There was a heavy, thick air through the patch of forestland Lincoln was stumbling through. He was no stranger to the outdoors, but he had his head on a swivel and a nagging feeling of constant déjà vu. At any moment he had to be ready to turn his camera on and record everything he was seeing. The tall, blonde man carried with him a backpack full of equipment to give him a solid internet connection even if the connection dropped severely in the middle of his stream. He thanked God and one of his particularly charitable viewers for the gift of this IRL stream backpack. He normally did his show from his home, gathering information and cross checking it with his prophetic dreams the angels had given him a couple months before.
They claimed he was one of the first to become an awakened, though what that specifically meant hadn't been clear to him at the time. It still wasn't clear, but his purpose was. He was to keep doing what he'd been doing, spreading the good word and the truth! The truth was, as far as Lincoln could gather anyway, that aliens were coming to Earth and angels were hand picking men and women to become a blessed vanguard to fight them back.
Lincoln himself had stayed away from the fight since his awakening, not because he was cowardly, of course. He just didn't have the strength yet. He had been waiting all his life to finally receive a calling and purpose, and when his prayers were finally answered so dramatically he couldn't help but be overwhelmed by it all.
The large, rotund, and devoutly religious man was given 120 points to work with. 100 as the standard, and then 20 points as a bonus for staying a virgin. Sticking with what he believed would be his calling, he chose [Prophetic Visions] and [Exorcist's Touch] before the system forced him to sleep, and learned only one of his two skills would be of much use to him in most cases. What Lincoln assumed was that he would be fighting demons, instead he would be fighting monsters from alien realms like something from a fantasy novel. Of course the system showed him a dream where he made perfect use of his abilities, he just wasn't quite sure how to make the skill as potent or useful as it had been in the dream.
Lincoln whispered aloud "Status" and his status page came into view.
'Name: Lincoln Colmare
Archetype: Exorcist
Status: Awakened Neophyte
Abilities: [Prophetic Visions, Rank C Level 5]
[Exorcist's Touch, Rank C Level 0]
[Meditative Prayer, Rank D Level 1]'
His powers were blessings, and he was grateful for them. He had been worried he wouldn't be able to bring the fight to the invaders himself, but he had a long dream detailing his trip about a week ago and had express ordered everything he needed so that he could make the trip as soon as possible. In his dream, he knew he was going to look for one of the flashes of strange light that told of an invasion. His power [Prophetic Visions] showed him that much, and far more detail that got him to this patch of woods miles out from a rundown and abandoned lumber mill in the ass end of rural Vermont. From here on it was kind of murky, so he just kept his camera attached to his helmet, his mic close enough to the neck gaiter covering his face so he could whisper into it, and his rifle at low ready in case the enemy already sent a force ahead before he arrived.
He absentmindedly opened his power descriptions to keep his mind busy, a fatal mistake if the enemy really was near, but his faith in his visions kept him from worrying too much.
[Prophetic Visions, Rank C Level 5
Receive detailed sequences and impressions of future situations you will find yourself in, or situations of people you may cross paths with. Ability is stronger and more frequent when sleeping and incurs no cooldown. When awake, visions may sporadically come to you with less detail or clarity, you momentarily lose control of your body during these and incur no cooldown. You may call forth a vision with intense concentration once per 7 Earth day period, incurring this cooldown whether or not a vision is granted.]
This power was the staple of his higher purpose and guided his research, and the content on his channel. Of course, he drew his share of haters, but it was still attention on the message and getting the word out about the invasion. He was willing to take harassment and toxicity if it meant he could help out even a handful of the people who saw his channel. Of course, confirmation from the system that he was doing the right thing whenever he uploaded a video related to a vision was also a huge help towards keeping on the path he had chosen.
The progress he made with his ability was nothing short of astounding. At first, visions he got were terribly murky and vague, which made following them a pain. But before long he started gaining level progress as he followed the leads and clues. He first acquired the ability to have visions while awake, which had a cooldown. Then he got more clarity and detail in his visions and they stopped being only about himself. With more levels he lost the cooldown on his waking visions, and finally with the newest rank he could call upon a vision himself! Of course he hadn't done so yet since the cooldown was a whole week. Better to follow the leads he had than try to sidetrack himself for a test run.
The next power he had was potentially awe inspiring, but so far he hadn't been able to use it despite meeting the requirements.
[Exorcist's Touch, Rank C Level 0
Upon activation, touching a ghost, demon, angel, disembodied being, energy being, or a being possessed by any of aforementioned will force the being out of it's host and allow a brief window where holding onto an energy based being will force it to manifest in your current plane of existence.]
Lincoln wanted to use this power, but hadn't had the opportunity yet. So, he had no rank in the skill despite its reality bending nature.
Finally, his last ability was one he was proud to have acquired all on his own and cultivated up a whole rank from E to D!
[Meditative Prayer, Rank D Level 1
Enter a meditative trance and gather spiritual energy from the world around you at a slow pace. Energy may be used to heal oneself or another, to advance your own growth and enlightenment, or to gain insight into visions granted by (Prophetic Visions). Healing incurs a cooldown between 10 minutes to 1 day Earth time depending on severity of affliction and amount of concentration required.]
There wasn't an awful lot to the skill, but constantly upgrading it came with its perks. Mostly in that once it reached Rank D, he could use it to heal himself and others. He wasn't sure how effective the healing was, but it sure was a great ability to have if he needed it.
Before long, the exorcist dismissed the window and felt a breathtaking sense of familiarity as the clouds broke and revealed sunlight. This was it, this was close to when the lights were ready to appear in his vision. He lowered his rifle and immediately started his stream. He used his phone to control everything, quickly testing his audio levels and connection. He found them satisfactory as viewers began to flood in and he quickly got his rifle at low ready, slowly walking and searching around.
"Howdy, Warriors! I got a real special treat for y'all today" He whispered into the boom mic at his mouth, his voice clearly audible despite a light wind blowing toward him. "Y'all remember how a few days ago I told ya about the town in Utah that was put under emergency lockdown due to a supposed chemical spill? The one where before internet access was cut in the area, residents posted pictures of strange lights and eerie shapes in the sky and over the horizon at about ground level? And how those posts were subsequently removed off of a bunch of social media a'fore getting reposted to our pinned forum?" Lincoln jerked his head slightly to the left and aimed his rifle at some movement in the bushes.
What stumbled out was a harmless deer fawn, which ran straight up to Lincoln before it froze, realizing he wasn't its mother. It then lay down on the ground, attempting to stay perfectly still. Lincoln chuckled and stopped pointing his rifle at the harmless animal.
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"Sorry 'bout that, folks. What you see here is the natural defense mechanism of a baby deer. We better get going before its mother comes back and gives us a hard time"
"Anyway, the reason I'm out here is because I had another vision. Yeah, yeah I can hear the trolls and haters now, clacking away on their damned keyboards being all tough and doing the work of the government who would keep this under wraps and the devil himself! Well let me tell you what, when my vision comes true today and you see the enemy firsthand for yourself you'll all feel downright stupid! Warriors, get your clipping hands ready and archive the stream and especially the clips of the monsters when they appear! We don't want this scrubbed from the internet, the people need to know!"
Lincoln took a deep breath and let himself cool down from his excitement. He got so worked up about this stuff, especially during live streams, and especially now that he was going to come face to face with a portal. Any minute now. He quickly checked his phone and found chat going wild, many of his paying subscribers were using salute emotes he had made specifically for his channel, others that were regular fans but hadn't subscribed simply typed 'o7' to represent a small saluting figure. They thought the warrior title was simply a performance for the channel, but Lincoln knew the truth. Before long, many of his subscribers and others around the world would have to fight for their lives and families like real warriors.
Before long the stream delay caught up showing Lincoln the end of his short rant, and his chat started spamming an emote of a stretched out picture of Lincoln when he was still fat. This was before the system painfully granted him a toned body, cured his diabetes and several other diseases that miraculously disappeared to give him a second chance. He wasn't going to waste it, and he had to lead by example if people were going to find out the truth. With this in mind, he put his phone away and continued walking slowly and quietly through the forest.
After about 5 minutes, he heard it, going into a crouch and looking to the sky. He felt an electric buzzing around his whole body that made his arm and neck hairs stand on end, then it stopped and he felt a deep rumbling like the concussive blast of explosives at a rock quarry. He felt it farther to his left, so looked in that direction. He felt another blast like a mini earthquake and this time, saw a blaze of light shine in the sky clearly between the trees. His breath caught in his throat, when his chat saw it moments later they spammed eyeball emotes and all sorts of crazy phrases that Lincoln wasn't looking at. He was too awestruck by the bright green light that settled into a single emerald pillar and shortly thereafter disappeared. He wanted so badly to pull out his phone from his pocket and see what his chat was saying, but he knew that now was when he was truly going to fulfill his calling.
"Alright warriors, this is it. Whatever happens next is God's will. Keep me in your prayers and watch closely"
Lincoln stole through the bushes, directly going in the direction of the strange light. When he broke through the tree line into a wide clearing he saw it. Strange runes formed a diamond shape moving in a short unseen track through the air, then began to speed up as the space inside the runes warped and became hazy. When the clear haze burst open to reveal a swirl of emerald sinking into a dark black abyss, Lincoln's heart felt like it nearly stopped. His chat could hear his short, panicked breaths in the mic. Even the people who came to hate watch and call him a scam artist were questioning themselves. The effects were too real for CGI, and Lincoln was acting like he was genuinely shocked.
Even his visions couldn't prepare the sweat-soaked exorcist for what came next. In his vision he saw monsters emerge like shadows from a swirling portal. What his eyes saw in person was far more shocking. 6 small figures stepped out of the portal, spears in hand and covered in ragged, torn clothes at most or simple loincloths at the least for a couple of them. Each of them the size of a small child, and 4 of them had overly long ears and noses like a caricature drawing. Adding on to that, the 4 ugly things had repulsive eyes that were bright orange yellow around the outside, with an inky black pupil shaped more like a snake or cat pupil. The look of the 4 was finished off by hideous, sadistic smiles once they had taken a quick look and found no immediate danger.
They left two of their number to patrol the clearing, while the ones not on patrol turned to the two different looking monsters. These appeared much the same, with green skin and long ears. However their noses and eyes were closer to those of a human. This pair had long hair and could be clearly identified as distinctly male and female, the male having a well kept, braided beard while the female had noticeable breasts beneath her top. They had strange earrings that seemed more like tags stuck to their ears, and they were armed like their brethren, but were quickly smacked around and shouted at by the uglier yellow eyed monsters.
"L-ladies and g-gentlemen, real goblins. Live and in the flesh" Lincoln whispered, having partly recovered from his initial shock "and they've set foot on the wrong fucking planet" Lincoln drew in a breath, slowly moving to a better position. From his new spot in the brush, he could tell the 2 goblins that had stayed behind were secondarily armed with bow and arrows. Lincoln guessed they would put their spears away in a hurry once he fired upon them, however. He noticed the portal was staying open, and he wasn't sure how he would close it. If he even could.
He watched patiently as the goblins circled their small patrol route, not aware of Lincoln in the slightest, but wary. The 4 in the inner area were talking in their strange, guttural language. Before long, the male goblin with the beard spat at one of his yellow eyed brethren and punched him hard in the jaw. Lincoln smiled, infighting would make this easier. Unseen by the streamer, members of his chat were cheering on the bearded goblin, saying he would die a warrior's death and go to Valhalla unlike his more monstrous brethren.
Lincoln watched as the yellow eyed goblin who was struck, quickly bellowed out a warcry and ran the male goblin through with his spear, prompting a wailing scream from the female goblin who began sobbing and yelling at the yellow eyed ones, who laughed manically with tongues lolling out like a sick parody of a dog panting in the summer heat. Even the ones on patrol turned back and started chuckling to themselves.
That sealed it for Lincoln, these hellish monsters needed to die, the sooner the better. He quickly took aim and waited as the patrolling monsters were further away and unable to find him in a timely manner. He prayed as he counted down and took a deep breath.
3...2...1...
Click...
'Fuck fuck fuck, the safety!' Lincoln quickly raced to set his safety switch to fire, hoping the goblins hadn't heard. Unluckily for him, their big ears weren't just for show. One of the spear wielding patrol goblins looked back in his general direction, and squinted at the movement in the distant brush. The curious being took a few steps forward, spear at the ready, and then let out a high pitched squeal.
"UWWAAHH! Numam ushtagu! Numam magri gref!" All the goblins, even the sobbing female suddenly held their weapons ready for the sudden danger. The spear goblin who sounded the alarm charged straight at Lincoln, who had already shifted his aim and had the ugly little bastard sighted.
3...2...1...
Boom!
One shot and the monster was down, the momentum of his sprint carried him forward to paint the grass red with his alien blood.
The goblins in the center who had bows quickly began to equip them, tossing their spears to the ground. Lincoln fired at one of them right as they began to pull out their first arrows. He missed, then quickly corrected his aim and squeezed again taking another green skinned devil to meet his maker. Before his friend could ready a shot, Lincoln took cover behind a thick tree.
His chat was going absolutely ballistic, cheering him on from his pocket and throwing all the generic emotes for crucifixes and other religious symbols, as well as a hearty spam of praying hand emotes.
The goblin archer released his arrow and hoped to hit the human he hadn't exactly seen. He heard the direction he had fired from and decided to pin him down long enough for the spearmen to reach his position.
Lincoln had different plans, in the time it took the archer to fire two arrows, Lincoln had counted the space between the shots and quickly peeked out, firing twice at the remaining archer, both shots found purchase within his chest and he fell on his back screaming before he died.
Now for the remaining spearmen. The other patrolling one was to Lincoln's right. He heard the howling warcry and the rustling of the brush before he saw it, firing off six rounds in the general direction left a dead goblin barely a foot away from him and if Lincoln had bothered to count he would have found only half of his 6 rounds hit, the other 3 went wild. Lincoln still had plenty for the other goblin. Where was she?
She gave the answer herself from the clearing, crying out in anger, she stood over the body of the other goblin with white sclera and colored irises like a human.
"Orgumash numam! Kavit! Orgumash na orikash!" She cried out, throwing her spear in his general direction, but coming nowhere near close to hitting him. She began sobbing once again over the body of her friend, dead by their own kind. Lincoln aimed, but hesitated. She was unarmed now. Perhaps even some type of captive or slave. Should he approach? or hang back? What was the right call here.
Before he could finish answering, the deep emerald of the portal gave way to a deep sapphire blue and more goblins came through. All of these were the yellow eyes type, and all of them were armed with bows and spears. They quickly got their bearings and saw the carnage around them. One goblin at the front quickly questioned the female goblin, while another 3 goblins came out of the portal screaming and running in all directions.
"Drash! Drash Orgumasha!" All the goblins quickly sprinted into formation in front of the portal, which was now turning a bloody shade of crimson red, the diamond shape now fluctuating and losing form. The only one not in formation was the sobbing female goblin, who had lost all will to fight. Quickly, with one last thunderclap a bus size scaly being with 4 legs, snakelike eyes, and a massive maw of razor sharp teeth stumbled through the portal, which closed behind it while it shakily got to its legs.
"Gobran! Orgumash drash!" With one more warcry, the goblins charged the massive scaled beast. It resembled some sort of dinosaur or dragon. With a swipe of its left hand claws it took both the advancing spear goblins and the shocked female goblin and flung them in pieces through the air. When the head of one of the spear goblins landed at Lincoln's feet, he screamed and ran for his life back towards his tent, his mic peaking and scrambling the ears of anyone wearing headphones in his chat.