- 71 -

Jeff came running up to their group at dinner time. Damien, Thrain and Krag were circled around a simple camping table eating roasted Guile with Skeetle compote they had fire-roasted Hopper Grass cobs too.

It’s amazing how well we can eat considering we are traveling through the most dangerous woods I’ve ever heard of.

“Drew. Maggie woke up and she is eating. She’s got a debuff capping her health and constitution. Do you want to come take a look?”

“Lead the way.” Drew said.

Maggie woke during lunchtime earlier that day but wasn’t coherent enough to talk. She received some medicinal broth the mercenaries made from wrapped cubes of herbs and tallow.

She looks pale, something is definitely still up.

“You are serious Jeff? The enchanter’s familiar healed me? Looking at my logs I would have been dead. A whole team of medics and a hospital tent would have struggled to heal me.” Maggie said.

She pulled up her logs again and couldn’t help but look confused.

“It’s true, I have a powerful combination of healing spells that when channeled, remove debuffs and restore health directly.” Drew said fluffing up his feathers. “But I’m not sure how much better they are than a health potion.”

“Well you will have a chance to show me. I’ve got this debuff, Mild Infection. It’s capping my max HP at 80% full.”

“Sounds tough, that’s a new one for me. I’ll give it a look.” Drew said. “Put your hand up here on the table near me. I’ve got to be touching you for my spells to work.”

She hesitated but then rested her hand onto the table where Drew could reach it. He hopped over and placed one claw on her hand and activated his healing abilities.

Debuff: [Mild Infection] (20%)

Focusing on it, he was able to pull up a description.

[Mild Infection] You have an infection that is approaching severe. 20% Reduction in max HP until the infection removed. Failure to tend to the infection will allow it to increase.

“Wow, it’s possible this infection could kill you eventually.” Drew said. “It would get worse over time.”

Maggie was shocked. “Bleed effects always have a timer based on my passive healing rate and the severity of the wound. You are basically saying my own natural healing rate can’t out pace this debuf?”

Oh right, so that’s how it works eh? If there’s a timer then the inflicted person won’t die from that debuff?

Debuff: [Mild Infection] (18%)

HP:80%

“Well, good news is my spells work, the debuff is counting down. But this is going to take a while.” Drew said. “Considering that 20% of my mana pool reduces 2% of your infection then we will need to take a break or two for me to recharge.”

“That’s great! Maggie you are going to make it.” Jeff exclaimed.

“Well then we have time to discuss your request. The captain ordered me to find you a knife and a skill.“ Maggie said.

“I’m the group’s quartermaster. I am more than happy to give you a heavy knife. It sounds like you could use a Shirk.”

She pulled a long double edged dagger from the trunk beside her. It was finely built and symmetrical. Its guard and hilt were lightly adorned with mundane geometric patterns.

“They are used by dwarves when they fight mounted, they leap from their mounts as they enter close combat. Because of their increased length and weight they are good for the Parry skill as well as the Thrust skill, especially good at penetrating weak spots in armor.” Maggie said.

“Don’t use up your favor with the captain on any knife skills. I’d recommend training with the knife to develop those skills. You need to build the muscle memory for the timing.” She said. “Save it for a hard to learn skill.”

“That makes sense. I guess. So then what makes a skill hard to learn?” Drew asked.

“Any number of factors. Materials cost to practice it, like Archery, you need to break a lot of arrows practicing, or something dangerous like Explosives proficiency.”

“Or blood magic, it is fueled by drawing your HP. Really dangerous to practice.” Jeff said.

Debuff: [Mild Infection] (12%)

HP:20%

“I had better take a break.” Drew said and switched his focus from his healing spells to his Meditation skill.

“Jeff! Have you been keeping up with your knife training? What levels are your Thrust and Parry skills at?" Maggie called out.

"Yes Ma'am. 25 and 28 respectively." Jeff responded.

"Great, come over here and spar with Drew.” Maggie said. “You are going to train him until he unlocks both skills.”

Maggie handed Drew the Shirk and Jeff took a ready position with his own slender knife.

“Okay, here we go. If I cut you I promise I’ll heal you back to full health.” Drew said as he hopped into the air.

There was a fair breeze blowing across the camp and Drew let it lead him to Jeff’s left side. He spun in the air and swung the knife out at the man with his claw. His strike was slower with the heavier knife.

Jeff easily blocked the attack with a well timed Parry. He swung out at Drew with a slice of his own. All he cut off were a few of Drew’s feathers from his wingtip.

“Whoa! That’s really fast Jeff!” Drew said as he circled around and above the mercenary.

“It helps to have a high knife proficiency, and my dexterity is pretty high.” Jeff said with a shrug.

Jeff struck again, and again, aiming to knock Drew’s knife out of his claws.

Drew’s claw was getting tired after the third clash so he switched claws.

Drew kept close and swung his knife at Jeff whenever he saw an opening.

If I stay close and keep the pressure on I might be able to catch him on his back foot. Since I’m flying I can attack from strange angle.

Jeff’s next strike got really close and Drew barely spun out of the way.

Jeff stabbed out with his Thrust ability, striking the knife from Drews’s claw.

Ah ha! Got him!

Drew activated Mage Hand and caught his knife. He swooped down and thrust out with the knife. The knife looked more like the head of a spectral spear as he extended his reach.

The attack glanced off Jeff’s knife and the flexibility of the magical arm allowed the knife to slip past and down the inside of his arm drawing blood.

New Skill: [Thrust] lvl 1

“Alright! I got Thrust.” Drew shouted. He dismissed the details of the skill so he could keep his eyes on the mercenary.

”Congrats! I’ve got something else for you.” Jeff said and grit his teeth.

Jeff didn’t let up, and came back with a flurry of swings that drove Drew back.

Stamina: 18%

“Whoa Jeff, that’s enough man.” Drew said flying backwards some more and trying to gain some altitude.

Stamina +1

Jeff rushed in with a big Thrust and Drew put his blade into its path. The momentum and angle of his blade clicked into place, turning aside Jeff’s strike. Drew didn’t miss the opening to slide the knife inside Jeff’s guard again.

New Skill: [Parry] lvl 1.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Before Drew’s knife struck him, Jeff swiped through the spectral arm with his off hand, diffusing it. Drew’s knife skidded across the ground.

“Damn good timing! Did you unlock Parry with that last attack?” Jeff asked.

“Sure did!” Drew said. “You had me worried there after I cut you.”

“Jeff was a brawler before he joined our group. He gains a few buffs the lower his HP is.” Maggie said.

“I may have lost my cool a little but I had it under control. Just trying to push you on to your back foot so you gain the proficiency a little quicker.” Jeff said.

Drew swooped down to store his knife in his ring.

”Remind me not to make you angry.” Drew said.

“I’d watch out for opponents targeting your Mage Hand especially while you have it extended out so far. The arm becomes a big slow target.” Jeff said.

Flying and using knife strikes is going to tire me out quickly. And if my mage hand gets destroyed at a bad time then I lose the knife. Best to keep it as a surprise attack.

“Can you heal him already? He’s been bleeding all over the place!” Maggie shouted.

- 72 -

The next morning, the wagon train changed course to head towards a small village the Johns knew had a blacksmith.

Drew spent the morning riding the warm breeze and asking the mercenaries which skills they had.

He sparred with a few of them each time the Johns stopped to check their route on a couple maps of the area.

Drew gained a point in Strength, and Agility by lunchtime.

After all that, there were three skills that were interesting: Simple Mend, Cooking, and Detect.

I really want ways to earn exp outside of combat. Surviving a big fight makes you level up in huge leaps, that’s likely what will get me to the next rank. But the slow ready climb that comes from skills and crafting is what’s going to get me through the next fight.

“My recommendation is to learn the other two skills through intense practice and take Detect.” The captain said.

They were back on the march after lunch and Drew gripped the wagon’s tailgate while the captain marched along behind.

The captain gestured to the Johns driving the other carts.

“You can learn to cook simply by cooking food, and the same is true with mending clothes and armor, just need the right kits and materials to start practicing.”

“Take Detect. It is the harder skill to unlock on your own and guards will only teach it to other guards.” The Captain said.

“We are lucky to have our brother Monroe. He learned the skill from his father who was a City Guard.” He said. “I’ll send him around at dinner tonight and he can teach you the skill.”

“Hold up,” the John on the front cart said. “Something is different about this forest.”

“Seems the same as last time to me.” Said another John. “We came through here in the winter last time, the frost nicked all the leaves. Now it is early summer and the trees are in their prime.”

The mercenary captain marched up with two of his battle brothers beside him.

“No no. I think you are right to be concerned, that canopy ahead seems like the work of a beast.” The captain said.

“If I had to guess it could be Spider Melons, or it could be-“ John was interrupted by the captain shouting.

“To arms men!”

They were immediately set upon by two long armed apes each the size of a wagon, they had long shaggy orange dreadlocks all over their bodies and thick shields of woven vines like shells on their backs.

They dropped down onto the wagon in the front as Damien and Marcus jumped clear. The wagon shattered and the sound of a strange wailing rose up.

The dust settled and one of the large beasts snatched up a Garnt in one hand and chomped down on its leg.

Drew flew into the action, slashing with his Shirk out and slicing a chunk out of the ape’s hand, causing it to drop the Garnt.

Damien’s shield popped up and Drew led the ape directly towards it.

Drew passed around the shield without issue, and the ape ran into it face first, stopping cold against the immovable bubble of mana.

“What the heck are those things?” Drew said as he landed behind the shield.

“Damn, Timberbacks! This is not good.” Damien said.

The two beasts were pounding on the mana shield with enough force that Damien was straining to seal up the cracks.

“My mana is running out quickly we need to distract them.” Damien said.

“Trunk to me!” He yelled and pulled out his Stone Shape wand.

“Drew, when the Trunk gets here you will need your armor, then it’s going to give you a Fire Bolt wand, these apes are weak to fire.”

“Sounds good to me. And then I light these big monkeys on fire.” Drew said.

“What? No these are apes. Never mind, that’s irrelevant, you have the right idea. But be careful to not set the forest on fire.”

Oh dang how often do new wizards lose control of their fire spells here?

Damien’s Trunk entered through the back of the shield and it popped open, spitting out Drew’s armor.

”Thank you Trunk.” Drew said

“Trunk, he will need a fire bolt wand too.”

Drew equipped his armor and picked up the wand as it was spat out.

I’ve got my health potions and the mana potions, my Shirk, and the lightning wand. Here we go!

Drew flew out from behind the shield slinging bolts of fire down on the two Timberbacks. They flew like small flaming tennis balls, and arched towards the apes. The first couple shots landed at the ape’s feet and Drew corrected his aim.

The fire started to spread immediately to the grass and low hanging trees along the road.

The Johns had managed to pull back the other carts and the mercenaries had made a wall of shields to protect them.

The Johns were lighting arrows with tar and launching volley after volley of fire arrows into the other ape.

Ha! Great minds think alike.

One of the beasts threw a broken axel at Drew and it clipped the tip of his wing as he dove out of the way.

Seraphina attacked the spreading fire with bone cold water, and used her wind magic to buff back the breeze and starve out the fire.

A volley of arrows hit their targets causing the apes to rear back and swipe the shafts off their shell like shields.

The mercenaries advanced forwards ready to box the apes in against Damien’s shield.

Drew switched his wands out when he ran out of charges. His lightning chained off both Timberbacks.

“Steady men!” The captain shouted as they slowly closed in on the beasts.

Drew fired off his last charge of Chain Lightning and swapped out his wand for the Shirk.

But how do I get in close? These things must have smelled terrible even before we set them on fire. The smoke is pretty unbearable.

Stone walls erupted on either side of the beasts creating a corridor leading the Mercenaries towards Damien’s shield.

Damien must be trying to funnel them in.

Drew had a moment to get a broader view of the fight.

Maybe I’ve done my part of the fighting, those things are so big I won’t leave a scratch with my knife. I bet I could heal that Garnt. Or does Marcus need healing? Where’s he at anyways?

Marcus turned out to be trapped in the stone corridor between the Timberbacks and the mercenary shield wall. He was plastered with his back to the wall and barely noticeable.

Is he using a stealth skill?

The two apes noticed him too and one charged him.

“Ahhhhhhh!” Marcus gave up on stealth and took off running down the corridor towards the approaching mercenaries.

The smoldering Timberback caught up to him in two bounds. But Marcus managed to draw his rapier and dagger and perform a perfect parry.

The ape was knocked up into the air and Marcus proceeded to stab it several times before it hit the ground.

What the heck? How can you parry something that big with such a small sword?

The beast landed in a heap and didn’t move as Marcus kept running.

Seraphina called up frosty wind and water to form a large icicle, she slammed it down piercing into the ape’s back below its neck.

Combat results: Timberback Guardian lvl 23. Exp 1870

Marcus came fully out of his stealth ability to run and vault over the wall of Mercenary shields.

As the mercenaries approached the second ape lashed out with some long vine whips it had sprouted from its back. It battered the shield wall from a distance and they couldn’t reach it to retaliate with their spears.

Drew swooped in from behind and slashed with his knife, severing one of the vines.

The other vine whipped low to the ground out of his reach.

The Johns released another volley of arrows into the beast and Seraphina retreated back behind her wagon.

“Engage men!” And the mercenaries charged into range. Battering aside the remaining vine and the Timberback’s long arms with their shields.

Years of training had long ago turned the men and women into a machine of shields and spears. With the Ape boxed in by the corridor, and Damien’s shield, there was nowhere for it to go and they eventually wore down the ape until it was dead.

Combat results: Timberback Guardian lvl 27. Exp 1956

“Alright men, divide up, Jeff, Maggie, and Monroe, help clean up these beasts. The rest of us are going to salvage what we can from this wagon. If anyone needs healing holler up.”

“We eat Ape tonight!” A John cheered.

“I love Ape, oh let me count the ways.

Ape rump in skeetle glaze,

Ape smoked, ape poached, ape pot roast.”

Another John joined in with the macabre lyric as they started looting the beasts.

“Ape smorgasbord! Ape on toast!

On ape we dine, on ape we sup.

If you have some ape, we will eat it all up!”

“What strange men.” Damien said. He and Drew were sorting through the debris of their cart.

Drew had tried to heal the Garnt, but with the leg devoured there was not a way to remove the disarmed debuff. Instead he returned it to full health and resolved the bleed debuff. The wound wouldn’t close until the disarmed debuff timed out. Its wounded leg sealed up with fresh pink skin and it was now a happy three legged Garnt.

“Can you cook, Damien?” Drew asked as they sorted through their smashed wagon.

Drew grabbed the small book that had belonged to Alicia and flew it over to the trunk for safe keeping.

“I can, well some. I don’t have the proficiency built up much. There is a certain point where you need to find more rare and elaborate recipes and ingredients to level up further.”

He pulled aside some wood paneling and found his leather folio, dusting it off and storing it in his pocket.

“There are chefs in the capital that have ranked up their cooking proficiency and can craft some amazing meals. I once ate a dish so divine it boosted my luck for 24 hours.”

Marcus turned over a wagon wheel and grabs one of his travel bags.

“Thank you for the heads up earlier Marcus, I wouldn’t have been able to evacuate the wagon in time if you had not alerted me to the beast’s presence.”

Marcus looked up and smiled uncomfortably.

“No that’s not true, it’s just running away. Thats what I’m best at.” Marcus said looking down.

“And Drew, sorry to not be more help before. With the Skizzards?”

“You saved my life.” Drew said. “I could not hold my own against her, she was faster and stronger than me.”

And far more ruthless, she had committed to killing in a way that I never will.

“Marcus, you are an excellent fighter and both Drew and I being alive right now is evidence of that.” Damien said.

“Seriously lad, ye knocked that ape into the air so high that I thought it might grow wings and fly away! Hah ha!” Thrain said.

He and Krag had walked over to inspect the smashed wagon. Krag lifted a large portion of the right side and started removing an intact wheel that they could keep as a spare.

“Your style isn’t as direct or flashy as mine, but ya an elf and that’s how it is.” Thrain said. “You are alive, the people you are protecting are alive, and ye did your best. That's a victory however ye look at it.”

“Damien,” a John said, walking up to the group. “with this cart destroyed we are going to be moving you into the second wagon.”

“Thank you John, I’ll have my trunk moved over to the new wagon.” Damien said.

“One, um, issue let’s say. One issue is that she has insisted that your Sku- that Drew ride somewhere else.” John said uncomfortably. “I hope you understand.”

“I’m fine, I’ll march along with the mercenaries.” Drew said

"It won't be an issue, I believe I packed a warm cloak in my trunk." Damien said.

"Marcus, thank you again for the use of your garnt." John said.

"Of course John, One request?" Marcus asked. "Could I ride in the cargo wagon?"

"You will have to ride in the second cart also." John replied. "With us carrying all the materials we can salvage from this wagon in there, there is not room for anything else.

I don't mind the warm sunshine anyways.

Drew selected his next level up and walked away on his little crow legs as the glow faded.