All posts by ShinJae

Champions of Battle: AD7 – Awakening #22

Somewhere on the Outskirts of Bosstown

AD7, Royal, and Oyintsa walk into the woods beyond Bosstown.  The depressing city ruins ended a few decameters back.  Nature had completely taken over these parts.  Tall grass and weeds flourished.  The occasional tree shot out of the ground shading the entire area.  Not even the roads were evident here.

As they fought through the weeds to gain ground, they walked over unnatural looking hills from time to time.  They were more like aged piles of rubble.  Each smelled of rust, rotting wood, and wild mushrooms.  There was quite a bit of red gravel underneath them as well; and roofing tiles all around them.

How could my beautiful city be overcome by nature so quickly?  AD7 tried to riddle it out; then face-palmed as she remembered again.  It’s been fifty years!  AD7 wanted to read about the details of her city’s decay but Royal had taken her handheld back a while ago.

Besides, Royal and Oyintsa seemed to be getting more aware of their surroundings.  They were cautious on how and where they stepped.  They moved quickly and quietly.  They made sure they gave every sound attention and could identify them.  With that, AD7 realized they were in the wild now.  There were many places for the wildlife to hide.

AD7 tried to do what they did.  However, it didn’t help that they were each holding five fragrant sandwiches designed to attract meat eaters.  She looked to the sky.  Through the weeds, several birds flew overhead.  The birds seemed uninterested but birds could change their minds at any time.

“Tracks,” Oyintsa stopped as he spoke.

AD7 stopped as well realizing that she was about to run into Royal.  She looked at the tracks.  There were several.  They were everywhere.  Each identical in shape, they looked like deformed hands, with claws.  Among the prominent large tracks were much smaller tracks.

“Ratcoons?” Royal asked.

“Ratcoons… with cubs,” he said the last words with a bit of enthusiasm.  Ratcoons were much like rats; only much larger, intelligent, and aggressive.  Unlike rats, they actually hunted live food as well as scavenged.  As with most animals, adults with cubs to feed and protect were much more dangerous.

Both Oyintsa and Royal shoved things into AD7’s hands.  Suddenly, AD7 found herself holding all of the sandwiches.

“Time to go,” Oyintsa said as he produces a long throwing blade from under his cape.  He throws it in the direction they were walking.  The blade gains power and speed as it mows down to weeds creating a path for them.  After about a meter into the weeds, it returns to Oyintsa.  At that, the three of them run down the path to get as far away as they can from the den.

AD7 didn’t know if they were in immediate danger.  Still, she knew when to follow the leader and did her best to keep up.  Warriors don’t run without good reason.

About halfway through the path he created, Oyintsa turns, points, and shouts, “Left!”  There was a short powerful gun in his hand.  He pointed it to the left and fired behind Royal who kept running passed him.  The sound was deafening.

After being in stasis for so long, AD7 was getting tired quickly.  She found new strength when Oyintsa yelled and even more energy when the beast screamed just to the left of her and stood.  It looked like an enormous brown rat more than four decimeters tall.  Black patches covered its eyes and large white stripes traced down its body.  She saw a fresh wound just beginning to bleed on its left front leg.

AD7 looks at Oyintsa.  He has already drawn another gun.  He flexes and roars.  Suddenly, his cloak expands and turns metallic.  It’s not long before he’s wearing thickly plated spiked armor still accented with his clan’s crest on the back.  His guns have gotten larger as well.  He fires them and reloads repeatedly as he charges the beast gaining all its attention.

Only after it starts attacking Oyintsa does Royal step in.  She pulls out two rather large swords from behind her cape.  AD7 immediately thought to herself.  Where exactly did those come from?  Did she have them this whole time?

There was no sign of them existing before now.  At the restaurant, Royal even sat on them with no sign of discomfort.  No matter if they truly came from nowhere, one of them spouted flames while the other was engulfed in frost flakes.

A Hanja on Royal’s leg glowed red then she leaps into action.  The impressive jump took her over the weeds and directly behind the beast.  As she landed, she turned and slashing downward with both swords.

Her cuts were clean and damaging.  Oyintsa’s attacks were annoying and painful.  But the ratcoon was much larger than them and very fast.  It was going to be a hard battle.

#1 – Awakening #21 – Awakening #23

Champions of Battle: The Very Best – Opportunity #21

Catlin sat back down and looked passed the empty seat across from her.  The others ate in silence.  Brisa was walking up the stairs towards her cabin still wearing the armor and enchanted gear Catlin had made especially for her.  Catlin knew exactly where Brisa’s cabin was, but it was best not to force a conversation right now.

Catlin had approached Brisa’s door with a powerful disguising enchant to keep Brisa from freaking out on site.  The event at the shuttle platform had affected Brisa much more than Catlin had wanted.  There was no way to know Brisa would be so ill-equipped for life outside the news room.

She slowly got to know Brisa.  Honestly, she was easy to get along with.  As they bonded, Catlin slowly weakened the enchantment but Brisa was still not ready to know the truth.  She had thought that eating with the person she was hired to follow would be enough of an apology.  Perhaps it was working for a while

Catlin had dropped the disguising enchantment at the table some time ago.  Her mask also had a perception enchant making it easier for her to see through disguises.  With all that, Brisa was still under the influence of Catlin’s spell.  Which meant one thing: Brisa wanted to believe the lie.

Once her eyes were open, they saw how she reacted to being tricked.  She didn’t like it.  No one does.  No one ever does.  Catlin knew that from the start but she was assured that things would turn out for the best.  They were following an “inspired” plan after all.

Catlin turned to Neely, “You told me to hide myself.  Now she doesn’t trust us at all.”

“It was better than the alternative,” he rebutted calmly after taking a drink.  It was water this time, “Or would you have liked her to run, scream, and call security on you.”

His distant calm bugged her and his tactics were unfeeling.  All of her hard work was wasted.  She’ll be recovering from performing those enchantments for at least a day.  The fruit of her labor walked away along with Brisa.  Catlin had lost a friend and they still needed to find someone to report on Jaquan, all because of Neely.  “What do we do now,” she asked Jaquan.

“We continue on our way,” he answered with his mouth full, “You said she was only going to stay in the town for a little while, right?”  He chewed a bit more then he swallowed, “We just have to wait for the replacement team.  Then we check them.”

They continued their meal.  Everyone ate their fill except Catlin.  She wasn’t hungry.

—–

Brisa reached her cabin still a little shaken.  It seemed that the BigBad Crew was fine eating without her.  They seemed not at all hostile to her this time.  Still the tricks and betrayal were a different type of hostility.  They had attacked her before.  No matter if they were remorseful, they wouldn’t get another chance.

Catlin’s impromptu meeting was a good trick.  The Crew may have wanted her to join them on their trip.  However, after telling them her secrets, she didn’t feel safe around any of them.  Catlin could use her fears and weaknesses for any purpose.  The “Catlin” she met could have also been a smokescreen.  She just didn’t know.

Duard would probably call her a fool for leaving like she did.  But he wasn’t here.  Only she was here with no backup.  Still, Brisa had surpassed him on one note.  She had, after all, gotten as close to Jaquan as he did; and without getting stepped on.  Duard was probably just leaving the hospital after his three day reminder that Jaquan ‘hated’ reporters.

All the same, the shuttle was landing.  It was time to call South Coast.

#1 – Opportunity #20 – Opportunity #22

Sons of Sword: Tales of Glory – Lost and Found #17

Metcalf grabbed her gear and walked for one of the training center’s exit.  There was nothing left to do there.  She only had about five thousand academy points left.  This amount placed her with the lowest ten percent of the students at the academy; the lower half of the red zone.

It was a little hard to believe.  She had gambled points at the Stream Quarter Training Center for almost a decade.  For the amount of time Metcalf has been lingering in the school.  The final will be extremely had for her to pass.

Sure, she wanted to climb the ranks before midterm.  So did everyone else.  That was the only reason the training centers were packed this time of year.

She passed a few students worriedly looking at their rank on their handhelds.  Unlike them, she knew when to let go of hope.  With the training center’s stiff competition, no one would challenge her except a student in an equal position.  With the scant few points to work with, it would be weeks before she would manage to crawl out of the red zone.  By then; midterm would have passed; she would be on the final exam list; and the training center would be empty again.

She only gambled because it was the only way she could keep enough Academy Points to stay at the school.  It was possible to get points from accomplishing tasks in a class but the classes were boring.  She would prefer not to see Naoh and Koh but if not for them, she would have been out of the school a long time ago.

Exiting the training center, she took of her helmet.  The hue on her beautifully youthful face was split down the middle; red on the right and white on the left.  She still had a slight green tint due to her not quite being of age.  That did little to mask the face of a thinking reasoning warrior.

Strangely she was not upset at her fate.  Sure, she would prefer it to be different.  Leaving a school where students enjoyed everything, free of charge, was a major inconvenience.  Then again, she no longer had to prey on lesser skilled students.

She wanted to participate in real work and use her talents for something real.  Guard duty was in no way glamorous but her actions made a real difference in people’s lives.  With any luck she could land a good placement with a nearby city.

Still with the sudden change, Metcalf felt like she should be angry at someone.  However, no one person seemed to fit the criteria to be stuck with the blame though.

Lance?  Not him.  How would he know how things would end up for her?  He actually looked sad when he saw how many points she was losing.  He had the potential to become a great Protector.  He only had to learn to project more of his skills rather than touch everything.

Herself?  No.  Lance did something that the Quarter Masters had taught against for the longest time.  There was no way to predict that it would actually work.  She simply did what all students in her position would do.  She knew continued gambling would end like this eventually.  Students that gamble eventually lose.  She lost.

Naoh? Koh?  No.  They were heartless sharks, and there was no way they would help her now, but they had nothing to do with this.  They helped her stay afloat in the school until now.  And in the end, she made the decision to challenge Lance not them.

No one was to blame.  The day started like any other and it ended like this.  Metcalf didn’t like it, at all.  However, she lost her say in the matter a few minutes ago.  Her time at school ended at this year’s Final Exam, unless she passed.

Metcalf giggled at the thought, Yeah, Good luck with that.

#1 – Lost and Found #16 – Lost and Found #18