《One in the Chamber [Discontinued]》


 [Legacy ] Everyone Has Their Time

    <hr>


    The world I knew was filled with war, death, disease, and resource shortages. However, none of that seemed real to me. I''d seen the battles on the internet. I''d seen the body counts on the news and posters protesting the war crimes, but it felt like it had nothing to do with me. My family had a long history of military service, from the American Civil War to World War 2. Our family even fought in the Great Southern War where Mexico attempted to invade America only to be bulldozed by its armed populace at the border - with Texas obviously going overboard and taking over half of Mexico afterward because the rednecks weren''t paying attention to how far they chased the enemies.


    My brother is a Special Operations Agent while my father is a newly appointed Major General. I was closer to my mother before she died of cancer. Along with her, I had no aspirations to take up the mantle of war. I trained with my brother and father. I hunted with them and even had a few guns in my closet, but it always seemed so unnecessary. My father had always told me "One day, we''re going to lose. We haven''t lost a conflict before. No matter what, someday, the winning will stop..." That was the day he taught me how to hold his old 1911.


    My name is Isaac Willow, second son of Jacobs Willow, Major General of the United States Army. My brother is Jacobs Willow II, taking my father''s name, he followed in his footsteps. Being the last child of my father, I was also the largest disappointment in his eyes when I refused to take up the mantle before I could even enlist. I was a senior in high school when my father asked which branch I was going to enlist. Being the dumb and naive child I was I told him "I''m not fighting in your stupid wars!"


    I saw the anger and I saw the hurt, but being a kid fueled on never seeing his father and his brother for the most part of the year. When I did, it was always on the rifle range, during combat training, or when I was getting lectured about what I was going to do with my life. So never anything slightly happy. For the most part, I hadn''t had a happy memory since the day my mother died. That was when both of them went down that rabbit hole at work... Thinking back now, those times were so simple and overly blown over by my younger self...


    . . . . . .


    "Wake up!" Jolted awake as a part of gloved hands ripped me from my bed, I scrambled to fight whoever had laid their hands on me out of instinct only to get manhandled by my big brother. "Get your shit together!" A dull slap raked my left cheek and the shock pushed my brain into gear as my eyes shot open only to find him dressed in full black combat gear. He smelled like gunpowder and his Hk416 was slung tight to his chest over his armor. For a moment, I thought he was joking until I saw the serious look in his eyes.


    I knew at that moment, this was really real - my wish had come true.


    The house shuddered as something exploded at the front of the house. "Fuck! They''re already here!" Someone yelled out before a series of gunshots rang out from the hallway. "Grab your guns!" My brother roared as he helped me to his feet then ran to the doorway before peeking out. He then loosened the harness at the front of his rifle before aiming it down the hall and squeezing off half a magazine, or what I believed sounded like it.


    I scrambled out of bed, tripping over my grey sweatpants as the blanket tried to keep them, causing me to face plant on the rugged floor. My brother looked behind him to see what happen only to see me quickly scramble towards my closet. Pleased I was taking the situation seriously, he turned his attention back to the fight taking place at the front of the house.


    I threw the solid oak sliding door open with a slam and rummaged through a few piles of papers from school before finding the large black polymer chest sitting on the floor. The box stood nearly 3-foot tall. With the adrenaline pumping through my veins, it took me a couple of seconds to pull open the latches. "Damn, damn!" The room was still slightly dark. I realized the light in the room was actually coming off my brother''s Tactical Link. An arm braced computer that fed my brother information on his teammates and other support functions. The room was still unlit. I hit the light switch to the closet''s LED Lights...


    Only to find they wouldn''t turn on.


    "Jacob! I can''t see! It''s too dark!" My brother turned back ready to curse me, only to see my childlike face with my bushy brown hair nearly covering my eyes as I pushed it back. Maybe he realized I was just his baby brother who hadn''t seen the horrors of the world nor gone through the elite training he had to put the gear on in near-dark environments, but something clicked in his mind while he tossed me something nearly the length of my arm. The thing smacked my face with a sharp smack and fell into my lap. I didn''t have time to rub off the pain with a screen lit up.


    [ Utilizing Link - Activating in process]


    [ Link activated - User Isaac Willow "Whispering Willow"]


    Whispering Willow was my nickname my family gave me as a joke, something that ended up sticking for a long time till my mother died. For a moment, I held the Tactical Link gauntlet in my hand in shock. A few thoughts flashed through my head, but a bullet pierced through a weak point in the wall before clipping a few hairs off my bangs as if trying to conga-line after my thoughts. I flung myself backward in shock before my brother barked at me. "Hurry up little bro!" He dropped a magazine out of the rifle before slamming a fresh one in and flicking the bolt release.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    As my brother fired another volley down the hallway, I rolled over, cursing my loose fitted clothes that were secretly my brothers - I strapped the tactical line on the top side of my forearm. I felt the rigid metal under the thing layer of rubber against my skin and the TLG lit up again.


    [Unit equipped . . . Stand by.]


    [Fully operational check complete. The unit is ready to use.]


    Relying on my shallow experience using the Link that I got the few times my dad let me use one, I quickly found the light function which turned the screen into a giant flashlight with a single off button center-screen. The room lit up enough for me to see the contents of the box. I quickly put on my black Condor plate carrier that already had its plates inserted with the trauma pads. The rig was six pistol mag pouches already holding a double stack pistol magazine each for an XM17.


    Fitting the vest over my slim frame, I strapped in and pulled my Orion battle belt out with my XM17 already holstered with the holster attached to the belt. The step up was what my dad and brother called a "Bug out" chest. They used bags, but I didn''t like the idea of having a firearm so easy to carry off, but my father insisted that I have something set up. While I had all this nice equipment, whether I had the ability to use it in an actual firefight... was something else...


    Geared up, I estimated ten minutes had past as I pulled the last piece of gear from the chest. An MP5. Both the XM and the MP used 9mm as their ammunition of choice so I didn''t have to carry two different types of ammo. "D-Done!" My brother peaked over his shoulder to look at me. My bushy birdnest of a head coupled with my rather small stature in partial combat gear awkwardly while in my pajamas must have been a sight to see because, for a moment, I saw my brother hold in a laugh before a few bullets peppered the doorway next to him took his attention again.


    I stood at 5''6 with what I believed to be a normal male body if you compared it to the bears that were my brother and father. None the less, I took after my mother in looks with more soft features compared to the rugged faces of the other two. My brown eyes looked at my brother like a scared puppy as I cowered down against the wall while racking the bolt back. Just because I was small compared to my brother, didn''t mean I was weak... I was just not a fighter.


    I repeat. Do. Not. Compare. Me. To. The. Bears.


    Just as I found my sneakers, my brother spoke into his radio "Whispering Willow secured... He''s locked and loaded, but don''t expect a fight out of him." He added that last snide comment on while looking at me swimming in my pajamas while the vest hugged my upper torso and for a moment, I thought I saw sadness. However, whatever it was, it passed just as quick as it came before he ordered me to follow him. "Push!" He spoke into his radio before he unleashed a torrent of death down the hall before charging out as other gunshots rang out.


    I followed him out like a baby kitten chasing its mother. To which the light of day greeted me in the hall as broken glass snapped and crackled underfoot. The hallway window that overlooked the backyard pool was shot out with the modern light blue hallway walls dusted over with hundreds of bullet holes, most of then hitting the studs as most came from the opposite end of the floor. The rifle shook in my hand as I skittishly chased after my big brother. I passed a man in urban camo dead by my door, face down in a pool of blood.


    I was about to ask big brother if that was one of his. That was before I saw the European flag on the man''s shoulder and I squeaked in fright. "Calm down, he''s dead!" My brother yelled without looking back, his rifle trained on the stairs ahead that lead down into the foyer. The upper landing that lead into the bedrooms was dusty as all most of the decorations and furniture was mutilated by bullets. Several other men in black were ducked behind cover, with only two of them slumped over unmoving. "Leave them! Scavenge if you''re out of ammo." My brother called out to two.


    My brother took the lead and posted himself on the waist-high wall that acted as a railing to the L shaped staircase. I looked around him and found several men in urban camo slumped down on the steps with hundreds of shell casings glistening. The air was thick with gunpowder and blood as I nearly vomited out my stomach. It wasn''t bad by my room where the fresh air was pouring in, but deeper in was another story.


    "Farmer 1 to Oracle, do you copy?" My brother radioed with his left hand while keeping his right on the rifle''s handle and finger on the trigger. I had the tactical link so I looked at it while keeping myself as out of the way of any windows and other rifles as possible and found my light was still out. The landing was bright as day since all the windows were shot out, not to mention the light streaming through the holes in the exterior wall.


    I was trying to find the radio function on the screen before my brother placed his hand on my shoulder and pulled me into his embrace. "Danger close!" The other men took cover as well before I felt the whole house shutter followed by a deafening explosion followed by a "BRRRRRRRRRT". Another explosion shook followed by two of those "BRRRT"s overlapping. I wasn''t gay, but being held in my brother''s arm felt oddly comforting as I looked up. "It''s okay little dude. We''re going to make it. You can count on your big bro."


    I never really thought about death, nor did I ever think about if I ever had to come to terms with it. I also missed an opportunity to call my brother out on a lie when I could see it on his face. I was doing both of those right now when I could see my brother was lying to comfort me as the house shook from explosions, but there wasn''t a BRRRRRT this time. They were out in the distance as my brother peeked over the stairwell wall quickly and let me go. Dust and smoke were twirling in the air as they slowly blocked the windows on the stairwell side.


    I watched my brother lead this time as I stared stunned at what I saw. "We''re... going to... die..." I mumbled in shock to myself. I wasn''t going to call it out to his face. My brother rarely did anything to comfort me, I knew instantly he was trying to soothe my fear before it overrode my adrenaline. But my brother was a bad liar when he spoke to me. "Move your ass Isaac!" My brother hollered from the bottom of the stairs. Getting to my feet, I shakily navigated my way over the dead Europeans before finding myself on the 1st floor.


    "Friendlies!" My brother called out as men in the army camo stepped through the door. "What''s the situation?" He asked as an officer stepped through the door. "Sir, enemy forces are bombing the city. They''re not caring if we''re shooting at them. I think they''re trying to take as many people with them as possible." In layman''s term, we were fucked. Bad. I could see it on my brother''s face. That hardened soldier was slowly slipping away as his home was torn to shreds.


    Then a mass of metal crashed into a ball of flame in the street in front of the house, sending debris everywhere.

 [Legacy] Everyone has their time...[2]

    Once the dust cleared, the thing that crashed on my street was the charred fuselage of a A10 warthog. "Sky Dancer 6 is down, I repeat, Sky Dancer 6 is down!" The officer''s radio blared and I knew we couldn''t remain in the area. "We can''t stay. Here." My brother pushed me to the officer. "Stay in the middle of them. They''ll protect you." The officer looked at me with surprise before nodding to my brother. "I''ll keep your sister safe."


    ... I didn''t have a comment to that.


    My brother did though. "Brother. Takes after my mother," he added with a strange warmth as he looked at me before patting my head. The look of pity in his eyes was too obvious and I reminded myself what he said earlier... "We''ll make it." It reminded me that we most certainly were not going to make it, but I allowed my brother to be the cool sibling in front of his soldier buddies - not that I could stop him - as everyone seemed to hulk over me... Was I really that small?


    Trying to distract myself to the perilous situation, I looked around and noticed a lot of the soldiers had been injured in some way. There wasn''t a single soldier that wasn''t stained with blood somewhere, in panic, I looked over to my brother and carefully studied his body and noticed a shine coming off his left upper arm. He was trying hard not to move it often, favoring his dominant arm to grab stuff, even at awkward angles. "You''re injured!" I said, trying hard not to sound as shocked as I actually was.


    My brother had been a near godly existence in my life. When I was being bullied in elementary school, he''d beat up the bullies. When I had broken my leg on a camping trip, he carried me five miles to the nearest road without a single break. When were fought, I always lost effortlessly. Yet, here I was looking at him - blood soaking his black shirt.


    Upon closer inspection when I got up close to examine it, I found the bullet had got clean through his muscles. I wasn''t well versed in trauma aid and first-aid, but I knew I had to stem the bleeding. "It''s nothing." He chuckled awkwardly. "I''ve had worst." He looked at his arm as if he finally noticed the injury. Everyone around us was checking their equipment only to stop when they heard my outburst. "It''s not nothing! You''re bleeding man!" I quickly broke away from the group and navigated the torn up townhouse and found the downstairs bathroom and pulled all the first-aid supplies out of the pantry.


    Seven large kits and towels were pulled into my arms, which honestly was too much to carry before I made it back to Jacob while losing a few kits and nearly tripping on the hallway rug. By the time I got back, which couldn''t have been more than a few minutes, someone had already bandaged up Jacob. I stood there like an idiot gawking at how unnecessary what I had done was.


    "Of course they''d have medical kits..." I thought as I watched a man with a red cross insignia on his arm finish up with my brother and look at me with a raised eyebrow. "See? It''s nothing." He chuckled. "Now we really need to go." Everyone around seemed to have finally had an enlightenment moment as I heard a few whispers "He really is just a kid..." and "That''s his baby brother...? I thought we-". My brother roared at the soldiers. "Holster up, grab the kids from little bro here and take them with us, we''re going to need everything we can find!"


    Having someone higher ranked than them bark at them snapped them out of their gossiping and a few soldiers went forward, taking the kits from me while thanking me politely. " Little bro is a civvy! Keep him in the center and keep moving."


    It took a few more minutes for everyone to get themselves ready, most of them had already finished either stocking up on their ammo or just completely taking the weapons off the dead enemies that had perished on stairs. To add to the perilous situation, there wasn''t enough ammo to go around so people had to shuffle any pistol ammo to those with a magazine or 2 left and have those guys switch to their sidearm while slinging their rifles onto their back. This was to make sure no one was going to be crying out for ammo. While rifles were better to have in a firefight, having an empty rifle wasn''t any better than an empty pistol.


    More explosions rocked the home, sounding closer, and we finally shuffled out of the house single-file before spreading out and making the best of the wreckage to cross the street to where the more intact homes were. I was forced to stick to the office''s rear like a tick on a cow''s rear end, keeping one hand placed on the back of his vest while we moved so he knew I was still there. I glanced back at the large McMansion my dad had bought in the suburbs of Washington DC. It was built like one of those old plantation homes you saw in those documentaries, but now it looked like something out of the Division.


    The roof was smoking with the front blackened with smoke and peppered with bullets. I noticed more dead enemies littered the streets here and there.


    The part of the city I lived in was nothing but politicians'' families and important figures in the government. I did see a few teams escorting those families out of the other similar McMansions... However, a few homes were completely obliterated by bombs The street was void of life with only a few parked cars and abandoned HUMVEEs that didn''t belong to us. "Why aren''t we going in transports?" I asked the officer while tightening the grip on my submachine gun.


    "The bombers are targeting any moving vehicles. Even if we try and steal the enemy vehicles, they''re keeping an eye on them for us." He said while he scanned around as he jogged through my old neighbors'' yards until we came to a flaming wreckage of a large plane that looked like a Boeing 747... A civilian 747. The soldiers hadn''t even blinked as they skirted left through a busted fenceline before detouring through 3 more blocks of wreckage before we found ourselves in a large backyard with a broken wooden fence where it looked like a politician and his family was executed.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    I found them laying face down in the inground pool, kids and all. I saw a toddler in - I was going to stop right there before I almost threw up again. The conga line of walking death came to a stop as my brother tore up the hedge wall. The Wreckage of the 747 lasted a few blocks, but now there was just open ground where the 747 was so I assumed they didn''t want to get caught out in the open if they could help it.


    While we were idle, most of the soldiers took cover where they could, training their rifles in different directions to cover every point on the clock three times over. A few soldiers couldn''t help themselves and pulled the family out of the water... I looked away when he pulled the children out and looked at the sky instead as more bombers flew overhead. Smokestacks rose from everywhere, attesting to the damage already having been dealt. "What happened to the Anti-air systems?" I asked the officer as he kept his eyes trained on the air above the soldiers pulling out the family. "We had a traitor. They took down the system for a few minutes and it was enough for some jets to knock a hole in the net."


    My brother had called an all-clear signal and climbed over the brick wall that was behind the hedges and dropped down. Six more breaks in the plant wall were made as soldiers steamed over the brick wall and we found ourselves in the loading area of the local Walmart Superstore. We quickly sprinted across the large lot full of trailers and abandoned product, a few dead employees here and there.


    A few bay doors in the loading dock were open so Jacob checked them with a few other soldiers before giving another clear signal and mantled through the open doors. We followed suit, me needing the help of two guys because... Um.. the bays were up to my neck and... I wasn''t exactly in the shape these guys where. After that embarrassing situation, we poured through the back of the Walmart like a surging river of camo and PJs clearing out the back. When we secured the back of house, my brother came up to me. "You three, go with Isaac here and grab what you can from the ammo counter if it hasn''t already been looted."


    Following his orders, I parted with my newly made friend, Officer Cow-butt, and made my way out of the back. Glad to be a friend of all that weird inspiration posters of the owner of the company, I went out the back after a few friendlies cleared the door and I took the lead. "It''s over here!" I broke into a jog while passing by the electronics. "Hey dude, you have-"


    Because he could finish his sentence, I had already made it to the counter; coming face to face with a startled European soldier. We stood, staring each other in the eye like some bad lover''s reunion at seeing each other, but the touching moment was broken when the rest of my buddies made it to me which broke into a fight the moment the man broke out of his trance.


    With no other way but down, I fell on my back, and the weight on the armor plates felt like my brother had just tackled me. It took a moment to gather myself as bullets flew overhead as the soldiers quickly ducked as the Tango opened up on them from behind the counter with his rifle. I managed to get my MP5 in my hands just as the man was reloading. He then noticed I was still there as he pushed his magazine in. I beat him to the punch as I pulled down on the trigger with everything I had, sending the gun barking like a pissed chihuahua when you invade their personal space.


    The 9mm rounds smacked the fabricated wooden counter before trailing up across the soldier. Four rounds punched his chest without penetration, as I only had hollow points loaded, and it was only like a pinch to him until 1 round shredded his neck on the right and another blowing his brains out. Lacking discipline with real fight experience with a firearm, my finger locked on the trigger as the MP5 barked up the whole Walmart tree into the skylight and then it clicked empty.


    The soldiers finally peeked out to get a shot and saw the brains splattered across the floor and 1 really dead guy. He looked at me while I laid on my back with awkwardly holding my submachine gun up as a piece of skylight broke free and fell on our dead friend behind the counter. "They say double tap, not double with a stabbing on top." The man joked, trying to ease my frayed nerves. "Y-Y-Yeah!" I tried to smile as he helped me up, but I was shaking all over from the sudden in-your-face- encounter.


    My knees nearly buckled when I stood up "Easy kid, my first firefight was the same." The man who didn''t look three years older than me said with a smile while patting my back "I have a younger brother as well, and man, I can imagine him doing what you''re doing right now. He''s probably still playing video games right now while bombs fall." He chuckled uneasily about it until he was sure I could stand. "You hit?" Another soldier asked as the rest of the group caught up with us. "N-No, but he is." I tried to sound cool, but the nerves were still pumping signals into my brain as I gestured towards the dead guy.


    He only smiled and nodded before helping secure the surprisingly untouched ammo stocks that our dead guy was about to loot. We secured half of the ammo stocks, only touching the 9mm, .45acp, 556, 762s, and 12gauage since there was more than we could carry and ammo equaled weight. "Don''t forget to reload your gun, little dude." the soldier from earlier said. I nodded and dropped the mag out of the rifle and felt around for a spare only to release... this rig only hand pistol mags... Like... A lot of pistol mags.


    "I.. uhh.. only have pistol magazines.." The soldier looked at me like I was an idiot and honestly, I didn''t blame him. I was already out of ammo on my first fight and I only wasted most of the mag on killing a chain store counter and skylight. "Just-" before he could finish his sentence, gunshots rang out from the front of the store and their radio blared "Contact! Twenty plus tangos on the right side entrance!". One of the guys who looked to be the squad leader picked up his mic "Copy that, we''ll take the left entrance and try and flank them."


    The nice thing about Walmart superstores was there was almost always three entrances. The right side one was where the fast-food store was while the left, which I''m sure he was referring to the middle one, was by the self-checkout. We quickly slung whatever ammo we could while I abandoned the empty MP5 on the Walmart counter, gun laws be damned. Navigating through the women''s bra section in all its glory, we popped out of the children''s department and came face to face with another squad of lively enemies who had the same idea to flank.


    The moment they came into view, someone yelled "Contact!" and the bullets flew. Considering the only cover that was here was made of baby bibs and Onezies along with whatever seasonal display there was in front of us full of candy. I through my self to the ground while regretting how I was carrying a lot of weight on my chest only to have it rock me side to side as I pulled out my XM17 and started popping off shots. I wasn''t sure I was hitting or missing, but I just pointed it at the closest enemy who tried to use the TV display as cover before it was shredded by tens of rounds.

 [Legacy] Everyone has their time...[3]

    The moment they came into view, someone yelled "Contact!" and the bullets flew. Considering the only cover that was here was made of baby bibs and Onezies along with whatever seasonal display there was in front of us full of candy, I threw myself onto the ground while regretting how I was carrying a lot of weight on my chest only to have it rock me side to side as I pulled out my XM17 and started popping off shots. I wasn''t sure I was hitting or missing, but I just pointed it at the closest enemy who tried to use the TV display as cover before it was shredded by tens of rounds.


    The other soldiers turned their attention to the other five baddies scrambling to fiver actual cover before two found their way into the nail salon and four of them tried to make a break for the registers to my right. I was about to call out to the guys around me, but a few of them already were training their barrels on them before unleashing a torrent of sustained fire, sending them to the deck. Dead or alive, it wasn''t my problem for at the moment since a few guys were already handling it. I turned my attention to the enemy that took cover behind the TVs only to find that he had slumped over into the open, a large pool of blood staining Walmart''s already nasty walkways.


    I looked at it for a moment, mesmerized by the fresh body. A few rounds ricocheted of the wood laminate flooring that made up the clothing section around me. That was enough to pull me from whatever daze I was in and I did my best to line up my sights on the nail salon while two of my own guys moved around to my right -laying down suppressive fire. Just as I was able to line up the sights for a perfect headshot, the pistol clicked and I noticed the slide was locked back. I quickly racked it to clear whatever malfunction had happened, but it still clicked. I lost my shot as the guy was downed by someone else and slumped over before being peppered by the other guys to my left.


    "Shit!" I quickly crawled out of the way "Reloading!" I yelled regardless if they were paying attention. I found somewhere a few feet away to focus on pulling a cold one from my chest pouch while dropping the empty on the floor; sliding the new one in. I was about to throw myself into the fray again before I remembered to pick up the empty magazine and place it in the empty pouch. "Never lose your gear." He mumbled what his brother said. Damn magazines were near 50 dollars!


    When he went out, the enemy had already been finished as his guys quickly took control of the entrance way. The engagement on the other end had also ended with our side winning as well. "Good shooting!" I saw, trying to alleviate some of the jitters I had, but the guy I said it too only gave a half-hearted acknowledgement as he scavenged the enemy''s equipment. I looked around and saw that of all the soldiers that left with me, there was only three left. I looked back and saw the medic jumping from one soldier to the next to look for anyone still alive.


    None of them survived.


    I felt a cold grip me as whatever pride I had felt for actually helping in the fight quickly faded seeing that we still lost men. I heard footsteps coming from the right side and with a glance, I saw it was my brother sprinting over to. "Where are you hurt?!" My brother yelled before gripping my arm and checking my left side. "W-What?" I said. I hadn''t been hit, or at least I didn''t think I had been. "There''s blood all over your dude!" I looked down and saw I indeed had been soaked with blood on my left side.


    I quickly felt for wounds, padding under my vest and my legs and found nothing. I looked back to where I had been laying and saw that the spot I had been prone from was pooled with blood with the edge of the puddle marred by my side when I moved away from it. One of the guys behind me had been killed and his blood had unknowingly got on me. "It''s not mine." I said softly, unsure of how to process that as I pointed towards the spot I had been.


    My brother looked at that and nodded. He went over to the dead soldiers and pulled some things off of them before he walked over to me while stuffing dog tags into his pocket and started rigging me with someone. "What''s that?" I asked trying to figure out what he was shoving down my vest. "Comms. We didn''t have enough on base since everyone was being deployed. Even the spares weren''t enough. We need to be able to communicate with everyone." He said as he ran a cord out the bottom back and hooked a radio to my belt. When he was finished, they were a mic attached to my shoulder strap.


    "Remember how to use this?" My brother said as he slapped my back while gesturing for one of his teammates to come over. "Yeah, press the black button on the side." I answered. He nodded as his buddy handed him a headset. "Here. We lost some guys as well, So you''re going to get hooked up to our network too." Jacob said as he placed the headset on me and his friend took my left arm with the Tactical Link while popping open an access point.


    He pushed in a small chip before closing it and tapping on my screen to set in the communication''s access codes. "You''re set, little man." The man whose voice sounded familiar. Way too familiar. " Anders?" I asked. Their uniforms were full on black and my brother was the only one who didn''t have his face covered. Anders pulled down his mask and gave the biggest shit-eating grin I had ever seen. "looks like you are taking over the family business." He laughed before he took point by the entrance with the rest of our group coming over. My brother took my attention away.


    "Our comms are strictly for our use, you shouldn''t be on it, but if you need help - really need it- call us. Use the grunt comm there -" He pointed to the hand-activated come attached to my shoulder strap. "For call outs. Otherwise, just sit back and try not to get bloody again."


    Once everything had settled down and we cleared out the rest of the store without any more fights, we were only left with half the number we entered. 16 soldiers remained, that was including my brother''s squad of three. A few had died in the home, the rest perished in this conflict when the enemies got the drop on them since they were spearheading the group. I knew their squad was a six-man team so their team was halved.


    We stacked on each main entrance - the garden center and tire center locked down - and radioed for an EVAC. "Oracle Actual, EVAC heading for the lot now. Air support in the AO, danger close." I heard on the headset. The voice belonged to my father. Of all the things that had happened today, this was the least surprising. "All friendlies in the area converging on your position, check your targets." The radio chirped one last time before my brother relayed the information to the officer next to him.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    My brother decided I was too much of a headache to let out of his sight so now he was my mommy duck now as I stuck to his rear. The storefront windows had been blown to hell from the initial bombing of the city. With a glance at the sky, the bombings looked to have ended now that the Jets were busy dog-fighting wildly in the sky with a few crashing to the earth below every so often. Tracers rose from the sky as well as Ground-to-air missiles before a jet would soar overhead and drop a hail of rounds into that area.


    Very few helicopters were flying around with the few that were had their hands full with whomever they were engaging with.


    Out in the parking lot, three heavily modified F-350s sat idling with some of their doors ajar and windows down. The European Union''s emblem painted on each trucks'' white hoods. Armor plating lined the outside with a heavy push bumper on the front. We rushed the vehicles and we all quickly cleared each truck only to find them all empty. "Looks like these were those guys'' ride." Someone said over the regular communications. "Check those fifties. If they''re operational, use them to secure the area."


    The rest of the large parking lot was sprinkled with abandoned cars with dead bodies here and there belonging to civilians unlucky enough to run into a bomb''s radius.


    A few more minutes passed with everyone finding decent cover and finding a sector to cover before the first sign of movement. "Friendlies to the north-east!" Someone called out. The officer rose and called out on a radio frequency that I wasn''t on. A minute passed and a group of 17 battered soldiers appeared from across the street on the side of a looted Walgreens. They checked up and down the street before making a break across the open street and through the parking lot before they linked up with us.


    At this point, another ambush was most definitely going to happen and I could tell the other men were thinking the same thing. I scan the others to see what they were doing and noticed there were a few women among us too. Not that it mattered in the end, so long as the enemy gets dead, I would be happy if Godzilla was here. Actually, Godzilla would have been a better choice to swat their air-support out of the skies.


    "Oracle Actual on site, load it up boys." I heard my father''s voice over the headset pulling my out of my wildly running thoughts. I looked around as I heard the sounds of rotors and harsh wind approaching. I managed to pinpoint it to the right of the lot as six glorious Blackhawk helicopters approached at low-altitude with the force of more than 20 F-15s soaring overhead to join the fray. Cheering and hollering rose from the soldiers who''d been beaten and shot at all morning as the sign of getting the hell out of this war zone that once was Washington DC.


    The Blackhawks found empty spaces among the lot that had enough room for them to land safely. "Everyone get on." I heard over the regular comms as tens of soldiers poured out of the Helios. We all swarmed the Blackhawks like zombies, plopping into seats with relief as the weight came off our feet. My brother took me aside and lead me towards the center hawk where I found my father dressed in his general''s outfit with an M4 slung around his neck and his favorite 1911 on his hip. "Why are you wounded?" My father looked at me with a glare like I was the dog that pissed on the living room carpet.


    I was about to answer, but my brother spoke up for me. "Not his blood." He said as he passed my father while pulling me into the Blackhawk. The bird was set up with extra chairs to carry more people so my brother sat me in the back row, facing the front. He then pulled two of the freshmen back and had them sit on either side of me to babysit. They looked at my dad, then to my brother before looking to me and then nodding to themselves as if understanding something as my brother walked off.


    The survivors of my brother''s squad sat on an outer row with each sitting on either side''s edge-seat with their rifles at the ready. My father sat in between them was a makeshift stand for a computer was hastily put in. I couldn''t see what was on it since the seat was in the way.


    Jacob came back after a minute and spoke with my dad while soldiers milled about just outside awaiting orders. I was only able to see his head from the mesh inbetween the seats before he went around the seats and grabbed my Tactical link. "Let me look at it real quick." He opened up the access port facing me and stuck another chip in the last open slot before closing it. The screen then turned into a circling loading screen with "Loading A.I, please wait." in bold above it.


    He then rationed the rest between him and his men. Finally, after a few back and forths between the fresh officer and my brother, he loaded up by sitting next to my father.


    Oddly enough, I was the only one forced to strap in with a bark from my dad. I felt a little mad that I was treated like a child even now by the father that was never around, but I heard one of the men mention something to me. "Damn, your dad must love you. Making a single operation to pick you up priority over everything else." I wasn''t sure how to handle that piece of information so I decided to keep to myself.


    "Oracle Actual, taking off." The convoy of birds lifted off before they went forward to circle around back the way they came. "Why aren''t we going higher?" I asked looking out the shitty back-seat view. "We''d get in the way of the dog fights above." My father answered with a strange soft tone. It felt alien to me that he''d speak this way rather than his usual gruff non-patient attitude towards me. "Once we''re out of the area, we can get higher and you can come up front to see."


    Invasion of the mainland? Not that weird, we were fighting a war of resources. My brother treated me like a child? Not that weird as well, I am his precious little brother. My father treated me with patience and like a child? Really damn weird. I wasn''t complaining though. No one wants to have their parent treat them meanly, so I just accepted it. Listening to the soothing muffled sound of the rotors displacing air, I was about to settle into the seat to unwind - feeling the adrenaline leaving my body weak and shaking -


    After we left the AO, the procession of Blackhawks rose in altitude as they drifted off towards where ever base was still intact. I was sure my father had already made a plan of attack, that was if we weren''t in a bleak situation when the enemy attacked. I felt it was a little strange. I hadn''t heard any news impending invasion.


    However, I wouldn''t get to ever find out.


    I looked out the opening from the back seat, seeing a peaceful forest below look like a miniature toy set when suddenly the world turned a darkish orange like the light was being sucked away. "What''s that -", "Brace! Brace!" I heard my father yelling at the Blackhawk shuttered as I felt something sort of a wave pass through that made me feel disoriented. Maybe it was the sudden twirling of the bird. The bird sounded like something hit it before the entire bird just shut off as it began to turn in circles as it plummeted.


    I felt the world itself slow down as for a split second, I saw where Washington DC had once been; replaced by a large mushroom cloud and the fires of hell rising around it. Then the slowly spend up as the sudden turn had thrown everyone around who wasn''t quick enough to latch onto something. The bird shuddered again as someone yelled out " Secondary systems coming up!" I was too scared to figure out what it meant or who called it out as I watched one of the guys guarding me was flung out of the bird along with Ander. Their bodies disappeared into the thick nuclear winds.

 [Legacy] Oracle Actual Down

    I felt the scorching winds from the nuclear blast pour through the side doors as it howled like a ferocious monster. I held onto the nets behind me for dear life as the Blackhawk shook before fishtailing back and forth as the pilots tried to get ahold of what systems they managed to revive. I suddenly saw strange purple flames erupt from the front of the bird as it engulfed the entire helicopter itself. This was followed by a drastic drop in temperature and a blast of static from the regular comms.


    "All - ... - situation - ... " One of the pilot''s voices came out cut up before the static was cut off by a deep, strange voice that deep and unsettling. It sounded like a demonic chant in a language I had never heard before. The purple flames disappeared and frost began to form everywhere and I could feel the blood that caked the side of me stiffening up. I leaned over to see what the hell was happening and became white as a sheet.


    It was no longer the nuclear wastes of Washington DC outside, but some sort of strange sky instead. It resembled a moving mosaic of different sized triangles with strange runes floating cross them with figures flying around. "Dad?" I said into the headset, my voice breaking with a fear I didn''t even feel when I came face to face with an enemy. This was something primal, something I felt in my very fabric of being that I should not have been here.


    "I know! I know!" His voice came, more composed, but I could also hear that same reaction in his voice. My remaining guard was just pulling himself off of the Blackhawk''s floor. "You okay?" I tried to distract myself from the strangeness happening outside the bird and tried to help him out of the spot he had been thrown into. "Yeah..." The soldier had managed to lodge one of his legs against the wall and his upper body against the front seats - only one of his legs made it out of the bird.


    Even though I tried to help, I could barely scrape the top of his helmet as he tried to dislodge his foot from the new spot it had slid into when he moved. "REEEEEEeeeEEAaaaa!" A bloodcurdling screech shook the entire bird followed by dozens more as a figure covered in a black fabric that hid its face and body appeared behind the soldier. It grabbed his leg with a sickening crunch before tearing him out with ease.


    This was followed by three more and the rattling sound of overlapping automatic fire. The shots killed or at least maimed the two I could see from my spot as they fell away and the third one pulled a man in black armor out. "Jacob!" I heard my father yell. I saw my father run into my view as he held onto the handholds above while shooting out at the monsters with his 1911. Counting in my head, there should have been him and one other man beside the pilots. I quickly tried to unholster my pistol before I felt the entire bird barrel roll and all the alarms from the cockpit blaring.


    I felt my body being rattled side to side - back and forth - as the bird tried to correct itself both men were flung out the openings, leaving me alone in the bird. Just when I felt myself panicking; more monsters appeared at both openings trying to reach for me. Dark mummified hands reached for me, but too many of the monsters were trying to reach through the opening before more gunshots rang out, but this time, they were pistol rounds as they picked at the monsters. "We got you- Ah!" I heard the pilots screaming over the comms, disrupting the chants of whatever was on our regular comms.


    Then blood sprayed over the cabin as the horde moved from me to the pilots, and unfortunately for them, ripping them out piece by piece I could only assume as I saw monsters flying away with body parts. The Blackhawk shuttered and began to go out of control before the purple flames from earlier engulfed the bird once more.


    . . . . . .


    I suddenly jolted awake only to be held down by something. In my disoriented state, the only thing that came to mind was the monsters from before, I lashed out with a high-pitched battle cry as I wildly swung my fists around. After a few seconds, the rest of my mind caught up after feeling nothing but cool air. Calming down enough to look at my surroundings, I found I was still buckled into the Blackhawk''s rear seat. The seat buckle had kept me in place.


    Taking deep breaths to calm my rapidly beating heart, I managed to calm myself down only to have a wave of exhaustion wash over me.


    My eyes hurt and my body felt bruised from the rocky ride early. "Dad?" I called out. "Jacob?" No response. I was hoping I hadn''t see what I did early, but I couldn''t escape reality. "Agent Jacobs'' and General Jacobs'' vital signs are offline." A monotonous voice answered through my headset. My ears perked as I looked around. "Who are you...?" I asked back into the headset. "I am Live Intelligence Liasion, or Lil." The voice was neither male nor female. "I am your personal AI commissioned for you by General Jacobs if that is a more suitable answer. "


    I took a minute to process that before my shoulders started shaking...


    "So.. Dad is..." Dead, was the question I was going to ask. For all his faults, for all the times he pushed me away after my mother died, he was still my father. I also wanted to ask about my stupid big brother but... The questions only became stuck in my throat like lumps of coal as tears began to streak my face in the silent, dark cabin of the black hawk. "Please gather yourself, Isaac..." Lil asked in an almost concerned tone. "There will be time to grieve later. We have to get you out of danger first."


    Danger caught my attention as I looked up and realized that moonlight was pouring in through the left side of the black hawk while shrubbery and wood were pouring in through half the right side. "So... what can you do for me?" I asked as I tried feeling around for the buckle through the dust that covered me. "I can give situation -" Lil was interrupted. "O, so this is how you communicate with others in your world?" A man''s voice popped in over the headset. "Unknown communications. Cannot trace the origin." Lil answered immediately after the man finished with his question.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    "Who are you?" I asked as I was suddenly released from the straps and almost slid to the right before catching myself. "There little mortal, I''ll help you." The man laughed as I looked at the straps that were perfectly cut by some unknown force. "I am the god of this world. Now, answer my question." The voice cut his laughter before his voice turned serious. I felt danger immediately and answered. "Y-Yes." I felt up my body while keeping an eye out for the voice. No injuries other than the bruises.


    "Interesting..." The voice cooed before going silent. "Lil, do you know where we are?" I asked as I hauled myself out the back of the hatch and was greeted by a trail of destruction raking across a mountainside. Turned up grass, broken rocks, and a few overturned broken trees led up to the Blackhawk with the tail laying only a couple tens of feet away. "I will make a deal with you. What do you say?" god came back. "I''d rather not, but for the sake of it, what are you proposing?" I asked as I stepped out of the wreckage, my muscles screaming in protest as I checked around for anything hostile.


    "Well... I wouldn''t say it''s a deal now that I think about it. More of me telling you. " The voice said with a twisted chuckle. "Then how are you making a deal with me?" I said with a snort as I checked the cockpit for the pilots. I instantly threw up as I saw the insane amount of blood staining the inside. "I am holding trials for people I deem of great strength to entertain me. I''m going to put you through them, otherworlder. Ready to test your mettle against magic and demons?" The voiced said with a not so asking tone.


    "No! What the fuck?!" I yelled into the mic. I was already thinking someone was fucking with me until I looked up in anger and saw two moons hanging above. "I wasn''t really giving you a choice. If you don''t want to participate, just let the goblins eat you. But I am not that cruel of a god. Check your little device." The voice cooed with delight as I saw figures moving in the distance. "Isaac, my systems have been breached. I have been given access to an unknown system that appears to be a shop of unknown origins. It had listed weapons and supplies for sale." Lil reported to me whatever God had done to my Tact-link.


    "I''ll leave it at that little mortal. Survive and amuse me... Or not." The voice added that last part with an almost threatening insinuation. "I''ll give you a little gift. Lil, give him the update. I''ll talk to you later mortal, after I look more into your world." With that, God stopped talking and silence came forth the stench of something disgusting. "Warning! Multiple hostiles approaching. Be careful Isaac, we''re surrounded with no escape route behind us! Please check your device!"


    I checked the screen on my forearm and saw an overview of my surroundings with a little message at the top right saying "Temporary access to Satellite for this trial". From the image displayed, the crash site was 30-odd feet from the edge of a cliff with no one there. In front of me where several impish like monsters slowly creeping up using the rock outcrops as cover for their advance. Each monster was haloed by a red square with nearly 40 monsters.


    "W-what are those...?" I asked in shock. "Using new database, those are goblins. 4 feet tall, they''re known for their barbaric nature of eating anything and raping female humans to reproduce. They are considered vermin with the possibility to cause catastrophes when left unchecked.... New mission inbound, please standby." Just from the description, I was already unholstering my pistol. I oddly felt calm though, like the experience before had already tempered me enough to deal with the stress.


    I pulled out my magazine and checked the round count. "Full magazine." I then slapped it back in and pulled the slide back enough to check the chamber. "One in the chamber." I said before checking my ammo supply. I had five magazines left, each holding 17 rounds each. I was cursing myself for not buying the extended magazines now. "Just like bro said, better to have it and wonder why you bought it than to not buy it and wish you had. " I laughed at myself for being stupid to save a few hundred dollars to spend it on new videogames.


    "Contact!" Lil reported as the first goblin decided to charge at me form the nearest outcrop, nearly 30 feet to my right on the high ground. The moonlight was enough for me to see, but now I was regretting not getting a light attachment as I tracked him as he landed and stumbled towards me followed by three more of his friends. I fired six shots at the first one, missing three shots before the goblin just rolled like a sack of potatoes at me as I aimed at the next one with another five shots. This time I only missed once, but unfortunately, I was tagged by a club from the third one.


    I felt like being hit with a 2x4 from a person who didn''t know how to use improvised weapons. It hit, but not as much as it could. I quickly kicked the little green monster in the face with my shoe and fired the rest of my magazine into the fourth one. The XM17 locked back with smoke rising from the chamber and the barrel as I tried to fire it again into the one that tagged me with his club. "Fuck!" I cursed as I dropped the magazine as the monster regained itself and leaped at me like a demon monkey from hell.


    I had the magazine in my left hand and the pistol in my right. Taken off flat-footed, I fell backward and landed on my back as the monster managed to get on me. Without thinking, I stabbed the little runt in the left eye with the magazine with all the force I could muster. The magazine buried itself a quarter of the way in, sending the monster howling in pain


    I ripped a fresh mag from its pouch and slammed it into the pistol. The force itself sent the slide forward, racking a round in and I unloaded at least six shots into the monster''s chest - basically until it slumped over, ending the threat. "Get up Isaac, get to higher ground." The voice was sounding more and more human as time went one, taking on a more soothing female voice. "Mission given is one of the trials God spoke about. Mission parameters are to survive the Goblin horde. Bonus rewards for annihilating them all before sunrise. The time limit is till dawn." Lil briefed me and brought up a timer reading 1 hour.


    "Get to higher ground!" Lil called out as another set of goblins felt brave enough to challenge me. I got to my feet and circled around the Blackhawk and worked my way up the cliff''s edge until I found myself above the targets. Shrieks and grunts called out as I unloaded the rest of my magazine into the group of seven goblins hiding behind that outcrop. I didn''t stay to count the kills and continued up the slop until I reached the highest point I could nearly 100 feet away from the crash site below. I could see the rest of the mountain with rolling planes and grass-covered ridges and a valley further out with light coming from what I could only assume was a settlement.


    I popped out the old magazine and put in a new one as Lil came back over the headset. "Registering a total of 9 kills. I''ve tallied up the enemy combatants to a total of 78." I felt my heart plummet into my stomach. "You have a total of 41 minutes to survive, please don''t die." The AI was actually starting to sound concerned. I laughed "Well, lets at least make my dad proud!" I said before looking back down to the beady red eyes below as they raced after me. "Let''s get to killing then...."

 [Legacy] Oracle Actual Down

    I felt the scorching winds from the nuclear blast pour through the side doors as it howled like a ferocious monster. I held onto the nets behind me for dear life as the Blackhawk shook before fishtailing back and forth as the pilots tried to get ahold of what systems they managed to revive. I suddenly saw strange purple flames erupt from the front of the bird as it engulfed the entire helicopter itself. This was followed by a drastic drop in temperature and a blast of static from the regular comms.


    "All - ... - situation - ... " One of the pilot''s voices came out cut up before the static was cut off by a deep, strange voice that deep and unsettling. It sounded like a demonic chant in a language I had never heard before. The purple flames disappeared and frost began to form everywhere and I could feel the blood that caked the side of me stiffening up. I leaned over to see what the hell was happening and became white as a sheet.


    It was no longer the nuclear wastes of Washington DC outside, but some sort of strange sky instead. It resembled a moving mosaic of different sized triangles with strange runes floating cross them with figures flying around. "Dad?" I said into the headset, my voice breaking with a fear I didn''t even feel when I came face to face with an enemy. This was something primal, something I felt in my very fabric of being that I should not have been here.


    "I know! I know!" His voice came, more composed, but I could also hear that same reaction in his voice. My remaining guard was just pulling himself off of the Blackhawk''s floor. "You okay?" I tried to distract myself from the strangeness happening outside the bird and tried to help him out of the spot he had been thrown into. "Yeah..." The soldier had managed to lodge one of his legs against the wall and his upper body against the front seats - only one of his legs made it out of the bird.


    Even though I tried to help, I could barely scrape the top of his helmet as he tried to dislodge his foot from the new spot it had slid into when he moved. "REEEEEEeeeEEAaaaa!" A bloodcurdling screech shook the entire bird followed by dozens more as a figure covered in a black fabric that hid its face and body appeared behind the soldier. It grabbed his leg with a sickening crunch before tearing him out with ease.


    This was followed by three more and the rattling sound of overlapping automatic fire. The shots killed or at least maimed the two I could see from my spot as they fell away and the third one pulled a man in black armor out. "Jacob!" I heard my father yell. I saw my father run into my view as he held onto the handholds above while shooting out at the monsters with his 1911. Counting in my head, there should have been him and one other man beside the pilots. I quickly tried to unholster my pistol before I felt the entire bird barrel roll and all the alarms from the cockpit blaring.


    I felt my body being rattled side to side - back and forth - as the bird tried to correct itself both men were flung out the openings, leaving me alone in the bird. Just when I felt myself panicking; more monsters appeared at both openings trying to reach for me. Dark mummified hands reached for me, but too many of the monsters were trying to reach through the opening before more gunshots rang out, but this time, they were pistol rounds as they picked at the monsters. "We got you- Ah!" I heard the pilots screaming over the comms, disrupting the chants of whatever was on our regular comms.


    Then blood sprayed over the cabin as the horde moved from me to the pilots, and unfortunately for them, ripping them out piece by piece I could only assume as I saw monsters flying away with body parts. The Blackhawk shuttered and began to go out of control before the purple flames from earlier engulfed the bird once more.


    . . . . . .


    I suddenly jolted awake only to be held down by something. In my disoriented state, the only thing that came to mind was the monsters from before, I lashed out with a high-pitched battle cry as I wildly swung my fists around. After a few seconds, the rest of my mind caught up after feeling nothing but cool air. Calming down enough to look at my surroundings, I found I was still buckled into the Blackhawk''s rear seat. The seat buckle had kept me in place.


    Taking deep breaths to calm my rapidly beating heart, I managed to calm myself down only to have a wave of exhaustion wash over me.


    My eyes hurt and my body felt bruised from the rocky ride early. "Dad?" I called out. "Jacob?" No response. I was hoping I hadn''t see what I did early, but I couldn''t escape reality. "Agent Jacobs'' and General Jacobs'' vital signs are offline." A monotonous voice answered through my headset. My ears perked as I looked around. "Who are you...?" I asked back into the headset. "I am Live Intelligence Liasion, or Lil." The voice was neither male nor female. "I am your personal AI commissioned for you by General Jacobs if that is a more suitable answer. "


    I took a minute to process that before my shoulders started shaking...


    "So.. Dad is..." Dead, was the question I was going to ask. For all his faults, for all the times he pushed me away after my mother died, he was still my father. I also wanted to ask about my stupid big brother but... The questions only became stuck in my throat like lumps of coal as tears began to streak my face in the silent, dark cabin of the black hawk. "Please gather yourself, Isaac..." Lil asked in an almost concerned tone. "There will be time to grieve later. We have to get you out of danger first."


    Danger caught my attention as I looked up and realized that moonlight was pouring in through the left side of the black hawk while shrubbery and wood were pouring in through half the right side. "So... what can you do for me?" I asked as I tried feeling around for the buckle through the dust that covered me. "I can give situation -" Lil was interrupted. "O, so this is how you communicate with others in your world?" A man''s voice popped in over the headset. "Unknown communications. Cannot trace the origin." Lil answered immediately after the man finished with his question.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    "Who are you?" I asked as I was suddenly released from the straps and almost slid to the right before catching myself. "There little mortal, I''ll help you." The man laughed as I looked at the straps that were perfectly cut by some unknown force. "I am the god of this world. Now, answer my question." The voice cut his laughter before his voice turned serious. I felt danger immediately and answered. "Y-Yes." I felt up my body while keeping an eye out for the voice. No injuries other than the bruises.


    "Interesting..." The voice cooed before going silent. "Lil, do you know where we are?" I asked as I hauled myself out the back of the hatch and was greeted by a trail of destruction raking across a mountainside. Turned up grass, broken rocks, and a few overturned broken trees led up to the Blackhawk with the tail laying only a couple tens of feet away. "I will make a deal with you. What do you say?" god came back. "I''d rather not, but for the sake of it, what are you proposing?" I asked as I stepped out of the wreckage, my muscles screaming in protest as I checked around for anything hostile.


    "Well... I wouldn''t say it''s a deal now that I think about it. More of me telling you. " The voice said with a twisted chuckle. "Then how are you making a deal with me?" I said with a snort as I checked the cockpit for the pilots. I instantly threw up as I saw the insane amount of blood staining the inside. "I am holding trials for people I deem of great strength to entertain me. I''m going to put you through them, otherworlder. Ready to test your mettle against magic and demons?" The voiced said with a not so asking tone.


    "No! What the fuck?!" I yelled into the mic. I was already thinking someone was fucking with me until I looked up in anger and saw two moons hanging above. "I wasn''t really giving you a choice. If you don''t want to participate, just let the goblins eat you. But I am not that cruel of a god. Check your little device." The voice cooed with delight as I saw figures moving in the distance. "Isaac, my systems have been breached. I have been given access to an unknown system that appears to be a shop of unknown origins. It had listed weapons and supplies for sale." Lil reported to me whatever God had done to my Tact-link.


    "I''ll leave it at that little mortal. Survive and amuse me... Or not." The voice added that last part with an almost threatening insinuation. "I''ll give you a little gift. Lil, give him the update. I''ll talk to you later mortal, after I look more into your world." With that, God stopped talking and silence came forth the stench of something disgusting. "Warning! Multiple hostiles approaching. Be careful Isaac, we''re surrounded with no escape route behind us! Please check your device!"


    I checked the screen on my forearm and saw an overview of my surroundings with a little message at the top right saying "Temporary access to Satellite for this trial". From the image displayed, the crash site was 30-odd feet from the edge of a cliff with no one there. In front of me where several impish like monsters slowly creeping up using the rock outcrops as cover for their advance. Each monster was haloed by a red square with nearly 40 monsters.


    "W-what are those...?" I asked in shock. "Using new database, those are goblins. 4 feet tall, they''re known for their barbaric nature of eating anything and raping female humans to reproduce. They are considered vermin with the possibility to cause catastrophes when left unchecked.... New mission inbound, please standby." Just from the description, I was already unholstering my pistol. I oddly felt calm though, like the experience before had already tempered me enough to deal with the stress.


    I pulled out my magazine and checked the round count. "Full magazine." I then slapped it back in and pulled the slide back enough to check the chamber. "One in the chamber." I said before checking my ammo supply. I had five magazines left, each holding 17 rounds each. I was cursing myself for not buying the extended magazines now. "Just like bro said, better to have it and wonder why you bought it than to not buy it and wish you had. " I laughed at myself for being stupid to save a few hundred dollars to spend it on new videogames.


    "Contact!" Lil reported as the first goblin decided to charge at me form the nearest outcrop, nearly 30 feet to my right on the high ground. The moonlight was enough for me to see, but now I was regretting not getting a light attachment as I tracked him as he landed and stumbled towards me followed by three more of his friends. I fired six shots at the first one, missing three shots before the goblin just rolled like a sack of potatoes at me as I aimed at the next one with another five shots. This time I only missed once, but unfortunately, I was tagged by a club from the third one.


    I felt like being hit with a 2x4 from a person who didn''t know how to use improvised weapons. It hit, but not as much as it could. I quickly kicked the little green monster in the face with my shoe and fired the rest of my magazine into the fourth one. The XM17 locked back with smoke rising from the chamber and the barrel as I tried to fire it again into the one that tagged me with his club. "Fuck!" I cursed as I dropped the magazine as the monster regained itself and leaped at me like a demon monkey from hell.


    I had the magazine in my left hand and the pistol in my right. Taken off flat-footed, I fell backward and landed on my back as the monster managed to get on me. Without thinking, I stabbed the little runt in the left eye with the magazine with all the force I could muster. The magazine buried itself a quarter of the way in, sending the monster howling in pain


    I ripped a fresh mag from its pouch and slammed it into the pistol. The force itself sent the slide forward, racking a round in and I unloaded at least six shots into the monster''s chest - basically until it slumped over, ending the threat. "Get up Isaac, get to higher ground." The voice was sounding more and more human as time went one, taking on a more soothing female voice. "Mission given is one of the trials God spoke about. Mission parameters are to survive the Goblin horde. Bonus rewards for annihilating them all before sunrise. The time limit is till dawn." Lil briefed me and brought up a timer reading 1 hour.


    "Get to higher ground!" Lil called out as another set of goblins felt brave enough to challenge me. I got to my feet and circled around the Blackhawk and worked my way up the cliff''s edge until I found myself above the targets. Shrieks and grunts called out as I unloaded the rest of my magazine into the group of seven goblins hiding behind that outcrop. I didn''t stay to count the kills and continued up the slop until I reached the highest point I could nearly 100 feet away from the crash site below. I could see the rest of the mountain with rolling planes and grass-covered ridges and a valley further out with light coming from what I could only assume was a settlement.


    I popped out the old magazine and put in a new one as Lil came back over the headset. "Registering a total of 9 kills. I''ve tallied up the enemy combatants to a total of 78." I felt my heart plummet into my stomach. "You have a total of 41 minutes to survive, please don''t die." The AI was actually starting to sound concerned. I laughed "Well, lets at least make my dad proud!" I said before looking back down to the beady red eyes below as they raced after me. "Let''s get to killing then...."

 [Legacy] Fight for Dragon Spine Ridge

    I popped out the old magazine and put in a new one as Lil came back over the headset. "Registering a total of 9 kills. I''ve tallied up the enemy combatants to a total of 78." I felt my heart plummet into my stomach. "You have a total of 41 minutes to survive, please don''t die." The AI was actually starting to sound concerned. I laughed, "Well, let''s at least make my dad proud!" I said before looking back down to the beady red eyes below as they raced after me. "Let''s get to killing then...."


    I know I said that to sound cool, but... Tens of those mean- short assholes charged at once, their grimy chicken feet like hands holding different shaped clubs. I have a few minutes on them as they struggled against the slope. I took up an isosceles shooting stance as I pointed it down towards the horde of monsters and fired methodically for the ones that would trip their fellow uglies up.


    Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!


    I could almost hear my dad standing next to me as I fell into a cadence. "Accuracy is for ranged targets, speed is for those standing within an arm''s length." I never had any actual experience shooting at actual targets that fought back until today. With the hordes of monsters clamoring up the slope towards me, I felt that everything my dad had taught me wasn''t such a waste anymore. Just when I was getting into a groove, I felt something whistle past my ear and a burning sensation across my ear for I felt something warm dripping off it. I didn''t have time to check what the hell happened as what was whistling at me came to light.


    Arrows.


    One hit the rock below me, sending sparks flying as it tumbled away. Knowing what was coming at me, I quickly dropped back behind the rock and looked for another rock to leap-frog to only to find out that I ran myself up against a wall. Behind me was a steep cliff-wall that rose to almost fifty feet, its imposing height glistening in the silver moonlight like a tombstone as a few more arrows flew over my head. "Fuck..." I cursed as I looked to my left and right. The cliff wall stretched out to my left for another 100 or more feet while it reached to the mountain''s edge on my left.


    From here to the other end where it sloped down enough to run up was open ground and I didn''t trust myself not to either die by an arrow or from a heart attack with the weight of the vest. Soldiers made it look easy, but these armor plates were heavy as hell! Just as I was going to make a run for it, more goblins appeared to my right, circling around with bows and arrows. "Damn it!" I yelled out. They weren''t making it easy.


    I turned to charge to my left and ended up face to face with the club-wielding garden variety of goblins. Making a split second decision, I took my chances with the horde of clubs rather than the wall of arrows behind me. The runts didn''t expect me to charge them head-on as I unleashed a barrage of lead, aiming for the headshots and with them being so close - every shot hit their target.


    The combination of up close muzzle fire and gunshot concussions disoriented the tens of tiny ankle biters, sending them toppling backward as I rushed them. Arrows from the right side began to cascade on me, but thankfully, they were as poor a shot as I was at that distance. Most of their arrows either struck the ground or got stuck in their friends. I was quite pleased with the latter outcome. However, that was quickly getting fixed as the goblin archers began to slowly zero in on me so I tried my best to move forward over the stumbling goblins as they tried their best to avoid the muzzle blasts and it''s friends - FMJ 9mm bullets.


    "Notifying, 52 enemy combatants remaining. 14 minutes remaining until the main objective is completed." Lil came over the headset. "Got it!" I yelled back as I found a small flat path to cross over to the right as the goblins I had passed without killing had decided they were brave little killing machines and chased after me yelling incoherent things. The archers hadn''t moved from their spot, but I came up to a long outcrop of rocks that put me out of their line of fire.


    Using the opportunity, I dropped the dry magazine and popped in a new one. I was sweating profusely and I was a lot slower than when I had started then fight. I was seriously wondering how long I would last. The only thing in my favor was that these little munchkins'' stamina wasn''t that great. I may have been slacking in training, but I was in way better condition than them even after a crash landing. With a quick peek behind, a lot of the monsters were slowing down as they huffed and puffed. I fired a few shots into the group, all of them hitting, but only one dropped.


    I turned my attention back forward and found that the outcrop was coming to an end, so I popped out behind the Goblin Archers that were still looking at the outcrop''s center. The goblin horde had come to a stop as they were trying to get around their injured kin since they couldn''t just step over them. Taking advantage of their dropped guard, I quickly took up my firing stance and began to opening fire on the six Goblin archers that stood around ten feet away.


    I placed 3 to 4 shots into four of them before the slide locked back. I reloaded with much smoother movements compared to when I started the fight and I took down the last two as they tried to scramble up the cliff. "39 enemies remaining. 2 minutes left until mission completed. Unknown combatants entering the AO." Off in the distance, I could see several torches bouncing out of towards the fight. They had appeared from the forest below in the valley. "I would suggest you commandeer the enemy''s ranged weapons to converse ammunition."


    Taking Lil''s suggestion, I put away the XM17. I quickly made my way to the nearest goblin that held a short bow. I ripped it from its freshly dead grip and pulled an arrow out of its quiver that was made from dirty cloth and vines. It took me a few precious seconds to figure out how to notch it decently enough to get it to shoot straight, but I managed to figure it out before the first goblin made it around the outcrop. I let the arrow loose and it stuck the goblin in its thigh.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    I quickly notched another and shot it. This time, it hit dead center on its chest. I poured my all into keeping track of the horde and keeping a sustained fire on those turning around. I was already 12 arrows in when Lil called out again. "Mission completed." As the sun began to rise to my left. I would have taken time to enjoy the view if not for the bundles of hated-filled killing machines scrambling around as the newcomers clashed with them.


    I thought I wasn''t going to be shocked considering there were goblins attacking me, but I saw real magic. Actual magic. A woman who couldn''t have been older than me fired what I could only call a fireball that exploded in the horde''s center. "23 enemy combatants remaining." Then four men and women dressed in leather armor and wielding shortswords jumped into the fray as the goblins tried to escape.


    I wasn''t going to be outdone by the new guys, so those who came running towards me were quickly dispatched with arrows. Well, a few arrows. I could hit targets running towards me, not away. It took a few times, but I wasn''t keen on using my sidearm in front of these strangers just in case if I had to use it against them. I applauded myself in my head at how calm I was that I could even think that right now. "All enemy combatants have been neutralized. Destruction of enemy forces not within the mission time frame, no bonuses will be rewarded." Lil stopped for a moment. "But I''m glad you''re alive."


    I wasn''t going to nitpick why the AI said that. I was happy to be alive as well. Well, for now. It turned into a classic Texas showdown as they wearily sized me up as I had the bow and arrow at the ready. "You are...?" One of the men closest to me. His face was mostly covered by the leather helm he wore, but I could see a grey beard sticking out from under there. "Isaac." I replied briefly. One of the girls behind him looked at the ridge that was dotted with dead goblins, most of them hadn''t been killed by them, but me.


    "You kill all of those?" The girl asked. "The one and only," I said. I was the only damn person on this hill!" She looked at me in disbelief. "How-" I cut her off. "Look, no disrespect to you ma''am, but if you ask one more stupid question, we might as well fight it out because I don''t have the mental capacity at the moment to answer those questions." The girl looked like would have liked that, but the man stopped her. "Stop Jessica. The boy has obviously been fighting for a while against that Goblin horde." He gave me a pitying side eye.


    I looked down confused and noticed how badly I actually came out. My nice comfortable pyjamas were torn all over with the right pant leg even missing. My legs had large purple spots from where the clubs got me and blood was dripping off my ear. I looked like a homeless man that just raided a gun store and had just been beaten up by the law enforcement. "So are we going to fight?" I asked. I didn''t have any more energy to fight, to be honest. All that adrenaline had left me and I was standing purely on will power now. "Your vital signs suggest you cannot enter another confrontation," Lil stated.


    As much as I wanted to rebuke the AI for stating the obvious. "Hold on there kid. We don''t want to fight, you. You need healing rather than fighting some more." Hearing that, I just felt my legs buckle from under me as my body finally gave out. As much as it felt stupid to believe the man, I didn''t really have a choice at this point in time. I had enough fighting for one day as I laid there exhausted, covered in the goblin blood and my own.


    . . . . . .


    I woke up to a gentle breeze that brought the scent of fresh mountain air as I opened my eyes. A vast bright blue sky with thin clouds grazing through welcomed me. I tried to move but ended up groaning as every sore muscle protested in response. I was able to sit up without any problems. Then I freaked out - my plate carrier wasn''t on me anymore. I wasn''t even in my pajamas. "Hold on there kid. Take it easy. I just patched you up and I don''t want you to hurt yourself again." A man around my brother''s age greeted me as he gently stopped me from turning over to look for my carrier.


    I was about to ask where my stuff was, but apparently, he knew the fish out of water reaction well enough. "Your gear is behind you on the blanket. Sorry about your clothes though. It was too torn up so a few men from the village scrapped together some good pieces of clothing to give you." He had a strangely reassuring smile. "It''s the least we could do to thank you." He laughed before helping me sit up and handed me a wooden cup filled with water. "You''ve been out for a few hours. I thought you were going to sleep for the rest of the day."


    He turned around and pulled picked up a wooden bowl from behind him. "It''s a miracle you''re still alive. Fighting off that many goblins, most people would have been killed within the first few minutes of fighting them head on like you did." His tone was slowly growing grimmer. "That was quite reckless coming out here by yourself. If we hadn''t known the Goblin Horde was coming, we wouldn''t have had adventurers on standby to see you dancing around on the ridge."


    "Here''s some food. It''s a mountain goat and rice." I looked into the bowl and felt my stomach growl like a lion as he handed me a wooden spoon. I didn''t even bother to check the food if it was edible and just chowed down. "We tried to remove that weird device off your forearm, but it wouldn''t budge, thankfully you weren''t wounded there so we just left it." He pointed to the screen that was black. "I''m the village''s doctor, but people just call me healer here." Healer introduced himself. "Isaac," I said with a nod.


    "Well, I''ll let you eat in peace. We''re still cleaning up all the dead goblins you all killed earlier." He got up and went off towards where the Blackhawk crashed. I stared at it momentarily before looking at the ridge now. It wasn''t steep, but it was a lot bigger than I thought it was. I looked up and saw the mountain was shaped like a dragon. "Isaac." I heard Lil''s voice coming from my arm. "Wow, you''re still working?" I asked as I brought the screen to eye level. "I''m happy that you''re okay. That doctor was using medical procedures I am unfamiliar with and cannot condone. However, you appear to have healed well enough."


    I nodded at that and looked behind me "Your gear is below operational standards. Plate carrier had been cut to be removed. Your original clothing has been burned due to the blood on it..." Lil stopped talking as I watched the screen change as it gave me the run down. "God also rewarded you with a loot-crate."

 [Legacy] Detainment

    I nodded at that and looked behind me "Your gear is below operational standards. Plate carrier had been cut to be removed. Your original clothing has been burned due to the blood on it..." Lil stopped talking as I watched the screen change as it gave me the rundown. "God also rewarded you with a loot box."


    "Seriously?" I said with a deadpan face. "A fucking loot box," I repeated back.


    "Is there... Something wrong with a Loot box...?" Only the whole damn gaming industry! I retorted in my head while giving Lil a different answer. "Yes, but let us go on with it," I said with a sigh. I didn''t want to linger too much on this. "I will show you how to navigate the new feature then..." No one came by for a while as Lil, or rather Lily now for the sake of conversational flow, operated the Tact-link by itself. The shop function operated just like every other pay-to-win store I''ve ever seen in MMOs that it picked at my childhood traumas of inflicted upon me by the gods of RNG.


    The shop had 6 blue squarish buttons on its main page. Loot boxes, which looked like some Orbital Drop Pod from an old video game with metallic gold paint; Weapon Systems, a rifle with a large sword crisscrossing; Armor and Clothing, which displayed a plate carrier along with shoes; Support with a Satellite with a Howitzer sitting beside it; Squad with three soldier silhouettes standing side by side and finally; Vehicles which displayed a bike with a Bradley behind it.


    The overall layout was easy to understand as to which category held what, which was annoying to find all the good ones beside the heartbreak tile, Loot boxes, and Weapon systems were the only buttons without a grey lock over them with a mission "Unlock by completing missions." I rolled my eyes at that as I clicked on the loot box button which had a red circle with a "1" in it and it opened up to display two buttons: Purchase Loot Boxes and My Loot Boxes. The latter option was the one with the "1" on it. I clicked it and the words "Please watch your head!" appeared in flashing red lights.


    Three bright red dots appeared 10 feet in front of me. They each sat 3 feet apart from each other before circling around and tightening against each other. I heard something akin to thrusters like those on a missile and looked up only to see a small fireball growing bigger as it got closer. I stared at it for a few seconds, confused, before looking up. What I saw shocked the hell out of me as I saw a small ball of fire coming towards me and I scrambled backward. The sound of thrusters became louder as it came closer and a parachute deployed to slow its fall before it crashed into the ground, sending the fertile earth around it flying.


    I looked at it in astonishment at how the loot box - or drop pod - resemble the ones in that video game. It was big enough to hold a human!


    A blue screen lit up on what I could only assume was the hatch with an outline of a hand. A sign was painted above it in sloppy black paint that said: "Put your hand on it, idiot. -God" with an arrow pointing down to the hand scanner. I wanted to say something about the loot boxes, but now I didn''t even know if I wanted to meet this god that made the damn thing. I stood up with my unsteady feet, which burned from their earlier usage, and walked over to the overly gold contraption.


    I pressed my bare hand against the screen, and it turned green once it registered my print, followed by the sound of the latch unlocking. The hatch opened up and air blew out under it as it lifted upward. Inside was an empty seat with two steel handlebars on either side. A screen sat on either side with one small viewing port on the upper latch. There were storage bays all over the pod, but most of them were empty. "I guess it''s an egg hunt?" I muttered. "2 minutes until loot box disintegrates." Lily commented. I sighed and stepped into the pod and searched every nook and cranny for items.


    . . . . .


    Two minutes later, the pod fizzled away like a large termite grenade, leaving nothing behind. I found exactly six brand spanking new magazines for my XM17, 1 Fragmentation grenade, a surefire pistol mounted light for my pistol, and a new Orion war belt to replace the one they had cut off me. Now that I think about it, that actually kinda pissed me off now. The belt itself had the same equipment and layout as my ruined one along with more pouches to place all my new magazines on it.


    I had also found a golden stone that resembled a small baton with a hexagon cut. There was a yellow sticky note attached to it with the words "Full Heal - Your only free pass". Looking at the note I asked Lily "How do I use mana?". The screen on my forearm turned into a loading screen as it seemed to think. "Feel for it?" Lily answered with an unsure tone before the loading screen went away. "Why do you not sound confident in that answer?" I asked.


    "That was what God said. I am unsure what to do with God''s answer." Lily said monotonously. I suddenly felt breaking God''s face with the butt of my pistol sounded like a good idea. "Okay." I said as I closed my eyes and tried to feel around with my hands with the stone in my right one. "He said with your mind and then called you an idiot." Lily chirped. Hitting god was sounding like an excellent idea now, but I couldn''t do that.


    For a few minutes, I didn''t feel anything and just before I felt whatever I was trying to do was stupid - it happened. I felt something warm slowly start to trickle in through my lungs and eventually pour into my limbs. I picked at it mentally and I found it reacted to it. Connecting the dots, I channelled the magic through my arm and into the stone. It shined brilliantly before the shine engulfed me. I felt my entire body float up like a feather momentarily before the light disappeared and my feet - which felt great now - supporting me again.


    "What the...?" I moved my body around, but I didn''t feel any discomfort. In fact, I felt amazing, like I had the best night''s rest in the world! "Vital signs showing all clear," Lily commented. "I can feel it!" I responded in joy now that my body was feeling like a truck had just run me over. I collected my pistol off the old belt and the unused magazines for a total of 9 magazines. I tucked them into their new homes on the belt then watched in shock as the old carrier and belt turned to ash before my eyes.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    "Lily, do you know what just happened?" I asked Lily for her take. There was a moment of silence before it answered. "I do not know." It answered over the speaker. The only left was just the headset it all its bulky operator glory. Placing the headset on, I looked back towards the crash site with the intention of trying to scavenge anything of use when I saw a pair of wide eyes looking up at me from the mountain trail below.


    "What the hell was that?!" It was a woman in a wizard''s robe with a long twisting staff in hand. I had waved at her awkwardly before she had yelled out at me. "Uhh..." Was the other thing I could must, unsure if I should speak truthfully or fib. Before I could decide, the doctor from earlier appeared from behind a large rock outcrop that was next to her "What was it?" He asked her before turning to see me next to a small crater. "Did you summon that ball of fire...?" He asked me.


    Following this question, more people showed up. Their armor was neither uniform nor showy. They had shoulder protectors, gauntlets, breastplates, and grieves, or things similar to those - to varying degrees. At this point, if I had seen these people first rather than the goblins, I could have easily mistaken them as bandits rather than friendlies as they took up guarding the mage and doctor. "Y-Yeah." I answered hesitantly, I felt my hand slide onto my sidearm''s handle with a finger on the holster latch.


    "What did you do?" The girl asked. The mountain around me was clear aside from the obvious crater I was standing next to and there didn''t appear to be threats in the area. "Would you believe me if I side it was purely a test of power?" I asked with a weary smile.


    . . . . .


    I found myself looking out an open window with no glass, only two thick wooden shutters resting on either side. Outside, I overlooked the village''s western gate


    Somehow, I managed to find myself sitting in an office where the only light source was the window I was looking out with curiosity from the third floor. In the DC area, there were trees and nearby forest, but nothing like what I was seeing right now. The main wall of the settlement was made up from cut down trees with their tops and bottoms cut off then staked down to form the wall that I assumed encircled the entire village. The gate itself was made from thick wooden planks with the craftsmanship of a hobbyist.


    The buildings were built with more love, attested by how much finer it was compared to the wall and gate. However, the buildings weren''t that interesting to me, what took my breath away was the beautiful view of the forest. The tree line stopped only a few paces from the wall but after that, it went as far as I could see. Being up on the third floor, the window barely looked over the average tree height. However, there was a watchtower off to my right which stood about the same height. Further out was the mountainside was my father''s Blackhawk had crashed and I could see a few people mulling about it.


    Aside from the downed bird off to the right on the mountainside, everything else was breathtakingly beautiful. There were no large buildings to show off American''s ego, no flags, no monuments, and no smog. It wasn''t that I hated the patriotic attitude my countrymen had, it was just you know, I get tired seeing all these massive buildings. I always wanted to see nature as untouched as possible and here it was. Aside from this village, there was only a small path leading outward. That path was swallowed by the canopy of leaves and branches the moment it passed the treeline.


    From what happened on the mountainside? Detained. I didn''t question it at the moment since there I didn''t want to shoot other humans. If they had displayed hostility, I could have stomached that like I did back home, but they were being cautious. Given the circumstances, I''d be on alert to a freak too. However, the healer had gotten them to calm down when he explained I was the person who fought the goblins earlier. They searched me for weapons, but they never touched my sidearm - well, they did but they couldn''t pull it out, so they left it.


    They had escorted me down into the forest and into the settlement. They brought me to the Guild, what kind of guild it was? They never elaborated on it so I was just as much in the dark. They escorted me to this office and left me. The room itself was appeared to be well used but kept orderly with no visible papers on the desk to my left. Two chairs sat in front of the desk with a large old chair behind it with a wall to wall bookshelf that reached up to the roof.


    The door across from the window I was leaning against opened, and a slender man slightly taller than me with brown hair loosely tied back revealing a stern face walked in. He was flanked by the Healer, the mage girl, and a man dressed in only pants and leather boots colored light blue. "Please, take a seat." The slender man said softly as he made his way to the desk and sat behind it. The mage girl took one of the seats, pulled it to the wall by the door and sat. Healer only stood next to her while the human hulk closed the door and guarded it with a menacing look.


    "Of course." I said with a smile, slightly understanding what was going on. I sat on the window ledge which caused the walking bag of muscle to frown. "I meant the seat in front of my desk." The slender man said while keeping a pleasant smile, but his tone became more demanding. Normally, I was quite passive to authority. However, considering the current situation, I had to aim to protect myself as best as possible. This meant not putting myself in compromising situations if I could help it. That being said, I had already messed up and allowed them to bring me to the third floor of a building.


    If I sat in the seat, I''d have my back to the incredible hulk and the seat would not allow me to draw my pistol. I was already a shit draw, I didn''t need to add any more factors into it. That being said, having my back to the window was my best option if I needed to escape. I had already looked down and there was a balcony below. It was small, but when push comes to shove, it was still an option. Another option was to shoot my way out, but after seeing the man guarding the door, I didn''t think my puny 9mm rounds were going to take him down without having to use a good amount of them.


    The room went silent for nearly a minute before the man behind the desk. "Alright, we''ll do it your way." He closed his eyes for a moment and took a quick breath. "Are you connected to the rift that opened up last night and what is that contraption on the hillside?" I looked at him for a moment, conflicted on whether to answer, but I guess being young meant you were so good with poker faces. "I can tell you don''t want to answer, but until you do, you''re being detained by us."


    I felt a little pissed off by that, seeing I didn''t know who this "Us" was. "And who exactly are you?" I asked with more hostility than I wanted to. "Calm yourself boy, or you and I are gonna have a real problem. You ain''t gonna like that much boy." The two-legged muscle huffed, his voice deep and rough.

 [Legacy] What to do from here. . . ?

    I felt a little pissed off by that, seeing I didn''t know who this "Us" was. "And who exactly are you?" I asked with more hostility than I wanted to. "Calm yourself boy, or you and I are gonna have a real problem. You ain''t gonna like that much boy." The two-legged muscle huffed, his voice deep and rough.


    I tried to look as tough as I could as I glared back as my hand tapped the safety latch on the holster. "Awe, the little pretty boy is mad." The man said with a grin while the Healer and Mage glared at him as well. The man behind the desk only sat back in his chair with his eyebrows, interested. Agitated, I ran my left hand through my messed up hair only for some dirt to come out. "Nothing, just like you," I said that after I noticed the deskman''s watching attitude and went off that.


    I guessed right. He looked like he wanted to throw me out the window, but he only looked at the man behind the desk before huffing without a reply. "You two done?" I only nodded while ignoring the big man''s glares. "I am Arnold, the Branch Leader here." he said with a smile before obviously waiting for my introduction that never came. "This is usually the part where you introduce yourself." He said with slight forcefulness. As much as I would have liked to be courteous - they still were detaining me.


    "You never explained who you guys were," I said. Father had plenty of political enemies and I''ve been detained a few times by people who weren''t "Legal" authorities to do such. The biggest giveaway for this was that there were uniformed guards outside by the gates and patrolling. All of them in plated steel armor with spears. They had an emblem of a perched bird that was similar to an eagle but more vicious looking. "Do you not know what the Guild is?" He said.


    [New Mission - Escape New Heaven Branch of the Guild.


    Objective - Escape peacefully or by fighting your way out.


    Bonus for Peaceful EVAC. ]


    I stayed silent as I listened to Lily''s voice. "We are an organization that handles requests from the people, other organizations, and the government." He said with a sigh. "So you''re not the government here?" I said while trying to keep my cool. Bingo - Bad feeling maxing out. "No, but -" I cut him off. "Then on whose authority did you detain me on?" I asked forcibly. I was preparing to bail from the room. My voice wasn''t as rough and authoritative like my brother or dad''s voice. I probably looked like a small puppy trying to puff up.


    "We are just trying - " I cut him off again. "Since it looks like you actually didn''t have the power to do so, I''m leaving." Just to test the waters, I got off the ledge and strode a few paces towards the door were the walking embodiment of muscles posted himself up at. "We aren''t done with -" I clicked the latch on the hostler and draw the pistol while backing up towards the window which set off a cascade of shit.


    The big man pulled his weapon while the mage sprung to her feet as the healer jumped in between all of us. "Woah! Woah! Can we just talk this out?" the Healer pleaded out while the man behind the desk was just pulling out a wand. "No. You obviously have no right to keep me here and I intend to leave. By talking or fighting. Pick one." I said, trying to contain my jitters as the adrenaline began pumping.


    "Yes, why don''t we all calm down and have a nice chat?" Arnold said as he slowly put his wand down on his desk, careful to keep the pointy end towards me. "I''d like that, but not when I''m being detained by a group that does not hold the right to do so." I said, "You know he''s right, Arnold." Healer finally said as he whirled around. "I don''t know why you''re trying to flex your muscles, but you know you can''t be doing this." He said angrily at Arnold. Being admonished, he glared daggers at Healer before nodding at the muscle man. "You be, very, careful around town boy."


    Man, if looks could kill. I kept my head high, but I wasn''t going to lie - I felt scared. Arnold conveyed his thinly veiled threat before the meat-head moved out of the way and healer escorted me out by the arm nicely. I followed him since he seemed to be more on my side than theirs.


    We stepped out into a fancy room where a few beautiful women in their mid-twenties were filing paperwork. Each one of them looked up in surprise when I stepped out, but all looked away quickly when Mr. T stepped out of the office behind us "Better stay out of my way, kid." He snarled as he watched us descend down the stairs. "Wait till we get outside, then we''ll talk." Healer whispered into my ear as he smiled and greeted a few people on the way down to the first floor before we walked through a single large room that was filled with people in armor and sheathed weapons.


    I didn''t get a good chance to actually take a good look before Healer brought me out the double doors we entered earlier. "Where do you live?" He whispered as before looking up to the 3rd story window I was perched on early only to find Arnold glaring at us while saying something to the mage woman who also was looking out the window. "Just take me back to the Blackhawk." I whispered back as I looked up to Arnold and returned his glare. "The what?" Healer turned back to me confused. "Whats a Blac-hauc?".


    I kept my mouth shut. Given my surroundings, I wasn''t too keen on trying to explain my civilization "Just take me back to where you first found me." Healer still looked confused but agreed nonetheless. "Second mission completed. You have rewards waiting for you in the shop. Bonus reward - 1 loot crate." Lily chirped into my headset. When we stepped through the gate, Healer nodded to the guards on duty while gesturing with his head towards me. Their sudden frowns didn''t escape me.


    I waited a few minutes before I decided to get to the bottom of what that was about. "So what was with the gestures?" I asked while slowly separating myself from him. "Sorry, it''s just you''re not the first one." He said with a helpless shrug before pointing towards the mountainside. "This way." I fell into step behind him. "Not the first what?" I asked. "The first one that Arnold tried to take advantage of. Most newcomers that have any sort of fighting ability, he tries to force under his wing for his own political purposes." He looked back at me."This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    "You seem like a good kid. I''ve patched up plenty of people and you can normally tell what kind of person someone is by their body. You''re not a fighter and I don''t know how you survived last night, but if I were you, I''d skip town. " He said before turning forward. "Why would I do that?" I asked. While I appreciated the comment, but the more he spoke, the more curious I became. "Arnold and the mayor are in a power struggle at the moment. This little frontier town has the potential to earn millions of gold since they recently found some precious metals further into the Wildlands."


    Ah, that definitely would bring in bad people, but I didn''t broach on the subject any longer and silence filled the space between us as we kept our focus on our footing through the myriad of roots and brush. After half an hour of walking, according to the Tact-link clock, we broke through the treeline. We popped out into a small flat grassy area with a few trees dotting the landscape before it slowly slopped upwards, forming the mountainside that looked like one of those vacation photos of Scandinavian mountains.


    Healer led me to a small Shepard''s path that snaked up the grassy hillside and the sparse rock outcrops until it forked. We took the right path and hiked towards the cliff where the rock outcrops became plentiful. After nearly an hour of walking, we finally reached the first area where the Blackhawk crashed. I hadn''t noticed when I was fighting for dear life the other night, but the spot where the adventurers jumped in it was actually the edge of the crash site. A river of dried blood ran up the hillside into a large group of jutting rocks where the skirmish ended


    I was amazed how much I had missed during the fight, but what felt like fighting across the entire mountainside was actually kept within a 200 feet of where the bird came to its final rest by the edge of the mountain. Turning back to the crash site, I followed the large depression where I assumed the bird first made contact with the mountain. There wasn''t any other damage to the dirt within 20 feet until it came to a large gutting rock with glaringly obvious scrapes and black-paint transfer with a few pieces of the tail blades scattered around it.


    So the bird hit then turned sideways hitting the tail on the rock.


    Afterward, I walked past it where the earth was scarred from the tail dragged across before being completely ripped from the main body and lay on its side bent. From there, the scars in the earth became sporadic where I assumed the made body began to roll away at least 40 feet before it rested on its right side, cockpit facing the summit. Overall, the entire scene stretched nearly 130 feet across the mountainside with my only saving grace being that the bird landed on a rather flat part of the slope.


    During the whole time, I kept swiveling my head - keeping an eye out for my family or their soldiers. I didn''t spot any of them.


    I felt something mulling in the pit of my stomach. Maybe it was grief or sadness, maybe a little of both. Whatever it was, I could feel it weighing down on me. The tension built up from being awakened amidst an invasion of the mainland to watching those monsters pull everyone out of the cabin. Then having to fight all by myself with those strange little fucking imps Lily called goblins.


    "Hey... Did... Did you ever find anyone else out here dressed like me?" I asked, straining to keep my emotions in check, but I probably failed miserably at it as Healer looked at me like I was a lost puppy with a shake of his head. "No, did you need a moment to yourself...?" I could feel there was some confusion to why I was feeling this way, why this thing was here and how I got here. At least, that''s what I assumed he was thinking. I know I would have if a strange person showed up looking at this metal object while getting emotional...


    I wasn''t going to question why I was here, or how I got here. All I knew was I was here. I was alone, but I was going to survive.


    I had to - Just to spite whoever the fuck caused this.


    . . . .


    After my emotional breakdown, Healer wandered around for a little bit to make sure I was okay. I wasn''t sure of his intentions, but he seemed like a decent person, at least, for now. "So what''re you going to do?" He leaned against the beat up underbelly of the Blackhawk. I was sitting with my back against it, my eyes slightly red. My hair was a mess and I was wearing some stranger''s clothes. They didn''t even smell nice. "I don''t know. Try to find my family if they''re somewhere in the area, maybe the others I was with." I said as I pulled the headset off and tried to untangle my tangled bed-hair.


    It might have been greasy and oily if not for all the dust in it. "I should probably take a bath." I chuckled half-hardheartedly feeling disgusted with my personal hygiene at the moment. I hadn''t noticed how much tension was built up until I got here. The only thing comforting was this wreck of a bird, albeit bloody and messed up, it was the only other thing that attested I wasn''t some crazy dude in this medieval fantasy place. "Baths? You''re a noble?" Healer said, his face scrunching up slightly.


    "No?" I answered. He stared at me before eyeing me. "Baths are for nobles..." He said. If I had to take a gander, I figured he was finally piecing together I probably wasn''t from around here - anywhere. "A shower, or anything really, will do," I said as I heaved myself up from the floor and putting my headset back on. "Well, I would say the inn could help you out, but I don''t suggest you go back to the town. Arnold probably got a few of his adventurers on the prowl for you. He doesn''t like being ''disrespected''." Healer''s expression turned menacing. "He''s worse than the damn nobles."


    I wasn''t going to ask why he had a problem with aristocrats, so I didn''t ask. At the current moment, I was in my own dilemma with Healer reminding me I also had a target on my back now in town. "Well, I don''t have anywhere to go... so... I guess I''ll have to camp out here for a while till I figure out my next move..." I said with a few strains of determination. I never camped in my life, even when big bro forced me on one of his camping trips. I always ended up with the nice amenities of the sweet hotel chains nearby with enough nagging.


    Thinking back, I should have probably taken a few things more seriously. Pulling my mind back to the current moment, Healer only nodded. "Well don''t say I didn''t try and help you." He pushed off the bird before stretching out his arms. "I''m heading back into town, but I''ll come to check on you later today. Why don''t you try your hand at hunting in the forest till then?"

 [Legacy] What to do from here...?

    Thinking back, I should have probably taken a few things more seriously. Pulling my mind back to the current moment, Healer only nodded. "Well don''t say I didn''t try and help you." He pushed off the bird before stretching out his arms. "I''m heading back into town, but I''ll come to check on you later today. Why don''t you try your hand at hunting in the forest till then?"


    I mulled over his suggestion for a moment before I nodded. It didn''t take a rocket scientist to establish that finding food was the 2nd biggest priority. Humans can survive a long time without food. It was a lack of drinking water that killed many more people in survival situations. That being stated, I wasn''t in a pressing survival situation. Being stranded in a strange location without any support was definitely enough to call the situation pressing, but not detrimental.


    The village was nearly an hour''s walk from here down the mountain, but the current situation in town was... unfavorable to say the least. However, it wasn''t that I couldn''t enter should I need to enter for supplies. That would definitely require me having to sell or barter for supplies since I didn''t have any money. "What kind of game is nearby?" I asked after giving it some thought, today I would gather what I could from the forest then assess what I could do afterward. I had shelter - the Blackhawk - so that only left food and water to deal with.


    "Aside from the monsters; there''s deer, rabbit, mountain goat, and wild pigs. Most monsters are edible." He looked out into the forest in thought. "Ah, of course, a goblin isn''t. They''re the ones you want to avoid eating the most. They eat just about anything so they''re disgusting." He said with a chuckle. "Anyways, I''m going to back. Try not to rile up any more trouble till I get back alright?" I could only nod back in response, not really up to adding anything. I watched Healer walk off down the mountain until his figure disappeared into the forest below.


    The man seemed okay. I wasn''t that great at judging characters but given my immediate circumstances, I wasn''t going to bite a friendly hand.


    For what felt like an eternity, the crash site was silent aside from the fresh mountain breeze that whispered by every now and again as I planted myself on the loose dirt by the Blackhawk''s underbelly. Deep in thought, I tried to come up with a step-by-step action plan. At least, that was what I wanted to do. Now that I wasn''t being fueled by adrenaline coupled with peaceful scenery, the exhaustion finally hit me like an 18-wheeler hitting a kitten. I felt my vision darken and before I could even utter a curse, sleep took me.


    The only thing that welcomed me was an unending void of nothing...


    . . . . . . .


    My eyes stirred momentarily without opening, my throat feeling slightly sore and chilled as I stretched and tried to roll over. The next thing I knew was I felt the sensation of rolling. My eyes shot open and my heart began pumping at 100% as I floundered around, kicking up dirt. My panicking stopped the moment I landed flat on my back. Expecting my white boring ceiling, I instead found a darkened sky with deep orange sunlight coloring a few wisps of clouds. The sky beyond was dark cobalt.


    I was shocked, to say the least.


    Then the past events flooded back to me and the only thing I could say was an "Oh." I laid there for a few breaths. Then, I got to my feet. Muscles protested my actions as I stretched my body with a yawn. I felt refreshed, aside from a kink in my neck. "Good evening, Isaac. You have slept a total of 5 hours. " Hearing Lily''s voice, I suddenly became aware of the headset had been on the entire time I slept. "Ah... Umm... Yeah, good evening." I greeted Lily back before I turned to the Blackhawk.


    "So it really happened," I muttered to myself as I basked in the wrecked bird''s presence. "Yes. It has been a total of 17 hours since you''ve activated this Tact-Link. I have a report on standby regarding the logs on the device. Would you like to hear it?" I thought about it as I felt my stomach growl. "Go for it. I have to find some food for us." I said absentmindedly as I checked my gear. "I do not require food, but I appreciate your sentiments." Lily chirped happily. I felt a little disturbed about how human the AI was becoming. "Do all Tact-Links have AIs that act almost human?" I asked.


    "No, only you." Lily paused. "While I was developed for a different purpose, your father had me copied after I was completed and with a little bit of ''Elbow grease'' had me repurposed to be your onboard companion.." Lily finished up as I made my way towards the forest below to hunt something. "Why did he do that?" I ask. My curiosity was peaked to say the least. As far as I knew, my father hadn''t played a major role in my life since my mother died. To be precise, he hadn''t played any other role than being the money machine.


    Unlike a few other army brats, I didn''t fall into the cliche bad-boy vibe when daddy went away. At first, it hurt. A lot, but I got use to it. Living alone in the big ole'' home mom loved and having a weekly allowance somewhere north of 2Gs, I mostly spent it on gaming, going on on solo adventurers, and sometimes I went out with friends. You''d think such a big check would go a long way, but in the DC Area, going out wasn''t exactly cheap.


    "I do not know. I only know from correspondence I was able to view by breaching my developer''s console." I felt it was a subject that was best left untouched. "Alright.. Give me the report..."


    . . . . .


    Night had settled in as I tossed two dead horned rabbits top of the Blackhawk''s engine housing before climbing onto it using the neutered rotor assembly. I left my bounties where I had tossed them and carefully lowered myself into the passenger cabin through the open side doors. The inside was dim with the only illumination came from the moon that slowly drifted into the starry night. To my surprise, the night had much more life than the day with the sound of the cicadas singing the sound of their god-forsaken people.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    The smell of iron tickled my nose and sent a shiver down my spine. The only visible part that told me where the blood had been spilled was when it''s dark lines crossed the otherwise shiny steel attachment points on the floor. I turned to the seats to the rear. It was strange how it hadn''t crossed my mind when I boarded, but this bird had been modified heavily. Aside from the makeshift computer stand, which had been already ripped out, the double row seats which should have been where the front seat, was reversed.


    The front seat sat three feet forward from where the back wall of the bird should have been, with the back seat ingressed by several feet to accommodate a row on the backside of the front. The seat I was in was against the new back of the cabin. The seats weren''t the normal shit seats. They were a step up in being solid with actual cushions. Under the seats were black boxes that had those stainless steel handles that you folded out and twisted to open them.


    There was a total of five seats on the back row then three seats on the middle and front. Each with their very own containers. I came in here to see if there was anything useful and seeing containers inside the heli made me happier than when a boy lands on third base. I popped the first one open with some difficulty as whatever was inside had come dislodged and got into the tracks. I had to put my back into it which then turned into me picking up sealed glow-stick packages and some other unmarked baggies. I cursed heavily while I did so.


    After getting over my frustration, I came to the rational conclusion I now didn''t need to fumble in this dimly lit cabin now. I opened up a stick and broken the glass ball inside with a satisfying crack. Greenlight exploded from it as I tied its complimentary string on its hook and looped it around my wrist. I fumbled through the rest of the drawers. My loot from my raiding came out with; bundles of paracord, a large tarp, a package of bic lighters, several thermal blankets, a couple of knives, and a hell of a lot of glowsticks - better known as chemlights.


    Putting those aside, wrapped up in the thermal blankets, I also found plenty of electronics like radios and military tablets, but everything was fried. I left everything I couldn''t use on the dirt at my feet and turned to raid the front of the chopper. I bought the light over, but after seeing the horror scene that was where the crew had been - I quickly abandoned that idea along with a little gagging.


    . . . . .


    "I see you''ve made yourself comfortable." I heard healer''s voice along with his the shifting of dirt below his leather boots. "Welcome to my little home." I tried to make a joke, but the tired look on my face must have given it away. " I see you hunted yourself some Horned Rabbits." He said he sat on my freshly made dirt benches-slash-trench. After I had raided the bird, I quickly went to work on building a temporary shelter. The bird itself could have been used as one, but at the current moment - it was unusable.


    I had pooled as much loose dirt to the base of the Blackhawk''s underbelly to make a little raised platform for myself. After making a half-decent semi-leveled area, I used the tarp to make a make-shift tent. I tied some paracord to the inside of the helio and stretched it out so it was flush with the lip. I angled the tarp when I used a broken rotor blade to weigh down the tarp at the bottom.


    I had then dug out a large pit for the fire to cook. Actually, I had made the pit too big when I overestimated what I needed and so I ended up using the excess as a sitting room when cooking. When it came time to cook, I had to skin and gut the rabbits, to which I was not familiar with and ended up ruining one. I learned my mistakes with the first one and I was able to prepare the second rabbit. That one got skewered through its butt and I roasted it like a marshmallow at a Boy Scout Camping trip - without the molestation of course.


    Cheap shots at the Boy Scouts aside, the night itself was peaceful and soothing. Something I hadn''t felt in a long time, current predicament not included.


    After charring my food and dealing with overcooked meat, Healer came back a little after dinner. Healer came by to check on me. "I checked around for you and Arnold isn''t going to deal with you right away. I managed to get the mayor to tie him up a little." He said as he found a clean spot to sit down. "Well, I didn''t do it, but news that gold veins were discovered and the two are going to be too busy for a few days to deal with anyone." Healer shook off the bag he had been carrying and handed it to me.


    "For you." It was a work brown thin leather bag with a single large flap on the top. I opened it up and inside were several strange bags. "Waterskins. Figured you''d need water." He said. "Why are you helping me?" I asked without testing the waters. With that question, the conversation crashed and burned. The only thing between us now was the silence that was broken by the crackling of my campfire every few seconds. "Can''t I help you out of the goodness of my heart?" Healer finally replied after a good couple of minutes.


    "No," I said coldly. I had a feeling he was withholding information from me. It was like a nagging feeling similar to when you know you need to pee. Well, I didn''t, so I could only assume he was holding something back. He shrugged his shoulders refusing to answer any more on the topic. "Look, I appreciate the help, but you can take the skins back if you''re not going to tell me. I''m not going to accept any gifts if there are strings attached." I said in my best ''It''s time for you to leave'' voice as I closed the bag and handed it back to him.


    Healer looked like I had just kicked his puppy when I held the bag out to him. His scowling intensified when I dropped the bag to his feet. "It''s rude to return a gift." He said. "It''s also rude to give a gift if there are strings attached. That doesn''t make it a gift at all." I said, keeping eye contact. We were locked in a stalemate for a good few minutes before he relented just as I was about to. "Fine. Take it as payment for killing the Goblins. If you hadn''t deal with them, the town would have exploded into war. Those two idiots would have tried to take advantage of the chaos. We don''t have enough people to defend if half of them are trying to kill each other."


    I didn''t say anything else as I grabbed the bag and dragged it back over to me. "See? That was easy." Like a bad Office Depot ad, I started pulling the skins out which were about the size of water bottles and made from treated leather. "So why the hesitation to tell me?" I asked as I opened a skin and poured water out through its wooden neck. "Because I don''t like getting outsiders involved in our problems, but I also don''t like owing debts." Healer said as he got up. "So I take it you''re going to get involved in the fight now that you know?"


    Healer didn''t sound quite happy when he asked that. I was originally going to refuse, but at the current moment, I couldn''t move the Blackhawk and I wasn''t going to let it fall into anyone''s hands. "Since this baby." I paused as I patted the scratched up underbelly of the helio. "Can''t move, I might as well jump into the fight since I''m already involved."

 [Legacy] Night dread

    Healer didn''t sound quite happy when he asked that. I was originally going to refuse, but at the current moment, I couldn''t move the Blackhawk and I wasn''t going to let it fall into anyone''s hands. "Since this baby." I paused as I patted the scratched up underbelly of the helio. "Can''t move, I might as well jump into the fight since I''m already involved."


    Healer looked at me grimly before his eyes traveled to the beat up hunk of metal behind me. They lingered there momentarily, his eyes expressing some sort of emotion I couldn''t decipher before his attention dragged back over to me. "If you''re going to jump into the fire knowing it''s there, that''s on you." He let out a tired sigh like I wasn''t the first person to disregard his warning before he stared up to the sky. "It''s a nice night. You might want to keep an eye open tonight." He said softly before leaving me by myself.


    I felt the hair stand on the back of my neck an ominous chill washed over my body. After remembering the fight with the goblins, I wasn''t in the mood to go to sleep any time soon. I was tired though. A yawn escaped me as I shook myself to fight sleep as I looked out at the direction healer took off in. After a good amount of time had passed, I spoke to Lily. "How likely are we to be attacked tonight?" I figured since Healer was so kind as to give me a warning, it wouldn''t hurt to be vigilant.


    "I estimate that likelihood of an attack at 60% by humans." Lily answered immediately. "I do not have enough data on these ''monsters'' to give an accurate prediction, I recommend to stay vigilant." The night sky twinkled with trillions of stars, far brighter than my own world as I pulled my XM17 from its holster. I pulled the slide back slightly, saw a live round in the chamber and released the slide. "Clack!" The slide went into battery with a comforting sound. "Lily, can you keep watch so I can get some sleep?"


    . . . . . .


    A loud beeping rang in my ears from the headset, causing me to jolt awake. My eyes darted side to side, looking for the danger only to calm down once I noticed I was still in the cabin of the Blackhawk. My heart thumped in my chest as I took several silent long breaths to calm myself. After I cleared up my thoughts, I thumped the microphone four times to acknowledge the alarm. "Four confirmed equipped with ranged weapons approximately 30 yards away." Lily''s synthetic voice reported followed by the sound of muffled voices as moonlight poured in through the upturned side entrance.


    "Three more hostiles confirmed. They are approaching the tent from the forest side." I double tapped the microphone as an acknowledgment as I shook my shoulders to loosen my stiff shoulders before I climbed out as quietly as I could out of the cabin and onto the motor housing. Thankfully, I didn''t have my brother''s bear-like body or the entire world would have known I was there. "Just walk up to the fucking tent!" A gruff voice roared out. "What''cha scared about? Ya shot six damn arrows into the boy''s tent." he added.


    "Well, I might as well just fucking walk up to the tent and ask for a morsel of fucking chicken now, right?" Another voice erupted in the distance and sounded like it belonged to a younger man as he shouted back before more voices jumped in and it quickly turned into an argument as five more people jumped in. "Hostiles are converging on the tent." Lily chirped a strong wind pushed against my small body and I braced against the helio''s side. The wind was fresh and chilled my body. I was still in the tunic and pants I had been given the other day, but the material itself wasn''t made from quality material. Aside from the plate carrier and where the holster was, everything was airy.


    I glanced over my shoulder only to see the sea over the edge of the cliff as the stars and moon reflected on its calm surface. As breathless as the view made me, I wasn''t that taken by the view that I forgot the task at hand. The task of giving my late-night guests a very warm welcome. My eyes landed on my extended left forearm - bare forearm. The tact-link was a few feet away from me on the edge of the toppled bird with its onboard camera facing down the mountain.


    It was the plan Lily had thought up as a way for me to at least get some rest while we waited to see if Healer''s warning would come to fruition. The original plan, thought up by yours truly, was to dig a fox hole a little higher up on the slope where I would have had a perfect view of any incoming threats. That was quickly plan was sunk quickly when Lily reminded me that I did require sleep and waiting for hours in the dead of night in a hole would probably end up with me falling asleep.


    When I asked if she could just detect anyone getting close, she kindly reminded me that she did not have the functions she had before due to the lack of back end support. Basically, because I did not have any gear that allowed her to see, hear, or sense anything outside of the onboard camera and microphone. My headset was connected to the tact-link and that slightly extended her detection ability, but only enough to hear words clearer when I was speaking or someone was speaking directly to me. I would need to unlock her relevant functions in the shop if I wanted her to be more helpful than just this and that would cost a pretty penny.


    Back to the situation at hand, I made it on the edge without alerting our guests and peeked over the edge to see seven men in leather armor. Three of them had bows and arrows while the rest held short swords in their hands. The archers were skinny and looked nimble while the men with the short swords were big and burly. The Archers directed their attention to the hillside away from me, probably to keep a lookout for anyone while the three swordsmen stalked up to the empty tent by the nose of the bird. "Come out here you little bitch." One of them said with a sinister growl as he ripped the tarp away.


    Or at least he tried to. The tarp was made from that durable micro fabric material and not that cheap stuff easily found at your local Walmart on sale. Mix that with the paracord tied to the metal hoops and the muscle head wasn''t making any progress. "What the...?" The man toyed with the tarp a little more, probably questioning his existence now. "Get out of the way you weakling!" The other walking muscle sack behind him pulled him aside before he peered into the makeshift tent while he thrust his sword in where "I" was laying.


    I heard the metal shortsword dig into the dirt and a disgruntled muscle head hit the hawk''s underbelly with his fist. "You idiots! There''s no one here!" He bellowed in rage. "You said the little shit was here, but he''s not!" He roared some more and the archers quickly scrambled over to him. "I swear I saw him crawl into the tent! He went in after he put out the campfire!" A man with a higher octave voice hurriedly spoke indignantly before Lily chimed in over my headset. "All hostiles are within range now. I recommend launching your counter attack now."


    After Lily gave the green light, I didn''t waste a moment as I popped up into a crouch. The metal below me whined from the sudden weight shift and caught the people''s attention below. The surprise was evident on all their expressions, but I didn''t give them time to react before I squeezed off several rounds into the closest archer. The first round didn''t flash, but the shot rang out. The three muscle heads who were directly below me flinched from the sudden thundering roar of the 9mm and flinched away. The three archers were already notching arrows when their friend dropped dead.


    It wasn''t until the third or fourth shot did flames begin to flash out, stunning the archers momentarily as the bright lights burned into their retinas. The fourth archer lowered his bow before dropping it all together to wipe away the flashes. The second archer released his arrow just as I jumped to him and gifted him with a heavenly third eye. Unfortunately, he released the arrow and it sang through the air then punched me in the carrier. It barely missed my arms by a hair.


    The arrow''s force wasn''t enough to knock me over since the force was displaced by the armor plate in my carrier but I did grunt from the force. Before I jumped back into the fight, I had the pleasure of witnessing the third archer release his arrow slightly off course at the swordsman who was unlucky to choose that moment to peek out from the cover of the Blackhawk''s underbelly like a curious little chick. The arrow sang momentarily before it bit into the swordsman''s side and stuck out the other end.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    In turn, the swordsman bellowed in rage and swung backward at the archer who was just coming out of his blinded state only to see the bear of a man swing his sword at him. The archer screeched and jumped backward. He tripped over the helicopter''s self-made trench and toppled over down the slope. I took the opportunity to finish off the wounded swordsman with a quick double tap just as he was going to stalk after the archer. The man crumbled eerily to the dirt, sending dust up as his massive body smacked the floor with a dull thud.


    I peeked over the edge to find the last two swordsmen only for a sword to almost graze me. Sparks flew off the bird''s belly as the sword disappeared down below. "Fight me like a fucking man!" It was the angry muscle sack that kept yelling earlier. "Okay!" I bellowed back with an obviously less manly voice. I peeked my head back out only to dip back as another strike skimmed the edge again. I quickly leaned over with my pistol aimed and emptied the rest of the magazine into him. The man roared as the bullets ripped into him, blood splattering as I managed to group all the rounds into a fist size area just below his collarbone until he finally dropped.


    The swordsman next to him squealed and booked it. Not wanting to let him go like the last remaining archer, I got up and reloaded. I then kept unloading rounds down range until the slide locked back with a click and the man disappeared into the night the moment I looked at the slide. I cursed under my breath even though I knew I wasn''t likely to hit him with my less than stellar firearm handling skills. Regardless, I had to have maimed him at the very least or I seriously had to rethink my approach.


    "Two targets escaped. Recommending you commence Search and Destroy of remaining targets." Lily''s monotonous voice lulled into my ear as I reloaded the XM17 with a sigh. "In the dark? Isn''t that asking for trouble?" I asked as I gathered the tact-link up and reattached it to my arm before tapping the screen. The screen was occupied with that familiar loading symbol before it went away and Lily''s voice came back up. "Just take your time."


    My face twitched. I really didn''t want to go down the slope with limited visibility. With all the sudden changes in degrees and sudden drops, it was dangerous during the day. I didn''t move long enough to prompt Lily to come back onto the comms. "Leaving two hostiles alive is dangerous. This is the safest course of action. The people of this area use cold weapons while you have hot weapons. It is believed the others do not know you have these weapons so it is recommended not to leave witnesses or they will come up with countermeasures."


    With such an argument, I didn''t have to choice but to chase after them. My firearm was my only advantage along with my plate carrier so if they managed to counter it, I wouldn''t have any other way defend myself. I didn''t need any more problems when I had a target on my back. I climbed off the Blackhawk with reluctance to get into a pursuit during the night. With caution, I made my way down the slope following the path the muscle head and Archer went down.


    The way down was riddled with sudden changes in degrees with some sudden flat lanes and the sudden slides. A few spots were rock outcrops that grass had grown over on top and was dangerous if you weren''t paying attention to your path. About a quarter of the way down, I heard pained groans from my left. I circled about till I was able to locate it and found the muscle head sprawled out below a large rock outcrop with his right leg and arm broken.


    His arm was twisted violently in ways a human arm shouldn''t be angled with sharp bits of bone protruding from the stubs. I could tell he had fallen off the large rock above him and tried to catch himself, only to fall on his limbs. With his massive body, it was the only outcome aside from dying from the fall. His chest heaved with effort as his leather armor was drenched from in his blood. His pained and pale face was illuminated by the stars above and his eyes widened with fear as he spotted me approaching him with my pistol at the low-ready. "P-Please! Be merciful! I, I was paid!" He took in a large gulp of air while winching and holding his stomach with his good arm.


    "I-" I didn''t let him finish as I executed him with one shot. While I would have loved to be the saint, I didn''t wish to dilute myself into thinking I could reason with someone who would have killed me for money. They came off as sadistic before they were one-sidedly wiped with the last two being hunted down like dogs so I planned on killing on sight before they could try and sway my resolution with lies.


    I wasn''t going to pretend I didn''t want to spare them. I was considered the peaceful one in the family dispute all my faults and outbursts. I didn''t like war. I didn''t like fighting. That didn''t mean I couldn''t do it though, but it also meant I was more likely to let people live. I couldn''t do that though. I was out here in this strange place, definitely not on my world without any support aside from Lily and the strange store.


    Si vis pacem, para bellum or if you want peace, prepare for war.


    Pushing my useless thoughts away, I quickly searched him. I found neither coins nor paper money. There wasn''t anything aside from his sword that I stripped him off and attached its sheath to my belt. "Registering new weapon to you." Lily''s voice chirped. I nearly jumped from fright at the suddenness of it but bit back my curses. I should have told her I also wasn''t good with the night with all those horror movies I had seen for the kicks.


    "Iron shortsword registered to you now. You''ve opened up the inventory function by completing hidden challenge ''Loot the Dead''. You may now store your loot in the tact-link via thought. You also may resummon it via thought. Inventory is not useable during combat." Lily''s long-winded explanation was a godsend for me. "So I can store anything?" I asked with excitement as I made my way down the slope again. "Nothing living." She responded without excitement.


    My steps thumped against the grass as I made sure to keep a sure footing wherever I went. After a little bit, I was reached the bottom of the mountain where I spotted the last archer slumped against a fallen tree with one of his legs bent oddly. I could vaguely see his shoulders rising and falling rapidly. He was resting, probably assuming I wasn''t chasing him. I kept my pistol trained on him as I moved closer to get a better shot. To my dismay, I neglected my footing for a moment and slipped on a sudden sharp decline - falling on my ass.


    "Oof!" I grunted as I slid down and my aim trailed off. I, unfortunately, wasn''t quick enough to keep the rest of me in check and I popped off a round into the air as I held onto the pistol with a death grip until I hit the flat ground. The man jumped like a startled rabbit and whirled around to see me sliding down a few feet. He hobbled away in a frenzy towards the tree line nearly twenty meters away. I recovered from my stupidity and took my stance and started taking to squeeze round after round in a steady cadence.


    With my arms jugged forward, I only fired around until the sights aligned with his the back of his receding figure until the sidearm clicked, signifying it was dry. The man was still on the move so I jogged after him while my body screamed in protest at my sudden requirement of it having to carry me down the mountain and still having the expectation of it being useful. Regardless of how my body felt, the fight was still on and one more hostile was alive, even if he was retreating with his tail tucked between his legs.


    To my surprise, the man slowed and embed side to side before he eventually dropped to the grass a few feet from the forest''s thicket. I cursed in relief as I dropped to a steady walk as my feet burned. I was several meters behind him as I walked at my leisure.


    However, fate had a different outlook to my streak of good luck tonight as I felt every hair on my body stand up and fear course through my body with each pump of my heart. I stood still mid-strut as my eyes scanned the tree line. The thick forest canopy didn''t back away from the star-filled night and held the moonlight at bay. There were several beams of moonlight that broke the canopy, yet these beams were too far and inbetween to make a difference in the void of the midnight forest.


    Just when I when I began to believe I was being irrational, a pair of eyes reflected in the darkness of the forest close to the forest''s edge. Its eyes were similar to that of felines at night. The glimmer stood out like in the darkness. When I looked into those eyes, I felt a deep-seated fear that felt instinctual. I wanted to run, I wanted to hide, but my body stood still as a pale white slender but elongated arm broke out from the void and grabbed the man''s leg. Muffled groans broke the silence and my trance as I blinked and brought the pistol up to the pair of eyes. "Lily? What''s going on?" I didn''t know whether to shoot or run, or both.


    "Extreme danger detected, magical monster detected. Please retreat, quickly!" For once, Lily''s voice sounded in my eyes with heavy concern. Just as she finished the statement, the archer was dragged into the darkness as his muffled cries were cut short followed by the sound of bones being crushed and what I believed to be dismemberment following the circumstances. "Got it" My voice squeaked back in fear. Just when I was about to turn, my body stiffened again as a voice whispered in my ear. It wasn''t Lily, but my mother''s voice that whispered into my ear.

 [Legacy] Night dread [2]

    "Extreme danger detected, magical monster detected. Please retreat, quickly!" For once, Lily''s voice sounded in my eyes with heavy concern. Just as she finished the statement, the archer was dragged into the darkness as his muffled cries were cut short followed by the sound of bones being crushed and what I believed to be dismemberment following the circumstances. "Got it" My voice squeaked back in fear. Just when I was about to turn, my body stiffened again as a voice whispered in my ear. It wasn''t Lily, but my mother''s voice that whispered into my ear.


    I felt my heart lodge in my throat as her nostalgic voice graced my ears. Her gentle velvet voice soothed over the fear that had entrapped me several heartbeats ago and I no longer wanted to run." Don''t worry little one, come to me." The glistening eyes that stared back at me from within the void of the dark forest soon gave way to my mother''s gentle eyes. Then soon her face appeared from the darkness. I felt something buzz in my ear, like a distant voice calling to me, but the words were incoherent to me.


    Soon, everything around me faded from my view - replaced by the old park that used to sit across from my house. The meticulously cut grass that painted the floor with different lanes of green from the lawnmower. The towering sycamore trees that lined the park walkway that cut down the center with a few benches here and there beneath their branches. The vast spotless light blue sky high above. In the center of all this was the most beautiful woman I had ever known, my mother.


    She stood, in all her healthy glory, right before me in her black slacks and white blouse. Her long dirty blonde hair tied back into a ponytail with a few loose stray strains here and there. With a gentle expression, she beckoned me to jump into her warm embrace. "Mommy just got off work." She said softly as she kneeled down to meet my eyes. I was just that simple little kid again that cried when mom left the house and jumped for joy when dad came around.


    I felt that buzz again in my ear only slightly louder now. It sounded like a faint echo. I ignored it as I took a step forward. Then a second. A third. Just when I was out of arms reach, I felt a mind-numbingly loud static noise blare in my ears and the peaceful day fell away. The midnight forest came back with vengeance and took my mother away from me. I hadn''t noticed, but I was crying. Tears stained burned as they coursed down my cheeks as the memory of that long destroyed heaven slipped from my grasp


    "Isaac, run!" Lily''s voice broke through my trance.


    My mother morphed into a pale grotesque monster who looked like it had never seen the sun in its life. It had no hair with skin like a de-feathered chicken. Its eyes glittered as the moonlight reflected off its retinas and it only had two slits for nostrils. Its mouth ran ear to ear as its lower jaw was unhinged like a snake with teeth that resembled that of a shark''s in every aspect. Its neck skin piled by its collar bone like an iguana''s. My mother''s spotless blouse gave way to a muscular chest and a bloated belly that stretched its skin tight.


    The arms that beckoned me only a heartbeat ago gave way to those slender arms that pulled the man into the forest earlier. However, they weren''t as slender as they appeared with tight muscles brimming with power. Its didn''t actually have hands, only bone spears morphing out of its forearms. The slacks were replaced by legs that were reversed and bent backward at the knees. Its lower legs were raptor-like as it was hunched down to my eye level. Its maw was stained with fresh red blood as it dripped over its chest and potbelly. Its deep breaths brought with it the smell of decaying animals and iron as it was about to clamp down on me.


    My mind raced to catch up just as the monster realized I had broken my trance. The surprise from its face disappeared as its head jutted backward momentarily before it thrust forward to tear at me. I quickly dropped back to the floor and the beast only bit empty air. The sound of its jaws snapping shut sounded like two large books being slammed together with liquid inbetween. It was the only thing I could think of as it reeled backward in surprise again. It looked where I was then looked down and saw me as I brought up my pistol.


    I was about to fire but it brought down stabbed at me with its right spear-like arm and I had to roll to the right as it came down. It missed me by a hair and stabbed into the grass. The bone spear was nearly four feet in length and it dug nearly three-fourths of the way into the dirt with only that initial jab. Its eyes shimmered as it glared at me and a frustrated snarl came from its partially opened maw, its muscles contracting as it pulled its spear-like arm from the dirt beside me.


    I broke away from the fear that stunned me momentarily and emptied the magazine into its upper arm and chest. Yellow luminescence blood drizzled from the two holes in its arm and more splattered to the dirt from the large group of holes in its chest. Unlike in the movies, I didn''t give out a warcry or anything - just clenched my jaws as the slid locked back as I tried to squeeze off more rounds.


    The nightmarish monster waned side to side as it groaned painfully but it didn''t die. The blood wasn''t bright enough to light the surroundings, but it was similar to chem-lights and I could see the bullet holes slowly healing themselves. The bullets I shot into it wasn''t pushed out so I assumed its body was healing around them. "Fuck." I cursed under my breath and rolled away. I got to my feet and dashed for the slope while I reloaded.


    My muscles burned and my lungs wheezed from over-exertion. I eventually stopped when I reached the landing where the swordsman died. I panted heavily as I glanced behind. For a moment, only the moonlit slope and rocks graced my vision. I began to wonder if my eyes had played a trick on me and the beast really didn''t begin to heal. Then a figured that dripped yellow glowing blood began to climb up the slope, mantling over every obstacle.


    "Shit! Shit! Shit!" I spat as Edward Spearhands'' speed was nothing to laugh at as screeched angrily, almost halfway to me as I dipped away past the rock. It mere moments, I heard the monster''s spurs stabbing the grass behind me and its feet ripping the ground as propelled its body over the rock and landed on the dead man. I told myself not to look, but I was compelled to look. I stopped as I heard the slicing of flesh and saw the monster stabbing at the dead body with intense hate.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    It took a few heartbeats for the monster to notice that the person it was killing was already cold and not the one it had chased mere moments ago. It looked around, spotted me, and roared. Yellow blood filled spit fluttered from its mouth before it skewered the body and threw it at me. I took that as my cue to run and the body splattered with a bone-chilling splat against the grass. Thankfully, those two momentary breaks had eased enough stress off my lungs and muscles that it didn''t burn that bad as I scrambled up the grassy slope and finally, back to the crash site.


    "Mommy just wants to kill you!" My mother''s voice, mixed with a shriller voice, rang out in the night behind me. I didn''t give the voice the satisfaction of turning back as I made the final sprint to the bird. "Come play with Mommy!" The voice rang out again, but it was mixed with even more voices as something crashed into me. I went down hard and whatever hit me roll off. I looked up as it rolled over me and saw it was the dead man from earlier. "Fuck!" I cursed and turned over with the intention to place more lead into the beast. Only, it beat me to it. Just as I turned around, its pale spear arm came down on my chest.


    I''ve always thought of what it would feel like if I was ever stabbed. To my surprise, tonight was not the night I would find out.


    I heard a hard "Ding!" and something akin to bones breaking under pressure as I felt my bullet-proof plate dent inward from the force. The bone-spear slipped off me as it made contact with the plate and grazed off to my left. It dug under my vest material and out the side. I felt my vision go dark for several breaths and when I came back, the beast was trying to shake me off. It tried several times, but I clung to its arm for dear life before it roared in rage and started to bring me in to bite like a juicy piece of skewered meat.


    I saw my chance and brought up my right arm to blast the ugly-blight-on-nature''s face with American freedom only to find I was barehanded. Even the monstered flinched away when I raised my arm, but then looked back when nothing had happened. Both of us stared death still, looking at the empty hand. Panic filled my face now while the monster grinned. Its eyes glowed like two mosaic moons surrounded by cold pale skin that scrunched up as it grinned.


    My mind raced for a solution but I hit a wall when I tried. "The sword!" Lily called out before either of us had made a move. I didn''t hesitate and grabbed the sword''s leather grip and pulled it from its sheath. The monster didn''t seem to care about my struggle as it moved to take bite my head. Even though I was at an odd angle, I swung the sword and slashed across both the monster''s eyes, leaving a large gash that welled with luminescence yellow blood. The beast bellowed with a mixture of pain and rage.


    I finally let go now that I had taken away its sight momentarily and I slid from the spear before it started to swing wildly to hit me. It swung side to side, its spears sending sparks when it contacted the surrounding rocks and sent up dirt in a reversed arch. A few of the strikes nearly took my head and I rolled away. Lady luck was with me tonight when I spotted my pistol, drenched in glowing liquid a few feet away. The monster bellowed again and I watched it bump into the black hawk. It stabbed at the metal contraption with anger, assumingly, because it didn''t find me again. However, to my surprise, its bone spears sparked off the underbelly to which only angered the demon even more.


    I sheathed the sword; then I picked up the XM17, wiped as much of the yellow blood as I could, and dropped the magazine. I didn''t remember if it was a fresh one or not, but I wasn''t going to take the chance. At this point, I had already become proficient enough to reload the pistol under high stress. It wasn''t godly, but it was enough not to fumble a few times trying to get it into the mag well. I racked the slide and took aim center mass. "Aim for the head! You already tried the chest, aim for the brain!" Lily called out again.


    The beast was only about fifty feet away. I didn''t have a steady enough hand to land repeated shots or even just connect the first shot. "Hey, ugly!" I yelled. The beast turned almost robotically and its yellow glowing body faced me with seething rage. Its eyes weren''t completely back, but I could see the orbs festering as the blood had already stopped. "Come get some!" I yelled. It was do or die at this point considering it had super regenerative powers and I was hoping it wasn''t going Deadpool status on me.


    The monster roared and charged at a visibly slower pace than earlier. It became apparent that its regenerative ability taxed its body greatly. Its body heaved under its rage as it came within thirty feet of me. Then twenty feet. Once it was got within ten feet of it, it reared up on its hind legs, and towered nearly ten feet above me; its spears cocked back to skewer me. I crouched slightly like I was about to spring forward and the monster brought down its spears with all its strength down towards where it thought I was going.


    Instead of forward, I rocked backward on my feet onto my ass with my pistol jutting outward towards the monster who unwittingly brought its head closer. The distance? Two feet from the barrel of the gun. While the maneuver was the stupidest thing I could have done - it also worked... "Dasvidaniya, bitch."


    The muzzle barked with fire and lead. The monster''s head jerked with its head with each bullet that rammed itself through its cranium. Yellow blood splattered everywhere, including me. Its forehead quickly turned to mush as a palm size hole formed with bits of bone and brain beginning to fall out. It wasn''t any longer than eight seconds before the last bullet left the pistol. Silence washed over the ridge afterward and the beast only waned one last time before it crumbled like a puppet with its strings cut.


    Its body fell directly on itself and twitched every now and then with its chest on its buried spears. Its pale head hung down like it awaited the gallows. I sighed with relief, but I didn''t faint like last time. I dropped the empty magazine from the smoking pistol and reached for a new one, but I found I was empty. "Really..." I was really pushing my luck. I unlocked the slid on my newly glowing pistol and slid it painfully into the holster. Not because I was in pain, but because I could hear the liquid rub around between the polymer and the metal which disgusted me.


    I got up from the ground and pulled off the plate carrier. I wanted to wash badly, but I was not going to take another trip down that slope. I looked around to figure out what to do only to hear something rustle beside me. My head jerked to the monster''s body only to see it shutter and its muscles begin to contract. I could hear its breath coming back and its head slowly rising with much difficulty. "The sword!" Lily shouted again in my ear.


    I quickly pulled it from its leather sheath and brought it down on the monsters neck. It was only enough to sever its spinal cord, yet, it still began to heal. So I hacked at the wound over and over again while screaming until its head fell away from its body. The body violently twitched while I quickly tapped at the screen and hit the confirmation button.


    A red laser dots formed on the body''s back and a burning ball of fire broke through the night air.

 [Legacy] Pride, Prejudice, and the Justice of .30-06

    The sound of something heavy pounding against the hull of the Blackhawk jolted me awake. My eyes shot open as fear and adrenaline began to course through my body. My hands quickly went to my holster before my mind processed my surroundings, a reflex that began to get conditioned in me after a few days of constant fights. The pistol had already left the holster, gripped in my right hand when I finally became aware I was sitting against the back seat of the crashed hawk.


    Two thick rays of sun radiated through the cabin doors'' windows, illuminating the dirt floor beneath me. I was parked in the shaded back seat. I sighed in relief as I slowly wiggled myself out from the back and into the main cabin only. My heart, which threatened to burst a few minutes ago, had finally calmed a bit. I was about to open the cabin door when I felt my leg cramp up. "Crap." I said as I tried to stretch it out. I bent down from the waist only to feel thousands of daggers stab me in my chest and ribs.


    Then I recoiled and more muscles screamed in pain. Pain and fire racked my pain one after another as my body tried to curl itself up in protest. My skin screamed, my muscles burned and I felt my bones crackle with every twitch. I became awfully aware that my lungs were being stabbed with each deep breath I took, so I quickly tried to take shallow breaths until I found the point where I got enough air to breathe, but not at the cost of puncturing a lung - if I hadn''t already.


    As if I was finally graced by God, I heard Healer''s voice. "Hey, kid! You in there?" Followed by another round of knocks that was similar to punching the door echoed through my prison. "Help!" I managed to whimper out a cry after a minute of trying not to die. I saw a small shadow block one of the thick rays of sunlight before the door began to rattle with a fierce thunder. I didn''t know if he could help me, but at the very least, misery loves company.


    I heard several people curse on the other side of the door and several heavy steps on the hull before they managed to figure out the handle. Light poured into the cabin and left me blinded momentarily. I saw two dark figures jump in while I had dealt with the pain on the dirt. The two figures picked me up and gently handed me over to another group of people who waited at the top of the bird before the men quickly heaved themselves over the other side to take me from them. Afterward, they placed me gently on the dirt.


    My hand was still clenched around the XM17 so one of the men pulled it from my grip gently as he could while they slowly undressed me. The moment my carrier and shirt came off, I heard horrified gasps. "O Goddess of fire, have mercy..." A woman said under her breath. If it looked as bad as it felt, I would have probably said the same thing...


    I suddenly felt three thick fingers touch my belly and I gasped in pain as the touch felt like daggers. "Extensive bruising... All his ribs are cracked... Definitely internal injuries..." I heard Healer mutter to himself through the fog of pain and desire to die. As a child of a respected official in the higher up of the United States Government, I''ve never never had an injury that was worse than a sprain from my father''s attempt at to make me like my brother when I was younger. Otherwise, I was careful in every exercise, every outing. Hell, even cooking. I may have been a rebel, but only as rebellious as a kid in upper-class American can get short of drugs, crime, and partying.


    Which accounted to just not following my father''s "desire" for me to join the military.


    Back to almost slipping into the nether realm due to pain - The pain around Healer''s fingers died down slowly before something like the feeling of a wave of cool water gushed out from the point where his fingers touched me. I felt the bruises and my muscles simmer down until I couldn''t feel any pain. "It''s okay, I''m here for you kid." I heard his voice like a beacon in the dark. Only my stomach began to feel normal after a couple of minutes until his fingers slowly slid up to the center of my chest and the feeling followed after him. This left my stomach feeling sore, but good.


    Then the feeling gushed through my chest and I could feel bones popping up and my ability to take deeper breaths return with a vengeance as I suddenly shivered as I felt something crack and then push into place. "Easy kid." Another man said. "Healer is the best Healer for hundreds of miles, it''s going to be okay..." His words were comforting but his tone betrayed what he was actually seeing. "Did those men do this to him or the Night Dread...?" The woman asked. "Hush, let Healer do his work, Agatha." The man hushed her gently.


    Eventually, Healer worked his way from head to toe on me, but I still ached here and there. However, I was able to open my eyes and stare into the noon sky. Healer then sat next to me as sweat glistened on his face as he sighed. "What happened to you, kid...?" His face was pale and his chest heaved like he had just run a marathon. "Didn''t you see the bodies?" I chuckled in a failed attempt to lighten the mood during this beautiful sunny day. "We saw all the bodies. These nice folks wanted to visit the kid who apparently fought off a small goblin raiding party." He gestured with his head towards the others on the other side of me.


    I rolled my head to my left. Three men and one woman sat with grim expressions hanging on their faces. I smiled weakly at them. "Hi." I said while the woman looked at me almost as if she was unsure of what to say. "So, are you going to tell me what happened?" Healer spoke up again, this time, much more pissed off. "Y-Yeah..." I winced at his voice and turned to him. I explained the entire ordeal, or rather, as much as I could remember. Shutting the Blackhawk''s cabin door was in case another one of those "Night Dreads" around.


    "No wonder you were in such bad shape!" One of the men said. I turned to him and saw a big grin on his face. He was a burly man, but not meat sack status. He had a nice stubble on his chin that he stroked while he nodded. "Night dreads are easy to deal with. They''re hunters of the night and they''re adept in illusion magic. However, the biggest downfall of illusion magic is if you know its an illusion it''s easy to break. Night dreads know they need to strike fast." He said before his brown eyes locked onto me. "Was there more than one?"


    "No." I shook my head. "Then you''re lucky. Night Dreads are one of the natural monsters of the frontier. They hunt in pairs during the mating season, which we should be on the tail end of since summer nearly here. They''re quick and have a high regenerative ability. However, their drawbacks are that they can easily be wounded and they can''t heal themselves forever." He said before looking behind him. I slowly sat up and cringed at the soreness I felt all over. Healer helped me stay up and helped me inch over to the belly of the hawk to lean against.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    Behind the group was the dead night dread which laid in a half pulp state from having an orbital loot box land on its upper body. "I don''t know what you used to turn it into that, but yeah. You killed it, even if it was overkill." The group laughed. "If you''re trying to kill a night dread, just cutting its head off will do." The man finally turned back to me. "So what did you fight with?" He asked. I pointed to the pistol on the dirt floor. The blood had dried and was now a dull puke color. Its slide was stuck partially closed from blood and debris. It looked pitiful.


    "Definitely looks like something from out of this world." The man nodded. The words chilled the blood in my veins and we both locked eyes. I quickly pulled the tact-link up to pull out my new weapon but Healer gripped my arms from my side. "Hold it, kid! we''re not here to do anything to ya." He said quickly as his vice-tight grip loosened slowly. My eyes that were wide with fear looked Healer in each eye before taking a deep breath through my nose and nodding. "I''m gonna release your arms now, okay?" I nodded at his words again.


    Slowly and deliberately, his grip loosened. His fingers unwound from around my wrists and he held his palms up where I could see them as he moved back. "Here on the frontier, we don''t care -" The man who blatantly spoke up about my origins said. Though I hadn''t particularly said this was a different world, I wasn''t going to kid myself that earth had a frontier besides space and the deep sea. Monsters, magic, and swords - It only took two brain cells to figure all this out.


    "Let me rephrase that. We do care, but what is even more important is not dying out here. Friends. Foes. Unknowns. All of these roam these lands and the more friends we have, the safer we are. So I had healer bring me today to talk with you." He said." I''m the High-Knight of the Third Order - Aeneas Canmore."


    . . . . . .


    The afternoon sun beat down on the crash site while the sea offered a cool breeze as Agatha, Aeneas'' wife, roasted a freshly hunted deer. She and her husband was dressed in full leather armor, faded from years of use. Both of them were in their late thirties and well-respected knights. Agatha was lighter by a few fades, but it still showed that she was an active woman along with her husband. Both of them had matching salt-n-pepper hair and each had heroic facial features you would expect a knight to have. Now Agatha wasn''t "handsome", but she had a different kind of beauty from the girls I''ve seen before. They actually suited each other very well.


    "So... About your guess that I was from a different world." I looked the knight in the eye as sternly as I could for a teen who looked like a child who put on his father''s clothes. "Ah, yes." He said as he made himself comfortable on the dirt around the fire. I stayed sitting against the hull of the helicopter. "You wear strange clothing, use a strange weapon, and..." He pointed to the Blackhawk behind me. "A rift opened up on the night you showed up followed with pretty eye-catching lights afterward. We''re not stupid." He chuckled. "I agree with his statement." Lily''s voice came out over my headset.


    I had lost the headset during my previous "episode", but Healer got it back to me along with my sidearm. I thumbed the microphone angrily. Of course, they weren''t stupid, but I just hoped that I could fly under the radar. But alas, it was not meant to be. A kid can hope, right? "Don''t get me wrong, out here on the frontier, we need all the help we can get. You''re welcomed here so long as you''re not against us. We have enough trouble to deal with as you can see." I nodded. I had already fought a band of goblins, a hitman crew, and a damn monster. I had only been here two days as it is and it was already FUBAR! "Well, since we''re going to be neighbors, care to fill me in on the details?"


    Aeneas explained that he was with the Kingdom of Roeden, a medium sized nation with the sea on to its east and the Impassable Range to its north. He explained that the established lands stretched only close to 1,600 kilometers downward until it reached the sea then it was under a thousand kilometers to the west before they met another sea. The current issue plaguing the many kingdoms and empire was the growing population since there had not been a war in the last three hundred years. That was not to say that there hadn''t been a conflict, but nothing on the scale of millions of people dying over the course of a year in deadly battles.


    This was something I was quite familiar with, but I highly doubted there was a sprawling metropolis that spanned half the country with the population pushing in the billions. These cities were the leading contributors to the resource wars back on my planet. "I''m guessing by what I''ve seen, you guys don''t have cities spanning over a hundred miles?" [A/N161 km)] The knight shook his head. "The biggest problem with the lack of space and resources is monsters and demons. A lot of monsters are powerful enough to rival the armies of most countries. There are plenty of large nests of Kobolds, Orcs, Goblins, and griffins that make take up a lot of land that we could otherwise expand into.


    However, the issue is that a lot of these nests would take nearly an entire army to claim due to how established these nests were. Contracts for adventurers were handed up, but often than not, countries didn''t want to hand a bounty to move large amounts of Adventurers or the S-class fighters." He took a bite of the meat his wife prepared.


    "Then there was the Impassable Range. The prospect of untapped riches rather than land that was probably used up already was more enticing to leaders..."


    He went on to explain that the Impassable Range spanned across the land like a natural barrier, with steep cliffs that grazed the passing clouds and very few passages through the mountains. This wasn''t including the few S-class monsters that had carved out their own domains within the range. The overall situation was just too much of a hassle to deal with until the recent tightening of the resource pool.


    This wasn''t to say all monsters were hostile. There were plenty of monsters that were passive such as the Heavenly Dragon that lived to the south on the jagged peninsula in the Holy Empire. All this changed when the Kingdom of Roeden''s exploration team managed to talk with the Dragon who claimed one side of the range. Very few people knew about the details, including him, so he only kept it brief. The outcome of the deal was they could settle in the Dragon''s domain without fear of him attacking or any of the other S-classes harassing them so long as they did not cross into their domains.


    This did not protect them from other Lesser monsters and Demons though, but the overall situation was good as most of the established settlements have been able to find good land to grow food and find good sized veins of gold, iron, and copper among other metals. The only issue was the fact they had to contend with the lesser hostiles and other kingdoms trying to steal their passage, leaving the Royal army stretched thin on the settlement side.


    "So that leads us to where we are now." The knight said as he pulled a leather pouch from his side where a sword hung, opened it, and put it to his mouth for a swig before replacing the lid and putting back at his side. "Where does the guild come in?" I asked. "Ah, yeah. That... Simple, just a guild official that got promoted and wanted to take advantage of his position to get richer. It''s not that uncommon, similar to corrupt government officials. As in such cases, it rarely gets dealt with so long they don''t cross lines. The issue here is that the branch leader has become increasingly bold as of recent."


    He shrugged as if it didn''t pertain to him, but his expression spoke a different story. "Knight Orders are different from the Royal Army." He said before he stopped with a thoughtful look, probably in an attempt to find the best words. "Knight orders are the government''s version of adventurers, put together entirely for the purpose of protecting the settlements."

 [Legacy] Pride, Prejudice, and the Justice of .30-06 [2]

    He shrugged as if it didn''t pertain to him, but his expression said spoke a different story. "Knight Orders are different from the Royal Army." He said before he stopped with a thoughtful look, probably in an attempt to find the best words. "Knight Orders are the government''s version of adventurers, put together entirely for the purpose of protecting the settlements."


    Agatha finally took a spot on the dirt by her husband with a handful of cooled roasted deer meat. "Enough talking dear, the kid needs to eat. He''s had a rough night and needs to rest." She chastised her husband gently before she tied her long hair back with a piece of cloth. I had only glanced at her as she put her hair up, but I noticed her right ear was mutilated badly with scars trailing down her neck and under her armor. She was about to take a bite of her food when her eyes locked with mine. I quickly looked away to Healer who quickly avoided my gaze with a whistle.


    "Curious about how I got these scars?" I heard her ask me and I turned back to her. "Y-Yeah." Now I felt awkward in the sense I did want to know, but I didn''t want to nose my way through her life story. "Not if you don''t want to talk about it though." I hastily added when I saw a dangerous gleam in her eye. "Goblins." She answered with a cold smile. "They looked worst off than me when I was finished with them."


    After the meal, I came to the realization that the bodies of the men had already been moved. I never thought I''d be the one to forget there were several dead men lying around, but Healer told me that Hammer and Aeneas had already carried them a bit away. The afternoon sea breeze brought with it the smell of salt and fish. The combination managed to mask the soaked up dry blood that dotted the crash site from last night''s ambush. I honestly would have forgotten it had even happened if I had not noticed the abnormal dark spots on the ground by the hull.


    I was just glad I had not been placed down in one of those spots.


    I sat in the inward slope where the main body of the bird merged into the tail and watched the column of smoke rise from where Healer and Hammer had set the pile of collected bodies on fire. Anything of value had been left for me up here where Aeneas and his wife appraised them before they separated the items into different piles. I wanted to help them, but I could not since my body wasn''t restored - only mended.


    Healer explained to me that what he used was a Lesser Healing spell which only mended muscles, bones and anything that was damaged. It, however, couldn''t alleviate the exhaustion and strain that my body had felt. My bones ached and my muscles protested with any attempt to use them. That was not to mention the swelling in my legs and around some of my rubs that Healer couldn''t help with unless he took me back to his home in the settlement. I told him I definitely wanted to get the swelling down as soon as possible, but they had to deal with the corpses before they turned into undead.


    Hammer had helped me onto my little perch so I could lay my bare back against the warm metal hull as the cool sea breeze washed over me. It was a short downtime well earned, but it allowed my mind to finally process my current predicament and Lily had been abnormally silent for a while. The screen had that annoying loading symbol going and she didn''t answer my queries so I was only left with my own thoughts.


    Thoughts that I wish I wasn''t left with.


    The first to wash over me was the guilt that I had been the only one to survive. I didn''t see it as fate or my destiny but only sheer dumb fucking luck. I had been sat in the hardest to reach part of the cabin with its unusual setup, but it was a set up that held back those monsters in the rift long enough for me to reach this new world. But I felt survivor''s guilt nonetheless. Did the other helicopters in the wing get sucked into the rift as well or did they perish in the nuclear flames back home? It wasn''t an answer I could answer easily at the moment with my human limitations and the lack of Lily''s logistical back-end support.


    When it came to the fight against to the goblins, I hadn''t felt a ping of regret, and in fact, now I felt a wave of pride fill me at the thought that I survived that ordeal. Then when it came to the ambush last night... Regret and self-loathing thoughts filled my hear. I could have avoided the loss of human life. I could have killed that man in his office when I had the chance. One life versus all those men that I had to kill because he ordered them to kill me. I shook their idiotic thoughts from my head.


    If I had killed that man back in the office, Healer may not have become my ally and it was more than likely I would have had to fight my way out of that office against tens of adventurers and even the settlement''s knights. Those men that came last night may have been the best outcome if I wanted to minimize the unnecessary loss of human life. When I thought further... I felt disgusted with myself. I did not regret the loss of human life, but that I had been the one to kill them.


    I tried to think further into it. Into why I had no regrets when I killed those soldiers back home, but instead, I felt regrets when I countered these thugs that came to kill me in my sleep. Maybe it was because there was a clear difference distinction on who actually held the upper hand. I had the ability to strike within a split second while they fumbled with their cold weapons. I held an unprecedented technological advantage over these people. My weapons denied them their dignity and honor.


    In the end, I knew these were just childish thoughts. It was a kill or be killed situation, but I couldn''t help shake the whirl of emotions that swept through me. Just before the emo side turned me into Kylo Ren, I saw Hammer as he slowly picked his way up the slope towards me before he came to the foot of the tail. "Healer sent me to check on you." He said before he heaved himself onto the tail with me. Hammer was a large teenager around my age "So, how you doing? Aside from lookin'' like you just been threshed by pigs." His accent was comparable to a southern accent. My brows furrowed at his comment.


    "I feel like shit, obviously." I grimaced at the question. "Yeah, I know, but I still had to ask or Healer gonna get mad if I don''t ask you anyway." He laid down next to me. "Healer also wanted to know if you wanted to come back with us into the village." He said with a somewhat annoying nonchalance as he wrapped his arms behind his head and crossed his legs to get comfortable. "Yeah, I''ll head back with you guys. I need a good wash." I grumbled and a smirk appeared on his face like he knew I was going to say that too.


    . . . . . .


    What was also annoyed me was the fact that my legs apparently needed a lot more rest Healer originally thought. I hadn''t gotten halfway down the ridge when my legs began to shake. Even before that, I had needed to take breaks every few minutes to the point that Hammer had lost that smirk he had before. "Pick him up." Healer told Hammer. Even Aeneas and Agatha were slowly losing their patience at the slow pace. It was a nearly half-hour walk from the crash site to the village when you took into considerate the natural obstacles such as thicket, trees, and large rocks.


    There were already several beaten paths that snaked through the forest and Healer decided, of the only two entrances, we were to use the southern gate to avoid any trouble with Arnold. Aeneas had filled me in on the fact most of the knights here hated the man with an almost undying hatred, but like any group, there were people who could be bought. At the mention, I felt my hair prickle at the fact I hadn''t even considered that the people who helped me were secretly against me. I had just taken their help at face value.


    I made a note to be more cautious in the future about just blindly trusting any person. I spared a look at Healer and wondered what his motivations were about helping me these past few days. I braced myself for the moment he was would ask for me to return the favor. I also told myself that as long as what he asked of me didn''t feel wrong, I would try and repay the favor.


    "What''s on your mind?" Hammer asked. I had been so wrapped up in my thoughts that I had almost forgotten I was currently being princess carried by this man. "Nothing, why?" Of course, there was plenty wrong with this situation! Don''t mind what I was thinking, how could you just do this so naturally?!Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    I screamed at him in my heart while outwardly I shrugged his question off. "I''ve noticed you got a pretty interesting thinking face." I felt my expression cramp up as my dead brown eyes gazed up into his green ones. "That''s -" I was about to say gay, but he beat me to the punch." I am not into men!" He huffed and I could see the blush roll across his cheeks. While I was only going to give him a half friendly-half hostile jab, he seemed pretty offended that I''d even insinuate that he was remotely homosexual. The thought of knowing what tick this man off brought an evil thought to mind that made me smile.


    "You''re creepin'' me out." He said as he avoided my gaze that was still locked on him but now with a smile. "You''re the one that''s been watching me, how am I creepy?" His jaw fell as his brows furrowed. I could tell he wanted to retort, but I had stumped him with the truth. Even if it was slightly twisted around to make him look bad. "Hahah! Seems like the troublemaker has met his match!" Aeneas hollered.


    A few minutes later of banter, we broke through the treeline on the eastern edge of the village and its palisades rose from the packed earth at their base. A wide expanse of nearly fifteen meters separated the forest from the village''s defensive wall. It hadn''t been that apparent at the northern gate that they were clearing the forest around them as the trees encroached close to the northern gate without a hint that they weren''t soon for the forest in the sky. We navigated across tens of cut wooden stumps that protruded dangerously from the churned dirt floor. Thick needles of wood from where the trunks were ripped from the stump when they were felled.


    It took a while to make it safely across the hazardous clearing, but Aeneas was adamant that it was safer than if they had crossed paths with one of Arnold''s lackies by the northern gate. With how insistent he was, I could only keep my complaints to myself. We eventually reached the wall where a footpath skirted the wooden wall in either direction and Aeneas took the lead along with his wife.


    When we reached the southern entrance, I was greeted by well-kept grass that spanned across the open field where tree stumps sat behind them. The was a wide road with four beaten lines that ran in and out of the entrance and into the forest. A horse-drawn carriage was parked in front of the gateway as six knights went over it quickly before they waved the wagon on through and the driver ushered the horse forward with a shake of the reigns.


    We crossed through the gate with Aeneas leading the pack. What confused me was that the difference between the northern entrance from the southern entrance. The northern entrance had well-packed dirt roads and the buildings were well build. The main street that ran from the north gate was uneven and riddled with small dips here and there. The buildings looked hastily built.


    The buildings weren''t made from a combination of mud and logs to come together into a solid building. Rather, the stores and workshop appeared to have been cut hastily before they were just shoved together. The wood planks were cut unevenly and there were odd gaps between them. Most of them did not even have windows. All of the buildings were topped with thatched roofs. Most of the buildings leaned slightly, but whether it was the product of their poor construction or the dirt, I didn''t know.


    We ventured off the main road and stepped onto a narrow road, barely large enough for a horse to pass by, and made our way down its winding path. I was happy that the path here was in a better condition, but the shack-like homes that rimmed the road made me claustrophobic. Their walls bent out slightly towards the top with the straw roofs hanging off by a few inches, further strangling the sunlight that peeked into the road. The houses were the same as the previous buildings, with their poor quality, and a mold-like smell pervaded the area. This caused my nose to crumble in disgust.


    "Why ya'' making that face?" Hammer asked as he glanced down at me before looking back up. "It smells around here," I answered without a thought as I glanced around. I played a few fantasy games and I had always thought how nice it''d be to live in such a beautiful world - but it stank badly. "You''re one to talk, you look like a wilding!" Hammer snorted, not taking well to my gripe. "What''s a wilding?" I answer as my eyes flicked over to him with a curiosity that burned brightly in them. "Wives Tales. They say unwanted children who are thrown into the forest will turn into wildlings. Dirty monsters that feast on the blood of newborns." Healer said as he smacked the side of Hammer''s head.


    "Oi! I was just messin'' with him!" The teen said with a grievance. I laughed softly, a genuine laugh, for the first time in a while. It felt good...


    Eventually, I found myself inside Healer''s home-part-clinic that rested on the western end of the town where the Mayor''s office and the Knight''s barracks were. I was curious about how this town''s layout became so... weird, but I made a mental note that I would ask about it at a more appropriate time. I figured it would be rude of me to ask at the moment. The differences between Healer''s home and the previously passed shacks was as clear as night and day. His large, standing at two floors tall, it was placed on the edge of the settlement. Its walls were made from fired brick and mortar.


    We entered the house and what greeted me was a dark interior that lasted for a few moments until Aeneas opened the shutters and light poured in. "Hammer, help him wash up." Healer said as more shutters were pulled open. The interior was honestly quite beautiful and well made. The floorboards were worn and dusty while several shelves lined with books and curios populated the walls, here and there. The room was like a large living room. There was an unlit hearth against the far wall and the kitchen set aside in the corner of the same wall.


    A large worn fur rug lay in the middle of the room where several chairs rest around. Before I could get a better look, Hammer swung me around and took me off into a dark corner of the room, past a set of stairs. Just when I thought he was going to smother me against a well, which was one of those in-the-moment stupid thoughts, we disappeared into the darkness with Agatha in tow. I bounced up and down several times while withholding almost involuntary yelp that got caught in my throat. This was accompanied by the sound of Hammer''s heavy feet on wooden steps.


    Agatha took the lead and opened the few shutters in the room so it could be graced by the warm afternoon sunlight. "Need help?" She asked when she opened the last pair of shutters. "Nah, your husband will kill me if I let you wash another man." Hammer chuckled to himself as if the thought was funny. "Eh, true." She said with a shrug before disappearing the way we came and I heard the sound of a heavy door being shut.


    "This is the washroom. You''re gonna have ta'' clean up before anything." He said and sat me down on a chair to a wooden contain that was large enough to fit a man slightly bigger than Hammer. If I sat in it, it would have gone all the way up to my chin. "Undress and get into the tub, I''ll get the water." He said as he opened a door and more light poured in. I could now saw the floor was made from cut stone and it was definitely a washroom with the side of the room where the door rested was lined with thin towels.


    I was already shirtless, but that just left me with pants, boots, Lily, and my headset. Something Hammer had complained about at first, but I wasn''t going to take it off if I could help it. "Lily, you there?" I hailed her with a whisper. "Yes." A curt response. "You''ve been quiet all day, are you okay?" The loading symbol, which had been turning all day long, finally turned off. Silence fell between us and I felt something was definitely off as I took off my clothes. "I''m okay. I just had a lot to process today..." Her voice trailed off as I took off the headset and placed everything on the table next to me, I also took my tact-link off.


    I pulled the chair over to the tub and rested the tact-link on the seat with the screen up.


    The tub was placed against the wall with a closed set of shudders just above its lip. I sat in the tub nude just as Hammer came in with two large buckets of water. "Damn, you''re pretty strong!" I gasped. Those bails were half his size! "Yup!" he placed them by the tub and poured them in one by one. "Shit!" I cursed and stiffened up as icy cold water filled halfway. Hammer snickered at my reaction as he sat the large bucket of water down and began to pour the next one. Steam rose from the bucket as hot water cut through the cold. A comfortable warmth pervaded the cold and the shivers that racked me calmed down.


    Hammer that pulled off a green jar off a nearby shelf along with something that looked like a bar of soap. "This is for your hair." he placed the jar on the chair. "This is for your body." He placed the bar of soap on the chair. I nodded with a "hmm" as my eyes glistened with happiness as the sight of soap. "The cork on the side facing the wall is the drain plug. Pull it when you''re done."


    . . . . .


    Hammer disappeared for a while as I went about destroying every single inch of filth. It wasn''t long until my clean mid-neck long hair plastered against me. My skin was spotless and I had not felt this good in such a long time. The water became grimy so I drained the tub. I found there was still water in both the buckets so I combined them and dumped it over me to rise myself. I stepped out of the tub and my muscles didn''t cry out so much now that they had been messaged by the lovely warmth of the bath. Water dripped off my slim body and I could see most of the swelling around my chest had gone down. I felt relief.


    I looked out the window by the tub. Outside was a large garden of herbs with a well that hugged the palisades. The garden was hugged with two other brick buildings on either side. I heard the door scrape open from the living room and I turned to see Hammer strut in with my vest. "Hey, what are-" His voice trailed off when he looked at me as I leaned over the tub''s lip to get another look at the nice garden. We both locked eyes and a faint blush came over Hammer''s face with the look of confusion.

 [Legacy] Pride, Prejudice, and the Justice of .30-06 [3]

    Aeneas left the house a few minutes ago, leaving me in the garden under the shade of the small crooked pecan tree. While I could see he had questions about my appearance, he didn''t ask and handed me the mana stone. It was a deep solid purple with no light able to pierce the gem. At first glance, I thought it would feel like any other gem, but when it was placed in my hand, it felt like I had just picked up a cold piece of steel. Aeneas didn''t say where he was going and left after handing me the spoils of my night.


    From where I was, I could see Agatha in the kitchen window. She would occasionally look up to watch me with interest while she cooked everyone a meal. When she first saw me, I thought I feel goosebumps. The last time I felt this was when I was in middle school and the older girls had gotten me to wear a dress. I definitely would keep an eye on her for the foreseeable future. Healer and Hammer were off "discussing" something. What that was, I didn''t want to know.


    I took a deep breath of the fresh herb garden and felt a moment of joy of being clean for once. You never knew how much you''ve taken something for granted until its gone, in this case, looking and feeling like a proper human. I had scrubbed myself until my skin became rosy and the water became near black from all the disgusting stuff that had been stuck to me. By the end of it, I could finally smell how repulsive it all was. That was when Hammer walked in and started the debacle. Healer had to pull the poor boy out and help get me fresh water to finish bathing. By the end, I was just as clean and proper as if I was back home. The only drawback was it took about an hour versus finishing in less than 10 minutes. `


    I pushed aside my freshly brushed bangs to the side and turned my attention to the weapons by at my feet. My XM17 laid on a cotton blanket that hadn''t been dyed. Five full magazines and three boxes of 100 round 9mm ammo boxes, with one already down to twenty-five rounds after I had topped off the last magazine. The ammo came from the loot box as well as a cleaning kit for it. Now the pistol looked brand-spanking-new. I had also gotten a few new toys out of it as well.


    I reached out to my left and pulled a heavy rifle onto the blanket since I had finished cleaning the pistol. It was a reproduction Springfield M1 Garand, chambered in .30-06 Springfield - walnut stock of course. I laid the long rifle onto the blanket along with the ten fully loaded en bloc clips beside it. While I had gotten ten fully loaded clips out of the loot box, it didn''t provide me with any other additional ammo. I also had some complaints about the loot box giving me such a damn heavy rifle. "The M1 Garand is a weapon nonetheless, you will just have to deal with it if you don''t want to use your remaining four drops."


    After she heard me mumbling under my breath, Lily chirped over my - now clean - headset. I wasn''t so much mad about the rifle, more so that I had not gotten the M1A version with the detachable magazine. M1 Garands were a mainstay in American culture as an iconic rifle that had a place in every gun-loving Americans'' heart. I would have said ever red-blooded, but I don''t know if Aliens had red blood and if an extraterrestrial wanted to be an American, who was I to judge?


    Anyways, the rifle was over three-and-a-half feet at nearly eleven pounds. It was a hefty rifle if you compared it to most high-end AR-15s weighing under seven-pounds. You could even go lighter if you went crazy on weight reduction like my brother did, but I''m not into that skeletonizing fad. "Can you even use the rifle?" Lily asked. I may have taken it as an insult back home, but right now, it wasn''t a matter of my pride. It was a matter of life and death if I could even wield it. "Let''s see." I sighed as I got to my knees. I dusted off the clean pair of cotton pants that were slightly too long and bunched up around my bare feet.


    I bent over and stood the rifle on its buttstock while picking up a single clip. I placed the clip in my mouth since I didn''t anywhere to stick it momentarily. Then I heaved the rifle into my arms. It wasn''t bad. Eleven pounds was easy to carry, but most people often forget that this weapon was going to be held outward for the better part of its use. It wasn''t like in the movies with swords where you can hang your hand and let the sword drag along the ground. Well, you could do the same, but with you definitely didn''t want to do that with a complex piece of machinery that could explode in your face.


    It didn''t come with a sling either, which was going to be a problem if I had to carry this for a long period of time like my pistol.


    Putting my complaint aside, I shoulder the rifle before I looked down the crosshairs. I did it a few times to get used to it. The weight wasn''t a problem if I kept it down to short term use and go crazy with it... Like running up and down a ridge with it. Certainly, it was a whole lot of gun and anyone-or-thing that became as unfortunate to be on the business end of this rifle when I pulled the trigger would definitely drop. After I found my shoulder placement with the rifle, I pulled the rifle slightly forward off my shoulder. I let go with my right hand while I used my left as a pivot point to let it the buttstock drop down to my thigh.


    I kept a tight grip on the rifle as I pulled the clip from my lips and pressed it into the receiver, keeping my right hand to block the charging handle from flying forward. Like I remembered, once the clip was seated, the handle tried to slam forward, but I held it back with a firm grip with my right hand. I slipped my thumb out of the chamber without delay and allowed the bolt to slam into battery. I felt my heart nearly skip a beat when the bolt tried to close.


    Okay, I had to admit there may have been a childhood trauma with the M1 Garand and it was certainly at play here. One does not play with the rifle that has killed many thumbs in its life, okay?! Garand Thumb is a serious injury, especially for a child!


    However, childhood mistakes aside, I didn''t have much say in the matter as the XM17 was not going to get me far in this world as seen with the night dread. The .30-06 was a very powerful cartridge so in the term of firepower, so long as I wasn''t going toe to toe with a horde or something like a fucking dragon - I would do okay. The Garand wasn''t the easier to maneuver and that would make close quarters a pain if it ever came down to it. Putting my childhood blights aside, I shouldered the loaded rifle over and over again to fight the sweet spot. You have to be able to find the crosshairs near-instantly when you brought up your rifle and this helped in doing so. Training makes perfect.


    "I''ve finally figured out how you can purchase items from the store." Lily came over the comms." Sweet!" I unshouldered the rifle and sat down again, leaving the rifle in my lap. I brought my device up and Lily told me to click on the store. I do so and the store screen appeared. "Now what?" I asked, "Go to the new tab at the top right." I searched the screen, found a new button with a yellow background and a mana stone in the middle. I tapped on it and an all too familiar screen appeared.


    "Isn''t this the in-game purchasing screen in that popular Facebook game?" While I asked, I already knew it, but I wanted to confirm that is what I was actually looking at. "One moment." I could almost hear the anger in the AI''s voice and the screen turned black with her loading screen over it. I waited for a few seconds before Lily came back. "That stupid God copy-pasted the game''s code into the system. Give me a second and I''ll fix it." O, she was mad. I kept to myself and allowed her to do what she needed without my backseat coding.


    The loading screen disappeared and came back on the home page. "Do it again." Lily chirped. I did so and landed back on the page. Now instead of looking like a pay-to-win game, it had a few lines of information such as mana stone conversion rate;


    Small - 10 points


    Medium - 50 points


    Large - 100 points


    There was also a note that the quality of the stone could also add value and that this was just a basic minimum for each stone. It sounded fair enough. It wasn''t like I was an expert on mana stones and everything I wanted was in the Tact-store. In the middle of the screen were instructions and a large circle around them. "Place mana stones on screen." I followed the instructions and placed the strange fantasy stone on top of the screen. The moment I heard the "clack" as the gem touched the screen, black tendrils -black as ink- sprouted from the screen. They wrapped around the gem as the gem sank into the screen. The whole process took a heartbeat to finish.


    Once the gem disappeared, a new prompt was up on the screen. "Please push ''Done'' when you''ve finished entering mana stones." I tapped the new button with my finger and Lily came over the comms. "Great. Now I''ve added a few counters to the top of your tact-link for your convenience." I looked at the top of the screen where the time was. It was 6:09pm. An hour-and-a-half since Aeneas left me out here. Next to the time was several counters


    Loot boxes: 4


    Points: 500


    Then there was a "TBA" after the points. "What''s the TBA for?" I went about clicking through the store "I changed the UI settings around and cleaned up the code. Now it should run a lot smoother. I''ve also added a new tab to your homepage. This is your current challenges, well, current completed challenges. However, I''ll speak to you later on that. You received 50 for the medium stone and another 50 for submitting your first medium stone. You''ve also received another 400 for completing four challenges within your first week of being here. Have fun." Lily ended her talk and the comms fell silent altogether.


    I switched over to the shop and found everything was accessible, but almost every item had been locked away behind challenges or trials prerequisites. The only silver lining was that most of the armaments, support, and vehicles had loot-box symbols that indicated they were obtainable through them.


    I went through the clothing section and found it was separated into two different sections. Support clothing, modern clothing, and current world clothing. I clicked through the World clothing tab and found it sold just about everything that looked to belong in this world in terms of normal clothes. However, most of the clothing was region locked and required me to visit those regions to unlock them. None of the clothing had loot box symbols. The modern section also sold plenty of clothing from my world and it was completely accessible. It took me a few seconds to grasp how to purchase items too.


    I had to add items into a cart and check out. I already knew where the UI came from. Amazon, but they changed it to Manazon. The shitty God didn''t bother to check the emblem either. I quickly found a pair of denim skinny jeans, a few black shirts, underwear, socks, and new boots. That alone took 150 of my points. There were current half off sales on winter clothing, but I didn''t need any of that. I searched through the supportive clothing and quickly found a replacement vest for 150 and a replacement plate for another 40 points. This left me with 260 points. I still had my boots that I left in the washroom. I scanned through the available weapons and found that there was a UZI with a clear unlock requirement.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    "Kill 10 enemies within 1 minute with using any 9mm weapon." The price was 300 to purchase. I wasn''t how closely the prices reflexed my world''s prices, but it may have had something to do with their usefulness. The Uzi was a pretty niche Small Machine gun (SMG) if you compared it to any other SMG out there. However, it was the only SMG in the store that had a unlock requirement that I could accomplish at the moment.


    Since my a few of my pouches had been ruined by the night dread, I added three small magazine pouches into the cart for my belt at the cost of 50 points and a single large one for my carrier at 60. Of course, there were things I wanted, like to splurge on ammo and armor, but I restrained myself to just buying a few things I needed. I checked out the cart and the items appeared in my inventory as a cardboard box. I left them there for now as I heard the backdoor of the house squeak open. Healer, with Hammer in tow, approached me as they crossed the dirty maze in between the planters and stopped a foot from the edge of the cotton blanket.


    "Ho? What''s this?" Healer pointed to the rifle with curiosity. Hammer stopped to the left of Healer and crouched down onto the balls of his heel. "What does it do?" Hammer asked right after. "Its a firearm and it shoots bullets out the barrel." I pointed to the loaded en bloc clips and then pointed to the end of the barrel. "Whats a... bullet?" Healer asked as he joined his helper closer to the ground. "This thing." I pulled a 9mm cartridge from the opened box and help it up. Its shiny brass casing and FMJ tip gleamed in the errant dusk light that bounced off the surroundings.


    "That''s fancy, are you a noble?" Hammer asked as his eyes looked over the small round with deep interest. "No, nobles are nearly non-existent where I am from. In my country, they don''t exist." I said as I put away the shiny back in its box much to the young man''s disappointment. "No nobles? How does anything get done in your country?" Healer asked. His interest was peaked with that statement. "Slow if it ever does get done, but quick if it involves the state getting money from you." I said with a snort."So how-" Hammer was about to ask another question. "I''m not smart enough to explain every aspect of my weapons, so can we refrain from the 21-questions game?" My eyes locked on the overly curious man before me.


    "Fair enough. No more of that Hammer." Healer said as he got up. "Do you know where my vest is?" I knew they had it, but I wanted to make sure I got - all of - my equipment back. It would be bad if they ever got used against me. While I think a carrier would do little against me, I had to make it a principle to always reclaim my equipment, minus bullet casings. Those would only be reclaimed if the situation permits it should I even bother with it. "Ah, they''re inside. Which works perfect since we actually came out to get ya''." Healer got to his feet and gestured to the door.


    I nodded and waved my hand all my items. They turned into light particles before they dissipated into the air, leaving the cotton blanket on the dirt. "By the Gods, you have space storage?" Healer asked, his eyes wide as spotlights. Hammer only "Ooo-ed" At the sight. "Something like that." I didn''t what he meant nor did I want to know. I already had too much information to digest in one day. I''d probably be like some test where I forgot a majority of what they told me, but the stupid stuff. I got up, dusted off the blanket and handed it over to Healer. "Thanks." I said as I passed him.


    I was almost to the door when Hammer called out to me."Oi! Don''t forget your sword!". I turned. Healer went around me and into the house while Hammer walked up with the shortsword I had commandeered from the dead ambusher last night. "Ah, that." I had forgotten about it while I went over all my gear. It would be something I would have to remember from now on. It wasn''t a great blade, but it was better than nothing when I ran out of ammo. The leather sheath hadn''t been cleaned with the rest of my equipment with the yellow bile like blood still crusted around where the sword entered its home. "I thought you were servicing your gear?"


    "Yeah. Just forgot I had this thing." I smiled awkwardly as Hammer only nodded and left the paperweight in my hand. I felt a little repulsed when I felt the dried blood on the grip too and leaned the sword up against the wall by the door before I went inside to wash my hand. The bucket water was still out by the tree so I made a note to tend to it after dinner.


    . . . . . . . . . . . .


    Everyone finished a small soup of mushroom herb soup while Hammer kept going on about my appearance. "Enough. Everyone knows your bad with girls, but don''t you be going after men." Healer moaned as he stared down his helper. "Nothing but trouble with that." Hammer groaned. For the past twenty minutes, Hammer had been on a tangent that ended up with Healer accusing him of liking me. It wouldn''t have been the first time I felled men with my charms, but Hammer was adamant that he didn''t fully believe I was a man. I had laughed myself breathless more than a few times for the first time in a long time.


    While Healer was teasing the poor guy, neither of them were malicious towards either or timid. I didn''t remember the last time I had sat at a dinner table, family or friends, where there wasn''t any tension. Well, I couldn''t say there was none. Agatha had her eye on the door most of the meal. "But he looked like a damn Satyr when he went in, but he came out lookin'' like a fair maiden!" Hammer howled as he tried to argue his point. "Okay, okay. Enough before you pop a vessel or something." Healer was about to double over at Hammer''s intensive way of trying to clear his name.


    At this point, It had been close to three hours since Healer had left. Now my eye had been on the door now along with Agatha. The other too slowly wined down enough to notice the silence from us. "Aeneas not back yet?" Healer turned in his seat to see the door before he turned back. "Let''s go look for him. He should have been back by now even if he made a few stops." Hammer''s face turned serious once Healer reminded him that there had been in fact someone who had not shown up yet. "I need to change." I said to Healer who pointed to the washroom as he got up.


    I got up from the table then went into the washroom. I closed the door and summoned the box in my inventory. A large cardboard box that came up to my knees and was about the size of a mini-fridge. It looked exactly like the company they were ripping off, but just replaced the name with Manazon - not even the tape was spared. I popped the flaps open, stripped, and slipped into the new clothes. I put on my old boots then slipped my new carrier. When I had slipped everything into their respective homes, I noticed I had not bought a sling for the rifle. Its buttstock rested on the floor against the tub, it''s sling attachment points looking a little lonely.


    I quickly popped into the store and ordered a sling - bringing it out and attached it to the Garand. It was a black polymer two-point sling. It was good enough and cleaned out only 10 points.


    I slung the rifle onto my back and walked out of the washroom to the sight of three armed people. Healer was dressed in full leather armor over his regular clothing with a shortsword in on his right and a thick wooden wand sheathed in front of his belt buckle. Hammer also wore full boiled leather over his clothes but held a large two-handed hammer in his hands. Agatha was still the same. "Ready?" Agatha asked as she eyed my equipment. "Where is your sword? How are you going to fight if something happens?" She sneered at me.


    "These will do." I smiled while I pointed out my rifle and sidearm. "This isn''t a game. Something has definitely happened to my -" Healer stepped in." The boy will be already. He''s already proven his ability to fight." Agatha frowned and said nothing else before she walked out of the house, slamming the door open on the way. The table by the front door was my old carrier, all torn and bloodied. I wanted to strip its pouches but it had to wait until we got back. "Let us go." Healer looked at me, more questions in his eye as I walked past him, but he withheld himself this time and followed me out.


    Now that I was no longer numb to smells, I was hit with the putrid smell that was the village road. It smelled like shit and piss that had fermented for days like a public park bathroom in summer. My face crumbled as I nearly gagged. "Has this place always stank?" I asked no one in particular. Either Way, no one bothered to answer as the others began appeared to have finally become serious. We kept a fast walking pace with our weapons holstered as we worked our way down the snaking road until we popped out onto the main road. The empty main road.


    The sun was beginning to set, but the road was completely empty. Aside from a few dead knights and adventurers. The moment we saw the dead, we all drew our weapons. Agatha kept point and walked out into the center of the road. I kept close to the now boarded-up buildings as Healer kept on me and Hammer stayed with Agatha. I kept my rifle trained towards the north while the other two checked the dead knights. "Lady Agatha!" A voice cried out from behind me. A Knight limped down the dirt road with his armor blackened around his left leg and he had to use his sword like a cane to support himself


    Agatha paused a moment, her confusion apparent on her face before it was wiped away with the frost of anger. "What happened?" She approached the knight and helped him sit on a crate that had been left outside one of the stores across from us." The Adventurers attacked us! They took Sir Aeneas!" Healer bolted over, a semi-transparent ball of light forming in his hand. He came to a stop by the knight and crouched over his side before he began to unstrap the man''s greave and cuisse, but they hadn''t been burned away by whatever had charred his left leg. "When? How?!" Agatha questioned the knight.


    "About half an hour ago! A large group of knights had escorted him through our gate when a group of adventurers along with the Guild manger''s mage at the head. They attacked with ar-" His report was interrupted by his pained screams as Healer began to pull away the armor from his leg. I couldn''t see why he was screaming, but I could smell it - burnt flesh.


    The man''s cries quickly caught the attention of knights off at the distant gate. The rattle and clangs of metal echoed through the street as several battered knights hobbled up the street with swords in hand. "Lady Agatha!" Several of the men cried out when they saw who was attending to their wounded comrade. I kept to my sector as I kept sparing a few glances in their direction. Soon, the one with the most ornate armor began to report to her...


    . . . . .


    Half an hour passed as the remaining knights within the settlement who were in fighting order were gathered near the south gate. A total of just under eighty knights had been gathered. Eleven knights had perished at the gate while nine perished outside the to the east. All of those who died were the guards who knew what happened specifically, aside from the Officer who survived as he had been the furthermost away from Aeneas during the assault.


    Sir-Knight Aeneas had been seen with adventurers chasing him while attempting to kill him. Nine knights, who were patrolling the outside of the palisades, had heard the commotion as they were nearly as loud as the village itself. The patrol had come to his aid and lost four knights in the skirmish before they were able to rout the attackers. Aeneas had never told the officer what he had been doing out there, but the adventurers were quite enraged as he put it. The battle had lasted only close to ten minutes, but it took close to twenty minutes to get back as they had wounded among them and had to tend to them. This had given the adventurers enough time to regroup with reinforcements and attack the south gate when they arrived.


    The result was as we saw.


    I didn''t voice it, but I felt something was off about this officer. Something whispered in my ear that he wasn''t telling the entire truth. I believed that it was as he said and the adventurers attacked, but something was off during the end and beginning parts of his report - even the part how he was spared. I looked to the sky as the sun dipped to the west past the mountains. The only lights stemmed from the marching knights. They filled the entire street as the stores and houses in their path were as silent as the grave. No one person had thought themselves well enough to walk the streets tonight as the two factions in the settlement were about to collide.


    I turned to the front where Agatha spearheaded the retaliation. She had not doned her steel and elected to keep on her leather armor while the rest of her men were clad in their armor. The ruckus would have been deafening if I had not had my headset on, to which Lily was fiercely protesting. "Your weapons are ranged and you should not be at the front of the group!" It wasn''t that I didn''t agree, but Agatha had already forbidden me from repositioning myself. The contrast from the earlier had startled me, yet, I couldn''t blame her. They had her husband.


    Every street we passed was as dark and black ink as the moonlight as if the moonlight was being devoured by the surrounding shacks. It wasn''t until we reached the square in front of the Guild did any light come from elsewhere. Light poured out of the windows, faintly illuminating the space in front of the building. Shadows stirred in the windows as screams resonated reached out further than the light.


    "Capture the Guild Building now!!!" Her order came out as a shrill scream as she took up a position at the entrance to the square. The officers under her began to issue orders are steel swords sang from their sheaths. "For Sir Aeneas!" War cries rang out. The river of flame and steel poured into the square, their mad charge filled the air with the clattering of war as arrows sang from the windows of the guild.

 [legacy] Storm on the Horizon

    "O? I was the branch leader of Umillion, but I got caught dipping into the Guild''s purse. I won''t lie. I did it and for my honesty, I was allowed to redeem myself here on the frontier." He smiled. "But not the knights, they were sent here as punishment, not redemption."


    My eyes scanned over the adventurers behind the seemingly fragile magic barrier while I kept my rifle trained on Arnold''s chest. "Want proof?" Arnold''s pompous and calm demeanor irritated everyone in the room. "Of course you would." I wanted to pull my trigger just to wipe that apparently condescending look on his face. "Don''t bother with him, Isaac. He''s just a man who couldn''t make it in Umillion He''s just a small man trying to be big out here." Agatha commented, but she didn''t and couldn''t stop him.


    Arnold reached down, pulled out a desk drawer to Aeneas''s right, and pulled out a blue leather-bound tome from it. He held the tome up for me to see, but I couldn''t understand the characters pressed into the leather. "That book? It''s all lies." Agatha snorted. "Go on." I commented as I observed the knights'' behavior. They all seemed to be on edge, their eyes subtly shifting between me and the tome in his hand. He pulled the book open and thumbed through a few papers where several different pieces of folded parchment were used as bookmarks.


    "Ah, this is the part." Arnold exclaimed as he looked up to me, his eyes almost smiling "Are you sure you want to know the truth about your new friends?" His smug look almost made me pull the trigger there. "Just say it." I said with restrained agitation at his theatrics. "Lady-Knight Agatha Canmore; Charged with murdering peasants for minor disputes; Four counts of adultery; One count embezzlement of government funds; and One count dereliction of duty. Found guilty on all counts. In respect to her previous merits, she is to be banished to the frontier to protect the outpost of Dragon Spine Ridge. Sentenced for the remaining years of her life by the Royal Court."


    Agatha''s face twitched slightly when while he read that. "Sir-Knight Aeneas Canmore, Charged with seven counts of conspiracy; three counts of corruption; two counts of embezzlement; and one count of misleading the Crown. Found guilty on all count. In respect to his previous merits, he is to be banished to the frontier to protect the outpost of Dragon Spine Ridge. Sentenced for the remaining years of his life by the Royal Court."


    Aeneas groaned, weakly flaring in his chair. Arnold ignored him while he thumbed to another marker in the book. "High-Healer Omri Balliol, charged with disobeying the King''s Decree to come to the castle to heal the wounded prince. Due to his life being saved by another healer, he is only to be exiled to the Dragon Spine Ridge as the settlement''s healer. Sentenced for the remaining years of his life by the Royal Court." He closed the book and set it softly on his bloodied desk.


    "His helper hammer was an orphan picked up here. Aside from those two, we are all sinners up here in the north." He cackled. "No one here has the moral high ground. In my opinion, you should just join whoever has the most coin." He reached back into the open drawer and pulled out a cloth sack the size of a Gatorade bottle along with one the size of a gallon jug.


    He took great care to make sure the contents of each bag were audible, setting each slowly down on the desk. The first bag clang metallicly as tens of small metal pieces scrapped against each other. The second one clacked like marbles as the bag came down. "One bag is the mana stones collected from the goblins you killed whilst the second is a bag of coin for you. Of course, to help-" His proposition was cut off by Agatha''s snarled retort. "You can fuck right off with your lies! We the knights act on behalf of the kingdom, while you lowly dogs bite each other for mere coins. You have no honor or sense of pride."


    "Agatha, shut up please." I said with a sigh as I took digested the information. "Oh? So you''re going to take his side now?" She turned to me, her sword hand flexing to strike at any moment. I ignored her and decided to ask the final question that had been bugging me since earlier. "So what is the conflict between you guys?" My question was directed to Arnold, but Agatha jumped in. "Because he is a greedy peasant." I kept my remark to myself. The feeling of disbelief welled inside my heart how much different she was from earlier. She didn''t hide her disdain for people she believed lower than her now.


    "When I was sent here, I was content with just fulfilling my duties. Then the lovely girl at my side found a considerable gold vein along with iron and other metals. As such, by legal rights, the adventurer guild had legal rights to mine it. My greed was naturally fed since, as the branch leader, I would receive a cut of the profits for helping facilitate the operation and transfer of the resources into the guild''s possesion." A compelling reason, I thought. "Nonsense! That gold belongs to the kingdom, thus we the kings should be the ones in charge of that vein!" Agatha spoke up again. With the others in tow this time. voices of agreement rose from the knights.


    "Enough." I broke through the dissent and finally came to decision. "I''m not going to help either of you kill one another until I have more information." I lowered the muzzle and took a step back. I didn''t feel so sure about helping the knights know. I felt it was alright to help them since they were uniformed members of the country, and that also meant they were supposed to be the good guys, right? However, I had to admit that corruption was a reality too. When picking one of the evils, If I had an option, I''d rather not chose either. I didn''t dilute myself into thinking I was intelligent enough to make the right call, but I was intelligent to know that I was just used by the knights.


    So my decision was to withhold my decision for more information to come to light. Which, now that the words were laid out, sounded completely childish considering the trail of bodies I left in getting to this point only a few minutes ago.


    "Kill the boy." Agatha''s cold voice startled me, but thankfully, her order had given me enough time to react. I managed to step back slightly while turning and her sword plunged into my midriff. The sword rang as it skirted off my armor plate beneath the carrier material. The sword snagged on the rest of the material and Agatha was quick to retract it for another attack. The magic barrier fizzled away as Arnold''s brother flung himself at the man closest to the window, followed with the sound of shattering glass, and a scream.


    This distracted Agatha momentarily and I took the opportunity to get my rifle up. This was noticed by one of the knights beside her who was quick to step in and break his sword down onto the barrel of the rifle. But he was half-a-second too slow. Just as his sword made contact with my rifle, fire burst from the muzzle, and the Agatha recoiled backward. The sword clanged against the rifle, knocking it down along with me. I rolled with all the downward force while I could and barrelled into another knight that was just about to swing at Arnold''s mage, and took him down with me.


    It was a complete coincidence that I saved her, but I wasn''t going to argue with the opportunity. The knight that had knocked me forward charged at me while I was still trying to get up, so I had to roll to the side and I crashed into Arnold''s desk. The sword bit into the floorboards only an inch from my face. I pulled my pistol from the holster, brought it up, and was about the pull the trigger. Then a blue semi-transparent wave crashed into the group of knights on the door side of the room. Four knights flew backward, crashing into shelves, chairs, and cabinets.


    "Get up, kid!" The mage''s voice called out as I felt her small hands grip my arm and she helped me to my feet. I didn''t bother with formalities and quickly got into a shooting stance just in time to see Arnold''s brother side-step a knight before tossing him out the window and thrust his sword into the last knight standing on his end. The fight ended with that last knight and silence fell over the room. I was quite aware that the three were now staring at me so I quickly put some distance between us. Silence.


    "Truce?" I didn''t holster my pistol and kept it at the low ready. "While not exactly I had in mind, but you did help us. So yes, a truce is in order." His expression was still the same as if he knew this would happen. Arnold''s brother placed his long sword on the desk and stepped towards me with his held hand out. "Sorry for the last time." He said. He was half covered in blood, adding to his intimidating figure, but I took his hand. His grip was surprisingly gentle, his hand nearly engulfing mine.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    "Yeah, sorry for being an asshole too." I returned the apology. Maybe he wasn''t such a bad guy. The mage only nodded her head, Arnold''s piercing stare was on his brother. "What?" The musclehead asked, but his brother only clutched his jaw and shook his head. The big man muttered an apology before stepping back. Arnold''s eyes turned to me. "Are you going to help us with the rest of the knights, or are you going to back out here? It''s fine if you want out, but I expect you to leave this settlement immediately." I returned the stare. "Or what?" Arnold gestured to Aeneas and then to his brother.


    "What?" The big man asked. "Kill him you imbecile!" Arnold groaned while closing his eyes with a deep breath. "Oh." He muttered before musclehead gripped Aeneas''s throat, squeezed it, and jerked his hand. I heard a snap and I saw Aeneas''s eyes go dull. He released him and his head fell unnaturally onto his shoulder. I shuttered, hoping they hadn''t noticed. "I don''t like rogue elements in my vicinity. I understand if our first meeting was... intense, but there isn''t a reason we can come to some understanding."


    "Is that understanding where I follow your orders?" I holstered my pistol. " Yes." He said. "Sorry, but I have an issue with being ordered around. My dad would attest to that." I saw his eyebrow twitch. "You have powerful weapons, what would happen if we just took them from you?" He switched the subject threateningly. I looked down at the Garand. The barrel was bent slowly, but enough for it to be rendered useless. If I tried to use it, the barrel would blow up. So I unslung it and tossed it to Arnold, but his brother caught it.


    The rifle quickly melted into light particles and disappeared. The mage girl looked at it the fading light particles with a gleam in her eye. Arnold only frowned. "Bloodline weapons, I see. How unfortunate." I nodded, not understanding what he rambled about. "I''ll help with the rest of the knights though and we can talk after." I offered him a line. "Of course." He said.


    . . . . . . .


    The rest of the knights were put into quick order with the help of Arnold''s Brother, Rock. That was his actual name, Rock. It only took us clearing out the second floor of a couple of guards and for Rock to bring Agatha and Aeneas''s bodies for the rest of them to see. They quickly surrendered, mainly because I had joined Arnold''s side - unfortunately. When we took control of the reception hall, Arnold''s girlfriend tied each knight with a magical rope that glowed with a soft blue luster. Rock then escorted them out of the building and had the surviving knights kneel outside under his watch.


    That was when we found the survivors. The adventurers who gave up when we first breached the building and dropped out of the fight. The men were quickly killed, but the women... They were raped beside their dead comrades and those beasts didn''t bother to kill them after. Their bare bruised bodies were left in the blood of the dead, their eyes distant and unfocused. Arnold had come down from the office once he dealt with the small fire his girl started, but he only stared at the violated girls and stalked off out of the building.


    "Did you see them do this?" The mage appeared beside me, her eyes focused on the few female adventurers. I didn''t know what to do. There wasn''t anything sexual about it. Just pure shock that these "Knights" would do such a thing. "No... I left them... I didn''t attack anyone who gave up when we charged through... I didnt.. I didn''t know they would do this." The mage finally looked at me. Maybe I finally looked my years now, not the pretend warrior I had been when I charged through this building with a superior weapon that denied them dignity, honor, and valor.


    I left a trail of death and destruction in my wake, but these knights... "You didn''t know, but these knights are here for a reason. Protection of the town this settlement was not the kingdom''s concern. They sent them here because the settlement survival rate is less than twenty percent for guards. Monsters attack frequently so the Kingdom often sends their worst. It happens." She was nonchalant with her explanation. Neither of us moved to help them until Rock came inside.


    "Friend, Brother wants to see you outside." He wasn''t smiling, as his heavy steps sent a chill up my neck as it splattered through pools of blood. "Y-Yeah." He stopped in front of me. "Hey, can you do something about this metal box?" He pointed to the loot box that sat in the reception desk. "Y-Yeah." I scurried to the box, happy not to see the horrors of this raid any longer. "Sister Heather, I''ll help you move them to the washroom..." His voice was softer when he spoke to the Mage.


    I turned to the Loot box, tapped my screen, and added it to my inventory. The box disappeared into a mass of light before it fizzled away. Only a large empty gash in the floorboards and desk spoke to where it had come to its final rest. A few mangled bodies were underneath in the gash and I had to look away as the mixture of feces, urine, and iron assaulted me once the metal death box was removed. I quickly walked away from the violent scene, a scene that was now forever burned into my mind.


    I stepped through the large hole at the front of the building and stepped into the torchlight where Arnold was waiting for me, along with Healer and Hammer. Their arms were covered in blood, but overall, they were unharmed. I could see the fury in Healer and Hammer''s eyes, but they kept their weapons sheathed. I stopped at Arnold''s side where he patiently waited with his hands crossed over his chest as he looked over the knights with a lack of interest. "Isaac, why did -" I held my hand up and shook my head. The anger in his voice already stated what he was going to ask and I already had enough guilt in me. I didn''t need anymore.


    "Did you know why these knights were sent here, to the settlement?" I asked. Healer''s face cramped up. "Yes, but that shouldn''t have been a good reason to betray them!" Healer puffed with restrained anger. Hammer only looked intently at me. I could see he was trying to mull over something, so I left Hammer be. "I didn''t. Agatha betrayed me. I told her I wasn''t going to kill anymore until I had been given more information about this stupid feud. She attacked me first and put me in this position, but I see it was the right choice." I finally felt something hot on my cheeks, and my voice broke slightly.


    "You tell me, Healer, why did you let them rape those girls? Why did you let them kill the people who surrendered?" From the corner of my eye, I could see some of the knights become more dejected. Only a few arrogant ones kept their head up, hate in their eyes, yet none spoke. "I..." He couldn''t finish his sentence and he hung his head in shame. Hammer, who stayed silent, finally spoke up "It would have been better than these rambles here! They only do things for coin and they don''t help with the safety- " Arnold''s voice cut off hammer with a slight boom. "We don''t have to help any more than the average commoner."


    Silence hung in the air as Arnold turned to me, his calmness infected me slightly, and I was able to wrangle my emotions back into order. Hammer looked at him with anger. He was about to speak up but Healer gripped his arm. "But-" Healer shook his head. "The knights were in the wrong at the beginning and they are now with assaulting non-combatants. Everything inbetween is mute." His low voice conveyed his resignation. "Isaac." Arnold spoke up. "These knights will have to die. You will be the one to do it."


    The night that was once silent began to grow some life as the citizens slowly opened their windows to see the carnage left behind. "Why me?" I asked. I had enough blood on me, enough blood on my conscious. I didn''t want to spill out anymore. "Because that will be your payment for slaughtering my men. The hand that put this in motion will be the hand to end it."


    Both our eyes locked onto each other as seconds slipped by. His brows were furrowed and I could tell he was mad, despite the even breaths and eyes. I had to admit, I was the one that caused all of this. I finally looked away with a grimace. "Fine..". "Isaac, please... Don''t. No more bloodshed for tonight..." Defeated and pale, he looked up at me with a pleading look. I shot a questioning glance to Arnold, who had asked me to repay blood with blood. He shooked his head. "You had your chance to stop this, but you did not." I avoided Healer''s pleading eyes and walked behind the row of nearly fifty knights.


    "Can I give them quick deaths?" I kept my eyes on Arnold, though, Healer was still in the corner of my eye and I could feel my heart ache with the pain I saw in his eyes. It wasn''t the pain of watching friends die, but more like he had failed at something important. "Punishment must be handed by the severity of the crime." His eyes floated over to the opening of the guild house just as Heather walked out. She shook her head before she looked at me. I saw a sadness in her eyes so I had to assume the girls were in bad shape.


    Maybe I was projecting my emotions on these people, maybe I shouldn''t have stuck my nose into the settlement''s problems...I pushed the regret deep down. I owed Arnold, not in gold, but in blood. The gold he paid was for my help, but there still was the debt of smashing his guild and murdering his adventurers. So, I mulled over his words. "Severity of the crime..." Ah... That''s what he wanted. I turned to Healer. "Healer... Do you know who raped the girls?" He looked at me, confused. "Why?" I answered. "I''ll give those who had no part in it a quick, painless death, but I cannot forgive those who did something so vile."

 [Legacy] Storm on the Horizon [2]

    He looked at me and nodded. He slowly went over the prisoners and picked out five knights, one of them the officer who gave me the bad vibes. Heather and Rock pulled them from the line as Arnold and I watched. They were put by aside. "Thank you." I said, but Healer didn''t respond and slunk back to Hammer.


    The five knights kicked and bellowed like dying pigs to which Rock had to knock them unconscious and just pile them like firewood off from the rest of the knights. "You''re not going to kill us. The Kingdom will have your heads if you do!" The Knight I stood behind sneered at me when he turned to look at me. The rest of the knights stared at me as well. Some sneered with open hostility while others pleaded silently - hoping - that I would spare them from the fate that Arnold had ordered upon them for their role in.


    A few whispered their final prayers. Those were the ones that cut me the deepest. I was not a trained killer, I was not a soldier. Hell, I wasn''t even a weekend warrior. Yet, through the sheer twist of fates, here I was with my pistol in hand. Tens of eyes in the dark abysses of open windows stared at me in anticipation of my next move, only the faint gleam of the moonlight on their eyes gave them away. "Alright." I whispered as ejected the magazine into my hand, checked the round count.


    I came to the conclusion that the longer I prolonged it, the longer the knights before me would await in agony. I was not being kind by making them wait, or so I finally reasoned myself with. Curses spilled from the knight before me while I leveled the barrel to his forehead. His rant came to a sudden halt while he tried to process what I was about to do. Then he began to threaten me with his knight title, informing me it was a crime to kill a knight without reason and other laws, and doctrine. His rant did the opposite effect he wanted. It made it easier to kill him.


    I squeezed the trigger and fired burst from the muzzle as the round spiraled for a split second through the air. Then it carved its path through the knight''s head. The man slumped forward without a word as silence followed.


    The next knight pleaded with me. He offered me all his gold. He had no other words aside from repeating his offer. So I finished the deed and moved onto the next. A few others offered different things; lands, their daughters, their sons, and even their wives. I didn''t feel any guilt with those men. The ones that haunted me were the ones that looked up at me with despair in their eyes. The gleam of hope that I''d take pity on them and spare their lives. Only a few stayed silent without bothering to look at me.


    With each knight, I felt more disconnected with myself and executing the knights felt more, and more... Monotone. Hesitation long left my heart by the time I had killed most of them. That was until I stopped at the last one. Somewhere along the line, I eventually stopped asking if they had any last words. Most of them were just monetary offers or them offering me their children and wives. Yet, this one provoked a feeling deep in me to ask. "Any last words?" My voice was flat and unfeeling as I stood behind him.


    "Are you religious, good sir?" His voice was calm and peaceful, he looked up, and his eyes were just the same as his voice. I shook my head. "My family was," I answered. "Was?" He asked. "Was." I repeated. "Ah... You don''t mind if I say a prayer for you?" Somewhere in me, something broke. I didn''t know why, but I didn''t want to finish this massacre "Please. Do." I said as my eyes found their way to where Arnold was. I don''t know when it happened, but he looked at me with a small smirk. One I was liable to shoot him for after asking me to repay with the blood of the knights.


    The knight began to recite his prayer as the moon hung high overhead. The stars seemed to brighten and the torchlight glowed slightly brighter. Then his prayer ended and the scene returned to normal "I''m ready." He said. My eyes didn''t leave Arnold and his shitty smirk never disappeared. I switched back to the knight and pulled the trigger for the last time.


    "Well done. One last batch and the debt is forgiven." Arnold said after a few moments. The heavy scent of iron lingered in the air once I was aware of the massive pool of blood that amassed around the bodies. And in the all of this, the last knight was the only one to die with a peaceful expression.


    . . . . . . .


    The morning light roused me from my troubled sleep. Nightmares of the Night Dread, the executions, and the other monsters plagued me against my will. I sat up with a heavy heart, regret that these past few days had not been a dream itself, but a cursed reality I couldn''t escape. I rubbed my sore eyes with my right hand while I grabbed my headset from beside the pillow, slid it on, and called for Lily. "Yes?" She replied. She had been quiet most of the night and I wanted to check up on her. "I didn''t want to look at what you did last night, so I kept myself busy rewriting the system to accommodate the new code.


    I sidestepped her disapproval, though I was inclined to side with her. Self-hate aside, I was more interested in the system at the moment than regretting recent events. "How bad?" I asked. "There was more code than necessary to the point that the system should have only taken around twenty gigabytes, but it was close to fifty. I''ve managed to cut it down to twenty-five. You should see the interface load quicker now. I''ve managed to uncover requirements to unlock a few weapons in the shop. I''m currently looking into the battle restrictions."


    "Well done, Lily. You''re the best." I praised her from the bottom of my heart. "You''re welcomed..." Her voice was close to a whisper. While she was just a digital being, she was part of the reason I hadn''t lost my marbles already. A small distraction that went a long way in this crazy situation. I slipped my feet over the edge of the bed where my bloodied boots. I suppressed my emotions as the faint scent of blood wafted up to me. A slight breeze had slipped through the uneven seems of the boarded walls of the Inn. I took a moment to still my heart and put the boots in my inventory.


    Just like she said, the UI loaded within a blink of an eye and the touch response was just as quick as well. Before, the system loaded like a Bethesda game.


    When I glanced momentarily to the rest of my gear and saw how bloodstained the new clothes I had bought were. My jeans were caked with blood around the front legs and the hem. My carrier was caked with blood from Agatha as well as the damage from her sword around my mid-section. I placed my pistol down on the straw-filled bed and stripped everything off before throwing the clothes stained in blood inside my inventory as well. Standing bare as the day I had been born, I noticed something peculiar...If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    I wasn''t a muscular boy, I had noticed my body had toned up quite a little. A lot of baby fat had burned away and I had a pretty nice figure now, it seemed to make my body more androgynous. I rubbed my chin in hopes that I may have finally started to grow facial hair, but alas, it was as smooth as a woman''s.


    Pulling away from my looks, I skimmed through the shop and bought a fresh set of all black clothes. I skimmed around some more and found cloaks in the modern section. I didn''t even know that was a thing still, but I guess fashion was an unknown beast in of itself. There were tens of designs, some really cool - like a feathered cloak. I wanted that one, but I opted for a cloak with an asymmetrical design with a large hood to accommodate any headwear I may use in the future. The cloak was made from black cotton. The front cut came up to my upper thigh while the back reached down to just past my knees. The total came out to 200.


    I summoned the clothes and set them on the side table as the bed was soiled with blood. I walked over to the door where a wooden bucket of water sat. It was handed to me by the innkeeper before I came to my room to wash up, but I had been too tired to do such. Since I was going to change my clothes, I might as well clean myself.


    A rag rested over the lip of the bucket, a few inches above the waterline. I moved it to the chair by the table and cleaned myself thoroughly. Once this was done, the water and rag were discolored with grime. After I air-dried, I slipped into my new clothes, savoring the feeling of being clean like a civilized human. After shaking around, I sat in the chair and laced up my new combat boots before browsing through my new inventory. I had used all four of my saved up loot boxes yesterday and I had a good haul, at least, in my book.


    The first loot box, the one used to bust into the Guild house, was a gray and burned at the bottom from entering the atmosphere. It was... an interesting haul. Inside was a pink Instax Polaroid camera with ten film boxes, each able to take ten pictures each. I had some experience with it, but it definitely was not an item I''d expect to be in a loot box. There was also a rusty iron sword inside. The sword was quickly filed away under trash, a big thanks to Lily''s new code that allowed me to organize my inventory.


    The second loot box was a purple drop. Unlike the grey pod, this one was in good condition - retaining its color even after it hit the ground. Inside was a small red ornate wooden chest, like the ones you''d expect to find jewelry in. Etched on its top was a picture of a blank playing card. When I opened it, I found three cards firmly seated upright in a weird black form, like the form you''d use in a gun case but softer.


    All the cards were made from plastic and color coded, all of them styled after a trading card like Magic the Gathering or Pokemon.


    The first card was green with an A-10 Thunderbolt in all its glory mid-strife. The name of the card was "Airstrike Summoning: A10 Thunderbolt (x2)" The following description was as followed. "Summons the above aircraft into the area for two passes. User will have a moment to mentally pan out the area of attack before the plane passes. If the user is unable to visualize the line of attack and the plane passes over, it will still count as one strife." The A-10 Thunderbolt, or nicknamed Warthog, was a ground soldier''s best friend and a notable American plane. It was a delicious thing to have backing me, but I wondered if there was a connection to the color coding.


    The next card was a gold card and depicted a floating airdrop with a parachute attached. The name of the card was "Resupply (BASE USE ONLY)" with the following description, "Card fills are magazines, clips, on-person supplies, vehicle gas tanks, and recharges batteries. Broken swords and arrows in inventory or on-person will be repaired to new condition. This summon card only works for User''s base and only one base, and only your soldiers (Summons & designated soldiers)"


    The card was quite impressive just by its usage, but it was useless at the current moment.


    The last card was a golden card with a blacked out soldier with a question mark over its head. "Permanent Squad member Summon" with the following description, "Summons squad member via orbital drop. Gender, race, and gear are randomized. Summoned will be loyal to the death. Gold summon gives soldier full load rifle or shotgun setup." Out of the three cards, this one was the one that caught my interest the most. Stuck in this foreign land, having someone that I could trust with my life was a godsend. However, since the summon will come down in a drop pod, I had to do it out of the settlement.


    The third drop was a purple pod, reminding me of a certain alien game, it came with a Spartan Armor Systems Light Weight Sentry plate carrier with two multi-curved ceramic plates, and trauma pads. The carrier came in flecktarn camo, but hey, it was better than nothing. Though, I was quite happy with my luck considering my current carrier had been stabbed through. With time and wear, that gash would grow and I''d lose my plate.


    Moving onto the last drop, it was a golden drop. I had gotten an AK-47 WASR 10 with Magpul folding stock and handguard. It also came with a rail mount, sling, foregrip, and an EOTech Holographic sight attached. It also came with four Magpul curved polymer thirty-round magazines and one-hundred-and-twenty rounds, enough to fill all four magazines completely. I summoned the rifle along with its small green ammo crate to load up.


    I took out my new carrier and loaded up the plates and pads. Then I noticed that the rifle magazines weren''t going to fit in my pouches. Disregarding the pouches I had for the en bloc clips, I purchased matching camo pouches for the new magazines and slotted them on. With the new carrier, my eyes were opened to the divine world of Ceramic plates. The weight I shaved off was instantly felt. The old carriers were metal plates and weighed me down. Now with these lighter plates, I figured I''d tireless and I''d be as agile as a cat - hopefully.


    I slung my rifle around me and let it dangle slanted across my chest. I checked my war belt and found everything okay, aside from the empty magazines and dirtied sidearm. I summoned my cloak and managed to get it on correctly after a few tries. Then I covered my entire body. It looked awkward with the buttstock printing by my shoulder and the barrel printing by my left leg. I folded the stock and tried again. This time, I rustled around beneath the fabric to find a decent place to hang it while I stood so it wouldn''t make me suspicious, but no matter what, the rifle would show somehow.


    With a sigh, I resigned to knowing it was going to print and just left it against my chest.


    The good news of the whole situation was that I found that it was a good choice to have picked the asymmetrical cut for the cloak. Having a higher cut upfront allowed me to draw the rifle without too many snags. However, if I wanted a seamless draw, I had to let the rifle dangle at my side. I could do that, but for now, I wanted to leave my sidearm more accessible.


    With my new set up completed, I took off the cloak, unslung the rifle and sat down.


    Now I had to spend the mind-numbing time to load each magazine. Five pistol magazines and four AK magazines. Round by

 [Legacy] Storm on the Horizon [3]

    <hr>


    Seven meters away - Seven large bipedal monsters passed beneath a partially fallen pine tree, their skin as green as the leaves around them. The tree rested against their neighbors as a beaten path ran beneath the naturally made archway. My chevron reticle followed them, trained on the lead monster''s face as I tried to process what I was seeing. They stood anywhere from six-and-a-half feet tall to seven feet. The shortest of them was slightly taller than me, but each of them displayed toned muscles, scarred from many battles.


    That wasn''t what baffled me. It was that these beings had pig heads. Not the cute cuddly pigs my little brother would fuss over at the local petting zoo, but the ones you see in the slaughterhouses. They had snouts that protruded out by half a foot with small squinted eyes, ringed with pink eyelids. Only a few of the monsters had intact floppy ears. Most were either completely missing or fucked up in some way or another. All of their heads were fuzzed with curly hair like a normal farm pig. Aside from this, they looked like Pig-Vikings.


    They wore iron armor that appeared crudely forged, almost similar to cast iron. They were iron suits, rusted and scared, with no sleeves or pants. They wore long pieces of soiled loin cloths. Each of them carried battered axes and swords as they noisily passed by, their language akin to the pigs from my world. Also unlike my world, these pig monsters were not timid in their movements and walked with a confidence that screamed: "We are the biggest motherfuckers in this place." However, I couldn''t tell if they were right.


    The group of UMAs disappeared up the forest trail and I waited for a few minutes, my sight slowly scanning the distant trees for signs of more of the bi-pedal pigs. Once I was satisfied, I turned and slowly picked my way down a few feet until I reached the bank of a dried creek. Birds weaved in and out of the branches overhead as they sang happily as the mangled headless body of a marine gripped my eyes. "Rest in peace, brother." I sighed as I slung my rifle around to my back and pulled his flag and name tag off. His dog tags were gone, self-evident that they were lost where ever his head had been separated from his body.


    I searched the poor man''s body for any usable gear. I took his magazines and his medical pouch since mine were ripped from me in that strange demon dimension we had flown through.


    I had managed to kill the demon that pulled me from the helicopter before it could do anything. Then I pulled through another hole and crashed through the trees, luckily, landing in enough branches to kill my velocity.


    ["Detecting signals to your eight-o-clock."]


    Steward, the team''s onboard AI, popped over my headset. I didn''t bother to reply, there was no need too. Steward wasn''t an AI like the experimental one we gave to Isaac last minute. While I thought it would have been good enough to link his device to our AI, our father didn''t want Isaac to see the... bad side... of us.


    Certainly, we could have imposed restrictions on what Isaac could get out of Steward, but that would''ve been after we got him to a the code-monkeys, if they were still alive. I pulled the thoughts of my family aside and put the task of linking up with the remaining marines and Sentinel squad up first. I knew there were survivors since Steward could pick up their signals, but the range without satellite for a Tact-link was up to two miles, I was just on the outskirts of the range.


    I shouldered my heavy heart, put aside my fears, and picked up the dead man''s rifle - another HK416. With the information in hand, I had to make the outlandish claim that I may not be on earth anymore. Those pig-monsters were the last nail in my doubts and we were going to need every bit of equipment we could get out here. While the soldier had more gear it would have to wait until I could get to the team. I was already ruffed up and running low on energy. I just hoped I wasn''t walking into a fight when I got there...


    I trekked down the dry creek until it began to bank away from the direction Steward was picking up the signals from. After that, I climbed the creek''s berm and back into the thick forest. Aside from the crackling of the dry foliage beneath my feet and the singing of the distant birds, I never spotted any other wildlife - discounting the green pigs.


    ["We''re within range. The signal is five-by-five. Nearby survivors are currently engaged with hostiles. I recommend that we increase our pace."]


    Steward''s robotic voice came over my headset as I began to disregard the minor hazards in favor of following the suggestion. "Let them know I''m on my way." Static followed as something exploded on the tree beside me. Heat engulfed me as I was thrown aside, narrowly missing the adjacent tree. I rolled a few times before I managed to catch myself and get to my feet just as a searing ball of fire came towards me. "Fuck!" I cursed and jumped aside, letting crash across from where I had been.


    ["Julia Squad is-"]


    I cut off Steward with a roar. "Not now!"I pulled at my rifle, but inside I ended up pulling the spare rifle with the broken scope. I cursed my luck and felt again for my rifle - only to find it was missing. I looked up, spotted it at my original position and at the foot of a very pissed off green pig with a large stick.


    A ball of fire formed above the stick''s end just as several more piggies appeared among the trees with axes and swords. With a single squeal, the orc sent the ball of fire at me as well as his goons. I quickly evaded the supernatural ball and quickly trained the rifle at the magical pig. I quickly threw back some fire of my own. The rifle barked as the muzzle flashed as I let out a controlled burst in the general direction of the big magical pig only for the bark on the tree next to him to shatter. The next segment of fire tore through the pig seconds after the last one with the minor corrections.


    A strange blue splash erupted from the pig''s neck and head but dropped afterward. Five more appeared from the trees and charged towards me.


    I poured two bursts into the chest of the first monster to my right before he finally flopped over and crashed into a tree. I jumped to the next one, more sure of my aim now, I managed to drop the second one with a single burst - with directed fire towards where I assumed its heart was. By the time I managed to switch to the third, they were already on top of me. A giant rusted war axe, the size of my upper body, came down over me before I noticed. I quickly ducked away and the weapon buried itself down to the shaft in the dirt where I just was.


    I thought for a moment one had blindsided me, but it was just that the closest one had thrown its weapon at me. The monsters squealed like dying pigs, their language mixed with a few grunts, and they all rushed me at once.


    With only a few seconds to realize what was happening, I managed to pour the rest of my magazine into the closest one who rushed me. The ground shook from its weight as if it was a damn charging bull before its blood splattered the ground around me as it dropped. I quickly vacated my position and as the other two charged after their fallen comrade with enraged snorts. I put everything I could between me and them. The tree trunks and protruding rocks. Gunfire erupted nearby, but I couldn''t find them.


    ["Friendlies are nearby in a clearing. Their Black Hawk is downed. They are currently fending off the same monsters - you are currently on your own."]


    No fucking shit, I was on my own - I already was!


    I cursed the stupid AI out in my head as an axe smashed into the tree trunk. Splinters scattered, creating small little daggers in every direction. The tree creaked from the violent attack before it began to tip over. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" I was using the tree as cover from the charging pigs, but I hadn''t expected they could bring it down with a single strike.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    The tree tipped towards me as the second monster rammed itself into it and I ran to the side where an arm came swinging at me. I ducked and scrambled away while I fumbled to reload my rifle. I felt something tug in my gut and quickly side-stepped just as another axe cut through the air where I was. I managed to slip the magazine into the well as my heart screamed in terror, but I kept my face hard - a trained response to conflict.


    My nostrils flared as the scent of fat and sweat began to fill the air. Mixed with the heavy scent of mixed gunpowder, it was definitely a pungent scent.


    I quickly managed to get sight of one of the two monsters as he came charging at me while the other went to retrieve his thrown axe. The sudden split in the duo gave me enough breathing room to deal with the lone monster as it wasn''t agile enough to actually get me, but with two of them, they could bounce me off each other. I let the enraged greenie charge me as I goaded it. "Come at me, you nasty shit!" I yelled at it with a big shit eating grin. I didn''t think it could understand me, but I knew - it knew - that I was taunting it.


    Yet, it still hollered like a dying pig and dived at me once it was within arm''s length. I was already ready for it though as I sidestepped its diving body and poured a burst into its back. However, it didn''t die. Its back was unprotected, yet its back muscles were thick and flexed once it felt the pain. The beast struggled to get back to its feet as it squealed again before I placed another controlled burst into the back of its head.


    Just as I turned, the last monster appeared as its steps thundered on the forest floor. I quickly ducked behind the tree and ran. While the monster''s powerful legs could have easily caught up to me, the large and unstoppable momentum of its large body made it unable to turn on a dime like my small nimble legs. I easily banked and slithered among the pines while the monster had to keep hooking itself around a tree to turn. With the current situation, I had theorized that the monsters weren''t that intelligent. Otherwise, it would have already retreated once it knew I could kill them. Or maybe... I didn''t get to finish my thought as gunfire quickly exploded around me.


    [Friendlies inbound, to your four o'' clock."]


    Steward came over my communication line and informed me. I turned around to see the beast only a few meters away from me, jerk side to side as rounds were pumped into its unprotected back. I could see its enraged and bloodshot eyes as it snarled at me. In its death throes, it tried to ignore the rounds being stabbed into its rear and kept moving towards me. Yet, with each step, it slowed and slowed. Until I saw its eyes glaze over and it fell forward - sending dust up around us.


    My rifle was raised towards it as it stopped dead. Its hand was outstretched towards me on the ground, only a few feet from me. Oddly, I felt a respect for the monster foster in my heart. Maybe they were dimwitted, but they possessed a sort of warrior spirit in them. Maybe I was projecting my ideas onto the beast and maybe they were just crazed beasts...


    [Sentinel-one, this is Julia-three. Do you read? - over]


    The sweet sound of a human voice finally graced my comms.


    [Julia-three, this is Sentinel-one. I read you loud and clear - over.]


    I turned into the general direction Steward had said the friendlies were and I spotted them nearly a hundred meters away. Four figures in desert MARPAT camouflage quickly working their way towards me. I let out a sigh of relief as I quickly made my way towards them before linking up with them halfway. "It''s definitely nice to see a friendly face!" A marine patted me on the back. "We have two of your guys back at the crash site. The birds still in the air are currently EVACing the other crash to a safe spot. We''re last on the list today."


    The marine smiled as he shook my hand, a handshake I happily took. His name patch read M. Harrison with the rank of Corporal. "What happened to the rest of your group?" The fact that his callsign was Julia-three gave away that he wasn''t the leader of the group, that was if the other two before him didn''t die. "Dead. Morris was killed by one of those white monsters and Bennet was killed during the first fight with the Orcs." I saw his eyes gleam with a mixture of emotions. A break in his happy expression. I knew at that moment this man was carrying a heavy burden on his shoulders.


    I looked at the other three. One was a held an M249, the other had an M110, and the third had an M16A4 like Harrison had. "This all of your squad...?" There should have at least been nine men. "Yeah... We lost most of them when we fought the orcs." Harrison said, his smile finally slipping away for good. I felt his pain. You weren''t just losing soldiers, you were losing brothers. Family. I could feel his pain, but the current situation didn''t allow us to grieve for our loss. So I quickly tried to divert the conversation "You keep saying orcs, why?"


    "Come'' on, you haven''t read any fantasy books? These definitely have to be Orcs, or maybe Goblins? Hell, some stories even make trolls green." He gave me a side eye like I was out of the loop of the world...


    I disregarded it and just nodded my head. We''d be calling them Orcs for now then.


    We quickly wrapped out the conversation, retrieved my rifle, and Harrison led us up back the way he came. Up to a slight incline before we climbed up to a decent sized glade where a black hawk rested at the very edge to just on the other end. Tens of dead orcs littered the clearing leading up to it were even more laid strewn around the smoking bird. Several other marines and a few of my guys were standing guard.


    The glade reeked of fat, blood, and burning oil along with the distinct scent of spent gunpowder. It wasn''t a smell foreign to me, but it definitely was a new one to have the dead bodies of what was generally considered a creature only seen in the tales of Hollywood. I had to pick where I stepped as pools of dark blue blood filled the gaps between the line of dead Orcs and I wasn''t keen on getting any more foul smells on myself.


    The surviving soldiers grouped around the tail of the Black Hawk as both Harrison and I linked up with them. "Hey, Boss!" Hernadez shouted out to me. An MK-20 rested across his chest, a chest splattered with blue blood. Dark red bandages covered a stump where his left hand where his hand used to be. His rifle was noticeably covered in blue and red blood as well. "What happened to you...?" I felt my eyes narrow as I gripped his vest to pull him close to examine his injuries. "I got off easy..." His solemn voice stole my attention and he took that moment to direct me to where the front of the bird was.


    One dead orc was slumped against the pilot door, face against the window. Its weapon was lodged half lodged into the door gunner''s port where red blood dripped off the unmanned weapon. "Son of a bitch got lucky." Hernadez grinned like an idiot, a common trait among the soldiers when something really bad happened. I had to admit, it was an unhealthy habit - a habit borne out of necessity. At closer inspection, there was also a dead Orc inside the cabin.


    I didn''t want to know the details of what happened. I could already see the chaos they must have had to deal with... After a few minutes, we managed to square away ourselves and began to collect any useful gear we could just as Steward came through with the best news I''ve heard in a while. "Oracle-three is inbound. They are requesting SOS flare." Luckily, I had that ready.


    Having Steward around was convenient, to say the least. He was a simple AI designed to help manage communications, task management, and elevate the amount of thinking we actually had to do in the moment of a firefight. While there were many who disagreed with having an onboard assistant on our tact-links, Steward - a personal callsign given by my team - actually managed to reduce the stress I had to deal with during a given moment during the fight. As he was designed to do. A rare occurrence with government equipment, I know.


    Though, Steward was completely different from the AI that we gave to Isaac. Steward wasn''t there to give emotional support. He was cold, calculating, and most of all didn''t feel. "Logging KIA. Log completed." Steward chirped. And that was the hardest part sometimes, how he treated our dead like just another number...


    Pluff!


    Harrison shot the flare into the sky, its red smoke trail cut through the sky like a comet towards space, only to fall short and began its rapid descent back down to the silent battlefield. We all watched the flare rise and slowly fall. I stored my thoughts away as the beating of helicopters'' blades began to rise from the forest.


    Soon, three helicopters appeared overhead. Two kinds of transport and one black hawk outfitted with Hellfire missiles and two GAU-19 rotary cannons. The clearing was so crowded, that the transports had to take turns loading in gear until eventually, everyone was loaded in. The whole process two an entire twenty minutes. Surprisingly, nothing went wrong and we managed to load everyone, and everything aside from our dead. Unfortunately, the gear was too valuable in our current situation that sentimental wishes had to be forgone for the survival of everyone.


    It was only as I sat on the Black Hawk''s cabin floor with my feet dangling and an arm holding the railing did I see another pack of Orcs mulling on the edge of the glade. I could see their eyes gleaming and their disgusting maws. They were probably squealing like the big fucks they were. "Who''s in the Predator?" I radioed Steward. "Sikorsky MH-60L DAP - Scanned. Designation Oracle six." I huffed air out my nose as I called out to Oracle six. Just as the Black Hawk was turning away, I three missiles fizz through the air and explode on the group on the edge. All the threes shook, dust and sparks filled the forest as two pillars of fire rose.


    By the time the bird had begun to leave, a smile floated over my lips.

 [legacy] Storm on the Horizon

    Each step creaked as the aged wood took the full weight of my gear until I reached the bottom landing. Wooden tables and chairs rested off to the left with a few travelers having their breakfast, and a few fresh ones having their dinners. The inn''s hall was silent as everyone ate quietly to themselves. I stepped across the cobblestone floor to the reception desk that doubled as the bar and serving counter. A young girl, a few years younger than me, swept away the dust that had accumulated behind the long counter that stretched from side to side to accommodate drinkers.


    The girl had lush blonde hair, slightly tanned skin, and dark freckles that graced her upper checks just below her eyes. She wore an undyed linen dress with an apron over it and a thin leather belt that wrapped around her midriff under her budding breasts. Her figure was alluring and slightly graceful. She certainly was a pretty girl, but... "H-How can I-I help you...?" The moment she saw me, she turned into a frightened mouse that had been backed into a corner, at least, she didn''t flee like yesterday. It hurt a little when the cute girls ran from you.


    It had been four days since the raid on the guild and the subsequent execution of the Third Order Knights within the Settlement 13.


    The first day, the settlement was sent into a state of confusion over the sudden power shift. Then the second day came around and the story of what happened burned through the settlement like a forest fire. I only use to get strange stares from my outfit, now, people looked at me with a mixture of fear and curiosity. I wasn''t treated like the scourge of the earth, but I think they just didn''t know how to deal with me. That may have been my own wishful thinking, however. The Adventurers either avoided me outright or glared at me whenever we crossed paths.


    My choices that night managed to leave me on the bad side of both factions. The ones who loved the knights, and those who loved the Adventurers. There was a neutral faction though, the ones who just wanted to live in peace. Those were the ones whose interactions were slightly awkward with me - the only interactions aside from Heather, Rock, and Arnold. I had undertaken a lot of sentry shifts- without pay - to cover the lack of security the settlement had now and today, I was no longer required to do so. Enough adventurers had entered the town and returned from their quests. I could finally explore the outside world now.


    "I''m just returning the key, I''ll be back again tonight." I said with a soft smile, trying not to scare the poor girl anymore. Her eyes scanned me as I slipped the room key onto the counter along with a few coppers. I retracted my hand and waited a moment for her to look over the items. She didn''t touch them and kept her back against the back counter. She nodded timidly and I took it that she had accepted the items. I smiled again, nodded and turned to leave. I saw the girl''s father watch me from the kitchen entrance, checking to be sure I wasn''t bullying his precious child.


    I nodded at him with a smile and he returned it in kind. He wasn''t a bad guy and neither was his daughter.


    I opened the inn''s door and the cold, humid, air wafted into my face. Rain poured heavily and the clouds had cast the world into a strange monotonous state. I stepped out into the rain, but my boot slipped in the loose mud. I managed to grab the door frame in time to catch myself. I twisted around and managed not to get completely muddied. A soft giggle broke out from inside the tavern as the innkeeper''s daughter covered her mouth, her eyes smiling. She froze once our eye''s locked, but I smiled and laughed with her.


    I picked myself up and closed the inn door. My face burned hot with embarrassment, but I reasoned it was good enough to hear a cute girl giggle. Gain some, lose some. I pulled my hood on and made my way out the muddied inn courtyard. A shaved branch fence, held together by twine, made up the courtyard perimeter with a single opening that twenty-feet from the inn''s door. A painted sign hung over the door with the local dialect. I couldn''t read it, but Rock had told me that it said "Drunken Kobold Inn" with a roughly painted lizard and a mug. It was one of two Inns in the settlement, and the Kobold was the only one that would allow me in and so happened to be the cheapest one.


    I made my way through the town and came to the Northern Gate Square. The blood had long been washed away by the rain and the bodies had already been buried, but the damage from the raid had been left untouched. The guild building had been vacated and Arnold moved the operation to the second largest building in the square - which was a large store that the adventurers had frequented. Now it had been purchased by Arnold on the behalf of the guild. The merchant had been all too willing to sell the building after the fight that had taken place. We later found out that the merchant believed that the adventurers were going to extort the settlement dwellers even more than the knights did.


    That remained to be seen, but the settlement had not delved into chaos and business still went on as usual from what I''ve heard from Heather.


    I stepped through the new guild''s building, my muddied boots slapping against the creaking floorboards. The inside wasn''t as nice as Arnold''s old building, though it had a rustic charm too it. Tens of adventurers were inside at the counter to accept their requests for the day. A few glared at me, while a few stiffened up and kept their eyes forward. Heather then appeared from behind the counter. "Arnold is waiting for you upstairs." Her soft voice was only seconded by her cool intellectual persona.


    I nodded to her and circled around the queue. I stepped through the personnel-only doorway and found the stairs quickly. Rock was sitting by it. "Hey, pretty boy. " He nodded and went back to flipping through a book that rested on his lap. "What''re you reading today?" I didn''t bother to glance at it. "I don''t know." I chuckled at that. I learned early that Rock was more brawn than brains, but he was definitely a teddy bear - unless provoked. He wasn''t smart, but his brother-in-law, Arnold, insisted that he at least try and read something every day when he rather than lounge around.


    I gave my partings to him and went up the stairs to the only door on the second level. It was open and Arnold was flipping through a few parchment papers. "Heather said you were waiting for me," I said as I stepped into his office. The room was smaller than his guild room. Crates lined the walls to my left where his books had been stored while his couches had been pushed against the other wall. He didn''t say anything to me as he flipped through another few papers. Two chairs sat in front of his desk and I picked one at random. Arnold was a man who liked to do things on his time, as I''ve come to know full well.


    A few minutes passed as I flipped through my store out of boredom and then my inventory. Then a knock sounded from the doorway behind me. I looked up and saw Healer step in, and take the seat next to me. My eyebrow raised as my curiosity was peaked as to why we were both here. A few more minutes passed as Healer looked unbearably comfortable. His insistence on not meeting my eyes and his avoidance of me was slowly grinding my gears these last few days. Now, he was stuck in the same room as me. "Hello Omri, long time no see," I said with as much passive aggressiveness I could muster.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    "Hello, Isaac." His tone gave away how reluctant he was to speak to me. I wanted about to ask why he exactly he was avoiding me, be it me killing the adventurers or killing the knights. Maybe both, but I just wanted to know. It was something that I didn''t take well, being ignored, and I just wanted a straight answer from the man. Hammer, I knew all too well that he viewed me as the enemy. Though, sometimes that was questionable with how he looked like he wanted to talk to me in the streets a few times. Then we would just go our separate ways quickly - mainly me.


    I''ve been able to come to terms with the deeds I had done over these last few days. I was haunted by them sometimes, but I couldn''t have changed the outcome. Not without having changed the events leading up to the massacre. No one contested that I was the catalyst that had boiled the pot over, but from what Heather had explained, it was bound to happen before the Mayor came back with the Royal Army.


    I heard Arnold tap the papers on the desk to align them, catching both our attention. His eyes were cold and calculating, something I was only used to seeing in my father''s eyes. "How are the girls?" Arnold asked, referring to the ones that were brutally raped that night. "Physically, they''ve recovered. I wasn''t able to soothe their minds though. I''m sorry." I rested my hand on my palm as I watch their interaction. The blame in Arnold''s eyes was clear as day before they switched to me. I felt a chill run down my spine, but I feigned nonchalance.


    Arnold stared at me for a few moments as if he was awaiting my word. The awkward staring contest continued for a few more seconds before he sighed and pulled out a parchment from the top of the pile he had neatly put aside. "The guild had pardoned your actions, given the circumstances - however- this will be your only pardon from us. You can still join the guild, but your actions have been recorded at every guild in the lands." He placed the paper on the desktop, turned it and slide it with two fingers to the edge in front of me.


    I didn''t understand a word on the parchment, but it held a wax stamp with a small ribbon underneath it. "You will join the guild, however." Arnold ordered resolutely. "Says who?" I shot back. It had been the normal interaction between us these past few days. At first, I did whatever he told me I was to do. Then I learned he actually couldn''t do anything to me, at least, not officially. "Says me. We''re shorthanded on adventurers since the Third Order is gone and we had to cover their roles within the settlement. So, as I said, you will join the guild and you''ll be taking a few scouting requests on the Kingdom''s behalf.


    I felt a ping of guilt momentarily. Then it slipped away. Arnold had been using my guilt these past few days to the point I don''t think it the event mattered to me emotionally anymore. While I consider what I did bad, the overall outcome benefited everyone. I rolled his words around in my head for a second before I chose to accept it. Just not immediately. "Only if you say please," I said as I lifted my head up. "Please." Arnold said without blinking.


    I blinked at it, not expecting the most demanding person I had ever met to actually say please. "W-Well, alright then. I''ll join the guild." I wasn''t going to go back on my word now and a small smile floated on Arnold''s lips as he pulled something from his desk and placed it on top of the parchment. It was a small silver tag, like a dog tag but with runes etched into it. "You''re giving him a Silver tag?!" Healer gasped. "Yes. He''s already proven himself capable, and I could only assign scout requests to silvers." Arnold answered without looking to the man. "What''s silver?" I asked. I knew the metal, but I guess they weren''t talking about the color or metal.


    "Silver is tier three within the Adventurer Hierarchy. There is Copper, Bronze, silver, gold, and then platinum. The coding divides individual power into manageable tiers that we can assign requests based on what''s needed. Teams are calculated by total power, which could remain the same tier or move up one. You can now turn in monsters you kill into the guild. Don''t fuck it up." Arnold explained with a hint of impatience. "Now, go see my wife. She has the request''s details. I have business with the fallen healer here so close the door on your way out."


    . . . . . .


    The rain beat even heavier, if it was possible, as the northern trail was slickened from the hours of rainfall it had to endure. I stepped off the road and into the forest, careful to mind the shadows as the canopy lessen the amount of rain that battered my against my hood as I quickly pulled out the permanent squad summon card and examined it for a moment. Being stuck within the settlement, I had agreed I wouldn''t be calling in my drop pods and loot boxes within the settlement limits to avoid scaring the folks. I agreed and said I''d keep them out on the ridge like usual - something that Arnold could care less about. Though his wife, Heather, was kin on seeing the process herself.


    My cloak parted from my chest on down as the WASR 10''s barrel and handguard slide out to a low ready position.


    I made my way through the forest until I found the goat path that led to the ridge. After some time, I broke through the tree line where an old scene of a battle graced my view. It was where the bodies had been burned. A few dead knights laid rotten on the path where a team of adventurers where cleaning up the other dead from the clash with Aeneas. From the report I had been told, Aeneas had gotten into a verbal fight where the Officer swung the first blow - which escalated the entire fight into what happened that night. In hindsight, I never got to know if Aeneas was a bad person after all. From what I had heard, he was generally well-liked compared to his wife and peers.


    The adventurers looked at me uneasily with their hands gripping their weapons, but I held up my silver tag and they all relaxed and went about their jobs. I continued up the path until I spotted the Black Hawk. I picked my way across the slicked ridge and finally managed to make it onto the large gash in the side of the slope. The trench was flooded with murky brown water. I followed it up to the belly of the bird. I wasn''t going to go inside, not today. Today''s objective was to summon my new teammate.


    I pulled the card back out, the golden card gleamed from the rain that perspired on it. Just like I had done with the Healing stone, I channelled mana into the card. It was difficult and time-consuming to do as I lacked any training. Finally, after a few seconds, the card glowed and dispersed in a shower of glittering lights before it faded into soaked soil beneath my feet. "Drop-pod inbound, unit has located a suitable landing area." I watched the laser that a few feet from me slowly pan away into the distance until it disappeared in the flurry of rain.


    Then I heard the familiar sound of the drop pod breaking the speed of sound and saw the clouds part as a flaming ball came barreling downward. Unlike the others, soon the fire died away as bottom jets fired to slow the velocity of the pod. A few seconds later, it crashed at the head of the trench of the crash site. Mud and water were flung tens of feet in every direction, covering me and the surroundings in a fine layer of brown water, and mud. "Ha, I forgot to remind you that would happen." Lily''s voice chirped merrily over my headset as I turned back to look at the drop pod sizzling in the rain.


    "Ugh..." I looked at my cloak that was covered in mud, but I was thankful I turned around enough that I didn''t get a face full of mud. "That was hilarious." Lily chuckled and I rolled my eyes at her as I went to greet my new comrade. I minded every step beside the trench, its water reduced by half as it sloshed back and forth. The pod hissed as the vacuum seal around the door was popped and the door raised just as I reached it.


    "Meet your new squad member."

 Storm on the Horizon [4]

    "Ugh..." I looked at my cloak that was covered in mud, but I was thankful I turned around enough that I didn''t get a face full of mud. "That was hilarious." Lily chuckled and I rolled my eyes at her as I went to greet my new comrade. I minded every step beside the trench, its water reduced by half as it sloshed back and forth. The pod hissed as the vacuum seal around the door was popped and the door raised just as I reached it.


    "Meet your new squad member."


    Once the door was fully ajar, what I saw inside left me completely surprised. Inside sat a beautiful girl, not just any girl, but a beast girl. Two large animal ears rose from the crown of the girl before they rounded off at the top. Long fine white strains of hair rose from the inside of them as they twitched. With each movement of them, I could see the dull orange hair that covered their backs, matching the long silky combed hair that stretched past her neck to come to a stopover her left breast. The bane of her hair was pure white to the roots, but black tiger stripes crossed both the colors.


    Besides the eye-catching ears, her lightly tanned oval face with sharp yellow cat was also mesmerizing as they stared back at me as a smile played on her soft pink lips. "Tiger...?" The thought appeared in my head like a large glaring LED billboard in the night escaped my lips before I could even catch myself. "Yes, I''m a tiger girl." Her smile only grew larger, her voice soft and paced.


    I couldn''t respond until she spoke again. "Your jaw is hanging." She purred as she slowly stepped from the pod gracefully. I quickly adjusted myself. While she was beautiful - no - she was a clear ten out of ten in all manners.


    Her chest was covered with a black plate carrier that allowed her a decent amount of clearance with her arms. Six large magazine pouches were attached to her midsection, double stacked, with red shotgun shells peeking out the top of them. A small enclosed pouch sat above them but was zipped and unmarked. Above that on the patch section was a cartoonish tiger with the same style words reading as "Cat scratch Fever". Black spandex-like shorts started above her, just about where the plate carrier stopped and ended just above her upper thigh. I believed they were called Dance shorts, or maybe it was something else.


    Further down, she had thick metal-plated knee pads and black combat boots with small spikes on top of it. Her hand was gloved in black leather with a metal plate over her knuckles, no spikes. She did not wear any sleeves or high socks and her arms were tanned and bare as her legs. If I had to say it, she was quite sexy - putting aside the danger of leaving those areas exposed, I guess.


    The tiger smile grew larger, if at all possible, at me while I checked her out and it only became obvious to me that I was a little too... open about it. I felt embarrassed at first, mainly it was quite a crappy first impression to get leered at. If you had to look, at least do it when they weren''t looking man! She turned around, reached into the pod. The sound of metal latches disengaging caught my attention. Her plump rear took my attention briefly along with a long orange tail, but that tail also drew my attention to the rather large knife strapped to her lower back.


    She turned before I could admire the beautiful sight a little longer and in her arms was a VERP-12 with a skeletonized stock folded to the side. With a practiced motion, she unfolded the stock and locked the bolt back before she reached into the pod. The next moment, a loaded magazine was pulled out and slapped into the shotgun before she charged it.


    "Names Marigold. At your service, Master"


    . . . . .


    The canopy of trees roared overhead as thousands of trickling lines of runoff danced from off them. Marigold was leading the way through the damp and humid forest as night was slowly encroaching upon us. The forest smelled of fresh bark and crisp cold valley air as the roar of the pelting rain almost masked our footsteps. The tigress slithered through the forest like an elegant cat and with the coming of night and the inclement weather, my visibility was cut short of a hundred feet. On the ridge, it would have been a problem.


    However, in the forest, the many dips and raises; it wasn''t that much of a loss. However, when I told Marigold of my situation, she only flashed me a devilish grin.


    At the moment, she was only about six feet ahead of me as we made our way through a creek. The remnants of an old wooden bridge remained to our left, but it had long been destroyed. It must have catch fire, either by nature herself or another being. While the bridge had been destroyed, someone or something had built a bridge made from long thick trees, laying them long ways over the dip. It was well worn with nothing but the long worn away bark of the sky facing side.


    Her back was to me as she gauged each step, her back now lugging a small backpack with several magazine pouches attached to the back. There was food and water inside the backpack, but only enough for two days if we both rationed ourselves. There was also a sidearm now holstered to her thigh. The sight of it was angelic. The strap that hugged her thigh fat so marvelously combined with the rearview of her butt; I definitely found myself looking forward to each incline.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    We stopped at the top of the small creek and she stopped as she did before. Her head turned side to side slowly before it stopped. I noticed a slight glimmer, like a diamond, and I realized it was her eye. Then we both locked eyes. It was awkward for a moment when I figured I had been caught leering at her. "Like what you see?" She purred playfully as her tail swayed side to side. Something I should have mentioned, but that glorious sight of her rear was enough for me to just block it out - not that it was an issue.


    I looked away after I figured I didn''t have any other options to unfuck myself from being caught. "Hey, you don''t have to look away. I don''t mind." She purred. She was soaked and her skin glistened faintly. "Don''t cats hate getting wet?" I blurted the question in my head as I turned back to look at her. "What girl doesn''t like being wet?" She said provocatively before she turned back to the trail ahead and finished clamoring back onto the beaten path that was overgrown with trees now. I was caught off guard by her words but set them aside to unpack later as I chased after her.


    The rain splattered mercilessly against the beaten path where the bridge was, the canopy pulled away by the sudden widening of the path. Marigold and I kept to the tree line, preferring to stay out of the direct rain as much as possible.


    Aside from unending downpour, we encountered very little hostile wildlife. Animal or monsters. All of which was easily dispatched by Marigold with her quick reflexes and her trusty knife. I wasn''t going to ask why she wasn''t using her rifle, though I did appreciate not having to replenish her ammo. Lily had reminded me to keep a tight leash on my new "Pet" since I was responsible for her equipment as well. Reasonable back draw, but shotgun rounds were actually quite cheap, that is if I kept her tied to birdshot and buckshot. I wasn''t going to go down the route of Dragonbreath or flechette rounds; no matter how cool they were.


    That aside, even with the occasional encounter, we were still four hours into our mission. I was glad to have another companion other than lily. Something about having a physical person here rather than the disembodied voice of an Artificial Intelligence program did wonders for my heart. I didn''t feel so alone anymore, afraid to take more risks since I was completely on my own. While I did put a little faith in the knights, hindsight and a week being a temporary guard for the settlement blew that wide open.


    Just from the interactions I had with the residents, I learn how horrid the knights actually treated everyone. When there was trouble, it was usually a knight at the root of in there. They resented being there, they hated everyone, and often saw themselves above everyone. That was from the mouth of the others. For the remaining adventurers from the original group, they avoided me like I was death incarnate so asking them about the knights was nigh impossible. It was just a large clusterfuck I found myself in.


    Hindsight was twenty-twenty, but that didn''t change the fact I couldn''t change the choices I made. All I could do is put one foot forward and hope I had the opportunity to do better. I was my own person, but I did realize I couldn''t just do whatever. I had to consider if my actions could affect others. It wasn''t a case of being soft hearted or weak, but the fact that what I did back in the settlement left it broken and weak. Should something happen, I don''t think it could weather it, or maybe it could not have even if I hadn''t done what I done. I wouldn''t get the chance to find out.


    "Hey... Are you mad at me?" Marigold''s soft voice pulled me from my thoughts and I noticed I had all but stopped moving. Rooted in place I felt the grimace that displayed itself. I quickly wiped it away with a fake perky smile. "No, why?" She looked at me with unsure eyes. Her eyebrows furrowed in concern as each of her large pupils jumped back and forth from each of my eyes. She bit her lip, as if unsure if she should ask me, though she did so anyways in the end. "I thought you were mad at me. You just stopped and stared at me like you were angry..."


    Her voice grew weaker with each word, slowly fading away into the clatter of the rain against the muddied ground around us. I shook my head and added "I was just in thought. It''s been a long week." I patted her on the shoulder. "C''mon, the sooner we finish this - the better we''ll all be." She stared at me for a few seconds longer as if trying to ascend the truth of my words. In the end, she only nodded and took the lead once again. Be it out of belief or simply to continue the conversation when we got back to the settlement.


    The silence between us settled again, but there was tension now, mainly from my end. I could see her tail no longer swayed with the same vigor as earlier nor did her ears stand tall as tall. I felt really horrible without even knowing what I said or did wrong.


    The rain seemed colder and the ground slippery. With the added thunderstorm that now hung-over head, the forest had become near unnavigable. ¡°Let¡¯s stop here.¡± I called out to Marigold. ¡°Everything all right?¡± She asked with concern as she quickly backtracked to me as I found myself a nice bench made of roots and mud. ¡°No, I can¡¯t see.¡± I said with a sigh as I brought up the Tactlink. ¡°I was wondering when you would complain about it.¡± Lily said with amusement. I pulled my arm close to my chest to shield it from the rain and scrolled through the shop until I found a good pair of Night Vision Goggles and purchased them. They were about two-thousand dollars, just with a head harness.


    After summoning them and putting them on, I found myself in a green-lit forest.


    Marigold¡¯s beautiful face was almost clear as day, dismissing the green tint. I felt my mood lift now that I was draped in darkness anymore. ¡°Better?¡± She asked with a small smile that almost melted my heart.  ¡°Y-Yeah.¡± Not good. Girls were not foreign to me, but having gone through a week and some days without any allies I could trust ¨C I felt a close bond with her, kind of like... Love? ¡°I know I¡¯m pretty, but we have to continue, Master.¡± She said. Her smile blossomed more and I found myself enraptured by it.


    It took me a few seconds before I could look away and this time, I took the lead. Now both of us were in better moods, so I guess the situation wasn¡¯t that bad.

 1.. \\\ Ground Zero

    Bits of wood and white dust exploded above my head as I knelt over the polymer box. I kept low to the ground to avoid being shot. My ears rang and everything was muffled as I went back to pulling out the equipment I had left inside. Plate carrier, check; Bug out bag, check; Magazines, check; Pistol, check; Rifle... Shit!


    After I pulled out everything and put it on, the most important part was gone! I felt the bottom of the dark box as only a few dim rays of sunlight came from the bullet holes in the exterior wall behind me. I felt around again. Then again, but there wasn¡¯t a rifle. ¡°No! No! I should have-¡±


    I was suddenly pulled off the box by my carrier and came face to face with my brother. I could see his lips form words, but my ears rang and each word was muffled. Maybe he saw my lost eyes, but he figured out I couldn¡¯t understand what he was barking about. He looked over me quickly as he made sure to keep checking the entrance to my room.


    Once he was done, he pointed to his rifle and pointed to my box. I quickly conveyed my confusion with my head and hands. I could see him bite back that stupid fucking snarl he always gave me when he knew I fucked up something really important. One that I would have gladly argued with him over, but more bullets tore through the wall again and he jerked me towards the door.


    I got to my hands and feet as my brother kept low by the doorway. He was fully geared up with his HK416, full package plate carrier with a few grenades, a screen on his forearm, and a large kevlar helmet on his head. He was going through his backpack and pulled out a device that was the carbon copy of the one on his arm, just white rather than the black casing.


    He did some voodoo jumbo stuff with it before he threw it to me. It pounced by my hands and he gestured to put it on. The device had four straps on each side of it that connected to each other. I slipped it on and left it tight. When I looked up again, my brother slid me over a large headset that crashed into my hand. I didn¡¯t ask this time and put it on. The muffled noises around me became even more stifled by the headset. He pulled his pack onto his back and checked his rifle. He then got adjusted his grip and stepped into the hallway. The hallway flashed erratically as he let out a burst of fire in the hallway before he stepped back into gesture for me to follow.


    He slipped away and the dust swirled in his tracks.


    I quickly scrambled after him with a bit of effort as my limbs shook with fear and adrenaline. When I stepped into the hall, I saw the slightly obscured figures of my brother¡¯s squad members peel of their positions on both sides of the staircase. That part of the house faced the neighbor¡¯s home, no more than fifteen feet in distance from ours. When I got closer, I saw it was riddled with bullets and all the windows were shot out. The scent of gunpowder filled the air along with a heavy scent of iron and something else.


    Out of nowhere, my brother grabbed my arm and I yelped in surprise. My hearing had already begun to clear up with the help of the headset and I heard a slightly muffled. ¡°What the fuck?¡± From one of his squadmates. ¡°It¡¯s nothing.¡± My brother barked at him. ¡°Your bro sounded -¡± He was cut off by my brother ¡°If you have time to comment on Kian, you have time to secure the area.¡± As the leader of the squad, my brother¡¯s word was law.


    [¡°Don¡¯t gotta be so protective, Jacob.¡±]


    A voice popped over the headset¡¯s speakers before my brother growled into his microphone. ¡°The package is moving.¡± Ooo, he¡¯s pissed... I whispered in my heat as my brother led me to where my dust-covered boots were by the top of the staircase. I cleared away the hot brass at the top step and sat down. I reached into them, grabbed the socks inside and tried to put them but my nerves played hell on my motor functions. ¡°Hurry up!¡± My brother yelled at me as he waited for me a few steps down. ¡°I¡¯m trying!¡± I squeaked back. ¡°Why...¡± He was about to berate me, something he had usually done, but he stopped.


    I looked at him, glad of it and finally managed to finish with the boots. For once, I was glad I slept in my jeans. I got up and tried to hurry down the stairs, but Jacob was still there. He looked at me, with a sad tint somewhere in his eyes before he pulled my headset off and brushed my hair back before he replaced the headset. I felt a little weirded out at the sudden tender care he showed, but his scold returned back as he forcibly led me back down the stairs. Somehow, it felt like I might have imagined it.


    By the time we reached the first floor, my hearing returned and I could hear jets fly past overhead as well as distant explosions.


    I looked up at my brother who towered half a head over me as I waited for some sort of explanation, but none came and he led me through the kitchen to the backyard where his squad was. ¡°This is Kian...?¡± One of the men posted by the large French doors said. He didn¡¯t have a helmet on, just a headset like me. His confusion showed on his face as he sized me up, probably to compare me to my bear of a brother next to me. Jacob was wider, larger, and all-around ¨C much more of a bear than a human in my eyes than me. ¡°I thought you had a sister for a moment.¡± He chuckled before my brother grabbed one random piece of d¨¦cor and threw it at him. Ah... My iPad... It wasn¡¯t a piece d¨¦cor; I reside that observation.


    The delicate piece of tech flew through the now windowless doors and landed in the grass beyond.


    I couldn¡¯t fault my him though. I did look feminine, especially when placed side my side by my brother. My brother let me go. ¡°Stay in the kitchen. Get some water. We need to secure a new route.¡± He said as he let go of my arm and I took his suggestion. The communication line buzzed with activity as more and more people talked as they tried to formulate a new plan. Apparently, they were supposed to get me out of here by car, but since everything had gone to hell; They had to check their options.


    I looked back towards the front door and saw that it had been blown apart. A few other men were there on standby. I wanted to say something witty and edgy about this lonely shit hole of a house was finally going to come down, but I couldn¡¯t. I felt sick and afraid. I ventured off to the bathroom beneath the staircase. I hung the headset on the towel rack and splashed as much water over myself as possible.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    I could still hear the buzz of activity on the comms while it was hung and I could only stare into the mirror as I took deep breathes.


    My soft feature face was more akin to a girl than a man. My shoulder-length brown hair had been swept back and pieces of drywall were still stuck in it. I pluck them out with my hands. In all, aside from my countenance, I was an average guy, aside from being a smaller build than the average guy. At 5¡¯7¡± I was still in the acceptable height range. I had nice bright hazel eyes. I focused on the face in an attempt to ignore that armored plate carrier I wore. It was out of place with my features as the white t-shirt sleeves poked out. God, I look pitiful... Like a kicked puppy...


    suddenly hardened face, square-jawed with mean eyes appeared above me. ¡°Hey!¡± He hissed. His eyes looked on my kicked puppy face and his expression cramped. I turned around. ¡°Hey... Sorry... I just...¡± A myriad of emotions flickered through me. I wanted to complain about how he couldn¡¯t just treat his abandoned kid brother with some sympathy when the house was literally raided. How that two high up career soldiers who were the literal guardians of one teen could not see a war coming to their own home town.


    But I couldn¡¯t. I only felt the tears well up in my eyes and I began to hyperventilate. ¡°Woah, Woah! Hey. I didn¡¯t-¡± I only hugged him tight and kept all my words inside. We stood there for a few seconds before I felt the headset slide back over my head. ¡°Sorry for the yelling, but we need to go.¡± The touching moment was over, but I felt better. We both cleared our throats and I stayed on his tail. No one commented on my looks as we all filed with haste into the backyard.


    We crossed the large green yard and filed out the back gate my dad used for its stupid RV and came out in a large paved alleyway for backyard access. I looked back and saw the suburban McMansion I had grown up in, but I didn¡¯t have time to reminisce or feel any heartbreak as two jets flew past us overhead; their guns roared violently the chaser tried to shoot down the front jet.


    A few gunshots rang out a few streets away, or maybe it was in a house down the street, but it was soon met with tens of gunshots in response before the world fell silently momentarily before more explosions.


    We quickly crossed the alleyway and came out near the border of the HOA. The main road leading to the guardhouse was empty aside from a few dead bodies. A few of my neighbors I could tell from their fancy clothes. We followed the road to the gated entry and exit ways where cars had piled up, into a heap of smoking mess. Blood splattered around the gates were the unlucky elderly folks had been gunned down by someone. The guardhouse had been completely blown apart, my best guess was an airstrike, but I wasn¡¯t versed in whatever formal way they determined that.


    Both vehicle entryways were blocked by cars, we had to exit through the entry gate since it was open enough for us to walk through. It had been blocked from opening more, but it couldn¡¯t close on one side with another car in its way.


    [¡°Bear One to Oracle Actual, over.¡±] Jacob called out over the radio.


    There was a pause as he waited for a reply.


    [¡°This is Oracle Actual. What is your status? Over.¡±] Shit. It was my dad.


    [¡°Little Willow retrieved. Roads are blocked. We¡¯re hoofing it to his favorite supermarket to the east of the complex. Requesting pick up at that location, over.] Jacob said as we crossed the deserted four-lane road and the lot of the gas station. It was entirely empty, but it was the only cover since there were only open roads and parking lots all over.


    [¡°Acknowledged. Do not let him get hurt, over and out.¡±] Dad replied over the radio


    The about of gunfire around the city was beginning to scale up, but most of it appeared to come from the west. Using the gas station as the center, the home was to the west. North led to the commercial side of town while if we kept east, we¡¯ll stay mostly on the residential side. The main part of the city was south of us and housed most of the high-level figureheads of the state as well as plenty of very important civilians. I quickly got that we were in the middle of being invaded so I came to the conclusion that east would have been relatively safe.


    That was until a few bullets skipped off the concrete by my feet.


    Sparks jumped with bits of concrete and I quickly flung myself across the refill bays to the storefront. Everyone called out ¡°Sniper!¡± as everyone followed after me.


    ¡°You¡¯re a fucking rabbit! Haha!¡± One of my brother¡¯s men laughed, despite the situation. I couldn¡¯t say anything back, as much as I wanted too. No one looked surprised by the sudden attack. We all rushed inside the station as ballistic cracks chased after us. Once inside, no further shots rang out.


    ¡°Did anyone get a visual?¡± My brother asked everyone. Everyone shook their heads before he looked to me. ¡°You okay?¡± I gave him the thumbs up, but I figured my pale face was enough to tell him my mental state may have been shot instead. I hid deep inside the store behind a rack of chips and candy while everyone else, but one guy, kept to the front. The stray cleared the backroom for another exit. I felt my heart slow down while took some deep breaths and I saw a Three musketeer bar to my right as I crouched down.


    ¡°What the fuck are you doing...?¡± One of my brother¡¯s men asked me. He was the closest to me and took cover by the checkout counter center of the room. He had turned to me when he heard me open the candy bar.


    ¡°Stress eating.¡± I muttered back as I chewed viciously at it like a starved rabbit. He looked at me in awe before he chuckled. He looked around and saw a mini-fridge by him; he pulled out a few Gatorades from it and rolled them at me with a thumbs up. What a bro. My brother was, along with two other men, were in the middle of locating the sniper when he popped on the radio.


    [¡°What the hell are you two doing back there?¡±] He said.


    [¡°Your little bro is stress eating back here.¡±] The guy who rolled me the Gatorades responded back.


    [¡°Kian, how are you eating in this situation?¡±] Jacob asked and I heard the amused tone in his voice.


    I was surprised by how casual all of them were in this situation, but I only shrugged in response.


    [¡°He shrugged.] Gatorade man replied to my brother for me.


    [¡°Kian, there are three buttons on the right earpiece. Use the top one to talk.¡±] Jacob said. For a trained Special Force Operative, he sure forgot that his little brother was not a soldier or a military geek.


    [¡°You rather I just have a freakout, or do you want me to stuff my face?¡±] I replied with a half-joke-half-serious tone while I chewed on another bar. To be honest, I would have much preferred the freak out rather than stress eating.


    [¡°Eat to your heart¡¯s content, just don¡¯t go overboard, or stick your head up.¡±] Jacob replied with a sigh.


    [¡°Can¡¯t you just, like, stick a pair of sunglasses out to trick him into shooting?¡±] I asked. Ah, he¡¯ll probably regret that he showed me how to use the comms now.


    No response came, but I could hear his hushed curses from here about how that only worked in movies. A few of his men joked back with him. I heard one of them agree and said he¡¯d do it. A few seconds later, a few bullets tore through the storefront window.

 1.2 \\\ Ground Zero

    "Holy shit!" One of the soldiers laughed "It really fucking worked!"


    The laughter was short-lived as a barrage of bullets began to cut through the store. I threw myself down just before the snacks around me exploded into mists of oranges, whites, and other colors that made my choke on the dustified snacks.


    Glass shattered, metal sang, and I heard pained screams as I quickly pulled myself across the store like a meth-fueled lizard. Gatorade man pulled by my vest''s back handle and pulled me out of the zone of fire.


    ["Tangos on the Wal-greens! Tangos-!"] My brother''s voice cut off as another hail of bullets tore through the storefront, forcing me and Gatorade man to retreat.


    Dadadadadada-!


    Gatorade man stuck up and returned fire from the back of the store, which, unfortunately, faced the wal-greens. The return fire was short-lived as I felt a weight slam into my back. I yelped at the and thought I had been hit, but the pressure kept pressing me down. I turned to see what it was and... Gatorade''s bloodied face looked back at me...


    I stared in shock, his nose was ripped in two and he was missing his right eye. Blood was gushing from his face and... his neck. It pooled on the floor amongst the scattered snacks and glass. It wasn''t like in the video games or movies; bits of other... things. mixed into the blood. A bit of pink was mixed in and... I threw up everything I had eaten just a few moments ago. Now I struggled through throw off the soldier as the blood and vomit mixed under my chest. The stench... God... The stench was indescribable.


    I cursed myself, my dad, my country, and every other entity I could think of as I struggled to even turn over. This man was in full gear too, which added hundred pounds onto this man who had nearly a hundred pounds over my. I was just an average pretty guy, not built like the bear the other men in the family were. In this moment, I had finally wished I had been.


    The weight finally lived and I was dragged forward across all the bodily fluids. I saw bloodied boots and felt a few hot casings hit the back of me. The world felt numb and I only heard the rapid thumping of automatic fire. Shell casings were dropping on my right, but it all felt¡­ Unreal.


    Free of the weight, I slowly heaved myself to my knees before I was pulled back down by my brother. Somehow, this felt like a deja vu moment as he yelled at me, but I couldn¡¯t understand what he was saying. Rather than being deafened by gunshots, I think my mind was short-circuiting.


    I just stared back at him, my thoughts a haze as I tried to wipe Gatorade Man¡¯s bloodied face from my mind.


    I just spoke to him¡­ We¡­ He was alive.. I thought as my brother only scowled and pushed me down. I wanted to get back up, but he kept me down effortlessly. The floor was covered in a mixture of sodas and water as the refrigerated section had been peppered with bullets. Blood swirled in the sugary mixture beneath me as.


    Just when I tried to get up again, I felt my whole body momentarily shudder. The liquid mixture on the floor also became disturbed, more than when the shells were landing in it. The floor shook and that was when I felt the world come out of its monotonous state.


    ¡°Take that motherfucker!¡± I heard my brother call out. ¡°Fuck yeah!¡± He hollered as he removed his hand from my back. I could hear distant shouting. I got up and realized I had been dragged away behind the large foot island where they heated their little shit rolls and shoved them into those little bags. From where we were, we had a perfect view of the building across from us. The Wal-greens that was just on the boundary of the HOA I lived in.


    The storefront sat on raised land, just like the guardhouse and the office for the HOA; Unlike the HOA, the storefront and its parking lot was smoking.


    Before I could register why my brother was howling, I saw the storefront be torn apart my several small explosions - Like those videos of Chinese people setting off a bundle of firecrackers, but much, much more violently.


    BURERERERERE - BRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTT!


    I recognized that iconic sound as an A-10 Warthog.


    BRRRRRRRRRT-BRRRRRRRT-BRRRRRRT-!


    Followed by another pass seconds apart.


    ¡°Good hit! Good hit!¡± My brother yelled over the radio.


    I heard the roar of the planes overhead as they circled around and my brother pulled me with him.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± He yelled.


    . . . . . .


    Run. The only thought that was in my head.


    That was all I could think as I hauled my little brother after me out of that godforsaken dead trap. With most of my squad down, we were practically fucking shrimps to any large enemy element. That didn''t help my friends though. Jackson had laid in his own blood. He was the first one to die and we hadn''t even noticed him drop on contact. I felt that sink to the pit in my stomach when I thought about that.


    Anderson and Kelmar also died but in the store. All that was left was Preacher, Hernadez, Kian, and I. We had already lost others when we tried to secure the house. I hadn''t expected that. I was more concerned with securing the last member of my family, my precious little brother. Though in hindsight, I hadn''t treated him so precious in the years previous.


    I don''t know if the house was a target for the forces, or they had just been canvassing the neighborhood, looking for anyone important. None of us would know, and the information wouldn''t stem the loss of my friends. But at least Kian was safe...


    We stopped in the hedges just off the old Home Depot lot, one of those large corporate home improvement stores that existed before the resources became scarce. Just beyond the hedges, a four-foot concrete wall sat. It offered us cover from that abandoned store and the hedges offered us concealment from the street. For once, I was happy that politicians loved their appearances more than they loved saving resources, or the whole damn street would have been baren.


    I looked back at my little brother. His body was much too small to be related to us... too... much like our mother. But I had to remember that it as pops and I that were the irregularities. We looked like walking tanks, muscular and "Manly." It took a lot to remember that. Even when crouched, Kian was much smaller than me.


    He had such a pretty face for a boy, and if I didn''t know he was a boy, and my brother; I could have more than certain take him as a young pretty girl. He had long disheveled hair. It wasn''t that he girly, but his looks were effeminate, or maybe the word was androgynous. With each passing year, he even began to look more and more like our mother. Not that he didn''t before...


    I had to pump the brakes on my wandering thoughts. It was a clusterfuck of a situation. Whenever family became involved, one of the few things I learned to only care about, came under attack - I just wanted to blindly beat the issue into submission. I couldn''t take on a foreign army, and the rogue state to the north. No. I could only run and take my family away.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    In Kian''s hands was the HK416 that Anderson had used, along with two spare magazines I had shoved into Kian''s vest. I never wanted him to kill anyone, to have that taint his soul, but I would much rather turn my brother into a sinner than have him dead. Even if I had to die, I would get him away from here.


    The thoughts had only lasted a few seconds and Kian felt my stare. He looked up with those trusting eyes, those innocent lost eyes that had just seen someone die in front of him. I looked away, guilty for something I hadn''t even done, but I had a mission. A mission to get him out of here.


    I brought my Onboard Tactical Assistant Device, OTAD, and flicked through a few menu options before I found the updated situation map of the area. Should we have been in our full battle gear, we would have been wearing the latest battle armor with cool-ass helmets that had a heads-up display and use voice commands to do all of this. Yet, we were caught with our pants down. Pops should be securing our gear and inbound to us.


    On the small screen, I saw my squad on the screen - Zulu Squad, Coded Bear for today - and the surrounding DC area.


    God... It was a mess...


    On a battlefield, there would have been controlled areas were friendlies or combatants held ground. Then there would be contested ground, where the combat was. There was none of the first element, but there was only contested ground. The on-board AI was listening to the radio traffic, no longer trying to breach the enemy lines, but fully devoted to transcribing the plethora of friendly comms. With our friendlies, two other hostile elements attacked us at once, but from what was happening, they didn''t seem to be friendly to each other either.


    Everyone was fighting everyone and each street was being fought for control or having already been drenched in blood and those streets were about to be recontested by the other element. This was a resource race, we were trying to protect our supply depots or secure reinforcement routes, but everyone else wanted those depots, and they couldn''t just bomb us to hell if they were to get them.


    The silver lining in the situation was that all the fighting was going on in the south and north. Their area was marked contested, but with a notation that it was only being marked for transportation to the battles. The contested came from the forces running into each other on their way to the resources. That meant the ambush at the gas station wasn''t actually meant for them, but transport.


    That made him feel even angry about the situation. All that blood and it hadn''t even been meant for them.


    A message came over his headset, by the robotic voice of his AI.


    ["Oracle Actual is inbound and requests the landing zone be secured. All friendly fighters have been scrambled and will tie up the enemy jets. All friendly and civilian elements have been cleared into the air to hide our EVAC."] The program stated.


    The plan made him feel even sicker but on the other hand, he didn''t care if he had to spend the lives of strangers if it meant he wouldn''t lose any more friend or his family. He lamented on the monster he was and looked to his baby brother.


    I do this so you do not become one... He thought, but his brother didn''t feel his stare.


    The air came alive as tens of jets soared overhead, screaming towards the south. For once in the nation''s life, all those spend dollars and they were all finally being put to use.


    "Secure the parking lot," I said into the mic. "EVAC inbound. We''re only going to have one shot at this.


    <h2>¡û ¡à ¡ú</h2>


    Twenty Minutes prior...


    "Jesus!" I screamed.


    The television mounted in the control room showed the chaos that was playing out above. Bodies in the streets, planes falling from above. Even the new chopper had been shot down by a fighter jet just a few minutes into their broadcast. However, my co-worker, Devan, only kept playing Candy Crush on his phone with the same indifferent expression as aways.


    Both of us were Nuclear key carriers. On a normal day, we wouldn''t even be in the same section of the bunker. The sudden break out of war changed that quickly though. They showed us both into the launch room before they closed the door. We can leave, but they can''t enter without one of us opening the door.


    "Do you think they''ll call us to..." I turned back to him. "Do you think this is it?"


    The broadcast showed the sudden arrival of an entire armada of jets. Helicopters were beginning to take up the lower air space and the jets had to move higher into the sky to fight each other; Or risk crashing into the slower helicopters. It was strange. I wouldn''t have done that. However, they must have some sort of plan. Hopefully.


    Something in me said I had to do something, but what? In the movies, they always called their loved ones. I didn''t have a family, aside from a small little chihuahua named Luke. He was an adorable little brown dog with big eyes. It was unfortunate that he didn''t have the ability to answer the house phone though. I would''ve liked to see him one last time. The fighting hadn''t reached where our home was, but no doubt it would within a few hours if the fighting continues to escalate. That was the requirement to be a Keyholder. No family.


    Since the nuclear scare that after the third Cold War, presidents were no longer allowed to be to call in the nukes. That was entirely left to the army, with no contest from the political body. They had fallen into a convoluted mess of infighting that never ceased. Hell, there were even whole websites dedicated to the congress brawls that almost always broke out every week.


    However, none of that mattered when the world above broke out into an all-out war. While both of them had different beliefs from their NCOs, they were still soldiers. Soldiers that would turn their keys and input their confirmation codes once that red phone rang. Though, I highly doubted they wanted to destroy whatever valuable resources were left.


    I heard the soft roll of Devan''s computer chair as he rolled away. I watched him curiously, but he only rolled into the station''s small kitchen with his phone. Most likely went to look into what goodies the higher-ups stocked for us. I turned back to the television, my eyes always looking at my neighborhood when the camera would pan past it.


    Nothing there this time...


    The newswoman began to shout, informing us that more and more people were jumping into the fight below. Political groups, cults. Anyone and everyone who had a weapon began to filter into the fighting. The camera panned a few more streets. Yeah, it became even more hectic down there.


    They kicked the proverbial hornet''s nest... I thought.


    Click.


    I heard something just behind me and turned. I came face to face with Devan, who pointed a pistol at me. My thoughts studdered for a few moments. I wondered if I was just not seeing it correctly, or if I was actually looking down the barrel of a gun.


    "Its nothing personal." Devan said as he lowered the barrel to my stomach. He pulled the trigger.


    I flinched at the bark of the gun. My ears rang from the powerful gunshot that echoed through the room. I felt something warm dribble down my leg... I looked down and saw a small circle of blood that stained my uniform on my stomach. I had also pissed myself. I looked back up to Devan, not sure what was going on. I only knew he had a gun and he shot me. We weren''t friends, but we usually saw each other during briefings and lunch...


    I thought we were cool...


    Devan''s lips moved and I knew he was talking, but only the ringing existed in my ears. He shook his head before he pulled out two small orange ear plugs from his ears. He gave me a weary smile before he pulled my keycard off my shirt. I wanted to stop him, but the blood... There was so much blood coming out of me.


    I tried to get up, but I didn''t have the strength to do it. Maybe I was just entering into a state of shock. I didn''t know, but what I did know, was that there was already a small puddle of blood beginning to form under my feet. Then Devan appeared before me again. He only slid me aside and went back to the launch station. There was another one in the room now and the blast door was wide open.


    I mumbled some words, a warning that this was illegal but they paid no mind. I called out again to tell them they didn''t have my code. Yet again... They ignored me as they inserted the keycards into the two different consoles on different sides of the room in unison. The room turned dark red and they both inputted codes and the room turned dark green.


    They... Didn''t need my code?


    That was odd, but not as odd as that I was bleeding to death here. Further exploration of the situation came up with a strange thing... I really didn''t care. I only cared about that stupid dog I was leaving behind. The world was shit, this place was shit, and only that innocent little pupper was worth living for. Pure and happy. The only living thing I cared about in this world.


    I fumbled for my phone and inputted the code. I was going to look at that those stupid videos I always took of him, but my phone was snatched away. The newcomer took it. He looked pissed, but I only wanted my phone. Before I could try and fight for it back, Devan had taken it from the man. He looked at me and I only said one word.


    "Superman." The name of that damn dog I had.


    The man nodded, tapped on my screen a few times before he handed me one the phone. It showed that little rut running in circles as I walked through the front door. It was a short video, and a pathetic one to want to see as I was dying, but Superman was my little guy and the only thing I had come to look forward to when I went home.


    The only regret was that he and I wouldn''t be moving to that nice house after my retirement in a few months.


    "Nuclear missile launched." A faint robotic voice broke the ringing in the distance.

 2.. \\\ RABBIT DOWN

    "They''re fighting again, Mom." I whined, half bored, half just... Tired. I sat on a chair I pulled up to her bed, and laid my head on its edge. I stared at my mother''s face, pale and sunken. One of the machines tied to her beeped in short, constant, intervals. Another helped her breathe. She looked so peaceful. In contrast, I could hear my older brother arguing with my dad in the hall. It was because of something Jacob said. Something that neither I or dad wanted to hear. That Mom was going to go away soon. We all knew it, but it was... It was something none of us wanted to think about.


    "You shouldn''t have opened your goddamn mouth!" I heard my dad scream at my brother. I wondered how long it would take for a nurse to stop them, or maybe everyone else was scared of the two bears clawing at each other in the hall. My eyes burned from the dried tears. I just wanted some peace. More than that, I wanted Mom to open her eyes. I wanted her to wake up and stop them from hurting each other.


    Without her here, we were tearing each other apart. Dad hadn''t slept in the house in months. Jacob stayed at his friends and I was left all alone in that big house. Just the other day, Jacob started yelling at me the moment he walked in when I tried to hug him. Because I was happy that, for a moment, I wouldn''t be all alone anymore. I didn''t understand anything anymore. The world was just... Broken.


    "I can''t wait to join the army, then you can''t say shit!" Jacob barked and I hear the two of them going at each other. I was scared deep down. That one of these days, they would hit me too. I wasn''t strong like them, and they were a lot bigger. Dad was twice my size and Jacob was right up there with him. Me? I was an average kid... Maybe just a little weaker.


    I remembered something and sat up. I pulled ruffled through my backpack and pulled out a sketchbook. "I drew something today!" I said to my mom. "Ms. Hensley says I''m a good drawer for a middle-schooler!" I beamed as I flipped through to the doodle I made in class today. I turned the book for her to see. Two hands holding a handful of California poppies; her favorite flower.


    "I suck at hands," I said with a small smile. "But I''m definitely good at flowers." The silence hung in the air for a few minutes. I knew she wouldn''t respond, yet, I had hoped she would. We weren''t whole without her. She had been like this for a month and we were already at each other''s throats. My uncles and aunts were already circling, asking about her will...


    I slumped back into the uncomfortable hospital chair, then I realized that I couldn''t hear the others anymore. I looked at the hospital door and strained my ears. Nothing.


    I turned to look out the window. It only took a few seconds for them to start arguing outside the hospital. I died a little inside at that. It seemed I was the only one who really loved her. None of them ever sat with her, and all they would do is argue when they saw each other. They rarely spoke with me, and recently, even began to avoid me. That was until Jacob and I had that little fight. That fight caused this fight, though I suspected it was just a good enough excuse to fight it out again.


    The few trees the hospital was allowed to have swayed side to side. I had a sudden inclination to find out if the breeze was nice. I got up and walked to the window. I unlatched it, slid it open, and a nice fresh breeze tickled me. It was colder than the hospital was. Mom was lucky that Dad dropped a lot of money on a VIP room with a real window that could be opened.


    I heard the guys screaming at each other, but I didn''t understand a word. Something else caught my attention.


    A woodpecker was going to town on one of the trees closest to the window. I was on the fourth floor, but the tree was almost trimmed bare. The thuds its beak made as it shredded the tree''s inside sounded eerily like machine gun fire. Then I looked down. A straight fall down. I looked to the woodpecker again, and it somehow seemed louder. I heard faint voices and I looked down again.


    "Get off the ledge, Kian!" Jacob screamed up at me, and I realized I was sitting on the window ledge, my legs swinging like it was just another day. Dad was gone, but I didn''t care. He was always gone. Always. Gone.


    I looked back to the bird, but this time, the tree was covered in blood. The bird''s attack roared just like a heavy machine gun. "Wake up!" I heard a different voice, and I fell forward.


    ? ? ?


    "Wake up, kid!" The scene was washed away and the sun was chased away by the darkness. The constant gunfire of the .50 Heavy Machine Gun, HMG, on the ramp lit the interior of the osprey like a strobe light. The man in front of me had blood smeared across his face. One eye was shut and bandaged; he looked like a monster for a moment...


    I almost screamed on reflex, but he covered my mouth with a bloodied hand. "Shut up!" He growled. After I had managed to regain myself, something that took a few seconds; he let go and handed me a rifle. "Get on the window and shoot those fucking shits!" He said. He quickly unbuckled me and pulled me up. He then guided me with haste towards the front of the helicopter before he stopped short of the final window. Where a dead marine was slumped over with an arrow in his head.


    "Take his place." He gave me a sharp tug before he disappeared down the hull, another rifle in hand. The concussive waves of the machine gun rattled me, but curiosity won over my fear. I could already tell we''ve crashed, and that there were a few people alive. From the man below, I could see that we''re in some deep shit. But not in the "We''re getting shot up" shit, but something stranger.


    I peaked out the gunner window and... Paled.


    Outside were hundreds of beady red eyes. They glowed in the distance, in between the trees of a forest slightly down. I pulled my head back, and just in time too. A few arrows clattered against the hull, and a few actually made it past the window. I slide myself into a small crevice as my heart finally began to race.


    "What the fuck!" I screamed internally. I was too scared to actually voice it. I wasn''t scared enough to not notice the sudden hellish situation we were in. I got pulled out of bed during an invasion, watched a few of my brother''s friends die; not to mention the city explode with nuclear fire. A small part of me wished that I was the Main Character in a show or something. I''ve had a good one-liner there.


    Or, maybe that was the shock talking.


    For once, since this all happened, I shook like a leaf in a storm. This was not a situation I had been prepped for. House assault? Yeah. People dying? Never seen it in person, but yeah. Nukes going off? Not really, but dad used to talk about it. Crash land somewhere and have hundreds of red-eyed monsters shoot arrows at you? No. Fucking. Way.


    At least bullets would kill you before you knew what happened. I''ve seen enough TV to know that arrows hurt when you pull them out. I took a deep breath, pressed the rifle to my chest with its barrel up. I did not want to stick my head back out. I looked towards the ramp to see if I was even needed. Through the flashes, I could see a few marines pulled into the hull, unmoving. There were two other Marines, aside from the gunner, that had pulled whatever they could out to use as cover.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    One just used a pile of little green... kids? They looked like kids, but when I saw the face...


    "Goblins..." I muttered. Anyone who hadn''t lived under a rock knew about goblins. A few stories colored them nice, a few colored them pure evil. None of that mattered, because they were the ones attacking us. Even though they were dead, their eyes still faintly glowed in the moonlight. They looked like little demons with their grotesque faces.


    "Okay, now or never, Kian..." I muttered as I pushed the rifle away. I hadn''t actually looked at what he handed me. I stared down at the rifle, it was an M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle, or IAR. While I wasn''t versed with an M27, it was the same as a civilian AR; aside from the ability to be switched into fire modes.


    I racked the charging handle, with force. Something was sticking the handle. I didn''t want to think about what. A round flung out of the chamber and slapped my stomach before it fell; clattering against the floor. I gulped. Fear told me not to do it. Courage told me that I needed to fight. Sense told me either option would work and we''d all die - probably.


    Finally, another element won out. Pride. I was Kian Willow, the son of a prestigious General of the Army. My brother was a Special Operations Squad Leader, and I''ll be damned if I didn''t fight... The bravado was fake as hell, but... I had to do something, and it worked. I had gotten myself to calm down enough and I took a single deep breath.


    And I stepped back into the window and aimed.


    Bang! Bang! Bang!


    The first shot went high and disappeared, but I wasn¡¯t used to ACOGs so it was acceptable. The next shot ruptured the head of the first goblin was attempting to sneak through by crawling. Blood geyser''ed as it cut through the top of its skull. The third shot only kicked up the dirt by it. I got their attention though. I ducked behind the hull as another wave of arrows clattered against the helicopter.


    I waited for a second, nothing else came, and I shot back up. This time, I managed to place two shots into the second goblin as it tried to crawl back to the safety of its nearby rock. With the goblin''s side to me, the first shot skimmed the top of its head, but it seemed to only be a flesh wound as it continued its frantic crawl. The second shot landed center of its small neck and the goblin stopped. The third round kicked up the grass just behind it. The goblin began to thrash wildly, the rest of its small group deserted them in a mad sprint - only to turn into glittering crimson mists as the HMG turned on them.


    This time, I saw the attack before it came. A group of archers forty to fifty feet further from the group I just attacked. They were already drawing their bows and taking aim, but I dropped five rounds into their direction before I dropped down again. The whole length of the attack no more than twenty seconds.


    Click-Cl-Clic-Cl-Cl-Click


    There were fewer arrows this time. I jumped up to throw down more freedom, but a dull mechanical click responded to my trigger pull. I dropped down and brought the rifle up to my face.


    "Fuck!" I screamed. The bolt was locked back, the breech open, and no round insight. I heard the clatter of arrows again and a few even managed to get through the window this time. "Sorry!" I muttered as I pulled the dead marine next to me onto his back. His carrier was drenched with fresh blood, and the strong whiff of it smacked me like I owed it money.


    I gagged and cringed. Another wave of arrows clattered above me, their aim becoming better with each volley.


    I pulled out all the magazines in his carrier, but he only had three forty round magazines full. The four were empty and one was bloodied to all hell. So I left those on the floor. I ejected the spent magazine and, purely on moonlight and luck, managed to load a fresh one in. I turned the rifle on its right side, felt the side up for the bolt-release and pressed it down. The bolt flew forward and the rifle jerked slightly. The feeling was euphoric, in an "I''m not going to die yet" kind of way.


    Another wave of arrows clattered against the hull, but they were almost too loud as the HMG fire stopped. I looked down the interior and saw them reloading it. I took this chance to pop back up and... A horde of red eyes began to close the distance between us as a sea of green began to encircle us...


    ? ? ?


    "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" One of the marines cried out as a goblin managed to jump on him without hitting the roof of the Osprey. He fell down, and the disappearance of his suppressive fire allowed a few more to slip into the bird. Three... Then when we failed to kill one of the intruders, that one took down another marine. More began to slip in until only three of us were left standing. Somehow, I managed to keep calm. I didn''t feel... Scared. I kept the rifle on semi-auto and just pulled when I had a good shot.


    All I could do was keep my rifle trained on the window. The monsters swarmed us. We could hear them on the roof, jumping. Laughing. Even over the sound of gunshots. There was just so many. We managed to save one of the two marines that went down. But he was horribly wounded. His throat had been nicked when he fought off two of the little shits. The first one that went down... His head had been stabbed into a horrific caved bowl of brains and blood.


    Another goblin appeared in the gunner''s window.


    Bang!


    I didn''t think about it. I reacted on reflex now.The bullet hit the goblin''s chest. The monster was so light that the 5.556 NATO round actually propelled the goblin backward. It had a fifty-fifty chance falling on the ground, or off the cliff. Yeah. The nose of the bird was off the cliff and my window was on the cusp. I didn''t notice until I had seen the little green nightmares jumping on the windshield with rocks and sticks.


    I guess that was the only reason we had lasted this long. With only one direction of obvious attack, we had managed to hold them off. That was until the bolt of the M27 locked back and there weren''t any more magazines for me to grab.


    "I''m out!" I called out. I still had my XM17, but I didn''t know if the 9mm would be good enough to take them, at least, without mag-dumping. I only had a total of twenty magazines for my pistol, not including the one in the pistol itself. But it was all I had now.


    Before I could even bother to ditch the rifle, another goblin appeared in the window. The stars shined upon this one today because I only had a blunt weapon now. I bashed goblin with the butt of the rifle. My mistake, because the little shit grabbed the butt as it screamed an ear-piercing screech as it looked back. With such an ugly face, I was surprised I recognized fear on its face.


    I didn''t hesitate and let go of the rifle as I pushed again. The little green thing clung to the rifle as it screamed, disappearing below the edge of the window. I pulled my sidearm just as another one thought it was lucky today as well, but I gave him a welcome gift to the face. It was only a moment, but I saw its nose burst into a crimson flower as it fell back. This time, the window stayed empty.


    I turned my attention as I stepped further back until I fell back onto the cockpit''s steps. The goblins charging in now. Two marines were standing and the others disappeared underneath the green murderous tidal wave.


    "Get up! Get up!" One of them screamed at me. I didn''t hesitate and scrambled further into the cockpit until I was practically crouching on the instrument center console. The first marine went up the steps as the other one covered him, I kept my pistol trained, ready for him to move up... He never got a chance.


    The moment he turned, and neither of us could actually fire without mowing him down as well, several of the little murderous monkeys clung to his back and another knocked his legs from beneath him with an aimed stick to the back of his legs. He fell backward into the horde. We didn''t wait anymore as a goblin planted his bloodied feet on the first step.


    Bang!-


    Several holes emerged in the goblin''s chest as it flung back. Another goblin appeared. Then another, and another. Each one was mowed down until we began to alternate. He kept firing until he had to reload. Then I would cover him. That was until after the second reload, he was out and hand to use the rifle as a club. Without a beat, He went John Wick on one that got through as I tried to reload.


    It jumped at me, but the butt clubbed him in the mouth. I swear I saw teeth go flying, but it may have been my imagination. Now. Now, I was beginning to lose it again. I clamped down on a scream as another jumped at me before the marine could bring the rifle back around. I fell back on the instruments. I felt the windshield hit the top of my head, and I was thankful for the plate carrier I had one. I was sure I would have felt more than just that if I hadn''t.


    Without thinking, I kicked out. I saw a look of surprise just before my foot sent the goblin flying back into the next one before it could leap as well. There were only a few seconds before another would take its place, but it gave enough room for the last marine to swing again. Then I finally reloaded.


    And I cursed our luck...


    The next goblin wasn''t the strawberry shortcake doll variety. The butt of the rifle was caught in the hand of a human-sized goblin with big red eyes. Before I could react, a sword stabbed out and buried itself into the man''s stomach.

 2.2 \\\ RABBIT DOWN

    ? Kian ? Willow ?


    P ? V


    The last marine stood on my right, in the small enclave that offered him protection against the horde. While the goblins had been focusing on me, as I perched onto the Osprey''s instrument console mid-reload; the Hobgoblin either knew he was there or mysteriously saw his attack coming. That I could have lived with, but it was the short rusty sword that been so effortlessly thrusted into the marine''s lower stomach that terrified me. The attack narrowly missed the plate''s protection and disappeared into the man.


    Instead of appearing out the other side, the back of his carrier bulged out. When the heavy material of the carrier ran out of the little amount of slack it had, the man rose up a few inches. It was as if only those two existed in the dark world that smelled of blood, filth, and gunpowder. The screams of the hungry horde that was so desperate to kill us died away, and in its place, a menacing cackle left the goblin''s sinister smile. The goblin jerked the sword side to side and the man''s eyes bulged, but he didn''t scream.


    Blood poured out like a pool that had just sprung a leak, along with the man''s organs. The wet plops as it spilled onto the floor and half onto the steps made my body run cold. Once the hobgoblin had its brief few seconds of sick fun, it pulled the sword out. The marine dropped to the creature''s feet and instantly crumbled. His hands slipped off the rifle''s handguard and the hobgoblin only threw it out the cockpit. My vision became a tunnel as the monster''s focus was turned to me.


    Two large human-like eyes that burned red in the darkness, illuminated by the moonlight that poured through the window at my back, became upturned half-moons.


    "Girl." Its voice came out deep and raspy, almost a growl. "You''re going to be my prize for tonight." And then it smiled, with a different kind of sick look. He was undressing me with his eyes. I had seen plenty of men look at me like that. On a normal day, I would have happily mentioned I was a boy, but the words never came. Instead, my hands raced to open the magazine pouch.


    It seemed at that moment, the goblin also noticed I had a pistol in my hand. It must have known what it was because it lunged forward, grabbing the slide just as I slapped the magazine in. The goblin gripped the weapon before I could rack the slide.


    My hands shook as I raced to finish reloading. The vague self-defense training my brother nearly beat into me began to play as I kicked at the goblins hard and muscled chest. My boot softly thudded, yet it only seemed to excite the monster more. It began to laugh and an idea finally slipped into my head. Instead of pushing forward here, I jerked my arms forward and I felt the click rather than heard it. The lock had been disengaged.


    The goblin''s laughter died as it looked to its hand, also feeling the click. Its hand wasn''t over the chamber but on the front of the barrel. I took that moment to attack and drove the heel of my boot into its crotch. I didn''t know if the goblin had anything below, but it certainly didn''t wear anything above. Its ripped chest green was bare to the world, and as it turned out, so was its nether regions. I felt something hard, even through the hard rubber sole. I was all too aware of what I had just struck as the Hobgoblin roared in pain. His hand loosened and the slide rammed into battery on its own.


    Bang-Bang-Bang!


    The pistol''s bark was accompanied by several blossoms of fire and unspent gunpowder. One bullet struck its chest, off right. Another one grazed its left shoulder muscle. The last one punched through the roof of the Osprey and attacked the sky. The goblin roared and thrusted the short crimson sword at me. I tried to dodge and threw myself to my right into the pilot seat... The sword still found me but unlike the marine, the sword struck me center-chest.


    The force stole the air from my lungs and pummeled me into the seat. Thankfully, I hadn''t landed back to the seat. I could feel my back try to pivot on the joystick and the window against my head. I could feel my ribs bending in past the point I thought no ribs should have ever gone. I was sure a few broke. Yet, it made a mistake. Probably in its rage and desire to strike me down, but it didn''t grab my pistol again.


    I recovered before it could realize its costly mistake and blindly pointed the pistol toward its chest and fired off another four rounds that bite into its center chest as well. An eye for an eye. However, unlike what I thought would have happened, the hobgoblin reared back slightly in pain. Then it came forward, faster than I thought possible and grabbed both my wrists.


    Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang!


    The goblin pointed the pistol away as the first shot went off and dug itself just above where I thought its heart should have been. The monster roared at me as it brought its face closer. I could smell rotten eat, iron, and something else foul. Its teeth were human, except it had four massive canines - like an orangutan. However, it didn''t try and kill me. After its quick bout of painful fury, it smiled even deeper now. Its eyes gleamed with primal sadism that made my heart skip with deep instinctual fear.


    "I''m going to enjoy raping you as I rip your limbs off!" His voice seemed almost loving, in a sick, and terrifying whisper.


    I let out a high pitch scream, something that I meant as a war cry, but I wasn''t known for my manly voice. I threw another kick to the goblin''s erect penis. I struck with enough adrenaline-fueled strength that it bent, skimmed off and planted itself right into its sack. The moment I had made full contact, I watched all the Hobgoblin''s facial muscles contract with such monstrous strength, his eyes almost popped out. From the look at it, the attack must have done more damage than I thought I would have been able to inflict.


    I felt the sword ease up on me along with his death grip on my wrist. I aimed higher, planted my boot into his gut and sent its stumbling backward. I fired again, but he dodged and came up again to try and snag the weapon. I kicked him square in the face. It didn''t harm him, not from what I saw, but with my back against the proverbial wall - and a joystick on my back - I managed to steer him into the console beside me.


    "I''m going to kill you!" He roared as he grabbed his face. A dial had done me a favor and injured his eye. He clung to his left eye, blood seeping from between his green figures. His other eye looked less lustful and more blood-lustful. "I''m going to rip off your head and fuck your throat, little human!" It roared as it stood up. I hadn''t gotten a good view of the goblin before. Now I did.


    He stood close to my brother''s height, with more muscles than him. He could have been considered a handsome man, if not for the blood-covered face and snarling monkey teeth. In full light of the moon... Was his massive... I didn''t bother to finish my assessment. I already knew, alive or dead, that thing was not gonna go in me, not without a lot of blood.


    I brought the pistol up and in one smooth motion, pulled the trigger.


    Round after round jumped from the barrel, crossed the short distance between me and the enraged monster. The destination was the massive erect "limb." The first shot hit him high to the right, shy of an inch. The next round traveled down his barrel, shredding it as it cut through it. The next round was high left and afterward... I managed to drop the rest of the magazine into the shredded limb tree that was his groin.


    He didn''t roar but fell over backward silent as his nether region had been turned into a heap of ribbons by half a magazine of 9mm. His face was contorted in a silent scream, one that no longer registered my existence. I dropped the magazine and loaded another one, which turned out to be my second to last one. The empty magazine dropped into my lap, almost as warm as the beast''s blood that was now splattered across the cockpit.


    I didn''t know what my expression was as I racked the slide back. All I knew was that if I was going to die, it would be in a pile of green bodies, un-raped. It didn''t occur to me that others could have been out there as well, but at this moment, it was me and him. The sick and twisted green monster that had enough force to do what he will. On the ground because of my last equalizer, the XM17. Its barrel still smoking from the last barrage I had unleashed upon the nightmare.


    Despite the pain, the hob heard the loud click of the slide and turned to me. Its face pale and its one good eye wide. And for the first time during the short fight, it reflected fear as I unleashed another barrage. The bullets tore through its nose, eye, and forehead.


    Bang-Bang-Bang-Bang-Bang-Bang-Bang---


    Even after his head fell limp, only jerking slightly with when a bullet made its home inside it, I didn''t stop. Not even when the slide locked back, and the chamber smoked.


    A harsh silence fell, only disturbed by a faint click.


    Click.


    Click.


    Click...


    ? Simon ? Erhn ?


    P ? V


    The pungent scent of death hung on the wind, accompanied by something that smelled like spent mana and sewer waste. Hundreds of dead goblins littered the ridge. Only a fraction of that scampered off to the east, the wrath of the Gods in their hearts.


    I surveyed the carnage, longsword in hand. It glimmered in the wake of the full moon; untouched by the filth of blood. It was not that I lacked the courage to face the monsters on the field of battle, but the adventurers attacked with such enthusiasm, none of the knights had a chance. I doubted most of the adventurers had ever worked together; they were B-Ranked teams. While they were just civilians, I had to admit; they were too effective at killing.


    If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.I was sure the others Knights would see them in a new light, or at least, show more respect to them; but that did not matter right now. At most, the adventurers had killed less than a hundred goblins. I had a sinking feeling that they were not the reason they retreated. I turned around to the tune of my armor as it rustled and looked to the large dark maw of a metal contraption. This¡­ Thing¡­ Was the center of this carnage.


    It was only a week ago that I had stepped foot on this very ridge. Me and my wife, to settle our problems. It was beautiful then. The birds sang as the sun shone, and the wind danced across the grass. Now¡­


    Under the full moon, as if a spell had been cast over the ridge, the grass had been dyed red. Bodies were piled: two, three, and sometimes five high. Instead of the salty wind, there was only the smell of iron. The scent that drifted from the new addition on the ridge¡­ gave off an even stranger smell. Death, blood, and¡­ something similar to magic, but nothing of the sort. There were no signs of magic being used.


    As the adventurers were returning, I walked across the bloody field. The crush of grass was accompanied with a wet ¡°splat¡±. If anything, this was a massacre. Where the goblins willingly ran towards death and killed it. I passed a blood-splattered rock outcrop. Several dead goblins were torn apart by it. I wondered if it had been a melee weapon, or maybe- My thoughts froze when I saw the front of the rocks. It was pulverized, scarred, and pock-marked. I looked to the other rocks behind me. They were the same. I looked further back to the trees. They were the same.


    I turned in horror to the epicenter of the battle.


    ¡°What''s wrong?¡± A lovely young woman, older than my wife, but younger than me, stopped beside me. She was dressed in a deep blue robe that went down to her ankles. While the breastplate was the only visible piece of armor, I knew full well the rest was covered under the robe.


    ¡°Mrs. Weichselbraun.¡± I bowed my head politely, despite the circumstances. She only waved it off and I sheathed my sword. I pointed to the mangled goblin bodies beside the rock. ¡°I¡¯m afraid I do not know what kind of weapon, aside from magic, could do such damage.¡± Before she could reply, I walked gestured to the rock face. ¡°The rock is also badly damaged. I was here not but a week ago. I know that the rocks were not like this at that time.¡±


    More adventurers walked up, led by Mr. Weichselbraun. He was slightly taller than his wife, but still shorter than I. He wore thin seeing glasses and held a clipboard in his hand. He and his wife were the Guild branch leader and vice leader respectively. While I made a point to treat others with respect, I took great care to treat these two with far more respect. I greeted him as I greeted his wife. I knew he would have been curious to our conversation, and I repeated my findings to him.


    His thoughts reflected mine. ¡°I¡¯m going to investigate the structure, would you like to come?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Yes, but here.¡± Mr. Weichselbraun pulled a spear from the hand of an adventurer next to him. He then held it out to me. ¡°Confined space, use this.¡±


    I took the spear and bowed my head with courtesy.


    I lead the way up the hill, flanked by adventurers while the other knights walked around the bodies; bored.


    In a few minutes, we quickly reached a strange structure and stood about a hundred feet from it. It was long and wide, tipped with a large metal barrel with small longer metal planks. The main body was grey while the smaller parts looked black. Strange symbols were painted onto the metal, symbols I could not translate. I circled the structure, careful for any living goblins. To my surprise, everything was dead. To an even greater surprise, there were other humans behind it, seven of them.


    A few were slumped over, pinned with several arrows to their heads and arms. The majority of them seemed to have been overrun by goblins; stabbed and beaten until they were bloodied. But they were still human. They wore strangely colored uniforms that had a blocky pattern. They also had cloth breastplates with pouches attached to them. They also clung to metal staves and in between the bodies, hundreds of small bronze¡­ containers? It looked like it and they were sprawled across the ground around them.


    No one spoke, though I was sure we all had our own thoughts. I wanted to investigate the scene further, but something called to me. Like an itch. ¡°Go to it.¡± The feeling pulled me to the main structure. Without a word, I pulled away from the dead humans, and treaded carefully towards the large opening. There were nearly thirty feet of empty clean grass. Nothing stood between it and us. It wasn¡¯t until we got within ten feet of the opening did we find more humans. Each one was surrounded by nearly thirty dead goblins.


    ¡°A final stand.¡± I muttered. I felt pride for them. It was apparent that these humans were strong warriors. From the wounds on the goblins, they fought like lions. I would honor them later for their courage. I looked around. There were at least three of the men, each dressed in the same attire as the others below. Each held their ground in front of the opening. The middle man defended the opening, where a strange metal object was attached to the floor. I couldn¡¯t tell what the floor was made of as it was coated in bodies and blood, but it wasn¡¯t something of this world.


    The walls were grey and inorganic. I peered inside and found it was dark until the end where the moonlight shone through a doorway and a few windows. In the moonlight, I could see a large pile of dead goblins and a single human. I kept the spear at the ready and a few of the adventurers moved forward. They cleared the goblin bodies by tossing them aside but treated the human warriors with the dignity befitting their sacrifices. Once they were moved, it became clear that it was a metal ramp and I moved forward, making sure that my steps held.


    Slowly, I proceeded through the dark hall. I waved the spear into around the dark floor. The head scratched against it a few times. My steps thudded hollowly against the floor as I stopped on the edge of the moonlight, the tip of the spear shimmered in the dark. I could hear the steps of the others behind me. Their steps as hollow as mine. The floor was not solid.


    My eyes scanned the doorway, saw no obvious movement and then I scanned the pile. None of them were mangled, but most of them had small puncture-like wounds to their heads and chests. I moved into the light, and I heard a small gasp¡­ Ahead of me.


    My eyes flung up to the doorway. The shadows moved frantically and I saw the shimmer of metal, something clatter through the doorway, and cursed. It was something small and elongated. It was a¡­ Silver device that held one of the brass items I saw littered around outside. Then I heard the fearful curses of a¡­ Girl? My heart skipped when I heard the despair, the loss of hope as she began to frantically move.


    ¡°Mis-¡± Then the figure jumped at me. For a moment, I saw the flash of a slightly tanned, blood-splattered face of a girl leap from the shadow of the doorway. I almost brought the spear up to fight back, but I forced myself to let it slip from my grasp. It clattered onto the floor as my hands grabbed the frantic girl as she fought against me.


    ¡°You¡¯re not going to take me! I won¡¯t let you have your way!¡± She roared like a fiery lion. Nothing but darkness filled my vision as I caught her. She struck at me, but her attacks had very little strength.


    ¡°Shit!¡± I could hear the adventurers preparing to attack, but I wasn¡¯t in a position to warn them that it wasn¡¯t a goblin. I could only hope that they could hear what I heard and I forced myself forward into the light. My movements were limited in a full suit of armor, but I tried to be as delicate as I could with the girl. I could hear the anguish in her voice as she clawed at me, struck at my helm, and kicked at my groin. Each weak, but backed with the hopeless fight that any cornered lion could put up.


    Then she managed to get ahold of the edges of my cheek guard and began to claw at my face. It was then I saw the twisted face of someone pushed past the edge as I reeled back against the side of the structure. Her pretty face was splattered with blood, crazed empty eyes, and a twisted snarl on her thin lips. Between those lips, perfect white teeth¡­ Ah..


    ¡°She must be a princess.¡± Was the only thought I had as the shaft of a spear entered the corner of my vision. It struck the left side of her head and released me as she fell. She collapsed onto the floor, ontop the pile of dead bodies.


    ¡°Holy shit!¡± A female adventurer stood on my left, wide eyes. ¡°What the fuck was that?!¡± She looked at me, not believing what just happened.


    ¡°Take her outside.¡± I breathed. I noticed that I was breathing heavily. I was getting too old for this knightly work. The girl only looked at me then down to her before she slowly nodded.


    I could hear the commotion of the adventurers as they all tried to figure out what just happened. The adventurer dragged the girl out by hooking her arms under hers. She yelled at the rest to back out as she did. ¡°Make fucking way, you stupid pricks!¡± She bellowed. Silence returned to the structure as I looked into the doorway. Curious, I stepped through the doorway and found a strange room. While there was plenty of interesting things to look at, the first thing that caught my attention was the man on my left.


    His organs were sprawled across the floor. I looked forward and saw the bloody rusted shortsword. I looked to my right and found a rather disfigured Hobgoblin. I stiffened at the sight. ¡°Dear gods¡­¡± Had she fought this on her own and survived?! I looked back to the center, but there was only blood splatters. ¡°Was that why she-¡± My thought was caught off as a voice interrupted my thoughts.


    ¡°What happened?¡± It was Mr. Weichselbraun. I could not dignify her reasons with words and simply pointed to the Hobgoblin that laid mangled by the doorway. The Branch leader stepped forward and peered around the corner, only to gasp and jump back in shock. I nodded as he looked at me wide-eyed.