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.