October 26, 2023
Fortuna – St. Patrick’s Medical Center
_______
“fifty… fifty-five” Daryll counts the number of people who are steadily approaching towards the hospital through his binoculars. They wore oddly designed exotic clothes that made them look like secluded tribesmen that lived deep within the snowy mountain region.
At the forefront, a young man riding atop a majestic ram with golden fleece leads the way. His attire differed from the others in that it was also the same color as the golden fleece, unlike the rest of the people there who were wearing brown fur.
Daryll is torn between fleeing the premise now, or to hide and wait if they were just passing through. He still needs to find a regional map underneath all the rubble before he could leave. Starting his journey without knowing where the path leads is a very risky choice. But staying and weathering the storm until it passes is as risky or even more so than the alternative.
Judging from what the other people are carrying on their bodies, they seem to have come prepared to fight. Blades, assault rifles, and what appears to be a heavy machine gun strapped on the back of a big hulking man. To deter small game and humans, from the looks of it. He had already sensed trouble brewing when he first saw the golden ram that most probably came from a place that’s not from Earth. They usually all are. Maybe even the people there are also from a different world, but if they are, then they wouldn’t have a need for those firearms. But the nonchalant attitude they have towards the land set off alarms in his head. It’s either they didn’t know where they are or what those things that took the place of the Terror Birds in the sky are, or they didn’t fear them.
Three hundred meters away from the hospital, the young man raises his hand to stop the march. Now that they are at a much closer distance, Daryll could now see the odd man out. All the others are people from Earth, that he could tell by the fact that they didn’t have any markings on their limbs or head that he could see. But that brown skinned young man, he definitely isn't a native to this planet. Those bright blue irises that glowed like a piercing light of hope in the night when the sun is clearly up in the horizon is a telltale sign that he isn't human. Or not anymore, that is.
That young man directly looked at Daryll even though he was hiding behind a curtain with only a small gap for the binoculars to peer through. Not good, he thought.
He subconsciously reaches for the revolver at his waist with his sweaty left hand. He found it a day ago while searching for a coat to wear because the temperature at night is getting lower by the day as winter approaches, and creating a bon fire is suicide at night. Better to find a small crevice to hide in, but even then, he’s still in danger when nocturnal beasts start roaming and hunting for prey.
Even with the new addition of the revolver to his arsenal, he doubts whether it could prove to be useful against anything else besides other human beings. Small game, sure, and it might also slow down the slightly bigger ones, but anything else, it would be like throwing a pebble at a tank. And, it only had three shots left in the barrel. Three shots that he needs to make count.
The young man jumps off of the ram and walks towards the hospital. Two others come along to escort him. One of them wore a white face mask and black shades while the other was a black haired female that had several piercing on her nose and lips. One glance at that scowl on her face and you could already tell that she’s pissed off. At what or who, he couldn’t tell.
Daryll’s growing more frantic by the second. Hostile or not, they are still strangers that are armed to the bone, and it’s quite literal because a couple of them are carrying sharpened bones on themselves.
“We mean you no harm” the young man’s voice is so clear. Even from below, he could hear him as if he’s right there next to him. But saying ‘we mean you no harm' is literally the cheapest way to get someone’s guard down. And he’d seen it been used several times before. On him, precisely. And he won’t be baited by the same trick again.
Daryll jumps into one of the air ducts and moves towards the elevator entrance by crawling in it. It’s a very dusty place full of huge cobwebs and critters. He just hopes that nothing dangerous is crawling in there, too. Chances are, there might be.
_______
“We’re wasting time. Precious time” Kira said.
After traveling for five days straight, they’ve almost caught up with the vanguard unit. But another detour is going to put their comrades lives at more risk if they’re delayed by trifling things like this one. And if they didn’t put an end to things soon, the Monarch's territory would just spread its influence by the night. It already reached far enough that their safe haven's been breached a month prior to this operation.
“A wary soul, this one”
She looks over at the person who caused them to be on standby at a desolated city’s ruins, the Akshfala.
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“… can you fetch him for me?”
He just looks up and stares at whatever those blue eyes of his could see that nobody else could. Prying into other people’s business like a goddamn pervert again, she thought.
She clicks her tongue in annoyance and runs up towards the stairs.
“Don’t bully him, okay?” he said.
It’s not like she's going to do anything but to end this quick. And if the brat he’s talking about resists, then she’d just have to use force to bring him in. A small cut here and a small stab there makes no difference if he still breaths in air.
With her highly sensitive sense of smell, she sniffs him out at the fourth floor of the building. He reeked of an odd odor that she didn’t quite like. It has a resemblance to fear that she smelled and got accustomed to from before, but something else is mixed along with it. Disgustingly horrible, she thought.
“Hey! Come on out! Someone would like to have a word with you!” she yelled.
She's currently right below where he is hiding, yelling for him to come out of there and have a talk with the Akshfala. She even threw pebbles that she picked up on the ground at the ceiling to try and get his attention, but there was no answer or reply that came. She was snubbed.
“Figures”
She unclasps the spear on her back and readies a stance. The spear’s leaf shaped blade is black with intricate carvings running down its wooden shaft. It has an otherworldly vibe to it.
She twirled it alongside her body before making a slash that opened up a big gap on the ceiling, making it look as if she sliced through butter.
There, she could see him with an apathetic look on his face while he wielded a gun aimed towards her. He fired without warning.
“You did it! You just had to do it, you cheeky little runt!” she rolled to the side. The bullet only missing her face by a few centimiters.
He jumps down from the duct and makes a run for it towards the elevator shaft where he grips the cable and slides down, immediately escaping from her. Not for long, though, she thought.
With her temper rising, the spear’s blade changes color to a fiery red steel that radiates heat and flames. She stabs the tip of the spear into the floor and with it, the fire spreads throughout the building like wildfire. Basically covering everything except for the two at the reception desk in a blaze.
Not long after, she hears a window breaking and that’s when she knew she had caught the dangerous little rat.
She withdraws her spear and casually walks towards the nearest window where she sees someone rolling on the ground like a madman. The frown that she had before entering the building turned into a giant smirk of satisfaction.
_______
Daryll rolls on the ground, hoping that the flames would be put out, but it didn’t seem to have any effect. The flames aren't dying down and it only seemed to grow bigger. He is going to die well-done if this doesn't stop any time soon. For all he knew, maybe he already died and went to hell.
“Kira, stop it”
“Just a little more” she said. “A minute. Give me just a few more minutes… or ten”
“Kira…”
...
“Kira!”
“Okay! Fine! You win! Geez…” Daryll could hear her very audible snarl before the flames disappeared.
He hurriedly looks up and assesses the situation before leaping back to where no one's there, and then gripping the gun and pointing it towards the woman who he assumes to be the reason for him catching on fire.
“I’d be putting that down, if I were you” she said with a nasty look.
Without warning, he fires the gun a second time today.
The world slows down, but his mind and sense of time stayed the same. Something odd is happening and he knew exactly who he can attribute this strange phenomenon to.
Daryll couldn’t move his body like normal, but his peripheral vision catches the young man moving. He slowly walks in-between the woman and the bullet like a goddamn hero taking the shot for her, and uses a stick that he took out from inside his fur sleeves and quickly swats the bullet away to the ground.
“Cease this senseless conflict” he said, before disappearing like dust blown away by the wind.
The world comes back to normal and with the young man standing to where he originally was before swatting the bullet away.
“Shall we head inside and talk?” the young man said.
With everything that he saw and experienced, Daryll had no choice left but to comply.
“If you want to talk… then come alone” he said, taking a quick glance at the woman behind him before looking back.
“You think that even if we didn-“ the woman didn’t finish what she was saying before she got cut short by the young man raising his hand to stop her from talking anymore.
“Give me some time, Kira. This won’t take long”
“Fine. Go ahead. Do your thing. I don’t care. Just make it quick” she clicks her tongue and angrily heads back to their group along with the other person with them wearing a facemask and shades.
“Shall we?” he said.
Daryll went inside with the young man following right behind him. This clearly isn't the best result that he had expected, but at least he hasn’t died YET. And with only the two of them, he now has a better chance of running away, not that it would matter with this physics defying young man. And also, there might be a chance that he could get out of this mess unscathed so that he could finally leave this place to find a remote and secluded area free of danger and trouble. He only has one bullet left in the barrel, it would be a terrible waste to use his final trump card here now that he fired it twice this day and failed to take out the same target twice.
They make their way towards an operating room on the second floor. Daryll sits on the operating table while the young man stands beside the door and leaning on it.
“To start things off, I must apologize for my subordinate’s actions. She has a short temper and can be quite… crude when she loses herself to it” he said.
“…understandable” Daryll replied. He did try to put a bullet in her body twice, so the other party retaliating is only a natural of his reaction to her actions.
“Now that the apologies are over and done with, I’ll make no detours and head straight to the point. You” he pointed towards Daryll, “I want you to accompany us”
The young man explains their current circumstance. They were on some kind of mission towards a castle situated beyond the mountains to the north-east. There, they would have a clash with what’s spawning those Shadow People and its minions to stop its unstoppable expansion. Basically, be the hero and kill off the Demon Lord in its Shadow infested mansion before they could take over the land scenario.
“Ah! I forgot to introduce myself. It is Gesta-“ Daryll fires the third and last bullet, aiming at the young man’s head. This time, his aim is true.