《The Mark Of The Vindex》 Death And A Goddess Life and Death. Neither can exist without the other, and eventually what lives must die. But, what if you had to die... to live? This was not something that Laith thought of as he faced certain death. No. As he and fourteen of his fellow tribesmen faced down the massive army of invaders from the South, he thought of much simpler things. He thought of much simpler things, such as the smile on his sisters face after he came home safely from a hunt, the laughter of the children that ran about in his village. Then, he thought of darker things, the look of horror on his sisters face when he returned from his latest hunt only to discover her dead body in their hut, his village razed by the Southern invaders, the children captured and put in cages. He shook his head and thought back to the happier memories, wanting to cherish them before he died. And so, with a feral grin he hefted his hunting spear and charged forward, the few remaining members of his tribe following close behind. Each one carrying similar primitive hunting implements. As they rushed across the open field they were quickly spotted. Horns were sounded and Southern Archers let loose a volley of arrows that blotted out the sky. The field was wide open and had no cover, that was fine. The fifteen tribesmen had not intended to live past this night anyways, rather, they wished to show one last act of defiance before joining their families in the afterlife. As the arrows whistled down upon them, the last thought on all the hunters minds was to question if this act of defiance would make up for their failure to protect their families and allow them a seat in the hall of their god, Ullr. Once the arrows descended upon the hunters, they thought of nothing else. However, hours later, Laith woke. Once he checked his body he realized he was no longer injured, and was wearing odd clothing. It was a simple burlap shirt and trousers however it was much finer than the furs and pelts he was used to wearing. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. After taking stock of his body he looked about his surroundings only to find that he was in the same field he had died in, however the sky was blotted out by darkness and a heavy fog was obscuring the ground. As he looked around he saw no signs of life, and then he heard it. A beautiful yet incredibly sad voice was singing further in the fog. After making his way to the voice he discovered a woman in a black dress of mourning sitting on a rock. As he approached, he had a sudden urge to kneel that grew stronger by the second, yet he refused to kneel no matter how much weight was pressing down on him. Eventually however, his body could not take the pressure any longer and he collapsed upon the ground. Once he did so the woman got up and approached him. She asked him a simple question, "Do you wish to stop the slaughter of innocents?" "Yes", he replied, and then the world went dark. The Plains When Laith woke once more he found himself in a wide open plain, with no breaks to the flat landscape in sight. But even worse was tha the plain was completely barren and ridiculously hot. After taking stock of his clothing and checking himself for injury he decided to look for civilization. After studying the sun for a while he decided to go North. After walking for many hours Laith finally stumbled upon something other than the knee high grass. He had been hearing sounds of metal hitting metal and yelling for some time now and he finally saw what was going on. A group of seven people, each wearing various bits of metal armour and weilding various forms or swords or spears, where fighting what looked like a horde or goblins. Or at least short, childlike creatures that where green, had pointy ears and teeth. While the human fighters where using various weapons made of iron and steel, the goblins only had crude clubs or the occassional rusty knife. You would think the Humans would be easilly winning, No? But, they where in fact, losing, due to the sheer amount of goblins, there being at least three goblins fighting each Warrior, and it being clear that there was once many more goblins, judging by all the slain goblin bodies laying about the area. Realizing that the Humans would likely be friendlier than the goblins, Laith quickly ran towards the fight, grabbed a spear from one of the fallen Humans, and entered the fight. While Laith was not an expert Warrior, he was a Hunter and was quite familiar with the usage of a spear. Soon after he joined the fight the goblins began to lose and eventually after enough goblins had been killed the remaining goblins quickly ran away. After seeing the last goblin flee Laith turned to introduce himselt to the warriors, just in time to see a massive armoured fist make contact with his face. When he woke again, he found himself bound by rope near the campfire as the Human Warriors also sat around it eating, Once they saw he was awake one of the warriors stepped closer to him, no longer wearing a helmet. Laith looked at his face and struggled to move away as fast as possible. The decidedly Not Human Warrior saw this and laughed. He then began to speak, "Have you not seen a member of the Lizard-Kin before Human?" Laith took a moment to calm himself and then replied, "No, never, and why have you bound me?" The Lizard-Kin Warrior replied, "What would you do if a strange person wielding a weapon ran towards you?" Laith replied that he was only trying to help them against the goblins. After hearing this the Lizard-Kin began to debate amongst themselves, after much talking the same Lizard-Kin walked back towards Laith, and untied him. He said "We apologize for the rudeness and thank you for the assistance in the battle, my name is Tesho, what is yours?" Laith replied, "My name is Laith, and where am I? I woke up here, and the last thing i remember was dying fighting Soldiers who attacked my tribe." Tesho replied, " You must have been reincarnated here, fo you know what class and level you are?" Laith replied that he did not and asked how to check. Tesho told him to close his eyes and think Status.When he did he saw this.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Name: Laith Race: Human Classes: Swordsman Level 22 Spearman Level 37 Skills: Lacerating Thrust (Spearmam) Spoiler: Spoiler Use enhanced strength and Agility to quickly thrust your spear several times cutting into your opponent. Rending Slash (Swordsman) Spoiler: Spoiler Slash your opponent with your sword, cutting deeply into them with enhanced strength and cutting ability Frenzy (Spearman) Spoiler: Spoiler Give in to your rage, Increased Speed, Strength, and Pain Tolerance, at the cost of Higher Mental Functions Once Laith told them his classes and skills there was silence, then all hell broke lose.