Pensole determined to follow the guidance of grace, which vectored north from the Church of Elleh site of grace. As a happy coincidence, he could see on the crude map available to him there was a mark in that very same direction which he had surmised was likely the location of the stele where he could gain a map with much greater detail. He judged the distance on the map from his present location to the mark of interest, and he believed that the distance was about a doubling of the distance from The First Step to the Church of Elleh. Furthermore, the presumed stele sat upon the crossing of what appeared to be two roadways, one leading northward from the church area, which then terminated at an intersection with a connecting perpendicular roadway.
Hopping over a low wall and orienting himself northward, he could see that the grassland upon which the church sat gave way up ahead to a wooded section, as the land gently rose in that direction. The day was stretching into twilight, but visibility was still good. He saw an obvious path leading in the same northerly direction, but set just a bit to his right. Pensole correlated this pathway to the roadway marking he had seen on the map. He was faced then with a choice, whether to follow the path leading straight to the presumed map piece, or to cross-country to the left or right of the road. Which would be more dangerous? As he immediately concluded that he had no way of knowing which route to be superior, he decided to follow the path, at least until it proved to him he should choose otherwise.
After just a few moments walking toward and then up the path, he was faced with a choice once again, for he could see an armored soldier on the path ahead. The soldier was wearing a green and red tabard, and he held a torch in his hand. He was alone, as far as Pensole could tell. Upon reflection, there were several reasons why Pensole decided to approach the soldier. First, if it came to fighting, the threat level of a single soldier was more manageable than the oversized golden knight he traded blows with earlier. Second, Pensole wasn't fully convinced that the soldier was a threat at all; of the few creatures he had met so far in this world there was about an even split between those who offered help and those who offered bloodshed. And third, related to but different than the first, was Pensole had a sense that upon his quest he would likely have to fight and defeat a good many enemies, and he might as well start learning efficient means of doing so. Bashing sheep is some training, but poor training in comparison to crossing swords, or clubs or what have you, with a real thinking opponent.
So Pensole approached the soldier at an even pace, hoping not to cause an unnecessarily violent response should the soldier have good intentions. On the path leading up to the location were a number of white messages left by previous Tarnished, but they were overall confusing and not helpful. For example, one message said "try dragon." Another said something about a necessary item ahead. None of the messages provided any assistance to one who was interested in knowing whether a fight with the soldier ahead was unavoidable. Nevertheless, Pensole continued to approach. Just when he was within a reasonable hailing distance and was about to begin a communication attempt, the knight drew his sword and starting running straight at Pensole.
The positive thought that he had thus learned of the prickly nature of such a soldier did not linger long in Pensole's mind, for in that moment he rather used his mental faculties to steel himself to the immediate physical challenge. The soldier's sword rose to strike, but Pensole thought to strike first. His swinging club, however, met only air for the soldier was just out of range. Before Pensole could recover the swing, the soldier's sword came down upon him. The hit did more than the damage absorbed, in that it also briefly staggered Pensole, allowing the soldier to connect an additional trailing blow with the backhand. Instinctively Pensole knew he had to move, or he might just continue to absorb blows where he stood until he would be done for. He jump-rolled, back and to the left. This seemed to confuse the soldier, who took a moment to readjust, which Pensole took full advantage of by quickly closing and applying a bash to the head.
Having struck a blow, Pensole thought to wait and react to the Soldier's next move. Intently focusing on the soldier's sword in his right hand, he readied himself to dodge and counter-strike the next time the soldier telegraphed he was about to strike. It was a reasonable tactic, but on this occasion unsuccessful, for the soldier struck next not with his sword, but with the torch in his left hand. Caught by surprise, Pensole did several panic rolls about the area. He was locked on the target, so did not move too far away, but just kept rolling. The moves were spontaneous, reactionary, not at all part of a purposeful technique, but despite all this the rolling proved to be the winning move. The soldier could not keep up; when he tried to strike the bouncing target he missed entirely. Then, after having thus confused and tired his opponent, Pensole found himself at the end of a roll immediately beside and slightly behind the enemy. Lashing out with all the fury he could muster, he brought his club down upon the soldier's head, landing a severe blow. Without thought, he followed the first strike with a second, then third, then fourth, by which time the soldier was utterly finished.
Pensole stood victorious, but was himself deeply wounded. Aware of the full potential of his health, only a scant fraction remained. This occasioned Pensole to take full draft of a red flask, which was surprisingly efficacious in restoring his health, nearly though not totally in full. And though the killing snuffed any feeling of full celebration, Pensole did take a moment as he recovered to think back on the encounter and catalogue all that he could learn.
Three things stood out to him. First, he realized that he had an unused special skill. That is, he hadn't even thought to engage the Barbaric Roar before entering battle. He must do better in the future to take every advantage. Second, so long as he remained without a shield, he also must do better in knowing and reacting to an enemy's attacks. Several times during the battle, even though he was aware of an immediate and dire need to avoid being hit, he lacked consistent success. Third, when replaying the final sequence in his mind, he realized that once his club made a first contact, the enemy was staggered for a moment, which allowed Pensole to make multiple consecutive strikes without a counter-strike. The whole bashing sequence took more time than it would have taken the soldier to turn and slash with his own sword, but he was unable to do so because of the repeated club strikes. This presented a potential tactic in that if a single blow were landed, it could pave the way for more, and so blow should follow blow repeatedly and with great haste.
So, having consolidated his victory with an internal after-action review, Pensole turned his attention once again on the pathway rising into the woods to the north. There was no more activity visible on the road, but he could not see very far ahead because the path took a slight bend. He noticed over to the right and back amongst the trees there was another green and red clad soldier patrolling with a lighted torch. Pensole felt compelled to venture further up the road rather than frolic to the side, while also remaining confident that if the patrolling soldier had not seen him by now he would continue to pass safely by.
A few dozen yards into the woods Pensole saw his next real obstacle; it was a cart, just off to the left side of the road, with a green and red soldier kneeling at the near side of the cart. As Pensole crouch-walked closer, he could see that the soldier remained kneeling, and was facing away from the direction of Pensole's approach. There were no other threats nearby, so Pensole took the subjugation of this soldier as his next obstacle to overcome. He continued to sneak, approaching so near to the soldier that he could have tapped him on the shoulder, and he almost thought to do so. He distinctly considered, and then rejected the idea of activating his Barbaric Roar. He reasoned that to do so under the prevailing conditions would unequivocally announce his presence and intentions, which he preferred to keep secret for as long as possible.
So, rather than tap the soldier on the shoulder, Pensole decided to engage with as strong a swing of his club as he could muster. The blow landed impeccably, doing considerable damage to his foe. With both now standing, Pensole further engaged his planned tactic of following up the first blow with as many strikes, and as quickly, as he could. Such was the success of this tactic that only two follow-up strikes were needed.
This time, when the soldier perished, Pensole took note of how many runes were allotted to him for the kill, and was very pleased to find it was 64 runes, or the equivalent of exterminating a whole flock of 16 sheep. And for his troubles, the interaction had cost him not a single drop from his health. Having increased his rune count already back up to nearly 200, given the left over from having spent the Golden Seed 2 on a crafting kit, Pensole considered whether he ought to take his new bounty back to Kalé to exchange for some helpful new item. However, he decided to keep going, since he was nearly half-way to his chosen destination, and still had two red flasks in reserve should he encounter trouble.
Along the way he was also harvesting some Rowa Fruit and Erdleaves, his thought being to keep harvesting everything that could be harvested until he discovered he was either out of space, or a certain good was simply unnecessary.
He was nearly to the top of the rise, over which he could not see, when he came upon yet another red and green clad knight. This fellow was just off the road to the right, standing with a torch, and also looking directly away from Pensole's approach. He decided to sneak yet again, and crouch-walked up to the target. Now directly to the soldiers back, Pensole swung his club. This time, he did not swing as hard as he could, but rather just a nice, normal swing; his rationale being that he wanted to see if he could keep repeating strikes without letting the prey turn to get a counter-strike in, as a sort of experiment.
The science project was both successful and undermined at the same time, for something strange happened with the first strike. There was something of a short time delay, a loud whooshing sound, and then the soldier was thrown to the floor. As for the stike, Pensole believed it had done more damage than he expected with a normal strength bash. Regardless, the whole attack was successful, because as soon as the soldier was able to regain his feet, Pensole delivered two quick strikes that brought the short scenario to a victorious conclusion.
The first blow of the series was strange. Something happened, but for now it would go without explanation. Pensole made a mental note that he would have to be on the look out for some explanation in the future.
Continuing then just a few steps further, Pensole came to the top of the rise. Peering over the other side, he noted that he was at the far edge of the wooded section. The path continued more or less straight, down a gentle slope towards a group of stone ruins. There was a perpendicular roadway also running right to left through the ruins, which Pensole believed to be the anticipated intersection as spotted on the map. From this distance, he could not quite make out whether there was anything like a stele at the intersection, but his confidence remained.
While at the spot just over the top of the rise and along the pathway, Pensole also noticed a statue nearby and just to the right. It appeared to be a female figure, a little less than waist-high, and with no arms. Not knowing what to make of such a statue, Pensole turned his attention once again to the ruins and intersection down below.
Night had well and truly fallen by this time, which interfered to a degree with what he could see, but he once again was struck by just how much he could see through the supposed dark of night. One such thing was a group of large bats, flying low to the ground back and forth across the pathway. The bats seemed to be in a fixed patrol, and so after a few passes Pensole sussed that the airborn mammals' path took them much further off to his right than his left. With this knowledge, he hid in a nearby bush until the creatures just crossed the roadway travelling to his right, when he emerged from the bush and crouch-walked with celerity down the way to the ruins.
The roadway into the ruins was guarded on this side by another red and green clad soldier, but this fellow had not a sword, but rather a full body shield coupled with a spear. This development was curious to Pensole, but he had no reason to be especially wary given the great success he already had in dispatching three previous soldiers along his route.
The shield-spear soldier spotted him, and assumed a defensive posture. Having learned previous lessons, Pensole made no attempt to communicate to this one, but rather prepared himself with a Barbaric Roar. Full now of red rage and at the peak of his strength, Pensole lunged at the man, believing in his tested technique of quick and successive bashes to keep the enemy off balance. However, as successful as that tactic had been with the others, with this brute his bashing offensive merely bounced consecutively off the prodigious shield. Stymied, Pensole took a step back to re-assess. The shield would have to be accounted for. But there was no time in the present to reformulate a new plan, for the soldier had himself stepped forward, and lifted the spear in a manner suggesting an imminent strike. Pensole braced, ready to dive to the right at the moment the soldier began his thrust. Thus, even though perhaps ready for the danger ahead, Pensole was felled rather by the forgotten danger behind when one of the large bats knifed him, (with tooth or claw he could not tell), in a surprise attack from the rear. Two red flasks remained unused at the moment of Pensole's death.
