The dwarf who was operating the machine had shut it off and began to count up the points of each competitor while removing them. Even with only twenty arrows to collect he still took his time to carefully collect them and count up the points. When he was finished he walked over to the announcer and whispered the results while showing a piece of paper that had everything written down.
The announcer gave the operator a nod and cleared his throat before speaking to the crowd. “I have just been given the results by Devar who had carefully double counted and double checked the score!” With a long and dramatic pause the dwarf built up the tension. “I hereby announce the winner of the fifth Mountain Arrow tournament of this year is Mr. Kavok!”
With those words a majority of the crowd jumped up and started cheering for their favorite contender. Since it was quite obvious that the wood elf being a woman wasn’t the victor leaving the mysterious human as the only other possibility.
After a short round of cheering Kavok stood up and started to wave to the crowd a bit before the announcer would give him the prize money. He had been doing this for about three weeks at this point, so why not build up a bit of a reputation.
Soon the announcer was given a bag by another dwarf who then handed it to Kavok. “Congratulations Mr. Kavok on your victory… again.” The dwarf awkwardly smiled as he handed off the money.
“Thank you, I will be sure to spend this well.” Kavok took the bag and checked just to be sure it was the proper amount. Upon counting out the thirty silver coins he was promised he closed the bag and placed it in his pocket before taking his leave.
The announcer turned to the crowd and began speaking. “Thank you all for coming to watch the tournament on this fine day, but now it is over. But do not fret, for we have another planned for next week! Bring your friends and family to see another round of amazing displays of archery, and we will provide the entertainment!”
With the tournament over the audience slowly shuffled out through a set of side doors and everyone returned to their daily tasks at hand. Arthur and Calavia on the other hand stopped just outside to take without all the noise.
“Wow, that was incredible. Did you see how skilled that Mr. Kavok was with the bow. Almost all of his shots were right in the center circle.” Calavai said while smiling and laughing, the event brought her back to when she was a child.
“I sure did. How do you think your brother would fare against him, since he also practiced archery.”
“No offence to my brother, but Mr. Kavok would easily beat him. The wood elf that went against him in the finals would also beat him just as bad.”
The duo laughed with each other for a good while before Arthur took Calavia back home before he returned to the Elder Nymph and went back to work.
But Arthur and Calavia were not the only two who noticed just how skilled Kavok was with the bow. Several other had people watching for useful talent like him, from criminals to even the city guard, and one of those people started to make their move on this lone wolf.
***********
As Kavok was walking back to the room he rented he passed through an alleyway that was just large enough for two people to walk shoulder to shoulder, when suddenly he heard a voice come from behind.
“Good day to you Mr. Kavok. I have a proposition to make you.”
Kavok paused and turned to face the voice while he subtly reached for the hidden dagger in his cloak. “And what might this proposition be?”
Kavok had fully turned and saw a human man in a set of southern district guard armor. Kavok paused for a second, he was expecting another criminal organization or cult to try and make him join. ‘How unexpected.’
“The new captain of the southern district is looking for talented people like yourself for mercenary work. Given your skill set and how often you go to that tournament to earn money, I would wager that you are in need of some coin.”
A long science filled the area as Kavok thought about the offer, on one hand he was a bit short of money, but on the other getting involved with the government could be quite dangerous given how in his past experience they value results over everything.
“If I was interested, where would I find the captain?” The guard smiled under his helmet, another valuable asset to deal with the current dangers plaguing the area.
“I have a map of the city here that has the barracks marked, and show this to the receptionist to get a meeting with the captain.” The guard handed Kavok a small map and a card with some small writing on it. The writing was simply authorization from a high ranking member of the guard to allow the bearer an audience with the captain of the southern district.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Kavok simply looked them over and after seeing no hidden magic placed them within his pockets and began walking away. “When should we expect you Mr. Kavok?”
“When I need the money.”
*********
/- - - - - -\
Level 12
Exp : 10000
Next Level at : 11400
Mana : 36/36
Class : The All Knowing
Attributes :
Strength 25
Dexterity 30
Vitality 20
Constitution 30
Intellect 30
Perception 20
Charisma 10
Arcane 25
\- - - - - -/
/- - - - - -\
+ Block Level 12
+ Long Blades Level 13
+ Heavy Armor Level 12
+ Mana Manipulation Level 21
+ Hydromancy Level 16
+ Geomancy Level 18
+ Pyromancy Level 13
+ Aeromancy Level 12
+ Alchemy Level 6
+ Running Level 8
+ Foraging Level 7
+ Cooking Level 7
\- - - - - -/
Another two weeks flew by of Arthur's apprenticeship with master Calvus where Arthur started actually taking lessons in fighting every few days to keep on learning how to use long swords in conjunction with his magic. Arthur also developed a personal spell that went great with melee combat, he called it floating earth spikes. The spell in question was two spikes of conjured earth that would float next to Arthur and when he willed it would fly towards an enemy of his choosing. When he was fighting in close quarters it was very hard to block or dodge without leaving themselves vulnerable to his weapon.
He even got to test it on a few bandits when Captain Tasius hired him to take out a small bandit camp he currently did not possess the manpower to deal with as they were preparing to take out a far larger camp of over fifty bandits.
**********
One week prior
Ten bandits stood around a large fire in the center of their small camp that consisted of seven small tents that could only barely fit two people. A few roasted meat on a stick from a pig they had butchered, the pig in question was stolen from a nearby farm.
“Why do we even work for those ass hats anyways?” A young human bandit no older than twenty spoke up, breaking the silence. “I mean look at how poor our supplies are, we don't even have enough tents for all of us.” Several of the older bandits looked at him with a mix of shock and a bit of fear at his words.
“Would you zip it! We will get better supplies when we provide more for the boss!” A bald bandit wielding a large two handed club shouted at the young bandit. “If you want better accommodations I suggest that you start working harder because last I checked you did the least amount of looting!”
“That's because I was doing all the scouting, you only were able to loot and steal from people because I found them!” The young bandit stood up with a rusty short sword drawn.
“Well clearly you didn’t do all that well because we didn’t collect enough stuff to get more tents!” The bald bandit took his club in his hands and brought it in front in an attempt to intimidate the young bandit.
The other bandits did little to resolve the situation, in fact they did the exact opposite, they encouraged the two to fight. “Fight! Fight! Fight!” They shouted as they watched the two bradish their weapons in preparation of the fight.
“I am going to make you regret opening your stupid mouth you brat!” The bald bandit spat at the young bandit as he swung his club in an overhead strike. The young bandit took a step back just out of the reach of the club and responded with a series of stabs towards the chest area with his short sword. The bald bandit was forced to block the blade with his arms causing a few cut wounds that started to bleed.
The fight continued on with the young bandit dodging as much as he could while leaving as many cuts as he could on his opponent. The bald bandit was getting quite angry, he only needed one strike to knock his opponent down, but he couldn't land a solid hit. And every time he tried he received more and more wounds.
“AAHHHHH!” With a rush of anger the bald bandit raised his club and rushed towards the young bandit while he took a series of wide swings with the intent of hitting him at all cost. The first few swings were not all that much of a problem, but soon the momentum from each swing started to add up and the attacks got faster and faster while the young bandit was losing ground.
Each swing pushed the young bandit farther and farther until he was pressed up against a tent and the club finally made contact. With a loud crack the young bandit was hit in the left side of the stomach and fell to the ground.
Pain invaded his whole body and he felt several of his bones crack or break. It hurt so much that all he could do was clutch his chest and hope that it wasn’t going to kill him. “Now remember I promised you that you would regret opening your mouth.” The bald bandit raised his club above his head with both his hands preparing to relieve the young bandit before him of his life, smiling and even laughing a bit as he did.
But just as he was about to bring his club down he heard something from behind him. In fact he wasn’t the only one to hear something, everyone excluding the young bandit writhing in pain also heard it. Somewhere past the tree line something was crackling like firewood and emitting light, and moving towards the bandit camp with great speed.
Each of the bandits took hold of their weapons at the sight of this strange occurrence until one of the bandits with a bow shouted. “It's a ball of fire!”