Spoils of Hard Nights

Waking up in a panic James found himself on his bed in the command tent. Seeing that he was in the command tent James slowly started to force himself up out of the bed. Trying a few times to stand without success James opted to just sit at.the edge of the bed and check over his body for damage. Not seeing any major wounds he sorted out the mass of notification still on his hud.

"Jeez how many notifications did I receive" James thought to himself. Slowly looking through, the amount of notices of how close James was to death was staggering.

"You have received major organ damage all statuses halved till healed"

"Major muscle damage in legs and arms movement halved till healed"

"You have defeated adolescent nightmarish gargantuan spider 13000 exp"

"Adolescent nightmarish gargantuan spider dropped 4x heavy chitian plates, 2 poisoned fangs, Commanders steel spear has been found"

"You have killed area boss along with its brood title gained: Slayer of Nightmares(Starring into the face of countless nightmarish creatures you have come out the victor. All damage done to spider like monsters is increased by 10%".

"Damage being healed to organs statues returned to normal"

"Damage being healed to muscles statues returned to normal"

"You have survived a near death experience skill enduring leveled up to 7"

Seeing the last few notices James was confused "Who healed me, I know we didn't have any medical supplies or skills" he grumbled to himself. Light shined into the tent as someone walked in breaking James from his thoughts. "Rolf what's the damage from the attack" James asked without looking towards the entrance. Pleasant laughter started to be heard "Your going to have to ask him. How are you feeling James" a women spoke out as James quickly tried to jump to his feet looking towards the door but collapsed to the dirt floor as soon as he did.

"Who are you" James called out through gritted teeth completely helpless. "My name is Lillian but you may call me Lily and much like yourself I'm chosen by the gods to ascend" the women named Lily said as she walked to James to help him the the bed. "Now you rest I will get Rolf and we will talk about what happened" She said as she started to wall away after getting James onto the bed. A few minutes passed as James got his head in order when the tent flap was ripped open and a crying Rolf and Erick came tumbling to his bedside. "Lord *hic* I'm so glad you are awake" Erick said crying loudly. "Lord punish me for being useless" Rolf kneeled down and said as tears flowed down his face and his body shaking from guilt.

"Rise both of you, what I did was on me not you. Now what was the damage done to the troops" James asked as he smiled to these two grown men balling there eyes out. Rolf was the first to compose himself his eyes still bloodshot "Lord we witnessed your epic battle with that giant spider as we continued to kill the smaller one. Seeing you leap under the giant spider it screamed like a banshee and collapsed onto you. Wilder saw this and rallied forth with his men and cut a path to you like men possessed, cutting you out from under the Beast". Rolf let out a huge sigh as he finished recounting what happened.

"With the death of that... Thing the little spiders started to become almost lethargic. Becoming almost lame as we continued to strike them down and bring you to the command tent to get you bandaged up. That's when Miss Lily and her troop started to rain arrows on the spiders. Helping to mop them up and seeing the state you were in told us she was a healer" Erick cut in trying to speak before Rolf. James look both men in the eye's "And the damage to my men and the encampment". Rolf answered first "With the timely arrival of Miss Lily no one was killed and only the front gate was damaged but has since been repaired".

With Rolf finished speaking the women now known as Lily walked through the tent entrance. "How did you find us and why didn't you help sooner" James looked at Lily with cold eyes and said. Shrugging her shoulders Lily look straight into James's eyes "Who couldn't hear that battle, all we heard was yelling, roars and booms if we didn't find you I'd be more surprised" Lily gave out a light laugh and said. Blushing James looked away and nodded his head "Right, how long was I out" looking at Rolf and asked. "Only two days" Rolf replied.

Shaking his head James was helped to the table by Rolf and Erick. Looking over his map James noticed changes to the drawing, looking to Rolf he instantly began to explain. "With the arrival of Miss Lily and her troop and the gate being destroyed we began to build up stronger and added towers at the more defensive points around the wall. We also reinforced the walls and built a more sturdy gate with gate house. It went faster then we thought as Miss Lily has a few more axes and her men help with the labour". "Looks like I need to thank you Miss Lily" James said as he reached for a handshake.

Shaking his had Lily smile "More like I need to thank you my troop are all archers, making a base for ourselves was suicide trust me we tried" she said with a forced smile. "How many did you lose" James asked with pity in his eyes. "6" Lily said becoming visibly upset. Seeing her eyes become red James started to reach to her but stopped himself due to it being inappropriate. Seeing James's weird movement Lily began to open her mouth but was interrupted by someone else rushing through the tent entrance. "My lord I heard you were awake, I came as fast as I could" Wilder said while moving as fast as he could and kneeled.

"Rise Wilder and thank you for all you have done for me" James said as he clasped Wilder shoulder. "Now join us there is much we need to talk about" James said as he was given a homemade stool by Rolf to sit on. With the five people around the table they began to discuss plans and improvements to the expanding encampment.

Hours passes as they made concrete plans and goals to work to. James dismissed Rolf, Erick and Wilder as he signalled Lily to stay. "What are your plans, Your more then welcomed to stay" James said to Lily. "I don't know yet, we can't stay here forever it's not sustainable" Lily said shaking her head. "I know but until we get a clue on where to move towards I can't risk my mens live" James replied. Rubbing her temples Lily looked James in the eyes "We will stay but we need to start scouting out a path to leave this damn forest" Shaking hands one more time Lily left James to contemplate the future of this small army that was forming around him.

--James Holmes-- lvl 11--Human--

-Title: Slayer of Nightmares-

[15096/41200 Exp]

--Status-- 0 Points available

Strength: 16

Endurance: 15

Wisdom: 8

Stamina: 10

Intelligence: 8

Charisma: 8

--Skills-- 0 Points available

Tactics lvl 5, Advanced tactics lvl 2, Logistics lvl 3, Enduring lvl 7, Heavy Armour lvl 3, Spearmanship lvl 7, Advanced Spearmanship lvl 2

--Equipment--

Studded Leather Hauberk

Iron Greaves

Iron Boots

Iron Helm

Iron Reinforced Shield

Boar Spear +1

Commanders Steel Spear

--Troop Count--

18 Spearman

9 Longswordsmen

14 Archers