The sound of clashing steel woke me up from a little nap. I crawled a bit to the hole and looked through it. I could see 2 of the adventurers sparring. It was the one in heavy armour and another in leather armour, wielding a rapier. The rapier user was throwing strike after strike, while the heavily armoured guy made slow, heavy attacks with his greatsword. Each attack he threw was easily dodged by the rapier user. He, however, had to block the attacks coming his way with his large sword.

I could see the rapier user’s smug smile as he dodged and attack far too fast for his opponent. It looked like he was bullying him. The heavily armoured one was clearly getting irritated that he couldn’t land a single hit.

“I knew this would happen again. Come on, you know you can’t hit me. It’s just not a good match up for you”, the rapier user said cheerfully.

“Shut up. I’ve told you a thousand times already that having a good or a bad match up doesn’t matter. All that matters, is that you can pull it off”, the heavily armoured man said in a low, deep voice.

“And yet, you always lose”.

“That’s because I wasn’t good enough”.

The heavily armoured man swung counter clockwise, swinging with the blunt side of his blade. The rapier wielder dodged, but just as he landed, a second attack came at him. The heavily armoured man used the momentum for a second, faster swing. He swung from below this time, uppercutting the rapier wielder in the chin and sending him flying. When he landed, I could see blood pouring from his mouth, and I even saw two teeth fall on the ground.

The heavily armoured man extended his arm out to him, helping him up. Another adventurer, one in chainmail armour, came to the rapier wielder. He put his hand in front of the rapier wielders face and said a short phrase. A green glow started to emit from his palm. The green glow engulfed the adventurer for a few seconds, before disappearing completely. There was still blood, but it didn’t seem to be flowing like it just had been.

It dawned on me that he had cast a spell. And that I didn’t memorise the chant. I couldn’t really understand it anyway. It didn’t sound like the chanting from the elf, though I don’t understand that language either, so who knows. He must’ve used a healing spell. I guess it wouldn’t have been useful anyway.

“Wow, he’s pretty good”, Vyth said.

“Yeah. It’s best if we never fight him”.

“We might have to. He is looking to kill us, after all”.

The elf came from around the corner and went up to her friends. She said something that must’ve taunted the rapier wielder, as he sounded annoyed afterwards. The rest of them laughed, however. The heavily armoured man took the rapier wielder away, leaving only the elf and the healer. They talked for a bit. Without the proper chant there’s no way I could’ve understood them, so I didn’t even try.

The two of them parted, but stopped after only a few meters. They turned to face each other. It was like an old western. Some kids tried to get closer, cheering happily. But a few women grabbed and took them to a safer place. One of them, a blond little girl looked me straight in my eye when she was grabbed by her arm. She pointed at me and said something, but I think the woman dismissed her.

I recognised her. She had seen us when me and Vyth looked at the village from a far for the first time. Her eyes are really something. All that was visible was my eye and even that should have been too high up for her to see.

The children were taken away and I returned my focus to the adventurers just in time to see them fight. The man in chainmail pulled out a shield and a mace from behind him. He made a hand gesture, coupled with a chant. This hand got a dark purple glow around it, as he pointed to the elf. The elf laughed and said something, before casting a spell of her own.

“Arrawe i pop, balst awaui nin coth!”, she chanted while pointing her staff at the man.

Three small, yet bright blue balls spawned out of thin air and flew straight at the man. He blocked with his shield just in time. The balls exploded upon impact, but he didn’t seem to have gotten hurt. He charged her and swung with his mace. She got hit, but still immediately counter attacked.

She said something in that other language: “Agora eu tenho voce!”, before chanting: “Oh naur -o i neder hells, thi- a destroui! Oh naur... al, paur na- yurs! Ennas na- baw... tur-'t solver. An destroular…!”.

A giant ball of fire was created right between them and exploded as fast as it had appeared. The man in chainmail flew several meters back, hitting the barns wall. The elf didn’t move. She didn’t even seem to have taken any damage from that blast. She was holding her side, however. The place where the mace had landed.

The man was still awake and slowly stood up. He didn’t seem to be in any condition to continue fighting, but it was remarkable that he was even alive.

“What?!”, Vyth said, “How can he still stand after that? And how is she still standing?”.

“Quiet down. We don’t want to be found out”.

From behind us, outside the barn, I heard voices. It was the rapier wielder and what sounded like the dwarf. They passed the entrance, though. So we should still be undetected. Vyth looked back at me and whispered: “Sorry”.

“It’s fine. But, I didn’t get the full chant for that powerful spell. I need to hear it again!”.

“I don’t know, it looked really strong. Can you really do that if you have the chant?”.

“I don’t know, but I can at least try, right?”.

I looked back at the adventurers. The dwarf and rapier wielder had indeed passed us and were now standing next to them. The man in chainmail healed himself and then the elf. He looked like a typical cleric and had healing abilities. I’m sure he actually is one. Learning all of their classes could help us fight them, but I’m not sure if their weaknesses are the same as in the games I’ve played. Finding that out will be hard without putting us in grave danger, so I’ll just have to assume that’s the case.

Once they were healed up, they all went away, passing the barns entrance. It looked like they were going to the bar.

“We should follow them”, Vyth said

“And have a repeat of last time? Let’s return to the hideout, so I can scribble down to chant”.

“I guess you’re right”.

We returned to the hideout and explained everything to the rest. I didn’t want to forget the chant for that first spell, so I quickly scribbled it into the dirt wall. The others gave me a confused and weirded out look, but I didn’t pay it much attention.

“Could you get me some hide?”, I asked.

“Sure, we’ll hunt down something like a deer tomorrow for dinner, then”, Rekiwr said.

“What did you get for today’s dinner?”.

“We got some birds. It isn’t too much, but it should be enough for us all”.

“Great! Can I have some feathers?”.

“Feathers? What do you need that for?”.

“You’ll see. It’ll make writing a lot easier”.

We ate and slept. The next night, me and Vyth went back to the barn. We went just before dawn. When we got there, a farmer came into the barn and started milking the cows. Something we hadn’t seen yesterday.

“What are they doing?”, Vyth asked.

I explained it to him as we waited. We waited for a long time, but they weren’t showing up. The sun had been up for hours. Were they still asleep? I’m sure we have a route to the bar that has enough shade, so we could go check.

Vyth took one look at me and asked: “Let’s go then!”.

I smiled and followed him. We took a detour through the hideout, digging a new tunnel that led to a hidden spot near the bar. I poked out my head and looked for anyway to get in. I noticed a small hole in the corner, just small enough for a mouse. Luckily, a tree covered it in shade, so I could run to it and make the hole bigger. But that might wake them up and alarm them.

As I was thinking, Vyth pushed me out and popped his head out as well. He spotted the same hole and ran to it. I wanted to stop him, but shouting was only going to make things worse. He quickly clawed out a bigger hole and gestured for me to come. I hesitated, but decided to just put my faith in him. We entered the bar. Once in, we could hear screaming. The screaming of a kobold!