Arn silently cursed as he skinned the dire bear. Parts of the hide were ruined of course, but the thing was enormous so there was still a huge amount of work to do, and the hide was incredibly thick and hard to cut. And the rest of the team was just sitting around, flipping watching while pretending to be on guard, bitching and moaning about how long it was taking. If Val said one more word . . .

Right on cue, Val obliged. “Arn, we are in serious danger here. The smoke must have carried the scent over a couple of square miles. How much longer?”

Arn’s blood boiled. “AS I ALREADY EXPLAINED, I HAVE FOUR IN SKINNING, A STARTER-QUALITY SKINNING KIT AND THIS IS A GIANT FREAKING BEAR. I also told you that what I’m doing doesn’t even require Skinning – we are close to town, so who cares what kind of meat is still attached to the hide. A toddler with a knife could help. BUT YOU ALL ARE FLIPPING STANDING AROUND. For all that, I’m basically done with what I can get at – gather round and help me flip the bear so I can do the belly.”

Val and Pepper moved to help without comment, but Keana blanched and stuttered, “I’m sorry Arn, but I can’t. No way. Plus, I’m still sewing up your coat.” Sar added “and I’m a glass arrow, no strength, probably couldn’t lift one of its legs, I’d just get in the way.” Arn stewed, but appreciated that he had been wrong about Pepper. Girl is solid, the only one really worth a damn in the whole group. I owe her big time for patching me up. No telling how long it takes to regrow a whole damn arm. Pity she looks like she has to take a shit morning, noon and night.

As Arn approached the finish line, Princess growled, and was answered by what sounded like mocking laughter from all around them. The group quickly came alert. Pepper tersely explained, “devil dogs, circling. Use the bear’s bulk to guard your back, Arn on one side, Val on the other, Princess and I’ll back Arn, you two back Val.” The group leapt to comply . . . and nothing happened. Arn tried to remember the Mayor’s brief discussion. Something like “don’t let their size fool you. They aren’t especially fast, but they are very hard to kill for new groups and their bite can crush bones. They are mostly scavengers, not especially brave, but they will attack a group now and then if they have the numbers, especially if you are wounded.”

Pepper fired an arrow and was rewarded with an immediate pained yelp. A second later, the jungle exploded with silver-spotted devil dogs, each almost a foot shorter than Princess at the shoulder but very stocky for their size with tightly bundled muscle clearly visibly under their hides as they ran. They attacked from all directions, maniacally laughing while charging.

Arn stood two feet in front and slightly to the right of Pepper and Princess. Arn counted four devil dogs, rushing in a fan formation, and Screamed forward, causing the forward two to trip. And arrow flew past him diagonally, hitting the devil dog on the right of the fan in the shoulder. Arn took a small step forward and stabbed the right-most stunned devil dog in the neck, penetrating about six inches before hitting bone, and brought his shield down on the head of the other. Princess calmly waited on devil dog rushing up on the left, charging forward at the last minute and leaping. Pepper took a step to the left to get an angle and, after a second waiting for a clear shot, buried an arrow in the devil dog jousting with Princess. As the stunned devil dogs started to stir, Arn Screamed again, and kicked at the Devil Dog with his sword ledged in its chest, simultaneous pulling to withdraw it. Arn directed a large looping cut at the legs of the devil dog he had stabbed with his full strength and severed a leg, leading to a high pitched howl.

Devil Dog Slain By Party!

Devil Dog Slain By Party!

After the two notifications, Arn heard a piercing howl from the other side of the dire bear corpse, and the Devil Dogs turned as one to retreat – or tried too. As the three-legged devil dog tried to hop away, Arn dropped his sword and shield and leapt on it, drawing his daggers to finish it.

Devil Dog Slain!

* * *

Val saw six devil dogs charging in a straight line like an oncoming brick wall and briefly wondered who they would lose before his training took over. Val Quick Stepped, closing the gap in a blink, stabbed one devil dog in the eye, battered another with his shield angled to deflect it, turned to the devil dog passing on the right and activated Flury stabbing the passing devil dog in the side four times in a heart beat. Val dismissed his kill notifications and turned to reassess the battlefield. Seeing Sar using Flame Wave on a lone devil dog, he dismissed him from his thoughts for now and turned to see Keana agilely dancing away from two attackers. She will need help. As he gathered himself for a Quick Step, Val heard a pained yowl from Arn and Pepper’s side, and the devil dog he had deflected with his shield howled. As one, the devil dogs turned to retreat.

* * *

High fives and congratulations were exchanged. Keana expressed awe at Val’s performance, and Arn made sure to thank Pepper for taking charge and having his back. He thought he – almost – that he saw a hint of a smile flicker across her face for an instant. But the prospect of three more corpses was daunting, and needed to be addressed, so Arn considered the task at hand.

Arn raised his hand and spoke loudly to get the excited group’s attention. “I’m almost done with the bear. I’ll probably have to rope the hide to my back unless someone has a sack that big. There will be a ton of meat still on the hide, and Pepper and I stink of death. We need to get out of here. With these things being on the small side, I don’t think it’s worth taking the time to skin them. Something that size requires more skill to skin decently as well. But that one, the one Val stabbed in the eye, the hide is pristine, someone ought to just carry that one considering we are close. I can do it, if someone else wants to take the bloody bear hide. I doubt there are gem hearts in the two corpses, but someone ought to check.”

As Arn worked to finish up the hide, Pepper approached. “Arn, I’m a mess already, may as well start digging for hopefully the gem heart, yeah?” Arn nodded and decided a little more praise wouldn’t hurt. “Absolutely. Thanks for stepping up to get shit done. You’re solid Pepper and I really appreciate it.” Pepper snorted, rolled her eyes and drew a dagger to get to work.

As Arn finished, he surveyed Pepper’s work. The dire bear was so massive that she wasn’t able to simply cut and split the chest open, instead she was slowly carving out chunks. Arn thought about helping with his sword or daggers, but wished he had something sharper. In theory, an ordinary steel blade could keep the same edge as spell forged steel if maintened carefully, but in practice the difference was immense. I need to upgrade my blade. Hardly penetrated the dire bear’s hide even with my strength getting up there, and I should have been able to kill the devil dog outright. Plus, if I put more points in strength and keep a steel sword, good chance the sword will snap on me. Pepper shouted, “Arn, stop day dreaming and help me hold this cut open. I can see a gem heart!”

A few moments later the group was gathered around a fist-sized brown crystal with a faint glow. “What’s this worth?” Keana asked. After a moment of silence, Sar chimed in. “Brown is the lowest grade. Browns are usually used for explosives. It’s big though at least. Best guess? Fifty silver, but I could be way off.” After some modest grumbling at the disappointing, if uncertain, assessment, the group packed up and headed back to town with Val carrying the hide, and Arn the dead devil dog.

* * *

As the group headed back to town, Sar had difficulty keeping a smile off his face. There might be over a gold piece headed his way, particularly if he could sell the gem heart without the group around, having low-balled its value. Hmmm, might be too risky in a town I’m not familiar with, especially since I want to keep the group a while.

With Val volunteering to buy some of the group purchases like an idiot, Sar had managed to keep around 80 silver stashed, and hoped to buy a decent mana gem to help with his paltry mana pool. His Flame Lances still weren’t great at killing anything, and Flame Wave drained his mana pool in five seconds.

Sar was delighted he hadn’t had to use his last ditch personal protection. The Screamer was a fantastic item which would drive most beasts off. Well, fantastic if you had a linked ring to prevent your eardrums from shattering which he did – the group would likely be incredibly angry if they knew he had a Screamer, but he couldn’t afford to let their feelings get in the way, he had a Holy Mission! There was a whole world of carnies to burn out there after all.

Sar chuckled at how he had snowed the group with part of the truth, the best way to lie. The carnival had happened alright, but had burned both the rapist and his sister that day in cleansing fire, sending the rapist to the Hells and purifying his sister for all eternity. He could ignore the fire’s urges for a time now that he had a Higher Purpose; he would get strong enough to rid the continent of the gypsy infestation. It was his calling, his reason for being. Mostly burning down that first carnival had been pure luck. The one small band of gypsies he had ambushed last year had nearly resulted in his death and was, in any event, barely a start; he would need vastly more power for his life’s Great Work.

Sar was very pleased with the group. Granted, Pepper’s ridiculous attitude was an outrage; she would need to die, but Keana was a kindred soul, someone who could understand. It was a pity she was with Arn, but he could hardly hate Arn – anyone else, but never Arn. When Dead Shot Dannis mentioned using fireballs on Arn to kill nearby enemies, Sar’s spirit soared to the Heavens. When Arn had Sar char his flesh, everyone watching had been too transfixed to notice Sar’s erection. He had even protested continuing to allay suspicions! The reality was that he had been so in the fire’s thrall that he had taken a mana potion mid-way through, and pushed himself to a state of complete mana burn that he still wasn’t completely recovered from.

Just burning the damn bunny for Keana the day after had made him want to die, he deliberately avoided helping with the dire bear, and using Flame Wave on the devil dog, a matter of life and death, had reawakened the awful feeling. Well, he could hardly expect himself to stop when someone was begging for it, could he? He couldn’t regret the glory of Arn’s charred smoking flesh. It had been far too long since he let the fire out to feel regret over enjoying a little taste of the glories to come. Chuckling to himself, he planned how he would pitch the importance of additional sessions to Arn . . . couldn't wait too long, after all. Not after a taste.