Slade held his new blade aloft as the previous one had been mangled to a state beyond repair and could only be called scrap.
Swinging outwards, the [Sweep Attack] The new skill that replaced the shield bash carved an arc into the air as swirling orange flames engulfed the enemies that were unfortunate enough to be in its way.
Slicing and dicing through the enemies in the old ruins, the only difference in the picturesque attacks was the fact that instead of being alone in his fight.
There was another joining him.
Arrows whistling through the air like the hums of bees they each found their mark dead centre on the foreheads of various undead.
A rather startling amount of skill from someone that he had assumed to have a downgrade of skill in reality.
But it was a welcome realization.
Holding his blade, the Sweep attack which costed less wrath struck the enemies and cleaved them apart.
"hup!"
They were still in the Old Ruins of old Tristam, well after they went through the warp point and cleared the remaining undead and quill fiends that is.
Hacking and slashing through the wandering horde of monsters, Slade took this chance to realize how strange this world really was.
Besides the monsters that defied science and his abilities which were a few steps above his previous physique, it really was supernatural.
Feeling his flesh knit together, he attentively watched a wound caused by a quill fiend patch up in real time by using one of the red orbs that appeared once they died, Slade felt interested.
A sentiment not exactly shared with Leah.
Watching him with a mixture of repulsion and awe, she couldn't help but ask. "How can you do that to yourself?"
"Do what to myself?"
"Injure yourself and heal yourself so fast?"
Oh yeah, another thing that he learnt was that the red orbs which sometimes dropped from them was that they were invisible to the naked eye.
In his case, he really didn't know how it worked, but he would try and find out if it was effective on her if she got hurt later.
"Well I dunno." Giving that non commital answer, Slade moved ahead as Leah let out a disbelieving sigh behind him.
But either way, as they slowly made their way down the mountain side as they went past the rusted iron gates which attracted the monsters in the first place.
Slade crushed the head of an undead with his mace, the star pronged mace biting into the flesh and bone as the undead collapsed onto the ground.
Flicking the gore and blood onto the ground, soon enough, as Leah was picking up her arrows, Adria's hut came into their vision.
It was a short trip since Adria's hut was some ways off the side of the road and it was nearby the teleportation point.
It made Slade recall the fact that she was already dead shortly after Leah was born.
A rather sad ending.
Thinking that, Slade slowly walked forwards past the wooden buildings.
"So about this Adria... who was she?"
Tentatively asking since he already knew, Leah let out a sorrow filled sigh and tilted her head as her arrows whistled through the air.
"She was my mother but I don't know much about her as she died when I was very young, Uncle Deckard was the one who brought me up."
"And your father?"
"Well, he is also dead, I was told that he was a great warrior, but he died when the demons arrived in Old Tristam and burned the town down."
'...Well that's concerning'
Listening to the rather detached voice of hers when talking about the parents that gave birth to her, Slade shook his head.
But it was an understandable arrangement.
Family wasn't just a matter of being related by blood since people of the same blood type could share blood.
It was actually a matter of connections and the like.
The saying Brother from another mother or the other ball in the nut sack had some meaning after all.
And if family really was all about filial piety, there wouldn't be stories about princes or princess's usurping the throne from their old, powerful yet wise fathers.
In the end it was all about connecting with others.
So ignoring all of that heavy dump of info and knowing the fact that he was now dead in his previous world, Slade moved onwards.
Since he was already here, it made sense to try and understand this world before breaking the pre destined chain of events.
And to start it.
Preventing the death of Cain at the hands of a hag.
"Is it here?"
"Yes"
Pointing at an old shack that would've been called the disgrace amongst shacks if not for the existence of a disgrace amongst disgraced shacks, Slade slowly opened the rotting door.
Or tried to at least before it crumbled underneath his gentle touch.
So much for keeping out intruders.
Opting for pushing the door and collapsing it in on itself, Slade was presented with a small room.
It was rather quaint.
And it seemed like the previous inhabitants didn't even have time to finish up their meals as the remains of rotten flesh and moldy bread lingered on the table alongside a few books.
Said books had pages so yellowed and wrinkled with the harsh weather conditions that the ink that was supposed to be present on them had already bled out of the pages.
Surreptitiously glancing around the shack, soon enough, he found what he was looking for.
The hidden entrance to a cellar, the place where the next stage of the adventure began.
But it wasn't that which he was here for.
Well it was, but it wasn't now.
Silently moving to a wall where various undead lingered before Leah could find the basement, the undead sensed his presence and immediately broke in.
"Woah!"
Convincedly shouting that out, Slade swung his blade at the neck of the undead.
Before falling into the hidden basement floor.
'Oh that's not supposed to happen.'
---
The plan was initially to just get rid of the undead lingering outside of the house.
This way he would be able to get rid of the unexpected variables such as them attacking when he was ascending or them arriving from behind as he attacked the undead that were remaining underneath the floorboards of the house.
The problem was that he underestimated the strength of the floor boards.
Upon stomping downwards to steady himself, the ground, which SHOULD'VE been his best friend suddenly gave way.
Now since most people take the earth for granted, they underestimated the gifts of a solid surface could grant in combat, or really anything.
And now that solid surface which should've been man's best friend suddenly gave out beneath him.
Breaking the floor boards, his legs fell through and sent him careening backwards while launching out a slash in one direction and a punish in the other.
Since Punish had a knockback effect, Slade forcibly stopped his fall and actually reversed it a little as he felt himself lift up from the ground.
But it was still a little.
Taking advantage of that brief lift to move his leg away from the hole, his orange eyes glanced at the undead slowly shambling in.
That is, before they were cleaved by a slash to the guts.
Ignoring that, he twisted his body around and stepped onto the trapdoor, fully hoping that it would still be completely intact.
The problem was that the passages of time had already taken its toll on the wooden trapdoor as the worn and torn carpet covering the hole instantly gave way.
Surrounding him with a curtain of grey dust and torn fibres, the air around him instantly released a chilling coldness which rushed to engulf.
Falling deeper into the hall while falling backwards, his other leg was flung upwards, instantly realizing if things went on as they did he would fall flat onto his face.
With a cold realization that if things went this way he would snap his neck, he threw his weapons with an experience built up through various other experiences.
Granted, if he didn't make such a thing he wouldn't be here by now.
Sword and shield being sent ahead of him and by relying on the lingering momentum of his leg hitting the edge of the ledge.
Ignoring the pain, he twisted through the air and landed directly on his legs.
At which point he was greeted by two other not so welcoming sights.
The captain and soldiers who were the ones that first accepted the call to arms and went to save Leah's uncle alongside any other people that they were able to come across.
The problem was that they instantly collided with a problem.
That problem was the witch's lair that they came into.
Once they went to the witch's lair their fates were basically sealed.
Ignoring the lingering pain transmitting itself through his leg, he grabbed the mace out of his inventory.
It found little use since he found better weapons, but ever since he broke the other, and threw the other away, he had no other choice.
That and with his shield being gone, Slade felt the distinct weight of nothing but his gauntlet resting on his left hand.
And he was honestly fine with it.
The Combatives the military taught were for situations like this after all.
Use anything you can as a weapon, no matter how stupid it is.
With a bar of soap somehow aiding combat with a psychological difference, a mace was definitely a better choice.
Quickly raising his arm, he grabbed the outstretched undead's arm and pulled it in.
Waving his other arm, the mace drew an arc through the air before the teeth bit through flesh and bone to reach the brain matter.
Sending it careening every way, Slade lifted his foot to kick the falling corpse and sent it flying towards its brother Risen.
Following that, Slade dropped his arm and thrust it forwards into the risens gut.
As it was charging towards him, it instinctively curled up and moved its arm.
An action that he wanted.
Grabbing the arm, he quickly turned around and pushed up with his right arm while his left arm pulled.
Flying through the air, the risen that was trying to attack him from before was sent to hell.
Of course, those guys were only the final soldiers that followed the captain to the witch's layer.
It was actually all of them as well, but that didn't discount the fact that he was now facing the final monster in the basement.
The former captain of the Guards, Captain Daltwyn.
Seeing his name enshrouded in the conspicuous purple light, Slade noted it down mentally as he prepared his mace.
Of course, said mace didn't last long.
In the first clash.
Having already experienced immense stress in battle against other monsters, the mace instantly shattered into pieces when the additional force of the monster known as Captain Daltwyn was applied onto it.
Hardened fist of enhanced flesh colliding against smelted steel, surprisingly the smelted steel broke first.
"Shit"
Cursing loudly, Slade was now left in a predicament.
Unarmed, it was considered by many to be a fool's errand to fight monsters much stronger than oneself in bodily combat.
Of course, for Slade it wasn't an incredibly large problem.
Orange eyes gleaming in the dark, Slade lifted his leg and pushed the large behemoth backwards.
Suddenly intaking a great deal of air, Slade ran forwards.
Feeling the urge to cough, instead of making his body convulse with great efforts, all of his muscles were instantly activated as he grappled against the obscenely stronger monster.
Stones cracking underneath ther legs, Slade quickly unleashed several jabs, crosses and swings.
Stomping down, Slade let out a long sigh as the strength left his body and he collapsed onto the ground dodging the wild swing abve his head.
Good thing to since the stalactitie in its way was effortlessly torn to shreds.
Moving beyond the gap between the legs.
Slade stared at the Captain.
As a trained warrior, his body was fraught with muscles galore, and thanks to being an undead where the body was prone to random mutations.
He had grown past his normal size and now was in tattered clothing.
But besides that.
Kicking at a place just above the calf, the monster instantly collapsed onto one knee where Slade grasped at his head.
Holding his breath, his muscles tensed as every fibre of his being trembled in need of coughing.
Clenching his jaw tight, he flexed his arms and with incredible effort began to rip the monster right down the middle.
Veins bulging obscenely, his face was red with exertion as his hands sunk through the muscles in the monsters head and popped through the eyes holes of his skull and mouth.
"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"
As the captain who had been turned into a super energized monster screamed loudly with incredible pain, Slade screamed as well.
"AAAAARRRGGHHHH"
The sound of flesh tearing apart filled the surrounding cave as he even felt his own muscles tearing.
And when he finally did the deed and split the monster into two uneven masses of flesh, his mind finally realized what he had done.
Breath shorting as the pain of his wounds finally caught up with his mind.
"Ugh..."
Kneeling on the ground as he harshly breathed out against the stone ground, he reached into the system interface and withdrew a red potion of swirling light.
Downing it in one go, almost instantly all of the notable wounds around him were stitched up and closed.
It really reminded him of the days when he was on the battlefield, if he had this then would she...?
Recalling a woman who's face remained like a mirage in his mind, Slade shook his head before directing his sight to an incredibly conspicuous glowing on the ground.
Right where the man's corpse lay, a rune lay.
And that rune was what would be the driving force of his following actions in the future.
Like giving mods to an engine, Slade instantly grabbed it and read its information.
+++
Tree that is wondering how the hell he is supposed to break the flow of things when he himself is the driving force for all of this events that are to happen.
How do you break the game when in canon you are already breaking it?
For example, without the interference of the player the world would literally fall into pieces and explode.