Unexpected Healer Book 2 -- Chapter 1

(Here's the start of the new Healer book! I just barely got started on it this week and hope to have plenty more chapters done next week.)

Chapter 1

Thaden threw himself around the corner of the Tailored Finery shop, pumping his legs as he utilized all 16 points of his Celerity into his run.  Ripping out the arrow that was only marginally buried in his shoulder thanks to his higher Physicality, he quickly cast Major Mass Healing on himself to fix the minor damage as he threw it away from himself.  Behind him, he could hear the shouts of dozens of individuals who were coordinating together to chase him down, but he somehow managed to stay ahead of them.

How in the world did they hurt me?  I thought they weren’t able to attack me until they were Level 21?

That was the reason he hadn’t cast his protective Fields when he attempted to slip out of the Coalition building just a minute ago – which resulted in the surprise attack as he was spotted.  He thought the other Contenders might do something to corner him, either asking for or demanding help, but it appeared as though they wanted to kill him.  As much as it wasn’t something that he would ever want to do, the whole Ranking system that was part of this world was apparently important enough to many of the other Contenders that they were willing to kill over it.

As he ran down the alleyway between two building that he found himself in, only to see the other end suddenly cut off by a sizable group of Contenders, he realized that it didn’t matter how they were able to hurt him, only that they were more than capable of doing it.  Even in this stressful situation, a part of his mind recalled all he’d been told about Level 21 being the point where Contenders could attack each other, and he discovered that he had completely ignored the fact that Rayana had told him that, “any Contender, no matter their Level, can kill a Contender that is Level 21 or higher,” – if he remembered it correctly.  It hadn’t seemed important at the time for some reason, as he had masquerading as a non-Contender at the time, but now the conversation came back to him in bits and pieces.

Whether his memory of her words was accurate or not, it was explanation enough for what was happening as he saw that the Contenders blocking off the alleyway’s exit all had their weapons drawn as they presented a united defense against his getaway, standing close enough to each other that there was no way to slip through them.  He immediately turned around and found that the spot where he entered was likewise cut off from escape, trapping him in between the two groups. 

And at the front of the second group was a face that he recognized immediately.

“I don’t know how you’ve managed to cheat, but that doesn’t really matter, does it?” the sneering voice of Chad, the arrogant oaf that had been annoying from day one with his better-than-thou attitude, called out.  The man waved the heavy sword in his hand around like it weighed nothing, even as he took a step toward Thaden.

The Lifewarden looked at the words above the man’s head, grudgingly admitting that the man had made some incredible progress in just a week.

Chad

Human

Level 11

“I’m the better—no, the best—Adventurer, and I can’t have a sorry excuse for a cheating Support Class trying to take that away from me.”

Chad wasn’t at the top of the Individual Rankings, which if he excluded himself from the list put the highest Levels at 13, but it was nonetheless impressive.  Not that he would ever say so to his face, because that would simply stroke an ego that was already far too inflated for his own good, but he could still privately acknowledge it.  In fact, the panic that he’d been in since he saw the notification and Rankings was still present enough in his mind that he blurted out quite the opposite.

“That’s not what the Rankings say.  I think there’s at least a thousand Contenders better than you.”  He didn’t bother looking up where Chad had ended up, but his quick perusal of the Rankings earlier indicated that there were quite a few people at Level 12 and 13, so there might have been that many.

I probably shouldn’t have said that, he thought a split-second after the last word left his lips.  It turned out he was right, as he witnessed the Fighter Class’s skin turn red with anger, and a snarl emerged from behind bared teeth.  “I’m going to kill you—” Chad growled, leaning forward as if he was going to rush Thaden.

While the Lifewarden wasn’t exactly scared that he was going to get hurt or killed, he was worried that all these people would be able to find a way to keep him trapped in one place.  His protective Fields were both active and it was unlikely that anyone would be able to even touch him, but the same could be said for Thaden; he was restricted from hurting or killing any of the other Contenders since they were all a lower Level than him and hadn’t hit Level 21 – not that he could really do so, anyways, considering that he didn’t have any obvious offensive abilities.  But as he’d inadvertently learned, the reverse didn’t apply, as any of them could kill him.

Which was a portion of the reason he’d wanted to flee as quickly as he could after knowing that the secret of his Contender status was revealed by the System, because all it would take was a bunch of people trapping him somewhere and physically blocking him from leaving with their bodies.  Then all they would have to do was wait until he got too tired to stay awake, and then kill him after he wasn’t able to keep his defenses active.  It might take a day or more for Thaden to get to that point, but an early elimination of a rival from the Rankings seemed like it was worth it to most of these people. 

Since his protective Field spells only prevented damage inflicted on him by others, he couldn’t simply ram his way out, because self-inflicted injuries weren’t exactly covered by the spells’ effects.  He didn’t want to take the chance that the Contenders holding their weapons would simply let him impale himself; it was only when they actively struck out at him that the Major Repulsion Field would come into effect.

Though I wonder if the spell would consider the fact that they are being held in a threatening manner and activate anyway? 

He was about to take his chances, but before Chad could take more than a step, a commotion behind the Lifewarden made him whip his head around toward the other end of the alley, only to find that the group there was now a disorganized clump of Contenders.  Not wanting to ignore what might be his only chance of escape, he immediately leapt into action, running for the disturbed group; he heard the sound of footsteps following after him, including a fairly intimidating roar from Chad as his victim escaped, but he managed to stay ahead of them. 

Thaden was nearly to the end of the alley when he identified what was likely the culprit of the disorganized mob; more accurately, it was a who.  He recognized Sarah, Diallo, Aki, and Rayana, the four Contenders he had partied with in the Mausoleum of Despair, and they were pushing around the ones that had been blocking his escape.  They were also joined by the Support Class of which Thaden had been able to heal the mental trauma, allowing the formerly “broken” man to party with the others; he was still a little hesitant in his confrontation of the line of Contenders, not pushing them quite as hard as the others, but he was at least participating.

“Get out of here!  Quickly!” Sarah shouted at him, seeing him close by, but that simply turned the attention of the ones they were pushing around toward him.  Weapons were leveled once against directly in his path, and while they wavered around as Sarah’s party continued to push and shove at them, they were still an obstacle.

It was at least better than it could’ve been, and he deliberately shoved himself forward, trusting that his protective spells and Physicality stat were high enough to see him through. 

His Major Repulsion Field deflected the first spear tip that stabbed out at him, as well as a sword blade that chopped at him from the side.  Their owners were pushed back enough that they stumbled backwards, unhurt but reeling from the reaction of the Field, which gave Thaden an opportunity to push through the others.  Unfortunately, he ran right into a sword that wasn’t aimed in his direction as it was held away from Sarah and the others distracting them, and he felt as it cut through his shirt and scraped along his ribs. 

As he flung himself away, wincing at the shallow wound, he mistakenly threw himself onto the blade of a battleaxe that cut deeply into his leg as his momentum basically forced his appendage onto it.  Somehow, the reaction from these two impacts shoved the defending Contenders away from him far enough that he was able to spot a way through the line of remaining defenders.  Stumbling forward, the force of the impact against the battleaxe ripped it from the Fighter’s hand, and he nearly fell as he managed to somehow wriggle his way through the gap he spotted a second ago.  Limping from the wound and hissing in pain as the cut along his ribs bled profusely, he ripped the axe out of his thigh and immediately dropped it; as soon as it was free, he cast Major Mass Healing and Major Regeneration, which immediately healed all but a few Health from the damage he had taken.  As he caught his feet and took off down the street, heading for the town gates, he glanced behind him and nodded a quick thanks at Sarah, who was looking at him running away with a brief wave.  He also noticed that at least a half-dozen of the fastest Contenders had also navigated their way through the blockade and were following him, and he let everything he had loose as he broke out into the main street that led toward the western gate.   

Apparently, there were those that had a higher Celerity than him, because it didn’t take them long to catch up to him.  As blows rained down on his Field, doing nothing to stop him, he ignored them as best as he could, though he broke his nose when one of them simply stopped right in front of him and Thaden slammed into a shield that was held up in front of his face.

“HALT!  NO FIGHTING INSIDE THE TOWN WALLS!”

The Lifewarden looked up from trying to avoid yet another of the Contenders who had stopped in front of him with her spear angled toward his heart and saw Virlo the Town Guard jumping down from the top of the walls, blocking access to the gate. 

“This is none of your business!”  Chad’s voice shouted from behind him, and Thaden realized the delaying tactics that the other Contenders were using had allowed the homicidal maniac to catch up. 

“YOU’RE IN MY TOWN, SO IT IS MY BUSINESS!”  Virlo had his bow out and he pulled back on the string, ready to release a barrage of arrows – or so Thaden assumed, since he’d seen him do the same before.  Of course, at that point it had been against monsters outside the walls that had followed the Assistant Healer at the time, but he figured that it would work the same against people.

“No!  The cheating bastard needs to die!”

“TAKE IT OUTSIDE, THEN!  YOU HAVE 5 SECONDS TO COMPLY!”

“Shut up, old man—”

That did it.  You done messed up, idiot.

All during the conversation, the others who were surrounding Thaden as he ran continued to try and hit him with their weapons, but were, of course, ineffective; it still counted as an attack, though, which was all the Town Guard cared about.

The bowstring of the Guard’s bow thwacked as it released a single arrow that split into multiples, and each of them went toward a different Contender.  They weren’t kill shots, however, but only designed to cripple; every single one was aimed toward a kneecap, and despite some of them wearing thick leather or even chainmail armor, they did nothing to stop the piercing strike of the arrows.  They cried out in pain from the strike as their kneecaps were practically blown apart; it wasn’t anything that a simple healing spell couldn’t fix, but all of them collapsed to the street in agony even as they attempted to stand up to continue the chase.

As for Thaden it wasn’t long until he came even with the Town Guard, who casually stepped in front of the Lifewarden so quickly that he was forced to stop rather than hit the man. 

“I still don’t like you,” Virlo said abruptly, staring him in the eyes, his voice carrying over the cries of those who’d he shot.

“Then why—?”

“They broke the rules,” he replied immediately before Thaden could finish his question.  The Town Guard looked him up and down.  “You leaving?”

“Yes.”

“Good.  Get out.”  Virlo moved to the side and impatiently waved him out, leaving the gate wide open for the Lifewarden to run through. 

Needless to say, Thaden didn’t hesitate to do just that.  As he passed through the wooden gates, the screams of those injured by the Town Guard cut off abruptly as the strange noise-canceling effect of the town to those outside got to work, and he ran off down the road without stopping.  He debated going toward the area where the Mausoleum of Despair was located, thinking that he could easily lose whatever pursuers were after him there, but he decided against it.  While it wasn’t likely, the knowledge that he had frequented the area could be discovered by those chasing him, and he didn’t want to go anyplace where they might look for him. 

What he needed was a new start somewhere, someplace where he wasn’t known on sight.  As much as he’d had wanted to alter the appearance of his nametag and Level over his head while he was still in town, thanks to his Stay There… I’ve Got This Achievement which granted him that ability, he was now glad that he hadn’t.  Revealing that he could do so would only make it harder for him to blend in elsewhere if it was known, because he didn’t have a way to alter his face; his hope was that his physical description wasn’t distributed along with his name and Level.  It was impossible to fake a nametag, after all – everyone knew that.

Thankfully, he had plenty with which to restart somewhere else, as he had taken all his money out of the Adventurer Coalition’s bank as soon as he had access to his Inventory.  He had over 500 gold pieces as well as some incredible gear that he could sell, so he didn’t have to worry about funds in the near future. 

When he came upon the fork in the road that led to the area where one could find the Mausoleum of Despair, he took the other direction, a pathway he hadn’t traveled down before.  He knew that it led to the town of Hewndar, or so he was told, but hadn’t ever been there.

No time like the present, I guess.

It wouldn’t be his final destination, of course, as stopping in the next town over would be stupid if Chad or the other Contenders were still chasing him.  He hoped they would give up once they had chased him out of the town of Ashcleft, but he couldn’t be sure of that; the best idea, he thought, was to get as far away from this area as possible and then figure out what to do after that.  It wasn’t the most thought-out of plans, but it was what he had to work with at the moment.  He still wasn’t what one would call an expert on this world of Tarth, despite being there longer than any other Contender, mainly because he had been sticking to the same area and doing the same thing repeatedly over the last few months.  Now that it was time to venture out, he didn’t exactly have a destination in mind. 

That would have to be his priority coming up.  He’d seen a small map of the immediate area around Ashcleft while he had been in the Adventurer’s Coalition, but hadn’t been interested enough to ask if they had anything with a wider range.  That lack of foresight could cost him valuable time, but it was something that he would take pains to correct as soon as possible. 

Thaden kept running through the rest of the day, afraid to stop lest someone catch up to him, so by the time night was falling he was practically dead on his feet.  The area he passed through was relatively open grassland, with a few copses of trees dotting the landscape, and before he lost all the light he ventured off the dirt road and carefully made his way toward one of them.  He did his best not to leave any obvious tracks, but wasn’t exactly sure how successful he ended up being; he was too tired to pay too much attention, but he at least knew he didn’t deliberately trample through the knee-high grass and leave a clear trail.

Once he was in the trees, he used the last of his exhausted strength to pull himself up into one of them, finding that the branches were much closer together than the dead ones near the Mausoleum, and he had no problem wedging himself between a half-dozen of them without any risk of falling off.  Just as he was falling asleep, he heard something snuffling below him near the ground, and in the failing light he could see a group of figures moving around.  He panicked for a split-second before he saw the information related to them floating above their heads.

Bladetusk Boar – Minimal

Level 11

>>>>>>> 

>>>>>>> 

Bladetusk Boar – Minimal

Level 12

There were over a dozen of them in the group, ranging from Level 11 to 12, but none of them paid any attention to Thaden, even though he shifted at one point to look at them better and alerted them to his presence.  Just like any other monsters that were far below his Level, they wouldn’t attack him unless he attacked them first. 

While it wasn’t the most comfortable knowing that there were monsters roaming around underneath him while he slept, he had to admit that it was probably for the best that they were there.  It was less likely that he would be ambushed by solitary pursuers in the night with these Boars moving around through this small copse of trees, and any larger groups would have to fight the monsters in order to get to him – which would hopefully wake him up. 

With the thought of what the future might hold for him heavy on his mind, Thaden let sleep overtake him.