The heckling hyena laugh of the gnolls made it obvious what was happening. She tried her best to climb the cave walls outside, but she couldn’t get good grip. Her weight wasn’t exactly making it easy either. Even though she wore a baggy robe as a wizard, her puffy face showed she was just a bit overweight. And, with her sickly pale skin and auburn hair, hiding would be a tad bit difficult. She turned around in fright, her back against the wall quite literally, and her sweaty hands trembling as they frantically gripped onto the wall. She was so scared and disgruntled that she hadn’t even noticed the entrance to the cave a few meters to the side.

I sighed. “Hey!” I called. “Hey!” I threw my voice a tad stronger and she jumped then looked over. I gestured her over with my hands, trying to get her to quietly come to me. It was obvious that gnolls pursued her, but I didn’t know how many, and neither did I know their weakness, so it was my intention to check it out in my grimoire before engaging in battle with them – that’s assuming that a fight was even needed.

Her disheveled hair flapped in the wind as she ran towards me, but it was all too late. A couple gnolls peeped out, then three more found their way to us as well, but they were a bit spread apart. Ah fuck! I could bluff my way through it, and try to scare the monsters away, but who knew what their intelligence level was like? My MP was currently at 80/100, which meant I could only use skills four to five times. I hoped to goodness gracious that they would all be killing blows, so I unsheathed my sword. I stood in front of her. “Can you fight?”

“I, I’m sorry,” she cried. The amount of blood on her painted a bleak picture. Was she injured? Whose blood was that?

I stared at the gnolls and burst forth in a sprint. Instead of standing around to give them time to think and plan, I chose to take advantage of their ill-preparedness. The first one was about to bat my sword away with a small shield, but I feinted and waited just a split second longer for that opening. I stabbed through his ribcage at the side and ruptured some internal organs.

The other gnoll closest charged at me, a mix of saliva and bloodthirst swinging from his slobbering maw. His spiked mace slammed into a tree when I backstepped just in time. I held my sword with both hands and sank a large amount of strength into that strike; it didn’t totally behead him, but it was more than enough damage for him to choke on his own blood as he fought for his life against an inevitable death.

My little buckler halfway parried a lunge from another gnoll. The tip of its sword sliced along the upper side of my arm, but my robe and undershirt prevented much of the damage. I yelped and smashed my buckler into its head, sidestepped the incoming swing from the other gnoll, then stabbed it in the stomach. I ran away a bit to gain some distance from the last couple gnolls and gather myself a little.

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They sped towards me. One aimed low at my shins with a devastating mace and the other one jumped in order to slash my jugular to a bloody mess. The guy below was stopped in his tracks by an Earth Wall and I blocked the flying gnoll then shoved my sword far up there. Bloody excrement just fell out the backdoor. God that’s nasty! At least I knew for sure he wouldn’t survive.

The last gnoll got scared and began to run away, so I flung my dagger at him and it actually stuck him. Aha! It worked! I went hot on his trail to finish him off the second he slowed his pace; wouldn’t want him bringing back any of his boys to play. I used my feet to kick up dirt the second he turned around, but it didn’t exactly blind him like I thought it would. In fact, it missed his eyes totally, but he did flinch enough to give me an easy kill. My already bloody – and shitty – sword sliced into the soft tissue behind his collarbone, going down into him; he couldn’t even squeal.

I looted them and got a bit of dried jerky, another dagger, and a coin pouch filled with absolutely nothing. Eh, at least I got a bag to carry stuff. I made my way back to the cave to check on our damsel in distress. Her breath was haggard, and she sat near the cave’s entrance, still quivering. I rested a gentle hand on her shoulder. “It’s alright, now, you’re safe.”

She gazed up at me with a tear-flushed face and a snotty nose and muttered her thanks.

“Come on,” I put a hand out to help her up, “let’s rest up for a while, okay?”

She pushed her hair behind an ear and nodded and wiped her unbecoming face with her sleeve black sleeve. “Okay.”

I returned to the spit once again, and encouraged her to eat, since the roasted boar was still very fresh. “I’m Dei—uh, Dale, but I’m going by Andre now.” I breathed a sigh of relief mentally. Nice save. “What’s your name?”

She swallowed, and couldn’t stop staring melancholically at the ground. “Olivia of House Kriegen.” Her cloudy eyes finally met mine properly. “Thank you, Andre. You saved my life. Thank you!”

“It’s only natural, but, you’re welcome.” I leaned back and propped myself up with my hands. “Want to talk about it?”

I could feel her internal cringe burning as bright as the sun as I asked that question, but she stifled it after shaking her head. “Sorry.”

“That’s alright. Say,” I leaned my forearms into my thighs, “can you help me get to the nearest village? I’m, uh, not from around here, and I lost my map so…” A nervous laugh escaped me. Please, please, please buy it.

Her verdant eyes appeared to calm down bit by bit. “Yes, I also need to get back to town but, I, uh, can’t be seen there right now. I’m sorry to ask this of you after you saved my life,” she clenched her fists, “but can you find someone for me? You just need to lead them back to me when I get you to town. Please!” She graciously bowed her head. It was really smooth, which denoted a certain pedigree.

I shrugged. “Sure, we have a deal then. Who do I have to meet with?”

She exhaled and relaxed her tensed shoulders. “An adventurer called Kalen.”

“Sounds good.” I agreed. “So, where can I find him?”

She scratched her cheek, closed one eye as if in pain, and sighed. “In jail.”