Elfen Belstretter

He woke up, quickly ripping out his cracked helmet and gasping for breath. It took a minute to regain his breath, but he's already been assessing his surrounding, and himself and his weapons. His strapped his weapon to his back, once finished.

The situation was... not fine, and alone in the middle of a forest with trees bigger than even redwood. And weed and grass as tall as he was.

Well, shit.

El felt fine. If a bit banged up and bruised, but his regenerative abilities had already kicked in while he was unconscious. His armor looked scruffed, but its nano-regenerative technology would take a while to fully repair whatever was damaged since the... whatever the hell that happened in that basement.

What was more important was his location. Where was he? He was in the middle of a clearing, with a small ravine flowing near him. The sound of the rushing water was soothing, and it would be enough to quench his thirst. His biology would be more than enough to stave off the deadly pathogens that live in the river.

He didn't get any transmission from any of his team member, which meant they were either far off from his location, or dead. That was bad. Very, very bad.

El took to his feet and walked.

Ten days.

He had followed the ravine for ten days, and only now he'd managed to find a sign of civilization from the rising smoke.

Hunting wasn't a problem; his old master taught him all about survival in the wilderness, and even with limited supplies, rabbits and... strange creatures that lived in the forest served well for meat. He had to get really creative with the fruits and leaves, however.

The thought that he would have to venture to the nearest town to call this in was very irritating. He missed Baji already. Sure, El himself was capable, but it was such a hassle. 

El took to his feet and strapped his damaged helmet by his hips, and proceeded to walk toward the source of his salvation.

It took a few more miles of walking, but he was in a good state, despite the unfavorable circumstances. His emergency rations were still inside his backpack strapped to his armor, but those were far too important to use up so soon. Baji always said to be prepared. Well, he just won El's vote for the employer of the month award.

When he passed through the bushes and branches...

Ah, being separated from his team didn't exactly prepare him for this. He witnessed a primitive village of huts and... actually thatched roofs! Who the hell uses thatched roofs?!

What...?

"...What?" His face had gone blank, but his mind was whirling a thousand miles a minute.

There were humans going about with their daily tasks, but something was wrong. Wrong!

Their living conditions were abhorrent! And their clothes were caked with mud, wearing little more than linen and cotton. And ropes for a belt! Also, where's the... everything?! Even in the most primitive villages, there should have been fey lamps! Even a fool as inept with magic as El was, even he could use a simple light spell to light up the area!

....

Ah, whatever. He'll just ask the local for a phone and find his team. It shouldn't be that hard.

El spotted an elderly man picking herbs nearby.

"Hello, there!" El waved, with a polite smile. "Do you-..."

The elderly human looked up. He screamed in a high pitched voice. He ran, screaming about orcs and demons.

"What...!" El scratched his chin. "The hell was that?"

Sighing, El made his way toward the village. Since when did his country have a village?

There were screaming, and shouts, as people gathered and panicked and rushed about. The few that stayed to confront him, no more than a few dozen with pitchforks and rusted iron swords.

"Orc!" The old man with a grey beard, bellowed out loud. Despite his tremendous bravery, the old man was trembling in fear. Also, he might have soiled his pants. "Orc! You've come to the wrong place to pillage!"

What.

What the hell.

Who's here to pillage? Pillage what? Pitchforks and huts? Also, their language was clearly something he's never heard of before, so how was El able to understand the language? What magical bullshit was this?

"Ah... listen," Wow, he could speak it, too! El bowed low, showing respect to an elder. "I wish some accommodation, and a phone call to my team, if that is possible...?"

The old man and the men and women behind him looked surprised.

"What trickery is this, Orc!" The old man, whoever that was, rushed toward him with a rusty old sword. "You'll die like the rest of your kind!"

... What the fuck is happening right now.

He easily disabled the villager's... weapon and put him to sleep in a chokehold.

There were screams of, 'kill him!', 'he killed the village chief!' and so on and so forth.

The men and women came, and again, he subdued them, though not to the point where they'd be incapacitated. They're still conscious, and all he did was break their weapons and push them away from him slightly. Ah... why is this happening. Was this karma? Had he done something in his past life to hurt fragile men and women?

And then stepped a fancy looking bloke with an enchanted and very primitive looking armor. Like, plate armor used centuries past.

"You're the biggest orc I've ever seen, but your end times have come, creature." The man was calm as he held his... sword. Seriously, a sword? I get that the villagers would have a few, but this man looked like a professional, but his equipment was downright abhorred. "Prepare to meet your hellish God, for I will rend you limb from limb!"

What hellish god? El was an atheist. If the Twilight Zone existed, this was it. 

El didn't really want to waste his bullet on something like him. Still, he was fast when he swung his sword. Faster than normal, baseline human, and even an orc. Still, it wasn't fast enough to harm him, and even should the sword managed to strike him, all it would do was scrap the paint off his armor.

"Stop dodging, you damned orc!" The serious looking idiot continued to swing his sword, while fast, and with skills quite above the villagers, he was still stupidly weak. "Stop. Fucking. Dodging!"

The villagers cheered.

His steel sword swung down on his head.

El caught the blade.

The villagers' cheers choked in their throats.

"Listen, kid, I don't know what the hell is going on, but spouting racist shit is just mean and vile." The blond man looked confused, then, El lashed out with a jab to the stomach. The plate armor bent, but it was enough to drop the soldier to his knees. The man gasped for breath, staving off the world of unconsciousness. 

"How... I'm... I could not be beaten," He gasped out loud, gasping for breath. "I'm... an elite of the elites among the kingdom of Vania. What the fuck are you...?"

El gently laid him to the ground, making sure the man doesn't bash his head against the rock.

He glanced up to the civilians...

The villagers seemed too fearful of attacking him, now.

Before El could do anything else, a child barely older than eight stood between him and the villagers. Wearing a bucket over her head, and a stick on each hand, she stood before him with more bravery than men and women thrice her age.

"You will not pass!" The child screamed, full of heart and strength he hadn't seen since his own son. Ah, what bravery. "I won't let you harm my family!"

El felt his thoughts go blank. Was he in some sort of renaissance fair?

"Stop it, Mara! Come back! He'll kill you! Run!" The father and mother ran toward her, which he could only guess was their child, but the tiny slip of a girl wasn't having any nonsense. She charged toward him with a battle cry.

"Ah...,"

The girl-child screamed, whacking his knees with her sticks. Repeatedly, screaming a battle cry.

This child... 

El groaned, and that only seemed to invigorate her with courage. "Baji is going to kill me. I'm sure of it. I'm going to get toilet duties for a month...,"

Sighing, El found a bar of chocolate hidden in a small compartment of his armor and ripped the wrapping free. Meanwhile, the girl was whacking at him, and the villagers were screaming in terror, begging for mercy of the child.

What the hell was he? A bandit?

The orc picked up the tiny girl by the sleeve of her left wrist to his face. The girl whacked him in the face with a stick.

Ow.

"Hey, kid. Stop that."

Another whack.

"Kid...,"

A whack.

El stuffed her mouth with a chocolate bar.

Perhaps it was a miracle, but the girl's struggles stopped once the taste of chocolate hit her taste buds. Heh, chocolate always worked with kids.

Another whack.

Ow.

"The hell was that for, kid?!"

"You're a bad orc! That's what!" That didn't stop joy as she chewed on her chocolate bar. "You're gonna do bad things to my family!"

Sighing, El gently put down the kid. "Kid, I ain't gonna do shiiii---... I mean, I ain't gonna do anything bad to anyone," Kneeling down, he let out his pinky finger. "I promise. Pinky swear, how about it?"

The girl looked up, and despite him being on his one knee, he still towered over the child like a mountain. The girl lifted her bucket above her eyes, hopeful, and asked, "Promise?"

El smiled gently. "Promise."

Their piny fingers interlocked in a promise that could potentially change the world.