“Enemy attack!”

A piercing scream echoed along the caravan, tearing everyone out of their mind-numbing trot.

“Enemy attack,” the recruit in the front bellowed once more, drawing his sword. One of the few who took their duty seriously. His sword pointed to a group of four tiny figures in the middle of the track.

Leprechauns. I recognized them from the game.

They were child-sized, at most a third of an adult’s height, with wrinkled, green skin. Their face, almost square, looked like a mix between a human and a bulldog, but with pointed teeth to rip apart their prey. Russet fur covered most of their visible skin, and only their nether region and chest was covered with once white linen, now soiled with shades of green and brown.

They bent over, as if they couldn’t decide whether to walk on two or four legs, but their hands grabbed a potpourri of weapons. Tiny, rusty swords, clubs, wooden spears, and primitive slingshots. Nothing fancy, but fatal nonetheless.

“Drew! Protect the merchants,” I shouted towards my back, breaking into a run. Leprechauns were low-level mobs, not worth the player’s attention, but they were a deadly force for the recruits. Four of them combined might be enough to raze the caravan.

And with a deep growl the leprechauns jumped into action.

They didn’t run, but hobbled with fast and powerful bursts. Such motion might be funny at first glance, but it allowed for unpredictable shifts in speed and direction. And the effect was visible at once.

The recruit swung his sword, but his opponent evaded with a simple jump to side, immediately sped up forward, and attacked the thigh with a spear. And even with its tiny size the speed alone was enough to pierce through clothes and tear out flesh. Blood splattered, and the recruit fell to his knees. Another attack from a second Leprechaun and he went silent.

His partner looked on in horror, his posture frozen. He watched as his inconspicuous little enemies communicated with a row of high-pitched hissing and crack sounds, ignored his half-dead comrade, and pounced on him. More screams, more blood, and another silenced voice.

I gritted my teeth. He didn’t even try to attack his enemies. Only target practice for his enemies. More noises and the group turned their attention towards me.

I stopped my run. No more need to arrive early. Instead, I concentrated on my posture. Sword in the left hand, ax in the right. With no shield the sword had double-duty as defensive option. Not an ideal solution, but it was enough for now. Those were Leprechauns, low-level mobs from the game, and I had fought them a million times.

Would they act the same as in the game? Announce their attacks through the same tiny clues in their attack animation? Use similar trajectories and tactics? I didn’t know. But I had no time to doubt myself. Either they behaved the same or I would die a gruesome death. Nothing in between.

The first one arrived in front of me, accelerated, and rushed right towards me chest. I swung my sword towards him, didn’t wait for the outcome, and instantly activated Heavy Strike with the ax, aiming towards a spot half a meter to the right.

No contact for my sword. It only cut through air, dragged my arm with it and destroyed my posture. The Leprechaun had evaded to its left, right towards my aim. And the ax, traveling with my skill’s force behind it, hit flesh. A piercing outcry, and a child-like arm fell to the floor.

Not good enough.

I had aimed for its neck and a fast kill, but my posture had crumbled. During a one-on-one battle taking the opponent’s arm was great, but I needed an early kill if I wanted to survive.

The next moment two more Leprechauns jumped towards me. I had no choice but to activate Heavy Strike with both weapons, scaring them away. Three usages down. Ten more times.

With the fourth enemy arriving I had no choice but attack. I stepped towards the injured Leprechaun, activated my skill for both weapons, and swung my weapons towards his position and escape path. Another contact. This time between my sword and his chest.

He fell down, his eyes filled with hatred, and still crawling towards me. Not enough to kill him, but at least he was no further threat.

The exchange so far confirmed my suspicion. Their attack patterns and behavior mirrored the game’s mobs. And as low-level mobs it was easy to aim at and dispose of them.

Or it would be.

But this differed from the game.

Every attack destroyed my posture, and I barely hit the areas I aimed for. And the enemy’s status when damaged also differed. An enemy without its arm would be dead inside the game. But here, in a world without health bars, it still crawled towards me.

I had all the knowledge needed to defeat them. But my body couldn’t keep up with my knowledge.

I took a deep breath. My stamina should still be more than half-full, but my lung was on fire. I preferred tree trunks as targets. But the remaining enemies ignored my wish and didn’t transform for me.

Though if they resembled the game’s mob, their courage should be negligible. One quick kill and the other two might retreat.

Therefore I evaded their retaliation, picked the leftmost Leprechaun as a target, and attacked with my ax. Not him, but the space between him and the others, to drive him away from his group. Two more attacks, both skill-assisted, and my ax tore through his chest. As long as I could follow up, this would be...

Another scream echoed from behind me. Terror and mortal fear.

Another group of Leprechauns attacked from the side. Five more enemies. And my two men screamed, threw away their swords, and ran towards the woods. Deserted without a single swing.

“Drew! Take the others and buy me some time,” I bellowed. “I’ll help when I cleaned up here.”

He nodded and shouted something in response. But I couldn’t hear it. A dull sound drowned out everything. Pain burned through my brain and my right forehead was on fire.

A stone fell to the ground. Shout out by a primitive slingshot. Blood ran down the side of my face. Fucking helmet. Didn’t even survive a single attack. Useless thing. And the others cost me my chance to finish this battle. Only five more skill usages and I still had to support the other group.

Hence I set the skill aside and attacked the wounded enemy with normal attacks. Swing after swing, but even a wounded Leprechaun dodged most of them. In return, a sharp pain appeared in my right foot and cut through the fog in my head. I looked down. The last Leprechaun sat on my foot, pushing a rather dull wooden spear into my foot. Well, wasn’t this great?

I activated Heavy Strike in anger and kicked the Leprechaun flying. The muffled impact against a tree was music to my ears, but he had hold on to his spear, deepening the wound on my foot.

I roared, dodged another stone, and attacked the wounded Leprechaun once more. Swing after swing, before I finally hit his neck, breaking his balance. Five more hits to cut through his neck and only one more enemy was left. But he looked at his comrades, threw another stone, and escaped into the forest.

I sighed and stabilized my posture. I couldn’t give in to the fatigue.

Only three more usages for my skills. And that meant that over three quarter of my stamina was used up. All gone during a few brief moments of battle.

Afterwards I checked the wounded recruit. He was unconscious but still breathing. His worst wound was a deep cut on the chest, still ejecting blood onto his armor. So I took a linen bandage and tied it firmly around his chest. This should be enough for now. Or rather this was all I could do. Time to support the others.

Their situation was grave, but not hopeless. Another recruit had fallen, but Drew and the last two recruits worked together to keep the Leprechauns at bay. Unskilled and inaccurate swings, not much more than fidgeting with swords, but the mass was enough to keep the Leprechauns in check.

That should be enough for now. I would reinforce their ranks and our combined strength should be enough to compensate for my low skill usage count.

With that in mind I started my hobbling towards them, when I caught sight of another Leprechaun at the back. The same size, but its fur was black, combed and spotless. It was a haunting sight. Like a cultivated businessman in a suit walking together with a group of thugs.

His left hand grabbed a wooden staff, decorated with pieces of bones and skin, while his right wielded a bone knife. But his striking feature was the bone mask he wore. A creepy smile in white.

“Púca,” I screamed towards the others. “Get away from there.”

But they only looked at me in confusion. They didn’t understand the danger they were in.

But I understood.

I would be too late.