how is Darx doing?

[Darx point-of-view]

“Darx.” I hear someone say. “Darx, wake up.”

I open my eyes, but I still see darkness. I look around and suddenly see Ophelia. Though unlike last time, she is standing instead of kneeling.

“Ophelia?” I ask. “What happened?”

“I don’t know.” She replies. “I suddenly felt a burst of energy. I feel like I can hold on a little longer. But my power is still being drained. Then you were here and you were ****. It’s the first time I saw you like that. Normally you are always awake.”

I stand up and start explaining Ophelia what happened. That I was fighting some wargs. They didn’t seem to be too dangerous. Then I lost myself to my anger and I am not sure what happened during that. I do remember Wendy pulling me out of it. But then I was so exhausted that I lost consciousness.

“Hmm. I’m not sure, but the way you describe it, it sounds like a magic infused rage.” Ophelia tells me. “How did it make you feel?”

“I don’t know.” I answer. “I just hope I didn’t hurt anyone.”

“Yes, that would be bad.” Ophelia says. “I do feel a magic infused rage would make you very powerful. If you are capable of it, perhaps you should keep it as a last resort. When you are surrounded by enemies and no allies are nearby.”

Before I can answer Ophelia, everything goes black in front of my eyes, and I hear my name being called again. I open my eyes again and move my head to see Kiara, Sophie and Ari. Apparently, they have laid me in a bed for I am lying horizontal and there’s a soft pillow behind my head.

“What happened?” I ask with a hoarse voice.

“Wendy and Lilith brought you here.” Kiara says. “Apparently you went berserk. Do you know why it happened?”

I close my eyes and rub my hand across my forehead. I’ve got an annoying headache now.

“I’m just worried about my mom.” I say. “Where is Amelia?”

“I’m here.” I hear behind me.

I look over my shoulder and see Amelia’s face above me. Then I notice her breasts at the same level as my face. I am so surprised that amelia allowed my head to rest between her breasts and I quickly turn my face at Kiara again, but this time with wide eyes. The three girls in front of me seem to find my reaction funny as they start giggling.

“How are you feeling?” Kiara asks. “Can you walk?”

“Yeah, I think so.” I reply as I get up from Amelia’s embrace. “Just a small headache. It’s annoying, but I’ll be fine.”

“Good.” Kiara says. “The other adventurers have already gone into the forest to clear out the remaining monsters. We were just waiting for you to wake up. Let’s get our supplies from the wagon and get moving.”

I look at Kiara with some surprise. “We’re going to leave the wagon here?”

“It would be risky for the horses if we took them inside a forest that we know is filled with aggressive monsters.” Kiara explains. “The Royal Guard will take care of them and the wagons here. We will have to carry our food and tents ourselves.”

“Sweet. It’ll be like camping.” Sophie replies.

The lot of us get outside and we go in search of Ryul and Shalia. We find them with his family. It seems that Ryul’s little sister is quite fond of her as she is sitting on Shalia’s lap. When we inform them that we are ready to leave, they quickly say their goodbyes. Ryul’s family will continue traveling to the city and seek refuge there until they are confirmed the monsters have been cleared from their village.

Wendy and Lilith also apply to join our party. I am glad. The more high-level adventurers we have, the faster we are going to clear through the monsters.

The first day we don’t come across any monsters. Not live ones anyways. Just dead ones. The bodies do seem quite fresh. These were probably slain by a group of adventurers that came before us.

As we are traveling, I am getting curious about the new superpowered rage I was in earlier. It probably counts as a new skill, so I checked my adventurer card. But the only new skill there is [Dual Wield]. So dual wielding swords counts as a new skill, but the superpowered rage doesn’t? It’s weird, but sure. At least [Dual Strike] is greatly improved when I combine it with [Dual Wield]. That combo is going to make me a lot more powerful.

The second day, we come across a village. Many of the buildings have been damaged, so this village was obviously attacked by the monsters. Today though, there are a lot of adventurers present. In fact, there are only adventurers here. The same adventurers that went ahead of us. They later tell us that they liberated this village from a bunch of goblins and are now refilling their food supplies.

The next morning, all adventurers parties gather and we discus our strategy. There is another village on the other side of the forest. Ryul’s village. It is not enough to simply travel there, though. There could be monsters between here and there and we need to clear them out. The problem is that we don’t know where they are.

Jason and Helena’s team is the most experienced. They will take point and move to Ryul’s village in a straight line. They will be flanked by some of the weaker parties. Then those will be flanked by Dark Dragon parties again. Mine will be on the right. Should the weaker party face a powerful monster, they can try and lure it to either Helena’s team or mine. If they can find us through the trees at least. And when we reach Ryul’s village, we are to check if the village is safe. If not, we need to wait until all the other parties have gathered.

We march with Leona, Merlara, Wendy and Ryul in front. Behind them are Ari, Lilith and myself. Then Kiara, Sophie, Amelia and Shalia. We meet a few monsters and take care of them quickly. They are not a challenge. Though I am more nervous then I should be. I am worried that I might have another rage like previously, but fortunately it didn’t happen.

Eventually, we reach Ryul’s village. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look good. There are a lot of trolls all over the place. Lilith flew to the top of the trees and surveyed the village. She counted 30 of them, and there are possibly more that she couldn’t see. This tribe of trolls must have made Ryul’s village their new home after it was abandoned. These trolls are nothing more then disgusting squatters. I remember the first time I saw a troll. I remember it almost killed me and how Kase of all people had to save me. He and his tribe had taken residence in Mr Enzo’s old mine and we had to wait for adventurers from the Capital to clear them out. But things are different now. This time we are the adventurers from the capital, and I am looking forward to taking Ryul’s village back for him.

I turn to Kiara and ask, “So, how do we take them on?”

“You’re kidding, right?” Kiara says. “We can’t take that many trolls on by ourselves. Maybe if we took them one at a time, but not all at once.”

“We can’t just leave them there.” Ryul says. “My family can’t return home as long as they are there.”

“You are forgetting there are other adventurers on their way to this village.” Kiara says. “All we have to do is wait until the others are here and then we can attack them from multiple sides.”

“Kiara is right.” Amelia says. “I want to take them out just as much as everyone, but we need to do this the safe way.”

We all agree to bide our time and wait. But then I notice the scent of fire. Of burnt plants. The others try to smell, but all they can tell is a hot wind coming from behind us. Then we notice a red glow in the forest and we start to realize what is happening. It’s a forest fire.

We abandon our spot and run along the edge of the forest, but the fire is widespread. How on earth did this forest suddenly catch fire? Did a fire mage from another party mess up while fighting against some monsters they came across?

Eventually, we give up on finding safety in the forest and move out. But that is when the trolls can see us. They were already drawn to us because of the forest fire, but once they see us on the fields, they start walking in our direction. They are carrying big clubs and look like they want to eat us. It looks like we will have to fight them by ourselves. Leona, Merlara and Wendy take point and form a row, they won’t let any of those trolls get close to our spellcasters. But Kiara has a different idea.

“Shalia, Make the ground we are standing on rise up. Turn it into a tower.” Kiara instructs our druid.

Shalia casts her spell and the ground around us raises us up, higher than twice the height of a troll. This way the trolls can’t reach us. I walk up to the edge and see them surrounding our tower. While Lilith only counted 30 from afar, I am now able to count 40.

“What do we do now?” Shalia asks.

“You lot will try and hold out for as long as possible.” Kiara says. “Lilith and I will fly in search of the other parties and try to get them to rush over here.”

“Wait.” Leona asks. “Won’t we stand a better chance of we stick together?”

“We stand a better chance of we double our numbers.” Merlara interjects.

“You can take out a few with ranged attacks. That should make it easier for when reinforcements arrive.” Kiara explains. “Simply wounding them should also suffice. But don’t engage them, no matter what.”

After that, Kiara used her [Shadow Manipulation] to grow a pair of shadow wings, and Lilith used her [Shape Shift] to grow her draconian wings as well. When they flew off, Kiara flew in the direction of Helena’s party, while Lilith flew in the other direction, to where Zachary and the rest of Honorbound is.

So, just 9 of us left. And all we have to do is not fight 40 some trolls.