“You’re not coming with us.” Kyle’s tone offered no room to negotiate. “You nearly died, and you still need rest. You’re staying here.”

“I won’t get in your way. Besides, if there are civilians in danger, you’ll need all the help I can offer.”

“You’re one of the civilians who could be in danger, Garth. You don’t even have a weapon anymore.”

“Don’t insult me. You know I’ve never been much for sitting around and waiting, and I have every intention of following you. So stop arguing and let’s go see what happened.”

Short of physically restraining him, there was really nothing Kyle could do if he refused the medical advice. With a sigh and shrug of his shoulders, he turned back towards the rising cloud of dust. “If you waste all the hard work I’ve done on you the last few days I’ll bring you back just to kill you myself.” Garth grinned as he nodded. “You’ve got a deal. Come on!” With that, the older soldier started towards Duilleag.

The sounds of a conflict met their ears as they approached, and before Kyle could ask, C.H.A.D.D. piped up. [THERE APPEARS TO BE COMBAT BETWEEN THE UNAWAKENED IN THE CITY AND TWO UNIDENTIFIED LIFE FORMS.]

“What do you mean, unidentified?”

[I MEAN THAT I CANNOT IDENTIFY THEM, DR. MAYHEW.]

“Not the time to be sassy, C.H.A.D.D. Are they beetles? Some other type of mutated animal?”

[I AM UNSURE, DR. MAYHEW. SCANS ARE INCONCLUSIVE, THOUGH THEY DO NOT MATCH THE AMBIENT MANA PATTERNS PRESENT IN THE MUTATED CREATURES WE’VE ENCOUNTERED THUS FAR.]

“Any way we can get more information?”

[IF YOU WOULD BE KIND ENOUGH TO TURN AROUND MY SENSORS WOULDN’T BE AS OBSTRUCTED.]

“I’m not running into an active combat environment backwards, C.H.A.D.D.”

[THEN YOU’LL NEED TO GET CLOSER, DR. MAYHEW.]

Kyle turned at the sound of Garth’s bark of laughter, and shot him a stern glare. “If you don’t shut it, I’m going to make you carry the pack.” That got the old soldier to make at least a bit of an effort to conceal his mirth, and they finished closing the distance to Duilleag. The settlement was in an uproar, with shouted orders being drowned out by the bursts of gunfire. C.H.A.D.D. confirmed there weren’t any soldiers covering this end of the city, with the remnants of Liberation rushing towards the south. Without any attempt for stealth, Kyle burst past the perimeter, Garth falling behind but still following.

He sprinted past the side of Liberation’s makeshift headquarters, and turned towards the open central plaza, just in time to see a young soldier come flying from that direction, smashing hard against the wall of the compound. The man was dead on impact, but nevertheless Kyle examined the body. There was a symbol burned into the combat fatigues, still glowing with heat. It looked almost like the footprint of a frog, but blown up to the size of a human hand. Looking around, he saw other bodies with similar smoldering marks.

Kyle kept approaching the far end of the city, when suddenly there was a massive blast that shook the ground. Soldiers were scattered, blown off their feet. As the dust settled, Kyle had a clear view of the life forms C.H.A.D.D. identified. One was a thin humanoid creature standing just shy of two meters tall. It was completely hairless, with grey skin and large, black eyes with glowing white dots in the middle. It wore flowing orange and red robes, and didn’t seem to be carrying any weapons. Its stance was strange, its four-fingered hands outstretched in front of it as multicolored flames danced around them.

There was no doubt that they were the origin of the seared symbols on the bodies of the dead soldiers. The strange creature had an approximation of a smile on its narrow face, showing alabaster teeth that looked oddly human. It said something to the creature next to it, which stood in stark contrast. It was easily three meters tall and had to weigh over a ton. Its legs bent backwards, and it wore what looked like heavy, slate-grey plate armor. It held in one arm a massive tower shield, and the other held a spear as tall as it was, with a wicked blade at the tip. Kyle’s eyes were mostly drawn to the creature’s exposed head. It… looked like a pig. It had a long pink snout, floppy ears, and beady eyes. Small tusks protruded from its bottom jaw, and if it wasn’t for the armor and weapons he’d have sworn it was just a really big pig. Well, there was one other thing.

[DR. MAYHEW, I BELIEVE THAT THESE ARE -]

“Yeah, C.H.A.D.D. I feel it too.” Both of the creatures in front of him were clearly D Grade, his Auric Perception confirming the sheer amount of mana both were pulling in from the atmosphere around them. They clearly saw him, and stopped to talk to one another. Despite their clear hostility towards the Liberation soldiers, they weren’t currently showing any aggression. Maybe he could – BANG!

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Kyle looked in near-disbelief at the soldier on the ground not ten meters away who had pulled out his sidearm and fired at the two strangers. He emptied his clip, and Kyle watched the large pig-like creature pour mana into its shield. Even though the soldier was aiming for the grey-skinned invader, Kyle clearly saw sparks arc off the shield for every shot after the first. For its part, the grey skinned creature seemed to smile even wider as it blurred into motion, kicking the soldier in the side and sending him flying over the horizon.

[DR. MAYHEW, DO YOU REMEMBER HOW I SAID YOU WERE LIKELY THE STRONGEST PERSON ON THE PLANET? I WAS INCORRECT.]

The grey-skinned alien turned towards him, the wide smile on its face. It said something, but Kyle wasn’t able to understand it. He thought frantically what to do, and raised his hands with his palms facing outwards, hoping the sign for surrender was universal. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be as the alien blurred towards him, flaming palm hurtling towards his chest. It was fast, and had Kyle encountered it just a week earlier he would have been sent flying. As it was, he had some tricks up his sleeve.

The moment he saw the creature move, Kyle activated HASTE. The effects of the skill were greatly magnified, and gave him the edge he needed to dodge. To his surprise, the creature’s other hand followed almost immediately afterward, forcing Kyle on the defensive. He dodged expertly, though the heat from the near-misses was still uncomfortable. The alien’s smile widened with every evaded attack, and it was picking up the pace. Kyle wasn’t sure what to do. If he stopped trying to dodge he’d get hit, and if he didn’t, this crazy monster would only keep escalating. That was the moment that Garth showed up.

Kyle hadn’t seen him turn the corner past the headquarters, and the man held a standard steel blade above his head in both hands, clearly having taken it from one of the Liberation soldiers. Kyle knew what he was going to do before it happened, and his heart sank. Garth released his AIR BLADE towards the grey-skinned fighter, who easily avoided it, charging straight for Garth. Like the bullets before, the condensed blade of mana was drawn to the large pig-like creature’s shield, which only took a shallow scratch from Garth’s strongest ability.

The older man’s eyes widened as the grey alien creature covered the distance in a moment, hand raised to smash Garth into the dirt. As fast as it was, however, Kyle was faster. He appeared next to Garth just a moment before the creature did, and activated STORM SHELTER. A thick barrier of mana appeared in a dome around them, and an echoing boom resounded as it met the attack. The barrier didn’t show a single sign of damage. “What the hell is going on here?” Garth asked, eyes wide.

“It got dangerous. And it’s going to get more so when the barrier drops. They’re both stronger than I am, Garth.” To his credit, the older man took the news as well as could be expected. His face paled a bit at the thought, and he looked forward in silence. Kyle watched as the grey creature observed his barrier, then called over the large pig-like creature. It made its way over, and pulled out a small device. Slowly, deliberately, it set the device on the ground before backing away, the grey-skinned alien backing away with it. They seemed to look at him expectantly, and Kyle decided to take a gamble. He lowered the barrier, reached out, and touched the device.

As he touched it, he immediately felt it trying to draw in some of his mana. He allowed it to do so, not taking his eyes off the creatures in front of him. Suddenly, the device beeped, and mana flowed back into him. [CONNECTION ESTABLISHED. TRANSLATION ENABLED. BE WARNED – THIS DEVICE IS THE PROPERTY OF CORTHIAN MINING INCORPORATED. THE USER WILL BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY DESTRUCTION OR TAMPERING WITH COMPANY PROPERTY.] With that, the device went silent, though it was still glowing. The pig-like creature walked up, stopping about ten meters away. “Can you understand me now?” It asked, voice surprisingly high-pitched for a creature its size. It still wasn’t speaking any language Kyle knew, but he felt the mana within him stir and the meaning behind the words was clear.

“I can, I hope you can understand me too. My name is Kyle Mayhew, and I don’t want to fight you.”

The pig squealed in laughter before responding. “We don’t want to fight either.”

It gestured towards the bodies around them. “These people attacked us on sight, not entirely unexpected but it warranted a response. You can call me Duroc. This one over here is Skierepallix, but you can call him Skippy.”

The pig – Duroc – gestured over towards where the grey-skinned alien stood, still smiling.

“It’s nice to meet you, Duroc, Skippy. This is a lot to take in, why are you here? For that matter, where did you come from?”

“I’ll leave the details for the foreman, he’ll know best. Skippy and I are here on a third-party security detail, we just help with things like this occasionally.”

“If I see another performance like this, I won’t be requesting your help at all anymore.”

A new voice rang out, this one deep and commanding. Duroc straightened upon hearing it, though Skippy seemed entirely unbothered. The man approaching was in what Kyle could only describe as a dark-grey astronaut suit, though without the helmet. He appeared to be human, and unless Kyle missed his guess the stranger was also D Grade. “On behalf of Corthian Mining, you have my apologies for this… messy turn of events. I recognize that we don’t know each other, and that you may not be the person who needs to hear this information. Still, it is my hope that I can share it with you, and that you will assist us in getting it to the right hands.”

Kyle nodded slowly, his head spinning. This was a lot to take in. For now, he would just do his best. “I’ll do what I can. My name is Kyle Mayhew.”

“A pleasure, Kyle. I’m Chester Drake, foreman of this expedition from Corthian Mining. You may call me Chester. I’m going to be direct with you, Kyle. We were sent here to evaluate the condition of your planet after the Riftwyrm attack, and to report back with an action plan.”

Chester’s demeanor went from serious to somber as he met Kyle’s eyes.

“Your planet is dying, and if we don’t begin organizing for an evacuation, everybody left will die along with it.”