Chapter 2

There was also a kind of pylon off to one side. Inscribed on the pylon was the statement that touching the pylon would immediately transport me to the mouth of the tunnel. That sounded like an interesting idea, so why not give it a try. I touched the pylon, there was a flash of total blackness, and I found myself standing just inside the entrance to the tunnel. Hey, that was the way to travel!

I stepped out onto the plain and found myself facing some more of those satyrs. These were all armed with swords and shields. They charged at me, so, what the hell, I charged at them. There were four of them, and I was counting on multiple kills from my sword to get me out of deep shit. The first one I came to had to be my target, and I swung at its shield. Wow, I was never going to get tired of that effect of multiple lightning strikes.

All four of them blew up as the lightning bolts struck them, and I was not injured. Now that was the way to fight! I picked up 53 coins, a non-magical small ax, and a leather jerkin that my charm said would afford me some protection against magical attack. I put on the jerkin, but I did not feel any different. So far, my charm had never lied to me, so I figured that it would not hurt me to keep wearing the jerkin. I dropped the small ax into my belt pouch and looked around for more monsters to fight.

That was when I spotted a huge stake driven into the ground with a man tied to the stake. A number of the small demons and five satyrs were dancing around the man as if this was some sort of ritual. It looked like the man might be the guest of honor at some satanic ritual and badly in need of rescue. Okay, here I go, Jill the Barbarian warrior to the rescue!

When I got closer, I spotted what looked like a demon witch doctor with a yellow glowing aura around him. He was shouting something in a language I couldn’t understand, but he looked like the personification of a bad guy. I changed direction and ran toward him—he looked like he was the one in charge.

As I ran toward him, he started throwing what seemed to be fireballs at me. I was able to block them with my shield, but I did feel the heat when one smashed against my shield, and my shield began to glow red. When I nearly reached him, he started calling up more of the small demons from the ground between him and me. These little demons were intent on poking me with large knives, and I was forced to deal with them.

Of necessity, I stopped and began swinging my sword. I missed with my first couple of swings, and nothing good happened, but another one of those damned fireballs did hit me. Oh, my God, that thing was hot, but I was not harmed. My jerkin must have given me some protection. I did manage to block the next fireball with my shield, but I was going to have to take stronger measures or find myself in serious trouble.

I was now having more luck with swinging my sword, and lightning bolts were hitting right and left. Every time one of them hit a small demon, the demon exploded, and I began to make progress against them. I could kill the small demons with my lighting bolts faster than the head demon could create them. Furthermore, the head demon could not create demons and fireballs at the same time, so I had a little advantage there.

The problem was that my lightning bolts were not having as much luck against the head demon. It looked like his yellow aura was reducing the effect the lightning bolts were having when they struck him. It looked to me like I was going to have to get closer and do some serious chopping. Dammit, I sure needed a missile firing weapon!

Of course, by now, the other monsters had noticed me and were running in my direction. As the saying goes, that was trouble on the hoof! The head demon was concentrating on trying to fight me off, and I had to eliminate him damned quick. I started expending most of my fighting energy on the head demon and finally managed to lop off his head. Oh, my God, that was a fantastic relief!

It happened just as the satyrs reached me, but now I could fight common monsters that I had defeated before, and that made me feel a hell of a lot better. I tore into the satyrs with all of the ferocity that I could drag up from the depth of my being, and the result was that they were wiped out with only a couple of swings of my sword. That was emphatic enough to cause the remaining few small demons to run away as fast as they could move.

At last, I could now concentrate on the man tied to the stake. I ran over and tried to cut him loose, but there was no way I could cut the chains that were holding him. He said, “The shaman you killed had the key to the lock. Get it from him and you can release me.”

No sooner said than done. I removed the shaman’s magic belt and hurried back to the stake. Somehow, I felt an urgency to getting this man loose, so I just turned the belt over and shook everything I could out of the various pouches. Now I could see what I was doing and quickly found the key. That I used to unlock the man’s bounds, and he heaved a sigh of relief as he was finally able to stand up straight and massage his wrists.

Wow, what a change in the man’s appearance when he stood up straight! He was almost three inches taller than me, and he had muscles on his muscles. He was the picture of the ultimate fighting man, and he must have outweighed me by about 30 pounds, but none of it appeared to be fat.

“Thank you for rescuing me. By the gods, you are beautiful! How could I be so lucky?”

Well, I was startled. That was the first time anyone, least of all such a hunk, had ever called me beautiful. I was left almost speechless, but I did manage to grunt out something in the nature of, “You are welcome. It was my pleasure.”

He grinned and said, “You had better pick up your spoils of war before more of the monsters show up. I would ask that you allow me to keep that mace that fell from the shaman’s belt. That is my normal weapon, and it has some significant magic attached to it. I won’t argue with you if you want to keep if. After all, you did win it in mortal combat.”

“Oh, no, you may take the mace. I am quite happy with my sword. It, too, has some magic properties that I am rapidly becoming used to. By the way, my name is Jill. What is your name?”

“Oh, please pardon me for forgetting my manners. My name is Almo of the Cluster. May I ask what tribe you are from? I thought I knew all of the peoples that everybody calls Barbarians, but I don’t recognize you, and your beauty would certainly stick in my memory.”

“I don’t come from a local Barbarian tribe. In fact, I am from a totally different plane of existence. My family name is Humphries, but I am sure that means nothing in this world.”

“Well, Jill, I have to say that I never heard of the Humphries, so I will take your word for it, but your beauty certainly makes you stand out.”

“Okay, I have to ask, why do you keep calling me beautiful? I have never been called that before.”

“But you are beautiful. You are perfectly proportioned for a female Barbarian warrior. Your muscles are obvious even though they are covered by some strange clothes. Your face is charming, and your eyes are perfect. I must say that I am totally smitten by you. Are you bonded to another person, or are you free to choose a mate? I ask because I plan to woo you if you are not.

“I know that you don’t know me, but I hope to find favor with you. You are a fantastic fighter as shown by what you did to rescue me. I think that I am equal to you as a fighter, and we two could form a partnership that could not be beat. Will you accept me as a friend and a partner until I can convince you to become my mate?”

“Wow, Almo, you are a quick worker. Well, I do have to admit that you have captured my interest. However, I must warn you that I am no virgin.”

“What does virginity have to do with anything? Let’s get busy picking up your loot before we lose it from inattention.”

The magic belt being used by the shaman had originally belonged to Almo, so I returned it to him. Likewise, most of the stuff dumped from the belt when I was looking for the key was also his, including the coins, so I just told him to take it all. Anything we took from the dead monsters or found on the ground was mine.

By the time we had picked up everything useful that we could find, I had an another 217 gold coins, two rings, some leather pants, a dagger, a pair of bracers, and a pair of gloves. The bracers added another 3.9% to my damage quotient, and the ability to pick up the gold coins magically as they fell. That was going to be a great help, and I donned the bracers immediately. They matched a pair that Almo had.

The gloves added to my resistance to magic, so were welcome. The leather pants were really no more than a kilt, and they added 5.7% to my damage quotient. Hey, there was a place to hang two gems, and Almo congratulated me on that. There was no magic in the dagger, but I kept it for later sale.

The two rings were very interesting. Each one could accept a gem when I found a suitable one, but one of the rings added 14% to my damage quotient. The other ring added 11% to my damage quotient directly, but it also added 17% to my strength and stamina, and that converted to an additional 9% to add to my damage quotient. Almo assured me that those rings could be very valuable as my career as a monster hunter progressed. I removed the glove from my left hand to slip those two rings onto my fingers. I then put the glove back on.

I was getting hungry, and I mentioned that to Almo. He said that he was also ready to eat lunch, so he pulled a charm from his belt and ordered up a lunch for us. I was amazed that the sandwich was a BLT (Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato). We had a mug of very good watered wine to go with it. The sandwich was so good that I asked for another one. Now that was a valuable charm!

We continued to hunt monsters and demons that afternoon, but we were not nearly as lucky as we had been that morning. Almo assured me that such was the usual practice in this neighborhood. We went back to town to sell the few non-magical items we had and to see what might be available in the stores selling magic items. There was nothing we found attractive, so we saved our money.

We ate supper at the tavern and drank a couple more mugs of watered wine before heading for what became our room. The bed was wide enough for the two of us, so there was certainly no problem from that point of view. I did have to pay a little more because there would be two of us using the bed, but another gold piece paid for that and breakfast the next morning.