Rowan would forever deny the accusations that the two of them sneaked out of the city. Or that it happened just a single day after his decision to do something about his best friend’s depression.
But for all of his denials, it didn’t change the fact that it was more or less true.
Rowan had organized several parties of experienced soldiers to accompany them. Likewise, convincing his party members into playing along was a simple affair. But trying to reason with the three overprotective women Blake had following him around?
That wasn’t something Rowan was willing to tackle without very good incentive.
No, it was much easier to kidnap Blake right out of his room. Besides, it was kind of funny when Rowan entered the room, bundled him up in the covers, and just carried him out. The other hero looked amused rather than upset, and bringing a smile to Blake’s face was nice, however briefly.
Getting him into gear was a little more embarrassing, seeing as Blake was forced to shimmy out of his pajamas in front of a whole group of onlookers, but he gamely got through thatn too.
Blake only put up a minor fight when Rowan tried to offer him a sword, but Rowan managed to talk sense into him eventually. He was not going to let his best friend fight with only a light construct, which would disappear the moment he ran out of mana.
“You do, of course, realize what’s going to happen when they realize their hero has vanished during the night right?” Olivia quipped, pressing herself close to Rowan’s side as they made their way out of the city.
“Well, it probably won’t be pretty,” the hero readily admitted, but the self-satisfied smirk more than attested to the fact that he didn’t care. “Do you think they’ll actually come hunt us down in the wastes, though?”
Olivia laughed, and Blake scoffed. “They’re probably going to be asleep when we get back. Was it really necessary to get up this early anyway?”
“It’s not that bad,” Rowan defended himself, eying the sky.
True, the sun was only starting to peak over the horizon. Still, if they ventured into the wastes early, they could return well before nightfall. That was a rather big priority for Rowan, all told. In spite of getting relatively used to it, he did prefer his own bed to sleeping in a tent.
Cuddling up with Olivia was a whole lot easier that way.
“You’re the boss,” Blake said.
There was a sort of peace about Blake that confused Rowan. Just the day before, the man was a mess. Enough of a mess, in fact, to prompt Rowan’s insistence on the excursion. Now? He seemed far more at ease with himself, even if there was an odd stiffness to his movement.
“You good?”
“Yes, why?” Blake looked legitimately confused by the question.
“It’s nothing, sorry for pushing,” Rowan mumbled, deciding to drop the subject for the time being. They did have an entire day ahead of them, after all.
—
When they were well within the wastes and with scouts sent ahead to find something for them to fight, Rowan turned towards Blake and his newer, less experienced knights. Blake just gave him a small smile but the three looked more than a little worried about their surroundings.
“Now then. All three of you have decent skill with your chosen weapons. Good work. What you need now is leveling experience, so that’s what we’re out here for. Welcome to the wastes.” Rowan paused, taking the chance to gauge their reactions. In spite of the fear he felt from them, they seemed to be determined to make the most of the outing if their expressions were anything to go by. He could work with that. “Since most enemies out here are at least at the uncommon tier, you’ll be working with Hero Blake. He’s currently weakened due to an injury, but he’s still more than skilled enough to cover you and let you show off what you know. You can’t really party up with him, since he has his own party already, but —”
“Actually, they can,” Blake cut in, causing Rowan to shoot him a confused expression. “I temporarily disbanded my previous party. They were using the party link to track me down whenever I needed a moment to myself, so…”
“Ah. Well, that’s lucky then, I suppose. Turns out, you lot are going to be leveling up even faster than I expected,” Rowan said.
Rowan watched as Greg, the party’s defender and current party leader, sent an invite to the hero with eyes so wide they were threatening to pop out. There was definitely some hero-worship going on there, literal and metaphorical, that Rowan found kind of cute.
Still, he needed to move things along.
“Here’s the advice I can give you: whatever kind of combatant you want to be, put your all into it. I’m not a swordsman or guardian, so I cannot comment there. However, Fia, I want you to commit fully to each and every attack you made. You have party members. Trust them to cover you from damage.”
She nodded seriously, while Greg paled at the responsibility that suddenly landed in his lap.
Rowan wasn’t entirely convinced it was the best possible choice for the girl to follow in his footsteps. Still, with her heart card, she needed to get a more aggressive class if she wanted to make good use of her advantages anyway. So, the least he could do is get her started down the right path.
“By the way, I don’t want any of you trying to play hero, yes I’m talking to you too Blake. Do not get all self-sacrificial to block each other from damage, or try to get in the killing blow as quickly as you can. You have excellent regeneration, each and every one of you. Plus, my party’s here too. You’ll all live, so just focus on your jobs and doing them well!”
Rowan got a round of nods from the younger trio, and a solid pout from Blake. Rowan was just about to let his worry get in the ways of things and lecture them some more when the scouts returned.
“My lord, we’ve discovered a group of uncommon monsters just to the east of here. There are three, all around starting levels for the tier, and they’re those weird lizard things we ran into when building the fake monster stampede. Should I lead the recruits there?”
Dale, as always, was a picture-perfect example of dedication and efficiency. It drew a smile to Rowan’s face to see him again. With all the chaos happening recently and with the hero party hitting the epic tier, there really wasn’t much excuse to venture out into the field personally again.
Of course, Rowan authorized the request for the level grinding expeditions to continue. At that point, there wasn’t really a soldier in his army that was still stuck at uncommon. As far as the hero was concerned, a mere three recruits didn’t count.
“Go on, then. We’ll be right behind you. Knights, I want you on his tail. Engage as soon as you spot the enemy.”
Having given his orders, Rowan watched the group surge after the scout. Dale was slowing down his pace to allow everyone to keep up. Out of all the soldiers under Rowan, the hero was fairly certain the man had one of the highest levels.
“I don’t want any of you jumping in to save them at the first sign of trouble,” Rowan addressed the three parties of soldiers who were still hanging around them, the fourth one they brought along being the scouts.
“Not even me?” Marcus ventured uncertainly, brow furrowed. “You know, I can easily keep them one hundred percent safe.”
“I know, that’s the problem. I want to see how they do against opponents when faced by actual monsters. Besides… I really need Blake to get his act together. He’s not really okay at the moment. Trust me, he needs this. Besides, they do have my Natural Renewal.”
“True. Well, okay, if you think that’s best.”
Rowan really wasn’t sure of anything, but he had to try something. If he left things alone, he’d probably regret it for the rest of his days.
He refused to share that with the rest of the party, though. Instead, he rushed after the rapidly fading silhouettes of the knight party.
Ironically, they almost overtook them.
The speed at which mere common tier classes could move was far below epic tiers. For Olivia and Milena, even if they never invested a single point in their physical stats, there was a certain quality to their mana and bodies from being at the epic tier. That meant they could personally witness the very first clash between the newly formed party and their opponents.
The monsters were vaguely humanoid lizards who nonetheless preferred to move around on all fours. Rowan hadn’t fought them personally, but he knew they didn’t use any particularly special or tricky cards from reading reports.
The worst they could do would be to maul the four a little, but they were overall safe. His regeneration card prevented wound infection, and Greg was protected by his natural toughness as a troll halfling too.
For a moment, just a split second, really, Rowan saw Blake hesitate. It was right before the battle. Rowan saw himself, back when he first arrived in the world, reflected in Blake then. The Radiant Hero could no longer tap into most of his strength. Would that be enough to rob him of his courage, too?
Blake rid Rowan of that fear when he charged forward with a cry. It wasn’t a particularly brave or intimidating cry, but it was definitely filled with enough frustration and anger to make the lizard creatures flinch.
His first strike was a critical hit too. The sword took on an iridescent sheen as Blake channeled his mana into it, using his heart card to sharpen the edges of the sword with light constructs far sharper than most natural metals.
All that meant the sword parted flesh like water, and be it arms or the creature’s torso, they were all neatly sheared through.
The entire top of the lizard creature listed, then collapsed back in a spray of blood.
The show was, unfortunately, a little much for the inexperienced recruits. All three of them froze up, and that ended up costing Blake.
The leftover lizards leapt at him, claws first. Which was when he complemented his amazing opening with a critical fumble.
Blake stood there and glared, preparing his sword for a swing. His body flared with light, and while that was enough to briefly stop the claws and fangs of the first lizard, the addition of the second one was enough to both stagger the hero and break through his defenses.
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He only managed to get out a strangled ‘ack’ before he was on his back and the monsters were chewing through his limbs.
The gory sight of their ally going down jerked the other three into motion.
Greg swung his hammer around and brought it down on the nearest lizard’s head without thinking, dazing the creature and denting its skull, but also drawing a scream from Blake when the attack pushed the creature’s teeth deeper into his flesh.
Fia, meanwhile, followed Rowan’s instructions to the letter. With a manic look in her eyes, she squared her shoulder and charged the other lizard. She was aiming straight for its face, which Rowan figured could go either very well or very badly, but the monster turned to hiss at her.
In other words, it shifted and opened its mouth at exactly the worst moment possible.
Her spear met the back of its throat, and then the young spearwoman lifted the monster off of Blake, muscles pumping with all her strength before she slammed everything down and speared it to the ground.
It thrashed and struggled, but it took mere seconds before life bled out of it, both literally and metaphorically.
That left their intrepid swordsman, who paused mid-charge at the sight of his teammate taking out a monster on her own before rounding on the other lizard and desperately trying to get a stab in where the creature was now writhing on the ground and getting hammered again and again by Greg.
It laid on the ground a minute later, with plenty of shallow cuts and looking a lot like tenderized meat.
Honestly, Rowan had no clue what to say. No, that wasn’t entirely right. He had several choice words he wanted to say.
—
“What were you thinking, freezing up and trying to tank those monsters like that?” scolded Rowan, inspecting Blake for leftover scratches, bruises, and other marks of combat.
His regeneration card still wasn’t working at full capacity for the other hero, but with the assistance of one of Olivia’s healing potions, Blake was right as rain in minimal time. Really, Rowan was just fussing over him because he was a big idiot who ate attacks to the face willingly.
“Um, that I could defend myself using my heart card?” Blake ventured, a hesitant smile on his face. Somehow, the other hero looked happy with the way things worked out in spite of being used as a chew toy.
It infuriated Rowan, and he really hoped that his glare showed that properly.
“You too, Greg. Check to see if you should start swinging wildly before you do it. And while we’re at it, try to make it possible for your allies to fight alongside you. You almost brained Desmond several times.”
“Sorry, boss. I mean, my lord,” the part-troll mumbled sheepishly, rubbing his head.
Rowan didn’t have time for that. “Desmond, I know you wanted to contribute. And you’ll have a chance to do it, trust me. However, that doesn’t mean you should try to butt in on this big lug here making mincemeat out of a monster. He was clearly in a panic and not paying attention. Pick your battles more carefully.”
He turned towards the final member of the group, who sent him a hesitant smile and wave. “My turn?” Fia asked. Rowan’s lips threatened to twitch into a smile, but he smothered his amusement.
“Yes. Your turn.” Rowan paused for a dramatic moment, before finally letting that smile show. “Good job. Lucky shot, don’t get me wrong. But still. You committed, you succeeded, and you held on until the damn thing stopped twitching. It’s all I could ask of you.”
“Thank you, my lord!” she beamed, then shot a look of superiority at her teammates. Well, for Greg and Desmond, at least.
A blush rose on her face when Blake shot her a happy grin. Rowan really wanted to scoff and brain him just a little with his nice, metal spear. Blake had enough trouble at home without accidentally winning over Rowan’s newest recruit.
“Okay, the lot of you are just fine now. Well, Blake has shredded armor, but he’ll live. Might remind you not to just eat enemy damage in the future.” Rowan took the chance to glare menacingly again. Blake once more returned a radiant smile. “Get ready to move out. Scouts found another group.”
And they did. Dale had slipped away to rendezvous with his party while Rowan and Olivia took care of the aftermath and the twins looked on in amusement. He’d shown back up before they were even done with a few whispers of other discovered monster groups.
Rowan was tempted to lead them straight towards the poisoned mushroom monsters the man told him were further east, but decided that kind of test could wait a while. Instead, he told the scout to take them towards more of the lizard things.
With how numerous they were now, Rowan was pretty sure they had been displaced en-mass into the territory near his city by either the dinosaur epic that had tried to make its way to Rest’s Remorse or by the massive battle waged to rescue Blake.
Either way, they were convenient opponents for the knights. As far as he could tell, the only really troublesome card they had was one that allowed them to make their teeth and claws extra sharp. That was how they so easily tore through Blake’s borrowed armor set.
For just a moment, Rowan wished they’d taken along the hero’s own set of armor.
While Blake didn’t have a particularly good sword, it wasn’t even bound like Rowan’s own spear was, his armor was superb. It had easily seen him through the earlier monster siege, and didn’t even have a scratch as far Rowan saw.
That was also exactly why he didn’t want Blake to have it while they were trying to get him back to epic. It was far too much of a crutch. If he’d had it, he could have made it through the fight unblemished.
But, what happens the first time he fights something that doesn’t care about armor? Like, oh, I don’t know, a legendary demon? Rowan thought, genuinely upset and worried. Whoever trained Blake to fight like that needs to be shot. Or ran through with several spears, rather.
Rowan was ready to volunteer his services there.
Before they could reach the next group of monsters, he wanted to make sure his fellow hero understood exactly what was on the line. “Blake?”
“Hm?” Blake turned, shooting him one of his frustratingly charming signature smiles.
“If you just stand there and let a monster savage you, I’ll help you fulfill your masochistic tendencies instead. I’m going to carry you back to the city stuck on my spear like a kebab,” Rowan said that menacingly enough his friend actually paled.
“You wouldn’t, right? Right?”
Rowan said nothing. He just stared.
It wasn’t like Blake he could call him on his bluff when he actually meant every word he said. He’d either learn, or Rowan would force him to.
“O-okay! I get it! I promise!”
“Good.”
—
Blake did, as he said, ‘get it.’ Unfortunately, that didn’t mean that he was suddenly and magically graced with the right mentality and muscle memory.
He froze up, and hesitated. Overall, he was a big doofus that worried Rowan to no end. Rowan ended up spending at least half of the trip oscillating between panic and desires for violence. If there was one thing Blake was good for, though, it was following through on his word.
Not even once did he try to consciously tank the attacks of the monsters. He tried to dodge or force a distance. As battles went by, he was even getting better at playing keep away, much to Rowan’s relief.
So, he improved from battle to battle. Killing lizards, battling poisonous mushroom treants, crippling weird glowing spiders, it all helped hone Blake’s instincts.
In fact, seeing how quickly he was improving, Rowan was baffled at how he’d ended up with such a sloppy fighting style to begin with. He’d always known Blake as someone highly athletic. So if Rowan had managed to learn how to fight, logic dictated that Blake should have been more than fine as well.
The answer was as obvious as it was sickening: sabotage. Someone had made sure that a hero adopted by the king himself was a subpar fighter at best. Someone had led him to overly rely on his greater stats, cards, and blessing to claim his victories.
The only question was who. Was it his party who wanted him gone? A rival of the king who somehow weaseled himself into a position of trust and authority within the court? Or was it the worst possible option, the king himself being to blame?
Rowan simply didn’t know.
And as he watched Blake fight, he resolved not to care overmuch either until they got strong enough to do something about it together.
To finish out the day, Rowan asked the scouts to find one final group of lizards for his knights to battle. This time, there were four of lizards in the group, and Rowan could not have been more proud of the way they handled themselves.
To start things off, Greg released a loud shout of rage that had all four of the enemies perking up. With his tower shield at the front and firmly planted between himself and violence, the defender met their charge.
Meanwhile, Fia and Desmond fanned out around him, her using her spear on Greg’s left and the swordsman using his great sword on the right.
They responded perfectly to the lizards’ attempts to slip past the shield, harrying them to remain behind the barrier while Greg enthusiastically brained any of the monsters that tried to scamper over his shield.
And then there was Blake, rushing in from the side with his sword blazing.
No matter what Rowan said, the hero refused to see reason and properly stick behind the shield bearer, but at least this time he didn’t embarrass himself.
His sword slid through limbs with expert ease, aiming to disable, cripple, and generally deal unpleasant injuries rather than trying to end things in one glorious attack right at the start.
A part of Rowan was a bit upset at how quickly the other hero had gotten more proficient with his blade. His attacks didn’t belong to any particular style, true. They weren’t exactly graceful, either. Forced to fight for his life without any security or big battle ending moves, Blake had adopted a butcher’s efficiency with his chosen deathly implement.
Each strike had no pointless frills and was aimed right where the hero needed it to go. His sword sliced, stabbed, and even parried claws or fangs at times. The latter might have been a good way for a swordsman to quickly destroy their own weapon under different circumstances, but Blake’s light manipulation and construct conjuring was just as overpowered as the first time Rowan saw it. Worse really, since he’d had considerable time to practice since then, and it was the one thing he really did put effort into in the past.
His light kept the sword razor sharp, unblemished, and looking like he’d only just accepted it from the armorer, who had withdrawn it from the fresh equipment supply just that morning.
Of course, Blake was still hardly perfect. He was eventually forced to fall back after dicing up two of the lizards when the others tried to get him from the sides, seeing him as an easier target than the shield.
However, he kept his wits about him, properly falling back while keeping him enemies at bay with shallow, quick strikes, and did more than enough to distract them until the other knights could strike.
Strike they did.
Fia’s admiral ferocity shown at the start of the day only burned brighter as it continued. With a silent thrust that was backed by her full strength and the wight of the body, she drove her weapon into a lizard’s throat. From there, Rowan got to watch a repeat of her first fight.
Desmond, meanwhile, was far more in his element than he was in the morning. Hours of beating down uncommon creatures gave him level after level, and that was doing plenty to bolster his courage. Unhampered by the doubt and fear of total inexperience, he was starting to show promise.
He fell upon the monsters and damn near took his chosen target’s head off with a merciless swing of his great sword. In the end, the lizards were cleaned up without so much as a scratch.
Only Greg was left looking dissatisfied by the battle, glancing between his shield and his hammer speculatively.
“Marcus?” Rowan quietly caught the wolf kin’s attention, then pointed in the direction of the part troll boy. “Could you maybe do something about him?”
Marcus looked confused for a second, before understanding flooded his features. With a determined nod, he marched off towards the boy and with a few hushed words took him aside. Frankly, Rowan knew Greg was in the right hands.
Marcus put everything, heart soul and stat points, into defending his party. If there was anyone who could properly explain the importance of a tank to a party’s long-term survival and success, it was him.
Frankly, Rowan was pretty sure that Blake’s presence was the only reason Greg wasn’t being showered in compliments and thanks. With the hero added into the mix, a fighter determined to risk his life in the dumbest ways, Greg hadn’t had a real opportunity to shine yet.
On that subject, Rowan marched closer to the celebrating trio. “You know, I really wish you’d just start fighting with a bit more caution.” He grumbled in Blake’s direction. “You are setting a bad example for them.”
The puzzlement on Blake’s face clearly said he had no idea what Rowan was accusing him of.
“Not everyone runs around with solid light constructs, top quality enchanted armor, and a whole party dedicated to keeping them alive, Blake.”
“Oh. Well, um, I’ll work on it?” Blake did look sheepish, but Rowan sincerely doubted he’d take his words to heart.
In Blake’s head, the whole thing was simple. If he risked his hide by charging in, other people are safer. Ergo, it’s an amazing thing and he’ll keep doing it.
“Don’t lie to my face, you ass.”
Before Blake could come up with an excuse, they were interrupted by Dale’s return. The scout didn’t look worried, but he was definitely approaching them quickly enough to get Rowan’s attention.
“My lord, there’s another group of these lizard monsters not far from here. They’re led by a rare tier, which is noticeably bigger and stronger than the rest. We think it only tiered up recently, given the small size of the group.”
They’d come across similar groups throughout the day, and Rowan had insisted they avoid them for the time being. Blake’s frustration may be clear on his face since he needed experience, but it wasn’t something Rowan was willing to risk just yet.
“How many are there?”
“Just four, the rare tier included.”
Rowan blinked. That really was a low number. All of the rest had at least twenty uncommon lizards following them around. “Okay, lead us around them. We’re done for the day, anyway.”
“Wait.” It was, of course, Blake’s voice that cut in. Rowan sighed, knowing exactly what was about to come out of his mouth. “I want to fight it. There’s only three others, right? You guys can take those on your own?”
Predictably, the rest of Blake’s temporary party nodded quickly.
That left the Stalwart Hero staring directly into Blake’s eyes, wondering what to do. He almost startled at what he saw there.
Resolve. Quite unlike anything he’d seen from Blake in the last few days. It shone through, loud and clear, reminding Rowan of the Blake he’d always known.
As such, there was really only one thing Rowan could say. “Fine. But if you somehow get yourself killed, don’t come crying to me.”
The knight party broke into excited chatter, and Rowan couldn’t entirely resist a smile. Perhaps the outing would be good for his old friend after all.