Leonard should never have taken a job from a noble. He had fallen into this trap a hundred times before. The job seemed like a piece of cake. Just slay a few monsters on the man's hunting grounds, collect their heads and come back to claim the bounty. But like so many times the noble wouldn't pay and instead tried yo kill Leonard to keep his honor in check. Instead of the noble killing him he killed the noble instead.  He had done this a few times already and had been able to just hide the body and to get out of town before anyone would notice the disappearance. Instead, a tavern wench had walked in on the scene. And before he could do anything she had already screamed murder. With the sound of guards coming up the stairs he had jumped out of the window into the muddy street below. He then mounted his horse and made a break for it. That was five days ago. And for five days straight they had followed him relentlessly. He could barely rest at all as they had brought bloodhounds with them which were able to snuff him out every time. But with the heavy rains they had lost his sense and Leonard was sure that they had lost him with it. At least that's what he had thought.

[center][b]Earlier that night on the road towards Starkvale.[/b][/center]
[hr]

Leonard's horse rode like a beast being  hunted by a hunter. The dirt road was the only sign of civilization as the plains around them were devoid of any life besides a random tree or bush. For the entire day, it had rained. Starting as a small drizzle and quickly turning into a storm. Bolts of lighting came crackling down making the horse shudder with fright. But his master made kept riding him forward away from whatever was chasing them. Leonard looked behind him and cursed. The men had been catching up with him. At first, he could only see a blur in the distance but now he was able to see the men that had been chasing him for five days. Six riders, one clad in armor seemed the be a knight and leader of the group as he rode at the front carrying a lance. The other five looked like simple soldiers. Who wore simple armor and were equipped with short swords and shields. Mostly The guards of a noble would have stopped chasing him by now and would have gone back home. But either this noble had been really good to them or there was a bounty on his head that they wished to collect. Whatever the reason was they were only a hundred meters away from him and were slowly gaining. He tried to make his horse go faster but the animal was already at its limits with foam starting to come out of his mouth and his eyes slowly turning red. Then the horse simply stopped moving as it was completely exhausted and fell on its knees. Leonard dismounted giving the animal it's well-deserved rest. He looked at the soldiers who were closing in fast and sighed. He then grabbed one of his fire bombs and waited.

When they were twenty meters away from him he threw the bomb. The bomb exploded on impact sending a wall of flame up into the air almost directly before the charging men. Their horses panicked stopping mid charge sending their riders forward through the flames and crashed into the dirt. Leonard drew his blade and charged forward. One of the soldiers stood up and charged at Leonard. He slashed from the left aiming towards Leonards' chest. Leonard swung his blade, catching the sword with a force strong enough that it made the sword swing back making the soldier loose his balance. Leonard then swung from the right and hit home, hitting the soldier below his sword hand and cut it off. Sending the sword and the hand flying. The soldier screamed in pain as he fell to the ground rolling in pain. Blood gushing from his wound and mixing with the dirt and rain water. Leonard quickly caught his breath as he saw two soldiers charging toward him. The first to reach him thrusted his sword forward aiming towards Leonard. Leonard dodged to the left  and spun his blade to the right. Hitting the soldier in the back slicing trough the armor breaking the spine. However before Leonard could block the others soldier attack. He screamed in pain as the soldier slashed through his armor and hit slashed through his armor hitting him in the hip missing the bone but the flesh around him. In response, Leonard swung back and parried the other attack that was aimed at his neck. He then slashed downward destroying the rotting wooden shield. And before the soldier could respond Leonard thrusted his blade forward right through the neck of the soldier. The soldier gurgled as blood gushed out of his wound like a river. As Leonard retracted his blade he looked at those that were left. One of the soldiers had broken his leg and was screaming in pain, unable to move. The other two lay unconscious on the ground. The impact apparently being too much for them to keep conscious. But the knight had just stood up. The armor having weight him down this entire time preventing him from standing up quickly. But now he stood and looked at Leonard with hate. He then drew his own sword which was a longsword as well and charged forward.

Leonard and the knight fought each other for five minutes. The fight was almost a dance where even the slightest wrong move would be death. Every time the swords clashed sparks flew. But slowly but surely the knight started to slow down as his heavy armor started to make him tired. Leonard did not have this problem and continued to dance around him hitting his armor with such force that he could hear bones break. The knight screamed in pain as he tried to block and parry the attacks failing time and time again. Until he fell on his knees the pain becoming unbearable. Leonard then spun his body and sliced the knight's head of. For a few moments, the blade remained in place until blood spewing under it launched the head into the air.  For a few moments, the blood spouted high into the air covering Leonard in it.  The body then fell over as the dirt around it started to turn red. With his enemy dead, Leonard then cut down the other  three soldiers that could not fight. He then finally fell the pain in his hip which so far had been suppressed by the adrenaline and slowly walked to his horse using the sword as support. He reached towards his bags and grabbed a few herbs. He rubbed the herbs to a paste and rubbed them into the wounds making him scream with pain. He then grabbed one of his clothes ripping it into a bandage and binding it around the wound. He then rested his body against the horse which had been resting this entire time. For a moment he rested and relaxed as the rain had somewhat calmed down and had turned into a drizzle. Leonard chuckled to himself as he watched the sky and said to himself.

" I think i might be getting too old for this."

He then stood up and walked towards the dead bodies and looked if they held anything valuable. After searching every corpse he was able to scrounge up five gold and 20 silver. He then slowly walked back to his horse making sure the wound would not get even worse. The horse stood up and was ready to go once again. As they rode on the rain finally stopped and the moon cast it's light upon the landscape. An hour later they arrived before the walls of Starkvale. Leonard tied his horse to a nearby tree and fell asleep right next to it.

The next day Leonard did not awake from someone who was trying to steal his shit or someone trying to kill him. But to a note being dropped on his head. Moaning, Leonard grabbed the letter from his face and started to read.

[i]If you're looking to get into Starkvale, and looking for some bounties to grab, meet me and my friends at the ruins of the old guard tower, north east of the field. Meet us at dusk. I contacted you because I believe you'll be of some use. Hope to see you. 
Captain Kayden.
[/i]

At first, Leonard wasn't interested in the slightest. He was a lone wolf and liked to work alone than to get involved with others. However since there seemed to be a bounty on him and he was running low on money it seemed that he really did not have much of a choice. So he decided to at least look if the group he was joining was somewhat interesting. But before he would visit he needed to eat and drink and to make sure his wound did not get infected. Leonard slowly removed the bandage and smelled it too see if his wound had become infected which it luckily wasn't. A fine red crust had appeared and the wound seemed to already be healing naturally. He quickly covered it with a new bandage and proceeded to the market to buy some food. After having fed himself he went back to his horse and simply waited till it was dusk. 

As dusk arrived Leonard stood up from his resting spot and rode off towards the tower where the meeting would take place. He saw a dwarf guarding the only entrance and figured that he must have been the captain. He tied his horse at one of the trees surrounding the tower and made his way up the hill. " You must be the captain?" The dwarf  shook his head and pointed at the entrance. Leonard nodded and entered. As he entered the small room he saw that he was not the first to arrive. A small gnome which seemed to carry pistols. And a female with sword and wand. And at the head of the small table sat the captain of the group. He quickly nodded to everyone and grabbed one of the kegs taking a deep swig. He then looked at Kayden.

" Room for one more?"