Qayshaun Bedgood
"Hey! What are you doing out here?- Tch- Gah!"
As I marched through the village of Ava, the same thing had been playing out. I would run into one of the hoodlums of Charleston and promptly defeat them. Most of the time, it merely took one or two punches. Even in my deteriorated state, they pose little more than a nuisance to me.
That last guy was the most formidable one yet, since he managed to get the jump on me. Unlike his comrades, he hid behind a corner and launched at me. Yet, my fist caught his chest and he took flight. Since he startled me, I managed to strike him harder than I anticipated.
The sight of rickety wooden buildings and traces of faint ash filled my nose. My eyes darted back and forth between buildings as I followed the instructions given to me by the older woman. It turned out that the woman I spoke to was the elder sister of the stagecoachman Villard. More importantly, she just so happened to be the current mayor of Ava Village.
She told me that the Gold Coin Brigade pulled on one day and, with Bernard's strength, battered the village to submission. The first place that they managed to flip to their side was the local tavern and inn. She mentioned that while Bernard was the muscle behind the crew and leader, he often made decisions with his purse.
At first glance, it may seem like unimportant information, but I view it differently. That meant that Bernard wasn't the true mastermind behind the ordeal. He was merely a cog in the machine. I had many questions, but I doubted that he would have the answers if I interrogated him following our battle. The man that I need is one specific deer man. One with a rather distinct blue suit and monocle. It just so happens that such an individual decided to flee to this area.
'Find Charleston, and force the remaining bandits out of Ava Village. Then I will have to defeat those Fiend Fish as well.'
It was a simple plan. One that I knew had a high chance of success.
Swipe! Swipe!
As I turned onto another street, another man moved to cut off my advance. A sword soared next to my head, but unfortunately for him, I managed to evade his ambush. In a desperate attempt to cover up, he gripped his handle and attacked once more. His blade traced through the air with an erratic frenzy.
"Alright- Enough with that," I said plainly.
With a swipe of my hand, I struck his wrist. His tight grip immediately loosened, and his sword fell to the dirt. I will admit that he remained full of vigor. Despite being disarmed, I found a clenched fist tossed my way. His target was obvious, so I snatched his fist straight out of the air.
"Gah!- You damned bas-"
I didn't allow the man to finish his words. Turning my hips, I pulled the man off his feet and slammed him onto his back. An audible huff escaped from the man's lungs before I stomped his chest. Consciousness left his eyes, and the once brown irises were replaced with complete blankness.
In fluid motions, I pulled the man around as if he were a throw rag and draped him over my shoulder.
Without a shadow of a doubt, this was a relatively easy endeavor. Perhaps I had assumed that many of the people of this crew might live up to the strength of their leader. Even with the weight of another man draping over my shoulder, I continued marching towards the tavern relatively uncontested.
In a matter of minutes, I caught sight of the building that the woman described to me. A three-story building with red shingles and fading white paint. It isn't ideal for a hideout, but I suppose it can host a few of their leadership.
'It is hard to believe that these men are capable of holding a town hostage, then again, they do have a lot of men. Bernard was also-'
The sudden creak of wood caught my attention, causing my eyes to snap to my right. It was there that I spotted a man jumping over a railing. He plummeted towards me with a knife in his hand. Evading such an attempt was practically second nature at this point. It was so much so that I sidestepped with another human draped over my shoulders. Upon landing on the ground, the man quickly scrambled to push his advance.
Launching forward, the man viciously stabbed and cut towards me. When one might expect practiced motion, I could tell that he was just desperate to land any attack against me. No matter where my body found itself, the man's knife followed. Eventually, I saw the need to end this farce of an ambush. This man was no threat to me, and swinging around a knife was not the equalizer that he likely hoped it would be.
There had been plenty of times that the man had overreached with his attempt to stab me, so I wasn't surprised when he did it again. It was on that occasion that I decided to counterattack. My knee quickly shot up, striking the man directly in his torso. In normal circumstances, that would have likely blown my opponent away, but this time I limited myself. The man cried in pain as he found himself swept off his feet. His knife escaped his grasp, and before he could return to the ground, I pulled on the arm of the man on my shoulder.
The man slipped off with the ease of a cape as I bashed my attacker with his ally with one decisive strike. There was nothing to it. Stunned from being struck by his ally, my ambusher crumpled to the ground in a heap of pain and utter confusion. It was likely that he would have never seen a man use another man as a weapon.
"Tch- Y-You...Y-You!- Gah!"
The man huffed and puffed, but his words didn't come out. Instead, he turned to flee. It was unfortunate for him that I was his opponent, as the moment he turned to leave, I placed my right foot onto his back. Our massive strength difference proved impossible for him to overcome as he faceplanted into the dirt.
"All of you guys keep popping up, but none of you live up to the strength of that bear guy," I said confidently.
Watching the man squirm under my boot brought a sense of superiority to me. While this seemed to be our new reality, seeing assholes like this man and Bernard eat the dirt reminded me of my time on Infinity Unleashed.
The times that Bishop, Mark, and I would go around liberating obscure villages from rogue NPCs and players in Infinity Unleashed. In a world where those with greater strength devour those who are weaker, there was a satisfaction to be had in overpowering those who misused their strength.
"Get off of them, you bastard!"
It appeared that another visitor decided to try his hand at defeating me, but unlike the others, he alerted me way before it was necessary. In a hurry, he jumped over the same railing as my previous attacker, but surprisingly, there was no weapon in his hand. His fists were clenched up, and he aimed to strike me in my chest. Perhaps it was a bit of my hubris, but I decided to let him go through with his attack.
"W-What?! Who the hell are y-"
Shock washed over the man as he bound his punch completely tanked by my best. It felt as if a toddler had decided to strike me, and frankly, it was probably due to the person's youth. While the other men seemed to be ranging from their early twenties to their late thirties, this attacker was in their late teens.
I would assume that he was sixteen or seventeen, and that earned him a bit of my sympathy. Perhaps this person was one of the villagers who were forced to work with their oppressors. Strike after strike connected against my chest as he attempted to make me flinch even the slightest.
Yet, to his dismay, I didn't give an inch to him. Watching him flail around in desperation was hard, so I decided to be merciful. Lifting my foot off the back of one man, I merely kicked the younger one in front of me. Although I did hold back, the teen flew back a great distance towards the tavern.
At that moment, the door to the tavern was thrown open. The person's power was nearly tearing the door off its hinges. Out came what I might describe as an Amazon. While Bernard was large and menacing, this woman managed to carry herself with similar confidence. She towered over a majority of the people that I have seen thus far in this world. I might say that she's a couple of inches taller than Mark is. One thing is sure: her physique was more defined than that of most of our group.
"What happened out there, Charles?!" she growled after she stepped from the doorway.
"I'm telling you, this was going well, but then this… human managed to overpower Bernard. It was freakish."
As the Amazon stepped out of the tavern's porch and onto the dirt walkway, she was followed by Charleston. The deer beastman was speaking of me, so I responded accordingly.
"Freakish?! Aight Bastard. I'll knock your ass out for saying some shit like that."
A wicked smirk found itself occupying my face as I delivered my response. Seeing my words startled Charleston to the point that he hid behind the tall woman, which was amusing.
To play up the intimidation, I dug my heel into the back of the man that I was standing on, and on cue, he cried out in pain. He howled out like I was murdering him, which caused even more distress to appear on the long face of Charleston.
What intimidated Charleston seemed to displease the woman. She was growling at me like a cornered animal.
I could feel her eyes scanning me as the wind began to shake her brown hair lightly. Although her frustrations were evident, I was surprised that she didn't make a single move to attack me. The other men of Bernard's crew thus far charged me the moment they laid eyes on me. In comparison, only video game NPCs attack enemies with that type of reckless abandon.
She was different, and that one aspect allowed me to understand why Charleston was hiding behind her. Laying my eyes on said deer beastman reminded me that I had questions for him. Although he did manage to escape earlier, I would not allow myself to make that same mistake again. To reach him, I will have to get past the woman in front of him.
That would be the case, but unfortunately, it wouldn't be as easy as I anticipated. A group of men, about seven in total, poured out of the tavern. Their first course of action was to set up their formation and surround me—a solid strategy, if I do say so myself.
"You're not from around here, and you're not a damn peasant either. So what's your game?" The woman questioned, her tone rough.
Damn, nearly every goon that I ran into asked that same question, and its redundancy was getting more annoying with the utterance. I didn't owe her an answer, but I figured that if I could provoke her to charge like the rest, then I'd blow her away as well.
Reaching up, I grabbed hold of the man draped over my shoulder by his collar. In one swift motion, I pulled him and tossed him over towards the woman. Her brow narrowed as the individual collapsed before them like a sack of potatoes.
"You're asking too many questions. Just know that I am here to kick all of your asses."
Usually, a sign of disrespect on that level would be answered with the act of throwing hands, but this woman didn't bite. She stood like a statue with a menacing aura, so I could only assume that I had pegged her character wrong.
'So she's not the type to attack first, huh? Well shit, I'll do it my-'
"Here to kick our asses? Don't make me laugh!"
Those words came off to my side, and the individual who spoke them slurred every syllable. That is when I noticed something. All of these men are intoxicated. That means this situation is easy for me to handle. It was made even easier when that same man rushed me. It was more like he quickly wobbled towards me with his fist raised.
Out of all of the goons that I have defeated thus far, this one was the easiest. His fist arched towards me, but I just slapped it away. That was enough to throw off his balance, so he practically fell on my knuckles. With the slightest movements, I was capable of sending this man airborne.
"You should've known better than to test me with that weak-ass punch," I said confidently.
The man landed on his back and once he did so, began spewing reddish vomit onto himself. After a few moments of spasming, stillness came for the man.
"Aight, who's next? C'mon, step up. No need to be shy. I got plenty cans of whoopass to spare."
The quick work of their ally shook the men to their core. Most of them looked as if they wanted to run at the very moment. Charleston was the main culprit for that expression. The deer beastman's eyes widen in disbelief at the display.
"No one? Well, I suppose that I get to choose then, and I choose…"
As I spoke, I rotated around in a circle before my finger landed on one of the men. My smirk deepened, and with that, I charged the man. Startled by my sudden approach, the man put up his arms for protection. If I were a regular person, then he would have blocked it with minimal effort. It was pretty unfortunate that his opponent was me because as soon as my fist made contact with his forearm, his defense crumbled. The man was sent back, barreling into the nearby building.
Not wanting to forfeit my advantage, I moved towards the closest man from that position. My fist crashed into the staggering man's side, and much like his comrade, he was sent flying. While I was a bit slower than I previously was against Bernard, I saw no real downside against his subordinates. Most of the men could be blasted away in a single punch, even if they managed to evade the initial strike.
Once I broke through the first three men, the remaining decided to collapse on my location. Fortunately, the majority of the group came out with no weapons in hand, which made the whole process far safer. In their intoxicated state, most of them couldn't touch me. Despite my larger frame, I weaved through their attacks with no hesitation.
Although they tried their hardest, they couldn't land any significant strike.
'This is lightwork…perhaps, they were relying solely on Bernard's strength to keep the villagers in check.'
A fist arched out towards me, and in a fluid motion, I caught it. My attacker was the largest of their formation, a hulking individual with a defining scar streaking atop his bald head. An eye patch resided on his left eye, so I targeted his blind spot. I clenched my fist, and when it streaked through the air, something peculiar happened.
I landed my punch, yet I was the one blown away. My body jerked away, and like a rock across a river's surface, I bounced across the ground. It took considerable effort, but I managed to spring to my feet. My mind raced as I attempted to process what had just happened to me. Yet, there wasn't a single conclusion that I could draw at that moment.
"Well…It appears that one of you will finally put up a fight. Bout' time," I declared.
While the other men were practically sniveling cowards in comparison, this man radiated an aura about him. An arrogant smirk stretched across his face, replacing the despair that he had showcased. His hand raised and wiped the tip of his fat nose with his thumb.
"You've gone far, but you've done enough," the man responded in a patronizing tone. "I'll surely get rewarded for bringing destruction down upon you. Even if I don't, I'll take glory in it."
"Is that right? I doubt that you could withstand a few punches from me, but I'll humor you."