Darrius
Darrius cursed. They were supposed to get closer to the wall before the alarm went off. They must've had a skilled ranger up in the watch tower if they were able to see them when it was this dark.
Darrius couldn't keep the grin off of his face as he thought of all the points and loot they would get from this camp. Their wall looked impeccable and it signified the wealth they had, ripe for the taking.
This would be the fourth camp they raided and it was looking like it would be the biggest haul. It might even let him get enough points for a new sword. Ever since his evolution to F-rank his sword wasn't keeping up with him anymore.
With their cover blown, they gave up on the stealthy approach they were in the middle of and walked confidently towards the gate. This wasn't the first time they would have to blow the gate in to prove their point. Usually after breaking in, the people would give up and let them take everything of value. They saw the disparity in levels and gave in without a fight.
He looked toward Frank who responded with a nod. He had the 'breaching charge' ready. It was a massive point investment to rig an exploding device into a charge to blow in the gates but it was worth it in the long run. Breaking down the gates physically would take too long and wouldn't send the right message.
To maybe see if they could get this over with sooner he called out to the people inside, "Open the gates and we won't harm you!"
It was a lie but they didn't need to know that. He usually kept the killing to a minimum, but sometimes examples needed to be made so the process went smoother.
He could hear a slight commotion on the other side of the gate and voices started to raise in argument. He thought they might be debating on complying. Idiots.
The weak-willed would never make it in this new world and their cowardice would kill them if the monsters didn't first. Why did they deserve a camp and nice things if they weren't willing to defend it?
The voices abruptly cut off when one of them shouted, it seemed that the leader had arrived and put an end to the squabbling. Darrius could hear someone climbing the ladder to the watch tower before he saw a man emerge from behind the wall.
He and his group having a propensity for night raids, purchased skills to aid in night vision which gave him the ability to see so easily in the dark. His perception also aided in low light vision.
That was why he was able to see the details so clearly this late at night. The man had blonde hair that had grown out quite a bit, with a matching scruffy beard that could use a shave. The man stood at around 6 feet tall and was obviously a warrior. The fool wasn't even wearing armor. Darrius could tell that he wasn't used to this by the fact he exposed most of his body as he stood watching them.
A quick [Identify] revealed his level.
[Human – Level 29]
He took a moment to look at us, squinting so he could see better before he spoke, "Who are you."
He made it sound like a statement instead of a question and at first, it made Darrius wary. It was missing the usual undertone of worry or fear. What the man said had none of that, it almost sounded like frustration and we were interrupting something. The other camps weren't like this and this guy was giving Darrius a bad feeling. Darrius shook his head to center himself, it was just his mind playing tricks on him. The man wasn't even level 30, everything would be fine.
There was no way he would lose, he had evolved and they had this guy outnumbered. All of Darrius's group were easily into the 30's and had a few levels on this guy as well. Killing humans was a surprisingly great source of experience.
All he had to do was threaten the guy a little and he would roll over.
"Are you daft, I said to open the gates. Or do you want me to do it for you?" A small threat of violence to make this go smoother.
Darrius nodded to Frank, to give the order to blow it. Frank started to walk toward the gate and pulled out the device. Before he made it halfway the man on the wall called out.
"Halt, don't come any closer!" The order came out awkward like this was the first time he had done this.
On the inside, Darrius smiled. The man was just posturing, he couldn't even give orders properly without giving away his inexperience. This was a good sign and dispelled his earlier feeling of doubt.
Frank completely ignored the order and continued walking toward the gate. The rest of them readied in case the guy attacked. It wouldn't be the first time that it had happened.
What they weren't ready for was the guy jumping down from the wall. What kind of idiot would do that? He separated himself from his allies while also leaving his cover all without wearing any armor.
Something whispered in Darrius's mind that only the confident would do that, but it didn't get through. Seeing that the guy was unarmed and unarmored, those thoughts were dismissed. Darrius was higher level, this guy was just an idiot.
Frank had stopped walking after the man jumped down and looked at Darrius for what to do. They hadn't encountered someone so stupid before and he was looking for guidance on what to do.
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Well, if the man wanted to kill himself that badly, they would oblige him. His high level would also be a nice catch. Killing him might put Darrius over the threshold for the next level.
They couldn't waste a lot of time here and looting the place would take a while, getting back to camp took a few hours of sprinting and there was a wave the next day. Darrius didn't want to waste any more time on the fool. Maybe if they took this guy hostage the rest would comply.
He signaled the rest of the group and they started to fan out around the guy. The fool just watched as they surrounded him.
"So I take it you wish to do this the hard way." The unarmed man said like he was taking a stroll in the park.
What was this guy on about? They already had him surrounded, did he think he was going to win?
"Alan, shoot him in the leg, that should shut him up." Darrius didn't like the nonchalant attitude the man had and ordered his ranger to wing him.
He didn't want to kill the guy just yet so a wounding shot to the leg was the best bet. Alan was a great Ranger and had only gotten stronger over the levels. No skills were necessary to prove our point.
Alan drew his bow and loosed his arrow in a blink. Before I knew it, the arrow was embedded in the man's thigh. There wasn't so much as a grunt in pain from the blow.
Darrius expected some screaming and crying by this point.
The man just looked down at his leg and the blood dribbling down it before looking back up at them, "Now it's self-defense."
Ice started to coalesce around the man's body forming armor out of thin air. Freezing snaps of the ice forming filled the quite atmosphere and Darrius watched dumbfounded as armor froze into place. Before the armor was fully completed the man raised his arm and launched an arrow right back the way the arrow came, right at Alan.
It flew so fast through the air that Darrius could barely keep up. He heard a sickening squelch and turned to see a hole through Alan's chest from the blow.
Alan was caught by surprise and slowly looked down at the gaping hole in his chest before falling over dead. Alan, being a Ranger, didn't have high defensive stats to begin with and being caught off guard only made it worse. Darrius had no time to react before one of his men was on the ground dying.
What the hell, this guy was supposed to be weak. He's only level 29.
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Chris
Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck.
I only meant to scare the guys a bit before restraining them. Not put an [Ice Arrow] through the guy's chest. I thought he would defend himself or something or at least dodge it. Not just sit there and die. The guy made no move to use any skills or get out of the way, he just watched as my arrow went through his chest and obliterated his heart.
I couldn't tell what level they were and only got question marks when I used [Identify]. They didn't feel that strong to me so they must have had a way to block my skill. [Identify Block] was available in the store but it was a waste of points to buy in my opinion, what was the point of blocking your level from monsters. Some of the naivety was gone now that I realized what they used it for, to fight humans.
They carried themselves like two-bit thugs and spoke like sketchy gangsters. After they shot me with an arrow, unprompted, I was kind of pissed so I returned fire at the guy who shot me.
I knew they were here for unscrupulous means but come on, shooting an unarmed guy. After that, everything I did was self-defense.
My mind was still rattled at what happened, I didn't mean to kill the guy. I aimed at center mass like I had done countless times before during the waves.
I didn't get much longer to think about it as the rest of the men closed in. I left my hammer behind since I didn't think I would fight the guys but it wasn't hard to make a new one. It wasn't the same as my old one but it would get the job done. It wasn't made with the pure ice mana my old one was and it wasn't saturated in my ice law and power for hours during its formation.
As they charged me, [Hail] and [Ice Manipulation] flared quickly to form a new hammer. A quick pulse of my law and it was ready to go. A quick and dirty weapon. It hurt my creative smithing side slightly to use such a weapon.
Sparring with Austin gave me a lot of practice fighting against humans and it was different than fighting monsters. If you weren't prepared, it could end badly.
After making my hammer I kept [Hail] going in a large area so everyone was in its effect. I used [Ice Manipulation] to start harassing the ranged attackers so they wouldn't be able to target me.
That was a trick I picked up during the waves. If the ranged attackers were busy fending off my ice attacks, they wouldn't have the time to shoot at me. My focus wasn't on killing them, just harassing them enough to take their attention off of shooting me with arrows or magic. It let me deal with the melee warriors without as much interference. Some attacks still got through, but there weren't enough for me to actually care.
Since they started this course of action, and it looked like this wasn't the first time that they had done this, I didn't hold back.
[Heavy Blow] and [Frostbite] activated with a glow and I swung my hammer at the leading man. He went to block with his shield but my strike powered through his block with ease.
Both skills slammed into his guard and destroyed his shield. Unless something was at the common tier, I had enough strength to destroy it. The poor guy's shield clearly wasn't.
The guy took the full force of my blow and got sent skipping off into the distance with a broken arm at minimum from the sound. Probably fractured a few ribs as well but I wasn't certain.
That was also when Austin lit up the area with one of his skills to see what was going on. I went alone over the wall so I could hash it out with the guys to get them to go away. The sound of fighting must've drawn his attention.
I didn't think they would start attacking me. Looking back on it now, it was stupid to think that. They were here to steal from us, what did it matter about attacking me? I would have to do better in the future, it wouldn't do to have my arrogance be my undoing.
I guess it was just me holding out a little hope in humanity, hope that was now gone.
Austin saw what was going on and immediately joined the fray. He had matched my feat of gaining a law and also evolved into a Rare class at F-rank. He had the same amount of power that I did, which was more than the men we were fighting.
A sword clanged off my armor before I swiftly retaliated with a blow to the head. Experience during the waves drove my actions and mercy was not one of them. I was used to fighting the monsters and instinct forced me to go for the kill.
I grimaced as I watched his head explode. That would be a sight I wouldn't forget soon.
A few more men tried to attack me before they realized it wasn't going to work. [Frost Armor] was too much for them to go through and any cracks quickly froze over.
After seeing another one of us with this amount of power, the men made to retreat. I guess there was no love for each other because they just left half of their group behind. Of their original group of 15, 8 were dead or dying on the ground in front of me.
I didn't give chase as it would just cause me to fumble around in the dark. It might have also been the shaking in my hands that forced me to stop.
Men were dead by my hand. Human blood covered my armor and I didn't know how to feel about it. I wasn't so disillusioned to think they didn't deserve it, they obviously did, but the fact I killed someone didn't feel good.
It scared me a little and I didn't know how to feel about it.
I couldn't get over how easy it was.