The sharp ringing in his ears was muffled when he crashed into the water. For a moment there was silence. No screams or explosions, No bullets or bodies. Just a vast expanse of water that was untouched and tranquil below the surface. But then the silence shattered as someone else crashed in front of him from above and he remembered to swim back up.
He quickly broke through the surface and started swimming back. As the ringing subsided the sounds of battle flooded back in. His body was aching all over and it felt like something was wrong with his left leg. He slowly crawled back ashore and laid his head against a large boulder. He examined his leg and noticed it had a large gash on his calf. Miraculously he had no major injuries due to the water breaking his fall. The brunt of the fire damage was borne by the shield and the base of the cart.
He had not fallen far from his original position. The boulder was right outside the edge of the battlefield. The canon was lying a little away from him just beyond the reach of water with its mouth aiming right above his head. The body of a rebel was sprawled over it. His first thought was to get to the canon which looked relatively unscathed but then he remembered how heavy that darn thing was. It would almost be impossible without the steering mechanism that lay broken beneath it.
He looked over the boulder and tried to get a sense about the battlefield. It had devolved into a chaotic sword melee with an occasional shot being fired here and there. In the dust and mayhem, it was hard to tell who was winning. Max aimed his musket that had somehow stayed with him hung by a strap on his neck and fired at a passing soldier. PHUCH. The hammer struck the wet powder and nothing happened. The soldier looked up and immediately abandoned the musket he was loading in favor of charging up the boulder. He and Max entangled into a tumble down to the shore.
They fell with a splash into the ankle-deep water. Instinctively Max grabbed a few pebbles as the soldier took out a dagger. As the soldier stood up to one knee Max threw the mud and pebbles into his face. He was slow to react and a pebble struck his eye. Max tried standing up with a grunt, forcing himself to ignore the fiery pain in his leg. He drew out his own dagger as the soldier finished washing his eye and howling in pain. Max charged the unbalanced soldier taking them both into the water. The soldier struggled beneath him but Max held onto him and wantonly stabbed as near the man’s throat as he could. He made contact with skin, but not knowing if he got him or not he continued stabbing wherever he could until the man stopped moving and a notification rang in his ear.
Panting deeply - ‘Haah, Haaah’ he rolled himself so that he faced the sun instead of the water. He had just lifted himself up when he heard a voice “Jenkins, Charge!” It was a mage’s voice, Loud, strong and so daunting both armies stopped mid-battle and stared dazedly in its direction for a second. The forest on the other side of the battlefield erupted out and a force of 200 led by a mage flanked the rebel army and joined the melee.
In the front of a two-sided assault, The rebels started crumbling. Fire at will was showing the other side of its consequences. It was impossible to create any sort of ordered defense anymore.
The 3rd and final rebel wave started advancing. Sensing the advent of the final fight Max slowly made his way into the fray. He still needed a lot of kills. He looked over the mission tab.
MISSIONS
BABY protocol
Trial 1/3: Combat
Phase 1/7
(Squad size reduced from 10 to 1)
(All aiding and information tools of the system except the Status window are switched off for the duration of the trials.)
(All trials need to be completed with an X rating or an extra penalty will be dealt)
(Your path is one that influences the path of Humanity. Thus you may only use race-specific skills during the trials. All other skills are banned.)
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Time Left : 5 Hours 40 minutes 12 seconds
E - Mission 000 : Survive the battle and kill 10 soldiers.(10/10)
D - Mission 001 : Kill 4 captains. (3/4)
C - Mission 002 : Kill 100 soldiers. (26/100)
B - Mission 003 : Kill an Enemy Commander. (1/1)
A - Mission 004 : Kill all 4 Enemy Commanders. (2/4)
S - Mission 005 : Kill the Enemy General. (0/1)
X- Mission 006 : Lead and win the battle of Panawan Woods(0/1)
Rewards: Promotion to Initiate Seeker.
Penalty: Rewards withheld. No healing administered. Rating is F for the Origin Evaluation
Extra Penalty: Death
Race Piece Penalty: To increase your rating, all previous missions should be completed.
Deep down he knew it was impossible. He was in no condition to kill over 70 soldiers. It was a tall order even if he was in full health and armed. And now simply there was no time. Maybe it was desperation to live, maybe it was anger at the unfairness of it all, Or maybe it was the little hope of a miracle. But he picked up a fallen sword and he moved. He roared and charged causing a few rebels around him to startle and look. Seeing a bloodstained hero gave them a bit of courage and they followed smashing into a group of soldiers who were loading their muskets as two of them stood with cutlasses en guard. As the cutlass guys were taken by others Max plunged his sword into a man struggling to draw his own.
Suddenly something struck the back of his head and he fell down. In the confusion, there was no way to tell what hit him. He groaned in pain and clutched his head. But the shearing pain turned out to be a blessing in disguise as a fireball went right over him and cut down the group of rebels he was with.
On instinct, he just froze. He slowly looked up as two hooves came into his vision. Sure enough, a mage was creating another fireball in his hands. But he was facing away from Max looking towards another group of rebels. At this point, Max remembered the ‘Special gun’ he had gotten on killing the first commander. The gun was a single shot plain one which did not look special by any means. What was special was the one bullet it had. It wasn’t iron or steel like the rest but it was Orinchalum. A metal used by Runesmiths to craft magical instruments. It had a few runes carved on it and had a simple function - To break through a Mage’s shield and kill him.
How did the rebel army get it, you ask? Well, in this land where only mage lives mattered, what better way for Lord Kolam to embarrass his opponent, than by getting a mage under him killed? The rebels had started retreating into the third wave and the dust was settling down. Lord Arif Gutenberg along with the rest of the army had started moving in. In all this, Max shakily stood up.
The mage glanced at him as he readied a fireball to slam into the backs of the retreating rebels. This one looked larger and more complicated than the rest. An amused grin lit up his face as he saw Max raise up the pistol. The grin turned smug as a thin veil of blue materialized between them. BAM! The veil cracked as a hole appeared within it, and the mage was still smiling when a red hole appeared on his forehead spewing blood and gore. As he fell back the fireball burst. But instead of a usual blast, it erupted into shrapnel. Most of which was thrown up into the air and the rest burrowed into the Mage’s own body, but one stuck Max right in the abdomen.
He didn’t even get to rejoice at the DING! as the shrapnel tore a hole clean through his stomach. He just fell down onto the grass clutching his stomach that was still burning without a fire present. For a few seconds, he tried to stem the blood flow when a horse on fire ran past him. It was dragging something with his broken reins that somehow latched onto Max’s leg and dragged him towards the lake. Hoping for burn relief, eh? Max thought as his skin got scratched and burst into blood with the friction of the rough ground. Is this how I die? Dragged off by a horse? Would’ve preferred a big bang though. Somehow he found his thoughts quite detached from his current predicament. Out of the blue, the horse jerked, shot most probably. And for the second time that day Max found himself crashing into the shallows.
-----
His head felt woozy as he bled out and dark spots began dancing in his vision. He was dying, no doubt about it. But a strange peace came over him. There were no life-flashing moments, no last stroke of power, nothing. Just him and the sky above. Both unmoving.
He felt the cold of the water touching him fade away. He had read about this, that slowly the dying body goes numb. He stupidly tried to cling to this cold, After all being cold meant being alive. This was when he noticed that there was a small sliver of cool on his cheek too. His oxygen-deprived brain slowly processed it to be a lone tear. He was crying. Suddenly the dam burst and he started crying inconsolably. He was tired and bleeding in an unknown land for a cause he had no loyalty to, all because some damn system decided to integrate his world into the goddamned Grand Procession. Answer his doubts? Give him a team? Give him power? NO, what did it give him, a stupid Origin, a gun, and a greeting ‘May you draw the wheel’ what the fuck does that even mean? He cursed his idea of asking for some help from that stupid Chaos Lord or whatever. Greatest Origin? Investment? What the hell? Where are all the benefits? All he has gotten so far are stupidly dangerous compulsory quests. Damn the system, Damn the Chaos lord, damn the rebels, and damn those godforsaken mages who are hell-bent on killing him.
He had no idea how much time had passed as he seethed in rage when a Mage’s voice broke the silence. He just noticed that there had been a disconcerting silence in the clearing. He moved his head to see that an old man in ornate robes was standing on the boulder giving a speech of some kind.
The rebels had been caught in the two-sided attack. With the mage’s intervention, the casualties had been heavy. They were only 300 or so left while the Enforcers were 500, and they still had a mage. When the lull in the fighting began and they discovered that another commander had fallen, the news was met with mixed feelings. They wanted to cheer but they knew, the day was lost. They would be the ones who fall today.