‘Yeah?’ Val shouted back, across the small town. ‘What’s going on?’
‘What’s the plan, Corminar?’ I asked the elf at my side.
‘When she presents herself, we flee. Opposite directions. Stay low, and stick to cover; I think I know where I recognise this man from.’
‘Yeah? And I’m guessing it’s relevant?’
Corminar nodded. ‘I’ve met him at tournaments. I do enjoy the sport, and particularly the passionate fans. That is where I have heard this voice before; your Lambkin is the second highest levelled known archer in the Tundras.’
‘How does that help us?’
The Slayer raised his bow. ‘Because I am the first highest.’
‘You can just say “highest”.’
‘Because I am the highest,’ Corminar said.
At that moment, Val appeared across the market, just in sight of Corminar and I without us having to stick our heads out from behind the cover. ‘What are you shouting about, Cor?’
‘Now,’ Corminar said, and I didn’t delay for even a second.
While my new ranger friend bolted out in Val’s direction, I sprinted the other way, crouching as much as I could and diving between the milling locals, who seemed oblivious enough to the dangers of the wider world that they hadn’t, you know, run away at the first sign of trouble, like I would’ve. I dived behind a butcher’s stand, a cloud of flies hovering above and suggesting to me that I wouldn’t be buying meat from here any time soon.
As I dove to the ground, I felt a sudden pain in my right leg. I looked down to my knee to discover it had a new, strange, arrow-shaped protrusion. ‘Ow,’ I said, more because I felt I should than because I actually felt any pain.
And then the pain hit me. ‘Ow!’ I cried out, clutching at my knee. ‘Ow! Ow! Ow!’
‘You’re still alive over there, then, Styk?’ Val responded, taking great delight in being sarcastic even about possibly mortal injuries.
‘Ow!’ I responded, tearing my eyes away from the arrow sticking out of me to see Val and Corminar crouching behind another stall—they hadn’t managed to get far, then. I wondered for a moment what was the next stage in Corminar’s plan, but then the truth hit me: there wasn’t one. These Slayers definitely had a habit of making things up as they went along. If we’d stopped for a moment to think about it, I might have even thought to use a local portal to get us out of trouble, but now here I was with an arrow sticking out of my knee.
Newly incensed, I grit my teeth and reached down to pull the arrow from my knee. Instead, I only managed to snap the arrow just below the head, but I decided that was good enough—especially considering my health bar was already about halfway drained, and I couldn’t exactly risk doing further damage to myself. I was going to need Val and Corminar—with their surely much higher Vitality and health bars—to take more of the heat from here on out.
‘There’s three of us, Lambkin!’ I shouted out, doing my best to hide the pain in my voice. ‘And only one of you. You’ll get out of here if you know what’s good for you.’
‘Oh yes?’ came the reply. ‘Or what?’
‘Or I’ll take you down.’
The ex-guardsman roared with laughter, so much so that it was obviously insincere; nobody found anything that funny, even something said by someone as utterly hilarious as myself.
I peered around the edge of the butcher’s stall to get a look at the man. He’d lowered his bow, already apparently confident he was going to be the victor in this fight. In the distance, off to his right, Val and Corminar rose slowly to their feet.
‘Take me down?’ Lambkin said through fits of laughter. ‘Me? Please. You’re level 6, Styk. I don’t know how that can be—especially considering what you did in Plainside—but that’s what you are. What chance could you possibly stand against me?’
‘It’s not about the level,’ I started, then took a quick breather to get through a wave of pain, ‘it’s about what you do with it. Besides, I managed to escape from you at level three, didn’t I?’
Val and Corminar took rapid yet quiet steps towards the guard.
‘That’s because you had a friend with you,’ the captain retorted.
‘Exactly,’ I said, and Val raised her hands.
The sorcerer pelted the man with rocks, whipped by an unseen gust using her magicks, and the captain grunted with pain before diving to the ground.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
At Val’s side, Corminar raised his bow, arrow nocked, just as the cowering Lambkin did the same from his position on the floor. Each arrow released simultaneously, whooshing through the air at the ranger who had fired the other, and… the arrowheads smashed perfectly into one another. The two loosed arrows spun chaotically to the floor.
I wasn’t in a position to waste the distraction, and so I’d already been preparing a move of my own, raising my hands to portal myself to the cover of another market stall. I created the portal on the ground beneath me, and I fell through it, my head spinning as the direction of gravity changed. As I tumbled to a fresh patch of ground, I glanced back to make sure nobody was following me through the portal—I didn’t like the idea of closing it on them—before releasing the spell, and preventing my mana from draining any further.
Glancing around the edge of this new market stall—fish, judging by the smell; if I’d known that, I might have picked a different one—and saw Lambkin spinning into a stand, releasing another arrow. But where the last had been aimed at Corminar, this one was aimed at Val.
Corminar’s eyes widened, and he hurriedly released another shot, this one fired just in front of Val and again colliding with Lambkin’s arrow. Together they once more spun to the ground, but not without the tail end of one of the arrows scratching Val’s cheek.
Corminar hesitated when he saw the blood flowing from his fellow Slayer, and this hesitation was enough for Lambkin to nock and release another shot. This time, it was Val’s turn to save Corminar, which she did by tackling him to the ground and removing his head from the path of the arrow. They scuttled to cover as Lambkin released another shot, but the damage was done; the captain had regained control of the fight.
With the arrowhead stuck in my knee, I wasn’t going to be much help, at least not in the face-to-face sense—though I supposed that’d been true ever since I’d died, let’s face it. But I still had a good three quarters of my mana left, and if I timed it right, my portals might just come in handy.
‘Psst!’ I half-whispered, waving at Val and Corminar.
Corminar, with his improved elven hearing, snapped his head towards me. He raised a finely groomed eyebrow.
I pointed at my hand. ‘When you’re ready,’ I whispered, ‘I’m going to…’
The elf narrowed his eyes; improved hearing or not, he couldn’t tell what I was saying.
‘Come out, come out, my dear friends,’ Lambkin said, stepping slowly towards Val and Corminar, bow drawn and at the ready. He hadn’t yet seen me, at least.
I tried Corminar again, speaking slowly and mouthing the words exaggeratedly. ‘I… am… going… to… portal… you.’
The elf’s face didn’t change, and that eyebrow remained arched. I resorted to gesturing instead. ‘I…’ I pointed to myself, ‘portal…’ I mimed activating a portal in front of me, and—
A portal opened.
Ah, yes. It does that.
Lambkin’s eyes shot to the glowing purple portal, as you might expect, and though I closed it almost immediately, it only resulted in the captain of the guard setting his eyes on me.
I moved fast.
As the once-captain swivelled his bow to point it at me, I gestured for a portal to open once more. This time, I placed one of the portals between me and Lambkin, and the other in the air some ways behind me—I didn’t have a moment to look.
The released arrow shot through the portal, and I closed it immediately, saving the mana for later, because I was clearly going to need it. Behind me, I heard the arrow whoosh down out of the portal, followed by a grunt, followed by a cry of pain.
I cringed, looking back at the local merchant who’d been hit, and was about to mouth, “Sorry!” when I noticed it was Ted. Suddenly I didn’t feel quite so sorry about it, considering the way he’d sold us out earlier.
Ahead of me, Captain Lambkin drew another arrow, and if he kept it up like this, I wasn’t going to have enough mana to portal all his ammunition out of harm’s way. And if I stayed here… well, he’d circle around before long.
All I could do was portal myself out of here, perhaps create a distraction that would allow Val and Corminar a chance to—
From the crowd of locals, still watching, their expressions somewhere between terror and intrigue, stepped forth the tallest man I’d ever seen. Over his shoulder, he carried a young lamb, and in one of his hands he struggled to carry the largest sword I’d ever seen. A terrible scar ran down one of his cheeks, splitting his left eyebrow in two. He growled at Lambkin just loud enough to cause the man to turn around, and then before the captain could release his arrow, he bashed him in the brow with the butt of his heavy sword.
Captain Lambkin fell to the floor, unconscious.
Level 29 ranger captain defeated!
Worldbending — +280xp
The towering, intimidating barbarian scowled down at the man he’d just knocked unconscious, then blinked, looked up at Val and Corminar, and broke into the widest smile I’d ever seen. ‘Val! Corminar!’ he said, raising his arms in excitement and almost dropping the lamb from his shoulder as a result. ‘Are you two making enemies again?’
‘Hi, Lore,’ Val replied.
"Styk"
Level 6 Novice Bladespinner
Base Stats:
Vitality — 10
Intelligence — 29
Dexterity — 15
Strength — 27
Wisdom — 11
Charisma — 0
Skills:
Knifework — Level 12
Identification — Level 6
Worldbending — Level 5
Stealth — Level 2
Abilities:
Slice — Slice the enemy for physical damage worth weapon’s base damage and additional damage scaling on [STR].
Stab — Put your weight behind your wielded blade and force the tip through tougher hides and armour. Damage scales on [STR].
Closed Reach — Bend reality to narrow the gap between blade and target by up to 8 inches. Uses mana.
Local Portal II — Create a portal to another location within current range of sight or within a ten yard radius. Uses mana/second.
Basic Stealth Attack — Passive. 10% boost to damage when unnoticed by enemy.
Basic Identification — Discover basic attributes for a particular object or person. Ability scales with [WIS] + [INT].
Active Effects:
Legacy of Sisyphus:
XP gain increased by +400%