by R. A. Mejia
No one appears to have noticed Allison or me yet, and I signal for her to move to my left and hide. I use [Sneak] and immediately find my movement speed slowed down immensely. I remember that at my low skill level, [Sneak] imposes a penalty to how fast I can move. A tradeoff for essentially being invisible unless someone detects me. I move as quickly as I can towards the large soldier with the two handed sword. He’s facing off against three lightly armored women. The first wears a brown leather shirt and carries a broken off table leg as a weapon. The second wears white cloth pants and a green wool sweater. She holds a razor sharp circle of metal in her hand. The last woman has a dark staff and holds it in both hands like a baseball bat.
As I draw close to the soldier, he decides he’s tired of waiting and takes a swing at the woman with the broken table leg. She holds it up to block the blow, but the heavier sword cuts the table leg in half and cuts into her. There’s a spray of blood as the blade bites into the woman, and she falls to the ground in a heap. The other two women look stunned for a moment but the woman in the green sweater screams and lunges at the soldier with her weapon. The ring of sharpened steel collides with the soldier's sword in a clash of metal, and the heavier two handed weapon pushes her away. The soldier doesn’t have time to deflect the other attack from the quieter woman wielding the staff. The weapon smacks into the soldier's left shoulder but only elicits a small grunt from the soldier in response.
While the whole incident only takes seconds, it’s given me time to cross the room using [Sneak] and position myself behind the soldier. The soldier faces the woman with the staff and smiles cruelly. He then raises his weapon above his head for a powerful overhead strike meant to cut his opponent down in a single motion. Instead, I make my move, coming in from behind the man and thrusting my dagger into his exposed armpit. He screams in pain as my dagger pierces his flesh.
Damage Dealt: 12 (Sneak attack, Critical Hit)
My blade isn’t long enough to cut into his lungs. However, when I pull the knife out, I intentionally try to cut as many muscle fibers in his arm on my way out.
Damage Dealt: 4
You’ve gained a level in Knife Mastery: Novice 3
I dismiss the notifications with a glance and focus on my opponent. The soldier’s right arm hangs uselessly at his side, but he’s made a quarter turn trying to keep both the women and myself in view while trying to point his sword at all of us. The thick blade was never meant to be wielded one handed, and the soldier has a hard time keeping the blade up.
In a straight up fight, my dagger would be no use against his two handed sword. I would have a very hard time getting past his blades longer reach. Thankfully, I try not to fight like that. Instead, the soldier has to divide his attention between three opponents, and I’m afforded the opportunity to attempt a maneuver I’d not considered before. I move the shield equipped on my left arm up, protecting most of my body but also hiding my right hand from the soldier’s view. I unequip the dagger to free up my right hand for spell work. Then I suddenly shift to the right and charge the soldier, forcing him to decide who he wants his back to, the women or me.
As expected, he chooses to face me, the guy who stabbed him in the armpit. Unfortunately for him, I happen to have a couple levels in [Shield Mastery]. As I get in close to the soldier, he attacks me with his sword. I take the attack on my shield then respond with my [Shield Bash] ability.
Damage Dealt: 4 (Shield Bash)
The special ability drains some of my stamina but is worth the cost because not only does it deal damage but it also stuns the recipient sometimes. Unfortunately, this is not one of those times. Time to initiate part two of my plan.
My shield pressed against the soldier prevents him from getting a good angle of attack against me. In the few moments, it will take him to move back, my right hand spellwrites the arcane symbol for ‘earth’ on both of the soldier's feet, and I direct my mana to power the symbols. ‘Earth’ is one of the few magical symbols I know how to quickly and accurately spellwrite. It doesn’t directly damage an opponent like ‘fire’ would. Instead, it gathers the element of earth to the place the symbols is written. In this case the soldier's feet.
At first, the soldier bangs on my shield feebly with his sword trying to get around or through it to me. The spell slowly drains my mana as it gathers dirt and stone around the soldier's feet. The women who formerly faced the soldier alone aren’t fools. They take advantage of his decision to attack me and hit him from behind. While my attention is focused on sending my mana to the ongoing spell, I hear grunts from the soldier as he takes the attacks. They must not be very effective though since he continues to try to attack me with his overly heavy sword.
I receive a notification but ignore it as I focus on the spell.
The soldier must realize something is wrong because he tries to back away from me, likely to get room to swing his sword. But it’s too late. His feet are now weighed down by the rocks and dirt that have fused together around his feet and calves. I pull back from my position to watch the soldier flail around as he tries to keep his balance. I can only imagine that he feels like he’s wearing cement filled shoes. He curses at me and tries to awkwardly hack at me with his sword, but I’m already out of reach of the blade. Instead, I walk around the soldier, to the woman wielding the dark staff.
I look at her, then at the now immobilized soldier. I hold out my dagger toward her, hilt first, and ask, “Trade?”
She grins viciously, and we swap weapons. I hear the man’s screams of pain as I walk away, sure that the two women can finish him off on their own.
Your group has helped kill an Imperare Soldier, lvl. 5. You gain 6 XP.
Never mess with a lady's bestie.
I put the staff into my [Inventory] and look at the rest of the room to see if anyone else needs help. I find that the other two soldiers are already down. Allison stands over one soldier’s corpse breathing heavily but unharmed. Vrax and the rest of the women stand over the last soldier.
I bring up the notification I dismissed, and I see that they’re from Vrax’s fight.
Vrax deals damage: 22 (Backstab)
Vrax deals damage: 8
Vrax deals damage: 9
I skip through the rest of the damage notifications and see that I only got 5 XP from the kill. Guess that’s what happens when it’s a five on one battle.
Now that all the fighting is over, I go into triage mode. I’m likely the only one here with any magical ability in healing. I first check the woman who wielded the table leg and find that she is already dead. I run to Gorbash, who I know is bleeding heavily. He must sense my approach because he tries to feebly crawl away from me as I get near.
I slow down, and in a calm and soothing tone, I tell him, “Hey Gorbash, it’s me. Remember? The human who freed you from the chains?”
He stops crawling and looks in my direction. His eyes are unfocused, and he’s breathing rapidly. I move closer and put my hand on him. He jumps slightly at my touch, and I continue speaking in a calm tone, “It’s ok. I’m going to try to heal you. Just stay still.”
I pull up my [Status] screen and see that I only have 43/76 mana. While I can’t see Gorbash’s exact health, when I look at the area above his head, I can see a health bar that looks dangerously close to being empty. I don’t think I can get Gorbash up to full health with the mana I have left. He’s a big guy with lots of hit points. I think I can do enough to stop his bleeding though. I spellwrite the arcane symbol for ‘life’ over the largest gash on his thigh, the one bleeding the most. I have to carefully manage my mana or I won’t be able to heal the worst wounds. I visualize the life energy being gathered flowing into the wound, knitting back the torn muscles and reconnecting the severed veins and arteries.
My mana drops every second I maintain the spell and I have to stop working on this gash when it reaches 22/76. The wound has closed up and stopped bleeding. I look up at the giant’s health bar and see that only a fraction of his health has recovered.
I consider my experiments with the healing spell and know that when I spend seven mana, I usually heal about ten health. Spending nearly twenty-one mana on the largest gash means I healed him for about thirty health points. Man, this guy’s a tank.
I move the next largest wound that is bleeding, this one about the size of my hand. It’s not as deep as the first but is wider. I won’t be able to heal Gorbash’s worst wounds at this rate. I decide to do some impromptu magical experimentation. I spellwrite the ‘life’ symbol over the wound. But instead of just applying power and visualizing what I want done, I decide to help out the process. I take the sides of the wide gash and press them together with my hands trying to physically close the wound. I apply the same technique I did to the last injury and send my mana to the arcane symbol and visualize what I want to happen. The energy loss is still about the same, but the healing process is much faster. I can only guess that the magic doesn’t have to do quite as much work to close the wound. My mana still drops to 8/74.
You’ve gained a level in Aura Projection. Novice 8
You’ve gained a level in Mana Control. Novice 7
I wearily dismiss the notifications. My head is starting to hurt, a sign that I’m getting low on mana. I look at Gorbash’s many wounds and clench my fist in frustration. I can count at least three more large bleeding wounds and at least double that in smaller ones. I don’t think I’ll be able to save Gorbash.
I feel a hand on my shoulder, and I turn to see Kitsune standing next to me. She gives me a nod of respect, then turns to Gorbash. She raises both her hands, palms out, and closes her eyes. She mumbles something under her breath that I can’t understand and a green glow appears around her hands. The green energy flows from her hands to the nearest large bleeding wound, and in an instant, it closes and heals as if it was never there. I see a bead of sweat on her brow, but she moves to the next wound and repeats the process. When she closes the third wound, I see her perspiring greatly, and as the wound closes, her shoulders sag. I look up at Gorbash’s health and see that it’s almost half full.
Woah, this lady has some serious healing magic. Then I remember what Mr. Gerald told me about Kitsune. He said he was able to sell her for such a high price because she has extraordinary skills in healing.
I look at the fox woman, amazed at her work, “That was spectacular Kitsune. I don’t think that I could have healed him that quickly or that thoroughly. Can you heal up the rest of his smaller cuts too?”
She shakes her head, “No, I’m out of mana. I prioritized the large wounds to stop the worst of the bleeding but had to use my more powerful healing spell. It removed the bleeding effect from the injuries in addition to restoring his health.”
Now that Gorbash won’t die from blood loss, I turn back to the rest of the people in the room and call out, “Is anyone else hurt?”
One of the women that was fighting beside Kitsune raises her hand, and I see that her side is stained red. I rush over and kneel next to her. I pull up her shirt, and she hisses as the cloth pulls away from the wound. It’s a long horizontal cut. It’s not a deep wound, but it is bleeding.
I open my [Inventory] and see that I have three novice mana potions and one distilled novice healing potion. I don’t want to use the potions if I don’t have to but I’m all out of mana, and it’ll take hours to recover enough to heal this. I pull out my only healing potion, and I’m about to give it to the woman to drink when I feel a tug on my shirt. Turning, I see that Vrax is next to me holding out the healing charm he wears around his neck.
That’s right. I made Vrax that charm so that he could do some basic healing. It’s mana inefficient as all hell, costing him fifteen mana to heal a measly seven hit points, yet it’s better than using up a one-time use potion.
I pat my friend on his back and tell him, “Good idea Vrax. Use the healing charm to patch her up if you can.”
He nods once and responds, “Yip, will do.” Then he takes the charm from around his neck and holds it over the woman’s wounded side. A white glow surrounds the flat wooden object, and I see the woman’s wound slowly close. The light around the charm sputters and then goes out. Vrax sways slightly. He holds his head with one hand, and he puts the charm back around his neck. Poor guy must have used up his meager mana pool.
I reexamine the wound and see that while it’s not entirely healed it does look like it’s several weeks better.
The woman smiles at Vrax and pats him on the head, “Thank you little kobold. I know it cost you something to help me and I won’t forget it.” Vrax smiles back at the woman and nods.
I stand up and look around the room, making sure everyone is ok. Kitsune looks over Gorbash, making sure there aren’t hidden wounds that need tending. Gorbash is sitting up, watching me with his cold blue eyes. His legs are still cut up, but he’s not bleeding anymore. The group of women that used to be in the harem are grouped around the one that died in the attack, some quietly crying, others looking angry. The people from Restrian are still huddled together in a corner, not having taken part in the fighting. They look around anxiously, as if more soldiers will appear any moment and attack them.
There are flashes of light as the bodies of the dead begin to disappear, leaving behind the items they had equipped and a loot bag if they had anything in their [Inventory]. Looking around at all the armor and weapons the soldiers and guards have dropped, a plan begins to form in my mind. There are a lot of people here, but the idea has merit.
The alarm bells in the building finally stop ringing and Harold the halfling tailor returns to us with a triumphant grin on his face. The smile is quickly replaced by a look of concern when he sees the aftermath of the fight. He spots me and walks over while looking around the room at all the activity.
“What happened here?” he asks.
“Soldiers came. We took care of them. Great job on silencing that alarm but we don’t have a lot of time to chat though. I have a plan to escape. Go start organizing people to look for some stuff we’ll need.”
He nods, yells for everyone to gather around me. Once everyone has arrived, I tell them the things we’ll need for my genius plan to work.
“Ok, Vrax and Harold, I want you to gather up all the loot bags that have dropped. We’re going to need at least three wagons to carry everyone, so someone human needs to go out and search the property for some. ”
A couple men from the group of Restrains raise their hands to take the job. I nod towards them and say, “Good, thanks for volunteering. I know that there’s at least one outside. Just let the goblins inside free before you steal it.”
I ignore the look of concern at the mention of the goblins and continue speaking to the rest of the group. A wide grin spreading across my face, “Lastly, we need brooms. Lots and lots of brooms.”
Chapter 1.9
I sit, chained in the back of a wagon, the rough planks of the floorboards rubbing against my backside as the vehicle bounces up and down the road. There are no windows back here, and while I can’t see outside, I can hear the sounds of the city. I can hear the sounds of people walking, talking, doing business, living their lives, and running errands as evening begins to fall. With me are a chained Vrax and Harold. Along with three other human prisoners, there are two men dressed in black leather armor with swords and shields in the wagon with us.
I can hear the others in the wagon muttering at how stupid this plan is. Even Harold looks at me with a bit of doubt in his eyes. Only Vrax, my ever trusting friend, doesn’t seem to have any doubts about the plan. The idea is pretty simple. It’s a bigger version of the one I used to get into the city. We load three wagons with all the people we freed. Some will pose as soldiers, the rest will have to pretend to be slaves being transported to Restrian for work detail.
Because Allison ran an alchemy store in Restrian, she has the most experience charming customers with her high charisma stat. So, it’s decided that she’ll drive the lead wagon and talk to any guards. She also has experience with writing purchase
orders as a merchant and writes up some fake documents that will hopefully fool any guards looking at them into thinking this transfer is legitimate. The other wagons are driven by men Allison recommends from among the captured Restrians.
While no one is particularly happy with the idea of being chained up again, I calmed the worst complainers by volunteering to be one of the ones that gets bound. I made sure to rig the restraints like I did for Vrax when we came into the city, so they’d pop open with a good tug.
The only person we couldn’t convince to be chained up again is Gorbash. No matter how I tried to explain to him that he wasn’t actually being restrained, he refused to let us put him in chains again. He did nod his head and agreed to follow the commands of Kitsune who would be walking beside him as his ‘master’ disguised in a long cloak and cowl to hide her beast woman features.
So, here I am, sitting in the back of a wagon. Waiting. Hoping nothing goes wrong but listening for trouble. I’m nervous as all hell but can’t show it. There are too many other people depending on me. All it will take for this plan to fail is one nervous person to try and get away on their own or for someone to alert the soldiers patrolling the city.
