" Now or never! We won't be able to run away from it, let's kill it and level you up to 15!

I will face it and try to deal some damage, while you attack it from the rear."

Sam held a Roman shield and an ordinary steel spear, not really appropriate for an enemy like the cyclops. However, Sam stepped forward with a tense expression and placed the shield in front of his body.

The cyclops raged and roared while spit was flying everywhere. It lifted the club and ran towards Sam.

The ground trembled but Sam still stood firmly, in a deep stance.

Linda was terrified as she stood in the rear. Even though she had fought and killed a lot of different horrible monsters, she had never seen a creature as big and monstrous as the cyclops.

When the monster tensed its arm muscles and started to swing the club downwards, Linda raised her staff and shot her lightning spear.

Sam jumped aside and evaded the club, but fell because of the massive impact and trembling ground.

The lightning spear had hit the shoulder area of the cyclops at the same moment the club smashed on the ground and successfully paralyzed it for a moment. Sam witnessed that and took the chance to stab the side of the unmoving enemies knee.

He also punched with his shield and distanced himself before the cyclops could move again.

" Its defense is insane, my attacks did nearly no damage! If I'm correct, it's weakness is the eye.

I will be the bait and you attack it with your lightning spell, when it is unprepared!"

Linda put herself together after hearing Sam talk to her and got ready to launch her spell at any time.

The paralysis wore off and the cyclops began to move again. It's only eye looked at Linda with anger. It lifted the club and approached the mage to smash her into meat paste.

" Look out!! Back off immediately and wait for an opportunity! "

Sam shouted and went to intercept the boss monster. He waited for the club to crash into the ground, far away from where Linda had run off to and attacked the hand, which held the massive weapon.

He rammed his shield on the back of the hand and followed with a thrust of his spear. The whole tip penetrated the flesh but the shaft shattered shortly afterwards because of the force that had to be used.

The cyclops frowned and used his free hand to slap Sam like a fly. However Sam predicted that move and lay flat on the ground to evade the incoming hand.

Sam felt the hand passing his position and jumped up to attack again. Unfortunately the cyclops was annoyed by Sam's actions and kicked at him. Luckily, Sam was able to place the shield in front of his body, before the foot arrived and sent him flying.

The impact was massive and dented the shield to the point where it couldn't be used anymore. Sam crashed on the floor multiple times before he came to a stop. One of his arms had a big wound and was bleeding a lot and he had cuts and bruises everywhere.

The cyclops approached Sam to finally end his life but before it could even lift the club, a lightning spell arrived and directly hit the eye of the boss monster.

The cyclops screamed and let go of its club to cover the massively bleeding wound. Huge amounts of blood were coming out of the destroyed eye until the cyclops screamed a last time and died.

Linda smiled after getting her Level up notification and actually approached Sam to give him a quick hug and to thank him before she remembered his wounds and handed him a potion.

" No problem, it is good for everyone in Blackstone city, if a person like you is a Level 15! It will give the citizens confidence while I am away and it will also make me much more confident."

Sam smiled at her and gestured her to return to the city. They walked side by side and talked about different topics while laughing. They didn't pay attention to the surroundings, until faint noises of screaming could be heard.

Sam and Linda looked at each other, nodded and ran into the direction the sounds were coming from. The screams this time weren't from a cyclops but multiple humans and other creatures.

Sam ran in front, therefore was the first one to see what was going on.

A group of about 100 humans were fighting a big horde of zombies and skeletons in the forest. Sam could see 40 women and children who got protected by the surrounding men. There were mostly knights with shields, as well as spears and maces. They didn't have any warriors, archers or assassins, but a group of 15 mages were shooting magic in every direction. There were fireballs, ice cones, lightning attacks, however the most outstanding man wore a white cloak and a staff made of white wood. He shot bright balls of magic which turned the skeletons and zombies into dust. In between his attacks he shouted to motivate his soldiers.

" These creatures are nothing compared to us Brightstar mercenaries! We will keep fighting until there are no more monsters to block our path and then we will find a nice place for us to live! "

His men roared, however there were arriving more and more monsters, making the situation worse.

Sam was sure about this situation being a quest, therefore he decided to help them escape to Blackstone city and let them stay there. Linda thought the same and so they quickly made a plan. They would open a path for them to directly run to the city without having to kill all of the monster first.

Linda could only use her lightning spear at this moment but Sam was mostly healed and ready to fight again.

He ran forward and exploded a zombies head with one straight punch. A roundhouse kick followed, which smashed a skeleton. A lightning spear passed Sam and killed another zombie.

" Heeeey!! Come over here, our city is nearby you will be safe there!"

Sam shouted at the mercenary group. They looked at him, then at their leader, who seemed to think for a moment before nodding and giving orders to his people.

The knights made a defensive line at the rest of the group to protect them from the monsters. Sam told Linda to lead the group while he made his way to the rear and helped to defend the group. He and the remaining knights fought while slowly retreating and buying time for the mages and non fighters.

The enemies kept coming out of the woods and attacking Sam and the group of knights, however they held their formation with a lot of help from Sam. He ran along the formation and jumped forward when a part of it seemed to break. He smashed the enemies without any weapons, making it look like child's play for the other knights.

After what seemed like hours, reinforcements arrived. Anna, Nina, Kain and a big group of archers arrived behind Sam and the knights. A hail of arrows showered the enemies in front of Sam, buying him and the others time to turn around and retreat.

The undead were slowly following them. They arrived at the gates a few minutes later. Sam immediately gave orders to the guards.

" Inform all of our soldiers to come here as fast as possible. A horde of monsters is approaching us. I'm not sure about their numbers, therefore I want all of them to assemble right now!"

The guards nodded and left quickly while Sam and the soldiers present closed the gate and climbed the walls to wait for the arrival of the horde.