Chapter 8

Warning: Gore warning, you have been advised.

Heading over to the armor racks, I relinquish my shield and place my sword down from where I had taken it.

Instead I pick up a two handed axe, made of a steel handle with golden and green imbelishments along a black background. The head of the axe was one headed, with a small hammer on the opposite side and decorated the same way as the handle. It had the visage of a green and gold dragon on the blade .

I grinned as it wasn't overly heavy, and top heavy, just as I like it. The head of the axe was just heavy enough to cut through most metal armor, acting more like a chisel than a weapon.

Before I press the button is ask," Hey Adel, can I skip the walking and the speech, I want to get through this as fast as I possibly can."

[Of course]

I press the button and my consciousness jumps into when the person on the horse yells, 'Charge!' My senses explode as I take in the smell of sweat and wet mud under my feet. As well as the adrenaline of rushing into battle.

Running at full speed I activate rage attunement raising my strength to 15 (17 percent of 13 is only 2.3 so it's still 15).

Bashing into the front line I take a peasant off their feet and I bury my axe in their chest, before digging it out and smacking the hammer side into another man's helmet, denting the metal in, as well as his skull.

[3/50 +5 exp][4/50 +5 exp]

Spinning the axe above my head I bring it down into another's shoulder, before he punches me in the face. I get angrier and grabbing his collar, I smash my head into his nose, breaking it, before I lever the axe out of his shoulder and cut his head off.

[5/50 +5exp]

Grabbing a stray axe off the ground I throw it end over end into a enemy rushing toward me, it sticks into his head, stopping his war cry like unplugging a pair of headphones.

[6/50 +5 exp]

An arrow flies in my direction and using mage hand, I redirect the arrow to miss me and hit one of it's comrades. The man falls to his knees, holding his neck in pain. A gurgle escapes his mouth before the life leaves his eyes and he collapses to the ground.

[7/50 +5 exp]

I see a man in black and purple, full plate armor and he locks eyes with me, pointing in my direction, he roars a challenge to me.

I do the same in defiance, charging in his direction, he does the same to me.

I slam my axe down and with his longsword, he catches my blade, deflecting it before advancing and bashing me across the face with his shield. Knocked to the ground he tries to stomp down on my head, before I roll out of the way. I kick the side of his knee, making him fall down onto a knee.

I get up faster than he does and I smash him in the helmet with the back of my handle. He eats it like a hamburger as he grabs the handle of the axe, ripping it out of my hands.

I back up several feet before doing what any sane person would do without any weapon, I bull rush him and at the last second, I jump into the air hitting him in the chest with a double footed drop kick.

He flies back dropping both his sword and my axe. I grab a small, hand axe off of the ground before deflecting the slash of a sword with it and burying it in the head of another poor sap who tried to fuck with me.

[8/50 +5 exp]

Before Mr Hardass can get back up I pick up a hand hammer off the ground and bash it into his kneecap repeatedly until it is finely turned into a paste. I walk toward his head and try to take off his helmet, but not without retaliation as he takes out a knife out of a sheath at his belt and buries it up to the guard through my left forearm trying to bury it in my chest.

With a burst of anger I take off his helmet and bash my right fist into his face a few times before pulling the dagger out of my forearm with a gush of blood and dive it into his neck, slitting his throat.

[Defeated (REDACTED) Knight]

[9/50 +15 exp]

I look at my forearm, no breakage, just a huge hole through it. I tear some cloth off of a nearby body and tie it tightly around my wound.

Still on my knees after killing the knight, I finish just in time to dodge a boot heading for my head. I move my head and his foot flies over my right shoulder, which I take advantage of by grabbing his thigh and driving him into the mud. With dagger still in hand I stab him in the side cutting a slit along the length of his side, making him bleed out quickly.

[10/50 +5 exp]

Hearing some scuttling, I turn around but not before getting tackled onto my back. I see the glint of metal as I see a long blade raised above me. It comes down, but doesn't hit me as I punch the assailant in the liver making him double over in pain. I overtake him dropping a heavy elbow to his jaw. I get up before coming down again, dropping a knee on his face, I feel something break and it isn't his nose. I lift my knee and I see that I broke his orbital bone. I give no relief though as I lay down haymakers with my right hand and half healed left hand, blood spurting out from behind my bandage.

[11/50 +5exp]

I leap off of the poor soul under me, as I look at my mangled and bloody hands, some of it is my blood, but most is his, which is all that matters.

An arrow hits me in the shoulder, as soon as I feel the pain, I dive for the nearest shield holding it up in the direction where the arrow came from, I then slowly head toward where the arrow came from while taking up a mace on the way. I snap the arrow off on my way.

The waves of pain from my left forearm and my shoulder are nothing compared to the will to move on. As I move closer I get a good look at who's arrow head is currently stuck in my shoulder. It is a man with a longbow, near no armor, except a tabbard with the same black dragon on it.

I rush the archer and instead of panicking like I thought he was going to, he pulls out a short sword at his hip and a flame bursts to life in his left hand. My eyes harden as I see his hand engulfed in flames, magic, I knew I wasn't special.

A small fireball coalesces on his palm before he pitches it at me like a baseball. It hits my shield and as soon as I feel the impact, I try to bash it out of the way, but the fireball loses it's shape and spreads along the length of the wooden shield.

I speed up my pace as I throw the shield away, saving myself from a burnt forearm as well as a gouged one. He gets off another fireball with, which I jump out of the way and it sizzles out futilely against the wet ground.

I get into range and he proactively swings his sword which I catch with my mace. I throw his sword out of the way and punch him in the face, I follow up with a swing of my mace toward his head. He dodges out of the way, dispelling the fireball and punching me in my nose, cleanly breaking it. Stumbling back and holding my nose, I barely dodge out of the way of a kick and a slash of his sword.

I answer the attempts to kill me with no mercy, as a foot goes flying into the archers sternum. He tanks the hit and slashes at my calf, giving me a nasty cut.

By this time the hole on my arm is mostly healed up, and as he swings out again with his sword I catch his wrist and whip around to his back and put him in a sleeper hold. He stabs me in the forearm as he loses consciousness after a few seconds and I snap his neck. The feeling of the snap sends a shiver through my body. Yep, not doing that again.

[Defeated (REDACTED) Magic Archer]

[12/50 +10 exp]

I pick up his bow and gawd is it hard to draw, it takes all of my strength to draw it let alone, be accurate with it. I put it down and keep with the manual way of killing the enemy.

... 40 Minutes Later

[45/50]

Eventually the number of the enemy goes down a bit, as I have banded up with a group of mercenaries, people good enough at what they do to survive and keep the attention but not good enough to steal my kills.

All of my damage is healed by this point and I'm back to normal, minus the mental strain from having killed forty-five people.

On the horizon I see a huge dude with fancy black and purple armor, with stylistic designs, for example the helmet being in the shape of a dragons head, berserk style.

The man in the dragon armor was on a warhorse, at least seventeen hands tall ( 5 ft 8in to shoulder). It was in similar armor as it's owner, thick metal plates lining it's body.

My intuition was telling me this was either their commander or a high ranking knight. Either way it was important that he died.

A man in purple and black plate armor advances toward me with a targe shield and a flanged mace. A good thing for me, because I had picked up my two handed axe on the way here.

I raise my axe high above my head as he charges toward me, when he gets into range I bring the full weight of my axe on his shield. The shield shatters into splinters as his arm flies back, leaving him open for attack.

Swinging my axe around again, I catch the recoiled knight in the leg as my axe bites through his armor like an industrial shredder. Wrenching my axe out of his leg, I use his dehabilitated state to swing around once more and plant my axe into his chest.

[46/50 +15 exp]

I take down a peasant with the dagger from that knight I killed, which I found a sheath for. He comes at me with a sword before I grab the wrist that has the sword, and I drive the knife into the underside of his jaw.

Another comes at me, which I just snap the end of the axe handle into his jaw, knocking him to the ground, before slamming the axe onto his neck, decapitating him.

[47/50] [48/50] [+10 exp]

My group of mercenaries carve a path toward the leader as we gain his attention. Almost all the people surrounding the commander set in on my merry band. Now I said they were good enough at what they do, that doesn't mean they're deadly, they are good at defense and get a pot-shot in every once in a while. They are not a deadly team, and that's just enough for me.

I smash in the skull of a man in full plate, one of his bodyguards, I suspect. With interference from my merry band, killing these knights is much easier as I just have to stand behind a mercenary and use my range to my advantage.

[49/50] [+15exp]

A large man, 6'8 and full of muscles comes charging forward. He has a shock of jet black hair, a bare chest and double axes, scars riddle his body like mountain ranges on a map. The crazed look in his eyes tells me I need to either run or fight, and one just ain't in my blood.

I make a small plan in my mind as, the man charges and bashes right through the front line of mercenaries, sending three of them flying. He then takes a man's head off with one of his axes, and takes a sword slash to his ribs, but slashes on as though he can't feel it.

I push forward, dropping my axe and picking up a short sword off of a dead body as I unsheath my dagger. Speed is going to win this battle not brawn, there's too much of a gap, so I have to take all of my advantages and use them to their fullest.

The berserker and I lock eyes.