The two figures looked at each other before slightly lowering their bows.

“Taking him home would be too dangerous. Count Talias already has his soldiers on the way to loot everything and enslave everyone in the Barony. Let him come with us, you can even join us, and we will take him somewhere safe.”

“And what about the people of the Barony, what happens to them?”

“We can’t fight an army, and we cannot save everyone.”

“Maybe you can’t fight an army. I plan to give it a try. And what good is he if he has no lands or people to rule over?”

There was a quick whispered conversation between the two before one of them spoke up again.

“We are at an impasse. We cannot reveal why we need him to come with us alive. But we do not need him immediately. Would you be willing to release him in the future?”

“If they stop paying me, sure.”

“Oh, if this is a matter of payment I’m sure we can compensate you.”

He takes out a coin purse and pulls out a single shiny gold coin. Kegan’s lack of reaction prompts the figure to pull out a second gold coin. Followed by a third.

“Would this be enough to tempt you?”

“No.”

The figure sighs and dumps out the coin purse into his hand. There are two more gold coins and a dozen or so smaller silver coins.

“This is all we have, there is no way they were paying you this much, but we are desperate to be on your way.”

Kegan was aware of money, but the villagers mostly used barter, and only occasionally used copper coins. He’d never seen anyone use silver or gold coins, and he suspected they weren’t very valuable, so he just shook his head.

“A mercenary that won’t take silver and gold to betray his employer. I see that you care about your reputation. If only there were more good men in this world like you ...”

He was about to correct them, and explain that he was paid in food, but the two figures leaped backward and drew their bows once again. Kegan’s arms moved up to block his face but they weren’t aiming for his head. One arrow struck him in the shin, going straight through his leg. The other arrow hit him in the chest right where his heart was. But there was not enough power in the arrow to go all the way through his armor.

“Those were warning shots, do not follow us. If you want some healing for those wounds, seek out the elves.”

They had already picked up Lord Tasmeel and were running through the woods at an impressive speed. Their long legs carried them on huge leaping bounds.

Kegan was tired of getting shot with bolts and arrows. His camouflage went back into full effect. He snapped the arrow in his leg and was able to pull it out easily enough. His surgery perk was still running and started healing up the wound in his leg.

An arrow flew past Kegan, missing his head by only inches.

“We told you not to follow us!”

One of the elves shouted after shooting an arrow at Kegan’s shadowy figure.

Turning to the other elf he said quietly “Go, you were right, he’s a body mage of some kind. I’ll slow him down.”

The other elf hoisted Tasmeel onto his shoulders and shrunk in height by almost a full foot. His body became stockier, and his legs rippled with thicker muscles.

A javelin came flying out of the darkness towards the shifting elf. But the second elf stepped in front of it. The javelin hit him right in the center of his chest, making him stumble back.

The shifting elf turned back at the noise, but the second elf just shouted: “Run!”

More javelins flew out of the darkness. But both elves just dodged them. One of them running away quickly and the other firing arrows back at the dark blob getting closer.

Another javelin came flying at the elf from even closer, he dodged to the side only to see a knife flying at his face. He turned enough for the knife to only graze his face, but he’d lost sight of the shadow in the forest.

The night was still and quiet. The elf swept the forest looking for something to shoot at.

“You could join us, mage! Someone with your powers could live like a king in our nation.”

The sound of leaves crunching behind the elf made him swivel instantly and release an arrow into nothing.

Kegan’s trick worked and he closed the distance with the elf. His war hammer reaching out to hit the elf in the back. To his surprise the elf went flying with the hit, he was far lighter than he looked.

Instead of landing in a crumpled heap from the blow, the elf rolled and spun around releasing another arrow at Kegan. It struck him in the chest, with enough force to crack the rib it hit.

His last javelin flew towards the elf before he could gain any more distance. The javelin hit the elf’s stomach and staggered him long enough for Kegan to close the distance once again. War hammer in his right hand, while he drew a dagger with his left hand. The elf was consistently defending his head, even as he let other hits through, so Kegan focused on the head.

The bow snapped after only a few blows, and the elf resorted to defending himself with a small dagger in his right hand while his left hand fumbled for something at his belt.

The elf was too focused on his belt, and it left him too open. A triumphant grin spread on the elf’s face. Just as the reverse side spike of Kegan’s war hammer came slammed into his skull the elf had splashed a vial of liquid in Kegan’s face. The last thing Kegan saw was the dead frozen smile of the elf before his eyes and face began burning with searing pain.

There was a barely audible hissing sound over Kegan’s screams as he tried to wipe away whatever was on his face. Instead of helping anything he just spread the burning sensation further. His face felt like it was melting, his hands were wiping away skin and fat from his face.

His suicide perk was on the verge of activating before his active surgery perk took over, numbing the pain and slowly repairing his face.

Kegan woke up lying face down in the dirt, not even remembering when he ended up on the ground. The sun was rising, and rays of sunlight filtered through the forest.

As he pushed himself up, he noticed that the front of his leather gloves had melted away. His helmet was lying on the ground a few feet away. The front of it was also melted away. Some of the melted leather and bone had pooled in the helmet itself, making the whole thing worthless. The forest around him was also covered in spots where the substance had landed and melted through the leaves.

His eyes wandered over to the dead elf lying on the ground with his war hammer sticking out of its skull, and three javelins still in it. The body looked oddly deflated. The javelins were surprisingly hard to yank out of a corpse, but inspecting the holes left behind revealed why. The elf was muscle all the way through. No intestines, no heart, no lungs, no internal organs in the normal places. Except for the brain. There was a hard substance throughout the body to give it some structure, but he realized it wasn’t as strong as bone. It was more like the hard flesh of the nose or ears.

His curiosity had carried him away. When he finally felt most of his questions were answered he stood up to a gory sight. The elf’s body was cut open and splayed all over the forest floor. There was no blood, just a strange slick yellow colored substance between some of the muscles. The head had been the last thing he checked, but it was a perfectly normal head from the neck up. Just below the neck in the top of the chest, he had finally found some internal organs. A tiny heart, a small lung, and a weird-looking stomach that seemed to be a dead end.

Kegan was fairly knowledgeable about bodies. He’d butchered hundreds of animals, and killed humans, orcs, and goblins in bloody combat. His internal surgery perk also gave him an innate sense of how his own body worked whenever he needed to repair that part of his body. All of that experience made this elf body the weirdest thing he had ever seen.

He shook his head and went searching for all of his javelins, and the arrows fired off by the elf. Half an hour later he heard moaning coming from the location of the elf. He rushed over to find the elf’s body trying to pull itself back together. The hole in its head was sealing up the slowest, another few minutes and it might be fully healed. But the rest of the body would take longer to pull itself back together.

He growled in frustration. Regenerating enemies were the worst. Luckily he had a solution to this problem. He planted the war hammer’s spike back in the elf’s skull, killing it again. Then he used his fire starter perk to start burning up the body. The skin of the elf seemed highly fire-resistant. It wouldn’t burn even when placed directly in the fire, but the rest of the elf burned just fine. An hour later there was just a slowly burning pile of sticks and logs where the elf had been.

Kegan realized Lord Tasmeel was lost. Following an elf that could run as fast as himself would be hard, and tracking him might be impossible. Horses were easy to follow, but he had less confidence in following these elves. He hoped that he could work something out with the villagers to continue his food payment arrangements. He finished collecting his javelins and arrows and headed back towards the keep.

Kegan arrived back at the keep to find a group of about fifty of Count Talias’ men waiting out of crossbow range from the keep. Three men on horseback had ridden closer to the keep and were talking with three of the guardsmen.

He walked past the group of soldiers, some of them called out for him to stop, but he ignored them and just kept walking. It sounded like they wanted to shoot him, but doing so would break the temporary truce, and get their leaders killed.

Walking up to the conversation taking place, the guard Jacus spotted Kegan and did a double-take.

“Kegan?”

The other five men in the conversation turned to stare at him as he walked up.

“Who is this?” One of the men on horseback spoke up in an annoyed tone.

Before Kegan could answer Jacus spoke up again.

“Kegan is our steward and champion.” Kegan saw Jacus mouth the word ‘sorry’ at him.

“Hah! You must either be brave or suicidal. No matter, this will allow us to quickly resolve the matter of this rebellious territory.”

The three horsemen trotted off towards the group of soldiers.

Kegan turned back to Jacus, “What did you just do?”

“Don’t be mad Kegan. You just have to fight a few of their men and when you win they’ll acknowledge you as Lord Tasmeel’s temporary steward and his stand-in until he comes of age.”

“Lord Tasmeel is gone, I couldn’t catch up with him.”

“That is even better, Tasmeel isn’t around to say we are lying.”

“Is fighting a couple of men is all it takes to become lord … that seems odd, I thought you had to be born in the right family.”

“Well you won’t be a lord, you’ll be a steward of his lands and the champion that defends the lands. Slight difference. A lord can have a man stand-in for his position until he comes of age.”

“Why didn’t Gregory do this instead of running off?”

“Well, there was a problem where the stewards didn’t like giving up their power. So the king and the nobles created a rule that the steward could be challenged for his position by any man of equal status. So if a noble is a steward then only other nobles can challenge him for the position.”

“Am I a noble now that I hold lands?”

“No, you’re considered a common man like all of us …”

Jacus looked nervously at Kegan.

“So anyone can challenge me?”

“Yeah”

Kegan turned around to look at the soldiers, about twenty of them were lining up in a single file line. The rest were standing around holding crossbows.

“Jacus”

“Yeah, Kegan?”

“I’m tired of being shot, go get the biggest shield you can find. No nevermind, not a shield, go get a door and bring it with you.”

Kegan started walking to the midpoint between the Keep and the soldiers where an area was being cleared.

“Wait do you you want me to get the door before you go out there.”

“No Jacus, bring it with you. You’re the one that got me into this mess, so you’re gonna be out there once they decide to fill me full of crossbow bolts.”

Jacus swallowed and then sighed, “Guess I deserve that.”

Kegan turned back away from Jacus to hide his smile. Finally, these people were starting to make some sense. He never quite understood the whole concept of nobility, and since he didn’t know his mother or father he felt it was a bad system for him. But now he could just fight for control of the land. He was under no illusions that Count Talias’ troops would honor the deal. They didn’t matter though. What mattered was food to fuel all of his perks. Kegan started salivating thinking of all the food and power he could gain with an entire village under his control.