The first thing that I noticed was the change in temperature. I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt at my grandparent's house since it was mid-March and Ohio was going through the false spring period with temperatures in the high sixties or low seventies. After putting on an extra layer of leather, the clearing we came from was starting to make me sweat even though it was roughly the same temperature.

Standing on top of the hill we were on I could feel the cool breeze cutting through my gear and was not looking forward to the temperature drop at night. Being cold was better than being hot, but sleeping in frigid temperatures didn't sound appealing.

I took a moment to take in my surroundings and was blown away by the view. It was breathtaking. To the north were the tallest mountains I had ever seen with snow-capped tips jutting into the clouds. Being from Ohio -and never having been to a mountain- that statement didn't mean much, but I had no words to describe it.

To the west and east were rolling hills for miles before ending and turning into a flat plain with a river running through it to the east. The west ended in a forest a bit further out than where the hills stopped in the east. To the south, there was a much closer forest that was only a couple miles away compared to the dozen or so miles to the west. I didn't know which direction was the most beautiful as they all had a picturesque look to them.

"Why didn't you pick one of the middle markers that were closer to the forest? It's freezing here." One of my uncles broke the silence with his question.

"Having an easily defensible position is more important than being comfortable with the temperature. Plus those markers were surrounded on all sides by other markers. Having to defend from every direction is impossible with the amount of people we have. This far north has hills that are defensible, a close forest for lumber and food, a river to the east for water, and no markers further north so we can't be surrounded." Granddad's answer gave me something to think about.

He was already thinking ahead to which areas would be defensible and which could be surrounded by other factions, even taking food and water into account. It gave me comfort to know that he was taking this seriously and thinking of the future because if it was up to me I would have picked one of the middle ones.

There was a blinking obelisk at the top of the hill we were standing on that took our attention away from the discussion and all of us walked towards it. The obelisk itself wasn't that large, being only about four and a half feet tall and only a foot wide on both sides.

After some trial and error we discovered that touching the obelisk brought up a new screen where you could buy things from a store using points. As none of us had any points yet, we couldn't buy anything but we could still look and see what was available for purchase. Skills were available alongside gear and weapons. There were even defenses available to turn the area around the pylon into a fortress -like wooden walls and guard towers- but they were greyed out like it was unavailable. The most exciting thing was at the bottom of the list it said, 'Upgrade to outpost to unlock more options.'.

There was no telling what we would eventually be able to purchase and I was starting to get a little excited. What if it can give me a skill to throw fireballs or something.

At the top of the list, there was a button that said, 'Claim ownership of pylon.'

Not knowing what else we were supposed to do, Granddad selected it and confirmed that he wanted to claim ownership. As soon as that happened a timer started counting down from a minute with big bold letters that said,

'Defend your claim.'

Not knowing what to do, and with a timer counting down for mysterious reasons, we all began to panic.

"Calm down!" A loud, authoritative voice said that cut through the growing panic.

"Everyone make a circle around the obelisk. Anyone with a shield or melee weapon stand in the front. Healers stand in the center. Anyone with a ranged attack stand behind the shields." My grandfather barked out.

Jonathan, my father, and I all looked at each other and the shields on our backs and shrugged. It made the most sense logically, but actually standing in the front for the unknown that was to happen, didn't bring warm and fuzzy feelings.

There were thirty fighting members in our faction and only around half had melee weapons of some sort. The rest either had bows or wands.

After separating into our assigned layers, it showed there were a dozen warrior classes and half of them had shields. The rest either had spears or two-handed swords, one uncle had a huge two-handed battle-axe. The Rogues were more uniform with all four of them having either two daggers or two short swords. Huh, I must have mistook some of the Rogues as Warriors. There's more than I thought.

Looking back at the center of the circle showed there were four Healers with ten people surrounding them that had ranged attacks. Only three of them had bows, so I hope the rest had some kind of ranged magic attack.

All in all, if looked at from above it probably looked like a hodgepodge of two vague circles surrounding the pylon with a cluster in the middle. There were still 30 seconds on the timer so I looked over at my dad who was off to my right.

"What's gotten into Grandpa? He seems like a completely different person." I asked.

"I've never seen him like this either. I know he fought in Vietnam before the war ended, maybe he's using what he knows from then." Dad said back.

I had forgotten that he fought in the war. He didn't like talking about it, so it was easy to forget that he did it. Now that my father mentioned it, I could see where the confidence and drill instructor voice came from.

The timer ended before I could mull on that thought further and movement drew my attention over to the hills I was facing towards. It looked like moving dots with how far away they were.

"I think I see something." I shouted out and pointed.

Everyone turned to look at what I was pointing at when my cousin who had a bow in his hand said, "It says they're Level 1 and 2 Horned Rabbits."

He got curious looks that wondered about how he knew that and how he could see that far so he added, "The skill I picked is called [Ranger's Eye]. It's like [Identify] but better and lets me see further."

Now that the threat had been identified, my Grandfather repositioned all of us so everyone with a shield was in front facing the east. The other melee users split to either side to guard the flanks. A few yards back behind the shields, the healers were spread out with the ranged users behind them in the rear.

I didn't know if Granddad was knowledgeable about gaming formations where the Healer was always in the middle or if it was just a coincidence that he set it up like a video game. Protecting the Healers was common knowledge everywhere I guess.

Watching the rabbits get closer and closer was a nerve-wracking experience that had me adjusting my grip on my shield and changing my grip on my axe. When they crested the last hill that separated them from us, I finally got a decent count on their number. There looked to be around fifty of them hopping towards us. There was one that lagged behind the others and looked larger than the rest of them.

"Kyle, what's that one in the back?" Grandfather asked my cousin with the [Ranger's Eye] skill.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"It says it's a level 4 Horned Rabbit Matriarch."

Thankfully the Matriarch wasn't coming in my direction and was targeting the right side of the formation. Not knowing how far the Rangers and Mages could shoot, Grandfather told them to fire when they could. When they reached the bottom of the hill we were on -which was around sixty yards away- the three rangers fired. They must have severely underestimated how far they could shoot because they missed by over fifteen yards long.

It only took a couple of seconds for me to see three more arrows fly over my head which landed at the right distance but missed any of the rabbits. However, the third time was the charm because one of the arrows hit a rabbit but the other two missed. The rabbit was on the ground twitching with an arrow sticking out of it, which meant the arrow wasn't instantly fatal but the rabbit was down for the count.

The Rangers got a few more volleys in with limited success before the mages got their turn. I got to watch as all kinds of magic attacks got launched from the seven mages behind me. Two looked like fire bolts, there was an ice bolt, a water blob, and three looked like generic mana bolts due to the lack of identifiable element.

I don't know if it was the fact that the rabbits were closer, magic was easier to aim, or the fact there were seven instead of three, but the magic attacks had more success with two hitting on the first volley. One rabbit was lit on fire by a fire bolt and died while another exploded from a mana bolt.

The Mages kept firing alongside the Rangers but after the fifth volley, the Mages started slowing down, only firing every once in a while. I didn't have any time to wonder about why before the rabbits were on us. There were about half the rabbits left and only six shields to block them. Being in the left-middle of the line where they were most concentrated was not the ideal position to be in so I braced my shield in front of me trying to cover as much as possible and lowered my center of gravity like a person was about to ram into me.

Watching as they prepared to launch themselves at me was when my nerves reached their peak. Wearing armor and having a shield in front of me was all well and good, but that didn't help my mind from freaking out at the sheer craziness that my day had turned into. There were five rabbits that launched themselves at me.

*Thud*

*Thud*

*Thump*

Two thudded off my shield, and two rammed into either leg, and the last one missed and passed by me. The rabbits didn't have a lot of mass behind them but it was all concentrated into one point by the horn, which made it feel like getting hit by a baseball on both legs. The impact to the shield wasn't hard -having braced for the impact- but it was surprisingly strong.

I grunted from the impact to my legs but held steady catching another rabbit's attack on my shield. It bounced off and landed right in front of me. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, I stepped forward and swung my axe at it like it was a piece of wood that needed splitting. I didn't want to waste time trying to activate my skill since I wasn't familiar with it yet, and I wanted to land my attack before it could jump away. It turned out it was unnecessary. My axe cleaved the rabbit mostly in half before thudding into the ground with blood splattering all over the place. I could feel the warm liquid on my face and I was pretty sure some of it got into my mouth.

The System chimed a notification, but I ignored it to quickly pull my axe back and get my shield back in front of me. I fought the urge to wipe my face and worked to maneuver the unfamiliar slab of wood into place but didn't manage it in time before a rabbit hit me in the arm. The horn pierced my skin easily and went an inch into my arm.

"Ahhgg." It was half a grunt and half a scream that came out of my mouth from the pain. Blood ran down my arm and dripped to the ground. The wound started throbbing with a stinging pain. It wasn't the worst pain I'd felt but still wasn't pleasant. Pain shot down my arm when I tried to move it. I won't be swinging my axe. My thoughts felt disconnected and it wasn't the pain that had me so freaked out. It was the fact I watched a horn pierce into my arm and draw blood.

I knew this was real and not a trick of the mind, but getting wounded made it a different kind of real. A kind that, if I was being honest, I didn't really like. I was ashamed to admit it because I didn't want to be called a coward, but this wasn't what I signed up for in life. I was supposed to be finishing college, and then get a cushy engineering job somewhere. Not playing warrior in a fantasy book.

I pulled my shield back in front of me and wished that all of this would be over quickly. I didn't even try to swing my axe again. I did take note for future reference not to leave myself open like that, and with that done, I just stood there waiting for the impacts to stop. The rabbits weren't intelligent so they kept throwing themselves at our shields without trying to go around. I don't know if they were ordered or if it was their own decision, but the melee users on the flanks rotated around and started attacking from the sides.

I just stood there with my shield out trying not to get hit while the others finished off the rest. After a few minutes, all the rabbits were dead and I didn't have any new wounds. The last rabbit to die was the Matriarch, but it couldn't withstand being surrounded and poked to death, and when it died a chime sounded in everyone's head from a notification. The notifications popped up now that combat was over.

You have slain {Horned Rabbit – Level 1}. 1 Point earned.

You have contributed in slaying {Horned Rabbit – Level 1} 1 Point earned.

You have contributed in slaying {Horned Rabbit – Level 2} 1 Point earned.

...

You have successfully defended your claim! Extra experience awarded. 10 Points to all who participated.

Congratulations! You have leveled up.

*Skills Available*

I felt the energy improving my body before I could read the notifications. Looking them over didn't reveal anything new. Getting credit for shielding the rabbits was a nice bonus, I didn't know if I was going to be awarded partial credit or not.

My arm was still throbbing in pain and blood was still dripping off my arm but I wasn't the most injured. The melee users without shields had it the worst, my uncle with the battle-axe had a wound to the stomach that was leaking blood and looked quite gruesome. He must have been the one the matriarch targeted cause there was no way the smaller ones would have made that kind of wound.

The Healers quickly went to the wounded and started using their abilities. Thankfully no one was too badly injured, with most just having a puncture wound like I did. My sister quickly came over to me and her hands started glowing as she put them onto my bleeding arm. I watched as the wound started closing itself. The bleeding stopped relatively quickly but Abigail had to use the skill again to get it to heal over completely.

It wasn't perfect and still felt tender, but it was good enough for the time being. Satisfied I wasn't going to bleed out, Abigail went to check and see if her husband needed healing. Looking over at him myself I couldn't see any blood or wounds that were visible but he was walking with a limp. A rabbit must have caught him on the leg.

Now that the wave was over, a light ballooned out from the obelisk and expanded out from it, washing over all of us and extending past us down the hill. It stopped roughly twenty yards away from us and then fizzled out of existence. I assumed that must be the reward for clearing the wave and defending our 'claim'.

I brought up my status sheet to see the changes and distract my mind.

Name: Christopher Zalenski

Race: Human(H)

Class: Warrior – Level 2

Profession: None

Faction: Zalenski Family (Temporary)

Strength- 13

Agility- 7

Perception- 10

Fortitude- 9

Endurance- 8

Vitality - 11

Intelligence- 8

Wisdom- 5

Acumen- 6

Free Points: 1

Laws: None

Skills: Power Strike

Coins: 0

Points: 15

I put my free point into Fortitude so I wouldn't get injured as easily, bringing it up to 10. I brought up the skill list to choose my second skill. The list was the same as before so I didn't have to look everything over again. Knowing what skill I wanted, I flipped to the defensive section and selected it.

Fortified Body(Common) –Uses mana to fortify the body. Bonus to fortitude while active and the user is harder to knock back while skill is active.

Closing my status screen I saw everyone moving the corpses away from the obelisk and put them at the bottom of the hill so they were still close enough to skin and eat later, but not leaking blood where we were supposed to be staying.

I walked over to help so I wouldn't be watching them work while I did nothing. Some of the rabbits were quite gruesome and wouldn't have anything salvageable from their body, neither meat nor skin being intact. There were a few that were burnt to a crisp from fire bolts that were equally ruined, but the worst were the ones that exploded from mana bolts. Blood and guts were everywhere around the impact site like it was blown up from the inside.

One of the healers was walking around to all the blood and a white glow would flow out of her and the blood would rapidly disappear. It was fascinating to watch and much more interesting than moving dead rabbits around. I wonder what skill that is and if it can get the blood out of my clothes.

The clean up didn't take that long with everyone pitching in to help, and soon all the usable rabbits were piled together, and the unusable ones were thrown into the forest for something to munch on. Most went to interact with the obelisk to see if anything changed, and it now showed that we could build the walls and guard towers. We didn't have the resources or points for it, but they weren't greyed out anymore. It also had the addition that said 'Can only be built on faction owned land.' So that must have been what the light was, visibly showing the land being claimed or something. It stopped about fifty yards from the obelisk, so it claimed a sizable chunk of land, about the size of a football field centered around the pylon.

All in all, the first wave wasn't all that bad.