CHAPTER 5: I Wasn’t the One Who Lost

There was no sharp edge to the stone axe, making Adam feel it was more of a bludgeon than an axe. He turned quickly and saw Elias being laughed at as he fired a [Mana Dart] at the brawler. The other enforcer was still approaching the three huddled bullies, doing it slowly with a smile on its face, clearly enjoying bullying them.

Putting on as much speed as he could towards Elias, Adam threw the stone axe at the brawler. Surprise showed on the brawler’s face as it turned in time to see the axe. A red flash happened and then the brawler leaned back just out of range of the spinning axe, impossible to do without a skill.

While the brawler was still leaning back, Elias stepped forward and kicked it in the side of the knee. It wasn’t strong enough to damage the knee, but it did delay the brawler from straightening in time. Adam reached them and brought his fist down in what he hoped was the most vulnerable part, the monster’s eye. With such a big head its features were overly large too, including the eyes. Each eye was significantly larger than Adam’s fist, so he punched the one close to him as hard as he could.

A pop sounded and ichor splatted from the ruptured eye. Adam had hit the monster’s right eye from the side, and the monster spun in fury, swinging its wooden club. Adam only had time to bring his right arm up to block the club, feeling a pop in the arm but stopping its force. What he didn’t stop was the left hand from raking its filthy claws across his face. Fortunately, the claws missed his own eyes, instead drawing blood in three lines from his nose towards his jaw.

The brawler let out a guttural sound. Adam barely saw the enforcer that had been bothering the others turn to come aid the brawler. Adam had no weapon and now his right arm was painful and swelling. He jumped back to create some space. The brawler didn’t force the fight, slowly turning and bringing the club into a fighting position. It was breathing heavily with gore and blood flowing down it’s face from the punctured eye.

Swinging the club at him and stepping forward, the brawler tried to maneuver Adam into the path of the enforcer. Swing, step. Swing, step. While the movements weren’t faster than Adam, he didn’t think he could get through it and attack the brawler.

When the enforcer was about halfway to him. Joseph suddenly rushed forwards and tackled the enforcers leg from behind. As its knee fell, Randall reached under the back of its head and wrapped around its throat, trying to choke it. The enforcer dropped its axe to grab Randall’s arms, easily twisting them off its throat. Tom seized the chance and grabbed the axe. Then he swung it at the enforcers stomach. The enforcer grunted, but that was it.

Tom scowled and, after looking at the enforcer with disappointment, threw the axe at Adam. Seeing the axe coming, he called for Elias. Elias, understanding Adam wanted help, distracted the brawler by running up and grabbing its hair, yanking the head back. Clearly the monsters were stronger than a bunch of teenage boys and it barely affected the brawler. However, it was enough.

CONQUER! The river cried.

Adam grabbed the flying axe out of the air and then jumped at the wall near him. The brawler swung his club, but Adam kicked off the wall flipping backwards and thrusting the axe head into the brawler’s other eye. He couldn’t drive it as deep as he wanted from the movement, but the brawler was screaming and reaching for him. Adam side stepped, grabbed the axe handle and twisted it into the skull, then levered it back as hard as he could.

Goblin “Brawler [3]” slain. 20 shared XP gained.

Turning towards the final opponent, Adam saw that the enforcer had backed the three against the wall. Randall was holding his arm with deep scratches in his shirt and blood dripping down that hand. Tom was still leaking blood from his nose, bruising happening all around it. Joseph was standing gingerly on his leg. The enforcer didn’t have his axe, but his fist and claws were certainly dangerous enough.

CONQUER!

Adam dashed the short distance. Before he was even there, he took an underhand grip of the axe with both hands and swung it upwards. The axe met the underside of the goblin’s head where it extended backwards. The force of the blow knocked its head down and forwards against its chest. The goblin must have been rattled by that because there was no movement before Adam swung the axe sideways and into its neck, cracking its spine. The goblin dropped, life fading from its eyes.

Goblin “Enforcer [4]” slain. 24 shared XP gained.

At that message the other three relaxed. Then they realized Adam, covered in goblin blood and gore, was scowling at them while still holding the axe. They all took a big breath in relief when he turned away from them to look around, making sure no more goblins were going to pop out. Then Adam took his own breaths, trying to calm the river.

CONQUER! It said to him. Adam reached inside and felt the coolness that was anchoring him in the river. He heard the whispers and the shouts to conquer. Then he reached for the coolness and pulled it back to his mind. As he did, the river calmed and the heat returned to his heart, no longer radiating fury. Whatever that was, the fight seemed to have been enough to calm it. For now.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

As Adam turned towards where Lucas was, still on the ground, the other four followed. Three were quiet, but Tom let his mouth flap enough for all of them.

“Dude! DUDE! Who the heck are you? Did you get the class [The Matrix, I know kung fu]? That was crazy!” His voice was constantly interrupted by the blood bubbling in his nose. Adam found it gross, but he himself was covered in the blood and guts of creatures that he had killed. Adam decided he would tolerate Tom’s blood gurgling.

He had killed. Three times. Soon to be four. Goblins. Monsters. Monsters were real and the invasion was real. The realization hit him strongly, but surprisingly didn’t trigger any new emotions in him. It felt…almost natural. The [System] was here and strength would be needed. He had no class, so how was he going to get stronger? Did the soul corruption allow him to fight like this?

“…We thought no tag meant you were weak. Screw that. Beat the four of us then four goblins and saved our lives. You fricking saved our lives! Dude! Sorry we attacked you, and not just because you saved us. You are a great guy! I think I have enough XP for a level thanks to you. This is going to be awesome!” Tom continued to ramble on.

Adam thought about not having a class. Then he realized, he HAD gotten XP. That should mean he can level SOMETHING, right?

Windows popped into his view as he willed them to. Beside his status he found one for [Evolutions], which was blank, one for [Skills], which was covered in black marks and scrambled characters, and one for [Levels]. On the [Levels] window was a message.

You have enough XP to level your class or your body. Which will you level?

[ Class / Body / Cancel]

Adam clicked on “Class”. There was a pause and then another message popped up.

Soul corruption found. Class unable to level.

Adam froze mid step. Everyone stopped behind him. Even Tom stopped talking.

“If my class is unable to level,” Adam thought to himself, “then I do have a class. But how did I get one without choosing? And what class is it that it keeps making me hot and cold and so damn angry?”

Restarting his walk forward, everyone else did too, though this time Tom was quieter and looking concerned. Adam walked past the hissing and bleeding assassin. The others looked at it nervously, but Adam just passed it by until he got to Lucas.

“Give me a hand up?” Lucas said, pretending that he wasn’t just picking a fight with Adam before the goblins appeared. Adam took his left arm, by the armpit, and easily hauled him to his feet. Lucas winced at the pain in his broken right arm but then nodded to the assassin. “What about him?”

A stone axe was thrust into Lucas’s left hand. “You need a level,” Adam replied as they all watched Lucas go to the assassin and ruthlessly bring the axe down on his throat.

Goblin “Assassin [4]” slain. 24 shared XP gained.

Conquer! A whisper said inside Adam. Then he nodded. Lucas came back over, looking barely able to stand. He had left the stone axe by the corpse.

“What do we do now?” Randall asked. “Do we, like, loot them or something?”

Everyone turned to him as one. Even Adam chuckled.

“Loot them!? Do you think they have anything on them, dumbass? Stone weapons. We can go buy BETTER than stone weapons. They are freaking gross. Probably diseased. Your arm will probably fall off from those nasty cuts,” Tom ranted. Randall looked at his arm in horror.

“Tom and Lucas need to get to the hospital. You probably should too, Randall. Check if there are any biological issues. Say it was a wild animal and you need to be tested, or something,” Adam interrupted Tom. Then began walking away. “I am going home. To a shower. And disinfectant. And a bed.” Everyone nodded at that.

“Well, see you tomorrow in school, buddy,” Tom said cheerfully as he waved.

Adam was sore and hurting, but not as badly as he should be. He shrugged, figuring it was something about his damaged class. This really needed to get figured out. Too bad there wasn’t a help desk somewhere.

Heading home, he stopped only to pick up his cell phone. With a black eye from Lucas, and scratch marks across his face from the brawler, not to mention torn cloths and scratches on his side, Adam was glad there weren’t many people around to see him as he walked home.

***

As he entered the house around 3pm, Adam could still hear his mother on the phone. Except instead of talking to doctors it sounded like she was talking with a friend to complain about doctors.

“I’m home,” Adam said as he entered, hoping that his mom didn’t hear. Unfortunately, she did, and he heard her scramble to him with a “I’ll call you back” aimed towards the phone. His mom was talking to him even before she got into the room.

“Adam! I’ve been so worried! You left hours ago. I’m still trying to get a doctor to…” and then she stopped talking as she laid eyes on him. She gasped. Then gasped again. She reached towards him in shock, then pulled her hand away upon noticing all the stains. He had tried to wash his clothes off with the outside hose as much as he could, then wring out the water. That had only taken care of the top layers of gore. There were so many stains. These clothes were done for.

“What the hell happened?!” His mother yelled coming back to herself and finally reaching toward his face.

“I saw a classmate being bullied and tried to non-violently help him. It didn’t work.”

“They did this to you? Why didn’t you call the police instead?”

“It’s fine. In the end we worked it out,” Adam nodded as if it was no big deal.

“Worked it out? With you looking like someone beaten and thrown in a dumpster?” His mom waved her arms as she yelled. Emily must have heard because she was soon peeking in the kitchen too, with her mouth hanging open. Then a click and flash from her phone.

“Emily!” Adam growled at her. She just smiled and ran. When he tried to get past his mom, she grabbed his right arm and he winced.

“Your arm too?” She groaned. “Does this mean you are going to be bullied too? They do this to you now and then target you later?” She was practically in tears.

“Mom, I’ll be fine. It was just a fight, and I will heal. No one will be bullying me. I do need to take a shower and throw out these clothes though.”

“You don’t have a [System] class and these boys might get stronger, so bullying will be even worse now,” she wailed.

“I’m feeling better about the class issue after my walk. I’m not concerned about it and I’m not feeling ill anymore. I’ll be fine.”

“But how do you know you won’t be bullied?” She demanded.

Adam started to walk past her to the stairs. He really needed to shower. Then he said absentmindedly, “I know they won’t bully me because I wasn’t the one who lost the fight.”