Harold (Bonus Chapter)

Raising his sword up in the air, the middle aged man charged at the monsters emerging from the vegetation. Swinging his sword vertically downwards at the first creature to emerge, he managed to decapitate the 8 foot tall creature in one blow through a surprise attack.

SHING

A stone ax and a crude sword came slicing down at him from the left and right sides in retaliation forcing the older man to retreat a few steps back. While he retreated an arrow came flying at him from the side piercing into his thigh.

"Harold!" Grace screamed, running towards him with concern.

"Stay back and keep using your light magic to buff me! I'll be alright." Harold shouted back at her, grateful for her concern. "Whatever happens you must survive and inform the guild about this nomadic monster tribe that is near the kingdom! Not only that, but according to the church you have great potential that would be wasted if you died here today!"

Tears started to stream down her face, but Grace never stopped healing Harold as she knew he was right about the importance of one of them surviving. If neither of them lived and informed the guild about what was approaching, countless lives would be lost before the guild or kingdom could form an extermination squad to win out the nomadic monster tribe.

"We'll survive together!" She shouted back at him with a trembling voice.

"I wish kid, but sadly only one of us will be surviving." Harold mumbled to himself as he looked down at his chest. A giant slash mark spread diagonally across his chest that he received from his initial fight with the leader of the scouting unit of the monster tribe.

Harold was only still standing through sheer will power. It was a miracle he hadn't dropped dead yet with the amount of blood he'd already lost, but he couldn't die without knowing that Grace was safe. There was no way he could face his brother in death if Harold couldn't even save his own niece.

Readying his sword, Harold watched as three monsters appeared out from the vegetation. They all had similar facial features and body sizes at 8 feet tall. They're skin was a pale pinkish color and had huge frames with pot bellies that were made of pure muscles. Each of their faces resembled something close to that of a pig.

They all wore mismatching armor ranging from chain mail, to leather, to even some metal plated armor. One had a crude sword with various scratches and nicks along the blade, another had a giant two handed stone ax with cracks spreading along it, and the final one had a giant bow that was almost six feet tall.

Scanning over each one, Harold gave a sigh of relief as he didn't spot the scouting unit's leader among them yet. The scout leader stood a foot above the others at 9 feet tall and was covered in old corroding copper plate armor. The armor completely covered his body and face, and the metal had a copper and corroded green color pattern that made a natural camouflage while in the jungle.

"Grace if I say run at any point during this fight you run, got it?" Harold shouted back to her.

Before Grace could respond, one of the creatures started laughing before saying, "Hate to break it to you, but neither of you will be escaping. We have orders to kill you and bring the girl back to our boss alive if possible."

"I'll kill all of you Piglins you bastards!" Harold shouted at the piglin who spoke moments ago.

Opening his voice to respond, the piglin with the sword never got a chance as Harold raised his great sword high above his head and shouted, "Gust Blade!"

A sudden arc of wind went flying towards the head of the piglin in the shape of the slash Harold made. Sensing the danger, the piglin quickly raised his left hand that was covered in metal plating to guard against the attack.

Upon coming into contact with the metal gauntlet, sparks began to fly up from where the slash of wind made contact as it began to cut through the metal. The piglin tried to push the gust blade back with his large muscular arm, but he had underestimated the strength of what he thought was a dying man on his last leg.

A moment later and the gust blade had cleanly cut all the way through the piglin's arm, chopping it off before disappearing. The metal encased arm fell down to the floor with a loud thud, blood now gushing from the grievous wound.

"Aaargh, you bastard! Kill him and capture the girl!!" The piglin swordsman shouted, clutching his amputated arm.

The archer among the piglins took a few steps back while aiming an arrow at Harold and waiting for an opening to fire. Meanwhile, the piglin wielding the double handed ax charged at Harold with a war cry.

Harold rushed forward to meet the piglin with the ax, bringing his sword down upon with all his strength. In return the piglin brought its ax upwards in a diagonal arc to meet the sword.

BANG

Upon contact, the two weapons slammed into each other creating a small shockwave that rippled through the air. For a moment both weapons were slamming against one another in a stand still, neither one giving way to the other.

Then slowly, the golden light around Harold began to glow brighter. As it grew brighter, the piglin started to get pushed back further and further until it fell down to one knee.

Raising a fist up in the air, Harold repeatedly pounded the back of his dual edged sword with his fist. Harold's fist became bloodier and more broken with each slam into the blade, but he didn't stop.

Repeatedly slamming his fist into the blade over and over again, Harold's sword slowly broke through the stone ax toward the piglin below that was now stuck in a kneeling position underneath the two weapons.

"RAAAAAAA!!!!" Harold screamed before slamming his now utterly broken and bloodied stump of a hand down onto the blade. With that final swing, his blade broke through the axe and made a large and deep cut along the chest of the piglin.

"OINK!" The piglin made a horrendous sounding oink as it took the large slash across it's chest head on before being slammed into the ground. Raising his sword above his head once again to finish off the piglin at his feet, a long and crude arrow bloomed from the center of Harold's chest.

Harold stumbled backwards and fell to one knee while leaning on his great sword for support. He glared daggers over at the piglin in the corner that was hiding in the shadows and loading another arrow.

Grunting with pain, Harold stood back up on his feet and prepared to charge at the last piglin. Even though the other two piglins weren't dead yet, so long as he could kill this final one in front of him, Grace would be able to escape.

Getting ready to ask Grace to give him one last stat boosting spell so he could finish the fight, Harold heard a snap of twigs coming from the vegetation behind the piglin that was kneeling and clutching his amputated arm. Glancing in that direction, Harold's face went pale with horror.

"RUN!" He screamed back at Grace.

"But-." She started to say.

"I SAID RUN!!!!" He screamed before shakily standing back up and holding his sword in front of him. The sight was truly a pitiful one. Harold was barely able to stand as he had an arrow in his leg and the center of his chest. His left hand was so broken and bloodied that bones were poking out everywhere and drenched crimson. The worst part of it all was the giant cut along his chest that had made him lose a massive amount of blood.

Nonetheless, Harold once again raised his great sword with both his right hand and shattered left hand. Letting out one last breath, Harold inhaled one last time before calming his mind and taking his final stance, sword raised and aimed at the bushes.

Emerging from the bushes was a giant creature, it was larger and more muscular than all its brethren by more than a foot and clad in full corroding copper plate armor that was specially made for their race.

In one of his hands he wielded a weapon similar to that of a butcher's knife, except the knife was over five feet long. Fresh blood smeared across the blade's edge.

On the mask around where the helmet would lift up partially to reveal part of the monster's face was covered and dripping in blood. Surveying its surroundings, the creature first took in his subordinates, then Harold, and finally his eyes settled upon the fleeing back of Grace.

"You!" The piglin leader said, looking over at the scout. "You're uninjured and fastest out of the three of you, go fetch me that girl. And make sure she is alive!"

"But what about him?" The piglin said, gesturing over to Harold who was poised and ready to strike at a moment's notice.

"He'll be dead in moments, he doesn't have the strength left to move before. It's all an act." The piglin leader replied.

"Oh, I see. Very perceptive young master. Since that's the case, I shall go and fetch your toy." The piglin archer said with a mischievous laugh.

The piglin archer broke into a sprint and started to run after Grace at a pace that would indicate that she would be captured soon. However, before he could reach, a shadow fell over him from behind.

His instincts screamed that there was danger behind him so the piglin archer turned around while reaching for his dagger. It was too late however as Harold slashed down from above, performing a Gust Blade attack at point blank.

The result was instantaneous as the archer only had light leather armor compared to the melee fighters that were wearing chain mail and plated armor. The archer was cut cleanly in half from head to toe, dying instantly.

"I won't let you pass!" Harold Shouted turning around to face the true threat, holding his greatsword up towards the scout leader.

"Buhahaha!" The Piglin leader laughed. The 9 foot tall piglin slowly approached Harold, each step slow and deliberate. The piglin was clearly relishing in Harold's final moments of death.

Finally he reached Harold and looked down at him. The piglin leader easily toward over Harold and eclipsed him. After staring at each other for a few moments the piglin finally spoke, "You were truly a worthy opponent, it's a shame you had to meet me of all people though."

"I won't… let you… lay a hand on her…" Harold barely managed to speak in between shallow breaths.

"It's a shame you can't stop me in your state. Don't worry, after I've had my fun with her I'll send her over to meet you on the other side!" The piglin leader said, bellowing in laughter.

Slowly raising his sword up, Harold prepared to bring the great sword down one last time to fell the foe in front of him. However, before he could swing the piglin leader attacked first.

The attack was so fast that Harold in his injured state didn't have time to react as the giant butcher blade slashed through him from where he was first hit by the scout leader in the chest.

As he slowly fell down to the cold embrace of the ground below him, Harold watched with slowly closing eyes as the Piglin leader chased after Grace at an unbelievable speed, his two surviving and injured subordinates slowly following behind.

Reaching out his broken hand in the direction of his fleeing niece one last time, Harold closed his eyes. His face twisted in emotions of sadness and regret.

~~~~

Running through the now dark jungles as night took over, Grace ran like her life depended on it. Never looking back she kept on running, tears soaking her eyes and falling down her cheeks.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Please forgive me uncle." She cried to herself as she ran through the dark surroundings.

After running for a little bit she heard the snap of branches a little bit behind her. Glancing over her shoulder, Grace saw something that shook her to her very core.

Chasing after her at a speed that was multiple times faster than her was the giant piglin scout leader. He was plowing through the vegetation and smaller creatures of the jungle without a care, taking the fastest route to get to his target.

"Somebody! Anybody! PLEASE SAVE ME!" She screamed at the top of her lungs as the piglin leader loomed directly over her staring down at her with greedy eyes.

~~~~

Close by in the dark forest, Eclipse was jumping up and down while doing stretches.

"Is this what it's like to have sore muscles after a good day's workout?" Eclipse mumbled to himself as he started to try some yoga poses since no one was around to judge him.

Then in the middle of a downward dog yoga pose, Eclipse heard a faint voice say something.

"What was that?" He mumbled to himself. Sanding up and listening to his surroundings, the only thing he could hear was the sounds of crickets chirping around him.

Then all of a sudden he heard something very faint. The sound came from his left and sounded something along the lines of "Anybody!".

Whirling around, Eclipse looked in the direction of the sound. It was coming from the exact opposite direction that Coco went so Eclipse knew that whatever it was, it wasn't coming from her.

Staring in that direction again, Eclipse waited and listened for a few moments longer. But there was nothing else.

Turning around, Eclipse walked back to his yoga spot while mumbling to himself, "I guess it was my imagination."

Then all of a sudden a loud and broken sounding voice broke through the vegetation. It almost sounded as if they used all of their power to shout these last few words.

"PLEASE SAVE ME!" A voice screamed in sorrow and despair from the direction Eclipse was originally looking.

Turning back around, Eclipse glared into the direction of the broken plea for help. His eyes seemed to glow a threatening purple, gold and black as he glared in that direction.

"I was bored waiting for Coco anyways." Eclipse mumbled to himself as he grabbed his makeshift poisonous spear and wandered off in the direction of the shattered and heart broken voice.