Four days have gone by since Yuga woke up on Lehrone, his mind devoid of memories. Not much had changed in that time, he still had no memories and no other dreams either since the first one. Which wasn’t reassuring.

But what did change was his leg situation, he could finally walk again. It was both relieving and surprising to regain the privilege of moving around on two legs. Surprising because with how bad they were he’d expected it to take much longer to heal. But four days later everything was fine, just as Kirveas had predicted. Must’ve been a perk of being a “voyager”.

Kirveas said he was a voyager too. Was that how he could do all that*? The man he killed must’ve also been a voyager. Yuga didn’t know exactly what voyagers were but they seemed…. Unreal. But something about being able to cause massive explosions seemed fun.

Yuga spent the last few days doing whatever thing he could, which wasn’t a lot. Being unable to walk left you with only so many options. His day typically consisted of eating (from the store of food kirveas had kept, which was all fruits.), practicing walking, watching the falling snow and sleeping at random times.

While kirveas was away he’d crawled his way into every corner of the house to get a better picture of where he was. In his survey he’d discovered a few things. The house wasn’t large and only consisted four small rooms, there weren’t many belongings besides clothes and essentials for living. From what he could tell it was more of an outpost than a place of permanent residence. Which was exactly how Kirveas treated it.

Kirveas was hardly ever around, never spending more than hour at the house each day. Also, none of the belongings in the house looked like his, it felt like he was merely occupying the house in the owner’s stead.

The few times Kirveas was there, he never said anything, generally paying yuga little mind. Sometimes he’d observe Yuga’s progress in walking with an unreadable expression then return focus to whatever he was occupied with.

He couldn’t tell what exactly Kirveas was leaving for. He returned every day with nothing but himself and his sword. He also came back unscathed so it was hard to tell if he was going out to battle or doing something else.

Now that Yuga could move around it was time to decide “what next”. What he wanted most was to leave and move around after being confined in the house so long. But to where? He didn’t know where to go or the first thing to do.

Only one person could help with his dilemma.

It was currently one of those rare times Kirveas was around. He was seated on the same chair he occupied when Yuga first woke up in the house, focused on something wrapped around his left wrist.

“Where do I go from here?” asked Yuga. “What’s the next thing a voyager like me should do?” He was standing by the bed to Kirveas’ front.

Kirveas turns gaze to him, lowering his left arm.

“I can’t tell you exactly where to go but there’s a war, I’d advise you stay the farthest away from battles. It’s most heated in major cities. You can’t leave this planet either, all the warp gates have been destroyed.” replied Kirveas. “A new voyager like you should register with Centros though it will take some time for them to get here and subjugate the war.”

Centros, warp gates, registrations, more things he didn’t understand but he did get the important points. Avoid the war and register with Centros. Simple enough but that still didn’t give him what to do at the moment. Explore it will be.

He starts towards the door but is interrupted by Kirveas before he steps out.

“Fightings aren’t the only thing to be wary of. There are other dangers.” warns Kirveas.

“I’ll leave it to luck.” replied Yuga and stepped out into the snow.

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Outside the house, the world was bathed in sunlight from midday sun. Snow had stopped falling the previous day and the grey clouds had cleared up revealing a pale blue sky.

Yuga moves several meters away from the house, stops and makes a slow three sixty degree turn to get of a grasp of his surroundings. There weren’t any other buildings or houses in the vicinity which alluded to his deduction that this was just an outpost. North of the house, about fifty meters from it was the start of a dense forest that went on as far as he could see and everything outside of it was snow and more snow.

Looking westward, a cluster of houses were visible hundreds of meters away resting at a lower elevation than where Yuga stood. Houses usually meant people and people meant someone to ask questions. He’d head there first.

He starts making his way west, eventually coming to an incline on the way. Yuga climbs down the steep path, trodding carefully to avoid tripping himself and arrives at the hamlet.

Standing at the edge of village, he can’t help but notice how quiet it is. It’s soundless, not even the sound of nature could be heard. You’d imagine that a village, though small, would generate a bit of noise but there was nothing. No one in sight either, everyone must’ve have fled because of the war.

Yuga progresses through the village checking houses one by one. They were all empty. The usual contents of the home all remained, the residents barely took anything when they fled, and given the disorderly state of them, they must have left in a haste.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

In one of the houses there’s a collection of pictures scattered on the floor, holding images of a family and their memories over the years. Memories left behind in fear and regret. Yuga wondered if somewhere out there, there were pictures holding memories of him, memories he couldn’t recall. It was annoying to think about so he stopped thinking. Stressing over memories wasn’t important in the moment.

The rest of his time in the hamlet was spent scavenging for clothes, food and anything that could be useful. He didn’t take any of it but noted where they were, he’d come back later to get them.

Getting to the other end of the settlement the conditions of the houses begins to worsen. From having cracked walls and broken windows in few places, to missing chunks of themselves, and at the very ends of the village most of the buildings were nothing but piles of rubble.

The absence of people made a lot more sense now, the fighting must’ve hit here. He didn’t know much about voyagers but from the little he’d experienced he could only imagine the scale of destruction they could cause when they were at war.

The foul stench of decay filled the air and dead bodies peaked through the rubble. The biggest outcomes of war- death and destruction, yet people never stopped fighting for some reason. But sometimes, people had no choice but to fight. That’s just how it was.

Why do I know that?

While Yuga stood observing the scene, somewhere close by, hiding in the rubble was a deadly predator. It had sensed Yuga the moment he reached the village and carefully observed him, watching and waiting for when it thought it was best to attack. It was a long time since it encountered live prey as most of the wild life had frozen to death or were killed. There were carcasses everywhere but it didn’t find those appealing, they were cold and lifeless. Living prey was warm. It would attack when the prey was least aware.

Having seen the entirety of the settlement Yuga was ready to leave. He starts moving back the way he came but a few steps later his senses go off. He instantly goes on high alert, every nerve in his body coming online. He could feel a tingling in his neck, the feeling you’d get when someone was watching.

He stops dead in his tracks and stays still, taking a moment to observe his surroundings. Someone or something was watching and he could tell it had nothing good in mind, its hostility was clear as day.

! Yuga senses something fly through the air, moving incredibly fast, aimed directly at him. He dodges the projectile by moving sideways a few feet from where the stood. The attack misses him and drives straight into the ground, obliterating the rubble in the surrounding area and burrows deep till it was out of sight.

That was… dangerous. Yuga stays alert and looks in the direction the attack came.

Nothing, he couldn’t sense anything from there. The enemy had changed positions but it would probably attack again.

As if on cue, a second projectile zipped through the air, this time aimed at his feet. He jumps high to evade and the attack misses him slightly. He lands on his feet and turns to flee and a barrage of projectiles follows in his wake, never too far behind. Yuga runs in a zigzag whilst dodging the attacks, not once looking back to see what was attacking, he didn’t have the leisure of doing that.

The attacks finally cease allowing Yuga a moment to catch his breath. He’d virtually run in a circle, returning to where he was originally and very deep, narrow holes mapped out the path he’d run through. The attacks were deadly precise with an unmistakable intent to kill.

Something else Yuga noticed was how fast he avoided the attack. He’d run fast, very fast, faster than he imagined he could. An unknown enemy was out for his life and he’d barely escaped death, despite all that, in this moment what Yuga felt wasn’t fear, he was excited. His body was brimming with power. In this moment he felt like he understood just a little what being a voyager meant. How powerful was he now?

After a short break he was revved and ready to go. Time to try out the limits of his abilities.

Yuga picks up a rock, one just large enough to fill his hand. He takes a stance and focuses, straining his senses to locate the enemy. Not only was he powerful, he could perceive things better too. The world felt different, there was more to it than he’d experienced before. A quick second later, he’d found the enemy.

There. In a cluster of rubble twenty meters northeast. He hurls the rock with incredible force and it zips through the air like a bolt of lightning, heading straight for mass of bloodlust. It crashes into the hiding spot and levels the mounds of debris, stripping away the enemy’s means of camouflage. Now that it was gone Yuga could see exactly what he was up against.

A monster. That was the best way to describe what Yuga was looking at. He didn’t have any memories but he didn’t think he’d encountered anything like this before. It looked bizzare. He also thought it looked cool but in a very bizarre way.

A large creature standing on four limbs. Its height was just above that of an average man’s and its length was twice that. Each limb bore razor sharp claws over two feet in length. It had green eyes attached to a small roundish head and had no mouth but a pipe-like sucker protruding from its face in place of it.

Many large spikes jutted out of its back standing at varying lengths, supported on the bulky framework of its body. Most notably, it had a very long tail, wider than it was thick, up to three times it’s body’s length and wrapped in a shell-like material.

The strange creature trashed its tail about and shrieked in the most ungodly tone you could ever hear. A high pitched noise that irritated the ears and caused his skin to grow goosebumps.

I could make an alarm from that, nothing could sleep through something that sounds that bad.

Seeing it now, it looked menacing enough to scare anyone away, but he wasn’t backing out at this point, he attacked it ready for a fight.

That tail looked powerful, each time it flailed and struck the ground the earth would rumble, and its length gave it a lot of reach. Together with its ability to fire projectiles it would definitely be formidable in ranged combat. Close combat wouldn’t be easy either, he’d had have to deal with those massive claws but close range was his only way of fighting.

Yuga waits on the monster to make the first move. It shrieks and fires off another projectile, aimed square at his chest. He sidesteps to dodge the and it flies unobstructed till it finds its way to the ground.

In that short moment he saw it, where the projectiles came from and how it was fired. The spikes were sucked into the monster and fired from its sucker. That must’ve why they were so uneven. One of the spikes had become slightly shorter as a result. After seeing this process he decided on his course of action.

Yuga pulls off his shirt revealing a toned body, bearing a scars in several places. He scrambles on the ground picking up rocks and dropping them into his shirt which he used as a sack, all the while dodging the high speed projectiles coming at him. Once he’d picked as many as he needed, he stopped and assumed a throwing stance. He took a rock from his shirt sack, mustering every bit of energy he could and threw the stone at the monster.

The rock makes contact and crumbles against the creature’s body, having absolutely no effect on it.

Tough skin.

Dodging a spike, he picks another rock and throws again, with even more force than before. It flew straight for the monster but this time, not at its body but at the base of the spikes. It broke through, felling several of them and causes the monster to shriek in anger. It shrieked in that god awful tone and its long tail trashed about as it writhed in pain.

Score.

His plan seemed like it would work. He couldn’t damage the creatures body with the rocks and getting in close would be a problem because of the projectiles, so he’d use the rocks to knock them down from a distance, rendering it unable to fire.

It fired off a barrage of them in anger and vengeance but Yuga was very capable of dodging them at this distance now. He continously launched the rocks at the monster which knew now to dogde them. It moved faster than he’d imagined. It dodged a few but most of them hit their target and eventually it lost all of its spikes, shrieking and trashing each time one of them was felled.

Once he’d fallen all the spikes, he lunged at the monster, going full speed. It swings its tail at him and he gracefully dodges, letting it fly far out of range. It’d be too long to use effectively in close range. Or so he thought but as he lunged at the monster, wary of its giant claws, the tail circled back and attacked from behind.

He dodges the tail by jumping high in the air but the tail once again changes direction and wraps him by the ankle, flinging him to the ground with an incredible force. His entire body reverberated from the force of the slam. The monster flung him against the ground repeatedly until his entire body was sore.

The creature’s control of its tail was shockingly precise, if he let this continue he’d be smashed to paste. Yuga forms this his hand like spear, all five fingers set out straight and thrusts at the tail, breaking right through the shell, into the softer part its tail. The monster loosens its grip and he falls to the ground with a thud. Yuga lands right in front of the monster and it lunges at him with its claws, ready to rip him to shreds.

He prepares to dodge and counter but before the claws can reach him, the monsters face is suddenly split in two. It falls to the ground, now in two parts, split right down the middle. Each half a fountain of body fluids.