“Dude! Hey Dude!” Steve heard the familiar voice while his patrol struggled to fend off another attack from the lizardfolk.

  Nearly a dozen of them had ambushed a group of laborers going to harvest more of the pale peat. The laborers had been lightly armed and died without thinking of fleeing. Their carts, tools, and an unfortunate hat had been left behind.

  These lizardfolk were different from the others. They were stocky and used hissing signals to work together. Steve’s patrol was struggling to put them down. Their spears struggled to get through the dense scales. To add insult to injury, one of the lizardfolk was wearing the missing hat.

  Dave bounded into the scaly line of attackers that was slowly pushing Steve’s patrol back and sliced a head off its shoulders. With that distracting event, Steve clove through the wrist of the nearest attacker. Gloria grabbed the spear from the now lifeless hand and stabbed a third attacker in the stomach.

  When only two remained, the attacker broke away and ran back to the river. The river was their highway from wherever they lived to wherever they caused trouble.

  “Those guys almost had us. Are we finally going to rearm with this true steel so we can be a threat again?” Mike glowered at his ineffective spear. The tip had curled visibly when it struck the tough scales.

  “Grab one of theirs for now, who knows when we’ll get fancy swords like Steve’s.” Gloria kicked a dropped spear towards Linda. The lizardfolk always had better weapons, but this was getting ridiculous.

  “Steve, I’m glad I found you so quick. Are you on patrol or are you and your friends doing a quest?” Dave cleaned off his katana and his chestplate.

  “We were sent to clean these out. They attacked the workers on their way to harvest pale peat.” Steve responded and helped gather the spears.

  “That pale peat is fire. Makes the iron into true steel?” Dave glanced at the tools and carts left behind.

  “That’s what they say. Are you passing through?” Steve picked up the fallen hat and tossed it in a cart.

  “I am here for you actually. The dudes in the capital have a long-term assignment for me and I can’t do it solo.” Dave tapped his large foot absentmindedly.

  “The dudes? You mean the Prime Minister?” Steve asked and passed the spears off to Kevin.

  “More the dudes with the Security Initiatives, but yes. I have orders for your Magistrate that explain it.” Dave patted the various bags he wore. He found the right envelope and turned to Gloria as she was clearly directing things.

  “I need Steve to come with me. Can you secure this without him, Sergeant?” Dave’s cool manner disappeared when he held that envelope sealed with wax.

  “I’m a Corporal, our Sergeant has been missing for weeks now.” Gloria nodded and set about removing the seaweed wrapped around the spears. The seaweed the lizardfolk used like leather dried out horribly and oozed a slime when the surface cracked open.

  “I’ll take Steve then. Make sure to give that one another stab. He looks like he’s faking.” Dave pointed out one of the lizardfolk. The one next to it squirmed and Linda stabbed it with a looted spear.

  “What’s this assignment you need me and max for?” Steve asked as they walked back to the village.

  “The Capital needs another load of pale peat and a good sword hand. It seems like that trainer has done good for you.” Dave rocked back and forth as he walked. A rabbitesque body was not suited to walking upright.

  “Gizmo has moved on. He took on a dozen students aside from me, but last week when we turned up to train his house was empty. And I haven’t died in almost a month.” Steve admitted with some effort.

  “That is a big accomplishment. The longer you go between deaths the more experience you’ll gain. If I could ask, what level are you?” Dave kept one hand on the hilt of his sword to keep from fidgeting.

  “Level three. I’ve been at level three for about a month. It’s pretty awesome at least it was until this new type of lizardfolk showed up.” Steve worked one arm because the shoulder was very sore and took attention away from the cut on his leg.

  “That’s a good start. Two things. I can’t take Max with us and we need to get you to level five before we get to the Capital.” Dave looked away and hopped over a stone while he spoke.

  “Whoa, Max can’t come with us? He’s only twelve. I can’t just leave him. He won’t go to school or training, he’ll end up dead a dozen times and ruin his equipment.” Steve stopped walking and held up his hands.

  “That’s not such a terrible thing, right? A little time to himself, a little time to yourself? Even if he ruins his equipment, you couldn’t be out more than ten gold?” Dave started fidgeting with his hands again.

  “Ten gold? What are they paying you in the Capital?” Steve felt like he was talking to a child. It didn’t help that he was so much taller than Dave. “The number is thirty silver and it took me the first three months on patrol to earn it. I haven’t even held a gold piece let alone spent one.”

  “So I was off-base with that. But my dude, I will cover that. I will pay to re-arm Max when we get back. We’ll get him a great bow and good armor. On top of that, the dudes in the Capital will upgrade your kit when we get there. Because this is…this is sad dude.” Dave approached and touched where Steve’s chainmail had obviously, and less than skillfully, patched.

  “I can’t just leave Max, he’ll never make it to school. Are you certain we can’t bring him?” Steve asked. He stared Dave in the eyes and it was hard to stay frustrated with a fluffy bunny man.

  “Trust me, my dude. You do not want him involved with this. Just getting you to level five is going to be wild and he’s not ready for that.” Dave shook his head.

  “I can’t just run off to find another sword trainer.” Steve protested.

  “This is not about a trainer. There’s a problem in the Capital and that’s why they keep me around. I run errands to the villages, but I also clear out problem mobs in the Capital.” Dave took a deep breath.

  “What is it? What can’t you handle by yourself?” Steve asked.

  “It’s not just me, there’s a whole team. Me, Eric, Pablo, and Eustace. We worked together to take care of this and it has killed all of us three times. The first time we didn’t even last two minutes. So they sent us out to recruit talent that we are supposed to be developing in the villages.” Dave explained.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “I’m talent you’re developing?” Steve started off angry, but realized he might be flattered by that. “Does this mean you expected me to help you this entire time? Is that why you pointed me to the trainer?”

  “Yes, you are a talented dude and no. I was not expecting this when I pointed you to the trainer. You are one soldier of six that I’ve tried to help develop. Talent is supposed to spearhead village defense, not be on call mercenaries for the Prime dudette. This is a big problem we didn’t see coming.” Dave shook his head.

  “What is it?”

  “You have to agree to come. We can’t start a panic again. Wet Kitten burned down when the villagers over reacted to some giant rats.” Dave looked tired, more tired than any other time Steve had seen him fight.

  “If we can convince Max to not miss a day of school, I’m in.”

  “Even for a kinda ridiculous fight to level you up?” Dave asked sheepishly.

  “Yes, I’m in.” Steve agreed. Dave did a little cheer and hopped the rest of the way to the village.

  ****

  “You have got to be kidding me.” Steve whispered to Dave three days later.

  “I promise you, we’ll survive this and you will almost get to level five. By the time we reach the Capital, you’ll be the biggest dude aside from me.” Dave put a hand on Steve’s shoulder.

  “It’s six cows in that field.” Steve couldn’t believe Dave wanted him to attack cows.

  “They’re aurochs and they’re tougher than you’d think. They’re pretty peaceful, but when it starts they’ll get mean. Best if you can get one dude by itself.” Dave pointed to a tan bull that was grazing further from the others with each minute.

  “I have never fought a bull before.” Steve whispered even as he drew his sword.

  “Avoid the pointy bits and don’t let them sit on you, that’d be a bummer too.” Dave crouched down behind the log and waited.

  Steve didn’t like that he was going into this fight alone, but he needed all the experience.

  The first bull was not expecting an attack and didn’t react as Steve walked up. But it did not like getting stabbed and kicked Steve full in the chest. Dave had promised that a deep stab would cause enough bleeding, but he didn’t mention cracked ribs.

  Steve couldn’t find another glorified cow alone, but he found a pair of them eating together. They hadn’t reacted to the injured bull and wandered to Steve in the sweetgrass meadow. They didn’t like it when Steve raised his sword to stab the one of the left.

  They slammed together on Steve before the blade came down. Steve was pinned between their ribcages and they hardly seemed to notice. They didn’t even stop grazing.

  Steve was certain his legs were broken or even dislocated at the hips. He wouldn’t start regenerating health while they were still squeezing him. He stabbed into the rib cage of the auroch in front of him. She ran off with his sword still in her and Steve nearly fell over. He grabbed his knife and stabbed the other with it. She then stepped on his chest and ran off with his knife as well.

  “Gotta be honest, I think it was too much to expect you to kill six aurochs. That’s my mistake. We’re gonna get you back on your feet and I’m going to get your weapons back.” Dave knelt next to Steve.

  Steve moaned because he couldn’t speak. Everything from his ribs down hurt and his left hand twitched. He hated Dave so much at that moment.

  “Swallow this and you’ll be fine in a moment.” Dave put a bottle to Steve’s lips and it hurt to even open his mouth. A tiny bit of reddish liquid spilled into his mouth and seemed to disappear instantly down his throat. The pain vanished and his hand stopped twitching. His legs realigned and unpleasantly popped back into their sockets.

  “What was that?” Steve said with his first breath after healing.

  “Health potion, strong health potion. Very expensive, but worth it.” Dave said with a smile and then chased down the injured aurochs to get the weapons back.

  “You’ll heal me again when they beat me up?” Steve asked nervously before approaching the other aurochs.

  “Yeah, I got you. I got you into this and your brother is alone back there. I’ll take care of you.” Dave agreed with a solemn nod.

  “Good, cause I’m not doing that again. That sucked and they’re not even dead yet.” Steve gestured at the bleeding animals across the meadow.

  “They will, two of them will. What are you going to do if you won’t attack them again?” Dave asked curiously.

  “I’m going to do it right.” Steve took his knife back into the trees and came back with a long, supple branch. He took out some twine and tied his knife to one end.

  “OOOOOOOhhhhh, dude. I forgot you’re a soldier and a warrior. I can’t do that.” Dave slow clapped for him.

  “You can’t tie knots?”

  “I can, I just can’t use another weapon. My job, as an agent of the crown, messed with my class. If I want to gain experience, I can only use one weapon. Ever.” Dave scratched his furry chin.

  “You can’t improvise a weapon? What if your katana breaks?” Steve stopped tying the knot.

  “I have to fight with my bare hands. Or just not gain experience from the fight. It’s happened. Three times already. I can use a knife, but I have lost those very quickly after my katanas broke.” Dave sounded sad for a second. “But dude, this is great. You’ll definitely survive now!”

  “Yeah, just if the aurochs actually die. I don’t want to do this again.” Steve glanced over at the wild cows. One of the injured cows knelt down and rolled onto its uninjured side.

  “Ok, imagine this dude. I’ll chase the injured cow to this tree. You hide behind the tree and stab it when you can. Between the ribs. Then I’ll get another one until we get them all.” Dave’s sadness disappeared and he spread his hands as he laid out his plan.

  It worked for two attempts. Dave was surprisingly quick and could leap over even the two meter tall aurochs. They couldn’t catch him even though their forked horns got close. The third auroch, provoked by Dave’s slaps and thrown pebbles, came close to Steve’s tree and galloped away with a deep snort.

  A great lion, two or three times the size of what had lived on Africa's savanna, burst out of the treeline and knocked the auroch onto its side. Great jaws clamped on the thick neck and sharp claws kept the great lion in place. The auroch struggled, but quickly stopped with a final foamy snort.

  “Crap.” Steve whispered to himself. The lion left its overlarge meal, with blood in its fur, and stalked over to get rid of the other predator.

  “Crap crap crap crap.” Steve was shouting now. There had been a brief training on dealing with big predators. Brief because most predators wouldn’t often approach whole patrols and it wasn’t likely a big predator would attack a soldier.

  “Crap crap crap crap crap crap.” Dave threw a rock to try to distract the big cat, but it was intent on Steve.

  Steve planted the blunt butt of his spear in the ground and pointed the impromptu point at the lion. It leaped and bared claws to catch Steve with his pathetic stick. The leap brought it onto the spear, which caught it on the shoulder and interrupted the leap. The knife cut, the stick bent, and then the stick snapped.

  Furious and hurt, the lion struggled to get the remains of the spear in its mouth and pull the painful blade out. Dave leaped high over the struggling lion and brought his katana down on its back. It cut the skin, hit the robust spine, and snapped with a startling ping.

  The spear came out and the lion turned wild eyes on the rabbit man. Steve grabbed his shield, drew his sword, and charged at the lion. Dave slashed the lion’s nose with the stump of his blade and Steve rammed his sword between the lion’s ribs.

  The lion became a dusty tornado, spinning away from one pain to get at the next. It gouged long lines on Steve’s shield and tore the skirt of his chainmail before retreating from these surprisingly painful threats.

  Steve’s heart felt like it was going to burst into pixels of gore.

  “I probably should have realized that injuring several prey animals would draw in a predator.” Dave admitted and considered his broken weapon. “I liked that one.”

  “I’m sorry about your sword, will it be hard to replace?” Steve couldn’t take his eyes away from the dying lion for long. It was disturbing to be in the presence of such a big predator dying.

  “Nah dude, I’ve already ordered two more. Better ones too, I hope. Hey, did you make it to level five yet?” Dave took a deep breath and sat down in the disturbed grass.

  “Level four.” Steve watched the lion slowly stop struggling.

  “Those aurochs cleared out, but they’ll die soon. Maybe you’ll make it to level six. A nemean lion has got to be worth a lot of experience. Is your knife broken?” Dave asked.

  “It’s bent a little, but it's fine.” Steve picked up the end of the broken spear and untied his knife.

  “Cool, skin those dead aurochs. I’ll skin that lion and then we’re going to run all the way to the capital.” Dave took a drink of water and dusted off his hands.