As Val, Lore and Corminar charged into the fight, both screaming and swinging, I eyed up my almost entirely depleted mana reserves. It wasn’t fair that bandits would attack us twice in one day, really; I didn’t have the coin to afford mana potions. The only thing that would recover my mana was a nice long sleep.
But I wouldn’t be getting that any time soon.
At the edge of the treeline, one of the bandits caught my eye, and I stumbled backwards, straight into the admittedly very chiselled chest of the Goldmarch captain. I looked up at him as the bandit strode confidently towards me. ‘...Help?’ I asked.
The veteran soldier shook his head. ‘Sorry. Orders.’
‘But they’re gonna kill me.’
The captain shrugged. ‘Not my problem.’
‘Well, thanks very much,’ I said, and focused my attention back at the approaching bandit.
Level 22 Bandit
Race: Human
Oh, yikes. This one was stronger than the ones I’d faced down previously, and I didn’t have a handily placed source of water up my sleeve this time. And I didn’t even have more than one decent portal left in me. All in all, this meant I was going to have to rely on the two bog-standard Knifework abilities I’d managed to get so far, with not so much as Closed Reach to lend a hand.
I held my ranger’s blade in the air, forcing my hand to remain steady as the woman approached. What are my choices here? I asked myself. I could hope this borrowed knife had decent stats, and rely on Slice, or I could put my weight behind it and force the blade through the woman’s leather armour—but the latter required more stamina, and I’d kinda been forsaking Dexterity lately in favour of Intelligence.
So, when the woman grew closer, I choose another option entirely: I ran away.
Now, normally I would have had some shame about doing this, but there were two factors at play here. First of all, the rest of the team seemed to be managing alright with their own attackers. Secondly—and this was more important to me, this one—I really didn’t want to die.
…Again.
So, yeah, I ran away, but it’s not like I was bolting for the hills. No, instead I ran for the cover of the huddle of soldiers who apparently really didn’t want to be involved. Well, they were involved now.
I pushed through the midst of them, barging them aside, pretty confident that their orders not to intervene also applied to not hurting level 7 novice bladespinners who were being a bit of a pain. Sure enough, none of them moved to attack me, but most of them either grunted with annoyance or scoffed at the idea that I was really going to do this to them. I couldn’t feel too guilty about it—what were soldiers for if not protecting me from bandits? Even if they were, technically, a few hundred miles north of their jurisdiction.
I heard more groans erupt behind me, and it didn’t take the glance over my shoulder to know that the bandit was following me through the horde. As I reached the other side of the crowd, I realised—as I often do—that I didn’t have a plan for the whole “what comes next” bit.
So I swung a hard left and ran around the outside of the group. As I reached the other side, back where I’d started, the bandit reached the outside too, and craned her head over the crowd to get a look at me.
‘I, err…’ I started, trailing off when the bandit started running clockwise around the group to do the same. By the time she was where I’d been a few seconds ago, I was on the other side again.
‘Stop!’ the bandit cried out, like I was gonna do that.
As the running continued, I scoured my brain for the next stage of the plan. At some point, even running would drain my stamina reserves enough that the bandit would catch up with me. That is, unless her stamina reserves were lower than mine, which I doubted, considering mine went up to… 23.
All this running had only postponed the inevitable; I needed to figure out a good use of my Knifework skills if I was going to get out of this. As the bandit suddenly u-turned, now running around the circle of soldiers anti-clockwise, I took another look at her before I did the same. She was carrying a long sword—one that she looked like she knew how to use, but long enough that she was going to need room to swing it.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
And that’s when I came up with a plan.
I pushed back into the group of bewildered soldiers, one of them crying out, ‘Oh, really?’ and tried to lose myself amongst them.
The bandit continued running around the circle for a few moments longer before realising what had happened. As she peered around the soldier’s shoulders—try saying that after a few pints of wine—I crouched, trying to hide. After all, if I held out long enough for Val, Corminar and Lore to finish up, I might not even need to try out my risky plan.
Of course, that was the moment that the bandit saw me. We made eye contact for a moment, wherein both of us paused, and then I tried to slowly slink away behind the closest soldiers. You know, just in case.
As the bandit began to push between the mass of soldiers—who’d been pressed together by our running around them, much like sheep—I readied myself to slice.
I slid between the legs of two neighbouring soldiers, moving around while I was out of sight of the bandit. I watched as she reached the spot I’d been a moment earlier, drawing her blade. But as she tried to swing it, she realised what would happen if she hit anyone, and so the sword arced through the air in a rather slow, cramped manner. Of course, she realised I’ve moved again long before the blade hit the ground, and once again her head spun around to search for me.
I considered bolting for the group, heading for the treeline, but my stamina was already running low, and there was a good chance the bandit would catch me. No; this was a microcosm of our inevitable fight against the Player. It was weak against strong, and the weak could only succeed if they stuck to their plan. So stick to the plan I did.
The bandit pressed amongst the soldiers, step by cautious step, her eyes scouring the crowd for signs of me. But I stayed deathly still, crouched behind a soldier not three feet away from her. My plan depended on remaining hidden, getting the element of surprise, and—
‘Oh, for Hera’s sake, enough of this,’ the captain said, and pointed straight at me. ‘He’s there.’
I gulped, and the bandit charged.
Like a helpless deer before a train of charging horses, I froze, eyes wide.
The bandit swung her blade into the air.
I thought to move, but my body didn’t cooperate.
The swinging sword caught one of the soldiers by the knee.
In the last possible moment, I dove to the floor, the long blade crashing into the ground where I’d been standing only moments earlier.
As the bandit and I stared one another down, the hit soldier’s knee began to bleed. Two dozen pairs of eyes looked from flesh wound to bandit, and in that moment I realised I’d won.
The soldier’s orders not to interfere seemed to disappear at the first sign of blood. As eight or so of them closed on the bandit, the captain and a few of his most loyal soldiers began to try to stop them.
‘Orders!’ the captain bellowed furiously. ‘Orders!’
It was enough to stop all but a handful of them. The three remaining soldiers—the most bloodthirsty amongst them, it seemed—stepped up to the bandit, looming over her, glaring down at her.
But though they closed on her, none of them drew their weapons. I couldn’t help but wonder if this wasn’t just a show, an intimidation, an act to scare some sense into the bandit without actually breaking from their orders.
I clasped my blade, ready to strike; if they weren’t going to handle this, then I sure as well was. I had just enough mana left for one Closed Reach. So… I did that.
The blade pushed through the soldier’s chest without harming him, emerging 8 inches away—which just so happened to be inside the bandit’s chest.
Level 22 bandit defeated!
Knifework — +1,200xp
Knifework increased to level 13!
Base Points gained — +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 Free Points (VIT/DEX/STR)
Result.
The soldier who’d been standing between us looked down at his chest, shocked, as the knife emerged from it via bended reality, and not via his vital organs.
I pulled the knife back before I could run out of mana—just in time—and managed to avoid incurring the wrath of a good couple of dozen highly trained Goldmarch soldiers.
‘Right,’ I said, brushing myself down and quickly putting both free points into my overlooked Strength stat to help scale up the power of my Knifework abilities. ‘If you all will excuse me, I have some sewers to break into.’
"Styk"
Level 7 Novice Bladespinner
Base Stats:
Vitality — 10
Intelligence — 37
Dexterity — 16
Strength — 30
Wisdom — 15
Charisma — 0
Skills:
Knifework — Level 13
Worldbending — Level 9
Identification — Level 6
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%