As Puck carried Barry through the destroyed village, who was still a statue, the adventure tried racking his brain to come up with a plan for the supposed Orcs that were approaching. ‘Why does something bad always have to show up after dealing with something else? I must have the worst luck ever for this shit.’

  With the portals closed and the invasion over, Puck found the rest of his kin and Ned, the mojo expert, who were at the center of the village. “Big bad googly creature gone, but Barry need help!” He informed everyone.

  Ned came over and checked on Barry, waving a hand masked in a white aura around his body, performing a diagnosis for a moment then found the reason. “Barry is alright, but it seems he ingested a potent potion of something strong to cause his body to lock up.” Barry groaned in agreement. “I see, it will only take a moment to fix him up.”

  Puck watched as the mojo expert performed a spell with his hands and vocals, radiating his friend's body with healing energy. He wanted to learn how to use his own magic in the same way Ned was using his. He was determined to get better with his mojo.

  It was then, that Barry saw a notification reading “Red Demon Blood debuff cured.”, he instantly got up and said. “We have more visitors, Ned, apparently some brutes Puck saw were coming by.”

  Puck vouched. “Yeah, scary looking brutes with weapons coming here. It was a big group.” He expanded his arms out wide to emphasize how many there were.

  Ned was surprised to hear the news. “It must be the Orcs, this is the worst time for them to show up. They must be here to raid us when we’re at our most vulnerable.” Barry could tell Ned was trying to devise a plan on the spot.

  “Bullshit, I know. But we might be able to turn this predicament around with the shit that just happened.” Barry had come up with an idea of how to deal with the Orcs, and it involved a lot of charisma.

  Ned and Puck listened in. “Ned, you hide with your people while I act as someone who just arrived with Puck and his kin to slay all these Eviscerators. I'll pretend that I arrived too late to save you all, maybe that you all were taken by the creatures back into their world.”

  Ned stroked his beard, thinking over his plan to deceive the Orcs. He honestly wasn't sure how likely they would believe such a lie. “I'm not sure Barry, their leader is a very insightful person. It's hard for us to hide anything from them.”

  Barry encouraged his plan even more. “We don't have much time Ned, just trust in me like before. I came back and returned everything, while being right about the invasion. I got this.” He placed a fist on his heart, showing his confidence.

  Ned gave it some more thought and let out a chuckle and grin. “Alright my boy, I'll go with your scheme of yours. Just don't think of them as meat heads, they are quite smart, especially their leader. I pray for your success, good luck Barry.” He then hurried to get to one of the bunkers, which were inside one of the destroyed houses.

  It was just Barry and his gang of Kobolds, with Puck by his side. Puck was excited about Barry's plan, he wanted to play a big part in it. “Oh, oh, Barry! Can Puck act tough in front of ugly brutes? Maybe Puck scare them away with fire?”

  Barry scratched his head awkwardly, he honestly wasn't hoping for Puck and the Kobolds to act as his subordinates the whole time and not say anything. “Uh, I'm not sure about that Puck. I kinda wanted you and everyone else to stay quiet and let me handle the Orcs…”

  Puck's excitement would tune down, feeling bummed out. “Oh, okay. Puck will keep quiet…”

  Barry could see how his response turned down his enthusiasm and felt a bit bad. He sighed, “Alright fine, when I give you the signal, you can scare them with your fire and act tough. But only when I tell you, don't act before. Okay?”

  Puck was happy once again, “Yeah, Puck listen and wait for moment!”

  With that said, Barry asked for some Kobolds to be in hiding around the village and prepare for an ambush in case things went wrong. He sat in the center of the village on top of a crate with his greatsword resting its hilt on his shoulder, taking the time to rest while he awaited for the tax collectors to show up.

  The quest to defend the village may not have provided him any rewards, but he did receive a bunch of level ups from killing a ton of mobs from the Null dimension. He wondered how the weird alien looking creatures were created in the first place. What was their purpose? Did they only seek destruction or what? He would have to get stronger to contend against another one of those evil eye beings on his own without help.

  He inspected his inventory again, checking for any rewards that he got from completing the quest for taking back what was stolen from the village. Aside from the measly gold he got from completing the quest, he did receive a Rare item, which was a set of 50 feather throwing knives called “Jade Song Feathers”. Their attack power was low compared to a melee weapon, but they made up for it with their poison effect that did 2% of the foe’s maximum Health as damage per second over 30 seconds, while also debuffing the sorry soul with a -10% Health and Stamina Regeneration for 2 minutes. The only issue was that he wasn’t proficient in throwing knives. Still, he was sure they would come in handy later.

  Barry adjusted his stats, especially since he had a bunch of stat points waiting for him to use. He was level 17 with 41 available stat points to spend, looking over at his current stats at the moment, he was surprised to see that his agility was higher than he thought. His line-up of stats, which included every bonus he had from his equipment and passive skill from ‘King’s Commanding Presence’, was as followed: +23 Strength, +49 Agility, +28 Endurance, 3 Intelligence, 5 Wisdom, and 144 Armor Rating. No wonder he was fast enough to keep up with the giant Eviscerator, after applying the Red Demon Blood with his already astonishing 49 Agility, it made sense he was able to keep up.

  He invested 12 points into Strength, 7 in Endurance, and lastly 1 into agility because it bothered him to have a 49 in agility, making it a clean 50. Twenty-one available points were left untouched for later if he ever decided to spend them, but for now, he was content with what he had.

  After messing with his stats, he remembered seeing notifications of Puck leveling up, he quickly opened his menu and looked into the Party option. This revealed to him a list that included the Kobolds, their wolves, and Puck with a flashing arrow pointing up next to their image icon, name, and current level with the words ‘Level Up!’. He prioritized Puck’s profile since he didn’t have much time, opening it brought him to a similar character profile layout like his.

  He skimmed through it and couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw that Puck’s intelligence and wisdom were nearly tied. Pucks stats were as shown: +2 Strength, +3 Agility, +2 Endurance, +15 Intelligence, and +17 Wisdom. ‘No offense, but how the fuck is his intelligence and wisdom higher than mine!?’ Barry didn’t mean any disrespect towards the little guy, but it didn’t make any sense with the way Puck’s personality was. ‘I guess, intelligence and wisdom stat don’t really correlate to their true IQ?’ He was so confused that he let it go.

  Puck’s level was 8, with 25 available points to spend. He was also able to decide for Puck on how to distribute the points himself, this irritated that him because he didn’t have a lot of time to think over Puck’s build. He didn’t want Puck to get one shotted by an enemy, so he invested 8 points into his endurance and agility, and 5 into his intelligence. He would then save the rest of his available points for later use.

  The little firecracker could feel his body become stronger for some reason and commented about it. “Oh wow, Puck feeling super-duper strong, Barry. Puck feel like he can take on a platybear now.”

  Barry gave a slight smile at Puck, “You sure can Puck, I believe you…but still don’t try to fight a platybear by yourself.”

  While he was able to adjust Puck’s stats, he also noticed an option to auto-distribute points depending on their roles and specialty. Barry did just that for the rest of the pack, every one of them noticing a change in themselves. ‘There, that should do it.’

  And just in time too, because he would hear marching approaching from within the village along muttering of some sort. “Showtime Puck; remember, wait till I give you the word.” Barry reminded, receiving a nod of acknowledgment.

  The marching grew louder that would soon turn into stomping, Barry remained seated and was getting creative in his head about what he was going to say. That was when he began experiencing another one of his memory fragments, he was getting used to the headaches that would occur, feeling almost nothing but still experiencing another black-out.

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  He saw a scene of an audience watching a group of people on a stage, all of which were still apparitions and vague looking, but he could tell that the people on stage had costumes of some sort. He believed that this was a play of some sort, a possible memory of him being a part of it.

  The scene was a bar with a group of people laying on the floor playing dead, with one person taking a seat by the bar counter, slowing sipping on a mug as he was being interrogated by two law enforcement officers. “Sir, why are you the only one conscious here? What happened, were you the one who made the 911 call?”

  The drinker sitting by the bar continued to sip his mug while giving a response. “Sure did, you should have seen what went down. They all had it coming, I tell ya.” Barry had a feeling that he was acting as the drunk.

  The officers acted confused by his response, “Had it coming? What do you mean by that, were you the one-”

  The man pushed a finger close to the male officer’s lips that was talking, “Sssshhh, you’re being too loud. Can’t you both see that I’m trying to take a moment for myself and drink to my heart's content.” He reached over and grabbed a bottle that was labeled alcohol, but was actually filled with water and poured it into his mug.

  The female officer was astonished, “Sir, we’re going to have to take you in for questioning if you don’t provide us some answers. Tell us what happened, or things will get ugly for you.” She warned, her partner placing a hand on his fake pistol.

  The drunk let out a hysterical laugh that spooked not only the officers, but also the audience. “Get ugly, you say!? How hilarious is that, listen here sweetheart. I did you all a favor by taking down these good-for-nothings that were secretly operating a mass-producing drug that was selling under our noses like hotcakes. Don’t believe me, check under their shirts and tell me what you see.”

  “You’re delusional sir, I’m sorry, but we’ll have to-”

  The drunk slammed his mug on the counter, scaring the audience, and turned to face the two with a bothersome look, “Just check, you damn rookies.”

  The male officer looked at the female officer, who nodded, and went to inspect under the shirt of one of the people knocked out and was surprised to find a strange tattoo that was familiar to him. “It…it's the Bad Blood Baron's signature tattoo!?”

  The female officer looked at the tattoo then back at the man, confused of whom the drunk was. “Who are you?” She wondered.

  The man rose from his seat, placing money on the counter for his tab, before walking away past the duo. “I’m your new superior rookies, Detective Bourne, and you both better remember that.” The way he said and walked was so edgy that it could give people paper cuts.

  The audience applaud the stunning performance that was displayed, invested in knowing what would happen later.

  Barry, on the other hand, couldn't help but cringe at his own performance as he face calmed himself. “Did I really do some acting in my past life? It's so awkward watching myself perform…get me the hell out of here.”

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  The memory then ended, bringing Barry back to reality. His head was tilted down, looking at the ground and when he lifted his head, he was introduced to the guests that came rolling in a few yards away.

  There, standing at about 8 ft tall with round bellies but lots of muscle mass still showing, were the Orcs that were talked about from the village. All but one shared a similar sage color skin tone, with boar like tusks and red colored eyes, their faces looking somewhat mad and could relax a little.

  The one Orc who was different and seemed to be the leader. Their skin tone was gray-green with black tattoo markings around their body and looked to be in way better shape compared to his brethren. He had more scars compared to his men, his left eye also had a war scar across it. All of the leader's warriors were in half sets of common armor, along with common weapons. While the leader had on a full set of Uncommon armor, wielding a big warhammer that was Rare. There was a total of 6 Orcs all together.

  Barry and the leader were the first to lock eyes with each other, not a word was said for a good while until Barry decided to break the silence, deciding to try and pull off some acting of his own like he had done so in his past life. He began laughing like a madman in front of these brutes, causing all everyone all around, but the leader, to wonder what he was laughing at.

  One of the Orcs decided to say something first to the crazy man that was in front of them, sounding mad with a deep, rough voice. “Are you laughing at us human? Do we look funny to you?” The Orc brandished his mace out, ready to lunge at Barry.

  Puck and the Kobolds looked at Barry, also curious as to why he was laughing. The crazy man calmed down and gathered himself together while remaining cool, he slid his black hair back and leaned on his greatsword while keeping his eye on the group of Orcs. “My apologies brutes, I was laughing at the fact of your arrival. As you can see, there was a big fight that just occurred, and look who shows up to my newly found residence. A band of boars.”

  The Orc was agitated and felt like jumping at him, “You must really want to pick a fight with us, you flesh bag. If it’s a fight you want, I’ll gladly-”

  The apparent leader intervened, placing his hammer in front of his subordinate to halt him from going forward. ‘Thunder Wyvern's Wake’ was the name of the Rare hammer he wielded. Barry could only assume it had electric properties of some kind.

  The leader stepped forward in front of his band of Orcs to confront the lone adventurer with his pack of Kobolds and wolves. He spoke, “Hello there, lone swordsman. I might have missed heard you, but did you say this was your residence? We come here quite often, but have never seen you or your…pets before.”

  Barry smiled and fidgeted with his weapon, rocking it side to side playfully, “Aah, you'd be right macho man. It's cool if I call you that, right?” The leader gave no reaction. “Cool, if you hadn't already noticed. There was a party that happened here, and quite a party there was if I say so myself!”

  The rest of the Orcs were getting irritated by Barry's calm and lax attitude, but their leader remained expressionless to his quotes. “A party, you say? Anyone else happen to partake in this…grand social gathering? Perhaps maybe, I don't know, the ones who lived here?” He asked, leering at Barry with his intimidating gaze.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Barry stayed cool, he was expecting the leader to eventually press him for an answer. “Hmm, I don't think we saw anyone here when we arrived? Did any of you see people running scared when we came, my dear Kobolds?” He turned to look around at his pack, who all shook their heads. “You see, they must have all been kidnapped by these Eviscerators to their world. Otherwise, it's anyone's guess what could have happened to them.”

  The Orc boss eyed him from head to toe, trying to spot any signs of nervousness that would indicate he was lying. “I guess I'll have to take your word, lone swordsman. You and your pack must very skilled to have slaughtered all this game here by yourselves.” His eyes shifted around, Barry thought he was taking a moment to admire what they had done.

  “Yuuup, my gang and I had some difficulties fighting them all, but we managed. But now that the previous homeowners are gone, we can take what we want from here. Sooooo,” Barry stood up with both palms resting on the butt of his greatsword. “I kindly ask you all to leave while we conduct our scavenge here.”

  The previous Orc that wanted to square up with Barry couldn’t contain his anger and stepped up, ignoring his bosses orders. “You must really think you are the one calling the shots here, allow me to put you in your-”

  “Puck.” Barry said with a bothersome expression, while snapping his fingers, this was Puck’s signal and he understood. The little Kobold fired a large stream of flames between the Orcs and them, this halted the Orc in his tracks, backing him away as the flames still lingered and danced around as the dividing line. All the Orcs were a bit surprised at Puck’s introduction, they had never seen such a little creature spew fire before, especially fire of this size from something so small. “Care to come closer?” Barry taunted, his Kobolds at the ready to attack at Barry’s command.

  The Orcs stood in silence for a moment, the leader's subordinates were unsure if they wanted to take their chances with Barry and his crew, it seemed. But the leader of the Orcs wasn’t concerned with the likes of Barry and his mere Kobolds, in fact, he was amused. The leader let out a deep chuckle that got everyone's attention, even making his brethren wonder what was so funny. “You are really something Human, you are truly making my day. Allow me to be the first to introduce myself. I am the group leader of this band of brutes, as you can tell, you can call me Wreav. May you tell me what your name is?”

  Barry thought about the play that he remembered from his past life, he figured he should give Wreav an intimidating nickname, believing he should push the persona he was acting as even further. “Pleasure to meet you Wreav, you can call me Bad Blood Barry. Decided to give my name a bit of a spin, spice it up a bit because Barry alone just doesn’t have that, um…” He then snapped his fingers for dramatic effect, signalling Puck to spew even more fire in the air. “Flare! That’s the word.” He was appreciating Puck’s use of fire for special effects.

  The rest of the Orcs could not tell what this guy’s deal was, who was he to be talking so calmly and disrespectful to their leader. But when they looked back to see their leader's reaction to Barry’s acting, he was grinning ear to ear laughing. “Bad Blood Barry, that is quite a name for yourself. And can you tell me how long you have been out and about as a pack? Months? Years?”

  Barry made an expression as if he was counting the days and months his group was together, “Three…no, no I think it was…no…ah, six months it has been since we formed a pack. We travelled waaay over there, where there’s-”

  “Gugthrak, you lie Human.” Wreav interrupted with a serious tone.

  “I’m sorry?” Barry remained calm, trying not to show any signs of nervousness.

  The Orcs were interested in knowing how their boss figured Barry was bullshiting. “Are you positive you aren’t from a place…outside this world?” Wreav’s words pressed Barry inside, how did he know he wasn’t from their world?

  ‘How the hell does he know I’m not from here? And I’m sure I didn’t show any signs of nervousness or anything, but again…what makes him think I’m not?’ Barry tried to maintain his persona as Bad Blood Barry and quickly replied. “I’m afraid I have no clue what you’re talking about? I was born and raised on the very ground we stand on, but what makes you say such a wild thing? I’m genuinely curious.” He leaned deeper on his sword with a puzzled look.

  Wreav turned to his Orcs and spoke in what Barry could only assume was their language. “Hey now, don’t leave me out of the conversation. Tell me why you claim I’m not from around here?” The rest of the Orcs began spreading out and searching the area for whatever Wreav told them. “Now you’re just being rude, Wreav.”

  Wreav turned to face Barry again, he grinned but not the good kind. “You can drop the act, Barry. I’m going to allow you and your pets to leave our premise before I change my mind. My men and I don’t have time to stand around and watch you pretend to be someone you’re not, now be gone.” He then turned around to join his men.

  Barry was so confused, he thought his performance was going well, but more importantly he was concerned about them finding these bunkers that were hiding the people. “Hey wait, don’t turn away from me and tell me what’s going on?”

  Wreav then went to the Orc that wanted to throw down with him and told him something before continuing with what he was doing, the Orc that Wreav spoke to would start approaching Barry with his weapon in hand.

  The rest of the Kobolds readied their weapons as they watched the Orc approach in a hostile manner, yet Barry raised a hand to tell them to halt, lowering their weapons. ‘Am I really about to get into another fight?’

  Puck remained at Barry’s side and watched carefully with him, Barry stood up right with his hands still resting on his sword, but this time focused and ready to retaliate. “Human, I was just told by Wreav to inform you that if you don’t leave now. I am allowed to deal with you in however way I want. And what I want, is to pulverize you into paste for disrespecting our leader.”

  The tension in the air, intensified, Barry had to choose whether to turn away and save him the hassle of having to fight these Orcs, or intervene in their possible search for the villagers. Ned had told him not to underestimate the Orcs, were he to take the chance to find out what they were capable of, he would be endangering the Kobolds that arrived to help him with the Eviscerators. ‘I already saved the villagers from the invasion, and with the introduction of these Orcs, this just seems more trouble than it’s worth to help these villagers. Besides, I already brought back the money for the villagers...so why am I still here?’ He pondered.

  “Human, you have about 10 seconds to walk out of here before I start bursting your little rat here like a grape.” The Orc once again warned, Puck was scared from the brute’s words but tried to remain tough like he said, puffing out his chest.

  Barry was deep in thought, was staying and making sure that the people were alright, the correct thing to do even if it meant endangering himself? He would then experience the same irritating burning sensation inside himself, the same feeling that would appear whenever he thought about making what he figured was the wrong choice. He sighed, irritated of the feeling, “You just won’t fucking go away, huh?” He mumbled.

  The Orc heard what he said and got mad, believing it was directed towards him. “So, you’ve made your decision, Gugthrak, then I’ll begin with squishing your rat FIRST!”

  And as the Orc attempted to slam his mace down, Puck’s eyes widen in terror and that was when Bad Blood Barry decided on his decision. He lifted the butt of his greatsword and thrusted it into the Orc’s center chest, catching him off guard and sending him crashing into onto a porch. “He’s not a rat, asshole. He’s a friend, get it right.”

  Wreav, who was still nearby, heard the commotion and looked over his shoulder to see that one of his men was crashed out, trying to get back up. Wreav grinned and looked back at Barry, the Orc was excited for some reason. “So, this is your answer, Bad Blood Barry? I hope you know what you just got yourself into.”

  Barry looked at the rest of the Kobolds and spoke in a commanding tone. “Leave now, every one of you! You’ve all helped enough, so go back and let me handle this.” He shouted, the Kobolds were unsure and looked back at the Orcs and back at Barry, they wanted to stay and help. Barry then got irritated, he really didn’t want them to fight a battle that he had started. “GO! I’ll make it out here, this shit’s not going to be the end of me.”

  The Kobolds hesitated a bit but eventually gave into his command, those with him and the one’s waiting behind cover heard and left the area on their wolves. He then turned to Puck but was surprised to see that he was gone, this did make Barry feel relieved. ‘Good, he listened and left. Now there’s nothing else to be concerned about.’ He readied his weapon, both hands on the hilt with the blade tilted slightly forward, positioning himself in the best stance he believed was comfortable.

  Wreav spoke in Orc tongue, apparently ordering two of his men to give Barry a welcome embrace to the strength of an Orc. “I’d like to see what you are capable of Barry, please, entertain me as I watch. Don’t disappoint me like the rest of your people from your world.”

  ‘So he’s met other people from my world…did he interrogate them? Did he…kill them?’ He wanted answers from Wreav, and he assumed that the only way was to show his will to fight, and he had a fucking lot of it.

  The two Orcs lunged at him, not expecting them to be as fast as he thought, Barry barely managed to avoid their twin maul attacks by hopping backwards, seeing the result of them cracking the ground. Barry retaliated with an attack of his own, dashing forward, swinging his sword horizontally at their wrists. He managed to cut them but wasn’t deep enough, the Orcs flinched at the pain and lifted their weapons before charging into a shoulder tackle. Barry reacted by jumping high enough over them and landing behind them, attempting to attack them from behind but was stopped by a throw of a spear that he noticed coming from his left, ducking under in time. Another Orc had joined the fight.

  Wreav continued to watch as he slowly walked around the fight between his warriors and Barry, whistling a tune of his own. Barry didn’t want to show everything that he had, he wanted to hold back how fast he was and the fact that he could double jump. All so that when he would eventually throw down with Wreav, he would be able to catch him off guard when he least expected.

  Their fight would take place all over the village, crashing through buildings, toppling roofs, shattering debris and clashing steel. More of Wreav’s men would enter the fray, slowly entering in on the action. And as the fight raged on, so did Wreav’s impression of Barry grow ever stronger, he was loving it.

  Sweat was pouring out of Barry, he had only managed to incapacitate two of the Orcs so far by causing them to accidentally swing on each other. Despite having sustained multiple bruises and injuries from the Orcs, he was experiencing the same adrenaline rush he would get from being in an intense brawl for his life. Barry wouldn’t notice this, but the more he continued fighting, the sharper his instincts would become. Wreav had also taken notice that Barry had a sloppy fighting style, there was no proper form or technique that he used, just his physical prowess. This amused him.

  The Orc's synergy was on point, if one failed to land a direct hit to Barry, the one or the other would follow up and ensure to either press the attack or defend their brethren. Barry would try to use his surroundings to his advantage by dividing them up in either a 1v1 or a 1v2, utilizing the narrow spaces that he found.

  One Orc with a pack of javelins, kept chucking javelin after javelin, launching them like high speed missiles with every opportunity they saw while Barry was occupied with the last two Orcs. He propped up a table with his foot, kicking it towards the Orcs for a distraction as he zipped past them to target the annoying fuck that kept throwing shit.

  Barry would start to use a bit a more effort into his speed to swiftly take down the javelin Orc, darting towards him and slashing outward at their waist, landing his attack but not causing a fatal wound and letting the Orc slip away. ‘Damn it!’ He was getting tired.

  He had to wrap this up before his exhaustion overwhelmed him. The rest of the Orcs were below 40% HP, with their Stamina being at roughly 30%, similar to his. Barry looked at the javelins and decided to try switching it up, wielding the greatsword was taking a toll on him, and he wasn't being smooth with his swings. He also didn’t want to switch to any weapons he had in his inventory that would expose himself to Wreav’s fact about him being from another world yet, unless he had too.

  Barry dropped his weapon and snatched one of the javelins as he continued to press on towards his target, who now adapted to a close range style of fighting with two hand axes. Barry halted for a moment, making the Orc anticipate his approach and being the first to miss his attacks, allowing Barry to dropkick by vaulting with his spear. Connecting both kicks to the Orc’s skull, sending him flying back and taking him out of the fight non-lethally as it was not strong enough to kill him but was enough to make them blackout.

  It was now the last two Orcs left who chased him down from behind with a desire to avenge their fallen comrades. But that was when something unexpected happened, “STOP!”. The Orcs halted as they heard the order from their leader, surprised he would ask them to pause their fight.

  Wreav, having seen everything that he wanted to see from Barry, couldn’t help but smile at the Human that posed a challenge to his men. “That’s it boys, you both had your fill. I don’t see either of you having a chance of defeating this warrior.”

  His men were shocked to hear such words, one of them then spoke. “But boss, we can beat him. Look at him, he’s exhausted-”

  Wreav slammed his hammer down with the butt of the hilt, causing a small fissure to form towards the Orc that refused to obey. “You will halt your pride to challenge him, you both may see him as weak and to the point of breaking down. But I assure you, there is boundless determination in this Human to fight with every will and soul that they have inside to the very end. Determination and focus that you lot have lost many moons ago because we’ve found nothing worthwhile to fight. So I ask again, before I tear your Grikloks from you, so stand down.” Wreav tone sent chills down his men’s spines, while Barry stayed focused but confused why Wreav was acting this way.

  Wreav’s men backed away from Barry, afterward, Wreav would approach Barry from a few yards away before stopping. He was pleased at Barry for putting up a great fight against his men. “Relax Barry, you can be at ease for the moment. I rather enjoyed your brawl with my men, they really needed a good wake-up check. For you see, they’ve been lacking motivation to make an effort to train every day because we haven’t really fought anything worth challenging…that was until you came along.” Barry got the feeling that Wreav was looking at him like a diamond in a rough, a rare specimen caught by him.

  Barry, now being given a moment to catch his breath, replied back. “Why did you really come here? There’s nothing left here for you Wreav, everything and everyone is gone like I said. The Eviscerators were still here when I arrived, and I saw no one-”

  In one smooth and fast motion, Barry could barely see Wreav pick up a javelin and hurl it past his cheek, grazing it and piercing through the building walls that were behind him. “Enough, Barry, you’re trying too hard to hide something that is obvious. The people of this village are still here, if you so much as continue acting as a fool, I will tear your waist from your torso and place you on a pike for all to see! So I ask again, drop it.” He gripped his hammer tighter, ready to deliver his promise if Barry refused his act of kindness.

  One look at Wreav, and he could tell that he wasn’t lying, although the two haven’t fought each other, Barry had to admit that his crew was a formidable force to face and even placed him on edge. He wasn’t confident that he could go toe to toe against Wreav, especially in his current condition. Barry wanted to at least know if they were only here to collect their taxes or possibly something else. “What are these villagers to you? Can you at least tell me that?”

  Wreav thought about his response for a moment before loosening his grip on his weapon, “You can say that we came to collect some form of payment for our services, my crew and I made a deal to handle any potential threats from causing trouble for the people living here. But truthfully, as I said before about my men, we’ve been slacking on our job for quite some time.”

  Barry had thought they came to take advantage of the unfortunate invasion to scavenge whatever they could find, if he just paid them for their services for the people of the village right now, maybe they would go away. “Wait, so if I just pay you right now, you and your men will leave? Am I getting that right?”

  Wreav snickered. “So, you are admitting that there are still people here?”

  Barry didn’t think about what he had just said, that insinuated that Ned and his people were still alive, but shook it off because he believed all the Orcs wanted was money. “Okay, yes, I’m sorry for stalling. They are still alive, but again, I can pay for them if that’s truly the reason why you came. Here…”

  He would then reach into his pocket and mentally pull out a pouch of gold worth 500 gold from his inventory, and chucking it at Wreav’s feet. “That’s 500, that should be more than enough to pay for your services. It doesn’t matter who pays you, right?”

  Wreav would look down at the pouch of gold, his expression was blank, almost like he wasn’t interested in the pouch of gold. Barry wondered what was wrong, if he came to collect money from the villagers than there shouldn’t be a problem with him paying in their place. ‘Please just take the money and leave…’

  The Orc leader would then shift his eyes back at Barry, his eyes now serious, so serious that Barry was expecting for him to lunge at him swinging. “No, I am no longer interested in the money anymore.” He then kicked the pouch to the side with such force that it ripped the pouch open and sending the coins flying in the sky with immense force. “Instead…I want something else as a form of payment. Something that only you can give me…”

  Barry tensed up, focused on what Wreav’s next move was, watching with caution. He watched as Wreav waved a hand in the air and did something that only he thought only he could do that shocked him. Wreav materialized a potion in hand, that was when Barry came to the realization of why he believed Barry wasn’t from the world they were in right now. ‘He’s also a contestant of Lost Adventure!?’ Everything that he said made more sense, when he mentioned encountering people from his world, he must have also questioned them about the game.

  Wreav tell Barry was reacting internally to what he just did, he didn’t care that he refused to reveal his true identity because he would soon get it out of him with what he would do next. “Take it.” Wreav threw the potion at Barry, who caught it and inspected it, ‘Elixir of Vitality’ was its name. Drinking the potion would restore his Health and Stamina back to full from his current condition, he was getting the hint as to why he was being given it. “You know what will happen once I find these people, so tell me. What is your answer, Bad Blood Barry?”

  The wind picked up, blowing dust and bits of debris through the village, the wind whistling in Barry’s ears as he thought about his decision. He was in this predicament because of the good for nothing feelings to help those in need, every one he came across that needed help, he would be at their aid, no matter how much he resisted.

  Yet, this time was different. He opened the bottle and drank it, raising his weapon towards the leader of the Orcs, making Wreav grin. This time, Barry would agree with those bothersome feelings of doing good for no reward. Despite the possibility that he might die from in the next couple of minutes, he felt he had an obligation to be this village’s champion, even if he got nothing out of it. Just this time, he would agree with this mysterious sense of justice. “Let’s fucking go, Wreav.”