He didn’t have time to focus on the grander plan anymore. The two Kruwals closed on him faster than he expected, springing across the stretch of low grass beside the road like charging bulls. Ahead of the two, one of the monsters was bare from the waist up, rippling muscles taut as he held small axes in both hands.

  A few days ago that might’ve been the most terrifying thing he had ever seen. A seven-feet tall alien viking berserker ready to chop him into pieces. Now, he just looked like a good source of EXP. If Alex wanted more power, wanted to survive the dangers of this world, he would just have to level up more. And for that, he needed this.

  Orange dominated his vision as fire burst from his hands, covering the area directly in front of him. The heat blew on his face and chased away any chill left in the air. No fancy trace or spell, just a wild wave of flames to buy himself time and keep the Kruwals at bay.

  The berserker was fast. He stepped to the side, spinning like a dancer to dodge the wall of fire that spread before him. His companion, on the other hand, got behind a large round shield and let the flames blow against him.

  And he had reason to be so confident. Most of his body was covered in steel, wearing greaves over thick leggings, a breastplate, and a closed-off helmet like a full on knight. With the shield and the Kruwal’s naturally tough skin, Alex realized he would have a rough time getting past his defenses, even if the armor pieces weren’t like Scarface’s spell nullifying vambrace.

  Besides the fire resistant bark of the Deadwood and the thick grass cloak of the Sage Treant, Alex hadn’t come up against any armored opponents yet. Especially ones of the humanoid variety.

  Good, he told himself. Better to learn now than later.

  Before the flames died down, he shot two quick arrows toward the berserker who was already rounding the fire wall to get at him. The Kruwal avoided the first with a tilt of his head and jumped back to dodge the second, the fire arrows flying harmlessly off to the forest.

  Alex forced down a grimace. That one would be trouble too. He was nimble and quick on his feet, and this time the Kruwal weren’t distracted by fighting other people or getting out of sand pits. They aren’t easy target practice after all.

  Close by, with one Kruwal struggling on the ground against the bonds of Daven's shot, the two guards fought valiantly against the same number of Kruwal. That is, they hid behind their tall shields as the monsters hacked at them with the intensity of machines and none of the control.

  Wielding a giant two-handed axe, one of the Kruwal executed a monstrous overhead swing that caused the axe to bite deep into the shield and crack its top half. The wood there exploded into splinters. The guard flinched, but the Kruwal didn’t even blink as the bits of wood couldn’t find purchase on his skin.

  It would’ve been a quick fight between the two after that, but by then Celia had already vaulted from the driver’s seat, more blur than woman as she ate the distance between her and the guards. Her sword, a slick silvery saber, sang as it left the scabbard, jewels sparkling on its hilt, and with a masterful lunge that reminded Alex of an olympic fencer, she scored a deep gash on the Kruwal’s forearm just as he managed to dislodge the blade of his axe from the shield.

  The monster growled in pain, his left arm falling limply to his side. Blood ran down his useless hand to drip onto the ground. First blood for us. Excitement bubbled up inside of him. They could do this.

  He let the heat of the power within him build up and formed two fireballs on his hands. The Kruwals before him were no fools and spread themselves up, aiming to flank him instead of a straight rush. He had to be smart too.

  With the fireball in hand, Alex threw his right arm forward as if to launch the trace. A faint. The knight turtled up behind his shield as he expected, protecting all his vitals but also blocking off his vision and halting his advance for a moment. Instead, Alex pivoted on the balls of his feet and hurled the first fireball toward the berserker, aiming for his head.

  Again, the bare-chested Kruwal proved too quick and ducked under the spell, dropping to the ground, but Alex had already thrown the second fireball as well, and instead of trying to hit him square on, the trace exploded by his feet. The berserker managed to jump at the last second, springing from his position on all fours like a spider. He didn’t burn, but the force of the explosion sent him crashing back to the grass beside the road.

  By the time Alex turned back to the Kruwal knight, a short sword was coming down to split him in half. He was suddenly glad for the two points he put in dexterity earlier, as he was able to duck away from the first swing, then tuck and roll against another. The blade sliced through the air close enough he could’ve kissed it.

  Coming up from the roll, he fumbled for the shield harnessed to his back, but his hand missed the strap that’d slide onto his forearm. Shit. He grabbed it however he could and brought it to bear just as the sword swung down again, wacking against the face of the shield. Holding it like a plate above him, both hands gripping the rims, the impact went through his arms like a shockwave.

  He grit his teeth and kicked a foot out, trying to bring his opponent down, but the armored leg of the Kruwal was like a pillar cemented to the ground. It didn’t budge an inch. Alex cursed himself. You’re a mage, dumbass. Thinking quickly, he lowered the shield a smidge, let the power flow through largely unused pathways, and opened his mouth to spit out a lick of fire up at the Kruwal knight.

  As close as they were, the Kruwal didn’t have time to raise his shield and the small jet of fire blew against his helmeted face. The monster stumbled back, dazed. To keep him on the backfoot, Alex shot another fireball from the ground, striking center mass.

  The fire roared and covered half his body in flames. But even amidst the smoke, the knight still stood. The damage had been minimal against the breastplate beyond leaving the metal slightly charred.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  With some breathing room, Alex managed to strap the shield on properly and rise. His heart pumped madly against his chest. The intensity of the fighting had caught him off guard, but he couldn’t help relishing in it. The heat spreading through his body sang in approval. This is what he wanted after almost a week stuck doing nothing in town.

  From the corner of his eyes, he saw the Holdenfor guards coming out of the last wagon, weapons and shields in hand. About damn time. They must’ve been too afraid to come out after the initial clash, but had gathered their courage as the sounds of fighting continued.

  Two of them dashed toward their side of the road, moving toward the downed Kruwal still fighting against his bindings. He couldn’t blame them much. The mission was securing a Kruwal prisoner, first and foremost, and the fight closest to them had turned to the humans advantage.

  With one Kruwal barely managing to hold his massive axe with one hand, Celia had taken the battle under her control. She expertly darted in and out of the fight, saber a flash of silver as it nicked and grazed any Kruwal that came into her range.

  Whenever the three monsters tried to mob her, she retreated behind her guard’s shield wall, only to dash out and start the cutting and slicing all over again. The guards themselves focused more on keeping their shields up and locked together, only using their short swords when their mistress seemed to be in danger.

  The Kruwals fighting them looked fresh out of a blender, small cuts littering their bodies. Most wounds seemed superficial, but one of the monsters had lost an eye and half his ear, while another held onto his own iron sword with four fingers instead of five. If things continued as they were, it would be a winning battle.

  On the other side of the road, Alex knew Valerian could take care of himself, though he couldn’t see him past the wagons. Above his own frenzied heartbeat and the clashing of metal, he could hear the familiar resounding clang of the paladin’s hard-light being struck.

  Valerian was certainly doing his job, and with none of Daven’s arrows being shot toward the Kruwal nearby, he could only assume the archer was helping Valerian out.

  That meant he could focus on his own fight. It would be embarrassing if he was the only chaser who failed while the unempowered humans and the others got it done. Then again, Celia might not be a chaser, but she had definitely gone far in her class, whatever that might be.

  The Kruwal knight didn’t rush him at once, likely still stunned. Alex readied to drown him in fire, but the same couldn’t be said about the berserker, who surged from the roadside as if he hadn’t just been thrown about like a ragdoll. Only this time, the monster stopped mid charge and used his momentum to launch one of his axes toward Alex.

  His eyes barely had time to widen as he threw up his shield. Wood cracked a heartbeat later, the impact against the shield almost ripping his shoulder blade out of place. He grunted, fell against the wagon behind him, back digging into rough wood.

  Sharp pain exploded from his arm when he tried to keep the shield up. The weight of the axe threw him off balance, and something was wrong with his arm. A brief glance showed the blade of the axe had bit almost an inch deep into his forearm. Blood already pooled on the half-torn sleeve there.

  At least it’s not one of my new shirts, he thought grimly and almost laughed. His arm was agony, but the pain itself only made him feel real. Alive. Opposite him, the berserker growled in triumph, showing him sharp canines before running at him again, still holding onto one axe.

  Grinning back, Alex allowed himself to try something he’d failed before, but felt deep within that it wouldn’t be the case anymore. He drew deeply on the power, letting the heat blanket him from inside. Instead of a familiar trace, he allowed the fire to come raw and malleable into his right hand.

  The flames whirled around themselves, contracted and tapered up, grew long and thin. The air crackled and snapped, and he felt the new trace settle successfully into the memory of his pathways just as his hand closed around the hilt of the firewhip. With the fire still within his control, he didn’t feel anything beyond a pleasant heat against his skin, as if he held a warm breeze in one hand.

  The firewhip was shorter than he expected, no more than ten feet, so he waited until the berserker was within a few yards of him before he lashed out at him. He saw surprise color the Kruwal’s face when he realized he wouldn’t be able to dodge. Too high to jump, too low to duck. And there’s no sidestepping a whip coming at you horizontally.

  The whip struck against his ribs, the fire making a loud cracking sound, and the berserker roared as he fell. Alex had imagined the firewhip bisecting the Kruwal cleanly across the torso, but he could only see a wide burn scar running from his ribs to the center of his stomach. Not only that, but the firewhip grew unstable in his hands, the fire no longer fully within his control. He quickly dismissed it before he burned his own hand.

  Still, he scored the hit he needed, and he didn’t mean to let the opportunity go to waste. The berserker, still hunched over in pain, made a half-hearted attempt to dodge the next fireball. It clipped him on one leg, the explosion shattering his knee. Jaw clamped from the pain, the monster glared at him balefully from the ground, as if he knew he’d die but would rather do it defiantly.

  Alex could respect that, and would have finished him off cleanly like a lame horse if the Kruwal knight hadn’t come to his rescue. The next fireball, which would’ve taken the berserker in the face, exploded in a roar against a lunging shield. Smoke covered the pair of Kruwals for a moment, and with a still healthy MP, Alex didn’t take any half-measures.

  He threw another fireball at the shadow he could see standing amidst the smoke, then let loose a pair of fire vortexes one after the other, the human-sized tornados zipping across the ground and dispersing most of the smoke with the speed of their rotation.

  The second fireball had brought the knight to his knees, and yet he did not try to dodge the next two vortexes. He knelt in front of his comrade as the first one destroyed his already battered shield, and as the next engulfed his entire armored body in flames. Alex flinched at his agonizing scream, but it didn’t last more than a few seconds before he collapsed.

  Behind him, the berserker gained a second wind, rising from his pained hunch. But it wasn’t to charge at Alex in a last ditch effort to kill him. Grunting, the Kruwal stumbled a step, another, then half-fell by his downed companion. He looked down at the body, face scrunched in a different type of pain than it showed before.

  The burn scar at his side seemed forgotten. The human he wanted to kill, forgotten. Eyes fixed on the hidden face, the berserker used both hands to carefully remove the black-charred helmet from the knight. Beneath it, the reddish skin was slightly scorched at the chin, but not unrecognizable. The face was more rugged and weather worn. Older.

  The word father was the first thing that came to mind. Alex swallowed, mouth suddenly desert dry. It brought back the memories of the first monster he ever killed in this world, a Killer Sloth. He’d skewered it with a broken branch when the monster tried to pounce on him from a tree, and even as it died there, eyes vacant with pain, it still tried to reach him, its main instinct solely to kill him.

  This was different.

  He shook his head, trying to steel himself. They’re trying to starve and kill us, he thought. They killed Orson and dozens of other villagers. The Kruwal might not be like dungeon monsters, but the feelings they had also included the wish to kill him and the people around him. He couldn’t falter because he faced a father and son duo in battle.

  Will Drop Bonus Chapter for these Milestones [Every milestone will unlock a Bonus Chapter each]:

  175 Followers [143/175]

  50 Favorites [19/50]

  30 Ratings [16/30]