Chapter 3

My next battle was only steps away as I was attacked by five demon dogs. They were much larger than normal dogs, and, of course, their sole interest was in taking a bite out of me. I think that they would have been disappointed if I had died from the first bite.

To my surprise, those dogs had no trouble biting through my body armor, though they were not able to bite through the metal encasing my feet and legs. I suspect that the only way I was able to escape their attack was that they persisted in going after my legs. All in all, this attack reminded me of the female Monk that had been killed on the road a bit over a week ago.

Their canine teeth had a relatively easy time penetrating the leather armor covering the upper part of my body, but they did not seem interested so much in attacking me there—the dogs were determined to bring me down by attacking my legs. Man, those bites through the leather armor hurt like nothing else I have ever experienced. Luckily for me, they were few and far between.

The big advantage the dogs had was that they would attack in groups of two or three, and that forced me to divide my attention among the attacks. I made good use of my sword and knuckle duster, but it took more than one strike from me to kill a demon dog.

At first, I went after the dogs’ spine. Their backs were the most readily available place on the dog for me to reach. A major problem was that a dog that lost the use of its hind legs because of an injury to its backbone still would not quit. If necessary, it dragged itself toward me on only its front legs. My God, it was as if I had to fight double the number of dogs that had at first attacked me. The wounded dogs were still intent on killing me. Where had they learned to do that?

The only way that I could kill a dog, and that was the only thing that stopped a dog’s attack, was to chop its head off with the sword or to break its neck with a blow from the knuckle duster. Even if I broke a dog’s neck, I still ensured a kill by chopping off its head. Yes, I knew that the dog could not get any deader, but in my ignorance, I couldn’t be sure that some demon might show up who could fix the injuries to the dogs and return them to attacking me. However, I figured that without a head, a dog was down for good.

Well, it took me almost 30 minutes to kill off those five dogs, and I had no economic advantage to show for my efforts. Dammit, I was exhausted from the battle, and I felt like I had been cheated somehow. Oh, well, I guess that I couldn’t win them all, but I was so tired that I wished that I had won something to show for my effort.

I sat on a stair tread for a few minutes to regain my breath. Dammit, I was still sitting there when I was hit by the next attackers. These were a flock of skeletons that used swords and clubs. Their big advantage, other than their numbers, was in their weapons. A touch by one of those swords or clubs produced a very painful electrical shock. It was not so much a fatal shock, but it was very painful and it could jar me enough so that I missed with my counter blow. The only solution I could find to that shock was for me to hit first. Well, there were 27 of the literally damned demon skeletons.

I wasn’t caught by surprise by the pack of skeletons, but I was mentally surprised to my core. Who would ever believe that a skeleton could walk upright with absolutely no sign of flesh or muscle? I have to admit, though, that the skeletons did look kind of funny with only a fanny pack and a weapon to go with all of those bones. At least, I was beginning to learn some of the tricks of Isbardia; namely, in this case, to look out for an offensive magic spell because the bones had to be held in their anthropomorphic form by some sort of powerful magic spell.

My suspicion was verified the first time I was hit by a sword. I was woken out of my static shock at the sight of those skeletons by the definitely painful electric shock from the touch of that sword. I was not cut by the sword’s strike because of the magically treated leather armor I was wearing over all of my body, except for my head. Uh-oh, I was going to be in trouble if one of those swords or clubs hit me in the head. Not only was I going to get a physical shock for the slash or blow, but I was going to feel the electric shock, and that stood a good chance of derailing my brain!

Naturally, the electric shock woke me up to the fact that I needed to take action before I was killed by this pack of skeletons. As quickly as possible, I fought my way to a stone wall that was part of a building and backed up close to it to keep from being attacked from my rear. There were certainly enough skeletons present for some of them to think of that, though I could not imagine what they were using as a brain.

Anyway, I was caught in a storm of lunge, slice, and parry. The sword was really not doing a very good job of fighting off the skeletons; after all, what was there for the sword to attack. On the other hand, pun intended, the knuckle duster was the weapon of choice. One smash from it was enough to knock a skeleton into nothing but a pile of bones and no longer able to attack me.

At last, I was able to shatter a skeleton warrior that had been using a hefty club. As quickly as I could manage, I sheathed my sword in my baldric and picked up the club with my now free right hand. I had steeled myself for an electrical shock when I picked up the club, but I felt nothing of the kind. I didn’t have time to speculate on the reason for that, but had to step into the use of the club as soon as I had hold of it.

It turned out that the possession of the club was the key weapon that I needed. It shattered any skeleton that it struck, and it did a good job of blocking a weapon swung at me. Of course, I still got some good use from my knuckle duster, but the club was the weapon of the moment.

I have to admit that those skeletons were determined fighters, and I was barely able to defend myself adequately and to kill them all. Oh, my God, look at what I just wrote: how does one kill a walking skeleton? Well, I didn’t know the answer to that conundrum, but I had just done it, so I was very proud of myself for winning the battle. I didn’t bother inspecting the fanny packs that I looted from the skeletons; I just tossed them into my fanny pack for later examination. I was afraid of being distracted as I went through those 31 fanny packs and killed by a passing demon or monster as the reward for my dismissal of the current danger.

The biggest problem I had at this point was that I needed to rest away from any danger that I had to keep watch for. Therefore, shortly afterward I was able to spot an inactive transporter platform, and I walked to it. I stepped on the platform and thought a wish with all of my being. “Transporter, take me home!”

Well, I had discovered something about myself and about the transporter platforms. They were sensitive to my thoughts, and I could command them when I needed to. Anyway, the next moment, I was standing on the transporter pad in the hiring hall. Pete looked up and said, “By the gods, Jim, how did you manage that? I had not planned to call you back for another two hours.”

“I do not know, Pete. I found an unused transporter platform in Eastmont, and needed a break, so I tried an experiment. I stepped onto the idle platform and wished very hard to be transferred home. All I can say to that is ‘here I am.’”

“Well, that has been reputed by the very strongest Wizards to be impossible for anyone who did not have some telepathic capabilities. Maybe you are a different kind of hero and in a class by yourself. No Monk should have that kind of ability, at least not according to the experts. On the other hand, how often have the experts been wrong? Oh, well, you are safely here. Tell me what caused you to have to make this jump.”

I told Pete the story of my day’s activities, and he was appropriately impressed. “By the gods, Jim, I have grossly underestimated you! You are a lot more powerful than the average apprentice of your experience. Consider yourself now promoted to the #4 level of Monk apprenticeship. That gets you another $15 of monthly income.”

I thanked Pete for the promotion, but I did not say how little the wage increase meant to me. I was already way ahead of apprenticeship on the economic totem pole, but it sure was nice to have an expert grant me this much praise.

He was as anxious as I to see what was in the skeleton fanny packs. Of course, it all belonged to me, but he was as consumed by curiosity as I was. I dumped out of my fanny pack everything that I had picked up that day, and Pete was again impressed. Frankly, I was too. It had not seemed like that much while it was going on.

I had one super ring, two miscellaneous weapons, 27 swords capable of shocking an opponent, and four clubs with the same ability. Neither one of us could identify either of the miscellaneous weapons, but we hoped that a clerk could do that at the general store. I was going to eat lunch and grab a beer before visiting the store. I just had to have some time to wind down from my battle-high.

I went for a large grilled steak and the Isbardian version of a baked potato with sour cream. Man, I was hungry and even treated myself to a serving of pseudo blueberry pie before I left the restaurant and headed for Jake’s Tavern. I now had over $2,000 in coins in my fanny pack, so I was probably richer than any other apprentice in Truth.

I was really disappointed by my visit to the general store. Neither one of the miscellaneous weapons was worth more than $2 each, but one of the weapons was a sword, so I kept it. I sold the reject knife for the $2 more out of stubbornness than anything else. The ring I kept to show to the jeweler. The store bought the 27 swords and three clubs for $53 each. That was a nice haul, and I hoped for more like that. A few shocks could be tolerated for that kind of payback.

I had an idea for the club and sword that I kept. The fight with the skeletons gave me an understanding of why clubs were so popular, but they were only marginally successful against demons and monsters with the normal amount of flesh and muscle, so I decided on an experiment. I went to a blacksmith with my club and broken-off sword tip. I had him mount the segment of the sword on the end of the club to extend about 18 inches beyond the end of the club. That gave me a weapon that was both a club and a stabbing spear.

Sure, there were poleaxes with that same combination of abilities, but a poleaxe was really too awkward to fit into the way a Monk fought. I thought that my invention made a much better weapon for me to use, and I was anxious to give it a try. My plan was to swap the knuckle duster for my invention. I wasn’t sure at the moment whether or not to give up the buckler. That would just have to wait for future developments.