Häerz Castle's barracks were built to accommodate its normal garrison of no more than fifty men. Knights quartered in the keep in their own private apartments, this squat stone building was for unwed common soldiers only.

Rodimir's hounds were no longer hostile, but they weren't especially keen to follow Redmane around either. A consequence of not choosing the Beastmaster Archetype, he supposed. But he wasn't dissatisfied with the choice he'd made. On the contrary, he found fighting with his teeth and claws deeply satisfying.

He approached the back door of the barracks and pushed it open as quietly as he could. Within he heard sounds of hushed conversation. No doubt the soldiers knew by now there was an enemy in their midst. Most of the torches had been recently snuffed. But Redmane's eyes could see in the low light adequately enough to make out a half dozen of them at the opposite end of the room he'd entered. They sat around a table playing dice, to the light of a single lantern on the center of the table.

They looked like they were trying to force themselves to stay calm.

Beastman Soldier

Monster Type: Corrupted

Level 1

Redmane glanced around. Noticed sturdy rafters he could climb. He thought about that Skill he'd been given, Stalk, and concentrating on it made a cool sensation settle in his chest.

Gnosis: 90

Quiet as a ghost, he scaled the wall and crouched on a sturdy beam, walking across the length of the barracks upon it until he stood directly above their table.

Gnosis: 80

The power broke when he crashed down onto their table, shattering it and snuffing their lantern.

They screamed, he snarled. Swords rasped from scabbards as claws and teeth struck out, snapping limbs, rending necks, spraying blood and guts in the dark.

The noise made another small squad of soldiers come running, their boots clacking on the stone, the glow of their torches closing in fast. One of them screamed when Redmane flew at them out of the dark, rent them limb from limb and feasted on the whole lot of them.

Level Up

Level 8 --> 9

Quality points awaiting allocation: 1

Corpus: 777

As he ate, he placed his next Quality Point into Might. Keeping it his strongest Quality felt appropriate.

Being stronger than everyone around him was most useful.

Might 7 --> 8

There weren't likely to be many of these foot soldiers left in the castle. But they weren't providing good sustenance anymore, so it mattered little. Ten beastmen perished now, but it was only enough for a single level. He would need stronger game to continue gaining, which meant the gatehouse was next.

He'd find knights there. And Castellan Caslav, more likely than not.

Redmane checked over the rest of the barracks for signs of life, found none, and crept out of the building and toward the well-lit gatehouse, climbed up onto the roof of a nearby storage shack for a better vantage. The drawbridge was down and two knights were posted on either side, for a total of four in plan sight.

Beastman Knight

Monster Type: Corrupted

Level 8

No sign of the Castellan. Which didn't mean he wasn't present, he could be on the second level or in his offices, or up on the ramparts.

There was one way to coax him out.

He jumped down from his hiding spot and roared a challenge at them.

All four knights turned toward Redmane at once. Discipline kept them from panicking, but the sight of Redmane standing before them, covered in blood and roaring like a beast, did appear to give them a moment's pause. The two closest to him braced their shields and held their spears at the ready, and the pair in the back began to advance carefully to link up with their comrades in front.

Redmane charged across the lawn, leapt and fell upon them with his claws.

Twin blasts of pain ripped through his midsection when their spears skewered him, but he pushed the pain aside, grabbed hold of one of their shields with both hands. With every ounce of strength he had, he tore it from the knight's grasp, straps and all, flung it away and bit the knight's helmeted head.

He screamed as Redmane's jaws crunched his helmet down on his skull, cracking it like a nut. Blood spurted out of the eye slit. The other knight frantically stabbed him in the gut once more, twice more, as his mate twitched and then fell when Redmane released him, first to his knees, then flat on his face.

Redmane grasped the spear belonging to the now-defeated knight and ripped it out of his body, pitched it at the two knights closing in on him as if it were a javelin, and then turned his attention to the other one right next to him, who was carefully backing up to meet his two remaining comrades in the center of the gatehouse. Redmane leapt after him with a snarl, his claws raked across the knight's hastily raised shield in time to save him. But the extra damage imparted by Fang and Claw was evident. one blow damaged that shield to the point of uselessness.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The thrown javelin bounced harmlessly off an upraised shield. The knights closed ranks, three of them shoulder to shoulder with their shields together to form a wall, spears sticking between the small gaps to threaten Redmane's approach. He could hear shouting and hasty footsteps echoing on the other sides of the walls, soldiers hustling into position to rain arrows through the murder holes in the walls and drop rocks from the ones in the ceiling.

They wouldn't have boiling pitch ready to go. Hopefully.

Regardless, he'd have to make short work of these three knights if he didn't want to become a pin cushion.

"Hold," said a voice on the other side of the wall, and Redmane could hear the men inside obeying.

There was a clank-clank of armored footsteps. A door opened near the other end of the gatehouse, and out came the Castellan.

Castellan Caslav

Monster Type: Corrupted

Level 10

The Castellan's armor wasn't quite so fine as that of the knights, but it was utilitarian. Solid and bulky, with a bulbous helm and curved pauldrons, a breastplate made to accommodate his big round gut. All those curved surfaces were made to deflect, to make blades and pointed things glance or slide off without doing damage. In one hand he held a great two-handed hammer with a long thick oaken handle and a square head of dark iron. The head of that hammer was bigger than the Castellan's helmet.

The sight of the portly Castellan made Redmane want to rend that armor into ribbons of bloody steel.

"What manner of beast is this, who terrorizes my men so," the Castellan's voice sounded muffled, echoed a bit inside his helmet, as he strode up behind the three knights facing Redmane.

"Call me Redmane," said Redmane.

He laughed. "We have one of those down in the larder! He's a bit smaller than you though. Have you come to visit your relations, is that why you're here?"

"I'm here to slay you all."

There was no answer. Redmane’s response had stilled the air. The Castellan didn't move, nor did his knights, nor did any of the men concealed in the walls. A moment pregnant with tension.

Then Caslav chuckled darkly. "Are you now..."

He hefted his hammer, took a solid grip of it with both hands.

"Stand aside," he told his knights, and they did so.

The Castellan's footsteps seemed to shake the stone as he approached Redmane. Whatever curse or blight had struck these people seemed to have granted them greater size and physical power, and Caslav towered over them all. Everyone looked bigger than they ought to, Redmane realized. Perhaps he hadn't noticed until now because he'd grown quite a bit himself.

Caslav stopped a few paces from Redmane, took a battle stance and shouted, "I, Castellan Caslav, shall avenge our fallen comrades and slay this villainous beast!"

The knights off to the side, raised their spears in salute and cheered. As did the men behind the walls.

Then the Castellan charged at Redmane, and the gatehouse truly shook.

The thunder of those footsteps made Redmane's heart beat faster. He had his eyes on the head of that hammer. If the spears of those knights hurt, he wouldn't like to find out how much worse this weapon was. Hopefully it would be easy to avoid.

Caslav let out a roar and concluded his charge by bring his hammer up overhead and slamming it straight down.

Again the gatehouse shook, with the impact of that blow on the stones. Redmane leaped back from it in time, crouched and growled, and then pounced.

The Castellan's men watched them dance for a few tense moments. They seemed equal in strength, but what Redmane lacked in Armor, Caslav lacked in Evasion. For all his bellowing and promises of vengeance, the Castellan's hammer struck nothing more than air and stone. Redmane, meanwhile, carved up Caslav's thick steel armor with claw marks. All over the torso, on either side of the helmet, on the greaves, even on that hammer in places. The burly Castellan was nowhere near as agile, but he was canny enough to make small but crucial movements. Slight twists, turns and stance changes that protected the places his armor was deficient, to make sure those furious claws always found steel and never flesh.

Redmane darted away from yet another swipe of the hammer, which moved with such force that the wind blew his hair back.

He needed a key to this fortress, a means to crack the Castellan’s hard shell. Another blow came and he ducked it, glanced at something in the corner of his vision.

The dead knight, his helmet crushed down onto his head.

Hmm...

Redmane crouched and lay in wait, knowing if he did so the Castellan would come charging with an overhead hammerstroke. And he did. The blow came down as certainly as the sunset, struck the ground he'd occupied a breath ago. Redmane avoided being crushed by leaping straight up, narrowly avoiding hitting his head on the ceiling, and came down behind the Castellan, landing on his back.

His claws scrabbled against that armor for a panic-laden moment, but at the last second before sliding off they found purchase by hooking underneath the plates.

Caslav shouted in irritation and tried to reach back to swat Redmane off of him, but his arm or the armor or a combination of the two made his arm too inflexible to reach.

Redmane opened wide and bit down on the back of the Castellan's helmet.

His teeth didn't find flesh immediately, but it would only be a matter of moments. Caslav shouted again, sounding a bit more panicked this time, and turned to slam his back against the stone wall of the gatehouse.

The blow crushed Redmane between stone and steel. He could feel his brain rattle against his skull. He saw stars, but shook it off and bit down harder on the helmet.

This time he found a balding pate beneath the steel. The sweaty skin and bone beneath. And then brains, and blood.

Castellan Caslav convulsed and screamed. He dropped his hammer and frantically tried to reach behind him, spinning about at random. Redmane bit a chunk out of the back of his head, gulped it down, then had another. And when the Castellan's massive body began to teeter he leap off of it, landing in a crouch. He wiped the blood from his mouth as

Caslav fell like a big tree. Shaking the gatehouse one final time.

Castellan Caslav has been slain

Tasks Completed: 2/3

Level Up

Level 9 --> 10

Quality Points awaiting allocation: 2

Class Skill Unlocked

—

Lion's Lunge

Common Class Skill

Rank 1 - Evolution Possible

Active - 15 Gnosis

The Imbued leaps at his Prey to deliver a crushing blow.

This attack channels the Hunter's primal power into a decisive strike which deals extra damage and knockback to a single creature. If the targeted creature has been marked as Prey by Hunter's Mark, their Armor is halved against this attack.

—

Two levels from one man, splendid.

The rush of power came with a new Skill this time, the sensation of it traveling down the nape of his neck and spine and into his body and limbs. Again he noted that it felt like a veil lifting, like something unearthed from a forgotten place in his mind. No sooner did the notification appear in his mind's eye did his body recall exactly how to employ the Skill.

And it was a promising one. It would have been good to have against Caslav, but no matter. It would be most useful.

With three knights and who knows how many soldiers in front of him, he already had plenty of bodies to test it on.

The thought made Redmane grin, growl and lunge in like a hungry wolf.