William’s group started with a tried and tested strategy that had worked multiple times on the Lynxes they often dealt with. William got close, whilst John, Wallace, and Stacey bombarded the enemy with [Fire-bolt]. Jane stayed in the back on heals. Darris managed to take the magic bolts on his armor, seemingly immovable. The magic didn’t burn or deflect any of the magic, but as William was closer, he could see a thin shimmer on the big guy’s studded leather jerkin. It was like a thin membrane of Mana. William at that point, didn’t get to look further as a great hammer swing headed his way. He managed to dive and roll out the way, the act made slightly more awkward by his buckler arm landing awkwardly. He only had enough time to kick off with his feet to put more space between him and Darris as the big guy’s hammer slammed into the earth, cracking and splintering the very ground; straight towards William.
William only had a brief moment to expand his shield before spikes of earth slammed into it. The force staggered William to the point his vision of Darris was briefly obscured by the shield. It was at that moment, William’s world span as a tremendous force smashed into William’s shield with such power it lifted William off the ground and sent him spiraling several feet across the ground. Pain encompassed William as his arm was numb all over except right on the part with his shield. A sharp pain prodded at his nerves. He spat some blood, shook up by the blow and could tell his arm was broken. Darris was stood five feet away playing with his hammer, seeming uncaring of the [Fire-Bolt] castings that William’s friends were still hurling. William looked over to Jane who returned the gaze. He gestured with his sword to his other arm, mouthing the word to her. Fortunately for William, Jane understood and moved slightly closer before casting a ranged heal spell.
Rejuvenation flooded William as his arm felt warm, a sensation of summer’s kiss on his flesh, with hints of autumnal chill when the bones snapped together. He nodded his thanks as Darris seemed to notice the spell and turned his gaze to Jane. William panicked in that moment. There was no fucking way Jane could dodge the guy’s attack. William had to keep the guy occupied as not even John would have the Dexterity, hell, William barely had enough. Why was a big guy like that so fast?
William was relieved when Darris was distracted by a [Fire-bolt] to the back of his unprotected head. John had cast the spell perfectly and where the big guy once had short, but thick and black hair, now was merely charred flesh. He let out a bestial roar of rage as his attention was drawn to John. William’s friend noticed the change in attention and paled as he saw the bandit leader’s eyes lock on him like a predator spotting delicious but hated prey. William saw the bandit hunch down slightly, a bull ready to charge. Fortunately, John noticed too and threw up a [Fire-wall] between William’s party and Darris. William remembered the protection that Darris had on his armor, however, and knew the guy was just going to bulldoze through.
“John! Dodge, he’s gonna charge you. Everyone, spread out too!” William shouted, too worried to care about spilling the beans loud enough for Darris to hear.
A small thimble of relief surfaced within William as the big guy seemed too pissed off to even notice. A swift moment later, just as William pictured, Darris charged, a bull that had seen deep red. The man bulldozed through the [Fire-wall] briefly leaving a gap in the defense before the gap filled in with more flame. Even with the big guy’s defenses, some parts of Darris seemed hurt. His arms and lower legs that were unguarded had all been charred. Unfortunately, This didn’t seem to irritate the guy much as he scanned the area for John. It didn’t take long as John had darted around the edge of his [Fire-wall] but hadn’t fully disappeared from Darris’s field of view, making the big guy charge once more. William had to do something. It was an instant idea, hence why William knew it would hurt like a bitch, but it would save his friend’s life.
Darris charged, and William knew that moment was the only one he would get to intercept. Low on Mana, he used [Flash Stride] appearing just off to the side of Darris’s path as William timed a [Shield Bash] for when Darris reached the spot in front of William. It was to William’s delight when the attack worked, throwing the bull off its course, but not before the butt of the warhammer’s haft slammed into his chest, sending William back several feet, winded and shook up.
John managed to scramble out of the immediate vicinity before Darris recovered. William glanced around and could see the non-combatants at the entrance to the hut they had been hiding in for the raid and the rest of his party were spread out, making it hard for Darris to take multiple people at once. William had just over enough Mana for a use of [Mana Investment]. He combined it with [Dagger Toss] and threw his fourth Mythril dagger at the downed Darris hoping to injure the guy further. It was a success as a large gash slashed through an exposed arm, severing muscle and tissue, which, if nothing else, would slow the big guy’s swings down a little bit.
Both his SP and MP were low once again, so he chugged another of each corresponding potion, leaving him with One SP and one MP potion on his person. He couldn’t tell if it was the combination of taste or the combination of herbs or whatever else went into the potions, but William felt sick, like a bad stomach ache. He would deal with it afterwards though. William felt his resources replenish and felt refreshed, going into the next round of combat, the big guy now back on his feet, seeming incredibly pissed off. What’s worse than a big guy with a hammer? A pissed off big guy with a hammer.
William had to start doing some damage to the big guy and soon. William didn’t know if more bandits would be along, but Darris needed to be afflicted with the medical condition of death before any more arrived. William charged at Darris who was looking around at the scattered party members, so cocky that he only noticed William’s attack as two feet separated the two. William combined the classic [Vortex Slash] and [Mana Investment] into Absolution, and he was pleased when the seventy five percent penetration chance triggered, making William’s attack tear a huge gash out of the bandit leader’s side. The armor was undamaged, but blood dripped out from the crevices and darkened the leather on the inside, dark splotches starting to appear on the outside of the armor.
William, unfortunately, only had time to block the counter strike awkwardly as the butt of the hammer smacked him off balance. It didn’t hurt as bad as the hammer blow from before did, however the impact still left William’s arm numb, but this time, not broken. William managed to turn the awkward angle into an opportunity however, twisting his foot into a pivot, William used [Vortex Thrust], once again triggering Absolution’s effect successfully, catching the big guy in the shoulder of the same side as his slash had. A return swing with the haft of the hammer was countered skillfully by William as he used [Indomitable Parry], getting the timing just right. William saw Darris off balance somewhat and with all his other abilities on cool-down for at least a couple seconds, did the tried and tested thing against any dude. He punted the big guy in the balls.
William had never expected to hear such a feminine yelp from another dude in his life, but today he ticked that off of his bucket list. William went for another attack with Absolution, but was stopped by the sudden impact of the warhammer haft Darris held. A thunderous force struck center mass on William, Sending him airborne a few feet away, ending the air time with a heavy thud on dirt making William’s vision flash white before the periphery of his vision became blurred for a pregnant moment.
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William sat up, gathering his bearings, noting that Absolution had stuck in the ground two feet to his left. His SP and HP had lost a sizeable chunk from the impact of launch and landing.
“And the William Space Program is a resounding success,” William said in a raspy mutter, gathering his composure.
He noticed that Darris had fortunately slowed somewhat, presumably from the blood loss, at least enough for John to be baiting him around for a bit. Wallace and Stacey had kept up the [Fire-bolt] barrage for a while, occasion hitting an exposed area of the big guy and doing fair damage. The guy would have level twenty four HP though, so anything other than enough damage or hitting something vital wouldn’t seal the deal. Seeing that Wallace and Stacey were probably running low on MP he waved a hand to them, grabbing Absolution and jogging over while John continued his aggro drawing.
“You two should get the others and if the main side is safe, take the fitter fighters and guard the new hole in wall. I’m worried more bandits will come in that way,” William said, turning to get his bearings of the situation.
Jane was near to the non-combatants, who were peaking out from the doorway, worry present on there faces. John had impressively avoided some brutal attacks from Darris. It was in seeing that interaction that William noticed a useful detail. Darris used the haft or butt of the warhammer to hit his foes up close, but seemed to only be able to use the big, double faced hammerhead when the opponent was a little further out. John was far enough that he could avoid, whereas William had gotten up close doing a similar thing, just having to contend with weaker blows. The unfortunate thing was that the weaker blows still hit like a truck. His intuition told him there was something that could be used or exploited to shift things in their favour.
William next looked to the right where Darris had started from and where Noctis and Armine were. He only saw Noctis, looking destitute and broken, staring off into space. He could understand and still felt that deep pang of guilt at what had happened. Armine seemed to be the one to reach the stage of anger first for the most part however, that very same girl who wasn’t where he had seen her last. William started to worry. If a spy got away before the bandits were dead, then nothing would change. It wouldn’t be so bad once the leadership is dead and a bunch of rabble do typical rabble things, but united with purpose would be deadly to Greenwell with the info that Armine and Noctis now knew.
William glanced around and couldn’t see her running towards any of the exits, nor did he see her near the deadly slamming of Darris, not that he would expect her to be near that monstrosity. He kept looking to no avail, until he turned back to Jane and the non-combatants, noticing a shift in the shadow around the corner of the hut. Armine appeared and worse, a hateful face of bloody vengeance, bearing a spear. It was one he had enchanted, but this one was pointed at Jane’s back. His eyes widened, the world slowing. [Flash Stride] was a few seconds off of cool-down, and he couldn’t use the enchantment to recall it towards him as Jane was in the direct path. He was about to lose his sister.
To his shock and subsequent horror, their mother rushed out, grabbing Armine and wrestling her to the ground. William had always heard of the term ‘cat fight’ where two women would become a writhing mass of nails, slaps and sass. He now knew how that happened with his own eyes. He had no time to process it further before he started running to protect his mother. Jane had tried to help, but seemed unsure how to separate the two as they wrestled for control of the spear.
William swiftly sprinted to the scrap, but he was unfortunately not fast enough as a headbutt from Armine knocked his mother down. He drew closer, horror ever growing as the scene before him played in slow motion. Armine with a hateful shriek drove the spear through his mother’s chest. William yelled in anger, but stowed it for the moment as his mother needed him. He reached her and got down, putting his hand on the area leaking blood, his index and middle fingers parted by the spear’s shaft.
“It’s okay Mum, Jane’s gonna help you, you’ll be alright, I promise,” William said, struggling to keep his voice steady as tremors of grief and rage fought to surface within his emotions.
She smiled at him warmly and stroked William’s hair and cheek as Jane started to see to the healing. Jane nodded to William to pull the spear out so the wound could fully knit together. William saw their mother notice and seemed to grit her teeth with resolve on her face. William pulled the spear out, feeling tremendous guilt for causing her such pain, but it was necessary.
Mary lay down, looking at her two children, weak from blood loss, but smiled warmly at them. It felt...right, William thought. He heard shuffling behind him and turned, noticing that Armine’s expression of anger had gone to one of regret and horror. William guessed the attempted murder equivalent of post nut clarity. In that moment, he was angered further. How could she do that to his mother? Even if not intended initially, she did intend to go for his sister. Her grief was understandable. William wasn’t oblivious to that fact, but she had made a choice. He did the same.
William rose to his feet, glancing over to Darris and John, the latter seeming to be out of Mana, but relying on his Dexterity to avoid Darris’s swings. The stalling was going to be coming to an end soon and William would need to get involved again. He glanced to the spear in his hand, seeing his mother’s blood on it and sighed, grasping it firmly, turning to Armine.
“William I-” Armine didn’t get another word out as William drove the spear through her eye. She gurgled and shook before her one good eye rolled back and she hit the floor, lifeless, William ripping the spear out.
He glanced at the others who for the most part had apathetic looks; except his mother.
His mother had one of sympathy and regret. She didn’t need to regret anything, he had forgiven her for their past and he knew that she had forgiven him for his attitude. He had no time to bond though, as John yelled out in pain, drawing William’s gaze.
John flew through the air before hitting the ground hard. He bounced several times landing about ten feet away from the group. His arms were visibly broken as if from blocking a blow. William glanced to see Darris returning an extended haft back to a ready position. He was oddly relieved. If the hammer had been the part to hit John, William expected a shower of blood instead of an injured friend to be sent his way.
William still had the spear in hand and decided to make the best use of it he could. Activating [Flash Stride], William appeared in front of Darris and thrust straight through the big guy’s dominant hand, leaving the spear buried two feet in, protruding out the other end. William then summoned Absolution to hand once more, but had no immediate opportunity to attack as his [Danger Sense] triggered, forcing William to leap back, dodging a one handed swing of the hammer. He felt a physical force, graze his skin as the hammer passed by his face, not hitting, but the sheer force of the swing was strong enough to take some skin off. The fucker could be as ferocious with only one hand apparently. “Not fair. Fucking bullshit.” William cursed internally.
William noticed movement in his peripheral vision. Jane had started running over to John, presumably having healed their mother and now switching to John. He saw Darris glance over and grin wide. “No! No! No!” William charged at Darris but was warded away form another swing, giving Darris enough time to go into a quick charge, seeming to have got a second wind. He was going to see his sister turned to mulch. He couldn’t do anything. Jane noticed the charging brute halfway to her destination and froze like a deer in headlights. William ran after the bastard but the head start was too much. William used a [Dagger Toss] and [Mana Investment] to hurl another Mythril dagger, but with the momentum Darris had built, it was like throwing a javelin at a freight train, yet William pursued, giving every stretch of his Dexterity, desperation overcoming him.
Darris lifted his hammer high for a downward swing; a calamity of force. William struggled to process the next few, brief moments. He saw someone run into view from the left and push Jane out of the way. He saw the masculine features and slightly aged skin on his father’s face come into view. His gaze locking onto William’s. So many words were conveyed in that gaze, man to man. It told William to protect their family and himself. It told William to survive the new world, and the part William felt the hardest was the soft smile of pride he saw in his father’s face.
Darris’s hammer came down then, William’s father, his sire, was turned into red mulch before his very eyes.