Chapter Three, Swordsman!

As night sneakily approached the endless wasteland from the shadows, Alderon and Ezra concluded their sword practice and left the canyon side, continuing their journey to the Nightfall Camp as per Necromancer Ferguson's command.

The night sky shone with clusters of gleaming stars and on top of it hung a large bulb of light -- a graciously, curved half-moon that allowed them to navigate through the waves of golden, dry sand with ease.

When Alderon's feet touched the sand, he could feel that it was a lot cooler than previously and also understood that this was the best time to travel the desert. The beastmen would be sleeping, and the temperature, although not affecting then much, would be comparatively lower.

The endless wasteland covered about one-fifth of the world's surface, stretching out for god knows how long. Beyond the wastelands lay enormous mountain chains where snow never melted. These mountain chains were mainly inhabited by dwarves; short, sturdy people whose greatest hobbies lay in blacksmithing and engineering.

While the kingdom of dwarves was safely protected by the mountains as far south one could come, the forest of elves lay in the east. The green woodlands stretched for thousands of miles and were the home to most animals and forest life in the world, along with the peace-loving elves, of course, ruling the forests as kind monarchs.

And then, finally, the human has taken the western area of the world, a region of a rather diverse climate and environment. They were the largest race and also took up the most space.

So, to sum it all up, the world was divided as this. The endless wasteland in the middle (where the mightiest necromancer and his followers fought with the beastmen over territory), the enormous mountains chains in the south, the lush forests in the east, and the most normal environment in the west.

Or this was what had Ezra told him as they walked the dunes who never seemed to end in the darkness

The vampire also spoke of the northern region, a barren area where cold winds cut like blades and hailstorms blew, a place of death – or so courageous adventurers had come back to tell their tales, failing to explore the unexplored in search for riches.

"Quiet!" ushered Ezra suddenly as they were in the middle of a discussion.

"Listen." he said a moment later.

Alderon wasn't able to hear anything out of the ordinary, and so he looked at Ezra with a puzzled look.

However, the next second after, his face also greatly changed.

He heard low, thick thuds sound out from behind of them.

Ezra spun around, grabbed the skeleton blacksmith by his waist, and threw both of them off the dune which was shaped like a rolling wave.

"Shhh." Ezra signalled Alderon with his finger to his mouth.

"What the heck? I can almost swear I heard voices from around here," said a deep, animalistic voice from where Ezra and Alderon had been standing just a moment ago.

"Once again, Slug is talking in his sleeping hat," said another.

"No, I can swear I–"

"Old Sluggy, you hearing things again?" asked a third. "I thought for sure the voices in your head had gotten better by now, and yet here you are, spewing out another load of nonsense."

"I'm telling the truth, I really did hea–" The voice stopped abruptly. "Oi, what's this smell? Stinky Skeleton?"

"Wow, I can't believe it. You reall–" continued the third voice. "...you're right. It does smell of skelly."

As Ezra and Alderon held their breaths to avoid being discovered, the head of a dog suddenly poked out from above, staring straight into the two.

The dog face seemed shocked, its mouth opened wide. It quickly pulled back.

"Attack!" shouted Ezra, knowing they only had one shot to avoid being chased around the whole desert, and that shot was to take out this small party of beastmen before reinforcements were called for.

The vampire shot up from beneath the dune and attacked the beastman with a dog's head. Alderon followed soon after, drawing his sword.

As they jumped onto the dune, the moonlight allowed them to clearly see the faces of their opponents as well as the prairie wolves that stood beside. And for Alderon, he was also able to see the blue boxes above their heads.

Dogman Sora (lvl 24)

Prarie Wolf (13)

Tigerman Raia (lvl 27)

Prarie Wolf (15)

Mouseman Piri (23)

Prarie Wolf (11)

Owlman Slug (26)

Prarie Wolf (14)

"A skelly! A-and a vamp!" shrieked the mouseman.

Beastmen were half human, half animal.

And -- the beastman who shrieked was a merge between a mouse and a human. Its lower body was human, having a pair of short but muscular legs, and its upper body was that of a mouse's, covered with pale grey fur.

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As the mouse shrieked, the long whiskers at its mouth trembled, and it put its two claws together in front of its mouth, as if this position was its stance.

Quite different from what Ezra taught me. Alderon shrugged and entered the basic one-handed stance. He immediately felt the effects in form of increased agility.

It had been a long time since he last checked his character menu but he didn't share a single doubt that his stats hadn't increased a great deal. His agility must be at least in the tens -- from what he could feel now.

"Piri!" ordered the Tigerman, seemingly the leader of the group. "You deal with the skelly! Raia and I will take on the vamp. Sora, hurry up, you are the fastest of us – alert the camp! We can't let these monsters get away!"

The Tigerman, the most robust and fierce looking, and Owlman Slug, who seemed kind of old, blocked Ezra from attacking the Dogman Sora. The Vampire gnashed his teeth and curled his lip, blood filling his eyes.

Alderon stepped back as the mouseman moved in front of him.

He squinted his eyes and calmed down, remembering the basics that Ezra had taught him during the previous day.

"Skelly, eat my claws!" shrieked Mouseman Piri and charged.

While those thick and muscular legs looked more strong than what they did fast, they were quicker than what Alderon had expected. He barely managed to sidestep to the right.

However, he couldn't avoid being scratched, a crack appearing on his white forearm bone. And as that happened, a blue box flared up.

Health (139/145)

-6

Congratulations! By being hurt, you have discovered your health bar!

Health is one of many different kinds of energies in the world. Please be cautious -- you will die if your health drops to zero. However, as a creature of the underworld, you will be returned there upon death until summoned again.

"Lucky bastard!" growled Mouseman Piri.

The beastman once again took the stance where its claws were by its mouth.

It seems that each time someone hurts me, my health drops. And as it drops to zero, I will die, re-sent to the underworld. Alderon did his best to keep his distance from the mouseman. The notice about health was a surprise, like always with these damned blue boxes, but he didn't allow himself to be disturbed by it.

Alderon tried to remember the practice with Ezra. This mouse moves in a straight line. I should sidestep to the right, and when he charges, I will avoid him and use a diagonal slash. Good, let's try that!

Mouseman Piri licked the bone dust from his claws, directly spitting it out again, coughing. He was probably used to attacking creatures with blood, forgetting that Alderon was a skeleton.

"Bastard! Tricking me like this! Come, doggy!"

Mouseman Piri was flung into rage and shouted for the Prarie wolf not too far away.

"I will kill all of you dirty beasts!" screamed Ezra.

The two beastmen didn't understand what the vampire said since they spoke a different language, yet they more or less understand the message. Ezra wasn't like Alderon who could understand other languages, so when the tigerman and Owlman Slug told each other to be careful, he took it as an insult and became even angrier.

Being on a whole other dimension in terms of strength, Ezra had the complete edge in the fight.

The tigerman was very fast and fought with a bloodthirsty nature, but Ezra was even faster, and if were are going to talk about who's more bloodthirsty, who can say they are more bloodthirsty than a vampire.

On the other hand, Owlman Slug was a bit different. His attacks were always incredibly precise, targeting any weak spots or openings Ezra revealed.

If not for the Owlman's annoying nature, Ezra would already have killed the tigerman.

"Slug, we must hold on until reinforcements come!" said the tigerman. His left arm was badly mangled and there was no trace left of his paw. Ezra had ripped it off from the creature's arm earlier, making blood flow almost endlessly, painting the sand in crimson.

"I know! How the f*ck is that useless Piri taking so long? Shit, if just we hadn't gotten him in our squad!"

Vampire Ezra sneered as he heard the desperate, animalistic sounds the beastmen were making. He had already killed the Prarie wolves and would only need one more opportunity to bite into the neck of the tigerman. Although he preferred human females, blood was always blood, and would always heal his wounds to fine scars.

It was a shame that he never got the chance to drink from the Prarie wolves, or he'd be even stronger. The last time he drank blood was at the black castle before they left. She had been quite a tasty one, that female human. A shame he couldn't enjoy her more before his master ordered him to escort the skeleton blacksmith.

After all, Blood was vital for vampires. If a vampire drank blood at least a day before the fight, he or she would be able to deploy their greatest abilities, and if not, their strength would be halved – if not more.

As the mouseman shot forward with his claws, the blacksmith skeleton performed an almost perfect side step. Piri was caught off guard by the sudden movement from Alderon and couldn't change direction.

Now! Alderon stomped down as Ezra taught him and twisted his body, leading the force that had been accumulated from his pivot foot and legs through his whole body out trough his arm and sword.

[Active] Diagonal Slash lvl 2 

+ 0,2 proficiency

[Passive] Twisting Body lvl 1 

+ 0,4 proficiency

Blood splattered onto the sand as the mouseman released a horrifying shriek sank to his knees.

The prairie wolf came one step too late, and when it discovered its owner being hurt, rushed over to stand firm between Alderon and the mouseman. Its intention was clear.

Alderon looked over to see how the vampire was doing. After noticing the state of his opponents, he heaved a large sigh of relief.

The vampire was totally dominating the two beastmen. The fight would probably be finished within a minute.

I need to wrap this up as well. It wasn't the first time Alderon fought. He had brawled with his skeleton friends down the underworld, but he had never been in a real sword fight.  All they had down there were their fists and perhaps their own bones when they were chipped off from their own bodies.

Alderon entered the stance again. Mouseman Piri was still down on the ground because of the injury to his back. The skeleton's sword had slashed down at his back and there was now a long gash, in where one would see the colour of white that originated from his spine. He also understood this was the best chance to end this.

The prairie wolf growled ferociously, baring its razor-sharp teeth as Anderon advanced with his sword in hand. With a quick double step, Alderon used the [pierce] skill he had learned from Ezra, his sword piercing toward the prairie wolf's head.

The Prarie wolf felt its fine hairs raise, but knowing its owner was behind, it lunged toward the attacker!

Congratulations! By killing a Prairie Wolf, you have advanced to lvl 2!

Congratulations! By killing a Prairie wolf, you have advanced to lvl 3!

Congratulations! By killing a Prairie wolf, you have advanced to lvl 4!

A bunch of blue boxes shimmered in front of Alderon.

Class Change!

Congratulations! By killing an enemy with a sword, you have unlocked a new class.

Would you like to change class?

[Yes/No]