Chapter 3 –

“I have also included a gift for everyone” -Admin

Now that I could look at the sitting person, his armour looked kind of like the silhouette I saw earlier from the cave entrance, the smaller one amongst all the others and also the one that shattered his sword from a casual standing swing without any effort or footwork to enhance his strength. He had the same crimson eyes that were visible before I blacked out for no apparent reason. He gently removed his helmet, tracing his long horns up so the helmet didn’t catch on them, causing his long white hair to flow out of the helmet until it was silky smooth on his head. With a smooth motion of one hand, he caught all the hair that had fallen on his face and swept it back completely moving it all back. He spoke words I did not understand, a language I have never heard before. Even with all the rather sinister full plate armour, he gave off a gentle and soothing feeling, his voice smooth and flowing almost melodious even. Then we just looked at each other for a moment and then they shared a look as well. So I tried to speak to alleviate the awkward silence, even though for the first time in my life I didn’t feel awkward speaking to another person.

“I dd-on’t understand.” I managed somewhat surprised at my own high-pitched and hoarse voice. It made me stutter, even though I specifically repeated the sentence in my head, so I don’t. Didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of these horned creatures, as I still had no idea what was going on. In the brief moment of silence after I spoke, I decided I had no choice but to take things one step at a time, with one goal in mind; survive.

Then the man pulled his broken sword from its sheath, the pale blade that remained was clean leaving a sharp point that got thicker as the metal went down towards the hilt, leaving only one side of what was once a double-edged sword. The edge was still pristine aside from the tip, which just remained from the spine of the sword, filled with chips and cracks from where it shattered. Looking like it somehow crumbled like wet sand, in chunks. In a casual underhanded throw, the broken blade made a beautiful arc in the air and landed tip first embedding itself into the hard ground only a few centimetres deep, leaning to the side. I looked at it and how big the handle was compared to the rest of it, it only made sense since it was broken after all. Now I was confused, as it wasn’t meant to kill me or hurt me, so I looked back at him to try and discern what he wanted from me.

He just pointed in a direction which I followed with my gaze to see three creatures lined up. Then he pointed to the blade at my feet and his chest, tapping it multiple times to insinuate driving it through, I assumed. With an open palm, he gestured back at the creatures, as if telling me to choose which one of them I will fight, again I assumed as there were no words said, not that I could understand them anyway.

So, I started analysing and considering my options just like I learned to do in the many, many hours spent gaming. Thankfully playing the game before this alleviated most of my shock from, seeing monsters, and being in unknown places with an uncertain future ahead. There was no use thinking of what is going to happen to me, with that line of thinking I managed to calm myself further and being in that state led me to think more logically or so I hoped. Taking it one creature at a time, I started taking in all the information I could perceive. Furthest on the left side was a small flying creature with a rather wicked-looking grin plastered on its face, teeth visible and almost seamlessly interconnected like a jigsaw puzzle. That grin covered most of its wide and squished-looking face above it were two black wide and rather big eyes. Almond-shaped and with sharp points facing where a nose would be in a traditional face it looked like it was perpetually amused. The rest of it was rather humanoid, perhaps too small and with the wrong proportions, but still humanoid. Its hands and feet were bigger than one would expect from a creature that size, with all of the fingers ending in points which glinted slightly in the torchlight just like the rest of its body. Seems to be covered in metallic carapace perhaps, I thought and the flapping of its wings was wrong somehow, not enough strength behind the flaps as well as the size felt impossible, but I was no expert on avionics so I could be wrong, maybe it’s just very light. It had 3 fingers on its hands and only two on its feet, but they were long, making them look bigger than it should be. Easy to latch onto flesh with I thought and honestly the unnatural flight scared me because it could mean magic and I knew nothing about that, that one big unknown could cause me instant death, probably.

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Shifting my gaze to the next creature in line was a big dog-like creature. Grey and very flabby skin, and red eyes glowing in the dark were staring at me. With a splat, its drool hit the floor and with every breath, it snorted out sparks that illuminated its face before gradually fading away into the darkness back to only the eyes being visible. “Fire-breathing massive hell hound? No thanks,” I thought in my mind as I searched for the next creature, which was a humanoid-looking big creature with a wide and tall body compared to a human. But before I could start analysing it, I noticed the vague outline of a person between the hound and the self-dubbed hell knight. Focusing further I realised there was another creature in the line-up, one that was stealthy, with refined muscles and blade-like appendages for arms with a slight inward curve towards their tips. Straining to see the creature I dubbed shadow demon for now, because of the pitch black skin that blended with the darkness, almost perfectly and the smoky, floating string-like mist coming off of its body blurring its features even further. I couldn’t make out much of this creature, but its body was the most human out of all the creatures, aside from the fact it was in perfect shape for what I would categorise as a stealth assassin fighter of some sort if this was a video that’s what that kind of character would look like. Wide shoulders with a rather thin build, with completely refined and rippling muscles and a torso that went narrower towards the waist appearing rather limber and robust. That left the last one.

This one looked like the silhouettes I saw fighting in front of the cave from what I could make out. Looking at it closer now it looked like a frontline infantry type of soldier, strong, tough, big and with bat-like wings that had protruding bones ending on a sharp point. Backward shins with hooves told me he would require a lot of strength to be moved and can probably generate a lot of power because of the massive body it had. The eerie flames for eyes made me feel insignificant. The lack of focus in those eyes made me think I wasn’t worth its attention or simply it didn’t have the intellect, maybe it was like a puppet or a low enough sentience that it would do nothing without commands. Nonetheless, the face illuminated by its own fiery eyes, was ash grey and crackling like a dried-out lake bed. Just holes for the nose reminded me of undead creatures, with that line of thinking maybe there was something different about this one but I probably had no time to inquire about this. So I categorised each in a way that I could make sense of them, applying my best gamer logic. “The Imp is probably a mage type mixed with some rogue with sharp claws and mobile wings, I don’t think I can beat it. The dog was a no-go from the start beast infantry are rather adept at slaughtering normal infantry like me I wasn’t even infantry I was a civilian which made it even worse for me to pick a hell-hound for my opponent. Shadow demon seems like the best choice so far, given it seems like an ambush type of assassin, those types were weaker when compared to specialist fighters like the other three choices. It would probably be one-on-one straight-up fighting, which would be most disadvantageous for a stealth type like it, it would be best to focus on enemy weaknesses rather than my strengths. Given I had none I was in a child’s body with barely any experience in real fighting. I did have much experience fighting in very realistic games though. That led to another line of thinking that surprised me a rather spectacular amount. “Why am I not afraid?”