"Stop!" Alex shouted nervously. “The main aim is to walk unnoticed,” Alex said irritably and looked at his team. "Trix, go first. Then Rina and me. Turk, you will go last. And hide the sword, you don't need it yet."
After half an hour Alex stopped his squad and realized that his great idea had once again failed. Walking through the woods quietly and quickly turned out to be not so easy. Trix did it, Alex and Rina tried to follow her, but still they were a little noisy and slow. Turk was the main problem. He snuffled, groaned, broke branches of bushes. What is more, he was going slowly, so we had to stop and wait for him.
“Let's go back on the road,” Alex decided, when Turk broke the branch again, because it bothered him to go. "Trix and Terk, go ahead. Trix, look at the left side of the road. Turk, look at the right side.
"I can try going quieter," Turk realized that he is the main reason for changing the plan and was very upset. “I can...” He wanted to show exactly how he would walk, but he stepped on a dried branch that broke with a horrible noise. "Damn it!" Turk swore.
“Go on the road,” Alex shook his head. "Turk, can you see the ambush?"
“Of course, I can.” Terk nodded.
“Well, then let's walk along the road quickly and quietly,” Alex understood that Turk would hardly be able to see the ambush, but he had no other ideas. “Look at the other part of the road too,” Alex whispered to Trix. "Turk, if you see an ambush, immediately run to them."
“I can do this,” the giant said happily and, taking his sword, walked along the right side of the road.
The squad was walking along the road towards Grink till evening, but they haven’t met anyone. Alex realized that he was hungry and tired. Therefore, it was time to look for a place to rest, because the night was coming.
“There,” Trix quickly pointed at the left side.
“Ambush,” Turk jumped in the direction indicated by Trix and began swinging his sword.
“There's fire,” Trix explained.
“Turk, stop!” Alex shouted to him and looked at where Trix pointed. Twilight was just coming down; Alex thought he would easily notice the fire, but he saw nothing. “Are you sure about the fire?”
“I clearly see him,” Trix said confidently.
“Well, Turk, stay here and guard our stuff. Trix, go to the fire. We will follow you.”
“Why didn’t we take Turk? Trix whispered, when they went away from the road a little.
“He’s too noisy,” Alex also whispered. “It is better to attack suddenly, even there are less of us,” Alex looked into the forest thicket, and now he saw a small fire burning in the distance. “Trix, you go on alone, we will not be able to walk so quietly. Look around quickly and come back immediately. If they notice you, run away.”
“I got it,” Trix nodded and slowly began to approach the fire.
Twenty minutes later, when Alex had already begun to worry, Trix emerged from the nearest bushes and fluently described the situation.
“Two people are sitting near the fire, a man with a bow and a girl, who’s a magician,” Trix said quickly. “I looked around for a couple of minutes, but didn’t notice anyone else.”
“Are they talking to each other?” Alex asked.
“They sit quietly, the girl sometimes turns over a big rat roasting on a fire,” Trix answered.
“What do you think about their levels?” Alex couldn’t decide what to do.
“A man has a bow like mine, the girl has a staff, but not the same as Rina’s, their levels are hardly much higher than ours,” Trix suggested.
“We need information on the current situation,” Alex voiced his thoughts. “We'll have to talk to them.”
“Maybe we'll attack them suddenly, kill one of them and talk to the second one,” Rina suggested.
“We don’t know which one is the tenant,” Alex shook his head. “Killing without a good reason isn’t good. If these two are hiding in the woods, then they are against Skull, which is now the King, as I understand. And the enemies of our enemy are our allies.”
“And what if they don’t want to talk to us and will start shooting?” Rina asked.
“We’ll shoot at them and run away,” Alex said.
“But there are only two of them and we are stronger,” Rina disagreed. “I think if we call Turk, we will easily deal with them, kill them and take their equipment. We will probably even upgrade the level.”
“I have never killed people, and I'm afraid of it,” Alex said reluctantly.
“You have passed quests with us and killed a lot of bandits,” Trix reminded.
“I knew they were unreal,” Alex explained.
“Oh, again,” Rina said. “They are very real and also feel pain.”
“You don’t understand me,” Alex thought a little how to explain his emotions to the girls and continued. “What happens with them after death?” Alex asked.
“They come alive on the next day and are waiting for the new tenant to complete the missions,” Trix answered.
“That's why killing them isn’t so bad,” Alex explained. “The fact that we killed them didn’t change anything. But if we kill the tenant, he just dies and disappear forever. He has feelings and emotions...”
“Do you want to say that we don’t have them?” Trix was offended.
“You make progress,” Alex admitted. “But you are a special case and, honestly, I cannot compare you with someone else now.”
“What are we going to do then?” Trix asked.
“Let’s go quietly, I’ll speak,” Alex said confidently and headed towards the fire. “Let's talk,” Alex shouted, cautiously hiding behind a tree.
“What do you want?” the woman's voice was low and creaky, she has a short dirty and matted dark hair, and her small black eyes looked evil into the thicket of the forest. She wore blue raincoat.
The man took the bow silently and, putting an arrow on it, was looking for a target. Alex noticed that the man had big blue eyes and long blond hair, he looked like the classic Elf from a fantasy movie.
“We won't hurt you,” Alex shouted. “We are newcomers and just want to talk.”
“Then go out into the light, we'll talk,” the woman said reluctantly. “Lar, put the bow down,” she added, turning to the archer.
“We’ve been here not for a long time and don’t want to have problems...” Alex came out of the thicket, looked into the woman’s eyes and understood that he didn’t know how to continue the dialogue.
“My name is Astra,” the woman looked at Alex appreciatively and grinned. “Well, ask what you want.”
“We are going to Grink, and we would like to know what is happening there now,” Alex was finally able to formulate a question.
“Do you have something to eat?” Astra asked quickly.
“Yes,” Alex nodded. “Rina, go and call Turk, tell him to take all things here.”
“You said there are some of you,” Astra clarified. “Are you the head of the group?”
“Of course I’m the head,” Alex nodded. “This is Trix, the second girl is called Rina, a warrior Turk is also the member of the group.”
“Are they assistants?” Astra asked.
“Of course,” Alex nodded. “Is something wrong?”
“You speak about them as if they were real,” Astra explained. “Now I understand why you have chosen such beautiful girls to be your assistants, I suppose you shag them every night and therefore treat them like real people.”
“What does she mean?” Trix asked surprisingly, turning to Alex.
“Later,” Alex waved the archer away and even brushed a little.
“I also had three handsome assistants, we spent wonderful nights,” Astra completely ignored Trix’s question. “Until two of them were killed.”
“Tell me what's happening now,” Alex said. “And we, we will share the food with you and help you.”
“Help us?” Astra looked at her assistant dismissively. Grock is now the head there. He doesn’t allow a
nybody to come to the village, buy ammunition, and now it’s almost impossible to pass the quests.”
“I understand that you aren’t the only group hiding in the woods, there are more groups,” Alex suggested. She nodded affirmatively and he continued. “Why don’t you join together and get rid of him?”
“There was one such attempt,” Astra recalled. “Grock called Skull immediately. At that time five groups attacked the village, no one is alive now. Skull killed everyone.”
“Why is he so strong?” Alex asked gloomily. “My assistant told me that he had only one girl-assistant, who’s the alchemist. Now he probably has a full team of well-equipped assistants.”
“He still has only one alchemist,” Aster shook her head. “He is at very high level, he uses skills well, but most importantly, he has the Dragon staff. This staff is a unique artifact that multiplies spells over and over; you cannot buy one any shop.”
“Okay, I don’t want to talk about Skull now,” Alex thought about the situation for a couple of minutes. “How did you lose your assistants and why didn't you hire them again?”
“I lost two when we were passing the quest taken in Grink. I don’t have enough money for new one.” Astra sighed.
“You said it’s impossible to get to Grink,” Alex was confused.
“Force wouldn’t help you, but you can act differently,” Astra smiled slyly. “I'm waiting for Grock to get drunk and then I get into the village for a while. I carry out quests or buy something at a local shop. But the last quest was my mistake,” Astra said sadly. “I decided to take more difficult mission with a good reward. I got to the main monster, but when we started to fight with him, he called an assistant. I wasn’t ready for such twist, so I gave a couple of wrong orders, lost two assistants and ran away...”
“Here we are,” Turk said, again breaking the bush that disturbed him from going through, and approached Alex.
“I see you have a large group at high levels,” Astra looked at Turk thoughtfully. “I ask you to help me with the quest monster and I will share the reward with you.”
“It’s an interesting offer,” Alex scratched his head. “But there are some moments that confuse me.”
“What?” Astra asked irritably.
“The monster is obviously very strong,” it was clear that Alex was a little afraid of the unknown monster. “What if he kills me?”
“I lost part of the team because the main monster called an assistant,” Astra explained. “Now he won’t be able to take us aback, and we will easily defeat him.”
“Well, I don’t know,” Alex understood that this is a good way to make money, which they didn’t have. But his inner voice told him that it was a bad idea.
“I’ll give you half of the reward,” Astra saw that Alex hesitated and decided that she shouldn’t be greedy. “You will receive five thousand gold coins,” she was happy to see Alex reaction. “Now you understand why I took this quest. The reward is huge! But that's not all. I will teach you how to get into Grink unnoticed. You can buy the best equipment for yourself and your assistants...” Astra stopped talking and looked at Alex hopefully.
“Okay, I agree,” Alex nodded, but he was still hesitating. “Firstly, we should have a dinner and sleep and then attack monster tomorrow in the morning.”
“We should attack now,” Astra shook her head. “Grock has been singing songs all day, and he only does this when he gets really drunk. We don’t know when we will have such an opportunity again,” she explained.
“Okay,” Alex nodded again. “Turk, give us food. We have a dinner now, then rest for half an hour and go to the monster.”
“Great,” Astra rubbed her hands and stared hungrily at the products. “Believe me, you won’t regret. The main Monster is like a big bald tree,” Astra began to explain the important points. The group went to the quest monster after having a supper and a rest. “Arrows don’t injure the main monster, sword damages him a little and magic can kill him. As soon as we attack the main monster, his assistant appears. He is immune to magic and arrows, so the only way to damage him is to strike with a sword. Unlike the main monster, the assistant moves quickly...” Astra thought for some seconds. “The main monster heals the assistants, so until he’s alive, we cannot kill the assistant.”
“The task is really difficult,” Alex mumbled.
“Not at all,” Astra said cheerfully. “You and Turk will distract the assistant. I am a healing magician at Level Ten, so I can easily heal you. Our archers then begin to shoot at the main monster, so that he pays attention to then. Rina fire at the main monster. Then we will kill the assistant together.”
“Look at him, there!” Astra pointed at a small clearing in the middle of which there was a four-meter bald tree, it was covered with brown shiny bark. It moved, relying on numerous knotty roots, which he used as legs. “As soon as our archers begin shooting, the tree will call the assistant and move to them, then your magician will cause the main damage, and you will distract the guard with Turk.”
“I understand you,” Alex looked at monster appraisingly, took a sword and commanded. “Trix, start!”
As soon as Trix and Astra's archer began to shoot at the monster, he began to move, and something, which looked like a man, grew from the ground near him. This assistant looked like a two-meter roughly hewn sexless doll. The doll held two swords. The tree chased after the archers, the doll also wanted to join him, but Alex blocked the way with Turk and they began to hit the assistant with their swords. The tree was really excited with the pursuit of archers and only sometimes stopped to release gleam, which cured the doll for the injuries and wounds made by Turk and Alex. Astra treated Alex and Turk in the same way, so the battle was fair. Then Rina got involved into battle and began to hit the main monster with fireballs. The tree didn't see its main enemy immediately. When he saw Rina, it was too late, because it caught fire. In few minutes it burnt and the shining blue crystal was on the ground near him.
“Well done,” Astra cried out excitedly and ran to the stone lying on the ground. She ignored Alex completely.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Alex shouted, dodging the doll's attacks. "Heal us and take your fucking crystal."
"Heal you? Of course!" Astra shouted and began to do magic again.
“We'll kill the assistant and pass the quest. Turk, come to the right side, I will distract him,” Alex made a long lunge then. He knew that he would do a lot of damage, but he wouldn't have time to block. And so it happened: Alex's sword cut into the doll's stomach extremely strongly. But the doll also managed to hit him into hand, so that Alex jumped away, screaming. “Now Astra will cure me, and the doll won't be treated anymore, so Turk will easily kill him,” Alex thought, but then saw that somebody healed doll's wounds and injuries, so it easily parried Turk's attack and began to counterattack. “What the...?” Alex looked blankly at the doll, who was full of strength and at his wound, turned to Astra and was shocked. She released a green gleam to heal the doll.
"Lar, come on," Astra shouted, when she realized that Alex had understood everything.
Astra's assistant was an archer at Level Ten and he knew her plan in advanced. Firstly, he shot Rina. She was quite far away, but he managed to hit an arrow exactly in the right shoulder. Rina fell and screamed. Although the wound wasn't fatal, she lost consciousness from the pain and was taken out of the game. Turk was his next goal. Lar hit his leg, so his ability to maneuver was limited and took a lot of vitality. Then he finally turned to Trix, but failed. The archer hid behind a tree and started shooting at her opponent, forcing him to hide too.
"Why?" Alex cried out, suffering from pain.
“Ten thousand is better than five thousand,” Astra said boldly. "Damn!" An arrow flew near her. Trix understood who is now the main target and shot at her, so she should stop healing the doll. “Bye, Alex,” Astra turned around and ran away.
“Trix, stop her,” Alex shouted, he barely beat off the doll’s lunge, the pain was horrible, so he f
ell on the ground. “I can't,” the archer cried out. Lar began to shot at her again.
"Die, slut!" Turk gathered his last strength and jumped onto the doll. He made a couple of hard blows and injured the leg and hand of a wooden golem, as a result of such a maneuver he didn't manage to block and the doll hit his in a stomach. The wound was fatal. "Alex, I tried," Turk looked at the tenant and made the last effort to hit the doll in the head. There was a nasty creaking sound and the doll fell to the ground. Then Turk fell two.
"Lar, keep shooting," Astra shouted, running. “Die, but hold them, you must ...”
Nobody knew what he must do. The Fireball hit Astra's back and she fell down and burnt in some seconds. Lar turned around, saw that Rina came to consciousness, but Trix shot at him and he felt dead.
"Trix, do you still have healing pots?" Alex asked hopefully.
“Two,” Trix quickly handed Alex two bottles.
"Open one," Alex took the bottle, quickly drank it and realized that the arm no longer hurts, and the wound disappeared. “Rina, drink,” he poured the last bottle into the her mouth, and then got up and walked to Turk. He laid silently and seemed to be dead. "Oh, fuck," Alex went up to Astra and kicked her dead body angrily. "What have you done?"
“Alex, she's dead,” Trix remarked.
“Yes, I know,” he said. “Greedy slut,” he kicked her again, and then rooted about among her things and took out the blue crystal.
“What are we going to do now?” Rina asked.
“We will come to Grink to pass the quest,” Alex said gloomily and went to the road.
Chapter 11
“Go through our friend’s pockets,” Alex said.
“Which friends?” Trix asked blankly.
“Oh, okay,” Alex waved a hand, approached Astra’s body and went through pockets. “There is nothing here, apart from the magic staff.” Alex gave Rina this small rod decorated with unfamiliar signs.
“He’s only suitable for healing magicians,” Rina shook her head. “I cannot use it.”
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