A pulsing red overlay clouded his vision. His breathing was getting harder as his lungs burned from the superheated air, and his eyes burned from the ash and smoke. Still, Wanderer put one foot in front of the other, using the drumming of his own heart like a military cadence. A small dog-like creature ran at him, ignoring the flames that threatened to singe its fur and burn its flesh. Wanderer kicked out a foot, collapsing the creature’s muzzle with a single strong strike.

  A moment to try and catch his breath, but no more. The bundle in his arms squirmed, and a small hand gripped his arm. Wanderer pushed forward, his booted foot caving in the dead monster’s chest. Behind him, part of the roof collapsed, sending flames spraying across the room. He turned, taking the brunt of it on his back.

  “Just a little more, honey.” He whispered, his voice scratchy from the damage. “Just a little more.”

  As he got near the wall, he picked up speed, dropped his shoulder in a linebacker’s charge and plowed through the wall. Crashing through, he hoped for a cool night breeze, sadly he was greeted by a slightly less burning heat. Stumbling, he dropped to his knees and deposited the bundle on the ground, lifting the soaking wet blanket, he looked over the small girl who lay inside,e her eyes closed tight in fear.

  “Wanderer!” Cast’la screamed as she came around the corner, her mouth already moving through the quiet prayers that powered her healing magics.

  “Worry about the girl!” Wanderer choked out as he pushed himself to his feet and turned to survey the area.

  The small farming village of Wick’send was almost entirely on fire, people were running everywhere, either trying fruitlessly to put out the flames or escape the barbaric kobold horde. Wanderer shook his head and pulled the [Axe of the First Raider] from the Harness on his back. He briefly considered the Orcish Great Blade he also carried, but axes gave him a bonus, so the choice was already made.

  “Here!” Cast’la said from her place beside the girl. In her hand was a flask of phosphorescent blue liquid. “It's a health pot. I don't know if it will work with your crazy [Boon], but try it.”

  Wanderer nodded and took the flask, with a flick, he uncorked it and drank. A Cool sensation ran through his body, and the pulsing red overlay faded. He gave Cast’la one last nod before rushing into the Chaos of the Kobold attack.

  Mayrolol tore his spear from the back of yet another mewling human and chortled as the poor beast screamed in pain. The Kobold raid commander pushed down again and again until no sound escaped the human, his gleeful chortling turning into full-on manic laughter.

  Times were good. Ever since the High Commander had taken over their den, the Night Fang Kobold clan had become ever more powerful. This was the third human settlement in as many months they had raided, and the slaves and treasures they brought back tonight would be the crowning achievement.

  Mayrolol removed his spear one final time and started to bellow commands. The fun was over; now they would collect what slaves they could and leave. Before he finished issuing his command, one of his lieutenants came flying toward him from one of the flaming buildings. The Kobold slid to a stop before Mayrolol, and the raid commander could easily see that half of the lieutenant’s head was missing.

  Shrieks of anger and panic filled the area as other raiders saw the lieutenant’s body and looking up, Mayrolol could make out a form in the fire drawing near to him. It looked like a human male, large and bulky, easy prey for the small and nimble Kobolds.

  One of the other raiders had the same idea and charged toward the man, only to be easily batted away by an axe so large it seemed impossible. The raider’s body tumbled to the ground a dozen yards away. Mayrolol didn't see where the head landed.

  The man continued to approach them, he was speaking in the human tongue, but Mayrolol refused to learn the speech of beasts, still the raid commander could feel a panic welling up in his heart. This human walked toward them so calmly as fire danced over his arms and back, he swung a truly large weapon with such ease and power that it sent bodies flying. Worse, though, the thing that made Mayrolol want to run more than anything was the large smile that took up nearly a third of the stranger's face.

  “Ge - Get him!” He barked out, his voice holding a small whine of fear. “Kill the human vermin!”

  The others growled or barked their compliance and charged forward. The human’s smile seemed to grow as he spun the axe and let it settle in a one-handed grip away held at a rear angle. He answered the kobold’s growls with one of his own, and Mayrolol felt his blood turn cold.

  Wanderer darted forward out of the flames of another collapsing building. He held his axe low and behind him in a stance that would have looked laughable in anything but an anime, but it felt comfortable and natural to the large man. One of the kobolds darted from his left, and Wanderer turned on his heel, parrying the creature’s spear with his forearm and unbalancing the attacker. Twisting his wrist, he grabbed the shaft and pulled it toward him. The kobold, too stunned to react, came stumbling toward Wanderer, who suddenly jerked as another spear pierced his lower back. With a grunt of frustration, the large man swung the spear he held over his head, causing the kobold to go flying over Wanderer and slam into his compatriot, sending them both tumbling to the ground.

  Wanderer swung around, his axe making a shimmering arc in the firelight, and slammed it down, cleaving both kobolds. He stumbled a step forward, doing his best to remain standing, but health potion or no, the pulsing red overlay was nearly black, and his vision was losing color. He glared menacingly at who he assumed was the kobold leader and took another step forward.

  “Ba-wark!”

  From the rubble of a fallen home, a kobold lunged at him. Wanderer reached out a hand and caught the monster by its throat, then slammed it downward, snapping its neck as it hit the hard earth. He looked back up to see the leader barking and whining loudly.

  “You -you’ve been a bad dog.” Wanderer snapped as he stumbled forward one slow step after another.

  Somewhere behind him, he could hear several feminine voices chanting and then muttered curses and screams of pain as the cool relief of healing magic hit him, and the color returned to his vision as the burns on his back and arms began to heal and stitch together.

  This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

  “Pull the damned spear out you idiot!” Cast’Ia yelled.

  He grinned and listened. A moment later, he could feel his muscles and skin knitting back together. Damn, that must have been one hell of a healing spell, he thought. Dropping the spear, he started to walk toward the Kobold leader, who was only now realizing he was alone and held his spear before him in a shaky grip.

  “I had officers like you,” Wanderer said flatly. “No balls, relying only on the power their rank gave them.”

  The Kobold, which the system identified as [Raid Leader Mayrolol], let out a high-pitched whine and charged Wanderer, who easily batted aside the attack and back-handed the creature as he moved past.

  “Pathetic.”

  Turning at the hip, Wanderer arced his axe in an upward angled strike, slamming into the kobold’s hip and cutting through to his opposite shoulder. As Mayrolol’s body feel it broke apart into motes of glowing dust and then coalesced into a ball of blue light that rested at Wanderer’s waist. Without hesitation the big man thrust his hand forward and grabbed the glowing ball.

  As with the Bearkin’s drops, Wanderer quickly moved the items in his inventory onto his equip menu then without a second thought he donned the mantle. The thick fur covered his shoulders and the back of his neck; the whole thing was held together with a dark strap of belted leather.

  “You’re starting to look like the bad guy ... or a weird BDSM Viking.” Cast’Ia laughed as she approached him.

  Wanderer nodded in agreement. “Better than be stark naked though.”

  The Sprig shrugged noncommittally.

  “What happened with those screams?” Wanderer asked, looking up at the overcast night sky as lightning started to flash in the distance. It would rain soon, which would help with the fires.

  “The little girl you saved and her mother are devotees to the Earth Maiden,” Cast’Ia responded, watching the coming storm as well. “When I rushed off to help you, they insisted on coming as a thank you.” The healer let out a dramatic sigh. “I warned them about your stupid ass [Boon] but they didn’t care and now the kid is out cold ... Completely safe but out cold.” She quickly amended after one look at Wanderer’s face.

  The old man shrugged and walked past Cast’Ia toward the woman who knelt on the ground, her daughter cradled in her lap.

  “Thank you, ma’am.” He said, sounding more gruff than he had intended. “I am sorry that in helping me, you came to harm.” He held out his hand,s offering to take the weight of the girl, but the older woman only stared wide-eyed at his bloodstained hand and shook her head.

  Wanderer nodded and stood back up. “What now?” He asked Cast’Ia.

  The girl shrugged. “No idea, there must be a condition we haven’t met yet.”

  “Oh heroes! Heroes!” A rather high-pitched voice came from deeper within the burning town. Wanderer and Cast’Ia turned toward it, and the girl let out an annoyed groan.

  Waddling to them at a speed much greater than his gait would imply was a small, rotund man with a large handlebar mustache and soot-stained gaudy clothing.

  “Is that ...”

  “Yep, it’s a male Sprig ... annoying little bastards all around.”

  The Sprig man came to a stop in front of the two. “Oh my, oh my!” He exclaimed, his eyes focused on Cast’Ia. “My retainers told me that one of our heroes was a Spri,g but never would I have imagined ...” He trailed off as he started to inspect the healer like a prized goose.

  “Hey,” Wanderer barked, accidentally activating the bonus effect of the Mantle. The man turned to him, his face going pale and his knees wobbling. “Just who are you?”

  “I - I - I am th - the mayor of thi - this fine town of ... Oh, what’s the name ... Wicks’end!”

  Wanderer nodded. “Then hello, Mister Mayor.”

  “Ye - Yes, hello!” The man held out a small hand to Wanderer, who, after a glance at Cast’Ia took and shook the Mayor’s hand.

  Amelia Stein crashed off of her sofa as she attempted, and failed, to stop the horrible chirping that her tablet was using to assault her with.

  “What?” She hissed out as she hit the screen and answered the video call.

  “Ma’am,” A tech ... a dark skinned, scrawny male this time. Disappointing, Stein thought. “We are having an issue with the ‘special case’ you wanted us to look after.”

  Stein scrambled to her feet, uncaring that her naked body was on full display through the tablet’s camera. “I’ll be right there!”

  A few minutes later, Stein rushed after her office/make-shift apartment in nothing but an oversized hoodie and a pair of bunny slippers and rushed to the station of the tech who’d call her.

  “Report,” she huffed out as she grabbed the Tech’s coffee and downed the scalding liquid in a single gulp. Uck, what is it with these people and poisoning their coffee? “Cream.” She hissed as she glared down at the tech.

  The tech shrank a little into himself but spoke. “About two hours ago, Klein’s blood pressure started to peak again at around 200/90. As before the emergency logout didn’t occur, we monitored and recorded vitals to hopefully head off anything worse.”

  Stein nodded along and stole a glance at the screen that held Klein’s vitals which were elevated currently but perfectly within tolerances.

  “About 30 minutes ago, the subject went into ACS.”

  “What?!” Stein shrieked, drawing every eye in the lab to her.

  “He went into cardiac arrest, ma’am.” The tech said as if she didn’t know what ACS meant. “However, while we were still trying to formulate a plan to extract Klein without brain damage, the system itself intervened and injected him with a MONA cocktail.”

  Stein carefully placed the coffee back on the table and looked at the tech with a shocked expression clear on her pale, sleep deprived face. “How?” She whispered, then turned to look at the Core. “We don’t even have those in stock ... just saline and nutrient chemicals ... “

  “It seems that the system itself produced them, ma’am ... in that moment.”

  Stein nodded absently. “I’ll need a pot of my special brewed and complete diagnostic readout from Klein’s capsule.”

  The tech nodded.

  Stein started to walk to the nearest lift that would take her to the capsule area, what her team referred to as the ‘Mausoleum’. “Actually, get a hold of that other one’s data center, I want all data on her capsule for the past ... however long she has been in there.”

  “Yes, ma’am!”

  Dale was just getting out of the shower when Lucy’s avatar appeared in the smart mirror.

  “Mistress, there’s been a problem,” Lucy said, sounding somewhat ashamed. “The daemons I have deployed to Pilgrimage’s systems have been discovered and neutralized.”

  Dale let out a sigh. She’d been hoping for better, after all the daemons were Marcus’s design, and despite his inability to ever find work, he was a genius at programming and repurposing other people’s programs. “So Pilgrimage is on to us?”

  “No, Mistress,” The AI said, her pulse quick, almost as if she was frightened. “Another party discovered the daemons and ...” The AI’s Diamon avatar seemed to shrink. “They managed to backtrack to our location before I was able to cut the connection.”

  Dale sighed. “Wonderful.”

  “MISTRESS!!!” Lucy screamed. “Several unregistered vehicles have just pulled into the driveway.”

  Before Dale could respond, the doorbell rang.