“Finally, something that isn’t forest” He jumps for joy in the air, leaving a wide trail of blood coming from his left side, a scar from the recent encounter.

They had spent two days walking without stop, finally making it to the outskirts of Ronthar at dusk.

For her, the past two days were quite bizarre for her; spending time with the man only sparked more questions in her mind.

They had encountered a few wild animals along the way, and each time he would inevitable be pinned beneath them, getting mauled by them. However exactly seventeen minutes and fourteen seconds later, his wounds disappeared.

She had counted and recounted this number due to shock of seeing it happen the first time. When she had first sliced off her nose due to a bad shot, it had taken around half an hour for it to regenerate. It took almost half the time for him to regenerate: that definitely wasn’t normal.

Another strange thing that crossed her mind was the fact that he would never hurt the monsters that attacked him; he would always aggro them with a light punch or something before running away. She had asked him about this and according to him, he is a pacifist.

An odd man: who would not hurt monsters, wants to be immortal and can sustain some horrifying damage with only a small wince…the more time she spent around him, the more bizarre things she learned about him.

She had one last look at her new 'bow'. Surprisingly, it worked and was of a decently high poundage, about fifty she things. Also the damage output was no joke, even with the crappily spined bone arrows she's currently being forced to use.

Hiding her bow in her inventory, she then follows after him into the small town which is surrounded by a well maintained palisade and wooden guard towers.

Ronthar, a level twenty to thirty village in the western side of the Annoldi kingdom. It is one of two villages situated in the Blackriver Forest.

She had read up a little on why it was called that; apparently a large portion, deep in the forest is a river made from the black blood of demons killed in the end of the first age.

Moving through the still open gates, she nods to one of the guards on duty as her recognizes her.

Glancing around, she makes a quick decision on what to do first, although the horrified shrieks from her right cause her to turn towards the noise, only to see two women pointing towards, no, behind her.

Remembering he still doesn’t have any clothes on, she shakes her head and turns to talk to him.

“We’re going to have to get you some clothes first” Personally she doesn’t mind him strutting around with his well toned body, but then again the NPC’s don’t seem to enjoy the indecency as she does.

“Give me a minute” He grabs the knife off of her belt and places it on his throat “AEGI, WITNESS MY GRATITUDE FOR KEEPING ME ALIVE THESE PAST FEW DAYS”

Violently slashing the knife across his throat, blood splashes onto the dirt road, causing more than a few screams and exclamations to blurt out in both horror and confusion at the man’s actions.

Within seconds, he slumps to the floor and disintegrates into the air.

Tandra was horrified by the action, but some niggling familiarity made her feel a lot calmer than she should be, as if she almost expected such a thing to happen.

Around a minute later, the same man comes jogging through town, waving towards her, clothed in beginner gear once more.

To all the NPC’s, he had just committed suicide and revived, as all foreigners do. Shocking, but still understandable in a way.

To all the players, he had just committed suicide to respawn his beginner clothing. Insane is definitely the word many use to describe his thoughts on him at this moment.

Tandra didn’t know what to think of this situation, so she just walked to the Adventurer’s post, holding her head in confusion.

Opening the door to the Adventurer’s post, it reveals to be of similar appearance to an inn, with the addition of a job request board on one side of the building.

Speedily walking to the small counter by the job board, she almost makes it without someone sneering at her.

“Well looky here, the ‘Huntress’ has come back” a man with short brown hair, thick jaw and a nice scar riding down his stubbled chin jeers as she passes by

“Looks like she already found herself some new prey” Another man, this time young and beardless with long black hair tucked behind his pointy ears chuckles and points towards her new companion.

Many join in chuckling at that as well as blurt out their ‘compliments’.

Storming to the desk, she slams the tigers head next to the clerk huffing and puffing while growing ever more red and embarrassed.

The clerk takes the head and produces a small bag of coins, which Tandra snatches, leaving two silvers behind as she hurriedly retreats to upstairs.

“You better watch out boy, she bites” Many jeer and chuckle at that

“Oh don’t worry about that, you should be the one watching out”

Suddenly, the tavern goes quiet and she stops turning around to see the man on the lap of Doronius; a slender man with a bow at his side, stroking his light blonde stubble.

“How about you and me go upstairs and have a little fun” He grins saucily before Doronius pushes him off.

“Looks like the Huntress has found herself a partner in whoredom” Someone jeers off to the right

Fists bang the table as rambunctious laughter spreads through the building.

She runs to the man and begins dragging him upstairs, away from the laughing crowd, but he brushes her off and saunters to the job board.

Quickly checking through the jobs, he takes one, causing quite a few of the closer-by observers to stop laughing.

He turns round and waves the request towards her: Clearing the spider infestation in a nearby mine by slaying the matriarch. The party size recommended is ten.

“This should be easy enough right?” He says calmly

The laughter restarts, this time even louder as they say what an idiot the man is.

“Just what in the bloody hells are you doing? That’s going to be way too difficult for us”

“Well its better than staying here with these little boys”

A number of “Ohhh” fly around as some men stand up looking insulted. One in particular; the man with a scar on his chin, walks up jabbing a finger on the man’s chest.

“What did you say?” His gruff voice is laced with danger

“I said I didn’t want to stay here in the presence of little boys who are so jealous that they can’t get a piece of this” He grabs and gooses Tandra’s toned butt, eliciting a small jump of shock from her “They have to make fun of her to make themselves feel better”

The gruff man laughs “Ha, for your information I already fucked her”

“You did, she told me all about those five minutes you lasted…and about how she had get another man to actually satisfy her straight afterwards” He chuckles with a wide grin, which is quickly punched out by the gruff man.

“You Fucker, I’ll beat you till there’s nothing left for saying shit like that” He starts towards him, only to be grabbed and stopped by friends.

“Hehe, I’m sure you’ll try. But let me warn you, the last person who tried that ended up as a little souvenir. Tandra” He beckons her with a gesture, to which she produces the bow from her inventory.

Many look queasy at the gruesome sight of the bow, much more so when she twangs it, rattling the bones ominously.

“And you want to know the fun thing? He was still alive when we shot him full of arrows made from his own bones” He gives a small bark of laughter while grinning, teeth gleaming maliciously.

The gruff man stops fighting his friends and backs away slightly “You’re fucked up you know that”

The man just chuckles and walks up the stairs slightly before turning round to face everyone “Come Tandra, I’m bored of playing around with these kids”

This time no one steps up to confront him. Because all are rooted to their places by the almost hungry glint in his eyes. Vivid dreams of painful slaughter fill their minds and all they can imagine is dying over and over again with his face looming above theirs.

Even Tandra who knew he was a pacifist, couldn’t help but shudder at the sight of him staring down the whole building with a mad toothy grin.

The two of them disappear upstairs, leaving the rest of the people to try smoothen the situation out with a few heartless laughs.

Upstairs, the two of them enter a room with two single beds.

“Phew, thought I was going to get the crap beaten out of me there” He wipes his forehead dramatically

“…Thanks” She rolls one of her feet on the floor awkwardly while looking down in mild shame.

“For what? I was just having fun” He gives a hearty chuckle “Oh their faces were priceless when you took out that bow”

She laughs lightly “No I think it was way better when you sat on Doronius’ lap”

They both have a little laugh, letting the tension she felt before float away in a midst of mild joy, while he shakes his head at the terrible things he did.

“Well, now to get some good sleep. It’s been a while since I’ve had some” He plops on the floor snoring lightly almost immediately.

Shaking her head at the man as he lies next to the bed he was supposed to sleep on, she lays on the cold floor too, used to such discomfort.

She fell asleep with a small smirk on her lips, happy that although the man is insane, he protected her in his own weird way.

While she slept more soundly than usual, he stole her knife and began carving his skin off with much silent effort.

…

“Hey Jaxxus, it’s here” Riya whispers to him as she pops back into sight, her slender figure still blending in the shadows of the cave somewhat.

“Damn, so the rumors are true. Darckan, I want you to stay back protecting Harren and Nex. Riya, wait till aggro is on me and then backstab him” He whispers the commands and they move into position.

With a team of five, they shouldn’t have much problem with a single monster. But from the rumours that have been spreading around town, they might not have enough.

The rumours told of a man, insane and living in Blackriver Cave, killing all adventurers who cross his path.

He steps out in his banded iron armor, spotting a man in beginner clothing sitting calmly on a rock in the near distance, gulping down water from the lake fervently.

It turns towards him, causing him to falter for a second due to the human face looking his way.

Stomping towards the beast, he hears Darckan start walking behind him, with two soft footed archers behind him.

“Seriously, if you want to live, just continue to the boss room” the man speaks with a depressed sigh.

Ignoring the man, he continues to stomp towards him, and soon swings his battleaxe towards him.

The man dodges by leaping away from Jaxxus and onto another nearby rock.

“Damn it, just listen for a sec-” a dagger blade sticks out from his eyesocket as Riya comes into view behind him.

Immediately, Jaxxus sees the man’s remaining eye goes red, his skin turns clammy grey and his fingers grow razor sharp.

Within half a second, the arms raise behind at an impossible angle, shredding through Riya.

Before anyone can react, the thing tears fully into her; ripping her in half and tossing each half either side of him.

Roaring, Darckan charges the thing with his spear, ramming through till his front hand reaches clammy grey skin.

Before he can register whether he killed the thing, it rips into his throat, arm plunging down his neck, coming back up momentarily later with lungs in tow.

A pair of arrows embed in the thing as well as Jaxxus’ battleaxe slicing off an arm.

But the other arm jabs towards him, scratching deeply into his armor, but not penetrating it.

Without hesitation, he slices off the other arm, receiving jagged teeth on his axe hand, which pierce through his leather bracer.

The thing rips away his frontal arm muscle with gusto, sending Jaxxus into a pained spasm.

Before he can recover, the teeth embed themselves on his upper arm, cracking bone and ripping away his entire arm at the shoulder.

Screaming in pain, he swings a fist at the thing, smashing it in the face and sending it flying a few feet.

Quickly recovering, he spots the thing coming back with both arms lunging towards him.

Feeling nothing but despair, he watches the clawed hands pierce his armor and tear into him with a fountain of blood.

Harren and Nex, albeit having advantage in range, are quickly sought after.

Harren being the unlucky one is caught and dragged back, tears streaming down his eyes as Nex runs out of the room and into a mob of wandering monsters, quickly dying in a less brutal fashion.

Ankorr, covered in the blood of those poor adventurers, finally regains consciousness as his need for blood is slowly sated.

Disgusted with himself, he tries to vomit out the blood his Blood Drinker self sipped up but seconds ago.

Dragging himself to the lake, he plunges in, feeling something inside him scream in utter agony and quiet down into a pained slumber.

Damn it Windshaw, you really fucked me over.

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Author's Corner:

Soo my lovelies, how did you find this chapter!?

ANKORRR, he's back and murdering things again.

Don't worry its just a cameo, just so you know he's doing fin.

Apart from that, how did you find it? please tell me if you've got anything burning in your heart :D

-TRUE NORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD