《Short Stories: Character Ideas》


 Lyrus: The Noble Hunter - Chapter 1

    Numerous crude looking, wooden spears flew through the smoky and bloody air, their tips made of bones or stones, sometimescaught fire from the flames that consumed the fort; soon after, they reached their targets. The blood-red skywitnessed the death of almost a hundred people and half a thousand monsters, registering this merciless battlefield in history.


    Between the flames and crumbling buildings, Lyrus, Cawton, and Vanessa were desperately trying to fight back, their failure, however, was imminent.


    Cawton continuously fired from his longbow, killing numerous of the invading kobolds from an advantagepoint on top of a house. His gambeson - the only armor he wore - had cuts all over it, blood occasionallyflowing froma cut on his left shoulder left by an enemy spear. But no matter how many arrows he shot out of his bow, the monsters seemed to never cease their assault.


    Vanessa was uninjured, but her mage robes were dirty from the dust of the crumbling buildings, she kept chanting random words in order to remember the formula of her magic, but the sound of battle and death drowned the anxious mumbling voice, ice shards occasionally flew from the sky-blue crystal tip of her straight staff, on their way to the humanoid-looking, large sized rats.


    Lyruswas the reason for Vanessa''s safety, standing a few steps in front of her, his shield defended both of them from the threatening spears, but wouldn''thold for much longer, the bits and pieces of enemy weapons punctured it numerous times, damaging it. He was also in the worst conditionsince one single warrior couldn''t slayclose-quarters opponents and defend from the never-ending rain of spears at the same time, leaving his iron mail armor unbelievably damaged.


    The kobold, having strong legs and thin arms, possessed incredible speed that increased the deadliness of their throwing spears. Fur covered their bodies from the feet to the ugly head that attacked a person''s sanity. Thankfully, these monsters were shorter than humans and were easier to take head-on, but their numbers more than made up for it; in fact, most of them had been killed outside the stone walls before they managed to barge in.


    "We''re leaving, Cawton! Get back!" Shouted Lyrus to the furious, red-eyed Cawton.


    "Damned rats, go fuck yourselves!" After he heard Lyrus, Cawton swore as much as he could while jumping from atop the house, rolling when hitting the ground and running to the back lines with top speed.


    "Vanessa, let''s go!" Ordered Lyrus to his tired and anxious friend.


    Without wasting a single second, Vanessa ran towards the same direction as Cawton, Lyrus retreated a little slower, pinned down by the army of kobolds, he was forced to take a few hits before managing to run away.


    Arriving in front of the dungeon, Lyrus released a sigh of relief seeing the fifty or so soldiers and hunters that survived. But fate gave him no time to rest, the fire,accompanied by the kobold army,caught up with the running survivors.


    "Hunter! Join the line, we''ll make sure that the rest of the group is not chased after!" Shouted an officer to Lyrus. Around 13 warriors and 5 archers that could fight readied their shields and bows to protect what was left of the fort.


    "Understood!"


    Lyrus gladly joined them, for him, this was better than everyone dying in complete chaos, and maybe he could get plenty of rewards in case he survived.


    ''What am I thinking. Winning? Like that''s possible.'' Lyrus scoffed at himself for these stupid thoughts and,along with the other warriors and archers, pressed his fingers against his weapon and steeled his heart for the incoming death while his companions shot worried glances at him, Cawtonpassed all half a dozen remainingarrows he had onto a random archer and wished him luck, Vanessa simply bowed and ran into the dungeon to escape through the tunnels underground.


    The kobolds were a few dozen steps away from the last line of defense before being shot by the human-made arrows, their numbers, however, overwhelmedthe few archers left, and soon, the archers shot all their remaining arrows and joined the close-quarters with short swords.


    Luckily, few spears were thrown, allowing the line to focus on the close combatants.Lyruskept his cracked shield in front of himself and let his sword slash a kobold that attacked him, the kobold tried toforce through his shield but failed, his shield stood in the exact same place while his right hand suddenly showed itself beside it and attacked, thrusting through the enemy¡¯s furry chest and forcing blood out of the wound.


    When another came and stabbed its spear at his shield, he swiftly took a step forward and slashed at the monster before it could try to sweep at his feet. The kobold hurriedly tried to dodge but its small stature had forced it to come too close to the warrior''s range, after a surprised shriek, it stumbled to the ground.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Sometimes, Lyrus would happily, albeit tiredly, kill his enemy and realize that the closest kobold was a long way from reaching him, he then would use the opportunity to help his remaining brothers with their enemies, taking some weight off their shoulders and they would do the same in kind right after. But alas, even this did not save all of them.


    During his fight with another kobold, Lyrus suddenly noticed the disappearance of the battle cry coming from the warrior on his right. He wished - despite how crazy it sounded - that all this battle had just gone and made him deaf, this being the cause for the roars ending, but since he could still hear his sword almost severing his opponent''s head and the blood spattering over the ground, followed by the corpse hitting the earth, he was forced to face the reality he thought he was ready for.


    Lyrus''sbody started to feel tired, but his mind didn''t register this fact, instead choosing to think about which way would the escaping group go through to reach the village. ''Would they just make a run for the fort through the main road? Perhaps afraid of meeting more monsters during this dangerous swarm, they would instead choose to stop by the checkpoints?A messenger has already been sent to ask for reinforcements, so it would make more sense to just wait for now.''


    ''They also took the exhausted mages and injured warriors and archers, both Vanessa and Cawton were in that group, they''reprobably cursing themselves for not being in a position to stay and help as well. I wonder, would Cawton get pissed off at theseratsif I died by their filthy hands? Would Vanessa stay locked in her room for weeks in tears at the loss of a friend, or overwork herself again instead?''


    These thoughts flew through his head while he parried another lance stab cominghis way, and again his sword immediately stabbed through the enemy''s chest, sticking at the lungs of the creature.


    Lyrussuddenly felt like he was training, repeating the same move again and again for an eternity so that he could finally get some rest after exhausting himself. He already felt tired but still had to repeat the same movement non-stop, this time with kobolds instead of air and dummies, but it was the almost same thing in the end.


    His left arm, which held his almost broken shield, felt numb by now, he barely felt his bursting wrist and almost broken bones. Another kobold appeared from the beyond to pull him into his grave, and another kobold''s lifeless body fell to the ground.


    More rat monsters came after that andmuchmore right after. Lyrus and the last line stood their ground with all their might, receiving wound after wound, losing man after man.


    And finally, after 20 minutes or so of continuous fighting, the line killed the last invader, having only 4 warriors and 2 archers left. Sitting in the middle of almost sixty kobold corpses, Lyrus and the other five desperately tried to catch their breaths for other several minutes, praying so that no more of those monsters arrived and inwardly mourning over the death of their fellow brothers.


    Lyrus went over his injuries and was thankful that even though he lost his shield at the end of battle he had only strained his left leg and almost detonated his own wrist, so much that he could barely feel his left hand.


    "Hah...Only one hunter? Huff... good, it seems like... huff...you survived this suicide squad, the guilds are sure to reward you well. Men! Back to the village!" The officer which called for Lyrus to stay before ignored a piece of a spear on his own left shoulder and orderedfor everyone to return home while catching his breath, however, the dungeon couldn''t hold against the onslaught and fell over, forcing the survivors to leave through the entrance of the fort.


    Luckily, it seems that all the kobolds either died or retreated, allowing them to proceed without a hitch on their way to the village.


    ''This will be a story to tell.'' Thought Lyrus, trying to suppress a smile while feelingproud of his survival and imagining his friends'' future reaction.''I wonder what Cawton and Vanessa will think when they see that I survived against an army of monsters!''


    <hr>


    After a long and - thankfully - uneventful walk in the forest, the group finally caught sight of the Village of Austen, half of it protected by a wooden wall. It was not as efficient as the one made of stone on the fort, but if the hundreds of guards and hunters on duty inside the village couldn''t handle whatever came after it, one would doubt that a stone wall would be of much more help. Besides, protecting the village was the reason for building the fort in the first place, it was unfortunate that it met defeat barely after the start of the swarm.


    After approaching the gate of the wall, the officer ordered the guards on duty to open a huge gate 3 meters long and 5 meters tall, a bit larger than the wall. The worried guards immediately opened it and inquired about the situation while helping their friends.


    The first question came from someone of the same authority as the officer that ledLyrus''sline.


    "You''re from the troop dispatched to the Fort Baxter, right? What happened there?"


    ''What about our messenger? And we also didn''t see anyone on the checkpoints closest to the roads.''Lyrusthought somberly, an uneasy breath entered his lungs through his dry throat but he decided that it was just his pessimistic thoughts resurfacing.


    "Kobolds attacked it, their numbers were close to half a thousand! We covered the escape of a group of around thirty survivors, they didn''t come back here? What about the messenger?" Came both the answer and the question from the officer of the line.


    "No messenger arrived in our gates this day. But rest easy, we''ll send people to find those missing! As for the other survivors, they probably stopped at the checkpoints, so finding them shouldn''t be a problem for the hunters." The guarding commander assured the survivors, and Lyrus as well decided to leave this mission for the ones who are ready to accomplish it.


    After that came the medical attention for what was left of the line and a good week of much-needed rest to the heroes.

 Lyrus: The Noble Hunter - Chapter 2

    Around a week after resting at the barracks, Lyrus got released from the medical wards. He asked himself why his friends didn''t go visit him during that time.Cawtonwas injured so he probably was receiving treatment and couldn''t come, but he knew that Vanessa didn''tsuffer any critical injuries so she had no reason to not visit him, he felt kind of sad since he was overlooked like that.


    ''Oh well. Since they can''t come looking for me, I guess I should go look for them.''Lyrus then decided to visit their homes, on the way he reminisced about the rising of his party a few years back, about his first party member, Cawton.


    As a noble, he learned to shoot with the bow at his house, taught by experienced archers and practicing the art of the hunt. He came to Austen in order to acquire experience in the field. After all, killing mindless monsters was much safer than trying his luck on the battlefield against veterans and the uncertainty of war.


    During his time with Lyrus, Cawton took lessons from his reliable teammate about swordsmanship but he ended disappointed becauseLyruswas so skilled that no monster ever managed to get close upon him when out there, leaving his now improved sword skills unused in the field. And in the invasion of the kobolds, the newbie who initially thought that he could finally put these skills to the test and use them against his enemies was met with throwing spears that completely denied this possibility, forcing him to stick to the bow for the whole battle.


    As for Vanessa, her common birthmeant that her parents had to save money for years to pay her tuition fee to become a magician, a work that paid off well considering that her talent for casting magic and controlling the flow of battle through said magic was top-grade. Unfortunately, she didn''t feel that much comfortable around the strange nobles that were Lyrus and Cawton, their status seemed to build a barrier against humble people like her.Lyrusinitially hid his name in order to avoid problems with it, but in the middle of a hunt Cawton unintentionally called his real name and the situation ended a little awkward between Lyrus and Vanessa. They got over it with time and kept hunting together as it could be seen in the invasion last week.


    Arriving at Vanessa''s house, Lyrus identified the humble, one-storyhouse with walls made out of wood, the door had some simple handmade carvings that drew some random lines through its upper part. Knocking a few times in the door, Lyruswaited there for some time, but there was no response.


    He swept his sight to the houses around him, they would all look the same were it not for the wooden windows - or lack of thereof - chipped on the sides that let some of the sunlight shine inside, a pity that most of the folk would already be awake before said sungave any shade of yellow to the day.


    The road was simply a path of earth that lost all plant-life due to hand-pulledcarriages and early morning steps of the residents, a slight slope led all the way to Vanessa''s home, giving the girl a beautiful sight of the two tallest buildings of the village, the Guilds'' building and the city''s garrison.


    This view, however, was not Lyrus goal at the moment.


    Giving up after waiting for a few minutes, he decided to head towards the improvised medical wards close to the soldier quarters.


    <hr>


    A simple tent blocked the strong sunlight from burning the receptionist that calmlystoodto the side of the entrance to the ''infirmary'' of the village. Clarisse''s eyes run multiple times through the names of the patients, a short report of them briefs about their life in this village.


    In a week''s time, only two people have left this hastily made barracks, a hot-headed officer that didn''t listen to the medics when they asked him to stay for at least a month, and a noble hunter that got peacefully released without any trouble whatsoever.''A noble as a hunter? I heard these people are weirder than they seem, and a Lavridge at that! I didn''t believe that family gave this much freedom to their children. Money and freedom... I''m envious now!''


    She Put these idle thoughts to the back of her head by shaking it after spotting a handsome blond man that looked to be on his early-thirties approaching her and looking like he had questions to make. He looked kind of injured, hisleft leg was somewhat stiff and his left arm was resting on his belly, a white cloth covering it from the shoulder to the wrist, but it doesn''t seem to be anything to stress over for. His tall size and wide shoulder gave him an aura of a knight from romances that - in fact - kind of made him look even more handsome when injured.


    As Clarisse started having some doubts about her fetishes, the man came close enough for a proper conversation, she beamed a pure smile at him to cause a good impression on the guy. ''People say that a girl can have some dreams, right?''A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    He stops in front of her with a thoughtful face while scratching his chin, eyes wandering to the beyond, it''s impossible to know where his mind is right now, in fact, even he didn''t seem to know. After a second, he looked from the ground to Clarisse''s face and asked without changing his stance.


    "I''m looking for some of my friends that survived the invasion to the fort last week, could you tell me about them?"


    "Sure! Just give me your ID and tell me their names." She eagerly answers while picking some papers from the table in front of her.


    "They are Cawton Steward Vallis and Vanessa Altimus. Here is my hunter ID." Lyrus gives a rectangular shaped crystal, just small enough to fit into a random pocket, and have it later pickpocketed by a random stranger.


    "Okay! They''re... oh?" After checking the ID, Clarissa notices something strange when searching for the names, she skips through some papers and later checks them again, after some seconds with a blank stare at the files that she had just double checked, her expression suddenly changes and she takes some more papers from a drawer in the counter, after a quick look at it she finds their names and then faces Lyrus, doing her part of the job.


    "Sorry for the wait." She says, calm and tranquil now, handing the ID back to Lyrus. "Please, head inside and ask for the medical chief, David Blackwall Tarvis. He should be inside the quarters but you can ask for a guide anyways."


    "Thanks for the help." Lyrus then heads inside, oblivious to thegirl''s almost imperceptible change of mood.


    Seeing the noble hunter head inside the wards and later towards the garrison, Clarrise sighs, her maiden mood completely gone.


    <hr>


    Lyrus also thought that someone should have spoken to him about his companions during the time he spent healing from his wounds, but didn''t pay much attention. He also had no intention of wasting his time causing trouble for people that should be saving the lives of the other hunters and soldiers.


    Inside of what used to be a soldier barracks, Lyrus noticed the incredible number of both injured soldiers and hunters in the beds, this strange swarm turned out to be much more dangerous than ever before.


    Because the humans weren''t prepared for a swarm of this level, just in the first week the body count reached a hundred and the injured in the fifties or so, forcing the Guilds to send an extra medical unit to treat Austen village. What''s more, apparently the swarm on the cities on the west also got more dangerous, the death count in the thousands and increasing.


    But right now, nothing about that mattered to Lyrus, who asked one of the nurses at the medical ward to guide himto the medical chief''s location.


    Arriving in front of a simple wooden door without any kind of decoration, the nurse leaves him to talk with the medical chief alone.Lyrussimply knocks on the door, conscious that the nurse is currently busy with other patients and just waits for the almost immediate answer from inside the door.


    "Come in." The voice of an old man sounds behind the door.


    When entering, the first thing Lyrus notices are the three bookshelves which should''ve been full of books about battle tactics and maps of the nearby regions and is now filled with reports of recent massive attacks, species that managed to create a small army during the swarm and other kinds of information from scouts. In the room, two men were discussing with each other about the problems they were facing.


    "Our resources are almost depleted! We can''t afford any more than we already have, this is a village, not a city!" Says a muscular man that seemed to be around his forties, he was using a simple iron-mail that had a gambeson underneath it, with hair that was a bright-brown with some white on the sides, his face contorted in annoyance at the impossible requests of the medical chief,a helmet that was probably his was resting on the table in front of him.


    Lyrus also didn''t fail to notice the plate armor laid on the corner of the room, the set might look strange to a villager who never saw anything of the kind before, but any knowledgeableperson would know of its might, something that only nobles and their trusted knights could have something this expensive.


    "But we need another medical unit to meet the demand of medical attention! If it keeps this way the death count will needlesslygo up and the hunters will head west to earn more money and leave us alone here!" An old man''s voice - the same who authorized his entrance - brought the hunter back from his own world.


    The middle-aged man sighed and turned to look towardsLyrus, who is standing still facing their discussion without changing his expression.


    "Then, what do you want?" Asks the man to Lyrus.


    "I was said to speak to David Blackwall about some of my friends. I''m Lyrus Lavridge and my friends are Vanessa Altimus and Cawton Steward Vallis."


    David frowns with irritation at first thinking that the attendants were lazing out in their works, but when he listens to the other half of his explanation, his eyes show only confusion. He then heads to one of the bookshelves and takes some sheets of paper and starts to read them, after some seconds he finishes his reading and turns to face Lyrus.


    David could feel sweat forming on his back, he almost couldn''t keep his face from looking at the ground. Completely nervous, he speaks to Lyrus.


    "Apologies for not speaking with you when we should''ve. I''m also sorry to inform you that your teammates, members of the Guilds, Vanessa Altimus and Cawton Steward Vallis, Mage Apprentice and Archer respectively... part of the supposedly incapacitated group of both hunters and soldiers which escaped through the dungeon sewers from Fort Baxter, have been ambushed by monster on their way to one of the checkpoints on the forest."


    Lyrus''seyes go wide with shock. After reality hit him for the second time in his life,Lyrus''smind entered a state of chaos, trying to realize just what happened while he was healing, and when he realized the truth the instant before David''s hit in the nail, his legs felt so weak that he almost fell to his knees, hands trembling and throat stuck with air, he felt hot tears forming in his eyes.


    Lyrusdidn''t know what was worse about this, the sadness that overcame him from this fact...


    "There were no survivors."


    Or the frustration of having all you fought for with your life on the line simply getting thrown in the trash like that.

 Lyrus: The Noble Hunter - Chapter 3

    As he awoke from one of his rare good-night-sleeps, Lyrus could not feel his right arm. ''Must''ve slept over it.'' He thought with a bit of spite ''This surely is not a good way to start the day.''


    After cursing for a few seconds in his mind, his arm''s movements came back and he got out of bed. Working to the Guilds was a tiring and time-consuming task, so he wanted to get things over as soon as he could and then rest again. It wouldn''t be happening this season though, with the swarm incoming he would not have much room for rests and naps, this was quite depressing for him.


    Finished with his mental bickering,Lyrusprepared to leave, now inside his gambeson, he wore an iron mail in the past, but it was broken in the swarm 2 years ago. ''Gone together with them'', thought Lyrus, who soon shook his head to get these bad memories out of his head. The taste of the alcoholwas bad, but there was nothing else that could calm him when he was alone for an entire year after what happened. Thankfully this loneliness didn''t continue, who knows what he would''ve done if it did.


    His boots were made of leather, cheap iron covered his shin and almost went to his knee, his leather gloves also served a purpose, his hands wouldn''t hurt much from impacts against his sword and shield combo with them. Unfortunately, he still didn''t have the money needed to buy a helmet, so his blond hair was free in the wind - or they would be if they were longer - and his blue-as-water eyes were clear for anyone to see. All in all, his handsomeness didn''t save him from looking like the poor Guild Hunter he was.


    Ignoring this unfortunate fact,Lyrusate his breakfast and set out to the Guild building. On the way, he marveled at the simple wood and stone madehouses littered across the slightly uneven ground. ''This village is rich.'' He thought, and in a sense, he was right, while the capital in the east had huge two or three-story buildings, they also had slums that were anything but pretty. Here, however, the worst you see is the occasionalrun-downhouse of some old people that refuse to build a new one.


    His amazement at this scene didn''t die at all, it seems.


    <hr>


    Inside the Guilds building, huge windows - made of glass - all across the walls allowed the sunlight to illuminate every single corner in the hall, highlighting the cleaner than clean chairs and tables next to the entrance. On the far front of the hall, a bold looking stair that went to the second floor gave the feeling that it was the show of the parade, the second floor itself was just another gathering place along with the first floor, though.


    Facing the left side of the stairs, a long counter that was made from darker wood than the ground was occupied by several employees from the Guilds, filling the reports of both accepted quests and completed ones, sometimes also giving this or that advice to the other hunters, what caughtLyrus''sattention, however, was the woman looking at the board right by the side of both the counter and stair, keeping most of the region''s news and some orders from the quarters hanging on it.


    The woman in question seemed to be around her early twenties, a long, blue colored and white adorned robe covered her from shoulder to knee while maintaining her charm intact, in fact, it seemed to only add more elegance to her somewhat tall figure; the ponytail in her head softly swung behind her head while she tiltedit from time to time looking at the board with crossed arms.


    Lyrusstood there for a moment, watching the woman attentively staring at the quest board. He was reminded of a scene in a bad romance he had once read and asked inside of his mind, a bit of humor present on that thought, ''What do you see of special on that board?''Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    After letting out a silent laugh,Lyrusheaded for the tables while calling the young lady.


    "Hey, Jane. Found something worthwhile?"


    "Good day, Lyrus. Not much for a small-sized party like ours." Answered Jane who turned her head to look atLyrusfor a second, calmly turning back to the board and resuming the tilting of her head, looks like it turned into a habit.


    "Oh well, let''s update the map then. Is Robert not coming today? He''s usually the early one." After sitting and leaning a bit in one of the chairs and thinking about some ships and sailings from the past, Lyrus started to talk with Jane in order to pass some time. Patience was not his forte when it wasn''t important.


    "No worries, he''s just taking care of some small problem regarding his sister in the medical unit. I thinkshe called him about last week''s group of monsters that we killed together with the other parties, perhaps this also had to do with theincrease ofinjuredclose to the sea region. By the way, a tribe of goblins apparently took hold of Fort Baxter, survivors say they number close to two hundred, do you think we can find some scattered group around it?" Jane knew Lyrus'' personality and casually fulfilled his intentions.


    "I see. Good idea by the way. Perhaps we can get more close to the fort through the forest, there''s bound to be just enough for us to get a little bonus." AfterLyrus'' response, he started mumbling to himself and planning their way for the day. However, after realizing what was this situation meant he frowned and asked Jane. "Hey, is that increase in injuries and number of two hundred monsters right?"


    Lyrusdidn''t care much about the death count of the fort, he knew by experience that dying by the hands of an army of monsters was more than possible and sometimes couldn''t be avoided, his reason for never being at peace about his former teammates was that he was close to them and that everything that happened there indicated that they would live and he would not. This kind of trade made him think that sometimes the world goes as far as rewriting its own laws to prove its unfairness.


    As for Jane, Lyrus thought that perhaps this reality was still something far away from her, or that she was already used to live with it because of her past. ''I wonder if the latter istrue. If it is, what does she make of things as they are turning to be?''Lyrusrealized that his thoughts began to stray from the situation at hand and mentally shook his head to come back to the roots of the problem.


    "Apparently. That''s what the reports and quest say at least. Why, is there a problem?" Jane once again turns to faceLyrus, but this time her face doesn''t turn back to the board after an instant, wrinkles mystically appearing on her forehead because of her confusion.


    It was cleartohim that in these years the monsters got more active and dangerous along with the swarm. He reminisced about his first year in this village, - without probing much about his time with Cawton - comparing thedifficulty of finding monsters on certain days with the ever so increasing presence of monsters these past few years. He couldn''tsay if this change was for better or for worse, better because it brings more money to the hunters, worse because it was so sudden that it couldn''t be detected until it was too late.


    Lyruspondered about what this siege at Fort Baxter entailed, an army of monsters attacking the fort is not something common, in fact, it only happened once or twice during aswarming season and never at any other time of the year. ''Sure, the monsters were becoming more of a threat by the day but ruling out the sudden storm that was the swarm two years ago, their population has been increasing at asteady rate and it should be biologically impossible for this sudden spike to happen constantly.''He thought, feeling like his brother back at his family''s home, searching for the reason of weird things to happening out of nowhere.


    Lyrussighs, after leaning even more on the chair, he looks up to the ceiling of the Guild, he realizes that it looks exactly the same as the floor. He then turns to face Jane, saying his thoughts in a slow and mysterious rhythm, almost like he was starting some strange type of thriller story. "I think that-"


    "Hey, guys! Sorry for being late but we may have some problems. Apparently..."


    Lyruswho was stuck in his thoughts didn''t notice the arrival of Robert. And Robert who was in a hurry didn''t hearLyrustalking, in the end, they both said the same thing at the same time. It almost seemed staged, almost.


    "The swarm season came early this year."

 Lyrus: The Noble Hunter - Chapter 4

    After hearing about the worrisome possibility, Jane took a seat next toLyrus- her back facing the Guild''s entrance - and they bothwaitedfor Robert who went to pass the message to the attendants of the Guild. Jane''s questioning gaze was directed atLyrus, who according to both him and the Guilds, has been here for 4 years, this being the fourth one. Common sense told her that someone who lived through 3 swarms was bound to have a good deal of experience in the matter, even more so for a warrior who is in constant threatof death on the front lines.


    After waiting for several minutes in silence, with Jane constantly looking between Lyrus, the table, and the quest board, Robert came back andLyrussat straight to talk with his teammates while waiting for the final member of this small party. Jane was the first to speak,looking atthe experienced warrior as if asking for insight in the matter whiledoing so.


    "So, how much trouble this swarm means?"


    "It depends on our luck. If this ''early season'' is just a coincidence and the swarm is at a normal level we should be fine. However, the previous two swarms were definitely more dangerous than normal, so I doubt this one will be different, it might even be worse than these previous ones." Answered Lyrus while looking at the table, as if seeing a map of the region that''s soon going to be dominated by monsters.


    Jane felt a little troubled because she couldn''t piece how dangerous this swarm would be compared to previous ones, after all, she never experienced a swarm, and starting with such an impossible challenge would not be nice in her opinion.


    "But isn''t the swarm aboutarmies of monsters trying to invade further into the continent? What is different this time ''round?" Voiced a confused Robert, who had the same question as her.


    "During the swarms, monsters would take control of all the land they can with great numbers, slowly advancing over time. However, while doing that, they would fight among themselves for territory, each species would form an army guided by certain leader or leaders and invade other monsters'' territory and dwindle their own numbers, thus making it easier for us to hold them back and exterminate them later on."


    While listening toLyrus, Jane started to relate his words to the spike in the number of monsters in these previous swarms. Guessing the line of thought ofLyrusbefore he could tell about it just to give herself some credit for discovering it before him. ''After all, if I didn''t hear his thoughts, they never happened right?'' She gave herself this excuse and proceeded to confirm them with Lyrus'' explanation.


    "So something happened that prevented the monsters to fight each other and forced them to invade further?" She asked, turning her head to the quest board as if it was right in front of her, she could already read the quest about joining the group of one hundred soldiers in reclaiming the fort that was sure to come.


    "Something like that, yes. Perhaps their leaders decided to avoid facing each other and invade further into the land, or something else appeared that kicked them out of their place." Answered Lyrus, lost in thought and looking at the ceiling once again.


    Jane wanted to ask him why he kept on doing that but decided that looking at the board and imagining the problems the village was facing was much more entertaining than knowing the reasonhis weird habit''s existence.


    While she was fixated at the board, intently staring at those reports far away, something swiftly touched her shoulders and slightly shook her body forward, this unexpected development scared her a little bit and her spine jumped as she turned with an "Ah." to look at who did this.


    Standing there with a humorous sneer was the girl named Alice, the member of the party they were waiting for and had just reached twenty, the girl kept on giggling at Jane''s reaction with azure eyes that stared at her with a childish friendliness, Alice spun her body and with an accurate jump seated herself beside Robert, leaving her bow and quiver at an unoccupied table beside them, all the while still giggling at Jane.


    She wore a gambeson like Lyrus and Robert but this one didn''t cover her arms and only reached her waist, showing the green clothes beneath it, her hair had a ponytail like Jane''s but it was slightly shorter and blonde instead of dark. She slightly leaned her body on the chair, she rested an elbow on the table and let out a small laugh along with Robert, saying "The face she made." while at it.


    Jane sighed and looked back atLyrus, who completely ignored the prank in front of him just to continue immersed in his own world. She rested her head in her palm and spoke, bringing back Lyrus from wherever his mind was.


    "So, let''s say that something is forcing them away from their territory, what could it be?"


    "A species thousands of monsters strong? A stronger type of monster that formed an army? A disaster that destroyed their homes... probably not. It also could be the two things at the same time? Oh, didn''t see you there. Hi, Alice." Said Lyrus, scanning the people around the table.


    "Good morning, friend. By the way, what are you guys talking about?" Asked Alice in a curious tone.


    "What do mean the two at the same time?" Jane ignored Alice and asked Lyrus.


    "Perhaps the monsters were always waiting, fighting each other out of instinct to conquer the land, and now whatever they awaited for appeared and they are following its orders. This would also explain why they simply stopped attacking each other and ''united'' against us."Lyrusanswered


    "That last one is too big to be true, you didn''t smoke anything before coming here right?" Alice - in spite of having no idea of what was happening - commented with some humor in her voice, her precision amazed Jane.


    "I never said this was the case. Besides, the world doesn''t seem to like common sense these days, just the fact that monsters focused their attacks on our settlements alone these last swarms - having no internal fights while doing so - shows how south things have gone.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Jane shrugged, then leaving the chair and picking up her bag and staff beside the board, coming back to faceLyrusand ignoring the bored Alice that was looking at her fingernails, she spoke.


    "We''re all here so let''s not lose more time and go get some goblins."


    "So that''s your preference?" Asked Alice, leaving Robert - who was about to make the same comment - no chance to say anything.


    The rest of the party then prepared to leave with a sighing Jane on the side. Lyrus and Robert just stood up and exited the Guild, Alice followed soon after picking her quiver and her bow. Robert explained to the girl what they were talking about on the way to the gate.


    <hr>


    After exiting through the large gate, the party continued to walk into the deep forest, the air - although hot - was pretty humid, puddles - some small enough to cover some bumps on the ground and some big enough to occupy a house''s area - could be seen behind the closest bushes.


    The trees far from the road blocked the sunrays and made the deeper parts of the forest almost as dark as the night, small animals jumped in and about by the forest, insects traveled by the bushes and trees and cicadas sang with an annoying sound, the ambient still suffered from yesterday''s rain.


    But even this damp and dark forest didn''t stop a certain girl from bravely challenging its dangers.


    Lyrus thought in wonder at how Alice could simply change personalities when entering the creepy forest, her childish attitude turned into a serious looking face while she quickly ran further down the road, eyes scanning bushes and trees close to the road, sometimes going out of the road to check the deeper parts of the forest for anything to hunt. She seemed to be especially wary of the puddles covered in mud that could either barely touch the soles of your boots, or engulf half of your legs.


    The party had nothing to talk about today because Lyrus was still dozing off at his own world, Jane was constantly thinking the report about the goblins in her mind, Robert was just worried about the danger that could befall the party in the near future and Alice went further the road, away from the party.


    After going deeper in the forest through the road, sometimes the party would pass in an area where all the trees and some shrubbery had disappeared. Splinters of wood here and there in the ground.


    This was not the first time the group saw this, it''s just that this phenomenon was supposed to happen further in the forest, north-west, in the direction of the sea. However, as worried as the group could be, they could do nothing more than guess that it should be related to monsters and keep going, searching for whatever caused this.


    Instead of finding a tree-eating monster, however, the party found a group of 8 goblins resting beside some bones that they used as weapons, some were laying on the ground and other were sitting on the grass, close to a cave of sorts.


    The green monsters were around 1,40 meters tall and just used leather as clothing, covering their lower half. Their faces were horrendous and had long noses spiking out of them, their heads constantly turned to this side and the other like chicken''s and the ones standing were almost in fours when walking.


    After catching sight of their prey, the party prepared an ambush, Lyrus went with Alice to find a good place to shoot, while Robert stayed with Jane waiting for Alice''s first strike.


    Soon enough, the first arrow stuck to the throat of one of the beasts laying on the ground, the rest of the monsters turned to the origin of the arrow and ran on all fours, bones in hand.


    However, before approaching the bushes 2 of them were hit by stones the size of their heads, one was hit in the waist and fell to the ground in painand the other flew half a meter away, half of his head missing and part of what would be his brain all over the ground. The confused and unintelligent bunch of beasts paused for a moment before turning and heading to where the stones came.


    Another arrow came from the forest and took out another goblin, but this time they ignored it, still heading in Jane''s direction. Jumping through the bushes, the monsters were received by longsword of similar size as them that took the life ofother two monsters, of the remaining two goblins one went head on trying to beat Robert and the other went for the human''s right side.


    However, the monster that tried to circle Robert was hit in the chest with a rock and couldn''t get up again, the warrior didn''t need to worry about being cornered and easily disposed of the goblin in front of him, using the height and reach advantage to deal with the monster.


    After killing the two injured goblins, Lyrus left from his spot along with Alice and took his ID crystal out of his pocket, he passed it in front of the monster''s eyes - except for the one that got his head blasted away. A fait blue light shined and some ''beep'' sounds came with a mechanical voice that said.


    [Organism detected, scanning... Organism identified as ''goblin'', monster''sbounty confirmed,record saved.]


    With a nod, Lyrus lead his teammates deeper into the forest, they could still hunt another group before heading back to the village, so they kept going. Alice once again ran in front of the group, eventually leaving their sight.


    <hr>


    The shadows in the forest deepened and the yellow rays of the sun turned redder and brownish along with the passing of time, the sun was just a few hours from reaching the horizon, giving the already disturbing forest an even creeper edge.


    In the middle of the road, Alice ran back to the group, everyone knew that this meant monsters ahead but the warning came anyways.


    "Monsters ahead, a nest of spiders, around fifteen outside. The road is part of their territory, follow me, I''ll get us through." She said objectively, turning to their left.


    Lyrus looked at what could be seen of the sky through the leaves and brushes, he noticed that the light was somewhat weak, almost gray colored. He then faced Alice and said, a calm and practical voice left his mouth, almost as if congratulating her diligent work inside the forest.


    "No. It''s getting dark, let us go back before night comes."


    Jane took a map out of her backpack and asked Alice to mark the monster''s territory, then the party went back to the village. On the way back Robert asked the group.


    "Hey, is the swarm really coming early this year? I didn''t notice any difference from before."


    "Oh, it is." Answered Lyrus, sure of this fact. "Remember those goblins we killed before? They were not from the group who invaded Fort Baxter, if they were, their weapons would be made of iron as is with all other goblins forming an army. And I bet that Alice didn''t find the other end of that spider nest back there."


    "So today we just weren''t lucky, huh." Commented Ronald, more to himself than anyone else.


    Jane then hit her palm with a fist and said after making sure everyone''s attention was focused on her.


    "Hey! The reclaim of Fort Baxter will happen next week. Let''s join the troop!"


    "Agreed." Said Lyrus after a few second of thoughts, aware that - even though the call hasn''t been announced yet - the village''s military would not leave the fort empty,not to say filled with monsters. Robert also accepted though he was a bit pessimistic about that request and everyone already knew that Alice - who already went to scout the way back - would not even think twice before accepting the offer after reaching the village.


    And so their days on the forest ended without tragedies; when they returned to the Guild to fetch money from the goblins deaths and the spiders'' nest in the forest, a call from the militaryhanged on the guild board, confirming Jane''s guess about the fort''s retake.

 Lyrus: The Noble Hunter - Chapter 5

    Lyrus'' party reunited at the Guild, repeated the same banter they did every single day and exited the building shortly after. This time, however, they went to the soldier barracks in order to join the troop heading to Fort Baxter.


    Lyrusas always, walked while pondering about something completely random. Jane was reading a book along the way, taking more time to read than usual because of the slight bumping she felt when walking at the somewhat fast pace the party had. Robert was a little nervous because of the battle they would soon take part in, scratching the back of his head with one hand while pressing against thebelt on his waist with the other. Alice just kept playing with the string of her bow along the way while making some ''pew, pew'' sounds with her mouth.


    Reaching the barracks, the party joined the men that numbered a little more than a hundred that were waiting for the call to leave.


    After half an hour of the party pretty much doing the same thing now as they were doing before, the acting commander of the mission arrived and stated the planned details for the troop. In short, herepeated everything stated in the quest report and gave an emotional speech about walking through the dead bodies of the monsters that only Robert paid any attention to.


    Another half an hour later the acting general finished his speech and gave order for the troop to proceed through the gate and head to Fort Baxter through the humid forest.


    The forest had many paths, each leadingto a certain part of the shore and a small number of them to Fort Baxter.


    Two hours after walking through the forest the troop finally exited the sea of trees - without fighting any monsters thanks to both the mass extermination of monsters requested since last week and the number of people in the troop - although the fort couldn''t be seen, the ravine that encased it was as tall as a mountain. It was decided by the acting commander that they would march for another two hours before resting and once again proceed towards the fort, the final trip for the day would take slightly over five hours.


    Alice went with other 15 people to scout the way ahead for the party and it would take some time for her to come back.


    Jane finished reading her book soon after they stopped marching. Having nothing else to do, she tried to talk to someone and pass the time. Speaking to Lyrus as usual, she asked.


    "By the way, did you see what happened deeper down the forest?"


    "The sunlight reaching the ground at random spots, right? Yeah, I saw it." Answered Lyrus, coming out of his strange, meditative stupor.


    "What''s so great about the sunlight?" Asked Robert, almost as entranced as Lyrus was before, albeit for completely different reasons.


    "The sun doesn''t reach the ground outside the roads inside that forest because of the trees. If the sun did reach the ground..." Jane stopped mid-sentence, letting Robert''s mind make sense of the rest; thankfully, he proved capable of at least that.


    "There''s no trees." He mumbled to himself, then askingthe two of them. "You''re saying that it had to do with themissing trees we saw last week?"


    "Nothing else comes to mind." Answered Jane, continuing after shrugging and shaking her head. "I would happily mention it to the Guilds but this matter has alreadybeen reported to them and there''s even a quest to find whatever is causing it still waiting on the corner of the board."Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    Soon after Jane stretched her arms and let her body fall onto the bed sheetshe brought in her backpack. Letting the reports on the board fly by her mind, as if they were right in front of her. Maybe by holding out her hand she could grasp them and read whatever is written on them, using the minimal hints left by the situation to finally see the light in this darkness that they were swimming in.


    Turning her head to the side, she could see Lyrussitting cross-legged on the earthly ground next to her, returning to his own thoughts beside her bed sheet, making the other soldiers and hunters preparing improvised beds further away seem like the background of a masterpiece. She called him, more to know his thoughts than to have an answer on the matter.


    "Lyrus..." She whispered before any coherent question could form inside of her mind. The man, hearing his name being called, turned his head to look at her, he gave her a small smile with a face that seemed to ask her ''what troubles you, child?''. She thought for an instant that the world inside his mind must be beautiful and mysterious, just like the unique ways that a philosopher sees the world we live in, though having much more of a childish wonder to it.


    Turning to look at the clouds in the sky while protecting her eyes from the bright sunlight, she asks. "Do you think that what destroyed those trees will be at the fort?"


    Once again, Jane turned her head to Lyrus, wondering what was passing through his mind, a little sad that she couldn''t hear what were his thoughts. The warrior turned his sight to the horizon, in the direction of the fort - and where most soldiers coincidentally laid on the ground. His expression slightly melancholic, he said: "I hope not, there''s enough death as is." It didn''t look like he was referring to the people of the troop in front of him.


    <hr>


    Alice came back with the other scouts after half an hour, but instead of laying on the bed sheets she played with her bowstring again. This time, however, her childish attitude was nowhere to be seen, the sounds of ''pew, pew'' that she made this morning were replaced by a ''fwoosh'' that came from a strange azure-colored arrow formed from the void that slowly became larger while she was pulling the string.


    The air itself appeared to be twisting and scattering all around her as if scared of the girl. The arrow gave birth to multiple blue colored sparks, these sparks also seemed to have a need to disperse and they seemed excited for finally being able to freely roam through the world.


    Seeing this scene, instead of being dumbfounded at the rare soul skill that showed itself to the world with wild abandon like everyone else,Lyrusimagined how beautiful this sight would be in the dead of the night - or better yet, in the sunset - instead of this boring afternoon.


    He also realized that Alice''s objective at practicing this skill seemed to be to contain the azure light from fleeing from the arrow. He would happily help her if he could, but soul skills were something unique that only the users themselves could instinctively grasp and master over time, someone like him that gave his entire youth to learn the ways of knights could not hopeto teach someone how to master archery beyond the level the girl has already managed yo achieve, it seemed that Alice was already training to be a Grandmaster that excelled at archery.


    Seeing Alice stopping her training with a bit of sweat at her forehead, Lyrus imagined how powerful this skill could become in the future. He could almost see the azure arrow making a stark contrast with her long blond hair before flying through the void of space formed from the sheer physical pressure it gave. If he could already feel the air blown by the projectile now, imagine its power after she becomes a Grandmaster.


    He simulated a carriage being hit by this soul skill after it being fully grasped by her user in the future to come. While the current arrow couldn''t hope to do much more than piercing through the heart of a heavily armored knight, he could see the future arrow flying as fast as thunder, ignoring useless things such as objects while it passed through any and all obstacles, consuming anything in its way and not leaving even the air itself untouched.


    After Alice finished her training, everyone resumed resting before they prepared to set out towards the fort once more, they would rest again right before night, three or four kilometers away from their target and start the siege the next day.


    <hr>


    One day after - as planned - the troop watched the fort inside the middle of the ravine, it stood tall but its glory was being stepped on by the goblins inside of it, they numbered close to two hundred but only a few dozens were on watch to see the human army marching towards them.


    The monsters on the watch warned the others and the goblins prepared for the battle against their nemesis.

 Lyrus: The Noble Hunter - Chapter 6

    Althoughthe wall facing the other end of the ravine was two to three times the size of a man and made out of a resistant type of stone, the side the troop was facing barely reached two meters and was made mostly out of wood. This weaker side of the wall was built only because of the monsterscoming from the forest would sometimes attemptan attack on the fort from behind; however, the monsters attacking from this side would only number 30 at max, adding the advantage from the wall plus the fact that a well-trained soldier can take at least 3 monsters at the level of a goblin and you barely have a need to worry about an attack from behind.


    The troop should be able to easily make a hole large enough for them to pass with magic, and so they would. The plan was pretty simple, a unit of 20 people - mostly warriors - will invade the fort from the sewers - the same place the retreating unit left the fort from two years ago - and attack from behind while the goblins were focused on the main force inside the fort.


    The main force would advance until the walls were in range to both archers and mages, then the warrior would use large shields borrowed by the village army to protect everyone from stones that the goblins would probably throw at them and let the ranged unit do their thing, grabbingthe attention of the enemies and slaughtering a good part of their numbers if they dare to leave the protection of the walls.


    While the troop adjusted the formation, Lyrus was facing the fort, the wallholding with 50 goblins. Memories of his old teammates started to resurface in his mind. But this time it didn''t feel like theguilty pressure in his mind that always haunted him, it felt more like a warning to not let something like that happen again.


    He got lost in that feeling that voiced his worries and decided that this was a good moment to finally go along the flow of his mind... completely, this time.


    Lyrusclosed his eyes and time instantlystopped, like a river that had lost its currents and stood still like a lagoon. Before his eyes, images of his time with his long-dead friends flew at an unbelievably fast pace, the day whenLyrusfoundCawton on his way to the village; the day when they both called out Vanessa for the first time inside the Guild, asking her to join the party, which she reluctantly did; their daily huntwhich ended moslty on bad days with no game to claim rewards from; his last day with them, in the Fall of Fort Baxter; and his daily life now with his new companions.


    Robert, the pessimistic warrior thatnever thought much before saying things, his swordsmanship as good as Lyrus while his skills at fighting monsters surpassed him.


    Alice, the carefree archer that was not so carefree depending on the environment, her archery not being the only outstanding thing about her made Lyrus suspect that the girl was part of the Rangers.


    Jane, the aloof mage that only had attention for a random announcement board, Lyrus had the impression that her true field was in research as opposed to combat.


    He opened his eyes and let out a reallyslow breath, after finishing it, everythingstarted to move normally again.


    This power was the reason thatLyruscame to this village for. At 20 years of age, he finished his training to become a knight and went to the battlefield for the first time against rebelliousnobles all around the country of Englass, the nation he''s currently at.


    Reaching 25, he mastered the longsword, the shield and sword, and then the spear. But after reaching 27 years of age,Lyrusexperienced the first time that everything came to a slow, it was on a battlefield when he fought against three other knights at the same time, he was going to lose but at the most crucial moment everything came to a slow, almost without realizing, he took the opportunity to kill one of his enemies and criticallyinjurea second, winning against the remaining one was easy after that.


    But he couldn''t control it at the time, things went to an agonizingly slow speed only at a few dangerous and decisive moments during a battle and nothing more. Knowing the importance of mastering such a skill,Lyrustraveled through the world for four years in order to discover how to control it, but he didn''t make much progress, it started to happen more often than before, but he couldn''t control it, yet.


    His favorite moments of those trips were the times he spent traveling by ship, what would otherwise be boring days were instead good opportunities to think about the world in a different light while learning strange and random tidbits about sailing.


    He came back to his home country and settled in this little village to think about his life, searching the meaning of this power inside of his mind. And he finally finished mastering this skill during the last swarm by surviving a monster ambush that forced his thoughts to the past (almost like today).


    ''Time flies by fast.'' Thought the hunter, going back to the times spent learning from his father who treated whole years as an instant and always came up with a different excuse to stay in still in his chair instead of going out to play with his son.


    Meaningless thoughts went on and on while the entire unit entered the formation.


    The troop started advancing, a slow advance with shields at the ready, trying to get in synchrony with each other to make a perfect shell. After getting 300 meters away from the fort, the goblins started to throw stones the size of their hand against the shields, they didn''t cause damage but it was annoying that these monsters who barely had the strength of a man could use their Will send stones flying at this distance. They kept going.


    At 200 meters of distance, Lyrus heard the cry of the officers ordering them to stop, he felt a bit of sweat building on his right arm after a few minutes of holding the shield that was almost his height and defending from the stones, but he didn''t feel tired. Burying his shield as deep in the ground as he could, Lyrus then held it while hunkering down in front of it, the person behind him held a normal-sized round shield above Lyrus''.


    Every officer kept screaming ''hold the line!'' for half a minute, he remembered the suicide squad that he called ''the last line'' two years ago and smirked after thinking that this line was a bit more prepared. ''Prepared to make an overkill that is!''


    The archers shot a hail of arrows at the walls filled with goblins, around 30 arrows were fired,hitting almost 20 of the goblins on the wall.


    Immediately after, the mages fused their spells between each other to increase the power and size of theirmagic at the cost of quantity, letting loose earth stones almost as big as a man''s torso at the wall, breaking some of the wood that made it, also doing some damage to the gate. Fireballs were bound to do a lot of damage but with the objective being to reclaim the fort, burning it to the ground was not a good way to go about it.


    After realizing that throwing stones would not stop the troop, the goblins jumped out of the walls - iron swords and short spears in hand - and ran into the troop''s direction, more came after the first ones on the wall, increasing their numbers to almost a hundred. When the goblins were 150 meters away from the formation the archers shot a rain of arrows at the monsters, the warriors that made the upper part of the shell threw their shields aside and grabbed a long spear each, lengthening close to 3 meters and awaited the goblins on the side of the frontal shields, the mages ignored the incoming beasts and shot at the fort once more and blasting more holes open on the wall.


    The archers shot two more times at the enemies and then left the rest to the warriors. Little more than 20 goblins reached the shields and almost all of them were impaled by the long spears, only half a dozen managed to jump by the shields in the ground but they were all killed when the warriors hunkering behind the shields drew their swords. One of the spear-holding warriors managed to get scratched but it wasn''t enough to put him out of battle.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    Seeing how there were barely 50 goblins remaining inside the fort, every officer commanded the mages to fire one last time, after making several openings large enough for half a dozen people to enter simultaneously they ordered the warriors to make a full charge to the fort.


    They did as ordered and ran past the large shields, leaving them upright on the ground.


    Lyrustook his normal-sized shield from his back and ran at full speed to the fort, during his run Robert started to follow behind him, longswordat hand.


    The goblins desperately threw stones at the incoming warriors but it did little to stop the charge, not even one minute later and the destroyed wall was already being climbed over.


    The first warriors to enter stood in formation, waiting for the ones behind to join them before starting the fight. Just a few seconds afterLyrusentered, they were ordered to attack the incoming goblins and both sides charged at each other.


    The goblin leader, that used a spear and was using tiger pelt to cover almost all of his relatively tall body, charged with the remaining goblins to attack the humans. Luckily forLyrus, he was the closest to the leader and charged at him, with Robert right beside him roaring at the top of his lungs.


    The goblin leader had more reach than Lyrus and sent a thrust at him first, butLyrussimply parried the attack with his shield and made a sudden, fast advance towards the leader while attacking with a thrust of his own, Robert and the other warriors reached the other goblins and started their own fight by then.


    Seeing the dangerous attack coming its way, the goblin leader sidestepped to avoid it while swiping with his spear in a horizontal slash, Lyrus blocked it head on and advanced again, also slashing horizontally.


    The leader parried the attack and made another thrust towardsLyrus'' shoulder, the human stepped back and avoided the attack. But when he did so, his back bumped on one of the goblins and he almost fell because of the monster short height, before the goblin could react, Lyrus quickly reversed his grip on his sword and accurately stabbed at the enemy''s neck, he never took his eyes of the enemy leader, who was already charging at him with yet another thrust.


    Lyrusparried again and made another advance towards his opponent after correcting his grip on his sword, he slashed horizontally at his enemy who parried again and tried another thrust. However,Lyrusdidn''t put much power behind his last attack and gave his enemya thrust of his own before the enemy''s spear could hit him. The strike aimed at the tall goblin''s face only left a scratch on his face before he completely avoided it by sidestepping.


    During the whole fight,Lyrusnever slowed time, he didn''t need to, he bought time to his troop and after another few similar exchanges the goblin leader was attacked from behind, Robert managed to leave a cut spread open several centimeters deep and a dozen centimeters long on its back, it tried to turn and attack the backstabbing human butLyruspinned the goblin before it could.


    The tall goblin immediately tried to end the fight withLyrusbut this was not possible against a formerveteran knight. After having its thrust parried by its opponent, a longsword stabbed through its chest from behind, the leader dropped its spear and started spasming on the ground, after a few seconds, the monsterwent completely still, devoid of life.


    WhenLyrussawRobert''s swordstab the enemy''s chest, he immediately glanced through the entire battlefield, now only a dozen goblins were left. One of them looked at Lyrus direction and sawits leader''s corpse, it screamed something unintelligible and all the remaining goblins made a run to the stone wall, only seven escaped the grasp of the warriors and managed to jump the four-meter tall wall, deserting the battlefield.


    No one went to look for the runaway goblins, everyone stood somewhere along the buildings made for housing, waiting forthe ranged unit to enter the fort.


    After all the mages and archers reunited with the warriors, the troop was ordered to sort the corpses, leaving the goblins close to the stone gate and the few on the human''s side close to the wall they came from. 7 people died in the invasion, all warriors, a low number considering that the goblins were the ones inside the fort and slightly surpassed the humans.


    After all the mages and archers reunited with the warriors, the troop was ordered to sort the corpses, leaving the goblins close to the stone gate and the few dead on the human''s side close to the wall they came from. 7 people died in the invasion, all warriors, a low number considering that the goblins were the ones inside the fort and slightly surpassed the humans in number.


    Robert andLyruswaited for Alice and Jane to join them to start their talk. Jane started by commenting.


    "Now, would you look at this wall. We finally made it look nice for once."


    "I don''t think ''nice'' is the right word for whatever that is right now." Commented Robert.


    "You should learn to appreciate art, Robert, life gets boring without the fun. And hear my words, one day, you shall see the glory of my piercing arrow explode that wall, not the mages'' spells!" Replied Alice, now back to her childish self.


    "You''re saying that destroying human forts is something fun? And please don''t call that something ''piercing'' whenit''ssupposed to explode." Said Robert, letting out a sigh.


    "Whatever. Hey, Lyrus. You got us a bonus, right?" Asked Alice.


    "Well, Robert got the last hit on their leader. So... I guess?" Answered Lyrus.


    "Aren''t you becoming quite useful then Robert? Did you backstab him?" Asked Alice.


    "Uhm... no?" Lied Robert, with an uncertain voice.


    "Wow, Robert, you literally stole the kill now? From who was it?" Alice kept going, her tone increasingly more teasing.


    "That would be me." Said Lyrus. "I really didn''t expect that he would become an expert kill stealer mid-battle." He decided to join the chat.


    "Not you too!" Exclaimed Robert, looking atLyruswhile faking tired eyes.


    Alice and Jane laughed at that,Lyrusnodded while smiling. They chatted like this for a little while before anofficercame and spoke to them.


    "Hunters!" He virtually screamed to the group a few meters away from him.


    "Yes, sir!" Everyone answered, but onlyLyrusand Robert saluted.


    "The acting general is calling for warriors at the dungeon." He said with a loud voice.Lyrusand Robert just answered "Understood" and left for the dungeon, Jane and Alice decided to wait for them in the same place they were now.


    Arriving in front of the dungeon, Lyrus and Robert stood in line with the other 30 warriors, awaiting whatever report or briefing they were going to be given. Soon, the acting general saw that everyone was there and spoke.


    "Good work with those filthy monsters. Now the problem we have at hand is this, the unit sent through the sewers did not flank as ordered! In fact, they never even showed up again. We are preparing another unit with the same size of warriors to check the sewers from the dungeon and we are enlisting 20 volunteers!"


    A bad feeling came to everyone hearing the speech,Lyruscontemplated the reasons they would have for deserting like this but ended with the thought that they did not run away, no one was coward enough to run away from an army that was weaker than them before the fight even started.


    After discussing the matter with Robin they both decided to join the mission. It was said that it would start next morning, so everyone went to their respective housing to rest before sunset.


    The party of four stood to the side of the entrance of the house, talking about what could have happened to the unit while Alice threw a few comments about how boring would be waiting for them to come back tomorrow before deciding to enter and head to bed, the fort was made so that around 600 men could occupy the buildings at the same time, having space for almost two thousand men when counting the entirety of the fort, so there were no space problems for the troop of a hundred people.


    Before theAlice could step past through the door, however, an explosion sounded out. The four hurriedly looked in the direction of the loud sound coming from a few dozen meters away just to see countless pieces of stone flying ten meters high before coming back to the ground, burying themselves through the roof of the buildings for lodging, some people were directly hit by the rain of rubble, receiving bone-breaking injuries. A piece of stone went through Lyrus'' building, smashing the door and making the party feel thankful for not being early-sleepers.


    Lyrussaw that what exploded was the dungeon and ran to its location, the rest of the party along with many others right behind him.


    He came in time to see a black slimy liquidcoming from underneath the dungeon, like a flooding river, the bottom could not be seen. It started to eat the rubble and, by using its own body, started to form silhouettes a few centimeters smaller than a normal man, these beings soon received a pale emerald looking color to their skin, their arms stretched to an inhuman length and their legs turned smaller but thicker.


    A spear formed from the same black liquid in their hands, they soon opened their eyes and with a roar, charged at theonlooking humans.


    Seeing this scene, two sayings went byLyrus'' mind when he remembered the cut-down trees in the forest and the missing unit, as well as his party''s comments about those two cases and some more.


    The first was the obvious saying of ''Talk about the devil.''Thesecond, he learned during one of his trips on the sea when he, for no reason, exclaimed how good the day was a few hours before a storm almost flipped the boat he was in, it was said by the captain of the ship himself: ''You''ve set the wrong flag, sailor''.

 Lyrus: The Noble Hunter - Chapter 7

    The monsters spawned by that slimy liquid had a lizard-like appearance and a humanoid shape, their legs were shorter than normal humans and their arms and torsos were longer. They were slightlysmaller than the average human, but their long arms and thick, powerful legs more than made up for that disadvantage.


    Their running speed was swift but not that impressive, so those with bows and magic present had ample time to take their target, but they soon realized that firing at all the monsters was simply a waste of ammo, after getting over their panic they selected which targets would pass and advance towards their defense.


    After almost a minuteunder fire from the mages and archers that were still joining the fight, around 15 lizard-men who survived the spawning period charged at a fairly swift speed thatbarely matched with their short legs, some mages decided to change targets and aim at the running lizards in order tomaximize the number of injuries on the monsters after realizing that they couldn''t see the end of that black liquid, which had an unknown length hiding on the underground of the dungeon.


    After the warriors holding longswords saw that their enemies'' weapons were spears they immediately took cover behind their brothers who held shields, if there was one thing that their experience told them was that swords and spears were not a good match, at least not for the swordsman.


    Not only that, the frontliners were also afraid of the black liquid that gave birth to the monsters, fearing that it would move to eat them if they went too close in order to slay the lizards before they were fully formed.


    And as some of the warriors holding shields expected, - Lyrus included - when the enemies were around 3 meters away they jumped forward with full force, surprising and frightening them. The monsters used that explosive momentum to apply a devastating thrust against the human side.


    Lyrus saw that the thrust was headed to his right shoulder and used the edge of his shield to parry the attack, advancing forward and slashing at the lizard man''s legs,almost completely severing them offby the time the monster fell to the ground.


    Seeing that the next lizard would take a few seconds to arrive, Lyrus checked the damage that the earlier thrust did to his shield and how the other people were doing. His shield lost a bit of its wood at the edge where it received direct damage, small cracks spreadthroughits broken part.


    He realized that if he had let thetip of the spear struck instead of the blunt edge close to the shaft the spear would probably be stuck to the shield and stay in his way. Suicide attacks are a scary strategy when the ones using them are not afraid of death.


    He looked at the people beside him, he saw some of them holding the big shieldlent by the village army, they apparentlytook the hit head-onand the shield only suffered a little dent. He should''ve thought about that before, ''perhaps I''m already getting senile'', he thought jokingly.


    In the first wave, 11 monsters got injured before reaching the line of warriors, they caused no injuries to anyone but left quite the damage in their shields, mostly those made out of woodthat weren''treally made to go through long-lastingbattles against heavy hits.


    During that monster charge, the monsters kept spawning.Lyruscounted that at least one monsterwas formed every two seconds, taking 10 to 15 seconds for every monster to form. Although the archers and mages could kill them all during that time they didn''t want to waste everything at the beginning, after all, the archers didn''t have infinite arrows and the mages were easily exhausted after 20 or so spells.


    Taking every detail of the battle to his attention, Lyrus'' eyes lost focus, his mind trailed off from this world and time came to an agonizingly slow pace, another monster was 4 meters away from him and was already preparing to jump just like the other lizards before.


    Although it didn''t look like he was taking this fight seriously from the unconcerned look in his eyes, he was at his most serious moment right now, figuring out how to upgrade this skill even further mid-battle while letting his muscle memory fight in his stead.


    The man-lizard jumped after reaching 3 meters and gave a powerful thrust at the hunter, it wasn''t a problem for Lyrus right now, who was thinking about what that black liquid did to instantly convert any kind of material into part of its body and then turn it to flesh and organs in a matter of seconds.


    While asking this interesting question to himself he moved, seeing that the strike was slowly heading to his waist now, he also slowly stepped to his right while positioning his shield and sword, the shield blocked the spear in its center - where an ironfull-moon held it together - and then quickly advanced, sword slashing downwards to cut deep intothe enemy''s shoulder andlodge itself insidethe monster''s arm,during the attack his sword-holding hand was the only part of his body to leave the shield''s defense.


    This kind of scene kept repeating for 5 minutes - during which every single archer and mage regrouped at the battlefield. Lyrus realized during that time that the black liquid did, in fact, use its own body in order to make monsters, it also ''jumped'' once during that time, rocketing its body a dozen meters upwards and almost eating a warrior that advanced much too far.


    He guessed that this movement is what destroyed the dungeon, realizing that this was also the only way it moved until now and that in order to do this the thing had to stop its ''monster production''.


    It was then that Robert shouted. "To the right flank! Focus there!"


    Instantly realizing that this was a warning for them, the archers and wizards looked to where Robert pointed and realized that a bigger lizard, wearing a leather rag clothing in contrast to the other nude lizards. Just like the goblin army, the lizards also had a leader; the leader was already complete past its broad shoulders and just started to acquire a jade-like hue along with a longer crocodile head.


    The ranged unit immediately fired at the leader, blasting it to death before it could give its first steps.


    But after 2 minutes it happened again, this time most of the normal monster surrounded the monster that looked to be stronger and defended it from the magic and arrows.


    Fortunately, Alice was having none of it and drew her bow without any arrows, activating her soul skill and creating an azure colored arrow-like beam as bright as the sun in but a second, she then fired the arrow at the strong looking monster.


    Although a normal lizard had just started forming and was in the way of the arrow, the projectile shot right through it, detonating the black blob and reaching its target, the body of the soon to be lizard leader that had just gained its color didn''t get close to stopping the arrow that also pierced it, exploding a few centimeters after it and taking another 2 still surging sticky blobs.


    One of the warriors saw this and made his wish to hug whoever did it public; however, he never got an answer.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Lyrus guessed that this slimy thing was a living being that could adapt its way of making monsters. And as if to prove him right, at the next minute another lizard leader was created, but this one exited the liquid by running on all fours, hiding its own birth by forming itself while lying down.


    It dodged one or two spells and arrows that aimed at it and then stood tall, rushing at Lyrus.


    The hunter could now have a clear look at the monster coming at him, the main reason for it to be taller than the rest of its kind was that its legs were longer than them, aside from that, the main differences between it and normal lizard monsters was the leather that hung at its waist and torso and the dual spears it was holding, one a little shorter than the other.


    Lyrus got worried about the dual spears because he doubted that the monster could do something so complicated as dual wield weapons, spears no less. And perhaps he was the wisest person on earth today because he was right. Again.


    When it was only 8 meters away from the hunter the monster held its shorter spear in a backhanded stance and threw it at him. The hunter that was still in slow-mo parried the thrown spear in a way that threw it aside, falling to the ground not even a meter away from him.


    The monster reached Lyrus only a second after but was stopped on its track by a long spear that was brought from the previous battle, the lizard leader looked at Robertwho was just behind Lyrus and jumped backward, it thengazed throughout the entire battlefield, trying to find an unprotected warrior on the far side of the line.


    But Lyrus wouldn''t let him do it, his muscle memory acted by itself while he was wondering how much mass that slime lost making these guys, he quickly advanced forward and slashed at his enemy, both himself and the lizard were boringly slow in Lyrus'' eyes. The monster responded by thrusting the spear with one hand while jumping backwardonce again.


    Lyrus moved his shield in a way that bashed the enemy''s spear to the side, his body kept the same automatic advance and slashed diagonally. The monster sidestepped but had its left hand''s wrist cut in reflex to protect its body.


    "Crap!"


    However,Lyrus advanced too much for that, 3 lizards came to reinforce their leader and leaped at Lyrus, who couldn''t defend against them all with his slow body.


    He sidestepped to avoid one spear, parried another with his shield and tried to do the same thing with the last one by using his sword. Alas, the thrust was far too powerful for him to protect himself by holding a sword with one hand, the spear managed to keep going even after being hit by the sword and pierced his right shoulder, the blunt tip broke his collarbonebut thankfully the spear blade didn''t penetrate deeply into his body. Lyrus feared that if it weren''t for the gambeson the spear would have completely entered his shoulder, the tip appearing on his back.


    "Ugh..." In a small cry of pain, Lyrus lost the strength to hold his sword and without thinking twice, he swiftly leaped back in the direction of the line, the monsters following him.


    A rock spell cast by a mage broke the shoulder of the first lizard to attack - who was also already preparing to jump at the hunter again - and threw him to the ground, the other two, however,reached Lyrus accompanied by the lizard leader and attacked the hunter.


    He sidestepped and avoided another spear, using the edge of his shield he blocked another thrust of a normal lizard, but the recoil of the thrust left him a beat too late to completely block the attack of the leader, ever so slowly, ever so closely, it went for Lyrus'' waist. The shield violently struck at the spear, sending it off target. But instead of missing him, the spear pierced the upper part of his right leg, almost hitting his knee.


    Lyrus gave one last jump backwardwith his good leg while almost screaming in pain, falling to the ground, losing focus because of his injuries and making time flow normally once again.


    Robert caught up to him at that instant and threw the short spear that belonged to the lizard leader back at him, the monster appeared to be enraged for being hurt and was too focused on Lyrus to realize in time that there was a spear heading for it.


    The spear tip stuck to the monster''s chest and fell out of its body only after the beast hit the ground, to never get back up again.


    Lyruswho had let the world flow back to its normal pace, gave his somewhat damaged shield to a warrior beside him,the soldier would probably need it more than him now.


    With the help of Jane, who was close to being exhausted by using her magic, the hunter went - almost stumbling - behind the line, where other few warriors were much too injured to fight. Jane left him there only saying through heavy breaths "Don''t die on us!"


    Lyrus took this chance to see the status of the troop and liquid monster, trying to ignore his heavy breath and furious heartbeat.


    Of the 40 or so warriors that made the line at the beginning, 8 were seriously injured and 5 died, their bodies lay still on the battlefield; apparently, another lizard leader was released while Lyrus was fighting his own, this one managed to pass through the line and reached the mages, killing a few before losing most of its upper-half when shot by Alice''s soul skill.


    But because of that, the girl got far too tired to concentrate on shooting, she gave her quiver to someone else and joined Lyrus before fainting right beside him.


    The good news was, the monster thatLyrusdecided to simply call slime was much smaller than it was at the start, its body was completely out of the dungeon''s underground and was barely a meter outside the dungeon''s area.


    And thankfully, after another two minutes or so, only a slimy puddle of the monster was left, a mage threw a fireball at it and theslop was completely evaporated. With this, everyone went to give first aid to the injured and move the corpses of their former teammates.


    ''Why do things always happen when they''re the least expected?''Lyrus thought bitterly. The thought of one of his friends dying in there passed through his mind, he couldn''t help but compare the sadness that he would feel by losing a trusted teammate in this situation and what happened to Cawton and Vanessa, he felt bad for a moment for comparing the loss of one of his friends to the other, but still came to the conclusion that few things would be worse than the way he lost his teammates at that time.


    ''And, if nothing else, it''s still part of my essence; ''human nature'', as the saying of Arcas goes. And I need to know everything that passes through my mind, everything that is as superficial as a small puddle to as deep as an ocean, only this way can I know who I truly am, what is the true purpose ofmy entire family.''Lyrus thought solemnly, determined to walk all the way, crawl if he needs to. This determination was what allowed him to practically ignore his heavy injuries.


    <hr>


    Lyrus was sitting on his bed, looking at his friends in front of him while thinking that the fact that Childish Alice being worried can indeed make for an interesting occurrence.


    Jane wasn''t in the mood to let Lyrus continue in hisown world while she was worried about him, though.


    "So, how bad do you think your wounds are?" She asked, a bit irritated.


    "Not that bad,at worst I will probably never step on a battlefield again." Answered a calm and positive Lyrus, who could barely feel his entire arm, and leg from the knee downwards.


    "That''s supposed to be ''not that bad''? Do you think grave wounds only happen when you lose a limb or something?" Robert asked jokingly.


    "What if I died back there because you weremaking out with that ugly lizard? Would you still say that your wounds were good?" Alice exclaimed this and the whole group fell silent for a moment.


    "Please don''t." Said Lyruswhile looking at the smirk that appeared on Jane''s face.


    "You swing that way? Sorry, I didn''t know!" She said, clearly satisfied with getting back at her teammate for getting hurt.


    Lyrus sighed said wished a good night to everyone, ''Pray that no slime eatyou in your sleep.''


    <hr>


    Two months later, just after Lyrus'' family called him back home.


    Just as he thought, unlessLyrus somehow becomes a grandmaster - completely transcending his human body - he would never be able to wield his sword like before without feeling pain and discomfort on his shoulder,he should''ve listened to the doctor.


    And no more running on the battlefield for a year at maximum, his leg would completely heal around that time, he didn''t doubt the medic when he said that Lyrus got lucky he didn''t lose it when that spear almost hit his knee.


    But that was a problem that was not at the top of his list. After he gets healed, he would work on his ''skill'' once again. Although at a cost, he realized that leaving the control of your body to itself is not a good idea, taking this important fact into consideration, Lyrus decided to make sure to take full hold of his abilities, so that he can finally discover the Lavridge''s purpose, he felt that by even further inside his mind, he would find a clue at what it all came down to.


    And so the warrior went home, received the honor of the title ''Sparrow'', symbol of his mother''s family and now proof of his deeds in taking part on numerous battlefields and making part of history for his family.


    His adventures are not over. But the rest is a story for another time.

 Andrew: All That Were Worth - Chapter 1

    Inside one of the guest rooms on the second floor of a mansion, illuminatedby the almost gray sunlight that marked the coming of another cold night, the window that allowed this little of light reach the room was rectangular in shape and had pretty simple details, well-cut wood held together the glass in a design of four equallysized squares, the door to enter the room also had the four square design, but the inside of each square was simply a depression on the wood of the door and the squares only occupied the upper-half of it.


    Perfect symmetry screamed all over the room, even more so for the red couches in the middle of the room, the identical pair of sofas were facing each other while separated by a small, rectangular table that had a silver candlestick - providing most of the light inside the guest room at the end of the afternoon - and two pairs of silver plates on top of it, one pair of plates for each side of the table with a couch in it.


    Eyes traveling all across the visible room, he would always fail at seeing something out of form or place; he would question himself about the tastes of the long-dead founder of this mansion, did that person see any charm in this labyrinth or did he just made this house with price and practicality in mind? The latter would be in accord with merchants views of things.


    But alas, this useless line of thought could not take his tired mind away from the task at hand. Sitting on one of the red couches, he looked to his side to see his father, Trevor; his face revealed that he was deep in thought about the situation, perhapshis father was even moresolemn than he was when this all started. It''s a pity that different from his father, he was now full of anxiety; worry being the least of things that pressured him, no, the inquietude that he felt was brought by - above anything else that he feltthese few last years - guilt.


    While Andrew expertly managed to fake a calm and pensive look, his fatherappeared to have it on his face by instinct, not much different than breathing, but it was more close to how one can smile when seeing something nice.


    He and his father were facing two men whose solemn expressions seemed to paint the will of a warrior from the ancient tales. As if they - who were making the most important decision of their lives - were trying to implant their patriotic thoughts inside of both his and Trevor''s minds. After a few seconds, Andrew withdrew his thoughtful face andshowed one that was as solemn as the people facinghim and spoke.


    "Although with the way things are going it''s just a matter of time until we succeed, it''s better to finish this as fast as we can, so to avoid unexpected complications in the future. But to do this, we''ll have even more blood spilled, also, we should find any support we can get."


    "But where we can find more help? At this point, everyone has already picked their side and will not change no matter what happens." Said one of the men, clearly worried as much as they were serious about this discussion.


    "The help I''m talking about does not come from people, we need weapons to fight against that traitor of a king. And to get them we need to steal them from him, for that end, I suggest we siege Lugubre."


    "Are you saying that we should finally act?" The other man hid only enough of his excitement to not appear disrespectfulwhen Andrew answered by nodding.


    Trevor took the situation of the common people in mind, after making a crude plan on that same instant, he voiced his opinion. "But our people may not be ready to fight until the end yet, we should make sure that what we''re doing is worth them risking their lives for. It should be better to change the objective of our speeches and wait for two or three more months before moving forward with this plan, this way we''ll also have time to find whatever we need to siege thatexcuse of a jail."


    Everyone in the room replied with an "Agreed" and kept going with their discussion about the matter for another hour or so before the two mensaid their goodbyes and exited the mansion, leaving Andrew and his father alone at the entrance of their home.


    The mansion was three stories high, each window was identical to one another and were divided by equal length of wall between them, a small length of stairs led to the entrance of said mansion, the single door that had basically the same design as seen in the guest room before had a small roof for itself, protecting it from the rain that would come in a few hours, probably at the dead of the night. The steeply sloping roof had several windows peeking through itthat were also present at the sides of the mansion, this was a mansard roof.


    While looking at this beautifulhome, -which he had other opinions about - which his grandfather had conquered through the blood and tears from both the deceased merchant himself and some other unlucky people, Andrew couldonly sigh and look back to his father, who was still watching the backs of those men that had just left the manor.


    He knew from the start what the real intentions of that person who''d agreed to help with this seemingly suicidal quest were, the blood of a merchant - as he decides to call it - searches for power and nothing more; money being the easiest way to it, while the lives of people were nothing more than property adorned with a metaphorical pricetag.


    Andrew didn''t hate Trevor, though. He didn''t like his ways and would stop them if he ever thinks that they wouldharm more than help, but he - who took part on this bloodshed only because he thought that it was for the greater good - now realized that, unlike his father, he didn''t have a path to follow, he was lost without any means to find himself; he decided - at least he did - that the only person that had the right to stop him was someone that had chosen a path that crossed with his, only this kind of clash had the right to not be called hypocrisy. A pity that it rarely happened.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    "Is there something worrying you, Father?" He decided to ask, finally.


    "No, it''s just... am I the only one?... Ah, it''s nothing." He mumbles a little to himself before answering. Then proceeded to inform Andrew instead of heading back to the manor.


    "I will need to see a few friends, you can go back inside and see Julie and little Anna. Be well, son.


    "I see... Goodbye, Father." Andrew enters the mansion after saying this, closing the door after seeing Trevor heading to a carriage of the family.


    After closing the door and turning to look at the central stair of the entrance hall, he lifts his arm to his eye level and clenches his fist. His arm shaking uncontrollably because of the strength he used, he wanted to punch something, preferably his own face.


    The guilt of playing with the lives of hundreds of thousands of people struck at his heart, tearing at his sanity from somewhere he couldn''t reach. He felt his teeth, clenching and grinding at each other;the rest of his face was showing unreserved frustration and masking an anger that had nowhere to go, twisting and deforming himin such apainful way that if his heart decided to just give into the cold and stillness, he would not be impressed.


    His moment of self-suffering, however, was stopped when his eyes that were focused on looking at his arm suddenly faced upwards after seeing some movement at the corner oftheir vision. The strange thing was, the candelabrum that illuminated the entire hall was totally out of his view, so how could he possibly notice something he didn''t even see?


    His answer came just as his eyes stared at the bewitching flames arising from the dozens of candles that lay hanging across the sparkling chain of glass that looked just like the shiniest of diamonds, making the entire thing look like one single piece of large jewelwhen all the candles were lit. Facing the candelabrum, Andrew noticed a silhouette sitting on it, but the candelabrum should not be able to simply ignore the weight of a person. No, for starters, how could someone even climb up there by himself?


    He realized the answer to this after feeling sweat going down from his back and forehead even though he was not that scared by the strange sight. He was going crazy again, wasn''t he?


    Although something inside of him screamed at his mind to just run away from there, Andrew didn''t move a single step. He gazed at that shadow that gained a new image by the second, at times it was an old man in ragged clothing, looking at him with a pleading face, his unnourished body told Andrew everything that man wanted; sometimes it was a young man, that had barely reached 20, confusion was the only thing present on his face when he faced Andrew with a hand grasping tightly at the bullet hole in his chest;and finally, possibly being the worst scene of all, was the woman, tightly holding a blanket enveloping what was most obviously a baby, she glared at Andrew, as if blaming him for everything that was happening.


    Although all of this was happening on the ceiling way high up, for Andrew, it felt like everything was happening in front of him. The walls - once a strangely beautiful and perfect imitation of one another - seemed to have turned into monsters that were hungry for his soul and approached ever so threateningly, the claustrophobic feeling struck at his lungs without his knowledge, he had only realized it after his breath had become so heavy that he had almost fainted, his body felt heavy and his legs started shaking somewhat while he held his back against the door behind him.


    A headache assaulted him and the guilt gripping at his heart from before became stronger as a desperate need to scream at the top of his lungs suddenly made its presence known, he held his mouth shut with gritted teeth, his right hand gripping tightly at his chest while his eyes were closed.


    He had to see his wife, but he could not show himself in front of her like this. He was not a madman, at least not with her here. He was on the right way, he was not wrong, she told him so, after all. He could not give up, not when she needed him here.


    As thoughts of her arrive inside his mind, Andrew manages to contain his crazed and melancholic mood, wondering if he could avoid having these spikes of anger and madness by always having some company. He instantly reached the conclusion that stuffing this unease inside of himself and never letting it out would just make him crazier.


    After breathing in and out in an attempt to calm, Andrew straightens his posture, lowers his arm that had blue veins bulging out of it already and heads upstairs, first to clean himself of the sweat sticking to his clothes, then to the third floor, where his wife was taking care of his daughter. Perhaps they could reassure him that he was not doing the wrong thing.


    <hr>


    As she was trying to teach Anna to speak without curling her tongue, Julie took this precious time to commit her size to memory. Avoid making the same mistake of thinking that her baby would forever stay small, so small that one arm would be enough to hold her whole body.


    ''It''s such a wonder how little time passes before your child grows to be taller than you.''She thinks while marveling at her daughter that would soon reach her waist. She lets out a small laugh after hearing Anne say "Sank yu".


    "Try again, precious. Thaank yooou." Julie says, making a clear and slow motion with her lips so that Anne could imitate her movements and speak properly.She makes a bright smile after remembering that the only words Anne could say without a curl of the tongue were ''Mommy'' and ''Daddy'', she realizes that Anne is starting to get bored and decides to stop with this two-hour lesson filled to the brim with breaks in between.


    "Okay then little one, now let''s take another break again and wait for your father to come from work." Anne puts both of her arms up and screams a silent "Yay" in order to not bother her father, that was taking care of his work with some friends of his.


    Julie almost lets out an "Awww" after seeing that her cute daughter was already this smart. Instead, she manages to smile and turns to the door to exit the room, before saying to her daughter to wait for her, however, she sees her husband opening the door and calmly heading inside. After he closes the door tilts her head a bit and letting out a small breath,revealing a smile full of love, her charming eyes focused on the man in front of her, as if hypnotized, she says.


    "Hello, dear."

 Andrew: All That Were Worth - Chapter 2

    As she looked at her beloved husband, Julie felt like she had finally found the last piece to make her life whole; in the brief moment that she stood there, a strange nostalgic love burned inside of her, the few hours that they stayed apart from each other - although at the same house - seemed like lifetimes, she reasoned that this was so because her husband was taking part in that stillquiet war when things were getting more dangerous by the second regarding the common people and the crown.


    But her worry washed away completely when facing the man she loved the most, he was fine and that was what mattered to her; she also knew that his sense of duty would not let him give up something he started this easy, even more, when things were apparently at what appeared to be a critical point.


    "I''m back, my love." Andrew appeared have missed her as much as she did him.


    And without waiting another moment go to waste, Julie quickly embraced Andrew, as soon as their chests were touching eachother in a tight hug, she swiftly kissed him. But that was for just a brief moment, none of the two wanted to go any further in front of Anna, but she still kept embracing her husband. Noses and foreheads greeting each other intimately, as if to tell how much one was missing the other. Julie felt Andrew''s relieved and anxious breath in her skin and shewas sure he felt her''s too.


    But as much as she wanted to keep this close of a contact, this was not their heated youth anymore, she finally released Andrew and he also let go of her. He turns to see Anna and calls for her. "Come here, sweetie!" Andrew then extended his hands beckoning for her to come; and sure enough, Anna ran and jumped and fell right into his hands.


    Holding her by her armpits, Andrew played with Anna. By throwing the child as close to the ceiling as he could and getting hold of her when she fell back down; there''s no need to say that Julie - who almost fainted when seeing this - was extremely against her husband''s methods to have fun. Anna seemed to like it, though, so Julie was forced to watch without knowing what to say.


    The three of them enjoyed the moment while the adults forgot the problems plaguing them, those worries were better left at a time when they both were free to solve them.


    Night came and Anna was sent to sleep, but instead of bickering and making a fussin her bed like she usually did, she fell asleep as soon as she laid in it. Julie decided to talk with her daughter about not sleeping when told to for tomorrow.


    the couple went to their own bed right after, but none of the two was able to sleep, worry filled the heart of the woman and guilt haunted the mind of the man.


    "What happened at the meeting?" Julie was looking at the ceiling of the bed with a tired expression, if there were any candles lit in the bedroom, her eyes would probably be shining with small tears by how bad she felt when she wanted answers for what her love was going through even though she wouldn''t be able to do anything with them.


    "We''re going to act pretty soon, I''ll need to bother you again with your writing." Andrew''s expression was hard to see with only the moonlight passing through the curtains of that boring window to illuminate his silhouette. But Julie somehow knew he was feeling as bad as her, if not worse.


    "No, it''s no trouble. Thanks to you, I have people to read what I write, what I believe." She tries to comfort her husband, although those words were the truth, the way she was slowly self-destructing herself whenthe one she loved was virtually on the front lines of this hell was more than enough to completely drown her timid pride and sense of accomplishment.


    Perhaps because of her question, or maybe because of another reason that was so complicated that none of the two could understand, the married couple felt too tired to do anything but look at the ceiling of the bed the rest of the night. The onlysolace Julie could find to not cry in front of her beloved was that at least this depressing mood had not affected little Anna, who was as happy as she ever was.


    At the dead of the night, when the silence rules. When rain struck the strong roof with anger and muffled the breath of the pitiful. Darkness finally consumed the sight protected by the fading moonlight.


    <hr>


    "Take care out there, dear." Now that Andrew heard his wife say this, he thought jokingly about how something that could only be taken as ''Have a good day.''seemed to have a pretty literal meaning now. With famine and misery spreading from the lower to middle classes of the kingdom, anynobles and merchants that don''t pay attention to their safety can be easily assaulted or have their homes ransacked.


    "I''ll be back soon, my love." With this funny irony in mind, Andrewentered one of the carriages of his family and went to the noble district of the capital. There he had a meeting with his friend, the only person he truly trusted that was not part of his family.


    After a couple hours, he reached his destination. The roads which have been built according to the need and were never really planned spread randomly through every block more likea nest of snakes than spiderwebs on the wall. A small number of carriages could be seen traveling on the roads or parked to the side of the street. Every building screamed money and called for attention, even though the entire country was passing through a crisis certain nobles didn''t seem to care about their own clear lack of money.


    Andrew''s carriage stopped by the street and hegot off of it, heading to the plaza that was not much far away from him. There, he found his friend, the man was blankly looking at the teacup in front of him. But this strange habit could not hide the true upbringing of the person, his back was straight, no frown or wrinkles could be seen on his well-cared skin that had just reached its thirties, the position of the man''s legs and arms also spoke much about his mastered etiquette.


    As Andrew approached the man, his presence was acknowledged by a light wave of his friend''s hand, implying for him to take a seat that was just opposite of the noble. Andrew did just as was asked of him and sat, but he waited for the other person to start the conversation. Sure enough, after a few seconds, he looked away from his tea and spoke to Andrew.


    "Good day, my friend Andrew. Now, would you please tell this old friend of yours what you see when looking at these people?" He asks while letting one of his hands travel half a circle around him, almost as if welcoming a guest and asking him for his opinion on the house.


    The focus of the man''s sight, however, was the other nobles. They calmly walked through the sidewalk while looking around the restaurants and jewelry stores, some had only the company of a butler or servant while others were having some friendly talk with their friends or lovers. However, - probably because Andrew''s friend drew his attention to the fact - after a few moments, Andrew realized that only a few of the already low number of nobles were actually buying something really expensive from those shops; if this was in the past, strange would be to see a day where a single one of these rich people actually left a shop without wasting enough money to sustain a family of peasants for a decade. No need to say that this was somewhat comical for the currently distracted merchant.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    "Pleasure meeting you, Neutral. As for them... they seem to be... ignoring their own situation?Perhaps - considering the crisis we''re facing - simply faking all of this?" Andrew answered with what appeared to be more of a guess than a straightforward answer, which was not much strange considering that he never really understood the nobles'' need to throw everything they got in the trash instead of investing it on more ways to make a profit.


    "A little of the two." Said the man named Neutral, as calm as ever. "They are trying to ignore the fact that we are running out of money when they come and take a look around all those shops, they are faking the fact that they have no money when they enter a shop and look the wares for half an hour before saying that nothing picked their interest instead of admitting that they can''t afford anything." He observes, creating a vivid image in Andrew''s head about true hypocrisy, the vendors expectantly explaining all of their best products and giving their all to barter a more accessible price just tohear the lie that always said the same thing, ''The quality is far too poor.'' It suddenly became easier to accept the fact that the uprising could seriously damage the balance ofpower in the country.


    "This makes me wonder. When they refused to pay taxes to the king, what did they answer?" Andrew suddenly wanted to find yet more reasons to strike that weak and huge system that is known as Monarchy.


    "Just as you must be expecting, ''This action is below beings of such a higher position.'' Always the same boring excuse."Neutral simply says, making it clear that the nobles are not exactly the main focus of this for their talk today.


    "So, where are you in this situation?" The merchant asks, already making some short hypothesis about his friend''sreason for this discussion.


    "I''m but a single, imperceptible gear inside the clockwork machine, far too tired to go against the ''flow'' of every other - larger or smaller - gear." He answers, looking once again at his now empty teacup as if seeing theliquid that was not there anymore; its ''flow'', as Neutral seemed to put it, would go in circles, just like his clockwork image. ''Is he talking about cycles?''Andrew guessed but still waited expectantly about his vision of the ''machine''.


    And Andrew''s expectations were fulfilled as Neutral went to explain his view of things; how everything works in a cycle, composed of multiple forces fighting against each other over the eras, changing names, sometimes ideologies, but always fighting the same war of agonizing attrition that ended by mutual destruction and creation of new forces that were antagonistic to each other. Differently from Andrew''s thoughts and the normal ''the world moves in a never-ending, vicious cycle'', though, for Neutral, the cycles were finite, this would be proven by the fact that although the forces always destroyed each other over time, by the passing of time itself the ideology ofthe forces that protected the interest of the major population started to become stagnant, more focused and less moldable... massive, even.


    As for what that could entail, Andrew didn''t need an explanation for that, he was seeing it with his own eyes. The majority, also depicted as the weakest in power, was fighting a direct, brutal war. Everywhere around the country, nobles and merchants that were friendly to the king and other nobles were being targeted, having their houses ransacked and destroyed, some even ended up assassinated by the populace. Differentfrom what happened to the Ancient Empire,which was ruined by plagues, invasions, famine, and corruption; the monarchy of today was being destroyed by its own people; corruption, famine and everything else was simply the reason for the majority to act.


    "But... since everything is part of a whole machine, can''t you somehow throw a wrench in the cogs?" Andrew asked, his mind retracing every event that has happened during this uprising. He reached the strange conclusion thatthis uprising was not only at its decisive moment but also highly unstable, so much so that by taking the smallest step against the populace, the rotten tree that was the monarchy could be instantly toppled, that being the main reason why Andrew''s father was on his side.


    "Not necessarily, we''re all but a minuscule gear, turning by the sheer force of the machine''s workforce. Only the creator can use the tools; we, however, can go against the machine, start to turn backwards - against the ''flow'' of every other cog - and potentially change the purpose of said machine. But for that, one would probably need the power of other cogs with such intentions, a number which, unfortunately, is hard to find inthe same era."


    "But if the possibility of going against the rules are so low, why even consider it?" Andrew lost a bit of hope when hearing Neutral''s answer. The noble, however, shook his head at Andrew''s reaction.


    "Merchant, you''re asking the wrong questions. Instead of giving up when finding the first wall, why don''t we search for another way out?" He said with a patient smile, eyes entering Andrew''s wandering mind, locking it and sendingit the right way.


    "The cycle is finite, only our poor minds that cannot see what is beyond the stars would think otherwise." Andrew mumbled what he thought to be the core of Neutral''s philosophy. "Are you saying that the ''machine'' is fated to fall by itself?"


    To this, the noble nodded, his eyes once again looking at his empty teacup while he said with unbelievable certainty, almost as if he could see the future of eras that have yet to come. "Alone, we may not be able to turn the system backwards, but we can at least - one at a time and for a brief moment - stop it completely, damaging it in the process. My advice to you today, my friend, is to find a way to do exactly that, to go beyond just ''saving your people because it''s the right thing to do'' and give humanity a true way out, before it manages to kill itself."


    Andrew only felt more at a loss when hearing that. Honestly, when he knew and heard nothing things were so easy to figure out. But then again, finding the easiest way to live, as the saying of Arcas goes, ''is just human nature''.


    After some time of more debates in that belief of ''clockwork'', Andrew decided to relayhis decision surrounding the uprising to Neutral and ask for a favor from the noble,he was to find any additional information on their target and use any means possible to ensure their success with little casualties on their side. With matters taken care of, Andrew bid the noble goodbye and returned to his carriage to head back home.


    <hr>


    Inside his carriage, Andrew was deep in thought, not about Neutral''s way of seeing the world, but thinking about how to deal with his sanity problems. As the luxury carriage''s walls twitched and closed in on him like a thirsty throat, a formless voice, not male nor female, screeched at his ears, the ''voice'' in question didn''t exist but tore away at the merchant''s heart nonetheless. "Your fault!" It screamed. "Who do you think you are?!" It snorted.


    Just stop already! Andrew roared inside his mind, for him, these illusions were not just some false reality that came to be because he had blood that he didn''t want on his hands, it was his ever so missing sanity wailing,blaming him for his own situation, his own sickness.


    His arms, legs, and spine started to twitch uncontrollably; sweatfallinglike rain through his back and forehead; his eyes, moving from one side to the other like the head of some chicken, couldn''t focus on a single place inside the seemingly living walls of the carriage for more than a second; his back started itching like crazy and before Andrew knew it, he was already scratching himself all over the place.


    "Howmany more people have to die by your hands before you''ve had enough?!" It keptscreaming nonstop as a headache formed on the haunted merchant''s head, his subconsciousbegged in the most horrific ways for him to stop hurting his own sanity, even though he never was completelysane to begin with.


    I just need to calm down, it''ll go away, soon. I... I just need to see Julie, and everything will end. Andrew reassured himself, as his ragged breath tasted like iron in his throat, his ears rang with that agonizing, formless voice that screeched at him, cursing and blaming, threatening and insulting.


    And pretty much like that,the inside of the carriage heading back to the merchant family''s home was filled with silent self-blaming, madness, and a man, pressuring his own head in silent suffering as if holding at whatever dear he had in life.


    It wasn''t like that in the past,way back when his ignorance spared himfrom the truth of his way of life. But that was then, and this is now.

 Andrew: All That Were Worth - Chapter 3

    Traitor, scum, liar, coward... Andrew thought about how people in the future would call someone like him in the future, someone who ordered people to kill each other for their own goals.


    Although his dream was to free the people from absolute poverty and the monarchy was just in the way of this end, this was no excuse for the merchant, who felt that the pressure from causing chaos was taking his wishes and turning them into in reality in some gruesome ways. Want to free the people? Sure, just incentivize them to start a bloodbath. Want to grant them wealth? Simple, just kill those who currently have it, innocent children included.


    The fragile system was already falling by itself but the Andrew of the past wanted to take part in ending it once and for all. The Andrew of the past was stupid.


    He was throwing stones at the plains close to the capital city, these plains - filled with grass and some trees here and there - were the only ones left intact from the machinations of humanity, the grass that reached his shinwas fond of hiding good stones to throw, a pity that there were few of these stones taking the size of the plains into account, Andrew had to walk for a few minutes before finding one to throw with all of his strength.


    The plains themselves were only left alone because that failure of a king ordered. Perhaps he could indeed do at least one good thing on this muddy life of his, or perhaps it was his wife that asked for him to do this. Then nevermind, he couldn''t think of anything good by himself.


    But strange orders of the king aside, the stones that Andrewhas been throwing with Will for thepast hour sure flew far. The stones themselves were normal in every sense of the word, if not minding the fact that they were flying for more than three hundred meters before starting to fall to the ground.


    This was the work of ''knight magic'', instead of using mana in some ingenious way to reduce its weight or make it so that the stone met no air friction, the only thing needed to make the stone go flying was Will. Wishing for the stone to cross hundreds of meters was enough for it to happen when thrown by your own hands.


    It was pretty similar to the way grandmasters suddenly could travel all the four hundred meters that Andrew''s stone went through in just two to three seconds. And as weird as the process for doing so, just will it enough and it shall happen. It worked even for half-assed magicians like him.


    The rising sun that was glaring at Andrew from afar pulled him out of his stress-free world, it told him that he should head back and meet the friend that he had not seen for a month while waiting for the end of the war.


    Exactly, a war. Rumours said that the king was preparing an army to clean the ''Third Estate'' that was made by non-nobility and non-royalty, worst thing yet, apparently, they were true.


    The speeches based on his wife''s writing must have worked out pretty well seeing that when the populace heard this everyone wanted to invade the palace with just their farming tools and some swords. Thankfully they were able to calm down and prepare for today when the invasion of Lugubre would happen.


    Andrew walked for almost half an hour before reaching his carriage and going for a few hours of traveling, the coachman as calm and patient as he ever was. He waited for Andrew with eyes closed, - but instead of sleeping - he was meditating, he maintained full focus on standing completely still until Andrew''s arrival. He simply opened his eyes and nodded, jumping down from the carriage and opened the door for the merchant while standing to the side and bowing. After Andrew got in, the coachman got back to the rider''s seat and made the horses move.


    <hr>


    Inside the carriage, Andrew was - like the past few years of his life - once again being assaulted by illusions, the same old claustrophobia surfaced like a spike trap when the walls of the carriage appeared to have gained life - this start was always present on his mind for some reason - and, like a dry throat, threatened to swallow him whole.


    Sweat could be felt on his back and forehead while his arms and spine started to shiver uncontrollably.


    A person''s silhouette appeared on the empty seat in front of Andrew, it sat there, a formless voice was whispering something, the inaudible whisper got louder by the moment.


    Andrew had a headache while his eyes quickly moved from one place to another, never looking at any corner of the wall for more than a second.


    Although his ears couldn''t find any sound besides the rocking of the carriage, his mind transmitted the inexistent whisper to him, although he didn''t hear what it said, he knew what it was about.


    And so, instead of hearing that formless scream that should come after some time, Andrew heard his own voice inside his mind, blaming and threatening, asking for the reason while accusing him of having no right to do anything besides breathing.


    "Ugh... Dammit!"


    Andrew scratched himself all over his body while hearing his own inexistent voice, this time he couldn''t contain some groans that almost came out as screams filled with fear and anger.


    Only by repeating the same process of thinking about his time with Julie and Anna was he able to calm himself, assure himself that he had to keep going until the end of this chaos and once again have his peaceful time with his precious family.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    The calming memories of the three of them playing together coupled with the expectation of doing it again gave the merchant the needed strength to withstand the torturing of having a faulty mind.


    After controlling his almost choked breath, Andrew kept his family in his mind for some time, enjoying the memory of the month they spent together like nothing bad was going on. He also went back to when his mind started playing tricks on him, how he could simply ignore the living walls with minimal discomfort; when the silhouette didn''t even appear, no wailing, no ridicule.


    Unfortunately, that was the past and this was now.


    He reached for a cloth that was inside the carriage to wipe off the sweat on his forehead and wherever he could reach inside his clothing.


    With him back to normal, the stressed - almost depressed - merchant was able to patiently wait for his meeting with Neutral. To talk with him while watching the battlefield that they reluctantly created.


    <hr>


    Three people sat at a table in a house owned by a merchant that supports the uprising, this being the third person. Everyone was quiet, Neutral was - as always - looking at his teacup, with a plate onits side now; Andrew had his eyes closed and head low as if trying to sleep; the merchant was simply looking upwards at the sky, the cloudy wheaterenforced the gray colors at the afternoon of the city, hiding the sun from the soon to come bloodshed.


    The reason why there was such a small meeting at theland of the nameless merchant was that both Neutral and Andrew figured that the place should be close enough to the ''prison'' for gunshots to be heard and, since the merchant had friendly ties with the populace by being one of the leaders of the uprising thatmanaged to survive for two years without being discovered by the king, this residence should, supposedly, be relatively safe.


    This ''raid'' at Lugubre should - according to the original plan - be happening one month from now, however, the rumors about the king preparing his army to attack the members of the Third Estate''s Assembly pressured the influent members and angered the populace, this coupled with the speeches promoting freedom and equal rights to everyone has sent everybody - royalty friendly or not - into an anxious mood, some fearing that the mob would attack them and others worried about the response of the king to an attack such as the one happening right now.


    *Distant shouting*


    The sound of dozens of thousands of people shouting and making an uproar at the distance could be heard by now, they had already invaded the weapon stash and should be armed with guns now, this ''army'' was overkill against Lugubre which had barely a hundred guards defending it. The shouts kept their presence for almost half an hour but the trio sitting comfortably at the table showed no reaction despite this being the reason they were there to begin with.


    Andrew paid no mind to the shouts while he kept his head low, close to a sleeping position. He was - somewhat - trying to get close to sleep. For whatever reason, only when he slept in the middle of the day would his mind be fully focused on thinking, and to think he wanted right now.


    Neutral explanation on cycles was - to make things simple - chaotic at the very least. When telling thoughts like those, it was common for him - and any wise person for the matter - to add examples on what his observations were based off.


    But for the first time in his short two years with the noble, he got no example, just an explanation. Andrew wondered for what reason would this be the case. It surely wasn''t that Neutral had just thought that at the time and said his thoughts like a child would without planning to argue.


    He then decided that the most probable reason was that there was simply not something to compare it to, which was agreeable since the cycles he seemed to talk about would casually span for several lifetimes of a person at the very least.


    But hell! He was not a grandmage to be able live that long!


    ''But then how did he reach such a thought? Surely he''s also not one too, or else he would not be even talking with me because worldly affairswouldn''t concern him. Then just how?''


    Andrew was completely lost in thought before the first gunshot echoed throughout the city. The sound seemed to snake through the air and flow along the barely planned roads that randomly spread everywhere. The somewhat slim, two-stories high buildings ignored everything that happened as always.


    The people involved, however, were screaming curses and barking orders, not that Andrew could make anything in the mixing of thousands of roars and hailing to the people.


    At this point, Neutral was already looking somewhere besides his teacup and the nameless merchant was looking at the origin of the battle. The noble looked at Andrew and then to the other merchant, and as if he had made a decision after careful pondering, he spoke.


    "I believe this sets the rest in stone, it is pretty clear to me that this show of power will end up with success on our part. I will also take this chance to announce my leave from this countryto the two of you, all that is left for me to do in this place now is to geta friend of mine that was locked in that ''prison'' and leave with him."


    "I see." Answered Andrew with a sigh, the bagsunder his eyes seemed to grow heavier in his head. "The country will miss you. Though perhaps someone with a status such as yours would never be fully trusted again... truly a pity that."


    "It was nice knowing that wherever we are there is always a good person togreet us, even if said person is buried beneath the dirt of others. But I guess that there''s no other place for wise people such as yourself to achieve something nowadays. As our friend said... it''s truly a pity." Commented the other merchant while nodding his head in a calm demeanor, respect engraved in his voice while the fight made its presence even more publicly in the background.


    "Well, don''t think in such a pessimistic view. With just a little luck someone truly worthy of your respect will rise between the freed people. This not happening would truly be a pity." Said Neutral, appearing to be hopeful and - at the same time - nostalgic.


    Neutral''s face ticked at something inside Andrew, he felt something from this but he couldn''t quite pinpoint it. It was just like the times when he knew a deal was successful with a contact before they even reached the end of it but he didn''t really know what caused it. This feeling made Andrew realize that, whatever was running inside Neutral''s mind right now,influenced the noble to give some kind of hint, but again, Andrew couldn''t pinpoint what exactly what it was.


    The stressed merchant saw a headache incoming by trying to make sense of something without the proper explanation, so he decided to drop the feeling for now.


    After two hours of shouts and shots, cheering drowned every other sound in the district. The fight ended, and pressure seemed to fly away from Andrew''s shoulders, but he knew that this was just the beginning. Now that the power of the populace has been shown, the only thing needed was to wait for the king''s response and act accordingly in order to counter it, the last goal was to dethrone the king and end the monarchy in the country.


    Andrew feared an attack in his country during the time it would be weak and unstable, but he guessed that other reigns would think twice before invading the home of hundreds of thousands of blood lusting peasants and risk the same ending inside their own house.

 Andrew: All That Were Worth - Chapter 4

    "Men are working the entire day like slaves just to die of hunger in the streets!


    Children who have barely grown enough to be called adults are being shot for begging mercy from the king!


    Women are losing their sons to hunger and disease like never before!"


    And you just watched it all happen tothis day!


    "We are being stripped of our lives while the selfish nobles are eating the best meat there is inside their homes, warmed by a fireplace we could only dream to have!"


    And aren''t you doing the same thing at your home?


    "Where are our rights to live? Tell me, people! Where is our freedom to choose both our family and the bread at night?"


    Are you not ashamed of putting yourself beside those people when you clearly have that freedom?


    "I ask of you! Why can''t you? You can, right?"


    I''m sure you also could truly help instead of telling them all to die!


    "Who''s blocking you?"


    Julie was inside a room on the secondfloor of the house, sitting in a chair and writing another random story. The room, as always, insisted in being a mirror of itself the best it could, leaving a drawer on the corner of the room opposite from her''s that, with a poor glance, looked just like the desk she was in.


    She pressed her temples while trying to put that sudden, twisted inspiration aside. Her drive as a writer working against her and pleading for her hands toimprint all her emotions on the paper so that they could spread to the world, telling to everyoneabout her suffering.


    She knew pretty well who thatline of thought belonged to. That speech belonged to her husband, it was a memory to an already deceased noble, who tried to start an uprising by himself after coming to the conclusion that the king''s presencewould only further damage the country, one of many.


    Julie was also consciousthat something was hurting Andrew, not to the level of suicidal depression - not yet, at least -, but slowly tiring and stressing him out. She discovered it right after this damn uprising started, he would sometimes enter the room she was in with a distant look as if trying to jump straight to another planet without thinking twice.


    She thought, at first, that it was because he was tired of work, but him focusing solely on the uprising, together with that rekindled face he made everytime seeing her and Anna said otherwise. When seeing them, Andrew looked like someone who found meaning in life after almost killing himself, it looked like without them both in this world, there was little reason for him to be there too, that scared Julie.


    She was scared that he would stop caring about them both and outright end his life, scared that if something happened to her or her daughter, it would take Andrew with them. She was selfish alright! Butdid she not have the right to live a happy life with her family, with the two she loved the most?


    But she was also thankful for Andrew, thankful that he, although determined to end the uprising that was causing all this damage to him, was taking all the time he could and spending it with them. Thankful that his expectation and reliance towards her company was, at the very least, maintaining his sanity.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    Now that Julie thought about it, she was always weak with expectations, trying to prove to her parents that they could trust her to make a perfect job with whatever they threw at her. And now, she was getting even weaker, as if the need her husband had for her company was spreading to her, and now, she was already missing him. God, she was weak to expectations.


    Her drive to write disappeared along with Andrew''s speech. She got up from the chair, stared at the paper with only a handful words written on it for a few seconds before leaving the room. Andrew should be done talking with Trevor, his father, she would simply wait for him on the side of the room.


    Not long after, she reached the room Andrew and Trevor were in. Same old door with the same old decorations, the meaning of diversity seems to be foreign to the mind of the founder of the mansion. She almost opened the doorknob by reflex but was reminded not to just before touching it by the voices inside.


    Julie decided to sit quietly by the side until they finished, the sound of two people arguing could barely pass through the door, so she waited while ignoring her ever increasing curiosity. Not much time later and Trevor came out of the room, even with his almost gray hair and small wrinkles he stillseemed close in appearance to his son, it also didn''t look like he noticed her when he left without looking back. Julie stood there, looking at him leaving, the man''s back seemed as tall as a mountain, straight as the most perfect of roads, the man was filled with unwavering determination and will to risk everything he once had just to achieve a little more.


    She came out of her trance after the scream of her husband echoed through the floor accompanied by the sound of metal clattering to the ground.


    "DAMMIT!"


    Her body froze in place as the cry seemed to slither through her spine, reaching all the way till her ears.


    ''What happened?''


    <hr>


    "What are you saying, father? Those people are thinking only about taking the opportunity in the most gluttonous of ways, it won''t be long before they are found guilty! If you are seen as an accompliceof theirs what do you think it''s going to happen?" Andrew snapped, the new workings of the kingdom were still fresh in his mind, far too many examples for him to not know. Now his father was showing this little consideration towards this unstable situation, he didn''t know what to think.


    "The decision has already been made." Said Trevor "This is the chance for our family to rise once more! Are really willing to stop this because of fear, of cowardice?"


    "It''s not about fear when things are bound to fail before they start, doing what you''re doing now is wrong. What is your problem?" Was Andrew''s answer.


    "My problem? I''m seeing things how they are! We are just one small step away from prominence, just a few months away from being one of the most successful families of merchants right after this damn crisis, this is where we need to stand. Why do you deny?"


    "Did you forget with who the power of the country really rests? What will be of us if you''re caught? We will die because of your decision!" Andrew did his best to argue with reason but his father didn''t seem to care about the true danger.


    "With how you are thinking, our family will never come back to its feet." Trevor turned, opened the door and simply left. Andrew looked at his father leaving, his throat stuck with the words he was not given time to say. "With how you are acting, our family will be buried before long." They echoed in his mind, much like the voices of when he was seeing illusions, but much more solid than it.


    And when was far away from the room, his emotions came punching. Like a giant wave assaulting the coast, his mind suffered from the anger of not having things go the right way and insecurity of not being able to change anything.


    ''Merchants can be just like nobles if given the chance, how could I not think of this before?'' He thought as he saw the candlestick at the table in the center of the room, right beside him. Emotion took over, Andrew felt like he was unconscious for an instant, his arm swiping the candlestick to the ground as he screamed at the top of his lungs. Almost praying for the shout to cleanse his heart from the frustration while letting his unstable mood correct his previous beliefs.


    "DAMMIT!"


    Something was wrong with the world. But what exactly was it? And how could he fix it?

 Andrew: All That Were Worth - Chapter 5

    As the sun sets, timidly hiding behind the gray clouds, the cheers and hoorays that were present barely an hour agocould be heard no more. The wind swiftly ran through the tall grass up to the branches of the few trees in the plains,the sound of branches and leaves striking at each other echoed all around the plains along with the crickets cries, the wind - as much of a natural artist it could be-, however, could do nothing besides brush past the clothes of the three men standing in the middle of this scenery.


    Two of them, Neutral and the unnamed merchant, were facing the third, a little of annoyance present on their faces. The man on the receiving end of this annoyed stare was simply smiling, almost smirking. After a few seconds, Neutral sighed and asked.


    "You know, friend. You could at least give us the pleasure of a warning before doing something like that."


    "I thought it was obvious something like this would happen? Also, call me Cagliostro while we are here. Oh, let''s not forget that I''m in France, sorry you guys had to come all the way here for nothing." The man''s face was finally painted with a full-fledgedsmirk now.


    "The fact that we had no idea of whatwould happen is still here." Neutral simply ignored the second part of what ''Cagliostro'' said.


    "I won''t say I''m sorry, just so you know." The cicadas finally decided to join the crickets in their nightly orchestra, a pity that they are much louder than the crickets and ended simply drowning the other''s cries.


    The merchant lightly shook his head at that, then saying.


    "This will change nothing, Neutral. Even if hehadn''t done anything we would still come to the conclusion that it''s impossible to save the target here without erasing the strengthhe would otherwise have in the future."


    "You are probably right." Neutral sighed. "Since it is indeed so, we need to proceed to the next place he appears, we need to enter hell."


    The merchant frowned. "We won''t be able to enter that place without the Legendaries'' knowledge. If the harbinger itself comes to stop us, it''ll be our end."


    In order to prove he was thinking as hard as he could, ''Cagliostro'' started to scratch his chin, the smirk was still there, though. After a few seconds, he had another geniusidea.


    "I know!" He said, pointing upwards while emphasizing his words. "Why don''t we... simply send some souls that could engage with our ''target'' and be done with it? It''s not like we can do anything else."


    The nameless merchant had to agree with the latter part, there was really nothing that they could directly do in hell. Still...


    "Which poor souls will we be sending then?" The merchant once again shook his head.


    "We can always see something out on the Labirynth. Can''t we, Clarks." ''Cagliostro'' turned to look at Neutral, who seemed to be seriously considering the idea.


    "We may be able to work with that. Also, call me Neutral, by my other friends'' request, this name must be spread throughout the world."


    "Yeah! It surely must." Laughed ''Cagliostro'', who then turned away from the other two and started to mumble to himself. "Now, who do I work as? Another ingenious scammer? Nah, this will get bored. Perhaps some old ''memes'' are in order? That sure would be nice, not in the contemporary age, though. I always hated the past." His smirk went as far as it could go as ''Cagliostro'' found his first ''victim''.


    After Neutral spoke a bit with the merchant he took, out of nowhere, a sphere the size of a hand that shone with all the colors of the rainbow and threw it just a meter in front of him. The sphere seemed to explode with a colorful flash before turning into a portal, the other side full of walls that had the same brilliance and color as the sphere, these walls stretched forwards and upwards beyond of what the human eyes could see.


    Neutral turned and said to the other two, who were just waiting for permission.


    "Then, my friends, let us proceed to the next act of our plan. If it is possible to call it that."


    <hr>


    There was much that could happen in a year, like the king and queen being jailed after their failed attempt at containing the uprising, like countless supporters of the absolute monarchy restlessly trying to gain power once more and ultimately failing.


    Like the peaceful time that Andrew was able to have with his wife and daughter, like the fact that he kept seeing illusions for seemingly no reason and was slowly getting tired out even when his insecurity with guilt was already fading away. Randomvisions of the walls on his home burning to ashes appearing to him when he was alone in one of the rooms, sometimes a voice saying something like: "It is far too late for you to be saved."


    The latter being the most horrifying thing of every single change that happened. A shadow cursing him for bearing a burden he was not capable of taking by himself was one thing, the state of his mind was truly far too damaged to take the immense worry of both his family''s life and innocent farmers that he sent out to possibly die, but Andrew couldn''t - for a single second - accept that the voice, with that tone that was surely both mocking and foreseeing his future, was another one of his mind''s creation. There was nothing he could do to prove so to himself, but for whatever reason, he just couldn''t accept it.


    This feeling of being in a stranger''s hands your whole life rekindled the paranoia that started the studies of many magicians, Andrew fell into the studies of magic that he once dropped, not many results to defend himself since the beginning stages of the offensive runes are mostly ''siege weapons'', and other than group runic spell, a suicide bomber was all he could be with his low achievements in magic.


    However, this was the first time that Andrew realized just how much could change in two whole years. The supporters of the past monarchywere, one by one, arrested and promptly executed along with their families - no mercy, even the children -, the king and queen trying to run to the queen''s birthplace and also being caught andthereafter executed, the fact that his father tried to side with a supporter of the monarchy to safely move Andrew and family out of the borders and that such supporter was caught.


    You see, people invading properties of nobles and big merchants that sided with the king was a fact even before the Fall of Lugubre, but since the king was arrested, things went one step further. When a person is suspected of crimes against the State, said person is immediately interrogated to find anyone that could be working with the suspect, after the interrogation, the suspect is immediately executed and they go after those close tohim and those who took part in whatever activities that led to the first imprisonment.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    This really means that not even the children of the perpetrator were spared, one thing that Andrew admonished but didn''t have the courage to oppose by himself. However, the fact that those tasked with investigating went away and beyond with their efforts of ''cleansing'' meant one thing.


    After catching wind of what happened to Trevorwhen he failed to covertly take the family away from this country, where there was no hope of rising in power and the very real threat of deathbecause someone they were related tocould do something they shouldn''t do. Andrew firstly thought to recruit the highest number of guards possible in order to fight off the ''invaders'' just to immediately refute such thought, the guards would just turn their heels and point their rifles at him.


    That is why he did everything he could to run with Julie and Anna. He was too late.


    Andrew stood in the front door of his three stories high mansion with his bag,the home that was now empty of butlers and maids and which he would never see again was not the reason he stopped there.


    The gray look that the entire city had even on the sunniest of days wasstill present today and the grass which took so much of the gardener''s attention seemed to rattle by force of a nonexistent wind, while the climate was still the same, thegun ofthe reaper, this day, pointed at Andrew''s head.


    "...Why?"


    The merchant looked with guilt and horror filling his eyes at the scene of his coachman getting shot after trying to futilely push back the twenty or so members of the Revolutionary Tribunal that came to take them to ''jail'' with muskets and swords. Surrender was the first thought that crossed the merchant''s mind, the end of ''traitors'' made him decide otherwise.


    His mind was racing in the dark but had no solution to illuminate it at this time. Julie and Anna appeared behind him right this instant, Julie, like Andrew, was also carrying a bag.


    "Julie, take Anna and run to the city, speak to Gilberto, he will help." Andrew said without looking back, his eyes were locked at the people coming to his encounter, not even a hundred meters away. To this, Julie didn''t even question, with Anna there, she just couldn''t.


    When the twenty or so people saw the woman drop her bag and run with her child to the back of the house they hastened their steps, their every step seemed to have enough weight to shake the ground but Andrew knew this was just the pressure of time and the lives of his wife and child on his back.


    Those with rifles stopped some twenty meters away while the ones carrying swords made a detour to catch the escapees. Andrew dropped his bag at this instant, eyes solemnly ignoring the shoutsordering him to lay on the ground and muskets pointed at him.


    At this time, while wondering how painful death was, Andrew focused on the ''soldiers'' running after his wife and daughter. Their clothes were truly painted with the colors of the country''s flag, mainly blue and white with a bit of red, but that was not important.


    He momentarily lost himself in thoughts that he had in the past, which slowly changed in the last few years.


    There was once a time he believed that the nobles and the royalty were the reason that his country was now suffering a crisis in almost every sense of the word. When a noble that supported the revolution spoke with him, in his young stupidity, he completely forgot that the person was a noble.


    There was once a time he thought that although people had different ideals, they could work together and help each other until they achieved the best ending. His father giving up his home for riches cracked such misconception, suggesting him that perhaps the nobles and company were just part of the whole.


    There was once a time - the stupidmerchant believed - that the oppressed, with the power of the country in hands, could show that they knew the right way to amend the scars left by the ''deposed''. Their actions right now showed that such childish thoughts were wrong.


    But now, the mage Andrew, led by the unreasonable delirium of trusting nothing beyond his wife and daughter, who he firmly believed truly cared for and trusted him, was slowly but surely - although far too late for such ''improvement'' - coming to terms with the fact that, perhaps, if given the chance, everyone could be the first to rape and slaughter innocents in a war.


    As the new soldiers of the countrygot the closest they would be to the house, Andrew''s eyes flared with a yellow light, as if a deep, hellish fire burned inside of his body, the grasp of death was not cold at first, it was warm.


    Small runesproduced a light that sparkled all around the ground of his mansion, it came from the earth that could be easily mistaken with ash to the grass that barely had any green in them. It formed a symbol akin to a flame and a lotus, with the center body slightly creeping upwards along with the several petals beside it, but that was just a few centimeters square in the center of it all.


    The petals that started by going upwards suddenly spread in seemingly random directions, getting so far from each other that by the edges it barely resembled the flame in the beginning.


    For anyone versed in the language of the runic laws, these bright symbols shining all around the place, reaching even the farthest of soldiers, signified a single thing. It was the word for fire in the most blatant of ways, anyone with mild knowledge in runes, a lot of time and riches could do something of this size, but rarely there would be any reason to do so since it was easy to spot while in the making, took far too long to prepare and whoever would castthe runes needed to be close in order to start it and so on.


    The first spark flew from the giant rune, crafted with patience and huge quantities of materials to allow the traveling of power through the rune and its stability during the creating process.


    But to need to use this weapon was out of the expectations of the creator, Andrew didn''t believe that this day would ever come, when those, who he encouraged to fight came to take his and his family''s life because one of their members was friends with an enemy of the State, themerchant didn''t want to believe that the people he once saw dying at the street could become such monsters, but they did, so the mage would dictate things from now on.


    As the first spark came and faded in less than a second, Andrew looked at the new soldiers of the country, engraving in his mind what became of those he lent a hand, and swearing never to do so again, no more would he pity those dying in the mud, for they can stab you in the back just like the trickiest of nobles.


    In the next second, he snorted,you reap what you sow, he thought. It would have been better if he had just left the country the day he realized that the king would fall.


    There was something wrong with the world,that something was the people, the innocentsduring the winter who turned into murderers during the spring, the people who killed their benefactor so that they could get a little more for themselves.


    The fire blew the surroundings, gasps of surprise were instantly exchanged forshrieks of unbearable pain, Andrew was the first to scream in the fire. As he opened his mouthto let out the first cry of agony, the fire entered his lungs and started to burn him from the inside out.


    The blooming flower of carnage lighted the surrounding gray of the land with a bright yellow and red. More than twenty people running to and fro with torrents of flame glued to their bodies, soon they started to trip onthe gentle grass and fall head first to the ground. All the while Andrew was little more than a charred corpse kneeling on the ground with arms turning to ashes, thoughts of revenge and regret being the last to ever pass through the damaged mind of the mage.


    With luck, Julie and Anna would be able to pass by as peasants and live out their own lives, but this was something too complicated for the melting brain of an unluckymage to think about.


    <hr>


    Andrew opened his eyes, this struck him as something strange since he was sure he shouldn''t have them after clearly losing all his skin and perhaps even his bones, the itch was still tingling at his skin, which he also shouldn''t be in possession of. What his eyes saw made even less sense, the land was black, gray snow fell from skies that had no clouds, a strong wind ran all across the place, almost strong enough to push people back.


    Thirst and weariness suddenly filled his senses, but there was nowhere to drink and rest. Humanoid figures could be seen in the distance, but Andrew was far too afraid to move there, those figures - random in their forms - seemed to sometimes have warped, long arms that reached the ground, at others, thin sickles that were clearly sharp and if he focused just a little more, he could see that they were floating. He turned to head the other way, but those figures were everywhere. If he walked just a couple hundred meters he would be facing the closest of them.


    Would he, after burning himself to ashes to protect the ones he cared for and strike those who betrayed him, be forced to travel through clearly hostile lands for an end that may not come? Where the hell was he?!

 Nicolas: Where We Belong - Chapter 1

    Theodore Auburn was using a sports set under a black robe held by a black belt; blue mattress - used in order to reduce fall damage - filled the ground of the entire room and in front of him stood his son, Carter. He had a height of 1,70 m - just a bit shorter than Theodore himself -, used the same clothes as his father and was also standing in a fighting position, mirroring his father.


    While both of them used the same black belt, they also both knew the difference in levels that the belt didn''t tell. The focused eyes of Carter along with sweat forming before the spar started told Theodore that his son was well aware of this fact, but seeing that the young man was still willing to continue without hesitation put the father in a good mood.


    "Start!" Barked Theodore who stepped forward at the same time as his son did.


    They met each other head-on and attempted a grab at the same time. They were both prepared for the incoming grabs but Theodore still came out on top in the first move.


    As Carter''s left arm entered the range of Theodore''s right, Theodore suddenly moved all his mass to focus on that opening, his right arm went for his son''s left elbow.


    Carter realized he had no time to move his arm out of the way so he shifted his weight in a way that affirmed his stance on the ground, Carter''s right arm and leg moved at the same time, trying to catch his father''s right and disturb his mass by pressuring the upper part of his left leg with his right one.


    But the first move was for Theodore, his left arm moved in time and got in the way of his son''s right arm while grabbing his left wrist and elbow and twisting to one side. While holding to Carter''s arm, he moved to escape his son''s leg and waited for the right moment.


    They stood in that position for a couple seconds before Theodore managed tostraighten Carter''s arm and pull him a step closer. This movement proved to be crucial, as the slight mishap gave Theodore a chance to swipe with his right heel at Carter''s left leg.


    "Ugh..." Came Carter''s confused groan when he felt the mattress hitting his back,perhaps it was the other way around.


    He still recovered in time to try and wrap his legs around Theodore''s head but was met with resistance, another couple seconds passed while Carter tried to get a hold of his father with a leg-lock at the head while trying to block him from putting all his mass on top of Carter.


    Theodore''s muscles began to work in order to slither out of his son''s lock, his right shoulder held one leg while his left arm held the other, Theodore''s right arm and weight were being used in order to keep Carter on the ground, but slowly and secretly - almost unconsciously -, he was changing targets.


    *THUD. THUD. THUD*


    But before he could do it, the sound of a palm hitting the ground three times woke him from his fighting mode and he let go of Carter. They both sat on the ground, recovering their breaths for a few seconds while thinking about the fight.


    It was no surprise that the fight ended that quickly, they had both agreed to work fast in this last spar, and with haste, comes openings, not that there is none in defense, but that was another situation.


    Add the haste that they both agreed on and the fact that Theodore had enrolled in the army for more than two decades in the army and mastered both judo and krav maga, in contrast with Carter who had only just reached black belt in judo and was still learning krav maga, and you have this ending.


    "Ahh, man... Hey, father, did you try to break my leg back there?! I saw you trying to get a hold of it!" Protested Carter.


    To this, Theodore casually answered with: "It was just a spur of the moment." And dismissed it as nothing serious.


    "You can say that because you''re almost a grandmaster now! Wait until I catch up with you, I will have my revenge!" He affirmed while raising a fist.


    "Well, you''re already better than what I was in your age, you also have more time to train, so perhaps - with a bit of luck -, you can become a grandmaster just a few years after me." Said Theodore, who shrugged at his son''s attitude, although with an almost invisible smile on his face.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    "I recommend you to laugh while you can, father, because I''m going to win soon enough. Please, again!" Carter stood up and prepared to spar with his father again. Theodore answered to his wish and also stood in a fighting stance, they should keep on for a few more minutes before stopping.


    <hr>


    "Every new horror starts with a poor ending." Quote from Admiral Laica Lavridge, after admonishing the decisions written in the Treaty of Versailles, after the First Grand War.


    <hr>


    Unnoticed by the thousands of civilians that claimed their equal rights in front of the dictator''s palace, the owner of the palace was not in a mood to respond to the human conduct proposed by the civilians in the same step as them, he would be higher, he would be the only one who had a say.


    And under his orders, the army moved against the innocent people like they would against violent invaders, they answered with bullets and bombs. Chaos ensued.


    At least, that is what everyone is being told; if it is the truth, perhaps we will never know.


    *BOOM. BOOM. BANG.*


    Hundreds of explosion sounds boomed throughout the city, muffling the screams of civilians being shot and buried under debris that were once buildings with almost a hundred meters in height.


    Mortar shells fell like rain, indiscriminately splashing every corner of the city. Men dressed in military garments shot the people who tried to run and arrested those who took cover on the ground. If one were to be told that all this started with a peaceful protest he would not be able to believe, even when this was the truth.


    But that was already years behind, few people - besides those who survived - still remember such a thing and even less care for it. The strong leaders used what happened as an excuse at the start to fight against the government and now they fought against each other, creating one of the bloodiest of nightmares to ever strike the non-involved in the conflict.


    It wouldn''t be wrong to say that there were, in fact, three wars happening at the same time, one for power and politics, one between thedifferent races and cultures and one for religion.


    This was scaled by the fact that a single difference between ancestors or chain of religion could divide a group in two,effectively creating an infinity of forces opposing each other.


    And now, a conflict between two of the strongest factions faced each other, practically using the civilians as cover. With bombs and missiles being fired from both sides and killing indiscriminately, the only ones to truly lose were those caught in the middle of it all.


    And Nicolas, caught in the middle of it all, was losing something precious at this exact moment. He was losing his life.


    Far from the giant buildings, but not far enough to avoid the bombardment, there was a lake. This lake was by no means big, only having half a dozen hundreds of meters square, but it was a lake nonetheless.


    Mortar shells seemed to fall from the skies before booming on the ground and opening holes in the ground, sending shrapnel everywhere, they would soon start to hit the lake.


    Nicolas was standing right beside this very lake when the attack started not even ten minutes ago, having nowhere safe to hide, he could only lay on the ground with hands covering his head and praying to whoever could hear his thoughts to save him since he was sure that his murmurs of "make it stop" would not reach anyone.


    He once had military training, his father was a soldier of the government for after all, and thanks to that he knew that if he didn''t stay like he was staying now, it would only get worse.


    He was not - nor he intended to be -, a soldier himself. He wanted people to live equally, like the first ones to die in this war. Ironically, people like him who would - in a normal society - be called normal and have general support for their actions, were now facing the truth that the factions could take their life at any given moment and the world would still couple them with terrorists.


    Perhaps now was the best time to sneer at this situation, because there would be no moments like this ever again, Nicolas knew. The bombs were falling far too close and the vibrations that his body felt and his ears could no longer taketold him that nothing would be over much too soon, except him.


    *Fuuuush. Booom*


    A shell struck beside Nicolas, sending him to the lake that was not even a meter away. As he fell towards the lake, Nicolas could feel a hot sensation coming from his right side. He had also lost control over his arm and leg, probably lost them.


    In this unbelievable situation, his mind was a blank, as if he was still laying on the ground - waiting for this occurrence to stop -, he did not try to move what was left of his body to make an escape back to land when his back hit the water. His body fell, searching for the deep of what could only be considered, in the scale of the entire Earth, a puddle.


    There was no time to blame the ones responsible for this cruel war. Before Nicolas could leave his state of negation of reality behind and flare his futile anger, his brain had already failed to work. Water rushed to fill whatever void there was inside of his lungs and cleaned the blood from his body, replacing it inside the empty shell.


    Darkness took the body and sent it even deeper down, although it was only a few meters deep, the descent - to any onlookers - seemed to take forever, and after an unknown length of time, the body finally hit the wet earth.


    *BEEP*


    [Organism identified as ''human''...]

 Nicolas: Where We Belong - Chapter 2

    A new morning had come, the sun, still hiding behind the horizon, illuminated the land in a strange and weak dark-blue color, giving the world a bleak and eerie feeling.


    In contrast to this somber mood, hundreds of people hastily moved about the place, looking to make haste at everything they did. The sounds of boots running were easily muffled by the shouting of officers and roaring of machines.


    In what appeared to be an airport, hundreds of soldiers were moving to and fro, the only people that were not wearing any uniform were the civilian reporters that would stay in the country instead of risking their lives to film what was happening in the frontlines of the warring country, far away from thepresent continent and safe borders.


    Although the reporter team was checking their equipment, it would still take a few hours until they started filming, so there was not much for them to do in the meantime. That is also why Jennifer, equipped with ahidden camera, was also traveling all around the military airport, trying to speak with someone that would be going to war outside the continent.


    She also knew that no soldier would speak their mind around a superior officer close to them, so she was paying extra attention to anyone far away from such personnel. However, this task was further complicated by the fact that preparations for the departure were still being made, so almost every soldier stood close to their superior and followed whatever orders were thrown out.


    Thankfully, after a couple minutes, she found the first people she could interview, random soldiers standing around an empty hangar, three of them.


    She headed closer but slowed down to eavesdrop on what they were talking about, only to become immediately disappointed when hearing them talking about the fact that one of the soldier''s brother is still a virgin after being twenty and something years old.


    Jennifer knew how things would go from here on, but she still walked over to them, any comment could become an extra for her, after all.


    "Hey, guys!" She spoke, a friendly - although unnoticeably fake - smile on her face while she confirmed that not all of them looked at her tits before her face. "Do you mind answering some questions about the place you''re going?"


    The soldiers looked at each other and gave a small shrug at the same time, could the lack of intelligence cause such an incredible teamwork, or was it truly years of working beside one another? Jennifer believed it was the former.


    "That''s why you''re allowed being here. Ask away, girl." It was strange being called a girl by a guy that was barely a couple years older than you, but the newly expert reporter simply ignored their behavior, not everyone was behind in time like these guys after all.


    "Although you''re going to be facing The Religious State of Airis, what are your thoughts on the dictator government of Alassad, close to the coast of Airis?" A regular and simple question like this was, interestingly, the best to give a metaphorical slap in the face of anyone that picked a side without thinking. One of them seemed to know about such a famous and commonly used tactic and hid his cringe while letting one of his colleagues answer in his stead. That there was such a smart guy amongthese people, the world was truly going crazy.


    "Hmph. Those guys are just as trash as The State, one gives zero fucks about innocent civilians and the other kills everyone who doesn''t belong to them. Now we take care of The State so that later we deal with the dictator."


    "If it is about not caring for innocent casualties, didn''t our Nations behave in a similar wayduring in the conflicts on Iraq?"


    "Ugh..."


    The soldier was far too slow to realize Jennifer''s intentions and made an ugly face when hearing her counter-argument, that is what you get for speaking your mind in a logical debate. Although it was possible to justify the Nations actions due to lack of concrete evidence and bad politics, things were different when you had just spoken about the dictator''s decision of doing the same to make things easier.


    Proving that the government was wrong was far from the goals of Jennifer,she was only interested in finding holes in people''s arguments. Hypocrisy was the Nutella of reporters, said a wise colleague of hers once.


    It was clear to Jennifer that the soldier that answered her would be the target of jokes during the rest of the week, this also meant that her objective here was complete. However, there was still a lot of time, so she should recreate the previous event and try to record something even better to laugh at, humor had - after all - the highest demand on the internet.


    After another couple of minutes, she realized that the same kind of luck in finding soldiers zoning far from officers yet in plain sight would not happen again. So she set a course for herself in order to find someone that met the standards, which were to simply be a soldier and staying away from officers.


    The barracks were soldiers in wait usually hang out seemed to be a good place to look arou- Ehem... search for an interview. She was not allowed entry without the company of an officer, but when did such rules stop someone like her? Never was the answer.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Away from the sounds of roaring machines and barking of orders, a building that seemed to have space for almost thousands of people if everyone was cramped together, decorated by a tower in one of its sides stood tall, just waiting for commands. It would be a pleasant walk in the park for Jennifer, were not for the two people standing around the entrance of the building.


    One was a woman, around 1,70 meters in height, wearing a white shirt with a black necktie; on her shoulders, there were few lines of black and gold, her trousers were as black as her tie and almost hid a strap belt of the same color, she was a pilot; her pitch-black hair was short, kept at neck length and her brown eyes seemed to slightly laugh along with her mouth when she spoke with the person beside her.


    On the woman''s side, was a simple soldier, wearing the same clothes as every other, just his cap was nowhere to be seen, letting his dirty blonde hair bask in the sunlight that was just appearing on the horizon. He had a slight smile on his face, appreciating the moment of speaking with a friend... at least that was what Jennifer understood, the guy was not making the slightest move to confirm that they were more intimate than friends and this seemed to be the normal friends meeting friends scene for the woman that appeared to be the same age as Jennifer herself.


    She was not able to eavesdrop on the two since they noticed her approach before she was within hearing range, a pity since the chitchat between people is an important first impression to have of someone... that is what life taught her anyway.


    Jennifer waved her hand and quickly moved in the pair''s direction, judging by their faces when they noticed her, she was not really welcome to spoil their conversation. But when did something like that managed to stop a reporter? Never!


    As the harbinger of annoyance,Jennifer quickly approached the pair and presented herself, better not cause a bad impression to someone that could have manners.


    "Hi, a pleasure to meet you two. I''m a reporter working for Country Nation''s News, could you tell me your names?"


    "Clarisse, the pleasure is mine." Said the woman, perfectly hiding any sign of annoyance that she may have for nosy reporters. A dangerous personality in Jennifer''s opinion, since people like that love to sharpen their tongues before an interview, she vividly remembers the cringe she feltwhile watching on the tv when one of her colleagues was questioning a random person in the street about how much time had passed since he was last fired anddiscovered that ''by the grace of God'' that person was never shot before.


    "I''m Carter, what questions might you have?" He seemed to have already thrown all of the little hostility he had out the window, for if his casual smile told Jennifer anything, it was that he didn''t really care about her nor her intentions. A strange response, since every time she interviewed someone, they all had strong opinions about her presence.


    "The Nations and Soviets have made an alliance in order to defeat The Religious State of Airis, the activity of such powers, however, will most likely further damage the country of Airis. How do you feel about this?"


    Clarisse simply closed her eyes and crossed her arms, making it difficult to say if she was thinking about the question or just mentally ordering the man named Carter to answer in her stead. Carter, however, was clearly making a thinker''s face while scratching his chin, his eyes would probably be looking upwards, were it not for the sun that was just gaining its yellow color.


    "Well," Said Carter, finally. "Although both ours and Soviets'' military will cause harm to Airis and its population, The State is currently proving to be a bigger threat... and the cause of our actions. The State has not only increased its frequency of attacks in Airis - heavily bombarding cities that should have been protected by Alassad''s troops, but it has also started to spread its range of terrorist activity around the world to an alarming size - striking even the quiet and undeveloped countries of South America."


    Carter paused and shrugged, taking a second to sort his thoughts surrounding the answer. "I believe that not only the future damage caused in Airis by The State will be worse than the one caused by us if left alone - they are turning the tables on their fights against Alassad after all -, but that the fear caused by them to the rest of the world will keep piling and end up harming even further the overall world''s stability."


    "So you support the opinion that war should be carried out?" Jennifer asked to confirm.


    "Unfortunately, I can''t think of any other way to end such problems once and for all." Nodded Carter.


    Perhaps because Jennifer also thought that The State would come to harm innocents that had nothing to do with them if nothing was done, or perhaps because she had a favorable impression of Carter that didn''t seem to have - or be hiding - the intention of stabbing her and dumping her body in the sewers, but the reporter was slightly agreeing in her mind.


    But there was still a chance or two to ask some questions around, thinking that, Jennifer asked some other simple questions before thanking them both for participating and swiftly leaving to see some more sights.


    Seeing that the reporter had left, Clarisse turned her head to face Carter, who had just let out a sigh. While smiling slightly, she asked humorously.


    "What''s wrong, Carter? You had such a sweet tongue, why are you acting like you are nervous?"


    "Reporters are pros at the art of slapping someone''s face, of course I don''t want one of them retorting me." Answered Carter who let out another sigh before letting out a smile of his own. "But I have to congratulate you, it''s not every day that you manage to stay quiet like that. Ah, could it be? You were even more afraid than me right now?"


    "Shut up! We''re going to be late for the flight!" She almost barked the first part.


    "Even though it''s happening two hours from now?"


    "Differently from you, my superior hates not being early." It was Clarisse''s time to sigh now.


    "And even though your superior is currently inside the tower?"


    "Fuck off! Let me walk a little, no one else needs to know."


    "It would be so nice if I could pass the blame with a simple ''I don''t know her''."


    "Then just go to your barracks, go talk with your friends. Oh, sorry I forgot that no one likes your father."


    And so the pair started bickering because of Jennifer, the reporter. Who knows what would her reaction be if she knew that the conversation transitioned from what kind of apocalypsewould happen if Half-Life 3 were to be launched to this strange quarrel because of some random questions.


    Barely two hours later, the first few of many units were sent from the Nations to Airis for warfare purposes. The objective, the fall of The State.

 Nicolas: Where We Belong - Chapter 3

    *BOOM* *BOOM* * BOOM*


    Mortar shells and missiles fiercely struck the ground with an explosion of dark smoke, the sound released was so loud that any survivors would most likely have their eardrums destroyed, the hail of bullets that accompanied was also completely drowned in the chaos of explosions.


    This artillery strike, however, was not being fired by the Nations nor the country''s government, it belonged to one of the hundreds of groups of rebels. The target, a city protected by the government.


    But make no mistake, this scene is by no means something new, in fact, it is so old that some bold men that happened to live far enough from the bombardment area were casually playing a board game and betting how many hours it would take for the attack - which has been going on for two hours already - to finally end so they could go back home and take a nap.


    One of them even started to make a count-down from 10 to 1 for the attack end. That is why they thought it was weird when the time it took for the booming sound to echo suddenly increase to a dozen seconds as opposed to the five seconds of just a moment ago, and, after half an hour, it had finally completely ceased.


    When this happened, those who were happily gambling a few seconds before, looked at the person who made that countdown, their eyes wide in a joking astonishment, until someone said in fake devotion.


    "We have been blessed with a prophet!"


    Laughs echoed around the lively house everyone was in.


    Barend Alim was one of the insurgents responsible for watching over the artillery, although he was not out in the field shooting at those damn traitors that had forgotten their God''s benevolence, the heart in his chest was still beating pride in his blood.


    Just hearing the *Fushhhhh* of the shell leaving the cannon filled his mind with the knowledge that one more infidel was dead, this, in turn, made him respect even more the leader of his empire, who had led The State to grow and mark the world, being the nightmare that haunted those unfaithful bastards.


    Naturally, Barend gave his all when guarding for any flanks, occasionally boasting about the glory of the State with his friends. But he never slacked off for even a second, and he swore that no amount of tiredness would ever change that.


    His group of twenty was positioned in a T shaped corner of the street where there were no buildings to get in the way of the mortars and missiles, while still being a great cover for the case of enemy attacks. The cars and vans - which totaled nine vehicles - were set in a formation that protected them from one side of the street; another was blocked by a small mountain of rubble which was also guarded by his brothers from the other side; the third and final side of the road was an open ground which not only left no cover for any flanks but was also a dead end just a few turns ahead.


    When their group finished the bombardment, Barend''s group needed only to turn on their cars and leave unharmed, it''s not like the random artillery fire of his enemies had a chance of hitting them, at least he hoped so. But once they started leaving there was nothing that could be done to them, that Barend was sure.


    *BOOM*


    "YAHOOO!"


    More explosions rang out in the far distance, making Barend grin with excitement, a pity that his boss announced that the ammo was ending and they would be moving in the next 30 minutes. But this did not stop Barend from cheering with everyone else, relishing this moment that would inevitably end as their victory.


    Alan, being the closest one to his position, would sometimes come and talk with Barend, saying it was a pity that they still couldn''t take the fight all the way inside the city, which Barend naturally agreed.


    "Oh, yeah! Did you know that my wife just got pregnant? My mother-in-law is talking with my father to arrange the celebration." Says Alan, the young man that was not even 20 yet seemed to be pretty happy with having kids at his age. Barend though, was envious because he himself was already a man half-way to his forties but this friend of his had a wife prettier than his. It didn''t make sense, he knew, but it didn''t change the fact that he was envious.


    Barend was still happy to warn his friend that even if he had a boy, giving the kid a good spanking was a sure way for any brat to learn to do anything.


    He had a smirk on his face until he saw a shadow moving at the side of a car, moving until it reached cover behind a building. It didn''t seem to be a person but he was not going to risk anything right before they left.


    "Heads up!" He pointed his gun where he last saw the strange shadow and waited for an answer from his teammates.


    1 second since the alert, no answer, those guys sure are slow.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    2 seconds, still the same. Are they deaf?


    "Hey, Alan, come here!" He shouted again.


    3 seconds since the first warning, silence. Just what are those guys doing?


    Barend couldn''t take anymore and turnedon his heels to complain about his friend''s shitty hearing.


    "Eh...?" He said. A dumb look on his face. He dropped his rifle, letting it slide off from his hands and hit the ground, he then forcibly tried to pluck out of a strand of his facial hair, it hurt.


    There is no need to say that in front of Barend was a field full of mangled corpses taking the place of his late friends, some of them didn''t even have their head. Thus making him think that he was stuck simply inside a bad dream during guard duty.


    "Ah!"


    After shouting in surprise, Barend quickly realized his mistake and tried to pick back his rifle from the ground and run for his car, he had the keys so he just needed to turn the car on and run away, pretty simple.


    As for his friends? There was barely anything to make out of them. Also, how the hell is he supposed to make a funeral when there was a fucking murder on the loose?


    The moment he crouched to pick up his rifle, however, a shadow flewpast Barend''s side, just for an instant, he could feel a pair of hands around his head before it was forcefully twisted backwards,everything went dark before he could scream in horror of meeting with his killer.


    Unnoticed by the local army, that kept firing back at the already dead insurgents for another 30 minutes, the battle had suddenly gone still.


    The cause for the stillness in this battlefield, however, was standingbetween a myriad of bloody corpses, wrecked buildings, and destroyed vehicles.


    Blankly staring ahead of him, he thought of many things. His computer brain could make questions and instantly answer them, however, that was only if he already had the answer to such questions.


    As for doubts that he couldn''t find an answer for? He needed to slowly learn through trial and error.


    At least that is what he did back in the lake, awkwardly trying to form a body made out of trillions of parts for hours before he could recreate his former body, or perhaps ''copy that man''s'' was a better input. After that, he needed another hour in order to walk straight.


    The memories of the man named Nicolas were an unfamiliar picture to him at that time. Now - after a month - they''relike a strange story, reminding him of something that he did in his past but not being really accurate when doing so.


    As for the reason why a normal man like him would join this crazy war? He himself could not grasp the reason, he just had a hunch that it had something to do with Nicolas'' memories.


    But the answers would come with time, this proved to be true before and the current Nicolas had no other way to find them.


    For now, though, Nicolas still had to fight, the identity of the enemy was still not clear, but he was confident that the answer for this would also come with time. Nicolas realized that there was much that he had to learn.


    Nicolas came back to reality after but a second of thought, seeing the street filled with rubble that was once a beautiful and carefully constructed building, he suddenly felt a strange, unwelcome weight in his eyes as his non-existent heart sighed with sadness, all of that was once part of his home, his country.


    If those emotions were the accomplishments of an almost perfect computer or the remainings of the human Nicolas, however, the guess is yours to make.


    The man who possessed tanned white skin suddenly turned into a black cloud that danced around itself for a few seconds, the black spots that composed this cloud made it look like a swarm of insects, relentlessly spreading the plague of death to the world. This strange and alien cloud then shot off somewhereat one-fourth of the speed of sound, walking the road of carnage.


    <hr>


    War is omnipresent, no matterplace or time. There is always a bomb, a skirmish, ready to blow at any time. But no one cares about a conflict that has yet to start, it''s never their problem anyway.


    It was also never a problem for Carter, who was safely sitting in a chair inside of a room full of computers and controllers, fiddling with a joystick and a lot of buttons while focusing on the screen.


    His eyes, strolling and running all throughout the background shown in the monitor, were in constant search for a target, not exactly to kill, sinceevery singleenemy was already dead.


    "Hive, this is Donkey 2 reporting in, over." Said Carter,his voice a deep and serious tone that could pull the attention of anyone hearing it.


    "This is Hive, proceed with the report, Dunkey 2, over." Someone, with a tone much like Carter''s, answered through the radio.


    "Donkey 2 here. I have confirmed the position of five units of hostiles, they number each between 10 to 30 infantry, with at least four vehicles accompanying each unit, over."


    "Hive here. Donkey 2, confirm their status, over."


    "Donkey 2 here. Every hostile seems to be dead, we will need to send our infantry to confirm it, but it''s confirmed that all mounted weapons, mortars and vehicles are currently unmanned or permanently disabled, over."


    "Copy that, Donkey 2. Donkey 1 and 3 also sent a similar report as yours. Stand guard until further notice, over."


    "This is Donkey 2, understood." Carter laid back in his chair while still holding the joystick and letting out a breath, the man beside him - Julius -, responsible for handling the gun, had completely let go of his controller and was lazily stretching his arms.


    "How boring." He yawned. "Hey Carter, is there some kind of special unit acting here on Airis? Who was responsible for stealing our kills?"


    "We live in a crazy world, friend. Perhaps someone managed to create some Power-rangers and tested them just now? Look at the good side of things, we don''t risk losing the drone."


    "Sure! What''s next? A Megazord?" Julius let out a small laugh.


    "Yeah, we might end up seeing one." Carter mused at this stupid possibility, it would be funny. Maybe not.


    For the next couple hours, Carter controlled the drone to circle the zone and stood on guard for possible hostile forces, at times checking with Hive about the ETA of the land troops, at others chatting with his friend beside him. This was everything he did until he was ordered to bring the drone back.


    All they were told about thatincident was that whatever troops ended the insurgents did not belong to the Nations and they were forbidden from disclosing any information of what happened there.


    Whether the higher-ups knew something and were not telling the two of them, or simply had no idea of what was going on and didn''t want baseless rumors spreading was your guess.

 Nicolas: Where We Belong - Chapter 4

    The clock marked the start of dusk, millions of light sources shined like stars in the sky, they spread throughout the streets and adorned the buildings of the city, most of thebuildings were missing windows, the glass that once protected their inside from the cold air was no more, the city had been conquered by the Religious State just a few years back, and they hadn''t much time to fix everything.


    Although the moon was already shining in the night, that wreck of a city was still bustling with activity, military hummers patrolled everywhere and sometimes armed men would come down from the cars and inspect civilians on the street,checking if they were carryingillegal weapons or if the women were wearing all their clothes right.


    The sound of bells rung from the speakers right before the voice of a man announced the time to pray, the city came to a still for several minutes while every single civilian - after washing their hands and feet, if possible - kowtowed and chanted their prayers to God, after a couple of minutes in silence, everything went back to normal.


    Except for a single, dark cloud that freely traveled through the shadows of the city, passing unnoticed under everyone''s eyes.


    Nicolas formed his body and sank his back into the wall of a random building, all the while showing no emotion on the surface; those were hidden, buried in his memory for the machine to study and learn with time. Right now, Nicolas'' mission was to find out what was happening around the world outside, find about the movements of the three great nations of the world and their plans about the current Airis, especially the Nations'' movements, they''re the bad guys.


    Sorting his ever-growing anger and desperation, Nicolas became somewhat absentminded while following, with his vision, the small swarm slowly soaring away from him and reaching towards the street, after thewisp of microscopic machines suddenly picked up speed and detached itself to spread everywhere, he looked down at his arm to see that now, there was no hand. After sighing, his body shrunk a little bit before another hand grew on the missing spot, Nicolas then left through an alleyway to look around the city by himself, and perhaps find a gun for himself.


    A single Queen Cell that separated from the main body hovered - while its subordinates followed right behind - a meter above the ground and searched aimlessly around the city during the night-fall, it didn''t have to wander too far before itcould to find a vehicle that matched the one inside its limited database; thankfully, the impractical machine wasn''t fast, making it easy to catch up to the Hummer.


    The car''s doors were tightly shut, so the Queen Cell couldn''t find a way to enter it; following the protocol of stalking the target and wait for a signal that matched its database, it fused back with its subordinates and stuck to the roof of the moving car, patiently waiting for something.


    It happened right after the car entered the living district, where the buildings turned into houses.


    *Screech* "Halt!"


    The Hummerstopped on the side of the street, two people opened the doors and jumped outside; rifles in hand, they blocked the way of a group of four men, who obediently stopped and waited.


    *Thump* The car''s doors closed and the two soldiers faced the group of people with solemn faces, although none of them were pointing their rifles at the civilians, they seemed ready to shoot at any time should something happen.


    "Curfew is starting in an hour. Everyone left already, what''s the reason you four are still walking around?" Questioned one of the soldiers, his imposing tone scaring the civilians.


    "We were just about to go home, sir. We were staying at the residence of a friend, leaving not long ago." One of the four respectfully answered, his head slightly bowed.


    "On the wall, there." Came the order, the soldier waved his gun and pointed to the side, the four soon stood in front of the wall of a two-story house.


    *Pat* *Pat* *Pat*


    While one of the soldiers was checking out the group for suspect objects - using his hands to search every single place one could hide a weapon -, the otherwas standing guard by the side,watching every move the civilians were making.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    In a minute, the soldier moved to the third person in the row; the guy sported a dark leather jacket, which led the soldier to suspect him even more. The soldier decided to be even more throughto check that person out, his hands moved from shoulders to wrists, from the armpits to the chest, and finally to the pockets on the belly. From inside, the soldier took out a small hidden camera and passed to his colleague by the side; both their guards and rifles now pointed to the group, who unknowingly started to tremble and sweat in fear, one of the soldiers called for support on the radiowhile the other surrendered the suspects right after.


    After half a dozen minutes, another car came, the small van could accommodate more people than the Hummer, but it was also driven only by two soldiers. The new pair spoke with their colleagues to confirm the situation; the suspects were then moved into the van and sent to jail, the soldiers with the Hummer were then left alone.


    "Our shift will also end soon," Said one of them. "Joram, let''s go back to the garage."


    "Understood." Came the simple reply.


    No one noticed the Queen Cell that quietly entered the car and hid under the driver''s seat.


    Nicolas finally found - afterhours had passed and the moonalready stood way high in the sky - a patrol that moved away from public eyes, no one to see the murder about to happen. He scouted the small streets around the maze of debris to be double sure to leave no witnesses before he went back to stalk the unfortunate pair of soldiers that had left their car to take care of their bladder.


    Barely had the poor man pulled back his pants to return to the car when all of a sudden, one hand appeared to block his mouth and another to break his neck.


    *Crack* *Thud*


    Silently fell the body, knees struck the rubble on the ground while the head awkwardly bobbed around the neck before hitting hard on the cold ground of concrete. Although the sound was as low as a whisper, in the quiet night where even the crickets were missing, it reached the ears of the deceased man''s friend without any obstruction; the startled soldier turned just to watch as a knife found its way to his throat at the speed of an arrow.


    The soldiercould only choke on the blood thatdrowned him from inside his throat after having nowhere else to go, drops of blood fell to the ground as his hands were unable to take out the survival knife that once belonged to his friend. The unlucky man couldn''t even take the scenery around or find the face of his killer before his vision started to blur and he lost all strength in his hands, he died with eyes wide open in both shock and horror, without the comfort and sense of security that came from holding his rifle.


    And the killer, who ended everything in a second, took his reward from the bodies, letting the cells in his body''feast'' on the two rifles that he calmly held onto, Nicolas watched as the guns turned into dust and fused with his body, the subordinate cells bloated when theystored the pieces of the rifles.


    The strange spectacle of matter turning into fine dust and then entering his body was disconcerting. Feelings or sensations were not present during the act, although according to his system this was a natural advantage, Nicolas'' experience as a human thoughtit was disgusting.


    Nicolas sighed afterhe realized that his body bloated along with the cells, they looked akin to that of Popeye,an abomination. He turned his head towards the soldier''s car, make do with what you have, he thought.


    The same thing the rifles suffered now happened to the car''s bodywork, this time, though, the material was kept in the form of a suitcase. Nicolas took some extra time tobuild a new Queen Cell and make it hold the case together; the rifle material was then spat out from his insides and then stored in the suitcase, the case not the cells.


    Although a bit awkward, moving his body parts like this was proving to be amazingly efficient, manipulating foreign matter as if it were your fingers - such precise movement - was paying off for the strangeness Nicolas felt. Thethrill of freely feedingon car parts and turning them into a suitcase to deal with his storage problems was not something new to Nicolas, that was one of the first things he did after learning how to form a body.


    It was also not the only trickthat this computer-like shell had in store, Nicolas was already planning for the next weapon he would store, it had to be small and dangerous, dangerously explosive. The plastic explosive c-4 met these conditions, being so easy to make that it could be produced at home. The step-by-step process of how to make it, though, Nicolaswouldn''t know without access to the internet.


    A report was sent to Nicolas via Bluetooth, one of his Queen Cells tasked with the mission to find the city''s military base, foud leads to the place and sent him its data and location. The way which the Queen Cell orderly followed a straight line and suddenly made sharp turns here and there implied that it wasinside a car.


    Nicolas felt like cringing after realizing that the lazy little thingwas already raising themission accomplished flag after finding just a picture and a voice line in its database, damn little cricket.


    Still, with the Queen Cell pinpointing, the only thing missing was some more stalking after random cars and soldiers, then finding the base, connecting to the internet - the main mission -, searching for physical data - secondary mission -, and wreaking havoc - the bonus mission.


    Nicolas'' tired breath could be heard traveling around the broken buildings, the feeling of trouble knocking on his door was not a welcoming one, for the machine and the human alike.


    Now that he thought about it, no one ever liked it, no one normal, at least.

 Nicolas: Where We Belong - Chapter 5

    The military base of the State was settled at the northwest corner of the city, some distance away from civilians. It had a dozen buildings at the center, three meters in height, each one of them could house dozens of people and still have room for a little more; there was a dark-green crate to the side of every yellow colored building, storing whatever equipment was needed; surrounding the buildings in the center were containers forming small mounts all over the edge of the base, keeping the construction materials for further construction of the base and stood right next to reinforced walls capable of stopping rifle bullets.


    The night would have made the task of infiltrating the under-construction complex a bit easier, were it not for the numerous spotlights illuminating every corner of the place and making every single moving thing inside easy to spot. Good thing that Nicolas, who followed a random military vehicle all the way over here was the perfect stealth machine that had the necessary cheats to sneak into this place without any problems.


    The Queen Cells that he had dispatched earlier already returned to him, but instead of re-entering his body, they, along with another cluster of clouds formed from Nicolas'' body - which made him look like a dwarf -, infiltrated the base from every direction possible, floating above the concrete walls, through the dust-covered street while they took cover behind helicopters, cars, and containers; there was absolutely no chance of any of the guards that came and went through the base to notice the presence of the small clouds made out of millions of micro machines that decided to sneak into their base.


    The spotlights were also useless, although their light managed to reach almost every corner of the base, the swarms were far too small to be noticed by the few cameras and soldiers assigned to patrol the base. With incredible ease, they entered the buildings in the center of the military base and searched through tables and bed for pen drives and disks, along with computers to use them.


    The bunk beds of the resting area hid nothing but a few card games and family photos, none of these were of any use to Nicolas who kept a direct link with the Queen Cells and focused on the buildings dedicated to intelligence. Laptops and Notebooks shared space in dozens of tables with internet modems, of which less than a third was currently in use.


    Just like the soldiers that patrolled the streets and guarded the base, they used a light gray tone that bordered white, the color mixed well with the city streets at daylight and made little contrast with the rubble of fallen buildings that could be found everywhere these days.


    Of the few people using the computers, fewer were working with the keyboard. Most of them were reading a text on the screen, watching satellite views of a city under bombardment by the Nations'' drones or simply spacing out in front of the screen; again, no one noticed the cell''s entering the place and connecting to a random computer''s USB, acquiring access to all of the computer''s programs.


    They searched through the entirety of the memory, from the software to the internet browser, and copiedit into the Queen Cell''s memory, which took the next step of the mission.


    It severed its USB connection and remade it so that it matched to that of the modem, this process was imitated to a certain extent by the other Cell''s that infiltrated, some of which managed to read the random disks discovered around the building - in the drawer of the tables, more specifically - but found nothing of interest in them.


    The surfing through the internet was another thing, though. Nicolas received the report from one of his Queen Cells and took direct control over the ''browser'' plugged into the modem. He instantly searched and found news of the Nations'' war declaration against The Religious State of Airis and confirmed one of his minor curiosities, after that he took control of a satellite''s camera - with the help of the unsuspecting soldiers in the building - and searched throughout the sea at the coast of Airis, he soon found the position of a small fleet of what looked like an aircraft carriers - escorted by other ships -, that was obviously his next target after this place.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    "Mission accomplished. Sigh." Nicolas sighed after he entered the military base; normally, even with his current dwarf size and the cover of darkness, it would be next to impossible to infiltrate a place with this kind of security, but his unbelievable abilityeasily changed such reality. Not only could his cells travel at 90 m/s while detached from his body and use their small size to go anywhere unsuspected, when unmoving, they could also reflect all light colliding on their bodies to become semi-invisible, impossible to notice at a certain distance.


    Thus, it was natural that when all of his cells returned to him, no one could notice their movement and gave Nicolas the preemptive strike - not that it would make a difference if it were any different. The suitcase that rested in his hands until now turned to dust metal and the Queen Cell assigned to it returned to him; the rifles kept inside the case took their original shape at that instant and obediently awaited Nicolas'' usage, one at his hands and the other sort of floating around, not clear if it should keep its weapon design or turn back into particles, constantly changing between them.


    *BANG BANG BANG*


    Now fully equipped for battle, Nicolas shot on single fire, accurately hitting vital and unprotected places that would certainly kill with one shot, that is why every soldier on patrol was hit by a single bullet - mostly on the head - and effectively put out of battle, by death or by injury.


    The sound of the bullet entering and subsequently leaving the skull and brain of the first man was completely drowned by that of the subsequent shots, the same happened to another 2 people that were also on patrol.


    3 soldiers died before anyone could have reacted, jumping to cover and protect themselves from the origin of the shots, another 2 lost their lives before someone started barking orders to surround thehostile forces while looking for more cover, but then the soldiers were -once more - at a loss when whoever took the command under the chaos died during the very next shot fired by the enemy, the fact that whatever they were facing could instantly change positions without anyone noticing also didn''t help their situation.


    *TATATATA* *BANG BANG BANG*


    The alarms ringing from every single military base could not be heard by the terrified soldiers fighting againsttheir own shadow, their morale plummeted every time their colleagues standing right beside them had their heads were blown open or theirnecks pierced by rifle bullets, a small puddle of blood forming around the bodies after they fell.


    While someone was shooting to the north - where the last flash of the hostile''s gun was seen -, a bulletoriginating from the east killed him, another accurate hit to the face. The walls, doors, containers and stationed vehicles were not enough to hide the terrorized soldiers from omnipresent bullets that - like a cursed arrow - never missed their target, ending them in a single shot.


    There were hundreds of soldiers inside that single base and it would have even more if all facilities were completed, not only this but every few minutes a unit of a few cars would come with dozens of soldiers to give back-up, they were not the main force but they could buy time until the true reinforcement came.


    Those soldiers were also the first people to seethe person beyond the shadowy and blurred silhouette of Nicolas, but they soon lost sight of the reaper that disappeared like smoke and shot them from behind. No mercy nor second wind were given to these poor sheep who strayed from the shepherd and met with the starved wolf.


    Blood was the water that wet the ground; gunshots and cries were the crickets and birds of the forest; the dead were the prey and the reaper was the predator.


    ...


    Almost an hour had passed before war tanks reached the battlefield with proper anti-infantry equipment, only to find corpses dropped on the ground like useless plastic bags and a few hundred terrified soldiers holding tightly to their weapons while shivering behind cover.


    Only after checking the entire base the next day, the State''s military would realize the absence of kilograms of explosives, probably stolen during the chaos.

 Nicolas: Where We Belong - Chapter 6

    The Religious State of Airis was born as a branch of another organization, but it broke free of the original in order to reach its own objectives. Both the State and its mother are mainly ruled by religion, their citizens make faithful prayers at certain times from morning to night, several times a day, seven days per week, while their beliefs unite the people the just like the old ways.


    And, just as times past, the people faithfully follow their rope thin set of rules, developing the abilityto follow any kind of order for the sake of the State.


    Using numerous ways and versatile speech, the State is capable of anonymously adding people into their ranks, converting them into their religion and infiltrating theirnew blood at any desired country, ready to massacre - or terrorize - at their will.


    And this method has proven to be effective, with European citizens fearing for their lives day and night while they walk through the streets - or even at home, at some places -, afraid of being shot down or blown up by a hidden extremist, this fear further aggravates Europe, whose population is swiftly turning xenophobic - for good reason, by some accounts.


    The State''s objective, however, could only be a dream if this was everything it had to sustain itself. The main reason for their successful rise to the level of a nation, or an empire, was thanks to many secret dealings happeningbehind the scenes that most of the world powers took part in - includingsome inside of the United Nations.


    Having a secret backing - even if not a direct one -, the State has managed to become a fearsome power in but a decade, the conquest of half of Airis being one of its most noticeable feats. This unexpected growth, on the other hand, has put the world powers on edge, who turned ever so hostile to the State by the day.


    That is why when the Nations, by striking an alliance with Russia and having the permission - acquiredby political pressure - of Alassad, officially declared war on the State, no citizen was surprised. Instead, they started guessing things and events about the ending of this ''war'' and occasionally forgot about what the topic was about.


    Most of the comments about who would come victorious, though, predicted the powers'' unavoidable win, while some random usually said that the State would win because of reasons.


    All who grew interested in this development were unavoidably thinking that therecould only be two possible endings. Unavoidable was that everyone would be surprised when the news of a ''power ranger'' - term originated due to thepowerful grandmasters coming from the union called Rangers after theend of the middle ages and a famous tv show - heavily struck both sides, the State''s by stopping their attacks when they were the closest to reaching Alassad''s palace; and the Nations'' by destroying their ships guardingthe coast, who were supporting the main forces through drones and whatnot.


    But surprise would be the minimum that people were going to be feeling after realizing how fatal a variable could be inside a battlefield.


    However, for one person, the problem was that for one: there should have been no such variable; and for two: someone ''important'' was inside that ship.


    <hr>


    Not even a week after Nicola''s attack on the Nations'' ships using several explosives at certain places of the ships that were flocking withpeople, killing hundreds injust an instant, Theodore; the Grandmaster; entered the territory of Airis. Originally one of Englass'' generals, he has now entered as part of Nations'' forces to defend against the mysterious "power ranger" that is threatening both sides, he never mourned the death of his son, for his body has not been found yet.


    But as fate would have it, their side were not the only ones willing to go to such lengths, The State has dispatched its own grandmaster to defend against Nicolas. And so, the peace slowly crumbled away.


    <hr>


    Military bases are not the only ones in possession of internet, and Nicolas was -like everyone else - well aware of this, the earlier visit to the extremists'' domain was both to acquire easy access to ''on live'' military satellite; and to push back their main army that was merelyhalf a dozen cities away fromAiris'' capital, Damasco; the explosives used at the Nations'' ships was just a nice bonus.


    And thanks to the internet of a friendly neighbor who happened to be playing cards outside of his home, he also knew that the Nations'' were already responding, and although they did not specify which means they would use to punish him, it was obvious that grandmasters were the only answer. It would also make sense if the State moved similarly, so he was also expecting that.


    The wheater was cloudy at the city of Aleppo, but although the gray clouds tried to hide the sun away, they could only cast a light shadow on the ground instead of ruining the otherwise bright day.


    The buildings below the sky and above the ground were, as always, terribly damaged; all of their windows were broken, with cloth coveringsome while leaving others fully opened to the wind, rubble filled the streets and alleys of the entire cityalong with destroyed cars and deep holes. It was hard to imagine that this hell was home to millions of people, even while there were no attacks happening at the moment.


    Nicolas wanted to stretch lazily while looking at the children playing in the water filling a random hole in the ground a square away, but he ultimately settled at looking at the silentcloudscovering his face with their shadows, the lack of artillery raining from the sky was thanks to The State''smission of reaching Damasco, which led it to temporarily ease on the attacks at the city. However, that focus was - ultimately - in vain as he himself put a temporarily but decisive stop at their rush to the capital, it wouldn''t take long for Aleppo to once again be the target of the extremists, along with the Nations'' and Alassad''s.


    Nicolas lowered his gaze, his vision passed through the wide variety of hundreds of different designs of buildings and their windows. If yourobjective is to secure land, then you have to send troops, Aleppo will soon be a war zone again so every side should have sent their own units already, his role would be to - once again - attack everything and everyone that carries a gun.


    His body broke into smoke and flew along with the dark and dreary currents of the wind, although he had no eyes in this form, Nicolas could see the backs of multiple snipers hiding inside the buildings here and there throughout the city, some were as close as a few hundred meters of each other while others were as far as kilometers apart, but they were all caught in his trap, and no matter how simplistic and lazily made it was, his targets were fated to die.Stolen novel; please report.


    And die they would, what was once dark dust in the ground, swiftly turned into metallic spears that carefully aimed at the unsuspecting snipers'' vitals; of course, there wereseveral people in each unit, some units even had a dozen people in it, but nothing would change. Several spears shot like an arrow at the shooters, some pierced heads and splattered brain tissue on the walls, some punctured hearts and quickly formed puddles on the ground, others destroyed lungs and forced pained screams to erupt from the victims'' throat.


    Not everyone in every unit died, the survivors quickly reported their casualties with horror on their voices and begged for orders of retreat, their eyes darting everywhere in their rooms in search of an invisible murderous monster, until...nothing. Their ragged and rough breaths filled their empty surroundingswhile every sniper spread around the city heard the order to exit the city - an unlucky bastard was told to stay put and was immediately killed in a manner similar to the first row, Nicolas understood that call as an order to die, so he helped the poor soldier in his unfortunate quest.


    As the victims A to J ran as fast as they could, the proper countermeasures were being taken, the perpetrator was instantly recognized so the grandmasters moved instantly.


    A few hours later,Theodore dropped off from the helicopter which landed outside the city and quickly headed to the far distance, to the city of Aleppo. The grandmaster was dressed in the pale-blue urban uniform of the UN, holding a black colored FN Scar, he used a bandana with the same color as his uniform instead of a helmet and wore no bullet-proof vest, it would have been useless for him anyway.


    He watched the city in which his enemy resided, unlike that hateful and unknown person, however, he seemed detached from the chaos spread in front of him,as if he wanted to turn away and find his peace.


    However, that peace was in the past, and he could not go back now.


    The steps of the man led him to the massive city filled with devastated buildings that were short of skyscrapers. Looking from far away, Aleppo''s fate seemed bleak and tragic, but his feelings did not change due to this sad sightseeing.


    Soon, Theodore entered the borders of the city and quickly flew past the residential area, most streets were pretty long and straight, this stayed the same even when he reached the center of the city, where the biggest buildings weakly stood, waiting to fall.


    He slowed down his pace, his gaze scanning a hundred floors per second of the buildings around him, which only meant two or three per second, meaning he had to take his time and walk slightly faster than a normal person. He soon found UN soldiers'' dead bodies inside a random building where - coincidentally - the road happened to span for a few hundred meters straight.


    This was certainly that.


    Theodore calmly unlocked his rifle and made sure it was toggled at the single fire option, he then let his aura spread a few hundred meters square around him while some small bit enhanced his bullets. From his experience, a rifle could shoot bullets at a speed of one to two thousand meters per second, 10-20 times his full speed and with a force that would definitely hurt himif he ever got hit.


    "BANG!"


    Came theenemy''s bullet towards him, it was so fast that it was only thanks to the aura he let free a few moments ago to check his surroundings that he could react and transform his aura into a transparent green shield, protecting his body. The bullet hit the shield but the sound of metal scraping was drowned by the thunderous scream of the AK in the distance.


    Theodore immediately hid behind a building with his suspicion confirmed, the enemy was not a grandmaster nor an archmage, or else he would have felt some power inside the bullet before it could have reached his "field of view" and dodged it.


    This meant he had an advantage,Theodore''s bullets were enhanced and his enemy''s were not.


    Theodore took a deep breath and ran to the other side of the street, where there was an alley leading close to his target''s position, he ran while accurately shootingfive bullets towards the origin of the first shot. He frowned when he saw that every single shot was hit in the air and instantly exploded, bullet fragments flying everywhere.


    He was facing a monster.


    After safely arriving behind more buildings, Theodore moved between twists and turns of alleyways before jumping inside a random building and leaping from one building to another, every single window was destroyed, so he didn''t need to break a new one with his body.


    Here and then, he would pass by some locals laying down in hopes that there would be no stray bullets aiming for them, those people were ignored by the grandmaster, who kept running towards the sniper''s location.


    Arriving at the place, his aura instantly caught someone jumping from building to building - just like he himself did before - in order to create some distance. Since the opponent was slightly slower than Theodore, ''it'' couldn''t run from his detection range in time.


    Theodore didn''t hesitate to run after itbut he still chose to hide behind cover from that thing, taking his time to slowly close the distance. Although it took a long time for him, it actually only took half a dozen seconds to catch up to that monster.


    It entered another building and this time Theodore followed right behind, it noticed his presence and looked back while turning to enter a room, giving the grandmaster an instant to see its appearance.


    It looked like a normal person, except for the dark cloud of something that formed from and fused with its body, Theodore could see a strange light from its eyes, it seemed to carefully scan his entire being and leave no stone unturned in its search for his weakness, he could swear he saw a flash of excitement from those same eyes, but didn''t dwell on it.


    He entered the same room as that thing and took out a handgun from the holster in his leg to shoot at it and his eyes went wide after entering the room.


    That thing ran to the corner and jumped off the building and far away in an instant, revealing the fact that it was in fact just as fast - if not faster - than the grandmaster himself, but what really caught Theodore off guard were the plastic explosives that he couldn''t detect before entering the room. It seemed to even have that kind of ability.


    Without having any time to think, Theodore hastily formed a barrier in his front, but still received extreme damage. The impact of the explosion ignored the shield and struck at his internal organs while fragments ripped directly at his protection, some passing through and embedding themselves at his skin.


    The already frail building collapsed from the explosion and fell on his head, burying him inside tons of rubble. The thing that made such a trap left the place without looking back, the fact that a grandmaster was hard to kill solidified inside of its memory.


    Minutes came and went and after an indeterminate amount of time, Theodore rose from all the rubble. Taking a look around, he confirmed that several buildings fell along with his and that the prey had already managed to run away.


    Feeling the pain coming from his entire body, Theodore focused his attention on himself. Several pieces of shrapnel dug into his body, while not fatal for him, it sort of itched; the biggest damage came from his heart and lungs,theywere almost squashed by the impact and would probably take a week to heal, thankfully there was nothing permanently impaired.


    Theodore let out a sigh but instantly frowned.


    He forgot for an instant that this was the perfect moment for the States'' forces to deal a strike at the UN, by ending his life, obviously.


    Holding his rifle that - thank God - was still working, Theodore reflected at his own situation, how laid back he had been during all of this. He supposed that part of him still didn''t believe that his son had died... that there was still hope for something.


    "Sigh"


    Feeling more lost than angry and depressed at all of this, the grandmaster took aim and prepared to shoot.


    <hr>


    After almost losing one of his "clones", Nicolas confirmed the danger of facing grandmasters, part of him wanted to test himself against archmages now, but he didn''t want to get studied and countered later down the line, so he left it as a what-ifscenario.


    Anyway, his goodbyes to this land were all done. Thanks to the UN''s movements, the empires that had lost the Grand War two decades ago became wary and envious, filling the Nations'' mails with questions and threats while preparing their weapons and eyeing their neighbors.


    For almost twenty years, the world has been in a state of false peace, the empires were oppressed due to the Treaty of Versailles while the UN - previously called Triple Entente - thrived in arrogance.


    In Nicolas'' opinion, war became a necessary evil, and it was about time that the name "Grand War" got numbered.


    "It all starts with a small spark", Nicolas laughed for a bit but was ignored by the massive crowd that watched the UN representatives with emotion and greeted them with loud cheers.


    It was time for an assassination.