THE REVENGE OF A HOPELESS MAN

"???...Tristan??!"

Tristan shut Rudi's mouth with his hand and gestured with his other to sew his lips. Unfortunately a guard noticed the interchange and mistook it for a struggle.

"You want to make trouble for us you nutjobs? Do you understand how hard our work is?"

"This one even grew his hair huh. He wants some special treatment."

The two guards began beating up Tristan who secretly beckoned Rudi to not do anything. Rudi was already in a mental state where he was about to explode. He took the pickaxe in his hand and splattered the head of the guard closest to him beating Tristan. 

Seeing the gruesome sight Tristan regretfully nodded and caught the kick from the other guard with both his palms and swung his leg to throw him onto the cave wall. Appraisal showed the guard lose his life as well.

Tristan had spent a few hours doing reconnaissance of the people in the area using his appraisal. He found few over level 4, almost everybody including the guards of the mine were around level 2 or 3. However, the captain of the guards was level 15, but mostly seemed to get drunk in his special quarter.

"Didn't I tell you not to do anything, you muscle brain?"

Tristan admonished Rudi, but there was a smile on his face. He went and hugged Rudi tightly and whispered in his year.

"You have suffered a lot, haven't you? Let's make everything alright from now on."

Seeing the sudden death of two guards in such a gruesome manner, the remaining guards rapidly called for all reinforcements. 

"The slaves are revolting! Get everyone!"

Tristan couldn't care less about the guards. They were much weaker than the ants he had suffered through in the dungeon and much fewer in number too. 

He kept Rudi in an embrace, who was weeping tears now.

"Where were you asshole!? You disappeared for six years while the village went to shit! Turning up now like a hero? Have you no shame?....I missed you a lot brother."

Tristan calmed Rudi down. A crowd of guards had appeared with swords and spears and shields to take them down. The remaining miners had fled the mine and a few guards vomited at the gruesome sight of the head severed by the pickaxe.

"I have been dreaming of this moment ever since that day!!" 

Rudi screamed. His eyes had blood curdling murderous intent as he swung the pickaxe wildly. It was the pickaxe repaired by Tristan but looked extremely rusted from the outside.

"He killed them with that broken down stone picker?"

The guards were in disbelief. Tristan, however, did not waste time humoring them. He applied reinforcement magic of the Orcs onto Rudi and withdrew his own dagger from the inventory. 

The guards only saw a materialization of a dagger in Tristan's hands and panicked. They were clearly low level fodder. Tristan began blitzing through the guards as he struck them down their vital points causing them to instantly die. His agility stat was at 20 points, at this rate he could've easily killed them all within a second using hand to hand combat alone, but he left a lot of the guards for Rudi, who clearly seemed to want to settle a score.

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

Rudi was on a murderous rampage. He received the sudden increase in power gratefully from Tristan and began swinging his pickaxe at the guards throats. The guards were unable to pierce Rudi's reinforced body with cheap swords and spears and the shields couldn't withstand Rudi's anger or Tristan's maxed out blacksmithing skill.

After a few minutes, the cave had become the scene of a bloody battlefield. All the guards had died. The few who tried to retreat to inform the captain were assassinated by Tristan with finding speed. He slit their throats with the dagger. 

Tristan and Rudi then boldly walked past the unguarded post towards the Captain's personal chamber. In his anger Rudi kicked the door open with his reinforced legs. The captain looked at them in stupor. He hadn't the slightest clue about the situation. But seeing the blood dripping off the pickaxe he turned pale and shouted for guards. 

"We've killed them all, you bastard."

Rudi glared. He took the sword hanging on the wall and threw it at the captain. He then looked at Tristan, warning him not to interfere. Tristan was hesitant to comply, but he nodded. After all, he had already appraised the two would be combatants. The captain of the guards was level 15 and had a special sword skill,Triple sword. Rudi was just level 3 but he had a superior weapon, the pickaxe, and was reinforced by a very high level reinforcement magic from Tristan.

"Remove your magic brother, this bastard killed another brother of mine. I must avenge him on my own terms."

Tristan understood the sentiment, but he couldn't possible dare to do that. However, he wanted to help his friend resolve his grief. He decided to interrupt the moment it got dangerous for Rudi and dissolved the reinforcement over Rudi.

"Fight me man to man asshole. Raise your sword, let's see if you can match the blood that has been boiling for four years."

"You truly are a fool. You are no match for me, a trained warrior. A stupid pickaxe? Prepare to die!"

They began their battle in the open, the miners who saw the bloodbath from afar were now spectating. 

Rudi began charging in, like a maniac! The captain tried to execute the parry, but Tristan realised two things immediately. The bizarre shape of a pickaxe confused the captain and he hesitated in being able to parry it correctly. And secondly, all the captains skill points were associated in strength, defense and 5 other skills. His agility was at 1, but his status displayed inebriated due to alcohol, which had a -1 effect on agility and -1 on strength.

Combined, the captain failed to successfully parry Rudi's wild swing and the pickaxe swiped off the captains left arm! This would've usually been impossible given the defense stat of 3, however, that pickaxe was no ordinary pickaxe. Tristan had reinforced it with with a durable alloy and his own magic for his own use in case of an emergency. By the twists of fate, it ended up in the hands of Rudi.

The captain howled in pain as the onlookers watched, shocked at the sudden turn of events. The captain dropped the sword in shock and held his right hand over his cut shoulder, crying. Tristan, who had blended with the onlookers observed the fight carefully for any misstep. Rudi, however, remained relentless. He walked towards the captain who was panic stricken and paralysed with fear in great strides and in a pure motion tore off the captains head. After kicking away the head he screamed his lungs out.

"For Klaus! For uncle Jeremy! For every other friend who worked here that you murdered! This is my revenge!"

Tristan saw that Rudi's level increased by 5 instantly. All of his stat points went into strength. A muscle brain after all.

The crowd of miners went into a frenzy. Tristan took the opportunity of the momentary chaos to secretly talk to Rudi using the wind magic Whisper. 

"We need to leave and lay low for a while. I know a place the authorities of this place can't reach. Let us quickly take our leave while everyone is in a frenzy."

Rudi nodded as he followed Tristan. It was way past sundown already, and Tristan effortlessly guided him deep into the woods before changing tracks and heading towards the shed, thanks to the map.

Rudi was surprised when he took a step into the illusion barrier and suddenly could see the shed where Tristan meditated in.

"You were here all along! How?"

"I think it was Aunt Melany's work, but I'm not quite sure."

"That witch lady sure had some tricks up her sleeve."

Tristan created a large array and used it to guide Trees into forming a comfortable house with two beds and a kennel. He then went inside the shed and met his loyal dog Charmy, who ran into Tristan's arms while barking in his mind.

Tristan looked at the tired Rudi.

"You should take your time now to rest. I have a lot of catching up to do. Let's talk about it tomorrow."