“Like that is going to happen.” I muttered under my breath. I set about clearing the sight once more, this time paying attention to what was happening around me. The other aides were searching the bodies before dragging them toward the piles, and I noticed more than once, a few were tossing articles in the back of their wagons. They must have been worth something, but I didn’t know enough about arms and armor to know what was worth anything. I found a really nice knife, one that I thought Vexi might like, or Torga, I tossed it in the back of the wagon before finishing up the camp.
I had the tent up, supper ready, and found a stream nearby to waste some time cleaning the wagons wheels of gore before the Harekins returned. Vexi was covered in blood, and Torga was almost as bad. I didn’t wait, took the bucket, dumped out the bloodied water and headed straight for the stream. If any of the other aides had two cents in their heads, they would be doing the same thing. By the time I returned, they had removed their armor and were going over their naked bodies with their hands. I stopped as my eyes bulged from their sockets. “Put your damn tongue back in your head, if you don’t like seeing naked women, then go back outside.”
I swallowed my lust, “sorry I just didn’t know what you were doing.”
I took the bucket of water over to them, and fished out a rag for them to bath with. “Checking for cuts, burs, bruises, any pain really. It's hard to tell how badly you’re hurt with the healers flinging numbing spells everywhere. Saves Mana for them, but if you have a broken arm or ribs, you want to get to a healer before the numbing wears off. Thanks for the rag, by the way.”
I waited as they cleaned themselves and dressed. Both seemed fine, except Torga had a new scar on her shoulder. “Get him a jar of oil, and help him clean my armor.” Vexi said before going over to the table to eat. I took the bucket and the blood-soaked rag, and went over to her armor. I did my best to get off all the gore.
“Wouldn’t be easier to just take a dip in the stream to get all this blood off before you came back?”
“And have my armor rust, I think not.” She said between chews. “One day, when you grow up and start wearing armor, you will find it rusts fast enough on its own, without helping it by jumping in water.”
Thoroughly put in my place, I set about washing off the armor. Once cleaned, I handed it over to Torga, who dried and with a waxing motion, oiled each piece. Vexi excused herself for her meeting, and I called out after her, “enjoy the orgy.”
“Will do, newb.”
“She is not going for that.” Torga said with an off note in her voice. “She goes to help plan their assault on the gate. The assassins should be back any time now with news of what we face.” I looked up to see Torga’s red eyes on me. “And you should mind your manners. The mistress is...nice. Should you have spoken to my last master like you did, you would be filled with pain. She was not so nice, and had a foul temper when those below her voiced themselves so carefree.”
“Sorry.” I said and turned my attention back to what I was doing.
“There is no need to apologize, just watch your tongue, and take care of who's around when you are not. There are some within the guild, who would rather hang a slave, than have them speak so freely.” When she finished the armor, she dressed in her skimpy, revealing outfit and pulled her sword from the scabbard. Checking the edge for dents, chimping and folds. She took a sharpening stone to it until she was satisfied. “Come, you wish to learn the forms, yes?”
Darkness had set in and there were torches and campfires everywhere. Night was like day, and in the front of the tent, Torga guided me through the first series of movements. Once I mastered those, she went on to the next. This was to be how my days went for the next month, my mornings spent breaking camp and packing the wagon. Then driving it to the next site, just to unpack and make camp. It became easier, so routine I could tell the time of day by what activity I was performing.
One night, a week after the guild had downed the gate boss, Vexi limped into the tent, Torga supporting her weight. “What happened?”
“We wiped on a roving patrol. Our tank was fucking drunk. Said he thought it was a water skin he was drinking from. Fucking bastard.” I helped Torga remove Vexi’s armor, only this time there was not much blood to clean off, and most of it was hers. I could see she was covered in cuts, and I fetched a clean pail of water. My instincts from the Army kicked in and I had her cleaned and her wounds dressed in no time. A healer stopped by long enough to check her out.
“You’re in good hands, Vex, your boy knows what he's doing.” The healer was a pale troll with bright purple hair and ashy skin. “But we do things different here.” He waved his hand over Vexi and started to mutter words of power. Before my eyes her wounds closed, healed and only scars remained. “If you want, I could kill you so the scars don’t take. You should have enough time to recover before we set out in the morning.”
“Naw, I’m good. Thanks though, I’ll just take a numbing spell, if you could manage.” The pale troll nodded and cast another spell before leaving. I noticed that Vexi seemed to relax into herself.
After our forms for the night, I brought the dagger into the tent, no longer able to keep it from Vexi. I don’t know what it was, but there was a weight upon me like I had committed some sort of sin, and there was only one way to lift the weight from my mind. Vexi was half asleep when I kneeled at her bedside. Her red eye looked from me to the dagger. “Gonna kill me when I can’t defend myself, huh?”
“No,” I said as I offered her the dagger. “I took this from a body on the first day, I just thought I would make it right and give it to you.”
“You’re too kind.” She said as she struggled into a more comfortable position. “Show it to me.” There was not much to see. A simple dagger with a brass guard and pommel. A black leather wrapped grip and a double-edged blade made of different metals. It was a pretty thing, I liked the swirling pattern in the metal. But rightfully, it was hers. “Just a standard dagger, nothing special. No enchants or jewels. Keep it, might sell for enough silver to get you home.”
“Really?” I asked as I put it in my pouch.
“It’s a pretty piece, probably some nobleman we killed had it made. Might even come in handy if we are raided.”
“Raid?” My voice was dripping with concern.
“What did you think a campaign was, it's a dungeon, raid and invasion all rolled into one. There are even fewer rules here than in my lands. That’s why we travel in a group as large as we do, or the bigger guilds would have picked us off the moment we got here. Not that our dumbass tank would be any help. But yeah, raids on guild camps happen all the time. We might be raiding the camp to our east, just for something to do and to recoup some supplies. Campaigning is not cheap and supplies go fast.”
A week later, we found our objective, a stone walled city close to the sea. This time we did not set up camp, my job was to stay on the wagon and if they counter attacked, I was to haul ass south until nightfall. Vexi pulled out all the stops, the armor she wore now was twice as thick as the other set, she had a shield and a deadly looking spear. Her great sword had been switched out for a smaller broadsword and Torga was always her mirror imagine. “Have fun storming the castle.” I said with a smile on my face.
There were only a few weeks left in the Campaign, and Vexi had said the hard part was over. Now came the time to take and hold, once the city fell and we claimed a house. My days of setting up camp were over until the campaign ended. At which time I would be set free. I couldn’t wait. Not that I disliked what I was doing, or even the people I was with. But I needed to get home, needed to see what had happened to my lands. If nothing else, Bretta deserved an explanation and I could only hope she had not moved on when she found out I was no longer there.
From my vantage point, I watched as the city gates opened and a horde of mounted people in gleaming mail came charging out. It was something out of a movie, but in a movie, the sound was not deafening, and you coul
dn’t feel the ground shaking like an earthquake. I got the sense of fight or flight, and it took all my will to keep myself from flicking the reins and running like a bat out of hell.
The scene was something else entirely. I watched as balls of colored magic arced across the sky toward the inbound warriors. Men and horses were thrown into the sky, their cries and screams sent chills down my spine. Then the arrows loosed and it was like watching hundreds of pissed off bees take flight at once. The whole thing was surreal, and I got lost in the chaos of it all, when the two armies clashed, it was with a sound so terrifying, I thought I would wet my pants. Nothing I had ever been through prepared me for this, I was not an infantry soldier, no this was on a completely different level than my conscience was ready for.
I saw them in the frey, Vexi and Torga, seated upon tall horses and raining death upon those they fought. It was so quick, faster than she had sparred with me and in that moment, I saw the difference between a Tier Five and a Tier One. I was humbled, to know that Torga could have cut me down at any moment, Vexi in a blink of an eye. They were goddesses of death, and all fell before them. “TO THE WEST! THEY’RE FLANKING!”
My head snapped to the left and I saw was what was coming for us. A long column of mounted warriors with lances. Heading straight for us. “Fuck this!” The creature on the wagon next to me yelled and flicked the reins. In a matter of seconds, he had the horse wheeled and running toward the south. Some of the other wagoneers called out for him to stop, but if he heard them or just didn’t care. I didn’t know. In horror, I watched five of the incoming warriors peel out of the formation and head straight for him.
“Sucks to be him.” I snorted, almost delighted to see it was the one who had been calling me a dumbass for my entire time here. I had to halfway turn in my seat to see him disappear behind a low hill of grass.
Our reserve unit rushed forward to meet the flankers head on and its was the first time I saw the guild take a loss. Lances, it seemed were hard things to dodge when the horses were bearing down on you. If you jumped out of the way, you jumped right into the path of a running horse. At that point, more wagons wheeled as the tide of war shifted, but I held strong. I was not their target, not at the moment at least. For once the Lancers were through the reserve unit, they headed straight for the main body. Gore and death followed in their wake, and the guild was on its last leg after only ten minutes of battle. I noted how quickly it turned, and when I was about to turn the wagon around and head south with the others. The guild found that broken leg, reset it, and laid down an asswhooping the likes of which I had never seen before.
Their tactic changed as soon as the reserve unit was down, no longer fighting one on one, but in groups. Small squads of five or six. The enemy didn’t know what hit them, their larger numbers didn’t count for shit against these battle-hardened players. It was amazing to watch, these were fighters who knew what the hell they were doing, and death followed in their wake. Magic, arrows, blood, limbs, all were thrown around with zeal. My brain was having a hard time processing what was going on, but all I could feel was my thundering heart, and the will to join the frey.
A horn blew from the walls and the enemy turned tail, running back for the walls as fast as they could. The guild gave chase, until an archer upon the walls loosed a single arrow. The guild skidded to a stop in their pursuit and roared their victory cries toward the walls. Just like that, it was over. Only this time, I was not tasked to clean the bodies, the players did that, looting whatever they could.
“Last one standing, eh?” I heard a voice say next to me. It was one of the big tank orcs, his heavily armored body was covered in dents, scrapes and blood.
I looked around to see, I was indeed the only wagon around. “Well shit.”
He laughed, long and hard in barking gasps. “You got a pair on you, that's for sure. Takes a hard man to stay when others flee, or a stupid one.” He had me there. “How was the show?”
“Like nothing I have ever seen before.” I stated the obvious.
“Aye, but at least you got your cherry popped on a victory. First battle I ever saw, we got our asses handed to us, it happens.” He said the last with a shrug.
“Newb! You fucking dumbshit, what part of go south when shit didn’t look like it was going well, did you not understand?!” Vexi’s voice carried over the sound of looting. Every pair of eyes were on me as she stormed toward me.
“Uh oh, momma’s angry. Peace brother.” The large orc moved away quickly, leaving me alone to face the Harekin by myself.
She ripped off her helm and handed it back to Torga. “What the hell were you thinking? I could have lost everything, you stupid…” Her bloodied hand reached up and pulled me from the driver's seat. Like a ragdoll, she tossed me to the ground like I weighed nothing. “Piece of…” She cocked her hand back and let it fly, “SHIT!” I had never been hit so hard in my life and my body collapsed from the shock of it. With the one hit, my health bar lost three quarters, and I had a stun counter to boot.
Her steel tipped boot kicked me square in the stomach, and my body had forgotten how to breathe. The blood drop icon flashed before my star filled vision and I lost another ten percent of health. One more and I lapsed into unconsciousness.
***You have been knocked unconscious and your health is below ten percent. May the Gods and Goddesses save you. ***
Fucking ALOW and these fucking prompts. Like I didn’t know I had less than ten percent left.
This time it was different, there were no warm arms to hold me, I was on my own, writhing in pain before I blacked out. So that was what it felt like to go up against a Tier Five.
Chapter Seven
Upon awakening, I found that I was tied to the bottom of the wagon, and it was moving through a field of tall grass. I screamed in pain, for the edges of the blades of grass were as sharp as steel and they sliced into my face and body without end. My tongue, eyes, nothing was spared and when the wagon finally stopped, I was only at fifteen percent health.
The bindings were cut and I dropped to the ground, rough hands grabbed me and hauled me out from underneath the wagon. “Quit your damn crying, or I will give you something to cry about.” Vexi had lifted me with one hand to her face. Her rabbit like mouth twisted into a very animalist snarl. “You disgust me.” She bounced me off the ground like a basketball and I lost another five percent. A broken femur icon appeared and I knew my left leg was broken. I had to bite was what was left of my lip to keep from crying out again.
I was left there, forgotten in the moment, and I heard the sounds of camp being made around me. Ever so slowly, my health bar started to climb, a few ticks per minute. “Oh, your leg is broken, let me fix that for you.” The voice belonged to the healer, and I felt him grab my leg and give it a hard pull. This time I screamed as the bones pressed back together. “No need to thank me newb, you’re welcome.” There was no numbing spell, no healing involved of any kind. With a pain filled mind I knew at that moment, I had made a very big mistake in thinking these were people I could trust. People I could count on, a mistake I would never make again. I needed to remember the lessons learned in real life. I have only myself to trust, everyone else was just out to use me, and they would if I let them. My current situation made the message clear enough.
After another hour, I could move my leg enough that the pain did not blind me. A half hour after that, it was just a dull throb and I tested it gingerly before climbing to my feet. As I headed for the tent, I saw the flap was open and Vexi pointed toward the wagon. “You sleep under it. Don’t let me catch you in it.”
No dinner, no anything, my place was made clear and my endurance bar suffered for it. In the morning, I only had fifty percent of it left, and I knew I would be in trouble if I didn’t eat something soon. These long days were taking a toll on my body, and it needed food. My growling stomach told me as much. Vexi pointed at the grass, “hungry, eat up, bitch.”
I couldn’t understand why she wa
s so pissed at me, nothing had happened. She didn’t lose anything, yet she was treating me like I had dumped everything she owned off a cliff. The whole damn camp was, drivers and players alike. Only Torga was different, not that she spoke to me, but there was a kindness there that no one else had for me.
We spent the rest of the day in camp, and when the sun was about to set, Vexi kicked me out from under the wagon. “Pack up bitch, don’t let me find you eating any of my food. Torga, watch him.”
When she was away and I was breaking down the tent, I asked the only person who didn’t hate me. “What did I do?”
Torga only shrugged, as if I didn’t know, she wasn’t going to tell me. She just watched me break down the tent and cots, chewing the whole time on a carrot. Maybe she did hate me. Everything was packed neatly in the back of the wagon and my endurance bar was hovering around twenty percent. “Can I take a shit, do I have to ask to do that now?”
“Watch your tone slave, but yes, go relieve yourself, but make it quick.”
“Thank you boss.” Now I knew how Andy felt in Shawshank. If they wanted me to ask permission to do everything, then I would. I only had another couple of weeks to endure this crap and I was done. I couldn’t fucking wait.
I walked out into the deep grass, and I saw a sentry eyeing me until I pulled down my pants and squatted. I hoped the bastard smelled it all night long and it got on his nerves. I struggled with my poop, it was hard and I knew I was dehydrated. It felt like I was crapping a boulder and even trying lamaze breathing didn’t help.
Something crawled across my skin, like a thousand ants at once, and I started to slap at myself, trying to get them off. But when I did, it took me a full second to realize that slapping myself made no sound. “Hello?” The word echoed through my head, but no sound came from my mouth. “WHAT THE FUCK!” All there was, was the stench from my load that exited my body with a sudden burst of release. Yet still, it was silent when it hit the ground. Flags of warning were going off in my brain, and I slowly pulled my pants up as best as I could, still squatting down.
Noble Farmer Page 8
