Andy held his sword straight ahead as three men emerged from the forest, each brandishing a weapon.

"Always feels good to redistribute the wealth of the nobles," one bandit said. "I won't feel the least bit bad about it."

The other bandit spat and twirled his katana, grasping it forcefully and extending it, pointing eye-level toward Andy. "Neither will I," the bandit said.

"We don't have to be enemies," Andy replied. "We're not the nobility."

His words had no effect.

A third bandit carried a spear, holding it forward to keep Andy at a distance. Any time Andy would approach, the spear would jab toward his face.

They wore simple green tunics that made them blend in with the surrounding forest.

Andy looked at the trail and noticed that it was covered in footprints. They had been here a while, and perhaps this was even a typical ambush spot for them. In any case, Andy and his friends were on their turf.

Out of the corner of his eye, Andy saw Morwen drop into a fighting position, and he saw Sven standing in front of the Dryad's shrine, shielding Kermit. He stole a quick glance, but didn't see Arlene.

Probably using Blend into Shadow, he thought.

An arrow launched past Andy and into the shoulder of one of the swordsmen ahead, who fell back with a scream.

Yep.

"Attack!" Atnar yelled.

Andy lifted his greatsword and began to swing at Atnar.

"Ah!" Atnar said, looking at Andy before vanishing.

Andy's sword swung through the air, hitting the rocky ground and sending hard reverberations up through the handle.

"Up here!" Atnar called from a tree. He hung sideways out of the branches, "I could smell your Favored Weapon," he said pointing to his nose and cackling maniacally.

Several assailants descended on Morwen at once, each slashing their blades ferociously.

Morwen, as if by supernatural means, seemed to twist unnaturally around one of the attacks, stretching timespace slightly. The attack had been too forceful, and the assailant lost a bit of balance. In her glitchy state, Morwen was able to take advantage of the assailant's misstep, tripping him and skewering him instantly. Her body returned to a normal state.

PL began to buck. He snorted and lowered his head, backing up out of the crowd.

The spearman ahead lunged toward Andy.

Instinctively, Andy activated Fluid Strike. The spearman's movements slowed down as Andy slapped the spear away, causing the spearman to fall off balance. Andy remained in the fluid state as the spearmen stumbled. Andy jumped and kicked the spearman squarely in the face.

Time sped back up as Andy's foot connected with the spearman's head, giving a sickening crack and sending the man flying backward.

"Sven!" Andy called as he picked up the spear and tossed it backwards, into the pig handler's hands.

Andy turned back around to face the two swordsmen. The first had an arrow in his shoulder, but the second one seemed to be at full power. There were several others flanking them, but hopefully Morwen and Arlene would be able to handle them. Andy would need to concentrate on these two for the moment.

Andy brought his greatsword up again, raising it overhead as he lunged toward the two katana-wielding bandits.

Both bandits dove out of the way as Andy released a scream, bringing his greatsword down where the first one had been.

"Come now," Atnar spoke from the treetops in a mysteriously amplified voice. "You have no want to defend yourselves. If you're associated with the nobility, after all, you're practically a vampire, living an opulent life of luxury, all built on the backs of the commoners! You deserve to be punished, and you know it!"

Even though the words struck Andy as absurd, he felt compelled by them. He felt he needed to stop fighting immediately and began to lower his guard.

Andy looked toward the rest of the group. He couldn't spot Arlene, but Sven had begun lowering his spear, and Kermit had completely set his frying pan on the ground.

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"No!" screamed Morwen. "He's using a trick of speech, some kind of magic! Do not listen to him!"

Andy recognized that what Morwen said was true.

The two swordsmen approached him, and he forced his sword back into fighting position just in time to intercept the injured bandit's blade.

"Come, now," Atnar said again, his voice resonating in a strangely hypnotic pattern. "Lay down your sword and pay for your many sins."

Andy felt the urge to fall to his knees, but he caught himself as a swordsman attacked him from the side, slashing at his back.

Andy screamed in pain as the bandit's blade slashed through his tunic and deep below his skin. His body was on fire for a brief moment. Andy grasped his sword and raised it again. The pain stoked a fire in him. He activated Wallop and lunged toward his attacker.

The attacker's eyes went wide as Andy propelled himself forward, greatsword moving on an arc toward the bandit's neck.

The bandit began to lift his weapon in defense, but too late. Andy's greatsword cut through his neck like butter, sending the man's head flying up toward the trees, past Atnar.

Morwen, too, had broken free of Atnar's magical influence. She was engaged with several bandits near the rear.

"We're not nobles!" Morwen said.

Two bandits attacked Morwen simultaneously.

She jumped straight up into the air, leaping high onto a tree branch. In her right hand, she held her katana. She extended her left hand and a bright bolt of energy appeared, materializing slowly into a glowing energy blade. She crossed her swords before jumping back into the group of bandits, cutting through their weapons with her energy blade.

One of Arlene's arrows shot through the woods and over the trail, narrowly missing a bandit's ear.

"Sure, sure," Atnar replied. "I know the smell. The incense and fabric softener, the smoked meats, the wine. I have a superior sense of smell, you know."

"I gathered," said Morwen as she blocked several attacks, and plunged her energetic blade into an enemy with ruthless precision, flesh searing and cauterizing as the bandit slid along the blade, lifeless, to the ground.

Suddenly, PL began bucking wildly. His grunts became more frantic until, finally, he ran with a burst of speed past Andy.

Two men, both bandits, stood in PL's path. The first tripped and began to scramble, but too late. PL dipped his head down and skewered the man as if he were a cow leg on a meathook. PL continued to drag the screaming man as he ran down the second one, his tusk finding a point of entry under the bandit's ribcage.

Both bandits screamed for a moment until PL rammed them into the trunk of a giant tree. Then the boar shook his face wildly, both bodies flying off in different directions.

An arrow flew from the forest into another of Morwen's assailants, who let out a yelp.

"Why are you doing this?" Andy yelled.

"Because I so enjoy laying claim to the riches of the nobles," Atnar said. "Andy besides, how else am I going to fund my new kingdom, hm?"

"Your kingdom?" Andy said. "There is hardly a small group of you."

"Oh, this is just one part of the patrol," Atnar said. "I have plenty more, back at the base. Andy yes, mine is a fledgling kingdom, but soon enough you will know the name… ATNAR PABST!"

Andy chuckled.

"What?!" Atnar yelled.

Atnar was still hanging in a tree, separated from Andy by thick branches. Andy might be able to swing through them using Wallop, Fluid Strike, and Favored Weapon, Greatsword simultaneously, but it would likely wear him out… or would it? He had taken a level in combat, and he was feeling unusually energized. Perhaps a furious burst of greatsword attacks wouldn't wear him out so fast now…

"Pabst," Andy said, eyeing the branches he'd need to cut in order to cause Atnar to fall out of the tree. "In my world, it's a shitty beer."

Andy lept toward Atnar, perched in the tree. He activated Fluid Strike, bringing his blade through one branch. It splintered instantly. Through another branch, it fell into two pieces. Finally, through a third branch, one that Atnar was holding his weight on.

Andy snapped back to normal time, feeling slightly out of breath, but not acutely drained as he had been prior to levelling up.

My fighting is improving, Andy thought. Soon enough I'll be able to be a shredding machine.

As the branch fell out from under him, Atnar vanished into thin air, then reappeared in another tree behind Andy.

"Not so fast," Atnar said. "I may not be much of a fighter, but I am very good at avoiding blades."

"You rail against the cowardly nobility, but it looks to me like you're the coward," Andy said.

"The nobility's only flaw is this: they do not admit their own lawlessness. If they were at least consistent, then they'd simply admit that they hold power because of their immense wealth. Instead, they have to lie to themselves, pretend that they are somehow above the commoner, invent stories about how hard they worked to get where they are. Please, spare me. If they were consistent, they'd simply say: I have the power because I have the resources to exercise it. That's precisely what I preach: the only real power, political, religious, or social, is a power backed up by the threat of violence."

An arrow shot toward Atnar but he blinked out of existence. It hit the tree he had been perched on.

As Atnar materialized in a different tree, an arrow shot through the air and hit his abdomen, exploding into purple flame.

"Argh!" he cried as he grasped the wound, falling out of the tree and to the ground. Purple steam rose off his badly burned skin.

Somehow, Arlene had anticipated his movement, and she had an alchemy bomb arrow lined up to meet him there when he reappeared.

"That'll shut him up," Arlene said.