They camped on a small ridge, lighting a fire just long enough for Dean to cook the meat they’d collected throughout the day before dousing it, before full dusk to mask the firelight. They set a watch schedule as they watched a few campfires twinkle in the distance.

They woke up the next morning at predawn, ate a cold meal before packing up the makeshift camp and heading out.

Around noon, they were cutting through a deep ravine when Will, who was currently in the lead, signaled for them to stop. He waited for them to join him before saying, “I think I heard something ahead. Wait here while I scout ahead.”

He slowly worked his way forward and they lost sight of him in the underbrush. They waited several minutes before he returned.

“Four Orcs coming this way,” He whispered, “levels one through three.”

“Think they killed the bandits?” Dean whispered.

“Now’s not really the time.” Will urgently whispered back.

Ryan pointed to a few outcroppings on either side, “We could ambush them.”

“Two on each side?” Ben suggested as he pointed at Dean, “We draw their fire and you two attack once we have their attention?”

They made their way to cover, preparing the ambush. Dean notched an arrow as he moved behind a boulder. A few minutes later, he heard grunting that might have been some kind of language followed by the sight of four orcs coming out of the underbrush. Once they were directly underneath, Ben nodded at him and he stepped out of cover to sight the nearest orc.

He released the arrow, as Ben flicked his hands in a series of motions. The ground erupted under an orc as a skeleton hand reached out and grabbed it. The orc screamed in terror, twisting around to slash at Fido. Fido didn’t react to the onslaught, continuing to crawl out of the ground as he dragged the orc into the pit behind him. Dean notched a second arrow, targeted his orc and fired.

The three remaining orcs had spotted them, the one he’d hit charged him as it drew its sword, as another attacked Fido and the final one drew a bow.

A second later, the two still in the ravine grunted in pain as a pair of arrows struck them in the back. Dean slung his bow behind his back and drew his sword as the orc charging him closed the distance to a few yards.

Dean deflected the Orc’s first swing. They exchanged blows, the Orc getting the better of him, and scoring a slash across his chest. The chest piece he wore deflected the worst of the blow, but it still left a thin line of blood dripping down his chest. Dean countered, feinting first high before flicking his wrist into a downward stroke. The Orc tried to block the first attack but couldn’t adjust to the feint in time. Dean’s blade sank deep into its stomach. Dean watched its life points drop to zero as he yanked the blade out.

He glanced into the ravine just in time to see more orcs charging out of the underbrush. He called out, “Incoming.”

Ben must have already seen them because a fireball landed in the middle of the orcs, drowning out Dean’s warning. It didn’t hit any directly, instead exploding against the earth in a roar of debris and liquid fire that splattered the nearest orcs. The shockwave knocked them off their feet, tossing them in the air before they smashed into the ground. Two of them laid still, a third rolled around frantically to put out the fire.

Dean cast Warrior’s Aura as he charged, feeling a slight surge of power in his arms and a lightness in his feet. He saw Fido collapse into a heap of bones out of the corner of his eye, and a couple vines shoot out of the ground and latch onto an orc, dragging it to the ground.

He lost sight of anything else as he plowed into the lead orc, locking swords with it. It shoved him back, knocking him slightly off balance, before attacking. He knocked it aside, sliding past it’s defense and cutting it deep across the chest. It fell with a groan, and he turned to the next orc in line. Their swords clanged against each other as they exchanged blows. He lost track of the rest of the battle as he fought, letting the sound of screams and explosions pass through his thoughts in mild recognition of what was happening, concentrating each orc he faced. He didn’t know how many he killed, barely registering when the Warrior’s Aura spell dissipated except as a slight lag in his strength and speed, or when the warmth of Ryan’s healing spell targeted him. He fought in a blind frenzy, not even realizing he was screaming at the top of his lungs in ragged breaths, until he killed the orc in front of him only to discover there weren’t any others still standing.

He collapsed to his knees as his limbs went limp, the rush of battle leaving him shaking and paralyzed. He wiped the blood and sweat from his face to clear his eyes and looked around. The ground around him was littered with dozens of dead Orcs, small craters filled with a burning liquid from Ben’s fireball spell, and rivulets of blood running towards the base of the ravine.

From somewhere, he heard Ben exclaim, “There was a firefight!” Followed by an excited, “Did you see Fido? Did you see how badass he was? This game’s finally getting good.”

Dean’s head buzzed too much for him to say anything, otherwise he’d have told Ben to shut up. Instead, he took several deep breaths before searching the orc directly in front of him, finding a small coin pouch and a few pieces of gear worth keeping.

Iron Spaulder

Quality: Adequete

Rarity: Common

Damage Resist: 20-23

Durability: 9/12

Weight: 5 lbs

Attributes:

None

Iron Greaves

Quality: Adequete

Rarity: Common

Damage Resist: 14-16

Durability: 6/10

Weight: 2 lbs

Attributes:

None

He collected both, thankful that the game automatically cleared away any gore once they entered his inventory and equipped them. It wasn’t much, but added to the leather chestpiece he had, it would add a little more defense.

While in his status page equipping the items, he noticed the blinking Quest icon. He clicked it.

Title: Bandit Raids, Part 3

Reward: Gold and XP

Description: Orcs killed the bandits. Report back to Torial.

Or

Discover the extent of the Orc presence in Torial to unlock additional rewards and potential quests. To complete, collect Orc Clan badges.

He continued searching the dead, ignoring his friends as they talked, until they’d looted all the bodies, and Ryan had successfully healed all of them. Once finished, the group reconvened at the bottom of the ravine.

His friends had found two badges among the dead, one that looked like a raven eating a corpse and another of a red fist. The game identified them as the Kal’Torak clan and the Ja’Noric clan badges.

“You alright, Dean?” Ryan asked as they left the battlefield, quiet enough that the others couldn’t hear him, though they were talking loud enough about the battle that they probably wouldn’t hear an elephant charge them.

“I’m just not used to actually fighting yet.” He explained, “It feels so real.”

“I know,” Ryan agreed, “I get the jitters every time.”

Dean shook his head, “I don’t.” He thought better of it and said, “A little, but that’s not what bothers me. I’m actually enjoying it. A lot. It just makes me feel alive like I’ve never felt before.” He shivered slightly, “Does that make sense at all?”

“It’s the adrenaline. I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s part of the game and you’re just playing the hero.” Ryan said, “Besides, look at the bright side, at least you aren’t those two numbskulls. At this rate, they’ll get the attention every Orc within a mile find them and we laugh at them as they get ambushed. Then save them if we feel like it.”

“You’re right,” Dean grinned as he shrugged off his worry, “I feel better already.”

They left the ravine, passed where Will spotted the Orc patrol, and crested a small rise before discovering a camp where the rest of the Orcs had come from.

“I didn’t think to look past them.” Will said sheepishly as he stared down at it, “Didn’t realize there was an entire camp behind them.”

“Dude, it was awesome.” Ben said, “It was epic.”

They quickly searched the camp, only finding a few coin pouches, a few pieces of rotted meat, and a pile of discarded junk.

They encountered two more Orc patrols before noon but were able to finish them off without trouble. They gained a Ja’Domani badge and the Kal’Balric badge. Dean’s Archery and Melee fighting both leveled up, along with his subskill One-Handed Sword Fighting.

They had to stop hunting after a dying rabbit drew the attention of a third group of Orcs that were able to ambush them. The five Orcs scored critical hits with their bows before Ben spotted them and launched a fireball in their direction.

The lead Orc was able to dive out of the way, but the ball landed between the others, spraying them in liquid fire. The lead Orc was still trying to recover its feet when Will’s arrow knocked it back to the ground and the newly summoned Fido barreled into them. Dean grabbed the arrow in his arm and yanked it out before drawing his sword to charge. He felt the warm tingle of Ryan’ healing spell flood over him just before he engaged one of the orcs.

Fido killed the lead orc with a few swings of his sword, or was Fido a she skeleton warrior, while a pair of vines ensnared a third. Within seconds, both were dead.

The remaining two Orcs led them on a chase through the woods, running a couple dozen steps before turning to fire an arrow forcing the group to duck before trying to fire back. It took fifteen minutes and a bad turn by the Orcs to corner them against a rock face where they holed up behind some boulders.

Will quietly worked his way to flank them as the other three kept them pinned down with arrows. He reached a vantage point just above and behind them. He struck a critical strike, and the two Orcs immediately swung around to fight the new threat. However, their movement to get out of his line of fire put them directly into the other three’s sights and it was over in seconds.

All four of them were left with less than fifty percent health. While Ryan began the process of healing everyone, they collected the loot of those two before working their way back to the others and discovered they belonged to a third Orc Clan, the Dar’Balic.

Meanwhile, Dean realized he’d leveled up in the process and pulled up his status page.

Congratulations, you’ve reached Level 4

You have 5 experience points to allocate to your stats.

He upgraded his Strength and Endurance to fifteen, and Agility to fourteen before closing the window.

It was midmorning before they caught a wasp of a light scent of woodsmoke on the wind, but after another twenty minutes a slight haze of smoke hung in the air.

The group turned upwind, towards the Northeast, where the smoke thickened. They broke out of the forest ten minutes later into mayhem.

The small village was nestled against a bluff that had been carved out by a river. The houses looked similar to the ones in Torial, except these were made of wood planks and thatched roofs. Several of the houses were on fire, billowing large plumes of smoke onto the wind. They could hear the sound of shouting, screams of agony, and metal clashing on metal.