Into The Fray

Krvavy sighs deeply, slowly exhaling out through her mouth.

She is quite frustrated with herself. Her mind is telling her to turn back and head home. But her gut, some damned instinct, is urging her on. After all, she has had really good luck with random encounters so far. If you don’t count the one where she died.

If she had ignored the mouthwatering smokey scent of the Orcs’ campfire, then she never would have met Khalia. If she had ignored the smoke from the bandit camp, then she never would have found Thea. If she had ignored the boom and smoke from the fight between Beryl and the sketchy fire mage, then she never would have met her elf.

Huh. Krvavy never really thought about it, but she basically met all three of her girls because of smoke. Kind of odd, but not the point...

The barbarian shakes her head, clearing it of thoughts and leaving her feeling a little disappointed in herself. Krvavy has already made up her mind, hasn’t she? Why else would she be bothering to justify it so much? If she didn’t want to go, then she would already be heading home. So she might as well stop wasting time and just get on with it.

But if she dies from this... Well, Krvavy is going to be furious.

Clicking her tongue once, Krvavy cautiously makes her way through the sparse woodland, drawn towards the false thunder like a moth to the flame.

As she walks in the general direction that the sounds are coming from, the barbarian notices a thick white cloud poking out above the treetops. But something tells her that it isn’t a cloud. For one, it looks far too dense, not really bleeding out into thinner parts at the edges like she would expect from a cloud.

So is it smoke? Krvavy isn’t an expert on burning things, but it looks a little bit too white for that. She’d think that there would be at least a tinge of grey...

Her eyes suddenly snap back down to the ground. There is a tree stump in front of her. No, there are multiple tree stumps ahead of her. And they all look freshly cut. Well, that settles it. There are definitely people around here, so that cloud definitely isn’t natural.

Krvavy’s Soulbound weapon manifests in her hands, its large axehead gleaming in the sunlight.

A faint acidic scent fills the air as she approaches the dense cloud of smoke. It disorientates her a little bit, as the smell reminds her of nail polish remover. Not something that Krvavy was expecting, by any means.

The thunderous cracks get louder as she approaches, but there are now larger gaps between each one, letting Krvavy hear other noises between the echoes. The clanging of metal against metal, muffled voices shouting out, and the sounds of stomping feet buried beneath it all.

Krvavy slowly comes to a stop, surrounded by scattered tree stumps and trampled bushes. Ahead of her the ground slopes downwards, leading straight into the thick smoke. The obvious sounds of battle ring out from within the dense haze.

The barbarian hesitates, not willing to just immediately head down into the unknown. She isn’t going to turn back now, but she can’t just stroll blindly into the middle of a fight. But... there also isn’t anything she can really do to prepare herself. She has no idea what exactly is happening in there.

At least the smoke should help obscure her form, providing some cover for Krvavy. Though that goes both ways, hiding whatever is within it from her just as well...

Shaking her head, Krvavy takes a step forwards. No point in stalling any longer. With her weapon in hand the barbarian enters the smoke.

Her throat stings with each breath and her eyes water. The miasma around her doesn’t exactly hurt, as she isn’t getting any damage notifications or status effects, but it isn’t really comfortable either. She’ll just have to make this quick, which might be a bit hard considering how little she can see...

The smoke is ridiculously thick. Krvavy can hardly even see the ground beneath her feet while looking straight down at it. Krvavy can’t see the head of her axe when she holds it out in front of her. The sunlight can barely penetrate the smoke, making everything within rather dark and dim.

The sounds of battle surround her, though the thunderous cracks that drew the barbarian in have become even less frequent. What even were they in the first place?

“Tough little bastard...” A muffled voice grumbles out from the smoke ahead of her.

Krvavy cautiously creeps towards the source of the voice, where she sees a man crouching down and leaning onto his sword, the point of which is jammed between the metal plates of an unmoving armoured body.

The man seems to be thoroughly distracted, catching his breath as he grumbles out in annoyance, giving Krvavy the chance to approach and get a better look at him. At first he seems fairly normal, wearing a padded gambeson with the a fair bit of metal armour atop it, but that changes when his head comes into view.

He is wearing a mask. A rather odd looking one at that. It has mesh domes over the eyes and what seems like a snout. It... looks like a creepy amalgamation of a fly’s face, a gas mask, and a plague doctors mask. But what it doesn’t look like is armour.

Critical Hit! 918.52 Damage dealt to [Tired Masked Man]

[Tired Masked Man] has been slain!
+1,000 Experience

Her axe bites down on the exposed back of his neck, cutting through his spine and taking his head clean off.

The obscene amount of damage she dealt hardly registers to Krvavy, as her focus is entirely on how much experience that kill got her. One thousand. That is a lot. Not quite as much as the rock bear gave her, but there was only one rock bear. This guy didn’t seem particularly special, but if he gave her around the same amount of experience as the sketchy fire mage that Beryl lost a fight to...

Krvavy might be a bit out of her depth here, surrounded by people who may very well be around level thirty.

She is very much playing with fire here. Her mind is telling her to turn back before she dies, as a fair fight with one of these men probably won’t end well for her. But, once again, her gut is telling her to push on, that if she can get a few more stealth kills like this then she will level up and grow stronger.

So of course she listens to her instincts. Even if it feels incredibly stupid and ridiculously risky. The potential reward is just to good for her to pass up.

Blood flows up the haft of her axe, disappearing as it touches her knuckles. If Krvavy is going to stick around then she will need all of the mana she can get. Though thankfully she doesn’t need all that much, these two bodies providing enough to almost completely fill her up. She definitely made the right choice these past few days, only casting Seismic Stomp to keep her from wasting any of her mana regeneration. If she had done the opposite, casting it whenever she could, then Krvavy might have been screwed here.

Moving her axe aside, she pushes the headless corpse off of the armoured one, letting her see it clearly through the smoke. The body, covered head to toe in thick metal armour, is not that of a human.

No, it is quite obviously a Dwarf.

If the body’s short and stocky form wasn’t enough to convince her, then the armour would certainly be. It looks rather stereotypically dwarven, being fairly bulky with angular lines and intricate engravings.

To be completely honest, if Krvavy saw this Dwarf standing upright and not moving, then she would think that he was a statue, not a man in a suit of armour. There isn’t a single bit of fabric, leather, or even chain showing anywhere, just layered metal plates of varying thickness covering his entire body. And by that Krvavy really means the entire body, as she can’t see any skin either: even the eye holes on the helmet are filled with some sort of dull lenses.

And speaking of that helmet, Krvavy is having a hard time taking her eyes off of it. The thing is rather... uncanny. Instead of just being a normal helmet, it seems to have a detailed and realistic face as a mask, which stands out against the angular style of the armour. It has a squarish nose, thick eyebrows, stern lips, and even a large beard of carved curling hair that extends halfway down the Dwarf’s chest. And checking beneath the metal beard shows an actual beard of thick black hair pressed against the smooth breastplate.

Her eyes then trail off to the side, looking at the Dwarf’s loosely opened hand. Laying atop it is a pickaxe made entirely out of metal. Not a warpick, but an actual pickaxe, with one side being a sharp point and the other being more of a wedge. In the center, where the head meats the shaft, is the face of a Dwarf. Though rather than being realistic like the mask, this depiction is done in the same angular style as the armour, with a helmet covering any details of the face.

A thunderous crack from off to the side snaps Krvavy out of her thoughts. She wasted a good minute or so just looking at this dead Dwarf and his armour. Not a particularly smart thing to do in the middle of a battlefield. She should really get a move on, but there isn’t any harm in a tiny bit of looting first...

Krvavy frowns slightly as she quickly looks over the Dwarf. She can’t see anything to take: no pouches or pockets to pilfer. There is just the pickaxe. So, with a shrug of her shoulders, the barbarian decides to grab it. The thing does look rather nice, and she can just hang it from her hip, putting it through the belt of her loincloth.

She then looks towards the headless human corpse. At a glance, the only thing that really stands out is a thick pouch hanging from the front of his waist. But that pouch looks rather firm, and it has a wick sticking out of it...? Is it a bomb? It doesn’t have a hard case or anything that looks like it’d make good shrapnel, so maybe it is some sort of flashbang? Or a smoke bomb. That makes more sense, considering the weird gas mask and the smoke all around her.

The barbarian shakes her head. This really isn’t the time or place to rummage through some pockets. She is already taking a huge risk being here, so no point in making it more dangerous for herself. Especially since she won’t be able to keep any of it if she dies.

And so she continues walking into the smoke, taking just a moment to make sure that she is going in the same direction as before. She does not want to get lost in here, surrounded by people who will most likely kill her on sight.

Loud and angry shouting pierces through the smoke ahead of her, though Krvavy cannot understand a word of what is being said.

Due to your Not So Cunning Linguist trait you are [1%] of the way towards learning Emeku-Tena.

And that would explain why. With all the various other sounds surrounding her, it is rather hard to determine wha–

A booming explosion rings out, shaking the ground beneath her feet and causing a blinding light to pierce through the smoke for just a moment. Krvavy gets a brief view of a silhouette of something very large and rectangular ahead of her. Hopefully she was in its shadow and no one got to see her silhouette, as she definitely stands out amongst these Dwarves and Humans.

Rather than do the smart thing and leave while she is ahead, Krvavy decides to approach that large rectangle. It looked kind of like a cart or a wagon, if she had to be honest, as it was raised off the ground a slight bit. So there is probably something good in there.

The rectangle looms out of the smoke as she approaches it, and Krvavy pauses as she sees it through the stinging haze. It is a train. Or, at least it looks like an old-timey train. But taking a closer look shows that it’s large wheels aren’t on a track and this is just a single segment on its own.

Still, it is a rather odd sight, though as she sees more details it makes a bit more sense. The thing is angular and bulky, looking rather similar in style to the Dwarf’s armour. So it would seem that these Dwarves got attacked by the Humans, though she has no idea why.

And speaking of Humans, there appears to be one bashing onto the door of this odd train car with a hammer. A clearly Dwarven hammer.

“Argh! Dammit! Open up already!” His muffled voice grumbles out, to busy hammering away to notice Krvavy’s approach.

Critical Hit! 603.53 Damage dealt to [Hammer Wielding Masked Man]

“UAAHHGH!” The man screams out through his mask as his breath is **** out of him by Krvavy’s axe colliding with his upper back.

Slightly panicked that she didn’t just one-shot him despite the surprise attack, Krvavy slams her body against the back of her axe.

Critical Hit! 716.81 Damage dealt to [Hammer Wielding Masked Man]

[Hammer Wielding Masked Man] has been slain!
+1,150 Experience

Stumbling a bit as she catches her balance, Krvavy breathes out a sigh of relief and pulls back, letting the body fall to the ground. She got more experience from that guy, so he must have been a slightly higher level. Rather worrying.

Now right up against the Dwarven train car, Krvavy can see it much better. That doesn’t really help much, but it is interesting to see that it seems to have two large ox-like animals tied to the front, though they are both lying down and unmoving...

Shaking her head, the barbarian turns her attention to the door that the masked man was battering against. It hardly looks damaged at all, with just a few scrapes across its metal shape. Rather than just start wailing on it, Krvavy decides to look for a doorknob or some sort of handle. At the very least that would likely be a slightly weaker spot to try and break.

Her eyes trail back and forth across it, before pausing on a subtle piece that just barely sticks out. It kind of looks like the handle on a car door, with the area beneath it indented a bit. Reaching a hand out, Krvavy hooks a finger behind it and pulls.

The door clicks and swings open a crack.

Krvavy is momentarily stunned. That was far too easy. Was it not locked? Or did the masked man end up damaging the lock? Well, regardless, she can get inside now. And that is exactly what she is going to do.

Opening the door completely, Krvavy steps into the odd Dwarven train car. It is incredibly cramped for someone of her size, and–

Directly ahead of her are two unarmoured Dwarves, a man and a woman. They both have dark grey skin, like smooth polished stone, and thick coal-black hair. The man is wearing a white robe with triangular gold trimming adorned with polished blue stones, but Krvavy’s eyes are solely one the woman.

She is absolutely beautiful.

Her eyes are a piercing copper-orange settled beneath dense eyebrows. Her face, while a bit square, is framed by thick braids of hair trailing down from the sides of her head and looping together beneath her chin, looking like a series of necklaces or some sort of fake beard. Her ever so slightly pointed ears have thick golden hoops hanging from them. The little bit of her neck that Krvavy can see is covered in gold rings and necklaces of amber beads.

Atop her head is a string of polished black and orange beads, dangling golden disks down across the width of her forehead. Her coal-black hair flows back over her shoulders, fluffing out wider than her stout body and almost reaching down to the floor.

But all of that pales in comparison to what lays below her beautiful face. She is wearing a dress in a similar style to the Dwarf man, with thick white fabric trimmed with zigzagging golden triangles and adorned with polished orange amber. The dress covers her entire body, but it does nothing to hide her form, clinging tightly to her wide hips and straining at the size of her tits.

They are absolutely massive. Each breast is easily bigger than her head, possibly even twice the size. Krvavy is in awe at just how large they are, looking almost ridiculous on the Dwarven woman’s short body. She just can’t take her eyes off o–

-431.3 Health
You have been inflicted with a Moderate Wound: Bleeding. You will lose 0.75 Health per minute as long as the bleeding continues.

A thunderous boom fills her ears, accompanied by a blinding flash of light and an agonizing pain shooting through her left shoulder.

The Dwarven man is holding a thick metal tube in his hands, with a slight bit of smoke wafting from its tip. He has a gun.

Without even thinking about it, Krvavy stabs her bloody Soulbound weapon forwards. The Dwarf man raises his bulky rifle to block her strike, but he is unable to do more than slow its approach. His gun gets jammed between the axe and his chest as the sharp spear penetrates through his beard and into his collarbone.

255.54 Damage dealt to [Dwarf Gunman]

Growling through gritted teeth and ignoring the pain, Krvavy pushes the Dwarf back against the wall, pinning him in place.

43.8 Damage dealt to [Dwarf Gunman]

The Dwarf is unable to free his bulky rifle and begins to desperately grab at the shaft of Krvavy’s Soulbound weapon. But he doesn’t have the strength to push her back. Not even slightly.

Krvavy is filled with anger as she raises her left hand up to the bleeding wound on her shoulder. It is the same damn spot that the bandit chief shot her. She just lost that scar, and now it looks like she’ll have another in its place.

She doesn’t feel any blood running down her back, so the bullet appears to have gotten stuck on a bone. She’ll need to get it out, and that just makes her even more furious.

+202.35 Health

All of her mana goes into mending the wound. Despite her growing rage, Krvavy had enough presence of mind to try to direct her regrowing flesh into pushing out the bullet. And it worked. The bloody ball of metal plops out into her palm with a sickening wet pop as her flesh knits itself back together.

She drops the bullet to the ground, missing the look of pure horror on the Dwarven man’s face. Unlike all the other times she has healed herself with Knit Flesh, it slightly hurts to move her shoulder. Some instinctual feeling tells her the reason for that: her bone was shattered by the bullet, and the meat of her flesh pushed it together, where it is holding the bone pieces in place.

Grimacing in rage, Krvavy cleans up the blood by absorbing it into her mana, before doing the same to the still-living Dwarf.

8.2 Damage dealt to [Dwarf Gunman]
16.4 Damage dealt to [Dwarf Gunman]
32.8 Damage dealt to [Dwarf Gunman]
65.6 Damage dealt to [Dwarf Gunman]

The Dwarf gasps out in terror as his blood is pulled from his wound and dragged towards Krvavy. There is nothing he can do but watch as his life is drained from his body.

131.2 Damage dealt to [Dwarf Gunman]
262.4 Damage dealt to [Dwarf Gunman]

[Dwarf Gunman] has been slain!
+850 Experience

Level Up! You have reached Level 12. 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.

+1 Divine Favour, for growing in strength.

Krvavy pulls back her Soulbound weapon, letting the desiccated corpse fall limp to the ground. She pants out heavily, rage circling through her mind. All of that blood, that fresh blood, restored barely more than forty points of mana.

A slight shuffling sound draws her attention to the side. The Dwarf woman is reaching for something.

The barbarian snaps out a hand, firmly grabbing onto the Dwarf woman’s arm. Krvavy is absolutely not in any state to think clearly right now, so the only thing passing through her rage-filled mind is that she wants this beautiful shortstack Dwarf.

And so, that is what she does. Krvavy drags the Dwarf towards her, not even noticing the large bag clutched in the woman’s hands. Stepping backwards and out of the odd train car, Krvavy slings the Dwarf up over her left shoulder, ignoring the sharp pain that shoots through her body as a result.

Krvavy wanted some loot, and that is exactly what she got. Now it is time to leave, lest she lose her deserved prize.

Turning around, the barbarian quickly begins heading off through the smoke. The clanging metal and thunderous booms are nothing compared to the sound of her heart beating in her ears.

“Wha–?!” A masked man limps out of the smoke directly in Krvavy’s path, calling out in confusion as he sees her towering form.

Critical Hit! 865.86 Damage dealt to [Wounded Masked Man]

[Wounded Masked Man] has been slain!
+1,350 Experience

The barbarian doesn’t even break her stride, simply just swinging her axe towards the man’s head and stepping over the limp body as it crumples to the ground.