Chapter 36-2 Outlaw

I awoke with an urgency, in my sleep I had dreamt of a village under attack, with Orcs and Goblins swarming around and killing all the villagers. A small group had managed to barricade themselves into a small shrine dedicated to a long forgotten minor deity. I had watched helpless to act as men, women, and children were killed and then thrown into a huge fire being built at the center of the village. Some of the children were still alive when they were tossed into the fire.

Standing on shaky legs I reached out and scooped out some water from the little stone sink and took a drink. My head began to clear but the sense of urgency remained, I knew that the dream was a reality for the people of the village. Calling out to Stoneskin I spoke, “We must hurry, there is little time to spare a nearby village has come under attack and we need to get there to help.”

Stoneskin’s reply was short and to the point, “I fly now master and will let you know where to go once I have located the village.” I was busy packing up my little cave cabin but acknowledged Stoneskin as he flew off into the predawn light that was just beginning to make its presence known. Grabbing my Wyvern egg last, I gently put it into the pack and then left the warmth of the room for the coldness of the predawn day. I sealed the living stone of the door to the mountain then made my way to the edge of the small plateau I was standing on.

Soon Stoneskin called out to me, “An hour’s walk to the east is a small village that is under attack, most of the villagers are dead but a few hold out in an old temple. If you hurry you will find the people still alive, as the Orcs and Goblins have stopped attacking to loot the rest of the village.”

I began to run and then with a jump I transformed into what I called my Angel body, human with wings. With powerful strokes of my wings I soon climbed high enough to see the village, it had a large bonfire of corpses and several of the other houses were also on fire. My Dragon eyes could see that the Orcs and Goblins were now gathered in front of an old stone building and were preparing to attack.

The enemy numbered about fifty and was equipped with old weapons and battered gear. Any reasonably defended town could have defeated the rabble but a small village in the middle of a forest with no defenses had no chance. I landed behind the fire, transformed and quickly put my pack aside then pulling out Godslayer I rushed in to attack.

The enemy most of whom were at level 15 did not have much of a chance. I was now incredibly strong and agile. Moving so fast that I was just a blur I began to attack, cleaving heads and removing limbs, I was aware that the combat text was flying by, my sword was achieving constant critical hits. The base damage alone was enough to one shot almost everything I attacked.

The sword in between attacks was casting Ice bolts and Sonic shards while I, in turn, was casting Lightning and Dragon fire. It was over in minutes, the only challenge was a huge Orc who casually swung his mace, which was really half a tree at me. Seeing his glare of hatred change to fright when I stopped it with one hand and then took it from him was amusing. I tossed the tree-mace outside the village and then ended the huge Orc with Godslayer, he was the last one alive I realized as I looked around. As I sheathed My sword I realized that it had not only taken the lives of the enemies but had also taken their souls, their essences.

In taking their souls it had sent a percentage to me, I could feel them all beginning to bond to my soul. Perhaps one day I would be able to fully understand what was happening to me for now, it was enough to know that I was growing stronger as I progressed towards Ascension.

Looking at the temple I called out, “Hello in there, is anyone left alive?” After waiting for a few seconds, I walked up the steps and immediately felt a brief surge of power, looking up at the doorway I saw a carved figure of a man with his hand outstretched towards the sky. It was well worn with time but still had an impact on me as I stared at it. Was the man reaching up to beseech the Gods, or was he blessing someone, or perhaps he was about to cast a spell?

On a whim, I reached out and touched the hand of the man and felt a shock travel through me as a bright light suddenly flashed down and illuminated the temple for a minute. Suddenly the light was gone and the door swung open. Staring at the interior I saw about thirty men, women and children all huddled against the far wall, standing in front of them facing me was a huge man, looking at his attire I guessed he was the smith. Next to him was a redheaded woman, like all females in the game she had a perfect figure, however, her face was marred by a scar that ran across from the left forehead to the right jaw.

Seeing the two of them waving swords at me as I stood there I had to smile to myself. Lifting my hands, I slowly walked into the temple and spoke, “Peace, I am not here to attack you, I have just defeated the enemy outside.” Seeing the shocked look on their faces I smiled and then said, “I have a small healing talent if you have any wounded?”

A man slowly stood up from against the wall and said, “No stranger, a moment ago a light filled the temple and all were healed.” Many of the others nodded at this and a few spoke of a miracle.

The smith and the woman had meanwhile approached, and the woman looking at me asked, “Are the Orcs and Goblins really dead. We could not defend ourselves against them, we are not warriors, and they broke through and killed so many of us.” At this point, her voice cracked and she began to weep. The giant smith gestured towards one of the other ladies who came forward and led the lady back to the main group where she began to weep.

The smith stood silently for a moment then spoke, “She witnessed her only family, a sister being captured, killed and thrown into the fire. She is strong but it is too much for her. My name is Keon, the girl is Caylan and we are the leaders here as all the elders are outside burning.”

I nodded at him and then said, “I am called Tor.” I left it at that, perhaps they had not heard of me in this remote village. I gestured towards the door and said, “We should go for a look, make sure there are no stragglers or hidden enemies. Also, you will have to decide what you’re going to do now? The village is wrecked and I don’t think you will find safety here.”

We moved out and I stopped at the place of battle looting the corpse for a total of 5 gold and 3 silver. The gear and weapons were poor quality and not worth my time to take. We advanced to the middle of the square where the smell of burning flesh pervaded the air despite the breeze. Keon was looking grim and just stared at the recognizable figures still burning and then suddenly began to curse.

“Look away,” I commanded and when he did so I cast Dragon fire onto the burning pile at full strength, within a minute the pile of burning bodies was nothing more than ash that began to flow down the street as a sudden wet and slushy downpour began. It was not snow or rain but a bit of both and it was now beginning to come down hard.

Turning to Keon I pointed back to the temple and said, “Let's head back, there is nothing to see here, once you folks arrange your plans you can search the ruined homes for what you need.” I only stopped to grab my pack and then we went back to the temple. As we entered a group of villagers approached and asked Keon about any survivors. Seeing him shake his head, tears started to flow from some of the women and the group walked back to the wall and sat down with dejection and defeat on their faces.

Two of the men asked Keon what the group should do and I could see the indecision on his face as he struggled to take charge and lead the survivors to safety and reassure them that they would all be safe. Keon looked at me with a hopeless expression and I knew that this group needed leadership now before it fragments and explodes.

Raising my voice, I called out, “Hey all of you come here and pipe down, Now.” I stared at the people some looked shocked a few looked angry but most blank, they are in shock, I thought. Once they were all gathered around I looked at Keon and then the crowd and then spoke, “Listen up all of you, like it or not, you are the survivors of the attack. I suspect that you are the only survivors, we will check the village for others but don’t get your hopes up. You have a choice and you need to make it right now. You can stay here and try to survive the winter or you can go elsewhere. This village has no defenses and Orcs and Goblins are on the move.”

Giving them a minute to digest what I had just said I continued, “If you stay here your chances of survival are slim at best. If you flee you will have a better chance, but the choice is yours, I would suggest that you follow the leadership of Keon and work together, otherwise the chance of you surviving is very low. Good luck with whatever you decide, I am heading out now.”

As I turned to leave a voice rang out as Caylan spoke, “You will abandon us here, knowing that we won’t make it, Gods, why did you even save us?”

I turned to look at the scarred woman, and then glanced at the crowd behind them, shaking my head I realized I would have to explain reality to these people. “Listen up folks, I am only going to tell you this once. My name is Tor and I am an outlaw here in the Human kingdom. The King has guards out searching for me as we speak, and if I am caught with others I doubt that any would be granted mercy from the King.”

Seeing the shocked expression on their faces I nodded and then continued, “Do you really want to accompany an outlaw? Additionally, I am headed to the Dwarven lands which are about to be engulfed in a civil war the likes of which this world has not seen. Taking you with me would not bring you to safety, in fact, you would be heading into more danger.” I waited a moment and then turned again to leave when I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder, looking back I saw that Caylan stood there with tears in her eyes.

Turning to face her I looked her in the eye and asked, “Caylan what would you have me do, I cannot accompany you to safety and it would not be safe for you to follow me.” I stood there looking at the fresh tears in her eyes and felt my resolve weakening. I glanced over at Keon and saw him shrug, no damn help there. I knew that these people were at the end but I truly did not know how to help them.

Caylan suddenly spoke, “We don’t care if you are an outlaw, you have saved us and that is more than the damned King has done. All we do is give him the taxes that our hard work produces and then when we need him there is no one to help. Just you, an outlaw, on the run. Damn the king, I will follow you if you will have me.”

I looked around at the group before looking back at Caylan, my plan to leave these people was not going to happen, I thought. “If you are all in agreement with Caylan and would like to follow me out of here come stand behind me, the others go stand against the wall.” I watched as two shifty looking men walked towards the wall. My Perception had already told me that they were not to be trusted, and I was not surprised at their refusal to follow my leadership. I had no doubts that as soon as we left they would be heading to report me and try to claim a reward. Fuckers.

I began by stating the obvious, “We have to leave and do that rather quickly. Keon will organize a search party to go through the village. Look for blankets, food, water and any other supplies that will come in handy. If there are any carts or wagons here and the animals to pull them I want them in front of the temple now.” Turning to one of the other men standing nearby I told him, “Go gather all the weapons you can find, even if they are poor quality, we will need weapons, we will look at repairing them and upgrades later.”’

All of the men were now gone with the exception of the two shifty fuckers, who were talking to a young girl, they were insisting that she come with them. Walking over to them I interrupted the conversation and asked the girl if these men were relatives. Hearing her say no was enough and I grabbed both of the men by their arms and threw them towards the door.

The first one hit the floor and then jumped up cursing me he then pulled a knife and threw it at me. It was a good thrown and without my agility and strength, it would have nailed me in the head. As it was I caught it and spinning it a few times I threw it back at my assailant and watched as the knife hit him in the center of his forehead pushing him back against the wall and pinning him to the solid stone.

I watched as the words Critical hit for 1650 Hp flashed in front of me and then read,

You have defeated a level 15 NPC who initiated a surprise attack against you.

You have not earned any Xp as the opponent was too low a level.

During the one second that my attention had been on the flashing text, the second man had flung himself out the door and was running towards the only road that ran through the village. Turning to look at the women and children that were now staring at me I shrugged and said, “I am sorry that you had to witness this, but believe me those two men were not planning on helping us.”

Caylan spoke up, “I do believe you, those two were a blight upon the village, they were suspected of doing all manner of wickedness. Most of the single women here have been accosted by them at one time or another. That bastard over there is better off dead.”

Seeing the women nod I relaxed, I had not wanted to kill the man, but I could not suffer someone to attack me with impunity. As I walked over to the door Caylan joined me and we both stepped out in time to see three wagons being brought to the temple. Off to the side was a growing pile of swords daggers, and other things that might have once been weapons.

On the other side of the door was another pile, this one had food, water, wine and other items of importance for our survival. Keon stood nearby and I walked over towards him while mentally taking inventory of what I was seeing. It was a start but not enough, we would have to make do, it was all we could do.

“Keon, do you have a map or knowledge of these lands?” I asked. Seeing him shake his head I asked, “Does anyone here have a map or know of the lands?” Once again he shook his head, I could have cursed out loud. We would be heading out blind with hostiles nearby.

“You're not blind master, I can help you.” Hearing Stoneskin mentally encouraging me was what I needed. I would make this work and get these people to safety, I was not sure where or how but I would do it. I wasted a few minutes talking to Keon and Caylan while the rest of the supplies were gathered and the wagons loaded. We took a moment to arm all the men and women, even the older children received a dagger. Eventually, everyone was loaded up and we began the journey to safety.

Leaving the village, I strode to the front of the wagons, I had 5 of the men working with me as guards on the ground the rest were riding in the wagons. With Stoneskin in the air providing real-time updates I felt as safe as I could in this wagon train. I was also grateful for all that I had learned in the past few weeks with the Caravan.

It was now midmorning with the wind gusting and blowing the heavy snowfall into a complete white out. I had been updating our distance on my mini-map, we had not traveled far but I felt that to stop now would be asking for trouble. Calling Keon and Caylan to me I walked in the lee of the lead wagon and discussed possible camp sites.

They both agreed that there was nothing nearby, the road led up into the range of mountains that was in the center of this area. The road cut through to the other main highway that led to Goodstown on the ocean. I called out to Stoneskin and asked. “Is the road open and is there a place to camp?” I waited for a minute and was surprised to hear his response, “Halfway up the road towards the pass is an old trail, it leads down to a sheltered valley with a nice river and a small lake. There is a ruined castle by the river and what looks like a small village nearby.”

I stopped and asked if he was sure, once he assured me I tried to compute the distance. It was at least two days away, but once we began to climb towards the pass the snow would clear up and the way become easier. It was where we were going I decided.

Turning to my two lieutenants I asked, “Have you ever heard of a lost village in the mountains, with a castle built on a river next to it?” Seeing them shake their heads I nodded, the one good thing was if they did not know about it the Kings guards probably would not know either.

I arranged for us to push on into the night, as the storm grew worse. We stopped only to heat up some hot drinks, eventually, the light failed and I took the lead, my ability to see in the darkness kept us going. The storm finally seemed to stop as we climbed, and once we were in the mountains the wind blew away any snow clouds. By the time Stoneskin called out to me to turn it was morning again, and my crew of villagers felt tired, cold and hungry.

The trail was rough and slow, several times I had to pick up boulders and fallen trees to clear the road, but we kept up and by late afternoon we crested the final hill and descended into the valley. The moist warm air was a welcome change from the cold mountain breeze we had been feeling. Seeing the Castle before us had all the villagers out of the wagons discussing who could have lived here. Bundling them all back into the wagons after their stretched we started downwards. Home sweet home, I thought.