Chapter 46 Balar

I turned to see Balar. He wasn’t alone, and as I examined him, I could see why. He no longer identified as Komo tribe. Now he was Skybreaker, and he had brought his new friends along with him.

There were at least a dozen of them, surrounding us. My alert feat meant that I couldn’t be surprised, and with the boost to my perception I saw them dotted all around us, ranging from the enormous bones of the monstrous creatures. Bows aimed against us, whilst Balar led the ground forces.

It wasn’t just humans either. Vandals were with them, not Yukon but other tribes. They looked ready for a fight. At first I wondered if this was just the system, riling up the mobs to fight us avatars. But then I saw their attention was drawn not to me, but their fellow avatars, the Yukon tribe. Urin bared his teeth. For whatever reason, he was pissed.

“I let you live, and this is how you repay us?” said Miggy, taking a step forwards. “You were always a coward, Balar.”

The words seemed to delight the big warrior, rather than anything else. “Ah, the small boy who thinks himself the chief. I’m glad you’re here.” He looked to me, then Urin. “I’m glad you’re all here. The Warlord has called for all of your heads. This’ll save me some time.”

I spread my arms wide, Larry snarling menacingly at my side. “You know how well it went last time we all fought,” I reminded him, “you really think you can face me? The Reaver.” My chest swelled a little. He’d always been a little afraid of me. Time to cash that chit in.

“You?” Balar brayed a loud laugh. “You are nothing. Thrown from the mountaintop by Ironclad.” He banged his club on the ground. “You are weak too.”

My chest deflated.

Guess word got around the Stone Epoch too.

“Enough of this.” It was Urin that had spoken. He raised not one, but two spears. God, that was fucking cool. I didn’t even know you could dual wield that. My mind went into overdrive in that split second, wondering if he had a penalty to hit, whether he had some feat I didn’t know about…

“We will cleanse all of you from the Disputed Lands.” He thrust his spear at the enemy vandals.

“Weak,” said the enemy vandal. He was slightly taller, with a feathered cap. I examined him. Vandal, captain class. He brought forth his own spear. It was shorter than a regular spear, as though its haft had been intentionally broken in half. “We have our orders. Kill them all. In the name of the Warlord.”

There was only one Warlord I recognised. A good man. I equipped my bone shard, thrusting its edge at Balar and all of these fools. They were the meat now. And I knew nothing would stop me from carving through every single one of them to get to that fucking traitor.

For Kaleo.

Bone shard. It was all I had. There had been no time to craft better weapons. This was supposed to be a simple quest, there was supposed to be time for crafting later.

I should have known with Ironclad, nothing was ever simple.

Battle commenced. Larry pounced like the three hundred pounds of pure muscled demon I knew he was. I felt his mind meld with mine, felt his primal rage. Good. I would need that today as Miggy rushed forwards, his shaman’s spear meeting Balar’s monstrous club. I heard a snap, like a twig crunched underfoot, but I didn’t look back.

Balar had underestimated Miggy before. Something told me he wouldn’t again. There were traps everywhere. Some were spotted immediately, others I passed by so close I was in real danger of activating them. Thank you, trapper perk, which granted me a 10% chance to automatically detect traps. I grinned. The RNG gods were with me today, I thought as I raced for the enormous rib jutting out of the ground. I leaped up, clearing a height of some seven feet, and began to scramble up. There were no purchases, no hand or footholds, but my Stone Epoch granted dexterity and strength did the rest.

There were four hunters, raining down arrows. They were already clipping my allied vandals. From this height, elevation would send those things raining down, breaking the speed of sound. I needed to stop them, fast. I activated beast fury. No time for subtlety, as I came up behind the first hunter.

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I had caught him off-guard having ascended so quickly. He fumbled with his bow, and I grabbed him by the collar, head butting him so hard his mouth poured with blood. Then I threw him down. I let gravity do the rest. God knew it owed me one, after the shit it had put me through in the Stone Epoch.

I leaped from enormous rib to enormous rib like some kind of crazed spider-monkey. Ten seconds left of beast fury. I had used it mainly to boost my strength, so I could jump faster, as I closed the distance to the second hunter. He saw me coming, firing off arrows. Three hit. Embarrassing, really, and boy, did they hurt. One was a critical, my hit points dropping more than I’d have liked. I saw him nock a fourth arrow, my eyes narrowing.

I leaped to him, grabbed the arrow out of his bow and stabbed it into him. He gasped, but grappled me. Level three. Meat. I snapped his bow in half, before stabbing him twice in quick succession with my shard. Then he too was falling.

Two down. Two to go.