Thwack!

The stick cracked against my back.

Thwack! Thwack!

Two more hit me. This was training.

There was three days left before the countdown for what ever would finish. I had started with the skills Health Regeneration, Stamina Regeneration, and Iron Skin. I could take a beating. The three people who were hitting me were doing so to try and raise their strength stat. I had put my stats in balance to give my self the best I felt I could. A balance of Strength, Constitution, and Dexterity. If I gained one more level I could get the skill that I desired. Shield Mastery.

"You guys are no longer even causing me any damage." It was the truth, My Iron skin skill had a bar under it that was full as well as my Heath regeneration.

"We are." they were out of breath. "Trying our best."

People had followed me for some reason when they saw me carrying a sword. I was the first to arrive where my friends were supposed to be. Abigale should of been the first to arrive, she lived the closest to here. Her and Kyle lived only twenty miles from here.

I looked over at the lake and farm land. Kevin had picked a point that looked random on a map and here it looked absolutely beautiful. The water wafted on the shoreline and I was too busy looking at my phone to even notice how calming it was.

I had joined something called The Hero Network when some passerby had offered to share it with me. It was supposed to be a place where people who wanted to fight to save the world would talk but nobody had said anything on it in a while.

"I think this hero network is a sham."

The sticks stopped hitting me and I went and sat down in my usual night position.

"Uh, You don't get posts on it until you send a message." one of the guys who had been smacking me sat down beside me. I couldn't remember his name at the moment but he was a decent enough guy to try and help me with my training.

I sent a message on the chat and saw that I had gotten a screen name that I didn't pick and wasn't my name.

[ The Night Guard - Hey ]

"Uh, why do I have a strange user name?" I looked over at the guy. and showed him my phone.

"Oh you don't get to pick your own name, I think the system gives you a title based on how others see you." He held out his phone and showed that his information had his name and a title of the Imposter. "Pay no attention to the title, I don't know how I got it."

The chat had started to light up about some religion that had formed called the Seven. I had heard bedtime stories being told as I walked around the tents at night that sounded like my adventures from a game before the world had all gone to shits.

Tonight was no different then any other night. due to my massive stamina I haven't had the need for sleep since I got here. I still rest during the day but only for a few hours.

I stood up and placed my back to the camp. My sword was a full tang forged replica that my character used in the game. I had spent two paychecks on this sword and could only think that Kevin was crazy because he had made even my shield along with the others weapons.

For the last four nights I had been fighting under the rift light. The first night people tried to help me with guns but the bullets only pushed the creatures back a little and soon they had run out of bullets. The creatures always ran away after one of them had gotten hurt. I was almost thinking that I should start trying to cut off their ears. The green pointed ear bastards were persistent. They had always come from the same direction. And never had I seen the same one twice.

I walked to the center of my battle ground and planted my sword into the ground and waited.

Nothing came.

The full moon rose behind me.

My shadow stretched across the field. The lake had a C like indent in it what protected it from the other sides. I stood alone in the mouth.

The night was silent except for the sound of mothers telling stories about the seven. Stories like they were there with us.

Before long it was just the sound of my breathing and the wind rustling the trees gently.

I was getting bored.

I picked up my sword and pulled out the trashcan lid I had made into a quick shield. Slowly I went though the moves of my character. Each move was supposed to have been done by some real martial arts guys who had helped make the game be as realistic as possible.

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I had a clear memory of each and every move.

I moved my self at a blistering slow speed, holding the full weight of the sword for as long as I could before my wrist started to hurt from the weight of it. Wielding a real sword is a lot harder then people would think.

My breath was heavy by the time the sun started to rise. People had started to come out of their tents. This was the first night in a while that they all looked well rested.

With other people up I put my sword and trash lid back into my inventory and headed to the tree where I stayed for most of the day pretending to sleep so that nobody would bother me.

I was up in the branches with my eyes closed when I heard footsteps coming.

"Sir, there is somebody coming." The voice was a child's. I looked down at her and saw her blonde hair and big blue eyes looking up at me. She couldn't of been more then eight years old but she was one of the only people in the camp to look like they were excited to be there.

I climbed out of the tree and was dragged forward by the the girl to the mouth of our camp. The stranger was covered in what would of appeared to be blood.

They saw me and a smile appeared on their face.

Her hand extended towards me and the soft glow of an item being pulled from her inventory appeared. the sword was a cheap one that I had known from my memory.

my sword and trashcan appeared in my hands as I ran out to meet the stranger.

the stranger started sprinting out to meet me.

Our swords rang out as they struck each other.

Our movements were locked in place. She couldn't move me and I couldn't move her.

I tossed my trash lid to the ground and wrapped my arm around her.

"Vanessa, I wasn't expecting you till the last day." She pressed her blood stained cheek against my own and then kissed it.

I looked back at the camp and saw that there was a line of people holding axes and pitchforks protecting the entrance way. They all had looked scared.

"Well chase, I was bored so I thought I would go against Kevin's plans. That and I missed Dee." Vanessa was almost as tall as me but when she was clean she would of looked like she belonged in the movies.

"Now at least I have somebody I know to talk to." I lowered my sword started to head back towards the camp.

She hit me with her sword across my back with all her strength.

My shirt ripped where she hit me and I stumbled over trying to get my balance.

That hurt.

"What the actual fuck!" I turned to her and she was just smiling ear to ear.

"You have been training, haven't you?" She placed her sword on her back and bent down to pick up my trash lid. She had a nice ass.

"The only way I know how." She was bending over like that on purpose and I knew it but I still couldn't look away.

"Your back is pure muscle, Kevin would be proud." She whistled and a small child ran out from the woods in the direction she had come from. He didn't say anything nor did he look at anyone but Vanessa.

"You didn't cut me did you?" I was trying to feel for blood on my back. I knew she would tell me about the child eventually there was no point in asking now.

"Nah, you just have a red line. That is some defense you have built up." She handed me the trash lid then offered her hand out to the child and started walking towards the camp.

She was teasing me again, and I hated her for it.

The line of men let her pass and she walked up to the girl who had brought me out to see her. She handed the child's hand off to her and the two walked away. The child kept looking back at Vanessa but she waved to it to go with the blonde girl.

I guided Vanessa over to where I had my empty tent with nothing but a wash tub inside it. She pulled out two cots from her inventory and placed them inside before she kicked me out of the tent.

"So whats with the blood?" I sat outside the tent and listened to her bathing her self.

"Accidentally found a goblin nest last night in the dark." her voice was calm like it was a normal occurrence.

"How do you accidentally find a goblin nest?"

"Well, we were looking for a place to sleep and I tripped and there it was."

"What was it like?"

"Horrible... I am not saying more then that..."

After she was cleaned up, she brought out her sword again. We both had wanted to get some real combat training in.

Our sparing match echoed across the field and lake. Neither of us was gaining ground on the other one.

each swing became a block it or die swing. We both fought with just our swords. Our smiles were plastered on our faces.

"Uh," The imposter came near and disrupted our fight. "Can you guys teach us how to fight like that?"

Our breathing was heavy. We couldn't respond to the guy with our voices but we both nodded. Our swords faded away and we both collapsed down onto the ground at the same time.

It was roughly an hour later before we had caught our breath. The sun was high in the sky and every man woman and child in the camp had come out of the camp to the field holding what ever they could find as weapons.

It didn't matter the skills that they had chosen, what mattered was their will to learn.

Vanessa made the whole group be tired with in the first hour of training.

People started leaving the training to go cook or rest as soon as they could barely move any more. Most that did this were the ones who had more mage like skills. Tyler would kill us if he saw us training mages to be like us.

We were harder on the people who had physical skills.

After supper I was checking my phone looking for more messages on the Hero Network but still nothing had come. There was nothing since my single word.

Vanessa put the child she was with to sleep in my tent then came and sat on my log by the mouth of our camp.

"The Hero Network is down right now," She had seen what I was looking at. "It apparently requires you to have faith in some weird religion for it to work." She showed me hers after she had tried to type something into the chat.

"The Blood Queen eh?" A smirk went across my face and she put her phone away.

"Can't help what people call me."

"No, but its better then mine." I held out my phone to her and she started laughing.

"You are the hero of the night the one that guards them while they are sleeping. oh all mighty night guard protect us." She fell off the log she was laughing that hard.

"Ha Ha." I mocked her. My breath had become visible with that.

Her laughter continued to ring out for a while longer until she had noticed the change.

It was mid summer. We shouldn't be able to see our breath at all.

Our hands both started to glow at the same time. She came and stood beside me looking out at the field.

There was a commotion going on behind us. People had seen us draw our weapons.

We stood there like statues.

The camp went silent. All fires were put out.