Path

Barb

'That's my girl!' praised the man, and the little girl's eyes lit up. She was tired and wanted to give up, but hearing her father's praise, she swung the wooden stick even harder.

'You are doing good, my girl. So much so that I am thinking of asking the captain to let you join our mercenary group," said the mustached man.

'Really, pa?' asked the little girl with her eyes shining. 'Of course, apple. Will your da, ever lie to you?' asked back the man.

'No,' said the little girl and hugged her father joyfully.

Rip!

The memory disappeared as another injury appeared on my body. I do not care about the injury, I want the memory that I had forgotten, but came in front of my eyes, when my death was near.

It was the last memory of my father. It was the day; he left for the mission and never came back.

I had forgotten this memory, but now I remember. I remember that dream, I had when I was a child; remember the pride, my father had for me.

It helped me suppress the panic, and I looked at the undead, before taking a deep breath and releasing it with the alcohol in my mouth.

I didn't use the Powerful Breath and alcohol that came out of my mouth didn't come out as the spray, but like a stream.

As I did, I spun while the flint burned it.

I felt the heat of the fire as it burned the undead around me.

I didn't do it before. It was too dangerous, but the entire battle was dangerous. I need to take the risks, or I will suffer.

The fire is burning the undead, but because of how close it is. It is also harming me.

Bang!

So, I did, Rev had told me and used my shield to swat away the burning undead and moved fast with the Graceful Walk.

It also helped, that fire had kind of stopped the undead. I was able to move far enough, that I would feel the heat, but not suffer from it.

I looked at the undead around me. It is the reason, I had stopped. There was no other way.

I started to feel the panic again, but this time, I didn't give it time to bury its seed in me. I acted and swung my saber at the undead.

Pachak Pachack Khat!

I decapitated two zombies and skeletons in quick succession, without using a skill or the enchantment on my saber.

I am barely trained and didn't have any skills, but I am at Lv. 25 in my base class. A level, that very few could reach and have invested a lot of points into the physical attributes that give enough strength to kill these undead.

The killing of three undead opened enough gap for me; that I instantly made the decision.

Whoosh!

The alcohol appeared in my mouth, and I pushed it out with Powerful Breath and burned it with flint.

The stream moved through the gap and burned the undead, a lot of them, since they were all so close.

Rip!

I had just done that when I received another injury on my thighs, and it seemed deep. Once again, the alcohol appeared in my mouth and I streamed it out, burning all the undead around me, while getting some burns myself.

Whoosh

I moved with Graceful Walk, nearly falling because of my injury, before stopping and drinking a potion. I took out the liquor and started gulping it down. I first filled my stores, before drinking some.

It instantly calmed the headache; I was feeling.

I wanted to enjoy the buzz a little, but I released the breath before I smashed through the undead with the shield.

It is a good thing, I had asked Eudo for the heat resistance script on Hugo's suggestion. It is helping me a lot. If not for it, my condition would have been much worse.

I crashed through another group of burning undead and stopped, once again, alcohol appeared in my mouth, but I didn't spew it out. Instead, I swung my saber to finish them.

They are far too close.

Pachack Rip Pachack

I killed undead after undead but also got injured. However, as time passed, the injuries lessened as I started to move around to dodge the attacks.

In the month since I joined Hugo; I have been training at least fifteen hours every day. The training was intense, and Hugo and the others didn't show any mercy, with their weapons and words.

A month is far from enough to learn anything, but it had given me enough skill, that I could at least defend against the coming attack.

Clang Clang Whoosh!

I attacked and defended and whenever, I could see the gap. I would release the breath of fire.

It was hard at first, but as time passed, I began to get better. I still get injured by the undead and some of the injuries are serious enough that I need to use the healing potion immediately.

Still, I am learning and the most progress I am making is in my footwork, which is extremely important, in battles like these.

Hugo made me practice it, but I barely used it the first, but now I am using Graceful Walk constantly to dodge the attack.

It is helping me dodge, quite many attacks.

Whoosh!

I released another wide plum, burning the group of zombies, that were moving toward the two people of my squad fighting.

One nodded gratefully, before moving to the pillar where he was fighting with the mage. They are our target, not the undead. There are a lot of undead, we wouldn't be able to kill all of them before we get tired and they swallow us all.

Its why we are targeting the pillars, but these bastards knew we had come for them and made it very hard to target them.

If it is not for them being needed to stay in certain areas of the horde. We would have a very hard time finding these bastards.

From what is explained to me; the pillars form a net across the horde, with every pillar controlling the undead within a certain area. They didn't have full control over them, but enough to make them do their job with no problem.

Only the central pillar has total control over the horde. These smaller pillars, control the undead within a parameter that central pillars have set.

The pillars are not unprotected. They have massive undead and also warriors, not to mention they are mages with powerful spells.

My squad had already begun engaging with the two pillars and their protectors, and also the undead that were madly coming at us. Two members of the squad are already dead and others are fighting to achieve the objective.

My responsibility is undead. Hugo had asked me to not fight directly unless I had a partner.

According to him; I am not ready to fight a powerhouse on my own.

Seeing, how powerful these people are, he is absolutely right. Even with my stats, I am a match for any of them. It wouldn't take them long; I would be much safer in dealing with the undead.

I am doing a good job at that, lessening the pressure of the undead on my squamates.

Time passed, and I killed hundreds of undead, both my sabers and my breaths, mostly by my breath. I have become quite good at finding the gaps; that is helping me burn a lot of undead.

I am also spending a lot of liquor. Thankfully, I had my whole purse filled with it. Enough to last through hours.

A few seconds passed when I took out a healing potion again and took a sip of it. I think I will be able to drink a few more sips before I reach the limit and start suffering the burn.

I have the two bottles of essence-infused healing potion. One was given to me by Master Silver personally and the other by Carla, a few hours ago.

If possible, I don't want to use them. Every sip of those potions was worth huge money. A single bottle is worth more than I would earn with years working in the establishment, and even if I had money, I wouldn't be able to buy it.

"Barb, watch your back!"

I put the potion bottle in my bag and was about to bring the bottle of liquor out when I heard the shout of warning from Ven.

I turned immediately with my shield forward, as Hosk had taught me.

Clang!

I heard the loud clang across the shield, and nearly threw it away as I took the step back, before turning to the man, that attacked me.

He thin man with a long sword in his hand. He had short hair and a long scar running down his cheeks, which made him look especially menacing.

"You defended," he said, feeling angry that I defended and attacked me again. He was fast and his sword was blurry before it turned into the multiple of it.

I had practiced with such moves, but saw it coming at me to kill me. I froze, which is the last thing, I should be doing.

I forcefully calmed myself and moved my shield forward. At the same time, I had, took a deep breath. I only have one sip remaining; it is why, I was planning on drinking the liquor to fill my stores.

If we were alone, I would have waited for a better opportunity to release my breath, but there isn't any right now.

He is powerful and experienced enough that he will kill me within a minute, even before that, the undead will have me.

I had seen it happen; my squamates that died were killed by the undead. I don't want to suffer the same fate as them; I will not.

Whoosh!

So, I released my breath and my enemy's eyes widened, but he seemed prepared for it and moved.

Seeing that, I moved my head, taking the stream where he was moving, and did something, I had never done before, I moved while still releasing the breath.

It is extremely dangerous, but I need to see the enemy is moving away.

Hun!

Suddenly, the man cursed while a smile appeared on my face. His advantage had turned against him, and my fire had finally reached him, spreading across him instantly.

"Ahhh…"

He screamed loudly as he burned.

He would have easily been able to escape my fire with his speed, but it was the undead that stopped him. They were everywhere, and he couldn't move fast enough through them.

This gave my fire enough opportunity to reach him and once that happened, he burned, with no chance of survival.

It is not common fire, which he could bear with his stats. It is a magical fire, made out of magical liquor; it is powerful, and he didn't have defensive skills to defend against it.

That is why I try to remain as careful as possible. A slight mistake, and it would end me. The most horrible way.

Hun!

I was watching burning, when suddenly a water bubble covered him, dousing all the fire covering him, before disappearing. If this was enough, I felt the water jelly-like substance cover him from head to two.

It is clearly a healing spell.

I felt his burned face turned toward me. I looked into those eyes, and there was a rage in them, enough to burn me to ashes.

"Iiii!"

He screamed before he came at me.

I took a step back, seeing his terrifying face, before I stopped myself. Running away isn't useful and besides, he is not at his full strength.

He is completely burned, and healing will take long. I need to finish him off, another breath would have done the job, but I don't have any alcohol, nor have time to consume it.

I will do the job the old-fashioned way.

So, I moved toward him. Clashing directly would be bad, I need to finish it as soon as possible and I am going to use a risky method, that Hugo told me to use when I am truly desperate, and right now, I am.

Seeing me coming, the rage in his eyes burned brightly, and it let out, that weird scream again.

It took less than two seconds for us to reach each other as he did, I moved my shield forward and increased my speed as much as I could.

Clang!

Its sword, its sword, and it clashed against my shield. I felt the powerful blow and still kept going against it.

If it had been at its peak. It would have used this opportunity to finish me off easily, but he is not. He is fully burned and can barely see through his eyes. The only reason he was able to project this power was because of the anger in his heart.

Bang!

A moment later, my round shield rammed against his body, sending him back. I followed without stopping, before swinging my saber with everything I had.

It is the only opportunity I have; I could see the undead. They will swarm me, taking him away.

I will not let that happen.

Pachack!

My sword reached his neck and began cutting through his neck. I felt my heart shake, seeing I was killing another being, but I kept going till my sword came out on the other side.

I saw his burned head flying and shaking.

I wanted to stop and sit down, but I couldn't. The undead are coming from all the directions and if I didn't deal with them, I would also go to the place where I had just sent him.

I don't want to die so early. I had just found a path, I wanted to walk on it a little, before I embraced the death.