Darius and the witch, as well as a handful of men, travelled west.

Before Grimwood was even a place, it was instead known as the northern plains.

Darius sat in the back of the cart in silence, he was thinking about his journey.

"Once I find the index I'll track down all the essential NPCs... then I'll..." he didn't know what he'd do next.

"Will I able to just... fight the gods? Will one of the essential NPCs be a powerful magician?"

The cart suddenly stopped in its tracks, giving the lost-in-thought Darius a jolt.

"What's happening?" he asked.

"T-the horses! They're refusing to move!" exclaimed someone from the front.

"Shield-charge!" screamed someone in the distance as the cart was torn in two, limbs and blood flew out along with the splintered wood as the attacker flew clean through the cart as if he was a cannonball.

From the rubble of the cart, Darius emerged, sword at the ready.

He looked around, they stood on a dirt road going through the lush green forest around modern-day Grimwood.

With a glance he could tell the attacker was level ninety.

"Darius, you brought dishonour onto the mortal races!" he screeched.

"A paladin..." Darius thought.

"I didn't expect the god's ass-wipe to appear here so soon!" Darius remarked.

He pulled his sword back.

"Sword charge!" he flew forward his silver blade hitting the paladin's shield and shattering.

"How do you expect us to face our divine masters?!" the look in the paladin's eyes was psychotic.

He wore massive golden armour, on his back was a white cape.

His hair was cut short and was light blond in colour.

The paladin grabbed Darius by the throat.

"Shit..." Darius knew he was out-matched, even with his best weapon he didn't stand a chance against a paladin, a direct servant of the gods, somone outside the divine-plan.

In a desparate attempt at damaging the man, Darius pulled his claws back and planted them in the man's face, blood running down his gouged eye-sockets and torn skin.

The paladin didn't react as he continued to tighten the grasp he held over Darius' throat.

The Paladin jumped as his back began causing him intense agony, he turned back and saw the witch,

"Necrotic Wind!" she exclaimed again, causing the paladin's skin to blacken upon being exposed to the black wind that appeared from her palm.

"Stay out of this magic-user!" the paladin exclaimed, his eyes were healed already.

Effortlessly he thrust Darius back, causing his body to smash through a tree and fall limply to the grass.

"Darius!" cried the witch,

Her gaze returned to the paladin.

"Necrotic Feast!" she exclaimed as a murder of crows sprouted from within her sleeve and began tearing into the paladin.

"Shield Charge!" exclaimed the paladin, flying past the birds and into the witch, causing her to be sent flying backwards with an unpleasant crunch.

"Fuck!" she exclaimed before landing face-first in the dirt road.

She tried to get up only to be met with the intense pain in her gut, "This... is why ribs are overrated!" she thought feeling the handfull of shattered ribs in her torso.

The paladin began making his way towards the witch, she extended her hand towards him, "Necrotic-" she stopped when she saw the Paladin spin around.

The sound of footsteps filled the otherwise silent night.

Darius charged at the Paladin, an equally crazed look in his eyes, he held two swords that he picked up from the dead guards.

Darius' sword and the paladin's shield met once more, neither faltered as sparks flew out.

"SILVER SWORDS ARE OVERRATED!" Darius bellowed, using the other sword to slash at the paladin's face.

With his great shield, the paladin pushed Darius down to the ground as he wiped the blood from his face.

Darius jumped to his feet.

"You dare to oppose your rightious death!?" demanded the paladin.

"Necrotic mist!" exclaimed the witch as the whole road became coated in a thick, black fog that burned the lungs and blackened the skin.

In a flash, Darius leap past the paladin and snatched the witch off the ground before escaping into the forest.

"Thanks for the lift..." the witch said holding back any discomfort the broken ribs caused her.

"Thanks for the fog... I was worried our journey would be cut short..." Darius exclaimed.

Eventually the group made it to a small, abandoned shack in the woods, once there, Darius and the witch breathed a sigh of relief, seemingly having lost the paladin.

"That was close..." Darius remarked.

"No shit..." sighed the witch, she reached into the large sack on her back and pulled out a vial of red liquid, she drank about a quarter of it herself before tossing Darius another one.

"Thanks..." he said before drinking the potion.

He felt himself fully recover to peak performance.

"Woah..."

"Pretty potent, eh? Well, I hope you're not planning on leaving this shack for a while, because that was way past the recomended daily limit..." the witch said barely holding back laughter.

"..."

"What?"

Darius proceeded to throw up for the rest of the night as the witch comforted him, patting his back, "There, there, eat some grass or something, dogs do that when they're sick, right?" she said jokingly.

Darius lost faith in potions that long, unpleasant night.

He woke up the next morning with what felt like the worst hangover possible, times two.

"Morning..." the witch remarked, she was sitting on the old, dusty couch and reading a book.

"I feel... like shit..." Darius admitted.

"Man up, 'captain Darius'" she said his name and title in a low-pitched voice.

He took a deep breath.

"Yeah... still feel like shit..."

"I told you, I can brew you an antidote," she offered once more.

"Hell no, no more potions! Never again!" Dariuus quickly replied.

The witch rolled her eyes as she continued reading her book.

Darius stumbled over and sat down on the couch next to the witch.

"Ready to get going?" she asked,

"..."

"Give me a few more minutes..." he replied.

They weren't ready to continue their journey until the day after.