I did manage to catch up to the merchant, or what was left of him and his cart. The trail of black smoke is what drew me off the road and towards the grisly scene. I had hurried over to see if I could offer assistance to whoever was in trouble, forgetting for the moment that there were dangerous creatures about. It appeared he tried to flee from something. The large area of the burned field around the remains attested to that.

'God I hope a dragon didn't do this,' I thought, scanning the sky.

It didn't take me long to piece the scene together. The dozens of odd tracks leading to and around the site spoke of a desperate flight and last stand. Not of some magical aerial predator. The only reason I knew it was Frathsar were the few bits of unburnt carriage that poked through the glowing pile of ash, still sporting the flamboyant colors from his cart that I remembered from when I first spotted it. I poked at the pile with a stick but only produced ash and bits of wood.

"Rest in peace Merchant Extraordinaire," I said turning from the scene.

Burying the dead would have been the right thing to do but I didn't want to get caught out here by whatever had caught up to the merchant. No matter how much I liked him. He was gone and I was still very much alive and still very much not safe.

From this point forward I decided to shadow the road. The tracks of the killers heading directly back to the road at a southerly direction had nothing to do with it, at least that's what I told myself. This was a tougher hike but allowed me to flit between the sparse clumps of trees on the far sides of the unplowed fields.

The land had changed again and now more closely resembled the farmland I had expected to see on my journey south. I also spotted a few burned-out cars and houses along the way. Although, I was too far away from the road to see any bodies and I would keep it that way for now. Despite this, I knew there would be dead along the road or near the burned out houses. Whatever had killed Frathsar had come through and torched everything they came across. This spoke of some semblance of intelligence so I needed to be careful.

After about an hour of hedgerow hopscotch I spotted the culprit of the fires, or should I say, culprits. There appeared to be a group of about twenty humanoids walking down the center of the road with a few pulling a large wagon. When they neared a house a group would split off and break down the door. I assumed they ransacked the building before burning it down, rejoining the rest of the group, and continuing on to the next.

There were a few pops when the beasts were inside one of the houses which I assumed were gunshots. The creatures returning a few minutes later carrying some items none of the monsters appearing to be wounded. I looked farther down the road and could see what appeared to be people fleeing in the distance. I did hear a couple more gunshots and it looks like someone had managed to actually hit one of the monsters before the group of monsters screamed and rushed the unlucky individual.

From my experience guns didn't seem to be all that effective in this new system, probably because they had no way to gain damage like my staff unless you hit a critical spot because they weren't tied to an attribute. Even the damage boost that they got from the velocity of the round was muted by even minor armor or thick skin. I noticed the group left the injured monster behind and I choose this time to see what I was dealing with.

I crept up to the prone monster with all the stealth of an elephant but it didn't seem to mind. I guess being unconscious would sap the worry of unseen assassins from you. I could see the bleeding wound on its head, looks like the bullet had grazed it leaving a nice gash but failing to pierce the frog man's skull, instead only glancing off and knocking the beast unconscious. I didn't know how long it would be out so I hurried along, quickly looking at it with Identify.

Sulid | Warrior | Level 7

These creatures resembled giant toads, with wide fat heads and body, with skinny legs and arms that only helped to define the ropy muscles underneath.

"Never skip leg day," I said bringing my staff down on his head repeatedly until I saw the XP notice. It took more blows than I would have liked and I decided to try and avoid any melee combat with these creatures at my current level.

The creature had dropped its weapon when it was shot, a dirty looking short spear with a green sheen on the blade. It was most likely poisoned so I left it alone. I really needed a larger storage item I was missing out on so much loot. I quickly looted the creature's body, taking a moment to go over my haul.

30 credits

Poison vial

Iron dagger

Unfortunately, my luck didn't hold and the creatures spotted me as I made my way through the field. A smaller group broke off to chase me down.

'Shit, time to go.'

I managed to make it to a two-story farmhouse, the front door closed but unlocked. I looked back realizing I had maybe a few minutes before the creatures caught up to me. They seemed to have endless stamina, but I was huffing and puffing by this point, the run through the muddy field having sapped away a lot of my strength. I came up with a quick plan as I ran into the house. On my way towards the house, I spotted a cellar door around back. If it was operable my plan should work.

I blocked the front door with some furniture. It wouldn't hold long but it should buy me some time. I ran around the first floor until I found the basement. Peering down from the top I saw a few wooden beams holding up the first floor and I could see the cellar stairs on the far side. Just then I heard pounding on the front door. I rushed down the stairs to the exterior door. It was only held closed by a bolt and easily swung open. Just then I heard the front door shatter and the creature's feet pounding on the floor above me.

I rushed over to one of the beams smashing into it. There was a loud groan as the beam shifted to an odd angle and but held, It would work. I could hear some noises from upstairs and heard the pounding of feet getting closer to the basement. I rushed back over to the cellar door. This time I cast Earth Fist on the second column just as the creatures made it to the stairs. The column bust apart from the impact of my spell, causing the entire house to groan. The last post cracked as it wasn't designed to hold up this much weight and the house started caving in as I exited the basement. I heard a few muffled grunts and choked cries as the house came down on the Sulid.

As a little bit of revenge, I pulled out my lighter and a strip of tinder I carried for camping. Once I got the piece of firestarter going good I tossed it into the old house. The place went up in minutes, burning the Sulid trapped within.

"That's what you fuckers get for burning my friend," I said and spit, rushing along the side of the house.

I missed being impaled by a thrown spear by only inches as it flew in front of my face. Fear was written plainly on my face, as I turned I saw the rest of the Sulid barreling at me. I ran for my life as the creatures chased me. Angry at my audacity to challenge them.

Luckily the forerunner had to stop to retrieve his spear giving me breathing room. I appeared to be slightly faster than these creatures as I looked desperately for some way to escape their clutches. It was no good. The area was just too open. I spotted another house, this one a ranch style and ran towards that. Hoping that I could fool them long enough to escape out the back before they could surround the house.

I was still tired from my first run so I barely made it to the house as spears started flying through the air. The front door was wide open and I dashed inside slamming it closed behind me. A spear thudding into the door, almost impaling me in the process as the wickedly barbed tip came through the wood. I dead bolted the door and pushed anything I could in front of it before running to the back.

This is where I ran into a snag in my plan. The back door had been barricaded with wooden boards from the inside. I realized I had seen similar boards near the front door but was in too much of a panic to put two and two together. I looked around frantically for a way to escape but it was too late, I could already see shadows running past the windows to cut off that possibility.

'Think. Think. Think...'

An insane idea formed in my mind. I pulled the gas stove out ripping the line open, I did this for the gas water heater too. All the while the creatures tried to rip their way into the house. I could already smell the gas and was getting slightly light-headed so I decided to enact the next part of my plan. My Area of Denial spell burst into being and I took a deep breath of fresh air as the spell pushed the harmful gas away from me. This gave me a lot more confidence in my plan actually working.

I heard the front door beginning to crack and I fumbled to pull out my lighter.

'God, I hope this works.'

I sparked the lighter letting the small flame form. Just some generic windproof lighter I purchased for camping, with a flick I tossed the lighter through my barrier and closed my eyes.

I heard a whoosh and a muffled boom as the gas ignited, my spell protecting me from even the sound. I waited a full fifteen seconds to open my eyes. I couldn't wait any longer as I would need the other time to escape the house if my plan failed. The house or what was left of it was strewn about the yard and field. Leaving me standing on the only intact bit of flooring, everything else stripped away to bare concrete by the blast. Pieces of insulation were still falling and little fires were burning on some bits. I looked at my notifications and noticed only four deaths as well as the five from the previous house.

I heaved a sigh of relief at knowing my desperate gambit had worked. I stepped over the broken bits of house and got to work mopping up any survivors. It was hardly sporting or honorable to kill the wounded and sometimes crippled creatures but I sucked up my compassion and split heads like I was trying to hoe a garden. They got what was coming to them after their reign of terror, and I would be damned if I let them live to continue to carry out more acts of murder.

Only once did I have to fend off an attack from any of the survivors.

Sulid | War Leader | Level 8

The War Leader stabbed out at me with its one good arm. The other ripped and bleeding barely attached. I batted the feeble strike to the side jabbing him with a quick Aura Strike just to be safe. He took the blow and tried striking again but I had rotated to his weak side.

"How did you survive," It croaked out through bleeding lips.

"Ah, so beasts can speak. Don't worry Kermit you won't live long enough to need that information."

The war leader snarled at me and I feigned a lunging strike. It brought its spear up to strike out where I should have been but I dropped into a crouch sweeping my staff around and into his legs. The weakened War Leader toppled to the side as he tried to lift his leg to avoid the strike, forgetting that he was unbalanced due to his injured arm. As he fell I capitalized by slamming my staff down on his head, at the same time I cast earth fist from the other side. His head deformed like a dropped watermelon between my staff and the fist and I got the last notification and a level up.

Your blow has done critical combo damage, damage x4

You have reached level 6, modifiers increased by 1

For single-handedly defeating a war party you have earned the title Knight of Retribution 10% additional damage against evil creatures

Cleanse: Cleanses the body of most impurities and diseases 25m range, Cost 20 mana, cooldown 30sec

Flurry of Blows: You can strike the target with a series of rapid strikes; Number of strikes is based on AGI modifier, Cost 50 mana, cooldown 1min

The Cleanse was nice, hopefully, that covered poisons I wouldn't know until I was afflicted. I sure as hell wasn't going to test the theory by stabbing myself with one of the Sulid's weapons. The Flurry spell gave me a lot of utility up close. I cast it and jabbed my staff out. The strikes were a blur but I managed to count six. I didn't feel quite as in control of the weapon though so I would need to watch that ability. A quick look around showed no more of the creatures either on the road or within sight so I got to searching the corpses.

I found an additional 150 credits, 3 more poison bottles, and a key. I looked towards the cart on the road that they had been stockpiling the looted items on and made my way over. What I found was a bunch of junk. There were pots and pans, bottles of shampoo, and cleaners; seriously what the hell. The only thing of note was a small chest. I stuck the key in and turned the lock. There was a soft click and a sharp pain.

I hissed and pulled my hand back, "Fuck, that hurt," I said, waving my hand, a drop of blood spilling out from my finger.

You have been poisoned

"Gee ya think," I said sarcastically to the floating message, 'Well I did want to test my skill.'

I cast Cleanse and the little poisoned icon went away. I cast a quick Rejuvenate on myself to top up my hit points and decided to refresh all of my abilities that had long cooldowns. This left me with a whopping 5 mana and one hell of a headache. I had never drained my mana this low previously because I only had the one long term buff before.

"Ok note to self don't drain all my mana in one go."

I shook my head as the ache started to clear when my mana regeneration kicked in. I was recovering three mana every two seconds. Not great but not terrible. I went back to the box and lifted the now unlocked lid. What I found inside was astounding, I didn't even know what to say. I pulled out the remote control for a TV.

"Are you f-ing kidding me with this shit?" I turned it around, "It doesn't even have batteries in it!" I screamed as I tossed the useless device into the field. I kicked the cart for good measure, managing to hurt my foot more than the cart and started back down the road towards the town.

Anyone close enough to witness the events would spread stories of the mad man that survived a house explosion killed off twenty high-level monsters and raved like a lunatic as he stomped off into the sunset.