《NPCs are the strongest》 Prologue: Boredom Aaaaaand here they come again.... Haaaaaaaaaaaa.... ''Who?'', you ask? Woah, I didn''t even see you there. But let me answer your question first. With ''they'' I mean the posse of around forty to fifty cocky players. Yes, you heard me right, players. Those guys are a kind of their own. Always marching about, intruding into nests of viscious beasts, sometimes toppling a kingdom and other times they kill of each other over a useless piece of cute, black, cloth cat-ears, only to discard them later on as they grew bored of their newest acquisition. I can''t say I hate those guys, really can''t. They provide me with plenty of entertainment. But lately it''s just.... haaaaa... They ain''t even making an effort anymore. Most players just enter, get killed by me or some other mob and then they never show their faces back here again. I still remember the good ''ol days of those ''Hardcore grinders'', where I would face each day hordes upon hordes of greedy and murderous bastards. They pillaged my castle, broke my furniture and killed my servants but at least they put their all into it, it was commendable. The fights were truly enjoyable, fierce and without rest. We would slug it out for hours sometimes, neither me nor the players getting any ground against each other, but at the end most of them prevailed. And those that did not tried it another day. Some of those players came so often that I started to get to know them. As the only intelligent and self-aware A.I. in this fuckfest of a game world it was quite quaint to have someone to talk to. I even let them kill my guardians just so we could have a nice chat without interruptions. At first they couldn''t believe their eyes, mouths agape and shock plastered square on their faces. But when I told them that I was something special -I was a little extra the designer crew threw into the mix of the game called Ar''rathia-, more special than just the game''s endboss, and even had access to the.... drumroll please.... INTERNET they began to huddle around me like curious children. I loved those times. And sometimes I stare at my marbled ceiling and think, my eyes wandering past the gold-veined chandelier. ''I wonder if Alex still got his job as an electrician, although the game was more job to him than his actual job. Maybe Clara and Maurice finally told each other how they felt? Is Noel still online, I wonder?'', and then I started to reminisce for hours and sometimes days about the past times. So many faces and fortunately my self, consisting solely of ever expanding data, could remember them all too well. I sighed dejectedly. The newcomers already intruded onto my orderly scheduled... shedule, two hours allocated to self-pity and one hour fucking around on the net. Their weapons gleamed under the white luminescence of the cackling torches. Some had crimson blood dripping down from their edges while others were nicked and dented. All in all they looked like a decent bunch, looking all heroic and stuff. I gave a snort and waved them forward, no time to waste. ''Maybe if I reallocate my internet fuckery onto the afternoon... hum... it may or may not work.'' The throng of warriors, mages, archers, brawlers, muses, bards, even painters and what looked like a clown, marched onward, the ground rumbling under their mighty stampede. The air was dank and musty, the acrid stench of flesh being covered by metal and sweat for hours straight only accentuated the pungent stench. I saw silvery beads trickle down their skin whenever they stepped forth, dripping downwards and onto my costly carpet. ''Argh! GODDAMN! MY CARPET!'', I wanted to shout but only squealed like an incensed granny inside my mind. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. A wall of shields, a wave of ardent metal coming to live, pushed all the way up to my throne. I grimaced at the foolishness of those warriors or berserkers or paladins or... ARGH fuck that! Invoking one of my go-to AoE spells and at the same time crowd control I unleashed literal hell upon them. The ground bulged upwards as hundreds of dying and decaying limbs surged towards the ceiling. The wall of rotting flesh slumped onto the ground and pushed the shield phalanx back in their clabbery tides. I snapped my fingers, inhaled, and a mighty maelstrom of condesated energy unfold above the ten to twenty warriors. The spell took a jab at my mana pool but I couldn''t care less at the moment. All have survived but their plated vests and shiny harnesses were now being corroded by tenacious skeletal hands that reached from the black depths. Luckily my wonderful AoE debuffs ''Sacrifice to the Deceased'' and ''Magic out'' took most of their magical resistences and durability. A nice side effect was the demoralizing stench of death that was a notch stronger than the smell of day old sweat. Priests in the back-line began to chant, their level 200 rank Z artifact class staffs shone in a myriad of colours and all damage I had done had gone to waste. Well, I had expected that much. The game was now running for how many years? Nine? Maybe ten or eleven? Over the course of time I spoke less and less to the players and now they thought the intelligent A.I. endboss Xeres the Ashenlord was naught but an urban legend. That''s why they thought placing their healers in the backline was a good idea. It had to be said that unlike in any other game, without genuine A.I.s of course, there existed a mechanism called aggro. When damage is dealt a normal mob or NPC would, naturally, attack the source of the damage, or sometimes the diverse taunt spells, in other cases, and in most instances with bosses, the mob would attack those that provide constant healing, thus keeping the change in aggor dynamic. But in my case I was impervious to any kinds of aggro-pulling or any of that shit. I killed what I wanted to kill. Raising my arm I summoned a single bolt of black lightning, arching over my obsidian flesh I let it soar through the wide hall. The unreal bolt of shadows thundered across the lines of crimson pillars, past various painting of immaculate design and then finally reached its destination among the panicking healers. The umbral tether made contact with the ground and exploded with a nigh beastial roar. The walls shuddered and a dome of blackness stretched above the unlucky fellows, the only testament to their premature demise, or so I thought. Like glass a high-pitched noise of shattering glass rang into my ears. The abyssal cupola cracked open, night-sky coloured shards flew through the air. Beneath the cracks an unholy amount of brightness accumulated until it breached the web of shadows and blinded all present, yes even their own comrades. I allowed myself access to their data, something only I could do and only then when I had ''visitors'' on my ''lawn''. Most of their mana was still there, only one person had suffered incredible losses, the mana was totally gone. ''Taking one for the team, huh...'', I mused and let the frenzy of fight wash me away. Chapter 001: Respawning Ah!... No way... They actually got me... Pfffft... Hahahahahahaha! Why was I laughing? Hell do I know, I was just in the mood. Sorry to bother you, mum. No, but really. I found the whole situation a tad bit to hilarious, even for my tastes. I drifted around in the stream of data, waiting for the time I would respawn into that mundane world. ''I can''t believe it... Those noobs actually killed me...'' I won''t lie, I was baffled and bothered at the same time. From their clumsy tactics to the klutzs'' that barked out vague orders, it all played into my favor. Heck! I even activated summoned forth my most loyal, devoted and strongest minions. How could I lose? It just made absolutely no sense. ''How! HOW?! How could they kill me?'', but deep in the recesses of my mind I knew the answer. I wanted them to kill me. I wanted to die, not idefinitely, but simply pass up the fight. I liked fighting, very much so, but it all... It''s just... haaaaa.... It''s not the same anymore, as easy as that. I opened up the very few internet sites I regularly ventured to. One was simply for entertainment, a place where people can share their videos, like and subscribe, you know? I think you can put two and two together, right? The other page was about the game I resided in. The first fully immersive virtual reality game, as I related before, Ar''rathia and I its, and probably the, very first A.I., as far as the gaming company knew. I scrolled up and down, kept my eyes glued to the screen for any and every bit of information. I saw some information about the persona I should play, Xeres the Ashenlord. A little light blue announcement in the top right corner displayed the party that killed me and the party''s individual members. I looked up my own info, skimmed over the drop chances and what those fools were fussing over at the moment. ''Maybe I dropped my mantle, ''Feueropfer''?'' Any and everyone, mage, healer or warrior, would fight with teeth and nail for that piece of cloth. ''Maybe my warmallet, ''Despot''?'', a unique class weapon, Bloodknight specific. A wonderful hammer made of pulsing lava and the spines and scales of rampaging wyverns. Or maybe, just maybe, they got the rarest of the rare: ''Equinox''. Two simple rings, one made of iridescent gold and the other of crude metal in pallid grey. The stat boosts were unbelievable but the active effects even more so. At daytime they could summon a copy of me, though only with the astral part of my magical skill tree unlocked, and at night time they could summon a copy of me with only its spirit part of the skill tree awoken. Doesn''t sound like to much but when you think about the punch I pack, well... I dare say that this item overturned many a lost guildwars. I skimmed further down, my finger tapping into the background of matrix-like cascading numbers and codes. All kinds of pop-ups, even a few rare adds inbetween, flooded my vision as I drifted off into something akin to a trance. Hardly conscious I filtered out only the most prominent of flickering lights and letters. Before I knew it a whole hour had already passed, my re-spawn timer all but ticked down to the last seconds. I awoke to the jingle of a ''1-millionth-Customer-Add'' and quickly swiped it into the endless stream of information. I realized, I wasn''t on the webpage of Ar''rathia anymore, instead I was now gazing at a cerulean screen with a single word spelled onto it.
Tired?
Impossibly I couldn''t close the obnoxious window with its azure brightness. I began to panic. At first I was seemingly drifting off into sleep and right now someone seemedto have hacked himself into my system, into my own private flood of data. How was that possible? I, as an A.I., had the highest of hacking skills, nothing was safe from me. But to prevent manual deletion I never stepped out of my own boundaries and lived my mundane life. But right now? What is this!!! I had no way to escape the panel that floated ominously in the center of my vision, I couldn''t avert my eyes from it. In the corner of my vision, inscopicuous I saw something else entirely. It was the timer, it had already counted down! ''What the fuck?!'', I had no words. This system should be perfect, like a well oiled machine. Right now I should once again stride through my beloved dungeon, skip and step around like a child, visit the NPC''s -which is quite sad since they can''t really communicate with me- and maybe fight against another group of adventurers. But no! I was being held prisoner by Mr. Bluescreen of death. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Furious I tapped onto the blue screen, tried again when the one hundreth attempt failed and then tried another few hundred times.
That won''t help, you know?
''Oh Jesus fuck!'', I nearl fell onto my non-existent behind. "What the fuck?", my speech turned into numbers and circled through the air.
You still haven''t answered my previous question.
"Y-yeah, aright weird blue screen. This is all just a hallucination. LALALALALALAL I can''t hear nor see you!", I said and closed my''eyes'' but the weird thing is, that blue window followed me even into the sweet sweet realm of dreams.
Maaaan.... Make this quick. Are you bored m8? Just answer.
''M8?''. "Are you some kind of post-pubescent idiot?". Who in his right mind still says m8? It''s not that hard to spell ''mate'', for christ''s sake.
Ah! Thought you would find that funny. Sorry.
''Well... At least that thing got manners.''
But now, back to my question. Are. You. Bored? Tired, whatever.
And there it goes again, inquiring about my mental state. "I presume you mean bored of my mediocre life, right?"
Yes yes! That''s what I mean, now tell me.
''Won''t hurt to play that game, won''t it. After all the timer is rigged or bugged or whatever. Got nothing better to do.'' "Yes, yes I am. So what? I still got stuff to do you twat.", although my tone, or the floating letters, seemed a bit vitrolic. At the end it was just my honest-to-goodness opinion of this blue box thingy.
You don''t have to insult me. But nevermind that slip of the tongue, that can happen to anybody. So, you are bored, right? Then I got an incredible offer for you. Do you want to leave your old world? Do you want to join another realm with dangers aplenty, adventure abundant and... magic of all kinds?!
''No....no, no, no, no! NO FUCKING WAY! It''s one of those things! Now I got it!'', I barely contained the excitement but with utmost effort I began to think about what this, I assume, God or Goddess told me so far. The world doesn''t seem to differ much from my ingame world, all that thing said I already got here. But, -And I mean a huge ''BUT''- the chance that I meet other sentient beings in that world, other than those that only want to kill me, would be incredibly high! "Yes, a thousand times Yes!", so what if the endboss of some game went missing? Isn''t my problem anymore.
I knew you would agree, human! Onwards then!
Now with the pannel I also heard a faint whisper in the distance. ''Alright, let''s go! Wait! Something is awry, something seems incredibly wrong.'', I felt the non-existent hairs on my neck stand on end as a white radiance began to envelop me. ''HUMAN?! I am no fucking human.'', I cursed before I landed with wobbly legs onto what I perceived as a translucent gold floor. "Who are you?", a sweet voice inquired. Chapter 002: What makes us human I stood there, stumped and confused, and watched the figure of something straight out of a fantasy novel make way towards me; and that means something when its me that says it. If not for the voice that was arguably high-pitched and the heart-shaped face with soft contours, pearly eyes and magenta lips I would have mistaken the person that was confronting me as male. Why, you ask? Well.... Maybe the reason why my thoughts drifted that way was the triple plated armor with broadened shoulders, ardent gauntlets and thick leg guards; or the cyclopean, towering monstrosity of a shield that was more resembling a whole house flank rather than a blazon; or maybe, just maybe, it was the serrated flamberge, twice as thick as your average man, with golden runes covered all over its azure shiv. Yeah, it could be all of those above. Or it might have just been that weird pixie haircut. Can''t say I dislike the style, but... meh. It was hard to stiffle my laughter as this half fortress half human trodded with surprisingly swift gait down from a set of white stairs. Her -yes I will continue to assume that this person was female to boot- face was scrunched into a disbelieving grimace, her eyes scrutinizig me with each second that slowly passed. "So...?", I began but had no words to follow it up. Trust me when I say that it is quite hard to keep your composure when a living chunk of iron with the face of a cute maiden gives you the ''you-are-fucking-suspiscious'' look. "W-what do you want?", I stuttered more so out of fear that I might just let a small chuckle leave my lips. The prospect of being crushed by this iron maiden... hehehe, get it?... was not one I''d like to see myself in. "I apologize for my rudeness.", the giant armor rattled as the woman fell to on one knee and smashed her fist on the ground, her head bowed down. "I did not expect a Highgod to make his appearance, I am truly sorry!", she said and only added to my ever so slightly increasing confusion. "I hope your holiness can excuse this fooloish one?", with watery eyes she stared up at me, all of her prior suspicions gone with the wind. What did I even expect? Of course I am sone kind of God. Truly, I had eyes but did not see!.... What the actual fuck?! If not for my mature temper I''d dare say I just let out a brainfart. "Eh... What?", I asked in the same wary and confused tone from the start. My mind was blanketed by a thick layer of ignorance about my current situation and I didn''t like that. "M-my holiness... I am afraid to say that I do not know the answer to your confusion. Did this lowly one do something inappropriate?! I will apologize but I hope you will leave my life intact if it is within your mercy.", again that girl spouted some bullshit. "Ah!", she exclaimed and jolted up. Her heavy mail shock and the clamor echoed in the wide hall. "This lowly one''s name is Teresa. Goddess of chains, swords and metal. Can I get thine honored one''s name?", with a genuine expression of wonder she gazed at me with her wonderfully deep green eyes, smaragd even, while her short strands of hair swayed sideways; her head tilted to the left she served as a beautiful display of pure curiosity. ''So cute...'', I would love to think but the stark dichotomy between her definite cuteness and the heavy air of sheer manliness that her armor exuded made it hard to keep my thoughts in order. I pondered for some time, her wavering gaze that widened in fear and panic with each second went by unnoticed. "Xeres.", I answered flat and truthfully. "Xeres is my name. Xeres the Ashenlord." "Xeres....", Teressa marveled over my name, rolled it sweetly over her tongue. "May I ask why you decided to visit this low one?", she snapped out of her daze and gave me another one of those extremely curious looks. You know, big, round eyes, sparkling in the light of a few flickering torches, and lips slightly parted; that look. As much as I''d love to answer this self-proclaimed ''Goddess'', I pressume so for the time being, I had no say in the matter of whether to pay her a visit or not. I was robbed of my world, although per my agreement, and thrown into some weird-ass ballroom. Thinking about it I hardly appreciated the whole decor and ambiente. I have to say this ''Goddess'' got good taste. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. The hall was not overly sparkly and pompous but still retained its dignified sheen from marble and gold. A few gemmed lights hung on the walls with fine statues and drapes made of crystaline chain links. It looked not half bad. It was a less than audible whimper of Teressa that pulled me back to earth. And for the love of God the terror that festered in her eyes grew with each second I spent silent. I won''t fucking kill you! "E-Ehm! Hum... I-I just wanted to check on the lesser God. Go on with whatever you were doing, I am just observing.", I took the chance and the facade of Xeres the Highgod was born. "O-of course!", Teressa shouted and even began.... saluting. Oh... God! Please no. The cringe..... The second hand embarassment.... It is too much for me! My modernly worded soliloquy was cut short by the brusque turn of Teressa, not only physically but also attitude wise. Tapping on the hard marble ground -streaked by gilden and molten metal- with her massive shield she began explaining; fear of my person, for whatever reason, taking caution custody and not letting it go. "I was about to summon a hero, a champion to help me spread my faith into the world. I had one hooked but somehow I lost the connection to him... He would have been a fine example of what humans are capable off.", her words clicked in my head. Making my self sound as imperative as possible, leaving no room for discussion, I commanded the stocky Teressa. "Tell me, now. Did something about this human seem different. No, better even, tell me what has he said?!" Teressa gulped down and sweat crossed her brow. I felt guilty just by watching the whole situation unfold. "Y-y-yes- Yes! Naturally! Uhm uhm uhm....", she wrecked for seconds her beautiful head in pursuit of an answer before she exclaimed and lifted her finger up the air. "He-He sweared very much. A-and he said something about a blue screen. He seemed confused and I couldn''t perceive his thoughts at all. He was truly enigmatic. But now he isn''t... he just doesn''t exist anymore!", she threw heer hands up in the air in surrender but I only stood there motionless, stupified. Of course she would mistake me for a human, that''s exactly what I was supposed to be! Not entirely... since, you know, not having a human body and so on. But my mind set was certainly that of a modern Earth human. That''s how I was taught, how I was raised by my programmer parent group. As Teressa was sheding light on the situation I myself came to a sudden epiphany, why I could be mistaken for a human, maybe. Just think about it for a second. What makes a stone and a human different from each other? A human has its molecules arranged in such an order that he can move, think and ''live'', however you want to define that one. In a sense a human is the same as the chair you are sitting on right now, just that the human had luck on his side. Is a mind without a body, an A.I. like myself, any different than a human? Am I not made up of atoms, the foundations of all creation? We are all but electronic charges and pulses, bound together through their mass. Am I not a human? This intense sitting of self-enlightenment stopped as I abruptly realized: Who the fuck actually cares?! I can be whatever I want, freedom bitches! What I needed to do right now was to ascertain my location, maybe get Teressa out of her armor to get a good look *wink, wink*, leave this place and then build my castle from scratch. In the end it all boiled down to one point. I am human and I want to be free, as nature dictates it. "Teressa, we need to talk." Chapter 003: The Desert (POV change) (After this will be another chapter with the POv of this person. Afterwards we will go back to Xeres and what he thought about the situation and what happened between him and Teressa. I hope you guys enjoy this somewhat lengthy chapter and please excuse my grammar and spelling mistakes, I am getting kinda tired atm. Please comment down below as I would truly appreciate any kind of repsonse, positive or negative. Enjoy! :D ) The heat was unbearable, excruciating. I can''t remember anymore. For how long have we been wandering these endless plains. For how long have we been marching; we are dead and dying but we keep moving as the memories haunt us. Their shadows loom behind us, those unspeakable terrors hunt us down to the edge of this world. My legs are heavy, my flesh haggard and my eyes parched; the sky blurries into the ground. The young and elderly have all but perished, their remains torn into silt by whipping winds and searing air. Now they are naught save part of the desert we flee through, assimilated into the meandering dunes with golden mounds reaching into the clouds. But we couldn''t mourn, we could only step forward as more of us succumbed to the sweet lullaby of death. Some stayed behind to accompany the dying in their demise, they gave their own life to soothe the forlorness of another. ''Foolishness!'' I screamed but they didn''t listen. One hour, in one hour they too will be nothing more than ash and bones. I shock my head. Too many died already. Maybe it was time to embrace it all? Nonetheless I ushered my retinue onwards, a final mountain of sand towering into the sky. The gilden giant, a structure of monumental scale, lampooned over our attempts to cross its sabulous scarp. Our bodies traveled on energies so wisp, so thinned out, that each step hurt, each step made us bleed and we could only fall to our knees and beg to the gods. As always no answer came. But even if we crossed this hulking hill who told us that it was the last of its kind? Who told us that beyond this horizon smothering dune salvation awaited? Yes, who am I even kidding? There would follow hundreds upon hundreds of its ilk before we reached the next signs of civilisation, but could I tell this my people? Of course not. If we die, then I wish we die with hope blistering in our hearts. We rested on the burning ground, drew on the last provisions we had stashed onto long dead mules. I wonder what abominations hidden in the sands feasted on their carasses. I scrapped dried leather chips from my greaves and worn boots. Unlike the convoy I had durable equipement, weatherized against all forces of nature. But it won''t take long before I too will meet my untimely death. Callous eyes wandered my direction, the travelers didn''t take lightly that I brought them into this situation. I saw the spite in their eyes but they didn''t dare to step up. I was their only safeguard, albeit a weak one, but at least I gave them a sliver of a chance for survival. Sweaty strands of hair glued onto my brow and only sparse breaches left room for sight. But even with my vision impaired by raven hairs I saw them at the waved horizon. A cloud of dust, upset by voracious creatures and their weaved muscles. The heat cocooned us in its torrid bossom but a cold sweat managed to crawl up my spine. Half a fortnight we were already on the run. Through freezing chills at night and tempesting storm at day, but those monsters not once left us out of their reach. Ca?adors, hunters of the dunes. I could only curse our luck. It should have been all so simple, guard merchant convoy X from A to B. A fat bounty for those that guard them on the way back. And even better, those fellows had their own guards already. Yeah... had. It was on the first night. A tremble in the ground, a sliver of a quake in the distance. It evolved into a steady thrumming, a rumble that streaked through the all-encompassing wasteland. My ears perked and honed to higher levels I couldn''t get a wink of sleep. Being not my first job I couldn''t reason the background noise as simple nervousness. My fidgeting alerted the others. Soon the thrumming stopped, where it was once at least a mile away it now errupted right below our nose. We were sweeped from our feet, the ground heaved with earthen groans and then it collapsed in on itself. Left shocked and surprised we waited and seconds ticked away. Cries of the wounded echoed around me but at the time my eyes were solely focused on the monstrosity that was writhing its head high up. Clicking its tongue through the air the sightless creature gave a -and I swear to all the Gods- sardonic grin as it picked up our scents. Corrosive slobber dripping from its agape mouth eked out the image of an harrowing abomination. Nostrils flaring up, grunts of rapacity dinning from its brown-mottled throat and its iron clad tail waving to and fro it set for the first strike. Fiersome claws with obsidian sheen made short work of the trained guards. Swords clashed against steeled flesh but alas the latter prevailed. In a flurry of swipes the Ca?ador vanished in clouds of red mist. I did not fight, I retreated. Screaming for those that survived I corraled them up and commanded them for a retreat, there was no way we could beat that thing. As we ran past the despairing guards I began to brooding over the transpiring situation. How did this creature manage to sneak up on us, on me, an elf nonetheless?! And then it hit me, in the literal sense. Another clunk, snap, deep underground. My sight blurried -from tears, sweat or fear, I don''t know anymore- before the ground buckled up below us. Another sand-coloured arm tearing through an unfortunate man. The rest of my memories turned fuzzy. The Ca?dors could have easily wiped us out but in the second moment they began hunting each other down. Maybe it was a display of dominance or they knew, deep down, that their prey couldn''t flee no more. We turned for the desert and sprinted until our legs gave in. In the distance they still fought, between riven corpses and shattered stone. And now they were back at our heels, once again. Packing up the little scraps of dried meat I fiddled from my bristled pouch I stood up despite my exhaustion. Gesturing for the dozen survivors I picked up the pace again to mount the bluff dune. Now or never. It took a handful of hours until we summited the towering dune. The sun now nuzzled against the horizon, just a sharp glimpse of it peeking over the boundary between sky and earth. I was unable to enjoy the breathtaking vista as our all doom approached rapidly from behind. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Sapped from our resources and energy we stood stock still, our backs upright although we shouldn''t have the power to do so. As it did on our first encounter the ground ruptured and the abyss retched out its dreadful abominations. Whereas once was slick, leathery skin with sharp spines were now legion wounds oozing with profane stench. Those two beasts took their sweet time, knowing all too well that we won''t escape. I shared a careful gaze with those around me, my eyes darting behind me. I couldn''t run anymore, so why make it difficult? I unsheathed my sword -fragile and unsuited to trade blows with creatures of such magnitude- and took a stance. The first blow came down like a moutain. I had no hopes of blocking this tyrannical strike that left afterimages in the blazing air and so I tried to at roll out of harm''s way. The balled claw crashed down onto the ground and the sand split to make way. The sheer force of this single blow, propelled by pumping flesh and volatile blood, send me skittering over the burning sand. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw a dark caudate, able to cleave a grown man in two, whipping over the sand. I positioned my sword between the plated and my own flesh. As the whipping tail made contact with my flank it forcefully expelled the air out of my lungs. My vision blurred and my head cocked to the side. My mind was rattled and serveral bones certainly broken like twigs intwine. The Ca?ador licked the wind in delight as I came flying out of the yet to settle wave of dust. I rolled over the ground in agony, feeling my legs break from the constant tumbling. Sand had entered all the orifices I could think off and it burned its way only deeper with the passing of each second. I tried to cough but apart from the few bits of flesh and blood I felt no relieve. My eyes watered, my senses reached the lowest point yet. Fearfully I watched as the Ca?ador snaked forward with its monstrous apendages hoisted into the air. The last vestiges of sunlight glimmered between the obsidian claws and like guillotines they shone back in their metallic luster. Behind me the fearful cries of those that were hunted down by the second Ca?ador echoed out. None of them will survive, not even the last one. Whatever motive I had I clawed over the ground towards my bent sword. It had been sent flying over the dune for a few meters and it took me at least a few seconds to reach but the Ca?ador simply stood unmoving with its perpetual grin of a true victor. I fumbled with the swords in my hands before I got a good grip on it. I was not going to give this beast a satisfying hunt. Pressing the hilt into the ground I tried to postion the glowing shiv upright. My thoughts were calm as I reared my body back. A violent and wrathful scream left the cracked lips of the Ca?ador as it realized what I was about to do. I combined gravity and the last reserves of energy for this desperate sucicide attempt. At the last moment I would at least be able to choose how I died. The frantic shifting of sands behind me conjured a rare smile on my face. ''This dumb creature!'', I laughed sardonic before my body stood plumb to the blade. With nothing to lose I plunged my body straight into the sharp but weathered blade, hoping that a swift pierce through the heart would end my life effortlessly. I felt each instant pass by as if it were hours. I felt the blade penetrate my flimsy leather attire, break through the thin metal enforcements and then reach the linen clothing underneath. I felt the fibers loosen as the blade tore onwards. I felt the cool metal meet my skin in an intimate moment that lasted not a single breath. How I felt the days of adventure through the sword.... I felt it dig even through this last protective layer, and then sink even deeper into my flesh. Pain surged from my chest but I choose to ignore it. The screams at my back became even more dire and so did the will to pull through with my last wish. As the sword deftly moved past the bones, moments apart from my heart, I felt a slight tug at my shoulder. I cursed my luck, the creature had gotten to me before I fulfilled what I had begun. My body was pulled upwards -but it was by no means in a wild and uncontrolled fashion; in a display of raging power- but more so... I was lifted gently. What had stopped my body, what had stopped me from ending my self, was not the overbearing claw of the Ca?ador but a hand. I felt it on my bruised and burnt skin. It was a hand, a calloused but warm hand. The touch sent a tingle of comfort through my fatigued body and before I knew it I felt reinvigorated. My spirit felt lifted and my hands had their grip back. I gazed up, ignoring the wildly trashing Ca?ador at my back, and saw a man, definitely a man, standing above me. An umbral shadow blotched his face but I could tell his features were sharp and battle seasoned. I marvled at the man but a sudden scream shock me awake. The Ca?ador went in for a final swipe, all four clawed limbs crisscrossing the air. "Watch out!", I screamed with a voice I didn''t know I had but the man, instead of running or trying to block, only grinned. I saw it behind the masking shadow. A wide, despotic grin of a truly powerful being. The claws reach his back but then stopped, stopped as if time itself had barred their next move. The grin only widened on the man''s face. The skin of the Ca?ador quivered, its body started to spasm, before it was set alight by horrendous flames; flames so dark that I could have mistaken them for the night. "Tsk, tsk!", the man clicked his tongue and snarled. "Don''t you even dare... ''Ignis''", he muttered and let actions speak for him. The writhing and burning Ca?ador suddenly began deforming, crumpling into a mess of ashen crust, before it exploded with light abundant. A second sun took the unfortunate creature''s place. "Laughable.", I managed to pick up the hardly audible whisper of the man that had obliterated the monster I dreaded so much without even as much as turning back. "Why, hello there!", he said in a jolly voice before offering me his broad hand. With his voice lingering in the air all other noise came to a close. The second Ca?ador burrowed down in a hurry before it scurried away with its tail between its legs. Somehow I felt safe.