Book 2 Ch. 27

Days passed as the people of Sanctuary and their allies scoured the city of Wichita Falls in search of survivors. At last count, Robert had reported a total of three thousand four hundred and seventy-one refugees that had been moved to the ever growing encampment in the rural northern part of the city. It was a damning number, one that brought the cruelness of reality to the forefront of everyone’s mind.

Over a hundred thousand people used to live in the city, and less than five percent had survived the first few months after The Descent had hit. In a morbid way, it made a lot of sense that so few had made it. Food and water were necessary to survive, and logistics of food distribution had broken down long ago, not to mention the governments, police forces, and other necessary life-saving variables. Truly, humanity as a whole was lucky to even have the survivors it did.

Drew pushed those thoughts from his head as he moved with purpose to his next destination. Thinking about large scale issues right now wouldn’t do anyone a lick of good. He was currently moving in the suburban housing area between Midwestern Parkway and Southwest Parkway, just south of Midwestern State University. The residential areas had been searched three times over, either by himself and his minions, the people of Sanctuary, or their Dark Elf and Goblin allies. He doubted there was anything left alive and moving in the area, but he still kept his guard up, especially since the Slosth were still around somewhere.

He moved cautiously, stepping between the rubble of fallen trees and telephone poles, and the occasional pieces of collapsed housing that rescue teams had thrown into the streets while looking for survivors. The landscape was a mix of a modern day ghost town and the aftermath of several tornadoes hitting the area, which would have made traveling by foot for an unleveled human very difficult. He was heading east, and was planning to hit state highway three sixty-nine before traveling south west near highway seventy-nine. His destination? Lakeside.

Crossing between a couple of houses, he stopped and looked out to the scene beyond. A golf course. It’s seen better days for sure. The grass had grown wild and other than the obvious sand traps and flag, no one would have known the area had once been a center of recreation. Drew turned south, heading to the state highway. Pain erupted in his chest, and he was barely able to make out what was happening as his body flew through a nearby house, crashing through the walls as if they were nothing.

An impact. Something had hit him, and hard. He looked down and saw a large scuff, a blemish on his otherwise pristine chestplate. His body was still mid-flight, and he pulled an emergency health potion from his inventory, chugging it as he was slammed through another house. His chest felt like it was on fire as the potion went to work, the pain was bad, really bad, but far from the worst he’d ever felt. Whatever had hit him, his chest armor had likely saved him from getting completely fucked up.

His body’s movement was arrested upon crashing through the bottom of an apartment building. His helmeted head lodged firmly in the drywall of someone’s old living room. Drew removed himself from the wall and stood up, his armor having taken almost all of the damage from crashing through the buildings. Drew groaned slightly as he felt four ribs pop back into place and their fractures were healed. Taking a deep breath he coughed out a chunk of blood, the mess hitting the debris-filled floor. The fuck hit me so hard?

Whatever it was, that hadn’t been a lovetap. He coughed up another piece of his lung as the potion healed whatever holes had been created by the fractured ribs. He pulled his axe from his inventory, and looked towards the area his body had crashed in from. Mentally, he recalled his minions to his location, as he prepared himself for a major battle. Drew had been hit hard, really hard, and whatever had done it, likely had a higher strength attribute than he did, which placed the threat firmly in C Grade unless it was highly specialized. He felt his minions respond and begin rushing in his direction at top speed.

Drew squeezed through the hole his body had left in the apartment building, his armor rubbing against broken wood and pvc pipes. Out in the open again he surveyed his surroundings. Nothing? Am I dealing with a high level Slosth then? He kept his eyes peeled as he cautiously approached the second house he’d been thrown through, he decided to walk around it, rather than through the obvious holes he’d left. Minutes passed as he very slowly and very carefully made his way towards the first house. The first group of his nearby minions having appeared by his side, he sent out mental commands to them.

He was not stealthy, none of his skills promoted that kind of build, and neither did his stats, but he still tried to remain as silent as possible as he and his minions got close to the house.

“Up. Onto the roof, look for anything obvious first, if nothing is found, keep a very close eye on any shadows. If any shadows move, tell me immediately.” Drew sent to his minions.

“Understood, Master.” They replied in unison. Over the past few days, he’d given up on getting minions to stop calling him master, even if he commanded it, they still did it. He wasn’t sure if it was because the minions had a sliver of free will and a soul, or if they were just incapable of it.

The minions leapt to the roof of the first story, before walking their way up to the second story. Drew gave them a solid ten second count before preparing to leap up to join them.

“Master, we’ve found… something.” One of the minions sent to him.

“What is it? A shadow?” Drew asked.

“Not a shadow… unsure.” It replied.

Not a shadow, and they don’t know what it is? Strange… Drew leapt up onto the roof, holding his axe tightly in his right hand as he joined his minions on the second story roof. The fuck is…

“AH, APOLOGIES THERE CHAP, I THOUGHT I FELT A LIGHT IMPACT AT THE END OF MY SWING.” An absolutely massive blue face yelled towards him. Its eye level was ever so slightly higher than Drew’s position on the roof. The loudness of the creature’s rumbling voice hurt his ears, and he brought his left hand up to his helmet to try and muffle the sound.

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It had blue skin, yellow eyes, and a red mohawk that ended in two braids where the sideburns would have been. It was male, that much Drew was certain of, as its chest was bare. It had a large nose, with two white tusks coming from its lower jaw angled both outwards and upwards. Drew shifted slightly, holding his axe a little higher so as to quickly defend himself if needed.

“DOES YOUR KIND NOT SPEAK?” The massive creature asked. Drew inspected it, using his skill.

[Highland Troll - lvl 164]

“Loud…” Drew muttered in response, holding his head again.

“RIGHT! I FORGOT MYSELF THERE CHAP. ONE MOMENT.” The bellowing creature must have heard him. Can he just… shut up? Just him talking is giving me a massive headache. The Troll’s form morphed near instantly, as if hit by a science fiction shrink-ray. Its body went from the size of a two-story house, to slightly taller than the average human in mere seconds. Without a word the Troll leapt up to the second story in a single bound and arrived in front of Drew.

“Sorry about that chap, I forget how hard things are for people of your size.” The Troll said, in a much more management tone. Around its waist, it wore a green and yellow kilt, the shins were covered in extra long white socks, and it had black close-toed shoes that were highly polished, similar to how a human would wear with a suit.

“Uh… no problem?” Drew replied. He was busy issuing commands to his undead minions to hold their ground unless the Troll did anything aggressive.

“Glad to hear it. Also, apologies for giving you a right smackin’. I was practicing my backswing, for the course and next thing I knew I felt a light impact on my club.” The Troll said, pulling out what looked like a perfectly normal golf club.

“You… hit me with a … golf club?” Drew asked, a bit dumbfounded by the situation.

“I didn’t think anyone was around, and I had some free time before I was going to begin cleaning up the course.” The shrunk Troll chuckled slightly, waving his hand in the direction of the golf course.

“Huh. Well, I guess it’s fine if it was by accident. Although, I have to ask, what are you doing on Earth, and are you part of one of the incursions?” Drew asked. If this creature had a bunch of buddies back at a portal somewhere, it could spell major trouble for the human race. It was crazy strong, and he’d only been hit by a backswing of a golf club and not a combat move.

“Right! Where are my manners, my name is Alan McGregor.” He chuckled. “I did indeed come to this planet via an incursion portal. It’s not often that The System offers cheap instantaneous travel to newly initiated worlds, so I thought, why not? I heard the humans here were civilized creatures that enjoyed the finer things in life.” Alan gestured with the golf club.

“You came here, to our planet… to play golf?” Drew asked. The more the creature spoke, the more confused Drew ended up. This unfathomably strong being in front of him coming halfway across the cosmos to play golf on shitty courses in north Texas… the whole thought just didn’t compute for his mind.

“Of course! Why else would I come here by myself?” Alan laughed, as if everything he said made perfect sense.

“Uh… so you’re not here to kill and maim people, or capture and use all the planet’s resources or anything?” Drew continued questioning.

“No, no my good chap! I’m a Highland Troll, not some barbaric Earth or Ice Troll. I do plan on visiting many of your planet’s courses though, will that be a problem?” Alan asked, his bushy red eyebrow raised as he smirked.

“I mean… usually you have to pay a fee to play… but given the state of the world and our people, I don’t think anyone is going to bitch and moan about it.” Drew answered, his thoughts coming to his lips.

“Good! That’s fantastic news.” Alan seemed genuinely happy, or at least Drew thought so as it smiled with its extremely sharp and pointed teeth. “Would you care to join me for a round?” Alan asked.

“No, I’m afraid I’m very busy trying to find survivors. The System coming here… was bad. We’ve got incursions everywhere, and the population of this city dropped to like five percent of what it used to be. Plus I’ve got these living shadows to deal with.” Drew answered.

“Shadows you say? Do you happen to mean the beings known as Slosth?” Alan asked.

“Yeah, that’s them. Nasty things, they attacked our refugee encampment a few days ago, almost overran the whole thing before they were taken out. Now I’ve got to find a nest to wipe out before they become a bigger problem.” Drew mentioned. His minions now seemed more relaxed, and he was feeling a bit better now, even after getting smacked.

“I understand, I won’t keep you then. Slosth are the bane of many civilized peoples. I do recommend you look to the forests and near major rivers for their burrow. They’re a hivemind, so they usually only have one nest. I warn you chap, be careful. Some of their individual creatures can become quite problematic as they grow in size.” Alan warned.

“Any chance you could help with them?” Drew asked hopefully. It would be a huge boon if someone that powerful were to help us out.

“Me?” Alan chuckled. “I’m no fighter, I just enjoy golf! Besides, riding your world of the Slosth nest will help build your character! Maybe then we can play eighteen holes together.” The Troll laughed and waved Drew off, heading towards the overgrown fairway nearby.

“Right, thanks anyways!” Drew yelled. The troll simply waved his hand and continued on his way, quickly enlarging back to his previous size.

“Well that sucked, it would have been nice to have someone that strong on our side.” Drew muttered to himself, turning to see several of his minions shrugging. At least he’s not an enemy.

Twenty minutes later, Drew saw three quickly approaching figures on his way down state highway seventy-nine. They were lithe and moving with great speed, their forms covered in tight clothing and darkened plates of armor. Dark Elves. Wonder what they want… They came closer to Drew, the leading elf holding his hand up in greeting.

“Baleful one, I’m Lucion Dusksorrow, at your service.” The Elf said before giving a slight bow. His two compatriots were standing near him, but kept their heads turned in the direction they came, as if searching for something.

“Lucion, nice to meet you. What can I do for you?” Drew asked. To the best of his knowledge, the Elves and Goblins had each contributed greatly to the search and recovery of survivors in the city, and had helped defend the refugee encampment. He wasn’t sure if he trusted either race yet, but their actions were beginning to help him move in that direction. It wasn’t a question of species or race for Drew, but they had been invaders previously, and he’d learned to approach things more cautiously since seeing how bad humans could be.

“There’s a small human settlement behind us. When we approached and gave introductions, two of my party were killed by spells and arrows before we had a chance to retreat.” Lucion said, catching his breath slightly. It didn’t seem like he was too winded, but the Elf could have a lot of points in endurance.

“They killed your people? Why?” Drew asked, the eyebrows under his helmet raised in shock, before quickly remembering the words of the minister. Did they really attack them strictly due to their race?

“I am unsure. I don’t believe we did anything to insult or offend them, but I’m not familiar with the customs of your people. I merely stated my name and clan, and that we were searching for survivors. The spells and arrows came almost immediately after the words left my mouth. I don’t know why they attacked… I even stated that we were allied with the Humans of Sanctuary, yet two of my people perished.” Lucion seemed downtrodden at the loss of his party members, and Drew didn’t blame him.

“I’ll check it out, thank you for letting me know.” Drew said respectfully.

“Do you wish for us to accompany you? It may be dangerous.” Lucion offered.

“No, go back to camp and report to Robert, tell him to make sure no non-humans try to approach the settlement.” Drew answered. He wasn’t going to risk their lives if it was a case of racism or something stupid.

“But… Baleful one, you’re not human either.” Lucion answered with a grimace. Righttt… half vampire. Wonderful… but I’m one of the strongest, so I shouldn’t be in as much danger as other people would be.

“I think I’ll be fine. I’m pretty sturdy, but report to Robert that I’m heading in. Just in case.” Drew said, hoping he was wrong.