I paused. “Called away?” My helmet removed, my features marked in confusion.

“Your armour, it marks you for greater things.” He said, taking a sip of his beer. What the hell is he spouting? “One day you shall fulfil a great destiny.” He guffawed, bending over in obvious mirth.

He was… joking? I stared at him confused while he straightened up. How many beers had he drunk before I came? “They tell me that they have decided to entrust you with the protection of the region.” He continued, staring into his tilted cup, now subdued.

I arched an eyebrow. “One man to cover a whole region? They fond of issuing suicide missions?” Elli chuckled, surreptitiously palming Teb’s cup as he set it down.

“I’m a farmer, my worst fear until recently was that we’d be held up by a broken wheel, or have a bad harvest.” He laughed, a halting, bitter laugh. “They tell me they might not be able to help the next time. That the most they can hope for is the irregulars they trust in to step in.” He sighed, his fingers twitching before stilling themselves.

I said nothing, not knowing if there was anything I could say. “You should take a nap, everything’s clearer when you’ve had a good rest.” Teb nodded, moving away further into the house.

“You’ll have to forgive him, it’s been tough coming to terms that we won’t be able to rely on the army. Like a key cornerstone is gone.” She sighed. “Don’t worry too much about it.”

“What did he mean by called away?” I asked, keeping my gaze levelled and into her eyes.

“You’re not the only irregular the army has decided to entrust, but irregulars are rare. Which means you would have the area of almost half a dozen farms to keep safe.” She said, “If, of course, you found yourself able.” She added, somewhat hastily.

Feels, dubious. Again, one man is supposed to do this? I thought to myself.

[We could I suppose, if we had tools set aside for the possibilities.] Page remarked.

Still forgetting that I’d be alone against hordes of creatures. I retorted. And no money for said tools. I’d need different weapons, torches, supplies, something to carry them, logistics.

I shook my head, leaving the home and going about my work. The cows had to be cared for, as did the other animals they kept. Better to keep busy, than entertain those thoughts. At night, I read the bestiary, which began from goblins, detailing their physiology and society. Someone was thorough.

I drew my sword from the slime, its body collapsing into a puddle of goo and transparent organs. We kept them, dried they could be preserved and though less potent, they could still be sold. Still, they were growing in number, I figure the slime section of the book warranted a read through when I finished the ones on trolls.

Lapi turned, her ears pricked up and rotated towards a part of the forest. A rustling of leaves and footfalls grew audible in a moment, a person burst onto one of the other roads that led to a main road further out. He stumbled as he continued, Lapi growling past the man.

A pack of… humanoids with hyena heads appeared from behind him. As they entered the roads they slowed down, a few more arrows and darts coming his way, before they melted back into shadow. The man stumbled into the town, collapsing upon the floor in a mess of dirt, tangled hair and tattered clothing.

We were unsure what to do, until someone cried out. “Jerrin!” We turned, Yinea passed us, running past us to end beside him. Jerrin looked up, a tired smile sneaking on as his eyes fell on her.

“Yinea… you look well.” He coughed, someone hurried a small sip of their health potions to him. Too expensive to use on anything but the most grievous of injuries, he definitely qualified. His smaller injuries sealed up, and he looked less pale, though still tired, and not particularly healthy. “The Laughing Woulders” Gnolls, referred as such forever onwards. Woulders… “have us surrounded. I was sent to get help. I... I think I’m the only one who made it.”

Gnolls. I’d not read on them, I think there was a colony of them nearby, a tribal group. Much like the renegade orcs, the lived within the kingdom itself. The kingdom left them undisturbed, and the gnolls would leave the farms unmolested. It seems that they had chosen now to make trouble, knowing of the lack of enforcement. The man turned, seeking someone, he seemed to deflate.

“We were told to seek out someone in this farm if this ever happened. They said he might be able to help us.” He gave another look over. “Where are they?” Everyone turned to me, I’d modified my armour a few times, dialling back into incognito, so it wasn’t much of a surprise he didn’t pick me.

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I left next morning, having again prepared my armour and weapons. Jerrin looked much better after a night’s rest, though I’d told him to rest, his injuries still too great for physical exertion. Yinea instead insisted that she be allowed to follow me. I agreed, volunteers from the farm hands came as well, a group of nearly twenty, almost half unused to the usage of weapons. Though we found weapons in the form of, what else, farming implements.

I packed in silence, checking that I’d brought my dagger, resin for torches, flint and steel along with the things like my waterskin. I exhaled loudly, my hands not quite steady. A battle, people’s protection entrusted to me. I thought, pressing my palms onto the table to still them, and steady myself. I could die, that Annihilator nearly did that. Yet here I am, marching, no, I’m supposed to lead.

[If you think about it, we do have military experience.] Page observed.

I laughed, a short bark of laughter, held back to prevent others from hearing it. In the same way a kitten is a tiger. I thought. We participated as what was basically poorly trained militia.

I shook my head, it would be pointless for me to continue thinking that. Unless I chose to run away, and that would be distasteful. I couldn’t bring myself to do that. Well, if I die, at least I died doing something with a clear conscience.

[Somehow I don’t think you find that comforting.]

How’d you guess? I thought back, sarcasm adding bite to my words. Page wisely quietened.

We set out early morning, unwilling to risk the danger of a night ambush, Teb and Elli provided food and drink respectively. I carried water, along with some somewhat rare fluid from a herb that acted as disinfectant. A few jars had been handed out across the party, along with a single potion, that I carried. Nobody had asked why I’d gotten sick from it, but everyone agreed it made me perfect to be the one to carry it.

We weren’t particularly subtle, though I insisted we pull up just before entering the farm proper. I entered the forest with Yinea and Lanth, Lapi tagging along without regard for permission as always. We found the gnolls encamped upon the farmlands, spread out across multiple encampments that surrounded the farm proper.

I soon noticed a group of poles erected just beyond the camps, placed between them and the farm. It didn’t take me long to recognize that people had been impaled on them, and hung limply. A sharp intake of air was heard from Yinea, and I turned to watch her. Her face had been in the midst of changing from sorrow to rage. I watched her apprehensively, she looked almost willing to charge them.

Her muscles relaxed visibly in a moment, her face no longer a mask of rage, instead one of cold simmering wrath. She turned to leave, while I continued watching the camps, there were guards, but it didn’t seem like it was a full half of the group, most of them would be asleep at night. Yet somehow the camp felt empty, with less people than there should be.

I hadn’t forgotten the scouts that had harassed Jerrin either, if they weren’t inept they would already have told the war party. I did wonder why they had yet to begin their assault yet even so. They’re using terror tactics, intending to scare them so they don’t have to lose anyone taking the farm. I thought. But the demands must be fairly tough as well, if the farm hasn’t capitulated yet.

[But if they know we’re coming.] Page continued. [Even the sight of us would bolster morale.]

Unless… I turned, calling Lanth and Lapi, we moved quickly to the main road, bumping into YInea along the way. “Gnolls.” She said. “They’re attacking.” I cursed, I’d been too preoccupied with the issue of the war camp that I’d not thought of the scouts and how the army would react. Are we too late? I thought, the sound of clashing weapons becoming audible, along with screams of pain.

I burst from the forest into the midst of a scattered melee. Bereft of experience, some had scattered, forming separate groups that were now assaulted on all sides. Despite this, they fought with resolute determination. Showing more willingness to stand their ground than I’d seen among the squads back in Alida’s world. I joined the fray from behind, quickly dispatching the few gnolls that hadn’t noticed us. Lapi, Yinea and Lanth followed me, the tiny hammer to the other’s anvils.

In the chaos it was hard for me to tell who had the upper hand. One moment I would jam my sword into a gnolls throat, Lapi tripping another gnoll to bite and tear at it on the ground, another would see me arrive too late to save a group of stragglers from gnoll blades. Something bumped into me from behind, I spun, finding a gnoll whose sword had deflected off the plate on my back.

A sudden burst of light blinded me, and I raised my arms defensively, stiffening the joints as I waited for it to pass. I opened them just in time to view a wisp of flame bore itself into a gnoll, expelling smoke and the acrid tang of burnt flesh. “Get down!” Someone screamed, I spun, seeking the voice. A sheet of flame slammed into me, just above waist height, I compensated quickly, the armour absorbing the heat as quickly as I could make it.

A few of the ones from my side had not been so lucky, many had indeed ‘hit the deck’, but the others had either been too slow or stunned. Lanth rolled on the ground, putting out a flame that had caught on his armour, a muffled cry coming from his lips. One or two had fallen to the ground dead, the burns covering their upper bodies. The gnolls suffered worse, most had died, and I quickly moved to impale the ones who had heeded the voice.

Someone tended to the wounded while I did so, but my concentration was snatched away by one of the gnolls who had rolled aside and leapt at me. It grabbed at my blade, I unsheathed a dagger with my left as it did so, plunging the blade into its side. I repeated until it fell, a pool of blood forming beneath it as I cut down the injured and maimed of the gnolls. Lanth had recovered, Lapi defending him from one of the gnolls that had ducked. He skewered it, hissing in pain.

Yinea moved in, helping up the injured, as did the others who had been at range or uninjured. Once that was done did I turn to the ones responsible. A man dressed in simple leather tended to some of the burns, applying some form of ointment that seemed to ease their pain. His eyes studiously averted from the burned dead.

Someone else covered in plate stalked up to me, their armour adding to their height, making them more imposing. Looming above me, the person stands still for a moment, before a voice, muffled and distorted by the helmet, asked a question. “You’re the one in charge?”