Kevin’s attention focused. He got to the edge of the skyscraper he was on and leapt through the air towards the next one. Midair he saw them, dozens of mornakai, from the looks of the ones he could make out clearly, all of them were abnormal. Kevin thought back to the streets. he’d ran the streets a bunch of times. You’d always get morankai attention, always. The more normals you drew, the more likely you were to have at least a couple abnormals. That was true for his cluster, but not necessarily every cluster so Kevin hadn’t thought anything of it. But what if someone had been collecting abnormals.

Kevin was already sprinting as fast as he could, he was already moving as fast as he could, he literally couldn’t move faster. Unless. Kevin pulled out four pills. A mid-tier recovery pill, a mid-tier healing pill, a calming aura pill and a boiling dragon ginseng booster. Kevin could see now that there were normal mornakai with the large group of abnormals. Worse. There were humans moving with them as well.

What if that Necrozark wasn’t a Necrozark at all. It was a Beast Ally Master Type. A special, limited type ability from the shop that cost almost 300,000 points There was only one available. Kevin had noticed it when he had been searching the shop for abilities to fill Conqueror’s Spoils with.. It allowed someone to break a beast and stubborn it to the will of the Master. This person must have suborned all the abnormals they could find. A process that probably took weeks, maybe longer.

The person the rest of the cluster thought was a Necrozark must have been planning to take over the cluster for a while, but had to bide their time to become strong enough to make their army. Kevin almost stopped running as he realized the strength of the people who had gone out on the bridge. Kevin himself had caused this attack. The Beast Master character must have heard that five powerful elites from the first wave had all gone to the bridge. They must have thought this was there chance to start the war. Kevin showing up had literally been the start to the fight. The desperation to find Katie intensified. In a situation like this, almost everyone would be vulnerable.

Kevin poured his power into his armor. His shield practically glowed with the shield energy he pushed into it. He pulled out his flame axe and leapt from the skyscraper into the battle zone.

He landed amidst a pack of three abnormals and four normal morankai. He swung his axe and two normal morankai died immediately.

— Points Obtained: Points 9 —

— Points Obtained: Points 8 —

He bashed an abnormal with his shield, activating Light Heavy to lower then raise the weight as it crashed into the creature. It flew over the edge of the skyscraper like it was hit by a wrecking ball. Kevin came back in with a swing from his axe and took the leg of the second abnormal morankai. Then blocked an attack from the third abnormal on his shield before retaliating with a kick to another normal morankai.

— Points Obtained: Points 9 —

— Points Obtained: Points 89 —

The abnormal had hit the ground and died. Kevin blocked the third morankai with his shield again and kicked the abnormal that was missing a leg in the face. Then came up with an underhand swing and took the face off another normal morankai.

— Points Obtained: 8 —

— Points Obtained: 92 —

The grounded abnormal died as Kevin put his axe in its spine. Kevin faced the last abnormal morankai and noticed it was running away. That was a little uncommon. That was probably related to the control The Beast Master had, the same with the reduced points. The Beast Master must somehow make them worth less. That was OK with Kevin, he didn’t really need the points.

Kevin got shot in the back. Before he had the chance to turn around, three more found struck him from behind. The bullets ricocheted off his armor, reinforced as it was with shield energy. He turned and put his shield up, tapping to switch out his axe for the desert eagle he. His kite blocked a barrage or more bullets from three different shooters. They realized the issue and started to flank Kevin. He didn’t let them Finish before he lowered his shield, raised his pistol and shot the nearest in the face.

— Points Obtained: Points 843 —

The other two men started to strafe to coffer behind a shed and Kevin shot one in the belly before shooting the same in the chest twice.

— Points Obtained: Points 1,098 —

Kevin didn’t let the last shooter make it to the shed before he leapt forward and knocked the man back against the ledge of the skyscraper. He followed after and brought his kite shield down like an axe head, shearing off the man’s head.

— Points Obtained: Points 954 —

Kevin pinged Katie. She was farther inside. He could hear fighting. A huge part of him wanted to help but he wouldn’t not survive if he helped someone else and Katie died. So, despite his heart wrenching, Kevin moved. He kept his shield out and pulled his axe out and began moving from one skyscraper to the next again. He only moved to kill a morankai if they were directly in his way or if killing one would immediately help someone on the building he was on.

— Points Obtained: Points 8 —

— Points Obtained: Points 82 —

— Points Obtained: Points 10 —

— Points Obtained: Points 9 —

— Points Obtained: Points 8 —

Kevin finally reached the building he was certain Katie was in. He found the nearest shed and threw the door open. There were three morankai and a human all fighting trying to get lowing in the stairwell, fighting an enemy Kevin couldn’t see. He threw himself forward and put his axe in the back of the head of the human.

— Points Obtained: Points 1,245 —

He reaped morankai.

— Points Obtained: Points 8 —

— Points Obtained: Points 75 —

— Points Obtained: Points 10 —

The people who had, up until recently, been fighting morankai and a human enemy, noticed Kevin had helped them. They nodded towards each other and Kevin dashed down the steps pinging Katie all the while. Kevin found her five floors down. In a split second she was gone, suddenly in a different spot.

“God Damnit” Kevin said. He immediately realized she probably had a teleport ability, which was fucking awesome. But, also a huge pain in the ass right now.

He turned to climb back up to the fourth floor down, where he was pretty sure she just appeared when a tide of morankai rushed down the steps. Kevin was fully engaged with the horde in moments and not able to take a single step forward. Normally the stairs were an OK place for Kevin to fight. His shield combined with his various selection of weapons made the stairs a fair place to fight. But that was mostly true when he had the high ground. Having the low ground, an occurrence that had never happened for him, was a totally different story.

Every morankai he cut down fell at his feet spoiling his balance, even with the Cloud Step shoes to gain temporary height he couldn’t use them as a consistent platform, so he would be forced to come back down on bodies. He found this out the hard way when he came down, his foot slipping off the acidic blood of the morankai he had just beheaded. He was off balance and unprepared when the abnormal that was behind the normal lashed out, striking him in the chest. Kevin flew back, hitting the wall on the landing platform and falling to the ground. Neither the strike nor the fall hurt, but it immediately undid the progress Kevin had just made.

That was when Kevin felt Katie move again. She was back on the fifth floor from the top. That was good, at least he could approach her from there.

He lashed out with his axe and took the knee of the abnormal that was barrelling down towards him, then kicked up, knocking it into the normal morankai that were following. The whole bunch fell, spoiling the balance of those behind. The horde fell like dominoes. Kevin would have thought it was hilarious if he hadn’t felt like his heart was going to fall out of his chest. If Katie was teleporting around, it was because she was in danger.

Kevin activated Light Heavy and made himself light. He punched the ground with his considerable strength and launched himself to his feet like an anime character. He dashed down the half flight of stairs to the fifth floor from the top and threw open the door. He was met with another scene of chaos. There were three abnormal morankai and two men all crowding the door of what looked like might be an office. Kevin rushed in. He threw his fire axe which struck the back of an abnormal but didn’t kill it. He tapped his ring and pulled out his desert eagle. While running he shot and one human killi him instantly.

— Points Obtained: Points 2,304 —

The other person turned and Kevin shot at them too. An artifact or some ability appeared and prevented the bullets from hitting his target and the desert eagle clicked empty. Kevin stored it and pulled the machete from his inventory as he ran in, his fire axe still on the ground. The human retaliated, He held a sword and he dashed at Kevin. He moved to cut Kevin, who brought up his shield to catch it. Kevin heard feet pounding behind him as the horde caught up to him. He turned and chopped the head off the normal that was about to kill him, before the head could fall, Kevin caught it out of the air and threw it at the human as a distraction. The human flinched and Kevin followed up the attack with a strike from his own. He needed his axe back. The human parried the blow and Kevin almost lost his machete, it was out of place for the return strike from the human but Kevin expertly slipped the blade and brought his shield up over head head to catch the strike from the normal morankai behind him.

The two remaining abnormals that were originally on the foor at the office door were still there trying to force it open. They were so far unsuccessful but Kevin noticed other morankia, including an abnormal, were joining the two. Kevin rolled forward, swinging his machete at the knee of the swordsman who was forced to block or lose the limb. He took two steps back as Kevin came to his feet, burying his machete in the back of one of the abnormals at the door. He kicked it out of the way, threw a shield backhand at a normal morankai, knocking it into the swordsman crouched and grabbed his fire axe and brought it up to the head of the morankai who was ‘holding’ his machete.

That’s when he noticed. The wall of the office space was glass. The glass of the skyscrapers were as invincible as the steel. The only way to get into the room was through the door which several people inside the room were trying to keep shut. The people inside could see Kevin fighting outside, and Kevin could see inside. He saw Katie and he hesitated.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

She hadn’t seen him in months from her perspective. She didn’t know what his new body looked like. She couldn’t see his face because his helmet covered him completely. She didn’t know he was there for her. He hadn’t seen her in over almost 14 months from his perspective. Seeing her, alive and well if not necessarily safe, gave Kevin pause that it should not have.

A sword came out of Kevin's stomach.

The swordsman had come up behind Kevin. Kevin was distracted and in that bare instant where he wasn’t moving the swordsman stabbed. Kevin’s distraction was punished harshly.

Kevin came back to himself. He reinforced his armor, grabbed the front of the sword with his glove, holding it in place and pivoted his body. The pain was agonizing, Kevin’s vision nearly whited out entirely and he almost passed out. He endured. And how the swordsman had no sword.

Kevin reinforced his axe, holding the sword as still as he could, he pushed his Ki into the axe to increase the flames, a trick he had only recently learned. The sharpest part of the blade grew red with the head and Kevin brought it down on the side of the sword, cutting the 20 inches that stuck out of his stomach into 3 or 4 inches. Again, his vision almost whited again but at least he had space to move now.

There was a lull in the battle. Kevin stood in front of the door, his back to the door of the office space. In front of him stood at least ten abnormal mornakai, five or six abnormal morankai of all kinds and one human, who, even as Kevin watched, pulled out another sword from a storage artifact. They stood surrounding him in a half circle of claws and teeth and power.

Kevin took a deep breath. He focused himself, allowing his intent to flow off him in waves. He was a shield.

Kevin felt a twinge in his soul. His intent solidified in ways that it never had before. He poured intermediate shield energy into his armor, into his shield, into his axe, the flat of the blade and the shaft of the axe as much a shield as anything.

“I am the Shield.” Kevin said out loud.

They came at him then. And Kevin fought. The pressure was immediate and Kevin, wounded. The swordsman came in and Kevin took the sword on his shield which ignored the strike entirely, Kevin lashing out with the shield to push the swordsman back as he took the head of an abnormal morankai. He kicked the head out of the air and it hit a normal morankai in the face hard enough to drive it back. He brought his kite shield horizontal to the ground and slammed the edge of the shield into the neck of another normal morankai. If the flat of Kevin’s axe was a shield, the edge of Kevin’s shield was an axe. The edge of the shield reinforced with axe energy bit deeply into the morankai’s neck, black acidic blood spurting out as Kevin pulled the shield and brought it back to guard.

He heard more morankai coming to his floor as he pushed them back from the office. The swordsman came back in. Kevin deflected the blow at an angle and pushed, causing the swordsmans to lose his balance, Kevin couldn’t capitalize on the opening though because he had to shift his head out of the way of a beam of energy from an abnormal that had entered the fight. It felt like every morankai in the damn cluster was coming to Kevin’s fight. He hit the edge of the sword that was ran through him with his arm. He couldn't have this distraction again.

Kevin punched the sword, driving the handle away from his back. He took a half a second to try and reach the blade to pull it out but he couldn’t. At least it wasn’t in his way anymore.

A morankai tried to tackle Kevin. He went to a knee and brought his shield up, throwing the morankai over him and into a group of them to keep them off his shield side while he brought his axe down onto the foot of another. The beam blast from the abnormal was coming at him again, Kevin got his shield up just in time to deflect the blow into another normal morankai. The swordsman was back again. Kevin could feel the intermediate sword energy coming off the blade. Their blades clashed and Kevin brought the shield down to strike at the swordsman’s thigh. He took a step away and Kevin brought the shield up and clipped the swordsman under the chin.

Again he couldn’t capitalize on the opening because the beam morankai was firing at him again. He took the beam full to the shield, unable to deflect it. Kevin was pushed back hard against the door to the room. The people inside kept the door shut, but the blade was pushed back through to the hilt now coming out Kevin’s stomach again. He stumbled and took a knee.

A normal morankai was on his back in an instant, Kevin jabbed it with the edge of his shield and half its face fell off. He brought his axe up in between the legs of another morankai, then reached back and grabbed the abnormal morankai he’d just killed by the foot. He swung it around like a hammer creating space. He grabbed the axe out of the crotch of the normal morankai and threw it, still attached to his axe, at the beam abnormal who blasted it out of the air as it flew. Kevin punched the blade in his stomach again to give himself the space.

The only reason he had managed to stay on his feet this long was due to the various pills he had taken before he entered the fight. He could feel the pills start to lose their effectiveness though. The Boiling Dragon pill would be done first, and soon.

The swordsman was on his feet again. Kevin kicked the head of a morankai at the swordsman, his breaths starting to come raggedly, he brought his shield up to deflect the beam attack coming at him, which killed another normal morankai for him. Kevin took the opportunity to tap his ring and pull out one of his hundred pound free weights. He threw it with the speed of a baseball at the beam morankai. It had just fired and couldn’t do so again. Kevin watched as its head exploded under the force of a 100lbs free weight traveling over 100 mph crashing into its face.

Another abnormal morankai came at Kevin. This was a huge brute of a morankai at least a meter taller than Kevin. It didn’t try to hit Kevin, instead it grabbed his shield holding it still. When Kevin swung at it with his axe, a normal morankai sacrificed itself to take the hit.

Kevin made the shield weight over 100 times more and it started to crash to the ground. He let it go, but kept his hand against it as the brute tried to hold onto the dropping shield. Kevin put a follow up swing into its neck. He pulled the fire axe out of the creature and threw it at another abnormal which took his fire axe to the chest. Just like that, Kevin lost his axe and his shield.

“I am the Shield.” Kevin said again as he pulled his halberd out from his ring. He was tackled again, the pummel of the sword hitting the wall and the sword yet again being driven to the hilt in his back. Kevin couldn’t keep taking this abuse. The swordsman was there, and Kevin used the shaft of the halberd to dislodge the morankai, throwing it into yet another morankai. The swardsman came in and Kevin blocked the strike with the shaft of his long halberd but wasn’t able to get the bit of the halberd into position to attack back. Kevin went strictly on the defensive as the attacks continued, lashing out with fist and foot to keep the morankai back from the door.

He was tiring. He was slowing. He couldn’t keep this up forever. Finally, the inevitable happened. Kevin slipped. He reached too far with the pummel of the halberd to strike the swordsman, who parried the blow and turned Kevin to his back. The swordsman kicked Kevin in the back of the knee and Kevin was driven down to a kneeling position. His hand was forced behind his back and the swordsman’s blade pressed to his neck. Kevin reinforced his armor in that area, sacrificing the reinforcement everywhere else, but the swordsman didn’t draw his blade across Kevin’s throat.

Kevin waited, holding himself still not wanting to temp the swordsman to end his life. As he thought this someone walked into his view.

It was a tall man, much much taller than average. Kevin was just at 6 feet tall, the new human to enter his frame of view was at least seven feet tall. It was hard to tell much more about them that that as they had a long dark robe on, including a hood that concealed their features. They were slender, but much more than that Kevin couldn’t tell.

They spoke, their voice deep and masculine. “So this is the human who has caused all the trouble in this area?” he said.

No one answered him. The swordsman held his blade to Kevin’s throat, the morankai stilled in the presence of this man, who could be none other than the Beast Master. “You caused quite the uproar in this area. The original servants I sent to this area were supposed to be enough to take every woman in that room captive.”

Kevin looked and noticed, for the first time, that every single person in the room with Katie was a woman. Upon closer inspection he saw that several of the women wore something of a uniform. They wore armor reminiscent of old roman armor, a bronze or perhaps bronze looking chest piece, a leather skirt or sorts and a leather or bronze helmet. Each had a shield on their back or in their hand, which Kevin heartily approved of, and each woman, of the set had a sword in hand.

Katie was among them. She didn’t have the armor or the weapons as she stood holding another girl who was perhaps 12 or 13. Others were in the room also, people outside of the centurion woman, mostly women and children. Kevin noticed that the centurion women were the ones holding the door closed against the masses.

“You have prevented me from winning this war immediately, but you have stopped nothing.” The tall Beast Master said. “You’ll die, and then my forces will open that door.”

Kevin took a breath. He calmed himself. He had two more cards to play. One would be the death of him. The other would be the death of everyone in this room, including the Beast Master. But Kevin couldn’t bring himself to do so without showing Katie that he was there. That he had made it. That he would see her safe.

Kevin dismissed his helmet. It took his eyes a moment to focus, but his eyes landed on the beautiful face of his daughter. He met her dark eyes and he saw recognition there. She saw him. She knew him.

Kevin smiled at her, he mouthed two sentences. “It will be OK. I Love you Always.”

Kevin tapped his ring and pulled out a Gnomish Explosive Bomb and put it in his hand that was held behind his back. When it detonated it would kill him, the swordsman, and probably every morankai in the room. It might even kill the Beast Master. In the minimum it would hurt him, and should be enough to save everyone in the office Kevin had desperately fought to save.

Kevin looked into Katie’s eyes one more time. He wanted his daughters face to be the last thing he saw, but not this explosion to be the last thing he saw. He slowly mouthed one last sentence. “Look Away.”

Abruptly, Kevin saw Katie’s face change from one of abject fear and horror to one of resolve. Suddenly the swordsman’s blade on his neck was moved; Katie hadn’t moved but she was behind the swordsman swinging a sword she had herself. The swordsman had removed his blade from Kevin’s neck to block the strick from Katie.

Kevin didn’t hesitate at all as he saw the man bring his blade down to meet Katie’s. Her stance was poor, her position sloppy, she would be killed immediately. Kevin grabbed the swordsman in a hug from behind. He wrapped his arms around him and fell backwards.

The blade that had been stuck in Kevin for the majority of the fight, moved out as Kevin pulled the swordsman tight against his chest. Kevin fall back, falling onto the pummel of the sword. The sword was in him, it was his to control. He pushed axe energy into the broken blade of the sword, filled it to bursting.

When Kevin landed on the pummel, driving the hilt to his back piece, the broken blade, filled with axe energy, pierced the swordman’s back and entered his heart.

— Points Obtained. Points 8,453 —

Kevin passed out for a moment, but it couldn’t have been much more than that because when he came to, the swordsman’s corpse was still on him, the morankai had not moved; and Katie was still outside the room with him. Kevin threw the swordsman’s body off him and turned. He got to his hands and knees, then stood up. The Beast Master must have been surprised because he hadn’t moved an inch as far as Kevin could tell. He was studying them, his head angled down towards the swordsman.

“Who are you?” He said to Kevin.

Kevin took several breaths, they were coming ragged as his various pills wore off. He sighed deeply. “I’m just a dad. Can you give me a moment?”

Ignoring the man, Kevin turned around and looked at his step daughter, face to face, for the first time in far far too long.

“Hi Katie.” Kevin said.

“Hi…” Katie said, tears spilling down her face.

“I’m sorry I took so long.” Kevin said.

Katie let out a quiet sob.

“Can you teleport yet?” Kevin asked.

Katie nodded, her eyes still leaking big fat tears.

“Good.” Kevin said. He tapped his stomach, where the sword still stuck out. “Take this and go back in there.” Kevin said. Then he turned around.

Katie from a few months ago could never have helped Kevin. She was young, innocent, skittish and sky and was not OK with blood. She had changed. She was brave and strong. Any girl who would risk their live to teleport through into danger to help Kevin, could do this too.

Kevin pulled a mid-tier healing pill out and swallowed it whole in the same moment that a wrenching sensation filled his body. He took a knee as his vision went white. He looked back up and Katie was back inside the room, holding a bloody half of a sword.

Kevin had his helmet materialize over his head again. He looked at the Beast Master, who had, surprisingly, sat and silently watched the brief interaction.

Kevin tapped his ring and pulled out an older, much cheaper and much less resilient shield from his storage ring. Then, looking at his daughter as tears streamed down her face.

“I am the shield.” Kevin said.

He tossed the bomb he held in his hand at the Beast Master and ignited it. The room went white.