Levi and Isa rushed toward the heart of the town, where the majority of the third village’s cannibal inhabitants scrapped. They didn’t directly join the fight, but turned toward the edges. The cannibals on the edge watched the fight, not quite sure where to join in. Before they could decide, Levi reared back and slashed out, striking in sync with the Armalgam. Heads flew, but in the next second, the other cannibals recovered. They closed in on Levi, swinging weapons in every direction. Levi backflipped with the Armalgam’s help, and their swings went wide. They chased after him, raising their weapons once more.
Isa darted in, grabbing one of the attackers by the neck. He stopped dead, or rather, jerked to a halt by his neck. He could no longer move forward. His feet kicked at the ground, but fruitlessly. Unable to turn his head, his eyes strained at their very limits to see behind him.
“Oh, hello,” Isa purred.
Leaving her to it, Levi turned his attention to the remaining cannibal. He swung at Levi with a broadsword, but clumsily. Levi backstepped. The man’s sword slammed down, cleaving the very earth open—and stuck. His immense strength had embedded it too deep from him to free. Levi darted in, taking the man’s throat with lightfooted ease. He darted out the other side, only for a flash of silver to drop toward him. He kept running. The Armalgam blocked on his back. A heavy blow sent Levi stumbling, but he pushed forward with all his might at the same time. The cannibal’s sword struck the ground behind him. Immediately, they bounced the blade off the earth and swung at him again. He scrambled sideways, and the blade only clipped him, for a certain value of ‘clipped.’ His side was scraped open, down to the ribs, and they shone bright white in the strange not-sun light.
Instantly, gold light surged to Levi. The pain hit, and he pushed it to the back of his mind. Drawing a knife from his hip, he slung it at the cannibal, center-of-mass. The cannibal blocked it with their forearm. The blade slammed into their flesh, but did no serious damage. The cannibal lowered their arm, smirking.
Levi was already in midair, hurtling toward the cannibal. They lifted their arm again, only for Handy to chop it down at the elbow. Levi twisted through the gap it left and took their throat. He landed on the enormous man’s shoulder and crouched there, for a moment, as the man slowly toppled.
“You know, high STR and DEX are immensely useful to a mage. And yet, they’re low-growth stats. You ever consider that?”
The cannibal began to pick up momentum as gravity took the wheel. Levi jumped clear, using their shoulder to propel himself onward to the next cannibal. He couldn’t freely slice his way through without care like he could with the first village, but each cannibal wasn’t as hard as the entire first village, either. Isa had exaggerated the power creep between the villages. Not that Levi minded. They would’ve had a hell of an uphill battle if she’d been accurate. But she wasn’t wrong in that they were far stronger than the cannibals in the first village. If he’d assumed they were the same, or even just a little stronger, he would’ve been the one at a loss.
He landed on the next cannibal’s shoulder. They growled and reached for him, but before they could, he cut into their throat and jumped on. From shoulder to shoulder he hopped, leaving death and horrible injuries behind him. The Armalgam came with him, blocking blows and landing parting shots. Blood spurted, and cannibals dropped.
At last, the cannibals started to clue on to what was going on. They turned away from the zombies, big man included, and turned toward Levi and Isa. The zombies attacked them from the rear, but a contingent of backliner cannibals fought them off, letting the main force round on the two attackers.
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Levi hopped backward. “We’ve overstayed our welcome. Time to go.”
Isa appeared at his side. She lowered a rapier he hadn’t seen her draw, slashing the blood off the blade. “Indeed. Shall I fetch young Colin?”
“Aye, matey.”
Colin sighed as Isa snatched him up. “Wrong era. And theming.”
“We’ll find a pirate vampire yet!” Levi cheered. He paused, looking at Isa. “Or… make one?”
“Vampires aren’t typically fond of water,” Colin pointed out.
Levi chased after the two of them. “I don’t know. That one varies. Maybe they don’t mind water in this world. I mean, we got all the way here…”
“Running water is distinctly uncomfortable, but I can cross it. Seas…” Isa shuddered.
“We’ll work on it,” Levi said, nodding.
The cannibals gave chase, surging after the three of them. One of them hurled a hand-axe at their backs. The Armalgam peeled off Levi’s back. Holding onto his shoulders with two hands, it swung its upper half out. Handy snatched the axe out of the air and tossed it back at the cannibal, hitting the thrower dead in the forehead. The man fell backward, dead.
“Aaaad…” Levi snapped his fingers. The zombies fighting in the back dropped dead, except for the big guy, who he’d taken a shine to. The cannibals he’d killed in the front climbed to their feet, blocking the cannibals from chasing after them.
He looked behind him. Thoughts came to him, many thoughts. They hadn’t quite coalesced into a whole picture yet, but he had ideas. And ideas were dangerous. Almost as dangerous as a boatload of zombies.
The Armalgam tapped his shoulder. He turned back around, only to find he’d been left behind. Shaking his head, he sped up, chasing after Isa. Now wasn’t the time to fall behind. He didn’t want to fight the whole village alone.
Isa led the way back into the forest, moving with the surefootedness of someone who’d spent a great deal of time here. Levi followed her, trusting her to know the way better than him. She dashed left and right through the undergrowth. The path was clearly meant to throw the cannibals off their tracks, but it nearly threw Levi off, too. If not for Colin occasionally shooting a beam of gold light back toward him, he would’ve lost them several times over. The cannibals had no such assistance, and they had to deal with the zombies, besides. Before long, even the sound of their pursuit faded behind Levi and the others.
This time, Isa led them to a shallow dip in a hill, where the wind didn’t reach them. It wasn’t proper shelter, but it was better than being completely unprotected. A few scraps of fabric and a rotten stick laid on the ground in the hollow of the hill, along with the charred remains of a stone fire circle.
“Another hideout of yours?” Levi asked, nudging the stick with his foot.
“This entire level is riddled with them. I probably know these wilds better than the cannibals,” Isa commented. She sat down and crossed her legs, releasing Colin somewhere in the middle. Colin stepped to the side and stretched, leaning left and right. Looking at the fallen cloth and stick, Isa waved her hand. The stick revived itself, returning to its original size and shape, and the cloth transformed from a rag to a sturdy piece of canvas. The two bound themselves into a lean-to, the stick stuck in the ground and pointed away from the hollow, while the canvas stretched back to the hollow. Iron nails held it into firmly-packed earth.
“That’s nice. What kind of skill is that?” Levi asked, curious.
“It’s domain-locked to vampires. But if you are a vampire, it’ll allow you to revive some areas with a wave of a hand, as long as you’ve lived there long enough,” Isa explained.
“I could be a vampire,” Levi suggested.
“You’ll put me out of a job,” Colin grumbled.
Levi laughed. “Yeah, yeah.” He leaned back, relaxing under the canopy. “Rest up, everyone. We’ve got a big day of cannibal hunting again tomorrow.”
“Yes, weak mortal. Sleep well,” Isa said.
Levi snorted. “Right. You bunch’a sleepless undead.” He rested his hands behind his head and laid back, staring at the sky. More cannibal hunting tomorrow. And after that, more cannibals. Levi closed his eyes, but didn’t go to sleep. He focused on the zombies, calling out to them with his mana. Let’s see if I can put that idea into action.
