Ashes of the Fallen

"What the girl and I are doing is none of your business, hear me?" threatened the ring-leader as he closed his fist on the counter. He wanted to impose his will, unfortunately I was too tired of arguing with gamers.

"Nah, I'm not hearing you," I retorted, with my hands still resting off my pant pockets. I had an unassuming stance, each thumb in a pocket with arms relaxed and elbows slightly out. Taking a few steps forward and standing in the middle of the group of the four, it was my turn to have some fun.

"My patience is short, fellas."

"Yeah?" asked the ring-leader while standing up and turning to gesture towards his friends. "What are you going to do about it, you, against us?"

The penalty for fighting inside town was severe, and I didn't really care too much but the loss of reputation would be hard to recover. As much as I wanted to strike them down where they stood, with everyone else in close proximity a bar fight could unravel in short order. Yeah, I needed to get them outside.

"Waddle on home little ducklings, you don't know what you're getting into," I snickered while waving my hand in a half-assed shooing motion.

"What the fuck, you're calling us ducks?" one of the other guys questioned. "That doesn't even make sense, the fuck are you on about."

They didn't know what to make of the insult, hell, even I didn't know what to make of it. They just resembled a bunch of ugly ducklings to me and seemed so out of place.

"No, I called you a duckling, a baby duck," I said seriously. "But, I realize the error of my ways, it was a momentary lapse in judgment, an insult to ducklings everywhere."

"This kid, he thinks he's funny," laughed out one of the guys.

"Think you're tough, guy?" asked another. "Step outside, I dare you."

"Yeah, let's see you run your mouth when you aren't protected by the town NPCs," said the third man. "Come on, don't back out now, hero boy."

A grin crossed my face as my objective had been completed.

"Sure!" I exclaimed with enthusiasm. "I'll lead the way, I know a great spot."

It was the stupidest insult I probably ever could have thought of, but these guys were all too eager to prove themselves. Baiting them to their deaths seemed cruel, well they asked for it. I felt no shame or remorse in doing so.

I didn't even have to get vulgar or insult them on a deeper level.

Superficial childish insult for the win, I thought to myself.

Grabbing my gear bag that was on the floor next to my barstool, I continued to walk out of the tavern and past the town boundary, stopping once I had reached a neutral zone with a small clearing. No one had followed us, surprisingly.

Well, maybe it wasn't that unusual.

We didn't really make much of a scene as no one had been yelling, if the other tenants weren't paying attention, they probably wouldn't have noticed anything going on. That was better for me, since I didn't want anyone to really see what I was about to do. I had recently picked up a new spell… one that I had been grinding for, for quite some time. It was about time to give it a whirl.

"Bet you regret trying to play the hero now, don'cha?" asked one of the guys with a smirk. Ignoring him, I decided to check out the gear that they were all wearing. They were all melee types, four warriors essentially based on the two-handed weapons three of them had and the one-handed sword plus shield of the fourth. A horrible composition really, they would always be fighting for the same gear and in groups they were entirely one-dimensional. Well, they hadn't really showed any capability of making the right decisions so far, so it wasn't unexpected that they would all run the same class-type.

"Let's get this over with already," I plainly stated. "I've got places to be."

"Next time, you should mind your own damn business," threatened one of the guys.

"Yeah, right," I replied. "Heard that the first time, any last words?"

"Fuck this asshole," yelled out another guy as he grasped his weapon.

Two men leveled their spears and began to charge with a hoarse battle cry, closing the distance between us in a matter of seconds. Kicking back to create space, the wet grass provided lousy footing as I struggled to get into position. In an instant, both men used a [Lunge] and thrust their spears out with one arm, hoping to land a first strike.

A quick draw of my one-handed axe from its sling and a deft swing easily deflected both spearheads as the third man with a two-handed sword, stepped forth and dropped a [Heavy Swing] on me. Reacting as quickly as I could, I brought my shield to bear the brunt of the impact and took the hit that sent me sliding back in the light mud. A drizzle had started to fall as I took a step back and watched the three regain their composure.

They weren't entirely suicidal or brainless, after all.