《Interstellar World Struggle TV》 The Beginning ( Prologue) Prologue The waves of the Nordsea were continous banging against the ship of Electron company. It was a ship designed to strife through the harsh sea, bringing its passengers to their destination. Today, it was booked by a travel group from the university of Karlsruhe, to show them the marvelous and new shining project of the company, the North Sea offshore windpark. Countless wind turbines were constructed in rows to harvest the needed electric energy 30 km north from the German island Nordeney. It was a gigantic alley of wind mills. The sip itself was a common touristic ship, able to host 40 passengers for daytrips between the coast and several islands and on top of it with an observation deck. There, a company guide was explaining the difficulties of the construction and used techniques through a microphone to the students and teachers. The listener themselves were mostly compromised of male mechanical engineering and building construction engineers, which was also the target audience for this organized week trip by the university. Looking outside of the windows with a boring look, sat Arn Tschiller in a window seat. A 22 year old engineering student in the 4th year. He himself would describe him as average looking, being 1,78 m tall, blond hair, blue eyes and a skinny to normal build. The more he tried to focus and listen to the guide, the more bored he became. So he poked his neighbour with his right index into the side. ¡°Aui, why ? What have I done again ?¡± replied Leon, the poked person. ¡°Nothing, I am just bored and you as a building engineer should already know these techniques. So why not plan the drinking in the evening ? ¡°(Arn) ¡°pshht, I wanna hear this. Ask Sebastian and Nils. ¡°(Leon) Arn looked one sitting row back to the named persons. Sebastian being a 1,95 m tall, 23years old, brown hair moderately musculous and voluminous, mechanical engineering student, and Nils, , 1,76m tall, 21 years old, very muscoulous through his sport as a gymnastic, electronic engineering student. All three of them were his closest friends since middle school. ¡°So, about tonight, what¡­¡± (Arn) Suddenly the light turned outside from blue to deep dark. Confused, Arn turned back to the window only to see the sky pitch black and with several green and red strivings on the horizon. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.¡®Ui Jesus, this looks like the northern lights, what a show¡¯ Several students cryed out of joy, and also the guide stopped talking . But then a huge explosion took place at the horizon, illuminating everything in milliseconds only to die afterwards to leave back all people aboard blinded. As this would be not enough, in the faint distance Arn could see a small wave rolling towards the ship. ¡°Take hold on something, a wave is coming ¡° he screams out to his friends. Some students hear him, following his advice quickly while the bell of the ship starts to ring. ¡°ATTENTION ATTENTION, this is the captain. Please take cover and hold onto something. A huge wave is approaching us. We will try to steer the best course to take it. Brace for possible impact¡± Tensed, crying out in panic and also in unrest, the whole ship waits for the arriving wave, only to be hit by a breeze. And in the moment the wave passed the boat underneath with the accompanying feint breeze, the sky cleared up and looked normal again. Confused, Arn standed up to see a blue box 40 cm in front of him.
¡°Congratulaion peasants for surviving the introduction catastrophe (Tsunami Northwest Europe)¡± When you can read this, the introduction of the new world mechanics have succeeded and you are now part of it. Several disasters struck the earth as side effects, but don¡¯t worry, there will be new participants for the lost pieces ^^. As the old owner of this world grow bored with it that there were less and less wars, no frontier to explore etc., he sold YOU to us, INTERSTELLAR WORLD STRUGGLE TV. As the name should suggest in your language, we intend you to struggle as much as possible for your survival and broadcast the most interesting events. So to satisfy our customers, the new motto for this age shall be : FIGHT TO SURVIVE! Thank you for being part of INTERSTELLAR WORLD STRUGGLE TV.
Chapter 1
¡°Congratulaion peasants for surviving the introduction catastrophe (Tsunami Northwest Europe)¡± When you can read this, the introduction of the new world mechanics have succeeded and you are now part of it. Several disasters struck the earth as side effects, but don¡¯t worry, there will be new participants for the lost pieces ^^. As the old owner of this world grow bored with it that there were less and less wars, no frontier to explore etc., he sold YOU to us, INTERSTELLAR WORLD STRUGGLE TV. As the name should suggest in your language, we intend you to struggle as much as possible for your survival and broadcast the most interesting events. So to satisfy our customers, the new motto for this age shall be : FIGHT TO SURVIVE! Thank you for being part of INTERSTELLAR WORLD STRUGGLE TV.
¡®Oh Jesus, not this shit. Why ? Why now? I want my peace back. What will happen to civilization? ¡®(Arn) ¡°Jo guys, did you read that ?¡± said Arn, looking at his friends under the seats. Nods came back as a reply, Sebastian being pale in the face. Seeing that, he tried to dismiss the window with a touch on the upper right side. It started to swirl and disappear in a new symbol of his peripheral view, which looked like a @ sign. Overlooking the rest of the crowd on the floor, he could see several people start crying and throughout only plastered faces. A few movements later something outside the ship in the water catched his eyes. There were several circles of light appearing underneath the water surface, only to stop suddenly. A few seconds after that a shark would appear and look at the ship. Observing this phenomenon, he saw at least 40 fins swimming to the ship. ¡°Seb, Leo, Arn, look outside, the ship is being swarmed by sharks¡± called Nils out. ¡°Ok, let¡¯s get down to the middle deck and watch from the railing¡± suggested Sebastian. Leaving the mass of the people on deck, they went down. Going down narrow stairs towards their destination, they heard cries in front and to the side of them, coming from the backboard ( left ) side of the ship. Immediately they rushed to the middle deck. The picture which unfolded itself was gruesome. Grappling irons were hanging from the handrail and several shark creatures were attacking people. The few surprised people who watched the catastrophe originaly from here were overhelmed by a rapid raid. The shark creatures had a shark like head with a big mouth full of razor sharp teeth, a big back fin and fins on the side of the torso. Beside this, they had a human stature, greyish skin as well as two arms and two legs and a overall high of 1,5 meters. In front of the friends were 3 shark men, 2 which had simply bitten the heads of their victims while the third stabbed a person into the abdomen with a spear. This was also the origin of the ear scattering cryes. Dumbfolded, the group watched in horror as the shark men bit more from their victims and the spear was again tossed into the person. The new arrival of 2 sharkmen over the handrail broke them loose of their statuesque freezing. Nils grabbed a lifebelt and threw it against one of the sharkmen. The hard hit made the creature loose his grip out of surprise and fell back to the sea. Meanwhile Leo shortened the distance and grabbed the spearman with his arms. Sebastian ran with a loud scream to one of the shark men and hit him with his big fists. The rest of the people ran back to the viewdeck. Still at the original position beside the stairs, Arn stopped one of the fleeing students who survived the first onslaught by smaking him at the cheek. ¡°Get to the captain and tell him we are under attack. The ship must drive maximum speed and we need more people on the middle deck to defend it. Got it?¡± screamed Arn at the perplexed student. ¡°Jawohl (German equivalent to Yes Sir) ¡° yelled the other student and ran away in the direction of the bridge. So Arn turned back to the fight. The sharkman with the spear was thrown around like puppy and had lost his spear, while the head of Sebastian¡¯s shark man was smahed. Nils had the 2nd biter also under control with a grip from behind. The only thread in the moment was the second sharkman who climbed over the handrail and looked confused. Maybe he had thought that the humans were only prey ?thought Arn as he grabbed the spear and drove it into the lower parts of it. Half fascinated, half disgusted over the scene, the shark man screamed in a very high pitch only to lose his strength and to fall backwards over the handrail. Astonished about himself, Arn backed away from the handrail and stabbed the other one sharkman held by Nils. Finished with killing these murderers, the 4 looked a bit confused at each other. ¡°I think we should toss the irons down before more come¡± said Leon into the awkward silence. Nodding to him the group tossed them back, only to see that still around 20 sharkfins were visible on this side of the ship. As Arn was looking down, a new blue window appeared in front of him. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
¡°Congratulation to your baptism of fire. After killing another sentient being, You are worth to get acces to your statues window, inventory and most of the other player settings. Hail the struggle. Thank you for being part of INTERSTELLAR WORLD STRUGGLE TV.¡±
Directly afterwards followed another one.
Congratulation, you achieved a skill : Spear combat Your ferocious stabbing with this weapon you acquired the skll spear combat. Skill level 1 Weapon handling and damage +5 % 10/100
He could see the same surprise at the faces of Sebatian and Leon. ¡° I got the staus windo and spear combat. What did you get ?¡± asked Arn ¡°Unarmed combat and status¡± Sebastian ¡°Same here¡± Leon ¡°Throwing mastery and status¡± Nils ¡°Seems good, look around if you find something valuable and then let us throw this things back to the sea. We..¡± ( Arn) ¡°ATTENTION ATTENTION HERE IS THE CAPTAIN. EMERGENCY, THE SHIP IS ATTACKED BY UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE, TO ALL PASSENGERS AND CREW, DEFEND THE MIDDLE DECK. THAT IS AN ORDER. I REPEAT, WE ARE UNDER ATTACK AND EVERY AVAIBLE PERSON HAS TO DEFEND THE SHIP! THE SIDES ARE UNDER ATTACK! WE WILL GO ON FULLL SPEED WITH COURSE TO OUR PORT ON NORDENEY¡± ¡°Ok, finish up here fast and help them. By the way, this looks like Massive Multiplayer online role play games¡± commented Leon. ¡°Wuah, I don¡¯t wanna touch this things¡± said Nils. ¡°They look disgusting and look, all the scattered brain and guts doesn¡¯t make it better¡± ¡° Tss, make it fast and toss them back. Pussy¡± said Arn and started to lift the brainless dead sharkman. Aprubt he let the corpse fall again, as he it started to shine and dissolved slowly into nothingness. What was left was a small vial with a green liquid in it that rolled with the movements of the ship over the floor. Arn grabbed it quickly. With a close look he could see a describtion.
Lesser healing potion. Restores a small portion of health.
¡°First loot. Look!¡± said Arn triumphantly while swinging it directly in front of Leon¡¯s face. ¡°Yeah, nice, but what shall we do with these three?¡± was Leon¡¯s reply and pointed to the human victims laying on the ground. ¡°Although I don¡¯t like it we should throw them also over board.¡± Voiced Sebastian his opinion. From the other side of the ship they could still hear screams and cries. ¡°Fuck it, we will do it fast and then help the other side.¡± Said Nils and shortly afterwards the two headless human were tossed down. When the group started to move the stabbed person, a groan could be heard. The girl looked terrible, bleeding from the 2 stab wounds and being very pale, the eyes only opended to slits. ¡°Holy shit, she is alive. Quick Arn, try the potion on her. ¡° persuaded Sebastian Arn. So Arn took out the potion, forcefully opened her mouth and poured the liquid down her throat. 10 seconds past and nothing happened beside the girl groaning more. Descisionless, the group stared at her down, only to have a glimpse from time to time down the handrail to watch for eventual danger. After around a minute, the wounds started to regenerate slowly , so Arn send Sebastian for a first aid kid. When he came back, Sebastian was in a hurry. ¡°Guys, news. Apparently the shark men overtowered the right side and are now fighting with the crew. It doesn¡¯t seem like the rest is of use in battle. Most of them hide on the lower deck with the assistents and professors. Also, the captain is dead, killed by a thrown spear through the glass of the bridge when the shark men entered the bow. Seems like the first officer is now steering the ship¡° reported Sebastian. After applying the band aid to the girl by Nils, she could sit up and already talk a few words. She also got a message of being now part of the game , as the potion was her entry ticket as an otherworldly object. ¡° So what to do next?¡± asked Leon ¡° I suggest that we split up. Before anyone complains, only for a short amount of time, like say 10 minutes. Two look here out for more incoming grappling irons, one looks how it proceeds at the other side and the last one goes to the bridge to report that left side is safe. What do you think ?¡± suggested Arn. ¡°Mhhmm , mja, maybe¡­¡± Sebastian ¡°Seems solid, how do we decide who does what ?¡± interrupted Nils. ¡°Rock Paper scissors ? You know it is possible that in 10 min nobody returns ? ¡° warned Leon. ¡°ok, Rock Paper scissors, who wins stays¡± ( Arn) After several heated rounds of the game, Arn and Nils lost. Being the first one who lost, Arn decided to go to the other side while Nils would go to the bridge. Chapter 2 As it was decided that Arn and Nils would separate, the spear was given to the defender group to prevail further attempts of attacks on the left side. Both of them then climbed the narrow stairs up to the viewdeck. While Nils turned to the bridge, which was situated at foremost front at a towerlike construction at an even higher level, Arn had to cross the viewdeck. Glancing sideways over it, he saw around 15 people taking cover under chairs and tables, obviously too afraid to follow the captains commands. Sighning invartly about the cowardice of his fellow german country men and women, he made a mental note to not bother himself to much with them should an emergency occur. The gentleman¡¯s rule said to let children and women to secure first, but he was sure,best case would be only a few dead people on the other side if Sebastians report was 100% correct. In the face of death, everybody was himself the next. With this bad premotion, he readied himself to go down to occurring fighting noises and screams on the middle deck. Unfortunatly, the ships highest deck towered directly above the middle deck, to increase its width and to take in more guests. Looking around to get a hold of anything he could use, he found an long umbrella with a slightly sharp end, approximately 1,20 m long. Inspecting it, a blue box appeared :
Item
UmbrellaA long umbrella with a slightly pointed metal end. Used to prevent getting wet.Sturdier than plastic umbrellas because of it woodshaft and its inner metal rod Maybe useful to pick an eye out by an incautious dumb troll, but nothing more¡­.
¡®Yay, what fearsome weapon.¡¯ thought Arn before he descended the stairs down into the chaos. Looking around the corner from the stairways, he saw several crew members of the ship fighting with the sharkmen. The sharkmen already numbered around 20, equipped with spears, some sawtooth looking knives and of course their fearsome mouth. It seemed they had the luck to get a grip of at least 4 grappling irons and secured a perimeter of around 10 meters around their entry. On the other side, 13 humans of different stature fought them from both sides with lifebelts, rods, and other ship equipment. 10 of them had a uniform appearance, while the other 3 seemed like students. Lying on the deck were already several bodies of both species, making the deck even more slippery by the dripping blood and gore. Seeing this life and death struggle on a width of the deck of around 2 meter, Arn thought that it was of utmost importance to rally more people. The sailors could hold their ground maybe for another 5 minutes, but then the steady supply of new arriving shark men would outdo them. Just as he wanted to leave upstairs, unseen to the sailors another grappling iron hit the handrail further behind, outside of the fighting area. Arn moved to the mentioned grappling iron and looked over the handrail. Greeting him was the ferocious opened mouth of a sharkman, who just lifted himself to the level of the underdeck. Above him flimmered a new blue box, showing:
Shark man
level 3
¡®When not now, when then?¡¯ thought Arn, before he screamed ¡°This is Sparta¡± and stabbed the umbrella into the wide left eye of the surprised sharkman. Crying out of pain over the unconventional attack, the creature covered out of reflex his eye with its hands and fell back. This gave Arn the time to pull up the rope of the grappling iron. He took it around his arm to carry it. Running back to the viewdeck, Arn decided to report to the bridge to report the battlestate . The momentary predicted outcome would be disadvantageous for the humans. This had to be prevented. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.Arn arrived at the bridge out of breath. He had stormed 2 decks upstairs to reach it and had to knock at a closed massive iron door. ¡°Identify yourself ¡° was the answer beyond the door. ¡°Arn Tschiller, human and student. Open the door please, I have urgent news.¡± The door was opened with a screeching tone, revealing a two armed burly sailors. One was holding a handgun, while the other had a rod. ¡°He is my friend. I guarantee for him¡± heard Arn Nil¡¯s voice and entered the bridge. The room was fairly wide, equipped with several nautical instruments, radar and in the middle the steering wheel at the front. The only thing that disturbed the picture was a big crack in the windshield and the corpse lying in a pool of blood, skewered with a spear in the chest area. Arn could see 7 people. Beside Nils were 5 uniform clothed people with white trousers and blue tops, while the 6th had a black one with stripes on the shoulders. He seemed to be the mentioned first officer. The deceased had epaulettes on his, obviously the captain. ¡°What do you want report¡±?¡± asked the officer. ¡°Sir, I think you already heard from my friend next to you that the left side is secured. But the right side is struggling. We need urgent manpower to beat the creatures down or we won¡¯t live to see another sunrise. Send more men and make another broadcast to make the people on this ship aware of their situation.¡± (Arn) ¡°Do you even know about the whole picture ? Previously, we had 35 crewmember, service personal included. At least 5 have to be down in the engine room to keep this ship running. The captain was dead by a stray spear when these creatures tried to enter the bow. During this fight we lost 9 crewmember. The rest is what you have seen on the side and on this bridge. The only chance I see is to hold out behind the sturdy doors and wait until we arrive in the port. In the moment we are around 1 hour away from it. I also saw the people on the lower deck. There is no hope in their eyes.¡± (Officer) ¡°You want to sacrifice them in order to get to the Nordeney port?¡± (Arn) ¡°Frankly, Yes. What do you expect from wimpy, untrained people in front of such a disaster?¡±(Officer) ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know. But I expect You at least to try to maintain a minimum level of security. We are here as your guests and under your care. At least give us something to defend. I see your man here has a gun. The more people survive the better our chance is. Didn¡¯t you read the message ? Struggle to survive. Do you think these things will leave us alone in the port? 15 minutes ago I saw 2 of them bite the heads off of some students. We seem to be their prey, so they will at least try to take over the ship. And practically, how to you expect to reopen the door when you are in the port with them luring in front? You will be trapped like a rabbit in its hole.¡± Started Arn to explain. The audience got paler and paler during his explinations. A few seconds nobody said a word. Then the officer started to speak: ¡°Fine. Try it, your responsibility. We have 5 illegal handguns here and some signal pistols, but I think properly handled they can also burn a hole into a man. I assign 3 men to you. The rest will continue to steer and hold the bridge with me¡± And to the sailors:¡± M¨¹ller, Maier, Schmidt, I order you to follow him. As stated, take the items and everything useful. This seems to be Total War.¡± 3 sailors came forward and drew out several different types of firearms. Wondering how they could posess something like this while gun possession was very restricted in Germany, Arn called out to Nils and the 5 men team left the bridge. Chapter 3 The group arrived at the viewdeck where Arn made a sign to stop. He gestured to form a circle to let the group members come close together. ¡°Alright guys, do you know how to handle guns? Cause I am fairly sure my friends and me never shot one in our entire life.¡± addressed Arn the sailors. ¡°Sure, you know when you get one it is selfexplanatory to familiarize yourself with it. See, we may have 5 pistols of different types, but when you get close enough and pull the trigger, even an untrained person should be able to hit¡± said one of the sailors. ¡°What types do we have and how much ammunition do we have?¡± (Arn) ¡°3 Beretta 9 mm, 120 bullets, 1 colt 1911 43 bullets and a Walther PPK with 56 bullets.¡± was the answer. ¡°Ok, my thoughts : Nils, you return with one of the sailors and the Walther PPK to the left side and switch with Sebastian and Leon. Get the spear and then let them run over to the right side while we already make the vanguard to provide fast support. Then we..¡± Arn was interrupted by a loud bang beside his body. One sailor had fired a gun. Unbeknown from him a Shark man had stuck his head out of the stairway. Now his brain was shattered all over the ceiling of the stairway, dripping from above. ¡°Holy crap, they broke through. ¡° yelled Nils. The crowd on the floor started to cry out in more panic and tried to take even more cower. Some Individuals heeded in their panic to the staircase on the left side. ¡°Shit Shit Shit SHIT¡± yelled Arn. ¡°You and Nils, run as I said.¡± said Arn while he pointed at one of the sailors. The appearance could only indicate that the ride side was completely wiped out. ¡®Damn, is there no hope?¡± thought Arn. Quickly one sailor handed him a gun while Nils and one sailor dashed to the left staircase. Turning back to the right staircase, again he shark man tried to come upwards, only to be greeted as his predecessor : with a bullet by one of the sailors, this time into his throat. Arn could only hear a death rattle as the creature broke down beside his companion. But a third already tried to climb over the bodies to get to their choosen prey. Arn overlooked the area and grapped a small plastic desk with four small legs. With this he ran to the stairway opening and threw it in the direction of the staircase. The table hit the next creature to the chest. The shark man groaned, but wasn¡¯t affected by this, stepped over his dead brothers and ran with a howl to Arn. Perplexed, Arn could only watch and forgot that he was armed. He was once again awaken by the next loud bang from the gun of a sailor, whose bullet hit it from the left side to continue its journey through its chest to torn open its right side in an explosion of flesh. The twitching body fell short 1 m before it could have bitten Arn. ¡°Take this Dum Dum. HAHAHAHAAH A¡± screamed the shooting sailor. Several more Shark men appeared in the opening. The last sailor also started to shoot. At 6 m distance, the beasts were shredded by the ammunition. After 14 more shark man were lying on the floor, the beasts stopped their assault and didn¡¯t show up anymore. Arn hit himself straight into the face. ¡®Damn, they try to kill me and then I phase out. Not the best moment. Need to get back to reality.¡¯ In that moment Leon and Sebastian appeared. ¡°Everything Ok gu¡­Holy shit, that is a massive amount of corpses you have here.¡± Yelled Leon ¡°They just ran and ran up. Like a suicide squad. I can¡¯t believe that they were still coming after the first few deaths. How is your side?¡± asked Arn. ¡° Well, we fended off a few tries to enter again, but they just stopped. Now that I see this mess, I can understand it. Also, it seems like they are now searching the middle deck. One I stabbed came out of the cabin area.¡± Sebastian. ¡°We have 2 choices : either way we hole up here and hope we arrive fast enough at the port, or we purge the ship with eventual losses.¡± concluded Leon. ¡°Don¡¯t forget the people who stormed down when we wanted to come up. They will be killed if nothing happens.¡± Sebastian. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡° I think we shouldn¡¯t do act recklessly, but at least get these things from the ship, don¡¯t you agree ?¡± Arn asked the rest. ¡°So how much ammo do you two still have ?¡± were the sailors addressed. ¡°We just counted. Around 80 bullets, plus the 16 you have in your gun.¡± (Sailor) ¡°Ok, hold up the things here and build a barricade, we three will go down and see what we can do.¡± With this, Leon Sebastian and Arn went down the staircase. When they met up with Nils and the third sailor, and new face was with them. It was the girl who had earlier been stabbed. She was around 1.70m tall, blond hair and had a slim figure. ¡°Hey guys, this is Giselle, she decided to help us after we explained her the whole picture.¡± Introduced Nils her. All greeted her with a Hi and Arn told them their momentary options. Seeing that, the other three decided to give the purge a try. As Nils told them ,no new attempts of entering were made since his arrival. It was decided to run at the outer passage around the ship and not got through it, since inside were several corners and the group was lacking in close combat due to experience and weapons. The sailor had his gun, Nils the Beretta, Leon the spear and Arn hold onto his umbrella. The shooters would be in the second row while Leon, Sebastian and Arn would make the vanguard. As a 6th pair of eyes, Gisselle should observe behind and the sides. Just when the group went to the bow on the on the outer circuit of the middle deck, a group of 8 Shark men walked around the corner. Both groups looked for a second startled at each other, only 2m away from each other, before again a shot broke the stillstand. This time it was Nils who had put the trigger. Being in the second row, he had his arm rested on Arn¡¯s shoulder. The foremost Shark was hit in the chest while the one behind him was also hit. Immediately, the other Shark men tried to lunge forward and to bite the vanguard, but one was impaling himself on Leon¡¯s spear, another one got his throat penetrated through his open mouth by the steel umbrella¡¯s end. The third one to reach them was greeted with Sebastian¡¯s fists. Cautiously, the last two came forward with their weapons in front of them, a sawtooth-blade and another spear. But their cautious approach gave the sailor and Nils again time to shoot them down. Looting them, the blade was given Sebastian while the spear went to the hands of Giselle. When the corpses disappeared, they gave also one more healing potion and 3 Shark teeth. Now more cautious, the group reached the bow of the ship, which was in front of the bridge and without a roof. On their way they had to walk over several human bodies, who had missing limbs and heads. The bow had a few screwed chairs and benches for observation as much as relaxiation. But in the moment it was occupied by around 20 shark men who formed a circle in the middle of the bow 10m away from the corner the group turned around. In the middle of them was a different colored shark man. While the common ones were grey and their level ranged around 3 to 5, the one in the middle had a punctuated surface with yellow black points He was also holding a trident. . Above him, Arn could read :
Big spotteed Catshark man
level 6
But in reverse, the crowd of sharks also spotted them. Pointing his trident to the humans, the Catshark howled something while the other Shark men ran towards them. ¡°Opening fire¡± screamed the sailor while he already fired the first shot, followed by Nils who also pointed his gun forward to the approaching mass of grey bodies. The foremost two Shark men were hit and started to fall down, while the following tried to shove them out their way to reach the group. *Peng Peng Peng Peng Peng click* was heard by both guns. ¡°Reloading¡±, screamed the sailor, only to fall down, impaled by a thrown spear in the chest. Chapter 4 Chapter 4 ¡°Get back behind the corner!¡± yelled Leon and pulled Arn and Sebastian back. Quick-witted, Giselle had also grabbed Nils and was running in front of them. 5m behind the corner, Leon turned around a pointed the spear in the direction of the bow. Sebastian and Arn also stopped in their tracks, just to face a front of three incoming shark men with their sawtooth-blades. More couldn¡¯t run in a row because of the narrowed passage of the outer circuit. While Nils furiously tried to reload, Leon made a sidestep to the front and wounded the middle shark man in the chest. Covering him from the side, Arn tried the same with his umbrella. But this attack was blocked by the shark with his blade. As a result, the fabric of the umbrella was in tatters, torn off by the several teeth of the blade. So he quickly drew it back, made a faint to the beasts right side and aimed with a second stab to the creatures abdomen. This time he succeeded to the point that his opponent had to kneel down and sank to the side. Without space for a proper swing, the 3rd shark tried to stab Sebastian. In return, Sebastian did the same, only to achieve the wished result faster than his opponent. Being 50 cm taller and having a bigger reach with his arms was something the shark man couldn¡¯t counter. But the next wave came immediately after the front row sank down to the floor. As the fight continued, the guys were pushed back by the sheer mass of enemies. After several similar onslaughts, the guys were tired. The only thing that rescued them was that after what felt like eternity, Nils had already reloaded his gun and shot the remaining 6 shark men, excluding the trident user who could flee after he was grazed by a bullet. Standing panting in front of their bloody battle, the group decided to retreat to the observation deck, to get a small rest. They collected all the useable weapons and also found several lesser healing potions beside the dead bodies. Sitting in a chair resting on the observation deck, Arn decided to finaly look into the whole status thing.The group was currently resting in a few other chairs, with the 2 last sailors holding watch on both sides. Outside, the ship was just taking the turn around Nordeney. The port should be reached in several minutes. He looked back to the @ sign at the edge of his peripheral view, which was blinking. Curios, he tapped on it. You got 6 new messages Do you want to read them ? Yes/No ¡°Yes¡± was Arns answer. Congratulations! Through continuous killing Shark men without regrets, you got the new title : Shark Killer. 5 % more damage against sharks and their kin as well as exp. Congratulations Your efforts by stabbing have been recognized. You have aquired the skill Fencing novice lvl 1 10% more damage through stabbing attacks regardless the weapon (Yes, even umbrellas) 5% more penetration 5/100 Congratulations You gained a level Congratulations You gained a level Congratulations The party system has been unlocked. Now you can team up with a maximum of 5 other people. Congratulations With getting yourself your first title, 2 skills and 2 levels, further explanations are made. Titles will affect your environment, be it in a positive or negative way. Titles can¡¯t be unequipped, as they represent you and your actions. So be cautious which course of action you choose. Skills can be acquired or created by understanding your actions properly. For example: aimless stabbing won¡¯t get you fencing. Instead, you have to pinpoint the location and also hit your target. Levels are gained by defeating other creatures and gaining experience in return. It serves as a rough estimation of your strength in comparison to others. With reaching level 3, you have acquired all player accessible menus: Status menu, Inventory and party formation. Further information will be revealed at a higher level. Hail the struggle. Thank you for being part of INTERSTELLAR WORLD STRUGGLE TV So he spoke out : ¡°Status¡± *Blink* Name : Arn Tschiller Level : 3 Profession : N/A Alignment : N/A Age : 22 Required experience for level up : 550 / 1000 Health : 300 Mana : 150 Strenght : 9 Agility : 16 Intelligence : 10 Wisdom : 12 Vitality : 10 Endurance : 8 Luck : 5 Not allocated status points : 10 Skills Spear combat : novice lvl 1 + 5 % damage and handling spears Fencing : novice lvl 1 5% more penetration against enemy armor Title(s) Shark Killer Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! ¡°inventory¡± (Arn) He was greeted by 13 quadrants, which appeared in the same distance then the blue boxes and had the size of 50x 50 centimeters. Of course, it was empty. As a person longing to know the mechanics, he just took a chair beside him and tried to shove it in. The chair disappeared, and a quadrant was filled with a miniature picture of the chair, in its right lower corner was the number 1 shown. Satisfied about his two discoveries, he put the chair back out and said: ¡°Party invite Leon¡± Nothing. ¡°Leon, did you get any special notification regarding a party invite?¡± ¡°No¡± was the answer. ¡°I see¡± murmured Arn and tried it again. ¡°Party invite Leon Proetzel¡± *Ding* Leon Proetzel has accepted your party invitation. ¡°Party invite Sebastian Harderker, Nils Martini¡± *Ding* Sebastian Harderker and Nils Martini both accepted your party invitation. ¡°Yeha, did you check this out? Did you check it out? It just functions like games.¡± said Arn enthusiastically. ¡°Seems useful¡± agreed Leon. ¡°But what does it actually achieve ? ¡° ¡°Maybe split exp, and a display of the party members Health ?¡± suggested Nils. ¡°If you look closer, you can see at your right upper peripheral view some pictures of us together with a green and blue bar. Man, this is so much like World of Warcraft, only in real.¡± Leon When Arn looked back to his friends, he could see Sebastian tipp into the air and shrug a little bit. ¡°What happened ?¡±asked Arn ¡°I think I just found a new function. Just tipped onto Leon¡¯s icon and got a strong pull in his direction. When I do it with yours¡­.¡± Leon shrugged again. ¡°Yeah, I am pretty sure it pulls one to the tipped person. Maybe instead of a minimap¡­¡± said Leon and started mumbling to his own. ¡°The port, the port, we are saved¡± screamed a one of the covering students suddenly and pointed outside to the left of the ship. Arn turned his head into the indicated direction. He felt a wave of relieve. The port was truly in reach of the ship. He could already see some buildings and the docks made of concrete blocks. The distance was shortening every minute, and they would arrive there in several minutes. As Arn was deep his thoughts about how to progress further, Nils spoke out : ¡°Guys, do hear this ? Have you realized ? There is no noise anymore. No screams, no cries, but also no motor sound. We are also slowing down.¡± ¡°Yeah, has been already a while since the last attack of the sharks and the last death scream.¡± (Sebastian) ¡°Hey M¨¹ller, is it right that there is no motor sound anymore ?¡± asked Arn one of the sailors. ¡°You are damn right lad, seems like our old lady stopped running. Don¡¯t think this is a coincidence this near the port.¡± Said the Questioned. The ship was about half a kilometer away from the port swimming in the sea without propulsion. ¡°Probably it is that the 5 men in the engine room got overthrown. No men ¨C no one controlling the engine and it breaks down.¡± Guessed Nils. ¡°Anyway, what can we do ?¡± asked Nils. ¡°Any plans?¡± ¡°First we need to reach the island. But swimming seems a no-no with all the shark down there.¡± Stated Nils the obvious ¡°Depending how much destroyed the engine is, we could try to fix the engine. Would be also good in the long run, when we want to leave this island.¡± Said Leon. ¡° Don¡¯t forget that this was the ship that brought us from the mainland.¡± ¡°And what if we don¡¯t fix it ? ¡° asked Arn ¡°You see, we are not MacGyver who could build a missile with nails, gum and ducttape.¡± ¡°Lifeboats!¡± said Leon who was awoken from his trance. ¡°There must be lifeboats on this ship, mustn¡¯t they ? ¡° ¡°Sure, now that you mention it, I saw one at the back of the ship. The only thing is that it was hooked and on the middle deck.¡± (Nils) ¡°So how do we get to the boat ?¡± said Leon ¡°And who is gonna let it loose and steer ?¡± interjected Sebastian In this moment the door to the brigde opened and the officer entered the observationdeck with the remaining 2 sailors and positioned himself in the middle of the deck. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi readers, Darthkecks is here First of all, sorry that I didn''t put up any blue boxes, but it is annoyeing for me and also to much time consuming. As a first time story writer, i never imagined about how much details you have to think about. Because I write this in Word, I will only copy it and try to edit the format. I hope you had a nice read, more chapter (s) will appear at the end of the week. Also, I have to make minor changes to the already posted chapters because I had a hard time thinking about the system etc. Sincerely Darthkecks Chapter 5 Chaper 5 ¡° Dear passengers, I have to make an announcement. As you maybe have already noticed, our engines stopped. Why we cannot say, however, we are stuck here. There is no way to fix this from the bridge, so I attempt to go down to the engine room and get rid of the problem. Any volunteers are warmly welcomed.¡± Said the officer to the whole crowd settled on the obsevationdeck. ¡°Guys, I need the guns back¡± was his next sentence to Arn and his group. As they got up to hand them over, a person rose up from the covering crowd and walked over to the captain. The person, a young assistant, stopped 2 meters in front of the captain and started screaming. ¡°It¡¯s all your fault! You are the one to blame for this disaster. First you let this beasts enter, then the machine stops and now you want us to be food for this creatures for your escape. I am sick of this! I will sue you , and your company, and everyone who is responsible. ¡° started the assistant his ranting. He continued to scream at the officer without a pause, coming nearer and nearer to him. Meanwhile the officer stood unfazed and took the guns from Arn¡¯s group. Until the assistant tried to give a bitchslap (open handedly slap someone). In that moment 2 sailors grabbed the man and put him on the ground, face upwards. Slowly, as it would be a nice summer day and not in the middle of a life threatening crisis, the officer put his right foot on top of the man¡¯s chest and bended down to faze him. ¡°Excuse me, but we are in danger and if you keep on screaming nonsense like this and try to hold us up, we will just toss you down the stairs. Maybe the monsters have a moment of their time to listen to you.¡± Arn watched this scene from the sideline. As the officer wanted to say something more, 6 students jerked forwards from their cover and grabbed weapons lying on the floor from the dead shark men. At the same time, 2 other students started to wrestle with gun holding sailors. With the surprise moment on their side, the students could pummel them down until the other armed students pointed with their weapons at them and the officer. Aghast of their actions, the assistant used the time to get up and put on a wide grin. ¡°May I introduce myself ? My name is Zachelmann, George Zachelmann, and you are now all under my command!¡± stated Zachelman. ¡°As you all see, we are in a crisis. The previous command has been proven to be overwhelmed by the situation and is not enough to lead us. So I stepped up to bring us to a save end.¡± Arn just watched him as well as the rest of his group and the not involved students in this coup d¡¯etat. Zachelmann had changed his behavior in a few seconds from the in fear covering man to the senseless and in panic ranting to this final form of selfappointed commander. His eyes had taken a feverish expression as well as his face. ¡°Get the guns from them and give them some spears. Then shoo them down the stairs to let them test the waters .¡± ordered Zachelmann. As he commanded, the sailors, including the officers, were lead to the left staircase. One student handed them some sawteeth-blades over. The now with guns equipped students then pointed to the staircase. The sailors gathered and then descended down one by one. As they disappeared out of Arn¡¯s viewrange , he could still hear the following sounds of clashing weapons and cries, both human and monstrous. So the shark had indeed waited for the humans to come down and set up a trap. At least the beasts had a little intelligence. The whole overtaker group watched the staircase in anticipation of the fights outcome. ¡°Guys, are you hearing me ?¡± Suddenly Leon¡¯s voice was in Arn¡¯s head. Surprised, he turned his head in Leon¡¯s direction and noticed that also Sebastian and Nils were focusing Leon. ¡°If you can hear me, nod 3 times.¡± Ringed Leon¡¯s voice. As a reaction, all other 3 partymembers nodded. ¡°Good, I just found out how to use partychat. Just think of the party and then think your message you want to send¡±. (Leon) ¡°Test, Test, Nils is stupid¡± (Sebastian) ¡°Whoa, are you nuts ?¡± (Nils) ¡°Flies fly after Flies¡± Arn ¡°Stop the chit-chat, what are we gonna do while these fuckers are distracted? Any suggestions? ¡° Nils ¡°Taking Zachelmann¡¯s group down against guns seems suicidal. Could we maybe take Arn¡¯s grappling Iron and make a hole in the windows of the backside of the observation deck to descend there ? The stairs seem pretty much guarded.¡± Leon Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°We would be faster at the lifeboat.¡± Noted Sebastian ¡°Seems best plan we got. Hopefully they will still be distracted. Move slowly to the end back of the observation deck. They should only watch the 2 staircases in the front.¡± Nils So the four guys crawled, unnoticed by the overtakers, slowly to the end of the observation deck. But not unnoticed by Giselle, who curiously decided to follow them. Already ? the way down to the back, the rest of the students as well saw their motions and decided to follow. To them, everything was better than to be closer to the fighting. Maybe they would be the next one¡¯s send down, if the sailors should fail? As more and more people tried to move backwards, the unrest alarmed the overtakers. ¡°Hey, what are you trying to do? Stay where you are and don¡¯t try any tricks.¡± Yelled a blond woman with a gun. ¡°Yeah Yeah, don¡¯t move you fucking cowards. Stay there.¡± Were her companions words, pointing his spear in the direction of the crawling people. Arn and his group had already reached the end of the observation deck. 2 people at each side, the only thing that separated them from their escape was the glass of the deck and the 2,5 m distance in high between the decks. Then,a loud scream of pain sounded from the overtaker group. A spear was stucked out of one of the overtakers. Afterwards, all hell broke loose. While the sailors were forced to fight in the left staircase, the sharks had sent another attacker group to the right, which lunged forward at the overtaker group. Shoots were fired and a melee broke out. Sebastian used this moment and jumped up to break the glass at the rear with a spear. Arn handed him fast the rope of the grappling iron to toss it down to the rear of the middeck. Fasted was the grappling iron at a fixed plastic table of the observation deck. Without a moment to think about the possible fears and what could await them down, Arn hangeled down the rope behind Sebastian and jumped down at the end of it. They both landed in a crowd of several perplexed shark men. Sebastian was faster in his actions then them and plunged his spear into the head of one of the enemies standing next to them. ¡°Come down fast. Need help.¡± Send Sebastian a group message and stabbed the next shark who had tried face him. Arn himself was also stabbing with his umbrella and both tried to advance at least a few steps to make place for the people from above. They could still hear shoots fired upstairs. Beside Nils and Leon, also other people came down as well as Giselle and they put an end to the remaining sharks for the price of two other students. All of them had scratches and Sebastian suffered from a nasty stabwound in his upper leg. ¡°Anyone who can ready the lifeboat?¡± yelled Leon Nobody wanted to volunteer. So Arn decided on the spot to try his best in this situation. The life boat meant for him a safe escape route besides swimming and without facing the sharks or the lunatic Zachelmann. The lifeboat itself was a modern closed variant, situated with the back to the ship and painted in a flashy orange. ¡°Look if there are additional securing ropes¡± told Arn his companions. He entered the lifeboat through an entrance at the back. His first impression was that this lifeboat was very big. All places had numbers, even reaching the 70tes. The operator place was situated at the front of the ship. It seemed like the lifeboat was already touching the water. When Arn sat down at the operator place, he looked over the panels and found several buttons as well as a regulator for the speed of the ship and a steering wheel. The most important thing was a lever next to the seat. It was a big lever with a red marking and a sign : ONLY PULL BEFORE DROPPING. CLOSE ALL EXITS BEFORE AND START THE ENGINE. ¡°Guys, I found the starter. Get in and take everyone who wants to leave with us.¡± Sended Arn. A few moments later his group was inside the boat. Giselle and 2 more students were with them. After Sebastian closed the entrance, Arn started the engine and pulled the lever. Like a rollercoaster, the boat sank down into the sea, the engine roaring. When the boat was stable again, Arn oriented himself and steered the boat to the near docks, away from the slaughterhouse which was once a nice cruiser ship. Chapter 6 Chapter 6 The docks in front looked devastated. The few cranes and landing bridges which were standing there in the morning before their departure were broken or swimming in the sea. Arn decided to steer the boat to a ramp beside the tourist area and set it on shore. One of the other students opened a hatch at the ceiling and everybody got out of the vehicle. The 2 students ran together away while the group and Giselle remained beside the boat. ¡°What are we gonna do now ?¡± asked Leon per group chat. ¡°Don¡¯t know, maybe get our things from the hotel we booked ?¡± proposed Nils ¡°Yup, why not ? At least we can rest there and gather ourselves and plan ahead.¡± Agreed Sebastian. ¡°Ok, it¡¯s¡± wanted Arn say when he was interrupted by Giselle. ¡°Guys, I may be blond, but I can clearly see that you are somehow communicating. Would you be so kind and fill me in? I feel left out! ¡° said Giselle Leon turned in her direction and said: ¡°Were you ever in? On the ship we maybe cooperated with you, but I know these people..¡± and with that he pointed to Leon, Nils and Arn ¡° at least a few years and pretty well while I only know your first name. I don¡¯t trust you yet.¡± ¡° I think the same. It is an unpredicted situation. I prefer safety before the unknown.¡± Came Nils to Leon¡¯s assistance. ¡°Guys guys, calm down, it is a lady in need and we should at least help her along the way. As Christians we are obliged to do this in times of need.¡± Said Sebastian ¡°Yeah Yeah, Jesus and so on, but I don¡¯t want to be killed by a monster cause she is too dumb. Just look at the ship now. It is on fire and swarmed by sharks, even here you can still hear the screams of this dumb people. Don¡¯t wanna end like them.¡± Brushed Leon Sebastian off. Indeed had the situation changed to Leon¡¯s description. Arn could still see some sharks entering the ship via the grappling irons in the distance as well as a big smoke cloud rising from a big fire at the bow, and from time to time there were the noises of shots and screams. Sunken in the contemplation of this gruesome picture, he was nudged by Nils elbow. ¡°Say something Arn. We still need you opinion on this¡± Arn turned to face Giselle. ¡°Before we turn her down, let¡¯s ask some questions : What are you willing to bring to the group. As you can see we are a mixed party with experience about each other character and trust in each other. So what would we gain if we would take you with us?¡± asked Arn in a provocative tone. Giselle didn¡¯t answer immediately. Instead, she started to play with her cleavage and turned her body sideways to present them her almost model like figure. ¡°One more pair of hands? You seem to be 4 strong guys, so which girl wouldn¡¯t dream about having such good looking guys around her? Also I want to thank you guys for rescuing me. It¡¯s true that I was like a damsel in distress earlier, but I promise you I want to seek power through my own. Last but not least: I can cook.¡± ¡°Convinced.Especially the last point. Guys, let¡¯s take her with us.¡± Said Arn ¡°So we take her? Really?¡± asked Leon. ¡°Yes¡± said Arn and Sebastian at the same time. ¡°We can leave her somewhere safe should it really be a problem¡± sended Arn directly afterwards. ¡°I suggest we try our hotel first and look if there is still order maintained.¡± Said then Arn So the group turned and went the ramp upwards and to the hotel which the whole university group had booked for this trip. On the way to it the party was confronted with the aftereffects of the tsunami. All streets were at least till their ankles underwater. From time to time a cadaver was swimming or lying on the street beside them. The few people they saw during their march to the center of Nordeney looked scared and ran back into their homes when they passed them. Everybody was glad to reach the hotel. It was a building with several floors and was a normal tourist hotel. Nobody was manning the reception, so they took the keys the rooms of the boys and Giselle¡¯s room and moved upwards over the stairs to the second floor. ¡°I suggest that we change into suitable clothes again and that we meet afterwards in this room¡± said Arn and pointed to his and Sebastian¡¯s room. Nobody disagreed and everybody walked to their rooms. When Arn opened the door and had changed himself from his dirty, and also partially muddy clothes and shoes, he chose to relax on his bed. The room had two separate beds both facing one direction, a window at the opposite side of the entrance door and a toilet with a shower and basin, located behind the door. ¡°After our decision as a group to let Giselle stay with us, shall we invite her to our party?¡± came a telepathic question from Leon ¡°What else? It is the logical next step.¡± Responded Sebastian. ¡°Stop talking. Of course we will invite her. But let us discuss the next steps when everybody is in the room.¡± Said Arn. ¡°By the way, Nils just went out to look for the receptionist. If you guys could try to check your phone? I have no net. Nothing.¡± Mentioned Leon Immediately, both Sebastian and Arn got their phones out of their pockets and tried to call someone. But the only thing that was displayed was ¡°NO SERVICE¡± . This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°Fuck Fuck FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK¡± started Arn to yell, and Sebastian also became pale. Both of them were worried about their families. If, as stated, there would have been more catastrophes and with all the monsters spawning, ¡°But the fucking power works. Why shouldn¡¯t then the net not work ?¡± asked Arn apparently nobody. Still, Sebastian answered:¡±Probably one or more of the cables or radio mast has been hit by the tsunami. The power is maybe still running because the electric cables had more luck? ¡° ¡°Fuck this thing¡± with these words was Arn¡¯s phone smashed against the wall. Then he sat down depressed at his bed. ¡°How shall we get out of this? This is like a nightmare. You know, on the ship I was like in an adrenalin rush and felt happy after I stabbed the first monster. But on the way to this room, I just realized how fucked this island is. Surrounded by these shark monsters and overthrown by a tsunami, and nobody showed up. You have clearly seen the empty streets with the flooded or muddy ground floors and the corpses? And now this ¡° said Arn pointing to the broken mobile phone. ¡°Calm down and everything will fall in place. The Lord gives and the lord takes. Just believe in Him and Jesus.¡± Was Sebastian¡¯s response. ¡°Are you satisfied with that? Don¡¯t you fear for your families? Yelled Arn at him. Still calm, Sebastian replied :¡± What does it matter if you freak out now and waste your energy? You could also calm down and prey for the well being of your family. Just believe.¡± ¡°RRAAAAAARG!!!!! !¡± and with that Arn lifted one small suitcase which belong to him and threw it also against the wall, followed by the room telephone. Just as he was to throw a desklamp next, Sebastian seemed to be tensed and trying to listen, saying that he should stop and listen. Beeep Beeeep Beeeep Beeep Beeep Beeep Beeeep¡­.. Came from the stationary phone. ¡°Halleluja, praise Jesus and the Lord.¡± Said Sebastian with a smile. ¡°Yeah Yeah, first we need to see if this thing can reach someone.¡± Responded Arn sarcastically. But despite his words, he grabbed the phone as fast as he could and started dialing his mother¡¯s mobile phone. The phone was making a dialing sound and then it was ringing. ¡°Tshiller. How can I help you?¡± a female voice asked. ¡°Mom?¡±said Arn ¡°Arn. OHH I am so glad to hear from you. Your father and me were very worried about you. We tried to call you several times since midday, but you were not reachable.Tell me, how are you sweety?¡± ¡°I¡¯m okey, we had some troubles with the ship tour. But now I am with Leon, Nils and Sebastian back in the hotel and we are safe. Don¡¯t worry. Could you tell me more how are you, dad and Hans?¡± Replied Arn, trying to play the ball low. ¡°Well, your father and brother are all fine. We are back home in Karlsruhe. But it seems like we will have to move maybe, because the water is not functioning and there are monsters outside. I myself didn¡¯t see anything, but the news say that and that there were several catastrophes around the world. The next one was a volcanic eruption at the Kaiserstuhl. Can you believe it? First eruption for 15 MILLLION years and a big earthquake. Many people are dead and homeless in the south. But the most disturbing thing was this blue window we got, saying something about ¡°Interstellar World Struggle TV¡± and that our world was sold. Anyway, since that message, the news were reporting about monsters and that the army should be deployed.¡± Summed his mother up. ¡°And you are really fine there ?¡± asked she again. ¡°Yes, Yes, everything is fine. We also got the blue window, but apparently the tsunami got past us when we were on the ship. Just one more thing: please take the monster warning serious. I saw some of them and they kill people.¡± Answered Arn. ¡°I will try to come as fast as I can. Don¡¯t worry mum.¡± Said Arn again. ¡°I must end the call, I think Sebastian wants to use the phone as long as we still have power.¡± ¡°Greet him and the others from us and tell them we are fine.¡± ¡°Thanks mum, I will do it. Do the same to dad and Hans?. I am sorry, but I have to end this call. Sebastian wants to also to call his family. Please be safe. I come to you, as long as it takes.¡± said Arn. ¡°I understand. I love you. We will wait for you and stay around here.Bye¡± did she say. ¡°Bye¡± said Arn with a sad tone. As soon as Arn had ended the call, Sebastian took the phone and called his parents. It was also an emotional call, ending with the same promise to come back alive to them. Apparently, his whole family was visiting friends when the system struck, so their position was in the near of Hamburg. The reason was a gathering of the Evangelical Youth of Germany, which his parents were organizing and his other siblings attending. The whole family spoke with him and was glad that he had taken this trip instead of visiting Hamburg. The city was hit very hard by the tsunami and several sorts of seamonster had emerged from the water to cause mayham. It also seemed that at the outskirts of the town and in the parks, the normal animals had mutated and were able to kill people. Despite this description, Sebastian still regretted to not be with his family.The call came to a sharp end when the telephone line was cut and the signal stopped. Stunned, Sebastian looked at the listener. Chapter 7 Chapter 7 It was already 8 pm when the group came together again, a lot later than the earlier said short stop for changing clothes. Bit by bit the rest came, first Leon, then Giselle and last Nils. Nils was also the one who brought their dinner, which consisted of several pre-packed sandwiches. Additionally he had talked with the hotel owner and informed them what had happened here. As soon as the tsunami wave was away, the first monsters had spawn in the outskirts of the inhabited area. The police had tried to drive them out, but was defeated by the sheer mass of them and were now nowhere to be found. It was rumored that they had found better prey . With the lost law keepers, looters came and had plundered the markets. In silence they ate their dinner, sitting on the floor between the beds with Arn sitting against the opposite wall like the table head. When they finished, the silence still persisted, but changed from a busy silence to a more and more becoming embarrassing silence. To break the ice, Arn decided to start. ¡°Since we are here all together for the first time and you are foreign to us and we are foreign to you, we should start introducing each other. Afterwards I suggest we should speak about how to continue. Do you guys agree ?¡± asked Arn 4 nods were the reply. ¡°Ok, my name is Arn Tschiller, I am 22 years old and study mechanical engineering in Karlsruhe at the KIT, or Karlsruhe Institute for Technology. I am from around Karlsruhe and I know Leon, Nils and Sebastian since the 7th class. My hobbies are building and designing new things like for example my own motorcycle license plate holder and also driving all different sorts of vehicles, be it a bycicle or a motorboat. I am also a passionate chess player. My aim is to survive this and be reunited with my family in Karlsruhe. My current level is now 6 after all and I think my strong point lies in midrange or ranged combat.¡± With that, Arn concluded his self-introduction and looked Leon, the next right to him. With a shrug, Leon accepted and started. ¡°My name is Leon Proetzel, I am 21 years old and study civil engineering, also at the KIT. I am from the same village as Arn and the rest, how long we know each other was also said. I like swimming and trying out new sports, like free climbing and also like playing football. One of my interests is also wrestling. My aim is the same as Arn¡¯s. For me personally I think that close combat suits me quite well as you may have seen at the ship. Ah, and my level is 7 ¡± Was Leon¡¯s short and fast introduction. Next was Nils. ¡°Yay, ok. Nils Martini, if you like my name or not. 21 years old, studying electronic engineering also at the KIT. Same answer for how long we know us. My hobbies are gymnastics and tinkering with electrical things.¡± ¡°I am level 5 and my aims are the same as Arn¡¯s and Leon¡¯s. I would prefer range combat.¡± With that he shifted his gaze from a point of the wall to Gisell across from him. ¡°Hi¡± was her shy beginning. ¡°My name is Giselle d''Andlau-Hombourg. I was born at the d''Andlau-Hombourg mansion in the Elsass, France near Stotzenheim. I grew up in Strasbourg and then decided to attend also the KIT to study business engineering there. I came to Karlsruhe mostly because of my boyfriend. He was also with us on the ship. I say was, because he was one of the persons who was bitten beside me.¡± She said with a sad voice and expression, but got herself together again and continued with some sobbs in between. ¡°My hobbies and what I really can do are cooking, laundry, but also a little bit fencing. I had also training to ride a horse and am versatile in 5 languages, French, German, English, Russian and Spanish. Last but not least my father took me hunting so I could show you how to handle firearms¡± ¡°In the moment, my goal is to live. I know that my family won¡¯t be at home, they are in the U.S. ¡° ¡° I am only level 2, but I got a skill when you guys fed me the elixir. A blue window popped up and told me that I was the 9th person rescued by otherworldly measures and as a gift I got a lesser healing skill. I can heal small cuts and bruises. That¡¯s why I suggest to be supporter from behind. This also gave me the ability to use mana.¡± The guys looked at her stupified. Not because of her revelations of her family or capabilities, no, she had used gamer slang AS A GIRL and told her that. Giselle, who had obviously registered the change in expressions in the guy¡¯s faces, answered to that with: ¡°Come on guys, I know I am blond and female, but I also played some RPG¡¯S .¡± and her expression changed from a sad one to a small smile out of embarrasment. With a loud clearing of his throat, Sebastian got the attention to himself, and started his introduction. ¡°Sebastian Harderker, 23 years old ,mechanical engineering student as Arn at the KIT. I like to help others and I am also involved at our local evangelical church as a youth leader. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.My own hobbies are bycicle driving and reading. Oh, and what all the guys here forgot, we are also RPG gamers. Mostly we play together online.And my level is 7¡± ¡°I think we should invite her now¡± sended Arn telepathically. ¡° In my opinion she doesn¡¯t seem to be a burden and would increase our versatility.¡± ¡°Yes¡± came from Sebastian ¡°On my behalf, ok¡± was Leon¡¯s response ¡°Do as you want¡± Nils So Arn invited Giselle to the party and explained the party chat. Giselle in turn was happy to have found this group and be accepted. ¡°So as a matter of fact I think we already distributed our fighting roles. And I think it is also rather obvious that we all want to leave this island. Any suggestions how?¡± brought Arn another point up. ¡°As far as I know there are two ways.¡± Said Nils ¡°There is a small airport in the east of the island. On the other side we could use a boat to cross over to the mainland.¡± ¡°Can anyone fly a plane?¡± asked Leon. Nobody answered. ¡°See, problem solved. Ialso think that every usable machine had also taken off as soon as the monsters showed up.¡±said Leon in an arrogant tone, certain that he had proven his point. ¡°Ok, so water route is it. But where do we head overall? As Sebastian said that his goal is Hamburg, which is around 200 kilometers east, while Karlsruhe is at least 600 km straight south.¡± Said Nils. In all faces beside Sebastian was readable that they were unsure about such a huge detour, not to speak about the additional dangers. ¡°And?¡± broke Arn the silence. ¡°It¡¯s not like that it is not achievable. And also, Sebastian is our friend. If it would be your family, Nils, I think that Sebastian would do the same for you. And for you also , Leon. Are we good?¡± said Arn with a slightly angry tone. Instead of beeing angry, both of them look relieved. Probably, because the decision was made by Arn, and now they could stick to it. Then the group started to discuss what they would need for their journey, where and what they should loot from the shops here and where the best chance would be to get a boat. They made also a survey of all their weapons, and to the groups surprise, Nils took out a pistol with a good amount of bullets from his inventory. He had kept it in all the chaos at the ship and silently taken with him. They had several spears, 2 sawtooth-blades and Arn¡¯s umbrella. The umbrella however didn¡¯t look anymore like one, the fabric was torn off and the tip was dipped in different shades of red. The description had also changed to a mystical ¡°war-umbralla¡± with additional penetration. Thankfully it was neither bent nor broken due to it being made of steel. They talked about the distant possibility, that the army would bring the peace back to Germany and that they could find shelter in a possible refugee camp, once they made it to the mainland. Another point was if the use of magic was possible, because they had all seen the mana capability in their status windows. As their conversation was nearing its end they decided to get back to their rooms for resting. It was already near midnight, when a new blue panel appeared in front of all of them. Greetings peasants. Congratulation for surviving the first 12 hours of the new era. As our customers have voted, let¡¯s see the 10 most glorious, most funny or most entertaining happenings of the past 12 hours. Starting with place 10. Chapter 8 Chapter 8 In the blue box, a youtube like window appeared and a video began. Likewise on youtube, it started with a big 10 in the middle of the screen and showed a video of a fight between a large bull like creature with 4 horns and a spanish torrero. The subtitles told them that this video was from a bull arena in spain, where the torrero had already killed the destined bull for him when this creature spawned in the middle of the arena. The torrero¡¯s name was also shown as well as the name of the monster. It was called ¡°mutated bull¡± and was level 18. The torero, who had already used his sword in the other bull, was taken on the horns and trashed around. In the end he was thrown into the already fleeing audience, before the bull stomped through the arena gate. The video ended, a big 9 appeared and a likewise violent video was shown. Obviously, the customers had a tendency to violent videos was what Arn thought. Video 8 surprised him totally. It was showing him on board of the ship, how he made his move with the umbrella and stabbed a climbing shark with it in the eye, screaming his ridiculous warcry : ¡°This is Sparta!!!!¡± It was only 8 seconds long, but still his mouth was agape. He couldn¡¯t dismiss the screen, so he looked beside the edges to his group and saw some smiles and surprised faces. Place 7 to 2 were more bloody battles between humans and monsters, where the sacrifices on the human side were continously rising from video to video. But there were also 2 videos in which the humans came out victorious. The top place however shattered also some hopes of Arn and showed the might of the new world intruders. The footage perspective was from a bird¡¯s perspective and showed a mass of centaurs running on a German motorway. German, because the signs were in German and also revealed that it was in the east of Germany. Around 400 meters away, contrary to the storming centaurs, the German army had build up a front with several vehicles and tanks. The unfolding battle was at first in favour of the German army, which used their machine guns and tank cannons to take out many centaurs. But they were too much and also swarmed them from the side out of forests to both sides of the motorway. When the gunners then had to reload, the centaurs were so near that the first soldiers started to panic and ran or drove away, so that the slowest were slaughtered. Even the soldiers in the tanks were not that save, because somehow fireballs emerged at them. First they only melted the tracks and made them immobile, but then they started to cook the tank crew until they had to exit. The gruesome battle only took some minutes, but it felt like hours. These are the places 10 to 1 from Europe. Beginning from next Sunday on, we will publish such a conclusion every 2 weeks, and at the end of every month we will publish a list of the 100 most interesting people in our customer voting in your continent. Thank you for being part of INTERSTELLAR WORLD STRUGGLE TV. PS : Statistics for Europe¡¯s humanity Dead : 23% Free : 74% Enslaved or turned : 3% The blue window disappeared, only to be followed by another one for Arn. Congratulations on being in today¡¯s list of interesting people. As a reward for satisfying our customer¡¯s wishes for entertainment you are awarded with the title: Entertaining One This title enables you to get sponsors, who can gift you with interesting items if they pay us enough money. The items can be beneficial, but also useless to you. Also, they can promise you rewards for assignments. You can choose if you accept them, but be aware that the favor of any audience has its limits if it isn¡¯t satisfied. *Ding* HoneybadgerXXXXXXXXL has sent an assignment. ¡°I like your group of 4 people. Kick the girl out and have a foursome. You will get something useful¡­¡± *Ding* DarkDarthDolomir has sent an assignment ¡°The girl seems interesting. Would be fun if you 2 could make offspring. The reward will be my complete attention to my 2 study objects and more¡­¡± *Ding* SexyHandsomeGreatestTentaclelord has sent you an assignment ¡°Make the group your harem and I will buy you a bigger penis.¡± *Ding* CthulhuBeliever101 has sent you an assignment ¡°Convert to the great religion of Cthulhu. His mightiness will you reward then in the coming afterlife. Do it before it is too late. ¡°Nope Nope Nope¡­¡± was Arn spoken answer when he dismissed the windows. Why do I attract only creepy people were his thoughts. ¡°Nice show¡± was Nils¡¯s compliment for Arn¡¯s video.¡±But for what did you just spoke out?¡± So Arn filled them in about everything. The reactions were the same as Arn¡¯s about the offers. Leon remarked that this also revealed that they could get their bodies changed because of the penis comment, where else Sebastian congratulated him to refuse the offer to convert away from the one true God in this world. Nils just lamented why Arn got the screentime and not him. Apparently, his warcry would be now Geronimo, to get the attention of the audience. But for Nils, the most interesting fact was that there was magic involved in the videos. Another indicator was the mana sign in their status windows. This in turn brought everyone to the idea to spend their points, so everyone called up their status windows. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.*Blink* Name : Arn Tschiller Level : 6 Profession : N/A Alignment : N/A Age : 22 Experience 15 % Health : 100% Mana : N/A Strenght : 11 Agility : 16 Intelligence : 11 Wisdom : 12 Vitality : 10 Endurance : 10 Luck : 8 Not allocated status points : 25 Skills Spear combat : novice lvl 3 + 6 % damage and handling spears Fencing : novice lvl 2 5,5% more penetration against enemy armor Title(s) Shark Killer Entertaining One Arn was surprised that some of his stats had risen by themselves. It was only slightly, but still. However, he didn¡¯t know how that happened. Was it by certain actions or through his level ups? Anyway, he hoped that he would get an explanation for the whole display, but there was none. It didn¡¯t matter if he tapped on the names of the stats or tried to use vocal commands beside status or inventory. In the end, he decided to spend 10 points in Agility, 10 in strength, 2 in vitality and 3 in endurance. When he tried to give one point to luck, it was refused, getting a note that it was a stat on its own, only influenced by events. He thought that he made a good decision, guessing the meaning of the stats and his goal to be a mid- range fighter. After spending his points, he turned himself and tried to sleep in. The next day would be tiring. The next morning Arn woke up to the beeping sound of Sebastian¡¯s mobile phone. They dressed up and took only backpacks with them outside, putting their packed suitcases in one of their respective inventory slots. The group met up in the entrance hall of the hotel. Before they left, they looted the hotel kitchen for usable food and drinks and packed them also into their inventories. As soon as they thought they had everything, the group took out their weapons and went into the direction of the harbor. Sebastian and Leon walked with the acquired blades at the front, Arn with a spear, Nils with his gun as well as a army knife from his own things, and Giselle with a spear as the rearguard. To their surprise, at around three quarter of the way to the harbor, they saw 2 monsters walking around a corner into their street, around 20 meters away from them. Immediately, Arn looked above their heads and tried to identify them. In the upcoming box was written that this were Troglodytes, level 4. They were about 1.25 m tall, had no eyes nor visible ears, a bent back like a humpback, 2 arms and 2 legs.The bodies were green at the front of the head were the eyes would have been, the rest was in a greyish tone. But they still had a relative big mouth with razor sharp teeth. Their way of walking was a little uneasy but steady, and they had short spears in their hands. Their hands had also webs, and to compensate their unsteady walking, they had also a small tail in the same greyish tone as the rest of their body. The group went into hiding in a big doorframe. ¡°Are these the only ones¡± asked Arn ¡°Seems like this. Maybe scouts, the pairing would speak for it. They also appear to be pack monsters.¡± Said Leon ¡°Don¡¯t use the gun¡± said Sebastian. ¡°This will only make too much noise and get the monsters attention to this place¡± ¡°I am not stupid¡± came Nils¡¯s immediate reply. ¡°So how do we deal with them?¡± ¡°Let them come as close as possibler and then struck them. From the front or behind doesn¡¯t matter, as long as none gets away.¡± Commented Arn. ¡°Who takes which one?¡± ¡°May I get the kills?¡± asked Giselle. ¡°I am still level 2 and I want to support you.¡± ¡°Can I suggest something? We don¡¯t know which rules the exp distribution follows. So I suggest that our highest man stays put and let the others kill them. After that he checks his exp if he got a part of it through being in the group but not actively killing something.¡± Suggested Leon ¡°Alright, then I will stay out and you kill them. For the record, I am level 7 with 34% progress.¡± Said Sebastian. As soon as the troglodytes walked past the entrance, the four wannabe assassins ran from behind to their destined victims. The troglodytes had no chance. One was stabbed from behind by Giselle through its humpback, the other one sliced in two at his its waist with Leon¡¯s blade. But as they turned around to smile at Sebastian, they froze. A third one had come around the corner and had apparently witnessed the assault. In the same moment, it turned and walked as fast as it could back around the corner. Immediately, the group sprinted after it. ¡°By the way, your experiment worked. My exp changed from 34% to 42%.¡± informed Sebastian them before he as the closest to the corner ran around it. The rest of the group turned soon enough around the corner to see that Sebastian had already stabbed the fleeing around 100 meters from their position. They all felt a sign of relieve. But the odd thing was the Sebastian ran back as fast as he could. ¡°Hordes of them coming this way. Slow but steady.¡± He informed them about his observation ¡°You think we can get out of sight or at least outrun them if they notice us?¡± asked Arn ¡°That shouldn¡¯t be a problem. They aren¡¯t fast. Just hurry and then I think we will be fine.¡± Responded Sebastian So the group hastily made their way as fast as they could through the destroyed streets and washed away remains of the houses and their inhabitants. Chapter 9 DARTHKECKS here : Thank you for reading my story so far. I am delighted that still people keep on reading :D Just a small update about further chapters. My finals are approaching and with that I will be slower in writing, meaning that the next chapter is not gonna come out till the end of next week. Thank you Chapter 9 The harbor itself was a typical for a holiday destination : one part was for the bigger charter ships, cruiser and also cargo, while the other was a marina. Of course, this division had been before yesterday, as the tsunami had all existing ships and yachts jungled up and also thrown some onto the docks. Most of them were aground, had destroyed sails and were also leaking. ¡°Doesn¡¯t seem trustworthy.¡± Spoke Nils out what all of them were thinking. ¡°I don¡¯t care. The only thing I want is that we find a suitable vessel for the 10 kilometer sail to Norddeich, and that before midday. Afterwards you can be as gloomy as you want, but don¡¯t talk about shit that didn¡¯t even happen.¡± Snapped Arn back. ¡°May the Lord be with us.¡± Said Sebastian ¡°Yes, yes, and Chutlu or whatever ..¡± replied Arn to that. *DING CthulhuBeliever101 has sent you an assignment As I wrote you previously, convert to the great church of Cthulhu. Believe upon him And you will be rewarded in the afterlife. It is not too late. ¡°Not again¡± sighed Arn about this message. Jesus, it was like the witnesses of Jehova, only with the direct link to your face instead of the already annoying door ringing. ¡°Anything usable in sight ?¡± asked Leon. ¡°And furthermore, any monsters?¡± ¡°No¡± said Giselle The group was standing in the moment at the top of the navigator tower, which was situated on the dividing dock between the marina and the port. They had made their way as fast as they could and were sure to have shaken off the horde of troglodytes before they entered the tower. From the third floor they had a pretty 360 ¡ã view over the harbor. Naturally, they also saw their previous cruiser, or more precisely: its remainings. The ship had been burned and sunken aground until only the blackened observation deck and the coal black bridge were visible. Arn was glad that they were successful with their improvised flee yesterday. He also noticed that another escape hangar for a lifeboat was empty. Someone else also got away from the ship after their departure. But the task of the moment was to find a damn undamaged ship. This shouldn¡¯t be so difficult, thought Arn. The whole marina had been full as well as 3 cargo ships. If this fucking tsunami hadn¡¯t queered them the pitch! ¡°Maybe I found something. Look straight at the first cargo ship. You know what that is?¡± said Giselle The four guys turned their heads to her and shook them for a no. ¡°This ship is a yacht transporter. As this harbor has a marina, some people let their yachts be transported. I bet it has some yachts on board and one could maybe be used to get away from this island. My father used something like that for our yacht to be brought to the caribean¡± Informed Giselle them. ¡°How do we then proceed? I suggest that we go over in a crouching position. The rubble on the quays is in favor for us. Maybe we get a ladder to enter the ship? The gangway is not there.¡± Said Leon ¡°Well, first we go over and then solve this problem next. Only one at a time. Otherwise we will only overthink things.¡± Said Arn As the group wanted to go down, a message from Nils came, who had stayed downstairs at the tower entrance. ¡°Seems like we will get visitors. Some shark men came ashore and are looking around. Also, some troglodytes came from the city. We should be careful to not alarm this 2 groups. Their levels are higher than previously, between 6 and 8.¡± ¡°Ok, so let¡¯s get over to the pier without getting their attention¡± decided Arn. The group descended the stairs down and regrouped with Nils. ¡°Remember, the gun only if they are already swarming.¡± Said Arn to Nils. ¡°Yeah Yeah, I remember, Giselle instructed me this morning¡±. Replied Nils. The group advanced in a loose formation. *Bang* A pistol shot was heard. ¡°What?¡± sent Nils as the whole group turned to him. ¡°It wasn¡¯t me, I swear¡± ¡°He is right. That came from the direction you told us of the troglodytes. I bet there are other survivors¡± Rescued Giselle him ¡°Damn, the sharks are moving faster and reinforcement is coming the ramp up where we landed yesterday. Also, the troglodytes are running to the east side of the harbor in direction of our destination.¡± Reported Leon, who was the foremost. ¡°Seems like if we stay here the sharks will surround us sooner or later or we attack the troglodytes at our destination.¡± The group decided to face the latter option, so they run after the troglodytes in a crouched position as fast as they could. And truly, Gisele had been right. 3 persons were struggling with several troglodytes, several dead already layed around. Under the dead were also 3 dead people. As the group came closer, Sebastian suddenly ordered to take cover. ¡°Zachelmann and his group is in front of us.Seems like he and another one still have bullets for their guns while the third is using a spear.They are about 15 meters in front of me and my prognosis is that they will survive the attack. How do we proceed?¡± asked Sebastian. ¡°Kill him. I had him as a tutor and I hate him. Also, don¡¯t forget the incident at the ship. He wanted to sacrifice us like the sailors.¡± Gave Nils his opinion. ¡°I don¡¯t know him, so you can do what you deem right.¡± Was Giselle¡¯s response. ¡°I also don¡¯t care. But I agree that he was an asshole at the ship and I personally wont lift a single finger if I could prevent his death.¡± Leon ¡°Come on guys, there are human fellows struggling and you want forsaken them your help?¡± was Sebastians opinion. *Ding* TheGamblingHermes sent you an assignment Kill the group and let it look like it their death was inevitable. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.I will gift you then with something better than your tiny spear¡­¡­ ¡°From my opinion, it seems if we rescue them like last time, they will try the same shit again. If the monsters win , but loose some members of their tribe, we will have wasted exp by doing nothing. Nils, can you do it and shot them and that distance? Decided Arn ¡°I can try it, but I am uncomfortable of shooting them.¡± Was Nils response. Everything has to be done by oneself was what Arn thought as he crouched over to Nils and took his gun. While he robbed forward to Sebastian, more shoots could be heard, but also some cries from creatures and human alike. Arn made himself comfortable, rested his hands on a side of rubbish to take aim, and fired after a deep breathtaking. The bullet hit one of Zachelmann¡¯s helpers in the torso, who went down and dropped his pistol. The second and third shot missed, but the forth one hit by luck Zachelmann¡¯s head and smashed his brain and skull all over the place. The last human was overwhelmed by the monsters. But they didn¡¯t survived their battle triumph for long, as the rest of the group emerged from their hiding position and made short work of them. After the loud gunshots, the fighting roars, screams of pain and clashing of the weapons, an eerie silence filled the quay.The group started to loot the dead. Arn was still laying at his position, a little bit surprised about how calm he had killed another human. On one side,there was a complete absence of disgust over his actions as well that he accepted the task to kill Zachelmann so easely. On the other side,it deemed him that with this, he had also overstepped an unseen border. Sure, when he killed the sharks, he got the message about killing him another sentient being. But Zachelmann, despite his actions, had been still a human, one of his kind. What was even heavier for him, it felt like he had combined a chance for personal revenge with the possibility to get a personal advantage by selling himself to the unknown system. But his engineer side, which was joyous over the pragmatic and practical solution, prevailed in the end. So he stood up and moved over to his comrades. *Ding* Congratulations! You have been awarded the title: Killer of the own kind. New people thatyou get to know will be wary of You and distrust you more easely 5% more exp for kills of your own kind *Ding* Congratulations Your efforts by shooting and killing with a pistol have been recognized. You have aquired the skill small arms mastery novice lvl 1 5% more accuracy when aiming, 2.5% more accuracy when shooting from the hip *Ding* TheGamblingHermes HAHAHAHAHA, that was nice to see. Thank you for winning my bet that you would kill him and not vice versa. You will find your new gadget in your inventory. I think it will fullfill one of your secret dreams. ¡°Inventory¡±Arn Beside some minor health potions from the ship and his suitcase, there was something new in it. He pulled it out and looked full of happiness at it. In his hands was a Luger pistol, known all over the world as a nazi pistol for the evil nazi officers in many movies. The pistol Arn had in his hands was a special edition with an extended barrel, a big wooden shaft and a drum magazine for 32 bullets with an automatic function. Another glimpse in his inventory also stated that he had 2 spare magazines and over 500 bullets in one slot. ¡°What happened?¡± asked Leon, who saw Arn now grinning like a 5 year old in front of Santa Claus. So Arn held out his new trophy and told the rest as they came together after the loot-picking from the assignment.As he ended, Sebastian had a slightly angry facial expression, but didn¡¯t say anything. So Arn asked if they had found anything interesting. Apparently, the loot was not that bad. Beside the spears from the troglodytes and 2 more guns with a few bullets from the humans, the troglodytes had also dropped 2 health potions. The more interesting part was that the humans had things all over their bodies like 2 backpacks full of water and food as well as a signal pistol and some keys. ¡°Seems like if you die, your inventory also drops.¡± Was Leon¡¯s comment when they gave the backpacks to Giselle to store them in her inventory. ¡°Should we switch our formation? Asked Nils ¡°How so?¡± Sebastian ¡°Now we have 4 guns for 5 people, meaning that we can still let you 2 be in front, one with a melee weapon, the other with a gun. But me and Arn will now walk at the same distance behind you, one securing to the left, the other one to the right, while Giselle still secures the back.¡± Was Nils¡¯s suggestion. The group agreed to the new arrangement and continued their way to the yacht transporter with a slightly faster pace than before the fight. The possibility existed that something or someone had heared the fight and would be coming to the scene, maybe with the intention to fight. As they stood about half an hour later in front of the transporter, the first problem that arised was how to enter the ship. The ship itself was still upright and not aground, but was floating around 20 meters away from the quayside. Not enough, as a ship designed for the sea, it had a hull and the railing was towering 12 meters above the group. ¡°So, and what now?¡± asked Nils ¡°Seems like we have to swim back¡± was Arn¡¯s sarcastic answer. ¡°When will be the low tide?¡± was than Giselle¡¯s turn to ask. ¡°I don¡¯t understand. What will help us the low tide in this situation?¡± was what Arn wanted to answer to her, but he was brushed off in the middle of his sentence by Leon. He who had been sunken in deep thoughts, just said ¡°Brilliant. That will work¡± ¡°Could somebody fill us in?¡± demanded Nils ¡°You will see. How long?¡± was Giselle¡¯s answer to him while she looked at Leon ¡°Around 2 more hours or so I think.¡± (Leon) ¡°Perfect. Let¡¯s picknick here.¡± Said Giselle Chapter 10 A phenomenom, which is is seen all over the world, is the high tide and low tide for water influenced by the position of the moon to the earth. When the moon is directly over a sea, the gravitational force of the moon rises the water. When the moon is on the other side of the world, the gravitational forces of the moon let the water flow low, which means that the tide is lowered. The most serious difference can be seen in the North Sea, where every 6 hours whole ports full of ships will be without water, the ships aground. This was the time Giselle was waiting for. As they were making their picknick, the water was already flowing out of the harbor. The meintioned 2 hours later, the yacht transporter was aground. During this time, the group had come up with an idea to enter the ship and had made a makeshift grappling iron out of some metal chunks from a crane and a rope. As they now stood at the ground of the harbor in front of the ship, Arn asked who had the highest strength stat. Without surprise, it was Leon, who had 37 points in it. So he had the honour to throw the iron. The first two tries misfired until the hook was stable. First the guys climbed up, than they pulled Giselle with the rope up. When Arn watch over the cargo, he was astonished. In front of him were several yachts in different sizzes and with different sails. They were neatly stacked one after another on this bigger ship and secured with big steel cables. The brigde of this over 100 m long ship was situated at the row, while at the rear was a big ramp with a gate. To get a yacht back into the water, one had first to open it, loosen the steel cables, than let the yacht slide down a ramp. ¡°Do you know how to steer such a sailboat ?¡± wanted Arn to know from Giselle ¡°I think Yes. But I doubt it will come that far. We can just use the normal engine of one of the yachts that seem to be fit for us. Let me find out which would be suitable for us.¡± ¡°Ok , then we will inspect the ship.¡± Said Leon and pointed at Nils and him. ¡°yeah, so Sebastian and I will either help you or guard¡± As everyone went their way, Arn positioned himself at the rear with a clear view over the deck and down the left side of the ship. With his new acquired weapon in hand, he walked up and down the side. As he had nothing better to do, he opened his status Name : Arn Tschiller Level : 8 Profession : N/A Alignment : N/A Age : 22 Experience 89 % Health : 100% Mana : N/A Strenght : 21 Agility : 26 Intelligence : 11 Wisdom : 12 Vitality : 12 Endurance : 13 Luck : 8 Not allocated status points : 10 Skills Spear combat : novice lvl 3 + 6 % damage and handling spears Fencing : novice lvl 2 5,5% more penetration against enemy armor small arms mastery novice lvl 1 5% more accuracy when aiming, 2.5% more accuracy when shooting from the hip Title(s) Shark Killer Entertaining One Killer of the own kind He allocated his stat points by 5 into agility, 3 into vitality and 2 in endurance. His reasoning was simple : now that he had a ranged weapon, he wanted to be able to use it as good as possible. Vitality, was his guess, influenced how resistant to bacteria and other diseases he was as well as his healing rate. Endurance on the other side was associated by him with his stamina eg. for running, climbing etc. When a ranger¡¯s weapon malfunctions, the only way to survive would be to run away. And Arn wanted to stay alive. Arn had been guarding around half an hour, when he saw the first waves of the returning water, indicating that the high tide was steadily coming. ¡°Have you guys found something ? Also,, Giselle, do we already have a suitable vessel?¡± asked Arn slightly urgent. ¡°The tide already changed and if we don¡¯t find a ship we should retreat or we have to stay another 6 more hours on this wreck.¡± ¡°The crew is not on board¡± reported Leon. ¡°But we have found some detailed maps, which we can use instead of our phone batteries if necessary, a compass and canned food in the kitchen.¡± ¡°Nothing on my side. I only wonder where the sharks are.Haven¡¯t seen one since before the pick-nick¡± said Sebastian ¡°That¡¯s something to be thankfull today. Don¡¯t want to see this freaking monsters again.¡± Participated Giselle. ¡°In my opinion, they can just die out.About the yachts, I think I found one, and it is also close to the gate.We only have to push down one other yacht to get ours free. As it seems, this one has no leeks, the engine looks stable and the sails don¡¯t have too much holes.¡± ¡°Do you need help with anything?¡± asked Arn ¡°Well, the yacht is already ready to depart. We now only have to wait until the tide is back and push the yachts out.¡± The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. So the group waited another 5 hours on the transporter. In the middle of the time, Leon and Nils came back and showed their loot. Also , some other humans could be seen in the distance at the outskirts of town, but nobody came near the ship. The only living things were many seagulls flying around the harbor. ¡°I think you can open the gate guys.¡± Said Giselle. ¡°The water level is high enough to get out¡± Lucky as they were, the gate could be open manually with gears. Nevertheless, Sebastian and Leon both had a hard time when each of them attempted to turn the wheels for one wing of the gate. As the gates where open, water flooded the rear of the ship, covering the end of the ramp in water. Then, the group pushed down the first yacht, which glided down the ramp and floated some meters away. Suddenly, the water surface warped and several armed shark men entered the rear of the ship as well as jumped on the floating yacht. ¡°Ambush¡± shrilled Nils¡¯s scream in Arn¡¯s ears when he stared at the attacking enemy. Nobody had them on the bill, as they all thought the danger gone. As Arn opened his inventory to get out his pistol, he already heard the first shot, fired by Nils. A shark man was hit in the chest and fell back into the sea. The group was dangerously near the rear, only 5 meters from the seareach. Giselle, Nils and him were on one deck side of the ship, while Leon and Sebastian were on the other deck side, with their choosen yacht on a sledge in between them. Stumbling back, Arn opened his inventory and brought his automatic pistol out. *Bang*Bang*Bang* rang out the first series of shots. Unfortunately, Arn had never shot before with an automatic gun. Instead of hitting all the oncoming creatures one after another like on a shooting range as he had it imageined, the gun slammed against his shoulder and turned up. Only the first shot had grazed the upper skin of a shark man head, the rest of the series was too high. As a consequence of a unsteady foothold and no experience with a gun, he fell on his behind and loosened his grip of the pistol. He tried immediately to get up, but was stabbed by a spear into his left hand. A shark had covered the distance and had attacked with his spear. Luckily, the stab was amiss as the shark had been scared by the sudden loud noise of his gun. A second attack wasn¡¯t granted to the shark, as again Nils shot over Arn into the sharks head. ¡°Get up idiot.¡± Screamed a frightened Nils. On the other deck side, Leon and Sebastian had also drawn their pistols and started shooting. The rear was already filled with 8 dead sharks, but they still climbed aboard. Arn got up and grabbeb again his gun. This time he was more careful and shot only single shots. Something had to drive them, but there was no visible leader. After another wave Leon and Sebastian had to switch to melee weapons. Their magazins were empty. The sharks reacted, as they had only waited for this. Even more jumped out of the sea, but at the ramp for the yacht sledge, a different coloured shark man emerged. Over his head, Arn could identify the words ¡°Hammer Shark man¡± with his level 11. The shark man itself looked the same as the common shark man, the only difference was his hammer shark head. The creature showed its big sharp teeth with an evil smile and waved its arms. At the same time, Nils fired another round from his 9 mm. To the groups frightening surprise, the bullet didn¡¯t hit. In front of the common shark facing Arn, a light blue sphere flickered and the bullet flew astray. The protected shark was as dumbfounded as the shooter, but recovered from its confusion and leapt forward. Only with a big jump backwards was Arn able to dodge the attack. The hammerhead seemed to snicker about his successful magic trick. This clear sign of mockery made Arn upset. But as the foremost man of the three people on his side, he couldn¡¯t do anything. The magician was 15 meters away, while in front of him a shark with new found bravery had his attention. *Bang Bang Bang* Nils fired three times in fast succession. The first bullet went astray due to the magic shield as well as the second. In the time between the first shot and the second, the hammerhead had clearly waved his hands again, surely to renew the barrier. But the third shot got the shark, as the protector wasn¡¯t fast enough for a third shield. ¡°Get this and start shooting¡± yelled Arn and tossed his automatic pistol over to Giselle. The Girl had been waiting with a spear behind Arn and Nils to observe the deck behind them in the direction of the bridge. Now she tossed her spear to the ground and catched the machine pistol. Readying it, she pointed it to the next shark which endangered Arn. At the same time in anticipation of her shots, the mage wave his hands also at the next shark to Atn. To his deadly astonishment, Giselle swifted the barrel into his direction and fired a full volley of at least 6 shots at him. Honestly, Arn couldn¡¯t count all the shots fired. The result at least was obvious to all involved in the battle : the mage was shredded by the bullets in the abdomen and head. His wretched rests fell like in slow motion to the ground in front of the sledge.