A hammer in the evening...

To his right, Jay saw a wide and pretty well illuminated passage run down a slope with a slight and wide arc to the right.

From there the overseer he just had roasted had come walking while he couldn't spot anyone else there. Only the clanking from pick-axes hitting the hard stones signaled him there were others in the tunnel.

Opposite to that passage was another one leading left. While it was lit a lot less, it was there where Jay could look a little further. The path seemed to widen a bit after the first couple of yards and light shone there from even further back.

A bit indecisive, Jay chose the wider path as that had been the direction the overseer came from, so his chances of finding more slaves there was higher.

And just like he had guessed he found them only a bit down that passage. Thanks to it making a long turn to the left he could spot them from afar and analyze them.

None of them even reacted to his presence, even though some had looked his way, what surprised Jay a bit. The men were all in their prime and while some looked gaunt, none of them was in danger and Jay couldn't even spot any more overseers.

Because of that he turned around and went to check the other passage first. Somehow his intuition had hinted him that way, so as he had yet to get disappointed by it, Jay again went with it.

Still pulling the massive hammer behind him, Jay passed the open iron door and walked into the smaller tunnel. It was only about twenty yards long until he entered an even bigger tunnel.

While the ceiling looked to stay at the same height, the ground was a slight slope down and in some distance, the path made a turn to the right.

Taking some steps forward and looking around he saw a small cave to his right seeming like another tunnel was begun to get dug out, only to be stopped after the first ten or so yards.

By then there were only some tools stored there and a small table placed in the middle.

A bit deeper in the short tunnel stood a wooden machine that looked a bit like a grinding stone and Sieves in different sizes lay all around it.

As the lamp on the table was still bright, whoever was working there couldn't be far.

Jay went on with his exploration of the passage and turned back to the tunnel.

But he only managed a few steps until he had to halt. What he saw by then was that the tunnel was in truth a cave. A long and winding cave.

To his feet, a high cliff went down towards the real floor and on his left was the slope leading down.

Jay couldn't even see the end of the slope, though it was bound to be not far behind the turn right of the cave. And on the slope, as well down below at the foot of the cliff, Jay saw miners at work.

Heaving the monstrous weapon he still had been pulling on his shoulder, Jay went down on the slope with heavy steps. That didn't go unnoticed like he had thought and this time, the workers reacted.

Jay had by then long analyzed the first few of them and learned they were called Defiers Miners, what sounded like they had willingly joined the bandits. This assumption proved right with the reaction of the first miner.

The moment the man had noticed Jay, he dropped his pick-axe and rushed towards the intruder with his fists held high.

A bit baffled by the miner running over barehanded, Jay pulled the massive hammer-handle down and pushed forward his shoulder. What led to the hammerhead swinging overhead in a wide semi circle.

While Jay's movements were anything but fast due to the heavy weight, the speed the boulder achieved thanks to the handles length was pretty fast.

It's descend stopped even faster and Jay got a heavy rebound transmitted to the tree trunk sized log in his hands. Nearly dropping the handle he looked at the place he had hit.

The miner was gone.

Literally gone.

Only a red splash with a diameter of over three yards under the big boulder that was half buried in the ground hinted Jay what happened.

All he knew was that he had aimed right and hit, even though he managed to attack a bit faster than he had guessed and only hit the front and not the center of the miners head.

Somehow glad it went this way, Jay understood the outcome.

The hammers speed and weight had simply made it crash through the bandit and, lucky for him, splashed the plopped mined to the opposite direction what explained the red wall and next miner.

Latter came running up the slope after his initial shock, to what Jay pulled the hammer out of the ground. As the slope was pretty narrow up where he was, only about three yards wide, he rotated counter clockwise and swirled the hammer with him.

"~If I had a hammer...~" J.

While he began to sing with a not that good intonation, the hammerhead and the miner met each other. They decided to travel on together until they abruptly got stopped by the caves wall and a really loud sound rang out, like the one from hitting an air filled paper-bag.

Jay had for cautions sake already put up a physical barrier around him.

That proved right as the debris from the impact of his last strike landed everywhere. It was mostly flesh and bones though, with a few stone splinters mixed within.

Nothing his barrier had trouble with.

Clean thanks to his precaution, Jay went on with his descend after he pulled back the hammer and glanced at the red wall.

"~I'd hammer in the morning...~" J.

The next two miners came running as a pair. Spinning around clockwise this time, Jay produced two red dots at the opposite cave wall, at least five yards from his current position.

This time though some parts of the miners had remained intact and got stuck to the wall.

"~I'd hammer in the evening...~" J.

Only as he had walked down a bit more, always keeping up his humming of the pretty old song from his past world, some of his last victims remnants fell from the wall and onto miners in the section below.

This resulted in them all running to the end of the slope where Jay was going towards.

Readying the hammer, this time with a proper position, Jay waited for the right moment and boosted himself with mana.

As he started to spin on his heel with all the power he could amass, Jay activated a skill for blunt weapons he had come to love and fear likewise.

"~All over this wooooorld!~" J.

While still turning, he thought about if this really had been a good idea but it was too late anyways.

Three more spins later it was over, but that didn't mean his world spinning would stop. Toddling left and right, Jay had to lean on a wall to regain his balance and orientation.

The slimy wet and warm feeling transmitted by his hands irritated him so he looked over.

With a shocked expression he looked up from his bloody hand and then looked around him. Not a single miner could be seen standing close to him. Only some men further down the next slope, until the cave turned towards the left, looked at him with bewilderment and fear.

The skill Jay had used was (Crushing Blow), and as he had even used it with a spinning attack, this had been too much.

He had tossed every single of the miners backwards so hard, they all shattered on the caves walls in a circle around him.

Everything except Jay and the small area his personal barriers covered was dyed blood red.

Taking a step forward and hearing the munching noise from under his foot, Jay went on while promising to himself to never again use this combination, at least not without his barriers or people around him.

The next miner was probably the most lucky in this section, if dying in one piece could have been called lucky. Jay had tried to push the hammer forward as fast as he could, resulting in the man getting his rib-cage crushed and flying backwards down the slope.

"~I'd hammer out danger...~" J.

With again three more miners rushing in, Jay tested another skill he had for hammers. It was time to (Smash) some puny miners.

This time he swung the weapon in a diagonal arch over his right shoulder, resulting it traveling from the upper right to the lower left through the miners.

They all became one as the hammer only got stopped by the slopes floor. The few intact parts rolled around on the hard ground and some even down from the slope, falling in the pit to the right.

"~I'd hammer out a warning...~" J.

Jay had long gotten this catchy record and kept on humming while walking on. Only upon taking action did he sing out loud, what was good this way.

Mashing the miners was bad enough, but torturing them with his horrendous singing would have been too much.

With the next two men already coming, Jay repeated the same move once again, but this time it was without the use of a skill and the attack came from the left.

The results differed quite obviously as the two men got first hurled onto the ground and with the sounds of bones breaking, bounced off and fell down the cliff to the right and into the pit.

"~I'd hammer out love between...~" J.

Jay had to stop his humming for a second next as two people appeared he hadn't quite expected. It was a male bandit with a worn out leather armor and broad shouldered figure. Next to him walked a relatively young looking woman.

As she wore the same red bandana over her lower face, Jay couldn't see her face completely. The part he saw though was quite nice, but the most outstanding thing was her wearing a reddish orange robe.

Jay understood the reason for her different clothes the next second and started his humming again.

While she rose her hands to the typical position and started casting a spell, the man came running up the slope. Jay had to that point managed to reach half of the second slope and saw the end of the cave.

It was a nearly circular and slightly wider area than the rest of the long cave.

Preparing to receive the bandit, Jay readied the hammer but only got it done seconds before the man arrived, as well as a cast fireball came flying. The cooperation of the two defiers seemed pretty good and their timing was perfect.

Perfect for Jay that is, as thanks to his special skill the spell bounced off and just at the right moment the bandit blocked the path back to the original caster.

He received a square hit and moreover completely unprepared. It even incinerated a part of his armor and smoldered his hair, but that was nothing in comparison for what came next.

Not really done testing yet, Jay had tried to make the boulder of the hammer wield magic. He only managed to load it a bit until the bandit arrived, but still swung it at the man. The arch he used this time was like a backwards golf swing, though Jay made a full turn beforehand.

-Tok-

Even the noise it made was close to a tee-off, only about three times as loud. Jay really had wanted to keep on singing, but couldn't help but stare at what he had done.

The same was true not only for the fire mage, but every miner that had begun to run up the slope and even the ones in the pit down below.

Like a meteor, a big fireball flew in a beautiful arc through the air until it crashed onto the ground in the middle of the area at the end of the slope. Of course it had been nothing else but the bandit that already received a reflected fireball.

Though Jay only loaded the hammer for mere second with fire magic, the boulder had unloaded completely onto the first target and set it aflame due to Jay's high chance to incinerate a target.

The rest was simple physical calculation as a heavy weight with enormous speed had hit an unmoving target of lesser weight and moreover on an elevated position. There was no question if the man had survived, when the small pile of meat kept laying in the middle of the area while burning.

The woman was the first to regain her senses and started running down the slope. She still managed to shoot another fireball towards Jay who was the second to get moving. He rushed after her, who had already passed the first two miners.

The fireball of course got reflected and flew back onto one of the two miners. It didn't matter much though as Jay's hammer arrived at pretty much the same time and shoved the man into his buddy next to him.

Jay had by then learned to control the hammer better and didn't smack it with them both into the wall. Only the two miners landed there while he kept on rushing after the woman.

Latter had gotten a bit more distance, mostly due to a certain weight that Jay kept carrying with him.

She had already reached the area where the human meteor had impacted but didn't even care for her fallen comrade and went towards the pit next to the slope. There she yelled out and ordered the remaining miners to go for Jay and rushed on.

Jay was still on the slope and saw her ordering the men from above. Deciding to speed up the chase, Jay took a shortcut.

He simply jumped down to the right and into the pit she was going to. The height was only about five yards, so it was not like he had to endure even a bit of pain from the fall.

For safety reasons he still chose a soft looking landing spot.

It was one of the miners that had just dropped his pick-axe.

The man, as well as his co worker next to him died without even seeing the impeding doom. The first got his shoulder and rib-cage compressed by Jay's knee to slow lattes descend before he touched the ground, while the other man caught the giant hammer… with his face.

Jay had appeared only a couple of steps in front of the woman that he still hadn't analyzed. Her eyes shot open in surprise and without even thinking for a second she started to chant the next spell.

Jay on the other hand had grabbed his hammer and started humming again. The next miner just received his hammer from the side when another fireball arrived before Jay's head, just to fly back and hit another miner. That one hadn't really stood in its flight path but got pulled there by the woman.

She didn't care for them in the slightest and that showed even more in her next action. Stopping with the fireballs, the woman suddenly summoned flames around her after she had cast a long spell. They spread to all directions and burned the three miners close to her until the flamed got in contact with Jay who was closing in.

The moment they touched him they receded from the woman and spread around Jay, burning another two miners that had been running towards him from behind.

Though all the men didn't die to the fire, they all received quite some damage and even more pain.

Stepping over one of the wailing men, Jay arrived right in front of the woman.

She looked at him with disbelief and seemed about to say something when he swiftly shoved the hammer forward and hit her left shin.

"~My brothers and my sisters….~" J.

Not sure if it really was broken, Jay saw the woman fall sideways while holding her leg. Just to make sure he let his heavy weapon drop on her lower right leg as well while she rolled on the ground.

That one broke audibly.

"~Ah-aaaah…~" J.

Leaving her to her pain, Jay went back towards the circular area from where the passage he was on led into the pit next to the slope. The miners that had previously run up the slope towards him were coming back for Jay and had even called all the ones in the circular area.

Reaching the end of both slopes, Jay jumped up onto the one leading back to where he came from and held the Hammer like a golfer at tee-off. He was going to have a last test before dismissing the massive weapon as it really took too much of his stamina.

Even this short descend down there had tired him out more than most of the day.

Activating two skills at the same time, Jay swung the hammer faster and with more force than ever before, depleting the last bit of stamina he had. He not even had enough strength left to hold the hammer properly so it slipped and flew a few meters into the cave.

But I didn't matter as there was no one left that would attack him.

The woman in the back kept cussing and holding her shins while some of the miners around her had burned to crisps by then, thanks to Jay's critical hits incinerating them.

The rest, a measly three men, was first been cowering in fear and was trying to crawl deeper down into the pit.

To the other side, where most of the miners had been, there was no one left. Only as Jay looked at the caves ceiling did he find them.

The eight miners he had been facing all got stuck to the hard surface there, in the most bloody form possible.

Only some of their remnants kept on dripping or falling down.

Turning around, Jay walked back into the pit with a bit wobbly steps. All that was left for him to do was taking care of the survivors and finally finish the verse.

"~hmm-hmmmm...All over this laaaaand….~" J.