Rise of the Nightmare Crestmaster

Aldrich pushed the bandit down the pit which triggered the alarm, this was done intentionally to attract the Ravenfolk here where they can ambush them at ease.

He had hoped that only one would come here so that they can deal with him easily. But he was not unprepared for the two of them to come.

That's when he threw the bomb and it landed beautifully killing one of the demi-humans at once and injuring the other.

The Ravenfolk tried to get up as quickly as possible to escape. He had always believed that Ravenfolk were definitely smarter and superior among the demi-humans.

They might not be as strong as the tigermen or the wolfmen but they had greater intellect and they could fly!

Obviously the situation was disadvantageous to him so he decided to retreat, it's not like he was fleeing for his life or anything! He did not fear humans at all!

He pushed himself off the ground and flapped his wings but he couldn't fly as fast as he wanted to nor was he stable in the air at all.

Abruptly he was shot with an arrow and crashed into a tree again. At this point he knew he was in no shape to fly but he noticed one thing.

The humans didn't throw another bomb at him which would have been the easiest and safest way to kill him. This meant that they were out of bombs, it was too early to come to that conclusion but he had no choice but to do so.

The Ravenfolk sensed around but he didn't feel the disgusting powers of the Crestmasters, this is the best thing to have happened, no bombs and no Crestmasters?

And yet these humans dared to try and kill him?! He was going to get revenge for his brother now!

But before he could think further a human seemingly materialized in his personal zone, somehow he just appeared there and he had their own clan's spear pointed and thrusted at him.

And like an unstoppable avalanche it pierced through his torso with a power that no ordinary human should possess.

However the Ravenfalk was not easy to deal with either, it somehow pushed Aldrich away and jumped into the air, but instead of flying he furled his wings and somehow the feathers all over his body shot out like bullets.

Aldrich used his Light step skill again and jumped in the air kicking the demi-human down, as he lunged and punched him in the head he realized he was dead already.

Aldrich cut off his head just to be sure, it wasn't bad to double check like Cazmer taught him.

****

Not long after the guild's assistant came over with some other workers and checked up on all the bandits, they collected all the bodies and stacked them in a mass grave.

Aldrich wrote a report about how the whole quest went about in ten pages quickly, handed them to the assistant and and told her to send the report to the guild as they would have to journey to Rathoa first thing in the morning.

It was only a few hours but it was admittedly extremely taxing on the mind and the body, obviously Aldrich wasn't a heartless bastard who would put too much pressure on his party members.

Taking a the rest of the day to adjust and relax, especially since all of the did really good, even Emma whom he initially did not have much hope for. All of them proved very capable.

Aldrich gained another twenty red essence orbs from the two demi-humans, and two more from the bandit's leader so all in all he had one green orb and ninety four orbs, which meant that he was very close to gaining his second green orb.

The women who were held captive by the demi-humans were freed from their captivity at last but it was unknown when or if they will ever recover.

Some of them had been impregnated by the demi-humans, at the very least these children could be sold to a slave farm after birth for a reasonable sum. This could make up for some of the harm that the women suffered.

Aldrich felt deep sated indignation at the horrifying things that have become not too abnormal in the Vorian after the war.

What would have happened if Vorian didn't lose? What if they didn't take the wrong side? It was impossible to know for sure but Aldrich hoped that the Emperor would be merciful and lift the occupation on Vorian soon.

Had they not suffered enough? Have they not paid enough for their sins? It was true that Vorian committed the greatest sin but so many years have already passed now, shouldn't the punishment be lifted now?

Aldrich turned away from these thoughts, he washed up after a few hours of sleep, night has already fallen, downstairs the inn had already gotten rowdy.

Aldrich had ordered the kitchen to prepare a feast for the party since they had done great he ought to reward them. Ayemon said that good work should be rewarded, a leader must show his appreciation.

Being nice didn't cost anything, Aldrich made sure to make a distinction between his actions during a quest and after it.

Besides they got a good haul, the bandits loot now belonged to them which was around fourteen silvers and and they made ten more after selling the two intact bodies of the Ravenfolk.

The last one was blown to bits and the meat couldn't be eaten anymore so it couldn't be sold.

So all in all they made four silver coins each which was a banger. It could have been even more if the quest was not part of the exam, in that case they would have gotten paid for completing the quest too.

Aldrich went up and nocked on each of their doors, bringing them downstairs for a surprise.

A long table was stuffed full of delicacies, pork ribs, vegetable soup and roasted chicken with garlic bread and a very cold beer to wash it all down.

"Wow." Cole exclaimed and jumped straight in, the others hesitated.

"Come on, we did a great job today and we made it, eat till you can't breath, it's my treat!" Aldrich declared.

"Whoo!"

"Yeah! Lets drink until we drop dead!"