A guy burning for revenge

The three men standing on the small path and trying to stop Jay were nothing other than a bandit patrol.

Thanking his luck he jumped from his horse and walked the last steps over. The joking of the man standing in the middle, blabbering about a boy delivering his new horse, stopped the moment his face caved in due to a certain hammer hitting it square.

After a long while Jay had used his throwing skill again.

The second man thought about attacking for a second but decided to make a run for it as the last bandit got set aflame by a single spell, followed by an explosion that set the knocked out first one on fire as well.

The last bandit didn't get far though as Jay had by then dismissed his horse, taken back his hammer and thrown it again. It was not an arrow to the knee but a hammer, with the result beeing nearly the same. Falling forwards and rolling on the ground holding the shattered remnants of his right knee, all the bandit could do was await what was to come when Jay arrived by his side.

"Good morning, mind telling me where your base camp is located?" J.

"As if I'd-aaaaaah…"

With simply letting the retrieved hammer fall down, Jay shattered the bandits other kneecap as well, earning him an oh so sweet scream.

From then on the talk was pretty one sided. The man told him all he wanted to know without much resistance. It wasn't without any necessary persuasion, but a broken wrist later Jay knew all he needed to know.

The path leading up the mountain where the camp was set up began close to the road they were on. Jay only had to follow it south until the road turned left.

There he should walk straight and behind a few trees forming a small forest, he could find a hidden narrow cleft.

***

Quest:

'Revenge' cleared!

1900XP

***

***

Quest:

'Revenge 2'

Object:

erase the bandits base camp

***

Thanking the man and erasing his pain by setting him aflame with a (Fireball), killing him instantly thanks to a critical hit, Jay marched on.

The new quest he had gotten left no room for interpretation or careful approaches. All he had to do was find the camp

It took him nearly half an hour and two other dead bandits who were on patrol to find the cleft between two large rocks from where the path began. In truth it was more of a single-track that lead up the mountain until it reached another cleft close to the summit of the not to high mountain and the side of a bigger one.

Following the mountain edge towards the south west, Jay soon saw a rock formation perfect for a checkpoint and decided to hide.

Closing in on it while keeping hidden behind the mountain edge and his skill, he took the careful approach. Like always his intuition was spot on and he found three bandits laying in wait.

Using his bow while still under cover, Jay killed them one after the other with silent sniping. The last one was a bit trick as the man hid behind the rocks other then the two laying on top of them.

Jay had to circle around the formation after he shot the others and attack the man from the back.

Checking on them afterwards he found nothing worthy but took their weapons none the less. Following the path further up, Jay reached a point where he saw a wooden tower some hundred yards ahead peeking out over the rocky surroundings.

Seeking cover on his way up, even to the point he scrambled along a cliff to keep out of sight and climbed up another, Jay arrived at a spot south to the tower where the mountains peak was.

What he saw from there made him wonder how the bandits had set it up, even more so without getting noticed.

On a not so small plateau covered by lush green grass was a camp set up with at least thirty tents of different sizes. To the north, where the small path Jay had been on led to it, the camp had been secured by a wooden fence and a watch tower.

The same had been done to the south where a wide path led south west.

While to the north west the area was covered by a mountain edge connecting the small peak in the north west and a towering high peak to the north east, a little north to the path there, to the south was the highest mountain in sight. This was where Jay was and he took cover behind some rock formations on the steep slope.

From there he could watch the whole camp.

Using his [Far Sight] combined with [Analyze], Jay checked out the whole camp. Within the numbers of bandits and other shady individuals down there, there were two individuals that caught his attention:

One was a black haired woman wearing black robes that looked like she was ordering the other cultists around in a small part of the camp.

It was to far for him to analyze her from his hiding spot, but that didn't mean he couldn't check on her when he got closer.

The other person of interest was a short and a bit plump looking woman who was working in a small makeshift smithy, hammering down on glowing metal with her hammer.

With filled weapon stands around her, Jay guessed she was the bandits blacksmith.

__________

Brynna (Blacksmith LVL5)

Base LVL21

*Half-Dwarf*

HP 1325/1325 * Mana 43/57

[Hammer Mastery LVL3]

[Smithing LVL3]

[Overpower LVL2]

__________

He got proven right as he snuck down the slope and analyzed her once withing reach. The race surprised him a bit as it was a first, but that only made her more enticing, though she completely wasn't his type of woman.

Jay kept hidden close to the smithy that was, lucky for him, set up at the foot of the slope, and waited for a short while until Brynna finished another piece of metal and took a break.

Though she was of higher level than him, Jay was positive to be able to knock her out if he managed to sneak up on her.

That part proved hard as she somehow noticed his presence once, but after taking a bit of distance once again, Jay managed to get close to her and placed a heavy aimed chop on her neck, knocking her out for a short while.

But that had been enough for him to tie her up and gag her, so he heaved her up and brought her to the closest tent. The guy slumbering in there got taken care of with his own sword through the windpipe and stabbed into the ground.

Throwing the heavy woman next to him, Jay went on his silent way through the camp.

While he had to slice two more throats to keep hidden, pulling his victims into cover, Jay managed to cross over to where the cultists had set up their camp.

And there he found the woman he had seen from up the hill.

__________

Sasha (Conjurer LVL8)

Base LVL19

*Arathi*

HP 392/392 * Mana 435/435

[Conjuration LVL3]

[Fire Magic LVL3]

[Shadow Magic LVL2]

[Scythe LVL1]

__________

She was still ordering her subordinates around while striding through the camp. Though she was quite the beauty with her pale skin and dark eyes, the character she showed made Jay only want to break her.

Following her in hiding, Jay waited for her to reach the northern end of the cultists area that was on the western side of the camp.

But just as she got within reach to a his hiding spot, Jay had to stop his actions when two other people exited one of the bigger tents in the camp.

It was a shrewd looking guy, middle aged and with a big scar on his face that instantly looked into Jay's direction.

He seemed to have noticed him, but couldn't pinpoint the location as Jay took some steps back further into hiding.

But the bigger presence was the person next to him.

She was a really tall bandit with muscular arms and giant axe in her hand. The short and messy hair suited her surprisingly female face well, though most of it was kept hidden behind a black mask.

Whatever her skills were, Jay had found another target with her and decided to settle it with the three.

Unsure if he could manage to catch her without getting found, he marked her for later and with this, used his [Stalking] skill for the first time. It didn't feel that creepy as he had thought.

The meet up between the three persons was not that happy and showed Jay there was quite some disdain between the bandits and the cultists, though they somehow worked together.

The haughty comments to the blonde woman were nothing but discrimination of her not being human.

Following Sasha through the camp again without getting found or even noticed in the slightest, Jay had to thank his luck again. She went into her own tent after she ordered some other cultists to get her something to eat.

With a [Shadow Step] he appeared behind her and knocked her out with ease.

He even had to hold back not to kill the fragile Conjurer.

Though tying her up took no time, even rolling her into a blanket was done pretty quick, but the way back through the encampment without getting noticed while carrying her took some time.

Glad Jay managed to hide in some empty tents on the way as most bandits seemed to be on either patrol, plundering elsewhere or sitting around a big fireplace at that time, he made it back to the tent at the smithy.

Brynna was long awake as he crouched back into the tent and looked at him with angry eyes. She didn't make a ruckus though, contrary to what Sasha probably would do once she woke up.

Jay had the feeling she already knew what would await those who don't get captured.

From then on started the real action.

Though Jay still used hide and sneaked back to where he had spotted the busty muscle blonde, on his way there he got rid of three more bandits. Two again with a bow and the last one by pulling back into a tent and twisting his neck.

It took him some time to find the woman, even though she should have been sticking out due to her size that was not really inferior to his own. Jay finally spotted her sitting on some crates and staring into the distance from a spot overlooking most of Westfield.

Jay could see a part of it himself, even though he could only glance over the mountain edge from some distance and saw not much more than the horizon.

But he had gotten close enough to take another look at the woman and even before he analyzed her, Jay noticed two small and nearly white horns peeking out of her hair.

__________

Haribelle (Bandit LVL18)

Base LVL22

*Bovinean*

HP 1536/1536 * Mana 0/0

[Axe Mastery LVL 2]

[Two-handed Axe LVL 4]

[Hamstring LVL 3]

[Lumbering LVL 3]

__________

And with that he had set his eyes on today's main dish.

She was not only a wild beauty with her tanned skin, those fine long braids in her hair and quite some strength. Haribelle was exotic in every way Jay could describe her. Only her over-sized axe was relatively normal aside from its size, even as it came flying towards him.

She had noticed him stare at her from his hiding spot and without warning hurled her weapon over to him.

Though she certainly thought of it being some lusting bandit, the tall woman opened her bright green eyes wide as she saw Jay step out of the broken tents shadow totally unfazed.

He had long given up on catching her secretly. That was something he might have been able to in four or may be five levels, possibly with some kind of poison or spell as well, but not without tricks at that time.

Cracking his knuckles he was going to give her and anyone who dared to interfere a nice beating with his bare fists.

It had been way too long since he had made proper use of his martial arts skill.

That thought proved wrong as the first bandit came rushing in from the side while Haribelle was still staring at Jay who not only dodged but redirected her axe without any problem.

Her amazement grew as the attacking bandits head got twisted in the wrong direction with a loud cracking sound from a single punch.

And that was where Jay's calculation went totally wrong.

His level being higher than most of the bandits there and the martial arts skill, combined with his strength rating completely out of the ordinary left no room for discussion.

There was simply no way to skill any of it in this camp, how ever much he'd try.

Haribelle had by then unsheathed her secondary weapons, a pair of smaller axes that had been dangling on her wide hips. The moment she sprinted forward to intercept Jay, a big brown package came flying towards her, followed by another one.

Though she managed to swat away the first bandit Jay kicked towards her, the second one collided with her.

And it was the man's forehead with hers that was bound to hurt.

Jay had by then defeated four bandits and was facing the fifth. The ruckus they made was big enough for close men to assemble, but not big enough to alarm the whole camp.

Jay was fighting the shady guy he spotted exiting the big tent with Haribelle some time ago, but that made no difference in the course of the fight.

A drop punch nearly knocked the man out and what followed was Jay grabbing his ankle and hurling him around, hitting anther female bandit and a close by tent with him, then he let go and the man flew over the mountains edge.

Still standing where Jay had hit her with a flying bandit, the tall cow-woman looked at the youth and dropped her weapons as he looked over to her.

Taking a few steps in her direction, another bandit jumped for him and got caught by the neck midair. Letting the mans body swing through, Jay grabbed his legs as well and dropped him on his knee with a backbreaker. A true backbreaker as the cracking sounds indicated.

Taking a rope out of seemingly nowhere and holding it out, Haribelle stretched out her arms to signal she'd comply.

Binding her legs as well and setting her back on one of the crated without much problem though the woman was quite heavy, she shook her head.

"Who the hell are you?" H.

"Just some guy burning for revenge…" J.

And burning he was literally the next moment.

With (Fireball) and (Scorch), followed by (Conflagrate) and as he was far enough from Haribelle even (Blazing Flames) the hiding was over.

A cast (Meteor) aimed to the eastern area near the entrance from Westfield and another one to the south of the camp sealed the fate of many bandits.

His whole sneaking around and silent killing, as well as the capture of the thee woman took so long, the sun had already began to set.

But blasting away the camp and most of it's inhabitants was a matter of mere minutes. Jay had no problem spending most of his mana to eradicate the bandits.

And fighting fire with fire was just to his liking.

Walking over to the cultists area, the fun for him only multiplied. They all shot (Shadow Bolt) and (Fireball), as well as (Soul drain) onto Jay, just to get it reflected and die to their own spells.

Latter spell even leveled up for Jay. The few that survived their own spells died to Jay's and for the small Imps some had summoned, he simply kicked them over the mountain edge get rid of them.

The result Jay was facing over an hour after the fighting started was a partially burning camp, more than 60 dead bandits, most of them burned to death, and three tied up woman he was facing by then.

Looking through his log he noted quite some Experience Points he gained and all his level 1 fire skills had gone up by one. The gains up to then had been astonishing.

Rubbing his hands he made ready for the real work...