Rexus ~ Chapter five!

“Stop right there!” Jaxon shouted with all the force he could muster, pumping so much intimidation into his voice that he actually burned through fifty points of stamina. Jaxon had no idea that he could enhance intimidation like that! This required further research! His voice seemed to shake the air itself, and everyone in the local area froze… momentarily.

The armored man standing above a whimpering Wolfman female looked at Jaxon with annoyance written large on his face. “This is our bounty, freak! Get out of here before we send you to respawn!”

Jaxon couldn’t believe what he was hearing right now. “Are you out of your minds? Look around! These are civilians! These are women and children! How can you attack them?”

“Easy, you aim a little lower and don’t use as much force! That way you can save your energy for the fighters!” a man twirling knives stepped forward with a laugh, raising his blade. Jaxon darted forward as the dagger stabbed down at a puppy, poking the attacker’s elbow three times in quick succession. On the third poke, a small needle extended and retracted from Jaxon’s glove. The penetration should have gotten him right in the tendon and funny bone, but from the resounding scream Jaxon doubted it felt ‘funny’ at all.

The armored fighter rushed Jaxon with a roar, as did two other members of the group. Mr. Rogue was still clutching his arm, but seemed to find that anger was the solution to his problems; so he reached for a throwing dagger. Jaxon countered by activating Adjust before dodging the sword coming his way. Thirty points of damage rocked the Rogue as his elbow twisted, and the dagger he had been preparing to throw instead fell to the ground and stuck into the dirt. Jaxon risked himself for a moment to try and understand the group he was looking at. As far as he could tell, it seemed like this was a fairly standard group: two melee fighters, a rogue, an archer that was thankfully not here, and what appeared to be a low-leveled Mage. Perhaps some form of combat buffer?

Either way, the tactics for fighting a group like this alone were very clear: don’t do it. They were used to working together and protecting their team, so the only way to win this would be to follow the standard practice of taking down the squishies. To get at the Mage-looking fellow, Jaxon needed to get past the Warrior-tank man and what appeared to be a lumberjack. Not sure why he used an axe like that, or what merchant was making flannel in this world, but it was a good look. Jaxon wondered if he could find a flannel monk robe, and his distraction almost cost him dearly.

A sword point was whistling through the air towards Jaxon’s eye, the warrior behind it obviously expecting an easy kill when Jaxon didn’t move as swiftly as he had been. Jaxon leaned back and threw a couple needles at the warrior, making him sputter and block his face with his hands. He nearly dropped his sword as well, but Jaxon didn’t use the opening. Instead he used the distraction of the warrior blocking his own sight to slip around and kick him in the back of his knee, at the same time pulling down on the back collar of his breastplate. The warrior toppled to the ground as Jaxon bent sideways to avoid the swing of an axe.

“Where were you when we were in the stupid instant dungeon?” Jaxon shouted at the lumberjack, spittle flying. “The enemies were trees! Lumber men! Trees!”

Jaxon’s sudden fury made the fighter stumble backward and raise his axe defensively. Exactly as planned. Jaxon ducked and spun, using the motion to arrive in front of the magic man hiding at the back of the group. Three full-force punches into a magical neck, which included an extending needle, ensured that there would not be any spells flying around. As long as the mage needed to speak to cast, Jaxon should be fine to leave him alone, especially since the angry stabby person was closing in on him from behind. As a knife came at his spine, Jaxon stepped to the side and let the blade swing past him. Jaxon grabbed the extended arm, twisting and throwing the rouge over himself to land heavily on the ground.

“Stop!” Why was that voice familiar? Oh, drat. The Archer had arrived. “If you keep attacking, I’ll take you down!”

“I wasn’t attacking, I was stopping them from killing puppies!” Jaxon explained with his hands in the air. The humans were getting to their feet in various stages of pain, and magic man was violently coughing up blood. At least he could breathe, Jaxon had been worried that he had crushed the Mage’s windpipe.

“Guys…?” The archer’s voice wavered a little as he took in the scene: wounded Wolfman females, the cowering puppies, blood dripping down a sword without a wound being visible on Jaxon. “You guys didn’t, did you…?”

“Come on, man! They’re just computer programs, they aren’t real! You know what is real? The money we get for their bounties!”

“How much?” Jaxon asked seriously, even as the rogue was ‘sneakily’ trying to get behind him.

“What?” 

“This warrior doesn’t seem to have many points in intelligence.” Oops. Jaxon had accidentally said that thought out loud. 

“Let me try again. How much money would you get for their bounties?” Jaxon patiently awaited the answer as the group counted the Wolfmen.

“A half silver a head.” The Warrior said aloud, finishing his slow counting. “This would net us forty silver, easy.”

“Tell you what.” Jaxon fished a gold coin out of his bag. It may have been a blessing in disguise that he hadn’t been able to get to the bank. “I’ll give you this if you promise to leave them alone.”

The group was eying the gold coin, but seemed hesitant to accept. Well, that was the carrot, time for the stick. “Or you can fight me again, then attack the very large people over there that will be fighting to protect their young. All on the off chance of making half this amount of money without losing experience.”

Jaxon waved the coin around in an attempt to hypnotize them, but no skill popped up so he must have been doing it wrong. The archer spoke for the group, at least Jaxon hoped he did. “We’ll take it. Come on guys, this is stupid. Do you really want to kill puppies? Even if they are just virtual? Game or reality, I don’t care where you do it that’s some sick stuff.”

“Fine, fine!” the Warrior grumbled even as the rogue snarled at this outcome. Jaxon thought the rogue just wanted to stab him just for fun at this point. The armored brute held out his hand for the coin, and it landed in his palm with a *clink*.

“A pleasure doing business with you, gentlemen!” Jaxon called as they gathered together and walked off. The Mage, still coughing, made an entirely unnecessary and overtly rude gesture as they vanished into the foliage. 

Well, that was enough of that. Jaxon looked over at the Wolfmen, who were watching him warily as they tended to their damaged member. Jaxon decided to wait until they were up to full capacity before leaving, he’d hate for someone to attack them right now. When everyone was on their feet and the beastly people seemed to be getting ready to start moving again, Jaxon waved, turned, and started walking away. To his surprise, a guttural voice called out to him.

“Wait, human.”