[6] Village 2

“This way, sire.” Reese leads us, a few other villagemen decide to join us on this little hunting exercise. We climb upstream, through the thick forests, following it. The water of the stream, next to us becomes obvious, it’s a bit brownish, and has a stench of poop.

Maybe he’s right, but we still don’t know whether the batdogs are the source of the poop.

We follow, the men and all, all armed and ready. It is a small squad of men meant to protect me, so combat-readiness is a given. So, if Reese is right, and it's just batdogs, we should be fine. He doesn’t have a reason to lie, and somehow, I believe him. Maybe it’s that quest tooltip hovering above his head.

We take a formation where the villagers lead the way, Adam, and a few of the soldiers follow, while myself, Anne and a few more soldiers behind us.

The hike is relatively pleasant, to be honest. If it’s not for the poop smell coming from the water, I may very well recommend this being converted into a tourist trail, if there’s such thing as tourists in this world.

It took a short hike, about an hour, and we approach the area Reese claims.

Reese, and Adam scouts it out. A few fallen trees create a small covering, like a small cave, and the batdogs made it their home. The batdogs, 17 of them, large and small. Relative to our force of about 15 men plus the 6 villagers who join us, we outnumber them. And that’s good. GIven that these batdogs attack with their claws, and bites, outnumbering them means we can handle them better.

“Ready.” Adam and a few of the men whisper, signals their readiness. They look to me, and I nod.

Arrows. For most soldiers, practicing in both bow and sword is standard, so on my signal, a volley of arrows rain down on the den, injuring a few of the batdogs. They bark in retaliation, and all of them scramble out, defending their den.

In anger, they charge, reactively towards the men. The soldiers, change to swords, and spears, engage the batdogs. The villagers, like Reese, have daggers or machetes.

Combat started, everyone joins in except myself and Anne, who stands behind me. Thankfully, because we kept our distance, none of the 17 batdogs figured to attack us, and kept their focus on the soldiers and villagers.

We watch the men hack the batdogs to death, Anne standing behind me, a bit overwhelmed by the brutality of fighting, so she sometimes cover her eyes.

I take this opportunity to observe the true skill level of my men.

Adam is clearly the most skilled of the group, easily dodging and retaliating, but here I also see that Reese isn’t that bad himself. If the pest infestation was only four or five he could have taken them on, as it seems quite clear that he is quite good with the machete, and seems to have some combat related skills, as he mixes in kicks in between his hacking machete.

The batdogs, outnumbered, are quickly cut down. The soldiers gang up on the batdogs and in about fifteen minutes, all of them are soon killed.

Awesome. Easy first battle!

The men did suffer a few bites, cuts and swipes, but no fatalities. And this is where I use my [heal], to mend their injuries, which impressed everyone. Even Anne who did not know I know such an ability.

And that ends my short excursion to hunt some pests.

Once back in the village…

“Thank you, milord.”

“Ah, small matter. Thank the men, they did the fighting.”

“I’ll let Anne know if the water and crop situation improves.”

“Good. Also, can you do me a favor?”

“Yes? If its within my abilities, I will try.”

“About 11 weeks from now, can you come to Loom for about 2 weeks? Anne will arrange accommodation, I just want some of the better fighters around.”

“Ah…. I think I can do so, sire.”

“Great.”

I did not ask Reese to be a royal guard, I sensed a great deal of respect for the land that his parents left for him, and I somehow understands that he feels obligated, a responsibility to tend to the land. So, if I asked, he would have said no.

Bur for him to come to Loom for 2 weeks, just for the fight, that was still well within what he is willing to do.

As we say our goodbyes, I saw Reese’s indicator change to 40% (10% from the beer the day before and 30% from the quest).

Reese 40% scene - to be triggered when certain situations

Ah, I can’t wait for that, so we head for the next village, which is half a day away.

“Do you think the pests really caused it?” Adam asks, he’s still skeptical.

“I don’t know, may be something else. But it does not really matter.”

“Huh?”

“I wanted do something, that I am helping. So, you fought side by side with him, what do you think?”

“Ah… you mean the villager?”

“Yeah.”

“He’s not bad. Good form and posture, but more of a street fighting, brawling style though.”

“Good. He’s the only one I spotted…”

“How’d you know?”

“Uh…”

Magic of course, but I can’t tell him that, can I?