Prologue - (Part 1)

Being the son of a retired knight was rough.

Ever since I was little, all I could remember was hard manual labor.

Every day I would wake up and help my mother, Linda, with the house chores and watch over my baby brother.

Past noon, my father, Lance, would come home from the forest with the local game and have me help him prepare his catch.

When winter approached, I was made to cut some timber and split logs for the local community.

Day after day would past like this, until I grew older.

***

When I was nine, I was taught by my by father about hunting in the wilderness and the tools to survive in the wild.

During this time, I also began learning the way of the sword from my father.

Every training session I attended would end up with him always antagonizing me, saying that I couldn’t beat an old man who was missing his right hand.

Later after I complained to my mother, I learned that Lance had lost his hand, while protecting a noble during a great war, and was allowed to retire early as thanks for his service.

She also told me, that my father used to be a captain of his own squadron and was a graduate of a prestigious school that taught the sword. In other words, I would be subjected to military training.

However, complaining didn’t change the fact that I was forcibly made to wield a wooden sword and start my training as a squire.

***

More years flew by, until a great plague washed over the kingdom.

The plague started off as coughs then a fever, and the victims would die with red rashes all over their bodies.

Then the first signs of this epidemic appeared in our community when, our neighbors started to have these coughing fits, and soon became bedridden.

Fearing I would become sick, I was told not to go over to places like this and made to stay home in my free time.

But one day, after checking the snares in the forest, and heading straight home, I discovered my younger brother, William, collapsed in front of the wood pile.

After dragging him back that day, my family attempted to treat his symptoms, but William just grew weaker and weaker, and no matter what my father attempted, he wouldn’t get better.

Finally, after a month, my father packed up and took William into town, looking for an old acquaintance to see if he could help heal him.

***

Then two months flew by, and my father finally came back, without William.

Later that night, I remember hearing Linda crying softly to herself while I was looking up to the sky, praying to one of the many gods as to why he had to take my little brother away from me.

Ever since that day, I became the only child of the family.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

***

Years then continued to role by, and the number of monster related incidents started to rise, causing my father to be continuously conscripted into the local militia for combat purposes.

Every night since then, I can remember him coming home, smelling like dirt and alcohol, while visibly looking more aged with the passing of months.

Then when I was fifteen years old, I was finally taught everything my father knew about the sword, and was rewarded with one as my very own.

***

Finally, the day before my sixteenth birthday, my whole world changed.

That day started like every other, waking up, helping my weary mother around the house, and going out to the forest to check on the snares I have placed.

But, during that time, I saw smoke coming from farther inside the forest.

Quickly glancing around, I picked up the dead hares, before tying them up onto a branch before rushing to the scene.

Running swiftly through the eerily quiet forest, I began to hear the sounds of metal clashing and a roaring beast. Within the next few seconds, I came upon the sight of the village’s militia battling a great demonic beast.

This monster had big bulging muscles, with a vermillion colored body. It was six meters long with a body like a boar and a head of a disfigured jackal. On its head where two demonic horns, stained with blood and a single bulging eye, dyed black.

Then suddenly, it charged into a blur, as I witnessed it decimating everything in its path, only leaving familiar faces contorted in pain as their limbs were tangled up in the nearby shrubbery.

Then I saw my father jumping in front of the crazed beast, blocking its charged with his blade, forcing him to slide on the ground as the monstrosity grounded to a halt.

This gave an opening, for the remaining militia to plunge their spears into its thick hide, before they snapped there flint tips into its flesh.

Overcome with pain, the beast stopped and gave a low painful howl, before it whipped its bony tail around, crushing anyone in its path.

When more people disappeared into the scenery, the beast quietly stood still. Then the atmosphere changed and went silent, as the red devil started rearing back on its feet before its blackened eye started to pulse unnaturally.

Suddenly, my father yelled, “Don’t look at it!”

Quickly closing my eyes, I felt a disgusting feeling pickling my skin and in the next moment, when I opened my eyes, half of the militia were on the ground clawing at their own skin.

They were screaming in pain, as they attempted to claw something out from underneath their skin.

Finally I realized that this was some sort of magic. Quickly I took a double take on my condition before I redirected my sight back to the monster.

That is when I noticed the beast, attempting to find a path to escape to.

Not knowing what to do, I made contact with my father’s eyes, and he mouthed, “Dustin, cut him off!”

With those three words, I resolved myself, as I sprinted faster than I ever did in my entire life.

Suddenly I made my way to a nearby tree it was charging towards; where I readied my longsword as I hid in cover, waiting for the moment to ambush it.

Silently, filtering out all of the yells and screams, I sensed for the beast as my heart-rate slowed down gradually.

Five steps, four steps, three steps, two steps, one step away.

Gripping my sword as tightly as I possibly could, I hurriedly turned the corner and ran to meet the beast head on.

Dodging its horns by sliding on the ground, I ended up raising my sword towards its legs, managing to use its own momentum to carry the blade clean threw.

A loud yelp later, the monster crashed into a great oak, smashing its horns clean through the tree, as two of its legs flew off into the distance.

With blood splattered in my face, I watched as my father and a few militia ran by, pouncing onto the great demon, slashing at its neck and chest, until it was no longer animated.

With a brief pause, I look at my first kill against a genuine monster, before I was startled out of my trance.

“You did a good job son. If it was anyone else I would have doubted if they could have caught up to this bastard.”

“Uh…? Oh, thanks dad, but what is this thing?”

Kicking his boot into the fallen beast’s side he gave me a long hard look before saying, “Most likely a fiend, and this brings a bad omen to the area.”

After a brief conversation with the rest of the group, we made a quick pace back to the village to alert the chief.

Little did I know, that this day would mark a sharp change in the world.