《Trials of the Seven - Dawn of a new age》


 The Day Everything Changed

    [ Ding ]


    My watch and phone vibrated and started making noises, it was 6am by my quick glance at the time, only an hour before I normally would of woken up anyways.


    My watch was a smart watch so having it go off the same time as my paired phone I just twisted the bevel to check the message.


    [ New event : demon invasion ... ]


    I rubbed my eyes and reread the small screen. It didn''t make sense to me, I never schedule events into my phone to wake me up or notify me of things. I rolled over in bed and reached for my smart phone to read and clear the message.


    [ New event : demon invasion


    All life forms on earth have been notified that their world will be invaded by demons. Due to this world not having any way to fight back all life forms will be upgraded. This upgrade is involuntary and has started from the time you have received this message. ]


    It didn''t seam real but as I finished reading the message my phone restarted. My space background was removed and all my apps were gone. My phone now had four pages in the swipe notification bar so I checked them out.


    Page 1 - phone, messages


    Page 2 - stats


    Page 3 - inventory


    Page 4 - map


    The top bar on my phone changed, it no longer read my service provider instead it had the letters EXP and a grey bar that extended to the centre where the time was followed by a red bar then the letters HP.


    I laid there looking at the changes to my phone when I felt a buzz on my watch from its start up process. My watch face had changed as well, across the top was 3 words STAT, INV, DATA.


    The time was still there but beside the time was a picture of a person that had bars around it. It was dressed like me in only boxers.


    On the bottom of the screen I read the changes to, I hadn''t charged my watch in a few days but it had a HP that read 100%.


    I tried to turn the bevel to change the screen but it no longer worked. So I tried tapping on various parts of the watch. When I tapped the body it changed to show stats like a character sheet. All stats were currently 10 but had a plus sign beside each one. I scrolled through and saw at the bottom that there was a line that was higher at 20 that said remaining.


    I left that screen by hitting the back button and continued to press around the screen. In the INV section it contained only one item. Old boxers. Sure they were old but they were comfy. And the data screen was empty.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    I picked my phone back up and rolled out of bed and went to the washroom. Changing to the stats page on it I noticed that there was a skill button that was under a character sheet like page. When I clicked on it, it came up with another page with 2 bars one side that was blank the other with a list of basic skills that I recognized from video games that had a number beside each of them.


    Scrolling through the list I tapped on a few lower numbered skills and read their descriptions. I started scrolling through the list when I noticed the number beside had started to rise drastically. Skills went from costing 1 point each to at the very bottom costing 1M points. I turned off my phone and walked to the next room where my computer was while getting dressed. I opened up my chat program to find my closest friends online. The 6 of us have been playing games together since we first gained freedom on the net to do what we like.


    < Hey, I think we need to talk... >


    < Don''t think too much and just do it... your phone is acting up too? >


    < Yeah, what did you do? >


    Tyler... my closest friend I really didn''t need to ask him, he would become a mage in real life if he could with the power to control fire.


    < It''s real... I can make a fire ball now... but I can''t really control it so I was about to go out and play with it...>


    < wait... how many points did you spend... >


    < 10... the 5 point skills didnt suit me >


    < Dude... 10 points on one skill? >


    < Frost bolt cost 10 points... Would of gone with Blizzard but that was 100... >


    < How many times can you use it? >


    < right now I can make one that is about the size of a baseball and keep it sustained for 10 min... after that it takes me about 30 before I can use it again... >


    < Dude, I think I got it worse then you >


    Dan, is not all that bright... he would be the one to select a skill that was going to kill him before anything else got a chance to.


    < Dan, what did you do...>


    < Two skills for 5 points each... tough body and flight >


    < Did you crash? >


    < Yup... 10 min in the air and then I fell, cant control the direction either it just goes by the direction I push off in... >


    < so Its more like a jump skill? >


    < Kinda, I can leap over the house >


    While looking at Tyler''s and Dan''s conversation I started to look at the 1 point skills looking over what skills I wanted, the three that caught my eyes most was all worth 1 point, mana stamina and health regeneration. I selected them each in turn and read the descriptions. Each did exactly what I thought they would be doing so I selected them all and bought them.


    I tested out the health one by cutting my finger and watching it for a while. The cut slowly closed and I whipped off the remaining blood and there was no remaining scar or damage from the cut. I rubbed the edges of a few of my other scars and watched them fade away like they were never there.


    "Cool."


    I checked out the remaining of my scars and saw that they were all gone. I stretched and felt all my pains from injuries slowly fade away. I felt like a new man.


    I left my computer where my friends were discussing their skills and headed outside. A light jog around my pond and I wasn''t tired. From what I saw while running many other people were playing with skills of their own. I had 7 points left so I opened my phone and scanned the list.


    5 points to erase my presence. Leaving me with two skill points left to play with. I decided to select a weapon skill. Basic weapon mastery, it effected every weapon supposedly giving me base knowledge of every weapon available. All of my skills were passive skills so while everyone around me looked like super humans I still felt very human.

 The Countdown - Kevin

    It has been a month since the world was filled with magicka, after one week everyone was made to register their skills by the government after people started using their skills to commit crimes. Power outages became common since people have pretty much stopped going to work. I have always thought that humans were lazy and it seamed like this was only going to get worse. News reports when there was power only showed people killing off other people in skill wars. Me? I kept working my lonely job as a night clerk at the corner store 2pm to midnight.


    Last night came the second mass notice since the awakening. We had 60 days left to get used to our skills. So my daily routine went from playing video games before work and during work to practicing erasing my self and going for long runs. I am good enough at erasing my presence that I don''t get noticed by most people, and as long as I stay calm I can even walk into the girls change room at the gym with out anyone noticing. The key to erasing your presence is to stay calm. Naturally I didn''t register my self as someone who can erase their presence. I just did my regenerative three.


    The more I think back to them days the more it seams like the demons arriving were a good thing. Sure now you might be constantly fighting for your life, but you are not growing fat from never leaving the house and your parents are not struggling to live pay check to pay check.


    ?


    "Kevin, you might as well go home." My boss was wondering around our empty store. "We have nothing left here anyways and we won''t get a shipment for another two weeks if the truck actually comes."


    Our store was one of the last still open, three people worked at it and we were there until the last items on the shelf disappeared.


    "I don''t think it will come." I called out to him from behind the counter.


    "No, probably not. Anyways this whole city is starting to feel like a ghost town with so many people running away."


    "Who would of thought that a count down would bring so much fear compared to the joy everyone was having before hand."


    I waved at the boss on my way out, he was the only one who still recognized me once my body changed from my skills, I looked like I was 18 again but instead of being overweight I barely had any fat left on me.


    Today was another day where I wondered around the empty streets. My walk today brought me to a building I spent far too much money on... its blue roof and yellow sign was like a beacon guiding me towards it. I know that most of the objects were probably stolen from inside but I still wanted to look around. Inside was spooky silent with my footsteps echoing off the walls. Displays were thrown down and smashed up while all the tv''s were gone. The door leading to the wear house was closed and forgotten about since a shelf had fallen in front of it.


    I cleaned up the debris and tired the door. It opened with a gentle click that still echoed through the empty store. My goal was looking for a new band for my smart watch. I have had this one for as long as I can remember but with everything happening I thought it would be good to have a few spares. I was in luck. Under a fallen box I saw what I was looking for. 3 round boxes that still had their reflective seal on them.


    I opened the box with the latest version of my smart watch inside of it and tried it on my wrist. Instantly it turned on like my other watch giving me the same data about my self as before. This new watch was larger then my old one making it easier for me to read it. I adjusted its strap and checked the other two boxes. Both were the feminine variant of the watch with smaller bands and faces. I took them anyways just incase this new one broke on me.


    I left the store and continued to walk aimlessly around town for a few hours. I didn''t really break free of my stupor until I found my self on my door step.


    Upstairs my computer was still buzzing, even with the power outages for some reason the computers kept working.


    < You''re online! >


    As soon as I moved my mouse a message popped up from someone who I knew disliked me.


    < How you holding up dee? >


    < I don''t want to leave my friends and family but Tyler keeps insisting that we leave... >


    < you two would have the farthest distance to go >


    The plan was for our group to meet up, we thought that if the world was going to end as if it was a video game then we should meet up and face it like a game.


    < You all are assholes!!! >


    I minimized her chat box and listened to the ping of new messages coming in as her message flashed. Today I just wanted to be lost in my thoughts, getting yelled at was not big on my agenda.


    I opened my browser and started looking through forum posts about what people were doing to prepare for the end of the count down. Most were stockpiling guns and ammo while others were running for the hills. There was even a post from people in the military trying to calm people down stating that the government will face this threat head on.


    From the looks of things our group would be going against the flow of people on our way to meet up. But our plan was to not move until the day of and only if things looked bad. Tyler was the only one heading to the meeting spot early because he had to make it over to the main land first before the ferries stopped moving.


    I don''t know when I logged into my online persona or how long I was playing for. I just know my mind started to come back into focus as I started fighting a large goat like monster that was supposed to represent the devil. He used to be the strongest boss in the game when it first launched but now he was just another slightly harder to fight monster.


    I finished the fight and warped back to town before getting up and stretching. Putting my body on auto pilot while I think is scary sometimes. 6 hours had passed since Dee had stopped typing. I read her rant then sent her a message asking why she doesn''t invite her friends and family to go with her. Dee had some hot friends and co-workers from the gym she worked at. I knew she was sleeping or drinking so she wouldn''t get the message right away but at least she can''t complain that I didn''t give her any idea of how she could get out of her complaining.


    Without a purpose my days started to blend together. With no more work all I could do was wander around my ghost of a city. Occasionally I would hear voices or see another person but that was becoming as rare as seeing a store that didn''t have broken windows. I never realized how much a city felt alive until there was nobody left in it.


    "You really are a strange one."


    A girls voice disrupted my mindless walk. Of course my reply was a gallant full structured sentence.


    "Huh?"


    "There looks to be nothing special about him"


    She walked in circles around me poking me and lifting my arms up.


    "What are you doing?"


    She stopped and pushed me adding weight into it.


    "Eep! You are real!"


    "Last I checked."


    I brushed past her as I kept walking.


    "Wait," she ran to keep up with me. "I haven''t seen a real person in a month..."


    I glanced over at her. She was young with dark hair more messed up than my own. She wasn''t wearing any makeup and her clothes appeared as dirty as the rest of her.


    I shook my head as the way she was talking seamed like she was talking to someone else all while giving me her life story.


    I checked my watch'' count down. 10 days left until it ends.


    I stopped in my tracks. The girl kept on walking but I stood still. Two blocks down the road there was a weird looking dog that didn''t belong. It walked on all fours and it''s ears were twice the size of its head. The green skin and elongated limbs were drawing my attention to them.


    It stood up as the girl increased the distance from me and came closer to it.


    It smiled.


    A wide grin full of teeth and a thin red tongue that licked its dark green lips.


    Its ears folded behind its head.


    She stopped and turned her back to the creature.


    It shrieked out loud as it started running towards her.


    It was half a block closer when my body started moving by its self.


    I ran towards the girl and the creature.


    Three more steps.


    It was moving faster, less then half a block until it reached us.


    The creature jumped in the air.


    A curved blade appeared in its one hand. The other had its fingers spread far apart to grab something. Its legs tucked under it as its toes each had claws that looked sharp enough to rip someone apart.


    I pushed the girl down as I passed her. The creature landed right where she was.


    Its red eyes glared at me. It stood up and started smelling the air. Its eyes kept darting between the girl on the ground and me standing before it.


    The creature started making clicking noises and grunts.


    I inched my way to be between the girl and creature.


    A loud crack rang out at almost the same time as something warm bushing past my ear and the creatures head bending backwards pushing it down to the ground.


    The creature got up and started running away. Three more cracks rang out. The creature stumbled at every crack then turned a corner running out of sight.


    "Are you ok?" I whispered towards the girl on the ground while still looking in the direction that the creature had gone.


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    There was no reply.


    A cold drop fell onto my shoulder. I glanced down at it to see red splatter marks. I put my hand to my head and found the source. My ear stung as I touched it while my fingers came away red with blood.


    I winced and finally looked towards the girl. Her dirty white shirt was now dyed crimson. Her eyes were open and her mouth was parted with crimson lines falling from both sides of her mouth. The blade was still in her its grip stood out from her neck.


    It looked wrong.


    I bent down and looked closer at her. Her eyes didn''t follow me, they just looked where I was.


    I lifted her hand and let it fall. Her hand lightly slapped the ground.


    I poked her cheek. I really didn''t know how to tell if she was alive or dead.


    I placed my hand on her shoulder then grabbed the hilt of the blade and pulled on it gently. It slid free with a sucking noise but the hole it came free from looked only like a scratch. I cleaned off her cheeks from the blood wrapped her up in my shirt. I placed the blade on her body then lifted her up. She was light. It felt like I was carrying a sleeping child.


    Something cold pressed up against the back of my neck as I started walking. I kept walking.


    Pressure was added to my shoulder. I shrugged it off. There was somewhere I wanted to go.


    Muffled words rang out as two guys with guns moved past me one trying to pull at the bundle in my arms.


    Their voices increases in volume as they forced me to stop walking. A arm fell from the bundle and the head rolled off my shoulder laying at a wrong angle.


    "SHUT THE FUCK UP! I COULD''T SAVE HER. I WAS RIGHT THERE I TRIED TO SAVE HER But..." my words cut off.


    A female fixed the girls head back to my shoulder and re placed her arm fixing it in place with my shirt like I had it before.


    Their was eight people around me. All of them but the girl in front of me had rifles in their hands.


    Something wet rolled down my cheek. I wanted to wipe it away but both my hands were full.


    I brushed past the girl in front of me. She was saying something but the words never reached my ears.


    What I wanted right now I know I could find in the large store with the orange roof.


    As I walked I noticed I was supported on my one side. The girl who was blocking me was walking beside me still. I looked at her, her lips were moving and her green eyes kept glancing up at me filled with worry.


    Beside me the other seven walked carrying their guns. I looked over my shoulder. I haven''t seen this many people in a long time. I didn''t know that this dead city still had this many people.


    I thought about how long I was walking like this for. My head started to clear up.


    "It''s going to be ok..." a soft whisper and quiet footsteps.


    I stopped walking at hearing the sound. The sounds all stopped with me. All eyes were on me it felt like a I was suddenly carrying a heavy weight.


    "Tell me what you need and I will go get it." The soft whisper broke the silence. Soft murmurs followed it up from the crowd but I couldn''t make them out.


    "Sh." My voice got caught in my throat. "Shovel." My mouth was dry and that single word hurt to say.


    The girl beside me snapped her fingers and people ran into the orange roofed building in front of me.


    I was made to sit on the hood of a small car while waiting for the people to return.


    "If he would put her down it would be easier to check his wounds." A large man with a rifle scuffed out while glancing down at the shirt of the green eyes girl.


    I followed his gaze. Her right breast had been soaked in the girls blood from supporting me. The blood had made the shirt form perfectly to her skin outlining everything and then hardening in that position.


    The girl shook her head then crumpled up her shirt breaking the bond that the blood had on it. "Guys are all the same." A smirk flashed on my face just before she twisted my head. Something cold was pressed to the side of my head. "That''s odd."


    "What''s odd?" The big perv, I mean guy came closer to see what the green eyed girl was talking about. Liquid was poured over my side where my ear got hurt. "Where was he bleeding from?"


    Two more people came in close to look at me. The green eyed girl took out her phone and pressed it against my arm. "Fuck," such a foul word from such a cute mouth. "He hasn''t been using the system since the initial day."


    Her fingers moved over the screen changing to views that I had never seen before. Her fingers finally stopped moving on my skill list. "Three regenerations and two unknown in a level one."


    A kid with glasses was looking over the green eyed girls shoulder at the page. "Duke, I thought you said you hit that green beast?" The soft sweet voice changed, there was anger in it now.


    "I did, was lined up in my scope and I hit it smack between the eyes." The large per pulled out his phone along with 2 others. "See right here." He turned his phone towards us. "Hit unknown creature." The line above that caught my attention more then the line about hitting a creature.


    [ shot bullet ]


    [ hit crazy guy causing bleed damage ]


    [ hit unknown creature causing 0 damage ]


    "You shot me?"


    The green eyed girl pulled duke towards her so that he could read the phone on my arm "shot by duke dealing 50 total damage!" She let go of the phone and pushed duke into a pickup truck. She was a foot shorter then him and a lot more violent.


    I glanced down at the phone that she let fall from my arm. It landed on the exposed hand of the dead girl.


    "Killed by goblin scout."


    The green eyed girl stopped beating up duke at them words.


    Everything stopped again. The green eyed girl slowly walked back and looked at the phone. She reached for the phone and tried to change the information on it but it was locked on that page.


    "Who was she." Her voice trembled.


    I shook my head. She had walked next to me on my daily walk around the city for 6 hours and I hadn''t paid any real attention to her. Droplets fell onto the phone.


    I closed my eyes to stop the leakage.


    Footsteps approached from the store. I quickly got off the car and started walking again. The green eyed girl kept watch of the phone that was on the dead girls hand but didn''t touch it. I started walking in the direction of my next stop. A few blocks from my place there was a graveyard that had a statue of an angel in it.


    I walked up to the statue and laid the girl at its base. I looked around at the people there. There were no rifles or shovels to be seen.


    "Shovel?" The green eyed girl put out both her hands and a shovel slowly appeared from no where. Her bloody shirt was also changed for a clean one making the bloody v mark on her chest stand out. "What the fuck!?"


    "The system has an inventory, what have you been doing these past three months?" She rolled her green eyes at me then placed the shovel in my hands.


    I moved a few steps away then started digging. Four other people moved and joined in with the digging. The 4 changed out with 2 different people when we got down to about my waste line. When I finally couldn''t see out of the hole I noticed duke standing over me with the sunset behind him holding the girl wrapped in my shirt. He handed her down to me I laid her down and brushed her hair out of her face. I then opened up the blood stained shirt and pulled out the blade.


    I placed the blade on the ground and climbed out of the hole. The green eyed girl had placed a cloth over the dagger. "Put if away it''s weird." She handed the cloth wrapped dagger and I tucked it into my pants. I then started to spread dirt into the hole.


    "You aren''t even going to say anything?" Duke watched me as I buried the lifeless body. I shook my head.


    "Humanity lost one of its children today." The green eyed girl spoke up as I continued to cover the body. "The count down is a lie, the demons are here already." She paced in front of the slowly filling grave. "Duke, Mitch and Tom all shot at the demon we saw when we entered this city. Yes it was a demon. The system showed that this poor child was killed by the demon known as a goblin scout." She paused to look down into the grave. The girls body was mostly covered. All but her face had dirt on it. "This poor child." Her voice became a whisper.


    I stopped shovelling. People were walking up to the grave and looking down into it. There was about sixty in total ranging from late teens to the early thirties. Duke looked to be the oldest among them.


    Once everyone had passed by the grave Duke grabbed a shovel and covered her face then helped me fill in the rest of the hole.


    I left the graveyard with out saying a word. I was tired. I dragged my feet to my front door. I went to close the door behind me but the green eyed girl was standing in the doorway. I was too tired to care any more. She followed me inside while Duke and the rest of them broke into my neighbours places. I placed the cloth wrapped dagger on my counter then unbuttoned my jeans and climbed up the stairs. The girl followed me through my house. I entered the room with my computer in it. I moved the mouse abs checked to see if anyone was there. My pants fell and I stepped out of them.


    I left them on the floor and walked into my bedroom down the hall. I lost my follower at the computer so I closed my door and started going through my dresser. I pulled out my last fresh pair of boxers and mentally planned a walk to find more in the morning. I laid the boxers on my bed then turned to my washroom. The lights no longer worked so I left the door open and stripped off my boxers and turned the nozzle on the shower.


    The door to my room burst open as I stepped into the shower. A naked green eyed girl burst into the washroom. "Look up and don''t move!"


    I covered my self with my wash cloth took one last glance at the girl and covered my eyes with my other hand. The warm water stopped splashing against my chest. My washcloth got yanked from my hand. I made sure to keep my self covered.


    "Turn around, I''ll wash the blood from your back." I followed her words and enjoyed the feeling of a human touch fit a while.


    Once my back was clean I felt the water splashing against me again as she left the shower. I heard my towel leaving the rack then heard my door close. I turned around and adjusted the temperature removing the hot water. There I stood slowly turning blue waiting for a part of me to return to the land of slumber. I started shivering so I quickly washed my self off and ventured out into my room to the drawer under my bed where I keep my spare towels to dry my self off.


    I dressed in my boxers then grabbed a shirt and a pair of shorts from my dresser. My house guest was standing in front of my patio door looking up at the sky. I offered her some food and went to eat my self.


    "You need to learn to use the system." The green eyed girl let out a soft laugh as I jumped. I never heard her come down the stairs.


    I though about what I knew about it. "There is more then just stats and skills?" She nodded and clothing replaced the towel around her.


    "The inventory system allows you to carry almost a full store of stuff for one." She pulled out her phone and pressed something on the screen. The towel that disappeared when her clothing appeared re-appeared in her hand. "The second greatest part is the gear equip slots."


    She showed me how to place things into my inventory. It was as easy as putting an item on the phone while it had the inventory window open. You could not put anything into it that you could not hold your self. The gear equip slots had an hour cool down but if you really needed to change something you could move it in the inventory then remove it before putting it on naturally.


    All clothing had stats now, sadly most were zero defence points. She showed me her top armour item, a police grade bullet proof vest, but even that only had 4 defence points.


    "Now I taught you something, so teach me how your computer and shower work." Her green eyes practically glowed in the dark room.


    I didn''t feel like it was a big secret, anyone who had a computer before the power went out knew how it worked. I shook my head and flipped a switch adding light into the room. Her eyes enlarged as she followed me down into my garage. There stood boxes of my actual goal during my daily walks. Broken smart tv''s and phones were in one box. But I just turned and opened up my fuse box. Each of the fuses were replaced by glowing pink crystals.


    "Ever wonder why your phone has power?" I tapped my phone to the fuse box. Sweat started rolling down my forehead. I checked my watch and saw my mana draining while I pushed my mama into all the crystals at once. I cut the flow of mana and the lights went out. Slowly the glow from the crystals faded away. I hadn''t found a way to sustain the power yet and the forums all died out from people talking on them five days ago. "We are human power cells," I was catching my breath. "If you practice moving your mana around you can power things other then your phone or smart watch." I was watching my wrist, I had to thank my level three mana regeneration. "I can power one room for an hour or the whole house for ten minutes with my mana right now."


    She put her hand up to the faded crystals. Before I could stop her she had her hand touching all of them. The crystals glowed for a second until the girl fainted from mana drain. I caught her then placed her phone on her arm like she did for me. Moving to her main page I saw she was level 5 and her mana pool only had the base 20 still. This must of been her first time using mana.


    I carried her up stairs and laid her on my bed then went back down stairs to my small deck. I grabbed the dagger on my way out into the cold dark night. People were moving around the area with torches. It looked very primitive to me, but they are the first people I had seen in a month. It made me wonder how Tyler and dee were doing out on the road.


    I removed the dagger from the cloth. I could feel the dagger reaching for my mana now that I was in a calmed state. This is probably why they said the dagger was weird in the first place. I fed a little mana into the blade and saw the edge of it start to emit a dark smoke. I played with my control of the mana until the blades edge only had the black substance on it.


    I brought out my phone and placed the blade into my inventory to check its stats.


    [ Shadow Talon ]


    In the hands of a lower demon this blade will just be sharper at night, a higher ranked demon can use the same blade and be able to extend the blade with additional dark damage.


    "Damage changes based on who and how it is used." A smile crossed my face. I headed back inside and grabbed a piece of paper and jotted down a shopping list for tomorrow. Then went and locked my door before passing out on the couch.


    I was awakened by the sound of someone falling out of my bed upstairs. I got up and got a few things from my fridge and shelves and put them into the blender. The mixture was thick smelled bad and was the colour blue. It was a recipe that Tyler had given me of raw things that will restore mana.


    I poured it into a tall glass and sat it on the counter. The green eyed girl fell down the stairs on her back side. Her hair was a mess and she could barely keep her eyes open.


    "You''sh twicked may." Her words were slurred worse then if she was drunk. "You''sh twied to sweep wif may."


    I shook my head as I grabbed the garbage cam and brought it and the cup of blue liquid to her. "Drink this." I put the cup out in front oh her.


    "No, I won''t twust joo!" She barely had the strength to push the cup away so I tilted her head back and plugged her nose before slowly pouring the glass into her mouth. I kept her nose closed while she eventually took the glass from my hand giving her self time to breath before downing the rest of the glass. I winced and brought the garbage bin closer. She glared at me before turning green in the face.


    I left her to finish throwing up the potion that would overflow her mana pool. I grabbed my phone and a hair elastic from my table before pulling the girls golden hair back into a simple pony tail. I placed my phone on her back and watched her mana pool refill then overflow. This potion is one that Tyler had made after he stretched his mana pool to be just over 500. When I tried it with my mana that is used only for the house right now, a small pool of 120 in comparison to him, I was sick for three hours while my mana settled down.


    I got up and collected my things for going out, including the shadow talon. Just as I was about to head to the door my leg was grabbed in a way that made it impossible for me to move.


    "I still don''t trust you, and you never explained how them pink things worked."


    "If you want to learn about them then come out with me today." I thought about it a bit. "But don''t bring your whole followers."


    She nodded then let go of my leg. I went down into the garage and grabbed a few mana crystals. Duke was standing at my front door as I passed it again. I waved and flicked the lock before checking on the green eyed girl.


    "I can''t get up." I shook my head while looking down at her. I put out my hand to pull her up to me. Once she was on her feet I put her arm over my shoulder and carried her like that down to the entrance way.


    "Karen!" Duke stole the green eyed girl from my side as the door opened. "You are too young to be drinking, once we find mom I am telling on you."


    "Relax buddy." I closed and locked the door behind me. "She is just suffering from mana depletion."


    "What did you do to her!" A large hand grabbed the back of my neck and pushed me into my door frame. My one hand was trapped


    I tried to explain but my words were garbled and far from sounding anything like words.


    "Duke enough!" The green eyed girl had fallen in the time that Duke had tried to merge my head with my door frame.


    Duke released his grip on me enough so that I could turn my head and see the girl who had fallen from my front porch. She was being helped up by another boy and girl. Dukes grip on me let go completely as he saw the red streak on her face from where her forehead met with the concrete. The look on his face was of pure shock and fear.


    Everyone around us was glaring at Duke. I coughed then checked my door to make sure I did lock it and the lock held before I started my way past the crowd. The green eyed girl was standing up when I passed her. Her stance was wobbly but she caught her self on my shoulder. Her grip stopped me from walking away.


    She was the undisputed leader of the group. Her words rang out as she yelled at Duke. Nobody moved or said anything until she had finished yelling and giving orders to everyone around my complex. Apparently my complex was to become home base for the next few days.


    I started walking. By the time I hit the road I was alone again. The voices echoed out behind me but that was no longer my concern. I placed my hands in my pockets feeling the energy drain from the hand full of crystals there my other hand found that my phone was buzzing softly. I pulled it out and my footsteps stopped. A new page I had never seen was displayed. On the top of the screen read the words humanoid races of the world. Under the header the word humans was followed by a huge number. But that number was dropping.


    Below humans was another fifteen words. Most of the races had less than fifty. Nine of the races were red. Three sets of foot steps came running down the road while I tapped one of the red race names.


    ¡°Goblin.¡± The word left my mouth and I could feel my anger rising as I read about the race. ¡°Steals females of more dominate races to impregnate to continue their race.¡± There were five kinds of goblins listed.


    The goblin number went up by 20.


    I put my phone back in my pocket. My body was trembling. My fingers found the hilt of the shadow talon. My mind went blank.


    I was panting. I checked my stats on my watch. Both my stamina and mana were near depleted. I collapsed to the ground resting I my eyes and waiting for my stats to regenerate. I laid there for what felt like an hour when I thought I heard someone call out something behind me. I laid there with the thought of ¡®fuck it, just kill me¡¯ running through my head.nn


    ¡°Holy shit, it¡¯s him.¡± I couldn¡¯t place the voice of this guy at all in my mind. ¡°Karen, don¡¯t touch him, he could be dead.¡±


    A pressured rolled me onto my back. A soft moan escaped me. Slowly I opened my eyes. My view was obstructed by blonde hair. Whimpers came from the blonde mass. Slowly I lifted my one arm and placed it over the mass. The whimpers turned to full on crying. Fists gently smacked against my chest. I pulled the mass closer to me. The mass tried to pull away but was trapped under my arm.


    ¡°Karen they are coming, we can- holy shit he is alive.¡± I turned my head towards the voice. A short red hair girl stood in front of a pile of rubble.


    I released the mass and felt it wiping its face off in my shirt before moving off me. A screech rang out and I saw the red head girl lay flat against the ground. The mass on top of me pressed its full weight on me.


    The creature came into view as I looked up into the sky.

 The Man In The City - Karen

    ¡°Are you sure you seen it go this way?¡± My older brother wasn¡¯t the smartest person in the world. He had gotten accepted into college through his football scholarship.


    ¡°Look Karen, I swear it was a big green dog.¡± Duke called out as he looked around a corner.


    My phone buzzed and I tapped on the notification. New humanoid arrived through the rifts. This is the seventh one today.


    ¡°What¡¯s the race this time?¡± Evelyn stood to my right with her back against the same wall that I was leaning on. In her hand was a large oak branch that she was slowly carving when ever we stopped for the night.


    "Kobald, I think this might be what Duke saw." The description of the race was a very dog like humanoid with a keen sense of hearing and smell and what Duke had said he had seen was a large dog. "If it is dangerous make sure you hide, We have lost enough people already."


    "Karen." Evelyn rolled her eyes at me. we had been on the road already for three weeks since the power went out.


    I pushed her lightly and turned to follow behind our great hunters. We made small talk as we walked. It was our first real time in a city so we pictured it as a big bustling town. Busy with cars everywhere not just parked randomly in the middle of the road where they ran out of gas. We sang lyrics of our favourite songs even tho the radio and our phones no longer played music. The guys ahead of us kept giving us dirty looks like we were ruining their grand hunt.


    The sound of a rifle went off echoing off the the buildings causing our whole group to stop moving. I ran forward towards the seven rifles we had. Three more shots ran out as I arrived. I followed our hunters sights and saw a guy standing near an intersection. The man moved slowly and bent down to pick something up.


    ¡°Oh hell no, that¡¯s our kill!¡± Duke shouted and ran towards the guy. The rest of the hunters went with him.


    From my view behind them something felt off. There was too much blood and the legs and feet of what ever was in the guys arms was a pale white colour. The guy stood up with the bundle and started walking away from us.


    ¡°Stop you fucking poacher! That¡¯s our kill!¡± One of Duke¡¯s buddies had made it to the guy first as Duke called out at the guy. I was almost up to them when Duke had tried to grab the bundle from the guys arms.


    ¡°SHUT THE FUCK UP! I COULD''T SAVE HER. I WAS RIGHT THERE I TRIED TO SAVE HER But...¡± his words cut short tears rolling down his cheeks.


    I adjusted the dead girls head to rest on his shoulder and tucked her lifeless arm up into the bundle so that it looked like the girl was just sleeping.


    ¡°Oh god, what happened to her?¡± I whispered but he didn¡¯t even look at me as he pushed me out of the way.


    The guy stumbled as he walked slowly away. He was still within reach so I caught him. I placed one arm under the dead girls back and my other was gently placed on his shoulder as I supported him. The cut in the girls throat bothered me. I had a clear view of it and the remainder of the blood was sticking to my chest.


    Our group quickly caught up with us. I told the hunters to spread out one block away each in pairs of two to watch for the creature that Duke had seen before. Two were a block a head with two more being behind us. The group wasn¡¯t used to moving this slowly. Everyone behind us started looking scared.


    ¡°Evelyn, sing something to calm everyone down,¡± the silence was slowly filled with humming as Evelyn started to plan out her song. It was one we all knew. It was a perfect death march song that Evelyn often was asked to sing at church.


    She sang it once by her self. Then she started singing it again and others joined in. The guy I was helping walk looked down at me while I was singing. He had lifeless sad eyes. It looked like he had given up on everything in life. I tried to smile at him but it was hard to muster up a smile while holding a dead girl.


    Finally we stopped in front of a hardware store. I sent off a few people to get the item that he wanted and started doing first aid on the guy.


    My one skill was useless no matter how hard I tried to use it. My faith had never gone up since I got the skill so I had felt like I had wasted five skill point on it. I had gotten a free skill while I was looking through the list and had obtained leadership. Since my first one was useless I had decided to hold off on getting any new skills until I had seen somebody else using them.


    I cleaned off blood from were a cut was on the side of his head but there was no wound there. He had fresh pink skin like a wound was there a long time ago and he had just removed the scab recently. I had sworn I had seen a hole in his ear too but washing away the blood revealed nothing of the sort.


    ¡°This can¡¯t be.¡± I drew my phone from my back pocket and pressed it against his bare skin. Another race had arrived but I quickly closed the notification and brought up his damage log.


    There were a few things I had noticed. One he had a total of five skills, the other he hadn¡¯t used any of the systems functions at all since he got his skills.


    I may have cursed at his uselessness at that time but it was for a good cause.


    My last three months had been mostly me getting used to the system and teaching others what I had found out for experience points. In school I taught a class for a week about what I had learned and had earned my self three levels.


    ¡°Duke,¡± I turned to face my brother. We had one rule for our group and that was to never harm another human. ¡°I thought you said you shot the creature!¡± My voice boiled with rage. I grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him towards me with all my strength forcing him to look at what I was looking at on my phone. He was muttering something when I released the phone on the guys arm and started to smack the back of his head.


    The phone landed on the exposed skin of the girl.


    ¡°Killed by Goblin Scout.¡± The guys voice silenced me and my beating of my brother.


    The seven hunters and my self slowly gathered by the guy and looked down at my phone. I tried to bring up other pages of info on the girl but they ass just said the same thing in big red letters. Slowly the screen started to fade to black and I picked it up off her arm.


    Silently I said a prayer for her. She was the first person we had come across that had not been killed by a human or starved but by a creature not of this world.


    The group started to mutter silently while Duke was wondering how a bullet did no damage to the Goblin. I sat their in silence until the people sent into the hardware store returned. They weren¡¯t carrying anything but they had all been using the systems inventory storage for a while. When the guy holding the dead girl saw the group return he started walking down the road again.


    I followed a few steps behind him taking in the scenery of the town. Their were flower gardens everywhere in town, but most of them had been neglected for too long so all of the flowers were dead.


    ¡°It would of been a sight to see before everything went to shit.¡± Tommy whispered out beside me.


    ¡°Nah, it would of been blocked by cars moving and people walking. You probably wouldn¡¯t even notice the area as you passed though.¡± I had to agree with Evelyn. As pretty as it is now it is just a ghost of what could of been.


    The guy lead us on a long twisted route. Most of the route was beautiful to take in. We passed over a large bridge with a road hidden in a forest beneath it. We crossed a river where the shore was lined with sand like a beach. We passed through a large park that had statues on every corner of it.


    While the rest of us were taking in the scenery the guy just kept his steady pace. Up hill and down. The rest of the group were getting tired from all the walking when he finally entered a grave yard. He laid the girl down at the foot of a statue of an angel and asked for a shovel. Duke handed him one from the group behind him and the rest of us sat down and rested.


    The guy working solo started to make a few of the other guys feel bad so they brought out more shovels and worked through their weariness switching out between them when they could no longer lift the shovel any more.


    Dusk was falling by the time the guy finally stopped digging. He placed his shovel up over his head and onto the ground across the hole. Duke got up from his break and grabbed the body of the girl that some of the girls had cleaned up a bit. The body was passed gently into the grave.


    A dagger was placed out of the hole. It was emitting a black smoke as it left the guys hand. Duke tried to pick it up but almost fell into the hole. I brought out a white towel from my inventory and placed it over the knife. When I went to pick it up and wrap it up in the towel I felt like the knife still just wanted to hurt me. Having it wrapped and out of sight helped but not by much.


    The guy climbed out of the hole and picked up the shovel and started filling it in.


    I thought it wrong to send someone off to their grave with out at least saying something so I started to speak. Words that I don¡¯t know where they were coming from started to flow from my mouth. Tears rolled down my cheeks but still the words flowed. I tried to hide my face from the group but when I turned around the guy was there looking at me. He stopped burying the girl when he saw my tears. I grabbed a small handful of dirt and sprinkled it over the body leaving her face in tact laying there like she was just sleeping. Words still flowed and everyone was following my actions. All thirty of us sprinkled a little dirt on her body before my words stopped.


    Evelyn hugged me hiding my face in her shoulder. Tommy patted my back and Duke and his hunters helped fill the hole back in. When it was full their wasn¡¯t even a mound of dirt showing where the girl lay.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    The guy started walking again with out saying anything. It was getting late now and we were all tired and stressed out.


    ¡°Should we just bring out our tents and go back to the park?¡± Evelyn was almost asleep on her feet as we left the graveyard. Tommy¡¯s suggestion sounded lovely, but this guy intrigued me for some reason. I thought that if I lost sight of him now I would never see him again.


    Luckily for us he pulled out a set of keys as he went down the road. I nodded to Duke and he started talking with his hunter buddies about the night watch. Torches were brought out and lit by someone¡¯s fire skill.


    The guy walked to a centre unit of a condo complex and fiddled with the lock until it opened. Duke and tommy were trying doors down the line to see if any were unlocked. Most were.


    I followed the guy into the house. The soft glow of the last of the sun illuminated an old map at the top of his entry way. He stepped out of his shoes and proceeded up a small flight of stairs. On the railing of the entry way stood seven posable large action figures. They were each dressed in armour or robes. I inspected one that looked like it was jumping over a guy holding a large shield. The statues foot was pressed against the back of the shield holder and the other looked as if it was about to press onto the shoulder. I couldn¡¯t see a face under the guys hood but it felt very fantasy like. I would of called him a nerd if I had seen this collection before and not even given him the time of day.


    His walls were filled with more fantasy artwork and other smaller statues decorated shelves and his table.


    He moved up the stairs beside his tv stand and entered the first door on the left hand side. I followed him in and saw something I thought I would never see again.


    His computer screen lit up basking the room in a soft glow. He browsed through a few links before getting up. I took his seat as soon as he got up and went to check my email.


    The screen went blank as I got to the login window. I looked around the room but the guy was no where to be seen.


    I pressed the power button on the tower but there was nothing happening. I checked the cords but everything looked like it was in the right place.


    I heard heaven.


    The ring of a shower flowing into a tub.


    My clothing couldn¡¯t unequip fast enough. I wanted to feel the warm water running against my skin.


    The door at the end of the hallway was closed. Not locked tho, so it opened with ease. I turned past a closet and saw the steam leaving the door.


    ¡°Cover your eyes and don¡¯t move!¡± A bath is nice but not much beats a nice hot shower.


    The guy stood at the back of the tub just in the gift from heaven it¡¯s self.


    I climbed in and was overcome with bliss.


    I washed my hair, there had never been such an orgasmic feeling before.


    I looked at the guy before me. His dark hair was still a mess. He was a whole head taller then me. He didn¡¯t look much older then me, maybe eight teen to twenty. When his blue eyes were filled with sadness I just wanted to hug him and tell him everything was going to be alright.


    I reached out to touch him begotten stopping my self.


    I grabbed the wash cloth from his hands. The blood was thick on him. The washcloth felt sticky after one swipe of dis chest, it felt like I was washing honey off of the kids I used to babysit.


    Tears rolled down my cheek.


    ¡°Turn around, I¡¯ll wash the blood from your back too.¡±


    He listened to me. The washcloth left dark streaks against his pale skin. I rung out the cloth and watched the blood flow between my legs.


    I dropped the cloth. The sight was too much for me. I climbed out of the tub. My stomach flipped. It was too soon for me to use the system to get dressed so I grabbed the towel off the rack and ran down the stairs and out to the patio.


    I rested on the railing. My throat burned after emptying my stomach. A person carrying a torch passes below me almost stepping in my vile before looking up and seeing me leaning there. They smiled and waved. I nodded ba m at them and they left looking happier then before.


    I went back inside to avoid anymore slip-ups. I sat at the counter and grabbed the nearest action figure. This one was incomplete, it didn¡¯t ha e a face painted on it and most of the clothing was done with just paper. The figures left hand was in a position to hold onto something while the right hand had its fingers spread wide apart.


    Everything was in the details. From the looks of it he cared more for these action figures then he did the rest of his place. Dishes were piled up in his sink and empty boxes covered the area around his stove.


    I heard him coming down the stairs so I placed the doll back down where I had found it. Their was a small flash in the sky behind me. I went back to the patio door and looked up at the green rift in the sky. Something came through early again.


    I pulled out my phone and sent a message through the friend network that we set up with every group that we had passed since the rifts appeared. The army had tried to fire things into the rifts but nothing had gone through from our side.


    The first race that came from the rift ran away and was not seen again. The system named this race an elf but nobody got a clear picture of it. Soon after the power died and the news broadcasts stopped.


    ¡°Hungry?¡± The guy was standing behind me wearing nothing but shorts and a towel over his shoulders.


    I shrugged in response, there was a deer being cooked down the row that one of the guys had manage to shoot earlier this week.


    Food didn¡¯t spoil in our inventory so we stocked up on everything when ever we had a chance.


    A bowl of instant ramen was placed in front of me.


    ¡°You need to learn how to use the system.¡± The steam from the noodles wafted out of the bowl and I used my preset mental outfit change that I had set to be my every day wear.


    My skin tingled for a second while the towel was instantly replaced by the set of clothing, undergarments included. This had to be the easiest way ever to put on a bra.


    The sensation faded and I gave him a brief rundown of how the inventory worked. I smiled when I pulled out my phone and saw that my experience points had gone up again.


    I then asked him to teach me how he had power in his place. He walked past a light switch and flicked it on illuminating the room in a soft light. He proceeded to head back towards the entry way flicking light switches on as he passed by. We headed down into his garage where he had boxes of smart phones and TVs all taken apart leaving the place a mess with only a single pathway to his fuse box.


    He opened the box and inside were pulsating pink crystals where the fuses should be. He told me that he found these crystals inside the devices and that we are now batteries. He called them mana crystals and said that anyone who knows how to feel for the mana could run this.


    I felt like the crystals were calling for me. I looked over at him and saw him starting to sweat. He looked over at his phone then took a deep breath and the lights went out. The only light in the room now came from the crystals.


    Soft tendrils reached out from the crystals. They wrapped around my hand. The touch tickled playfully calling out like hungry children slowly dragging me to the kitchen. I was the food.


    I felt the panic rising as I tried to pull my hand away from the tendrils. I was too close to them.


    It¡¯s pull was too strong.


    My finger pressed against one crystal.


    I was standing in a field my white shirt was speckled in blood. Evelyn was kneeling beside me. My right hand on her head glowed a soft blue light. A mage in a blue tunic and leather armour oozed cold energy as he maintained a wall of ice around the field. Behind me two guys held swords at the ready, one twice the size of the man holding it the other half covering him self with a large shield. A thin girl came into view as I looked ahead of me. Her hood blew off her head and her white hair flowed over long pointed ears. She pulled an arrow from her quiver and said something to the man standing next to her. I recognized the man when he came to talk to me. No words left his mouth. I couldn¡¯t hear anything. The man put his hands on my shoulders. He looked scared as he said something else. He pressed his lips against mine. A sense of despair filled the air as if this would be the last kiss. Evelyn stood up and hugged us. The blue mage pulled the white haired girl towards us and was caught in his embrace between us. A cold metal clad hand was pressed against my shoulder. Another metal clad hand ruffled my hair. I looked back at the one who did it but he just smiled under his helmet and started patting my head instead.


    The ice wall started cracking. The man who kissed me eyes hardened, his clothing glowed changing from a simple white tunic and brown pants with leather boots to a black tunic covered with black leather armour. A black wolf appeared seemingly from my shadow as the group separated. I closed my eyes and felt the failure tickle of my clothing changing. A weight formed in my right hand. I opened my eyes to see my cloths were an exact opposite of the man who kissed me. My tunic and armour were white as fresh snow. Evelyn had changed the same time as me. Her armour matching the blue mage beside me. Neither of them held staffs but power oozed from the gloves they were wearing. The two smirked at each other and said something. The white haired girl shook her head and pointed the back of her arrow at the man in black who was still holding onto my shoulder. Everyone laughed. I could feel the laughter leaving h me but still no sound.


    A shadow blocked out the sun.


    My right ha d extended out towards the shadow fingers spread wide.


    A blue light separated the shadow from us.


    The shadow rained down hell fire. The black and red flames licked at blue object between us.


    The wall fell. The man before me disappeared into a puff of black smoke. A white wolf stood in his place. The barrier above us started to form cracks. I could feel no voice screaming out.


    The hellfire stopped just as my barrier failed.


    The creature glared down at me. I bluffed a smile. I pretended that I wasn¡¯t spent already and I was hoping it couldn¡¯t tell that I was out of mana.


    The creature landed. I kept my eyes on it the whole time with my right hand extended towards it trembling.


    A man got off the back of the creature. His cape looked like it was cut from the wing membrane of the same kind of creature that he came in on. He removed his horned helmet and walked towards us. His black hair was covering his face. The white haired girl had her bow dawn pointing at the man.


    The wolves stood between the man and me with their fur standing on end. I glanced around, Evelyn was now on my left controlling a massive firestorm. Spears of ice rained down from the blue mage on my right. The shield user and big sword guy were behind me again fighting a smaller version of the creature that was in front of me.


    The guy in the cape said something. My hand lowered. My left hand dropped the object in my left hand. I stepped past the wolves.


    My feet dragged me forward.


    ¡°Karen!¡± Evelyn¡¯s voice rang out stopping me from moving forward any more.


    I looked back at her. She was running towards me. The man in black appeared behind her and two red streaks of blood shot out making Evelyn look like she had wings before she fell to the ground.


    ¡°No!¡±


    The words escaped my mouth.


    The man in black disappeared before she hit the ground.


    The black shadow was flickering all over the battle field I fell to my knees. Both of the wolves heads rolled to a stop beside me. The white haired girl was screaming and backing up arrows flying from her bow.


    A hand wrapped around my neck lifting my chin, forcing me to see everything.


    The blue mage was smacked across the face with a mace. The shadow disappeared behind him.


    Half of the big sword went flying in the air. The shield guy was behind his shield as the creature before him bathed him with hellfire. I reached my hand out to protect him but the glow faded from my hand.


    ¡°No!¡±


    The man in black heard my cry and ran towards me. His face was pale. He was running out of mana.


    ¡°This is all your fault Karen,¡± the man whispered in my ear. ¡°You alone could of changed this.¡±


    Black arrows pierced the man in black as the guy holding my throat chuckled.


    I forced my way forward.


    I fell onto the floor of a bedroom. I was dizzy and couldn¡¯t think straight.


    What world was real. Tears rolled down my cheeks. I couldn¡¯t name anyone but Evelyn but I knew they were all my friends. We fought together and they all died.


    I needed to clear my head. I had a vague idea as to where my phone was so I slithered through the room to the door. The hallway looked a mile long and the sunlight from the window burnt my eyes.


    I hurled in a basket near me and whipped the bike off with something soft before proceeding to the stairs.


    My hand found the railing and I pulled my feet in front of me. A thud rang out every time my bum hit the next stairs.


    A guy was standing at the base of the stairs holding a cup of blue liquid.


    Words came out of each of our mouths but I didn¡¯t understand either of us. He moved to be behind me. The cup gently pressed against my lips. The liquid was poured into my mouth. I refused to swallow it.


    My nose was plugged and I swallowed it down.


    He took the cup away from my lips and started to pull my hair back gently into a pony. When his fingers brushed my cheek it reminded me on a feeling from the other world.


    My head was clearing up. The blue liquid was helping. I grabbed the cup and emptied it.


    I hurled.

 Outside Of The Rift - Unknown ( character needs a name )

    I ran, there were less then a hundred elves remaining alive, the demons had already declared this world dead. There was a portal being forced open to a new world and I had to make it there. My life depended on the new world being able to stop the advance of the demons.


    A goblin blocked my path carrying the corpse of my kin on its shoulders. If I was caught I would be used until I could no longer give birth. If the next world supported the demons like the goblins did then my life might as well already be lost.


    I stepped on my kin feeling sorry for their fate before hitting the rift at full speed pouring every last bit of my mana into it to make it accept me.


    I felt pulled by my mana. The rift was huge.


    This was a world of untapped magicka.


    I tried to keep running but there was no longer any ground beneath me. I looked down.


    Below me stood large spires that reflected the world around them. A giant mage statue was standing on an island. And small elf like beings stood around on the ground looking at the rift behind me.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    I looked behind me. Five goblins had made it through chasing after me. Their tall thin green skin made me sick.


    I kicked off one of the spires to manage my fall. The spire shattered and started to collapse. I used less force on the next one but it cracked and started making noise as I left it.


    The ground was hard and hot when I landed.


    ¡°Goblins run!¡±


    I shouted at the elf like creatures. They pointed their strange wands at me and I was hit by something. My skin tingled but there was a greater threat in the area.


    I saw the red eyes in the dust from the spire collapsing. The glimpse of his dagger. I recognized it as one who was directly under a demon lord. The shadow talon was licked by his long tongue before he disappeared.


    Fear rang through me. These elves were on their own.


    I ran through the spires while the elves shouted something in a strange tongue at me.


    My words echoed off the spires as I ran. Goblins were nothing to joke about.


    I ran until I could run no more. This world was huge and the elves that lived in it were small.


    The goblins must of hid because I could not sense any deaths around.


    I kissed my mothers necklace and closed my eyes. My crystal would take a while to bond with this new world, until then I must survive.

 The Seven Heroes - Tyler

    I pulled my laptop, and phone charger out from my inventory. This is y how power was supposed to flow. I shook my head and connected the laptop to my phone before focusing mana into the phone. Kevin must be stupid. He had gone out and found enough smartphones to take apart so that he could power his whole house. I wanted to smack Kevin. But if not for him doing this I wouldn¡¯t of been able to stretch my mana pool like I have been.


    I have been practicing making and sustaining ice bolts since I first got the power. No matter where I went there was always three icicle spears circling above my head slowly.


    After we crossed to the main land people started to follow me using this as a sign of I knew what I was doing.


    Packs started to disappear into people¡¯s inventory as they learned how it worked. The first few people asked me but then they spread the info like a wild fire. Soon everyone was traveling lighter and it made the kids that were with their parents friendlier.


    The kids helped me strengthen my ice spears. We found out that while they are sitting inactive they don¡¯t put any physical strain on me. As long as the ice didn¡¯t crack it would support the weight.


    The kids had me tie rope to my ice to use as a swing. This gave them a place to rest when they were tired while the adults kept walking.


    Our pace was blistering slow. I could still see the spot we made camp the night before.


    My phone buzzed on my lap. The action broke my concentration on transferring my mana into power. The screen went dead but my phone lit up.


    A race has broken through the rift. An elf has escaped to this world.


    I looked up in the sky. The last info we had received about the rifts on the news stated they had appeared in areas with high population. The bigger the city was the larger the rift above it appeared.


    I refocused the power to the laptop and checked the news. There was live coverage of the rifts all around the world to anyone that had cared to look.


    I found the one I was looking for instantly. The video was on a loop playing a girl with white hair falling from the sky. The army tried to capture the girl but she evaded them. The girl was slightly taller then the average male but appeared much younger then everyone who was around her.


    ¡°Awe common can¡¯t ya see she is just afraid!¡± I yelled at my computer and the screen flickered.


    ¡°Wow she is pretty.¡± Dee had snuck up behind me. I lost the connection to the computer again but this time my mana fluctuated and even my ice crystals shattered.


    My phone buzzed again.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t notice.¡± I lied, the elf was extremely attractive. ¡°How¡¯s training your enchantments going?¡±


    ¡°Still bad.¡± She looked like she was completely out of shape. To her enchantment was useless. She had invested all her stat points into agility thinking that Kevin had pranked her into letting me join some new online game. It wasn¡¯t until she realized that the phone no longer worked as a phone. ¡°Thirty minutes is still the maximum that I can enchant an object for.¡±


    Dee was concerned that she had become a fail character. I stood up, my laptop and phone charger faded into little particles of light before hitting the ground retuning to my inventory.


    I wrapped my arms around Dee while increasing the amount of ice spears to my maximum. All the spears blocked our view of the camp as I had them stab into the ground for a bit of privacy.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry babe, I am sure I can still find a use for you.¡± My forehead pressed against hers.


    ¡°What is going to happen when the seven of you get together tho.¡± Her tears froze on her cheek. I kissed her forehead and whipped the small ice cubes away.


    ¡°Well first we will build,¡± the meeting place was going to be two years down the road at the rate we moved. ¡°Then we will start taking back our world.¡±


    ¡°So you would leave me to go save the world?¡± She buried her face into my chest. She was strong in front of everyone, but behind my wall she was fragile.


    ¡°I¡¯d rather think of it as carving a You a home so we could grow old together. My ice started to crack. I pulled her face back and kissed her hard before wiping away her tears.


    A bit of her worry was gone as the ice fell. The whole camp was looking at us. Dee¡¯s face turned red as she walked away to go help prepare dinner.


    I sat back down to recover my mana. There was three ways that we had found out how to recover mana. This first was through the chest skill that Kevin obtained. The next was meditation, this is what I was attempting. The final way was through drinking a concoction that I made and named blue potion. The problem with blue potions was that if you take more potion then your mana can hold you get really sick and it can lay you on your ass until your mana stabilizes. The second problem was that the ingredients were hard to come by.


    ¡°Hey Ty?¡± A voice called out disturbing my meditation. I felt the mana I was drawing in leave my body again.


    ¡°What dick!¡± Anyone who chose a mana skill knew how hard it was to regain your mana. Interrupting a mages meditation was the biggest reason of fights in the camp. I could see the fear in his eyes so I calmed down. ¡°I mean, what¡¯s up Richard?¡±


    ¡°I- is it tr-true?¡± The old man wasn¡¯t alone, anyone and everyone who was free was there around me. The camp was silent even the people who were cooking were looking this way.


    ¡°Is what true?¡± I pulled out my phone. I had levelled.


    ¡°Tha-that there are six people you are going to meet with to save the wo-world¡± a murmur rang through the crowd. The kids all came closer.


    I had obtained a skill point. I scrolled up the list of skills and found the one I wanted. Mana started flowing into me.


    I took a deep breath.


    ¡°Let me tell you a story about the seven brave heroes.¡± The kids all came closer the two youngest sitting on my lap. ¡°The first hero to mention is Chase the brave and solid. He is the strongest of the strong no matter how he looks. This hero is the first one our enemies see. His steps ring out on the battle field and his battle cry draws only the strongest to want to fight him. He is our protector, our guardian. Even if we fail he will be the one to be the last wall. The final protector.¡±This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Dee handed me a sandwich and whispered in my ear. ¡°What game is this story from?¡±


    I just smiled.


    ¡°Now no matter how good the shield is,a shield can not win a battle alone. To go with the strongest shield comes the sword hero. She is a brutal woman who can knock any, and I mean any, man flat on his ass. There is only three people I fear. Kevin, Nessa, and well you know.¡± Everyone glances at Dee and chuckled.


    ¡°Nessa fights in the most brutal of ways. If Chase will endure the most, Nessa will overpower anything then humiliate them for loosing to a girl.¡± Everyone had either a sandwich or bowl of soup with them so I took a bite before continuing.


    ¡°The sword and shield protect the heart and our heart protects us all. Our heart is Kyle. Now Kyle wasn¡¯t originally our heart. He was forged into becoming the heart through numerous battles, but he was guided into becoming the strongest heart possible. He proved his worth in a task that everyone around him said would be impossible. But the impossible had become the possible. Our heart is our weak point. Kevin formed a plan that guarded this weak point. Next to the heart at all times was our bow, our bow had one job, protect the heart.¡±


    My legs were starting to fall asleep so I passed the kids off to their parents.


    ¡°Kyle only got the role of our heart from his older sister. I know no one more accurate with the bow then Abigale.¡±


    ¡°Sir?¡± The kids all looked confused. ¡°Why didn¡¯t Abby use a gun?¡±


    ¡°Well their are only three things that hurt the foes we were fighting together at the time, the first was forged iron like swords and knives. The second was magicka!¡± I formed an ice spear in front of the kids before shattering it into snowflakes. ¡°And the most powerful heroes could empower their weapons magicka. Arrows can be empowered while a bullet can¡¯t be.¡±


    Most of the adults lost interest but I continued the story for the kids. ¡°When we are in our battle formation we have the two strongest mages you have ever seen. Ice and lightning crash down across our foes. The two of us together were a force no enemy wanted to see against them.¡±


    Dee gave a weak smile my way. I returned her smile with a small nod. She was the lightning mage but no longer.


    ¡°Now let me tell you about Kevin. Kevin is too smart for his own good. While I can currently power up my laptop, Kevin could power a whole house. While Abigale could track a creature on land, Kevin could track it in the air. But Kevin has two sides to him. When he is in his fight mode nothing can stop him. He is our blade that will move swiftly to cover any downfall. But he often turns his brain off making him look far more average then he is.¡±


    The kids were starting to yawn. The glow of the rift above us was the only light in the sky.


    ¡°I first met Kevin back when he was no older then you, I was on a quest to learn about magicka and there he was. He was toying with creature alone in a cave. I sat there watching him for what must of been a day before he noticed me there. This beast of a creature couldn¡¯t touch him as he danced around it with ease. I became an added distraction to him as he struck up a conversation with me. We talked for about an hour before a group of adventures were heard coming down into the cave. His eyes changed and an instant later his dance partner fell. He left that cave with out saying another word.¡±


    ¡°Abigale and Chase were a couple when I met them. The two of them were looking for more people to help in their quest. Our conversation while traveling was about other strange people we had met while questing. Abigale told an impossible story about the day a whole forest of goblins were chasing after a sole person. Goblin arrows rained down mere steps behind him. Chase told a story about a person he had seen climbing a cliff for two days just to jump off it and land in a lake. I told my story of the man dancing with a giant creature for a full day just to finally kill it when too many people arrived to see it.¡± Little did we know all the stories were of the same person. I continued telling stories about adventuring with Chase and Abigale until the kids looked like they were ready to fall asleep.


    The next day the kids had me continue telling the stories. I got to the point where Dee would of been introduced as our lightning mage but left her name out of it. The kids never questioned her name they just believed every word I said. I told the story of our original healer and how he fit in with the party. I told the tale of how Nessa forced her way into our group.


    The story went on like that for three more days.


    My phone buzzed


    The notification every adult had gotten.


    All of them looked at me in fear.


    The first human to officially die by another races hands.


    That night the camp was silent, the parents guarded their children and we doubled the night watch.


    The next morning a new window showed on my phone. It was a list of the races and how many of each were around.


    Humans had an outstanding amount but that number was dropping slowly. There was three names in red. With humans being the only name in green.


    Goblins were almost near a million strong. I tapped on the race and saw the description. A race that relied on raping females of other races to make their own race grow.


    ¡°Now you have heard stories about the other five heroes before we were known as the heroes but I have left out one.¡± The parents knew I was doing this to ease the tension in the camp as we walked.


    ¡°The strange Kevin?¡±


    The kids all gathered behind me as I walked hoping to hear something unbelievable.


    ¡°Our group found Kevin alone, sitting in a tavern in the darkest corner by him self. We had just gotten back from our quest and needed to relax a little before we called it a night.¡± Dee shook her head. She knew the story I was going to tell. ¡°A girl too young to be in the tavern ran in screaming and crying. Her clothing was ripped and her appearance made the whole bar go silent.¡± I stopped my story there and watched my phone.


    The goblin race had gone up by another thousand and there was five hundred less humans. The goblin race started to flash the amount of them dropped by two.


    ¡°Before anyone could react there was a guy who had his arms wrapped around the girl letting her cry into his shoulder.¡±


    Two more goblins dropped from the counter.


    ¡°The girl was attacked by evil adventures and lost everything.¡± A cold shiver went down my spine and a smile crept into my face. ¡°The girl just wanted a hero to help avenge her, she didn¡¯t want her stuff back she just wanted someone to show the bad guys the fear that she felt.¡± Dee saw that I was making the story more child friendly.


    Ten goblins dropped from the list one after another.


    ¡°The whole tavern had gotten into an outrage over what had happened to the girl. When the tavern calmed down enough so that we could ask where they were the girl stood there confused and wrapped in a dark cloak.¡±


    The humans had stopped going down in number. The amount of goblins slowly went down.


    My story stopped there for a while. Something didn¡¯t feel right. My ice spears hardened and sharpened to the point of being stronger then steel.


    A small green creature ran out of the woods ahead of us looking scared.


    ¡°The shadow man is coming!¡± It¡¯s voice was that of a child. It hid behind me and pointed towards the woods.


    The little creature was holding a notebook that had familiar looking writing on it. The books title was the shadow man.


    I knelt down to look at the green child. It¡¯s red eyes were full of fear and it was wearing a rabbits pelt as a loin cloth. ¡°I am a hero, who is the shadow man?¡±


    ¡°The shadow man hates gobs like me. He eats us and leaves not one alive behind him.¡± He showed me the book.


    I opened it and read it. It was a tale of a goblin hunt gone wrong. The pray of the goblin horde appeared to be just a single guy but no goblin archer could hit him. The goblins angered the guy when they went and involved a young archer girl in the hunt. The young archer was going to be a new mommy for the horde but the man in black didn¡¯t like that. The man in black got angry and attacked the horde. He saved the would be mommy and killed every gob in the forest. No goblin was safe no matter the age of it.


    ¡°Where did you get this from?¡± The book had blood on it. I passed the book to Dee and she flipped through the pages turning pale. We had both seen the book before.


    ¡°Mommy had it. When gobs started to die she said the shadow man was poncible¡± I nodded to Dee and a few of the younger adults saw we both knew who his mother was.


    ¡°Can you take me to your mommy?¡± My anger was rising but I tried to keep my mind calm.


    ¡°Mommy said only a hero can save us.¡± I nodded I was going to have to make a pit stop.


    ¡°I am a hero.¡± My voice was monotone. I held out my hand to the little goblin and he grabbed it pulling me gently with his clawed fingers.

 What I Really Want Is Cake - Evelyn

    ¡°There how¡¯s it look?¡± I held out my freshly carved staff to Tommy. He was a geek who was really into this. When I told him to make me a staff he had said that the first job of any mage want to be is to make their own staff.


    ¡°Not bad, have you tried it out yet?¡± I shook my head and he frowned. ¡°It¡¯s not finished until it¡¯s been tested out.¡±


    I took the staff from him and ran out side. The staff was as tall as me with two balls of thicker wood at each end. I stood in the open park behind the housing complex and focused on the staff. My skill was fire bolt. Karen had warned us to be frugal with our skill points.


    ¡°I am a level three fire mage!¡± My voice rang out into the open. ¡°All shall fear me!¡± I could feel my staff heating up. ¡°Fire bolt!¡±


    Both ends of the staff lit on fire.


    There was no heat.


    I flicked the staff and one of the fire balls flew off into the sky landing in the pond with a hissing sound.


    Tommy was rolling on the grass laughing at me. He could use his skill with out any help.


    ¡°What did you do to her!¡± A loud echo that could only be from Duke rang out from the buildings.


    Tommy got up in a hurry and ran towards the sound. I followed, my staff hit the ground and the second fire ball faded out of existence.


    Duke was punching the guy we found yesterday in the head while holding him with his other hand. The guy was trying to say something but words weren¡¯t coming out of his mouth only speckles of blood.


    Tommy had run up to something on the concrete below where Duke was punching the guy. I ran up beside him. A crowd was forming as duke continued to yell. I got down on the other side of the object and saw it was Karen. A small pool of blood had formed where her head met the concrete. I roller her over slowly.


    ¡°Phone.¡± Her voice was weak. I looked around and saw her phone laying at my feet.


    Her she bought three skills. Slowly she looked like she was getting stronger. I helped her to her feet. Her eyes were pierced the back of Dukes head.


    Her voice rang out louder then Dukes and everything went quiet.


    ¡°Karen.¡± Duke stumbled down the stairs and put his hands on either side of Karen¡¯s head.


    The guy was checking his door. He stumbled down the stairs and I caught him. His head was bleeding and he was mumbling about rude guests. I cleaned off some of the blood from his face but he didn¡¯t appear injured at all. He kept walking as Karen started to yell out at everyone standing around.


    ¡°What happened?¡± I looked up at the guy. We were almost to the road.


    ¡°Fucken mana sickness.¡± He was still rambling. ¡°Fucken house guests.¡± His anger was apparent.


    I stopped walking when we got to the road. I needed to leave a mark so that Karen would know where I went. I know she saw me walking with him but I didn¡¯t want to just disappear with a stranger.


    I tried to bring out my staff from my inventory.


    Nothing happened.


    My staff was always in my inventory.


    My focal point for my magicka was gone.


    The strain of trying to cast a fire bolt with out a focus hurt but one finally appeared. I tossed it at the ground in the direction the guy was going.


    The small fire ball left a reverse arrow with a fatter end where he was going. I bent down and drew a proper arrow in the ash.


    My nose was bleeding.


    I wiped it off on my sleeve then started down the road behind him. Each step made the world twist making me dizzy. I reached out for him and he disappeared in a puff of black smoke.


    I hit the ground and started to cough up blood.


    Karen rolled me over. She had my phone in her hand saying something. Tommy lifted my head up into his lap. Where was the sound?


    My phone was placed in my hand. Karen was using my finger to touch the screen.


    I had ten, no nine HP and zero mana. That caused me to laugh a little but with no sound it felt wrong.


    She changed the screen to the buy skill screen and spent my two skill points.


    I fell asleep.


    A moan escaped my mouth, all beds should be comfy.


    I wrapped my arms around someone beside me and placed my head on their chest. Boobs. I snuggled against her chest and she started scratching my my head gently.


    I purred.


    ¡°Rest a bit longer if you can.¡± Karen¡¯s whisper was soft. This reminded me of the sleepovers we shared growing up while my parents were going through their divorce.


    The door creaked open.


    ¡°Their back.¡± Tommy was whispering near my head.


    Karen grunted softly. She and Tommy were crawling on the ground. I followed.


    People were everywhere hugging the walls in total silence. Growls clicks and grunts were heard from below the patio. The creatures were barely visible with the light of the rift.


    We all tried our best to not make a sound. Thirty people in one small house, I could smell the fear from people behind me.


    The creatures passed by.


    Karen waited about an hour before she got up from her position and started to walk around the place. She was putting her hand on light switches and appliances like there was still power.


    "We need to figure out how he ran power to this place." Karen was visibly in a panic.


    I paced the place a step behind her trying to figure out what was going on.


    we arrived in what looked like a small computer room. There wasn''t much in here, a printer a chair and a desk with a computer on it. The pop cans laid on the desk showed the owner was a slob.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    I sat in the chair while Karen closed the door. "What''s wrong Karen?" We were alone. I thought now would be the best time to ask her about this.


    "Duke is missing, Kyle and Jenny too." Kyle and Jenny were cheerleaders with us back when school mattered.


    "What?" How long was I out for?


    "When that guy went poof and we brought you back to the house." She had a sorry look on her face. "I used your two skill points to buy skills to try and save your life."


    I pulled out my phone and checked. My mana was now slightly over three hundred from being only fifty before. my health was just over one hundred.


    "Well I am alive, so no worries." I tried to play it off. I wanted to get the skill Pyromaster but I would need to hold off for a hundred levels at the rate I was gaining skill points.


    "We brought you into that guys house, he dropped his keys before he vanished." her sorrow look deepened. I don''t know what the two did but it looked like something had changed in Karen.


    I spun around in the chair. Being short gives you the privilege of acting like a child from time to time.


    "You were out for the last three days." She checked the door to make sure nobody was on the other side and then continued talking. "Duke and Kyle were on night watch the night before after the fight he had with the guy I was trying to punish him by making him sleep deprived. You know give him something else to burn his energy one."


    "So you think that Duke and Kyle ran off to do the nasty?" Kyle I knew pitched for our team. I found that out the hard way when I tried to date him.


    "Eww no, I think those creatures took them." I stopped my spinning against the desk. My hand brushed against the mouse and the computer turned on.


    "Woah, the computer works?" My seat was pulled away. Karen sat on my lap and started looking at the guys friend list.


    she sent a message out to all his friends.


    [ SOS - Need Help Strange Happenings ]


    The computer was silent for almost a minute. The guys friend list had more people on it then I felt like I could count. He was really an online geek.


    People got online and went back offline almost as fast as they came. Three messages replies came back.


    [ Busy - Real Life ]


    [ What the hell I broke up with you don''t booty call me at the end of the world ]


    [ You are not Kevin ]


    Karen clicked on the last one, The guys name take was Stormshadow.


    [ He is missing ]


    Her replies were short. The computer screen flickered every time she touched the keyboard.


    [ Kevin is hunting. ]


    The reply was just as short. Karen got off my lap and started to pace around the room.


    [ So the guys name is Kevin? Who are you? ]


    The screen stayed bright when I typed.


    [ A Friend ]


    [ And yes. ]


    This conversation was going no where.


    "Karen, he says he is a friend of the guys." She pressed up against the back of the chair and started telling me what to type.


    [ People are missing - 2 guys and 1 girl ]


    [ How did the Goblin set off Kevin? ]


    [ Donno, Duke shot Kevin and didnt hurt the Goblin... but some girl he was with died by it ]


    [ ... ]


    [ What I wasnt there... I was trying to carve a staff ]


    [ ... This is not the one who sent the SOS... ]


    [ No she is behind me pacing ]


    [ Whats the SOS for? ]


    I looked over at Karen she had gone and sat in the corner.


    [ Uhh... she is broken right now can I get back to you on that? ]


    [ Is Kevin''s printer hooked up? ]


    I tapped the little power button on the printer and it started to make noises.


    [ Looks like it. ]


    [ Do you have somebody who has the faith stat over there? ]


    [ Two of us ]


    [ We have found a way to increase faith. I am sending you a file. ]


    The file transfer was almost instantaneous. I wish that I had net speed like this back home.


    I opened the file and it instantly started printing off.


    [ Uh, its printing... ]


    [ Tell the people who have the faith stat to read it and believe in it. ]


    "Karen this thing that is printing is for you... you are supposed to believe in what ever it says."


    [ When they actually believe in it they will gain the power to keep unfriendly creatures away. ]


    [ Okay mr stormshadow. ]


    [ My guess you have seen Goblins around. ]


    [ There was about 10 just three hours ago ]


    [ Female missing? ]


    [ Jenny ]


    [ Fuck... ]


    Karen was sitting crying in the corner of the room. I could hear her sobbing and I knew she didn''t want me to see her.


    [ The goblins now probably call her mommy... ]


    Jenny was only fourteen, I don''t even know if she had her period yet.


    [ Is the person reading the pages yet? ]


    [ Nope she is broken still... she needs time to reboot ]


    [ Okay then. I am going to tell you something and as you read it I need you to say it out loud to her. ]


    [ Will it reboot her? ]


    [ Its a story. start reading from here...


    "Karen I am going to talk for a while... Listen to my voice.


    There were Seven heroes of old


    The healer, pure and white, the heart and soul of them.


    The shield protecting from the greatest of foes.


    The sword slashing away at the strongest.


    The Arrow who guards the heart.


    The Mages crossing elements.


    and The Leader guarding them all."


    ... ahh fuck it. just tell her to have faith in Kevin ]


    [ Uh, he has been gone for three days. ]


    [ Did he take his weapon collection? ]


    "Karen did the guy have any weapons in his inventory?"


    A faint no came out so I replied back with that. There was a dust shadow where a giant sword would of been mounted on the wall above the computer.


    [ Looks like there used to be a sword on the wall tho. ]


    A picture was linked to me from some website. the shape fit the dust sword well.


    [ Kevin is probably going to need you to find his weapon stash and bring it to him. You know how to use the inventory right? ]


    [ Duh ]


    [ ...well you are a child I wont get mad at you... ]


    the printer finally stopped. I looked over and Karen had already grabbed the stack of paper.


    [ Since you are at the computer for this long I need to know... what skills do you have? ]


    I pulled out my phone. My skill list had gone up by three.


    [ Fire bolt, Health Regeneration, Mana Regeneration... and I am suffering from Mana depletion sickness... ]


    I didn''t feel sick.


    [ Okay, Now mage I need to to tell me your stats ]


    I flicked through the phone until I found the page he was looking for.


    [ Level 3, 130 stat points, 10 constitution, 10 dexterity, 10 strength, 10 intelligence, 10 wisdom, and 10+5 charisma... woo I gained thirty more in stat points what ever that is. ]


    I could hear the pages being flipped through behind me. the chat had gone dead.


    [ stranger danger are you still there? ]


    [ ... you have never played any games before have you? ]


    [ Like the sims? ]


    more pages were flipped. this conversation had stopped progressing.


    I started to browse through the files on the computer.


    "Ohh, Pictures!"


    The picture folder was full of beautiful scenery and strange creatures. There were pictures of seven people hanging out around a campfire dressed like they were doing something that Tommy would of found Interesting.


    "They are screenshots from a game." Tommy made me jump in my seat. "That screenshot was named a final party. The characters in it are Storm shadow, the blue mage. The shield knight, Wither. The Undefeated sword, Valentine. Neko Diva, the Storm. The unremarkable one, Greg. His sister the sharp shooter, Heavens Arrow. and their leader. The Impossible Wodahs." He pointed them out one by one. The screen shot was centered around the man dressed in white making it look like he was the one who took the screenshot.


    I flipped through the screenshots and Tommy was talking about them like he knew the story of each of the people in them personally. He told the story as if they were his idles, his personal heroes.


    "And then the impossible happened. The heroes were sitting in a bar before their grandest fight, recalling the days of old. The bar went quiet as each of the heroes told stories about the strangest adventure they had ever come across. The each story was more and more impossible. Finally the bar all turned to the leader the shadow and waited to hear his strangest tale."


    Tommy and I looked at Karen as she talked. The screenshot on the desktop was of a man dressed in black sitting in a bar with everyone looking at him. Tommy had pointed out his own character in the screenshot before Karen had started speaking.


    "The shadow started of slowly, recalling the tale of an archer that sat on the cliff and didn''t help him when he was being chased around. not only that but he even had to save her in the end. He then told the story about how he was trying to get a girl back her ribbon and it blew up a cliff side and how some knight started calling people over and chanting for him to fall for two days and nights. The third story he told was of a mage who watched him try to get his dagger after it had been knocked away by a huge ogre but wouldn''t help him. One by one his stories told the other side of what each of the other heroes had said was their strangest person. The shadow then let out his voice and walked out of the bar alone in anger."


    [ ... you are still on... ]


    [ She rebooted ]


    "Its all about a game... how is this supposed to give anybody faith?"


    [ Good... does she believe in the scripture or Kevin? ]


    [ The pages about a game? ]


    [ ... yes... but... fuck is she able to read the computer screen right now? ]


    [ I can, This is useless... ]


    [ ... Have faith in Kevin, The creatures already have a fear in this world... they named it the shadow man... ]


    Karen blocked my view of the screen while she conversed online. Tommy was walking around the room looking at the artwork and some action figures that fit right in with the geeky vibe of the room.


    I got up from the chair and started to feel weak.


    The room went dark and I fell to the floor.

 The Waiting Game - Chase

    Thwack!


    The stick cracked against my back.


    Thwack! Thwack!


    Two more hit me. This was training.


    There was three days left before the countdown for what ever would finish. I had started with the skills Health Regeneration, Stamina Regeneration, and Iron Skin. I could take a beating. The three people who were hitting me were doing so to try and raise their strength stat. I had put my stats in balance to give my self the best I felt I could. A balance of Strength, Constitution, and Dexterity. If I gained one more level I could get the skill that I desired. Shield Mastery.


    "You guys are no longer even causing me any damage." It was the truth, My Iron skin skill had a bar under it that was full as well as my Heath regeneration.


    "We are." they were out of breath. "Trying our best."


    People had followed me for some reason when they saw me carrying a sword. I was the first to arrive where my friends were supposed to be. Abigale should of been the first to arrive, she lived the closest to here. Her and Kyle lived only twenty miles from here.


    I looked over at the lake and farm land. Kevin had picked a point that looked random on a map and here it looked absolutely beautiful. The water wafted on the shoreline and I was too busy looking at my phone to even notice how calming it was.


    I had joined something called The Hero Network when some passerby had offered to share it with me. It was supposed to be a place where people who wanted to fight to save the world would talk but nobody had said anything on it in a while.


    "I think this hero network is a sham."


    The sticks stopped hitting me and I went and sat down in my usual night position.


    "Uh, You don''t get posts on it until you send a message." one of the guys who had been smacking me sat down beside me. I couldn''t remember his name at the moment but he was a decent enough guy to try and help me with my training.


    I sent a message on the chat and saw that I had gotten a screen name that I didn''t pick and wasn''t my name.


    [ The Night Guard - Hey ]


    "Uh, why do I have a strange user name?" I looked over at the guy. and showed him my phone.


    "Oh you don''t get to pick your own name, I think the system gives you a title based on how others see you." He held out his phone and showed that his information had his name and a title of the Imposter. "Pay no attention to the title, I don''t know how I got it."


    The chat had started to light up about some religion that had formed called the Seven. I had heard bedtime stories being told as I walked around the tents at night that sounded like my adventures from a game before the world had all gone to shits.


    Tonight was no different then any other night. due to my massive stamina I haven''t had the need for sleep since I got here. I still rest during the day but only for a few hours.


    I stood up and placed my back to the camp. My sword was a full tang forged replica that my character used in the game. I had spent two paychecks on this sword and could only think that Kevin was crazy because he had made even my shield along with the others weapons.


    For the last four nights I had been fighting under the rift light. The first night people tried to help me with guns but the bullets only pushed the creatures back a little and soon they had run out of bullets. The creatures always ran away after one of them had gotten hurt. I was almost thinking that I should start trying to cut off their ears. The green pointed ear bastards were persistent. They had always come from the same direction. And never had I seen the same one twice.


    I walked to the center of my battle ground and planted my sword into the ground and waited.


    Nothing came.


    The full moon rose behind me.


    My shadow stretched across the field. The lake had a C like indent in it what protected it from the other sides. I stood alone in the mouth.


    The night was silent except for the sound of mothers telling stories about the seven. Stories like they were there with us.


    Before long it was just the sound of my breathing and the wind rustling the trees gently.


    I was getting bored.


    I picked up my sword and pulled out the trashcan lid I had made into a quick shield. Slowly I went though the moves of my character. Each move was supposed to have been done by some real martial arts guys who had helped make the game be as realistic as possible.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    I had a clear memory of each and every move.


    I moved my self at a blistering slow speed, holding the full weight of the sword for as long as I could before my wrist started to hurt from the weight of it. Wielding a real sword is a lot harder then people would think.


    My breath was heavy by the time the sun started to rise. People had started to come out of their tents. This was the first night in a while that they all looked well rested.


    With other people up I put my sword and trash lid back into my inventory and headed to the tree where I stayed for most of the day pretending to sleep so that nobody would bother me.


    I was up in the branches with my eyes closed when I heard footsteps coming.


    "Sir, there is somebody coming." The voice was a child''s. I looked down at her and saw her blonde hair and big blue eyes looking up at me. She couldn''t of been more then eight years old but she was one of the only people in the camp to look like they were excited to be there.


    I climbed out of the tree and was dragged forward by the the girl to the mouth of our camp. The stranger was covered in what would of appeared to be blood.


    They saw me and a smile appeared on their face.


    Her hand extended towards me and the soft glow of an item being pulled from her inventory appeared. the sword was a cheap one that I had known from my memory.


    my sword and trashcan appeared in my hands as I ran out to meet the stranger.


    the stranger started sprinting out to meet me.


    Our swords rang out as they struck each other.


    Our movements were locked in place. She couldn''t move me and I couldn''t move her.


    I tossed my trash lid to the ground and wrapped my arm around her.


    "Vanessa, I wasn''t expecting you till the last day." She pressed her blood stained cheek against my own and then kissed it.


    I looked back at the camp and saw that there was a line of people holding axes and pitchforks protecting the entrance way. They all had looked scared.


    "Well chase, I was bored so I thought I would go against Kevin''s plans. That and I missed Dee." Vanessa was almost as tall as me but when she was clean she would of looked like she belonged in the movies.


    "Now at least I have somebody I know to talk to." I lowered my sword started to head back towards the camp.


    She hit me with her sword across my back with all her strength.


    My shirt ripped where she hit me and I stumbled over trying to get my balance.


    That hurt.


    "What the actual fuck!" I turned to her and she was just smiling ear to ear.


    "You have been training, haven''t you?" She placed her sword on her back and bent down to pick up my trash lid. She had a nice ass.


    "The only way I know how." She was bending over like that on purpose and I knew it but I still couldn''t look away.


    "Your back is pure muscle, Kevin would be proud." She whistled and a small child ran out from the woods in the direction she had come from. He didn''t say anything nor did he look at anyone but Vanessa.


    "You didn''t cut me did you?" I was trying to feel for blood on my back. I knew she would tell me about the child eventually there was no point in asking now.


    "Nah, you just have a red line. That is some defense you have built up." She handed me the trash lid then offered her hand out to the child and started walking towards the camp.


    She was teasing me again, and I hated her for it.


    The line of men let her pass and she walked up to the girl who had brought me out to see her. She handed the child''s hand off to her and the two walked away. The child kept looking back at Vanessa but she waved to it to go with the blonde girl.


    I guided Vanessa over to where I had my empty tent with nothing but a wash tub inside it. She pulled out two cots from her inventory and placed them inside before she kicked me out of the tent.


    "So whats with the blood?" I sat outside the tent and listened to her bathing her self.


    "Accidentally found a goblin nest last night in the dark." her voice was calm like it was a normal occurrence.


    "How do you accidentally find a goblin nest?"


    "Well, we were looking for a place to sleep and I tripped and there it was."


    "What was it like?"


    "Horrible... I am not saying more then that..."


    After she was cleaned up, she brought out her sword again. We both had wanted to get some real combat training in.


    Our sparing match echoed across the field and lake. Neither of us was gaining ground on the other one.


    each swing became a block it or die swing. We both fought with just our swords. Our smiles were plastered on our faces.


    "Uh," The imposter came near and disrupted our fight. "Can you guys teach us how to fight like that?"


    Our breathing was heavy. We couldn''t respond to the guy with our voices but we both nodded. Our swords faded away and we both collapsed down onto the ground at the same time.


    It was roughly an hour later before we had caught our breath. The sun was high in the sky and every man woman and child in the camp had come out of the camp to the field holding what ever they could find as weapons.


    It didn''t matter the skills that they had chosen, what mattered was their will to learn.


    Vanessa made the whole group be tired with in the first hour of training.


    People started leaving the training to go cook or rest as soon as they could barely move any more. Most that did this were the ones who had more mage like skills. Tyler would kill us if he saw us training mages to be like us.


    We were harder on the people who had physical skills.


    After supper I was checking my phone looking for more messages on the Hero Network but still nothing had come. There was nothing since my single word.


    Vanessa put the child she was with to sleep in my tent then came and sat on my log by the mouth of our camp.


    "The Hero Network is down right now," She had seen what I was looking at. "It apparently requires you to have faith in some weird religion for it to work." She showed me hers after she had tried to type something into the chat.


    "The Blood Queen eh?" A smirk went across my face and she put her phone away.


    "Can''t help what people call me."


    "No, but its better then mine." I held out my phone to her and she started laughing.


    "You are the hero of the night the one that guards them while they are sleeping. oh all mighty night guard protect us." She fell off the log she was laughing that hard.


    "Ha Ha." I mocked her. My breath had become visible with that.


    Her laughter continued to ring out for a while longer until she had noticed the change.


    It was mid summer. We shouldn''t be able to see our breath at all.


    Our hands both started to glow at the same time. She came and stood beside me looking out at the field.


    There was a commotion going on behind us. People had seen us draw our weapons.


    We stood there like statues.


    The camp went silent. All fires were put out.

 Fear The Shadow Man - Tyler

    The goblin child was dragging my hand. I alone went forward to meet its mommy.


    "Hero! I found a Hero!"


    The goblin was yelling out as he dragged me towards a hole dug into the side of a hill.


    Other goblins crawled out of the hole and circled us. They all looked at me in wonder and amazement.


    "Mommy said only a hero could save us and I did it. I found a hero!"


    the goblin child was jumping up and down.


    I counted the goblins as they danced around me cheering.


    "Is this all of you?" I bent down to talk to the little goblin.


    "The big gobs wont be back for a few days, but this is all the little gobs! You will save us right hero?"


    "Yes." I paused my speech. An Ice spear appeared above each of the gobs including the one in front of me. "I am a hero."


    The spears fell and each of the goblins had stopped moving. My phone buzzed at the same time they had died. I was expecting there to be a wave of dizziness from using so much mana at once. I pulled out my phone to check the notifications. I had gained a level and a half from killing off the fifteen little goblins.


    I calmed my breathing. A hero needs to remain calm no matter what he was about to see.


    The inside of the cave was dark but had a strange glowing rock in the center of it. It was enough to see by. It was too much to see by.


    Kyle''s face was facing the entrance way. his arms were missing and his chest was ripped open exposing his spine and lack of internal organs. I felt the vile rise from my stomach at the site but I somehow managed to swallow it down.


    "Is that you Kevin?" a weak voice came from one of the walls. Slowly I walked towards it avoiding the corpse of the boy before me. "Ty, don''t look at me."


    The voice had seen me as I moved around the crystal.


    I steeled my will for what I thought I was going to see.


    I was not as ready as I thought I would be.


    Six girls all under the age of thirty were tied to the wall. All six had tear stained cheeks. All six had bite marks where goblin teeth had sunk into their flesh. All six were naked. All six were pregnant. All six had their legs forced apart exposing their sex towards the crystal.


    I gently and slowly freed them from their bindings and handed each of them a blanket from my inventory. I didn''t have any clothing that could cover their oversized bellies.


    I didn''t say a word. they all had a look of shame in their eyes as I came close to each of them.


    They all had looked hopeful for a split second when the girl with the biggest belly had spoken the name Kevin, but that look was now just shame.


    I led them all back outside of the cave and then I dragged the corpses of the dead goblins inside. I placed the corpses against the wall where the six girls were tied. the corpses were laid out to look like a man.


    Abigale gave me a faint smile when I returned from the cave. The smile soon faded away. The other girls looked scared now that they were outside of the cave. Every sound to them made them jump.


    An Ice lance formed in my hand and I started walking still in silence. Abigale guided the other five to follow me.


    We made it back to the camp and the girls feet were all torn apart from branches and rocks. Each step for them left a bloody foot print.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    "Oh my god, Abby." Dee ran towards us from the camp as soon as she saw us.


    Other female members of the camp ran forward with her. My mind was on fire.


    I needed to vent my anger and everybody around me could see it. Nobody came near me as I started walking in the direction that we had come from the day before.


    Icicles started forming on the trees as I passed underneath them. my Ice lance burned hot in my hand.


    I had gotten about a mile from the group when my mana went wild. I unleashed my rage and mana in one burst. The ground around me had become a winter wonder land.


    Snow flakes started falling from the sky.


    I stood there slowly breathing in the cold air. The snow flakes slowly turned into rain and the ice trees melted in the hot summer air.


    A warm touch pressed against my back and I closed my eyes.


    "Three of the girls just want to die." Dee was whispering. "They have been giving birth to goblins for the last seven days giving birth to up to six of them every day and a half."


    I grabbed hold of her hand as she placed it on my chest. "I am not strong enough to grant them that wish." Tears rolled down my cheek.


    "It''s not your wish to grant." She hugged me tighter. "We gave them a tent, they three wanted to kill the creatures inside of them before they could come forth into the world."


    "And Abigale?" I turned towards her and the camp. A shadow stood just outside of the ground I had covered in ice a while ago.


    "She wants to say sorry to Chase and to Kevin, Like me she is no longer a hero." The shadow started to walk forward towards us.


    Fresh tear streaks were on her face. She was now dressed but her stomach was exposed to the cold air.


    "Ty, I am sorry." Her voice was broken. She had started crying anew.


    I pulled her into the hug with Dee and I as soon as she was in reach.


    I could feel the goblins moving around inside of her. Knowing what they were I was disgusted.


    "We are still a few days from the meeting spot, the fucktards will be out of you by then."


    "No, I am sorry because I don''t think I will be able to deal with the creatures." her face was a mess. the tears made her look ugly. She was never this ugly.


    "Maybe, Maybe not." I couldn''t look down on the two of them and their crying faces.


    "Kill my children when they are born for me." Her face was buried beside Dee''s in my chest. I knew I was just a replacement for him but I would comfort her until she got to say her words to him.


    We stood there in silence the three of us crying. nobody moved for most of the day.


    It was dinner time when we had come across another group of travelers. They stayed with us for the night. It was late at night when I heard stories being told around the camp fire. It was a story I had told about the seven heroes. The man telling the story had a healing skill and was spreading the tail like it was fact.


    He was smiling from ear to ear as he came up to me after that.


    He was showing me his phone and what he had learned.


    "My faith went up!" This was a first for anybody who had a healing skill that required faith. he was grinning from ear to ear and was asking if he could borrow my laptop to right the word of the seven.


    That night I spent the whole night being a battery for him to write out our tales as scriptures for his book. It took him less time then he thought it would and he instantly shared it once finished among some Hero Network. He didn''t know who had made it available but the Hero network was spread from person to person as they met and traveled.


    When I tried to Join the Hero Network their was no reply on my phone but there was constant messages on his.


    We set up camp early the next day so that the remaining three girls could give birth to their demons. Three tents had been put facing each other. One for each of the ladies. I sat in the middle of the tents and camp goers placed up a make shift wall around us.


    It was a waiting game.


    I brought out my laptop and received a message from someone who hadn''t messaged anyone in the last three weeks. The SOS was suspicious for me.


    I replied with caution not wanting to give too much away but I had to make sure that Kevin was still alive.


    I double checked my phone as soon as I had seen that the person on the other end was not Kevin. The goblin number was rising today. I tapped on the name goblin and checked its info.


    "Elder Goblins tell a story to scare the child goblins into staying inside their cave. They have grown to fear the shadow man."


    Dee brought out the first of the ugly bastards to me. It was smaller then a normal baby but its teeth and claws were already fully formed.


    The user on the other end of the chat had changed. This person was useless. Unlike normal people who at least knew some basic knowledge of games and spread their points out this girl had somehow made it to level three with out the need to spread out her stat points. This was not the part that bothered me tho. This girl was also somehow acting as a battery for Kevin''s computer for a long period of time while still suffering under the effects of mana sickness.


    I took a break from talking to the useless girl to write her out a leveling guide and how to distribute her stat points. This was constantly interrupted by my baby killing.


    All Goblins are evil from birth, Their innocence is that they don''t know that they are evil until they want sex.


    There were almost thirty goblin babies in all, Most of them were born from Abigale while the other two each only had six each. I couldn¡¯t stand the sound coming from Abigale¡¯s tent any longer.


    I felt sorry for her.


    The person on Kevin¡¯s computer finally went offline. That person made a great battery for being only level three. I sent the guide to Kevin¡¯s auto print folder then went and stretched my legs.


    It was going to be a long two day walk for the camp.

 The Unknown - Vanessa

    The air was ice cold, my sword glistened with frost. Slowly I readied my self to sprint at what ever was coming our way.


    ¡°This isn¡¯t normal.¡± Chase stood beside me ready to guard the people behind us with his life. My only care was the little dwarf boy and the other children. Children deserve to grow up happy and free, not in constant fear.


    ¡°What is it?¡± My eyes scanned the tree line watching for any movement.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, I have only seen goblins come this way.¡± His sword was trembling. I glanced down at mine. I was scared to.


    My instincts yelled for me to get out of there, but I didn¡¯t listen.


    People started pouring out of the forest running our way.


    My view was blocked by the amount of them. Their number was well over a hundred.


    Chase moved forward and stood with his sword behind him ready to sprint forward through the group. I ran to circle them.


    It was getting colder.


    I glanced and thought I had recognized two of the people but there was no way they would be running like this.


    The last man left the forest. He was covered in blood and looked spent.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    The spear in his had shined like glass as he ran.


    He stopped running when he saw Chase emerge from the crowd. The people were now all behind Chase. In the safest spot around.


    The man turned from where he was and caught sight of me.


    Arrows started raining down from the edge of the field. The man had judged the distance where the arrows would hit perfectly.


    He back peddled towards chase a few more steps then stood there.


    His spear shattered and he took a knee.


    The goblins were not like any of the goblins I had seen before. Their skin was black and they held cheap bows.


    There was a lot of them. All of them focused their shots on the ice man.


    Chase moved up beside the man and brought out a giant metal door and placed it in front of the man. The door was pierced by the arrows but none of them went all the way through.


    The goblins didn''t notice me until it was too late. One by one they started meeting their maker as their black heads were severed from their bodies.


    They started shouting and pushing past each other as I twisted my blade and mowed them down.


    The goblins before me had dropped their bows in favor of running away. I couldn''t let that happen.


    Something blue streaked out past me. The goblin I was attacking had somehow grown a blue horn. My sword never stopped although I couldn''t help but think it was strange.


    More of the goblins ahead of me sprouted the blue horns. Each one started to fall as the horns appeared. I stood there and looked close at one of the horns. It was cold to the touch.


    "Humph!" I glared over at the man who was with Chase.


    Ty stood there drinking a small bottle of blue juice while pointing at something. He was laughing.


    I followed his gaze and found the object he was laughing at. I started to walk forward towards it.


    I couldn''t fight back the laughter any longer.


    I knew that some of the goblins were probably running away now but I couldn''t help it. This was too much.


    My sides ached as I stepped over the corpses finally meeting up with the other two.

 Have Faith - Karen

    With the help of Stormshadow, I had found weapons that he said should work on the goblins. Under Kevin''s bed was a large stash of medieval like swords, daggers, staffs, and shields.


    Evelyn hugged a staff that had two marbles on each end of it. she said that it was hers and nobody else could touch it.


    Tommy had decided to use one of the small shields and a short sword.


    I didn''t see the point to any of the weapons there. I had never used a weapon like that before in my life, they were all too heavy and hurt to hold them.


    We passed out the weapons to anybody that wanted one. Ten people carried small blades and short swords. Nobody wanted the large shield or giant sword so they were stored inside my inventory.


    During the day I started to hear whispers about heroes who would save the world, Seven of them. I couldn''t bare to tell them that it was all just talk from a video game.


    The park behind the housing complex had become something that was almost fun to watch.


    Tommy was charging towards Evelyn with his shield in front of him. His sword hand was changed for a stick instead of his sword but that didn''t change how scary he looked.


    Evelyn was smiling. She stood there waiting for Tommy to get closer to her. the marbles on her staff started to glow red as she changed her stance. Flames licked the tips of the staff as she practiced with Tommy. It was beautiful to watch.


    One thought kept running through my head as I watched them dance. How can I have faith in somebody I had just met.


    I sat on the park bench and looked forward into the pond.


    "I have to find them."


    Somebody wrapped their arms around me. I tilted my head back and looked up into Evelyn''s eyes.


    "You will grow old too fast if you keep frowning all the time." She kissed my for head and I smiled faintly at her.


    "You look like you were having fun there." I reached up and wrapped my arms around her neck holding her in place. "Why did you stop?"


    "The marbles cracked in my staff." She was pouting. Her staff was one of a kind in the collection. The one she was working on before we had found broken after she remembered where she put it.


    "That sucks, what now?"


    She broke free from my grasp and came and sat beside me.


    "Donno, Using the staff is easier then with out it plus I can do cool stuff with it." She put her elbows on her knees and was leaning forward on her hands pushing her cheeks up. "I think I need to find new marbles."


    "Still no word on the Hero Network?" Our friend network had spread through everyone we had met on the road. With it we were able to send messages about what we had found out and how things are going in different regions.


    "Still dead." She held out her phone and tried to send messages on it. My phone should of been buzzing every time she sent a message but nothing.


    "Well then, How about we go look for some marbles for you. During the day light it was the safest time to go out. We had only ever seen the one goblin out in the daylight the rest came around at dusk or through the night.


    Evelyn''s eyes lit up with joy at my suggestion. Tommy was playing sword fighting with some of the other guys so the two of us took off alone towards the mall we had seen on our way to the complex.


    Everyone was free to do what they wanted before sunset. For some unknown reason the Goblins would go near Kevin''s house but would not actually touch it.


    We passed by a few of the others as we we danced our way down towards the mall.


    It was quiet. If not for the lack of people in the city it would of seamed like any other day.


    The mall doors were broken as we got there. Glass had been shattered and pushed aside by the passage of people who have been to the mall before us. Our voices echoed through the empty store. We sang and voiced our opinion of the past few months as loud as possible and laughed at our voices coming back to us.


    If there had been music playing over the malls speakers I am sure that we would of looked like just two girls out shopping, and we played the part.


    "Did you hear that?" Evelyn stood still holding the dress she had just taken off the rack in her hands.


    The mall was silent, I hadn''t heard anything, but Evelyn had thought she did.


    "Nothing." We stood there in silence barely breathing.


    "There," Something fell off a rack somewhere. "There was just something."


    "I think we need to go." We both were turning pale, both hoping that what ever it was that was with us was human.


    Slowly we started moving towards the exit. The mall was too big, it was going to long run from the store we were in to the nearest exit.


    Something fell off a shelf closer to the entrance. There was more then one thing in the store with us.


    I pulled out a knife from my inventory and dropped the bags of stuff we were playing around with. Evelyn had her staff in her hands and her eyes were round as she looked around the dark room.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    slowly the ends of the staff started to glow. The balls of light were smaller then the ones I had seen her practicing with earlier.


    A mannequin fell over, we jumped.


    The balls of light went out.


    Clicking sounds rang out across the tile floor.


    We turned to run away.


    Evelyn with her shorter legs was falling behind. I reached behind and took her hand trying to pull her along with me.


    I shouldn''t of looked behind me.


    My hand wasn''t holding Evelyn''s hand.


    Evelyn was pinned beside a shelf.


    The green hand was cold. Its strength as I tried to pull away from it was too much.


    My feet lost the ground right before my back found it.


    Something was placed in my mouth, a cloth or sock. I couldn''t push it out with my tongue, I could still breath.


    My hands were tied while the breath was still knocked out of me.


    I tried to kick but my feet became entangled in something and then my head was covered up.


    The goblins were strong.


    I was becoming nauseous from being tossed from goblin to goblin.


    Their laughter wasn''t helping.


    I landed on something, A moan escaped me and the object that I landed on.


    The object over my head was removed and the room we were in was lit up by a red crack in the wall.


    The room had no windows.


    Their were no goblins in site.


    Evelyn slowly moved so that we faced each other.


    Her eyes widened.


    I rolled over.


    behind me had been ten girls, none older then we were with the youngest being not even eight years old. They all had their hands tied to a pole that was stabbed into the wall behind them.


    Bite marks covered their arms, neck, breasts, and legs.


    They were all pregnant, even the youngest.


    "Do you like what you see?" A mans voice was behind me. His shadow loomed over us as he moved closer.


    "No I suppose that you wouldn''t like it, But I want to give you a chance." His boots squeaked against the tile floor as he walked around us.


    I Looked up at him as he stood in front of us. His face was covered up, his clothing didn''t look like it belonged here.


    "So, I my self was given a choice," He pushed me onto my back as he walked by. "Serve the new lords of this world or die. Can you guess what I chose?"


    His voice made it sound like he was grinning as wide as he could.


    Four goblins entered the room through the red crack in the wall.


    "Now, My Lord has given me a task." Two goblins grabbed Evelyn from behind me and moved her on top of a desk. The other ones grabbed me and stood me up one holding my head watching Evelyn.


    She had a black eye.


    "My task is to either have you join him willingly or," he paused. the girls against the wall were in clear view of us. "Break you."


    A goblin holding Evelyn placed a dagger against her back. the knife split what ever she was wrapped in as well as her clothing.


    Her pale skin glowed red from the light. she had a bruise forming over her left side of her ribs.


    "Mmmm, I always wanted to see you naked." The bonds holding Evelyn''s hands and legs were cut. She was held down with her back against the desk, her legs dangling free.


    The man slowly dragged his fingers around her body. He removed the gag from her mouth but holding her mouth closed.


    "Now, Evelyn love, Will you join me," he pointed to him self then pointed to the girls tied up. "Or them."


    "FUCK YOU!" The hand that was removed from her mouth came back down hard and in a fist.


    "That is no way for a lady to speak." The goblins were getting excited. The man dipped his fingers in the blood that Evelyn had just spit out and started running it around her nipples.


    "Now, I can be gentle or rough." He bent down towards her ear and was almost whispering. "Join me, or I get to have my way with you then the goblins will have their way with you after the new batch is born."


    Evelyn tried to say something. The man bent down to hear her response.


    She spit blood up into his face.


    The goblins grabbed her by her hair and the man took a step back and towards me.


    I felt something run down my back. My hands were freed for a second before the object holding me was pulled away like Evelyn taking my clothing with it.


    The man took my panties from the clothing and used it to wipe the blood off his face.


    He placed them on my shoulder. I couldn''t see his face at all even with him being so close to me.


    His tongue ran up my cheek.


    "I take it you are going to be just as defiant as that one?"


    His hand cupped my breasts. This was wrong.


    "I can make this all stop and you can be safe."


    His hand moved down between my legs.


    "Just give me a little nod and you are free."


    I didn''t move, I just stared forward at Evelyn.


    Something pushed inside of me.


    It hurt for a second before it was removed again.


    "Well, it would appear that I get to have my dreams come true."


    The man walked away from me and back towards Evelyn.


    He bent down and grabbed her breasts hard and twisted.


    She screamed and tried to free her self.


    "Struggle more please."


    Her legs were kicking towards the man, she was trying her best to push him away.


    his one hand left her breast and spread her leg slamming it against the desk with a cracking noise.


    Evelyn''s screams became louder. The girls behind her all closed their eyes.


    "Oh dear, The goblins don''t like it when people have broken limbs." Evelyn was no longer moving her legs, her one leg was sitting at a bad angle while the other tried to protect her sex.


    the man removed his pants. I stared at Evelyn''s face.


    I didn''t want to see what he was doing to her. I didn''t want to know what kind of pain she was in.


    Tears rolled down her cheeks mixing with the blood that she had spit out.


    The man was holding onto her non broken leg and putting pressure on her broken one.


    With every movement Evelyn cried out in pain.


    "Say you will be mine and the pain will end."


    She couldn''t talk through the pain even if she wanted to.


    Tears rolled down my cheek.


    The man backed away from Evelyn slowly, proud of him self.


    "I would of never thought that you were a virgin this whole time."


    Her eyes were lifeless. The goblins released her arms and one dragged her by her hair towards the wall where the other girls we tied up.


    "My dearest Karen," His hands pressed against my breasts again. teasing my nipples. "I really don''t want to put you through the same thing as Evelyn. Wont you please just say you will be mine?"


    I just stared at Evelyn laying there. The man pushed my back up against a pole.


    my legs were lifted up by the goblin on each side of me.


    "Poor poor Karen." I could feel him pressing towards me. "Head cheerleader, School council president, Top of every guys want to fuck list."


    It hurt, I wanted to scream.


    "You were always the perfect one." His hands grabbed the side of my head.


    I kept my eyes on Evelyn.


    My legs were spread farther apart and he kept pushing into me.


    "This is all your fault now, Karen." he pulled my hair. My head turned towards the ceiling.


    I could feel his tongue on my neck, his hands digging into my breasts, his sex inside me.


    He put my ear in his mouth nibbling on my lobe.


    "Just say you will be mine and enjoy it." He whispered low into my ear. "Tomorrow you will have another chance to say yes, the day after you belong to the goblins."


    He pressed deep against me and held it before something else filled me.


    I could feel tears running down my cheeks.


    My legs were released and something ran down my thighs.


    My heals were dragged and I was thrown against the wall hard next to Evelyn.


    I cried.


    The man and the goblins left us like that, Naked and tied to the wall.


    The red light pulsed slowly at an irregular rate making it impossible to know the passage of time.


    "Karen, are you okay?" I shook my head, I was violated, it still hurt.


    "It will be okay. Have faith." My thoughts kept thinking about the time left before the countdown ended. Three days before the end of the world, Three days before I will be raped by goblins.

 I want a hero - Evelyn

    Everything hurt.


    What did we do to deserve this? Why did he hurt me so much and be so gentle with Karen? Who was he?


    My mind was racing.


    Something I had done had upset the guy, but he loved Karen.


    I laid there and watched him grinding against her while the goblins held her up. I laid their and did nothing to help her.


    My hands and legs were free but I just laid there.


    "Tomorrow you will have another chance to say yes." I shuddered, I didn''t want tomorrow to come.


    The goblins licked the sweat from Karen''s neck before tying her to the pole in the wall. They almost forgot to tie me up as I laid there but one came back and pushed me hard against the wall and then lifted my hands above my head.


    I tried to wiggle free from its grip but it stepped on my leg.


    My vision burned white as I let out a silent scream.


    My breathing was heavy, I didn''t hear the goblin leaving the area.


    There was only the twelve of us in the room.


    Slowly my mind came back to me.


    I could move my mouth again with out much pain.


    "Karen?" I looked over at my friend, she stared at the crack in the wall.


    "Karen?" I tried calling out to her a little louder, she still didn''t respond.


    "Karen are you ok?" A tear rolled down her cheek.


    Slowly she shook her head. Her eyes had lost focus completely.


    "Karen, you are stronger then this." Tears started to roll down my cheeks. The pain in my leg was slowly going away.


    "Karen, This isn''t the end yet!" She wouldn''t look away from that crack in the wall.


    "Karen, you have to believe that we will make it through this!"


    tears were streaming down my cheeks. I could feel the droplets hitting my breasts.


    I looked down at my body. I was beaten, bruised, and broken when I was tossed against the wall.


    The pain in my chest was gone from where the goblins had kicked me as I tried to cast a fireball in the mall.


    I was able to move my leg slowly with out much pain and my hips no longer felt like they had been forced apart.


    I had no idea how long we had been alone for. I just know that the word tomorrow would bring more pain.


    I kept trying to talk to Karen, or any of the other girls. Nobody would even look away from the damn crack.


    "And the shadow descended down upon the vile creatures." I started to think about my favorite story from the one that stormshadow had sent us. "He reaped the life away from them one by one until there was none left. The girl was crying when he reached out his hand towards her and with his words he brought her back from her fear. It will be okay. Have faith."


    "Will the shadow kill the goblins?" I looked towards the young girl beside me. She was looking at me. The nine girls behind her had their heads turned my way as well.


    "Jenny!" The second girl was barely recognizable through her bruises. Both her eyes were covered with black rings. She was missing tufts of her beautiful black hair.


    "Evelyn, what is the shadow?" Her voice was dry and cracked. She was missing her spunk from her normal talk.


    "Lady, will he kill the goblins?"


    I looked back down at the young girl. "The Shadow is a hero, He is a protector of all things good so I think he will kill the goblins."Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    "Will he kill us for giving birth to goblins?" Tears ran down the first girls face and the other girls all looked over at her.


    "The shadow is a hero, You did nothing wrong."


    "It''s not real." Karen spoke up.


    "Karen!"


    "It is a story from a video game." Her voice was monotone.


    The other girls looked down away from me. I was the only one who looked like they had any fight left in them.


    I tried talking to any of them. Jenny, Karen, The little girl, None of them talked back.


    My throat was getting soar from trying to make them talk.


    None of us slept.


    We all just stared at the crack in the wall.


    Footsteps approached from somewhere behind the crack.


    The male voice was talking to somebody.


    The reply made Jenny shiver.


    "Who are they?" I tried to whisper to Jenny. She wouldn''t answer


    The footsteps came closer


    "It is okay, the goblins here are under my watch." The voice was calmer then yesterday.


    "And If I join you I can really have my pick of them?" I knew that voice.


    There were more people with the man then I thought.


    Six men entered the room with the Men, Five of which were from our group. The last one covered his face with a hood. Jenny stared at the hooded man as he walked up towards her.


    "This one is mine, I won''t share her with you guys." Her eyes started to tear up.


    "Whoa how old are they all?" The voice I knew walked up to the youngest one beside me.


    "That one is the youngest at Seven." The hooded man was groping Jenny''s breasts.


    "Just don''t stick it in the pregnant ones," My Rapist leaned against the wall by the crack letting the guys inspect us. "Unless you want to loose it that is."


    The hooded man pressed Jenny''s head against his body. I could hear her trying to cough as he used her.


    "You even have Karen here." The one I knew stepped over my legs and stood between Karen''s.


    "She is still trying to decide if she will join me or not, I told her she would have a chance to tell me tomorrow while I use her again." He was smirking.


    "Can I really fuck her then?" his hand was already between her legs


    "Really? I thought you were more into Evelyn?" I glanced over at the hooded man. The girls between us were being used, all but the youngest.


    "How long till they give birth so we can use them properly?"


    "The birth should be around noon tomorrow, as for when they can be used? that night around supper."


    "Fuck, She wont suck on me." The guy had his member inside of Karen''s mouth like the other guys around me with the other girls.


    "Maybe she is broken, Jenny wont stop sucking."


    "Hey help me move her to the desk, I can''t get a good angle at her other holes from this position."


    Two of the guys passed me, their members out of their pants as they went to help him bring Karen to the desk.


    Karen didn''t resist. She Didn''t help them either.


    They laid her across the width of the desk with her head leaning off the back of it. The guy I thought I knew pressed into her.


    "Holy shit, she is still tight! I thought she was a whore!" His movements made me sick. I thought he was my friend. I thought he would be the one to save me. I thought he cared.


    He was dead to me now.


    Karen was pressed between two of the guys one was using her mouth or trying to like he was using the other girls.


    "You''re right this end doesn''t work, Sit her on top of you let me try her ass.


    They lifted her up and wrapped her arms and legs around him. Tears started to fall from Karen''s eyes I could see the pain as the new guy entered her.


    Somebody blocked my view of Karen.


    My mouth was forced open and something was shoved inside.


    I tried to bite it.


    "Evelyn is great at this, her small just takes it."


    I wanted to kill him. I tired to move my head to get his hands off of me.


    "Careful there Johnny, She is a feisty one. I had to break her jaw for her vile language."


    It wasn''t working.


    He finished inside my mouth.


    "Swallow it all you filthy bitch" My nose was pinched closed, I couldn''t breath.


    He didn''t pull it out of my mouth until I had swallowed.


    I wanted to barf.


    I tired to barf.


    My hands were freed from the wall.


    I tired to run.


    I was forced onto the desk instead. My head was tucked under Karen''s leg against the dead mans ass.


    "I thought you popped her cherry already?"


    It hurt worse then before.


    I screamed.


    "Interesting, I did, also her leg and Jaw were broken. she also had some broken ribs." The man stood in front of me poking my sides.


    "So how it she a virgin again? She is bleeding hard here" The man kept thrusting into me.


    My arms were pulled apart and something was wrapped around them securing them in place on the desk.


    "Always as tight as a virgin?" The guys had switched after tying me down.


    "You did stop at the sex shop before coming here right Tommy?"


    The guy finished inside me and pulled out. My mouth was gagged up.


    "What did you get? I want to see if she will remain tight!"


    The guys got excited behind me.


    they had dropped Karen on the ground.


    Her legs were spread out before me.


    I tried to scream and move as objects were shoved inside me one after another.


    "Holy shit! look at that it goes back to like it was before!"


    One of them went and jumped down towards Karen. She let out the first noise she had made since they had come. It was a painful scream.


    She weakly tried to get away.


    The guy kept pressing the object into her.


    "It doesn''t work on Karen." He shoved the object back inside of her then left her like that.


    Slowly the dildo he used pushed its way out of her leaving her sex gaping.


    Slowly Karen rolled her self into a ball. Her eyes back on the crack in the wall.


    Each of the guys took a turn on me until they were too tired.


    My ass and thighs felt raw.


    I wanted out of this.


    The hooded man tied Karen back up to the wall.


    "So I take it you are all in?"


    Their was a round of cheers and the leader walked over to the crack in the wall.


    I could feel the mana moving like when I charge my staff.


    The crack widened enough for a person to go through it.


    The other side of the crack was a forest fire.


    Each of them stepped through the crack one by one.


    "I''ll see you tomorrow Evelyn" The asshole was the last to go through.

 Goblin Hunter - Micheal

    Finally, My dream had come true. Life was like a video game.


    I pulled out my sword when I saw the target ahead of me. A Green bastard known as a Goblin. With one more kill I would be level five and be able to get a new skill.


    The goblin was feeding on something alone.


    This was my chance.


    I ran forward as quietly as I could. My soft leather boots hardly made any sound on the asphalt.


    My sword swung down on its bare neck.


    This was my method of hunting the goblins I had seen so far.


    I always waited and watched them until they were distracted or alone and finished them off fast.


    I hadn''t seen a goblin that could withstand my blow as most of them I had seen were level one. This one was no different.


    It''s head separated from its body with ease.


    I breathed in deep and pulled the mana back away from my sword. The edge had a blue glow that slowly faded.


    My phone gave me the buzz I was looking for.


    I opened my stats page and spread out my five stat points, two into strength and one each into constitution, stamina, and wisdom.


    I bent down and placed my phone against the body of the goblin. I had to see what my prize was.


    The goblin''s body glowed, On the screen it showed the Goblins Inventory.


    "Score!"


    The corpse of a rat, three copper coins, a goblins story book, and a leather sword belt.


    I left the rat in the goblins storage but took the rest out. This was the first goblin I had seen to carry a book. I was curious as to the contents.


    I put on the sword belt and placed my sword in it. The sword moved freely from the belt to my hand in a more fluid and faster manner then pulling it from my inventory every time.


    The copper coins each had a square cut out from the center of them and a wide lip on the outside that was rough to touch. I pulled out my collection of copper coins from my inventory. When I did so they came out in a small pouch. I slid the three new coins into the pouch before putting it back away in my inventory.


    The book I held onto.


    There was a grin on my face from ear to ear.


    The reason for that was my skill points.


    Each level I had gained one skill point.


    My first three I had spent on Health stamina and mana regeneration. The next five were on the skill Spell Sword.


    With Spell Sword I was able to infuse my mana into any sword to increase the damage it dealt. This was the blue glow from my sword.


    I had two points left over when I had left home to try and hunt goblins, trolls, kobalds, and the other evils of my video games. I had gained three more one for each level before five. Now my skill points had gone up by another five.


    I opened my skill list and was looking through the list of available skills. I pulled out my notebook to check for the ones I wanted from my first examination of the list.


    The point values had changed.


    I had thought that I would be able to get one of the bolt types soon since I had eight points. They were ten on day one. Now to me they were fifteen points each.


    My smile slowly turned into a frown. None of the skills that I had wanted were in reach any more.


    Slowly I walked my way down the road to wards the roof of the store that I had been sleeping at. It was an old convenience store that had a broken staircase that lead up to the second floor.


    "I''m back!"


    My voice echoed off the nearby buildings.


    I stood there waiting for the rope ladder to be lowered down.


    "What is the secret password?" I put my palm against my forehead. My younger sister Mia was up there with our grandma.


    "Rapunzel, Rapunzel wont you please let down your hair?"


    Her face beamed as she looked over the railing and down at me. The ladder might of been too heavy for her to carry but it was fine for her to just push over the railing where I had it set up.


    I climbed the ladder and she wrapped her arms around me.


    "I made a friend today!"


    "You did?" I picked her up and held her as I pulled up the ladder.


    "Yeah, He was walking down the road. Green people ran away from him!" I looked over at my grandma who was sitting there knitting a blanket.


    "You are the one who put her on watch." I shook my head and put Mia down.


    "How do you know he is your friend?"


    "He gave me candy!" She held out a chocolate bar. Grandma just smiled and kept on knitting. "I asked him and he gave it to me!"


    "I didn''t see him before you ask. by the time I got to the ledge the creatures and the man were all gone." Grandma was old. when the world went to hell she refused to believe in the system and never received any skill points.


    Mia seamed to be too young to be an adventure too, At five she had received only one skill point. I made her put it into health regeneration just to play it safe. I didn''t want anything to happen to her after all.


    "So, What did you bring me today!" I looked at Mia and showed her my empty hands.


    This was her favorite magic trick.


    My hand glowed and the goblin book and three colouring books appeared on it.


    I clapped my hands together and then turned and presented the four books to the sky.


    "DUN DUN DAH!" I screamed out and held them like a certain hero holds his found items.


    She laughed at me and clapped excitedly.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    I placed the books onto the table and she looked through them.


    "This is a story book!" She held up the goblin book. "It has my friend on it!"


    The cover of the story book looked like a pathway or a road with a person walking down it. The person was covered in smoke.


    She opened up the book and started flipping through the pages.


    I sat on the outdoor couch and she moved from the table to cuddle up next to me.


    "Here I will read to you!" She opened the book. The words were not in any language that I could understand but there was a picture on each page like a children book.


    "Green people are bad!" The page had three Goblins on it, each one held onto a different kind of weapons.


    "Green people ran after pretty girl!, RUN GIRL RUN!" the girl was running while the goblins were behind her.


    "The girl got away!" The girl had run into a hole between the trees.


    "Green people were mad!" The three had steam running over their heads. I had to admit her story made sense so far.


    "The large man tossed the green people into the hole the girl went through." I couldn''t tell what kind of creature this large man was, but he did look like he tossed them or at least sent them after the girl.


    "The green people went and looked in different places." the three goblins split up, One to a forest, one to a mountain, and one to a beach.


    "The mountain green person thought he had found the girl." Their was a mountain in the background a city ahead with a girl walking towards it.


    "The green person tried to hurt the girl, Oh noes!" The girl was on a street and the goblin was jumping at her.


    "My friend saved the girl!" A man was standing in the place of the girl. The goblin looked confused.


    "My friend scared away the bad green person!" Something had knocked over the goblin and it was sprawled out in front of the man standing there.


    "The green person ran away!" The goblin was alone outside of the town.


    "The Green person called his friends!" Eight goblins were drawn here.


    "This made my friend angry!" The man was seen behind the goblin horde.


    "Green people went to sleep as the man passed them! Night night green people!" The goblins were all on the ground behind him but running while in front of him.


    "The Man was cool!" smoke was rising from the man as he was the last page of the book.


    "The end!" I was sure that this story played out differently to the goblins who could read the language, but from a child''s point of view it worked.


    "Okay Mia, I think it is time for you to go hide with Grandma for the night." The sun was starting to set. Soon the goblins would be coming out of their hiding places for them to hunt them selves.


    "Awe but Mikey what about my friend can he come too?" I rubbed her hair gently messing it up. No child should have to live through a world like this, but her smile was enough to ease my heart and give me hope in a better tomorrow.


    "I will keep an eye out for him while I am on watch tonight, okay?" She nodded and Grandma took her inside the small apartment.


    I stood looking over the mart sign at the street below me. This town was my home and I hated seeing it like this.


    Six goblins passed by carrying two packages between them. One package was leaving a trail of blood behind it as what ever it was wrapped it leaked the fluid.


    "I can''t believe they captured Karen!" Two men walked slowly behind them, One carrying a large black sword the other a black long bow. They were speaking English.


    "Is it really something to be that excited over? I mean she is -" The one with the long bow stopped mid sentence and looked almost right at me.


    I stood still. Both of them turned to face me. My heart hurt as I stood there. Who ever they were, they were bad.


    My instincts told me that I needed to run away or that I would be dead. My heart told me that if I left my sister I might as well be dead.


    I was frozen between the two choices.


    "Common, I don''t think I can stop them from having their way with them if we don''t hurry up." The man with the sword started running after the goblins.


    "Somebody saw us." The hooded man kept looking in my direction.


    "Oh no the shadow man is coming to get us," The Sword guy turned and showed a fake scared face towards the other. "Grow a fuck''n pair or is that bow on your back just for decoration?"


    The two started back down the road.


    I don''t know why but I followed them.


    I climbed down with out using the rope ladder and stayed a block behind the two.


    The guys went down into a subway entrance.


    Every piece of my body screamed not to go down.


    The stairs at the bottom had stains on them that I didn''t want to question as to what they were.


    My feet moved down the well worn out cleaned pathway. I could no longer see the two as they walked down into the dark.


    My feet dragged forward and I caught a glimpse of the hooded man standing by a doorway.


    Screams came from behind the broken door. I moved to be behind some box a homeless person must of used before.


    The screams died down and I could almost make out the words the guy was saying. The hooded man and two goblins went back the way that they had come.


    "If you touch them before I say you can I will cut off you dick and feed it to you." The sword guy came out from the room. The goblins looked scared of him as he was grabbing them by their members.


    Two goblins left with the man while the two he had threatened stayed behind at the doorway.


    Two, I can take out two.


    I tried to pull my sword out from my inventory, I felt like my heart still was screaming no, get out of there.


    I didn''t move.


    "-twelve of them, I don''t know where they found the other nine but three are from our school."


    "The world has already ended boys, now you just have to think if you want to survive the party or die here."


    The hooded man and the sword man were leading more guys down the tunnel. The new guys were surrounded by the four other goblins. The sun was starting to shine down into the tunnel.


    Mia was going to be scared.


    The guys were louder as they went inside the room.


    I didn''t want to hear what they were saying.


    I didn''t want to hear that poor girls screams.


    I hated my self for not having the strength to do anything about it.


    Everything quieted down.


    The goblins say around facing each other with some carcass between them. It looked human.


    I swallowed the vile that was trying to push its way up my stomach and tried to control my breathing.


    The room started to echo with screams. A lot of different screams all at once.


    The goblins rushed into the room.


    Something blocked the sun from the stairwell. It was moving down towards me.


    Their was a scraping sound as something dragged its way down the metallic railing.


    I couldn''t fight back my instincts any longer. My nether regions dampened with warm liquid as the thing moved closer.


    The screams from the room died down, only whimpering was heard from the room.


    The six goblins came out with their weapons drawn as they finally were able to hear the sound of the thing coming down the stairs.


    More and more goblins started to come from the room, all of them about half the size as the original six.


    I lost count after the thirtieth one, but they all ran towards the entrance way. The goblins passed by me with out noticing me at all.


    Something smacked against the cardboard box I was behind and ripped it apart.


    I ran for the room and closed the door. I didn''t want to get caught between the goblin horde and what ever they were fighting against.


    I slowly turned around. afraid of still being surrounded by goblins.


    I wasn''t expecting to see a girl with her legs spread apart on the table behind me.


    I tired to look away and see if there were any dangers to my life in the room.


    The only thing I was unsure about was the red light source in the room.


    I pulled a blanket from my inventory and covered up the girl on the table.


    Ten sets of eyes focused on me at once.


    I froze trying not to look down past their faces.


    I failed. The older ones were stunning to look at, with flat stomachs and ample breasts. The younger ones reminded me too much of my sister to ever think about looking at.


    My blanket storage ended up near depletion.


    I cut free all twelve of the girls and the one on the table went and hugged the only one that didn''t notice me.


    Only one of them moved from their place.


    "Karen, speak to me!" The redhead from the table was shaking the last girl on the floor.


    The other ten just watched me as I moved around the room.


    I could still hear the fight going on outside the door but I still chanced a glance.


    At the bottom of the stairs stood a man, One single man.


    His blade danced as the goblins moved near him. They still had the numbers advantage. The six bigger ones were nowhere to be seen.


    The little goblins died one after another with each passing second.


    The mans shadow moved at a different time then his body. His eyes were jet black and it looked like he was covered in ever changing tattoos.


    The last of the goblins fell and the man vanished in what looked like a black puff of smoke.


    The girls were all right behind me as I turned back around.


    "The goblins are gone." My voice cracked like I was going through puberty again. The girls all stood there.


    I opened the door for them but they just stood there.


    "They don''t trust you Mr. Hero." The short redhead was supporting the blonde with a vacant look on her face. I backed out of the door and slowly walked backwards towards the stairs.


    The twelve followed me.


    The short redhead was the only one who had life in their eyes, the rest looked like zombies as they followed wrapped in their blankets.


    It was creepy.


    "Grandma, can you please lower the ladder and put Mia inside?"


    I glanced up as my back had finally hit the wall of the store. Mia was leaning over the edge looking down at me with her face all puffed up angry like.


    Mia hit me with the ladder before Grandma could put her away.


    "Go, It''s safe up there."


    The redhead came and stood beside me looking up the ladder.


    The youngest one dropped her blanket and started climbing the ladder. I turned away red in the face. I didn''t carry any spare clothing in my Inventory. I felt sorry for them.


    One by one the girls all dropped their blanket and climbed up the ladder.


    The redhead was last.

 Watch the world burn - Kyle

    The look on his face made me sick. Evelyn was one thing but Karen? Why would he be so excited that the goblins had caught her?


    Evelyn was a top grade bitch to us ever since she was in grade school. Sure there were times that we provoked her.


    The one bundle that the goblin ahead kept squirming around. Our minions were having a hard time holding onto her.


    Smoke started rising from her the bed sheet that she was wrapped in.


    ¡°Since when could she use her skill?¡± The goblins dropped her on the ground.


    Duke walked over to the bundle and started kicking it hard. Blood was pooling in the sheet.


    I wanted so badly to just end her misery.


    The mark on my wrist started to itch.


    Neither of the two deserved What was coming to them.


    Blood dropped down Evelyn¡¯s now exposed hands as the goblins picked her back up.


    I couldn¡¯t stand the sight of it so I closed my eyes and activated my new demon skill.


    Evelyn let out a glorious red glow. Karen was a faint white one.


    Duke and the goblins all shared the same mixture of black with little bits of yellow moving around like fish in a pond.


    My own glow looked more like lightning dancing around a cloud.


    Three glows were off in the distance, we would pass them before long.


    I tried to find a way to hide them from Duke. The two of them had a glow as weak as Karen, The last one had strength to it.


    ¡°Dude, I still can¡¯t believe you are this excited.¡± My voice echoed off the empty streets.


    ¡°Awe poor Kyle, his girlfriend got kidnaped and impregnated by a few goblins.¡± I wanted to turn him into a pin cushion, but I knew that my skills would no longer work on him. His sword would still do a number on me.


    ¡°Fuck you! That is your fault too!¡± Duke had gotten horny and we only had the three cheerleaders with us.


    ¡°Awe common the lord said you can have her back if she agrees to follow him!¡± The bright light had noticed us. He was trying to conceal himself. ¡°Plus now I can fuck the two hottest girls we know!¡±


    I shook my head.


    ¡°I am going to fuck Evelyn until even the goblins don¡¯t want her.¡± Duke was practically skipping down the road in excitement.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that is possible, you saw what they were screwing before.¡±


    ¡°Yeah that¡¯s why I can¡¯t believe they caught Karen!¡±


    "Is it really something to be that excited over? I mean she is -¡° The glow flashed brighter. I opened my eyes and looked up towards it.


    Nothing happened.


    I was sure he was about to use a skill on us but he backed off.


    I was trying to signal him to follow us. He was strong enough to face Duke, stronger then the six goblins combined.


    I wanted him to save the girls, save Karen at least before things went too far.


    Duke was getting impatient.


    Slowly I reactivated my demon skill. I wanted to see Jenny again but not in the state she was currently in.


    I followed Duke like that in silence trying to see how far I could push this sight forward.


    Small groups of people could be seen, people like that strange guy who had refused to leave their homes. The glows were mostly weak and faint with out any real strength to them.


    I wanted to make sure she was still glowing green and still alive.


    The rainbow of colours came from underground.


    I could see her green colour among them still. Black objects swirled inside of her, the unborn goblins.


    I could feel the smile on my face so I pulled my hood down lower covering it with the weird shadow magic within it.


    Duke was trying to get his mask to stay on his face. He didn¡¯t want his sister to know it was him.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    As we got to the bottom of a stairwell something caught my eye. The heroic glow was following us.


    I wanted to make it easy for him to save the girls.


    The goblins were outside the door when we arrived. Duke wanted them all to watch him violate their pray.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t we send them off to find more followers, we are never going to hit the minimum before the date the lord set otherwise.¡±


    The goblins were smiling, there needed to be seven of us at minimum or they got to eat us.


    ¡°Fine take two of them and go ask the guys we came in with,¡± He had his mind on other things. ¡°Once I finish giving them a taste I will catch up. Whomever refuses we will just kill.¡±


    He was talking about killing our friends. They might of been the best choice in finding new recruits but still they were our friends.


    I stood there watching the door as he went in. His colours blocked Jenny from sight as he moved towards Evelyn¡¯s mighty glow.


    I was also waiting for the would be hero to find a hiding spot, if me and the goblins left right away we would run into him half way up the stairs.


    Evelyn¡¯s glow started to fade down.


    Hurry up hero.


    Her fire went out, it was only a spark of the flame she showed earlier.


    I didn¡¯t want to come back and see a corpse.


    I opened my eyes.


    I could see full view of Evelyn laying on the desk bathed in the red glow of the nether portal. Her eyes held none of her usual spunk.


    I turned and left the subway office.


    The hero was a retard.


    He thought a cardboard box could cover him. His legs head was half peeking out from behind it with his arm sticking out supporting his weight.


    I smacked the goblins on the head and had them rush out of the subway before they noticed him.


    I walked slowly back down the road towards the housing complex. Duke was about ready to follow behind.


    I knew he would leave at least two goblins behind but the longer it took us to get to the complex and back the longer he would have to save them.


    Duke took his time on Karen. What little light she had in her was gone already. But she was unhurt physically.


    I was almost at the edge of my sight range when two of the goblins had started to run towards me. They were excited. Tonight they got to eat.


    ¡°You waited?¡±


    Duke caught up to me fast.


    ¡°Nah, the gobs just run too fast to try and keep up with them.¡± That was a lie.


    ¡°True, the little buggers move good for two things, food and sex.¡±


    ¡°You didn¡¯t kill her did you?¡±


    ¡°Who Evelyn?¡± I nodded. ¡°Nah, just made it so that she shouldn¡¯t be able to say anything for a week or so.¡±


    The housing complex was a bloody mess when the two of us arrived. I wouldn¡¯t of been able to tell what body part matched with what body.


    I didn¡¯t think we had this many people with us.


    I closed my eyes. There were thirteen still remaining in that guys house. I pointed to it and Duke jumped up onto the balcony. The goblins were on the other side gathered around a quickly fading light.


    I stood there and listened to the group as they were excited to see Duke again.


    ¡°But where are the girls?¡±


    ¡°They are nothing but sex toys now, the goblins caught them earlier.¡±


    Somebody protested about using them as sex toys, the voice went quiet half way through their sentence. Twelve remained.


    Duke was laughing telling them now now there was one girl for each of them. He did the math wrong and when he corrected him self another two slices were heard.


    Ten.


    They followed Duke out the front door past the goblins who were eating someone who was still alive.


    Two has tried to save him. And now their was eight.


    I shot two dark arrows up into the sky and waited.


    I knew Duke would attack me if I did it directly.


    The arrows struck the two who had a glow like Karen¡¯s. I really didn¡¯t want the dark lord getting the skill barrier from them.


    The arrows hit, the two fell and duke accidentally hit a third with his sword when he was looking for why they dropped. Five remained.


    Duke charged towards me and slammed my back through a building. ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Heroic glow.¡± I lied, everyone was a nobody. They were all insignificant.


    His grip released on me and he counted everyone. Including us we were at our quota.


    He was mad and he showed it while walking. Every building we passed ended up with a hole in its wall from him punching it.


    His anger subsided a little when Tommy started asking for details on the girls. He wanted to know everything about them. He wanted to know if he could go in raw or if he needed a condom. He was a virgin who was going to rape his way out of it.


    The guys all teased Tommy since he was tenting up with Evelyn and Karen they were sure he had been fucking one of them.


    The damn hero was still behind his cardboard box. Why didn¡¯t he move!


    ¡°Anyone even looks at Jenny and I will cut your dick off.¡± I distracted the guys as we passed so that they were not going to notice him in the corner.


    I am lucky I am surrounded by retards.


    I walked up to Jenny in the room. She was almost ready to burst. The goblins would be born soon.


    Her eyes fixed on me and I bent down and covered her breasts with my hands while my feet blocked her sex from the rest of the guys.


    ¡°Are you okay?¡± Gently I whispered in her ear.


    Her head shook a little I gently kissed her forehead before standing up and hiding her face under my shirt.


    Tommy was trying to get a blowjob from Karen but was failing. Guys were using the other ones in the same matter. All but Evelyn was being used.


    She was staring at me.


    Tommy had started to hit Karen to try and get her to suck on him.


    I told him to use her properly then and he asked for me to help move her.


    Jenny was pulling on my pants with her teeth.


    I waited till she nodded before I moved.


    Evelyn watched me pass, I know she could see that I was flaccid.


    The guys wanted more then blowjobs. Evelyn resisted when guys finally moved towards her.


    Her resistance excited the guys.


    She was screaming as the first one entered her. Blood flowed as if he was popping her cherry, but Duke had said that he already did that.


    The guys changed after examining her. It happened again.


    Tommy brought out sex toys to test out on her.


    Jenny looked scared as they started forcing things inside of Evelyn.


    I was about to go and cover her eyes again but she shook her head gently.


    Tommy went and stuck a huge double ended dildo inside of Karen then pulled it out. He was disappointed that there was no blood and that she didn¡¯t regain her virginity. He shoved the dildo far enough into her that she made a sound of pain before he went back to playing with Evelyn.


    The guys all got in a line to fuck her.


    Each went until they were spent. I was last.


    Everyone was watching as my dick entered her and the blood came out on the way out. I couldn¡¯t fake it. I had to fuck her.


    Duke was smiling.


    The nether portal started opening.


    ¡°Come now brothers, lets go greet our dark lord.0


    I stepped through the portal first.


    There were thousands of portals opening all around the circular chamber we were in.


    Thousands upon thousands of people from around the world entered the room. Humanity had appeared to of joined the side of the demons in this war.


    My heart felt heavy as the golden creature flapped it¡¯s wings while spreading its arms befor us

 The Bad Brother, And The Friendly Man - Mia

    Grandma was still sleeping when I woke up. I snuck outside, it was brothers turn to sleep.


    I was going to tackle him.


    ¡°Mikey!¡± He wasn¡¯t there. His sharp stock was on the table beside the colouring books.


    ¡°Mikey!¡± I looked under the couch. Not there either.


    ¡°Ganma, Mikey¡¯s not here.¡± Grandma always knew where Mikey was hiding.


    I tried shaking grandma to wake her up, she stayed sleeping.


    ¡°Ganma wake up!¡± I shook her harder and yelled.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong child?¡± I jumped and turned around.


    ¡°Friend!¡± The candy man was standing on the edge of wall


    ¡°Hello again, did you enjoy the skittles?¡± I nodded and the man jumped down from the wall and walked towards me and patted my head.


    ¡°Good girl so tell me what is wrong now so that I can help.¡±


    ¡°Mikey is gone and Ganma won¡¯t wake up.¡±


    ¡°Okay, sit on the couch and eat this, I will go check on Ganma ok?¡±


    He handed me a sandwich like brother does all glowing and pretty. I smiled and climbed onto the couch.


    ¡°My favourite! Peanut and jelly¡± he rubbed my head like mom used to do, then turned and went into the room where grandma was sleeping.


    Black smoke puffed twice in the room. The man walked out and smiled. ¡°She is just really tired, why don¡¯t we let her sleep while we wait for Mikey.¡±


    I nodded, my mouth was full and it was bad to talk with your mouth full.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    ¡°How about you tell me about Mikey and then I will see if I can find him.¡±


    I held up the sandwich.


    ¡°Ok finish eating first.¡± He hopped back up on the wall and was looking around. His hair was blowing behind him.


    He is my boyfriend now.


    I quickly finished my sandwich.


    ¡°Mikey is my brother.¡± I started to tell my boyfriend all about my brother, the good, the bad, and the funny bits.


    He is a good listener.


    My tummy started to rumble again. Grandma usually was making lunch by now.


    ¡°Hungry?¡± I nodded and he made a bowl of soup appear.


    ¡°Eat up and I will go find your brother, okay?¡± I nodded. ¡°And don¡¯t disturb Ganma okay?¡±


    I nodded again and he jumped down the wall. I climbed up to the chair where I could see over it and he turned around from the middle of the street and waved at me.


    ¡°Soup soup soup!¡±


    I coloured while waiting for my boyfriend to return.


    "Grandma, can you please lower the ladder and put Mia inside?"


    I looked over the wall, Mikey was there with girls. No boyfriend.


    I pushed the ladder hard make sure it would hit Mikey.


    I stood by my colouring books with my arms across my chest.


    A girl came up the ladder.


    ¡°Why are you nakey?¡± The girl looked as me and smiled. She went and sat by my colouring books.


    Another naked girl climbed up before I could tell the first one that the books were mine.


    This one was a pretty one with short black hair.


    ¡°You look like my dolly¡± she offered me her hand and smiled.


    ¡°Thank you, I¡¯m Jenny. What¡¯s your name?¡± I grabbed her hand and shook it.


    ¡°Princess Mia!¡±


    Jenny turned to help a girl even more pretty then her self over the wall.


    ¡°Princess Mia, this is Karen, can you make her smile?¡±


    ¡°Okay!¡± I took Karen¡¯s hand and pulled her towards the couch.


    I pushed her and she sat down.


    Now the trouble was finding the smile button. I climbed up onto her lap then started poking her cheeks like brother does when I am mad at him.


    It didn¡¯t work.


    I tried everything from funny faces, to blowing raspberries.


    Nothing worked.


    I turned around and a bunch of naked girls were sitting around looking at me. Mikey was red in the face and was handing them blankets.


    I sat down on Karen¡¯s lap and pressed my head against her.


    ¡°Jenny she is broken.¡±


    Somebody laughed the rest smiled. I looked up at Karen but she wasn¡¯t smiling.


    I wrapped her arms around me and pouted. Jenny and a pretty red head came and sat beside me.


    ¡°Mia where is grandma?¡±


    ¡°Sleeping, my boyfriend told me not to disturb her.¡±


    Mikey went inside the house and came back out holding a paper.


    ¡°We are going to let grandma be, you can sleep out here tonight.¡±


    It was boring.


    All these new friends and no one talking.


    Mikey showed the paper to the redhead beside me and Karen took it from him,


    Tears fell on my head as she hugged me.


    ¡°Kevin.¡±

 Miz maamr zonn - Dwarf Boy (Un-named)

    The mana was running wild around us. Nobody around was noticing the difference. Something happened when the nice lady went out to fight beside the sturdy man.


    The three taller brauzag moved together from across the battle field. They had won against what would of taken a whole dwarven city to fend off. Our realms must be just that different. This realm might stand a chance unlike my own.


    The brauzag near me were all cheering as the three walked back. Could they not see that there was a bomb walking towards us.


    The maag was flowing from the one in the center, the new comer. He was dangerous.


    I had never seen so much maag from a single tharki before.


    A drakh maybe.


    I was trembling in fear.


    there was a brizag that was almost my size that was speaking to me in their tongue.


    I couldn''t understand it.


    It was all too new to me.


    Two of the female dwarfs started running towards the three, they must of sensed the danger because they ran for the guy in the center.


    his eyes were glowing blue. The maag was going to burst out of him.


    I gripped the brav skil taalomar my taad had made for me before he tossed me into the portal.


    only twelve more hours remained until the demons finished their portals and arrived, I only stuck to the female I was with because she was seemed strong enough to fend off the first wave of the demons at least.


    They didn''t know what kind of hell was coming.


    The original drakuh had destroyed their world with just the six of them. The six became the demon lords that are slowly making their way here now.


    The next world they created another sixty drakuh to serve under them and destroy the world.


    by the time they reached my world the drakuh had increased to six million six hundred sixty six thousand six hundred and sixty with the six drakh lords ruling over them all.


    they were bringing almost a million more to this realm as the last two realms each died off fast.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    The gnomes didn''t believe us when the survivors from our realm warned of the oncoming threat. The gnome world was taken over before the first wave had even ended.


    The daukhel lasted longer, The daukhel had the ability to adapt to any environment so we came across a few that looked like they would be able to survive and fight back.


    The Forest daukhel were fast and moved through the woods with ease, most of them died off when the raukhsit had come to scout after the gnomes all died off.


    The dark daukhel lived in the caves and were good with weapons, The orcs made them look like children.


    The Water daukhel had become fish like growing fins and being able to swim and control the water. Merlocs gave them a watery funeral.


    The high daukhel were booming with thark, their maag was still nowhere near the brizag in the center but they could control their mana through charms.


    I gripped the ring in my pocket. It was a gift from the dekhel that sent me here.


    The maag hring was a training device for young daukhel to learn to control their maag . It would leave them with only the bare minimum maag they needed to survive.


    It was my only hope to save us all.


    I sprinted towards the tall dwarfs as fast as my little legs could carry me.


    The maag was surging towards him like a tsunami drawing back before returning to land with an unstoppable force.


    He was glowing by the time I grabbed his hand.


    The hring slipped onto his finger and he pulled his hand away from mine and screamed out in pain.


    The maag exploded, I was too late.


    I was lifted from the ground and thrown backwards towards the crowd of onlookers.


    Each of the ones near the epicenter were being thrown like me in different directions.


    The hilly ground was being ripped apart in a spiral form dragging more and more dirt with it as the maag expended outwards.


    I crashed into the crowd before the maag wave reached here.


    The wave stopped before hitting the first person, the maag started shooting upwards instead.


    The sky changed. The rift that was near was destroyed.


    I had never seen such a blue sky in my life.


    The man fainted once the maag calmed down.


    Nobody moved or said anything.


    The sun rose with everybody scared to move. I was born under the rifts, I had never seen a sun rise before.


    My mother was a surface dwarf while my father lived his life in the caves, He used to describe my mother as beautiful as the first sunrise he had ever seen.


    I started to cry.


    "Miz maamr zonn."


    The people around me repeated my call for my mother. It was strange to hear my word be butchered by their tongues.


    My brav skil taalomar started to beep.


    It was early, something had gone wrong.


    I looked around and everyone else had their brav cards out and were looking at them.


    Panic started to set in for all but the four around the now unconscious tharki.


    the four of them stood up and dragged the tharki towards the camp and laid him down beside the log bench that marked the entrance way.


    The sturdy guy stood up on the log and started shouting at the top of his voice. The people had started to calm down.


    Earth thaurki worked together to slowly form a wall around the whole lake.


    Water thaurki created a moat around the lake and camp.


    Everyone was doing something.


    I felt useless, my race was only good at crafting and there was nowhere for me to use my skaul around here to help everyone.


    I stood around with the shorter dwarfs and we watched over the tharki as he slept.


    The strong lady was cutting trees from beyond the battlefield and dragging them back towards the camp like they were nothing.


    The camp no longer looked like a camp.


    It started to feel like a village.


    I checked my brav skil taalomar, twelve hours had passed since the first demons had crossed over to this world.


    Where were they?

 Rats, Giant Rats - Kevin

    The creature hovered in the air flapping its giant wings. The green eyed girl pressed down against me keeping me from breathing. The thing in the air was watching something move. It¡¯s mouth opened and it grinned a smile of long pointed teeth. The thing it was watching crawled over my hand.


    The creature in the air dived down and grabbed the rat.


    It held the rat above its mouth by the back of its tail.


    The rat stopped squirming and the demon dropped it into its mouth.


    It bent over top of us. It¡¯s drool dripping from its mouth was causing the ground by my ear to sizzle.


    It started to heave like a cat coughing up a hair ball. I wanted to puke.


    It spat out what a rat would look like if it had lost all of its fur, been dyed black, then grew to be the size of a full grown German Shepard.


    The rat thing ran away into the darkness. The thing on top of me let out a shrill of a scream then took off into the air and out of sight.


    ¡°Clear.¡± The red head called out from a corner.


    ¡°Karen if he is alive grab him and let¡¯s go!¡± The guy sounded panicked.


    The girl got off me and let out a faint smile.


    She pulled me up to my feet. There were corpses all around us. We were standing on what used to be a baseball field . What I thought was a corner where the redhead was turned out to be a dugout. The guy was up in the stands behind home plate.


    ¡°Fucking noob doesn¡¯t even collect his loot.¡± He kicked the head of a dead goblin in the stands while muttering.


    The redhead caught up with us. ¡°Ignore him, this amount of goblins would have him pissing and crying for his meema¡±


    I didn¡¯t remember her being like this. I looked at her funny. Even the green eyed girl was different. I couldn¡¯t place why but things felt wrong.


    The green eyed girl dragged me while the red haired girl brought out a pole that was bigger then her and set the end on fire.


    The corridor was pretty straight and I was feeling lost.


    Why are we in such a rush, what was that creature, where are we going.


    I stopped running as soon as we got outside. The city was in ruins, apartment buildings were leaning against each other, the sky was constantly rippling with colours,


    ¡°What the actual fuck is going on?¡±


    The red head ran back to me. ¡°Come with me if you want to live!¡± Her Arnold impersonation sucked. ¡°No really come we will explain when we get to the others.¡±


    ¡°Also pull out a weapon, even the mighty goblin slayer needs a weapon.¡± The guy was mad at me for some reason.


    I pulled out my phone, the only thing that resembled a weapon was a broken dagger. I pulled it from my inventory. The blade was shattered but the hilt still looked strong.


    ¡°Useless.¡± I kinda agreed but it was the only thing I had. Anything else resembling a weapon would of been under my bed hidden from my land lord.


    The green eyed girl pulled out her phone them handed me something I recognized.


    ¡°Hey those are my karambits!¡± They were karambits in name only. The blade was longer then my forearm but the grip was still right for it.


    The only problem was this was a metallic cosplay item. There was no tang to the blade at all.


    I felt the blade. I hade used these blades for years, but now with the weapon mastery skill they felt like they were an extension of my body.


    ¡°If you are done dancing we have to go.¡± The red head and the blonde were watching me with wide eyes. The guy was still trying to rush us along.


    I never got around to making proper sheaths for my karambits so I just held them in my hands with the ring around my index fingers and the actual blade pressed against the inside of my arms.


    The broken dagger faded in a glow as it fell back into my inventory. I couldn¡¯t stand the thought of throwing it away.


    They sprinted through the parking lot. My legs must of been longer, I jogged and kept pace with the red head.


    They were out of breath before we reached the end of the parking lot. They were all trying to keep focus on everything around them at once. I shook my head. Had they never seen that ninja anime where they explained proper squad focus?


    I started to play while following them changing my running style like I was still in a game world.


    Ninja style was my favourite.


    The redhead glanced over at me, she smiled and rolled her eyes.


    I smiled back. She shook her head and looked away.


    ¡°You know the world has ended right?¡± We were in an alleyway catching our breath when the redhead scolded me.


    ¡°Meh.¡± I shrugged.


    The guy slammed my back against the wall behind me. ¡°What the fuck is your problem! That demon could of killed us all with just a thought, sure you might be the goblin slayer but the rest of us are scared shitless every waking second! You see that leaning building!¡± The guy was spitting in my face while yelling. I followed his finger to the building. ¡°An ogre did that just by leaning on it!¡±


    He backed off and sat on his heals pulling on his hair.


    I glanced at the green eyed girl. She seemed amused with the whole situation. ¡°You really are no different then the stories.¡±


    I shrugged, I didn¡¯t know what she heard about me or from whom she heard it from.


    ¡°So where are we going?¡± I was getting bored of standing around.


    ¡°We would of been long out of town if they didn¡¯t all insist on finding you first.¡± The guy was grumbling. ¡°Kevin this, Kevin that, for four fucken days,¡±


    The girls pursed their lips and started walking. This was more my pace. There were more places to hide due to the buildings being closer together.


    We were heading towards an area of town that I knew well. I felt my pocket, I had keys to almost every shop down this road. The Mart might of been my actual job, but Mr. Chen lived above his store so he lent me out to other places when they were short staffed.


    I stopped and pulled out my keys in front of the craft store.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± This guy was getting on my nerves.


    The girls followed me inside as I went over to the mannequin in the back corner.


    There stood my favourite cosplay outfit. Most of it was made of foam but the boots, and weapon sheaths were real leather and the clothing was comfortable to wear.


    I took the whole outfit. The blonde was taking rolls of fabric and sewing stuff. The red head was hoarding all the glass and metal marbles.


    I checked over the weapon harness the multiple D rings on it would allow me to adjust my scabbards or change weapons.


    The guy was gone when I came outside.


    I changed my old ripped sneakers for the leather boots then put on the harness.


    I sighed when I had seen all the empty throwing dagger sheaths on my chest.


    ¡°It just looks like its funny looking suspenders without any weapons.¡± I was grumbling towards my self as I did up all the buckles on the harness and boots.


    "I think the boots at least look cool." The redhead was standing beside me. I didn''t know when she came beside me.


    "Thanks, I think." She was looking at me like I was some hard question on an exam.


    "I have to know," She paused, like she was trying to find the right words to ask a question with out it sounding stupid or condescending. "Why does Stormshadow say to put our faith in you?"


    I looked back at her, How did she know Tyler? "What do you mean?"


    "Well, He said that if one person would find a way to go through this it would be you." She was rubbing her hands together nervously like she was meeting her idol for the first time. "He made you sound like you are a god, the lone drop of dish soap in a sea of oil, the one true hero he has ever met."


    "I met Tyler in a video game." I raised my eyebrow. "The only times we have ever met in person was for cons that we were invited to."


    "Still the stories he sent us." She was looking up into my eyes. "Are they true?"


    "Like what?" The blonde was leaving the store after finishing collecting all of her fabrics.


    "Well, how about the one with the little girl at the bar." She looked at Karen for confirmation as to if it was the right one. "Where the Seven heroes were formed?"


    "Seven Heroes?" This was the first I have ever heard this name, Sure I was dragged into a guild by Tyler but I have never heard us be called heroes before. "Are you talking about the day I joined Tyler''s guild?"


    "Is he the Ice Mage?" I nodded towards the blonde, "Then yes that is the story we need to hear right now."


    "OK, so what part do you want me to start off at?"


    "The girl, she ran into the tavern and was screaming for help." The two girls looked at each other before the redhead continued. "I think its best to start with there."


    "The girl who was trying to take advantage of guys and lead them into a trap. If you heard it from Tyler he probably was going off about how the girl was crying because she had all her stuff taken from her. How the so called bandits used her and abused her. How one man in the bar made the girl go quiet and then how he and his friends ended up chasing after and found all the bandits dead when they got there."


    "That is the just of it." The blonde nodded.


    "That is utter bullshit." I stood up and looked at the rift in the sky. "What happened was the girl who was crying wolf heard me say something, what she intended to do failed. I had seen her act before in a different tavern and followed the ones that went with her to the bandit camp. The player killers over there activated a trap that made it so that you couldn''t warp away from the area, I was on my alt character at the time trying out a different build. The words I said to her to make her shut up was just my characters name and the promise I gave to her as that character died."


    "It was just a game tho, why would you care so much?"


    "When our characters died in game that was it for them. You needed to start a new character, the only thing you kept was your characters bank." My eyes closed as I remembered the death. "I warned them all that if I had found them doing the same thing again I would be back and not one of them would live to tell the tale. So I just happened to be in the Tavern on my main character at the time that she came in. I placed a spare cloak on her that was too heavy for her character to move in and that she wouldn''t be able to take off. When the bandits saw me coming they activated their trap thinking that she was bringing in another whole tavern of people."


    My words stopped. I could still picture the battle in my mind, the three thousand man bandit army and the game master who tried to ban my account.


    "The battle was one that I couldn''t loose. My character was almost like a cheat in the system, I used every method I could to make my character seam like he was everywhere at once. The first hundred to attack me didn''t even see my attack. the last thousand of them were too busy trying to save them selves. Then the message came across my screen that my character was under suspicion of hacking and I was locked in place unable to move from the spot. The leader of the bandit group was a game administrator. He was locking my character in place so that the remaining people could finish me off."


    It was starting to rain, I couldn''t see where the rain was coming from as the rifts were lower then the cloud level and blocked the sky out completely.


    "I contacted the game company and had them look into the issue while I was on the phone with them. the group was attacking my character at once. I couldn''t do anything while I watched my health fall. The admin that I was on the phone with was now looking at my character along with the boss of the bandits. He asked me if he wanted him to move my character to a safe zone while he does the inspection. I just told him to release my character from being frozen and record the footage as proof of me not cheating. The world slowed down for me the second he said that he was recording. The remaining thousand people who were attacking me stopped as soon as I changed weapons." I held the weapon that the blonde gave me in my hand.


    "With just two blades I danced around them all ending my dance with my blade against their leaders throat. You can''t kill a game administrator."If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    "The dance is where the other six heroes came in right?"


    "We are not heroes, I don''t know why you keep calling us that."


    The guy was standing on the edge of the sign of the mart up at Mr Chen''s small one bedroom house was located. I started walking towards the mart and the girls followed suit.


    "But the stories are all true then?"


    "Probably with some embellishments to make it a better story, Tyler liked to tell his tales as we sat around the camp fire."


    The girls went up a rope ladder that was attached to the side of the mart. I scratched my head and wondered why they would go through the effort of using a rope ladder when their was a perfectly good entrance to the place from inside the store.


    I climbed the wall after them and had something attach to my leg as before I could finish going over the edge.


    "Mia, It''s dangerous out here go back inside!" The pressure against my leg loosened and I finished climbing over the wall, the guy was walking towards me. "You don''t look all that special, why did we have to stay here just to see you?"


    "Well, the last I remember there was still a few days left until the countdown ended." I pulled out my phone, the page that had a countdown on it now showed the a rotating map of the world where red was spreading over it from the green map. We were smack dead in the center of one of the red zones. There were six spots where the world was blue instead of green and the red zone went around them.


    "The world has ended, and for some reason all the girls think you can save it."


    The guy gestured towards all the girls on the deck before shaking his head and going back to the corner where I saw him behind the mart sign.


    "So Mr. Hero, how are you going to save the world?"


    That is a lot of pressure for one guy, even I wouldn''t know where to begin.


    "Stormshadow said to have you look at our skills lists and you would be able to do something."


    I shook my head and went to sit down on the couch. Why me? What made me the one that everyone looked at for hope.


    "You said Tyler had sent you stories, can I read them?"


    A black haired girl brought out a large binder. The cover of it just had an outline of what looked like a rough drawing of my game character and my friends, the inside were filled with pages that were laminated to protect them. The binder was heavy and when I started to read it, it felt more like I was reading a bible.


    "What the hell is this?"


    "That is the bible of the Seven Faith Heroes," The black haired girl went and sat beside me studied my reaction to the stories as I skimmed through them. "It is a new religion that has been founded and accepted by the system, Each of the seven are like gods who descended to save the world."


    "You might not know it but, I think you need to join the religion." The blonde looked hopeful as she was pressing her phone against her chest. She kept looking down at it like she was hoping something would change.


    "I don''t believe in any religion, Gods are no worse then Devils who punish you for thinking the wrong thing."


    The girls all started to look disappointed in me. I am not a hero. I am not a god. I am just a person.


    "Another Sanctuary has been established under the seven" The oldest looking girl of the group was excited when she stated this.


    Everybody ran towards her and looked down at her phone.


    "This one is close by, just over the mountains." The guy was excited. He started packing up things and putting them into his inventory.


    "The mountains," The blonde was looking at the redhead and the blackhead girls in turn. "Mom was heading that way."


    "You wont make it."


    I broke the groups enthusiasm. Somebody had to think rational here.


    "We can if we try!" The black haired girl was missing the fact that the season were going to be changing soon, The mountains in winter are deadly.


    "Nope, If you go the first to die will be the little girl." The guy attacked me. He gripped both sides of my weapon harness and forced me through the couch.


    "My sister will not die if I have a say in it." The little girl was crying in the corner. The blonde hugged her to stop her from coming near us.


    "And how would you stop her from freezing as you walked through the mountains?" The guys grip loosened and he looked up. What was light rain drops were slowly changing forms. The small flakes were not enough to stick to the ground but it was enough to show the change.


    The rifts blocking the sun had made the area already cooler. The seasons would be changing faster then normal.


    Everyone on the deck froze at the realization of this. I got up and was looking at the destroyed couch. I had a lot of memories with this couch. Me and Mr. Chen''s niece spent a few summer nights out here enjoying the sounds of the city in the summertime.


    I took the redheads phone from her being careful not to inject my own mana into it.


    She was still in a daze and didn''t notice the item missing from her hands.


    "I can''t read your stats or skills, says I need to be your friend first." I put the phone back in her hands and the group slowly came out of their shock.


    "We need to head south then." The oldest girl was looking at her phone desperately. "There has to be one."


    "Bring out your phone," The redhead shook her head as she thought of what needed to be done. "My name is Evelyn Rose, and you are Kevin."


    She touched our phones together and a message appeared on mine asking me if I would like to become friends with Evelyn.


    I touched yes and the phone glowed bright white.


    when the glow died down the next message popped up


    [ Would you like to join the hero network? ]


    "Please say yes, I want to see what the system has named you." The girls all gathered around my phone as I pressed yes.


    [ Welcome to the Hero Network, This is a communication area for people who have networked under the guise of fighting off the demons. ]


    "Okay, What now?"


    "Say something in the group chat."


    I did.


    [ ShadowHeart - Something ]


    Evelyn started to grin wide.


    Messages started streaming across the screen too fast for me to read them. The blonde started jumping up and down while holding the black haired girls hands.


    "Why are you so excited over this?"


    "The network has been down for the four days." The guy was finally calming down. "But even with this we still need to move from here. Night is coming so the big ones will be out soon. In the morning we leave."


    The girls all nodded and the area started to quiet down. The girls were each putting their phones to mine and telling me their names and asking me to be their friend.


    Evelyn, Karen, Jenny, Vicky, Cassandra, Mia, Missy, Zoey, and Amanda. The guy refused tap his phone to me but still introduced him self as Micheal.


    All eleven of our phones were laid out on the table with the owner being the last to touch it. Micheal refused to do this saying he was already building him self a good enough skill set.


    Most of the girls had mage skills that they picked at random when the system had activated. When I asked them to show me their skills Karen, Vicky and Mia were at a loss saying that they couldn''t.


    Mia was understandable when I saw her skills. She had one skill point used up and was at level zero. I figured that she was too young for the system to register her.


    Karen was a different matter, Her skill was Protection costing five points with a free skill point in leadership. I checked what the leadership skill did through my own phone.


    [ Leadership - Holds respect from followers, Ability to create parties - Points needed to purchase - - ]


    The same thing came up on all the girls phones when I had them check it.


    Each and every one of them had purchased the free skill now. They all had at least two free skill points except for Mia. I had them each buy the skills Health Regen and Mana Regen. These skills are key.


    Vicky was the only one who I suggested stamina Regen to instead. Her skill was one that required stamina over mana. She couldn''t use it because she didn''t have a shield.


    Evelyn could create a fire ball with her skill Firebolt. She used a staff that looked like something of my cosplay items as a focus and the balls of fire formed on the ends of it.


    Missy was able to form a snowball with her skill Frost Bolt, It was the same skill that Tyler had picked up. but Tyler had said that his skill was more like Ice spears last time I talked to him.


    Zoey made sparks jump between her two fingers. This action made her tired as it was a high mana skill. The sparks lasted for only a few seconds but she was proud of her storm bolt skill.


    Cassandra and Jenny both had the skill earth bolt. But even so their skills differed, Cassandra made a little bit of earth from a pot lift up while Jenny formed a stone that hung in mid air.


    I had each of them play with their skills until they were too tired to do anything else.


    I looked down at my phone.


    [ Kevin ShadowHeart - Level 2 ( 20 ) ]


    Why did my phone show the brackets while others only showed that they were level three to five.


    I was the lowest level of the group.


    My skills were strange as well


    [ Health Regen, Mana Regen, Stamina Regen, Weapon Mastery, Shadow Weapon, Erase Presence, ( Shadow Storm ), ( Shadow Walk ), ( Shadow Mastery ), Leadership ]


    I couldn''t check on the skills in brackets, but I don''t remember buying Shadow Weapon.


    [ Shadow Weapon - Encase your weapon with mana to enable it to hit formless creatures. ]


    I pulled out my karambit and tried to think of how the skill worked.


    I was focusing my mana like how I powered my house, The karambit''s blade started to grow darker. I moved it in the air and the darkness trailed after the it. I checked my watch to see how much my mana drained from this skill.


    "Interesting"


    The girls all started to watch me as I moved. Both karambits were drawn and I encased both in shadows. My movements left a trail as I danced around the deck. The faster I moved the longer the trail was.


    I smiled.


    I opened up my stat page, I had to test something


    I placed two point into Agility and Dexterity.


    I did my blade dance again. I felt the sharpness of the shadows had increased. I wanted to test it out.


    "How long until night fall?"


    "Two hours, if you go out now you wont make it back before dark." Micheal was smiling like he knew what I was planning on doing.


    "I am going too." The redhead stood beside me holding her weapon in her hand. I grabbed it and removed the cracked marbles.


    "Not with these cracked, that is your focus point. give me two of the larger metal balls you collected."


    She brought out two and I slid them into the wire wrapping that the marbles had been in. The glass marbles were for Dee''s character that used lightning, holding the electricity inside of glass before releasing it made the most sense.


    I nodded to Micheal. "Be back by morning then."


    "You better." Evelyn hugged Karen and Jenny before climbing down the ladder.


    "Do something for me." The little one Mia had stopped me before I got to climb over on wall.


    "Whats up?"


    "Sit on the wall."


    I sat on the ledge for her.


    "No like this." She went and sat on her heals with her hand down on the ground between her legs and the other on her knee.


    "Ahh," I lifted my self up with my hands and brought my feet under me, holding onto the ledge with my one hand for stability. "Like this?"


    "Now look into the wind"


    I did.


    "See my boyfriend is pretty."


    The girls all laughed and I smiled before waving and saying my goodbyes.


    "Where are we going?" I was carrying the redhead on my back to save her stamina, and this was faster for me.


    "Ding! you have received a new quest to go kill ten giant rats that are pestering the city''s townspeople!" I was smiling, This was like every first quest I have ever been on in a game. "You must kill as many as possible before morning will you accept the quest?"


    "Too late now to say I am scared of rats?"


    I laughed, If this was a game there would be no danger at all getting to the place the rats were. But this is real life, The redhead constantly watched out for stuff while I ran. My stamina never dropped once. All that walking to increase my stamina recovery rate must of paid off.


    We were nearing the location where I thought they would be. This was a garbage transfer sight where the cities garbage was brought before it was shipped out to the landfills. I had remembered that the news had stated that animal activists were protesting a few months ago that the city was trying to poison off the rats that lived off the garbage.


    "Okay explain what you are so happy about?"


    "The rats were where I thought they would be."


    There was about forty giant rats like the one I had seen earlier. Each of them was rummaging through the garbage minding their own business.


    "Okay so how much do you know about your skill fireball?"


    "Only that I can use it up to eight times right now with the staff but only three times with out it."


    I frowned. This could be harder then I thought it would be.


    I grabbed two pallets that were laying on the ground and brought them back to where she was. The rats didn''t pay attention to me at all.


    I lit a fire on one of them.


    "Okay light the pallet in front of you on fire."


    She used the staff and formed a fireball before gently tossing it out at the pallet.


    "Okay what now?"


    Both pallets were on fire.


    "What is the difference between the two flames?"


    She looked at them hard.


    "I don''t see any."


    I nodded. Tyler would of done something like this too I think.


    "Correct!"


    "I don''t understand" Evelyn looked at me confused.


    "You are looking at two fires, Both are exactly the same."


    "Yeah and?"


    I scratched my head while trying to think of how to make her understand.


    "What are the parts of fire?"


    "Fuel, heat, oxygen."


    "Okay now what is the fuel for when you are casting your skill?"


    She thought about it for a while.


    "You are the fuel." I gave her the answer. "Your mana fuels the fire."


    She still looked confused.


    "It was you who talked with Tyler right?"


    she nodded.


    "Okay so you have at least basic knowledge of how to move your mana. Think of it this way. Try to use your skill again but hold the mana and form a spear head on the end of your staff instead of just a ball of fire."


    She had to concentrate but she eventually got it to be there.


    "Good now hold that image in your head and poke this tire."


    The spear head lit the tire on fire on the side she was poking the new formed spear head into it. I grabbed the other end of it and tossed it towards a rat.


    "Now use that spear to fight!"


    the spear vanished.


    "WHAT!" she screamed and I laughed. Learning by doing was the best way to do things.


    I pulled out my karambits and charged at the rats who were coming for us. I turned and smiled as I saw her trying to form a new spear head.


    My karambits glowed a purple shade as I pulled darkness from the shadows her flames were casting towards them. I wanted to test this my self. My shadow skill was the same as her flame, I could take existing shadows and use them instead of expending my own mana.


    My phone started to buzz after two rats had their heads decapitated from them. Evelyn was still panicking but she had ended up with a ball of fire on the end of her staff that she was beating the rats that came near her away with.


    The rats were rushing towards her instead of me.


    I pulled out my phone quick and checked what the notifications were.


    [ Your party member has killed a Demon Rat - 10% exp bonus for being in a party ]


    I smiled and dove towards the rats.


    The moon glowed through the rift as the last of the rats had died.


    I don''t know when the rain stopped but the ground was dry around us due to the heat from Evelyn''s flames.


    She was laying down looking up.


    "Quest Complete!"


    She was grinning. I stood over her and offered her my hand to help her up.


    She backed away.


    "Sorry, a few days ago something happened." She wouldn''t look at me.


    "Well, I can listen, I don''t think we should leave until almost dawn now them footsteps sound kinda big."


    She nodded and curled up into a ball.


    "I don''t trust guys any more. Two days before the world ended goblins caught me and Karen." She was shivering. "The goblins were not what touched us, people I grew up with did. They were in control of the goblins and they hurt me in ways I don''t think I will ever be able to be free of."


    I leaned against the fence gate and listened. She was raped and she was awake for it all.


    "The worse part was that every time they were finished I healed, I went back to being a virgin and the pain was fresh each time." The fire between us grew the more she thought about it. She was adding fuel to the fire with out being conscious of it.


    The flames were beautiful, I had never seen natural fire behave this way.


    "I don''t think I will ever be able to enjoy sex."


    I shook my head. I realized I was only paying attention to bits that I thought were interesting.


    "If you don''t mind me asking, How old are you?"


    She turned her head and looked at me. The fire went back to normal.


    "Just hit my Sixteenth birthday before getting my skill."


    It hurt me. I didn''t realize that she was so young. I thought that the Health regeneration skill did the same thing it had done on me to her.


    "How old do you think I am?"


    "I donno, maybe twenty?"


    "I am twice your age."


    The fire went out.


    She was looking at me in the light of the rift. I no longer showed my age on the outside as this was the age the system had made me appear.


    "How?"


    "My first skill I bought was the Health Regeneration skill you got, with it my scars and age lines faded away and new fresh skin formed." I didn''t know if I would ever age again but this is my life now.


    "Oh god, I am going to be a teenager forever then!" she rolled onto her back and her phone slipped from her hand and landed on a burnt corpse of a rat.


    the phone lit up.


    "Killed by Evelyn - Do you want to collect the loot?" I read the phone out loud and we both went and looked at it.


    Evelyn tapped the phone and the screen changed to be the contents of the rats inventory.


    There was trash, a copper coin, and a ring.


    She tapped the copper coin and the ring. the items glowed and appeared above her hand. The copper coin had a square cut out from the center of it making me wonder if it was for easy identification of coin type.


    The ring looked like a small gold male wedding band with carvings on all around it.


    "One ring to rule them all." I whispered and she shot me a weird look.


    "What?"


    "You never watched or read about the epic tale of the group of people going to destroy a ring to save the world?"


    "No"


    "You never read the memes about how one does not just simply walk into something?"


    "Yeah I have seen them."


    The world had ended before the end of the world.


    I shook my head.


    "You should of read more in high school," I took her staff from the ground beside her. "Then you would of been standing there with the rats all coming your way yelling out that they shall not pass!"


    I slammed the staff into the ground and sparks went off from where the steel balls hit the ground.


    "Nobody would ever really yell that!"


    "The grey wizard did before he went off to gain all the experience and level up into a white wizard." I handed her back the staff then went around and found some of the decapitated rats.


    My loot was not as pretty as hers. Mostly rusty knives and a few copper coins.


    She had even gotten a pair of boots and gloves from the rats that were in good condition.


    How does this system even work?


    We sat there comparing our loot until the rift started to glow,


    Something large started to fall from the sky.

 A Drop Of Faith - Karen

    A child was sitting on my lap. Evelyn was talking to some guy while Jenny was sitting beside me.


    This world can not be the real world. There is no way my brother would do something like that to me and Evelyn.


    I wanted to be back in the silent field, surrounded by the feeling of love.


    I wanted to feel the touch of that mans lips, how they gently touched me telling me that no matter what happened it was going to be all right.


    The guy Evelyn was talking to passed her a note. My eyes scanned it.


    This child''s grandmother had passed away, the person had taken the body and hid it in a graveyard nearby beside the body of a little girl who had died by the hands of a goblin.


    The person who wrote the note left it just in case her brother didn''t return return safely. He said he would be back to check by nightfall.


    The name on the bottom of the page read Kevin.


    I took the note hoping that the girl on my lap couldn''t read.


    It was like a damn had burst inside me. I was pulled from the darkness.


    Jenny had noticed the change in me.


    I noticed that I was naked with the girl covering me.


    I hugged the child forcing her not to move off me.


    "It''s safe for us to all sleep out here," The guy, I think Evelyn called him Micheal was constantly looking up towards the sky. "The goblins haven''t been able to get up here yet, I blocked the inside door when we found this place and the outer stairwell has been destroyed."


    He was kind for being a weird person.


    The couch folded out into a bed where Jenny trapped the little girl between us. Evelyn laid with her back against mine, she kept apologizing for something.


    Every time I closed my eyes I kept seeing my brother, the man I grew up with and the pain he caused me. He stole something from me that I would never get back, He stole the same thing from Evelyn, only what he did to her was more painful.


    I don''t remember sleeping but when the sun started to shine into my eyes I woke up. My phone was beside my head, I don''t know where it came from I just knew it was my phone. I grabbed it and used it to dress my self.


    My movements woke the others in the bed with me and they started shouting when they seen that their phones had been by their heads too. A note was on the table for us.


    ''You were all sleeping so soundly, I didn''t know she had so many people to watch out for her. Please take care of her children are the hope of the future.


    P.S.


    I think these are yours, Some goblins were playing with them.


    Kevin''


    I closed my eyes.


    If this is the same Kevin that Stormshadow had talked about I think I could put a little faith in him.


    The bed was folded back into a couch by the time the guy woke up.


    I had pulled what was the printed sheets that Stormshadow had sent us. It was now in a laminated binder with a title page that read the Seven.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    I don''t remember putting it into a binder or laminating the pages.


    The little girl, I think her name was Mia came and sat on my lap. so I started reading from the book. I knew the shadow was supposed to be Kevin, The more I read from the book the stronger I started to feel.


    "Karen, I think we need to leave town." Micheal looked scared, he was looking down at his phone.


    "I am not leaving with out my boyfriend!" Mia had told us all about her boyfriend who sat pretty and fed her.


    "I think we should find Kevin before we leave." Evelyn was looking stronger. She no longer jumped when ever anybody touched her.


    Micheal disagreed, so we put it to a vote.


    "Thirteen to one, We find Kevin."


    I scanned through my Inventory, I wanted a weapon that would fit me and I was hoping there was one in the stuff I stole from Kevin''s condo.


    "And how do you expect to find him, There is only Six hours remaining until the countdown expires." Micheal Stomping around the outdoor deck.


    Something scrapped against the wall outside.


    We all went tense.


    Micheal peeked over the wall to see what was going on, Goblins haven¡¯t been active during daylight hours.


    ¡°There is a ton of them.¡± His whisper felt like it was echoing as we all tried not to breath.


    An echo was ringing through the city. The goblins were chanting something.


    The sky was changing, the rift had altered in some way.


    A large creature dropped from the rift. I checked my phone as it landed, ogre. Six of them had landed around us. The tops of their heads standing taller then the rooftop apartment wall.


    Slowly I looked over the wall. These were not the only thing falling from the sky around here. Orcs were landing on the street in places. Two goblins would equal the height of a Orc, they had short ears that looked almost human with just the tips of them that curved to a point and there were more then one sex of them.


    They came down fully dressed in what appeared to be armor of some sort for cloths while the goblins ran around naked. Goblins were kicked out of the orcs pathway as they walked. The orcs moved in the opposite direction from the goblins.


    We watched with baited breath as it looked like our world was done for. The city streets were flooded by the strange new beings to this world.


    We stayed as still as could be when bat like creatures started to spiral down from the air, the creatures started to cling to the buildings around us.


    Humanity has ended.


    My thoughts went blank as a building down the road started to lean over against the building next to it.


    Night fell as we stood still, Mia hiding with Jenny and Evelyn. The goblins were no longer in the streets but they could still be heard from somewhere.


    A blue line cut across the sky. The last of the creatures that were falling to earth went across with it.


    The rift had vanished.


    The stars looked beautiful as we stood there almost forgetting the threat of death all around us.


    The sunlight came and the only noise that could be heard was the goblins chanting.


    ¡°We have to leave the city now!¡± Micheal was in a visible panic as he rushed around to gather travel gear for Mia.


    ¡°What about my friend?¡± Mia was crying, she wanted her friend the shadow man to come with us.


    The goblin chants were raining down from somewhere. The sounds were echoing through the empty streets amplified like a stadium on game day.


    We didn¡¯t hear it coming, we didn¡¯t see it.


    One of the bat like creatures had swept down and picked up two of the girls who were in the centre, the next two older girls from Mia.


    We watched as they screamed and were carried high into the sky.


    Jenny and Evelyn covered Mia¡¯s eyes as two more bat like creatures came from the sides and were fighting with the first one over the girls.


    Red rain started to fall as the battle in the air forced us to find our way inside. The creatures danced through the air ripping apart the flesh of the girls.


    The screams wouldn¡¯t stop.


    ¡°Oh god, they are both still alive.¡± Micheal started to throw up in the corner of the room.


    The girls were slowly torn in half.


    The screams stopped and the goblins were the only noise around again.


    Inside Mia was crying, outside was a nightmare.


    ¡°How do we get out of the city with them flying around?¡± Jenny stood beside me looking up at the creatures ripping apart the girls.


    ¡°Kevin would probably of just fought them in the air.¡± Evelyn was whispering about one of the feats from Kevin¡¯s game character.


    ¡°If Kevin was here, the girls would of been saved.¡± Micheal was cleaning him self off but the girls talking about Kevin like this was getting to him.


    ¡°With out Kevin we probably won¡¯t survive.¡± I added a little fuel to the fire, Micheal was getting angry at us.


    We continued to ask the question of what would Kevin do then we looked it up in the big binder of the seven.


    There were countless tales of Kevin¡¯s feats and we read them all out loud. Mia was calming down from hearing the stories being told while the rest of us made Kevin sound like he was a god.


    It started to feel like if we just left it all in Kevin¡¯s hands nothing would ever go wrong.


    I pulled out my phone.


    My faith rose a little there was a sliver of gold along my faith bar. A drop of golden hope in the sea of darkness that was our fate.


    I smiled.

 A New Village - Chase

    ¡°Earth skill users!¡± My voice rang out over the crowd. ¡°We need a wall if we are to stay here.¡± I pointed up at the blue sky. ¡°The rift above us is gone so we must prepare for the worst!¡±


    Dee was looking up at me from where she knelt beside Tyler, he was alive but we couldn¡¯t wake him up.


    ¡°Anyone who doesn¡¯t have skills that can help with the wall, go start bringing wood from the forest!¡± Vanessa was already dragging two trees behind her.


    ¡°Anyone who knows how to build over here with me!¡± Abigale stood off to one side.


    The whole group of about five hundred people and only the three of us were moving trying to get the rest to do something.


    The elders who came with Tyler gathered near me. Two of them used to be architects, we started to plan out this camp.


    We mapped the area out in the dirt before using sticks to plan the area out.


    The earth skill users slowly started to use their skills to trap half the lake in a way that our area would still get the fresh water from the lake while keeping the protection the lake offered.


    Stones of every shape and size were formed from nothing before the skill users.


    They worked in rotation, as soon as one group got low on mana the next would take its place, like this four groups worked around the clock.


    The architects wanted to build a building with the lumber along with a gate that would be at the entrance. Abigale¡¯s builders started to use the lumber to build a large structure near to where the entrance would be placed. This hall would serve as the post for anyone protecting the area.


    ¡°So Vanessa, what is with the kid?¡± The child was building something near where the hall was going to be using stones and clay he was digging up by hand.


    ¡°He fell from the sky but doesn¡¯t speak English, I think he is from the other side.¡± She pulled out her phone and whistled at the boy.


    He came running over to us.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± Vanessa talked slow to him and pointed at where he was working before.


    ¡°Zahar tadd taal taalomar!¡± The boy answered her. I looked at her and shrugged it was a language I had never heard before.


    She put out her hand and he placed his on top of hers. With that she placed her phone on his hand and turned it to show me what it read. Where our race had shown human his read dwarf. The rest was unable to be read as it was in a different language with different characters.


    ¡°See, from a different world.¡± She waved at the boy and he ran back to what he was doing.


    ¡°One of the twenty dwarfs.¡± I checked my race screen. Dwarfs had the third least members of their race with the top two being humans and goblins.


    Under the dwarfs the races were odd, there was only one elf still, above the elf now stood a race that scared me.


    ¡°There are six demons in this world.¡± I shivered while reading that.


    We must be lucky because since the countdown ended we haven¡¯t seen a single other race.


    ¡°You are not thinking that we are lucky or something are you?¡± I looked over at Vanessa, she always had a sense for what I was thinking.


    ¡°Never in my life!¡± She smiled and went back to work helping the people on construction with putting up some posts in the ground.


    Someone covered my eyes from behind me.


    ¡°Guess who?¡± The sweet voice purred into my ear


    ¡°Is it Kevin?¡± I smiled knowing what her answer would of been before she said anything.


    I turned my head in her hands and placed my forehead against Abigale¡¯s, she gave me a weak smile before leaning her weight against me.


    ¡°I still can¡¯t believe that this is reality now.¡± Her eyes were closed as she slumped down getting most of her weight off of her and onto me.


    ¡°It was hard to believe that there was magicka in our world,¡± she smiled a little then started to drag me to my sitting log. ¡°First we get game like skills, now goblins are a normal day occurrence.¡±


    She tensed up at the mention of goblins. Slowly she moved and sat down and leaned her weight against me.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    It was the first time we had spoken alone since she came with Tyler.


    ¡°For what?¡± I held her hand and looked at her.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    She appeared as if she was ready to cry.


    ¡°When I got my skills, it was all I could do but be thankful and hope that it would be like our time online.¡± A tear rolled down her cheek as she was talking.


    ¡°This is just like a game, I have never felt more like a game character then I do now.¡± She looked away from me as I tried to wipe her tears away. ¡°This is just like how we used to dream about.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re wrong,¡± Her voice was colder then normal. ¡°This is hell, our dreams would of been heaven.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± I turned her head to look her in the eyes.


    ¡°Goblins fucken raped me and killed Kyle!¡± She yelled at me. ¡°The disgusting bastards ate him in front of me. They ate him while they fucked me.¡±


    I could feel people looking at us. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her in close against me.


    ¡°They raped me and forced me to give birth to the black goblins that you killed.¡± She was talking while her face was hidden in my shoulder.


    ¡°They raped me, then my goblin children raped me.¡±


    I pulled her closer to me.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t know.¡±


    ¡°Do you still love me.¡±


    I kissed her forehead in response. I had confessed to her last year when Kevin had invited us all to the games con last year. She turned me down then, telling me she was in love with someone else.


    ¡°What do you think Kevin would do if he found out about my babies.¡±


    I was silent, online he would of hunted them down and killed every last one of them. Here who knows.


    ¡°Are you still mad at me for saying that I loved Kevin last year?¡±


    That was definitely not the case. No guy could ever say that he was angry at a girl when she was leaning against him.


    ¡°Do you think Kevin is still alive?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± I whispered out my answer softly that it was barely audible to me over the sound of people working.


    ¡°I am not going out to fight the creatures.¡± I tensed up.


    She felt the change in me.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I am not going to kill my self yet.¡± Her last word hung in the air.


    ¡°Yet?¡±


    It was her turn to look at me in wonder.


    ¡°What do you mean yet?¡±


    ¡°My plan is to wait till I speak with Kevin.¡± I silently started to pray that Kevin would never come here.


    ¡°What then?¡±


    She wiped tears from my eyes that I didn¡¯t know were there.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know yet.¡±


    We sat there in silence looking at each other all the while everyone gave us room to talk.


    I broke the gaze first. It was almost night fall and there was still no protection for everyone.


    I wanted to take my frustration out on something. Anything.


    The girl I loved wanted to kill her self but she didn¡¯t so that she could tell the guy who told her that he doesn¡¯t date his friends first.


    I pulled my sword from my inventory and turned my back on the campsite that was changing into a village.


    ¡°Care to spar?¡± Vanessa stood beside me, I was thankful that she didn¡¯t look over and tease me for the tears on my face.


    I closed my eyes and wiped my face off, tears were meant for off the battle field.


    ¡°Only if we can go all out,¡± I wanted to feel pain, I wanted to dish out pain. ¡°I want to know what real combat feels like.¡±


    She nodded and started to pace away from me. I turned and started walking in the opposite direction from her.


    The dwarf boy was sitting on the log watching us with a short girl sitting beside him looking bashful.


    My only weapon would be my sword, the shields I have wouldn¡¯t stop her sword.


    We were nearing eighty paces away from each other when we both turned to face each other. It was as if we both agreed that it was the right distance apart.


    I raised my sword towards her and she mirrored my stance at almost the same time.


    Her feet kicked up dirt behind her as she sprinted towards me. I matched her pace and readied my sword to parry her incoming slash.


    Sparks flew as our swords clashed in the air.


    The night was illuminated by our battle where every blow was sent out to kill, every block and parry a life saving tool.


    Nothing in the world existed but us and our two blades.


    I was breathing heavy by the time we both dropped the tips of our blades to the ground.


    Sunlight glinted off her blade and I winced. The unknown bright light made me cover my eyes and I stumbled.


    I laid on the ground panting for air when a shadow blocked out the rising sun.


    ¡°Winner,¡± Vanessa was panting as well. She reached her hand out to help me up. ¡°Me.¡±


    She failed to pull me up and ended up pulling her self down. She landed on top of me where she fell asleep.


    ¡°Liar,¡± I whispered as sleep took hold of me. ¡°It¡¯s a draw.¡±


    The sun was high in the sky as I finally woke up. Somebody was curled up under my arms, my back was soar.


    I stretched and saw the bronzed skin of Vanessa. I looked around, I couldn¡¯t see the camp from where we lay.


    I slipped my way free from under Vanessa and stood up to find where we were.


    The ground was littered with scars from our battle. Blood trails were laid out from every cut that landed. The ground was pushed apart from where we collided.


    Neither of us had combat skills this was all due to us being polar opposites in our fighting styles.


    Vanessa purred as she woke up and stretched. She walked over and stood beside me.


    ¡°Last night was amazing.¡± I choked.


    She started to laugh and walked back along the battle scared land towards the distant lake and our camp.


    I wanted to run after her, run ahead of her and tell Abigale that nothing happened between us. I couldn¡¯t move. I looked down at my legs.


    Why won¡¯t you move!


    There was a gate where I used to stand. The gate stood two stories high, I didn¡¯t know that their was trees big enough for that in this area.


    ¡°How?¡±


    Abigale greeted me as I stood in front of the gate.


    ¡°Last night was one of the kids fifteenth birthday.¡±


    She smiled and looked past the gate on the side where the walls were not high enough to cover.


    I walked over to where she was and looked. A tree was standing in the centre of where the hall was supposed to be. Workers were seen coming from a hole in the trunk.


    I walked over to it in amazement.


    This was not here last night.


    ¡°Do you like it?¡± The young girl who I had seen sitting with the dwarf boy before the duel came and stood beside me.


    ¡°What did this?¡±


    ¡°It was the skill growth.¡± She looked disappointed. ¡°When I saw the skill I thought I could make my body parts bigger.¡± She put her hands over her chest.


    I had mistaken her age before, I had thought she was another eight year old. Her short stature and pudgy face was akin to somebody younger then she was.


    ¡°The tree is pretty, why are they carving the inside of it?¡±


    ¡°When somebody saw my skill they asked me to use it for a stair case,¡± she grinned, ¡°I told them only if it was inside the tree.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Adventure guilds in anime are cool like that with the guild officer rooms on the second floor.¡±


    I had to agree with her, but this was supposed to be a guard house not an adventures guild.


    I sighed and looked around. More trees were grown near by and cut down, there were people building basic houses while others worked on the wall around town, a moat was being dug up a little over ten feet wide with the clay that was dug up being used to support the walls.


    My phone buzzed as I looked around.


    Please name your village.

 That Bastard Named Kevin - Micheal

    The girls were passing me off, as soon as the streets had cleared enough to get away from the city, they started talking about Kevin.


    Kevin is so great that he could save the world right now if he wanted to.


    I turned around to tell them where they could find their god named Kevin when I saw the bat like creature digging it¡¯s claws into two of the girls shoulders.


    I ran forward towards them. My hand just missed the taller ones ankle.


    I turned, where was Mia?


    Two of the girls were pulling her inside while covering her head. I said a silent prayer and looked up towards the girls in the air.


    Another two creatures started to attack them. Red droplets started to fall from the aerial combat above us.


    A finger fell and landed on my shoulder.


    I ran for inside.


    I couldn¡¯t spot a trash bin anywhere.


    The plant in the corner would do.


    I hurled.


    Their was a few girls that could watch what was going on outside.


    I couldn¡¯t.


    More Kevin talk came up.


    I wanted to strangle the girls my self.


    I am sorry that I am not Kevin.


    ¡°Do you want to find him?¡± A male voice was in the room with us.


    We all had turned to see where the deep voice came from.


    In the centre of the room stood a man with glowing red eyes and pale skin. His white hair flowed down past his stomach and his eyes were locked onto the girl named Karen.


    ¡°Did you not hear me girl?¡± The man stood up, he was shorter then Mia. Nobody looked down on him tho.


    "Yes," Karen broke our silence with barely an auditable whisper. "If it is possible then yes."


    "Good child, Then I shall make it so." The boy snapped his fingers and Karen vanished from site. "Now you little one, do you want to play a game while we wait?''


    "I am a good colourer." Mia was moving about collecting her colouring books and crayons.


    "Oh how fun, I have never coloured before!" He was truly excited over the fact.


    He and Mia went over to the table and started talking while colouring, the rest of us looked over there barely able to move.


    We slowly came together while watching the two of them.


    They were talking about Mia''s boyfriend the shadow man.


    We stood there looking at the strange sight as the boy felt strange, he didn''t belong to this world at all.


    "You are correct you know," The boy glanced up at me. "I am not from this world but me and my sister were born of this world."


    "What are you?" My voice came out asking what was on my Mine.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    "Well, my grandfather was the God who created mankind." He put his hand to his lips like he was thinking. "I think your people called him Odin."


    "So you are a God?"


    "One of the last of them yes, our race has died out except for my sister and me."


    "How old are you?" Words came out of my mouth, I couldn''t help but ask them.


    "As of last night roughly three thousand years old, my sister is much older at almost a billion years now. Just don''t tell her you know how old she is." He smirked like it was some big secret that everyone but his sister knew.


    "What is your name?" Again words that I had no intention of speaking.


    "You know, I was never given a name as my mother died while giving birth to me. But many of you just call me God but the things written about me are all wrong."


    "Then your sister?"


    "Oh she has many names but her most common one is death. I sent the other girl to go watch something with my sister."


    "Grass is green." Mia was pointing at a portion of the drawing that they were working on.


    "Oh, I thought it would look pretty in blue tho."


    "It does but grass is green."


    "Ah a child''s innocence, you better keep her safe or else."


    "Why are you here?"


    "For some reason everyone started placing faith in the one person my sister is so happy to follow around and this one person never once cared for others in the world. I made him smart and he chose to deny me. I took away his family and he made a new one. I hate this one person."


    "Kevin."


    "Yes that one! He gives me a headache just looking at him. If sister would of let me he would of been sent to the nether world already."


    "But why?"


    "Grandfather left me with instructions, I tested them out roughly two thousand years ago on some random kid when I came into my powers, he abused it and people started to call him my son."


    My mind started to run through the bits of the bible that I remembered. This didn''t make any sense at all.


    "Jesus Christ?


    "That was his name, yes." He put down the crayons and looked over at me. "That book is full of lies!"


    I couldn''t believe it. God was colouring with my sister. God was sitting right before me.


    "Ah, it seems sister is sending her back to you already. Mia, we will have to colour again someday."


    "Only friends colour with Mia."


    "Ha, then we shall be friends."


    Then I blinked, he was gone and Karen was standing by the window again.


    "Kevin is in the stadium, he is going to fight almost a thousand goblins at once."


    Karen looked scared as she found Evelyn in the room.


    "What is it?" Evelyn moved towards Karen.


    "I was sitting there with a girl, she told me that I shouldn''t look into the future."


    "When did you do that?" Jenny was just as confused as the rest of us.


    "I think the day we burried the girl."


    "The night you slept at Kevin''s place?"


    More Kevin talk, I was agreeing with God, this is too much.


    "Yeah, in the I think it was a vision I was standing on a grassy field with Kevin and you and four other people who I never met." Her eyes looked away from us all. "Everyone died and it was all my fault."


    "How can everyone dying be one person''s fault?"


    I didn''t want to listen any longer. I moved outside and started to move things into my inventory.


    W


    "We have to find him." Karen had followed me outside, her face was strict with tears.


    "Why?" Why Kevin why must we do everything for the guy. I looked at her couldn''t help it she was making me angry just thinking about it.


    "He is in danger, he needs us." I couldn''t fathom the reasons why I felt so near to this guy.


    "But you still haven''t answered my question, why?" I turned to look at her I held her on her shoulders I looked right into her eyes.


    "You left what I was telling others about my vision. I can''t help it I know he is the one that is going to save us all." Tears rolled down her cheeks, I was weak to girls like this.


    "So how do we find him." I let go of her and get to you the task of cleaning up the roof.


    "We go to where the goblins have gathered." I was stunned.. I couldn''t understand the risk that we have to take to save one person.


    "Are you kidding, you not see how many things came from the rift last night?" I paced over towards the edge to look around.


    "I was given a map." I froze in place, maps were not always trusted in the games I played, they were vague and never lead you to the exact point. "It has a time limit on it where it will show us where the dark creatures are."


    I slowly turned to her. It was our way out of this hell hole, if I could use this to get Mia out of this town I would say anything to get my hands on it.


    "How long?"


    "Three days, she said any shorter and you would kill me for it." She backed away from me. I could see the fear in her eyes. I wanted that map badly.


    "Fine how long will it take us to reach him?" I strapped my sword to my waist and got ready to go, trust would be the easiest way to get the map.


    She pulled out her phone and checked it. "Eight hours, with the path laid out right now." I looked at the map, it was an ever-changing GPS like map with a blue line that was moving.


    "Ok," I reached for it. It would be faster for me to go alone. "Watch-"


    "We are going too."


    There was four other people that came outside, Mia would be left here with a few of the other girls.


    I closed my eyes and gave up.


    I gave a slight nod then turned and climbed down from the roof.

 The Girl, The Lady, and Kevin - Tyler

    Everything was black, I couldn''t feel anything around me.


    Great I died.


    I looked down at my self, I was standing on something while wearing what looked like a white robe.


    I tried to walk but it felt like I was going nowhere.


    I bent down to feel the ground around me. My ass planted down on what felt like a couch.


    "Popcorn?"


    All my senses flooded back in an instant, I was sitting in a VIP box seat of a baseball field.


    A lady who looked no older then thirty with her black hair and crimson eyes was sitting beside me in a robe like mine but black. There were twelve other people standing in a daze behind us but we were the only ones sitting down.


    "Do you want some popcorn?" The Girl beside me shook the container in front of me.


    "Uh, sure." I reached forward to grab a handful, she placed the container in my lap and from somewhere another popcorn container appeared.


    "I don''t like to share so take it."


    I glanced down at the Popcorn, Then back to the girl beside me. She was absolutely beautiful. Her gaze was fixed on something down in the field before us.


    "It wouldn''t work between us." Had she read the thoughts running through my mind? "Yes, I did and for your next question I would much rather you speak because I am more interested in what is about to happen then seeing you ravish me in your mind."


    "Sorry, but where are we?" I tried to get my mind off her cleavage, this was going to be a hard task.


    "Sitting in a game stadium where one man is going to fight ten thousand goblins at once.


    I jumped from the seat and ran to the glass. On the pitchers mound stood Kevin as I last remembered him, his tall figure was unharmed but his clothing had been ripped away in places.


    "Kevin!" I looked around the room. There were no doors, only this window and a few tv''s that showed Kevin from different angles.


    "Don''t bother," She tossed popcorn at me then gestured to the couch beside her. "This is not your real body. Oh and none of you in this room are dead."


    "What''s going on?" My voice broke like I was going through puberty again. I coughed while the lady looked at me funny then repeated myself in my regular voice.


    "The fourteen of you lot here are the highest level humans since my father decided to rebel against grandfather."


    I sat down and counted the people, there were thirteen humans in the room and Kevin out in the field. The lady was for sure not a human.


    "But now that you humans have killed grandfather my youngest brother has treated this as his play time and granted you all with powers that could destroy all the realms and everything in them so since you lot are the strongest I wanted to talk with you to see if we can get along."


    I looked behind us at the twelve standing there. "Why am I the only one moving and talking?"


    "Oh you are not, to them you are standing there too, the only real person here is in the field." She smiled. "But you are the only clever one to ask such a question."


    I swallowed hard, goblins had started to fill the stadium. They were all chanting ''kill the shadow man'' I don''t know when but my mouth had popcorn in it and I was chewing.


    "Oh it''s begun," She looked over at me. "Why do you put so much faith that this one man will be able to save humanity?"


    "I don''t but if there was anyone who would do it by accident it is him."


    She looked puzzled as I answered her. "But you stared a religion with him at the center?"


    "I told a story to kids about a friend from a game world."


    "You went to sacrifice your self to protect the young and old?"This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    I shook my head. "I would only of wished for two of them to had lived, the rest were just in the way."


    "You are telling the truth." She looked at the people behind us. "All of them but the two of you are sacrificing them selves for others, he is doing it for fun while you are doing it to live." She shook her head and her robe moved in the most I interesting of ways exposing more of her pale skin.


    "I am," I looked forward into the field to move my gaze from the soft mountains I had in view. "I have no reason to lie to an actual God."


    She laughed.


    "Oh My, how did you find out what I am?"


    "It was a guess."


    "Yes, and a good one but I am not telling you my name for we will meet in person eventually and you won''t remember this anyhow."


    Kevin drew a strange hooked shaped blade from behind his back and the pitchers mound was bathed I darkness.


    "You know, I am a betting person. Would you like to make a wager on how this plays out?"


    "What are the stakes?" Kevin started to spin slowly looking at each and every goblin in the stadium.


    "If I win that ones power becomes mine." She pointed down at Kevin. "And if I loose he gets to keep his strength."


    It was my turn to laugh.


    "What is so funny child?" She tilted her head while looking at me.


    "What strength are you talking about?"


    "All of it that he has gathered, all sixty levels of our gods power that makes him immune to my powers."


    "You have it wrong but I will take the bet."


    "That is his strength."


    "Nope, that''s just what your kind gifted him with hell I will up the anti and give you my so called strength too if you think that it is that important."


    "Don''t toy with me. That is a very tempting offer, what would I need to do on my end?"


    "How about this-"


    "One second."


    She cut me off as a blonde haired girl appeared before us.


    "Who are you and why are you here?" There were only the three of us in the room now, the other twelve had vanished.


    "Karen," The girl looked scared as she looked around the room. "And I don''t know. I saw a boy and then I was here."


    "Come sit then child the main event is about to start."


    A goblin finally entered into the dark zone that radiated from Kevin. I lost sight of Kevin in the field but the monitors arou d us kept watch. He was behind the goblin in an instant.


    The Girl sat on the opposite side of the God placing her between us.


    "You met my bother then?" The Lady wrapped her arms around Karen like a comforting mother.


    "I think so. He was scary." Karen shivered and finally started to look around noticing the room around us.


    "There there child, he is still young and doesn''t know how to control his power fully."


    "Your brother just sends people to you?" Karen jumped at my voice.


    "She is really here you fool, don''t scare her by talking from nowhere."


    The God glared at me I waved my apology then went back to watching the screens as Kevin was teasing two goblins by appearing behind them and pushing them down.


    "Child why did he send you to me?"


    "I want to find Kevin."


    The God reacted strangely. It was as if she just got slapped across the face.


    "What Kevin do you speak of?"


    "The-" Karen''s voice cut out as the God stuck her fingers into her temples.


    "It is truly faster to get the information directly from the source this way." The God smiled at me as Karen became slack jawed. "Oh don''t worry, this isn''t hurting her."


    "I wasn''t, it just looks strange to see fingers entering somebody''s skull."


    "Well the one she seeks is before her but she barely knows him."


    "Ah so she must be the one I talked to before."


    "Yes you two were supposed to become friends, but she didn''t follow the right time line."


    The God''s eyes glazed over. While she looked at Karen.


    "Wrong timeline? How''s that possible?"


    "My stupid brothers power twisted the future I had set out."


    "So what has changed?"


    She looked mad.


    She pulled her fingers from the girls head and then clapped her hands together.


    Karen was replaced by a child with long white hair and crimson eyes.


    "I was colouring sister!" The young God stood up and started to stamp his feet on the ground.


    "You almost ruined everything you fool!" The lady smacked the child hard enough to throw him down to the ground.


    "If father was here you wouldn''t dare hit me!"


    The child was pissing me off. I stood up from the couch and walked over to the two gods. I reached down and grabbed the child by the scruff of its neck and lifted him up, he looked scared while the sister looked pleased.


    "Quit your fucking whining it is now five verses Kevin. Finish the bet before talking about this issue." I tossed the child onto the couch and sat back down with my popcorn.


    "Fair enough, Then let''s bet, that girl child will make it back here before the last goblin falls." She smiled widely. "Your power and his if she does.


    "The goblins will all be dead first, you can have our power just leave the skills and keep the ones we actually care about alive."


    "But he has no one that he cares for right now." Both gods looked at me like I was stupid.


    "Maybe not now but if you let him be there will be eventually."


    "No, the child that was supposed to turn the tide won''t be born!"


    "How can you say that for certain?"


    "She is going to push him away!" The God was yelling right in my face, I just shook my head.


    "She might but Kevin has a charm about him that draws people to him. Give him a chance and we will see just how this child gets born. You say the future is different due to that girl, so why don''t you look ahead and see."


    I closed my eyes and ate some of the Popcorn just to spite the gods before me.


    "This can''t be." I opened my eyes, she had her face pressed up against the glass looking down at Kevin.


    I offered some of my popcorn to the child God sitting beside me.


    "How, he went from one child to three with two different mothers."


    The monitor near her flickered. Kevin was standing over two cradles with a woman on each side of him. A small child was in the arms of one of the women and Kevin looked happier then I had ever seen him.


    "Hey I know that one there!" The God child pointed to the one holding the child. "I just met her!"


    I held my breath as I recognized another person who came into the screen, Dee was holding the hands of two children. Both of them had my eyes.

 Bonus Chapter - Lets Play a Game - Kevin

    He evaded me still, the one goblin I wanted to kill more then the rest of them. I wanted to bury the shadow talon into his throat like he did to that annoying girl right in front of my eyes.


    "I can help you find him." I turned around, a woman stood there ghostly pale with jet black hair and crimson eyes.


    "How? I have been hunting every last goblin I have seen since the first one and I can''t get a read on where that first one is any more." This woman wasn''t a normal human, she was too perfect.


    "I can call all of them from about a hundred miles to one location." I could of purred at her suggestion.


    "And what would it cost me?"


    "You are far too clever," she smiled and her pearly whites glistened in the setting sunlight. "Twelve hours and your memory." I looked down at my watch, 14 hours remained until the world was supposed to end.


    "The twelve hours comes from this right?" She nodded as I looked at my watch. My stats had rose to a level I never thought possible in the last few days. "How much of my memory?"


    "That all depends on how you do while fending them off." The smile was seriously creeping me out.


    "Fine, anything else?"


    "No just pick the place where you want them and I will make it so."


    I was looking her right in the eyes as I pointed to the large oval building behind me that had an open roof.


    "That will do."


    Her smile somehow got larger as she saw what I pointed to.


    "Very well, do we have a deal then?"


    "Almost." I drew the shadow talon and placed its tip under her chin.


    "What are you doing?"


    "Wondering what happens if I killed lady death." Her eyes flashed with panic for a second then returned to her usual calm state.


    "How?" She placed her fingers over the blade and a small crack appeared on the blade of my talon.


    "You eek of death," I scrunched up my nose. "Would you rather me call you by your ancient name of Thanos?"


    I pulled the blade back, I had confirmed her identity with that comment. She purred while laughing.


    "Very well you have my name, but I am going to make this into a spectator sport due to your imputance."


    I nodded while looking at the crack in the blade, I never made it to the shop to make a spare talon and now there would be no time.


    "Deal!" Thanos looked like a child at Christmas who was about to open a present.


    "How long until they are here?"


    I turned to look at the stadium.


    "The last of them should be there in under thirteen hours but please don''t kill any more until the last one arrives.


    "No promises." I walked away towards the stadium.


    "Where are you going?"


    "To go play a game." I could feel her grinning behind me.


    Her presence vanished as I stepped into my shadow. I didn''t know how many would appear but I needed time to get ready.


    One shadow step and I was inside the stadium. Darkness was my best friend. I shadowed stepped from entrance to entrance blocking off their escape routes.


    I left two ways open to the field and one way in or out. I didn''t want to give that bastard any escape route.


    I caught the glimpse of the first goblin to enter the stadium. There was still ten hours until I could start to kill them based of Thanos''s game. I moved and stood on the pitchers mound. The goblin watched me walk into full view of the stands but stayed hidden behind a chair in the bleachers as far away from me as possible.


    I checked my watch, the time had moved forward on the rift countdown. I looked up to the sky, the rift had begun to look like it was burning.


    More and more of the human goblin variants poored into the stands, each of them was roughly four feet tall and their ears were shorter then the original goblins.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    There were seven different coloured goblins. I was starting to wonder what the difference between them each was when I caught sight of my target.


    He squated near the top most exit in plain view. He started to make a noise that I thought was their speech. What ever he had said had begun to spread out and echo around the stadium. I turned slowly and saw that non of the goblins were hiding any longer. They all stood on the chairs with their arms and weapons held high in the air.


    Two more hours.


    "Sorry Thanos, but it might be hard for me not to start to kill them early."


    I started to spread my power out around me, darkness spread across the ground. This would be my zone of control.


    I spun around checking to see how far my zone controlled, each of the plates had been covered by the darkness. I smiled as I felt something enter it.


    Moving through shadow step tickles. If you move just right you can see your self falling into the shadow on the other side.


    My previous point smiled at me as I rose up behind the blue goblin that came at me.


    "Boo!" I yelled behind it and the goblin twisted its legs together and fell over.


    I started laughing it was too much to watch this sole goblin looking like it was facing its doom.


    I wanted to reach out and help it up just to scare it again.


    Two red goblins came next together from opposite sides. I checked my watch I still wasn''t allowed to kill them.


    I stepped into my shadow just before the two would of ran into me. I laughed hard at the sight of them running into each other. The goblins in the stands started to appear confused as I looked up to find my real target. He was slowly making his way down towards me.


    On the other side of the stadium different creatures started to decend from the open rifts.


    I looked up.


    Above me I the air looked like a modern take of the Greeks coliseum. It looked like thousand of humans dressed in black stood around looking down in shock as creatures rushed to jump down and into the rift.


    I watched as I stepped from one spot to the next as goblins started to get closer to me.


    "Why are humans on the other side of the rift?" I asked out loud knowing that I wouldn''t receive an answer.


    Thirty minutes until I could kill them all.


    It was becoming hard to move around safely. The whole field was starting to flood with goblins.


    Her pale skin glowed in the dark room high in the stands. She stood there with her hands pressed against the glass. Her crimson eyes glowed as two more gods moved beside her. One had eyes that glowed blue while a smaller one had the same crimson eyes as Thanos.


    How much longer would I have to dodge before I could fight.


    I readied my shadow talon as I glimpsed at the time, another minute.


    Two blue goblin heads disappeared from their bodies as soon as the countdown ended.


    My goal was to kill my target first but I lost sight of him with how many steps I had to take.


    White goblins started chanting something from high up in the stands. A golden dome appeared above the stadium as they finished their chants.


    Red goblins stood around the edge of my dark zone holding crude shields and spears pointed at the center leaving enough room for other goblins to enter the ring.


    Green goblins ran fast and low to the ground, these ones were tricky to dodge, they attacked with their claws or short crude knives. This was the most common type of goblin.


    Blue goblins were rare, I couldn''t tell the difference between the blue ones or the green ones.


    Black goblins pointed arrows at me and fired any time I moved too far away from any other goblin.


    Yellow goblins just stood there. There was only four of these ones that I could see any they didn''t move once since the battle started.


    The last ones were cool. These goblins looked more human like and were the only ones with hair. Different elements shot out from their palms as they looked like they were dancing. Each shot landed killing a goblin who moved in the wrong way. A step slower and I would be dead my self.


    Arrows started to rain down more frequently as the green and blue goblins died off.


    I broke through the ring of red goblins to deal with them next.


    The stands were now filling with shadows making it easier for me to move about.


    My target stood on the pitchers mound and watched me slaughter its kin.


    It appeared to be doing the same thing I had done with spreading out darkness.


    The black goblins didn''t last long. They had range but no defense.


    The white goblins were a bit of an issue, their chanting had gotten annoying.


    A golden wall separated me from them that was impossible for me to move through.


    I stepped around the wall trying to find a weak point.


    The hairy goblins found the weak point for me as one of them struck the ground with magic in front of the wall.


    The goblin on the other side stopped chanting as its skin burned.


    The shadow talon made a ting sound as I sliced through the last white goblin.


    The goblins were quiet now as the remaining of them stood in the field below me.


    I stepped closer to the field and they dropped their weapons.


    "He still isn''t done yet, I may win this bet." The three gods had moved forward out of the glass box.


    "The goblins have given up, isn''t that a win already?" That wasn''t the voice of a God, I knew that voice.


    I didn''t want to look behind me and let my prey escape.


    "The bet was all dead before the others arrived."


    "Yes but I don''t see them here yet do you?"


    "They are but almost right outside."


    "Then they are not hear yet."


    I wanted to look behind me. I knew that voice for sure.


    "Ah fine, but they will be soon enough."


    "Then he just needs to finish this last fifty I that time."


    Fifty, only fifty remained and one was my target.


    I glanced at my watch, I was running low on stamina. Moving so much through shadow step takes a lot out of you.


    I started feeding my mana into the shadow talon. The dark blade appeared to have grown to be over ten feet long but the weight never changed.


    I stepped into the field and swung the blade. My mana plumited as forty-nine goblins died.


    Ping.


    The shadow talon''s blade almost broke off.


    I stepped into the goblins dark zone and started a death dance as we both started to try and step behind the other and attack.


    Tyler?


    What was Tyler doing standing beside Thanos?


    I purposely stopped stepping and grabbed hold of the last goblin as he tried to attack me.


    I shadow stepped behind him while holding his arm.


    A strange popping noise rang out across the field right before I stabbed the talon into its neck.


    I stood where I had started. On the top of the pitchers mound while the three beings approached me.


    "Fine you win!" Thanos looked angry as she came near me.


    She reached forward and touched my forehead.


    The world went dark.

 So What If I Want More! - Evelyn

    I couldn''t believe Karen''s story of why she suddenly had faith in Kevin. It was too much, she spent one night at his place but it was him who kissed her in her vision, him who watched everyone die before him, and him who she now loved more then chocolate cake.


    "Karen calm down!" It was too much, she had to be stopped. "If you go after a guy like this you will push him away! He barely knows you and at this rate he never will!"


    I slammed the words at her, tears started to roll down her cheeks. She just looked at me as if I didn''t know her anymore.


    "Karen she is right," Jenny and I were her best friends. We knew everything about her. "You have never been good with guys,p what makes this any different?"


    Karen stormed out and closed the door behind her leaving the rest of us standing there dumb struck.


    "Jenny can you watch the children?" If it was to be fate Karen would go no matter what. "I am going to follow her to keep an eye on her."


    Zoey and Jane both nodded and followed me outside, with this only Jenny would be the last one watching over anybody under the age of ten.


    It was up to us older kids to be brave and show everyone that things were ok.


    I sighed as I opened the door, Karen almost gave her phone to Micheal.


    "We are going too!" My voice rang out across the roof. Karen had looked happy to hear me speak.


    Micheal just closed his eyes and started moving towards the edge of the roof.


    He nodded once then lept over landing I  the alleyway below.


    Karen almost jumped after him but decided against it and instead grabbed the rope ladder.


    "We need to hurry, the pathway was constantly moving on the map." Micheal looked panicked as he saw how long it took for the four of us girls to get off the roof.


    We ran block to block, constantly stopping to confirm the route on the map Karen had. Our route back to the house had been cut off by the time we got three blocks away.


    A giant grey skinned creature had started to slowly follow us. Our route changed from main streets to alleyways as much as possible.


    "I need a break." Zoey, Jane and Karen all were completely out of breath. We had been running for almost four hours.


    I panted, my staff supporting my weight.


    "We can''t stay still out here! There is too much at stake." Micheal was almost whisper yelling.


    It was like fate agreed with him. The grey skinned creature that was following us caught up.


    "Zoey!" My voice didn''t reach her in time. The creatures massive hand wrapped around her and between its fingers a red liquid spread out.


    We ran.


    Karen found hidden stamina and sprinted ahead of Micheal.


    I was trying my best to keep up with them.


    I started feeling like we were running in circles. I was almost about to give up on running when I ran into Micheal''s back.


    "We-" everyone was gasping for air. "Made it." I saw Karen''s smile fade away.


    I looked behind me. Jane was missing. I quickly checked my phone, her name was greyed out. I scrolled down to Zoey''s name and she was greyed out as well.


    "I told you it was dangerous to go, but did you listen? No!" Micheal was almost pulling out his hair as he realized the truth of what had happened.


    " It is just one more quick run now." Karen closed her eyes, she never got close to the other girls.


    We stood there watching the map. The parking lot ahead of us was flickering between a red zone and a blue zone as a bat like creature flew up over head.


    It was silent out as we watched the creatures flight.


    "Weren''t their goblins chanting before?" It was too silent, I moved closer to Karen and looked at her phone. A green dot was placed in the centre of a ball diamond while being surrounded by blue zone.


    Unlike the other creatures there was nothing moving around the diamond.


    Three white lights moved slowly from the building down towards the green light.


    They stopped at the green dot.


    I don''t know how to explain it other then two lights, blue and black, sprouted from the stadium in front of us. The light from the two twisted the shadows and the creature that was flying near by took off.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    " Now!" Karen called out and sprinted across the empty parking lot towards an entrance that was open.


    The tips of the light bent and started flowing back down towards the stadium.


    Ten more steps and Karen would make it inside.


    I heard the shreak of the bat like creature somewhere behind me.


    Is this the end?


    I closed my eyes and ran, I didn''t want to see my own death.


    I ran face first into Micheal''s chest.


    I shivered at his touch and pushed him away.


    I looked behind me as the giant bat like creature was standing just outside the door.


    The creature had no eyes but sat there making a purring noise that reminded me of a cat. We stood still. The creature couldn''t fit through the door due to its wingspan.


    It suck its furry head inside the door and tasted the air. It''s barbed tongue flickered before us. I wanted to backup but Micheal was still standing right behind me like he was ready to push me into the creature to save his own life.


    I closed my eyes and prayed to make it through this.


    "Okay, let''s start searching for that bastard."


    I opened my eyes, the creature was gone and Micheal and Karen were standing holding glow sticks.


    I breathed in and caught my first taste of the air. The air here tasted wrong. It tasted like everything was dead around me. It smelled like somebody had used the building as a dumping ground for bodily waste.


    I couldn''t stand the stadium. I wanted to run  away but I didn''t know where that creature was.


    "If we split up we can search more ground, have either of you killed a goblin before?" Micheal was standing before a map of the stadium. It had been marked in what looked like blood showing only two routes open and one exit.


    "No but Evelyn can use her fireballs well and I have this sword." Karen appeared to have forgotten what had happened a few days ago when we were shopping. I envied her and hoped that one day the past would no longer haunt me.


    "Okay, you two take the direct route this way then," Micheal drew a line on the map with his finger. "And I will Check out the rest of the building as fast as possible and meet you back here."


    Karen nodded and grabbed me by the hand dragging me down the passage way.


    I wanted to yell and scream that this was stupid and that she needed to start to think things through.


    I wanted to run and get away.


    I wanted to go back to high school and be a normal cheerleader again.


    The light at the end of the tunnel exposed a field of corpses that were missing limbs and vile had stained the grass red. My boots sucked at the ground.


    I added to the vile with the contents of my stomach.


    Karen ran forth from where we were to the raised part of the field where a single human lay.


    Something echoed down the pathway behind me. It reminded me of the goblin attack on us before.


    "Karen they are coming," I ran out into the field to get closer to her. "We can-" my voice caught as I saw the body of Kevin from afar. He moved and wrapped Karen in his arm. "Holy shit he is alive."


    I looked around.


    This was too much, how could one person have killed so many goblins.


    I froze in place as I looked up. There was no roof here. We were exposed to the bat like creature that was hovering in the air.


    It let out a cold shrill and I dived back towards the entrance way that we came in from.


    "Karen." I turned to look.


    The creature was standing right over top of Karen and Kevin. Micheal had disappeared from the place I saw him up I  the stands a while earlier.


    I watched in fear as I thought it was my best friends last moments on earth.


    The creature swallowed something and I closed my eyes. Karen was dead. She had to be. That was her head that the creature swallowed. I am sure of it.


    God if you are listening please let Karen still be alright. I promise to be braver from now on if she is.


    I opened my eyes as the sound of the creature taking flight caught my ears.


    I watched it as it flew off.


    Everything was quiet again.


    I listened down the passage way before moving forward back to the field.


    Nothing.


    "Clear." I called out and looked towards Karen where I was expecting her to be headless.


    I smiled. She was alive.


    Micheal was moving through the bleachers muttering to him self as he put his phone against corpses.


    Kevin and Karen walked through the gore towards me.


    Kevin was watching Micheal up in the bleachers.


    "Ignore him, this amount of goblins would have him missing him self and crying for his meema."


    I wanted to sound brave like this was nothing. I hoped it didn''t sound like I was going to break down and cry.


    Karen pulled Kevin''s hand as we started to run back through the passageway. She had the map in front of her. The whole city had turned blue.


    We had to run. This could be our chance to escape.


    Kevin''s hand slipped out of Karen''s as we got outside. Kevin looked confused.


    Micheal and Karen kept running.


    I turned back towards the confused Kyle and thought to my self that this is the only time I would ever be able to do this.


    "Come with me if you want to live!" Nailed it, my Arnold impersonation was spot on. He still looked confused. "No really come we will explain when we get to the others."


    Micheal and Karen returned back while both looking panicked.


    "Also pull out a weapon, even the mighty goblin slayer needs a weapon." Micheal was being sarcastic.


    Karen equipped Kevin with some weird blades that she had found under his bed. They were the same ones that he was holding in a picture with his friends.


    He held the blades and I watched as he moved that looked both graceful and deadly.


    It was beautiful to watch.


    "If you are done dancing we have to go." Micheal wanted to make sure Mia was safe.


    We ran as we watched the skies.


    I looked around, Karen and Micheal were ten paces ahead of me.


    I cursed my short legs.


    At this rate I was going to be the next to die.


    Kevin smiled down at me as I looked over at him. He was right beside me matching my speed no matter how fast or slow I went.


    My stomach started to hurt as I though of his smile. With just that little bit of his upturned lips I no longer felt like I was going to die.


    I couldn''t place this feeling.


    It was like I was looking at a puppy in a window.


    I watched him as he changed the way he was running.


    He went from looking normal to being a weirdo.


    His arms were straight out behind him as he leaned forward and kicked the ground to move forward.


    He looked at me and grinned showing his teeth.


    I rolled my eyes and smiled. I had to smile, he was too carefree.


    Karen and Micheal were waiting for us in the alleyway panting.


    I looked at Kevin. He didn''t seem out of breath at all.


    "You know the world has ended right?" I gave him the best angry face I could muster but even then I don''t think I could of caused him to fear me.


    "Meh." He shrugged and I felt my heart drop.


    Micheal pushed Kevin against the wall.


    I placed my hand over my heart. What is wrong with me?


    Why can''t I look at him with out feeling strange. Why does seeing him smile at the end of the world like this hurt.


    I glanced at Karen. She stood their in the same pose as me.


    Why?

 A Village Called Hope - Vanessa

    Slowly I followed my sparing partner, our dance had started the night before and lasted until neither of us could move.


    This style of dancing was better then the martial arts classes that my parents forced me to take growing up.


    I hummed to myself as I got back to the camp site.


    It looked nothing like it had the night before when we left. A wall that was the height of a goblin had surrounded the whole complex cutting into the lake behind it and leaving space to grow.


    I whistled as I stood before what could only be called a solid wood gate. It stood twelve feet high and was emitting some kind of power.


    I placed my hand against it feeling the power surge through me.


    It felt dangerous like a loaded gun.


    Chase walked past me with the same look of awe and wonder that I had.


    It was time for real sleep tho, I had been awake for far too long and the short rest after the sparing match just wasn''t enough.


    People looked at me like I was a monster. They cleared the pathway before me and scurried away while glancing back to see if I was going to come after them.


    It hurt my feelings.


    I looked down at my ripped clothing that was almost indecent, I didn''t look like I was scary. In fact I think given the fact that I just napped in the dirt for two hours I looked pretty good.


    I traced my steps towards where Chase had set up my tent. I knew I could find a friendly face there with Dee and Abigale at least.


    I opened the tent to Dee''s tent to check on Tyler and instantly regretted it.


    Tyler''s was was facing the entrance as he laid between Dee''s legs.


    " Oh my God! Put up a sock or something!" I screamed as I turned around. I could feel my cheeks flush as I started to move away from the two laughing inside of the tent.


    I closed my eyes tightly, I wanted to forget what I just had seen.


    "Enjoy the show?" Tyler''s husky voice whispered into my ear and I shivered.


    I could never tell what Dee saw in him. She helped people get into shape for a living while his shape was round.


    "Eww No! Gross!" I stomped away from him. Why did I even worry about him.


    "Relax hun, it is a natural event that everyone does from time to time." Dee had been my friend for years but even so I didn''t want to see her like that.


    "Of course I know that it happens I just didn''t want to see his ass before I went to bed!" I screamed while pointing at Tyler. "Now I am scared for life!"


    Tyler''s belly jiggled as he laughed. He stood there in nothing but shorts exposing his shape to the world.


    "Hun you are a mess," Dee finally came out of the tent and instantly went and grabbed my shoulders. "What the he''ll happened last night?"


    I just smiled as she picked twigs out of my hair and brushed dirt from my face.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    "I won." She shook her head and smiled at me.


    Tyler started cooking breakfast. It was the one good skill he had. I stood still while Dee wiped me down with a cloth. The bacon cooking on the open fire almost made me forget about seeing his ass.


    Breakfast was only bacon eggs and toast but it was still a hundred times better then what I could do.


    Sometimes I wondered if my dad was disappointed in the fact that he didn''t have a son. I never learned how to bake or cook but I practiced martial arts and could rip apart an engine and put it back together with only one or two extra screws that I had no idea where they came from.


    I used the system to change my clothing and saw my level. I couldn''t believe it.


    Level eight!


    I smiled and held out my phone towards Tyler.


    "I went up three levels when you arrived!" I was grinning wide, hunting goblins was great experience.


    "Huh." Tyler pulled out his phone and looked at it strangely.


    "What''s wrong sweety?" Dee leaned over his back looking down at the phone in his hand.


    "I sware I was level ten yesterday but now it is reading back to level one." I got up to look at his phone. All of his stats were at ten while his mana pool was huge compared to my own.


    "How the hell do you have a mana pool of ten thousand?" I couldn''t believe what I was reading.


    I know he said he was going full mage but this was beyond what I could of imagined.


    "That much I have no clue about," He picked up another slice of bacon and started munching on it. "It was hardly over one thousand last time I checked."


    We stood there in almost silence while we chewed bacon and pondered over why Tyler''s level had dropped.


    "Any left?" Chase finally made it over to our side of the camp bringing Abigale with him.


    He looked more worn out now then after our match.


    Dee fixed up two plates while Tyler explained his lost levels.


    He was now the lowest level among us.


    Our level ranking went from me being the highest to Chase at two levels below me followed by Abigale at level three and Dee at level two.


    We knew Tyler had killed more goblin''s than us but we couldn''t figure out his level issue.


    "We have another issue too that I wish Kevin was here for." Chase held out his phone to the group. "Apparently I am the leader of this village and I have to name it."


    I thought on it. He was right, Kevin was always the better one at naming things. Not only did he make all of our weapons in game on his alternate character but he also got the rights from the game company to name them all.


    I brushed the hilt of the sword I carried, this hero sword was nothing compared to my Valkyrie''s Honor.


    I wanted my full Valkyrie set in real life, it would of been a sight to behold on the battle field, the true silver white polished full plate set that allowed me to dash forward with break neck speeds. The set grew stronger the more I got damaged increasing my strength and forcing my foes to cower at my feet.


    Everyone was looking at me.


    "Penny for your thoughts?" Abigale poked my side like she had been trying to get a hold of me for a while.


    "I want my sword." I finally whispered.


    Tyler and Dee both had staffs made by Kevin. Abigale had her bow. Kevin had just finished making a full metal shield for Chase. But my sword wasn''t allowed to cross the border from Kevin''s place. The border agents deamed that it was a deadly weapon even with out a tang so I couldn''t bring it home.


    "I guarantee that he will bring it with him." Abigale wrapped her arm around me and shoved a piece of bacon in my mouth.


    "But you know that is not what we are talking about here right?" Chase moved bacon from his plate to Abigale''s to replace the one now in my mouth.


    "What are we talking about?" I looked at each of them in turn. They just all smiled at me.


    "Village name." Abigale was the one who finally clued me in.


    "Why does it matter?" I stole more bacon from Abigale''s plate. "Once Kevin gets here we will probably take off on an epic adventure anyways."


    It had seemed that was the concensses of the group.


    Dee''s family had gone south with a large group of people they met on the road. I think she said that they were going to Florida where it would be warmer.


    Mom had passed away twelve years ago and dad refused to leave her so I only had the group of friends before me.


    Abigale lost her family to goblins.


    And Chase was an orphan who had been living alone for the longest time.


    I was doodling in the dirt while thinking.


    "Hope?" Chase was looking down at my doodle.


    I guess it kinda looked like the word Hope. Well if I squinted and tilted my head just right.


    "There we have a name."


    I yawned it was way past my sleep time. I leaned my head on Abigale''s shoulder and half listened to everyone talking.


    Sleep overtook me.