He immediately side-stepped to put the two hobgoblin fighters between himself and the archer. The hob-swordsman made a little rush at him, bringing the rusty longsword back before swinging out horizontally at Kalamedra. Using his massive speed, Kalamedra simply ducked the blow and swung out his right leg to cruelly smash into the hob’s balls as the creature finished his rush.

“AaaaAaAaAagh!” The scream rent the evening’s still air, seemingly changing the peaceful section of road into a charnel house. Kalamedra rolled to his right and stood up quickly bringing his sword down on the back of the bent-over hob’s neck. He felt some resistance as the blade forced it’s way between some vertebrae but then the head leapt away from the neck, a stream of blood the only thing connecting the two.

I really do need to get some more strength. I can move faster than almost anyone now, unless there are people using magic to go even faster, but my strength is barely above the standard.

System Notification Skill Increase: Acrobatics is now Novice 2 (+1) XP Increase: You have gained 150xp

The body slumped to the ground, quickly staining the nearby area a dark crimson. Kalamedra retreated a few steps, keeping the remaining axe-hob between him and the archer. The bugbear continued pounding towards him, and he set his feet and prepared his sword to receive the giant brown-furred beast.

“Hey Xyl, you mind helping me out? You know, since I am your summoner and all…”

Oh, did you need help? Seemed like you were doing fine on your own. I did give you a warning! Aren’t you learning a lot? I just want you to be a successful fighter if that’s the path you want to go down…

Kalamedra grit his teeth and resettled his hands on the black sword’s grip. The axe-hob had gotten his nerve back under control and now was making a move towards them as well. The bugbear was about 3 feet away when he simply tripped, seemingly over nothing. Kalamedra did notice that the bugbear had passed over the leg of a shadow though, and he heard a sort of mocking laughter deep in his own mind. It took a massive force of will to not roll his eyes and lose the chance to exploit this opportunity.

With a burst of speed he took a step forward onto the massive bugbear’s back and used it as a springboard to launch himself both forward as well as higher in the air. As his leap started to descend he swung the sword two-handed as hard as could at the approaching axe-hob. The sword hit the furry side of the goblinoid’s skull like a knife against the shell of a soft-boiled egg. The skull shattered and the blade slid through the brain like so much goo as the skull disintegrated under the blow.

System Notification Skill Increase: Two-Handed Swords is now Novice 1 (+1) XP Increase: You have gained 150xp

He spun around as the bugbear was rising from the ground, having recovered from being someone’s launchpad. Kalamedra started taking hacking blows at the mountain of muscle’ spinal column, barely able to get through the thick fur and tough skin. Eventually he managed to cut through the spinal cord and the bugbear started spasming on the ground, the lower half of his body seemingly paralyzed.

*Thunk*

The sound warned him, even before the pain set in. He could feel the arrow quivering in his back, just to the right of his own spine. He whirled around to see the hobgoblin archer fiercely showing him a toothy smirk. The archer casually pulled another arrow and put it on the string and started to pull it back.

“AAaaAAagh! Fuck you! You motherless piece of shit bitch! AAAAAH!” His rage was a terrible thing to see, and it seemed like shadows were dancing around his skin. “I was just walking on this fucking road, minding my own goddamned business. AAAgh! And you….you motherfuckers had to fuck with me!”

The whole time he was talking a shadowbolt was forming in front of him, and when he had poured every drop of his mana into it, Kalamedra dropped his sword and grabbed it with his right hand. It felt like murder in his palm. He started to run towards the hob-archer who was starting to apprehend the situation he was now in.

An arrow whizzed towards Kalamedra, but he saw it coming and moved himself out of the way. Not just a little out of the way like people in books, he jumped at least a foot to the side because he was determined that he would not die before he destroyed this hobgoblin. He did not, however, stop his forward motion. It wasn’t long until he was within a distance he felt he could hit the orange menace.

“Little help here, Xyl?’

A sigh sounded in his mind.

The hobgoblin was clearly trying to flee at this point but his feet seemed like they were being held in place by the shadow that was covering them. A vicious smile overtook Kalamedra’s face, and he threw the shadowbolt sidearm. It spun beautifully as it approached the hobgoblin’s center of mass. The monster was now shrieking and babbling, but Kalamedra just watched the orb of shadow reach the orange-colored fur.

The hobgoblin fucking exploded. The shadowbolt hit it around the solar plexus and there was just this *Bang* and then there was viscera and rib cage everywhere. Some of it splattered on Kalamedra’s stunned face, and one of his hands listlessly reached up to scrape it off.

Ok, note to self. That was clearly way too much mana for one hobgoblin. Ok, I have a working scale now. 0% is not enough, and 100% is probably a pinch over. My clothes are gonna stink like high heavens…

System Notification XP Increase: You have gained 150xp

The pain in his back was really starting to get to him at this point. The arrow was just in that perfect middle part of your back you can never reach no matter how you try. After a few minutes struggling, he sighed.

“Any chance of a hand here, Xyl?”

Boy, what did you do before you summoned me? Seems like you really need someone to hold your hand, and extract your arrows. Good thing I am so capable because if you had gotten one of my siblings this would not be going so well for you.

Kalamedra rolled his eyes. “Yes, thank you so much for being so amazing. Now… any chance you could help me with this arrow in my back?”

He felt a cool hand brace on his back, and then the shaft of the arrow was stilled by another. There was a pause for a moment and then his back seemed to explode in pain as the arrow was yanked out.

‘HEY! That fucking hurt!”

I never claimed to be a doctor. You’re just lucky that it didn’t get the whole tip through your maille. I was able to pull it out, and that is much more pleasant than having to push it through. Hmmph! Some people are so ungrateful!

“Ok, ok, ok. I am sorry. Thank you for your help. It just hurt a lot, that’s all.” Kalamedra worked his arms, and did a tentative bend in his back and it hurt but after removing the arrow he could clearly feel his ring of regeneration working.

A sound caused him to turn back to the scene of the earlier fight. He saw the bugbear was trying to crawl away only using his arms, his legs trailing behind limply.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about him in all … this” Kalamedra waved a hand around airily. He walked back to where his sword was lying on the ground, cleaned it off and sheathed it. He then started to walk towards the bugbear, who had made it nearly 20 feet by now. As he followed the trail of blood and crushed vegetation, Kalamedra whistled a jaunty tune.

“Bad hobs, bad hobs, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when I come for you?”

The bugbear just kept trying to crawl away even faster now.

“I would let you go, but that’s how these things always start. Someone shows mercy and it comes back to bite them in the end. If all those people who let their foes leave, didn’t, there wouldn’t be so many revenge stories. I am not going to be the star of a revenge story.”

The bugbear was a massively strong killing machine. True, he did not have control of his lower body but he had incredibly strong arms and a jawful of rending fangs. Kalamedra removed his sword from it’s sheath and chopped off the bugbear’s feet at the lower calf. Blood started to rapidly gush out of the arteries like a punctured water balloon, and then the bugbear’s life ran out and for it the story ended.

System Notification XP Increase: You have gained 300xp

Kalamedra went around the 3 hobgoblins and bugbear looking for anything to loot, but all of their gear was complete shit. None of it was very good when they had gotten it, and it certainly had not been kept up by them. The weapons were cracked and rusty, or about to snap in the case of the bow, and no self-respecting merchant would ever give him anything for them.

By now the sun was completely down, so he decided to get some rest for a while. He stepped into a shadow and used it to go high up into a tree to a shadow in the crook of a large limb. He laid in the shadow letting it’s embrace and his ring knit his wounded flesh.

Slightly after midnight, he woke from his refreshing nap and kept heading east. He noticed that since his Dexterity had increased so much, he was making much better time running through the woods and down the road. His boots boosted his speed by a percentage, so they were reinforcing that new speed. By his estimation he was able to run as fast as a horse for a while, but the he would have to rest when his stamina depleted. If he switched from running to jogging periodically he could increase that time substantially.

Eventually he could see Far Westburg in the distance. A part of him wanted to enter the town and see what had happened since he had left it nearly a week earlier, but a more sane part of himself remembered the way he had departed. Deciding that Falstaff had it right, and that discretion was the better part of valor, he used the woods to bypass the town entirely.

It didn’t take long after passing the town to see that Far Westburg truly was the edge of settled country like he had heard. The road’s quality soon improved, obviously maintained in this stretch, and he could see small villages and farms spread out in the countryside.

He soon came to a place where the road going east split into three directions; one straight east, one heading north-east, and another south-east. There was a wooden signpost that clearly labeled the route east as going to the Fortress-City Yulinh, north-east the way to Alvim, and south-east the way to Dar’Kar.

It was an easy choice as the road to Dar’shon lead through Yulinh. The other cities might have roads paved with precious metals for all he knew, but the way through Yulinh lead to the center of this world. He quickly picked up his wolf-lope again for a few more hours until the morning rays of dawn encouraged him to find some shadowy shrubberies to take a nap in.

He laid comfortably under the brush for a few hours until a cool hand shook him awake, rousing him from an excellent rest.

Hey Kala, there are people coming down the road. Quite a lot of them. It’s a troop of soldiers and adventurers.

“Thanks, Xyl. Probably nothing to worry about, but good to be wary. Let’s just stay in here and see what we find out.”

It’s probably just regular traffic but I don’t want to discourage Xyl from being helpful. I think I will just have to learn to live with the disdain and sarcasm, because she was helpful with those hobgoblins, and now. Plus, it’s nice to have someone you know can’t betray you.

Kalamedra removed a sausage from his spatial ring and gnawed on it as he laid in the shadowy space, watching the passers-by. There was a decent sized troop of soldiers, clearly from sort of official unit as they had standardized maille on, except their leader who wore a set of pragmatic plate. The soldiers were all marching, one of them carrying a yellow banner with a fortified tower design on it. Their leader was on a large horse, companionably chatting with a few others on horses who were riding beside him.

Those people were dressed in a wide array of armor, and all of them had decidedly non-standard weapons as well. Clearly they were adventurers or mercenaries of some kind. They were all headed west towards Far Westburg.

“…So I sez, I sez, Iron Brad ain’t afeared of no koblods. HA! I grabbed Iron Brad’s best mates and we all started out down t’is road. Ain’t been out to Fer Weestburg in years! Koblods a’ways got t’e good stuff! Good t’ing Iron Brad had a friend staying dere who heard about dem buggers.”

The man who was talking was one of those horse-riding adventurers, one of a prodigious size. He was talking to the Knight, who was clearly in command of these garrison troops, and that good Sir was valiantly attempting to decipher the words of this adventuring rube. The adventurer was covered in lamellar armor, and had a wide array of weapons strapped all over him. He had a scruffy blond beard, and long blond dreadlocks, and was clearly a figure of great intimidation to the others traveling with him.

“Err…yes, Iron Brad. Glad you could accompany us from Yulinh. As you know, there was some kind of incident in the town and a few people were murdered. From what we understand, it was Dark Elves that did it. At least, that is the supposition. The two who were murdered were known for their longstanding feud with the Dark Elves of V’espre. Yulinh has decided it is time that the town come under the rule of the Duke, and so we are being sent to garrison the town and make sure the Dark Elves don’t get any ideas. “

“Iron Brad knows about dem dirty knife-ears. If dey cause Iron Brad trouble, Iron Brad will use t’ere spindly l’il legs fer toothpicks. “

“Yulinh knows it’s friends. Any aid you offer the Duke will be rewarded.”

The group moved by and Kalamedra just laid there trying to listen to them until even the tramp of feet and the stamp of hooves was lost in the sound of the world. His mind was spinning madly, and he was madly grasping at what he had heard and trying to place it with what he knew.

Kobolds are not my concern, not at this point anyways. I had no idea though that the Duke of Yulinh would use my defending myself to extend his control over the town. Something tells me I am not going to be welcome back there anytime soon. Also, I have to wonder if they have put me together with the Dark Elves of V’espre, or if they think it was other Dark Elves beside me. Hmm. This is troubling. Better keep my eyes and ears peeled.

Aren’t you glad you are a Shadow Elf? I sure would hate to be a Dark Elf right about now. Seems like everyone hates them, and thinks that they are vengeful murderers. I am sure that no one will blame a Shadow Elf for the sins of a Dark Elf though.

“…”