A Warlock's Ascent

Throwing a spear at the creature would have been a bad idea if there was a considerable distance between him and the creature. But as the creature was so close by, he thought that throwing a spear was worth a shot.

When he threw the spear, the creature was easily able to catch it. But he didn't stop there. He started running towards the creature with his plan in his mind.

He instantly whipped out another spear from his inventory and threw this one as well at it as well. The creature was able to catch it as well. He then quickly took out another one and threw straight it at the ape…

He figured that if that dumb creature was holding two spears in its hands, then it would not be able to catch the last spear. And he was indeed right. His spear went straight toward the head of the creature and got lodged in the eyes of the creature.

BAAAM

The creature fell down on his back and started wailing in pain. But he didn't stop there. He instantly started running towards the head of the creature and jumped on it. While in the air, he took the battle ax that Grump gave him to keep safe in his inventory.

He then let the weight of the ax, as well as his momentum, do the rest of the job…

The battle ax went inside the skull of the creature and opened it up as if it was a cantaloupe. After the head of the monster was opened, the whole area became silent. The monkeys that were cheering their champion before now were standing there in silence.

He on the other hand was happy. He remembers the message from the system saying that he would be free to go after he had killed this monster. But now as he stood there in the middle of the clearing, he started wondering how he was supposed to get out there.

He then grabbed the battle ax and started looking around for an opening. And soon spotted an opening, that area in particular didn't have a lot of monkeys in it.

'If I use my shield then he could ram his way out of there, then I could make it out of here. Even if it backfires, then this is a better alternative than staying here, surrounded by Kongs.' he thought.

With a plan in his mind, he started moving towards the opening slowly as possible, not trying to spook any Kongs. The monkeys surrounding the area were still silent and were all glaring at him. It was then he suddenly made his move.

He started running towards the opening. He took his shield and put the ax back in his inventory. While running he put his shield up in front and was ready to ram the first thing that he will see in his path.

But it came as a surprise that, none of the monsters followed him or tried to even stop him. Even the monkeys that were standing near the opening didn't move a muscle when he ran away.

Seeing this he was happy that he was able to get out of there without getting into a fight. But he was also confused as to why didn't the monkeys do anything. Was he missing something?

After he had made some distance between himself and the clearing, he doubled check to see whether any monsters were following him. It is only after he was sure that no one was around him, did he sat down, to rest and catch his breath. He was exhausted.

The fight didn't cause him a lot of damage which was surprising to him. All his previous encounters with monsters have ended up in him being heavily injured in some way or another. So he was happy that he was able to deal with a monster that big and strong without being critically injured….

After he had rested enough he got up again and started wondering what he should do now. After thinking for a while, he figured that he should start moving toward the mountain ranges. As his group was moving there before he was separated from them.  So he figured that he should go up mountain ranges as well. And who knows, maybe from there, he would be able to spot the back bridge.

With a plan in his mind, he started moving. But it is only after covering a 100 m distance or so, he started feeling that something was off. Maybe he was being paranoid, but his senses were telling him that something was wrong. So he stopped for a moment and turned around. The forest around him felt strangely silent and there was no one in sight.

He then started looking up at the canopy of trees for any sign of Kongs. The green canopy of the trees could camouflage those monsters very easily, so he started looking carefully.

He couldn't spot anything out of the ordinary. And he was about to relax, but it was then he spotted something that made a chill run down his spine. He saw a Kong. It was sitting on one of the branches of the trees and was looking straight at him.

The monster was not moving at all, combined with his camouflage made it very hard for him to spot him. It was staring at him like it was only there to keep an eye on him. And with one Kong found, he then started spotting more and more Kongs in his vicinity. All of them were glued to their spots and all were looking intently at him. Seeing this he started to get a bad feeling…

He then turned around and started walking again. As he saw that the monsters were not attacking him, he figured that they would not follow him as well. After covering some distance, he looked back. And sure enough, they were following him, and it seemed to him that their number had increased.

This was a very terrifying situation for him. He didn't know what was happening and how can he get out of this place. The only good thing about the situation was the Kongs were only observing him and not attacking him.

As he started thinking about escaping, his train of thought broke when he heard something in a distance.

"DAVVY!"

So he instantly started running towards the sound. And with him, Kongs also moved. And as he got closer to the sound, a smile bloomed on his face as he recognized the voice of the human shouting his name. It belonged to Grump. Hearing the voice of the old man, he felt like he was the luckiest man in the world.

But it was then he heard something from his back. Something was moving towards him and that thing was very fast…

CREEE!!!

It was then he heard a very weird screech from his back. And before he know it, something jumped from the canopy of the trees and landed in front of him. The thing that landed was a Kong. This one was not as big as the one that he killed. This one was about 6 feet tall. This one didn't have bulging muscles but had a lean body.

But just like the previous one this creature also had a weapon. It had a very long curved great sword that was resting on its shoulder. Unlike the big cleaver, this sword was very clean and the edge of the sword looked like it could cut through steel if it had to.

"Now what the fuck are you?" he said out loud.

CREEE!!!

The creature screeched again and then started making its move. It was very fast and soon came to him and swung its sword in the form of an upwards slash. The speed of the creature shocked him and he was barely able to move out of the trajectory of the sword.

Dave avoided the sword strike by jumping sideways. And by the time he started to get up, he noticed one green color leg making its way toward his stomach.

BAAAM

The creature kicked him in the stomach and made him fly away a foot or two away. And as soon as he had landed on the ground with an aching stomach, the creature was already in the air with its sword in its arms. And it was going to slam its sword on him, trying chopping in half. The worst part was that he knew that he couldn't move in time…

****

As the city lord of the Great City of Ravenshade, Carlin had a lot on her plate. After the worst beast tide that had hit them in several centuries, the situation of Ravenshade was deteriorating day by day. And there was nothing that she could do about it.

The city was almost destroyed. Food supplies are scarce. Most of the crop fields were destroyed. Most of the town was destroyed. And people have been pillaging and destroying everything that comes their way just to get something to drink or eat. It was really a worst-case scenario for her and the people of Ravenshade.

But this fine morning a piece of news came to her ears which spoiled her whole morning. After getting the news, she immediately went to her office, where Brock, the leader of the armed forces of Ravenshade was already waiting for her…

"How bad is it?" Carlin asked as soon as she entered the office.

"Very bad. That mother fucker not only ran away but also took most of our supplies to make potions. And he also stole some of the books from the collection that previous Lords Left behind." She then hurriedly sat down on her desk and started looking at the list of things that Hamel Gomez had stolen from her.

"This doesn't make sense. Half the ingredients that he stole must be stored in a cool place or they will go bad. Even if he is able to procure a spatial trunk with cooling Runic Circuits, then also the ingredients will only stay fresh for about 7-8 hours. All the ingredients would rot before he could hit another town. So why would he steal them in the first place?" Carlin said while looking at the list.

"My guess would be that he wanted to weaken us. That is why he stole those ingredients."

"But why?"

"From what I was told those ingredients are used to make Health, Stamina, and Mana Regeneration potions. If he stole those means that either he was planning to sell them to someone. Or he took it because someone ordered him to do so. Maybe it could be the same person who snuck him out of the city." Brock said while shifting on his chair

"Selling those items cannot be the root cause. Hamel Gomez is the top Alchemist of Midgard. He doesn't ask for money. Money comes running toward him. And I promised him a hefty amount of money after everything was under control. So it cannot be money."

"Could it be that he did all of this out of spite?"

"No that cannot be the case. I have known him and worked with him for many years. I know him pretty well. And he is not the kind of person who would do such a thing for the sake of spite. I think someone had forced him or offered him a better deal."

"Who?" Brock asked.

"If he doesn't need money, then the only thing that I know that could sway him away would be protection. Because he lacks that now. The current Ravenshade cannot guarantee his safety because of things that had been happening here. So someone must have offered him safety."

"Protection, huh? I would have guessed that someone from Vecrus offered him something, but that cannot be the case. The while-haired bitch is barely alive. Clouldhold and Barcelma are a mess right now, so they are out of the picture. So then that only leaves one place that would have something to offer to Hamel… Someone from Infragiis talked him into doing all of this?"

"That could be the case. After all, from what news I have got, Infragilis is still pretty safe because only the big wooden gates of the city were destroyed during the beast tide. That would mean the great wall is still standing at large."

"And that could provide him with protection that he and his grandson needs,"

"As for the ingredients, I think Damien would be behind it. He likes messing with other city lords more than anything else." Carlin said with an angered look.

"Hm… that is possible. By the way, we both know who helped him get away. So what should we do about him?" Brock asked.

"Grego? I don't know frankly. I would like to make a move on him. But the thing is, he has a lot of adventurers in his pocket right now. With the city's current situation, I don't want to make him my enemy. " Carlin said.

"I can understand your concern. But I think that this is the perfect time to make him your enemy and show him who is the boss."

"Why?"

"Think about it, Carlin… Most of the adventurers are on his payroll. And they would also fight for him. And in uncertain times like this, if a coupe happens then the person with strong warriors would come out triumphant."

"Do you think there is a chance of coupe?"

"I don't know about that. But I know something about Grego, that man is obsessed with power. He would not let an opportunity like this slide away. So you must prepare yourself for the worst-case scenario." Brock said in a grim voice