Merchant Crab

“What the—” Tom the skeleton exclaimed, bolting up from the crate he was sitting on.

“Burznarfuogol, Yaturwurtguthvarbu!” the orc chieftain shouted to his companions. “We are under attack. Cover our hosts.”

The other two orcs rushed to the counter without a moment of hesitation, standing in front of Henrietta and Tristan with their blunt weapons at the ready.

Ren already knew the orcs would have to be his first targets, as they posed the biggest threat, but even he was impressed by how fast and well they reacted to his surprise attack.

“Tell me how to get to your master and we can make this end a lot faster,” the champion said.

“Master?!” the shaken toad said from atop the counter, peeking past one of the orc’s elbows. “What in the world is he talking about?”

“I know not whom you speak of,” Khargol said with a threatening scowl. “We serve no master, and if you came here looking for an easy battle, you would do well to flee now.”

“Flee?!” Ren repeated, a bout of arrogant outrage flaring up inside him.

Those creatures were not only trying to fool him about the one they served, but they were also insulting him by implying he would have turned tail and fled from a battle. An easy fight was not what he had come there for, but now he was certainly feeling like getting an extra level or two out of it.

Whether it was information on Balthazar or just plain experience, he would get something out of that encounter with those monsters.

“I’ll show you who is going to be fleeing,” Ren said bitterly as he stepped toward the orc, sword pointed forward.

Using his keen senses that kept him fully aware of his surroundings at all times, the adventurer realized that the lizard was gone from the dark corner of the room. Impressive speed and stealth, but still no match for the champion’s prowess.

Changing his stance at the last second, Ren switched his strike from the orc to the lizardman rushing at him from the side with a spear.

With a clink of metal, the skilled swordsman disarmed the reptilian being in the blink of an eye, but before he could utter a victorious one-liner, the orc chieftain took advantage of the opening.

The orc’s loud roar shook the young man’s ribs from the inside as Khargol sent a mighty punch forward, which was met by Ren’s Deflecting Palm skill he acquired from an abandoned monastery the week before.

Surprised by the ease with which the human dismissed his attack, the orc stumbled a few steps to the side.

“Forfeit now and I—”

Ren’s eyes widened as his acute sense of hearing picked up a rattling of bones coming up behind him.

“Clickety clack, get into my sack!” the skeleton yelled as he pulled his bag over the adventurer’s head.

The human turned his blade up as the bag descended upon him, turning everything dark.

It took less than a second for him to feel the orc chieftain taking advantage of the undead’s trick by pummeling him with powerful punches to the stomach over the burlap bag. They would no doubt be dealing massive damage to his health, were it not for the high defense rating provided by the armor plates he was wearing.

“Quick, fetch us some rope, Tom,” the young man heard Jor’gath say.

They were going to capture him. Probably planning to serve him right up to their master, Balthazar.

Ren had no intention of letting that happen, however.

Activating the enchantment on his longsword, the champion ripped the bag open with a glowing slash of the blade, followed by a second swing aimed straight at the leader of the orcs.

“I’ve got you now, beast!” the bloodthirsty adventurer said.

And then the unthinkable happened. Something that Ren did not see coming shot out from a shadowy corner of the room and hit him in the back of the hand, disrupting his strike and nearly making him drop his weapon.

“What?!” he exclaimed in disbelief, looking at the feathered dart lodged right between his tendons.

It was laced with some kind of poison, but that was quickly neutralized by his boosted resistances.

All he managed to see was a blurry figure of a second, female lizard creature vanishing into the shadows just as the lizardman, Jor’gath, brought the tip of his spear down on him.

“No!” Ren shouted as he dived to the side.

“Didn’t see my watcher coming, did you, human?” the slender lizard hissed.

Huffing with anger at how much trouble a bunch of simple monsters were giving him, the champion decided it was no time to hold back. Even if he would get no answers that night, he would at least send a strong message to his nemesis.

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Grabbing his longsword with both hands, Ren started charging his mana into the most powerful skill in his arsenal. A devastating area of effect attack that would wipe out the entire room and anyone within it.

“Tell Balthazar I am coming for him!” he yelled as his sword began glowing and a circle of wind took shape around him, making the monsters hold back.

“Balthazar?” Tristan said, poking his head out from behind the counter. “Is this guy like an unsatisfied customer or something?”

“Your master will rue the day he summoned me on that beach! I will find him, and I will get what he took from me.”

“What in the world are you talking about, son?” Henrietta shouted over the increasingly louder noise of the wind blowing around the room. “Balthazar is just a merchant!”

“His lies don’t fool me!” Ren’s voice echoed over the storm charging around his blade.

“I think you must be confused,” said the toad. “Please, just put the sword down and let’s talk about it.”

“Yes, please listen to Henrietta,” Tristan said.

“I will hear no lies from monsters,” the adventurer said with bitterness to his tone. “You can all serve as experience to make me stronger.”

“Is no one gonna do anything about that big glowy attack he’s charging?!” Tom yelled over the deafening wind, holding his hat to his skull.

“Be vanquished, fiends!” the champion shouted as he lifted the longsword, preparing to strike the floor below and release the charged attack.

“Oh, for the love of Crea…”

Out of nowhere, something slimy and sticky jumped on Ren’s face.

“A bunch of big men standing there and none of you is going to stop him?!” the toad desperately shouted as she held onto the adventurer’s face with all she had. “Do something!”

The champion let out several muffled grunts as he took one hand off the sword and tried to remove the green creature stuck to his face, causing the charged attack to fizzle out before it ever released.

A toad. Of all the things the prodigal adventurer was prepared for, a small slimy creature attaching itself to him as he was about to unleash a devastating attack was somehow one he hadn’t considered.

Angry at the merchant’s accomplices and at himself, Ren stumbled a few steps back, trying to get a grip on the toad, his hand slipping off her wet skin over and over again.

“Jazk, now!” Jor’gath yelled.

The shadowy lizard emerged from behind a shelf and spun her tail around, hitting the back of Ren’s legs and making him fall back.

“Argh!” he yelled as he hit the floor and the impact caused the toad to fly off his face.

“Henrietta!” shouted Tristan as he threw himself over the counter with both hands out. “I’ve got you!”

The toad landed right into Tristan’s palms with a squeaky noise as the man let out a sigh of relief. “Phew!”

Before Ren had time to get back up and scramble for his sword, the two orc brothers had already moved on him, holding his shoulders down as their chieftain planted his foot on the thick armor plates over his stomach.

“Concede,” the stoic orc snarled.

“Yes, you should listen to my friend’s wise words, human,” said Jor’gath, pointing the tip of his spear at the champion’s chest, while Jazk held a dagger against his throat.

“Yeah, yeah, what they said!” the skeleton added as he wrapped some rope around Ren’s ankles.

“You will not stop me, monsters,” the adventurer muttered behind grinding teeth. “I will find your master and I will put a stop to his evil deeds.”

“Evil deeds?” Henrietta said, hopping back onto the counter. “Balthazar might be a bit cranky and hard to deal with at times—I would know—but he’s hardly evil. Are you sure you got the right merchant?”

“His mind wiping didn’t work on me and neither will your poor attempt at trickery, toad,” Ren spat as the others sat him on a chair, rope tied around both his hands and feet. “My name is Warren, beast, and mark my words. Even if it takes me a lifetime, I will find that man, and I will make him pay for taking away my life!”

The group exchanged confused looks at one another as they gathered closer, lowering their voices to a hushed tone.

“Is this guy like…” Tom said, spinning a bony finger around next to his temple. “…or something?”

“Maybe Balthazar sold him an expired potion out there?” Tristan suggested.

The young man watched as they talked among themselves. He had been reckless. Allowed his frustrations to speak louder than his rational thinking, and it had cost him a humiliating defeat at the hands of a group of low-level monsters.

He needed to get away. To recover and recollect his thoughts.

Slowly, the adventurer reached behind his belt for a hidden dagger to cut his wrists loose.

“We could make him talk,” Khargol said to the others, cracking his knuckles.

“We have our own ways to do it too, if you want,” said Jor’gath.

“Alright, fellas, easy,” Tristan said. “The poor boy already thinks we’re monsters, let’s not give him any reason to be right.”

As they talked, Henrietta rubbed her glistening chin thoughtfully. “Wait a minute. What did he say a moment ago? That he would find that… man? Does he not know that Balthazar is a cra—”

With a blinding flash and a loud bang, the room started rapidly filling with smoke.

Ren, free from the ropes, rolled to his longsword as his nemesis’s minions coughed and shouted.

“He has freed himself,” Khargol yelled. “Get him!”

But as they all scattered around the bazaar and the smoke cleared, they realized the adventurer was gone, a single broken shutter swinging on its hinge left in the wake of his escape.

Warren ran.

The champion ran and ran down the road until he couldn’t see the lights of his archrival’s lair anymore.

His lungs burned with the cold night air, but that was nothing compared to the pain inflicted to his pride.

He had been bested for the first time. And not even by Balthazar, but his minions. A toad jumping on his face brought him down.

Ren felt humiliation like he had never experienced in his entire, perfect life.

His level 30, all his skills, all his gear, every preparation he had taken. Everything denied by a group of low-grade monsters working together. He barely got away, thanks to some quick thinking, their own momentary distraction, and a pocketed smoke bomb he had looted from a dead rogue all the way back when he was level 7.

The adventurer had suffered a harsh lesson that night which he would not soon forget.

As the champion disappeared into the depths of the Black Forest, the cold truth washed over him: if he ever wanted to face Balthazar himself, he would have to become stronger. Far stronger than anyone else had ever been in that world.

He would need to get real power.

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