#One-Winged Angel
"My name... Toshimitsu Takamiya.... Or just Takamiya..." The traveller introduced himself in a slightly grainy voice once he took a seat in the wagon, "This pelt... I just killed it... Take it...as a gift for... providing shelter..."
It was only as Takamiya was taking off the bear pelt that we could actually see his appearance, and what we saw suprised all three of us riding in the wagon (including slenderman).
First off, he was an Elf. Not that it was very suprising. Just that it was fairly uncommon, since most players simply chose to be humans. Especially if they planned to be a warrior class, as Elves have little natural STR growth.
But that wasn't the biggest issue.
Second of all, despite his well toned body, it was easy to see that this was an extremely old person. His short hair had long gone white with age, a distictively different color from Taylor's computer-generated hair color. While his eyes remained sharp between his two pointy ears , the rest of his face were covered in wrinkles. Underneath his bear pelt cloak, he was wearing a light green bathro- I mean a... yukata.
Which brings us to our last point.
As he was shrugging off his cloak, the left side of his yukata slid off his shoulder and fell to the floor, revealing the bandages wrapped around his shoulder.
How does one wrap a bandage around a shoulder? Not over the shoulder, or under the armpit, but actually around, with the arm in the way?
Very simple.
Remove the arm.
On the left side of his body, where an arm was supposed to be, was simply nothing.
On other words, Takamiya was an amputee, who came into Royal Road and chose not to have his arm restored.
An old person might choose to keep his appearance in the game, rather than restoring his youth.
But I'd never have thought that a handicapped person might choose to keep said handicap in the game.
Since each person could only have one character, and considering that he's high enough level to kill a bear, does he plan to remain in this state for the rest of the game?
Does he know that? And if he does, that what is his reason for doing what he did? What happened to his arm in the first place?
These were the questions that ran through my mind, but in the end I chose not to ask them, lest I give offense to him.
"Thank you! Heywhathappenedtoyourarm?"
(REPLACE Facepalm image here)
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(There we go!)
"This?... It's an... old sports injury..." Takamiya answered almost nonchalantly, "Long ago... Doesn't matter now..."
:Looks like it really hurt!:
...
...
...
"Ah... When I woke up... already cut-off..."
"WAIT JUST ONE MOMENT!!!" I suddenly shouted, "Doesn't it shock you even a little that there's a ghost here!!!"
"... ... This game... has Zombies... Dragons... Elves... and Demons... Why should a ghost... suprise me?"
He has a point...
*I feel like an idiot now.*
"So where you heading old man?" asked Taylor.
"Nowhere... really... Just where... there are people to... fight..."
"We're headed to kill some bandits for a quest," I told him, "Would you want to come along."
"... Sure... Could be fun..."
:Yay! Another person to help out!:
"But first we'll make a stop at Groun, then we'll reach their camp tomorrow morning."
"No... Not to Groun... There is... Trouble there..."
"Trouble? Is there anything we can do to help?" I asked.
"No... we will cause... more... trouble..."
"Well alright," said Taylor, "Change of plans then! Tonight, we will attack.... Or rather you guys will, I can't actually fight."
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Night had fallen by the time we reached the Bandit camp, which was located in a dip in the forest ground, that somewhat protected it from sight.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
The camp was encircled by tall wooden stakes driven into the ground, with a watchtower at either side of the only entrance. For whatever reason, there was no gate.
In the camp, the large tents were set out in a surpisingly orderly manner along the inner circumference of of the camp, with a large clearing in the center.
In other words, it looked like a cliche bandit camp from any video game, but that doesn't make it any less efficient. If not for slenderman's directions, we would never have found the place.
But what slenderman failed to inform us of was the sheer number of bandits we had to kill.
There must be at least a hundred of them milling about the camp doing whatever it is bandits do in their free time. Some of them were repairing worn armor or sharpening weapons, while others were engaging in mock combat, or lazing around in general. There were sentries in the watchtowers, but none of them were holding weapons.
All of this was observed while we were hidden in the trees on a nearby hill. Taylor had dropped us off as close as he could with his wagon, but chose not to follow us into the forest.
:There're alot more of them than there used to be!:
*I see... But the problem is how to kill that many of them...*
"Those bandits.... are from Groun..." Takamiya suddenly said, "Their levels and... stats... are high... But they are... very unskilled..."
*If that's the case we could probably defeat them by bottlenecking them at the entrance... If I had some kind of burning arrow I might be able to set the entire camp on fire...*
"Even if they're weak, with this many enemies, it could be fun!"
*In fact I can just make a fire now and...*
"WHAT THE FUCK!!!"
Without warning, Takamiya suddenly charged towards the camp!
"Wait up!" I shouted as I started chasing after him.
"BUA HAHAHAHA-HA!!!" while running at a speed that didn't match his old age, Takamiya started to emit a maniacal laugh.
*It's like he's a whole different person!*
Since we were basically charging in from the front, it wasn't long before the sentries in the watchtowers spotted us.
"HE'S HERE!" one of them shouted, "THE ONE-WINGED ANGEL HAS ARRIVED!"
*Huh? What?*
More shouting could be heard from the inside of the camp as they stopped whatever they were doing to get ready to face us.
"OGRE-FIST SMASHER CHALLENGES ONE-WINGED ANGEL TO COMBAT!" shouted one of them.
"NO! THAT MAN KILLED MY BROTHER!" a second one shouted, "GREAT-CLAW WILL FIGHT HIM!"
*What?*
"I WILL FIGHT HIM!" yet another one shouted.
"HE KILLED MY SON!"
"HE KILLED MY FATHER! TWO-SWORD MANTIS CLAIMS RIGHT OF COMBAT!"
"MY HUSBAND WAS KILLED BY HIM!"
"HE STOLE MY WIFE!"
"Actually that was me..."
"... Seriously?"
"WHO CARES ABOUT YOUR WIFE! HE KILLED MY WHOLE FAMILY!"
"SORE-CRACK THE CLUB DEMANDS A FIGHT!"
"YOU FOOLS! THIS ISN'T GROUN ANYMORE!" a sharper voice cut through the chaos, "THERE'S NO NEED FOR ONE-TO-ONE COMBAT! WE CAN ALL FIGHT HIM AT THE SAME TIME!"
"ONE-WINGED ANGEL ACCEPTS ALL YOUR CHALLENGES!" shouted Takamiya as he leapt into battle.
*Huh??? Huh??? HUUUUUH??????*
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Author's Notes:
Hello all!
One more week, one more chapter!
Short chapters seem to agree with me more that long ones. When the dateline is closer, I tend to procrastinate less.
Hopefully, I can keep up this pace.
As usual, all comments and criticisms are welcome!
Over and out.
Edit: oh, and Sword-Bow(patent pending)