Chapter 14

Azani Bandits

The minute Lykan set eyes on the camp, his mind identified the tell-tale signs of the Azani. There was a certain magical aura that prevailed around the camp, soaking it in corrupted darkness. This was something that was only lightly hinted at in his simulations but hit him with full force here. He could almost feel corruption clinging to everyone in the camp like an extra set of clothing. The warriors in question wore clothes similar to the ones he had trained against in Tier 1 and Tier 2 of the Martial Training halls. Namely, they wore banded leathers that were more open and ready for desert combat than to survive in the forests. The camp in question seemed to be a long way away from their homelands.

It wasn’t until he got to the golden observation spot that had been detailed for him that he saw the likely reason why they were so far away from their ancestral lands. They had prisoners in cages. While many of the prisoner’s faces and features were hard to make out. A few things were clear. One, they had all been held in the cage for many days. The cages were on giant wagons that would be pulled by trains of horses. Even at rest, the cages sat resting on top of those very carts. The prisoners were all females, many huddled together at the center, their backs together in solidarity to try and keep away from the open slots of the cages. When the guards would walk by, they would swing a hand through the slits trying to paw at the captured women. As they did paw, the women would cry out in disgust.

To make matters worse, some of the captives were clearly Wood Elves. While they didn’t seem to glow with the same ethereal beauty that was inherent in all High Wood Elves, these women possessed many of the same traits that made them stand out above humans and other races. Seeing this, rage burned from within Lykan’s chest.

“What, what is that?”

“Someone’s there. You best come out!”

Lykan had been spotted. The two guards who had been assigned to watch for an intruder from the cliff side had noticed Lykan and were now raising the alarm.

Soon many of the guards down below near the cages called to echo the alarm.

“Intruder!”

Cursing himself for staring too long, Lykan turned to face the two guards. They carried pikes but clearly didn’t know how to wield such long weapons. From the way the two guards held their weapons, it was clear that their job was to try to force Lykan to fall down the cliff, likely cutting himself up along the way down. A good plan, but not against Lykan.

In a second, Lykan pulled out his sword and began weaving between the two incompetent spear wielders. Lykan’s training and understanding of how a spear wielder would strike in such a case helped drastically. He ran forward. His speed was so quick that by the time the two guards reacted to the forward assault rather than a retreat, it was too late. He had already crossed the point of no return. Now their two weapons bisected each other. While one went high and the other low, it still meant that they could only attack horizontally and only from a limited plane. There would be hesitation as the two clearly seemed to be thrown off for a second by the fact that their spears did touch, if only slightly. That slight hesitation was all that Lykan needed.

Shink. Shink. Tunk. Thud.

Two quick slashes followed by the sounds of two giant rocks hitting the ground followed by the gently slumping bodies. It was almost too easy. Part of Lykan wanted to take the Pike as its shape would easily fall under his Spear Mastery Skill. The notion that he could easily win this encounter with a spear was fully ingrained in his mind. Yet he had a task before him, get better at the sword and not be dependent on one weapon type alone. Shaking the thoughts of turning the tides of battle with a pike, Lykan focused on the events unfolding. It seemed that many guards were now running out of the camp and up the cliff.

Whistle.

The distinctive whistling sound of arrows in flight could be heard. While no one had a direct line of sight to him currently, it was clear that more and more people would try to get closer to him for a better spot. He looked down to see that many of the archers were below, holed up near the cages with the prisoners in them.

Only now that he was desperate to come at this a different way did plans came to mind. He could easily run away, but that plan was quickly dismissed. He did not want to run from a clear mission that he felt drawn to. That would be the same thing as denying his fate, or worse, forcing a devolution of his Class. No, he wanted to be proud of the decisions he made, even if they led to his death. There was the fact that he was fairly certain with his Skills and countless training sessions where he went through scenarios exactly like this that he felt confident he could win. The only thing he needed to do was come up with a plan.

He looked down to see that there was a sheer cliff for about fifteen feet, not an insurmountable distance, but if he landed wrong, he could be injured and easily taken down before he had time to recover.

There was also the fact that the cages mounted on the carts were parked near the cliff. There was about a four-foot gap between the cages and the cliff, likely enough to get the animals in and out easily. The cage was only about ten feet tall from the ground. Realizing he had only one option, to jump to the cages and then make the much easier ten-foot jump down, he did just that. Before his mind could protest, he was moving.

Feet pounding against the ground, he was at nearly full speed in two and a half steps. By the time his foot landed for a third step, his muscles were already constricting tight, his body angling forward as he prepared to jump.

Thwick. Thwick.

Arrows whistled past him, causing little more than buzzing sounds to distract him. Fortunately, Lykan had Focus, which he was using to full effect right now to keep his mind and body moving in one perfect motion. His eyes say the spot he wanted to hit, and with a bounding step, he landed and then bounded forward.

A simple enough jump. Jumping forward three feet to land on a platform five feet away. Yet that wasn’t the end of it.

Thud. Rattle.

He landed on the top of the cage.

“Ah.”

“Oh.”

The prisoners screamed from the sudden impact overhead. Lykan, however, was unfazed as he landed, his enhanced muscles taking the impact. Then before anyone could react, he took one more step forward to the edge of the large cage and jumped again. He was close enough to see many of the archers looking up at his form. He appeared like a monster in the night. Blood covered his head and face. As he appeared, there seemed to be a deep glow that came from his very core. He looked like a demon if demons could be infused with holy light.

Chills ran down the backs of many as they looked up at the monster, who landed with some type of half bark sword in hand. By this point, the bonded blade had lost quite a bit of its protective bark, but there were still patches where the bark was prominent. The blade itself glowed, as the green gem stone in the pommel glowed with an ethereal sheen that lit up. Though Lykan was as yet unaware, the blade itself was feasting on the blood energy of the two slain guards from before, and it still thirsted for more.

Fortunately, Lykan had already planned on letting the blade feast, unaware of its intents at the moment.

Thud.

Lykan landed, taking out an archer with a stabbing thrust. Even though bark still coated the tip of Lykan’s blade, the force and speed that Lykan moved made it so the blade could easily pierce through the soft shoulder of the dazed archer. The blade pierced straight down and through, piercing the heart, lung, and other organs as it made its quick piercing descent. Lykan landed on top of the body then dove forward with a quick roll. The motion and his overwhelming strength were enough to pull the blade free and allow him to continue moving forward.

Thwick. Thwick.

Shink . Shink.

Arrows flew wildly around the camp as the archers desperately tried to aim arrows at the monster that had been let loose within their camp. Many thought this was the divine judgment of the Great Forest Spirit. Shivers ran down many spines as they saw the ruthless efficiency the warrior before them wielded. The mercenary groups had gotten bolder throughout the years. Going further and further into the protected forests, none would ever dare go to the heart of the Great Forest for fear of provoking the Great Forest Spirit’s wrath. Still, many bandit leaders, like Chief Jarilos, had made quite a living coming to the edges of the Great Forest Spirit to find and subdue Wood Elves that had long since lost their connection to the Great Forest.

“Idiots. Stop firing Arrows,” Chief Jarilos spat angrily, seeing arrows flying past and near the cages. A few were even embedded in the wheels that were used to pull the cages. While the arrows were only superficial wounds to the cage as a whole, there was still the chance that the merchandise could be damaged. With the way the archers were firing and the rate at which the monster in their camp was moving, the archers were more likely to hit other members than the one intruder.

Everyone paused to turn toward their leader.

Well, everyone but Lykan, who used the lull in combat to strike down many of the seemingly tougher-looking guards. While none seemed too threatening, he knew it would be easier, in the long run, to take down the more competent fighters while he could.

“Bastard!” Jarilos spat in Azani. Then he raised his left hand calling forth an arc of lightning. Lykan paused, not out of fear, but he needed to focus on the spell being constructed.

“That’s right, you die here,” Jarilos continued, thinking that the High Wood Elf warrior would be defenseless against such an attack. This was the case throughout most of the Southern lands. While Jarilos was a mildly competent shaman, he thought his Skills were easily able to take on one lone High Wood Elf.

Thunderclap.

A deafening roar could be heard as a bold of lightning shot down from the heavens touched Jarilos, who then, with the point of his finger, directed the arc forward.

“Oh!”

Everyone gasped. The warriors, the prisoners who had gathered hope that they could be freed, everyone. Everyone that is but Lykan.

Lykan, for his part, angled his blade forward as if to take on the spell head-on. In the past, the ancient blades of the High Wood Elves were said to be able to eat such spells and power, but those were stories told as nightmares to scare children training to be Azani Shamans to train harder.

The bolt of lightning shot forward, but it never touched the blade. In fact, it never got within five feet of Lykan, who created a zone of protection around him. As the bolt of lightning shot forward, he focused a crystal forward directly in its path. Then like a beam of light shining through a crystal only to bounce around wildly, showing rainbows of light at odd angles. The arc of electricity hit Lykan’s spell crystal and fired off in different directions. Unlike a typical crystal where there was no way of knowing where the rays of light would shine, Lykan knew and directed the beams to go where he wanted.

Zzap!

Arcs of lightning shot out, instantly slamming into and through warriors brandishing metal weapons. Then as the first few targets were taken down, Lykan rotated his prism to cause the arcs of lightning to quickly sweep around the camp, cutting down warriors who were grouped together.

Jarilos was shocked by the display. He had never seen such techniques before. His attack should have been unblockable. It was the fastest of attacks. Lightning, to his knowledge, was undodgeable. Songs were spoken of how people aided by the speed of lightning could win any battle. Still, that was proven wrong right here and now.

Jarilos canceled the spell. Then looked down at the soldiers that lay dead and dying from lightning-inflicted wounds. These were his soldiers, his brothers. He had worked so hard to get his fighting force to such a respectable number. But they were all taken down so quickly.

He took his eyes off of his enemy. That was his first and last true mistake of the battle.

The redirecting of his lightning attack, that was an unknown Ability of an unknown opponent, there was no way he could have anticipated such an outcome. That said, he had seen the way the assailant cut through his forces with his odd wooden blade. He had seen him work his way through his soldiers with grace, speed, and precision.

Shink. Thunk.

Jarilos was conscious as the world began to spin wildly. He blinked a few times as the world rotated around wildly. He tried to scream but found that his voice was stuck. He tried to move his arms and legs but found that they, too, were not responding. The last thing he saw was the monster dashing forward, totally ignoring Jarilos as he began cutting through more and more of his soldiers. Then a body fell in front of him. Recognition filled his gaze as he saw armor that looked familiar. My armor? I will kill you. He thought as he looked at a headless body that had fallen before him.

Then the synapses firing to his brain stopped working. His mind could no longer comprehend the stimuli it was receiving. He died, never knowing quite why the headless body in front of him both looked so familiar and dared to wear his armor.