Captain Vandal

‘Why, the fuck, do I always get the weird ones!’ I cursed as I dodged the attack, which nearly decapitated me.

The enemy I am fighting looked all normal, with a little bit of tattoos. I have some, not on the face like, but on my hand, chest and ass.

The last one is due to the bet. I was young and an idiot. Confident that I would win the bed against the wizened old man, but the bastard had beaten me thoroughly, and I had to tattoo his face on my ass.

The man in front of me except for one fact. He doesn’t have an arm; he has an arm, but not a normal arm, but a bone arm, which has a bone blade attached to it.

I had heard about them but had never seen one. They are rare, not only because they are expensive but also because they suit very few people.

That bone blade is at the level of an enchanted weapon, and it grows as one level-up, becoming stronger.

He had this arm for over a decade, and it shows, in the way, he is fighting.

Clang Clang Clang!

My sword clashed against its bone sword hard and fast. It had been over half an hour since we had started fighting and still doing.

I am using everything I have, from Rapid Strikes to Lion Strength, but the bastard is powerful and skilled, defending and dodging, nearly every attack, I threw at him.

Rip!

I felt the cut across my stomach; a light cut, only a drop of blood came out, before it stopped, but there was a bloody pain.

The bastard has a Pain Skill, and it is damn painful. Still, even with pain skill, it couldn’t hide, the dose of poison, it had used on me.

I was supposed to fight Har Scott, a warrior, but after this bastard had revealed himself, the Commander directed me toward him.

Which is wise, because I am the only one, who has the arsenal to deal with him.

I am a good fighter, not the best one, but I am the one who is very good at fighting and surviving.

There are injuries across my body. Most of them healed, despite the poison. It had a poison skill and was a pretty powerful one if the information was to be believed, but I have a Poison Resistance.

It is a skill that saved me many times. I also have a Fast Clotting and my newest skill, Twice Healing.

It is a passive skill, that helped me recover from my injuries twice faster. I wish it had been active, like Rapid Healing; it would have been more useful.

Still, with Fast Clotting, its effect is pretty fast. It is how I am still fighting.

Clang Clang Rip!

We continued to clash, and a minute later; I was able to score a cut. It is a minor one, across his waist.

I was able to give him, fewer injuries than what he gave. If I had, the bastard would have been dead already.

“You should accept my offer, Captain Vandal. The money is great and so are the benefits,” said the man, while leaping at me with another attack.

The leaping enemy had a lot of weakness and I had made a mistake, trying to exploit them. The deeper, cuts I had got, is due to them.

Now, I just bring my sword forward to defend against them.

Clang!

I defended, before launching an attack of my own. As for his offer, I didn’t even think about it.

I detest undead. I want to kill as many of them as I can. They have killed my little brother. That greedy bastard went to Vris’alud when the undead had launched their invasion across the island.

He didn’t return, nor did his body. The only thing, that returned was the news of his death.

Every day, I regret not being there to stop him. He was recovering from the previous mission while I went for another.

When I returned, I had not found my brother at home. Just his letter.

Two weeks later, I received the news of his death. He died in the first battle, along with everyone else. That battle had been brutal; the undead had killed every one of them.

“I do not join the losing side,” I replied after a long silence.

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A surprise appeared on his face before he arched his brown. “Do your things, we will lose?” he asked, and I grinned.

“Without a doubt,” I replied, and that made him angry, and he intensified his attacks.

I have been receiving the news. We have killed three of them, which is not a lot, since there are twenty-two of them, but it’s a start and more will die.

I know the people, who are fighting. I had practiced with them.

Each one of them is powerful on their own, be it Mage Valentina or Garzong. The city had gathered a lot of powerful individuals, and they will win this battle.

It is one of the reasons, why, I decided to stay in the city, despite all the risks, it has.

The city might be small, but I feel like, staying would be a wise choice, despite many members of my company wanting to leave for the greener posture and some did.

The biggest reason for me staying is the legacy.

With Silver being a lord, he had complete control over, all the emotions essences, it would produce. That means potions with emotions, essence, and other things. That mercenary of my level wouldn’t get their hands on it.

I still have the emotion essence potion, that Silver had provided me last time. Despite the serious injuries, I hadn't drunk it.

There have been tens of offers for me to sell it and three attempts to steal it. I was not surprised at that; the thing is damn valuable and to buy them, money alone isn't enough.

There is a reason, why big mercenary companies in big cities with legacies are well-equipped.

The city needs mercenaries and mercenaries need their patronage to get things, like potions with emotion essence. Rare weapons and tools and political cloud to get out of troublesome things.

I have a grand ambition and it is the only place, that will help me fulfill it. Silver had already hinted, that as long as I remain loyal to the city, he would help me in every way, he could.

It is a rare opportunity, filled with risks, but the rewards would be just as great.

‘Roguz is dead,’

I heard. It surprised me enough, that I had lost focus for a moment and nearly got gutted by him.

I remember the orc; I had practiced with him a couple of times. He had died; the first of our powerhouse. It is a battle and there would be death, even the powerhouses aren’t safe from it.

“One of you had died; the rest will die soon. I hope you will accept my offer before it is too late,” he said and attacked again.

I dodged before launching mine.

I cleared all my thoughts and focused on the enemy. I needed to kill him, but it wasn’t easy; it had been nearly an hour, we had been fighting, and the bastard was good.

Especially that blade of his; he is using it like a limb, with finesse, I have seen very few people have.

Still, I need to find a way to do it. I could see my company was trying there is stop the undead, but many were coming inside, before getting killed.

They won’t be able to hold them successfully for long.

I know it all, but couldn’t see a way to kill him. I have tried tens of ways already, but nothing worked; some attempts nearly killed me.

There is only one way, I could think of currently, but that is not an option. We have only two hours and I need to kill it, before moving to help to kill other enemy powerhouses.

Fighting until he gets tired and then finishing off isn’t an option in this battle.

Though, it is the one way, I am confident of winning. I am sure I could last longer than him, my skills attuned to it.

I have fewer offensive and defensive skills than the others on my level, but I have many skills, that help me survive and last long in the battle.

It is how I fought and killed those special zombies and bone abominations in the last battle.

Seconds passed, and I thought of different ways, but nothing seemed viable, till I saw his piercing attack and daring plan came to my mind.

It could kill me; it nearly did many times to my little brother. He was too dependent on that skill. It was the reason why, he was resting at home, while I had gone for the mission.

In my advancement, I had got that skill of his, and now, I am going to use the way, he used to do it.

I hated that, but now I am doing it. It is the only way; I could think of killing the enemy.

I didn’t wait. I could have, as he launches these kinds of attacks, a few times a minute, but I decided to act immediately.

The decision was made, but there was no change in my actions. I moved my sword to defend as I was doing.

The enemy didn’t suspect anything.

Our swords moved closer and closer, till they were about to clash, when he made a move and changed the direction a little, avoiding my sword, which he was able to do a few times.

I moved to retreat with my speed, but he followed, and his bone sword swiftly reached my stomach to gut me.

Puch!

It touched my stomach and began to pierce through it.

I could see a big smile appear on his face and it lasted for a moment before it froze when he saw me suddenly stopping. Pushing his sword forward, it came out of my back.

It hurt like hell, but I bore the pain and moved as I had planned.

He sensed something and tried to retreat, but my hand moved fast as lightning and grabbed the bone arm.

The bone arm has many advantages, but it also has many disadvantages.

Like right now, if I had been in its place, I would have abandoned my sword and retreated safely with my speed skill, but he couldn’t do that, because that sword is his arm.

“Bastard, let go!” it screamed and tried to pull away the arm, but it was barely able to shake it.

I am focusing on all the Lion's Strength on it, while my left hand with the sword moving to kill him.

He reacted fast and moved his other hand with a small shield forward. Seeing that, a smile appeared on my pain-filled face.

I don’t have a favorite type of sword. I could use nearly all aside from rapiers and great swords; I could use even those, but not with the expertise I like.

I am glad I had chosen the gladius for today's battle. The sword had a short range, but it gave powerful blows, most importantly. It gave me maneuverability; I needed it at such a close distance.

Pachack!

My sword moved fast and cut through the arm of the enemy.

The blood spurted on me, but I didn’t care for it and moved my sword forward.

A terror appeared on his face as he finally released, death is coming for him and there was no escape.

Puch!

Finally, it reached his neck and began to cut through it. There is resistance because of the defensive skill, but the enchantment flared, and the sword came out from the other side.

I looked at the flying head, before removing the bone sword from my stomach. It was extremely painful, but I bore it and removed the damn sword.

I used Shift Injuries to avoid fatal injury to my internal organs and spine, but I was still seriously injured and this time, I didn’t hesitate and took out, the healing potion before taking a very tiny sip.

I closed the bottle before taking out another potion. It is a healing potion, in which I merged a drop of healing potion with emotion essence. I opened the bottle and took half of it in my hand, before applying it to my injuries.

I felt my injuries closing and did the second most important job.

Loot the enemy. I wouldn’t be a mercenary if I didn’t loot the enemy after killing it.