As it turned out, fighting people wasn’t the same as fighting monsters. Mercer and Dregu were just as experienced as Jack was. They skillfully dodged and blocked his attacks. No matter what he did, he couldn’t break through their defenses. At some point, he realized they were playing with him. They stayed on the defensive without trying to attack him for some reason. A few minutes later, he learned why.
“Just tell us how to get David,” Mercer said. “No reason for you to die for him. You don’t even know him.”
Jack didn’t bother to reply. He was racking his brain, trying to come up with a plan of action. If he didn’t think of something fast, they would crush him without much trouble. He thought hard, but no bright idea came to his mind.
“I think the elevator is the only way to get up,” Dregu said. “So we don’t need to keep this clown alive. Let’s fucking kill him already. Then we’ll figure out a way to get David.”
“Agreed,” Mercer replied after a brief pause.
After that, they went on the offensive. They swung their swords violently, coming at him simultaneously. So far, he managed to deflect all their attacks, but he knew that sooner or later, his luck would run out.
At some point, he feigned at Mercer’s head and when his opponent raised his sword to protect it, he slashed at his midsection instead. This simple trick worked, and Mercer yelped in pain and rage when the tip of Jack’s blade cut through his leather armor, leaving a long cut across his stomach.
“You’re fucking dead,” he snarled at Jack. “You’re gonna pay for—”
Using one hand, Jack launched a fireball at him. Cursing loudly, Mercer tried to dodge the magical projectile but being too close to Jack, he didn’t succeed. The fireball exploded hurling him backward. Mercer collapsed to the ground, the armor on his left side gone, his skin scorched. Yet he was still alive. Moaning, he reached into a pouch on his belt to pull out a health potion. Jack wanted to finish him off before he healed himself, but Dregu stepped in front of him.
He was enraged, attacking Jack with fierce force and violent speed. Jack retreated doing his best to block his enemy’s attacks. Then he realized that in his rage Dregu forgot about defenses. When Jack saw an opening, he immediately counterattacked, piercing Dregu through the shoulder. He screamed in sudden pain and jumped back, swinging his sword violently in front of him to discourage Jack from trying to finish him off.
Now that both Mercer and Dregu were wounded, they were way more wary of him than they’d been before. They now knew he wasn’t as easy a target as they’d initially thought. They continued to attack him, but they were much more careful now.
As Jack continued to fight them, he noticed that it was already dark in the forest. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of movement. He glanced in that direction and spotted a dark form in the nearby undergrowth. It had a humanoid body, and Jack immediately remembered what had happened the previous night. His two opponents didn’t pay attention to it, though. They probably thought it was just an ordinary creature living in the forest. They didn’t take it for a threat.
“What the hell is that?” Dregu suddenly asked, looking at something behind Jack.
His surprise was sincere, and Jack glanced back over his shoulder. There was a blind mutant standing a few steps behind him, about to jump at him. Just as Jack spun around, the mutant charged at him. He dodged its attack without much trouble, piercing its heart. Another blind mutant materialized out of nowhere and attacked him. It took Jack only a second to take care of the new threat. As soon as he dealt with the second mutant, he heard fast footfalls behind him. He wheeled around in time to see Mercer and Dregu come at him. They must’ve decided to kill him while he was distracted by dealing with the mutants.
Dregu swung his sword at him, and Jack jumped backward. He tripped over the body of one of the mutants he’d just killed and fell on his back. His enemies stepped closer to finish him off, but before they could do it, Mercer was attacked from behind by another blind mutant. The creature sunk its teeth into his shoulder, bringing the screaming guy down to the ground.
Dregu looked at him, unsure if he needed to come to his companion’s aid or if he could deal with the mutant by himself. Jack reached for his sword that had flown from his grip when he fell. Dregu spotted the movement and instantly turned his attention back to his opponent. He kicked the sword hard, and it skittered out of Jack’s reach. Dregu brought his sword upward, glaring down at Jack with pure hatred in his eyes.
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He was about to bring his blade down on Jack when something approached him from behind. From the expression on his face, he must have sensed a movement behind him. At first, Jack thought it was another blind mutant, but he was wrong. A heavy club hit Dregu on the head, causing him to stumble. He turned around to see David standing behind him who must’ve finally decided to get down from the treehouse and help Jack out. David was holding what looked like a heavy club in his good hand. He swung his weapon again, but Dregu deflected it with ease and then lurched at David, piercing him through the chest. He pulled his sword out of his body as it collapsed to the ground.
By the time Dregu wheeled around to face his initial opponent, Jack had already been on his feet, with the sword in his hands. Dregu’s face twisted in horror when he realized he didn’t have time to assume a defensive pose. Jack swung his sword in an arc, cutting through his enemy’s neck and sending the severed head flying to the side. Even before the headless body slumped to the ground, Jack spun to face Mercer. The guy was still pinned down to the ground by the mutant that had its teeth buried deep in his shoulder. Jack jumped toward them and stabbed the mutant through its back with his sword, the blade going all the way through its body and piercing Mercer’s heart, killing both of them instantly.
Jack withdrew his sword and glanced at David. He lay motionlessly on the ground, either dead or unconscious. It was most likely the former, but Jack had to make sure. If David was still alive, he couldn’t just leave him behind. However, as he began running toward the motionless body, two more blind mutants appeared out of nowhere right in front of him. Behind him, he heard the sounds of even more approaching mutants. With every passing second, more and more monsters materialized all around him. If he didn’t try to escape right now, he would be surrounded in no time flat.
He spun toward his treehouse and burst into a run toward it, the swarm of mutants hot on his heels. When he killed Mercer and Dregu, he’d received notifications telling him he’d received Essence points and gold. However, he didn’t read the notifications, only glanced at them, being focused solely on saving his life. He jumped onto the elevator platform and yanked the lever. One of the closest mutants stepped onto the platform right after he did. Jack took care of the monster as the platform began its ascent. Another mutant jumped and grasped the edge of the elevator, hanging off it, its legs dangling in the air. As the mutant began to climb onto the platform, Jack swung his sword at the monster, severing its hands and causing the mutant to drop down to the ground. The other mutants made it to the elevator shaft, but the platform was already too high for them to reach it. They just stood next to the elevator shaft as if they didn’t know what to do next.
Once Jack was inside his treehouse, he crossed the room and stepped through another door onto the balcony. He walked over to the wooden railing and looked down. There were so many blind mutants beneath the tree they surrounded it from every direction. However, they couldn’t get up to his treehouse. Somehow, they sensed that their target was somewhere nearby but didn’t know where exactly he was, so they just kept shuffling around the trunk of the great tree. Jack watched them for a minute. When he was absolutely sure they couldn’t get up to his treehouse, he finally allowed himself to relax. He sat in one of the armchairs that were on the balcony and closed his eyes. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, tiredness began to overcome him.
He opened his eyes when he remembered something. When he killed Mercer and Dregu, all the Essence points and gold they had on them had been given to him. However, at that time, he hadn’t read the notifications to learn how many points and money he’d gotten, because he was too busy running away.
So he called up his character sheet and saw that he now had a lot of money and points, more than thirty-five thousand points and about fifty thousand gold. He had enough points to level up a few times. At first, it excited him, but then his mood darkened. He’d just learned that killing a person gave you all the money and unspent points they had on them. It was really bad news. It meant he wouldn’t be able to relax when he met other people even if they appeared friendly. He would have to watch them all the time to make sure they weren’t going to stab him in the back only to take all his gold and Essence points.
Jack was too tired at the moment, so he decided to spend the earned points later. He closed his eyes and almost immediately fell asleep. When he woke up in the morning, all the blind mutants were gone. He took the elevator down and examined the bodies of the three people who had perished the previous night. Carrion-eaters had done a number on them during the night. The bodies of Mercer and Dregu were bones with hardly any flesh left on them. The body of David had been dragged a little way away from the treehouse, and it took Jack some time to find it. He launched a fireball at the creatures feeding on David’s body to scare them off. He then checked the weapons the three of them were armed with, but none of them were any better than his sword. The previous night, Jack had assumed that David was armed with a club, but now in the daylight, he could see that it was just a thick branch, which he must’ve found and picked up from the ground after he got down from the safety of the treehouse.
Jack returned to his home. Now he knew for sure that the blind monsters were going to materialize all around him every night no matter where he was. He had to get rid of the curse the witch had cast on him, but he had no idea how to do it yet.