by Elliot Burns
“You’re cutting this mighty fine,” said Mav.
“Can’t waste the third arrow.”
Mav snatched the crossbow from him. He lined up his shot and took it within a passing second. There was a thudding sound, and the horse fell to the floor amid a plume of dust. It thrashed its legs twice and then was still.
It took Jack two deep breaths before his heart stopped racing. “Why didn’t you just tell me you could use a bow?” he said, glaring at Mav.
“Because I wanted to see if you could do it.”
“It’s always a test with you, isn’t it? I swear that you get a kick out of being a jerk. What if the horse had made it to the field and infected all the carrots and potatoes and whatever-the-hell they grow here?”
“But it didn’t, and now we know what you’re like under pressure, don’t we?”
“Great. And what did you find out in your little test?”
“That you’ve got bollocks as big as cannonballs, but you can’t aim for shit. Calm down, Jack. You did yourself proud there. You acted when everyone else was concerned with guarding their own fields. The people will respect that.”
Jack felt his anger start to subside. “I hope you’re right.”
“Look, if I’d have just shot it, then the peasants wouldn’t have seen you take charge of things. At least they know what kind of person you are now.”
Elena dismounted from her horse. She gave it a pat, then faced Jack. “Do I have your leave to inspect it, Lord?”
“Inspect what?”
“The horse,” she said, gesturing at the dead animal ahead of them.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“Molde doesn’t infect humans, nor can we carry it as a host.”
“Then knock yourself out.”
Elena walked over to the horse. The peasants near the field still hadn’t approached it yet, perhaps under the misapprehension that they could contract something from it. Their worried yells died down to a more peaceful chatter, and Jack caught a couple of them looking in his direction. This time, a few of them smiled at him, but he sensed that he hadn’t quite won all of them over yet.
“Using a crossbow isn’t easy,” said Mav. “but you’ve got the knack for it. With a little practice, you could maybe hit a house from 20 yards.”
Jack was about to answer him when he heard one of the peasants shout. This, in turn, caused a clamor of other yells that spread across the village.
“Don’t tell me there’s another horse,” said Jack.
“You should be so lucky. See that over there?”
Mav pointed at a field a hundred meters to their right. A man stood in the centre of it, swinging a hoe in the air. He was trying to hit a swarm of pumpkin-sized creatures that floated around him.
“Field wraiths,” said Mav.
The field wraiths looked like they were made of pure black smoke, with little grey wisps for eyes.
“They’re sensitive to sunlight,” said Mav, “So they only come out on cloudy days like today. The bastards ravage fields and crops, and they leave behind decaying chunks of crap. If that happens, the decay would then spread from crop to crop.”
Jack drew his dagger from his sheath. “We better go help.”
“Leave the peasants to deal with it,” said Mav. “They’re used to handling wraiths. You’re a lord – don’t lower yourself to swatting smoke.”
The man in the field swung his hoe wildly. One of the wraiths drifted in front of him, covering his face, while the others gorged on vegetables. The man cried out.
“Yeah,” said Jack, readying his dagger. “Turning my back on them is really going to help me in the approval polls. Come on.”
He was halfway toward the field when he heard Elena shout. She stood up from beside the corpse of the horse and hailed him. “Lord, come here a second,” she said. “You must see this.”
“Be right there. I just have something to deal with.”
Mav walked alongside him. “Here we go again. I swear, when your balls grow, your brain shrinks. Have you ever fought a wraith before?”
“There’s a first time for everything. I want you to help me this time, Mav.”
The field was filled with rows upon rows of carefully planted crops. The soil had been ploughed within an inch of its life, and every centimeter of space had been utilized. The peasants in Holuum lacked the sophisticated farming equipment of Jack’s world, but the man who owned this field had obviously put great care into what he grew. The crops themselves looked like a type of banana, except their skin was a dull orange.
The owner of the field was in the middle of it, busy protecting his almost-ripe crops from the wraiths. The black creatures had already sucked the nutrients from one patch of fruit. They had left them so brown and frail that they looked like they’d crumble into dust if touched.
The wraiths flapped around the farmer’s head. Their smoke-laden wings made slapping sounds as they beat them. Their eyes and mouth were like slits cut into the darkness of their skin, which made the wraiths look like shadows given life and set free to cause chaos. Jack watched them flap around, and he saw streams of text above them.
Field Wraith – Level 2 – HP: 19/19
Field Wraith – Level 2 – HP: 21/21
Field Wraith – Level 2 – HP: 16/16
Field Wraith – Level 3 – HP: 25/25
Field Wraith – Level 2 – HP: 22/19
Field Wraith – Level 3 – HP: 29/21
Field Wraith – Level 1 – HP: 14/14
Field Wraith – Level 2 – HP: 25/25
“That’s a hell of a lot of wraiths,” said Mav.
“They’re only low level. We should be fine,” said Jack.
They were brave words, but he couldn’t help a flutter of nerves as he approached his second fight in Royaume. He’d have to make sure that he didn’t die in this one; it wouldn’t be good for the peasants to see their lord perish. In his last fight, he’d taken so much damage because he’d gotten cocky with his strategy. It had been working for a while, but then the atronarchs had adapted and they’d caught him by surprise. He wouldn’t let that happen this time.
“Ready?” said Mav.
Jack nodded. Three of the wraiths were floating near each other, while one was alone. Using his improved speed, Jack ran at the lone wraith before it could join its friends. He attacked it with a standard dagger slash, deciding to save force strike for when things got tough. When his blade met the wraith, Jack realized that the creature wasn’t made of smoke. Instead, it made a sound like paper ripping as the dagger cut it.
8 hitpoint inflicted!
[14 ATT – 6DEF]
His first strike on a wraith was a free hit, since it was so occupied with tormenting the peasant that it hadn’t noticed Jack. Mav likewise managed a strike on a wraith, felling it with one swipe of his own, much better-looking, dagger. The wraith Mav had hit went limp and then crashed to the ground.
Jack’s wraith rounded on him. It floated to the left and the right, like a boxer goading his opponent. Jack watched it intensely and waited for it to attack. When it did, his improved speed let him slip to the side, just out of reach of its open mouth. He spun around to strike a counter blow, but the wraith was too quick.
The wraith opened its mouth and spat out a stream of black smoke. It hit Jack in the face, blinding him. While his vision was impaired, he felt a tremendous stinging pain on his shoulder, as if something had bitten him. The smoke cleared, and Jack saw the wraith floating away from him.
12 HP lost!
[17 ATT – 5DEF]
[HP: 153/165]
The wraith opened its mouth again. This time, Jack ducked under the resulting plume of smoke, and then ran at the wraith in a half crouch. He struck upwards with his dagger like an uppercut, plunging the tip of his blade deep into the wraith’s body. The wraith’s skin parted like torn newspaper.
10 hitpoint inflicted!
[16ATT – 6 DEF]
The wraith started to s
hrink, as though someone had crushed it between their hands. It fell to the floor, where it stopped moving.
44% EXP gained!
[49% toward level 2]
The other wraiths turned their attention away from the farmer and faced Jack and Mav. They straightened up in a line. Up close they were thicker than they had first appeared, yet that didn’t hamper their ability to float. They reeked of spent matches. If Jack had any sort of flame, he would have tried lighting them to see if fire was their weakness. As it was, his dagger would have to do.
Despite already losing some HP, he wasn’t worried. As long as he remembered to avoid the blinding smoke, then he was fast enough to duck and dive out of reach. With their relatively low hitpoints, it wouldn’t take too many dagger stabs to kill the wraiths.
Just as he thought this, the remaining six wraiths began to change. They split up into two groups, with three on one side, three on the other. Then, each group of three suddenly began to merge with each other. Their billowing, smoke-like bodies mixed together, to form two giant wraiths on each side.
Super Field Wraith – Level 6 – HP: 55/55
Super Field Wraith – Level 7 – HP: 65/65
It looked like both sets of wraiths had combined their HP and levels to create some sort of elite creature. Did that mean that their attacks and defence would have combined too? Jack decided that he probably knew the answer to that already.
“Did I mention they could that?” said Mav. He grinned. Deep in the midst of combat, he looked like he was in his element.,
“Nope. You definitely didn’t mention that,” said Jack.
“I’ll take the level seven, you can have the six.”
The wraiths, one on Jack’s side and the other on Mav’s, ignored Jack and Mav, and instead focused on the peasant again. The man edged away, but it seemed that he was too scared to turn his back on them completely and break into a run. All he could do was scream as the wraiths descended on him, latching onto his skin and sucking blood from him.
“Why did they go for him instead of us?” said Jack, horrified at the sound of the wraiths slurping the man’s blood.
“He was unarmed, and he had his sleeves rolled up., Don’t show them any bare skin. They’ll go for your hands and face, so keep your guard up,” said Mav.
With that they edged forward toward the wraiths, daggers up, eyes alert. Jack ran toward the peasant. He slashed at the level-six wraith, but his standard attack met against the creature’s improved defence. He only knocked three hitpoints from it. Luckily, it was enough to attract its attention. Jack grabbed the peasant and pulled him away. “Get out of here!” Jack told the peasant.
“But what about my field?” he said.
“We’ll do our best. Now get the hell away.”
The wraiths didn’t have the strength of the atronarchs, nor did they have any sort of poison damage. That was something, at least, but standard dagger attacks weren’t going to cut it. Instead, he activated force strike. When the vibration of his dagger indicated that it was ready, he struck at a wraith, only to miss. Damn it! The problem was that the wraiths drifted through the air like smoke, making them hard to hit.
“Aim for where you think they’re going,” Mav told him. “Not where they are.”
He took Mav’s advice. This gave him a better success rate, and he began to score more hits. Each force strike drained his mana, but when he landed a second powerful stab on a wraith, it sent out a plume of charcoal-smelling dust. The dust covered Jack’s face, got in his eyes, and clogged his nose. There was so much that he could taste it on the back of his throat. The crops around them were covered in sprinklings of it. Luckily, the wraith was dead now.
105% exp gained!
Level up to level 2!
[54% toward level 3]
He dismissed the levelling message. There was still one wraith left, so he’d level up later on. Instead, he joined Mav. Mav’s wraith only had fifteen hitpoints left. Mav was about to strike, when Jack grabbed his hand.
“Let me take this one,” he said. “I need to level up again.”
“Be my guest.”
Jack activated a force strike and then whirled his dagger in an arc, catching the wraith mid-flight. The wraith exploded into a plume of smoke and dust. The crops around him looked like someone had dumped a barrel of gunpowder on them.
As Jack caught his breath, smoke-text informed him of the results of his fight.
Dagger proficiency increased by 50%
[60% toward level 2]
115% exp gained!
Level up to level 3!
[69% toward level 4]
- HP increased to 297
- Stamina increased to 245
- Mana increased to 278
-Base Attack increased to 10 [17 with dagger]
-Base Defence not increased
- Base Speed increased to 15
Boost Points: 2
Choose a stat to boost [HP, Mana, Stamina, Att, Def, Speed]:
This time, he knew he needed to boost his defence. His speed allowed him to avoid attacks better, but once something hit him, then boy, did it hit him. With that in mind, he boosted his speed and his defence.
-Base Defence increased to 9
Base Speed increased to 18
After spending his boost, he joined Mav. Mav smiled at him. “I’ll give you this – you don’t hold back. Course, leaving your brain at the door like you did will get you killed in a dungeon, but it’d serve you well on the battlefield.”
“I know that I have to cool off a little and think things through, but I felt like I had to do something.”
“You’re certainly not scared of a scrap, are you?”
“In the fights I used to have growing up, it was either hit first or take a beating. It’s gonna take me time to adjust to actually thinking about things.”
“Come on,” said Mav. “Let’s go and bask in the adulation of your people.”
The peasants had watched the fight from the outskirts. Now that it was over they decided that they had more important things to be doing with their time. One by one they left, some in the direction of their own fields, others going to their homes or to the Sickle Inn. After the events of the morning, they probably needed a beer.
“So much for the victory parade,” said Jack.
“There’s one waiting for you at least,” said Mav, pointing. The owner of the field stayed on the sidelines. His neck and face were puckered in red welts from the drain attack of the wraiths. His once-grey chemise was dusted with black powder. He crossed his arms and waited for Jack and Mav to approach him. Jack noticed that this man only had three fingers on each hand, leaving his ring and little fingers as stubs.
“He must have been a thief,” said Mav. “And a bad one, by the looks of it. Over in the Silver Weying merchant districts, it’s one finger for every time you get caught stealing.”
“As long as he’s turned over a new leaf here, I don’t mind,” said Jack. “Everyone deserves a second chance.”
He wondered how he was going to handle this. The man had stayed behind to thank him, and Jack was never good at accepting praise. How would a lord normally react to the appreciation of his people? He probably wouldn’t betray much emotion. Jack decided he’d thank the man and then move on.
“Thank you, lord,” said the peasant. “I didn’t expect you to help.”
Population morale increased to 30/100!
- The people will carry out your orders quicker
- Share of peasant harvest increased from 25% to 27.5%
“Not a problem,” said Jack. “It’s only-”
“It’s too early to judge you,” said the peasant, interrupting him. “But if today’s any indication, you’ll make a fine lord. I can’t thank you enough. If the wraiths had got to my field, then my family would have been buggered. Here, take this, lord. It’s only a token.”
The peasant passed jack a piece of metal. At first, he wondered what kind of a gift it was. It didn’t look lik
e much. Then, he realized that it was the hilt of a dagger, except that it didn’t have a blade. When he looked at it, smoke-text told him what it was.
Fortified Steel Dagger Hilt
[A hilt that can be attached to a dagger, adding a +3 ATT bonus to the weapon’s existing ATT raring. Dagger blades and hilts can be swapped as needed.]
“Thanks,” said Jack, unable to hold back his smile. He swapped the fortified steel hilt for his old wooden one.
- Dagger ATT rating increased to 10!
[Current ATT: 20]
[10 base attack, 10 dagger attack]
In turn, when he looked at his dagger, he saw that his upgrades were listed.