A Fateful Fight

As the wagons and carriage approach, Krvavy sighs out. She has won, what, a single head on fight before? And just barely. Something like this is probably out of her level range. Besides, there is too much stuff down there for her to carry, even if most of it isn’t loot that she’ll want to keep. So she’ll just turn around and head back. This isn't worth the risk.

A strong gust of wind blows over the hills, whipping her wild hair around and into her face. A chill runs down her spine, as that sudden gust came from behind her and blew straight to the little caravan ahead of her.

The horses leading the wagon at the front rear up and whinny out in panic, causing the two guards to jump into action. “What in the–? They smell something! Some sort of beast!” One shouts out.

“We can’t take any chances! Find and ki–! Over there, I saw something!” The other responds as Krvavy ducks behind the tree, though she obviously didn't do it fast enough.

“Hunt it down! If it can scare the horses like this we can’t let it roam freely!” A third voice calls out.

“Yes sir!” “Yes sir!”

Well, that is just about the worst thing that could have happened. These men sound professional, or at least disciplined, so running off isn’t an option. Even if they don’t follow her, or if she can get them off her trail, Krvavy’s gut tells her that they will just send a hunting party after her. She does not need that. Why did the damn wind suddenly shift?!

Thoughts racing through her mind, Krvavy figures that the only way out of this is to fight. If she wins, then she wins. If she dies, then they won’t need to scour the land looking for her and she can respawn in peace.

Taking a deep breath, Krvavy steels her nerves before stepping out from behind the tree.

A little bit ahead of her, just down the hill, is one of the guards with a sword in his hand. Seeing Krvavy suddenly pop out in front of him causes the guard to freeze in place, with his eyes wide in surprise.

Krvavy doesn’t waste a second as she immediately lunges forwards, swinging her axe down at his unarmoured head.

Her sudden movement snaps him into action, and just before the axe strikes the guard dodges to the side. But he isn’t fast enough to fully avoid Krvavy’s axe, as it slams down into his left shoulder with a loud crunch.

Critical Hit! 195.34 Damage dealt to [Guard One]

The guards left arm hangs limply at his side as he bites back a scream of pain. Gritting his teeth he lunges forwards, aiming the tip of his sword at the bare pale abs right in front of him.

-10.73 Health

His attack was obvious enough that Krvavy was able to twist her body slightly, so that instead of stabbing into her the sword just leaves a shallow cut across her belly.

The guards eyes widen in panic as he stumbles forwards, having put too much weight into the thrust while on this unsteady terrain. Pulling her axe back and stepping to the side, Krvavy lets him fall to the ground before bringing her weapon down onto him.

Critical Hit! 385.11 Damage dealt to [Guard One]

[Guard One] has been slain!
+220 Experience

“Ryhor!” A voice shouts out in rage, drawing Krvavy’s attention to the other guard charging towards her with a sword in his hands.

This first guard was surprisingly easy to take down, and so with her courage bolstered Krvavy tears her axe free from the corpse and charges to meet the second one head on.

20 Damage dealt to [Guard Two]

Surprisingly, he is able to block her strike with his sword, though his wrists twist a bit in the process. A slight flash of light as Krvavy pulls her axe back gives her an idea on how he did that. Some sort of magical ward, it seems.

25 Damage dealt to [Guard Two]
30 Damage dealt to [Guard Two]
35 Damage dealt to [Guard Two]
40 Damage dealt to [Guard Two]

Wailing her axe down on him as fast as she can, Krvavy doesn’t give the guard a chance to strike back. Each hit does more damage than the last, with faint cracks of light spreading out through the air as the guards arms become shakier and his reactions slow.

“Siarhei! I can’t hold this for much longer!” He shout out.

“Down!” A strict voice calls back, prompting the second guard to immediately throw himself to the ground.

-42.92 Health
-34.34 Health

Two icicles embed themselves into Krvavy’s right shoulder and arm, while another few fly past her harmlessly.

The guard on the ground takes the chance to roll away before jumping up to his feet, having put some distance between himself and Krvavy.

The cold from the icicles helps to numb the pain, keeping the haze of rage from taking over Krvavy’s mind. That said, she is still furious, and with a single stomp she sends the ground rolling towards the second guard.

14.8 Damage dealt to [Guard Two]

His eyes widen as he almost loses his balance, barely having enough time to raise his sword up in defence.

Krvavy’s axe crashes against his magical ward, sending fractures through the air. The sound of glass shattering rings through her ears as the large axe continues on, only slightly slowed. It collides directly with his sword and scrapes along the metal length, getting deflected straight towards his face.

Critical Hit! 472.6 Damage dealt to [Guard Two]

[Guard Two] has been slain!
+240 Experience

She doesn’t have any time to celebrate the kill, as a hail of icicles fly through the air towards her. Having twisted her body during the killing blow, the shards of ice puncture all along her right side and back, digging deep into her flesh.

-21.46 Health
-26.62 Health
-48.28 Health
-40.24 Health
-20.37 Health

“Form up!” The strict voice calls out, as the remaining three guards arrange themselves ahead of Krvavy. All three have swords, but the one who had slightly better armour and was driving the carriage has a ball of cold blue-white mist floating above the palm of his left hand. Evidently, he is the one launching ice at her.

And speaking of ice, the magical icicles only seem to remain in her body for a few seconds before fading away into mist. That would be helpful if it didn’t leave a bunch of small holes in her body, holes that are now leaking blood. Seven identical notifications pop up along the edge of her vision, though she quickly dismisses them.

You have been inflicted with a Minor Wound: Light Bleeding. You will lose 0.25 Health per minute as long as the bleeding continues. x7

Gritting her teeth, Krvavy decides to test out her new spell, Knit Flesh. Searing pain shoots out from her wounds as her flesh crawls back together, closing up the bleeding holes with ugly lumps of scarred flesh. But despite the moment of agony, it didn’t cause her to take any more damage.

+42.5 Health

She used up almost all of her mana to heal back the health lost by a single one of these magical icicles. But at least it stopped the bleeding. And besides, her axe is still in the skull of a man full of fresh blood that she can use to top her mana back up.

Thick blood flows up her axe and towards her hands, becoming mana as soon as it comes into contact with her skin. In just a few seconds Transmute Blood is able to bring her mana back up, though only to just over 180. It isn’t quite full, but it is good enough.

The three guards balk at seeing the blood of their comrade flow up her weapon, his body shriveling up into a dried husk. “It’s a d-demon!” the one on the left cries out.

Smiling cruelly, Krvavy raises her axe from the dead guard and moves to approach the remaining three, prompting the ice mage to bark out an order. “Advance! Hold the abomination back!”

The other two guards hesitate for a moment, but are spurred into action as the icy one thrusts his sword into the ground beside him and begins to channel his frozen magic with two hands.

Krvavy can’t risk getting bogged down fighting these two, as that give this ice mage free reign to pelt her with magic. That feels like a **** sentence. She needs to get past them, and she has an idea on how to do that. Hopefully it works.

Lunging towards the charging guards, Krvavy slams her foot into the ground as hard as she can, sending forwards a wave in the earth from Seismic Stomp. She quickly stomps down two more times, overlapping the roiling waves as much as she can as she barrels forwards.

24.6 Damage dealt to [Scared Guard]
17.76 Damage dealt to [Other Guard]

Krvavy slams into the scared guard, sending him flying and only getting slightly nicked by their blades as she continues on.

56.91 Damage dealt to [Scared Guard]

-5.36 Health
-6.44 Health

The icy guard steels his gaze and quickly moves his hands. Abandoning whatever spell he was casting in favour of another, he aims down at the ground in front of him. With a cold crack a solid wall of ice bursts up, putting a barrier in Krvavy’s path.

That is a bit of a surprise for Krvavy, as she had expected something to be launched at her. But because of that this ice wall is hardly more than an inconvenience to her, as she simply lunges to the side and does a large horizontal swing around it.

Critical Hit! 231.63 Damage dealt to [Icy Guard]

Her crude axe crashes into his armoured back with a sickening crunch, but the guard just grits his teeth and raises his hand up, aiming back and blasting some magic into her face.

-1.07 Health
-0.54 Health
-1.61 Health
-1.34 Health
-0.80 Health

Tiny shards of ice, almost like slightly hard snowflakes, collide with her face. It is more of an annoyance than anything, as even those that get in her eyes do little more than sting before melting away with a blink.

Critical Hit! 56.3 Damage dealt to [Icy Guard]

Krvavy forces her axe forwards, grinding it further into his body and pressing him up against the wall of ice. With the guard mostly immobilized, Krvavy moves one hand from her axe to snatch his sword from the ground, bringing it up and then back down towards his neck.

Critical Hit! 783.91 Damage dealt to [Icy Guard]

[Icy Guard] has been slain!
+600 experience

Level Up! You have reached Level 9. As a Drakling blessed by a divine power, you have 5 attribute points to allocate and have gained +2 to Might & Toughness. If not allocated by the time you fall asleep it will be done automatically.

As soon as the guard is dead his icy wall begins to crumble, and Krvavy begins topping her mana back up with Transmute Blood.

The drained corpse of the guard falls to the ground with the last of his ice wall, revealing the final two guards standing ready on the other side. The scared one takes a step back, looking like he wants to do nothing more than turn and run off. But the other guard doesn’t share those fears, as he immediately lunges towards Krvavy.

Dropping the sword to grip her axe in both hands, Krvavy raises the bone-shaft up to block the incoming strike, which bites deeply into it. The guard tears his blade free and swings it at her again, though she easily bats it aside with the haft of her axe. Keeping the momentum, Krvavy bashes the end of her axe directly into his face, knocking the guard back.

56.12 Damage dealt to [Other Guard]

This fight was much easier than she expected it to be. The only one of these guards that really felt like a threat was the icy one, and that was only at range. She is feeling really confident that she can win this right no–

-80 Health

A thunderous crack booms out as a searing pain spreads across her upper back. Getting around the wall of ice had put the wagons and carriage behind her, and it would seem that whoever was in the carriage has stepped out of it.

The bloodied face of the guard in front of her beams triumphantly as he quickly pulls back.

Krvavy hears a crackling sound from behind her and only has a moment to react. These two remaining guards are the least of her problem right now, so she twists around as fast as she can and brings her axe up defensively.

-57.43 Health

The head of her axe glows red with heat as a flash of light fills her vision. She blocked the attack, but that didn’t seem to fully work, as a searing still pain travels down both her arms.

As he light fades away Krvavy has only a moment to see this new foe. It is an old man with a thick white beard. He is wearing a black robe with a matching cylindrical hat that trails a veil of sorts back over his shoulders. In his hand is a black cane topped in silver, pointed right at her.

-57.22 Health

A bolt of lighting arcs from the cane and collides with her thigh, scorching the scales and burning her flesh. This is bad. She can only take a few more of these hits before she’ll run out of health. And desperately casting Knit Flesh doesn’t seem to be restoring any of her health, just lessening the pain.

With no other option, Krvavy charges towards the carriage. The old man is clearly a mage, so if she can bring her axe down on him then–

-28.61 Health

Those thoughts die in her head as bolts of lighting burst from the air around her, simultaneously arcing towards her body. The lighting burns as it coils around her, binding her into place mid stride.

-3.58 Health
-4.29 Health

The crackling white magic twists into solid cuffs that burn as she struggles against them. She is hardly able to move at all with the electric bands binding her wrists, calves, biceps, tail, neck, and even her horns and axe to the air.

Another figure suddenly emerges from the carriage, deftly landing onto the ground beside the old man. This new figure is another man and looks to be in his forties or fifties, with slightly greying black hair and a neatly trimmed beard. He is wearing a regal black military looking outfit with a silver sash hanging across his chest and has a sabre hanging from his hip.

“What do we have here?” He asks the old man, sounding disinterested.

“A lone ice lizard,” the lightning wizard responds with a hoarse voice, “likely feral.”

“It made short work of my men.”

“They are just newbloods.” The old wizard rasps out. “We left–”

“Yes, yes. I know. It was my decision to leave the Guard behind to not raise suspicion.” The militaristic man offhandedly states.

-10.01 Health

Krvavy struggles against the electric bindings, to no avail. The pain and failure infuriate her, and she finally lets the haze of rage overtake her.

-14.31 Health

The extra strength from her anger is just enough to break free from the cuffs, taking a step forwards and bellowing out in rage. “WIZARD!”

-21.46 Health

She is immediately wrapped up in even more coils of lightning, which sear her flesh. She doesn’t know how much health she has left, and she isn’t in any state to check, but she must be close to ****. This might be the end.

“Wait.” The militaristic man orders. “Don’t kill it. The beast can speak.”

The searing pain suddenly comes to a stop, though the lightning remains. Her whole body freezes up as electricity spreads across her, locking up her muscles and preventing her from moving. Even breathing is a struggle.

You have been inflicted with Enforced Honesty. Magic dampens your temper and compels you to tell the truth.

The old lightning wizard nods once to his superior, who steps towards Krvavy. “Beast, how long have you been in these lands?”

“O-ver a w-eek...!” The words **** their way out of Krvavy’s lips. She didn’t want to answer the question, but she still did.

The militaristic man frowns and steels his gaze. “Have you come across any bandits in that time?”

“Y-e-s...!” The magic forces Krvavy to answer, but it wanted her to say more. She can’t keep herself from talking, but it seems that she can still resist the magic a bit.

“Were they led by a man with a... powerful crossbow? You do know what that is, yes?”

“Hnnngh!” Krvavy tries biting back her answer, but she ultimately fails. “Ye-sss...! A-nd y-es!” She doesn’t like where this conversation is going. Why does this man want to know about the bandits she killed?

“Where are they?”

“G-g-gone!” She growls out. That is technically the truth, which seems to be enough to keep the magic from forcing her to say any more.

The militaristic man scowls and turns his back to Krvavy. “Those rats. We had a deal! Where could they have gone?!”

The magic tries to **** the answer out of her, but Krvavy resists as much as she can. She is just barely able to stop herself from talking, and only because that question wasn’t directed at her, but even then she can feel it creeping down her tongue. If only she can hold it back a little bit longer...

Her eyes go wide as that sudden thought brings her to a realization. She had just levelled up.

Taking the gamble, Krvavy grits her teeth and hastily dumps all five attribute points into Willpower, bringing it up to twenty. “Go fuck yourself!” She growls out, the haze of rage returning to her mind along with the extra strength it brings.

-11.44 Health

With an electric crack Krvavy partially breaks free from her lightning cuffs, swinging her axe down at the back of the regal man.

-28.61 Health

But her axe doesn’t bite down, as crackling lighting engulfs her limbs and binds her back in place once more.

“Dovoryn...” The old man shakes his head. “Be careful around the beast.”

Spittle flies from Krvavy’s mouth as she struggles against the searing cuffs, straining her body as much as she can and trying to power through the pain.

“It is no longer of any use to me. Put the thing down.” The militaristic man orders as he begins to walk back to the carriage.

-14.3 Health

Krvavy’s mind is immediately filled with an indescribable searing pain as the magical bindings begin to **** lightning into her body. Time seems to slow down to a crawl as the lightning arcs across her skin and scales, charring her with each little leap.

-14.3 Health

She can feel her flesh bubbling, smell herself burning.

-14.3 Health

Her vision goes white as her axe turns to ash and slag in her charred hands, crumbling away along with her fingers.

-14.3 Health

Her insides sizzle and cook, and though she can no longer hear it she can still feel the steam **** its way out through her throat.

-715.3 Health

An excruciating bolt of pain pierces her chest, and spreads across the remains of her body in an instant, searing it all away.