Upon entering the challenge, the wall flashed in an explosion of bright light. Horn started blinking, trying to regain his sight, feeling the heat from all around when a mouthful of smoke entered his throat. He began choking and dropped to the ground. A moment of panic overtook him, but as his sight began to clear and his breathing normalized, he looked around.

He was in a wooden room, currently on fire. The room was a small bedroom, with a straw bed just behind him, a nightstand next to it, and a wardrobe at one wall. A single wooden door, already aflame, blocked his exit. There weren’t any windows, nor other routes. Muffled distant shouts cried for help. He didn’t recognize the voices, but it wasn’t surprising with the crackling of fire and screeching of breaking wood. The heat just kept rising, so he gathered his senses, got up, and tried kicking out the door.

They opened easily, showing him a burning corridor with stairs leading down a dozen steps ahead. There were a few other doors around him, some already on fire, some still fine. His instinct told him to run, but curiosity took over. With a quick step, he approached the first door and pulled it. They opened, showing another bedroom with an occupant. An unconscious dwarf was sleeping on it. Horn didn’t recognize the stranger. For sure, he wasn’t anyone he knew. With another step, he was next to the sleepyhead, only then realizing his mistake. The dwarf wasn’t sleeping. One couldn’t just sleep with their throat slashed. The fire began to enter the room, engulfing it with clouds of smoke.

He quickly went through another four rooms, seeing similar sights. Dead dwarfs dispatched in their sleep, without signs of a struggle. The heat was intensifying, and the time was running out. He took his leave, running down the stairs. The lower floor was an open arena with tables and a bar. A medieval tavern if he ever saw one. It was already on fire. He almost had to back up due to extreme heat. But there wasn’t any other way out. A few more corpses covered the floor. These fought back based on weapons still in their hands. The walls were lined with windows. Horn didn’t waste any more time just ran through the flames jumping through the closest one. He felt his skin burning, and the foul smell told him his beard would be much shorter afterward.

He hit the mud with a splash. It extinguished his burning hair and brought a wave of relief as cold dirt covered his burns. Behind him, a loud crack heralded the collapsing building. He forced himself up, quickly casting Cure wounds. He was in a courtyard. At one side was another burning building, this one much larger and partially made out of stone. It was a small mansion but was already beyond saving. On the other side, a massive barn was on fire, and just jumping into the inferno, he noticed a familiar figure – Ingrid. There wasn’t anyone else around. Cursing, he followed his champion.

As he got closer, he heard the painful and scared squeaking of animals. He knew these sounds; Warboars had to be inside. An echo of laughter came out, followed by a scream of anguish. He ran inside through the burning door.

Most of the barn was taken by a dozen large pens, each holding a few mighty boars. The animals were terrified, stomping around and pushing against metal grates. The fire was quickly spreading, already covering half of the walls. However, in the middle, Horn saw something that made his soul burn. Two dwarfs were kneeling over a stumbled Ingrid, each holding a wicked dagger and poking his champion. They were clad in dark leathers, with hoods over their heads. One of just picked up Ingrid’s pitchfork and said, “Master Borleo sends his regards. You should have sold when you could.”

Horn knew what’d happen in a second. He launched into action casting a spell while running full speed. The masked dwarf raised the pitchfork for the killing blow and thrust downwards. Just as the teeth were about to pierce Ingrid, a shimmering field appeared over her. Horn’s Shield of faith arrived in the nick of the time. The pitchfork scraped over it, digging into the ground. It gave Horn a second to check the assailants. The Lore skill showed him something new - The first one had double levels.

Unknown Assassin level 5-10 / 5-10,

Unknown Cutthroat level 15-20,

Ingrid, a second before resigned to her fate, raised her head. She saw Horn approaching and looked into the assassin’s eyes and said, “Oy, now you’ll understand why we’re called Sharptongs.” With that, she threw herself at the assailant, tackling him to the ground.

His partner took a quick step to burry his dagger in her back, only to wince when Horn’s axe dug into his side. The surprised dwarf flew to the side. Horn pushed after him, swinging from above his head. He wanted to finish him quickly. However, he didn’t expect the dwarf to react so fast. The cutthroat rolled to the side without missing a beat and raised to his feet in a fluid motion. Jumping back, he spat blood, saying, “We missed one? No matter. This will be a pleasure.”

Horn snorted at the cliché but became a bit worried. His enemy was fast. Astonishingly fast, he had no idea what his Reflex score was, but it had to be at least triple Horns. He took a step back and began casting as the assassin produced two daggers. Seeing him casting a spell, the enemy closed the distance. Blades flashed. In the nick of time, Horn managed to raise his shield just enough for one to scrap over it, but the other came through digging into his shoulder. Despite the pain, stubbornly, he kept casting.

Just as the assassin withdrew his blade, Horn finished, “Weakness!” A ray of sickly green light exploded from his hand, and as it reached the dwarf, he stumbled. His skin turned a shade paler, droplets of sweat appeared almost instantly, and he was visibly shaking. What’s more, he slowed down - a lot. Smirking, Horn slashed, his axe almost finding the purchase, but the daggers rose into a cross block at the last second. However, the momentum changed, Horn had the upper hand. The fight was far from one-sided, but each exchange went a bit towards Horn’s victory. They fought for several minutes, with Horn healing twice to keep up, but finally, he punched through a weakened guard and dug his axe deep into the dwarf’s chest.

As his assailant dropped dead, Horn took a look around. He saw Ingrid straddling the other one, with her hands wrapped around reins, choking the dwarf. He was stabbing her in frantic moves, but the angle wasn’t right. She was bleeding crazily, but the fire in her eyes was burning with pure hatred. Horn quickly joined her, finishing off the dwarf. A quick heal later, she was breathing heavily. The smoke was thickening, and boars began to squeal in panic. The barn was completely aflame, with the entrance burning quite heavily. She nodded at him and pointed to one side, shouting, “Open the pens!”

There wasn’t time for talking as pieces of burned wood began falling. The building could collapse any minute. He ran to the first pen, pulling the latch. The boars, finally having a route to run, just swarmed past him, almost trampling him in the process. Another pen and another wave of animals fled to safety. Finally, all but the last two pens were free. Horn had an issue breathing. The smoke thickened by a minute, and the heat was unbearable. Opening the second to last cage, he ran with the animals towards the burning entrance. He saw Ingrid still fighting with one of the latches, the metal expanded under the rising temperature, and the mechanism was stuck.

He fought with himself for a second, then ran towards his champion. There’d be no convincing her to leave the animals, especially that he saw both Thumper and Snouty inside. He took out his axe and began smashing the lock to pieces. The metal slowly gave out. Ingrid hopped into the pen, trying to calm down the two boars. The burning wood kept falling around them. Finally, the bolt broke, and the gate was open. Ingrid jumped on Thumper, and they ran, Snouty following just behind them. Horn was sprinting for his life a few steps after. Then the worst happened, a large beam broke, and a shower of burning pieces dropped on the silver-haired boar. With a squeal of pain, she fell.

Horn managed to stop in front of the pile. The wood was red with heat, embers flying all around. The sounds of pain grew louder as the boar was crushed, and the creaking of the building heralded its collapse. There was a moment of hesitation. Horn wasn’t sure what to do. His instinct told him to run, but he knew it’d kill Ingrid. In the end, he couldn’t leave Snouty behind. She saved him so many times already. Clenching his teeth, he began lifting pieces of burning wood. The smell of burned flesh made him choke, and the smoke only intensified the feeling. Tears came to his eyes, either from pain or just the burning air.

He kept working, his mind unconsciously paying some attention to his quickly shrinking health bar. He cast Cure wounds on cooldown just to keep the strength to keep working. He saw the boar. It was in horrible condition. The silvery fur was badly burned, with only small patches of it left. The boar was whimpering quietly, already losing most of its strength, but then she locked eyes with him. That was the exact moment when Horn realized he couldn’t fail. The fear and pain in those big eyes was heartbreaking. With renewed vigor, he pushed against the large log, the one crushing Snouty. But, the wood wouldn’t move, he braced himself and tried again and again, but it was just too heavy. His mind began skimming through solutions. None of his spells would do, neither hacking it to the smaller pieces. There was too little time left. If only he could be just a tad stronger, then he remembered. He was just fifty Essence shy of leveling, and he just killed a high-level assassin.

He pushed the Essence into leveling and quickly assigned the free point into Might while ignoring notifications. His stat increased from nineteen to twenty-two. The few moments of his body rearranging were the longest in his life. They gave him a moment to observe his surroundings, and it was just mere seconds from collapsing. Finally, he felt changes stop, and with all his strength, he pushed. The log moved upwards, just a few inches. But it was enough for Snouty to crawl out of the hole. With a crash, he released the wood and pulled the boar towards the exit.

They ran, with all their diminishing strength, through the burning hell. Horn stumbled, only to be protected by the boar. She covered him with her body taking a few burning splinters on it. He got up, and they kept running. The inferno seemed limitless when then it abruptly ended. They were out, collapsing on the ground. Behind them, with a loud crash, the building collapsed. Exhausted, Horn closed his eyes. A moment later, he felt a rough tongue licking him on his burned bald head. A smile appeared on his dry lips. He relaxed a bit, just glad to be lying on wet mud. He sighed and lost consciousness.

“On your feet!” A shout woke Horn. He opened his eyes, seeing an unknown dwarf towering over him. He was in full plate armor, just a slit for eyes opened. “Report to the rear guard at once!”

Horn stood up, seeing a long line of dwarfs heading one direction through a tunnel cut in stone. It was clearly man-made, or rather dwarf-made. Perfectly shaped, with braziers every twenty steps, the floor was paved for easier movement, and the column was orderly. There were hundreds if not thousands moving through. Horn himself was in a side room remodeled into barracks. All around, dwarves were putting on the armor and checking their weapons.

He was confused about what was happening, first Ingrid and now this. Where the hell was he? And what was going on? At least he got a moment to check the notifications.

You’ve reached level 10. You gain: +1 Endurance, +1 Might, +1 Spirit, +1 Might/Endurance/Presence (choose one within 1 hour or it will be randomly assigned), +1 Free attribute point.

You have reached level 10. You can either start a class quest in hopes of evolving your current class or start a new class based on your stats, experiences, and attributes. However, due to the limitations of the tutorial, the selection is held until its end.

Congratulations, you’ve learned skills: Blessing of Might

Blessing of Might level 1 – 40 mana +5 per each additional target up to 10, 10-second cast, 20 feet range, 2-hour cooldown – Mind / Spirit – Imbues your targets with Holy might, increasing their Might attribute for 1 hour.

Your skill: Combat proficiency reached level 3, Cure wounds reached level 4, Shield of faith reached level 2, Battle caster reached level 2

Combat proficiency level 3 – Passive – Gives a basic proficiency in fighting with all weapon types. Grants basic combat instinct. Slightly decrease stamina expenditure while fighting. You gain an understanding of how to use your movement combined with armor to minimalize the damage.

Cure Wounds level 4 – 5 mana, 2-second cast, 10 seconds cooldown – Mind / Spirit – Heals basic wounds, heals additional amount equal to base within next 60 seconds. Slightly increase natural health regeneration for 10 minutes. The spell can be cast on a visible target within 20 feet. The spell also neutralizes poisons up to Scarce rarity.

Battle Caster level 2 – Passive – Mind/Spirit – Decrease cost of offensive (damaging) and supporting (buffing) spells by 25% mana.

Shield of faith level 2 – 20 mana – 5-second cast – 10-minute cooldown – Mind / Spirit – Create a stationary dome absorbing a large amount of damage for 5 minutes or until destroyed. For additional 5 points of mana, you can manipulate the shield’s shape.

Digesting the upgrades, he found them extremely pleasing. He was eager to test them out. He tried checking the countdown, but he couldn’t find it anywhere. As he wanted to search for it a bit further, he was nudged by one of the warriors into the main corridor. They followed the main convoy for some time. Horn took it to look at the dwarfs. They seemed clean and well-fed yet were hurrying and carrying very little personal possession. Whole families traveled together, men, women, children, and elderly. Some warriors escorted them, but they seemed few for such a large clan. There were tens of thousands of civilians out there.

As they walked, he thought about the strange challenge so far. He relived Ingrid’s death scene, her ranch burning down. However, he changed the outcome. Both she and her boars survived. Now he saw a massive evacuation. It fitted Goran’s backstory description. He was defending refugees while they evacuated via a Soul well. If he recalled correctly, there’d be a lot of greenskins attacking. Knowing somewhat what to expect, he prepared. A quick check of his gear and resources turned out good. Despite being almost burned alive, his equipment was in pristine condition. It was exactly like when he entered the tower. Similarly, there was no evidence of the burns or cuts he received.

On the way, he tried thinking of any strategies to win this. The story said Goran defended for days with a few companions before finally succumbing. There wasn’t anything about winning. Nor any other practical details. He doubted that his presence would be enough to turn the tide, especially given that the few warriors traveling with him were all in their second class or what he thought was their second class. That’d explain the leveling scheme 0/0/0.

Finally, the tunnel ended. It came out in a small valley with a familiar arch of a Soul well that towered over low trees and shrubs. A paved road led into it straight out of the tunnel, and the refugee column was stretched to it. As soon as they touched the portal, hundreds disappeared without a trace, but thousands more were on their way. The tunnel ended in the middle of the slope, giving him a good vantage point. There seemed to be two exits from the valley, a wide slope where thousands of warriors were already fighting an ocean of enemies. He couldn’t see details, but he was sure there were orcs, goblins, and ogres out there. It just fit the storyline perfectly.

On the opposite side, there was a much narrower exit. Horn saw some basic fortifications built and a few dozen figures guarding it. He bet that was the place of their stand. However, the pass was higher than they were, so planning would have to wait. A moment later, he and the group was noticed by another dwarf in full plate. He quickly approached and split the warriors, most jogged toward the main battle, but three of them were peeled off toward the high pass. At least, his assumption was confirmed as he heard, “Report to Captain Goran Steelriver, tell him no more reinforcements will come, and he has to hold the pass at all cost.”

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Author's note:

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