The shadow skill vanished and revealed a person with a hooded black cloak and black leather armor, remarkably similar to a Blackguard. The attacker struggled to get free from under Bear, but the zombie not only forced the Blackguard to stay underneath him, he also managed to turn and face the cloaked figure head on.
Bear's helmet opened by itself and he tore the attacker's face apart using his teeth. After that, the fight had left the Blackguard and I only heard screams that revealed it was a woman.
Wait a second... Is this Daggers?
I had already been running towards the fight but when I realized it was possible that Bear was killing Daggers, I sprinted for all my worth.
"Bear, stop!" I yelled. "Keep her alive!" He kept chewing. "That might be Daggers!" If anything, he began to bite her even more savagely. "Leave her alive for interrogation!" No response. "With torture!"
That made the psycho zombie stop. The woman's screams were terrifying and the ten or so nearby people stopped to look at the scene.
"Any life mage around?" I yelled to them.
No one moved.
"I'll pay one gold coin, if you heal the woman!"
One sorin — the evil cousin of the dwarves — moved forward on that offer and a pulsating light gray morb formed above his head. He was beardless but had his long hair in a ponytail, held by three silver rings. His nose was huge. He wore chainmail over leather armor and had a mace hanging from his waist. On his arm was a small round copper shield.
"Money upfront," he demanded.
I could pay, but I would be damned if I wasn't going to make Daggers pay for her own mistake.
"The money is with the lady screaming her ass off under the zombie. Heal her and if she doesn't appreciate the gesture, we'll kill her and split the loot equally."
He thought for a second before his morb flew to the woman I was hoping was Daggers and healed her, while I healed Bear with a few deathballs. She stopped screaming.
I got close. Blackguards' cloaks hid their faces completely and there was no way for me to know who she was without asking. "Daggers?"
"Yes, sir?"
Yep, that's her voice and mannerism.
"Damn, I never expected you to lose to Bear like that."
"Ha!" The zombie said as he stood up. There was a lot of blood around his skinless mouth. "There is too much manliness in this hot body of mine for a woman to kill."
"You got lucky, you misogynistic pig," she said.
"Sure I did. It's pure luck that made me turn a surprise attack against me into a victory."
The sorin cleared his throat.
"Pay the man, Daggers," I said.
She seemed to understand that it was her own blunder and didn't question me. She got up and produced a gold coin from an internal pocket in her cloak. "Thank you." She handed the coin to the sorin.
"You're most welcome," the sorin said with a big smile before leaving. The commotion around us quickly dispersed.
"First things first." I produced my Communication Crystal from the small bag on my waist. "Let's get each other's contacts."
They took their own crystals — Bear after recovering his backpack from the floor — and touched Daggers' with mine.
New crystal synchronized!
Please, choose a name tag for the new crystal
Daggers, I thought and the window updated.
New contact added!
Name tag: Daggers
I did the same with Bear, then put my crystal away.
"Now," I said calmly, then raised my voice at Daggers, "what the hell was that?! We're all friends in here!"
"My friends do not call me 'woman,'" Daggers replied coldly.
"I do!" Bear said with a big idiotic grin in his face.
"You are not my friend," she said fiercely.
"Are you sure?" His grin broadened and became menacing. "I mean, if you're my enemy, we should go back to our previous activity."
"Do you want to?" She took her daggers from inside her cloak. "You think you will get lucky a second time?"
"Shut up, both of you!" I angrily yelled. "Alright, you two idiots, I need your help and I'm prepared to offer you fifty gold each per month to acquire it, plus the loot from our enemies divided in a fair way. But only if you two refrain from killing each other until I say so."
I could have tried to establish leadership simply by using words and friendship, and I would probably have succeeded. However, the possibility of them killing one another was just as likely, and I did need them. So, I just bought their good behavior, like any good friend would. At least it had worked with my pals in my time running a gang.
"Now we are talking!" Bear said happily.
"And there's another condition," I said. "You must call each other Daggers and Bear, nothing else, until I say you can kill each other."
I didn't plan to ever allow them to fight to the death, but they didn't need to know that. The simple hope for the future fight would be enough until they got over their differences.
Bear's smile faded a little and he looked at Daggers, considering. I couldn't see her face in the cloak, but I bet she was also wondering which was better: fifty gold per month plus spoils of war, or killing Bear.
Thankfully, Bear was using Shai's black armor, which he had only got because of me, so he had the gratitude factor to add to that. Fifty gold monthly was a great offer by itself, and they ended up looking at me and nodding at the same time.
Good for the zombie, too; if he had tried to leave with that armor, I wouldn't be merciful.
"Good. Just a second."
I did as Zenhit instructed.
You are inviting Bear to the Resistance's Army.
Select a rank and monthly salary for him:
Position - Suggested Salary
» Colonel - 50g
» Major - 35g
» Captain - 25g
» Lieutenant - 15g
» Sergeant - 5g
» Private - 1g
Colonel, fifty gold, I thought and the window text changed.
Inviting Bear...
A few seconds later, the message updated again.
Bear has accepted your invitation
Give him his first month's salary to conclude the recruitment.
I did so and a 'recruitment successful' message appeared. Then, I did the same for Daggers.
"What is this?" Daggers asked.
"You remember when Manhart wanted me to be the General of his Army?" I said. "I accepted it. Join quickly." I turned to the zombie. "Bear, call your zombie friends; I'll pay them and invite everyone to our merry Resistance. I have all sorts of fun planned for the next weeks."
"My kind of fun?" He asked hopefully like a little kid.
I couldn't help but smile at the question. "Yes, your kind of fun. Blood everywhere."
"Yes!" He punched the air and I shook my head.
Daggers took some time to accept the invitation for some unknown reason, but she still joined in the end.
Bear said his buddies would arrive in a couple hours and I chose the tight corridor, at the very entrance of the huge cave we were in, as the meeting place. It wasn't as nearby as I'd like it to be, about one hour away if walking, but it was a strategic choice: if they got greedy and turned on me, at least their vastly superior numbers wouldn't be such a huge disadvantage for us.
We were halfway to the meeting point when people appeared out of thin air. One moment there was nothing, the next there were about fifty people surrounding us. It took a moment for my mind to register it.
Sorins, drow, vampires, deathlords and even an elemental were there, divided in three rows:
Closest to us, nine people in plate armor and an earth elemental.
&nb
sp; Then, fifteen guys in light armor or mage robes, all of them with morbs floating above their heads.
Lastly, about twenty-five archers.
All of them had a red band with a white tree engraved on it at their arms; the White Tree clan had come for revenge.
Arrows and spells were already flying our way even before their appearance had even registered.
"Shit." I tried to invite Bear and Daggers for a party — something I should have done before — but I got a message saying that it was impossible to invite people to a party while in battle. "Shit, shit, shit!" I hastily took the shield from my back and got closer to Bear.
It felt as if I alone was the target of every arrow and spell. Because of our positioning, Bear took care of half the attacks with his body. I turned my fire morbs into fireballs and sent them at random targets. Daggers became translucent and ran at the enemies.
67 piercing damage received
43 piercing damage received
77 water damage received
...
88 fire damage received
HP: 1432 / 1985
Arrows and magic hit me and just like that I lost a quarter of my HP and a fifth of my stamina — getting hit in Valia consumed stamina too. The HP drop was way too much considering how many arrows harmlessly bounced off my armor.
I screamed in pain, especially because of the arrow sticking from my neck. Thank goodness it was a game and I didn't die from that.
"Bear, let's get close in on them!" I yelled at him even though the field of battle was considerably silent; all our enemies' communications was probably being done via mind chat and only the fireballs' explosions were generating any remarkable sound.
My reasoning on getting close to the attackers was to make the ranged attacks less useful: they could either stop attacking for fear of hitting their own comrades, or we could use such comrades as meat shields, just like I was using Bear.
The zombie started moving but before I could take a single step, the earth at my feet rose, and I felt what I supposed would be walking on quicksand. It didn't lock me in place but it made me slow enough that a small gap appeared between Bear and I.
"Shit! Bear! Wait for me!" I said.
He didn't know what was going on and tried to turn to see. Vines grew from the floor and locked him in place. The lack of a mind chat for us gave the enemy too much of an advantage; I would never again play without forming a party.
Wondering at how the hell they had appeared out of nowhere and how long the spells would lock Bear, I realized another huge weakness of mine: although I had spent some time checking news about Valia, I knew next to nothing about the spells and abilities other people could have. The only reason I knew the slowing spell would end and my movement speed would be back to the original after five seconds was thanks to the status effect message that I had received.
Meanwhile, Daggers was almost to the enemy when a strong light came from the light mages in the four directions. Her translucent body became visible again and the two closest plate-armored people closed in on her. They didn't attack though; it was clear that their objective was only stalling her long enough for me to die.
More arrows and spells came my way and less than half my HP was remaining. I used my two death morbs to heal myself but that was it; with the constant attacks, I had no time to create new morbs.
I tried to run to the attackers, but more vines appeared, this time locking me in place.
Like a sitting duck, I saw death coming. I could try to use the bow in my bag to send at least a few arrows at the enemy but it wouldn't really be helpful. Nor would out the ass-kicking rare shield that I had gotten from King Gabat; it would only delay the inevitable, and when I died the shield would fall into my enemies' hands.
Less than five hundred HP remained. Daggers became a shadow blur and made her way behind the armored guys. She was now attacking a few mages but it wouldn't be enough to save me. Bear was getting closer to the enemies, moving like an unshakable slow mountain, but it also wouldn't be enough.
Four hundred HP.
I just kept my shield and arms protecting my head as I tried to move. A damn turtle, that's what I was.
To think that I had wished for enemies to attack me to test my new power. Level thirty-three my ass, I had never felt so powerless, even when facing Renno.
Three hundred HP.
I removed my legendary equipment — the Circlet of Enlightenment and the Ring of Fire —, and put them in the High-Quality Enchanted Purse, which had only one percent chance to drop when I died.
Two hundred HP.
Closing my eyes, I focused on the pain and waited for my first death in the game. It wasn't like me to go down without a fight but I was simply locked down and couldn't even try to do anything.
Someone yelled. Then another person. And another. It wasn't from the direction where Daggers was having a bloody party, nor where Bear had gone. No, it was from all around me.
Opening my eyes, I saw the most beautiful scene I had yet seen in Valia: zombies were eating my attackers.
There weren't enough zombies for every single ambusher, but enough to disrupt their attacks on the three of us. Bear was now fighting two armored guys by himself while Daggers was dodging attacks as if she had been born and raised in a circus.
Arrows and spells still came my way but I could run! And run I did. I chose to get close to Daggers, since the chaos around her was the greatest. The more chaos, the less effective the organized attack against me would become.
Sadly, all the six armored guys currently not in combat came running at me and a new slow spell made me swear out loud.
Then, like cannon balls, almost ten zombies shot from behind the lines and got close to me. Most of them attacked the armored guys, but three of them simply jumped on me.
Very annoyed, I fell on the ground, but suddenly realized their intention: there was no way for me to be attacked with them as meat shields. Even earth mages couldn't do it by manipulating the ground underneath me, since it was impossible to target someone without direct line of sight!
The exception was when healing yourself. Amassing the death energy around me, I started to create death morbs and do just that, sighing in relief as the healing took the pain away. I couldn't see anything but I could hear the screams coming from all directions.
It didn't go on for a very long time though.
"I'll be back for you, Thorn!" A man yelled and I recognized the voice as belonging to Garcia, the leader of the White Tree clan who I had killed in the Slums.
The zombies finally got off of me and I saw what was happening. The battle was over.
Having failed in their ambush, the White Tree members were running away, leaving behind ten lightly armored corpses. Some zombies were stripping the corpses, and two of them were discussing how they would divide the body parts between them.
There were thirty zombies in total. As far as I was concerned, that was a damn army. I hoped they didn't decide I was an easy target and just try to milk me instead.
"Well," a zombie close to me said. His completely white eyes were slowly revealing blue irises and his pointed teeth were shifting back to normal. Even so, the lack of skin on his face didn't make him anything less disturbing to look at. "It looks like you owe us more money." He smiled.
I sighed and relaxed.
5. Join the Dark Side, We Have Cookies
"My good sir, I couldn't agree more!" I also had a big smile on my face. Being honestly blackmailed like that was the best possible outcome!
Not only did I relish his words, it made me even more certain about my decision to recruit them to the Resistance's Army. People who aren't ashamed of their greed are much more trustworthy than wannabe heroes; you can always expect money to hold their loyalty and all you need to worry about is paying them enough, and being betrayed becomes only a question of when, not if.
Before saying anything else, I invited Bear and Daggers to a party. From now on, if I had a choice, I wouldn't
walk a single step without a party in this game ever again.
They did as instructed and I saw a considerable increase to their HP and Stamina.
Bear (level 19)
HP: 1089 / 2575
MP: 125 / 125
Stamina: 222 / 610
Daggers (level 21)
HP: 520 / 860
MP: 170 / 170
Stamina: 253 / 390
Bear's HP went up by almost a thousand and Daggers by almost three hundred. The Strategist trait acted on attributes, not directly on HP, and the higher the constitution, the more each point increased the total HP. My only complaint was that parties were limited to five people, otherwise I could get even more from that awesome trait.
"Melkier?" Bear recognized the man talking to me by his voice.
At least I guessed it was by the voice: zombies all looked the same, except for their eye color. Not even the guy's armor could be used as a parameter to set him apart: he was wearing standard plate armor covering his whole body, including his head and face, just like five other zombies.
"Yo, Bear," he replied, opening his helmet visor. "Looks like your enemies just ran away from you. Have you ever considered using something for your skin? I can understand the urge to be as far away from you as possible."
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