"Shit! These fuckers're tough." Evren said with a sigh. Two creatures stood before him, one with an arrow sticking out of its chest, the other with a hole in its neck that was bleeding considerably. The two facing off each other in an abandoned town on a moon-lit night. Evren stood with a dagger in one hand, the other hand held out before him.
Evren was now edging his way around to get to where his sword was. The sword wasn't either strong enough, or sharp enough to cause much damage to the creatures. Evren, however, had another plan in mind. As Evren got close to the sword, he used telekinesis on it to raise the handle up so he could grab it in a reverse grip. He returned his left arm to the forward position, the blade resting against his forearm.
The two creatures separated to Evren's flanks. The one with the arrow to his left, the one with the wound to the right. The left creature growled, "water ball" Evren sent a water ball flying towards the right creature and chased after the water ball. The creature was startled, but still managed to leap out of the way of the water ball. Evren was right in the face of the creature and swung at its neck. The creature ignored the dagger in Evren's right hand and leapt towards his throat. Evren offered his left arm as a sacrifice to the creature, which it took into its mouth.
As the creature was biting down and getting a firm grip on his arm, Evren was stabbing it in the throat with his dagger repeatedly. The creature had actually bitten down on Evren's sword, and it was now stuck in its mouth between its back teeth. It tried to tear at Evren's arm, Evren had slipped his arm out of the creature's mouth, and it was shaking the sword from side to side.
Evren dove past the creature as he noticed a light behind him beginning to form. He felt the heat of the flames sweep over him as he rolled across the ground. He continued rolling away, covering his face with his hands to try to make sure to snuff out any flame if he had been caught on fire. He finally stopped rolling and knelt on the ground, checking himself quickly to see if he was burning anywhere.
When he looked up, he saw the creature with the arrow in its chest charging at him. As the creature leapt at him, he pirouetted on his right knee back and away from the charging creature. He used his left hand to push the neck of the creature away from him. His hand slipped downward and grabbed onto the arrow sticking from its chest, pulling back fiercely and ripping the arrow out with a spray of blood.
Evren held the arrow in his left hand and the dagger in his right. The creature with the sword in its mouth had fallen, its wounds finally draining it of energy. The creature which had the arrow ripped out of its chest was now breathing heavily with blood leaking from its chest and mouth. Evren remained alert until that one too fell to exhaustion.
He didn't approach either one until he was sure neither were moving. He first moved to the one he had stabbed repeatedly in the throat to retrieve his sword. Unfortunately, the sword was firmly set in place in the creature's mouth. So, Evren had to use his dagger to cut away at the jaw muscles and tendons until he could open its mouth enough to retrieve his sword. The sword had some nicks in the blade where the teeth of the monster had proven to be stronger than the metal of the sword.
Evren stuck his dagger into the belly of the beast and began to gut it. He left the innards in the center of the road as he retrieved the core and proceeded to do the same with the other monster. He then dragged them over to one of the houses to string them up by their feet so he could drain them of blood while he was off to retrieve his wagon.
He figured it would be somewhat safe in here as nothing else came to join the fight, nor could he sense anything moving in the area around him. Evren moved to a different house, after retrieving his bow to rest. He didn't have light to work with and he didn't want to start a fire, so he settled with cleaning his weapons and armor of the blood and grease and to maintain them the next day. He then set up in the corner of a room, with his back to the wall, and fell asleep.
Evren awoke as the sun's light had just begun to brighten the horizon in the eastern sky. He took a glance at the creatures before he began jogging down the road towards the eastern gate. He was still alert for anything to happen, but not as much as he was the previous night. He figured those two monsters were the dominant species of the town and kept any others away from their territory.
As Evren exited the gate, he quickly scanned the edge of the forest before setting off on a run towards the farmhouse where his wagon was kept. As he ran, he chewed on some dried meat he brought with him the day before. He kept his head on a swivel as he ran. His run in with the powerful monsters in the town raising his anxiety a bit. If things went well, he would spend a couple of days to a week in the town, finish processing the monsters, and hopefully finding some more useful books. A resupply of useful herbs would be great, if at least salt to replenish his own depleted amount.
He removed one of the cores he had gotten last night from the pouch at his waist, to examine it in the morning light. The core was a beautiful shade of crimson, with a slight golden sheen to it. It was the largest core he had ever found, slightly bigger than a marble in size. Satisfied he returned it to the pouch and continued running down the road. He was running harder than he usually would as he wasn't sure how fast he would be able to run with the wagon. He didn't want to spend the night in the open, so he would probably be staying at the farmhouse tonight and heading to Plinth in the morning.
He reached the farmhouse just past noon and checked the condition of the wagon before heading inside the house. Everything seemed in order, so he expected he would have a quiet day before heading out in the morning. He now took the opportunity to do maintenance on his equipment. The dagger was fine, as it usually was, he cleaned it and put a light coat of oil on it. The sword had four nicks in the blade, about a third of the way up from the guard. Fortunately, there were no obvious signs of cracks in the blade. He used the dagger to tap along the blade to see if there were any flat sounds but found none. He sharpened the edge as best as he could and oiled the blade before sheathing it.
The arrow he used the previous night looked absolutely fine. Even being struck by the sword, and ripped out of the chest of that creature, there was no bend in the shaft. The blue metal arrowhead had no nicks in it and was still frighteningly sharp. He was stunned. He still had the original ten arrows that came with the bow, with every one of them still in perfect shape. He wondered what they were made of and about the craftsman who had made them. Were they something someone ordered the owner of the shop to make? Were they some treasure from a dungeon? Why were they hidden so well?
He wiped down the bow and his armor last, applying a light coat of oil to both. The armor was in excellent condition as well, it seemed to fit him better now too. When he first put it on, it was stiff and difficult to move in, but now after several months of use and maintenance, it was supple and flexible. The bow was probably the dirtiest of all of his equipment as it was covered in dust and pollen from running through the field. There were only a few scuffs here and there that would probably disappear if it were to be polished.
When he finished, he began to explore the house. He found nothing significant, aside from the condition of the house itself. There was a journal that went back seven generations of farmers to the original owners of the land. It only provided family names, crop results, farming tips and how to process crops efficiently. The remainder were basic books that taught the minimum needed to be able to read and write and the most basic of math.
In the pantry, Evren celebrated his find of a large jar of salt. There were some herbs in glass jars, but he couldn't identify them, so he left them as is. Otherwise, nothing else useful was found in the house. Evren was going to cook dinner but decided against it as he wasn't sure if the chimney would smoke or not and he didn't want to build a fire outside. As the sun was setting, Evren was already in his bedding on the floor of the main room asleep.
