Stephan roared and charged the skeletons. His mace blazed with golden light as it came down on an ax-wielding skeleton. The blow burst it apart, bones exploding into chalk-like dust, white splinters spraying into the distance.
A branch cracked Stephan across the shoulder. Pain flared, then vanished as a flash of golden light spilled over his skin, knitting bone and muscle before the ache could settle. He lunged with his suddenly healthy arm, the mace destroying the second skeleton with another smite.
Righteous heat flooded his chest when a shrill laugh sounded from the forest.
“Oh, Death and Ruin have sent me a boon.” The voice came from just beyond the treeline, thin and full of glee. “You really are the Paladin, not just a delusional Healer wandering the countryside.”
Another skeleton collapsed under Stephan’s smite. Yet he barely registered it.
“I’ll finally get some levels in this backwater.”
Branches snapped. Slow, heavy thuds approached. Something big was coming.
Stephan ducked under a clumsy swing, crushed a ribcage, and dodged another blow.
His chest burned like the sun, then the feeling vanished, followed by a flash of light, but Stephan had no time to read it.
The stench hit him. The smell of rot, wet fur, and foul meat assailed his nostrils a moment before a massive shape burst from the trees. It was a deformed brown bear. Its hide, sickly and gray, stood exposed where clumps of fur had fallen off. Its one remaining eye was clouded and dead. It moved unseeing, trampling the bush through which the skeletons had passed.
Stephan finished his last skeleton and finally looked around.
He and Tod had cleared them out, six each, but unlike Stephan, Tod wasn’t fine. The old man stood two steps away. Blood soaked his sleeve. The arm hung limply, broken and useless.
He didn’t groan, nor do anything else, save for getting himself ready for the monster stumbling towards them.
Stephan’s breath caught. He took a step toward him, ready to heal the Sentry, then stopped.
Movement in the edge of his vision caught his attention, and he turned to see a thin, pale man in dirty, tattered clothes emerging behind the zombie bear.
He smiled wickedly and pointed towards them.
“Fever.”
Sickly yellow light flared from his palm and streaked toward them. Tod jerked as if struck by lightning. His sword clattered to the ground, and his body began to shake. Stephan felt nothing.
He froze for a split second, then acted. His arms and shoulders started trembling; his teeth chattered like Tod’s as he did his best to imitate the old Sentry’s plight.
The warlock’s grin widened.
“You can’t even censure undead,” his voice rang with delight. “You’re just a newborn, aren’t you? You’re weak, but strong enough to deal with my skeletons.”
The bear lumbered closer, its slow, heavy feet sinking into the dirt with the weight of finality. The warlock kept himself two steps behind the monster, eager, but doing his best to stay safe.
“I’ll get a level, maybe two for slaying you. I wonder if I can raise the Paladin? But making a skeleton would be too messy and ruin the proof of my deed.”
The bear zombie was three steps away.
Tod bent to pick up his sword, and Stephan gripped his mace, also lowering his stance, not to fall, but to run.
The bear took a step, its stench overpowering. It swept its mighty paws, and Stephan burst into speed, running to the side and around the bear, his fake trembling gone. His boots skidded across loose soil and scattered bones. The zombie bear snarled and began to turn, but Stephan was already out of its reach.
The warlock’s eyes went wide as he suddenly realized what was coming.
“Bone Armo—” Mace struck mid-word. Teeth and blood flew, following a wet crunch.
A firestorm’s worth of warmth coursed through Stephan’s chest as the warlock stumbled back, arms flailing with the head crushed.
Freed of control, the zombie bear roared and wheeled back toward Tod.
It slashed, and Tod parried, barely. The impact sent him flying, a raw scream escaping his throat as he hit the ground rolling. The bear took a step towards him, but Stephan smashed its back with his fiery mace.
Holy fire burned the rotted flesh, and the beast howled. It twisted clumsily, trying to reach him, Tod forgotten. Stephan danced around the undead, always moving, in and out, striking and withdrawing before the zombie could get him.
On the fifth blow, something cracked, and the monster collapsed, still flailing and trying to strike. The sixth blow landed square on its skull, and the monster moved no more. Another flash blinked before Stephan’s eyes, his chest burning. He had gotten a level, and was close to getting the third, but Stephan ignored it all and ran.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Tod lay on his back, rambling, blood dripping into the dirt beneath him. Golden light shone on Stephan’s hand as his touch patched a bleeding shoulder. Another touch and the bones of Tod’s mangled arm shifted into place. Another heal, then another. It took four more heals to fix all the wounds, but even with them taken care of, Tod was burning up, rambling nonsense and convulsing.
Stephan’s heart raced. What do I do? I don’t know how to cure him!
For the first time in days, panic simmered in the back of his mind. His old self certainly would have drowned in it, let himself get paralyzed. But that was the old him. After the initial moment of panic passed, Stephan crushed it and felt impossibly calm, focused. He grabbed Tod and then ran.
The town was about a mile and a half away, and he crossed the distance in under ten minutes. Tod felt like scalding iron in his hands, and much like the rest of him, the old guard’s eyes moved erratically. Otherwise, Stephan would have made a better time.
The gate guard gaped.
“A warlock attacked us!” Stephan shouted and dashed into the town, heading straight towards the temple while disregarding the confused guard as the man backed away and let him pass.
The temple was empty of faithful, its Priest a young man. When he saw them, he paled, his eyes going wide.
“Sir Paladin—”
“A warlock hit him with a yellow light while shouting ‘Fever.’ He’s hot and shaking and I can’t heal him, you have to help him.”
The Priest swallowed, then nodded.
“Yes, Sir. Right away, Sir.”
The Priest tried to use magic, but it failed to help Tod. When magic failed, he went into the side room and returned with several vials. He first gave him a green one, and the convulsions stopped immediately.
In a matter of moments, Tod’s skin cooled as he went from scalding to warm to normal. Stephan felt another rush of warmth enter him. It wasn’t much, but saving his guardian was more rewarding than healing half a dozen people. His chest swelled with warmth, but the next level still eluded him.
Tod’s eyes fluttered open.
“You won.” He smiled faintly.
“We won, Tod.” Stephan squeezed his hand. “You handled half the skeletons, and without you getting sick, the warlock would have realized his spell had failed to affect me. He would’ve fled, or worse, used more of them until he found one that worked.”
“Steve,” Tod looked him in the eye. “You need to be less humble. Say thank you, give a firm nod. Don’t argue. Don’t sell yourself short, because for people like me, and probably people like you too, there will always be plenty of assholes just waiting to take the credit.”
“Language,” the Priest warned. “You’re inside a temple.”
“Sorry, Priest.”
“You are forgiven.” The Priest turned towards Stephan. “And while vulgar, his words aren’t without merit, Sir Paladin. You are our guiding light, and you will face many difficulties, not just monsters. Various parties will try to convince you to prioritise them, or their goals, or to support them openly. I have no intention of telling you what to do, and I don’t presume you will make a mistake. I just think that, as young as you are, you need to hear the reality of it.”
Stephan nodded, pondering the words. The thought that others might use him for their own ends never crossed his mind. Not because he believed people were good. He knew people were selfish and worked to their own benefit. No, he didn’t trust human altruism. What he trusted was that nobody would dare to try to manipulate mankind’s strongest combatant.
Tod and the Priest disagreed.
I may have been too naive…
“Thank you for the warning. I will take it to heart.” He looked at Tod. “Can you walk? We can stop here for the day.”
“Don’t worry about me, Steve. I’m fine.” The old guard was pale and slick with sweat, but his breathing was back to normal and he stood on his own without needing Stephan’s support.
“Is he fine?” Stephan looked at the Priest, whose eyes flashed gold before he nodded.
“He has no statuses and no injuries. I think I would’ve preferred an early night if I were him—”
“Don’t need it. We can rest in the next town. Cliffort should be close.”
“A week’s walk for normal people. A level ten Sentry would get there in two days, one if they ran day and night.”
Tod chuckled. “Well, we’re not in that much of a hurry, we can take the slower pace, right?”
Stephan nodded, but he was tempted to claim he was tired so that Tod could get some rest. After a second’s thought he discarded the idea, the old Sentry would have seen right through him.
“And perhaps you should stop healing people?” Tod said. “That’s how that warlock found us in the first place.”
Stephan shook his head without thinking, but he could see both Tod and the Priest getting ready to argue.
“Each person I heal brings me closer to the next level and makes me a bit stronger.”
“That’s excellent,” Tod said instead of arguing. “How many levels did you get out of the fight?”
“Two, and I’m very close to the third.”
Tod nodded appreciatively. “That’s great. I sensed I gained something out of fighting the skeletons, but after that, it all became a blur.”
Stephan and Tod left the temple and were on their way again, Stephan checking what he had gotten for his latest levels. He nearly laughed when he read Blessing of Health I. He had gained immunity to normal and magical diseases just moments before the warlock had cast his fever spell.
Bane of Darkness I, on the other hand, allowed him to channel his smite or healing energies and unleash a pulse of holy light that paralyzed and terrified fiends and undead.
Stephan considered his skills and realized just why the Paladin was so strong against the dark forces. Half his skills were focused against them, while the rest either protected him or made him an above-average combatant.
They entered the next town before nightfall and went to rest. Soon they would reach Cliffort and its Knights’ Academy.
[Level 8 reached
Skill acquired: Blessing of Health I
+1 Agility, +1 Charisma, +1 Composure, +1 Dexterity, +1 Endurance, +0 Intelligence, +1 Luck, +0 Perception, +1 Presence, +1 Strength, +1 Toughness, +1 Vitality, +1 Willpower, +0 Wisdom]
[Level 9 reached
Skill acquired: Bane of Darkness I
+1 Agility, +1 Charisma, +1 Composure, +1 Dexterity, +1 Endurance, +1 Intelligence, +0 Luck, +1 Perception, +1 Presence, +1 Strength, +1 Toughness, +1 Vitality, +1 Willpower, +1 Wisdom]
[Stephan Cobblerson, Paladin level 9
Class skills: In Living Memory XVI, Blessing of Healing I, Blessing of Arms I, Smite I, Blessing of Protection I, Inspiring Aura I, Blessing of Conviction I, Blessing of Intuition I, Blessing of Health I, Bane of Darkness I
Attributes: Agility: 17, Charisma: 18, Composure: 19, Dexterity: 18, Endurance: 18, Intelligence: 14, Luck: 16, Perception: 17, Presence: 17, Strength: 18, Toughness: 18, Vitality: 19, Willpower: 18, Wisdom: 17]
