The building that Luna and Ramsey called home was a single story house. So as they entered the building they were inside the kitchen of the building. There were two doors leaving this main room. While Bjorn put Luna’s body down Adriana came inside closing the door behind herself. They decided to leave the golem behind as it wasn’t the most stealthy.

  Bjorn wasn’t taking any chances and removed something he prepared while in Blackrock Bay. He took a pair of shackles and put them around Luna’s wrists. He then withdrew some rope and quickly tied her feet together while attaching the shackles and rope together in front of her. He would have gone behind her back but he didn’t want to chance her being able to cast spells.

  Adriana checked the first room which ended up being a bathroom of sorts, while the other room was a bedroom. It had a large straw mattress in the middle of the room. Of which Ramsey was sleeping on, fitfully, as if he was having nightmares that he couldn’t escape. She then came back to the room with Bjorn and Luna and gave a quick hand gesture to indicate that everything was safe and in order.

  Phase one complete time for the next step. Bjorn entered the bedroom and looked down at Ramsey’s flailing form and smiled. He watched as he tried to escape some sort of unspeakable horror in his mind but was unable to because of the poison he had Adriana slip into his drink. She had done well.

  He walked around the room casting his silence spell. It wouldn’t do for someone to hear what was going to happen in this room and come to stop Bjorn. The versatility of being able to block sound from leaving an area was amazing. At first he thought this spell would be useless and he would have to struggle to advance his sonic magic. Boy was he wrong.

  Throughout the entire casting Ramsey flailed around not waking up to the sound and light in the room. An evil smile crossed Bjorn’s face. Finally once the spell was finished he moved on to the next part of his plan. As gently and softly as he could he grabbed Ramsey’s arms and slowly extended them above his head. There were a few times when the man flinched and pulled his arm back down. In those cases he waited for a moment before pulling again. Over several minutes he managed to get both of Ramsey’s hands above his head and tied together. He then affixed the rope to the wall making sure that Ramsey didn’t wake up through the entire process.

  When he finished he nodded to Adriana who was watching from the other room, standing over the unconscious body of Luna. Roughly she pulled Luna through the doorway and into the room where she took a hammer and drove a spike through the chain of the shackles, pinning her hands above her head and to the wall. There was just enough rope that Luna’s knees were pulled up to her chest but she couldn’t extend her legs.

  With their preparations ready Bjorn withdrew his knife from his back and placed it against Ramsey’s wrists. With a jerking motion he pulled back. The shape blade sank into Ramsey’s flesh parting the skin and tendons underneath with ease. He cut the tendons on Ramsey’s wrists, making his hands now effectively useless.

  As he drew the knife across Ramsey’s wrists the pain was finally enough to rouse the man from his nightmare filled sleep. He awoke with a scream that was half panic and half pain. His eyes started to dart around the room trying to figure out what was happening, his breath was coming in fast and shallow.

  The earsplitting scream was enough to wake Luna from her unconsciousness as well. Her eyes darted around the room quickly drinking in the form of Bjorn and Adriana in the room. It took her a moment later for her to realize that she was bound to the wall and couldn’t escape.

  Luna’s eyes continuously darted between Bjorn and Ramsey. “What are you doing in our house? What did you do to my husband? GET AWAY FROM HIM OR ELSE!” Throughout her speech Ramsey continued to scream both bloody murder and from fear.

  Bjorn ignored what she said and made his way around the bed over to where Ramsey’s feet were flailing around ineffectually. He first grabbed his right leg and forced it straight. Ramsey had been level 9 when Bjorn first came across the man, he was now level 11. This gave him 33 free attribute points to distribute total. He was pretty sure that the base line attributes for tieflings was 10 as well as it was for humans. This meant for him to match Bjorn in pure strength it would have taken him at least 24 of his 33 points to do so. He hadn’t, so it took some effort but it wasn’t difficult to straighten Ramsey’s leg.

  Taking his knife he first pulled it across the back of Ramsey’s foot, there was a little resistance but it couldn’t hold up to the sharpness of the dagger. His Achilles tendon was severed making his foot useless. He then quickly moved the knife up to the back of the knee and plunged the blade in and with a yank pulled it through the soft flesh on the backside of the knee quickly severing the acl, mcl, and lcl. His right leg was now completely useless.

  Luna’s voice had changed from commanding to pleading. “Stop this. Why won’t you stop?”

  Bjorn didn’t care as he quickly repeated the process for his other leg. Making Ramsey a sitting duck, completely useless. As Bjorn watched he saw that Ramsey was quickly losing blood and his struggling was getting weaker. He couldn’t have Ramsey die so easily so Bjorn pulled out a health potion and forced it into the man’s mouth.

  By now the pain had cleared his head enough that he had his bearings straight and knew that someone was in the room killing him. Well making him immobilized, if the person wanted him to die this wouldn’t have been the way to do it. Fear took over his body replacing the pain. His cries stifled and his body turned into one paralyzed by fear. So when the liquid was poured into his mouth he didn’t swallow. Bjorn then forced Ramsey’s mouth shut and plugged his nose, forcing him to swallow the liquid. Bjorn watched as the bleeding lessened significantly and was satisfied for the time being.

  “What was that? What did you give him?” Luna demanded, she looked even more distraught than she had when they first started.

  Adriana didn't have any of it though. She formed a fist and sent it flying into Luna’s face as hard as she could. It wasn’t enough to do major damage but enough to send a message. “Shut up bitch and watch. He will get to you when he is done.”

  Bjorn then moved towards the head of Ramsey where his hands were hanging uselessly above his head. He had tied the rope so that he could easily remove it from the wall. He pulled on his knot releasing Ramsey’s hands. Instead he began to pull, dragging the man off of the bed.

  Luna had enough of this and she began casting a spell. Adriana moved to stop her but Bjorn was faster. He paused in hauling Ramsey off the bed and with a flick of his wrist he sent the dagger flying. It flew straight and true. It slammed into the wood above Luan’s head cutting through the meat of her hand and pinning it to the wood. She let out a scream of pain for a moment before it was cut short. The channel mana she was starting to gather fed back into her body overloading her senses briefly and her ability to sense the world vanished briefly.

  Back to the matter at hand Bjorn hauled Ramsey off of the ground where he lay flopping around uselessly and slammed him into the wall. He then used another knife he had strapped to his thigh to pin the rope in place against the wood. The force he put behind the blow sank the metal of the dagger several inches into the wood securing it. Bjorn then let go letting Ramsey hang uselessly by his shoulders.

  By the time he was done with that Luna had come back to her senses. If looks could kill Bjorn would have died on the spot. Her pretty face looked at him with such vitriol and hate, it looked out of place on her face. Tears were streaking down her face.

  Bjorn left Ramsey for now as he wasn’t fully of his own wits for now, his mind looked to have fled for the moment. So he walked around the bed slowly and sat down across from where Luna was sitting unable to move. He and the woman stared at each other for several long seconds before Bjorn broke the silence.

  “You don’t remember me do you?”

  “Why would I? I have never seen you before in my life.” She said conviction in her voice as if she knew for a fact that what she said was true.

  Bjorn just shook his head, and tutted. “No, you are wrong. We met oh just about 6 months ago. In the northern western parts of the Summergate woods.”

  A sneer crossed Luna’s face. “I am sorry that I didn’t sleep with you then, but this is no way to get back at me you stalker.” To her there was only one possible way that this could be happening to them. She was so full of herself that she thought that every man and woman she came across wanted to get into her pants.

  “That isn’t why I am here. Does the name Leefside mean anything to you?”

  “No, why would it?” She spat.

  Bjorn looked over to Adriana who had a stoic look on her face. As if she wasn’t for or against what was happening, she was just simply existing. “It’s odd. These people.” Bjorn spat the word people. “Are some of the most influential people in my life yet to them I am nothing. They don’t even remember me, or our town, or what they did to me, or what they took from me.” With the last part of his statement his eyes drifted back over to Luna.

  “You are insignificant. You were just a small bump on our road, why would we remember you?”

  Her callous way of speaking angered Bjorn. He could see it had an effect on Adriana as well. She reached down and grabbed the hilt of the dagger, instead of trying to pull it out she wiggled it back and forth and up and down. The sharp blade continued to dig into her flesh. Luna squirmed and let out a moan that was half pain half uncomfortable.

  He then leaned forward and grabbed the hilt of the dagger. When he did Adriana withdrew her hand letting Bjorn take it. He yanked it out of her hand and then drove it into her other hand. This time her hand wasn’t flat to the wall and the blade sank sideways into her hand, folding it in half and pinning it to the wall. The end section of her ring finger fell to the ground as it had been folded over and in the direct path of the blade.

  He settled back onto the bed. “Before we go too much further I think introductions are in order. My name is Bjorn ward. My wife, Meira, and I had built a little farm just outside a small town called Leefside and were starting a family. We had a little boy named Alaric, who was named after one of the bravest dwarves I have ever met. Life was good for so many years.”

  By this time Ramsey was starting to come to and grasp his surroundings again. “Luna, what is going on?” He said in a shaky voice.

  “Don’t worry baby, we will be fine.” She said, the tone in her voice said she wasn’t certain that would be the case.

  Bjorn leaned forward and slapped Luna on the face hard. Her head whipped the side and a little bit of saliva flew out of her mouth. “I AM NOT DONE TALKING.” Bjorn yelled.

  “DON’T YOU TOUCH HER!” Ramsey yelled.

  The voice set something off inside Bjorn. In an instant he had a flashback of Ramsey’s voice mocking Bjorn as his cock choked Meira. He saw red, but this wasn’t the time, not yet to end Ramsey’s life. Instead Bjorn got to his feet and walked around to where Ramsey was hanging.

  “WHAT YOU THINK YOUR TOUGH? Anyone can act tough while you are in control.” Ramsey said.

  His words fell on deaf ears however. Bjorn didn’t care. He grabbed Ramsey’s cheeks roughly with one hand forcing his jaw downwards. He tried to fight it, With a sadistic smile Bjorn knew what he had to do. Taking a 3rd knife from where it was stashed in his boot he put the blade in Ramsey’s mouth, none too gently. The blade began to slit open his cheek as it quested for the back of his mouth. Once he hit the back on the right side of his mouth Bjorn felt resistance. With a quick motion he slit the muscle clenching Ramsey’s mouth shut, severing it completely.

  Ramsey’s eyes widened when he recognized that motion. He had done it hundreds of times to hundreds of victims over the years. He now knew that this was his fault. But Bjorn was like a machine. He slid the knife through the other side severing that muscle as well. This made Ramsey’s jaw hinge downwards hanging uselessly. His tongue was still intact and he tried to speak. Bjorn cut that short as he now jammed the knife roughly into Ramsey’s mouth and with a yank sideways lobbed of Ramsey’s tongue.

  “YOU BASTARD YOU WILL PAY FO-!” Luna screamed at watching the man she loved get mutilated.

  Adriana just punched Luna’s face again, cutting her scream short. “You will be quiet and listen.”

  Bjorn took a deep breath and let it out. “Ah, that silence is nice. Oh yeah where was I?”

  “Life was good.” Adriana prompted.

  “Ah yes. I supposed you should know who I am. Obviously this isn’t bringing anything back to you. Well I suppose the best way would be for me to describe Meira. She was a tall beautiful elf, with long, almost to the middle of her back, platinum blonde hair. She had the kindest green eyes, emerald green, like the forest in the spring.” Bjorn sighed wistfully. “She was a mage.” Through his speech Bjorn walked back around the bed and settled right in front of Luna.

  Adriana saw Ramsey’s eyes go wide as he remembered Meira from Bjorn’s description. It wasn’t often that he got to rape an elf, mostly it was humans, as the majority of people in Escar were human. On top of that Meira had been a rare beauty even among the elves. As he remembered Meira he finally remembered who Bjorn was. He looked considerably different than he had as a farmer. For one thing he was larger, in both height and musculature. For another he looked completely different, his hair was closer cropped, his beard slightly unkempt, he carried himself with more purpose.

  From his vantage however Bjorn didn’t see the recognition in Ramsey’s eyes, so he continued speaking. “We had a happy peaceful life, that was until Jarred came to town and decided to lay claim to MY WIFE. He decided that she was a prize that he had to get, that he had the right to take whatever he wanted from her. That was where you and the rest of your ragtag group came in. You, your husband, Theon, Vincent, Vivan, Sonia, Gnack, Brog, Kairon, Jarred, Tslla, Zain, and Killian.”

  That was when recognition finally dawned on Luna’s face. She did know the man before her. The recognition showed itself in the form of horror. The gravity of the situation was finally dawning on her. Her husband's philandering had finally caught up to them. Their way of life finally landed them in hot water, and the bill was due. There was no way they were getting out of here. He would kill them before anyone from town could put a stop to them. Speaking of which, why hadn’t someone heard the screams and came to investigate, they were in the middle of town, and on good speaking terms with their neighbors.

  “They are dead, you know. Tslla, Zain, and Killian that is. Killian was the first, he didn’t escape while in Leefside, they managed to capture him. I tortured him before I found out you guys were heading south. I saw you outside of the trial of Sakara you know? Right after Kairon got something from the trial. That is actually where I got this.” Bjorn held up his hand in the dim light. The red lines of energy running through the wood was an intimidating sight.

  It seemed to have the opposite effect on Luna than he was expecting. He expected her to ask how he regrew his hand, how he got this power, how he tracked them down. Instead she started to laugh. “Is that a spriggan? You're dead and you just don’t know it yet. It is only a matter of time before it fully consumes your body.”

  “What do you know about spriggans? You know what it doesn’t matter. I already know enough. Where was I? Oh yeah. I tracked your little pose down to Blackrock Bay. That was a terrible place for you to go by the way. I am sure you guys heard about the snatcher spider incident while you were there. Well myself and my wife were the ones to help solve that little debacle. As it turned out, the Duke hadn’t forgotten. Using his full resources he managed to find your little party there. That was where Zain and Tslla came in. Unfortunately Gnack and Sonia got away, but not Zain.”

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  A hint of glee entered Bjorn’s voice for a moment. “Zain was weak, he gave you up in an instant. That was how we ended up here, he told us where your little village was going up. I am going to slowly hunt down each and every one of you and repay what you did to me and my family ten times over.”

  “You're a fool if you think you stand a chance. You may have gained power but Kairon is stronger than you will ever be.” Luna laughed, then she spit at Bjorn. The couple of times that she was hit something in her mouth must have split as the spit was mostly blood. Unfortunately because of how her knees were drawn up to her chest almost all of the spit landed on her leg. It slid down her leg, a testament to her inadequacy.

  “Maybe, maybe not. But either way you won't be around to see. Which brings me back to the matter at hand, what to do with the two of you. There is no way you are going to survive this. The only question is how do I go about ending your lives. I have a few ideas for you, but there is only one way Ramsey is going to die.”

  Bjorn turned towards the man for the first time since he started his little monolog. He drank in Ramsey’s pitiful state and just shook his head. Ramsey had been hanging there limply in more than one way, naked. He had been sleeping naked and when drugged out of bed the covers exposed him fully to the night air. “Weak.” Bjorn said. “Look at him, he has already given up.” Tears rolled down Ramsey’s cheeks as he just stared at Luna.

  “You see, I thought about how to end your life. How to make you both suffer the most. How to make both of you understand how I felt as you held me down and raped my wife in front of me. It came to me that what is fair is fair. You raped my wife to death so maybe I should do the same to you.”

  Luna’s face once again took on a look of absolute terror at the thought of Bjorn raping her to death. She started to babble incoherently, begging him to please no, don’t do it.

  Bjorn got to his feet and stared down at Luna for entirely way too long. “But the more I thought about it the more it sickened me. Even in my rage I didn’t think I could cross that line. I just found out that there was no way I could cross that line.”

  Bjorn shuddered, as if he was letting go of an idea that was disgusting to him. “Even in my rage I found the thought of doing something, anything that would put me on your same level, disgusting. However a few days ago I finally knew how I was going to make you suffer. I've had the ability for the last few months but I hadn’t thought about it fully until now. It wasn’t until you decided to try and play games with me and my emotions in the bar.”

  Bjorn turned towards Ramsey and withdrew the last knife that he had prepared for tonight. It was a rusty, dull, mostly serrated knife. “But before I get to you Luna I need to take care of your husband. You killed Meira by making her choke on your cock. It is time for you to die by your own fate.” With that Bjorn began walking towards Ramsey.

  The man’s eyes grew wide with terror and he began flailing about ineffectually as his tendons had been cut. He looked like a fish flopping around on top of the dock after it was pulled out of water. For a person he looked pitiful, as if he wasn’t actually more than an animal. While he was flopping he tried to make sounds to stop Bjorn. He was trying ineffectually to speak, however he wasn’t able to speak without a tongue or being able to work his jaw.

  Luna must have finally understood what Bjorn had in mind as she spoke, the words didn’t really make sense to Bjorn. However what he felt was the emotions. In that instant he felt an inexplicably powerful draw towards Luna. He felt his mind shift and warp, changing from his plan, what he was going to do. To let both Luna and Ramsey go, to help them leave this town.

  Slowly and inexplicably he felt himself turn towards Luna and walk over to her. His vision tunneled in on the anthropomorph, blocking out the rest of the room around him. As his vision centered on Luna his vision took on a slightly pink tint. He saw Luna in all of her beauty, in her perfection. Somehow the bruise that was already starting to form on her cheek somehow managed to make her look more perfect. It made him want to release her and comfort her.

  Bjorn walked over in front of Luna, her face was one filled with love as she spoke to Bjorn. He reached up and started to pry the dagger out of her pinned hand. Something, in his mind screamed at him that this was a mistake. But how could it be? He was freeing the most beautiful creature from her pain.

  That something within himself screamed, it fought and tore at the edges of his mind. Trying to free itself from the confines of whatever she was doing to him. It beat and wailed. Somehow it managed to get purchase, it fought against the rest of his mind and body and ripped itself free. In an instant the haze was gone and the reality of what he was about to do settled in.

  Bjorn grabbed Luna with his free hand and forced her mouth open. She wasn’t anywhere near as strong as Ramsey had been and wasn’t able to resist and Bjorn forced her mouth open. He placed the dagger that was coated in Luna’s blood into her mouth and with a yank cut her tongue out of her mouth as well.

  Bjorn was panting and looked around the room, Adriana was kneeling on the ground, her head cradled in her hands. A blank look covered her face. This angered Bjorn but he couldn’t stop now. They only had a limited amount of time to do this, the longer it went on the more likely it was that someone would come along.

  He looked back at Luna. “That was close. Your profession is really something. It’s too bad really, at least for you. There is a number of things that have come together that allows me to resist your powers. You are wasted on someone like me. What do you think about this turn of events?” He smiled down at her. “What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue? Don’t want to talk anymore?”

  He got back to his feet looking down at the woman who was starting to break. “No matter, I think it is time to end this. Wait, actually it is almost time.” Bjorn had been keeping a close eye on the cooldown of Silence. It had just about a minute left on the cooldown. He wouldn’t let the spell elapse and let them call out for help. It had roughly a minute left so Bjorn just stood there for a minute as the time elapsed. Once it did he refreshed the silence spell.

  With that done it was finally time, he started to walk over towards Ramsey and once again he felt the compulsion to let Luna free. This time the compulsion wasn’t anywhere near as strong as it was. Annoyed, Bjorn turned towards Luna and saw that her eyes had taken on an almost magical glow.

  With a sigh Bjorn stalked back over to where Luna was and took the pommel of his dagger striking her in the head just above the eye socket, once, and then twice. He used his other hand to stead her head and make sure that her head was in the same place for the second strike. When the second strike landed something in her skill gave way and the upper portion of her eye socket shattered.

  A portion of the shattered bone was forced downwards and into her eyeball, piercing through the soft tissue of her eye. Clear ocular fluid flowed out of her eye socket as the eye was ruptured and then crushed. She let out another incoherent scream at that. The only reason she hadn’t said anything with that scream was because of her cut off tongue.

  As soon as the eye was ruptured the compulsion cut out and the feeling passed. Bjorn thought briefly about breaking her other eye but he wanted her to watch as he gelded her husband.

  Finally Bjorn was able to return to Ramsey, he had to pause briefly and find the knife that he had dropped the first time Luna used her power on him. Once it was in his hand he finally crossed the distance to Ramsey. This pitiful excuse of a person, hanging from his useless hands. The tears in his eyes had dried up by now, Bjorn wasn’t sure if it was because he was done crying, or if his body was incapable of doing so.

  “I have waited for this for a long time. I want you to know this. This is for what you did to my wife, how you forced her down, how you mercilessly continued to shove your cock down her throat until she stopped thrashing, until the light left her eyes. And how you kept going until you were finished.” Bjorn said this quietly enough that only he and Ramsey were able to hear what he said.

  With that Bjorn grasped both Ramsey’s cock and balls then took his dull knife and set it to the base of his scrotum. Then he thought of something. “Oh this cutting will likely kill you.” He pulled out another one of his prepared health potions and tipped Ramsey’s head back pouring the contents down his throat. He wasn’t able to fight back, even if he was able to he was too weak from his loss of blood.

  Then Bjorn began to saw, he took his time as he separated Ramsey’s manhood from his body. It was slow, painful, and mind shattering. Even though the muscles in his body had little strength left, and most of them couldn’t function properly because of the cut tendons, his body still tried to stop what was happening to it. It was futile but it didn’t stop each muscle grouping from contracting, trying to pull away from what was happening to the man’s genitals.

  Finally once Ramsey’s manhood was separated from his body Bjorn dropped the knife and pulled his head back. He then shoved the entire thing into his mouth and kept shoving until he felt Ramsey’s throat open up and the member slid down his throat. Clogging his airway.

  “I am not done. There is one final thing that you deserve to see before you die.” He then walked over to Luna. She had a vacant expression on her face as she stared at the now flat area on her husband which used to hold his dick. Her mind had finally broke, just the same as he his mind had done as he watched them torture Meira.

  Bjorn then placed his hand on Luna’s head and activated his new ability. Luna’s body contracted as the lifeforce held within her body flowed out of it and into his outstretched hand. Before his very eyes he could see her start to wither, to shrivel up. Her flawless skin began to thin and then wrinkle as the vitality in her body flowed into Bjorn to feed his spriggan and in turn himself. He used essence drain on her until he was sure she was about to die, that her total health was in the single digits.

  From there he pulled out another health potion, tilted her head back and poured the liquid contents down her throat. He paused as he let the magic of the healing potion do its work and it started to restore her health and her body.

  He looked over to Ramsey who’s face had turned purple from the lack of air he was getting. He was nearly dead, it would only be a few more moments before his life expired from a lack of oxygen. “Your wife's life will fuel my growth. I have plenty of healing potions I brewed specifically for this. As I drain the life out of her I gain experience. She will be the spring board that catapults me to higher heights.”

  In his last moments Ramsey watched this man who shouldn’t have been able to do what he did. His eyes never left the back of Bjorn. Even as his vision started to go black from a lack of oxygen he still watched. A new level of despair entered him as he knew that the woman he loved last moments in this world would be terrible. A level of malice he had never felt before settled in his body right before he finally expired and died.

  Bandits left to kill 9/12.

  With the death of Ramsey Bjorn felt as the experience from killing the man flowed into his body. It felt good and at the same time hollow. He couldn’t explain it and instead put the information to the back of his mind. He looked down at Luna drinking in her appearance.

  In the matter of minutes she looked to have aged 5 years. She still looked good but she now looked to be somewhere in her mid thirties and the last 5 years weren’t kind to her. Wrinkles began to show on her face where her skin used to be flawless and smooth. Her eyes looked to have sunken into her face.

  Her horror turned from Bjorn’s face and turned to his hand. She began looking at it as if it was the subject of her worst nightmares. Bjorn saw the look and had no sympathy. “This feeling you are feeling right now is exactly what I felt when all of your friends and you took my life away from me. I want you to feel this for the rest of your life, which won’t be long.” Bjorn then reached into his bag of holding and pulled out 20 more health potions just like the one he gave her and set them on the edge of the bed in a row. Her horror turned into absolute defeat.

  She ended up lasting through 8 more potions. Over the course of an hour and a half Bjorn systematically drained the health out of Luna until she was on death's door. He then used a health potion to restore her. Once she recovered he used his power on her again, and again. Each time she drank a potion and recovered it was never fully. It went more than just the potential potion toxin reducing her maximum hp. Her body began to wither, once taut muscles slowly lost their strength. Her skin grew saggy, thin, and started to get dark spots on it. Her hair began to fall out in whole clumps and it started to turn white and gray. It was as if she was aging several years each time Bjorn’s power activated.

  He hated these people for what they did and how they affected his life. They were sadistic, narcissistic, nymphomanias, who deserved to die, horrible, painful deaths. But some part of him was sickened by his actions that day. He wasn’t sure if what he had done to these people was right or just. They had suffered in many ways worse than his son, his wife, and himself had suffered.

  Halfway through the periodic draining of Luna Adriana had recovered enough to become cognizant of her surroundings once again. She watched as Bjorn systematically drew the life and life force out of Luna’s body and saw what was happening to her. She also looked over and saw what Bjorn had done to Ramsey, with his distended throat clogged with his own manhood. Even though she knew what she was getting into with this and being a part of it. The entire thing made her sick.

  She saw the crazed look of anger in Bjorn’s eye and plastered all over his face. The look scared her, it was like her father again, only worse, Bjorn had the power to do what he wanted. The thought disturbed her, she wouldn’t leave him. She had tied her life to his and to seeing this through to the end. But she couldn’t sit here and watch what he was doing, she got up and went into the other room.

  Was this right? Was this just? Bjorn didn’t know nor did he ponder on the thought too much. They had taken from him the only things in this world that mattered to him, so he made them pay. Once he finished with Luna he decided it was best to leave several of the knives and daggers used today behind as well as the shackles. He needed time to sort through what was going on within his head but this wasn’t the time for that.

  When he left the room he closed the door behind him cutting off the view to the other room. He finally took the time to look at himself. He was coated in blood. Maybe it was Luna’s, maybe it was Ramsey’s, who knew? He steeled his resolve and looked down at Adriana.

  Her small form was sitting in a chair with her legs drawn up to her chest. Tears had been running down her cheeks and her eyes looked all puffy. When she looked up at Bjorn all he saw in her face was sorrow. If that was for what they did that night, or for the innocence she lost that night Bjorn wasn’t sure, maybe it was something else entirely. Either way now was not the time to address it.

  “Come. We need to leave here before morning. Before someone finds up. We got what we needed from this town.” Bjorn reached out his hand to Adriana.

  It was still coated in arterial spray from his gruesome work that day. She didn’t take it, actually she recoiled slightly from the hand. Bjorn pulled it back. Adriana then rose to her feet on her own and nodded to Bjorn.

  They then left the building and once again entered stealth. They needed to make it to the stone walls that surrounded the city before people got up. If they were caught now things would not go over well for them. It would be hard if not impossible to hide the evidence on their bodies.

  They slowly slinked through the streets heading for the outer wall, as they drew near there was a patrol of guards walking down the street. They had to quickly hide along the edge of a nearby building, staying as still as possible hoping that the patrol would just go by.

  Luckily for them the guards passed by without incident. Once the coast was clear they began heading for the wall again. They made it to the base without incident. The ten feet tall walls were not tall enough to stop Bjorn from grabbing the lip and pulling himself up. But for Adriana it would likely be a problem. Bjorn could have hauled her up no problem but with how she recoiled at Bjorn’s outstretched hand he didn’t want to chance it.

  So they started heading north along the wall heading to the nearest set of stairs that led up and onto the battlements. They had to wait for a minute for a guard to pass as he patrolled on the wall. Once his torch light was well past the stairs they mounted them and climbed up onto the wall.

  It was almost morning, the sky had begun to lighten off to the east. It was time to leave this town behind. They mounted the parapets on top of the wall and slowly lowered themselves towards the ground, letting their legs dangle for a bit before they let go falling the rest of the way to the ground.

  Bjorn landed softly on his feet. Adriana didn’t land so well, in the low light of predawn she hadn’t seen her landing fully and landed roughly on the ground, twisting her ankle. She gritted her teeth before getting to her feet. The sound of her body hitting the ground made a sound, it wasn’t overly loud like metal clashing together, but an unexpected noise in the dark would have been enough to raise the suspicion of any alert sentry.

  They quickly crossed the distance between the wall and the tree line ducking into cover. Just in time as two sentries converged on the spot where they went down the wall. They were far enough away that Adriana couldn’t hear what was being said between the pair. The world was still, quiet, and in the predawn voices tended to carry. So what they said was just barely clear enough for Bjorn to hear with his enhanced attributes.

  “What was that?”

  “I don’t know, you heard the sound too?”

  “Yeah it sounded like something falling, and hitting the ground.”

  “Do you see that?”

  “Is that blood?”

  “I am going to raise the alarm. We need to raise the village and then comb it. There might be a goblin that entered the city this way.”

  “I got it right here.”

  That was as far as Bjorn wanted to listen as he turned to leave, gesturing to Adriana to follow. They began to make their way deeper into the woods slowly as Adriana was still limping. Not 5 seconds after they started moving again horns began to blast one after another from different parts of the town they were leaving behind.

  They made their way west for a bit, only stopping once they were a good distance away from the town. Adriana began casting weak slow heal on herself trying to target her foot. She hadn’t been using her healing magic for the last few months. It felt good to exercise that ability again.

  When dawn finally did break they began making their way northward only stopping once more at a small stream to change out their clothes and to wash any and all evidence from their bodies. They took longer at the stream than Bjorn wanted but he still felt dirty even after they left. Now they needed to find the campsite for Ramsey’s and Luna’s allies they had in town.

  It wasn’t until they had left town heading north that Bjorn realized he had forgotten something. In his haste to leave town after they had killed the pair they hadn’t collected the golem. Now was not the time to go back. So Bjorn did the only thing he could think of, he gave the golem orders to come back to him mentally. He had no idea if there was a distance where he could issue orders but it was the best he could do for now.

  As they walked Bjorn did the one thing that he had put off since they left LeafFall.

  Bandits left to kill 8/12

  You have absorbed over 1036 hp from level 19 anthropomorph seductress female. Due to you draining well over 5 times the total amount of hp the target has your xp gained is increased by 500%. You gain 41440 experience.

  Level up!

  Level up!

  Level up!

  Level up!

  Level up!

  Level up!

  Level up!

  Level up!