“Stop!” someone shouted from above the pit, “Stop this at once!”
The branch came down and a white hot pain shot all over his right cheek. He screamed and tried to cover his face, but he couldn’t move his right arm because of the blow he took before, even though it didn’t hurt as much. He covered his bleeding face with his left hand and braced for the next impact, but it never came. The Prized Possession had its head turned around to see who shouted and lowered the tree branch as soon as it saw who did. He felt a wave of relief as soon as the weapon wasn’t threatening him anymore. The shout must have saved him from the branch cracking his skull open. Carefully he tried to look behind the big man to see what made him stop the attack. Reacher, who gave the order, had his one arm extended waving them over while holding onto a big bag of sorts. Next to his horse was a slave, that wasn’t there before the fight, presenting said bag. It took him a moment, but he recognized the long hair belonging to Montgomery. Montgomery was panting and sweating like he had been running for a long time. What did he do?
He wondered if that meant that the fight is over. It hadn’t been five minutes, however PP didn’t question Reacher’s decision. He threw the tree branch on the ground, turned towards where the Baron was sitting and made his way over there. As the distance grew between the big man and himself, he started to see the sign above his head more clearly. It was a transparent box with a slightly gray outline. At the top he saw the name ‘Prized Possession’. Right under it was a light green bar which had a small part missing on the right side indicated by a darker green part. A second, light yellow bar was located under the green one and was also missing a small part of it. The bars were outlined in the same way as the box and were quickly filling up again. There was some text under the bars:
LVL. 10 Life Points: 1875/1890 Stamina: 89%
As the bars were filling up, the Life Points and Stamina numbers went up as well. Life Points? Is that what Varyan meant? The God of Life’s Protection?
image [https://i.imgur.com/RYDWFBv.jpg]
PP was climbing out of the pit, when the sign above his head disappeared. He was left to his confusion, until he heard Reacher again.
“Get over here!”
He tried to raise himself up, but his right arm gave away. Something was wrong. He used his left arm to push himself up instead all the while warm blood streamed down his jawline. That will definitely leave a scar.
Only now that the shock started to dissipate he realized how shaky he was walking. While making his way to the other side of the pit he saw the Baron’s litter being raised and carefully carried away. By the time he arrived at the edge of the pit, he could only see Montgomery, Reacher and the armored knight with the big axe. What happened?
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
He tried to pull himself out of the pit with his left hand, but he was too short to reach the edge. Reacher looked over to Montgomery and with a quick nod ordered him to help. Montgomery hurried over to the edge and with a little bit of effort managed to pull him up with his sweaty hands.
“You’re alright, Recruit,” he whispered and as if to ensure himself of it, he repeated: “You’re alright.”
Without warning Reacher threw them a flask and he knew he had to drink it. After just some gulps the dizziness and pain faded away and his footing became less shaky. His cheek stopped bleeding. Unfortunately, he was still unable to move his right arm. Reacher gave him a better look and nodded.
“You were really slippery,” the Mace said. “That animal had to use Paralyzing Blow.”
Reacher pointed a hand towards him and a small ball of light shot right into him. He immediately regained control over his right arm and triumphantly raised his fist over his head. That man can cure anything!
“Thank you so much,” he said to Reacher with an excited smile.
Reacher actually smiled back, a sight which looked so foreign that his excitement abruptly vanished and reminded him of his situation. The Mace noticed that change and turned serious again.
Cautiously he asked the Mace: “What happened? Where’s the Baron? What about the five minutes?”
The Mace scoffed: “You wanted another three minutes in there?”
Not getting any reaction from the slaves he switched to actually answering the question. He pointed his mace to Montgomery.
“You can thank your little friend over there. He found the gems you stole and brought them here. By the Baron’s rules the fight is void and let’s just say he was not amused.”
Montgomery added: “I saw them inside the sack, when I was cleaning the pickaxes and I knew something was up.”
“Silence!” the Mace yelled and Montgomery apologetically took a step back.
“But they weren’t there before,” he explained to Reacher.
“Just stop lying,” Reacher responded. “I saw them in your Inventory and after you abandoned the sack, they appeared.”
“What inventory?”
Reacher pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment and sighed.
“Listen, I don’t know what kind of game you are playing, but if I were you, I wouldn’t piss off the Baron,” Reacher said. His voice was calmer, less violent than usual.
What is he on about?
“There’s an easy way, where you just tell us, why a level one Player would want to blend in with the NPCs or you can choose the hard way. The Baron has his way of getting around PVP laws.”
“I don’t know why you’re calling me a Player or NPC or PVP. I came here through a big gate this morning. I don’t remember anything before that.”
The Mace hesitated to speak again. Something about that answer had bothered him. The armored knight behind Reacher was quick to speak up.
“It’s settled then,” the knight said, “off to the Slaughterhouse with you.”