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Leo stood up, his legs shaking until he took a deep breath and calmed himself. He was still afraid, terrified in fact, but that didn’t stop him. The status effect made him terrified, but he made himself paralyzed. He needed to fight past his fear if he wanted to save anyone.

David flew down and got close to Leo, and stared with fascination at the man that withstood his attack.

“You continue to impress, mortal. With you in my army, I will be the one to rise to Godhood,” smiled David.

“Shut up.”

David had started to speak, the first sparks of a violent outburst on his lips. Leo didn’t care enough to listen as he squared his shoulders, balled his hand into a fist, and threw a punch, just like Budmuk had shown him.

[Generic Ability: Basic Strike]

Simple flails and movements use your strength as a baseline, but they don’t count as an attack since you can easily limit your strength. The Basic Strike was an attack, the simplest one anyone could do, hardly befitting even a beginner adventurer’s arsenal. Despite this, it still had access to the immense power that Leo had restrained.

[Basic Strike: Deal 1-3 Damage + Strength]

This was a move taught only to learn the concept of punching, for every fighter in the world it was a stepping stone to becoming powerful. Though, for the strongest, this was all he needed.

The force shattered the dracolich, as the few surviving shards went flying far off in the way. The power of the blow continued far past where David stood, now reduced to memories, as it continued on for miles. Leo saw the force travel forward in a straight line, as it broke through the smaller mountains in the Eversunk mountain range.

By the time Leo had finished reeling from the blow, the force of his strike still continued to leave nothing in its wake. He didn’t have time to panic or worry about the consequences of his attack. His mind shot back to Koram and Budmuk, and that he needed to go back to protect them.

Leo quickly reactivated Conserve Power, as he looked around for the main mountain of the Eversunk mountain range. He leaped upwards, and landed back on the top of the mountain, his fall cushioned as he slid through the dirt rather than crash. He saw Koram tightly holding onto Budmuk, and rushed over to them.

“Koram, what happened while I was gone?” asked Leo.

Koram looked at Leo with shock, but figured now was not the time for questioning what exactly was going on.

“The barrier went down and the horde moved in on us after that thing left. We were both injured, but Budmuk was in a worse state than me. We’d run out of plants to fight with, so we tried to hold them off as best as we could. Budmuk went down and I tried my best to protect him, and thankfully the horde just melted into slush a few moments ago,” recanted Koram.

“Is, Budmuk—” Leo started to ask, as he looked at Budmuk’s body.

“Not dead yet,” coughed Budmuk.

Leo felt panicked as he looked at Budmuk, the dwarf painted red with his own blood. He felt his heartbeat thud inside his head, as his chest grew tight in fear.

“Budmuk, oh God please tell me you’re okay. I’m so sorry you got dragged into this, I didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt. Please tell me you’re gonna be fine,” panicked Leo.

“Hey, no worries about this, kid. I knew you kept a low profile for a reason, but didn’t think it would turn out like this. Shit luck about there really being a dragon,” responded Budmuk.

“What, what do you mean?” sputtered Leo.

“A dragon took off with you, and not only are you alive, but you came back standing. Hell, you returned by landing from the skies. Whether you’re a high level hero or something, the secret is out,” said Budmuk.

“You knew?” asked Leo.

“Of course I damn did, I got eyes and they certainly didn’t see a dragon destroy the woods. Figured the scared kid with the body of a hero knew something, so I played along, though I didn’t expect it to turn out like this,” Budmuk said, as he coughed and laughed. Leo saw blood spit out with each cough.

“Oh God, what the fuck, Budmuk, what do we do about your injuries? Did you guys have any healing potions, or maybe some magic healing?” asked Leo.

“Calm down, kid, you’re not doing anyone any good. It’s the end of the line for me, you’re just the last one here to know it. I’ve already said my goodbyes to Koram, and I couldn’t leave a new friend behind without a final goodbye,” Buddy said with the best smile he could muster.

He opened his eyes just enough to see the sun start to rise. Leo saw the last bit of life drain from Buddy’s eyes. Leo couldn’t fight the tears, and as he looked up, he saw that Koram had been silently shedding tears while Leo and Buddy talked.

Leo walked up and gave Koram a hug. While he had a long history of exerting too much strength, this hug was just as gentle as it needed to be. The two cried as the sun rose, over the loss of a fight, an ally, and most of all, a friend.

Koram insisted that Buddy be buried on the mountaintop, as it was tradition for a druid to be buried in nature. While this was once the home to a great evil, it would now be reclaimed by him. Leo helped dig out the grave where they laid him to rest.

The two had spent the majority of the night fighting, but with most of their supplies having been destroyed, there wouldn’t be much purpose in resting. While they started the journey down, they also came to the realization that without those supplies they couldn’t sustain the trip back to town.

Leo offered a ride on his back to Koram, as their way of getting back to Irontree.

“You believe a piggyback ride is the most efficient way back to town?” chuckled Koram.

“Well, yeah, it’d definitely be faster than walking. Come on though, I’m definitely closer to a horse than a pig,” laughed Leo.

Though the day was somber, Buddy would have preferred them to laugh over good times rather than cry over bad times. Koram jumped onto Leo’s back and held on tight, as Leo began to run down the mountain as fast as he could without causing any damage to Koram or the ground.

Even as he moved safely, the trip went much faster with his risky jumps and shortcuts. While he ran, Koram decided to tell Leo about Buddy and their reasoning for agreeing to his mission.

“Honestly, he felt concerned for you. He knew something was wrong and that you were young and afraid. The night before we left, me and him discussed what to do,” Koram explained, “We figured that it would be best for you to go with us to the forest to prove there was no dragon. His concern was that you saw something actually important and was too afraid to tell the truth.”

“I thought I had kept a low profile,” said Leo.

“You destroyed half our bathroom and left a trail of destruction everywhere you went. That profile was far from low. That was when Buddy figured that you were likely the cause of the destruction, but he still wanted to see why you were hiding the truth,” added Koram.

Leo felt a bit embarrassed, as he realized his great con was in fact a very pathetic con. Despite that, he was happy to discover that he had been found out, and that Buddy didn’t risk his life over a fake dragon, but rather to help out someone lost and afraid.