The 5th made his way out of the courtyard. He did not know where he was, or what he would find beyond the walls of this keep, but he did want to leave. There was nothing for him here in this tainted place. After he killed the psudolich the taint began to expand from the gem. The 5th may have absorbed much of the magic within, but there was more that escaped. It was creating a zone of blight. The 5th wanted none of that. He did not have the power, or the knowledge to stop its spread.

When he opened the gates, he was met with what was easily seen as once being a battlefield. The ground was torn with shrapnel from boulders, and smashed trees alike. The field had been cleansed of bodies, but the smell of death was still in the air. He had no direction he wanted to go in particular, so he looked for the quickest way out of the field of death. Looking around it seemed like the damage was the same everywhere in front of the keep. Since it was situated facing land, and had a large mountain behind it. All of the attackers attacked straight forward, it was like they thought climbing the mountain would be a bad idea. With all of the land destroyed, the 5th had to agree. The attacking force had to have been quite large. That would make it difficult to move well in the mountains.

Making up his mind he just went forward. Nothing special about his decision. He just thought if everything's the same, why bother? Just keep moving. With the thought in his mind, the 5th started his journey. Walking toward the edge of the clearing, and into the wood. He wanted to see if he could find the trail of the army that attacked this place. If they were against the abominations here, then they may just be allies. Someone who could help him with his personal quest of finding those like him. After a while the 5th found a large area that looked like it once held a gathering of people. Somewhere they sat, slept, and cooked. The word came to him. "A campsite." he said to himself. Looking around for any information he noticed what seemed like a hurried retreat. Many tarps on the ground, pots, and pans. Tents left standing, and many more small things here and there.

The 5th took only what he thought would be necessary. A tarp and a tent as well as some basic stuff. He used the tarp as a makeshift pack, filling it with all of the smaller items that he picked up. No clothing was left behind, but you could tell the people who were in the campsite left in a hurry leaving things such as food, and even weapons here and there. The 5th ended up picking up a spear off of the ground. Finding it was something that felt natural in his hand. It was like his body had drilled, and fought with the spear for many years.

He was even able to get into a stance that felt natural with the spear. Using that stance he was able to do many movements slowly in a sequence. Taking some time to do these movements, the 5th had the word kata come to mind. He was doing a kata called the spearman's redoubt. He knew this, but he did not know how he knew this. He felt the longer he was awake, and experiencing new things the more he was learning, or maybe remembering.

After he was finished with his kata, he stood straight, and took a breath. He was not winded, but it was something that took much mental focus to do correctly. He decided that since the weapon felt so good in his hands, and that he knew these people stood against the necromancers that he would follow. He needed to learn as much as he could, and he wanted to see if they knew what had happened. He wanted to know who he was.

It took the 5th many days of following the trail of the army to arrive at the city they were heading for. He had survived by killing game along the way. He didn’t know how to hunt properly, but he was able to sprint straight at game to kill it before anything could react. He did not know why he was so fast or strong, but he was not mad about it. He did notice that after that first day he was not able to use any magic other than manipulating his mana, and the wind attack he used when slashing with his claws. He did note that he could use the magic with the spear he found though.

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This means he could manipulate his mana, and send slashes of air around. He had no answers as to why that was, but he could use mana manipulation to clean himself, and grab things. He could push things away, and pull them close. Nothing too heavy though. He could lift, and throw things far heavier than his magic would allow. It was like his body was far above his magical capabilities.

Pushing his thoughts to the back of his mind, the 5th looked upon the city before him. It was very large. Many tall buildings, and a wall surrounding the city. The army was just entering the city as the 5th was looking over it. It seems that the 5th had caught up to the army. He decided not to wait, and made his way toward the city. Nothing stood out as a threat, so he walked straight to the gate.

That idea did not go as planned. It turns out a man walking with a spear in hand, a cloak over his head, that just so happened to look exactly like a cultist robe, and a weird makeshift pack with symbols of the local government all over it was not something guards would ignore. They stopped him at the gate to ask him questions, and when he didn’t give good answers they decided he needed to be detained.

The 5th, not wanting to make enemies this day, decided to listen to them, and play along. He didn’t know what was in store, but he was not happy to be placed in a cell. It was nearly 2 hours before someone came to talk to him. “Who are you and what is your business in Ravenwatch?” a burly man said to him through the bars. “I do not have a name sir, and I am here because I want allies. I followed that army all the way from that forsaken keep.” The 5th knew he messed up somewhere when the look on the guard's face darkened. He ended up just leaving the 5th in the cell with nothing else said.

It was nearly a day later that the 5th decided that maybe he wasn’t going to see anyone. He was about to rip his way through the bars, when he heard steps heading his way. It was good timing on the men walking towards him, since the 5th was ready to kill if needed. These men showing up may have saved many lives, and they didn’t even know it.

Stepping up to the bars, the same burly guard from before, and someone who looked vaguely familiar to the 5th stopped. The one the 5th kind of recognized spoke. “Gerald? Is that you? I watched you die. How are you here?” Looking at the guard the man asked “You had him checked right? He isn’t undead?” Stammering, the guard pulled out a talisman, and quickly used it on the 5th. Nothing happened.

“Not undead sir.” the guard said quickly

“Well I did see him get shot multiple times in the back. You said he didn’t have a name though. What do you say to that Gerald?”

The 5th seemed to understand that this man knew something about him, so he played along to get answers. “I woke up naked in that keep just days ago. I went through and slaughtered all in the keep. That includes the vampires, werewolves, and the undead. They was also a psudolich. He died when I smashed a gem his soul was attached to. When I was done there I followed the army. As for my name, I remember nothing other than some stances, and a spear kata.”

Looking like someone had killed his dog. The sheer horror on the mans face, made the 5th, or Gerald, think he made another mistake. “You. You alone cleared the keep, and killed a lich?”

“A psudolich not a real lich, I think something went wrong, the gem was cracked, and he was slow.”

“But you killed everyone? Last I knew you didn’t have access to your magic. Where are you now?”

“I don’t know what you mean, but I can use 2 skills.”

“Just think hard on your core.”

Doing as the man said, Gerald thought on his core. It was red. Then he got a feeling in his mind that he had 2 more new skills. He had ranked to Red, and left the dark red core stage. The stage all magic users started in. This meant he had to look into himself to get access to his new skills, and that he also knew his magical slash wasn’t just a slash. It was like his mana manipulation, only for wind. He knew that since his 2 new skills were water, and earth. This meant he had mana manipulation, air manipulation, water manipulation, and earth manipulation.

This gave him many ideas, but not something he needed to worry about now. He had to get out of this cell, and learn about himself.

“I am now red. I have 4 skills, and I would really like to know who I am.”

Looking at the man Gerald smiled his best smile. The man looked warry, but new Gerald. He had for the man's whole 12 years in the army. He decided to trust him. He was also going to send some scouts back to the keep, because if what Gerald had just said was true, they needed to stay on his nice side.