Chapter 4 Home Run

The robed man stood in front of us, looking menacing with his hands raised as dark shadows gathered all around him. In his black cloak he seemed to be a part of them, barely visible through the growing darkness. But I got a glimpse of his face and he seemed to be an old man, with a grizzled look and grey hair peeking out from underneath his hood. He frantically waved his hands again, pulling the shadows closer like a puppeteer. Great. Spell incoming.

I glanced over at Finn and his crew. They’d drawn their weapons, but were just… standing there frozen. Watching. Waiting. Like it would be disrespectful to interrupt the magician during his spell, even if that spell was clearly meant to kill them.

Finn had both hands on the hilts of his twin swords, his pose straight out of some low-budget fantasy play. Beside him, the guy with the crossbow nocked a bolt, his face as intense as if he were posing for a live painting. The other two held their spears and axes at the ready, shifting nervously but still waiting. In all frankness, all of them looked ridiculous.

Why were they just standing there? Seriously, just shoot him and get it over with.

The robed man on the other hand, seemed just as idiotic. Rather than activate his spell, he launched into a monologue. “Foolish mortals! You dare oppose the will of the Dark God? Prepare to be consumed by his wrath!”

Oh, here we go.

Finn stepped forward, the perfect wannabe action hero. “You’re not the first Cultist we’ve fought, and you won’t be the last!” he declared, his voice serious. I couldn’t decide whether to cringe or laugh.

“You foolish Order worm. You have never faced a man like me.” The cultist roared.

“Blah Blah Dark God Blah Blah Cult”

And Finn replied, his tone full of mockery.

“Blah Blah Order Blah Blah You’ll never get away with this.”

It felt like the two would be going at it for a while so I walked some distance away and leaned comfortably against a thick tree, arms folded across my chest, utterly uninterested in their dramatic back-and-forth. This was exactly what I was trying to avoid: people with overly theatrical attitudes and an obsession with gods and fate. It was like watching bad improv scene, only with more weapons and considerably less talent.

After what felt like hours, the Cultist finally waved his hands in the air and the shadows around him began to morph and take shape. Suddenly, there were several creatures standing before him—beasts with dark, snarling faces and limbs that twisted unnaturally at all angles, and eyes that glowed fiery hot like coals .

Finn and his men charged at the beasts, swinging their weapons with practiced precision. They cut down the shadow beasts one after another, but they would quickly reform from the darkness and lunge at them again. The robed man merely hovered, his attention fixed on them, completely unconcerned by the chaos.

Honestly, I couldn’t decide who annoyed me more—the wannabe dark overlord, or the B-team of self-appointed heroes swishing their swords at shadows.

Still, as I watched, I couldn’t help but grow ever so slightly impressed by Finn. He moved fluidly, his twin swords glowing faintly with a magical glow as they sliced through the beasts with ease.

The robed man hurled spell after spell at Finn, his attacks predictable and uninspired. Fireballs, dark energy blasts—the sort of cookie-cutter arsenal you’d expect from a B-Tier villain whose sole purpose was to pad out the first arc of a hero’s story.

The fight dragged on. Finn kept at it with an unmatched fierceness, dodging attack after attack, his movements sharp. But even he couldn’t keep up forever.

After a few more rounds, the magician hovered back to the ground and began throwing his spells with more tenacity. Finn blocked a few but eventually staggered, his movements slowed by the exhaustion that was catching up to him. The robed man seized the opportunity and blasted him with a large bolt of pure darkness.

Finn went flying 4 feet high but somehow still managed to land on his feet. I was impressed, but then he suddenly fell to his knees and began gasping for breath. The robed man turned his gaze toward me, and I saw his face twist into triumphant smile.

“You coward. Did you think I would spare you if you stayed away? How pitiful,” he said.

I stood up slowly. Whatever I wanted to avoid, always ended up chasing me. The universe needed to cut me some slack, part of me wanted to let these people deal with their own mess. But Finn’s companions were still busy with the beasts, and Finn himself was in no condition to fight any longer. And if I let them be, they would clearly lose. Why do I always have to save the day?

It’s not like I owed them anything, but still, it didn’t sit right with me to just be a silent witness to the whole situation. It would just be an annoyance to let the first humans I had met die, even if they had tried to kill me first. Well, if they were fighting far away, I would not have rushed to save them.

I waved my hand, hoping for the same wind that had blown the badger-wolf’s head off to come rushing through and wipe out this robed man.

Nothing happened.

I scoffed. I shouldn’t have expected anything different. The so-called great powers bestowed upon me never seemed to work how or when I wanted them to.

The robed man, sensing the opening, startedcharging up a massive fireball, his arms glowing with fiery energy- The image of Finn fighting with his two swords and slicing through spells popped into my mind. What if I had something like that? Maybe I could make it work.

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Without thinking too much about it, I focused intently, imagining the perfect weapon. Something strong, sturdy and preferably easy to wield. Finn’s swords came to mind; sharp, glowing and best of all practical.

Suddenly, I felt something heavy in the palm of my hand. I looked down expecting a cool medieval sword.

It was a baseball bat.

I blinked. That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. But, what the hell? This had to suffice for now.

The man threw the fireball and it rocketed towards me. Without so much as a second thought, I swung the bat. The fireball hit the bat with a solid crack, and it launched back toward the robed man.

One moment I saw his frightened face illuminated by the flame of his own making and in the next second, the fireball had slammed into his chest, exploding on impact. He screamed as flames engulfed him, and staggered backward, running blindly into a nearby tree. The impact knocked him down, and the flames died out. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the beasts evaporate into nothingness.

For a moment, there was complete silence.

Finn looked at me with his jaw wide open in disbelief. “Did you just—”

I shrugged, still holding the bat, but as I did, I felt it crumble and disappear just like the shadow beasts.

The robed man lay crumpled against the tree and his body smoldered as the last of his magic dissipated into the air like a wisp of smoke. One of Finn’s men approached the body and, with a grim look, stabbed him in the stomach with his spear, ending the threat once and for all.

An hour later, we were sitting some distance away, waiting for Finn and his group to patch up their wounds. I kept to myself, trying to process the entire ordeal. Finn walked over to me, looking slightly less confident than before.

“Well, that was... unexpected.” He tightened a bandaged across his wrist and laughed, albeit nervously. “I guess you’re not as normal as you seem, Sam. And now, I think it’s time you meet my superior.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Superior?”

“Come with me,” Finn said. “You’re clearly meant for something greater. The Order will be able to help you.”

“In what direction?” I asked, still focused on getting to Spuria. The idea of walking into some prophecy-laden mess was honestly rather unappealing at this point. The thought of Spuria had started to feel like paradise to me—a simple, peaceful escape from all this madness. I had no real interest in getting dragged into any sort of larger plan. That was exactly why I had ignored the woman in the hut.

“North,” Finn said, his voice firm. Then, seeing my skeptical expression, he added quickly, “It’s not far. We’ll be there before nightfall. I’ve contacted them about what happened. They want to meet you.”

I still wasn’t convinced and clearly it showed on my face because he kept talking.

“We even have a teleportation device. It’s a quicker way of getting to town, and on the plus side it makes sure to teleport your clothes too,” he added with a grin.

I glanced at the sky. Night was already beginning to fall, but the idea of going with him—after everything that had just happened—made me want to risk another escape attempt. But the thought of trudging through this cursed forest alone especially with no real idea of where I was or what dangers I might encounter, wasn’t much better either.

Finn’s mention of a teleportation device lingered in my mind. It was a rather inviting idea. If it worked as advertised, it could save me days of walking.

Still, meeting this so-called "superior" sounded like a massive headache waiting to happen. I’d already ignored one mysterious woman in a hut spouting cryptic nonsense. How many more of these fate-obsessed weirdos was I going to have to deal with?

I sighed and rubbed my face. “Fine,” I said reluctantly. “I’ll go with you. But if this superior of yours starts talking about destiny, I’m out.”

Finn’s smile only widened. “Trust me, you’ll like them. They’re much more reasonable than I am.”

“Fantastic,” I muttered, following him down the path. Reasonable? In this world? Somehow, I doubted it. I bet the bar for reasonable was really low for these insane people.

The walk was quick and surprisingly quiet which seemed like a miracle considering Finn was still around. Before the sun had truly set, we arrived at a massive tree. Its trunk was thick, its twisted leaves giving off an eerie, almost otherworldly vibe. Finn clapped me on the back, his grin infectious. “Here we are! Time to meet the big wigs.”

Finn clapped his hand together and muttered some sort of prayer. The tree shifted as if it had a life of its own. It uprooted itself and stepped aside with a groan, revealing a hidden staircase leading underground.

Finn went inside, and I looked once again back at his crew who was staying back. They wished me luck, as if they weren’t the ones inviting me in here.

As we descended the staircase, the air around us grew cooler, and the dim glow of faintly pulsing runes illuminated the way. The walls didn’t seem entirely solid—they shimmered faintly, as if made from liquid stone that refused to settle into a single form. Patterns and carvings shifted before my eyes, depicting scenes of battle, strange landscapes, and what looked like constellations twisting and rearranging themselves as we walked.

The staircase eventually opened up into a vast underground corridor, its ceiling impossibly high and lined with glowing crystals embedded in the rock. But it wasn’t just the size that struck me—it was the way the space seemed to bend and stretch unnaturally in all directions. In one moment, the corridor seemed to stretch endlessly ahead, the far end retreating further the more I stared at it. In the next, the space compressed, bringing the exit suddenly within reach. It was as if the place existed halfway between dimensions, never fully committing to one reality.

‘Great,’ I thought to myself. ‘Even their headquarters are overly dramatic.’

I observed the strange, swirling patterns on the floor, which seemed to ripple like water when I stepped on them. “You sure this place is stable?” I asked, glancing at Finn. These people definitely weren’t.

He was apparently unfazed by the surreal nature of the headquarters. “Stable enough. Just don’t try to think too hard about how it works. It’s like the Order itself—hard to pin down but always there when it counts.”

I wasn’t sure if that was supposed to reassure me, but I kept walking. I did reach out and touch the wall to feel how it shimmered, but my hand came away covered in dust. I grimaced and wiped it on my pants. These guys were trying to clean the world of cultists but couldn’t even keep their hallways clean.

Finn didn’t speak for a while, leading me through the shifting corridor. Then, without turning around, he asked, “So… was that really a baseball bat you summoned?”

“Yeah, that was definitely a baseball bat,” I said, before a sudden realization hit me. I had never mentioned the word baseball to Finn. “How did you know what that was? Do they have baseball here too?”

Finn stopped walking and turned to me with a serious expression that was definitely out of place for him. “Because I’m not from this world either. I recognized it immediately.”

I stared at him. “You’re not from here?”

He nodded slowly. “No. And now, I think you’re going to understand just how we’re connected.”

Before I could ask more, we reached a massive stone door, and Finn knocked. It creaked open on its own, revealing a circular chamber bathed in soft, ambient light.

Seated around a semi-circular table were five figures in deep blue robes. The moment I stepped inside, they turned to greet me.

“Welcome, Sam,” the woman at the center said, removing her hood to reveal a sharp, calculating gaze. “We need your help.”

I groaned. I had been hoping for a casual conversation over some drinks. This seemed like it was going to be more annoying. Why the hell did I always manage to get myself into this Chosen One bullshit?