Rocky area one mile away from an Ancient Battlefield. 

There was a War Machine parked there which couldn't be noticed on a first glance.

A dwarf male and a human female were hitting on the metal surface of the Infernal War Machine.

"Hey bastard, come out the machine. I know you're in there. I'm gonna cut you into pieces, you motherfucker." The female was shouting, her voice was full of depressed anger.

"Sshh, don't threaten the little robber. He will not dare to come out," the dwarf said.

"Little Brother, don't mind this brute sister. She won't do any harm. Rather  open the hatch, let us in. We'll treat you as our family, introduce to our boss. With our recommendations, you will have a smooth path ahead," he tried to say amicably, but his nasal voice cracked several times, failing the purpose.

They were looking back to the west area from time to time, as if something or someone  would appear anytime soon.

…

Fang heard them before even seeing them. He became alert, and stealthily advanced . He readily recognized them, the dwarf was Bobb and the female human was Camelia, former owner of the vehicle. 

Bobb was wearing simple padded cloth armor, he had a long sword sheathed on waist belt. And a hand crossbow in one hand . 

Camelia was armored with half plate , she was equipped with a longsword and a shield.

[ Bobb

Dwarf, Neutral Evil

AC : 12

HP : 13 

Level : 1 ]

[ Camelia

Human, Neutral Evil

AC : 15

HP : 16

Level : 1 ]

"These bandits of the wasteland, they followed my trail I guess. And is another gang pursuing them ? Better get rid of these guys and get out of here before the trouble escalates," Fang thought.

He equipped his shortbow and stealthily advanced. The normal range of the bow was 80 ft. But he was not confident to hit from more than 50 ft away.

The two bandits were still busy in their dramatic performance, he wondered how those two determined that someone was inside the war machine.

…

Fang was hiding behind a boulder, the bandits were in 50 ft range. He aimed at Bobb, figuring out that the dwarf was the brain of the Bandit couple. He released an arrow and then hid behind the boulder again. After reaching level two, he could use Cunning Action skill, which allowed him to use Dash, Disengage or Hide as bonus action.

[ Sneak attack successful ]

[ - 6 ]

[ - 5 ]

[ Hide Action Successful ]

The arrow pierced Bobb's chest through the padded cloth armor of the dwarf. He screamed in pain, "What the hell ? Who is sneak attacking us ?"

Both of them stopped what they were doing and used perception skill to check for the hidden enemy at the direction from where the arrow was shot, but couldn't find anyone.

"Careful, Bobb. Come near me," Camelia was ready with her shield to block the next arrow. She unsheathed her long sword too. Camelia was quite panicked, Bobb had only 2 HP left.

Bobb got behind her, then Camelia started to move toward Fang's hidden place. Bob was following her too, with his hand crossbow ready for shooting.

"Lily, you attack the female. She is too protective of the dwarf, you engage with her so that he couldn't protect him when I shoot." Fang told Lily, she was in his soul space.

Lily came out, and she tried to be stealthy, but Bobb immediately perceived the movement.

"Behind that boulder," Bobb shouted.

Camelia dashed at the boulder.

Lily didn't stay behind the boulder, rather used Gore skill to attack Camelia.

Camelia blocked her with her shield.

Bobb aimed his crossbow at Lily, but before he could shoot, Lily teleported 20 ft away.

Camelia attacked Lily with sword. And Bobb aimed at her again and shot.

[ - 5 ]

[ - 3 ]

Lily was hurt, she couldn't dodge , neither Camelia's slash, nor Bobb's bolt . Moreover the bolt was poisoned. If she didn't have the resistance against piercing, bludgeoning and slashing, and the immunity against poison, she would be in mortal danger by now.

"Lily," Fang shouted, seeing her get hurt. He came out from his hiding, shot at Bobb, who was wide open to attack, then dashed at him. Also after shooting , he unequipped the shortbow and equipped his Death's Kiss dagger pair.

Fang lost his advantage of sneak attack, Bobb was already careful about the hidden archer. He dodged the arrow.

Camelia stopped attacking Lily and turned back to support Bobb.

Lily attacked Camelia to stop her. She used Gore skill again, as her other attack skills were locked.

[ - 9 ]

Lily pierced her back with tusk. Camelia fell down due to the impact.

Bobb shot at Fang who was running towards him in straight way and quite close.

Fang couldn't dodge such close ranged arrow.

[ - 3 ]

Fang groaned in pain, but didn't stop. He thrusted with dagger at the belly of Bobb.

[ - 5 ]

[ - 2 ]

Bobb screamed loudly with a nasal broken voice . The wounded area decayed and color turned to ash due to the necrotic damage of the dagger. He had 0 HP and dropped dead.

Several notifications popped up in the corner of his eyes.

[ + 50 XP ]

[ Level Up ]

[ HP +7 ]

[Choose a subclass…]

Fang got distracted by a scream.

"Noo…" Camelia cried out. She was trembling in shock when the dwarf died . She lost her morale and suffered psychic damage.

[ - 3 ]

Her eyes turned red, she hysterically attacked Lily.

Lily's small body glowed when Fang leveled up. She was now a creature of challenge rating 2.

[ HP : 22/30 ]

[ STR : 17 ]

[ Gore : Level 2 ]

[ Unlocked skill : Heal .]

[ Unlocked Attack skill : Stomp ]

Lily dodged easily and used Gore skill

Camelia used shield bash to block and counter her.

Lily was stunned by getting hit, she couldn't move .

Fang didn't read the notifications anymore, rather attacked Camelia from behind. But he couldn't pierce through her plate armor.

She readily turned back and slashed with her longsword.

[ - 7 ]

The wound was, blood gushed out from the deep wound. His HP was now 10/30. 

Lily was still stunned.

Fang gritted his teeth and stabbed at Camelia's neck, which was not guarded by plate armor.

[ Critical Hit ]

[ - 7 ]

[ - 2 ]

Her neck area turned grey due to necrotic damage. She had only 1 HP left.

Camelia didn't make any noise, as if she was not feeling any pain. She just horizontally slashed at Fang.

[ - 5 ]

Fang got another deep wound on his chest.

Lily was restored to normal condition at that time, she used her Gore skill again.

Her tusk pierced Camelia's back.

[ - 8 ]

Camelia joined Bobb in afterlife journey.

[ + 25 XP ]

Fang got half of the XP as his companion did the killing blow.

Fang found a soul coin, two long swords, a hand crossbow and a small vial of pulsating liquid.

He used investigation skill to check the vial. The liquid inside it was black , sticky adherent substance and it seemed unstable, temperamental.

[Demonic Ichor

A combination of blood, fluids, organs and other internal remains of deceased demons.

Transformative in lower planes, change the physical properties of beings except fiend, plant and undead.

Used for ritual, weapon quoting, means to improve the Infernal War Machine.

Use : 0/2 ]

Fang stored all the items in his Bag of Holding. 

At that time tens of creatures appeared from the west. All of them resembled small, tough, elderly humans except one which looked like an avian humanoid with black beady eyes and long dark hued beak.

Those small creatures were around 3-4 ft tall, their hunched backs made it more weird. Their faces were full of evil smiles, filled with sharp, protruding teeth. 

They wore iron boots, leather pants and a bright red leather pointed cape which was most eye-catching. Some of them wielded scythes, some wielded sickles and all of them had slings for ranged attack.

The avian humanoid had no wings, rather arms in the wing's place. There were bird-like talons for hands and feet. It was around 5 ft tall, head and torso were covered with soft feathers, and the limbs were scaled like birds. It most resembled a raven. It wore leather armor, and wielded a shortsword and a dagger; a shortbow was strapped on its back .

Fang tried to check the stats of the creatures, but he could see nothing. He was scared to witless, these creatures must be so much stronger than him that he couldn't investigate.

"Fang, don't stand there like a statue. Run to the vehicle , I'll try to block those creatures, then I'll teleport to you," Lily said hastily.

Fang nodded, "Careful !" Then he dashed to the Infernal War Machine.

The avian humanoids raised its shortsword and shouted something. Then half of them spinned their slings and threw them aiming the running Fang. And the other half dashed towards them

Lily floated to the trajectory of the slings to block them from hitting Fang

[ - 1 ]

[ - 2 ]

[ - 1 ]

[ - 1 ]

[ - 1 ]

She had only only half of the HP remaining [HP 16/30]

Fang was only twenty ft away from the war machine. In front of him was that avian humanoid. Though it couldn't fly, surely it had very high speed. The others were also catching up .

" Kek kek. It has been a long time since I feasted on such tender human meat. And that is a Hollyphant, right ! Every part of a celestial being is treasure. Her Highness, Glinda will be so pleased with me, Chunka. Kek kek…" The creature was doing a monologue in happiness with a vicious chuckle .

Fang felt helpless, his escape path was blocked by an enemy whose strength he couldn't even fathom. Moreover, more enemies were joining. He and Lily would be trapped soon if he couldn't get in the vehicle.

Lily was already surrounded, though she was trying to dodge , every now and then she was getting hit. She had now 5 HP left.

"I have to do something, I can't succumb to fear and my weakness," Fang resolved his mind and equipped the Javelin of Lightning. He aimed it at the creature who called itself Chunka.

Chunka sensed danger seeing the halbred aimed at him. Though it firmly believed that a level 3 Adventurer couldn't do any serious harm, still he felt he should be careful of the halbred.

In the meantime, three of the short creatures caught up, then crossed it and ran towards Fang, their eyes were glowing in blood frenzy. Chunka felt some ease and let those crazy bastards taste the water .

"Fury of Talos, Descend !" Fang uttered.

The Javelin turned into a lightning bolt and created a 5 ft wide line. Those creatures and Chunka tried to jump away from its path. Fang sighed, he used his strongest weapon in arsenal, but the enemies were too strong.

At this moment, grey colored vines entangled them, the vines didn't look alive, rather animated, and had small bone spikes all over.

The lightning bolt passed through the short creatures 

[ - 12 ]

[ - 12 ]

[ - 12 ]

The three creatures screamed, suffering lightning damage.

The lightning bolt turned into javelin then pierced the chest of Chunka

[ - 17 ]

[ - 7 ]

Chunka suffered from both lightning damage and the piercing damage of the javelin. Then the javelin vanished and came back to Fang's hand .

"Quick, get in the infernal machine while they are still entangled," he heard a voice. He looked at the speaker, it was the same pixie skeleton he saw in the ancient battlefield. He didn't ask anything and ran towards the war machine.

Fang opened the hatch and got inside, the he looked at Lily's direction. She was almost at 0 HP, he contacted telepathically, "Lily , teleport inside the war machine." He closed the hatch and took his seat in Helm Station.

He heard a thud sound and looked back, it was Lily. She was lying flat on a seat. "Seat tight," Fang shouted. Then he started the war machine.

The entangled creatures had freed themselves by this time. Fang didn't try to ran over them, " Who knows what kind of trick they have," he thought. He directly drove towards the tower that housed the portal to the Faerûn. He didn't want to stay any longer in this hell.

Lily was lying motionless on the seat.

The eyeballs under the closed eyelids of the sleeping beauty was quivering violently, as if she was struggling.

The pixie skeleton Fang saw outside was also there, inside the Infernal War Machine. She was looking at the beautiful woman with interest .

Fang was focused on the road, and didn't notice any of these.