We continued to hear the bang of cannons. The village had three main entrances that were tightly guarded by the Skhite soldiers. I wondered how long the entrances would be able to withstand the non-stop assault.

And then a soldier came to our corridor, blaring a trumpet. He had red cuts on one side of his face and his sword was stained with the sauce of the enemy.

“We need folks to help us!” he cried. “Come out and lend a hand! Or the village shall fall!” And without another word he trotted away, plausibly to the site of battle.

“We are going to help the soldiers,” Nora said to me.

“I will come as well,” I said.

“No,” Nora said, “I do know that you can use a sword, but I would recommend that you stay put in your chamber. The Hornies are ferocious warriors, and I doubt we will have the resources left to heal you if you suffer another stab in the stomach.”

Nora and Nadir left. I stayed in the chamber, following Nora’s advice. Yes, I had fought successfully with the players, but at the same time the role of luck couldn’t be ignored. I would be more of a liability to the Skhites during the present situation.

The residents of the other chambers in the corridor too left to battle. I was alone. Guilt stirred in my stomach. I felt like a weakling hiding in my chamber while the other Skhites were putting their lives at risk to save their village. Against my better judgment, I resolved to venture out.

I was after all a Skhite myself too. And the village was possibly going to be my only home for the rest of my life, since it was unlikely I was ever going to return to the real world and the players in the town were hell bent on killing me.

Cautiously I moved out of my room with my sword. The nearby tunnels too were mostly empty. The only chambers that were not vacant contained Skhites that were sick or too old. I kept on advancing in the direction of one of the main entryways to the village.

After going for some time, I reached an intersection of multiple tunnels. I was aware that one of the passages led to the very heart of the village where the children’s quarters were located. The Skhites had an interesting way of raising children that was parallel to humans sending kids to boarding schools. In their third year of life, the Skhite children were sent to live with the other youngsters. This continued till a Skhite reached the age of seventeen, which was the age when an individual would be formally considered an adult and could take up their own separate chamber in the village.

On a whim, I changed my decision and took the tunnel leading to the children’s chambers. I had only proceeded a few steps when I saw somebody some distance ahead of me. A monster, but not a Skhite by any means. Unlike the Skhites, this demon had a build closer to that of a human and had prominent horns like a bull's. I realized that it could only be a Hornie that had somehow sneaked past the guards at the entrances.

“Hey you!” I shouted.

I had to stop the Hornie from reaching the children’s quarters by all means. The Hornie turned around and saw me. He immediately fled deeper into the tunnel. I sprang after him. The Hornie was carrying a long spear which slowed him down. I closed in on him, before lunging forward and grabbed him by the back. The two of us tumbled down.

The Hornie’s spear had fallen away, but he bashed me on the face with his elbow.

You have been hit!

I did not appreciate the message at all, because it made me lose focus and no doubt I got whacked on the face a second time, this time right on the nose. Distracted by the stinging pain, I let the Hornie slip out of my grasp. He picked up his spear and prepared to strike.

But then he frowned.

“Human?” he said. He seemed conflicted whether he should kill me.

I got back to my feet, wielding my sword, ready to meet any attack he would throw at me. The two of us began to circle each other. The Hornie was looking at me with a very perplexed face. Sometimes I would swing my sword at him and at other times he would thrust his spear at me, albeit in a half-hearted manner. But none of us were able to get the other. The minutes kept trickling away.

Suddenly, the monster tore off towards the intersection of the tunnels. I did not pursue him, though I would have, had he gone in the other direction. I fell on my knees and just caught my breath for a while, wondering why exactly the Hornie had fled. He had seemed reluctant to fight me, and I doubted he had run away because he thought I was an unbeatable warrior.

I decided to go to the children and check if they were all right. There was every possibility that other Hornies had sneaked into their quarters. I arrived at the chambers of the children and the sight I saw was terrifying in the least.

There were at least five Hornies in the particular corridor I had come to. The Skhite children were putting up a stiff fight with them. The Skhites had made a grave mistake in not sending soldiers to guard the children after the initiation of the assault on the village. Wait, I was wrong! Three Skhite soldiers were lying dead in the midst of the chaos.

The children had snatched weapons from a couple of the Hornies, but the rest three were still thrusting their swords at the children. A trio of older kids were using the swords of the fallen soldiers to fight with the Hornies. Some of the children sported worrisome wounds and I reckoned that it was only a matter of time before the better-trained Hornie soldiers would kill some children, despite being outnumbered by the youngsters.

I ran into the scene with a war cry in my throat. The Hornies saw me and glanced at each other with confusion, even as they handled the attacks of the children with relative ease.

“Go, call more soldiers!” I instructed some of the younger kids who at once trotted away.

“Human?” a Hornie said, looking at me with eyes of puzzlement.

I swung my sword at him, such that the tip of my sword slashed his cheek. He recoiled as blood oozed out. I tried not to look at the gaping wound that I myself had caused.

The other Hornies snarled at me angrily. They thrust their spears in my direction, but their effort was considerably unenthusiastic and I was able to simply jump back and avoid the spearheads.

A Hornie picked up one of the smaller Skhite children by the throat. The Hornie gestured that he would kill the kid if I did not throw away my sword. Well, I did throw away my sword.

At him.

I had gotten rather good at throwing swords and the sword flew and embedded itself on his chest. The Hornie dropped the child and clutched his wound in disbelief, before slumping down dead. The children quickly passed me the spear of the fallen Hornie.

The other Hornie with the slashed cheek threw himself at me with a howl. I tried to jab him with the spear but was unsuccessful. Both of us fell to the ground and I hit the floor with the back of my head, which sent a wave of pain all about my cranium.

You lose 500 health!

That was a bad hit, I thought in my dazed state, momentarily losing sense of space and time.

A dagger appeared in the Hornie’s hand, and he raised it to strike me. But as he did so, our eyes met, and he hesitated. I took advantage and drove my spear through his neck. I had my mouth open and the Hornie’s blood gushed out of his wound right on my tongue! It was perhaps my worst experience in Dharti. I slid from underneath him even as he miserably tried to control the blood surging out of his neck.

A feverish heat gushed over me. I retched up the blood, and kept spitting until I could taste it no more. I was trembling.

C’mon, it’s just virtual blood.

virtual.

Digital.

Fake.

Thankfully I didn’t give into my hemophobia. I focused on the three remaining Hornies. Only one was armed.

I approached them, the children made way for me.

“We don’t want to fight you,” the armed Hornie said.

“Afraid?” I asked, glancing at the fallen Hornies. I was well aware that without the help of the Skhite children I would not have been able to do anything.

“No,” the Hornie said, “but we do not want to fight you.”

“Why?” I asked, as I took a step closer, ready to strike them with my spear any time. The Hornies spoke in low whispers amongst themselves. I did not know what plan they had in mind, but I decided to act.

I thrust my spear at the one nearest to me, but the Hornie moved in the nick of time such that my spear only kissed air. He grabbed the shaft of my spear, while his friends leapt on top of me. He pulled the spear out of my grasp and threw it away. I thought they would go for the kill, but to my surprise they simply shoved me towards the children and took to their heels.

***

General Information:

Name: Vicky

Affinity/Inclination: Evilun

Level: 1

Health/Strength: 450/1000

Weapons: One spear

Stamina:87/100

Mana: 70/100

Spells/Abilities: None