Overlord: A Warrior's Return

Chapter 7: First Encounter

Takemikazuchi covered ground rather rapidly with the help of his skill. It was going by so fast in fact that he was sure he'd reach the city before nightfall if he could keep up this pace.

(Hmm, what's that over there? Looks to be a wagon or cart of some kind stopped over by the side of the road. Let's go take a look.)

Magic is definitely not a strong point of Takemikazuchi's abilities but he'd still invested some points in order to grab useful spells. Now within sight of the wagon and seeing a human on top of it cowering from some kind of enemy, he decided to make sure of one such spell in order to get a more accurate breakdown of what awaited him.

Takemikazuchi: "Detect Life!"

A rather straightforward Tier 3 spell, Detect Life allows the user to see the outline of surrounding living creatures as a red haze. Naturally, some spells and abilities can combat this, like the 9th Tier spell Perfect Unknowable or thief and rogue class abilities.

Almost immediately, seven silhouettes began materializing in front of Takemikazuchi. The human at the top of the wagon was the first and then slightly behind the wagon not very far away, three shapes were visible, four legged beasts. Slightly off to the side and further behind the wagon, three more figures could be spotted, 2 more beasts and another humanoid looking one.

The horse pulling the wagon lay on its side, blood oozing into a pool next to it's stomach. Seeing how the human had not yet noticed him, he called out to grab his attention.

Takemikazuchi: "Hey, everything's okay over there?"

The frightened human almost fell off the top of his wagon from hearing Takemikazuchi's voice, having caught him off guard but managed to hold on.

Human: "Are you an adventurer? If so, please help! Monsters are attacking us!"

Getting closer, he was able to identify the creature, some breed of large wolves with grayish fur that stood at a meter and a half tall while on four legs. Two of the creatures were devouring the horse while the other was trying to find its way to the human on top of the wagon.

Further behind them and on the road of the road nearest to the forest, two more of them were fighting another human. Armed with only his fists, the other human was able to hold his own against the two wolves, fending off attacks and getting strikes in as well.

(Not bad I suppose. Is he a monk then? Only way I can see that he could manage to fight this way and not be very injured. This would be a great situation to test some of my offensive skills in, alright let's help them out. He's only using fists eh? Let's make that my challenge too! No weapons.)

Being specialized in classes that grant the most offensive power, not many skills were available to Takemikazuchi that could be used without weapons. He had a few of course, mainly from his racials and rōnin class.

Approaching the wagon drew the attention of the wolf trying to reach the human who decided that Takemikazuchi was an easier target and charged at him. As it came within striking distance, he swiftly moved to the right side of the beast, dodging its attack and unleashing a skill of his own.

Takemikazuchi: "Surgical Touch of the Viper!"

The wolf fell over and stopped moving, it's legs and paws fixed in their original position. Still breathing however, it could only watch as it lay motionless from the paralysis effect of Takemikazuchi's attack.

(I see. If a 5th tier ability takes hold that easily, then these are nothing more than nuisances.)

He continued on, advancing towards the other two creatures who raised their heads as his steps alerted them to his presence. Blood dripping from their mouths, they bared their fangs and charged him, using their powerful legs to propel themselves with great speed. To Takemikazuchi however, that speed did not even make him blink. He bent low, extending both his arms and cleaved the wolves using his hands as makeshift swords, slicing open both wolves as they passed overhead of him.

He shook off his hands with a single motion using great force, cleaning them of the blood that had stained them. Turning his gaze to the other human, he noticed that one of the wolves had been slain but now wounded, the monk seemed to struggle against the other, his arms now nicked with cuts and bleeding.

(Ah, I know, I've been wondering if this ability still works in this world. Looks like I'll lose my challenge but it's important to know if I can still use it.)

Takemikazuchi: "Arsenal of the Daimyo!" 

A portal opened above them up in the sky and widened slowly until the opening was large enough that every single weapon in Takemikazuchi's inventory could fit in it. As if guided by invisible magic hands, the weapons propelled themselves at great speed towards their target, stabbing, slashing, piercing and smashing into the wolf. The first hit was enough to kill it, the following 99 were simply for show.

Takemikazuchi smiled inwardly, his trump card still worked like it did. When he had first seen this skill after reaching 5 levels in Sovereign Blade and Shogun, he'd read the description a dozen times. A skill that made use of every weapon in the user's inventory and attacked with all of them but with an 80 hour cooldown? The possibilities had begun making him plan a way to make the best use of it. There was a hard limit however of 100 weapons which had disappointed him since he had planned to try and use over a thousand.

Unfortunately, Touch-Me's World Break was able to cancel the effect of it completely, destroying the portal before it could activate and making Takemikazuchi try to find other ways to beat him.

With the last threat dealt with, the other wolf stayed motionless on the ground and he decided to try and measure how long the paralysis would last and so left him there, turned his attention back to the human monk.

Takemikazuchi: "Hey, are you alright?"

The monk stood unmoving, pale as a ghost and trembled slightly. It looked to Takemikazuchi as if he had just seen death. Realizing that perhaps his skill had scared him, he went to check up on him.

(I'm pretty sure I didn't hit him. Did I just scare him maybe? I should probably have told him to get some distance.)

Takemikazuchi stood in front of the human monk, trying to grab his attention and snap him out of his stupor. The monk's eyes wandered aimlessly while his hands trembled, paying no heed to the person in front of him. He looked like he'd seen death and was unable to cope with it. Getting annoyed, Takemikazuchi went to speak with the other human who was now stepping down from the wagon.

Human Merchant: "Thank you so much for your assistance! I don't know what we'd have done without you. To think we'd be lucky enough to cross paths with an adventurer from the guild in our time of need like this."

Takemikazuchi: "Hmm, guild? I'm afraid not. I'm simply a traveler from far away looking to rest for the night and was making my way towards E-Rantel after being turned back from Carne village."

Human Merchant: "Ah, I see. I also was going to Carne and had to change my plans. I came upon this young man over there barely an hour before those beasts attacked us. He's said he wished to go to E-Rantel and become an adventurer. I thank you both for your help, my name is Lunor, I'm a merchant from E-Rantel. It's not much but please let me treat you to supper tonight and I will help you get in the city if there's any trouble, I do have some connections."

A thump drew both their attention and they looked over to see the young monk sitting down, looking at them with awe and fear.

Young Monk: "Who...what are you?"

**Thanks for reading up to this point! Some things maybe end up changing, I'm just going with the flow right now obviously. Might tweak some abilities/spells in the future so they better line up with existing lore and canon.**