The group made their way back to their inn 10,000 gold coins richer among the sounds of fighting across the dark alleys along the way. Even though the town was pretty safe during the day, at night it was a completely different animal.
The Underground Arena was located in the Ghetto part of town and the people that were walking those streets knew what they were getting into.
This time the sounds came from an alley that was a few feet away from the group and when they passed in front of it, Rahz saw the captain of the guard standing against the wall using a dagger to clean his nails.
The captain nodded to the group and said, " We have been tracking this gang of thugs for quite a while and finally managed to subdue them".
The group heard the captain and couldn't help but look into the alley as they slowly moved along. Some Barbarians eyes opened wide and some faces Grimace, while others smile at what they saw.
Inside the alley there were two guards for each thug, in the forefront two guards were kicking their victim with gusto on the head while on the opposite side there were a pair of guards holding another thug against the wall while a third guard stabbed none stop.
Further down the alley there were other guards elbow dropping another unresponsive body and more guards checking for survivors and stabbing until satisfied. If people listen carefully they could make out muffle sounds and grunts among the laughter of the guards. If there was a music theme for the scene it would have been perfect.
Rahz looked at the situation and said "Thank you for your hard work captain is not easy keeping the streets safe".
The Captain snorted and kept on cleaning his nails while the group moved along.
Elune couldn't take the naivety anymore and said to Rahz, " You realized those were thugs sent by the arena management to kill you right?"
"Why would they do that I won fair and square"
Elune slap her forehead and said, "Are you really so stupid? people will try to kill you for the 10,000 gold coins in that pouch, you think they won't kill you if they lost that amount or even more"
Rahz wasn't stupid, he realize that the Mayor knew something might happen and sent the captain to make sure everything was O.K. Rahz also understood that 'the nail that sticks out gets hammered' and it was easy for people to overlook a country bumpkin that seem naive in nature.
Rahz was part High Elf and the wisdom and intelligence pertaining to that race were pretty high only second to the Erudites that tried to stay away from mundane affairs. Rahz was not a full blooded high elf but with every level he gained there was a boost in that area as well.
Oblivious to what was happening to his hired thugs, the announcer made his way towards the VIP room where his boss was waiting for him. The announcer was pretty nervous and as he walked up the stairs he was trying to come up with a good excuse that could save his life. Unfortunately, he never had a chance to begin with.
When the announcer was about to reach the top of the stairs, a dagger went through the back of his neck and out his throat while a very sexy voice whispered into his ear "You knew the rules, you mess up and this is the price". If the Helgahvall group heard that sexy voice, they would not hesitate to associated it with the body of that sexy hostess that helped them out the first day they came to watch the show.
The hostess left the scene and two other shadows appeared and took the corpse away while a couple of maids passed by to clean the halls.
The following morning the group woke up early and loaded up a bigger cart than the one they brought into the town but it was still not a problem for the two bears to pull it.
The attitude of the town had done a complete 180 and now there was not a single person who didn't want to befriend them, the Kobold Man was the undefeated Division Champion and he had won it by defeating an opponent two levels above him.
This time the same guards that called them country bumpkins when they came in and couldn't wait for them to move, now said hello and put forward amiable faces. Rahz look at all this with apathy, he was able to see first hand that in the realm of Elysian people respected what they perceived as strong and he couldn't stand them.
The way back was still filled with bandits but this time they had weird attitudes, some were friendly while others exuded killing intent the moment they saw the group.
Rhaen thought about it and paid little attention to them. He figured sooner or later they would find out they were the ones that killed the first group of bandits as the majority of the weapons they gave as a toll were from that group.
What Rhaen didn't know was that many of the bandits that took the weapons for themselves were killed by the squad leader's uncle. He wanted to rush and killed the Barbarians once they were on their way back but he was stopped by the leader of the Dark Blade, "Don't go die just yet, I have finally acquired what I need to get my revenge and if your man die now, it would throw a wrench into my plans".
There were a lot of orders coming from the top brass of the organization that instructed all bandits in the area to ask for the normal toll and act like nothing happened.
Some of the bandits were indifferent to this orders and were actually glad that the squad was annihilated as many couldn't really stand that pretentious leader relying on his uncle's power to act mighty. Others could care less about who died but felt indignant that nobody really wanted to avenge their 'comrades' and uphold the prestige of the Dark Blade. Either way since the orders came from the top nobody dare to disobey and the caravan made it out safely.
Two weeks quickly passed and Elune was glad she bought a good coat in Willowdale because winter was showing his face and the weather was extremely cold. She look around to see if anybody was shivering but all she saw were the nostalgic faces of people returning home.
The moment they stepped into Helgahvall territory they were intercepted by a couple of scouts led by Aya and this made Rhaen frown.
"I see you guys pick up a stray in the way back" said Aya playfully.
"Hey who are you calling a stray lady, I am an alchemist and you better learn to treat me with respect".
Giggle!....feisty!! "You are going to need that attitude in the village, your aura wreaks to defiler"
Listening to the words of Aya, made Elune very puzzled but the Witch Doctor quickly clarified it for her , " I almost forgot that the Barbarian tribes followed the Mystic path, a bunch of goody two shoes... spit"
"Why are you here Aya?".
"Master Rhaen, I was send by elder Bear to meet you on your way back and get you back to the village as quickly as possible. There is trouble with the Frostwolves, I am afraid that they had declared war. Unfortunately, they are not alone, we have also been kick out by the kobolds inside the mine and they are also threatening an invasion. The good news is that we have managed to collect enough Iron to supply the weapons of the Elite and we hope Master Rhaen could assist us".
Sigh....
"I'll go back first. Make sure you stay and protect the goods, they are more important than ever".
Rhaen disappeared from everyone's sight and one hour later he was standing in front of the meeting hall like he had always been there. Inside the meeting hall all the elders of the village were sitting around trying to figure out if they could take care of the threat or if they should prioritize the safety of their people.
When Chief Cerdic saw that Rhaen had comeback he was relief because that gave them more possibilities.
"Glad to see you back Brother! Those Frostwolves are crazy to want to take over our territory and on top of that they are demanding we give them our weapons. Chief Mogho should still remember Lady Etta's power so we don't understand where his confidence comes from".
"I can't wait to see him in the battlefield and show him that we Barbarians are not to be mess with!!"
Rhaen nodded and sat down in the circle and listen to the whole story. As it turn out the two events were pretty close to each other with the Kobold attacks following the war declaration from the Orcs... were the two incidents a coincidence or were they related to each other. It was problematic but the village seem to be bless by the Heavens as winter was coming and everyone knew that neither the Orcs nor the Kobolds would be stupid enough to launch an offensive.
This was precious time to get intelligence on the opposite parties so they could plan the campaign a little bit better.
"I am going to see my wife and tomorrow I'll start making weapons with the ore we have available, in the meantime we need to put our scouts to work and try to form small squads to probe the enemy".