From my initial count there were eight grunts and four guards, two of which were in the fountain, wading through water, trying their hardest to escape as fast as they could.

In the meantime anyone who wasn’t one of the Godsfather’s grunts or a member of the towns guards seemed to retract back inside as fast as they could. Leaving the square with plenty of space and less risk of any civilians getting injured.

“Remember to stick to the plan.” I said. So far everything was going how we had intended. If we could hold back this first wave of grunts, more guards would be alerted, that was ultimately what we wanted.

Galahad punched downwards into the air, like he was shadow boxing before raising his fists in front of him. “I think the best thing right now is to not get killed, any thing else is a bonus.”

Time seemed to slow down as the grunts and guards descended on us, we were at level three notoriety, which was pretty good, but we needed to try and get this up to level four and there was only one way we could think of doing that.

The grunts reached us first, they were not as skill full as the guards and came at us as a pack, three of them held their fists up, two of them had knives.

Two of them focussed on me, the three others on Galahad.

The grunts were low level, both of them level seven and I was able to hold my own against them, I was slightly higher in level but the traits that I had selected had maximised my strength. A fist fight ensued, but I overpowered both of them, punching one so hard I felt his jaw crack and using the other’s moment tum to toss him into the fountain, where the two guards were climbing out of.

It gave a moment to regroup and ready for myself as more numbers started to descend onto the town square. I watched as the three grunts, two of them with knives tried to take down Galahad. He weaved in and out of their strikes, making it look easy, but somehow accidental as he staggered about, it was a similar to fighting styles I had seen on video games, drunken monkey, except he was in a full suit of armour and had a posture like an old English boxer from the nineteen twenties.

He dodged and weaved, between the strikes, jabbing back, and pulling the arms of the grunts, to use them to block strikes from the other grunts. When the three grunts lay sprawled out on the ground, groaning, Galahad stopped for a moment to take a drink from his flask.

“Really?” I said, “Now isn’t the time for a drink,”

“On the contrary old boy, I want to keep my levels topped up.”

More grunts reached us from the alley way, this time mixed with a hand full of town guards, splitting into two groups. Galahad continued to dance around them, swaying in and out, like a drunkard but somehow incorporating this into his fighting style and it was effective to say the least, you would have thought that his rusted armour would be ore of a hinderance but it wasn’t, it seemingly not slowing him down. I thought about if this could be an ability that he could activate like my berserker skill. That led me to wondering if it had a cool down period like my skill did.

I wasn’t ready to activate my berserker rage yet, I needed to save that for later, given the cooldown period.

The two of us continued brawling as wave upon wave of returning grunts brought the fight to us but with Galahads fighting experience, despite their superior numbers we were more than able to hold our own.

"Bugger,” Galahad said as I knocked another grunt to the ground, there was only one or two left.

Galahad had his flask raised above his head, shaking it aggressively, trying to get the last drop of whatever was in it out. “Empty,” he said, with a frustrated look.

“You still got plenty in the tank.”

He stumbled forwards ducking under a blow from a grunt before stepping into him and slamming his helmet into his face. The grunt crumpled with a whimper.

“Guess we will have to wait and see,” he said.

Level up

Level 9

That was good to know but I didn’t have time to allocate the skill point as someone shouted across the town square.

“You will pay for your indiscretion,”

It was Helga and she was gearing up for a fight as she stepped forwards in front of us.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

This was it, the moment we were waiting for, the chance to face off against one of the Godsfather’s right hand men, or women in this case.

I took a moment to check out her level.

Helga

Level 12 Aggravated Luitenant

Not from these lands, Helga was raised on the streets quickly learning that pain accompanied with manipulation was all she needed to survive.

She was gripping tightly of a hatchet, the end of which was still bloodstained, presumably from the merchant who’s hand she had chopped off.

“She’s level twelve so that is higher than me, what’s your level?” I asked Galahad, for some reason his information was obscured and I wasn’t able to see it.”

He gave me puzzled expression, “Ten,” He said, “used to be far higher but that all changed when,”

Helga took no time in letting out a roar as she flew towards us, her speed was alarming, her pace was unnatural, especially for her size. She caught me off guard and before I had chance to do anything her fist smashed straight into my stomach, winding me instantly.

It felt like my eyes were going to pop straight out of my head as the pain ripped straight through me, more than anything I was grateful that it was not her hatchet that she led with.

“I will make you regret your actions.” She said into my ear her tone menacing and taunting at the same time. She went to bring her hatchet down on me but thankfully Galahad intervened, grabbing hold oh her arm.

She pushed back against him before pushing me backwards. Somehow I managed to keep my balance but I coughed and heaved my guts up from the blow, my eyes stinging.

Galahad remained in front of Helga grappling with her arm, but he was barely hanging on.

Helga ripped her arm free, before grabbing hold of Galahad’s head and slamming him into the ground, before lifting him up and doing it again. The stone paving surrounding the fountain cracked from the force, before she tossed him forwards, he only stopped when he reached my feet.

Letting out a pained groan Galahad said, “I think she likes me.” his bottom lip was bust but he was smiling none the less, his blood filling in the gaps of his teeth. Overall I thought that he had gotten of quite likely.

“She has a funny way of showing it,” I said as I helped him to his feet.

“She is a higher level than both of us, we are going to have to work together if we are going to beat her. Raven, we might need you with this one, ok.”

From my shadow I saw he small hand emerge to give me a thumbs up before vanishing again.

I panted as I regained my breath and Helga geared up to charge at us once again, it was at this point that I knew it was time to trigger my berserk.

I channelled my rage, feeling it simmer like a boiling kettle until I was ready to unleash it.

“Fuuuuck, you Jerry!” I roared as my berserker range activated, my adrenaline spiked, my body bulking up and I felt a power surge throughout me. I no longer struggled to breath as I stood and stared down Helga.

“Interesting,” she said, “Come show me what you can do.”

I let out a roar, charging down at her, jumping through the air as I tried to land on her with a fist stomp. She darted out of the way, as fast as I now was in my enraged state, she was faster.

Galahad launched himself forward but the two of us were out of sync, ultimately I was relatively knew to fighting and had had limited training, Helga had had a life time of violence behind her.

She continued to jab at me, reserving her strikes with her hatchet for Galahad who thankfully due to his armour was holding up better against the strikes than I would, sparks flew from his armour every time she made contact and much to my dismay, Galahad was slowing down, after all he was carrying a full suit of armour.

Galahad jabbed at her again as I charged at her again, but Helga slapped his hands away she was toying with him. His efforts were getting weaker and weaker as she started punching him back, his head snapping backwards every time but he stood firm.

I jumped through the air again as Helga brought her hatchet down towards Galahads head.

Managing to get in the way I slammed my elbow down onto her arm with as much force as I could manage and thankfully it was enough to cause her to drop the weapon. I was closer to her than I would have liked as she snarled and wrapped her arms around me.

I struggled against her vice like grip but even in my berserker state I was no match for her, she was simply too strong.

“You are pathetic,” Helga’s said as she continued to squeeze, with an audible crack I cried out as I felt one of my ribs break. It was like pain I had never felt before but I needed to put every ounce of my strength into stopping her from causing me to pop as all of my blood rushed to my head.

Dizzy and disorientated I said to Galahad, “Please tell me they are coming.”

“They certainly are old boy,”

“Now!”

From my shadow Raven leapt up from the ground, her scythes in each of her hands, as she drew level with Helga she slammed one scythe into her shoulder, her arm instantly falling limp.

I could breathe again and dropped back to my feet as Raven used her feet to push of Helga’s chest, doing a backflip and landing next to Galahad. Her eyes were fixed on Helga and she was leaning forward, he scythes either side of her.

“No,” Helga said, a sudden fear in her eyes. “Morgrim was right, about the Reaver about you being,”

Before she could say another word, Raven darted forward, hurling her scythe through the air with deadly precision, it hit Helga square in the head and she fell backwards like a trap door. As Raven reached her she removed her scythe before disappearing into the shadow of the fountain.

Our plan had worked. If this wasn’t going to get the attention of the Gods Father then nothing would.

A large circle of guards surrounded me and Galahad as my berserker rage counter reached zero, I felt all that adrenaline rush from me, instantly replaced with the searing pain in my rib cage.

We didn’t need to fight anymore, we had achieved what we wanted, city wide notoriety and we had killed one of the Gods Fathers henchmen.

We both raised our hands into the air as the infuriated guard captain stepped forwards in front of them all.

“Place them both in irons,”