"956, 957…" James muttered as he kept swinging a wide greatsword, bars of steel tied to its end for extra weight, having almost completed his morning training. "How many laps have you got left there?" He asked his brother, Jeremy.
"2 left, went from a detour in the woods, saw a cute squirrel…" He began before being interrupted by an otherworldly noise:
Ding
Agility +1
+10xp to Species(Human)
+25xp to Class(Musclemancer)
"Hell yea!" Jeremy shouted as he grabbed another bar of iron to stuff the bag on his back. "Heat the water, Endurance is starting to lag behind." He told his brother.
"You got one? In the prophet's name, stats are getting rarer than a blue moon these days." James said as he approached a pile of firewood, grabbing piece after piece and throwing them a few dozen meters away into a fire, right under an iron barrel filled with water. "Gonna go first, just finished my last set." He said, despite his brother having already run out of sight.
As he took the bars of iron off the sword and put everything back in place, James quickly discarded the lower half of his clothes, his shirt still in his drawer as he didn't even bother to put it on in the morning, and entered the barrel of boiling water, then grabbed a steel brush.
"Sigh… I remember the days when this used to give endurance like crazy, but the prophet had to think about that and create heat resistance. <
"I KNOW RIGHT? I TOLD YOU WE SHOULD DO THE BOULDER THING!" The echo of Jeremy's voice was heard, echoing through the forest, but the exact distance from where it came was hard to judge.
"You go find boulders, I'm not going all the way to the cliff just to get some rocks that will break in a few days…" James replied, before suddenly stopping mid-sentence. He threw the brush away and jumped out of the barrel before running towards the cabin.
"Grab the gear." Jeremy said as he returned from the woods, landing from a few meters high, the bag of iron left somewhere behind. He jumped again over the obstacles in the clearing and left, only a faint gust of wind in between the trees marking his path, going much faster than before.
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A dozen men armed with spears stood side by side, forming a wall to protect the village behind them. Stogrid was once a bustling place, full of people and trade, even possessing its own adventurer's guild, before disaster struck, killing half the population, the ones left alive either leaving or stuck there, trying to keep their families and homes safe. Since then, it has been the target of many monster raids: no defenses, no guild, and the old roads connected to the nearby villages destroyed. For years it was the perfect place for their assaults.
"Hold your ground!" The one in the middle of the formation, an old man with graying hair, yet one with a solid stance from years of training, commanded. He was the chief of the village, a guard in the past, the only one who survived the disaster and decided not to run when the people needed him the most.
As the goblins approached them, they slowed down at the ditch filled with spiked palisades used as defenses, not very dangerous, as the wooden tips would be blunted fast, but it did the job of giving the men an opportunity to strike. As they skewer the goblins with their spears, the goblins fall, either dead or heavily wounded, and the bodies fill the ditch slowly, but do not allow the next goblins to pass easily as corpses don't offer great footing.
"There's something wrong…" the chief talked with the man to his right "They're just jumping forward to their deaths, this is stupid, even by goblins' standards…"
The one on his right, a tall young man with blonde hair and red eyes, replied "I've heard of reports of a goblin tribe moving in the area a few days ago, they shouldn't even know we're here yet…"
As he stabbed another goblin, a roar resounded from the forest, trees fell over and the ground trembled, and from there, giant green humanoids, armored from head to toe, emerged. They were not hobgoblins, which would already be surprising from a goblin tribe this small, no, they were much taller and lankier.
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"TROLLS!!" the chief yelled "Bring the torches!" He commanded the people stationed behind the line of guards.
As the few civilian volunteers ran to the warehouse to bring them, the young man looked at the palisades, the wooden exterior now almost fully turned red "The goblins… they used their blood so we can't burn the palisades! The trolls sent them!"
"After so many years, they come to finish the job huh? Let's hope we don't have to retreat and burn one of the buildings."
As the last goblin fell, a few of the palisades on the sides went up in flame, the rest covered in blood from goblins that fell and impaled themselves, or splattered with it when they were stabbed with spears.
But the trolls marched forward, heat wasn't enough to drive them back, their armor shielding them from direct contact with the fire. As the leading troll approached, he smashed the corpse of one of the goblins with his war axe, one half his size, so big even he had to hold it with both hands, and splashed the blood towards the front, extinguishing one of the flaming palisades, and allowing him to continue his slow march towards the defenders.
"Back up, keep your torches forward, the heat will exhaust them eventually!" the chief ordered as the wall of men stepped back, but the troll, although heavy and slow, eventually caught up with them as they backed up into the warehouse, the men not stepping too close lest they accidentally ignite it.
"We have no choice, we must set the warehouse ablaze…" before he could finish his sentence, the troll was already swinging his axe, ready to bisect him. As he was seeing the end of his life approaching, someone grabbed the chief before flashing away, appearing a few meters to the side.
"AHH, what the… Jeremy! Thank the Prophet, we are saved!" The chief said, "But… where's your shirt?" He looked at the young man who had nothing on his person but a pair of pants.
"Oh, we were in the middle of training, James's coming soon with the clothes and weapons. You can go back, I'll handle this guy here." Jeremy pointed at the troll leader as he started walking towards him, the rest of the trolls frozen in place, trying to process what happened.
"Very fast, human." The troll spoke in broken Common, clearly not a random forest troll, if the armor wasn't enough of a clue. "I remember facing one of you, [Assassin], was it? Or perhaps [Thief]?" The troll hunched forward as he finished, his axe following fast from the side, aiming for Jeremy's torso. This time, he was serious, going at a speed that should be impossible for his size.
"Ha, I wish." Jeremy simply replied, bending backwards, allowing the axe to fly above him partially, but instead of letting the attack finish, he grabbed the axe's back side, stopping it in place.
"This strength! Just what are you!" The troll struggled to drag his axe back, Jeremy's feet firmly planted in the ground.
"No idea!" Jeremy said as he smiled and threw the axe high up in the air, the troll struggling to keep his grab on it, extending his arm to its limit "Sadly not an [Assassin]!"
Right then, a sword flew from above the warehouse, stabbing through the troll's forearm, straight through the armor, and making it release the grip it had on the axe. Yet the wound did not bleed. Following, Jeremy jumped high up and grabbed the sword, spinning around and cutting its way through the troll's forearm, almost cutting it off, yet even then, from the wound would only flow a few drops of blood, almost black, viscous like tar…
…and flammable.
As he landed, Jeremy stuck the sword through one of the nearby fires, quickly making the blade ignite, and jumped right to the troll's head, piercing through the underside of its helmet and jaw, the sword snapping from the force. As he landed, only the hilt of the sword was in his hand, the insides of the helmet ignited into an inferno, and the Troll fell, dead before it could even scream.
"Here." A voice said from behind as a shirt and a sword, one much bigger than the previous one, flew towards Jeremy. James didn't even bother to put on his armor as he grabbed the troll's war axe and threw it in the air, grabbing it again with a better grip.
"Nice weapon, I'll be using this." As he noticed that the rest of the trolls started running towards them, James jumped, despite the weight of the weapon, and bisected one of the trolls clean in half "It didn't break even after that!" He yelled as he landed between a group of trolls, terrified from what they'd just witnessed.
"Give them hell!" Jeremy replied as he ran forward, joining the slaughter with his brother.
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Monsters Killed
+50xp to Species(Human)
Village Defended
+150xp to Class(Guard)
Class(Guard) has increased in level!
"Oh, nice! First level in Guard!" James said "Thanks for suggesting it, Mr. Row."
"Haha, that's the least I can do, after all, you do a better job at defending this place than myself! Sadly I couldn't find any other classes you could get now…" The chief, Row, replied.
"Don't sweat it." Jeremy said as he approached, cleaning the troll blood off his sword and putting it in a flask "We'll get more soon."
The chief's face darkened as he heard that "Is it the time already?"
"Yes, you saw it with your own eyes. This village is on the brink of collapse, being so close to the border with the monsters and so small, if we weren't here what do you think would have happened?" He asked.
The chief merely looked down, contemplating.
"You'll have more than enough money from selling the troll's blood and equipment to move everyone to the next village. I'm not saying relocating will be easy, but at least you will be safe, and… we also can't stay here anymore."
"...perhaps you are right, young man. Everyone here felt wronged, being abandoned back then, but now… only foolishness is keeping us here. What about you two? We have more than enough to give for…"
"No thanks, old man!" James, who was standing by the side, interrupted him, smashing the giant axe he had in the ground and using it to support himself "You go on your way with all the riches, we have more than enough for Brightgate. And we're only leaving after everyone else does!"
"Haha… your father would have been proud of you two. You're just as stubborn, and strong enough to ignore all of the wise old people like me..."
The three of them shared a laugh, as the sun finally began setting on the village, the few cinders from the fire before lighting up the area. In the night, a light shone.
Who knows what future fire will light this world up, and shine the darkness away.