The Runesmith

Roland’s body twitched as he felt cold. He began to slowly open his eyes while having a tough time remembering what happened.

He was instantly greeted by a splitting headache. His vision felt muddled and it took a couple of seconds for it to focus.

He found himself in an unfamiliar location if you could call it that. What he saw was an uneven ceiling that consisted of just rocks and dirt. The walls were uneven with bugs crawling on them, he was clearly in some kind of cave.

There was some light coming out from the side, probably the cave’s entrance. Thanks to it he could barely see as he didn’t possess any night seeing skills or abilities.

He felt terrible as if a stampede of horses ran him over. He knew that something was wrong and he needed to assess the situation. First, he checked if he was in any condition to fight. He did this by trying to stand up.

Luckily besides some bruises and a splitting headache, nothing was broken. There was a lack of bindings around his feet and arms so he felt like he wasn’t captured by anything or anyone.

There was also the possibility that the person that brought him here didn’t see him as a threat. It could be a tier 2 or tier 3 being that judged his danger level to be quite low.

He leaned back against the wall as his vision slowly started returning. He quickly looked to the side and found that his arming sword wasn’t there. He had his wands and his bags of holding still on him which made him sigh out in relief.

Roland tried recalling what had transpired before he went unconscious. He remembered being in one of the wagons before a group of bandits attacked them. An arrow made its way through the cart he was in and landed on one of the boxes, then it all began and also when it all went wrong.

He jumped outside as the carriage stopped in its tracks. The way forward was blocked off and the bandits attacked. They were safely up on a faraway ledge above them and had an easy way to pelt them with more arrows.

Roland ducked behind the cart he was previously inside. It didn’t have much protection on the inside as it only had a cloth covering the framing as a roof. Outside he could at least hide behind the undercarriage and also the boxes on the inside would stop the arrows from penetrating further in.

The hired adventurers and the guards sprung into action. They in a similar fashion tried blocking the arrow paths with the wagons and carts. Some of them had large shields and bows of their own to fire back.

There were more people on the caravan’s side but at least half were non-combatants. People just traveling, merchants, and their families. This left the adventurers and the guards that came with the slave traders as the fighting force.

The bandits had prepared themselves for this ambush. They put up a barricade made from logs to block the way forward. There was also a group of men standing there with bows and crossbows. The way back was blocked off by them pushing large rocks down from the cliff above.

They had also brought some cover for themselves and could fire upon the caravan without the worry of getting hit themselves. Their thick wooden barricade above couldn’t be pierced even by tier 2 archers that were amongst the adventurers.

It was clear that the bandits didn’t want to take any prisoners. They encased them in a trap and would slowly whittle them down. They could probably blow them up with explosives if they wanted to, but they probably didn’t want to damage the items they could plunder.

The adventurers and soldiers set up a defensive perimeter by pushing the carts together. They were only able to make a half-circle with nowhere to run.

They all were now high up in the mountains with a drop to their doom behind them. The fog was thick so they couldn’t really tell what was down there. They all presumed that falling down was a one-way ticket to their afterlife.

Roland found himself next to a family of three. The child was crying in her mother's arms while the husband was to the side with a dagger in his hand. He didn’t look like someone that knew how to handle such a tool. His hands were trembling and his eyes were darting between a few places.

Roland could identify these three people and clearly see their classes. The child had none, the father had a farmer class while the woman was a cook.

Classes like this existed, mostly they signified that the person that had it was unfit for combat. They failed to reach the threshold of achieving even the simplest class like warrior or archer. They were also more common than people might think.

The exchange continued for a while but soon enough the bandits switched to fire arrows and flammable cocktails. Some of the wooden carriages started burning along with the items inside. The biggest problem was on the slavers side as they had people on the inside.

Before things could get any uglier Roland decided to act. He had an option of either helping these people out or running away on his own. He didn’t owe anyone anything here but he didn’t feel like leaving defenseless children behind.

It would leave a distasteful taste behind in his mouth if he abandoned kids and women to just die. He felt that with a larger number of people there would be a bigger chance of survival. There was strength in numbers and nowhere to go but forward.

First, he used one of his runic scrolls to put out the fire on the carriages. The heat was pushing people away from the protective barricade. Which would then leave them open to arrow attacks.

He combined two spells, one to make water and another one to freeze it. First, the water splashed against the flames, then with the addition of the cold, the fire subsided. The people looked at him with surprise in their eyes as he wasn’t part of the adventurers or the guards.

After putting out the fire Roland took out an orb of some sort. It looked like a tennis ball-sized sphere made from metal. He made his best baseball pitcher impression while throwing this ball at the bandits above them. It made a nice arc while going towards its target.

The bandits took notice of the spell caster among the caravan but it was a bit too late. They also noticed him throw something their way. This caused them to back away while putting up regular shields.

The ball of metal collided with one of those shields and just bounced off. It tumbled down and away from the bandits that looked at it curiously. It looked like Roland threw a round rock at them which caused more eyebrows to raise.

The men dropped their shields and were ready to return fire. It looked like the attack was a dud and they panicked for no reason. Before they could continue though they heard a strange sound.

The ball of metal then promptly exploded like a grenade. They were greeted by a small ball of fire and pieces of sharp metal. The metal caused widespread injuries while the explosion pushed them back.

This was an item that Roland made in his spare time. He combined both his runic craftsmanship along with his runic scrolls.

The metallic ball was hollow on the inside with a little slit through which he could fit a small version of a scroll in. Thanks to his condensation skill he was now able to miniaturize his scrolls even further.

The scroll was placed inside and he added runic parts to the ball. They mostly consisted of ethereal pathways so that he could activate it. So a runic grenade came to be. The moment it exploded the metal encasing that the runic scroll was in would go flying in all directions.

He had a couple of versions, some exploded within ten seconds some even faster. He used a more delayed version first to catch the people off guard. If it exploded too soon they might have defended themselves with their shields. He was banking on their curiosity getting the better of them and was rewarded for it.

He threw another grenade towards the bandits. One of them saw this and moved forward. The man saw the explosion from the side and realized what this item was. He also was thinking that he had enough time to deflect it. To his surprise, this orb exploded much sooner than the previous one.

The adventurers had tried using some of their own enchanted spell scrolls before. Yet the bandits shielding barricade and the mountain walls proved to be a good defense against them. The spells traveled in a straight line but Roland could throw his nades in an arch behind the enemy line to hit them.

The adventurers used this chance to fire off some arrows and bolts towards their enemies. Finally, the battle started shifting, even more after Roland unloaded his most powerful spell.

A large ball of condensed fire collided with the barricade and makeshift shielding that the bandits constructed above. This was a ‘Fire Blast’ spell empowered by Roland’s large amount of mana.

It caused wide destruction to the robber's side and it looked like the people here would be getting out alive. Roland even managed to clear out part of the other barricade that was blocking the path forward. With his high mana pool, the runic spells that he could cast were many times stronger than if a regular person activated them.

The bandits were sore losers though. They still had the high ground and a plan B. This plan consisted of pushing massive boulders down below and causing a rockslide.

Just as the people were close to cheering they were pelted by rocks. The large stones crushed the carts and carriages and rolled forward.

Roland grasped his hurting head and felt that it had been bandaged up. He didn’t remember much after that. The ensuing rockslide caused part of the people to fall down to the misty pit below. He only recalled putting up as many magic shields as he could on himself and the people next to him.

“I must have survived the fall and someone brought me here…”

Roland took out a healing potion from one of his bags and quickly drank it. He noticed that someone tried bandaging up some of his wounds but they did a poor job. It looked like the bandages were part of their clothes.

His weapon was missing, either it was taken by the person who patched him up or it was lost during the fall. He needed to get more information first, while getting himself together he moved towards the light.

He leaned against the walls a bit while slowly walking. The potion was slow working and his body was still aching. Before he could get outside he heard someone talking, he heard a man’s voice and one that was more high pitched.

“Lady Aredhel we must move quickly, this is our chance to escape.”

“Logon, why did you take our savior's weapon, return it, we should wait till he recovers his health.”

“But what if a monster appears or those bandits…”

Roland could hear the two arguing. The man was referring to the woman as ‘lady’ which made him think that she was some kind of noble.

‘Were there hidden nobles in the caravan?’

It was quite uncommon for nobles to travel in such a way. They would have their own luxury carriage and the protection of some knights. They wouldn’t travel along with merchants and commoners unless they were hiding from something or someone.

He couldn’t get much information from their conversation. The man wanted to leave along with his enchanted arming sword. The woman on the other hand wanted to wait for him to get better. The woman didn’t seem to be the problem but he needed to be wary of the man.

First, he needed to actually see what he was working with. While the two were busy arguing he pulled out his detection device and activated it. Due to fearing that the people would detect his mana he inserted the bare minimum of magic into his detector. This would shorten the distance of the scan but would be harder to detect.

From the image he could see that besides the two there was another person with them. He or she was a bit further away so he now knew how many potential enemies he had.

He had a couple of things he could do now. He could either wait it out, they might decide to leave instantly. He could also ambush them and try getting his sword back that the man was holding on to. The cave bent a bit so they couldn’t see him hiding here. He would probably have the element of surprise on his side.

Then the third option would be to just go out and talk. The woman didn’t seem to have any ulterior motives and she might be the one in charge. The man was probably her guard, he could judge him to be a threat and try attacking him though.

While he was thinking about what to do another option arose. It began with a familiar scream that he had heard so many times before.

“Goblins…”

Roland had killed so many of those little buggers that he could tell them apart from any other humanoid monster by the scream.

“Lady Aredhel, get behind me!”

It looked like a fight was breaking out, thanks to this Roland was able to stick his head out to see what he was working with. Just like he heard before he saw a man and a woman. They were similar looking to two people he had seen before.

They both had dark skin and long silver hair. They had the characteristics of moon elves and the long ears gave it away. What surprised Roland wasn’t their race but what they were wearing.

The girl had a dirty looking white dress and no shoes. It looked to be ripped up in a couple of places. He instantly could tell that this ripped up dress were the bandages that were wrapped around his head.

The man also had simple clothes and was holding his arming sword with one hand while glaring at a mountain variant of a goblin. The most surprising part wasn’t their haggard looks, no it was what they were wearing around their necks.

“Slaves?”

Roland mumbled to himself. The two clearly had slave collars around their necks. From what he knew these collars could be activated to send electricity down an unruly slave’s body. some could even explode.

There was also another feature, it blocked the use of any active skills or mana circulation. Even if the moon elf man wanted to use his runic sword he wouldn’t be able to.

He moved his neck out even more and looked to where the third person would be. The appearance of this person was also quite peculiar. His skin was light green and he looked to be over two and a half meters tall. His body was very muscular and also filled with wounds.

This person looked to be a Half-Orc. This race had a connection to the Orcs which were considered monsters. The Half-Orcs were considered smarter then their rage-filled relatives and also smaller. A true Orc would normally be half a head taller than this one.

Just like the two elves this person also had a collar around his neck. In his hand was a large makeshift club made from a thick tree branch. He was engaged in a battle with some goblins that were poking his legs with their spears. The half-orc looked to be having trouble in hitting the little buggers as they were nimble enough to back away from his range.

‘Why does it always have to be goblins…should have used more mana with the radar.’

Roland grasped his magic wand and pointed it out of the cave. The monsters didn’t notice him yet he could get a few free shots. He took aim at what seemed to be the strongest out of the bunch, a hobgoblin quite similar to the one he once slew.

He didn’t have his traps nor did he have the high ground. His sword was in the hands of the elven man who couldn’t even use it to its full potential. Luckily Roland had some other weapons stashed away with him, one was the heavy rapier that he had gotten all those years ago.

Roland concentrated and took aim, waiting for the right moment to attack. He needed to make this count. His mana was injected into his wand, his target being the spot between the goblin's eyes.