Chapter 17

Growth

As promised Antic claimed the cave as his own, and he gained 400 exp for conquering the level 4 cave. Then they walked to the back of the cave and gathered up all their possessions. Torger asked “Arden, how much ammo do you have left?”

“All the forty-five’s for my revolver are gone. All the thirty thirty rounds are gone. I have eleven twenty-two rounds left, and you have twenty-one shells left. That’s it.”

Torger knew that wouldn’t last long at all. It seemed the tyters gave them just enough to not die until they gained a few levels. He said “Jex we are going to have to do a better job of making sure you have plenty of arrows. You running out in that battle really hurt us. I’ll get more from Baybil. What are the treasures we got?”

Brun and Antic were looking at a pile of stuff on the floor. Antic said “We found the copper coins and two glowing stones from the first cave. From this cave we found a gold coin and sixty silver coins, a sword, and another glowing stone.”

“A gold and sixty silver is good, we can repay some of the debt. Brun, will you hold the glowing stones until we see Rome again? Let me see that sword.”

Antic handed him a two handed steel sword that looked just like his decorative English double edged straight sword he received in the cabin. The steel was heavier and sharper than the tin imitation sword. “This could come in handy. Graul, I think this will be best used in your hands. We’ll take turns gaining experience with a two handed sword.”

Graul agreed and they left the smoky cave to gather billik legs, including the ones that had died in the cave. After that they dragged the bodies away from the cave at Antic’s pleading request. He didn’t want to own a cave with dead cockroaches in it. What would the neighbors think?

They had all gained two more ability points during the fight, but decided to save them and see how they should invest them once they got back to the cabin.

They met Rome two days later, half way back to Home. He did not stay at Home like he was asked to, but came back right away. He was genuinely impressed they completed the mission, but sad to hear they were low on ammo. Brun handed over the three stones to his trustworthy friend and they went back to Home.

When they got there they saw sprouts of crops growing and thought that was fast. The farmer that Baybil had provided for bringing him a deer said it depends on the land and who’s doing the farming, and he smiled with self pride.

Everyone decided not to spend their ability points and see what Baybil suggested first. When they got to Small Hammer the next day another storm had come in and there was a light snowfall coming down. By now it was mid February.

First Baybil evaluated the sword and said it really was steel, of below average quality, but better than the iron swords they had. He accepted the one gold coin but told them to keep the silver, they may need it eventually. When he got to the glowing stones his mouth opened in shock but then he quickly closed it. “I’ll give you ninety silver each one.”

“Just add ten more silver and make it an even gold coin.”

“Shut up Arden, this is between Home and Small Hammer. Baybil, what do these stones do?”

“Well Graul, they are magic storage containers. The red one holds the fire element, and the blue one holds the ice element. I can use them in our forge to make a weapon that adds fire damage, and another weapon that makes ice damage, or armor that reduces damage from an ice or fire attack. I don’t think these containment stones will do you any good, not until you become a veteran blacksmith in say ten years from now if you work for it. Since they’re no good to you, a gold coin is a fair offer.”

“I think you using these stones to make Jex fire and ice arrowheads is a fair offer. How many billik legs is that worth to you?”

“You owe me fifty, and beyond that I only have need for about twenty of them, more than that would be a waste. We can make twenty-five arrowheads from each stone, so a total of fifty. Fifty magic arrowheads for twenty billik legs is a bit light. A fire one or ice one arrowhead is worth two silver coins each, so the sixty silver I asked you to keep to spend later, it may be time to spend it.”

At that time Antic reached into his satchel. “That’s very convenient math Baybil. What will you give me for these?”

He pulled out two dead large spiders and two dead small yellow snakes.

“Hmm they both contain paralysis venom. Since you’re so interested in arrowheads I could coat them with the venom, and most beasts would be paralyzed for three seconds when struck.”

Jex slapped her forehead. “That would have been convenient when fighting the billiks.”

Baybil continued “You may need them if you accept a mission Small Foot has for you. That cave you showed him has more razorlings than they thought. They’re so excited about mining the silver that none of them want to go hunt the razorlings. A messenger came yesterday and said they’ve killed fifty-three, and should have forty-seven left, but they usually kill one or two a day. Could be a big reward in it for you.”

“Yes we’ll accept the quest Baybil,” Torger said, “but we need to finish our business here. I’ve decided. What I want is to have a sword that deals fire damage, and for Jex to have arrows that deal ice damage and other arrows that deal paralysis, and normal arrows. Can we get all that in exchange for the green stone?”

“Yes! I accept! Oh no, no I can’t do it. What’s wrong with me? A dwarf with a conscious when trading. Humph.” Everyone looked at him for the odd outburst before he continued. “That green stone is too valuable. I will make you the fire one sword, the twenty-five ice arrows, the four paralysis arrows, and reduce one gold of your debt for the teleport containment stone. In addition, I already have twenty-five ice arrows made that you can take with you and the paralysis arrows will only take me ten minutes to make. That is a perfectly fair trade.”

“What does teleport do?”

“Wherever you’re at, if you activate the spell, it will teleport you to your respawn point. You could die and go there, but then risk losing your possessions you have on you, especially if you’re far away. It’s usually a list ditch effort if you’re near death but can come in handy if you have a specific task to accomplish far away, then want to come back immediately once it’s done. But this is not a group teleport, each person needs to buy the spell themselves. This containment stone is free to one person.”

“I’ll take it!”

Everyone looked at Rome and saw a huge grin.

“I’m the white mage after all. Teleport is a white magic. This belongs in my category.”

Everyone had mixed feelings because on the one hand he was the least likely to die in combat, since he rarely engaged the enemy, but then again he had a point about it being in his category. Eventually they reluctantly agreed to trade with Baybil. He immediately went to Spells and found Teleport. Cost 6 ability points. He held the green stone in his hand and concentrated on it, then a prompt came up: Do you wish to use a Teleport Containment Stone to buy Teleport 1? Yes No

Baybil selected yes, then the stone in his hand grew brighter and brighter, then disappeared.

Next Brun said “Baybil, we’re going need some more of those health and mana potions, like ten each.”

Torger asked “What happened to the other ones?”

“Rome handed them to me to hold on to before he walked into the billik cave. During that battle I got injured so I drank the health potion, and used the mana potion to get in two more fire one spells. We knew that the health restores nine points, and it seems the mana restores nine points. Those came in useful.”

Baybil smiled again. “Now we’re trading! Buying ten at a time will get you a bulk discount. Only one silver per potion!”

Torger gasped. Twenty silver for low level potions! He didn’t want to know what mid level potions cost. But he knew it could save them. He pulled out all twenty silver coins and handed them to Baybil, who accepted the coins then called to a dwarf they couldn’t see inside the cave “Bring Hestaff out here! He’s got some more smithing to do! And bring out a basic potion pack!”

Torger groaned. Hestaff came out, nodded to them, and looked to Baybil. Torger was uneasy spending the little money they had, but knew the potions were helpful. “Uggg. I guess. How long until it’s ready?”

Hestaff remained quiet as Torger looked at him when asking the question. Baybil answered for his blacksmith. “About a week. Until then, you really should go help Small Foot.”

“OK we will. I’ve got a question first. We saw a troll near the caves we cleared out. How strong are they?”

“Didn’t you use analyze?”

“None of have it yet.”

“Good grief man! How did you know if you could defeat the billiks? Didn’t you analyze them to see their stats?”

“Like I said, none of have that spell yet. So how strong are trolls?”

“Right now I’d guess around level thirteen.”

“That doesn’t mean anything to me, Baybil. How strong are billiks?”

“Most billiks are level four, for now. The prey always grows stronger before the tyters arrive. I have analyzed all of you, and you’re each level two.

“How do we gain levels?”

“Every time you buy an ability, you gain a level. If you buy health or strength or mana or stamina or a spell you gain a level. But gaining a level with a weapon does nothing for your personal level.”

Antic spoke up “The cave Jex and Arden claimed was easy. After they took possession they got a reward for a level one cave, and the one I claimed was difficult to capture. The billiks were a level four cave. What’s the difference?”

“Before you enter a cave, Analyze gives you the recommended level needed for a group of ten warriors to clear out the cave. Ten level one warriors have a ninety percent chance of clearing a level one cave, ten level two warriors have a ninety percent chance of clearing a level two cave and so on. You’ll see the cave level if you analyze it. With only seven of you, and all at level two, you had slim chances of beating the billiks. How’d you do it?”

Antic thought about the guns but decided that wasn’t something Baybil needed to know about. “We used our ingenuity. We humans are resourceful and can figure out difficult problems. When I claimed the cave for myself I could activate a shield. Why didn’t the billiks activate it?”

“Because they’re too stupid. That troll you saw will have his shield up, and goblins will have their shield up. Most other creatures don’t seem to understand how to use ability points.”

“Thanks for your help Baybil. We’ll pick up the potions and be on our way… oh wait. How strong are the razorlings we’re going after?”

“They average to be level nine for now. Like you, the more they kill the higher their level gets. Most prey are around level thirty by the time the tyters come.”

“That may be beyond our abilities, but we’ll give it a shot.” Torger didn’t like their chances.

Chapter 18

Razorlings

As the group left the dwarven village there was fierce contention between them. Half wanted to go kill some razorlings for a lot of experience points and half wanted to finish building the second house at Home. After nearly an hour of arguing they came to an uneasy truce. They were surrounded by desert and had no desire to walk through sands in the summer. So once it got hot they would build up Home and explore the beaches, hopefully find a way to get to Catalina and use the teleport device to get back to Earth. Until summer came they should get all the experience they could from Calico.

They ended up not going back to Home, but instead headed straight for Cajon Pass. Fortunately the journey was easy and uneventful. They walked over the pass facing nothing more dangerous than an alien creature like a young mountain lion, which two arrows from Jex weakened it enough for Torger, Graul, and Antic to easily finish it off. At watch the next night Graul saw two razorlings in the distance. They had no encounters with them and safely made it to Calico a couple days later.

Small Foot greeted them when they came near. “Welcome to Calico! The biggest silver mine for a thousand miles!”

` Torger didn’t tell him there was even more silver near Carson City. Small Foot hadn’t earned that information. “Hello Small Foot. We hear you got a problem with lizards around here. Why don’t you give us some food and water and we’ll talk about it.”

Small Foot looked a little taken back. Torger had gained confidence since he held him and Graul as prisoners. He thought it over for a second then put on a fake smile. “Yes of course. Our village is newly under construction so we don’t have many accommodations for you, but we’ll try to make you comfortable.”

He led them in to a hastily built stone house. Inside were mattresses all over the floor, and women dwarves were washing clothes at one end. Two men dwarves were building a much nicer and bigger stone house next door. Small Foot looked at their surprise and said “We’ve only been here a month. We had to verify the amount of silver available before moving the whole village. And as you had warned me, water is hard to come by. But the silver! So much silver just flowing out of the hills! Coming here was good advice you gave me.”

They sat down and were given food and water. Torger introduced everyone in his group then said “We didn’t have much of a choice. You were prepared to let us die from the cold, as your prisoners. But that’s water under the bridge. We’re here to kill some lizards. What do you know about them?”

“They consider these caves their home. They keep attacking at night. I’ve asked the other dwarves to mine only half a day then kill the razorlings at night, but they’re too eager to slow their mining. Each dwarf gets to keep half the ore he mines, so they’re all competing to get the most. We fight them when they come, but no one is willing to locate and destroy their nest. I don’t know if you’re up to the challenge but the reward is big.”

Indeed the reward was big. 1000 exp for Graul and Torger to divide between the two of them, and everyone would upgrade their poor quality magic satchel for a medium quality backpack. All the men were sick of carrying around their man purses. By itself that wasn’t enough to entice them to come, but everyone except Rome had gained two ability points killing all the billiks, and gaining ability points had become infectious. Everyone wanted more to make themselves stronger, but Antic could already see there would be no end to it. Everyone would always want just a few more ability points for the next cool thing they could buy.

“Do you have any idea where they might be?”

“No. But they are food for rocs. The huge birds will swoop down and carry them high up then drop them to kill them. The razorlings will sleep somewhere they can’t be seen from the air, and hide if they see a roc. And I suggest you hide if you see a roc.”

“Which direction do they come from when they attack?”

“From the east. Over there are soft sandstone cliffs for them to dig into.”

Small Foot offered them a place to sleep, but Torger and Graul still didn’t trust him. Everyone walked a mile to the east before setting up camp for the night. Brun lit a fire and everyone talked about getting the new magic back packs so they could stop carrying the tents and sleeping mats around. But at least their treks were better with their camping gear available.

Just after dark Antic saw four razorlings approaching. He shouted and jumped up, and everyone was on their feet in seconds. The razorlings saw them and ran at them. Jex released one arrow after another, and the iron tips sunk deep, but the razorlings kept coming. Torger, Graul and Antic used the same approach they had on the billiks, with the two slicing at legs and Antic thrusting his iron spear it their faces, but the razorlings were much quicker and more agile than the billiks had been. They could turn their heads and twist their bodies to bite at anyone on their sides. Graul swung the new steel sword and chopped off a leg, but that razorling turned and bit him on the left arm. Its teeth slightly pierced his iron bracers. He dropped his sword and tried to run, but it wouldn’t release. Antic stabbed it in the side and blood poured out, then it released its bite and bit his spear instead. The oak pole snapped and he had to retreat.

Torger had slightly better luck. Since he still had a one handed sword, he used his shield to keep one from biting him, but he couldn’t get a chance to stab it back because its attack was relentless. Twenty seconds after the battle started Arden yelled “Retreat!”

Brun cast Fire 1 at the one nearest him, then after one second was able to cast it again. After the second cast he was out of mana. Brun and Arden had to use their shields too as the lizards kept trying to get to Jex. Brun didn’t have time to stop blocking the razorling teeth and claws to be able to find the potions, and Arden eventually dropped his shield and started firing as fast as he could with the .22 rifle. Jex shot her arrows in order at the one that was attacking Torger, then the two in front of her, then the one attacking Graul. Everyone ran up to stand in front of her. Graul abandoned his dropped steel sword and instead removed his iron sword and wood and iron shield that had been strapped to his back. They walked backwards toward the village but they were losing as the razorlings kept trying to bite and claw past the defenses.

“Rome run to the village and get help!”

Rome turned and started running away. The razorling with the missing leg that Graul had chopped off finally succumbed to the arrows. With three remaining, Graul and Torger were able to get in an occasional slash at a razorling’s face. They continued walking backwards and several minutes later they heard grunts in the distance. Brun turned and saw dwarves running towards them, with Rome among them. Brun saw his mana recharged to 6/10, so he cast Fire 1 again, but it didn’t seem to do a whole lot of damage.

The dwarves finally arrived and one cast a powerful ice spell at the lizards. Their movements slowed and the other two dwarves used big axes to sink deep into the razorlings necks, leaving only one razorling to be stabbed to death by Graul and Torger.

During the melee everyone’s stamina had bottomed out and they all dropped to the ground exhausted. The dwarves congratulated them on a job well done and advised them to come back to the village to rest. This time they accepted the offer.

They were offered thin mats to sleep on in the stone house, along with almost every dwarf in the village. There had to be more than thirty of them in there. The humans were all bleeding and injured, but too tired to care. Everyone fell asleep immediately and dreamed of chain saws and clothes dryers, inspired by the sounds of the dwarves’ snoring.

In the morning they took inventory. Physically they were fully restored. All the shields were badly damaged, all their camping gear and satchels were a mile away, and Antic no longer had a spear and Graul had dropped the best sword they had.

“Things are looking bleak. Let’s go get our stuff and regroup.”

It turned out Torger’s words were an understatement. More razorlings had come in the night and shredded their satchels and tents to get to the food inside. To make matters worse it looked like rain was on the way. The one bright note was that Jex was able to recover most of her arrows from the dead bodies, and Graul got his sword, but the spear would never be used again.

As usual, Antic had a more observant eye than the others. He cut off the feet and put them into the one remaining good satchel. When they got back to the village they found Small Foot.

“I hear things didn’t go so well for you last night. Do you wish to abandon this quest? You’re free to do so of course, but then I’d have to charge you for your room from last night. Everyone working for the benefit of the village gets a free place to sleep and free food.”

“Is that why all the dwarves are mining instead of building? They need to collect money for themselves to get out of your slum living conditions?”

“They are free to mine or build. The two dwarves you see doing the building are employed directly by the village, everyone else needs to contribute however they can and all are treated equally.”

“So they keep half the silver they mine, and I’m sure you tax them heavily on that, and the village keeps all the rest? And since you’re the mayor I assume you decide how it’s spent. I would even guess the two village employees make triple the amount the miners make. And the new big house being built, is that for you or for the villagers? Quite a racquet you’ve got going here.”

“Calm down Arden. They can run their village however they want, we’ll run ours how we want. We don’t need to get all up in their business.”

Graul had a point. It would do them no good to get into a political argument with their current employer. Graul had a strong live and let be policy in his head.

“How do you run your village then?” Small Foot challenged.

“We all discuss the pros and cons of our next step then vote on it. Majority wins. If two groups can’t agree at all, we’ll split up for a short time and go our own ways then come back together again. But that’s not important. We need a blacksmith to repair our stuff so we’ll be ready again tonight.”

Small Foot looked angry and offended, but forced a smile and said “We don’t have a smithy set up yet, but I’ll see what I can do.”

Small Foot was gone a half hour and came back with a young strong dwarf. He was just a blacksmith apprentice but said he could repair the shields and spear. He didn’t get done until late in the day. When he was done he said “That will be thirteen silver coins.” He held out his hand, palm up.

Torger said “Just put it on our tab.”

“You don’t have credit here. You need to pay up.”

“Thirteen silver seems kind of steep for one day’s work. Five silver sounds like a fair price.”

“I don’t set the prices here. Small Foot does.”

They went to go find Small Foot. “We think thirteen silver coins is steep for the repairs done by an apprentice. Some of the metal is still bent on our shields.”

“You didn’t have to get repairs done here, but you did, and that’s what I’ll charge.”

Antic pulled out a razorling foot. “How much is this worth?”

“We’ve killed over fifty of them. We don’t need any more.”

Antic pulled out the remaining billik legs. That made Small Foot sit up and take notice. “Yes, those could come in handy. Give me those and the repairs are free.”

“Not so fast. We think these are worth repairs over and over until we kill all the razorlings, and since that young dwarf was pulled out of the mines for our repairs, he will get half of them.”

“Half? He’s not worth that much. I’ll give him two.”

“There are thirty-four legs there. He’ll get half and you’ll get half, and his will be tax free. He will probably miss a few days of mining to make repairs for us.”

Small Foot looked like he wanted to argue, but the greed was clear on his face and they knew they were overpaying him once again. He agreed, but had a scowl as he did. He asked “One question before this transfer happens. I want to know how you can cast your spells so fast Brun. It takes the average dwarf three or four seconds to cast a fire one spell, and with the appropriate hand gesticulations, but I’m told you just point and say the word. How is that possible?”

“I don’t know how the magic works. This is supposed to be tyter magic, so I had assumed that’s how it works for them. We went to the east and found a chamber that changed us. It infused us with tyter upgrades, that’s all I know. A return question to you; four days after we killed billiks, we returned to the spot, but their bodies were gone. What happened to them?”

Small Foot answered “When an elf, dwarf, or goblin dies here, they stay dead. All other beasts respawn somewhere at random far from where they died after three days. Have you ever kept deer or rabbit meat for three days? When three days is up, the meat disappears as the animal respawns.”

“So we have no idea where the one hundred billiks we killed respawned at?”

“Nope, but it will be at least fifteen miles away. Then they’ll look for unguarded treasure to gather around. W dwarves have never figured out why that is, but just accept it as a fact for all new beasts.”

That night just after sunset three razorlings attacked them in the same spot, a mile east of the village. Antic was more careful to keep his spear away from their faces, and instead poke them in the side, but also avoiding the tail that could knock him down. Graul didn’t try to use the two handed steel sword, but instead used his shield and iron sword, which felt much more natural to him. The battle lasted for nearly ten minutes, and again everyone was so busy blocking with their shields that Brun couldn’t get to the potions, and Jex found out that each ice arrow only contained the spell Ice one, after she retrieved them they were normal iron arrows again. Once the three razorlings were dead everyone gained another ability point.

Things went much the same for the next two days and nights, getting the shields and armor repaired during the days and killing big lizards at sunset, and on the third night they didn’t get attacked. Jex had about one in four arrows break each night, and now had thirty two good ones left, the same number of razorlings remained also.

Everyone saved their gained ability points, waiting for Rome to catch up. They wanted to invest them wisely, although they each had their own ideas and visions of personal glory. It was time to find the nest. They headed east and that night camped on a hilltop in the rain. Visibility was poor, so they hoped the razorlings wouldn’t be out.

Everyone pulled their fur jackets up over their heads and looked out at the horizon. No one talked because they were nervous with the possibility of being attacked any minute. Finally Rome broke the silence. “I’ve been thinking. Each razorling gives us on average four hundred sixty experience, to be divided up between us. Since I missed out on the experience from the billiks, maybe someone else can sit out so I can catch up.”

“No we’re all needed to complete this mission. Well figure something out later,” Arden said.

“Fine. I’ve also been thinking about that first night we attacked them. A dwarf cast a powerful ice spell, probably ice two, and they all slowed down. Maybe this cold rain is making them slow down. Maybe this is the best time to attack.”

Antic answered “That sounds like a possibility if we knew where they were. All we know is they’re trying to get back into their home of the cave at Calico. Maybe we should all buy ice one to see if it slows them down when we do find them, but Jex’s arrows had ice one at first. I didn’t notice if it slowed them down or not.”

Rome said “No. I’ve been pretty useless so far, and will continue to be until I learn cure one or shield one. I’m not buying ice one.”

Jex said “I already have ice one.”

Brun said “I’m buying more mana. In fact there’s no reason for me to wait because I’m almost at fire two.” He selected his Stats and bought five more mana for an ability point, then thought about it, and five with another ability point bringing him up to 20/20. “Now I can cast fire one four times in a battle instead of twice. Fire two, here I come!”

Antic was still scarred from dying once and nearly dying a few times. He increased his strength to 3/3 and his health to 200/200. He was now taller and stronger than any of the others.

Torger tried to tell everyone to wait and make better plans, but they ignored him. Rome, Arden, and Graul all bought ice one. Then Torger did too. Everyone still had two ability points left, except Rome.

They walked out into the rain looking for signs of razorlings. The rain washed away all potential footprints, until Arden saw a Joshua tree with missing bark and deep scratches. He whispered to Torger “I didn’t know they used trees as a scratching post.”

Torger didn’t know how to answer that. Lizards don’t do that, do they? They searched the area and found another tree with scratches. Rome pointed and everyone followed with their eyes. At the bottom of a big boulder was a dug out hole, about two feet in diameter, and a razorling was occupying it, clearly annoyed at their presence but also hating the rain.

They gathered about forty yards away, then Jex shot it with an arrow and Torger cast ice one at it. It reeled back and went into the sand hole, but clearly moving more slowly than others they had fought. He didn’t know if it was from the cold rain or the ice spell, but it could make the fight easier than they had been for the past few days.

“It’s time for me to shine!” Brun went to the hole and blindly cast fire one into it four times. That was a mistake. Reptiles are cold blooded and need heat for energy.

“You idiot!” One razorling after another came out and each one got hit with ice one. Those in the group with that spell each drank a mana potion, bringing their mana up to 9/10. In one more minute they could each cast ice one twice, again.

Jex shot arrows, Antic dodged and blocked when the chance appeared but he was clearly afraid and waved his spear at their faces instead of thrusting into them. Torger and Graul used their shields to block one bite after another. They had no chance to counterstrike. Brun and Rome ran to stand by Jex, then bravely got their shields and ran into battle, just to block some from coming at Jex. Arden decided now was the time to use his .22 rifle. He knelt by Jex and fired quickly and accurately at whatever razorling was closest to his wife. She used the four paralysis arrows on the four nearest razorlings to buy Arden a little time.

“A minute has passed! Use ice one!” Brun knew exactly how long it took for him to wait for his fire one spell to recharge. He had used it plenty of times.

Four people in the group cast ice one, and a second later they cast ice one again. That was eight razorlings moving a little more slowly, in addition to the eight that got hit coming out from under the boulder, but that left sixteen still moving at full speed, and even the slow ones were still plenty dangerous.

Arden shot his last bullet, and then Brun was knocked down by a tail. The razorling turned and slashed its claws across his wool tunic. It was scored deep and knocked the wind out of him, but kept him from bleeding. He struggled to sit up, but another razorling bit the top of his head; as a mage he wasn’t wearing an iron helmet. There was a flash of green light and Brun was gone, his staff and mage cloak laying on the ground along with his fur clothes and leather boots.

Brun had been watching Antic’s back. There was a bite to his arm that pierced his iron bracer. His higher health meant that his muscles and bones were denser and his blood was thicker so he took less damage from it than Graul or Torger would have. But as he turned to face the beast, another one came up behind him, and higher health didn’t save him this time. A claw to the back of the neck was all it took. There was a flash of light and Antic was gone.

Arden frantically loaded five shells into the shotgun and began firing. Jex ran out of arrows, one in each razorling. There were more than a dozen dead lizards from Graul and Torger’s swords and Arden’s rifle, but they were still outnumbered. Rome took a bite to the leg, then a claw penetrated his skull. A flash of green light. Several razorlings charged Arden and Jex. They each drank a mana potion and were able to cast ice one once, but they were defenseless and put up little resistance.

Torger and Graul, however, were in their stride. They stood back to back, shield in left hand and iron short sword in the right. What helped was that every razorling had been injured from a well placed arrow, many in an eye, a few living ones had bullet wounds, some had fire marks on their skins, many had frostbite. The brother’s system of fighting brought them strategically near a huge boulder. No razorling could attack them from that side, and only three razorlings at once could attack the two men. Fighting razorlings every night helped them with their level of swords. By now Graul was level six in one handed swords and Torger was level five. Their experience boost in weapons brought them up from level three in swords, where they were at when they found the ability boost bed near Yuma.

Their shields were beginning to fracture, the metal began to bend, but they continued to slash and stab the already injured razorlings. A few bodies piled up and they climbed on top. This made their footing unsure but gave them the high ground. After five minutes they each cast ice one again. The rain continued to fall and the cold water slowed down all of the razorlings. The sluggish movements made killing them easier, but the razorlings continued to attack. Another five minute later they cast ice one again, taking two more out of the fight temporarily.

Eventually they sat down on the ground completely spent. Their shields were splinters held together with bent iron, and their swords were as blunt as a butter knife, but every razorling was dead. Graul threw back his head and laughed wildly and challenged all living things who could hear him. “Hell Yes! I’m The Man! HaHaah!”

Torger relished his brother’s laughter. He couldn’t keep back the big smile, knowing he was far more powerful than he thought, when they all worked together as a team.