Chapter 3: The Camp
“Fuck.” I said. “This isn’t good.” Joltin’s grin didn’t reach his eyes.
“No, it isn’t. Not for you, at least. Come on, you want to see our camp so bad? I’ll give you a tour. You too, bird.” He spat the word like a curse. Great. Racists. Awesome. I sigh and look over at Marley and back at Joltin.
“Well, Johnson, you got us.” I said, holding my hands out, wrists together. “Cuff me, officer. I’ve been a bad boy.” Joltin stared at me, dumbfounded. I took the opportunity to lunge forward and slap the crossbow out of his hands. I followed up with a slap across the face, just a light one, and he blinked in surprise. I reset, taking a moment to get my feet under me, then punched the blond man hard in the face. He crumpled like a sack of potatoes with its strings cut. I knelt and checked his pulse, breathing a sigh of relief when I found it strong, but slow. I stood and looked back at Marley. The chicken man was staring at me with his beak wide open.
“Welp, looks like stealth’s out. That’s fine by me.” I grinned, tossed the unconscious man over my shoulder, and walked out of the forest and into the camp. I walked into the middle of the circle of tents and tossed Joltin onto the ground. The man snorted as he bounced. I inhaled deeply, puffed out my chest, and bellowed into the air.
“Heeeeey AAAAARRRRRRNNNNNOOOOOOOO!!!!!!” My voice echoed through the now silent camp, the only noise the soft breeze rustling the trees and Joltin’s snoring. Nothing happened for a long moment, then people began approaching me. Nine people formed a loose circle around me, their makeshift weapons pointed at me. As I watched, something odd twinged at the back of my mind. These people weren’t bandits, they could barely hold their weapons without shaking. They were dressed in rags and one man looked next to starved. Only the women looked semi-healthy. I frowned. How are these guys bandits? They look like they’re going to fall over at any moment. The two biggest people, and I should mention that they all appeared to be normal humans, moved aside to let a man with a shock of dull orange hair through. He sneered at the body on the ground, and then at me.
“Well,” his voice was haughty and dry, the perfect stuck up scumbag voice. “I suppose that my brother truly is the useless one. I always told him to let me handle the fighting. He was too weak.” I raised an eyebrow at his words and crossed my arms.
“And you’re strong?” I asked, looking around at the starving folks surrounding me. Most of them shook, either with fear or strain. One even stumbled, letting his sword point touch the ground. The man who was obviously Arno looked well fed and healthy, however. Even positively glowing. I smirked, confident in my ability to fight these guys. Sure, they were armed, but I was a trained soldier.
“I am. Stronger than you. You’re only Level 1. I could kill you without any trouble. “
“How’d you know that?” I snapped. Arno looked at me like I was a moron. To be fair...
“What do you mean?” Arno asked, his voice filled with suspicion.
“How’d you know I was Level 1?”
“I cast Identify on you.” I smiled wide, an idea beginning to form.
“Can I do that? Identify!” I shouted the word, staring as hard as I could at Arno. Nothing happened, at first. Then a spear went through my back and into my lung. I howled and it quickly turned into a cough as my now severely damaged lung filled with blood. The pain was agonizing, but by now pain was an old friend. Even before I died and came to this freakshow world, the Marine’s beat my pain response out of me. The adrenaline pumping through my body also helped. But, damn, this shit hurt. I could barely focus on anything but the feeling of my lung collapsing.
Still, I whirled on the offender, a young woman with a savage grin on her face. She danced away as another placed a small cut on my thigh. I growled, and another small cut landed on my arm. A man lunged forward, and I caught the movement out of the corner of my eye. I dodged out of the way and grabbed his arm, smashing my palm into his elbow. He cried out and dropped the knife, his arm bent in the wrong direction. I dove on it, scrambling into a defensive position. My one working lung made it hard to breathe, and the pain was really starting to set in. Hot blood soaked the front of my fatigues with a familiar stickiness. I groaned, doing everything in my power not to collapse. I stumbled to the left, feigning blood loss, and lunged at the woman whose spear was still lodged in my back. The sudden movement took her by surprise, and she didn’t get her hands up in time to block me. The knife pierced her throat and I let her fall away, the knife going with her. Fuck, that was stupid. A message popped up.
Wowza! You’ve killed a Level 3 Human. You earned 10 exp.
I swatted the message away as the next person slammed into me, trying to tackle me to the ground. His light weight and starved body did nothing more than budge me a step. He looked at me with terror filled eyes as my fist slammed into his temple. The man dropped, unconscious. I surged forward and shouldered the nearest body I could find. The person let out an ‘oof!’ as I hit them. They landed hard on the ground, coughing and struggling to breathe as I looked around for my next victim. Dead in front of me was Arno, his hand drawn back and wrapped in fire. My eyes went wide as a fireball smashed into my chest. I was flung back a solid ten feet, and the front half of my body was burned. I crashed onto my back, the cheap spear snapping as I landed hard. The point was shoved out through the front of my shoulder. I laid there for a second, consumed by agony and barely breathing. Everything hurt. I checked my health.
Health: 2/30
Fuck. This was not going well. I laid there, my upper body screaming in pain, but alive. Deciding that it would be better to live to fight another day, I forced my body up and sprinted into the woods, ripping the spearpoint from my chest.
“Seize him!” Arno’s imperiously high voice cuts through the air. I don’t know if anyone listened, I was too busy tactically retreating. I dashed a solid hundred yards into the woods, then circled around the camp, giving my wounds time to heal. I stopped for a moment and listened for anything. Nothing; no birds, no insects, nothing. No one had followed me. I held the bloody tip of the spear in my hand and gritted my teeth as my lung knit itself back together, the muscle fibers reaching out and connecting like they’re supposed to. It hurt like a bitch, but I grinned as I took a deep, full breath. The hot afternoon air was warm and sweet in my new lung.
I stood up straight, breathing heavy, and started sneaking my way through the woods towards the camp. I wasn’t going to just leave the girls there; I’m not a scumbag. I had also learned my lesson. Fuckin’ of course charging in headfirst wouldn’t work. Dumbass. It didn’t work in the Tabletops I played back home, so why would it work here? I kept low and quiet, my training taking over and slowing my breathing. I’d gone maybe forty yards when I heard an explosion come from the camp.
“Shit! Marley! The girls!” I charged back towards the camp, the fear of failing another companion filling my chest, and slowed as I approached the forest’s edge. Four of the nine starving people were either dead or on fire. Arno stood in the center of the camp with Joltin’s still unconscious form on the ground behind him. Plus the two I took care of earlier, that only left three people, including Arno. A man and a woman stood behind him and on either side of the still loudly snoring man. I couldn’t see Marley, nor could I smell any cooking chicken, so I figured he was alright. I grinned, my health now back to nearly full after an excruciating few minutes. I was only missing five Health. I walked out of the woods into full view of the remaining people.
“Wow, dude, you really suck.” I said as I exited the woods. Arno stared at me in complete shock and Joltin let out a snort. “I can’t believe you’d kill your own people. I was already going to kick your ass, but now you get to die. It’s a personal rule of mine not to let a scumbag traitor like you go free.”
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“Someone kill this freak!” Arno screamed. He turned and ran into the biggest tent in the camp a few yards behind him, leaving his brother where he lay. I looked at the two remaining people with raised eyebrows. They shook their heads and dropped their weapons, holding up their hands in surrender, faces filled with fear. I nodded.
“Good. Glad we came to an understanding.” I walked between the two and grabbed the tent flap. A sharp pain bloomed in my shoulder, and I stood, my face snarling in rage. I whirled on the two people, the woman on the right looking at the bloodied sword in the man’s hand. The woman glanced up at me, her surprising bright lavender eyes wide with shock.
“Please, sir, I couldn’t stop him. I...” I grabbed the man by the throat and lifted him, the sword dropping from his hands as he tried to pry my hand from him. The woman stopped her pleading as I roared in anger and threw the man into the earth with all my strength. A sickening snap! echoed through the silent camp as the man’s arm got caught under him. I dropped my broken spearhead, grabbed the sword, and stabbed him in the chest. Blood flowed from the wound, soaking the ground. He reached up towards me as the light in his eyes left them and his last breath rattled from his lungs. His arm dropped limply to the ground.
Wowza! You’ve killed a Level 2 Human. You earned 6 exp.
I felt a twinge of regret as I watched him die. I hadn’t needed to kill him, his injury put him out of the fight, but I did it anyway, and without a second thought. Sure, I’d killed men in the Marine’s, but that was with a firearm, and from a distance. This death, this murder, felt different. Even the woman I stabbed in the neck earlier didn’t affect me like this. It concerned me how easy it was to take his life. I didn't like the feeling it put in my chest.
Shaking my head to clear it, I dismissed the message and turned on the woman, still holding the bloody sword in my hand. She started crying, tears streaming down her face as I approached her slowly. Her mouth was moving, but I heard no words, just sobs. I stopped a foot from her, my lower lip quivering with emotion.
This woman didn’t deserve to die. The sight of the man I’d just executed was still fresh in my mind. This woman was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. And if she was telling the truth, she tried to stop the man now dead on the ground with a broken arm and a sword through the heart. I brought my emotions under control, taking deep, agonizingly long breaths. The woman continued to cry, her legs giving out on her, and she fell to the ground. I sank with her, setting the sword on the ground and gently placing a hand on her shoulder. She jerked back, but I held tight. Pain flashed across her face, and I loosened a little.
“Miss,” I said in the kindest voice I could manage. It actually was pretty kind; not as scary as I thought it’d be. “are you alright? I’m not going to hurt you, but I need to save some others. Are you ok?” She nods her head, tears still flowing freely. I pat her shoulder as gently as I can manage. The woman opens her eyes and looks at me, living lavender looking back at me.
“Ok. I will return.” I said, the woman’s stare holding me in place. I blinked my head clear, stood, and grabbed the sword from the ground.
“Kill that fucking slaver.” the woman said, her voice hard with malice and resolve. “Make him suffer. He deserves far worse than death at your hands. He kidnapped me and murdered my guards. He and this scumbag” she kicked Joltin in the side of the head. “snuck up on us in the middle of night. He kept me around for his own fun, barely feeding me enough to keep me ‘in lay-able condition’. Bastard. I would kill him myself, but that little girl needs my help. She was hurt the last time I saw her.” The snarl on her face was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Even the look on Mark’s face when a father sent his daughter our way with a live grenade in her hand was a downright smile compared to the rage this woman possessed. Big Barney took that little girl down, but it damn near killed him. The image of that little girls’ arm at my feet and her head at the other end of the street filled me with rage. A message popped up, reminding me I was not in that sandy village, but in a magic world with quests and shit.
You’ve been offered a quest: Kill That Slaver. Arno Adler’s band of brigands has been uncovered to be a slave caravan. The woman with pretty eyes has asked you to kill him.
Reward for Completion: Exp. Unknown. One bonus point.
Cost of Failure/Refusal: The death of the woman with pretty eyes.
I was gonna do it anyway, so no skin off my back. And an extra point sounded awesome. I accepted the quest without hesitation.
“I was going to kill him anyway.” I said. “Now he gets to suffer.” The woman nodded and turned to Joltin on the ground. The savage look on her face grew deeper as she grabbed my dropped spearhead. I smiled at the woman and stepped around her. “Have fun! Just don’t break him too much. I have some questions for him.” I grabbed the tent flap once more and pulled, expecting someone to attack me. But, no. No one stabbed me, no fire came at my face, just the sound of canvas moving as I ducked into the tent. The sight that greeted me made my blood boil. Arno, the fucking coward, stood behind the young woman named Rose. She was gorgeous, mind you. If I hadn’t been filled with rage at the sight of Elizabeth, I would have been stunned into inaction by her beauty.
Rose was maybe 5’7” with magnificent, silky red hair. Even from here, I could tell that it was soft and would feel wonderful to touch. Her ears were pressed down against the back of her head, and a knife was held to her throat. Her lightning blue eyes looked at me with fear and despair. I could see the knife draw a small line of blood on her throat as she swallowed. Rose’s face was exquisite; a small, cute rabbit nose placed over thick, pink lips. Porcelain white skin covered the woman, lending a sort of ephemeral look to her, like she was a goddess walking amongst the rabble of the world. I couldn’t stop staring at her, but the soldier in me demanded I check the entire room. And thank God I did.
Elizabeth, that adorable little green-haired girl I first saw when I entered Milania, lay broken in the corner of the tent. She was still alive, thankfully, but extremely hurt. Her legs were twisted in the wrong direction, and her tiny chest rose and fell irregularly. She lay with her back to me, but I could tell from her arms that she was holding her stomach. I turned a hateful look on the coward hiding behind a woman. Rage began to bubble up inside me. Arno was hiding behind Rose, holding her at knife point. The tip wavered against her skin as his hand shook. The edge of the blade glinted red with her blood.
“Not that strong, then.” I said as I walked forward, voice hard and cold. Arno’s free hand became engulfed in flame, and he pressed it to Rose’s side. She screamed in agony as her dress melted to her flesh. I snarled but stopped moving. The slaver took his hand from her side and held it close. Tears streamed down Rose’s face as her electric blue eyes looked at her sister. I raised my foot to take another step and Arno moved his hand closer. I lowered my foot, and he moved his hand away. A grin spread across my face as I repeated the action a few times, enjoying the silliness in this horrible scene.
“What are you smiling about, fool? Do you realize what you’ve cost me? Those slaves could have sold well and made me a nice profit.” he sighed, then got a malicious look in his eye. “Oh, well, at least this one will fetch a high price at the markets.” Arno leaned down and licked Rose’s neck. She struggled, trying to break free but failed. He looked back up at me.
“You’re a big one and shrugged off my fireball.” Arno said, looking me up and down. “If you agree to take her place, I might consider letting this one go.” I just smiled wider and took a full step closer. Arno jumped, pressing his fire into Rose’s arm and she screamed, the noise grating my ears. It sounded like someone was torturing a rabbit with a magnifying glass. I rushed forward, closing the few feet between us in only a step or two. Arno tried to move his burning hand from Rose’s arm to her head, but I caught the flaming fist in mine. I grinned through the pain, even as my flesh started to melt. With my other hand, I thrust my sword between his ribs. Arno’s red eyes went wide as I stabbed him in the side. He gasped in pain, and Rose stomped on his foot, causing him to release her. She immediately stumbled over to her sister and knelt beside her, protecting the small girl as much as she could.
I drew the sword free of his side, a tide of blood coming with it. The slaver snarled and stabbed me in the shoulder. I howled and punched him in the face, his nose breaking under the force. Arno pressed his flaming fist to my face and pushed against me. A magnificent agony washed over me as the left side of my face ignited. I fought through the pain and fire, bringing my sword up and stabbing him in the throat. I pulled the blade free, a shower of blood coming with it. The slick, red fluid did a decent job of putting out the flames on my face, but I still slapped at my face, putting out the remaining fire. I gasped deeply, trying to keep my breathing steady. I was stabbed and burned, but alive.
Arno fell to his knees, holding his hands to his throat and trying to stop his blood from pouring out. It didn’t work. His hands became slippery and red, fell to his side, breathed his last, and died.
“Fucking slaver. Serves you right.” A message popped up as my face began to itch and peel as new skin formed underneath it. Damn, this power is so fuckin' cool.
Woo-Hoo! You’ve completed a quest: Kill That Slaver. You successfully killed Arno Adler.
Reward for Completion: 75 EXP. One additional stat point. Lily.
Lily? What the fuck’s a Lily? Like the flower? Even as I thought the words, the tent flap was thrown open and Lavender Eyes walked in, covered in blood. I sighed deeply.
“Aw, shit. Are you Lily?”