At this moment, the village which I am at right now is being calmly robbed by a bunch of Marauders. They’re all Lumenians or Himenians, just like all the villagers here, which means that they’re all basically humans. If they are humans, then I’ve seen enough pictures, movies, video games, and all sorts of other examples from my past experiences where a human gets hurt, or possibly dies. Which means, I know how that looks like and I have a good enough idea of how to do it.

If this were just any game, I’d easily attack an enemy in instant, whether its humanoid or not, simply by pressing a button or clicking on them. If there is blood, no blood, pixelated blood, or grotesque graphics in video games where I “kill” something, that also isn't a challenge. But what is, is this virtual reality game.

I’m ready to strike at any moment. But it’s very odd. This feeling which I'm now having inside of me is a short fuse/amount of fear. Not the fear of dying in the game or seeing a bloody pixelated mess. But more like the fear akin to accidentally touching your younger sibling or another kid too hard and hurting them. Again, this feeling inside of me isn’t preventing me at all from trying to perform what I am about to do. But no other game has made me take a step back to think about the actions which I will now attempt to perform as much as this game has made me.

I cannot bet on the villagers helping me when I suddenly attack, but if they do then I can be more certain that we’ll win this encounter. Instead, I’ll attempt to gain any possible advantage I can get before beginning this fight.

The few Marauders who are pulling the carts back to here are still in the distance approaching this area. The Marauder who is holding the chains which are binding an imprisoned Snowmel is farther off to the side. So, this makes 6 Marauders left nearby. 5 of these Marauders are level 1 according to their short character descriptions which appeared when I tapped on them while offering my tribute of worthless pieces of firewood. The last one, is their boss. Certainly, a Lumerian because of his darker skin tone compared to the rest of us. He’s definitely their boss and he's definitely stronger than the rest of them, you can tell because his muscles are clearly large. And he's got a moustache large enough to make any man be very proud of themselves. He’s still standing in the center, closest one to the rest of the bundled-up villagers who are standing patiently, with their tool/weapons ready, waiting for these Marauding thieves to leave their lands.

Before I get too far away from the Marauder Boss, I’ll tap him to check his character information again... and there's an option to talk to him again!

[Leave now and you won’t die]

[Who are you? What do you want?]

[*Ask like a servant* Is there instead anything I could do to help you?]

[Have you heard of a Divine Spirit before? Well, you’re looking at one right now]

[*Immediately attack the Marauders*]

These options…they look pretty similar to the previous ones, but there are some changes. This time, instead of asking for tribute, it looks I can try and pretend to seem like I’m selling myself out by wanting to help these Marauders? Or is this an actual option route where I could try and join these Marauders? Either way, I want to still remain close to the Marauder Boss so I can get a good opportunity to attack him.

MC: “Is there instead anything I could do to help you?”

The Marauder Boss chuckles at me.

Marauder Boss: "Haha! Looks like at least one of you villagers know how to treat your guests. So, you want to help? Well-well-well, let’s see. Go help pull those carts! Don’t blame me if…this eventually become a mandatory job for you…Haha!"

The villagers are starting to look more confused, some of their faces are increasingly concerned like Allee’s while some of them are starting to look resentful towards me. But no matter. No matter what you villagers are thinking about me at this very second or what this Marauder Boss told me matters. Because I already said that I will protect this place!

I’ll walk as if I’m going towards the carts, but instead…I’m quickly moving behind the Marauder Boss AND…

*Whoosh, the woodcutting axe appears in Amulet’s right hand*

I’ll jump!

*SLASH*

A mid angled strike from the side at the boss’s back…he slowly reacts and lets out a scream! Bet he didn’t see that coming! Weren’t you standing so proud a moment ago?

*CHOP*

Multiple strikes drop down a top angle, I’ve been practicing this motion the most! I’m both jumping up and using the power of gravity to help me deal critical damage. Not to mention that I’ve bene striking him from behind this whole time!

And it's a success!

These hit numbers are high, much higher than the ones I’ve dealt when I previously attacked training dummies.

The Marauder Boss tries to rapidly react by trying to turn around his body towards me but he’s constantly flinching as he goes.

His Marauder goons are shocked, and their bodies tense up before they start to charge at me! While villagers are clearly taken aback.

But I do not stop striking, like a madman-no, a furiously ferocious fighting Dwelf is on the loose! I’ve latched my fangs unto this much larger beast than me, and so there is no way I’m going to stop anytime soon. I won’t risk myself by going easy or allow any other type of carelessness because I cannot afford to get hit.

I'm also afraid to get hit. I've never experienced it in this game yet. I could instantly die, or my vision might shake up and cause me to lose control of my character.

Before the Marauder goons reach me, their boss is down. In this exciting short moment, he is finally down on the ground! Thankfully, this game doesn’t have a lot of gore, nor does it seem to look like he’s crawling in pain and shouting in agony like I thought he’d might be. Thankfully, no… really… Very-very-very thankfully, this game doesn’t depict that level of realism or levels of violence, or else I might start getting nightmares of this very moment or my even my character Amulet Pond!

The Marauder goons slow down for a moment before they just about reach me because they've realized their leader has fallen. This gives me time to react. The villagers are still shocked and seem to not know what they should be doing. Which is of course to help me!

The amount of real-life adrenaline and vigor I’ve received right now is definitely not going to go to waste. I need it to start rampaging charging at these goons before they start doing the same to me. I’m not martially smart enough to deal with close quarter combat carefully and accurately. I know this from playing other games, such as a medieval first-person action games I’ve played before. Realistically fighting more than one person at a time in melee combat is something I’m bad at. Rarely, I sometimes have defeated two opponents at once, but any more than that, then it's simply impossible for me to win in those games. Not even my currently berserking level 2 Dwelf called Amulet Pond can do that.

I clutched my VR controllers and force my character into action. I press jump again and I see my height reach equal levels to the closest Marauder I can reach, before he has time to react properly, I strike him down from a top angle. I wish at this time I could call out to the villagers that now is the time to attack with me.

“We should help out!”

I heard one elderly woman scream that out. Yes, you should! How convenient, just when I wished for you to help, you do!

Maybe it’s because I cleared the criteria of defeating the Marauder Boss and one Marauder goon that they’ve now gained enough confidence to believe that they can win this battle.

Half the villagers who were standing bundled up together at the center, have now came charging forward. They’re mostly young to middle aged women, but I see some old men with shovels as well, who are all rushing towards the Marauders. Wait-but what will happen to the EXP I’m gaining? When I killed the Marauder Boss, I saw a lot of EXP fill my Experience Bar, and then a bit more after just defeating this Marauder goon. Will I get the EXP if the other characters defeat the enemies? I don't know...

Crap! I need to keep attacking! Chaaarge!

The closest Marauder goons start yelling at each other as they try to keep up the fight. The goons who were dragging the carts had dropped them as soon as they saw me attack their boss and have come rushing forwards. However, the Marauder who is holding the prisoner doesn’t seem to be sure what to do, but he’s slowly retreating while still keeping the Snowmel bonded. I shouldn’t let him get away, that character is still imprisoned!

But first, I need to defeat these Marauders with the rest of the villagers.

Now that I’m fighting without having the element of surprise, these AI enemies are both hard and not as hard as I expected them to be when fighting them. They anticipate my attacks a bit, but most importantly they’re regularly dodging and closely monitoring my movements. This might be more difficult than an advanced sparring matches I used to have at my old martial art’s class. But it’s still not as difficult as I thought it would be! As long as I’m not fighting an actual expert, I’m good!

Most of these Marauders are skinnier and weaker looking than their boss. Also, there isn’t as many of them in comparison to the rest of the villagers. So, we definitely stand a chance…this battle is as good as ours!

The villagers who are fighting, are fighting with their pitchforks, scythes, shovels, and their own work axes. I’m using the largest looking axe here, but it’s just a simple woodcutting axe. While the enemy Marauders are using ugly their ugly weapons which are simple big clubs with spikes attached and mean looking short hammers. All of us are unarmored, besides some of the Marauders in their light armor. But it only covers part of their body, otherwise it just makes them look more intimidating.

While in the middle of this battle I remember that I used to think that spears were lame weapon. But based on the previous games I’ve played; I learned a rude awakening when I needed to try and counter their long reach and their variety of possible attacks. This scene which I’m looking at now proves my point. The villager’s lengthy weapons are definitely giving them an advantage against the Marauder’s shorter weapons. I feel like I am now learning the game's combat more, especially knowing what is effective and what isn't during this fight. My first fight.

Anyways, why am I observing this situation. We’re not done dealing with these Marauders!

Top block – side slash – dodge – charge and strike – bottom advantage…hit!

Another Marauder down.

These Marauders are beginning to be shaken up, but the one with the prisoner has already broken loose and is now fully retreating. I see him running away while dragging the prisoner, wait is that prisoner even alive or do they just not weigh much?

More importantly, we’ve now begun chasing all of the Marauders to the backside of the village. Half of them have fallen down already, those are also the ones that have some villagers surrounding their bodies to see whether they're dead or not. The rest of them are now beginning to give up in trying to fight back. While these Marauders are surrendering, my eyes are still focused on that Marauder whose escaping with the prisoner in the distance.

The Villagers are beginning to realize their success and celebrate.

Before I start chasing after that Marauder, I double check to look at this scene to see if everything has worked out well or not. There is some blood, but there is no mess. And now casulties on our side. It seems like we’ve decisively won, hold up, am I actually a master tactician or what?

Never mind that...I need to go after him!