A bolt of mana struck Shin’s mystic wall, rattling it to the core and a second broke through to his shield, sending him sliding back a few yards. The old woman lowered her hand and Shin threw her a tiny wrapped pouch of seven clinking coins. A trick Yen had taught him the ranked spatial bag rewards could do, materializing cheap inferior tier cloth pouches around money drawn. She caught it and retreated into the small crowd of players facing him. All uncommon tier, most of them intermediate.
A freckled faced curly haired boy stepped up to take the woman’s place and cast the same skill as soon as Shin formed his shield. Two shields broke in two hits each but the third weathered a second hit, taking one more to break.
[Mystic Wall has reached lvl 10. 25 Attribute Points rewarded.]
Shin stored his goblin shield and focused on his skill in place, as the freckled young man paused unsure of what to do. Mana swirled in front of Shin with focused intent, growing, strengthening, until finally a large block of mana appeared before him.
[Mystic Wall has upgraded to Greater Mystic Wall.]
Shin threw the points into Strength and tossed the guy a purse of six coins. “Come back tomorrow.” The crowd grumbled but dispersed quickly. Yen leaned off the wall from her spectating spot and walked over to Shin.
“Easy, right?”
“Mm. Let’s go out.”
“Fuck no, what’s even the point?”
“I wanna find spirits.”
“We can do that after we, I, train more so maybe I don’t die?”
“I’ll be fine. I can see anything coming.” Her demeanor didn’t change so Shin guessed she wasn’t quite convinced. “And your gear’s bad. We can find an uncommon tier dungeon somewhere.”
“Then we really need more people. A tank and healer is the minimum to be a party.”
“We’ll be fine with a scout.”
“You might.” Yen stood off against the boy staring back with calm unyielding eyes and groaned. “A tank then, at least. I’ll settle for that.”
“If there’s someone good.” Shin walked off and Yen followed, vexed and questioning her decision to accept his invitation.
They strolled through the town starting to crowd on this third day, inspecting anyone with armor or a shield.
“Greater Squire.”
“No.”
“Martial Artist but he’s got a shield.”
“No.”
“...tall Brute in the corner over there.”
“No.”
“Are you taking this seriously?!”
“Yeah.”
Yen let out a fed up groan and jumped on top a wooden barrel. “Listen up!” Her shout caught the ears and attention of everyone around.
“10 silver if you land a single hit on this guy!” She gestured at Shin. “He’ll hold back, no killing, nothing you can’t heal from! Melee types that can stand in front of a monster only!”
Yen looked at the one near by. “Make some space if you’re not fighting!” As she jumped down next to a cart a small distance away, the crowd quickly backed away, some not wanting to get involved, others waiting on a show.
Only a few moments passed before a buff woman donning half leather half steel and a large two handed axe stepped forward. “Just one hit anywhere?”
“Yeah, go for it.” Yen answered on behalf of Shin.
“Get your weapon out, kid.”
“Don’t need to.”
“Your choice.” She burst forward and slammed down the axe, splitting apart the cobblestone street as Shin dodge away. She burst in pursuit, swinging the axe straight from the ground at his waist which passed straight over Shin as he ducked low, prone on the ground like a beast, and pounced, his lunge into a roundhouse kick catching her right on the edge of her chin, and she dropped like a sack.
“Hey!”
“She’s alive.” Shin reassured Yen. On cue, the greater peasant brute twitched and slowly rose to her feet, holding her head with a groan. She glanced at Shin before walking off.
“Next!” Yen yelled at the gawking crowd.
---
Shin slammed his maces against the two shields of the bald heavy man one after the other. Gradually and steadily he raised his speed, darting around at odd angles to put more and more pressure on the martial artist. The man grit his teeth and a shield flashed as Shin struck it, rebounded his mace back fiercely. He struck out with the other shield, but Shin let the momentum take him, spinning the second mace to knock it off course. Two quick blows at the edges of the shields as the man tried to reset his stance blew the doors open and the blunt end of a spear thrust into the man’s solar plexus. He staggered back to a knee and raised his hand.
That victory marked his fourteenth and Shin had found no one he liked. Just as he was about to ask Yen to call this thing off, a large armored man walked through the crowd. Dark skinned and bald with a thick beard, he stood at least six and a half feet tall, muscles and veins bulging against his skin. Shin stood unblinking at his confident smile and the greedy glint in his eyes.
[Human Swordsman (rare) - Lesser Lord]
“Osee Baptiste!” The curly haired freckled young man balked at the attention his unintentional comment gathered. “Kickboxing heavyweight champion…”
“It’s true.” The greater brute woman from the start stared in realization. The crowd started to murmur and the man’s smile grew, soaking in the attention.
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“You have been throwing around silver all day like its rocks you can find on the ground. Someone told me they saw you with a gold coin and I did not believe it, but I’m starting to think it’s true.” A buckler and estoc replaced the maces in Shin’s hand as his body loosened. “I don’t want 10 silver. I think I will take everything.”
Shin dove to the side as a greatsword demolished the street when it struck. Osee burst off in pursuit, drawing his sword horizontal just as the Brute woman had done. Shin ducked prone and flipped to the side as the heavyweight changed the path of his blade upwards, chipping away at the cobblestone where he had just been. Shin lunged at the opening with his estoc, then burst back in an instant as Osee spun rapidly in place like a bladed whirlwind.
Wind pressure spat off as the Swordsman Lord came to a sudden stop and burst at Shin again. Shin dodged the flurry of slashes on the backfoot, maintaining a careful distance around, avoiding being pushed into a corner. The man was slower but not by much and his swings were mightier than ogres.
Osee drew his sword back again and came to a sudden stop, the blade shone red and he slashed out a blade of red energy. Shin leaned back as the blade passed over him, faster than the guy’s swings, severing a cluster of spectators behind. In a fluid motion, Osee stomped his foot down and fractures shot towards Shin, breaking the street beneath his feet.
Shin watched a greatsword sail down towards him with near perfect form, Osee having burst at the same time he broke the ground. Like a puppet on strings, Shin’s body rose upright, his left arm waving to the side and left foot sliding to the rear. The silvery gray buckler tapped the side of the greatsword and it tore into the ground beside him as he lunged, the needle shaped estoc piercing through the warrior’s eye and out the back of his head. Shin pulled out his sword and the man collapsed with a spasm before falling still.
As the crowd erupted into panicked chaos, Shin focused only on the feeling of the fight still in his hands. He had felt the ceiling of Superior Martial Combat start to crack. Just a little more, a little more danger, a little more hardship and he would have broken through.
“Don’t move!”
Shin glanced over to the orange haired mage held hostage by two greater peasant men, blades drawn at her skin.
“Go on, test me! I’ll fucking cut her!” The second spat out, tense and desperate.
Shin’s mind raced silently as he scanned over the situation but before he could make a move, Yen’s body set aflame. The two goons jumped away with yells of pain, a hasty swing of a sword passing through her fiery head to no effect. Like an elemental queen, she held out her hands and two large fireballs blasted into them, burning their clothes to ash and charring their flesh. Agonizing shrieks soon faded along with the desperate flailing.
Yen walked out of the flames as they disappeared into the wind, her own body and attire unharmed. “Trash…” She muttered, her expression annoyed as she walked over to Shin’s side.
Seeing her perfectly fine, Shin glanced around the area then started looting the warrior apostle. His full torso armor and greatsword both rare and the rest uncommon tier, but none of it particularly usable by Shin or his teammate’s whose capability he had just reevaluated once again. He had better luck in the guy’s spatial bag, tossing a ring of meditation to Yen.
“Faster mana recovery.”
“Cool.” She equipped it without much fanfare and looked around at the empty streets where a crowd had just been. “Might as well go out now…”
Shin walked with her towards the gate.
“Your stats as ridiculous as his?”
“About.”
A man with mid length dark blond hair parted down the sides of his head stood behind the side of a building, watching the whole thing play out with cunning eyes. A grin reached his face revealing a gold tooth as he walked off further into town.
“How hard is it to find one fucking damage sponge?” Yen grumbled as they passed the gate.
“No one-”
“Was good, I get it. You and your magic good shit detector.”
“You the one, right? Carved up them ogres yesterday. The Goblin Boy.”
Shin and Yen turned to voice ahead. A young man in his early twenties, a little over six feet tall with a hardy athletic build, donning steel chestplate and bracers over otherwise leather armor. A shield on his left arm and a small a small silver hoop earring on his left ear. Clean shaved with blood red hair cut in a short fade, gray confident eyes and a laidback smile.
[Human Squire (uncommon) - Greater Peasant]
“Shin.”
“Donny. Wanna spar?”
“We’re closed. Come back tomorrow.” Yen spoke up, having little faith that this guy would be any different, especially after the fight with the lesser lord.
The red haired warrior glanced at her, a trace of pondering across his eyes, then back to Shin. “You’re the next rank up, right?”
“Are you deaf? Tryouts are over, fuck off.”
“Weren’t you two looking for members?”
“No.”
“Yeah.”
“Are you?!” Yen snapped at Shin.
“You his manager or something?”
The mage scoffed, facing him as she assumed a more authoritative poise. “Yenny Phoenix. You can brag to the tavern drunks that you met me.”
“Sure.” Donny half laughed the word out.
Still irritation found her face. “...fight this one.”
“That’s more like it.”
An axe appeared in Donny’s hand and a mace stopped right in front of his face, a small wave of dust blown away under them from the impact. Donny stood in a daze, his prior confidence replaced with intensity. The boy’s attack had stopped before he even realized he moved. Shin tilted his head under the view of the mace with a blank casual expression.
“I’ll go slower.”
A half eager smile appeared on Donny’s face. “Sounds good.”
The mace crashed into the shield he just barely managed to raise, his body buckling under the weight of it. Donny swung his axe and a second mace knocked it along, making him overreach, as Shin stepped around to his wide open side. The squire shifted his stance in pursuit and Shin knocked away his arm by the axe, taking advantage of the sloppy momentum. A mace crashed against his shield again, this time brining him to a knee. Another swing of his axe stopped firmly on the top of a mace and a swift kick to the chin brought Donny upright.
Shin danced around the squire with indifference, landing potshot after casual potshot, the cleaves of the axe holding no threat of even touching a hair on his head. A warrior’s shout lessened Shin’s strength and speed as Donny’s speed doubled with the glow of his silver earing, but still Shin toyed with him as if nothing had changed at all.
A steel sword took place of Shin’s right mace, direct and obvious in front of Donny as he slashed down with a flurry from all angles, pushing the warrior’s skill with his shield to its limit. Shin held his sword back and thrust forward with a burst of speed. Donny’s eyes sharpened and he sidestepped the lunge faster than he had moved thus far, a axe cleaving towards the back of Shin’s head, time perfectly.
The perfect swing sailed only through air as Shin ducked into a leg sweep, knocking Donny off his feet. The squire sprawled back up as soon as he hit the ground and a heavy kick to his chest sending him sliding across the ground. Again, he rose with a jolt and burst forward, mana surging around his shield. Two hands wrapped from under his shield arm as a leg tripped his center of balance off course, the power of his shield bash used against him as Shin flipped him high into the air.
Donny’s thoughts slowed in the serenity of a freefall. Nothing was working. The boy matched his speed and pulled his punches but still, he couldn’t see a single chance to win, not even the slight victory of a single hit he had been aiming for. Donny hit the ground and laid there in half realized defeated thought, the handle of his axe resting on his open hand.
“You can’t follow me.” Donny looked over to the boy crouching down casually beside him. “You won’t make it all the way.”
Donny got lost in his eyes, boundless and absolute beyond the mellow surface, something greater than world harbored within. The words were not said in mockery nor encouragement. Only as what they were.
Shin disappeared, flickering over to the side of the orange haired girl as they started to walk off. “We’ll look for a tank again tomorrow.” Shin consoled.
“Some of them were half decent, your standards are just fucked.” Yen complained back. “You understand they’ll get stronger when they catch up in rank and class, right?”
“Yeah.”
Donny listened as the sound of their chatter drifted way, having completely forgotten about him. A self-deprecating laugh slipped out. “Big fish…” He slowly rose to his feet and walked into the woodlands.
---
Alone in the wilderness, the sound of metal chopping into wood rang out in a steady rhythm. Donny stood in front of a wide tree, intensity burning off his body as he focused on nothing else, a trail of felled trees laid behind him. Two skills blended together and broke apart as he chopped into the tree once more. Failure didn’t slow his purpose. Again and again he chopped, his will growing more with each swing.
He raised his axe once more and it glowed firm and steady, and his strike cleaved through the half of the remaining cut. He stood, pouring with sweat and breathing heavily, and watched the great tree crack and splinter under its own weight and crash into the ground. An intensity held a glint in his eyes that had been missing before, and he turned to head back towards the town.