Farmers, Fighters, Fingers

"Watchu gonna do that for?" An old man with a big hat asked suspiciously, then his eyes widened, and he said. "Are you secretly a tax collecter?"

"What? No, I'm not with the IRS! Now shut up." Shiv snapped at the man. "Everyone listen up- I'm here to harvest your wheat and help you sneak it to wherever you need it to go."

He received a sea of blank stares at his proclamation.

"Wot in the ever-lovin' hero's name is an 'ah-ar-ess'?" The man with the big hat took it off to scratch his unhairy head.

"Ah think he meant ter say he's not an 'arrester'." Another farmer offered unhelpfully.

"Wail, wot's that, then?"

"Ah think it's a sheriff, of a sort."

Shiv rubbed his forehead and checked over his shoulder to make sure the bandits hadn't suddenly decided to come out of the woods. "Listen, guys. I'm here to help, OK? I'll harvest your crops for you and then help you sneak them out so that the bandits won't catch you."

The farmers gathered together and talked amongst themselves for several long minutes that Shiv spent standing awkwardly pretending he wasn't trying to listen in. Then, they turned to him in unison, and the farmer with the big hat stepped forward. "We do accept your offer."

"Great. I'll get to work immediately. I'm going to harvest it, then drop it on the ground once my inventory is full. I want all of you who are going to sneak it out with me tonight to walk behind me and put it in your inventory. Savvy?" He didn't wait for a response, just turned, pulled a scythe out of his inventory, and started swinging.

At first, he could hear the farmers walking behind him talking about how skeptical they were that he'd be able to get all the wheat ready to leave tonight, but after half an hour of watching him move at impressive speed without slowing, their skepticism turned to surprise, then astonishment.

Meanwhile, Shiv was feeling glorious. He could feel the power absorbing into his very soul with every swath of wheat he scythed. And while he understood that it truly wasn't a great amount, it still felt otherworldly.

Hours passed in this manner, with him only stopping every so often to drink the water brought to him by the women, and only then because they wouldn't stop nagging him till he did so.

During one such break, he asked a question that had been weighing on his mind. "Why don't the bandits attack you guys while you're sleeping or something?"

"Hah! Those scumbags wouldn't dare ta attack us. We've got some o' the finest Metal Men in the whole wide world in this here Valley Village." One of the farmer's wives had answered with complete confidence. At Shiv's further questioning, she had explained that the Metal Men, or men who were part of the Metal Skill Tree, that resided in the village were old war heroes. The only drawback, aside from their old age, was their specialty lying in defense rather than offense.

***

Just as the last rays of the sun dipped below the horizon, Shiv sliced the last stalk of wheat. Unbeknownst to him, he'd developed quite the crowd of followers, and when he tossed the wheat behind him, a great cheer went up.

He whipped around, shocked, and shushed them dramatically. 'The bandits will think something's up!' They continued cheering, and he was forced to see reason with a sigh. 'I guess a large crowd of people following a lone man is more than enough to make them realize something's up.'

Eventually, he was able to calm them down and get them headed back to the village. Once there, he gathered the men who were going to be sneaking out with him tonight, and found that he'd made a mistake: the men had spent several hours following him, walking in the hot sun picking wheat up, leaving them thoroughly exhausted.

'Gah. I should've had a different group gather wheat and had the sneaky group rest.' He shook his head. 'What's done is done. Now we've got to live with my mistakes.'

Funnily enough, Shiv's own tiredness never once crossed his mind.

Half an hour passed, with Shiv switching out as many of the old men out with fresh old men as he could, then they set out with a trail of women following them offering them well-wishes and extra food.

The stars were covered by dark clouds, effectively making the valley far darker than it otherwise would have been. Because of this, Shiv was confident the bandits wouldn't be able to see them unless they smacked right into them.

Being heard was a different matter, however. The farmers were not a quiet bunch, with their creaking bones and constant stream of grunts and curses every time they tripped.

Thankfully, Shiv had made preparations for this. He'd ordered everyone remaining in the village to play every instrument and sing every loud and rambunctious song they knew at the top of their voices.

The group of men grinned like little children as they hurriedly sneaked through the empty fields and into the woods on the opposite side of the valley from the road. Shiv was at the front, having been given some basic directions, and having the most experience with sneaking. 'All of these men are probably at higher levels than me, but I'm leading them.' He chuckled. 'I'm pretty great…' A terrible thought abruptly brought him out of his arrogant daze. 'Is this because of [Heroic Presence]?'

The idea, which he decided was the truth, sent him into a dark mood as they sneaked into the woods and began making their way around the valley toward the town they were planning to sell the wheat at.

***

They took a break, at the insistence of the farmers, after several long hours of walking. Shiv reluctantly acquiesced, and helped them climb a very large tree. Once situated, Shiv began quizzing them. "Do you still gain levels from harvesting wheat?"

"Naw, we don't gain nothin' from it in the way of levels. We don't need em, anyhow. Now, if we were ta go and harvest a buncha tomaters, or some other plant we've never yet harvested, we'd gain a bit in the way of levels." The shortest of them replied after catching his breath.

"How do you know what level you're on?" Shiv asked, then immediately shushed them all: below them, four men were passing by the tree they'd taken refuge in.

Unfortunately, one of the men heard something that made him look up, meeting Shiv's eyes. For several long seconds, they stayed frozen in that position.

Somehow, Shiv was able to react a split second faster than the man below, and throw himself off the tree, intent on touching the ground so he would be able to manipulate it.

As he did this, the man with whom he'd made eye contact was busy shooting fire that sharply lit up the surroundings at the old men in the tree. Everything seemed to slow down as Shiv closed in on the ground with his fingers outstretched, every fiber of his being focused on not screwing up the timing.

With every centimeter he fell closer to the ground, the fire blooming from the man's hands came another centimeter closer to the place he had just been in the tree.

Everyone else seemed to be frozen and incapable of moving as this incredible scene played out before them.

Then, Shiv reached the ground, the very tip of his finger touching the dirt.

With a presence of mind that should have been impossible at this level of timing and detail, Shiv ordered the ground to soften dramatically to cushion his fall, while simultaneously manipulating the earth beneath the fire-shooting man into a spike that shot directly upward, skewering him from crotch to skull.

Through some miracle, everything went exactly as Shiv had hoped it would, with blood spraying from the new hole in the fire-man's head.

Unfortunately, he wasn't able to soften the ground in time to save his fingers, which were broken in a series of snaps.

Unperturbed by this, mostly entirely because of the buckets of adrenaline rushing through his veins, Shiv launched himself at the nearest of the bandits. Still frozen by some unknowable force, the man watched with wide eyes as Shiv grabbed a handful of dirt with his good right hand and manipulated it into a wicked, paper-thin blade that he shoved into his target's gut. The force of his movement brought him past his target, and he dragged the blade through the man until it ripped out in between the man's ribs behind Shiv. He immediately reoriented the blade, still moving forward, and slammed it into the next man's eye socket, killing him instantly.

One man left.

This one, however, was able to regain his wits and kneel to touch the ground. Consequently, the earth rippled in a straight line toward Shiv, causing him to lose his balance and trip. He stretched his left hand toward the earth to steady himself, but crumpled to the ground when a flash of pain emanated from his broken fingers.

His final opponent took advantage of this by utilizing the time to pick up a large stone and charge toward Shiv with it held above his head, intending to drop it on the struggling man.

Shiv suddenly had a flashback to being charged by the boar, and reacted with instinct, causing a wall of earth to erupt directly in front of the man that was tall enough that the stone wouldn't fall over it and onto Shiv. He heard a loud SMACK! as he regained his footing and charged toward the wall himself. He stretched his right hand forward to touch it and cause spikes to grow out at random lengths and random spots on the opposite side of the wall. He heard the sound of stone piercing flesh, followed by a scream.

'That… was dramatic.' Unsure if the fight was over, but beyond caring about anything at this point aside from the intense pain in his hand, Shiv turned awkwardly around until his back was to the wall, and slid down it into a sitting position.

He leaned his head back and closed his eyes, then opened them abruptly when he felt power entering into him. He looked around wildly before realizing it was from killing the men. He felt three separate power sources. 'So one of them is still alive.' With a groan, he pushed himself to his feet and walked around the wall. On the other side was a horrific scene.

The man who had run into the wall was being held up by several spikes that had pierced his torso, effectively killing him. Nearby was the man with a spike holding him up. Lying close to him was a man lying face up with a blade sticking out of his eye.

The last man was sitting, cradling his innards in a futile effort to keep them from exiting via the hole in his stomach.

'Let's see if I can get some answers.' Shiv approached the living man.