*Thougts*
~Sound effects~
+”Whispers”+
+++++
Chapter 35: Ambush
Kyles morning
*Uh, what time is it* Kyle thought after he woke up and wiped the sleep off of fhis face. Then he opened the curtains of his room and saw, that the sun didn`t even rise yet, she could just be seen as a ray of light at the horizon:
*Hmm, what to do?*
And because he reasoned, that if Neuron woke up prior the yboth would just wait for each other he said:”Show my location to Neuron”
~Rummmble~ *I guess it is breakfast time*
And while he ate breakfast he got a whisper from Neuron +”Hey, what does that arrow mean!”+
+”Good morning to you too”+ Kyle said in a happy voice:+”So if you are already awake, lets meet at the gate”+
+”But before that I am going to have Breakfast”+
+”Enjoy your meal, I will wait for you then”+
Neurons morning
*hrmm, so bright* Neuron thought, while he rolled around in his bed *Damn it, can`t sleep* and then he opened his eyes *hey what the fuck, what is that arrow doing there* And when he finally recovered from the shock he sent a whisper to the only person he knew was capable of doing something like that.
+”Hey, what does that arrow mean!”+
+”Good morning to you too”+ Kyle said in a happy voice :+”So if you are already awake, lets meet at the gate”+
+”But before that I am going to have Breakfast”+
+”Enjoy your meal, I will wait for you then”+
*Where is he, I’ve been here for five minutes already* Neuron thought while he stood near the gate looking around to spot Kyle.
+”Hey Kyle, where are you!”+
“Just look behind you!” *What, that wasn`t a whisper now was it?*
“Holy crap Kyle, what’s that!?” Neuron shouted after he turned around only to see Kyle playing coachman for a carriage.
“Just driving, he said to me, that the village is 20 minutes on horseback from here”
“So why didn`t you just take horses?, this carriage looks like it was the most expensive one, and the horse pulling it doesn`t look like it will last much longer, this is just too impaired!”
“Hey, don`t insult me like this!”
“What, what the hell happened” Neuron shouted while he jumped up because of surprise
“Hey Neuron remember the horse language thingy”
“Ah, phew, yeah, totally forgot about it.”
+”So Kyle tell me why you took this crock”+
“Come on, mount already, I can tell you the story while we’re on our way”
“Ok” Neuron said, as he jumped upwards, turned around in the air and landed near Kyle at the coachmen’s seat”
“Hey, don`t show off”
“What, I ain`t!”
“Yes you are, for you it has become second nature to use the jump skill, but normal persons aren`t able to do that, so you arouse much attention”
“Hey, nobody is looking here”
“That’s just because two carriages crashed there” Kyle said while he pointed behind himself:”So anyway lets depart, you ready” he asked towards the horse
“Any time” came the reply” and then the horse began walking slowly but steadily out of the city and on its way towards Rakosh. As soon as they left Saramas Kyle got of the coachman’s seat,
“Hey Kyle, aren`t you going to drive”
“Sigh, I don`t need a driver”
“I ain`t talking with you horse”
“Hey Neuron don´t be rude he has a name”
“Doesn`t matter to me” the horse replied:” I had much worse masters, at least he doesn`t hit me”
“So Kyle tell me the story!”
“Ok, ok, don´t rush, so after you sent me the whisper I paid for my breakfast and went to rent some horses, but they all had nasty temperaments, I don`t want to be ridden by you, my backs going to give in, or what, you trash will ride me!” he said while changing his tones of voice as to imitate someone`s speech:” was what they said, while I was examining them” and also the prizes to rent them where outrageous, and so I asked the vendor if they also rent out carriages, the did and so I chose this one”
“Good, so why this one”
“It is stable and broad, the perfect place to work on something while traveling”
“Good, and what about the horse”
“Hrm I just asked the horses if they knew of the village Rakosh, because if they did we wouldn`t need to drive, and he was the only one who knew, so I choose him”
“Nice idea!”
And now they were diligently working while the horse pulled the carriage slowly but steadily.
Kyle was working on his smiting and Neuron tried to figure out how to tailor but he soon quit because he pricked himself many times *I should accept the lections she offered me* and because of this he began making some more arrows, till he got a smirk which Kyle noticed
“Hey Neuron what’s up?”
“Nothing, just got an idea for a new arrow, anyway don´t peek I want to make a surprise out of it” Neuron said while he turned his back towards Kyle
“Have fun” Kyle said while steeling a glance, but because he couldn`t see anything he continued smiting fragile pieces like ornaments, because of Warntons advice:”You know, to increase the Crafting skill for Blacksmithing you can´t just always make big things such as weapons or armor, you also have to make delicate things, then if you can perfectly make those you won`t have any problem to make something that easily exceeds what the metal would be capable off, because you can pay attention to how the metal behaves at the crucial parts, and this is also the reason, why the Grakin shield I made for you isn’t as good as it could be”
Then a shout from Neuron startled him:”Yes, it worked!”
“What?”
“Secret”
After some time has passed:”hey Neuron, I have something for you” said Kyle and when Neuron turned around he tossed him a small package which Neuron caught and opened, inside where something like thick iron rods with a length of 15cm, that where pointed on each side.
* Throwing Needle
Made by an inexperienced blacksmith
Durability: 20/20
Damage: 15-20 (Pierce)
“Hey Kyle, what’s that?”
“Throwing Needles of course” Kyle said with a smile
“I know, my question was, Why did you make them for me? I already have three different kinds of throwing weapons”
“Yeah, I know you have some shurikens, knives and two axes, but all of them have a disadvantage” after hearing that Neuron made a questioning face and so Kyle continued:” The throwing axes are quite good at close combat and throwing, but because they are impaired their flight is rather strange, and they aren´t accurate at long distances, I noticed that you seldom throw them” At hearing this Neuron nodded:” And about the shurikens and throwing knives, they become also quite inaccurate at longer distances, the shurikens even change their route of flight, because they are flat, and little imparities in their edges or forging improve that by quite a bit” This time Neuron nodded vigorously, because he experienced that first hand:”And so about the knifes, they are good at middle distance, they are quite heavy, and so they can fly longer distances than shuriken, but they also have their problem, if they are somewhat impaired, their flight will stagger, and so also becoming less accurate, and if wind blows they will be blown out of course, because they are flat.”
“And you say the needles aren`t?”
“Well let me come to the point, about those needles, they are quite heavy, so they will fly a long distance, but they have a circular diameter, and so they won´t stagger in midflight, and thus they are more accurate on a longer distance.”
“ähm but for a long distance I have my bow, so…”
“No, no this bow is for really far distances, you can´t just equip and unequip your bow while fighting all the time.”
“hmmm” Neuron said, while he rubbed his chin “Well till now it worked just fine”
“Yeah, but this is because we only fought single enemies that were stronger than us, and about those bandits, come on, they didn`t pose a threat to us at all, so you could use your weapons like you wanted to”
“But are those needles really powerful?”
“You know what, just try them out, ähm, ah use that tree there at roughly thirty meters ahead, hey please stop for a moment” he told the horse which obeyed.
“So Neuron now shoot an arrow at that tree and try to come close to it with your throwing weapons, just use every single one, we have time.
And so Neuron did. And indeed many shurikens he threw changed their course while flying, and thus many missed the tree, then came the knives, those where more accurate, but many hit the tree trunk with the wrong side.
“Wow, I didn`t know that the throwing skill had a reach limit” said Neuron after he noticed that.
“What do you mean reach limit?”
“When I began training with those knives many hit the target like that, but when I got the skill they all stayed stuck.”
“Ah, so let’s test out what its reach is”, said and done the reach was 20m and Neuron looked somewhat disappointed about that
“Hey, I bet the reach increases when the level increases, what level are you now?” was Kyle’s attempt to change topic
“My throwing weapon mastery is at beginner Level 9 at 50%.”
“Ah, yeah about that, well Neuron you still don`t have a class do you?”
“No, why?”
“Ok” said Kyle and afterwards he inhaled much air and then exhaled it again:”If you don`t have a class, your combat skills will only level up to beginner lv9 99%, but they won´t change to Intermediate.” He said really fast, and after finishing he looked worriedly at Neuron.
“Hey, what does that look mean, you afraid that I will go berserk about bad news”
“Huh, yeah this is what I anticipated, hey wait, don´t tell me you knew that from the beginning!”
“Jup, my archery skill is already at beginner Lv9 99%, so on to the axes” Neuron said before he took one and threw it, and afterwards the other one, before the first even hit the tree. Both circled through the air and hit the tree so hard, that some leaves fell down.
“Hey Neuron, so if you knew it, why didn´t you just take up a class?”
“Well I want to be most effective, and thus I am picky about choosing a class, didn`t I tell you that already?”
“No what you told me was only the reason why you didn´t took the archer class.”
“Ah, guess I anticipated too much from you”
“hey Neuron, what is that supposed to mean” Kyle asked while he twirled his war hammer around and his face got a really fierce look”
“Yah see it ain`t fine to be told to be stupid” Neuron said without looking at Kyle and while picking up the throwing needles. They were also thrown in rapid succession then Neuron shouted:”damn what’s the matter!”
“hey Neuron what happened?”
“When I began throwing them the skill proficiency, increased rapidly, but now it is stuck at 90%”
“Hmm, I don`t know about your throwing skill, it is just a weird skill,”
“Weird, what do you mean” asked Neuron
“Well I did some research, and no one knew about a throwing weapon skill, it seems this skill is unique for you, just like my class is for me, well to get them is rather simple, no special chain quests, or talking with special NPC`s and the like, or discovering a whole new race. Your throwing weapon skill is just a fusion of the throwing skill and the axe mastery skill, so to say it bluntly I don´t know anything about it. Anyway, let’s go to the tree to get your weapons back and then continue with our journey”
~Whistle~ “Just look at that tree, it is ruined”
And indeed the whole tree trunk was covered with stuck weapons. But they were somewhat in order. The knives where all stuck into the trunk, or laid right before it on the ground, those that stuck where all other the place with only two in the vicinity of the arrow. The throwing axes instead where thrust into the lower part of the tree, mainly because they were heavy and thus not suitable for flying long distances.
The shuriken where just all over the place, and many even missed the tree completely, but what was apparently was, that the throwing needles all stuck in a bulk around the arrow, they were in fact so accurate, that the whole arrow was destroyed.
And then came the work of collecting them, Neuron let Kyle pull them out of the tree trunk, while he went searching for the missed weapons, which was easy because he always knew the location of the things he formed a connection with.
“Hey Neuron, just how hard did you throw those weapons” Kyle asked while he was pulling out one needle after the other which were driven into the tree by 3cm each
“With all I had, they had to fly a long distance after all and then they also had to stay stuck too”
*Wow, just how strong will his throwing skill get, I bet when he levels it up enough he could easily pierce the armor I am currently wearing, even if I coat it*
“Hey Neuron there is another extra for those needles”
“Tell me!”
“Well they are best transported inside a pouch right, and so you can fill this pouch with poison, and then just draw them and throw them at the enemy poisoning them.”
“Sadly I don`t have any poison with me, you?”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“Me neither, so anyway if you got them all let’s get back to the carriage and on our way!”
Now the road went past the forest they had seen from their flight and Neuron asked
“Hey, aren`t we there yet?”
“Well the guard said that it is twenty minutes on horseback, so it should be about two hours on foot?, I am only guessing, but we are a little bit faster than that so hmm, maybe fifteen more minutes or so.” But after he said this the horse suddenly came to a stop.
“hey, what’s the matter, are you tired?” asked Kyle
“No, there are humans inside that forest, I can hear and smell them, they don´t seem friendly”
“Kyle do you think the same as me?”
“Yeah, I bet those where hired by Michael to kill me”
“That means they are bandits” Neuron said while a anticipating grin appeared on his face “Hey horse, pretend that you can`t go on, so we don`t make them suspicious.”
“Most likely, they are” answered Kyle while wearing the same expression:”Anyway quick thinking Neuron”
“Sweet, I gotta let loose some steam” Neuron said while he rubbed his hands
“Hmm, me too, finally I can vent some of my anger for what happened to Brairan” Kyle said while grinning like a madman.
Kyle, use the eyes of the judge now!” Neuron said, while he grabbed one of his throwing needles.
*Wonder why* Kyle thought, while activating them. And what he saw left him stunned for a bit. While he was scanning the forest with them many white skulls appeared, some within trees, and some behind the bushes, that looked somewhat threatening, and under each skull something was written, but of course Kyle couldn´t read it, altogether it where 28 skulls.
“Ähm, Neuron what do those skulls mean?, and why can I see them even through the leaves of trees and bushes?”
“It means they are guilty, look at the writing underneath, this shows what they did, and remember the oath, I said that none shall hide before me” Neuron said, while he was searching for a target he could hit
“Ah, I see, ähm, why aren`t you using your bow?”
“I want to try those needles on a live target; I will use the bow after I threw it”
“Sounds reasonable, so let’s do it”
_______________________________________________________________
Inside the forest some men where lazing around when another one appeared out of the bushes
“Boss, Boss” he is coming!”
“About time, this fucker is so slow”
“Ähm boss, it isn’t only one there are two”
“hehe, better, we can kill both and demand a price hike, he did say there would only be one, so you rats, get into position, let’s show those damn mercenaries what we are capable of!”
After the person who was apparently their leader shouted that everyone jerked up and some laid down behind bushes, while others climbed trees and some even hid behind them.
*he is slow, ah there he is* the leader thought, after he saw a carriage appearing behind a curve of the road. *It are indeed two, nah, doesn`t matter*
* But then suddenly their carriage stopped. Hey what happened, did they notice us?* he thought while he looked around *No my men are all hidden, ah it is their horse, it seems like they got tricked by the vendor, this crock can`t walk anymore, maybe it’s even dead* he thought, because the horse suddenly collapsed to the ground and didn´t move anymore.
But then something strange happened, it was a feeling like you are being watched from behind, but when you take a look, nothing is there, and a shiver ran down everyone’s back.
*Hmm, the rogue is apparently doing something, hey wait is he throwing something, they did notice us* he thought, while the rouge brought his arm down really fast *Hey, what was that for, did he throw something, nah, we are too far away from them, only a bow could hit us*
But then suddenly one of the men who positioned himself in a tree cried out and fell down breaking through the branches while cursing, at this one of them broke the already broken silence and shouted:”What happened!”
“This Bastard threw a needle at me, this fucking startled me, and it HURTS!” the guy who fell shouted, while he pulled out the needle.
“Damn it, just ATTACK!” their leader shouted, but before they could even start running out of the forest a rain of arrows went down on their position.
“Shit, cover the healers, everyone behind the trees! Hurry!” the leader shouted, and his men followed his orders like a well oiled machine. But the shower of arrows didn’t let down, then finally after a long time, which in fact only lasted 2 minutes it stopped.
“Now Guys charge! The mages, archers and rogues stay in the forest, we will lure them here, no one takes risks, till they are on the slope before the forest, where we prepared those traps. Hurry!” he shouted and dashed out with them.
_______________________________________________________________
Kyle was looking at Neuron while he threw the needle, and then to both of their surprise one of the skulls left its place on the tree and went down.
“Boah, Neuron, how far did you throw that needle, this easily exceeded 50m”
But Neuron didn`t answer, because he was occupied with equipping his bow, taking a normal arrow out of the quiver and choosing the best angle to shoot it, so that the full brunt of shower would land on their location. When he finally was sure of it he let the arrow loose and already nocked another arrow on the string. Like this he shot 6 arrows in rapid succession.
“Ok Kyle, let’s go off the carriage and to where they are”
“Of course!” and they both jumped down and walked casually on the road, then after two minutes they could hear someone shouting, but he was too far away to understand it clearly.
“Hey Neuron you ready to fight!?” asked Kyle while he threw a glance towards Neuron and armed himself with the already worn down shield and Hammer.
“Yeah, anytime” he answered, and procured his two throwing axes, there they come!” and indeed ten strong armored guys jumped out from behind the trees and charged straight at them.
“Yeah come here and meet the blade of my axes!” Neurons shouted
“Yeah, get crushed under my hammer!”
*What is with them* the leader of the bandits thought
And now the battle started. The bandits rushed in, but didn´t go for a suicidal attack, but before they could evaluate the strength of their opponents three of them where already incapacitated, by being hit on the head with a shield bash and flying around uncontrolled, the other one had one of his feet cut off and laid there while shouting, and the other met a swing of a glowing war hammer which kind of inverted his face and left him on the ground unconscious.
But the others learned their lessons not to go into their reach unprepared and so they slowly retreated
+”Neuron, I think they are luring us somewhere”+
+”How do you know?”+
+”I can see traps there”+
+”So what do you suggest?”+
+”Don’t go any further?”+
*Shit, they have experienced more battles than I thought, maybe I underestimated them? Let’s change the plan*
“Archers, concentrate fire on the archer, rogues use any opening to intercept him. Warriors against the armored guy, pay attention if you are hit it means lights out. Mages concentrate on him too!”
“Damn, this leader is good” cursed Kyle, while he guarded a swing from one of the Warriors with his shield, and another one hit his armor from behind. *If this goes on we will lose, what about Neuron, no can`t look I have to deal with those first.*
But their teamwork was incredible, while three attacked from the front the rest sneaked behind Kyle and attacked with lunge attacks only to jump out of range when Kyle turned around to hit them.
And when he managed to land a blow the guy was soon healed, but the most annoying where the mages which shot fireballs at him, which he could only evade or block with his shield, and he found out that evasion wasn`t a good tactic because when he evaded one of the warriors stood there and intercepted him.
*Damn, we have that title Bane of bandits and still we can`t win?, hey wait, didn`t I cancel it when I entered Saramas?* “Damn I AM AN IDIOT!” shouted Kyle at the top of his lungs which startled everyone in the vicinity.
As soon as Neuron heard the order that the archers should concentrate fire on him he jumped out of the way and saw at least 6 arrows flying throughwhere he stood seconds before. Then seven rogues slowly appeared out of the forest, literally appeared, because they canceled their stealth skill, well for Neuron they were always visible because of the sk8ulls that hovered over their heads, if not that performance would have startled him and left him open for the attack behind him, but he already knew how many rogues there where, because he counted all skulls, and the number didn`t match up, and when one was missing he counted one and one together. And so as soon as they appeared he jumped up really high and threw all the needles he had at them.
But sadly those needles don`t deal much damage and so it only halted their movements. And only one was seriously wounded due to a needle being dead on and sticking out from his eye.
While the remaining rogues pulled the needles out from their body the archers shot relentlessly to give Neuron no time to attack them, but then a loud shout echoed through the area.
+”hey Kyle, what happened?”+ Neuron asked while he just jumped around to evade the arrows
+”I am such an idiot; I forgot two important things, you out of my way!”+ And this shout was followed by a bandit who just flew through the air.
+”What did you forget?”+
+”To equip our title bane of bandits, and”+ but what he said next wasn´t covered by whisper anymore and so everyone’s ears tingled:
”THIS IS FOR BRAIRAN YOU BASTARDS!”
*I get this is a shouting skill, but why is it so freaking loud* Neuron thought, while he made a grimace *And wow, we really are idiots*
And the shout worked wonders, cause every bandit in the area felt fear, some even tried to run away, but they were soon intercepted by their leader:”Hey you scum, don`t run away, I thought we wanted to show them what we are worth. And this shout obviously is their last resort, anyway come back here right now, and fight like men” And everyone did like he ordered.
*His leader skill must be really high, what level are they anyway?* thought Kyle
But then he even changed their fighting tactics:”Rogues against the Knight, Warriors, go against this grasshopper, the rest fire at will!”
“Grasshopper!?, who is!?”
*Damn, this is the worst* thought Kyle, while he tried to smash a rogues skull, but he just evaded.
*Their armor and shields are annoying* Neuron thought, while his shuriken was again blocked by a shield, while a mage has made it his personal job to fry him alive with his fireballs. And so Neuron was jumping around and evading frantically while he emptied his arsenal. Then when he had nothing left, and his stamina was already at half he became desperate and grabbed anything he could lay his hands on, this where of course rocks, some of his weapons he threw earlier and some swords that laid around because Kyle disarmed their owners.
Kyle didn`t fare any better, he was at least protected from the shots of the archers, but his shield already laid in tatters, and his armor was soon to follow, then he took a glance to look for Neuron, but he was nowhere to be seen, when he stole some glances before he could see him hop around and hear his insults, but not anymore.
*Fuck, has he already died, shit, shit, hah, guess I have to let them get me at 10%Hp, and then I should be able to annihilate them, but damn I don´t want to die, but at least I don´t have to take many hits on purpose, looks like the weapons of the rogues are all poisoned, my Hp is already at 36%* he thought, while he swung his hammer with no force behind.
*Ha he has given up, well his ally scrammed off already, can`t blame him for giving up.*
* Your health has dropped below 10%, if you aren`t treated properly, you will bleed to death.
You can now activate your special class skill: Last Word
*Nothing goes anymore* he thought and afterwards he filled his lungs to shout, but something happened that let him use the gathered air for a different purpose, this was an arrow that flew out of the forest and straight towards his head.
* Neuron has shot you
“WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!!”
End Chapter 35