“Where the hell am I!” a man yelled.
“This can’t be happening!” another person screamed.
Hundreds of people were all gathered on a grassy plain. It had a nice breeze with the sun illuminating, the entire area. This was in contrast to the inhabitants. Some looked scared, others looked like they had seen a ghost, and some- a small portion- appeared to be calm trying to analyze the situation.
“Please be a dream. Please be a dream.” It seemed like the common consensus amongst the masses was that of hysteria. People yelled, others cried, and some just… did nothing.
A punch flew toward the face of a man. “You bastard! This has to be some sick joke, you’re probably in on it huh!” His face was filled with many emotions, anger, hopelessness, and a whole fix of others.
“All I said was to calm down. If you want to play rough, I’ll show you rough.” Like clockwork, the two individuals began throwing punches at each other. The one who received the first punch, sucker-punched his opponent in the gut causing him to reel. “How do you like that!” he yelled back at the reeling man.
The man who had been trying to calm the man earlier had forgotten his own words. Many of the people gathered saw what was happening and stared at the altercation that was taking place. The man who had been hit in the gut looked around.
His head was already filled with many thoughts about what was happening at the moment, but the stares he got from those around him did not help one bit. Instantly he dashed forward and tackled the man who was walking away. “What are you doing you!? You didn’t get enough of a beating already!”
The two swung heavy punches at each other, like animals. They swung hard and fast, yelling obscenities. “Fuck you, you couldn’t just calm down for one minute. Now you’re out here embarrassing the both of us.”
People watched. The extremely fragile atmosphere popped like a bubble. Others grew angry and started fighting amongst themselves, but in most cases, they were shouting matches, as opposed to straight brawls.
At the same time, a small figure walked through the crowd. “Excuse me miss.” The figure was completely unfazed by the wild scene that was taking place. Instead, the figure walked toward where things seemed most hectic, and of course, it was where the initial brawl was taking place. “Coming through, coming through,” the figure yelled out as people seemed to magically move out of his path.
Finally, the figure pushed his way through the crowd that had gathered to watch the brawl. “You two fighting over there, like monkeys, could I perhaps ask you to stop this little squabble of yours for just a moment, I have a few things I would like to say.”
It was then that people realized who this figure was, more accurately what it was.
“Who do you think you’re calling a monkey!?” Of course, the tantrum-throwing man just had to respond to everything thrown at him. He ignored the other man and walked straight toward a figure who called him a monkey.
The crowd was silent staring at the figure still unfazed by anything happening. “You- you, you’re a rabbit freak!” It took the angry man a few seconds to notice that the one who called him a monkey, was in fact not human.
You would think that calling a stranger a freak straight to their face was a bad idea, but that wasn’t what caused the next scene to play out. The figure who appeared to be a rabbit person went still. His face grew cold, and with a single step appeared right in front of the stunned man.
“I’m not a rabbit, you worthless, sack of unless begonias.” The rabbit man who didn’t like being called a rabbit twisted his fist. “I’M A TARBIT!”
All that’s left to say is, that between the time the tarbit had taken a step and finished his last word, the angry man had already been sent flying, screaming at the top of his lungs.
The already silent crowd went even more silent, not daring to make a single noise. The tarbit’s face went back to its normal unfazed look as it opened his mouth once more, “Well now that’s out of the way, I would first like to say, welcome to the tutorial, I am Flenndaul and I will be your person of contact while you’re here.”
…
Slow and cautiously, minding his steps, Grayson stalked a group of scouting Squelch From what he could gather there were four in the front with two of them bearing 2 crude daggers. To the rear leading the group was an Adult Squelch who had a dagger much similar to the one in Grayson’s possession.
Without making as much noise as possible to stalked closer to the group from behind. He held his dagger in one hand and aimed his hand at the back of the Adult Squelch. A bit farther and then he would be in range to use his [Firefly] skill.
He needed not to get caught. Dealing with an Adult Squelch and a group of smaller ones would be tough. Normally he wouldn’t have dared to attempt to fight the group, but something told him that if he didn’t start taking more fights soon, he would be in for a rude awakening if that previous fight with the Ironhide Board was any indicator.
Just a little closer. With every step he took, he put more care into making sure he didn’t make any sudden noises. Right now wasn’t the time to act like a complete idiot. His back still ached terribly from earlier.
Now! He yelled in his mind. He commanded his [Firefly] still to shoot as fast as it could aiming straight toward the Adult Squelch’s back. The bright light that came from the skill alerted the Squelch but it was already too late as it tried to jump out of the way of the lights flying toward it.
The bright lights exploded in a brilliant show of yellow. The scouting Squelch who heard the explosion turned around only to bright light blinding them.
It should be noted that although the explosion was bright it wasn’t blindingly bright for the average human.
With that being said, by the time the Squelch had recovered from the sudden influx of light, the only thing they saw was their leader screaming on the ground with its back torn apart.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Before they could figure out what happened to the side, a glint of steel shined, but again it was too late. Grayson stabbed one of the Squelch holding a dagger straight through its throat.
Grayskin Squelch Slain! 20 XP awarded!
The other three Squelch saw their comrade die and grouped up into a formation. Grayson seeing this eyed them warily. I need to take them out before that adult one gets back on his feet. His eyes darted over to the Adult Squelch still reeling in pain before he focused back on the three.
They seemed to be trying to encircle him. He was most worried about the one with the dagger. It looked terrible, but it was still a weapon at the end of the day. He kept his eyes on his enemies but reached down to grab the dagger of the dead Squelch.
All out of mana, so [Firefly] is out of the question. Seeing this happen the Squelch thought it was as good a time as any and ran at him. The two unarmed Squelch ran to his side while the one with the dagger charged him from the front.
Starburst Str-
Squelch usually traveled in groups like goblins, but that didn’t mean they were experts at fighting in them. This proved true with their charge. Instead of keeping the same pace and attacking Grayson on all sides, the one on the right was much further ahead of the two. Maybe this was the extent of their intelligence when it came to making attack plans, but it didn’t matter.
Grayson jumped to his feet and took advantage of this opportunity. He wasn’t going to let all three attack him at once. He darted toward the Squelch, raising his longer dagger and swinging at it, but ended up missing.
It finally realized it was all alone seeing as the other two weren’t with it. It quickly decided that it couldn’t fight him alone and turned its back to run away. It was quick, but that didn’t help much when you were being chased by someone whose stride was more than double yours.
The Squelch’s fate was sealed. Grayson’s blade descended upon it hard cutting through it.
Grayskin Squelch Slain! 20 XP awarded!
Adult Grayskin Squelch Slain! 100 XP awarded!
Grayson sighed in relief. Finally, I was afraid that it would get back up and gang up on me with the others. The blood loss must have gotten it. Now all that’s left is to deal with those two.
The two squelch had learned from the other two’s mistake and were stood side by side. Both looked at each other. Grayson’s grip tightened around his daggers. Could he take them both at the same time? All his fights with them had all been 1v1s if you looked more closely.
Both Squelch eyed each other and seemed to come to a decision. Grayson saw this little gesture and prepared himself for a dirty fight. He slowly raised one of his daggers and prepared to nail one in an attempt to separate them.
Unexpectedly though, instead of charging him, they both screamed and ran in opposite directions. This completely stumped Grayson. He stood there stumped at what had taken place.
Well, I was not expecting that. If anything I was fully prepared to meet my end here. I’m sure I could chase them down if I wanted to, but I am not in the mood for that. Especially not after the boar attack.
His body ached badly. He wasn’t athletic of any sort, all the running fighting, and damage he had taken was slowly accumulating. He was exhausted, hungry for a real meal, and felt gross.
Grayson stood over the body of the Adult Squelch, its body surrounded by a pool of blood. Its face was frozen with pain. His killer stood over him and just stared at him. The leftover adrenaline in him quickly faded. “I’m not a killer.” It hurt him as he looked down at the body. “You would have killed me if I left you alive.”
But I attacked you first.
“I need to grow stronger to protect my family.”
But they must have had families. They ran, they felt pain, they feared.
He told himself time and time again that this world was kill or be killed. When he saw the group of Squelch he didn’t question whether or not he should attack them. Yesterday, he became a killer. Today he killed again. When he stared at the corpse of the boar he felt nothing, in fact, he felt good after taking down something that large.
It might have been because the boar didn’t look humanoid or he couldn’t see any semblance of real intelligence but now wasn’t the time for that. All the blood and noise must have attracted some sort of monster because off in the distance, he heard loud footsteps. Compared to the Ironhide boar from earlier, the sounds were much more loud. Grayson felt the air thicken.
If it weren’t for danger always around the corner I probably would wallowed here for much longer.
He knelt down to the Squelch. This is all I can do for you. With his hands, he closed its pained eyes. Rest in peace.
Grayson grabbed its dagger and the small pouch it was carrying and took off running.
“I think I’m almost there,” he muttered breathing heavily. All that running wholly exhausted him. He probably ran more in this single day than he had in the last month.
I hate running so much. At least I’m alive, which is good. There’s no way I would have otherwise.
The heavy footsteps that he heard when he was still in the vicinity of the Squelch’s had faded greatly. Whatever is was was most certainly attracted by the blood as it didn’t seem keen on following Grayson even with all the noise he made. It was lucky he didn’t meet another enemy considering all that noise. If anything it was probably that monstrous thing that kept the predators away. Just being near it Grayson could feel his air growing thicker. If it had decided to attack him, his best bet would have just been playing dead, cause there was no way he was killing whatever it was.
It would have helped a lot if I asked my future self more important questions, like what I should expect. I hate myself so much for not thinking properly. I know some important events that might happen in the future, but that’s a long way away. It doesn’t matter if I don’t survive to make it that far.
At least I know I’m going in the right direction though, I recognize that building over there.
Grayson peered out at the building that had collapsed to the floor. He probably wouldn’t have recognized it if it wasn’t for the ugly materials the building was made of. In Grayson’s hometown, the building, which was supposed to be some sort of company building had been the joke of the town.
It looked more like a prison than an actual company building. Many rumors floated around that it was actually part of some money laundering scheme but that rumor didn’t have much weight to it, seeing as who would in their right mind commit federal offenses in such a suspicious building.
That’s beside the point. Besides its ugly concrete design, the important fact was that it was close to Grayson’s destination.
But. “Which direction am I supposed to go.” The entire street was destroyed with only a few buildings standing up.
I think I recognize that building over there. He squinted and a building that appeared to be on its final legs.
Pun intended. If that building is over there, then the store should be in that direction.
The entire sequence that took place afterward was uneventful. Grayson navigated at a steady pace toward the general store, walking around any paths that were completely blocked. Other than the occasional loud noise that spooked him, and the screeching strange birds overhead nothing major happened.
When he heard anything suspicious like a bird or a loud thud, he took cover and waited until the coast was clear. After what felt like an eternity, Grayson found himself in front of the rundown general store, that looked just like his childhood.
It looked terrible but other than the few obvious cracks in the ground it was intact.
“Memories.” Grayson smiled thinking about all the memories he had of this place.