddenly. This bought William the time he needed to use his free hand to reach across to his other dagger, wincing from the pain in the process, to launch it at the Scout with another ruse of Mana Investment. The Projectile was flying direct on target, but at the last moment, the Bandit twisted, and a fatal strike to the chest became a maiming strike buried into the Scout’s shoulder. The Bandit, did drop one of his daggers fortunately, so the attack wasn’t in vain.
The Scout growled in pain, but had managed to get around the meat shield, stabbing William in the side. William felt the pain sear through his body, it was unbearable, but adrenaline still fueled him. William let go of the archer and gouged the bandit in the eyes with his fingers. It was a dirty tactic, but a win was a win. William took it further by stamping on the kneecap of the man, and with a resounding pop followed by a screech from the Scout, the two fell to the ground. William landed on top of his final foe and punched the man in the face twice, before he felt the dagger leave his side and plunge into the same side slightly higher this time. William screamed, and spat blood, but prevented a third strike by using one hand to hold the blade inside him, staunching blood flow and restraining his quarry at the same time. William had no weapons on hand. The nearest thing he could use was the Scout’s dropped dagger several feet away on the ground, out of reach.
It was then that William had an idea, a dark idea, fueled by pure, viscous, animalistic intent. William lowered his mouth and latched his teeth around the adams apple of the Scout and bit with all his might. Warm blood spurted on his face and flooded his mouth, the iron taste almost overwhelming. It was significantly easier than he thought however, as he felt a lump of hard flesh in his mouth and no more resistance fighting his teeth. He spat the meat out, and saw the man gurgling, ghostly pale, then used his free hand to plunge it into the neck hole. William managed to find the neck vertebrae and twisted. A loud snap echoed and some more blood spurted on William’s arm as the man breathed his last breath.
William felt the Scout’s hand drop down, leaving the dagger stuck in his side. His HP was just under half, but every second saw it drop by one point. He needed to do something. He got to his feet, now remembering his dagger in the Scout’s shoulder. He pulled it out and almost facepalmed, but stowed the idea as he was in too much pain. He could have just used that to finish the guy. William walked over to the archer and with some more effort ripped the sword out of his skull.
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It was then that good news arrived, in the form of his party.
“William! Are you alright?!” Jane yelled, as William spotted his party rushing down the hill to meet him.
“Been better. Can you heal me please?” William replied, gritting his teeth and ripping the dagger out of his side, grunting loudly.
Jane didn’t reply, and instead took action immediately as William felt warmth radiate through him and watched his wounds seal up and his HP fill back up.
William decided to consult the prompts he knew were waiting for him:
{Ascension _Protocol}
You have slain: Human Level 8 Scout Level 8
Bonus EXP awarded for slaying a creature of higher Class level than you.
Bonus Enchanter EXP for slaying a creature with an Item enchanted by you.
You have slain: Human Level 7 Archer Level 7
Bonus EXP awarded for slaying a creature of higher Class level than you.
Bonus Enchanter EXP for slaying a creature with an Item enchanted by you.
{Class: Enchanter – Level 5 Reached}
Attribute points allocated, plus 5 unused points.
{Race: Human – Level 10 Reached}
Attribute points allocated, plus 5 unused points.
{Class: Fighter – Level 7 Reached}
Attribute points allocated, plus 5 unused points.
{Race: Human – Level 11 Reached}
Attribute points allocated, plus 5 unused points.
{Allocation:}
Would you like to Allocate Unused points (20) to attributes?
{Y/N}
{End}
William was about to dig in as he felt other prompts waiting for him after allocation and he hoped for a level ten milestone of some form. He went cold however, realizing that he had only been awarded for the Scout and the Archer. Nothing for the mage. He turned to look down the hill following his sudden bad feeling.
He was just in time to see the Mage’s hand light up from the prone position in a pool of his own blood, and responded by lifting the archer’s body up as he yelled, “Behind me now!”
Everyone followed, and William felt the impact of several spikes of ice penetrate the archer’s body. Some pierced through the full body, almost impaling William, while others that hit bone stuck firm.
“Fire-bolt him, quick!” William yelled.
The three mages did so immediately, and the bolts struck true, igniting the man. Yells of agony came but were silenced fairly quick as the cumulative damage taken made the fallen mage succumb. William saw the reactions of his party, and he knew that for John and Stacey, this would be their first human kill. The reactions were expected, as the pair went white and vomited. William was unsure if the smell that had just reached them was the main cause or the grief. Wallace, grimaced but made eye contact with William and nodded solemnly. The ex-soldier was hardened more to death than the others after all.
{Ascension _Protocol}
You have slain: Human Level 7 Mage Level 7
Bonus Enchanter EXP for slaying a creature with an Item enchanted by you.
Bonus EXP to all Classes from working with a party.
{End}
No additional level up, but William didn’t mind. He did however postpone further prompt diving until they had all recovered and collected the gear up from the bandits. William found it interesting that the party EXP gain seemed to be based on radius. That was something to note for future plans.
William turned to John and Stacey, “It’s okay guys, they would have done the same to you. This world is cruel like that. Sit down for a minute and recover okay?”
John nodded and plonked his butt on the grass looking down at his feet, deep in thought. Stacey gave William a slight, sad smile before lowering herself to the ground more gently than John.
“Jane, look after them and make sure they recover okay, me and Wallace will get the kit from the bodies,” William said looking over at Jane who was staring at the battlefield zoned out. She heard however, and nodded then walked over to the seated pair.
William and Wallace got to work and after about twenty minutes, they had recovered, three full clothing kits of boots, jerkins, and pants, a bow and quiver half full of arrows, two daggers, and three coin pouches. He gave the three coin pouches to John, Jane, and Stacey, as Wallace didn’t really have interest in keeping loot taken from the bodies of fallen enemies for himself. William found it weird that it didn’t apply to stripping the stuff from them in the first place. Something from Wallace’s soldiering days morally stopped him. He thankfully didn’t judge the others as he told them that it was a soldier thing. He only accepted the clothing that he was given from William initially because it was William that had gathered the kit. William found those kind of morals contradictory in circumstances like that but didn’t judge it too much.
William asked Wallace about something that he had noticed from all the bandits that he had faced, “Why don’t any of them have packs, or at least food and water? If they are in fact based roughly thirty miles away, then why don’t they have travel kit?”
Wallace’s eyes went wide at that. William clearly spotted that something clicked in the old soldier’s mind.
Wallace spoke up looking slightly more concerned now, “thirty miles is a hard march, tiring as hell in this summer heat. If they aren’t outfitted for it, then they would need to either be closer, than we heard, or they have some kind of forward operating base.”
The pair assessed the kit they had again. Wallace examined the pairs of boots they had collected and his face grew slightly more concerned then, “Hardly any wear on these boots lad.”
William wasn’t a soldier, but he knew that minimal wear means new or fresh condition.
William replied, “We need to head north and see what we find. Obviously not fighting anyone, just in and out, twenty minute adventure.”
Wallace seemed confused at William’s words, then it clicked for him that Wallace probably didn’t understand the reference.
The older man looked northward, nodded, and replied, “Scouting would probably do us good, but if we get caught, we could die. Though, disinformation could also do the same. Let’s check it out.”
The pair consulted the party that had mostly recovered from the shock and they all agreed on the scouting plan. William was now fully kitted again, and the restoration runes were coming in clutch for repairing the fabric. He pondered the effects of the restoration runes for a moment and knew that they had worked to restore health to him, yet he was still dropping HP. It fell into place then in his mind; without them, he would have probably lost much more HP, much faster too. “Thank you Enchanter Class,” William thought, finally deciding to sort the prompts that were waiting for him as the group walked northward.