A headless Gnoll

Woken up by clanking noises from pretty close, Fiona rose her head and looked around. Of course she knew exactly where she was and what had transpired the night before, but the culprit was missing.

Crawling out of bed and standing up on still wobbly legs, she walked out of the bedroom compartment and into the spacious central room. She didn't even bother putting on some clothes and found Jay standing in the small kitchen.

He was working on something to eat, still bare naked but wearing an apron. That was no sort of kink, but he knew it would hurt like hell if some hot oil splattered on his best buddy.

Whistling as she entered the kitchen, Fiona sat down at a small table to the side before Jay turned around and gave her a portion of fried eggs and sausages.

After throwing the apron over the opposite chair and taking a portion himself, Jay saw her look at another sausage.

Clearing his throat he asked if she preferred something else over breakfast. The blush up to her ears that followed made him chuckle before she answered.

"...No, I was just wondering…" F.

"Wondering about what?" J.

"...how it all fits." F.

"Are you talking about last night or the situation in Westfield?" J.

"Both… " F.

After joking around a bit during their breakfast, they had to hold back in between to not go at it again on the table.

Half an hour later they were clothe again and Jay slipped out of his tent. It was still early but most of the soldiers were already up.

Waiting for the right moment, Jay grabbed inside his tent and pulled out Fiona by her slender hand.

She had insisted on him smuggling her out so no one would see them.

He didn't quite believe her that it only had to do with her being on duty and it being unprofessional. Going by their visual age, she was about double his age.

While she was walking towards her own tent, Jay used the moment and stored his own inside the inventory. Then he ran after her and the two arrived at the command tent together.

Petters had already been there and waiting for the two while the other higher ranked soldiers went out on patrol and the likes. He reached them a mug of tea each and Jay noticed Fiona tense up as Petters began his report about the night.

According to him, nothing major happened and the camp kept quiet as well, to what the Lieutenant eased up again.

Only one patrol came in contact with two Gnolls by the road in the south.

To That Jay explained he would take a detour on his way to Sentinel and have a look at the waterhole there. If he found something, he could inform Stoutmantle directly when he gave his report.

On this occasion he inquired why everyone just called it the waterhole when Gold-lake was written on his map.

Fiona explained that since the water distribution got stopped, the people responsible for it telling the river held not enough water otherwise, the lake dried up.

At that moment there should only be a pond of hundred yards diameter at most left, not much more than a waterhole.

After their talk finished, Jay was guided to the end of the camp by the two. They knew he had to go and didn't try to change his mind any longer.

Saddling up on his summoned horse, Jay said his goodbyes and rode towards the south. He wanted to take the road where the last attack happened and ride through the fields from there on, probably following possible tracks the monsters left.

Just as he had hoped for he found the traces where the soldiers encountered the Gnolls. Following the paw prints and tracks through the fields for some time, Jay saw the waterhole for the first time as he passed another hilltop.

Down in a shallow valley he saw the outline of a pretty big looking lake. Only a small puddle in the once deepest part of the lake was left, making it really look like a puny waterhole. Right beside that waterhole lay the reason he had come there:

Numerous tents had been set up to the side, up towards the wide plains spreading in the southern direction. They seemed to be made of straw and wood found in the region and using his [Far Sight], Jay could see lots of Gnolls down there. The distance was still to great so he could only see the closest monsters who seemed to be on lookout.

Contrary to what he had told Fiona and Petters, Jay never had planned to report this to Sentinel. He would report the eradication for the compensation, but the free XP would go to him.

What was more, this many Gnolls would surely max out his Warrior Job. The lowly Kobolds seemed to not have been sufficient as it was still at level 8.

Dismissing his horse, Jay walked down towards the encampment. It would have been easy to eradicate most of the monsters with large scale magic, but he had to test something out first.

Jay had no chance to see the progress of his Job, other than the current level. But as he had multiple different Jobs at once, they should have a set amount of Experience Points they required.

That meant it wouldn't matter how he acquired the XP, but only how much.

What he didn't knew was, if different Jobs would grant different amounts of XP depending on the fighting style. For his philanderer Job he was sure that nightly activities counted different than normally acquired Experience Points.

Though this was all nothing but a theory, Jay wanted to check the thing with the fighting style first.

And just like he had wished for, a pair of Gnolls with identical levels walked up on him.

It was more of a run towards him, brandishing their weapons and gnashing their teeth. Shooting an arcane missile towards the first and brandishing his Yetimus Maximus without any enchant or mana infusion, Jay used a (Crushing Blow) and hit the others head.

The result was one Gnoll missing an arm and some fur, still wobbling towards Jay and another one with a caved in face to the side as it got hurled away. A second volley of arcane missiles ended the one attacked with magic.

Without the use of another skill, Jay trashed the other level 17 Gnoll in a single attack to its head.

Looking into his log, he saw they both granted the exact same amount of Experience Points, so Jay knew what to do next.

He walked over to the encampment until he was close enough for his next actions. On his way he encountered two more patrols and took care of them.

Activating his far sight again, Jay could watch the whole encampment.

That was something he wished to not have done the next second and got a little angry at himself. He knew exactly what the totems did so he should have expected it...

What the had seen was countless Gnolls humping each others, all over the encampment.

As he stood on a hill that was normally an island in the lake, Jay had been able to look even between the tents.

Ugly as the monsters normally are, it was a little distracting that one couldn't differ their genders. But from what he had seen, the Gnolls themselves seemed unable to differ it themselves.

Not thinking about it anymore and disregarding any possible casualties because he didn't look at the camp properly, Jay initiated his attack.

The first wave was three meteors to the places with the biggest crowds.

In his disgust he might have bloated the first one a bit too much as the explosion was so loud, it might have gotten heard even from Alexton's farm.

Running over to the camp, Jay was set to level up his second areal spell. On his way towards the destroyed camp he got attacked by the ones on lookout and patrols that came running back due to the loud initial attack.

He kept his (Arcane Blast) on cooldown while killing the survivors with two simple swords from his inventory.

Jay had no idea when or where he looted them, but thanks to his latest skills and loading them with fire magic, he killed off his aggressors with ease. Combined with the repeating arcane blasts he tore a glade in the field and ranks of Gnolls as well.

Monsters and limbs got hurled away on every blast while the corpses piled to each side.

That went on until Jay stood in the middle of the encampment, about to drop his guard and search for the totem in the few straw tents that were still standing.

From the sheer amount of Gnolls he fought, Jay no longer wondered why they even attacked soldiers without second thought. They thought themselves the strongest force in the region.

A yowl suddenly sent a small shiver down Jay's spine. It had been so loud and screechy he really got startled.

Then another one followed, deeper and longer.

Only a second later, Jay saw the origin of those yowls as a humongous Gnoll holding a long sword trotted over.

He was surrounded by six more Gnolls, All bigger than most but clearly smaller than the boss. Analyze showed them as level 19 Gnoll-Berserkers but the most intriguing thing was a berserking buff they all had.

After Jay looked up the biggest Gnoll he had an idea what the loud yowl some seconds ago had been, as the monster had a skill explaining it.

__________

Bashclaw [lvl. 21 (Named)]

(Gnoll-Berserker)

HP 730/730 Mana 0/0

[Berserking Call]

__________

As the monsters were big but had not too much Health, Jay was sure they were brute strength fighters.

Loading both weapons anew though they were bound to break in the next couple of attacks, Jay charged towards them and slashed with both hands as he arrived.

The result was two instantly dead Gnolls and a broken main-hand weapon.

But the weapons destuction had something new for Jay as the sword not only broke apart or chipped, it exploded due to the fire magic and wounded a third Gnoll with it.

Jay was well of as his own flames wouldn't harm him and lucky because the blade flew the other way.

Another thing he learned in this attack was that the berserking the monsters had, made them seemingly immune to pain. The one who got burned dashed for Jay as if nothing had happened.

Bashclaw didn't idle around either.

Jay had to dodge some fast swings of his large sword and took a few steps back to gain a bit distance. The other Gnolls came for him again, but this time he simply waited and activated (Arcane Blast) from his quick slot.

This resulted in three monsters getting hurled away and one arriving before Jay, just to get a straight punch right into its torso.

The fist was still crackling with lightning as Jay pulled it out.

Picking up the poor axe the Gnoll had dropped, Jay had just enough time to receive Bashclaws sword. Suddenly he knew exactly what to do and without wait, Jay countered the attack leaving a deep cut on the big monsters flank.

Glad he had set (Riposte) to a quick slot, Jay saw it got activated and could have jumped in joy as it greyed out after he countered but had no cooldown.

He just had to wait for the next attack to confirm it.

Dodging to the side as Bashclaw hadn't stopped attacking and kept swinging his sword wild, Jay waited for a swing he could parry. But it came not from the boss but one of the other monsters that attacked from behind.

Grinding the sword in his left hand along the monsters mace, Jay attacked with his right and cut right through its waist.

Just as the axeblade passed the monster, Jay had yet another chance to parry an attack as Bashclaw brought its sword down from above.

Redirecting it to the side as Jay followed the Axes turning motion, he slashed with his offhand weapon, nearly severing one of the Gnolls legs.

(Riposte) had lit up again and got activated after he parried, confirming his theory of it having no cooldown or restrictions other than directly following a parry.

With two more (Arcane Blasts) and a single (Riposte), Jay ended the fight as Bashclaw went down with three deep and some more shallow cuts while the other Gnolls got hurled away by Jay's blasts.

After picking up the Gnolls sword, a not that bad two handed one, Jay went to look for the totem. It had stood in the middle of the Camp, but due to a certain someones Arcane Blasts it gor hurled elsewhere.

He found it laying twenty meters further, a bit damaged but the enchantment seemed to still be working. Storing it inside his inventory, Jay summoned his horse and rode towards the north.

He wasn't the least interested in searching the camp for anything of worth, nor was he in need to.

As he gained some distance and looked back, he saw that a part had gotten flooded while smoke was rising from multiple places.

It looked like the lake would have a new deepest place once it got filled with water again...

Riding from the basins north towards the north-east, Jay took the direct route through the fields. His mount had no problems with the terrain and he could concentrate on checking his log.

He had been irritated at first that he didn't find the message of a maxed out job, so he looked at his status.

It was then he noticed his blunder.

Warrior had been a second tier Job all along, what explained the slower progress.

By the time he eradicated the whole tribe of Gnolls, he just barely reached level 14. And even that happened after he killed Bashclaw.

Glad he at least took the Gnolls head with him to eventually receive some bounty or better, some XP thanks to a quest, Jay rode the rest of the trip with a hanging head and sour mood.

But thinking about Sentinel and the horny little Priestess residing there lifted it a bit again. After his report to Stoutmantle he would pay her a visit.

Speeding up his mount, Jay managed to travel the whole distance before the sun set. Looking at the Sun touching the vast and flat horizon in the distance, Jay climbed off his horse and passed the gate.

Glad he no longer had problems riding for a long time, he made his way up to the garrison.

Stoutmantle had gotten notified Jay returned and was already waiting for him atop the stairs leading to the tower. He welcomed him friendly and led him to his office, even donning him some ale.

"Man, you really did it this time!" G.S.

"What do you mean?" J.

"The thing you did at Alextons… we're deep indebted to you. The support group reported about your successful plan already after their return, so no need to bother reporting again. Incredible performance…" G.S.

"I don't know what they told but…" J.

"Stop it, don't talk down your feats.

Did you learn anything new from the bandits there?" G.S.

Jay answered the Captain and told him what they learned, though it wasn't much.

He reported his findings in the mine and at the waterhole as well, to what Stoutmantle reacted with wide open eyes. That didn't get any better when Jay put Bashclaw's Head on the table.

It wasn't the totems or Jay eradicating two whole tribes all by himself that took him by surprise, but the time-span he did all that in.

After shaking his head in disbelief to the boy, the two talked for a bit longer until they had emptied their mugs. Jay would get a nice compensation to his account and reports of his feats submitted to the Guild.

The Captain accompanied Jay to the exit after they planned his next steps.

They both knew their goodbyes would be temporarily, so Jay left the garrison without further ado and went towards the small chapel of Sentinel.