A Warlock's Ascent

Everyone was tense, those half-horse monsters were closing in on them with incredible speed, based on the faces of the soldiers present with them, Dave understood that they might be very dangerous.

Grump slammed his big battle ax on the ground, making it stick to it, and then calmly started walking in the direction of the monsters. While moving he took out his long, dangling from his shoulder, and then he knocked one of the arrows onto his bow.

Then he stretched the string of his bow and waited. Monsters were coming closer and closer as every second passed, but Grump didn't do anything. He waited there patiently without a worry about the world. And as soon as the monsters got in range of his bow, he raised the bow in the air and then let it loose.

Grump used a skill or maybe magic while shooting the arrow. Because as soon as he shot it, the arrow started accelerating with a burst of wind. From his naked eyes, Dave saw that the arrow leave behind a trail of wind, it was spinning on its axis when cruising through the air and hence producing eddies that looked like a tornado.

The arrow then made its way toward those monsters, striking down the one carrying the horn, the creature fell down, then did a barrel towards the front and stayed on the ground. Even with one of their comrade down, the other creatures didn't break the formation. They still kept running towards them…

Grump then threw his bow away and started running toward the monsters

AAAAAHHHHH!!!

With a very loud warcry, the old man ran.

Hearing his battle cry, the creatures also started shouting, resembling the battle cries of the old Native American Indian tribes.

And it was then he saw, one of the creatures taking out huge swords from their back and charging toward Grump. It is only after seeing those big swords, he understood why these guys were panicking in the first place.

Monsters of any kind are a little bit hard to deal with. But when a monster starts to use a weapon, then its danger level increases significantly. The creatures in front of him were on a different level, now he understood that.

He remembered those little goblins. They were large in number and were using mostly blunt weapons to attack. But physically they were very weak and hence easier to deal with.

But the creatures in front of him were pretty muscular. As well as the weapons that they were using looked shiny and sharp. Their weapons looked like something that was made freshly in a forge, making them even more dangerous…

Grump ran at full speed toward the creatures. The sheer speed of his sprint was commendable, but it was nothing compared to what happened next. The three creatures were moving in a formation. One was in the front while the other two were in the back.

As soon as they intercepted each other, the creature in front swung his great sword toward the old man's forehead. While the old man avoided the blow by getting on his knees and sliding past the creature.

As Grump slid past the first creature, he was met with the gazes of the other two. The old man then pulled out two Katakuri knives conveniently hidden behind his quiver. He then swung his knives, trying to cut the hoves of the creatures.

One of the creatures got caught by his attack and thus lost one of its hoves. While the other creature narrowly avoided his attack by jumping at the last second.

The one whose hove had been chopped off clean fell on the ground head first. While its partner, after jumping away from the old man, came back at him again. He tried to crush the old man under his weight, but the old man displayed incredible agility and narrowly avoided its attack while still lying on the ground…

While Grump was taking on two creatures at the same time, Dave and the people who stayed behind got into battle position as a creature that was making its way towards them.

Martha who was an archer knocked her bow and fired at the charging creature. But the creature easily deflected the arrows, they were not as fast as the one the old man shot. Dave started fearing for his life. Martha's arrows were in no way slow that one can deflect them with a sword. But the creature easily did so.

He immediately took out his sword and shield from his inventory. Martha and the other two soldiers noticed how he conjured a shield and a sword out of thin air. But they didn't say anything at the moment because they knew that now was not the time.

He was also fully aware that his actions had sent a loud howler to the world that he was an Earthian. But he didn't worry about it now. There were bigger fishes to fry currently.

Martha fired a lot of arrows toward the upcoming creatures but none of them seem to be doing anything to him. It was able easily to deflect them with its great sword. As she saw, her efforts were fruitless, she gritted her teeth and knocked another arrow, whose tip was set ablaze as soon as she knocked it.

She then pulled the string and held the arrow in its position. Slowly the fire started burning brighter and brighter. People around her started feeling the power of the arrow getting stronger and stronger as time passed by. But till then the creature understood what would happen to him if she fired the arrow. So it took out a small throwing knife from his back and threw it at Martha.

Dave who was closest to Martha knew, how important that arrow was. And it may be their only chance to stop the advance of the creature. As soon as he saw that creature was taking something out of his back, he instinctively jumped in front of Martha to shield her from whatever the creature would throw at him.

The throwing knife that the creature threw at her was intercepted by his shield. As soon as the knife made contact with the shield, it cut through it, as if it was made of cardboard. The momentum of the knife made him fly back. And unfortunately, he flew back towards Martha's legs which made her tumble and fall on him.

As Martha lost her balance, she unknowingly let go of the bowstring. Because of this, the arrow flew away in another direction, completely bypassing its target. And as soon as the arrow crashed on the ground, it created a very loud explosion which send shockwaves everywhere…

Now the creature was now upon them. As soon as it reached them, it was intercepted by the two soldiers who had both raised their shields in the air. As the creature came towards them, it swung its sword toward the soldiers on the right. The soldier took the full power of the blow on his shield. He fell down on his feet after taking the deadly blow.

Using this opportunity, the other soldier, took his sword and swung it at the creature. But the creature avoided the attack after hopping backward. But it was then the creature abruptly jumped and turned around midair. Then as soon as it landed, it send a back kick toward the second soldier who was not able to block the blow of the kick. The blow landed on the soldier's head and made him fly backward. The soldier died immediately after the impact.

Then the creature immediately moved towards the one who had fallen down. That guy was still having trouble moving, the blow did a number on his leg, refusing to move. He didn't even see the big sword coming towards him and before one know it, his neck was cut in half…

Dave ran towards the creature while yelling a war cry. The creature only smirked at his feeble attempt, while Martha started firing a volley of arrows toward the creature. With Dave advancing towards him, the creature then pulled out another short sword from his back. The short was a saber that looked like a big army knife in its hand.

When Dave came to the creature, he was greeted by a downward swing of the saber. Which he was able to dodge by a hair's length.

From the start, he knew that he had no chance of fighting the monster alone in a sword fight. So he devised a plan that maybe he should at least try to decapitate the hands of the monster. That is why after dodging its attack, he quickly swung his sword with all of the strength he had to decapitate the monster's arm.

But the monster was more agile. It instantly hopped backward and avoided his strike. But in return, one of Martha's arrows got through and struck the creature right under his right side chest.

The creature bellowed with anger as it felt the arrow lodged in his chest. It instantly switched blades in his hands. And then threw the saber at her. She tried to dodge it, but she was not fast enough. The saber struck the lower right side of her abdomen, piercing her like seekh kabab. But she was still alive.

<AN- I love seekh kabab.>

But the monster was not done yet. It threw its long sword as well, which struck her on her chest, killing her instantly. All of this happened in a split second, and the monster was upon him again, it took out another saber from its behind and swung it at him. He wasn't able to react in time, the monster's strength and skill made his sword go flying up in the air.

The creature caught his sword with its free hand and then pointed its sword toward Dave's neck. The creature had a smug look on his face, while he was horrified…

The situation was bad. But he knew one thing, he was not ready to die. Not yet. He had been through so much already, and all for what? To be killed by a monstrosity who wears human bones for ornaments. No, he was not buying it. He was not ready.

It was then he had a crazy idea. He didn't know whether it work or not, but at least he had to try. He then started staring into the monster's eyes with a terrified face. But it was then he changed his expression to that one of happiness. He then started looking that the back of the monster.

Seeing the sudden change in expression, the monster's smug face vanished and it turned its face around. And that was all that he was hoping for. He immediately took out a spear from his inventory through a mental command and thrust it toward the creature's face.

The spear pierced through its face without a hitch. The creature took a step back, its arms started moving randomly, while its body started convulsing as if it had a seizure. And then it fell on the ground.

............….

You have slain a centaur.

............….

You have been awarded 250 exp for your feat.

..........

You have leveled up.

.........…..

You have leveled up.

.............

You have leveled up.

..............

When the creature fell, it fell on the spear, thus breaking the staff of the spear in half. He then knelt down and took out his spear. It was then he turned when he heard some running towards him.

He then saw Grump running towards him and the other while covered in blood from head to toe.

"What happened?"

"Killed the son of a bitch." he murmured and then he went to check on Martha, but she had passed away.

"You killed him? Fuck. You are a very goddamn lucky kid." Grump said. Then he took out the Karakuri knife from his back and started opening the chest of the centaur.

Dave who still kneeling by Martha, mourning her death, was shocked when he heard him cutting open the dead creature. He looked back and asked…

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Taking out the mana crystal," Grump said while putting his hands in the creature's chest. And a second later, he took out a shining blue gemstone from its chest.

"What the hell is that?"

"That is the mana stone," Grump said. Then he tossed the stone to Dave who caught it in the air.

"Now let's go. We need to get out of here." the old man said and then he started moving towards the nearest dead soldier. He then started rummaging through its body and started pocketing anything he found useful.

"Wait what about them?" Dave said while pointing towards the dead bodies lying around them.

"They are dead. There is nothing you and I can do for them. We are in Centaur's territory now. And it would be better for us if we get away from this place as fast as we can. Because the next centaur party would be bigger than this one. These were just scouts." Grump said.

"But we can't just leave them here."

"Sure we can. Just leave them."

"But…" Dave was about saying something again. But he stopped midway.

Grump was right. They had to leave them behind. His heart said that they should bury them at least. But then he started thinking about the corpses that he had seen so far. He had seen the mutilated corpses of the soldiers at the tower and the corpses of the normal people in that ghost town. Those people also needed to be buried or cremated, but still, he left them as it they were.

And the only reason that his heart refused to leave these guys was that he knew them…

But with a heavy heart, he got up and started looking at Grump for further instructions.