POV: Akira Kimura

I was just about to return to the meeting after taking a break for lunch. It was a stressful day, but nothing that I couldn't handle. It had been a year since my father passed away of natural causes leaving me as the patriarch of clan Kimura. Fortunately, I had been preparing for this over most of my 51 years of life and felt I had handled everything well this last year. While in the past a patriarch's role might have been different, these days my role was to guide the clan's business ventures and make sure our assets were placed well and growing properly. After my efforts our clan was seeing an uptick in percentage growth on a large majority of our ventures. This meant that the earlier half of the meeting with the clan elders went quite smoothly, and I had high hopes for the remainder to go just as well. At the end of the meeting, I would either be confirmed as patriarch, or asked to step down and allow someone else a chance to lead the clan. Fortunately, with my successes and no scandals it was almost assured I would be confirmed.

I was about to head inside when words appeared in my vision.

Warning!

Initial scan completed.

Energy threshold met.

"What is going on?" I asked aloud, confused.

Is this some sort of new holographic technology?

Initializing Integration.

Merging Realities.

Prepare for finalization.

10!

9!

...

3!

2!

1!

I waited as the countdown reached 1, more interested than worried. I was curious to see what was going on.

Integration Complete.

WELCOME ALL TO THE PRIME MATERIAL!

I stumbled, catching myself against a wall before reading the new set of words in front of me. That's when I notice the power flicker off for a few seconds before roaring back to life with the activation of the backup generator. With the compound losing power to the city, I finally started to worry. With haste I ran to the meeting room, when I arrived everyone was already there, and they looked just as confused and worried as me. Clapping my hands to get the room's attention I start giving orders.

Pointing to one person after the other I task them with figuring out different things. The first thing I do is ask someone to figure out why we've lost power. The next is to make sure everyone is safe. Next, I ask if everyone saw the holographic images, which everyone did. I order someone to get accounts from everyone in the compound on what they saw and if they know what kind of technology it is. My next order is for someone to monitor news outlets to try and figure out what's going on. After that I task someone with checking on all of our stockpiles including fuel for the generator and food and water among any other resources.

With a few other orders I send people to work getting a handle on the situation. Immediately after I'm done, the man I tasked with watching news outlets comes up to me.

"Patriarch, I'm unable to reach any news outlets. It's like the internet is down, but our compound network is still working just fine." He says with some worry.

"You can't reach any news outlets whatsoever?" I asked just to be sure. This was quite odd.

"No Patriarch, I cannot even reach their websites." He explains.

"I see, send a few groups outside of the compound to gather information then." I order.

"Yes Patriarch, it will be done." He gives me a small bow of respect before leaving to do as told.

Being in a blackout like this I take the time to order the compound security personnel to be extra vigilant. While I'm not too worried, I don't plan on taking chances. Over the next few hours there isn't much for me to do. I check in with as many people as I can, fortunately we had a large portion of the clan gathered here for the ceremony to either confirm me as patriarch or to find a new one. Reading through the many reports I receive I learn a few things, first we're as well stocked as we should be with enough resources stockpiled to even support the inflated numbers the compound is currently housing for a few weeks. Next are the reports about our lack of ability to get any news, even the groups sent outside were unable to figure much out, everyone was just as confused as us and had no idea what was going on. The reports on the words we all saw were a disappointment with no one able to figure out how it was possible. Finally, there were some extremely odd reports about the sun having moved a significant distance in the sky, though no one was sure how or why that had happened.

It was all quite concerning, but there wasn't much we could do about it right now. Suddenly there were alarm bells going off all across the compound. I got up and left my office to find out what was going on. Upon exiting the door, I was met with someone running down the hall calling out for me.

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"Patriarch, there are animals attacking the city! Some are trying to force their way into the compound!" He said sounding panicked.

"Animals? There are animals attacking the city?" I just couldn't wrap my head around what I was hearing.

"Yes patriarch." The man confirmed.

"Very well let us go see what is going on." I said before walking back into my office and grabbing my katana before following the man to the walls of the compound.

I was one of the few that were raised practicing our clan's sword style. Many people in the clan practiced arts like Kendo, but most of the combat sword arts were left behind in the past. However, my father taught me our clan's style from a young age, and I spent time practicing whenever I had the time or needed to clear my mind. Upon reaching the walls of our compound I saw what the man had meant. There were strange animals running through the city and killing anything they could find. Clan guards on the walls were shooting into the monsters cutting many of them down, but they seemed never ending.

There appeared to be 4 different kinds of creature, and I was quickly realizing they were not any animals I had ever seen before. The first was a spider the size of a small dog with 8 legs 8 eyes and mandibles at their face, however their abdomens extended into something like the tail of a snake, and these were the most common. The next creature was a six-legged creature with plated spines standing vertically off of its back from its neck to the start of its tail which split into two at the end. Its fore and hind legs were used to move while its middle arms had sharp claws on the to attack with and its mouth was skinny and long with sharp teeth. The third kind was some kind of white furred creature that ran on all fours but stood to attack with its front legs or arms which had much longer claws than the hind legs. The fourth and final type of creature I could spot was a squat version of a horse with barbed hooves and spikes coming off at its joints, the creature had a rhinoceros like horn coming off of its nose and unlike horses its maw was filled with serrated teeth meant for shredding meat.

After 15 minutes of constant fighting a pile of bodies began to form at the front of our walls and the creatures were able to run up and try to get on top of them to attack us. That was when I called for anyone proficient with a mele weapon to join the guards on the walls and fight in melee to keep the creatures from disrupting the suppressing fire keeping the majority of the creatures at bay. I joined them, leading the melee contingent. I had practiced my sword art against humans of which it was made to fight but adjusting it to simpler motions meant for mindless animals was easier than I thought.

Over the next 30 minutes the fighting became desperate as halfway through the guards started running out of ammunition. We had runners bringing them more, but even our stocks were not meant to last this long with such constant firing. At that point it came down to the few of us in melee to stem the tide. We were hard pressed; I even saw some of my men being injured or even outright killed by the monsters. Finally, after a total of 45 minutes of slaughter there was a reprieve. Monsters were no longer rushing towards us, but only wandering around in groups on the streets. However, any of them close to us or who wandered into our range did attack.

I was both relieved and confused, why had they stopped attacking, why did they attack in the first place, why would they only attack after getting within a certain range. These were all questions I wanted answers to, but first I had some words flashing before my eyes.

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It had taken us a while to figure things out. The rest of that day was spent healing the wounded, searching for survivors and supplies, along with securing the compound further. One of the first things we figured out was classes. Everyone who had killed monsters received a class, many of our guards were able to choose a Gunmaster class however only a few chose this option as we were short on ammo after the fight. This proved to be a good decision as the amount of resources needed to keep ammunition in production was not something we were able to support, and so most of the Gunmasters weren't able to use a majority of their skills. The rest of the guards chose a mix between the other standard classes that everyone was given.

After that was the people who fought in melee on the wall, all of us received advanced classes based on what weapon we used. Most of us used katanas, though some of the guards who ended up fighting in melee after running out of ammunition fought with knives and received advanced rogue classes. 3 of us who were proficient in the clan style were awarded a special class.

Achieved Class:

A class that has been earned and reflects what you have accomplished.

Kimura Clan Sword Master:

You have shown great proficiency with the Kimura clan sword art, and used it expertly to defend the clan, breaking the horde upon your sword.

Stat increases per level: +4 Dexterity +3 Agility +3 Endurance +2 strength +3 Free Stats

It was an incredible class and better than both the standard classes and the advanced classes that everyone else received. The three skills I got were Slash, Bastion, and Kimura Clan Stance. The first was a simple slash, though empowered by mana. The second was a skill that allowed me to stand my ground and increase my striking speed the longer I held the same spot. The final skill allowed me to move faster, strike more precisely, and strike harder as long as I was using my Clan's style, though it used quite a bit of mana.

The next thing we learned was that monster bodies disappeared after 12 hours of being left alone. Also, after several days of experimenting we discovered that the monsters could be eaten and actually gave a slight amount of exp towards leveling up, it was basically negligible, but it was there. As long as we butchered the creature after it was killed the body would not disappear like it would if left alone.

Another thing we learned on the first day was that somehow, we were not at the same time or maybe not at the same spot, as the sun had moved and only set many hours after it should have. This was later proven as we explored and discovered that we were only in a portion of the city, and that outside of the different sections of Earth was some sort of alien landscape. Somehow, we had moved without any of us noticing, it was a scary thought that kept me up at night along with everything else that happened.

It took us weeks to bring the remnants of humanity in our area under control, we had to quash multiple gangs and groups that wanted to fight with us for resources and territory. We took care of those under our banner, but we didn't know if or when there would be any contact with other humans and I was more concerned with the survival of our species than the petty squabbles of the gangs.

After taking control we estimated that only 25% of the population was left. It was a distressing number that was only lowered due to the fifth creature that only hunted in the central area. The fifth creature is a four-legged creature with a bat like face and webbing between its front legs and its body, it can fight standing up, but it's favorite way to kill is to climb up high and then glid down to pounce on someone. Fortunately, it only hunts during the night.

After the whole ordeal the first day I was quickly accepted as Patriarch to clan Kimura, and I was hailed as the savior of clan Kimura for my quick action and solid leadership before, during, and after the monster wave. It was a strange experience to suddenly become the leader of all known humanity, and the only way I was able to stop it from going straight to my head was my children, Riku and Ayame were both in their 20's and were keeping me grounded. I had taught them the basics of the family style but after everything happened, they began taking everything much more seriously, spending most of their time practicing. I wanted them to be able to get the same class as me, so I forbid them from fighting any monsters until they were proficient in the Kimura style.

For now, I had teams out exploring, looking for more of humanity, and groups working on growing food for everyone left along with hunting parties securing meat for us in the meantime along with clearing groups keeping areas of the city and surrounding zones secure from monsters. It had been a stressful few weeks but I had hope for the future.